Happy Birthday GPS

Twelve years ago geocaching suddenly became useful to citizens. Prior to May 2, 2000, the GPS satellite network had a “feature” called Selective Availability that provided an intentional degradation of the GPS signal so that only the military could use it with accuracy.  When President Clinton signed an order to permanently turn off the feature, civilian GPS devices instantly became 10 times more accurate. The first geocache was placed in the state of Oregon the next day. It was hidden in the U.S. state of Oregon on May 3, 2000. As of today, there are more than 1.7 million active geocaches and more than 5 million geocachers worldwide. There are quite a few postings here in patrickWeb about geocaching, and the homepage for geocaching is here. It is a great sport for young and old.

Tags: geocache, geocaching, gps, hiking, selective availability

Back from Florida

The weather was so nice, it was difficult to leave and come home. I feel very fortunate to have been able to spend a bit more time in Florida this winter. Thanks to FaceTime, Skype, Polycom, iMessage, email, and the web, it was easy to participate in board meetings remotely. I was even able to chair a hospital quality committee meeting remotely, thanks to the high quality PolyCom video-conferencing system they have. My current doctoral course is in health care economics. One of the team assignments required a teleconference. There were four of us in diverse locations; Ottawa, Baltimore, Florida, and Jordan. If two of the students were in Canada and the Middle East, it didn’t matter that I was in Florida instead of home in Connecticut. We were all just a few hundred milliseconds apart.

Before leaving Florida, I decided to try out the new iPhoto app on the iPad3. It goes beyond the photos app that comes with the iPad. In addition to taking advantage of the greatly enhanced retina screen, the iPhoto app has a new feature called Journals. In addition to viewing your albums, events, faces, and places, you can create journals. A journal is a web page that can include pictures from your albums plus special add-ins from the app including a calendar icon representing the date you took the pictures, a map showing where you took them, and a weather icon showing what the weather was like when you took the picture or alternatively what the weather there is now. You can also add quotations and text boxes. See March in Florida for a page I created as a first try. The pictures can be edited, touched up, brightened, manipulated with effects, air-brushed, and arranged in a collage — all with your fingers. You then save the journal to a glass shelf and it is uploaded to iCloud where you can share it with friends, family, or the public. A home page shows all your shelves with the journals lined up on them in date sequence. In effect, journals gives you the ability to create a web site at iCloud with no traditional design tools. Just your iPad and your fingers.  This is classic Apple making things easy — it just works. But, it is not perfect.

iCloud can be slow in accepting your upload. The shelves on the iPad include a favorites shelf but that shelf does not appear on the homepage at iCloud. The six journals I created are not in date sequence as they are supposed to be. The iPhoto app does not sync with your iPhoto app on the Mac or your photos on a PC. The iPhoto pictures sync to the photos app on the iPad, not the new iPhoto app on the iPad. Syncing is one-way. If you delete or edit a picture or add a new one in one of your iPhoto albums on the iPad, it does not sync to iPhoto on the Mac or on your PC. There are a few things that need polish but you can see the vision coming through. Take a picture with your iPhone or iPad and the picture automatically goes to your photostream at iCloud. iCloud then pushes the picture down to all your other devices. You can then create journals and share them via iCloud. Facebook, Google, flickr, and others have nice ways to store and share photos, but journals are now offering an alternative that includes content creation for anyone with some imagination and an iPad. Take a look at patrickweb.com/iphotojournals and let me know what you think. As usual, I confess to not being a good photographer nor artistically creative.

Tags: albums, apple, events, ipad, iphotos, journals, mac, photos, pictures

Aviation Rekindled

My interest in aviation began when I was stationed at MacDill Air Force base in 1970. My private pilot license was issued 1/15/1971, a mere forty years ago. A commerical license followed in 1976 and then an instrument rating in 1977. After moving to Connecticut in 1981, the flying days were over. The topic of aviation was rekindled by Nick Nash, a summer intern at IBM shortly after we had formed the Internet Division of the company 15 years ago. Nick went on to get a degree, magna cum laude, at Harvard. He is now a Vice President at General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm. Nick was an excellent communicator and he asked me one day if he could do an interview on the subject of aviation. Nick titled the interview “I really prefer having an engine!”

Ten years later, I got very interested in aviation once again when the Elipse 500 was announced. The Eclipse was the first of a new class of aircraft called the Very Light Jet (VLJ). With a number of breakthroughs in aviation technology, the Eclipse promised to offer a dramatically more affordable business model for jet aircraft. The small six-seat business jet is powered by two lightweight Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F turbofan engines. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt in 2008. A new company was formed recently and they are building a new version of the aircraft, to be called the Eclipse 550, with planned deliveries in 2013.

Another VLJ was announced in 2006 — the Embraer Phenom 100 — developed by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. The Phenom was much more appealing than the Eclipse — significantly more space, larger windows, and great performance. My partners at Executive Jet Partners LLC (EJP) and I ordered a Phenom in 2006 and just over three year later, I went to Brazil to bring it back to Connecticut. It was quite an adventure. See the full story here.

EJP is a private company owned by three retired executives in Connecticut who have a love of aviation.  Two of the three are private pilots and all three love to fly.  EJP took ownership of the Embraer Phenom 100 executive jet in October 2009.  The Phenom has six seats – two for the pilots and four for passengers. It is certified by the FAA for single-pilot operation, but most passengers are more comfortable with two pilots up front. It can fly 1,365 miles non-stop at 41,000 feet altitude at an airspeed of  435 mph. Like many aircraft owners, EJP makes the Phenom available for charter when the partners are not using it. We hope to make a business out of aviation charter. To make that happen requires a good partner who is an expert in managing aircraft. Enter Corporate Flight Management (CFM). CFM is a private Smyrna, Tennessee company that manages aircraft; provides marketing, dispatch, and scheduling; coordinates maintenance; and provides pilot services. (See the CFM blogs for some interesting aviation commentary). CFM pilots are experienced professionals and are trained and certified in the aircraft that they fly. CFM has a division based in Danbury, Connecticut and currently has seven airplanes in their fleet, two of which are Phenom 100s. See the entire CFM fleet here.

Chartering a private aircraft is not inexpensive, but it is incredibly convenient.  When sharing the cost among multiple passengers, the cost approaches first class airfare.  One of the many advantages of private aviation is that the aircraft can take off and land at thousands of airports not serviced by the airlines.  For example, if you have a business or a personal reason to go from Danbury, Connecticut to Springfield, Illinois, there are no direct flights. A connecting flight through O’hare in Chicago departs Laguardia at 6 AM and gets into Springfield at 9:18.  If you live in Danbury, you would have to leave home at 3:30 AM. The available return flights take four hours or more. One flight leaves at 12:15 PM (which leaves you about an hour for your visit) or at 6:20 PM, arriving into Laguardia at midnight and getting home almost 24 hours from when you got up. A charter flight can depart directly from Danbury at 7:15 AM and arrive in Springfiled at 9:15 AM. You can arrive at the Danbury Airport at 7:05 and be in the air at 7:15 AM. You can take whatever baggage you want and use your laptop from takeoff to landing. Without even mentioning amenities, the best part is the return flight. It would be scheduled whenever you choose to depart. You can bring as much baggage as you want and be productive for your entire flight. The cost would be significantly higher than a commercial flight, but the convenience is incomparable.

Charter is not for everyone. It is incredibly convenient albeit very expensive. But if you want to splurge for that special vacation in Florida, Canada, or the Bahamas, or if you have a business trip where productivity and your time are valuable, then charter is worth considering. When it comes to passengers on a charter, you can have the plane to yourself, or bring three to seven others (depending on what kind of plane you charter) with you at no additional cost — you charter an airplane, not a seat. An interesting approach to sharing is at Social Flights – a startup company that is using the power of the Internet to enable like-minded travelers to find each other and share the cost of a charter. If you have questions about a charter or want to get a no-charge quote for a flight, contact CFM  at 615-220-1761, or e-mail them at charter.dispatchers@flycfm.com. If you just want to chat further about any of this, feel free to contact me at john@executivejetpartners.com.

Tags: Aviation, brazil, charter, embraer, flying, phenom

Where Were You When…?

November 1995 (edited September 11, 2003 and November 23, 2011)

Most of us remember vividly where we were on September 11, 2001. In my case, I was in Danbury, Connecticut in the board room at Bristol Technology meeting with their CEO, Keith Blackwell. Remember where you were when you first heard that President Kennedy was assassinated? (or Jerry Garcia died if you are too young to remember JFK). Most of us remember major events and exactly where we were at the time — even if it was decades before. Things like that you just don’t forget. But do you remember exactly where you were? I mean the exact latitude and longitude. I didn’t remember the JFK location either; that is until I went back to Lehigh University for my 30th reunion with my handheld GPS receiver and captured the precise coordinates. A nearby building had been torn down and a new one constructed but dead reckoning got me to the right spot. This might have seemed strange in 1995 when I wrote the first version of this story. 

There are so many occasions when time and place get recorded. Auto accidents, package deliveries, construction sites, interviews, meetings and events of all kinds. We capture the time with great precision; e.g. Saturday July 4, 1998 at 2:15 PM. At times, we also record the location: e.g. IBM Corporate headquarters in Armonk, New York. We could be much more precise, however. How about N41° 06.774′, W73° 43.043′ (41 degrees, 6.774 minutes north and 73 degrees, 43.043 minutes west)?

Location (place) awareness has been an integral part of the history of mankind and the development of modern society. We don’t give it much thought, but location and navigation are inextricable parts of how us humans operate. Most of us have a built in ability to find our way around using “dead reckoning”. Since the beginning of time, man has noticed that stars provide a handy reference where landmarks are not available. Polynesians were able to travel great distances to tiny islands using only wind, waves, and the stars with nothing more significant than the width of an outstretched hand or finger. To study navigation and location is to study Columbus, Magellan, Lewis and Clark, Byrd, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins — Apollo 13′s famous “Earth limb shot”. Not to mention the scientists that made it possible. Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Huygens, Fourier, Newton, Morley, Einstein, Marrconi, Mercator, Euler, and Gauss just to name a few!

Trade, commerce and free societies are not possible without location awareness. In a sense it is the very essence of our being. Primarily because of the different availabilities of technology we were able to have time awareness long before we had location awareness even though the two are so intimately tied together. New GPS technology closes the gap. (not new now, but new in 1995).

Over time we will start to think of the precision of place as being just as important as the precision of time. Starting now and into the future there will be no uncertainty about when and where somebody meant when they refer to location information; especially with the advent of incredible GPS devices such as those coming out of Garmin and Magellan. These amazing devices are powerful handheld computers. They capture your precise location very quickly, tell you your speed and direction, store routes and hundreds of waypoints and enable you to back-track over a course to the starting point or points along the way. The advent of smaller and smaller silicon germanium chips may make embedded GPS capabilities closer than you think. After all, what exactly is the physical makeup of a GPS receiver? They have a microprocessor chip set of some kind, navigation keys, display, and an antenna. Which of these does a cell phone have? How about a camera? Could these non-GPS devices capture a conversation or a picture and supplement that data with a person’s precise lattitude and longitude?

Imagine if every camera had a GPS capability in it. Once this happens there will no longer be a question as to the legitimacy of certain pictures that depict something that was to have happened — whether it is an accident of some kind or a special event. You might even cryptographically sign the picture plus the coordinates with your digital certificate and thereby establish authentication and non-repudiation of the event. Or imagine that you find yourself lost in an unfamiliar city but since you have your portable phone with you with a digital readout, it can point you to the nearest library, ATM machine or hospital. Just this week a company announced a mobile phone for Muslims that has a built in pointer to Mecca.

Seems to me we are about to enter an age where an explosion of new data is going to be generated. All of it will find its way into databases, Web servers, new applications and be available for user access. This is part of the fast, always on, everywhere, natural, intelligent, easy, and trusted world that is upon us.

Epilogue: there are a lot of links in this story. I had fun researching them and I hope they become valuable to at least some of my readers. The accomplishments of the famous referred to are quite amazing and inspiring.

Map of precise spot at Lehigh University at time of JFK assassination

Note: This is an edited version of a story I wrote in 1995. Most of the links are no valid.

Copyright: John R. Patrick 1995 2003 2011

kindlefire – 1

There are many reviews out there already about the new Kindle Fire (see Nook’s Specs Are Exaggerated, Again). I would not glority this posting by calling it a review — it is simply my first reaction upon receiving the kindlefire this afternoon. The fire was actually delivered to the Marriott Atlanta Century Center on Tuesday. I have been in Florida for the last few days and when I got notice of the shipping, I had the Kindle diverted to where I would be staying during the weekend for a University of Phoenix residency (more on that later).

My first reaction on taking the fire out of the classicly simple Amazon packaging was that it was heavier than I expected. It is not as heavy as the first Nook, but it is heavier than the other new Kindles. After a few hours of using it, I would say it is lighter than the iPad and not really so heavy after all. Speaking of the iPad, the obvious question from many will be “how does it compare to the iPad?” My son reminds me that the fire “is not an iPad”, and it should not be compared to something that is totally different in design and intention. I agree — the two are different animals with different purposes.

I had some difficulty setting up the fire because of the marginal WiFi signal in my room at the hotel. The fire wants you to confirm your Amazon account after getting a WiFi signal, but the Marriott wants you to confirm your room # before it activates your wireless. It took a while to figure out how to get around the Catch 22. The fire is clearly a content device — it is designed for reading books and the news, watching movies, and listening to music. There is a large selection of apps but I have not yet had time to try many. The free enhanced email program available in the Amazon app store works very well.

The fire navigation is a bit awkward but I think that is a matter of getting used to a different paradigm. The text entry mode has a nice movable cursor for use in corecting entries that is very nice. I need more time to experiment with it, but as a first impression, I think that text entry may be better than the iPad in that respect. I know — don’t compare the fire to the iPad! They are both great and I look forward to more experience with the fire and will share that as the days progress.

Tags: amazon, fire, ipad, Kindle, kindlefire

Travel Woes

There are quite a few stories here in patrickWeb about my travel woes (see travel category). There are many things people complain about including security, paying to check bags, late departures and arrivals, and grumpy service. My report from this past week is much more sanguine. I left Connecticut last Saturday for Dublin, Ohio to attend a board meeting at OCLC. On Sunday night, it was down to Orlando, FLorida to give a keynote speech at the opening of Data Center World. That afternoon took me to Minneapolis, Minnesota and then on to San Jose, California for the Demo conference and finally on Wednesday from San Jose to Salt Lake City, Utah to JFK in New York, and on home to Connecticut.

I have more than a million miles with Delta, but I am sure the attendants I encountered did not know that. Service was friendly and efficient. Things are more spartan that in the past, but they seem to have the processes working pretty well. All the flights were on time. They were all full also, which bodes well for them from a business perspective. The web site has come a long long way from the early days. It is easy to checkin from home or a hotel and they are exploiting the quick response (QR) code for use on your mobile phone for checkin. Nice to not have to have scrunched up boarding passes in your pocket. More on QR codes another time. They are becoming ubiquitous. That is mine there on the left. You can scan it with an iPhone app.

The next big thing for aviation is the FAA plan for NextGen. NextGen is a comprehensive overhaul of our National Airspace System to make air travel more convenient, dependable, safe, secure and hassle-free. The heart of NextGen is replacing radar tracking with GPS that can guide and track air traffic more precisely and efficiently to save fuel (more than a billion gallons over the next seven years), reduce noise and pollution, more predictability, fewer delays, less time sitting on the ground and holding in the air, and more flexibility to get around weather problems. The only thing standing in the way is–you guessed it–congress. There doesn’t seem to be much they can agree on.

Tags: delta airlines, faa, national airspce system, nextgen, qr, quick response code, travel

Book Stores

With the exception of one washout, this has been a great summer for motorcycling. Yesterday, it was a trike ride down to Bethlehem, PA taking only back roads to get there. It was about 75 miles from the lake. We saw a lot of downed trees and wires along the way. We parked the trike in the historic area of Main Street and had a nice lunch outdoors at Mamma Nina Foccacheria and then visited some of the shops. The most interesting was Seasons Olive Oil & Vinegar Taproom, which carries a large collection of exclusive, fresh extra virgin olive oils and traditional balsamic vinegars – all on tap from stainless steel Italian “fustis” for sipping before you buy.

The largest shop on Main Street is the Moravian Book Shop, the oldest continuously running bookseller in the world, founded in 1745. I don’t know what percentage of their sales comes from books, but the store offers a wide variety of distinctive merchandise. The failure of Borders leaves Barnes & Noble as the only national bookstore chain in the U.S. and it is racing to grow its e-book business with the Nook, while overall book sales continue to decline. Although printed book sales are continuing a long-term negative trend, they are not headed to zero. With unit volumes going down, printed books will surely rise in price. Some people will go to Blurb and print their own books. Many people will continue to go to book stores–maybe not the megastores like B&N–but to stores like the Moravian Book Shop where there is an entire room full of books for children and tables and displays throughout with printed books of all kinds. Then there is the Cocoon Coffee House in Hawley, PA. Many people go there for WiFi, panini, salad, and a glass of wine, but others go to buy a book. It is not exactly a book store–more of a cooperative arrangement with local libraries who may have some books to turnover. Books will be around for a long time. Libraries are not going away any time soon either. See WorldCat.

Tags: barnes & noble, bethlehem, book stores, books, cocoon, e-books, foccacheria, hawley, Mamma Nina, moravian, nook

Neil Sedaka in Bethel Woods

Most of the entries in the Favorite Concerts page are classical music concerts, but last night at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts was a different kind of “classical” music. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra was conducted by our own Jerry Steichen, music director of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra. The rendezvous of my brother and his wife and my wife and I was to be via our motorcycles, but the weather did not cooperate. With probability at 50% we go, but when it is 70% with large hail and severe winds, we opt out and go in the cage. Not that we are afraid of getting wet, as we have many times, but going to a concert and sitting there soaked to the bone is no fun. We made the right call as it did in fact rain quite a bit. After Jerry conducted a number of piceces, he lead the excellent orchestra in playing the legendary singer and songwriter, Neil Sedaka, who launched his official foray into classical music with Joie de Vivre, Sedaka’s first symphony.  He also performed his new piano concerto, “Manhattan Intermezzo”.  Sedaka composed a lot of music, some of which he performed, but much of which he composed for others. Connie Francis recorded his “Stupid Cupid.” and “Where the Boys Are”, which would be her biggest hit. Sedaka recorded chart toppers “The Diary,” “Oh! Carol,” ” Stairway to Heaven,” “Calendar Girl,” “Little Devil,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Next Door To An Angel,” and “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is said to be comprised of some of the country’s finest musicians, but accompanying pop songs from fifty years go may have been a first for them. As for Neil Sedaka– he was amazing. A spring in his step, the enthusiasm of someone less than half his age, and a voice showing no signs of age. His diversity in genre was impressive. Having sold 40 million albums and an abundance of royalty inflow from his creative efforts, he surely is not engaging in a dozen performances per year for the money. He is inspired by the excitement of entertaining others. The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is a first class venu. Bethel Woods is in Bethel, New York,  became famous in 1969 when nearly 500,000 people gathered at Max Yasgur’s Farm for “Three Days of Peace and Music”. If you enter the Center for the Arts address of 200 Hurd Road, Bethel, NY, in your mapping software or GPS, there is a good chance it will direct you to the hamlet of Bethel which is actually part of Pine Plains, NY. The “other” Bethel is the “town” of Bethel which is actually in the unincorporated hamlet of White Lake, NY. By the way, Woodstock, where the concert was helf is 43 miles from the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, where the Woodstock Museum is. If you dig a little deeper, you will find there is also another White Lake in upstate New York. It was a great trip and we learned a lot we didn’t know: Neil Sedaka wrote a symphony and played a concerto. We also learned there are two Bethels and two White Lakes.

Tags: bethel, bethel woods, buddy holly, chantelles, classics, doo wop, drifters, fifties, fireflies, jerry steichen, kenny vance, neil sedaka, new jersey symphony, passions, pine plains, planotones, white lake, woodstock

Tanglewood by Trike – 2011

It was a special treat to be able to enjoy a nice 400 mile motorcycle trip along with a memorable concert at Tanglewood. The ride from the lakehouse in Pennsylvania to Lenox, Massachusetts took us on interstate highways initially but then mostly on state and county backroads in the state of New York and then on numerous back roads to Massachusetts, through West Stockbridge and into Berkshire County to Lenox, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The BSO weekend concert included one of the world’s foremost concert pianists, Emanuel Ax, performing one of my favorites, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K.482, written in Vienna in 1785 when the young composer was writing many new concertos for performances featuring himself as soloist. I have been listening to Emanuel Ax for decades but this is the first time I had seen him in a live performance. He was amazing. Performing the “too many notes” of Mozart seemed like a joy to him as it was to us.

Lionel Bringuier, assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, who made his BSO and Tanglewood debut in this program, was also amazing. It was great to see that there are young conductors coming up through the ranks. His energy was exciting for all.

The first concert at Tanglewood was in 1936 and since then a substantial organization and support structure has grown up around the beautiful facility. The capacity is 24,000. Not sure how many were there on Sunday but thousands for sure. Although the main gate was closed to cars when we arrived the police happily motioned us in. Most big events are very courteous to motorcyclists. They save some choice parking areas that are not big enough for cars but are perfect for bikes (or trikes). There were thousands of cars, but just two trikes!

Most people bring wagons with their folded chairs and tables and dinner. Some make quite an elaborate evening out of the free seats on the lawn and embellish their wines and dinners with candles and even candelabras. Nothing that fancy, but we had a great dinner at the Dakota Steak House in Pittsfield.

On the way back we headed across the Hudson River via the Rip Van Winkle Bridge and then up route 385 to Coxackie where we met with our daughter and grandchildren at the Blue Water Bistro. After a delightful lunch, we headed down route 209 along the historic Delaware and Hudson Canal and then back to the Lake. We dodged a few thunderstorms but did not get too wet. We look forward now to another trike trip to Bethel Woods. Stay tuned.

Tags: boston pops, boston symphony orchestra, bso, dakota, delaware and hudson, hudson, hudson river, james taylor, john williams, keith lockhart, kingston, lenox, motorcycle, mozart, pittsfield, route 209, smetana, stockbridge, tanglewood, tchaikovsky, trike, woodstock, yo-yo ma

Google Plus on iPad

The Google Plus app on the iPhone is very nice but there is not yet a native app for the iPad. There will be one soon, I am sure, but if you are like me and can’t wait, there is a way you can adapt the iPhone app to enable it to work on the iPad. It requires some steps but there is a tutorial on how to do it that I found in one of the tech blogs. You can find it here. I found some variations from the steps outlined, and it took awhile to figure it out. If you try it and have problems, let me know and I will be glad to help.

Meanwhile, Google Plus seems to be growing rapidly. Since my last report, I now have 189 people in my various circles and 145 people have me in their circles. As I mused at the last wriing, where does this lead? Everybody connected to everybody? I am not sure how many people will end up in my circles, but I will try to keep it meaningful. The 189 people are people I know, serve on boards with, have worked with, spoken with, or met at a conference. Many of the 145 people who have added me to their circles are people I have never heard of. I get emails every day from Google + with a picture of a person and notice that John Doe has added me to one or more of his circles. I look at the picture and am certain I have never seen this person in my life.

The people in your circles are visible to anyone who looks at your profile, but what circle or circles you have them in is not visible. I have noticed that some of the people who have added me to their circle have thousands of people in their circles. One was just short of 10,000. I don’t how many people I know, but it is not 10,000. I would call those “connections” not meaningful. Perhaps some people are looking for bragging rights–I have 10,000 people in my circles! Wow, how many people have you in their circle? Um, there is my mother and, and, um, thousands of others that I can’t recall right now.

So it looks like there will be a lot of people who will feel good at having thousands of people in their circles. So be it. What is more important is the meaningful circles, like your family circle, your bike club circle, your XYZ Corporation Board circle, etc. Those are circles you can really communicate with and know that only the members that you have elected to put in those circles will see what you post. You may still choose to post things for the public to read, like this story, but many of day to day postings will be much more private. That is what Facebook has not facilitated very well. You can segment things on FB, but it is not easy. Google has made it trivial. I continue to believe they are going to get a lot of converts.

One more thing. There is a transient circle called “Nearby”. If you allow Google to detect where you are, you can look at postings from “Nearby”. The posters are people, you may or may not know, who are “nearby” who are posting about the great meal they had at XYZ  Cafe or something about traffic flow, or whatever. This is fun to browse through just to see what people are talking about nearby. I like using the iPad to browse through Google + postings. I don’t spend all day at it–maybe 15 minutes. You can browse my all of your circles, look at the postings in just your family circle, or the board circle, or by those who happen to be nearby.

Tags: circle, circles, google, google plus, ipad, nearby