Grandpa Ham - Grandpa Can do IT! » Uncategorized

IPAWS-OPEN Not Fully International

grandpah — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:48:46 +0000

Rick Wimberly’s Emergency Management blog identifies the fact that I stated that IPAWS-OPEN could make international connections. BUT………
U.S. regulations make inter-nation connectivity fairly difficult, if not impossible, unless there are treaties and/or formal diplomatic agreements in place. So, it can work with Canada where we have both agreements in place and a real need for cross-border civilian population alerting. With other nations… not so much. Just a clarification.

IPAWS Presents to World Conference on Disaster Management

grandpah — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:29:24 +0000

Marck Lucero (FEMA) and I made a presentation to attendees at the World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto in June about how IPAWS will be able to play in cross-border alerting and how we can use IPAWS-OPEN to connect to Canadian alerting infrastructure in a way that allows resilient connectivity between local authorities on both sides of the border. It is a 17 minute presentation in Quick Time format.

Could not use HTML 5 or Flash for playback. You can download the file as MPEG4/H.264 or Ogg Theora file.

Ada Lovelace Day – March 24 2010

grandpah — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:52:28 +0000

Admiral Grace Hopper lived for a long time after her first claim to fame as one of the builders of COBOL. I met her while teaching at the U. S. Naval Academy in the 1980′s. She gave lectures on Computer Science and handed out “nanoseconds” to every midshipman in her lectures. A “nanosecond” was a length of wire through which a bit of data could pass in one nanosecond. It gave structure to the concept of data transfer. She did not like Ada (the language) much. COBOL was always first in her heart. But she did inspire the midshipmen, both female and male, with her fervor and intelligence. Me, I liked Ada the language and the fact that it was named after such an important player in the history of computing.
A side story from my academy teaching days. I once asked my “Computer Science for Rocks and Jocks” class an exam question on history as follows: “What claim to fame does the Countess of Lovelace have on the history of computing?” I expected some of the dumb Jocks who had not read the material to make jokes related to Linda lovelace. I would then be able to point out that Ada, the Countess of Lovelace, was not only the first woman programmer, but the first person (man or woman) to describe how to program a computer. Only two students rose to the bait. Unfortunately, one of them was a female midshipman. She may have learned the most valuable lessen of all: Do not jump to conclusions. It can be embarrassing.

The Eye Street “Home” Office

grandpah — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:47:07 +0000

You may think that my contract holder is a big downtown DC firm. Not so, although they do have offices near Dulles, VA. This office, however, is my favorite. And it really is rural. You can see cows from the window. As long as you have big internet pipes, you can work anywhere. Yes, that is me standing out front.

Eye Street - Lincoln Office

Save Seven Lives – Be an Organ Donor

grandpah — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:07:25 +0000

This is a somewhat out of context post for this site, but today is an out of context day. I am sitting in the surgical waiting room and Walter Reed Hospital in DC while my wife of 33 years receives the kidney transplant she has been waiting for for 2 1/2 years. We both thank God for this chance to extend her life and make it whole again. Even more, we thank the donor, and the donor’s family, for having the courage and generosity to help others in their time of grief. Donor’s who die with healthy organs can save seven lives: two kidneys, a heart, a lung, a pancreas, a liver and a small intestine. So sign up. I have. It is a chance to live beyond life. And to gain the eternal gratitude of folks like me and the person I have loved for so many years.