Yearly Archives: 2012

Columbus Day 2012: The Joke Continues

Here’s an article I put on GovLoop in 2010. It got a lot of attention on GovLoop and other a few other sites like Federal News Radio. On one site, there was a lot of comments that I would call hate mail if my email had been out there. Two years later, I still largelyRead… Read more »

Europe Greens Up Its Construction Industry

A recent European Union initiative encouraging green construction practices reflects a growing global interest in energy-efficient and sustainable building. Greener construction practices occur on multiple levels, from site location and material selection to choosing construction equipment. Practical and Environmental Considerations The EU plan fulfills both environmental and political objectives. The environmental benefits are obvious: stimulatingRead… Read more »

Weekly Round-up: October 05, 2012

Gadi Ben-Yehuda Of Slivovitz and Twitter. This somewhat-ambiguous independent clause of the first sentence of this Washington Post article says everything you need to know: “The Secret Service has formally adopted new policies on the use of alcohol and social media, “ Of Quads and Quora. Colleges are using social media in more sophisticated waysRead… Read more »

Turning on the tap of affordance

The semiotics of plumbing is a slightly unlikely topic, but having not long ago discussed the affordance of soap dispensing, I now turn to the tricky question of how to turn on a tap. There follows a ludicrously detailed description of an utterly trivial process. If that prospect does not fill your heart with joy,Read… Read more »

Sometimes it is about the technology

It’s not about the technology, its about the people. It’s a phrase I’ve uttered probably more than a thousand times in the last five years. It stems from the understanding that technologies will come and go (quickly, almost at a whim) but behaviours change slowly and as a result we should focus our attention onRead… Read more »

Sharing and comparing political party policies – developing an XML schema for party policies

Something I’ve had on the backburner for awhile has been the development of a better way to share and compare political party policies. If you’ve ever looked at the policy platforms of different political parties in the same election campaign, you’d recognise that each writes their policy in a different format, including different information andRead… Read more »

There is so much joy in what we do

Hello blog. I know it has been a a week since I posted. I want to apologize and explain it is not out of a lack of love, just a tremendous amount of travel. And of course, the fact that I also have this guy to take care of. (And yes, that is us inRead… Read more »

An overview of Mark Logic with Jason Hunter

By BobGourley MarkLogic offers next-generation database technology capable of handling any data, at any volume, in any structure. The video below features Jason Hunter, and enterprise architect with Mark Logic. In this three minute clip he spells out a bit of what make Mark Logic so interesting. He explains in plain english what “No SQL”Read… Read more »

Living Bus Shelter Roof

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority located in Buffalo, NY has developed a bus shelter with a living roof. The shelter roof contains short, hardy succulent plants called sedum in shades of green, yellow, blue-green, brick red and burgundy. In addition to the plants, the roof also contains a solar panel, that illuminates an ad onRead… Read more »