Author Archives: Joel

iTunes Playlists, Texas Country and Unleash the Redneck

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While in the Dominican Republic over the last two weeks, I read Steve Jobs book. Interestingly enough, after reading Steve’s book, I felt a need to start organizing some personal soundtracks for life. That, and buy a iPod Shuffle for some of these soundtracks. This morning I started organizing my first two playlists named, Texas Country and Unleash the Redneck.

Texas Country is exactly as it sounds. While living in Corpus Christi, Texas a few years back, I discovered a radio station only playing Texas artists and bands. My old ’96 Toyota Tacoma rarely was tuned to very much else while down there. A month ago I stumbled across Reckless Kelly again on Pandora. Creating a station devoted to Reckless Kelly, I simply wrote down the other artists who sounded good, and got those through iTunes. A few of the artists in this playlist include:

  • Reckless Kelly
  • Steve Earle
  • Cross Canadian Ragweed
  • Ray Wylie Hubbard
  • Buddy Miller
  • Chris Knight
  • No Justice
  • Shooter Jennings

Unleash the Redneck, songs included in this playlist had to evoke a certain emotion. These are the kind of songs that, when they come on the radio, there is only one thing to do. Roll the windows down in my pickup. Reach down and twist the knob on the radio to turn the volume up…way up. Grab the stick. Mash the clutch. Grab another gear. Bury the gas pedal and drive it like you stole it just for the fun of it. These songs are what happens when rock and country collide, and not surprisingly include a lot of Texas Country. Some of the songs include:

  • Copperhead Road – Steve Earle
  • Cadillac Ranch – Chris LeDoux
  • Amos Moses – Cross Canadian Ragweed
  • Papa Loved Mama – Garth Brooks
  • Dumas Walker – Kentucky Headhunters
  • If You Want To Get To Heaven – Ozark Mountain Daredevils
  • A Guy Like Me – Reckless Kelly
  • Busted in Baylor County – Shooter Jennings
  • Beer for My Horses – Toby Keith
  • Old Enough to Know Better – Wade Hayes

Next I may have to put together a good collection of what has been described as, “Angry White Boy Music,” in honor of a good friend and college teammate, Owen Donahue getting engaged a couple of days ago (congratulations Owen!). Although I already knew of Mettalica, Owen made sure this was part of my higher education while at Mizzou. An angry white boy playlist could prove motivational for those early morning January and February paddles.

Green Narrows Trail Map

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Saturday 05 Nov 2011 at high noon the first racer will leave the eddy above Bride of Frankenstein on the Green River in North Carolina just outside of Hendersonville and head into the Narrows. Less than six minutes later, after descending over 500 feet through close to 10 class V rapids, the first racer will have finished the course. There rapids include friendly names such as Frankenstein, Go Left and Die, Gorilla and Scream Machine.

Every minute for the next few hours, another racer will start. All the safety is voluntary. There is no entry fee, no race sponsors and no prize money. The hike in to watch is a two mile walk ending with a quarter mile scramble dropping over 400 feet down into the gorge. Yet there will be over 200 racers and over 1,500 spectators for the Green Race, arguably the most prestigious extreme race in the country.

For the paddlers, getting there is not very difficult. However, for many of the spectators, this will be their first time trying to figure out how to get into the gorge. Although there is the generally accepted regular route down the Pulliam Creek trail, there are also other alternatives for getting into the gorge provided you do not mind walking a little further.

If interested in these other routes, want to figure out driving directions, or want to figure out another way in and out of the gorge, hopefully this map can be of assistance.


View Larger Map with ability to Print

Learn LiDAR Principles

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LiDAR, if you work in GIS and pay any attention to digital elevation model (DEM) data, you have heard of LiDAR. Although many people know it has something to do with bouncing light off terrain and it is very accurate, many times knowledge ends there. Fortunately there is an outstanding resource for learning about LiDAR.

The USGS put together this very well organized resource. Although it focuses on applications of LiDAR for natural resources, over 75 percent of the lesson focuses on data collection methods, factors of accuracy and other technical aspects of LiDAR applicable to anybody who uses LiDAR data. Fully narrated with animated visual aids it is a great resource, one I highly recommend.

Acronyms’ Dual Meanings

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Working with so many different clients, frequently I get asked about how to work with a specific data format. Researching a couple of data format acronyms for for a client recently led me to a new acronym describing situations we all inevitably seem to find ourselves lost in, TIFR. Short for This Is F-ing Rediculous, TIFR will join my other acronyms for describing how things many times work. Other favorites include traditional standbys such as SNAFU, EWAG and FUBAR.

One Foot…and Then the Other

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Running, being long, lanky and gaunt by nature, running is something I always seem to be able to do with not much difficulty. Last week, while in Melbourne, Florida for work, I ran most mornings on the beach. Most would consider this to be absolute paradise. I am not going to rain on their parade. It is obvious why some people really like it, but I am not one of those people. Today I was back in my element, to a degree at least.

Today I ran on trails. After working way too long today, I got home and headed out for a run. Even this afternoon, I knew this was what I needed after work even though it has been likely six months since I have run besides last week in Florida.

Due to simple geography, there was another element to the run, something adding a very welcome element to the experience. I live across the Catawba River from the whitewater center. The easiest way to get there is to paddle. The right boat for the job was my old 4m Zealot. It has not seen the water in likely a year or more. I had forgotten how nicely a 4m boat glides. Reaching the other side, since having to paddle over there, it provided a degree of separation, a process by which to transition to another world. Continue reading →

Beating Lack of Hotel Wireless = Connectify + iPad

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Netflix on the iPad is great for traveling. When coupled with the HDMI connector, it works great for streaming entertainment on the hotel flat screen televisions. Many times though, there is a problem. The iPad only does wireless. It does not get along well with a Cat6 cable. There is internet in the room, via a Cat6 cable. This does little good in getting Netflix from Al Gore’s Internet to the flat screen television though. This is where Connectify for Windows comes in. Within five minutes of downloading Connectify for free, my iPad was connected with Netflix streaming to the television watching something very useful like My Cousin Vinny.

Run ArcGIS Models as Scheduled Tasks

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ModelBuilder in ArcGIS Desktop is great. It enables the functionality of scripting without needing to know scripting. If you know how to use tools in ArcToolbox, typically in less than 30 minutes you can start automating redundant and long multi-step workflows using ModelBuilder. When it comes to taking this automation one step further, to have the computer automatically perform this workflow at a scheduled time, this is where difficulty can arise.

Windows cannot run a model as a scheduled task. Windows can however, run a Python script as a scheduled task. A Python script can run a model as a scheduled task. Using a three line Python script, a model can effectively be run as a scheduled task. The scheduled task calls the Python script and the Python script calls the model. The script looks like this…

import arcpy

arcpy.ImportToolbox(r"C:\pathToToolbox\Toolbox.tbx", "TBX")

arcpy.Model_TBX()

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Esri Disaster Response

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Today I received an email highlighting the assistance Esri is standing by ready to offer for those assisting with disaster response. This email included a link directly to the Esri Disaster Response Webpage. Types of assistance include everything from software to data and even consulting. Most all types of disasters are included, wildfires, earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes and cyclones, spills and volcanic eruptions.  All you have to do is ask. Nothing is guaranteed, but if you have a need, you never know unless you ask!

Teaching Paperless with GoodReader on the iPad

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Yes, I am a geek. This I will freely concede. Just before Christmas I looked seriously at the iPad, but decided to wait in lieu of the second generation soon to come out. Among the reasons this was interesting to me was the possibility of going paperless when traveling and teaching GIS.

Typically when traveling and teaching, I am carrying at least two books, the lecture and exercise books for the class. Many times I am teaching back to back classes, upping this count to four. If it is a more technical class, many times I grab a good reference too, adding another to the mix. It does not take long before my backpack is holding five books, a laptop and all the associated peripherals for working on the road with a laptop. As you can easily imagine, this can become quite a load.

When purchasing my iPad2, one of the first workflows I started exploring was how to get all my materials onto the iPad. Already I have access to most of my references and course materials in pdf format. The difficulty was figuring out how to get them onto the iPad and manage them once there. GoodReader was the answer.

GoodReader allows synchronization with a multitude of server types not only at the file, but also at the directory level. Since I use MobileMe, this means all I have to do is keep all my course materials in a directory together. If I need to add or remove something, all I have to do is change the content on the server. These changes automatically are also performed on my iPad, making file management infinitely easier.

In addition to the file management capabilities, this sync functionality applies to individual files as well. Since GoodReader facilitates notes, highlights and annotations in the pdf documents, these changes are automatically synced back up to the documents on the server where I can access and view them on my desktop. GoodReader, it answers on part of my goal toward moving increasingly paperless at work with the iPad as part of this plan.