The Wisconsin Skier

The Klout Uncertainity Principle

By: The Wisconsin Skier In: Information Technology, Off Season

I am set up on and periodically check my Klout score. While I think the score is reasonable I found something odd about it.

I first became aware of and started following my Klout score sometime last winter. Even then, I found an odd pattern to the rise and fall of my Klout score.

What pattern is that? Seemingly the less I pay attention to my Klout score, the higher it runs. In fact, the less interaction I carry on the higher my Klout score is. When I started waking this ski site up again from its summer content and doldrums I noticed I had a surprisingly high Klout score, but after I started to monitor my Klout score I noticed it started to fall. I know some of you jokers out there will point the implication of that, but I ignore that! Yes, even though my Klout is higher the less I publish, I will continue to publish and interact! Ha-ha-HA!

However, when I hardly put out any material here, when I hardly tweet or interact with Twitter, when I completely ignore Klout, and keep my FB to strictly personal matters my Klout score rises. When I start to pay attention to Klout and other Social Media and outlets my Klout Score goes down. I wonder if this is like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle — I will call the Observed Klout Principle:

The more you pay attention to your Klout Score the Lower it Goes!

The lesson, don’t pay attention to your Klout score and go on as normal!

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Android for the Skier — MyTracks

By: The Wisconsin Skier In: Information Technology, Skiing

Nope, not a review of the Recon Android powered goggles (BTW Recon, I would be quite happy to serve as a guinea pig and review your products get in touch via the contact form!) but actually of Android phone applications available for the skier.

I have tried a number of them and keep coming back to two of them. One of them is not a ski-exclusive application, but the other is.

So let’s get to it…
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Wisconsin Ski Map Update

By: The Wisconsin Skier In: Information Technology, Off Season, Site Related

Since the map is a fairly popular item here at The Wisconsin Skier I wanted to post you on the progress I am making on it.

I have created the database for the application and I just completed compiling the data I need for the first release which will be basic resort location information. So in the next day or so I will upload that data to my database and start working on the process to load up the data I need to put pins on a map! Once that is done, I have to put the pins on the map and version one will be deemed complete and I will deploy it!

The map will includes ski resorts in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and of course Wisconsin!

I plan to add resort specific data to the application and add layers to the map so if you are at a ski resort you can, for instance, select the “restaurant” layer and any restaurants I have put on the map will appear, but that functionality is going to be included in a future release.

Thanks for your patience!

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Snap It Up!

By: The Wisconsin Skier In: Information Technology, Off Season, Site Related

Many of you may have noticed The Wisconsin Skier was off line, in fact it was suspended by its web hosting company. Trust me, The Wisconsin Skier is NOT a deadbeat.

The problem was due to database performance. You see, The Wisconsin Skier resides on a single server with other websites and due to a certain plugin it uses, The Wisconsin Skier was using excessive amounts of database processing time. Well, I found a plugin to profile its database usage and that lead me to getting rid of a plugin that used lots of database processing. In any event, that plugin was redundant and it is now gone. I hope The Wisconsin Skier is returned to good-neighbor status!

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Copyrights

By: The Wisconsin Skier In: Information Technology, Off Season, Site Related

I rarely and explicitly copyright any of my works here. Nor do I put up notices of other copyrights here.

Most of the work here is owned by myself through Snowflake MSM LLC but I do borrow works from others from time to time. Mostly in the form of YouTube videos and there are some images I have used, but most of these are images of images that are well within the public domain. For example, the famous painting of Sir Isaac Newton I can not recall where I got the image from (other than to say Google Images) but the image is a straight up copy of the original and is not embellished or processed at all, so I think it quite fair to pull the copy.

However, other images I am not so lackadaisical about. I was at one time hunting for an image of the knee joint, but could not find a decent one that came with the necessary license, so I abandoned the post I was contemplating. One image I have actually purchased is the image used for my unordered lists bullets. I purchased that image from IStock.com (they google easily look them up on your own) this way the person who crafted that image gets some compensation for their hard work.

Likewise here. Given how easy it is to copy another’s work on the Internet I am not going to spend a lot of time watermarking and otherwise attempting to block your ability to copy the works here. Most every technique I have seen used to attempt to prevent people from copying works on the Internet I have been able to overcome (however, that material is NOT republished and is for personal use only). One or two of those methods required some effort, but most very little effort was involved.

So, if you want to copy material from this site, all I ask for is to please give me credit and a link back (and please do not hotlink the work, if I notice the hotlink I will put something to embarrass you). If you want an image in greater resolution than I provide on this site please contact myself (a form will go up sometime in the future) and we can talk.

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Twitter for the Phone

By: The Wisconsin Skier In: Information Technology

One thing I find myself doing more and more often, is shying away from Twitter usage when I am on the laptop or our desktop and confining the reading and writing of Tweets more and more by mobile phone.

I have been thinking of this for sometime now, since I got my Android phone and I find myself spending the majority of my social media (SM) usage is reading tweets. This includes retweets and my own tweets too. However, most of that Twitter usage is on my non-ski account. I would like to add that I am mostly using HootSuite, especially now I am finding out how to access most of the twitter functions one needs.

On that non-ski account most of the follows I have are people engaged in Twitter conversations and shares. They find an interesting article and push it out or engage in conversations with each other. It also helps that I have met with these folks or have had close online relationships already established before Twitter came out. However, I have a few very definite one-way tweeters out there on that account.

I need to prune my follows on my @WisSkier account and this time by using a more stringent policy than the do they follow me. They may follow me, but do they really? I think a number do not, and I’m not talking about those too busy or those enaged in other conversations to pay me heed, I’m talking about some very obvious follows who in the span of about 30 minutes crank out dozens of tweets a number of them being tweets I’ve seen dozens of times before.

Be human and take some sort of interest in what I have to say, not just my material, but when I respond to your material.

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Review of My Tracks

By: The Wisconsin Skier In: Information Technology, Off Season

Normally, you expect a review to focus on ski gear at a ski website. Jackets, skis, boots, poles, goggles, etc. However, this is going to be about a software application entitled My Tracks. My Tracks is a mobile application for Android platformed devices. I turned the application on this weekend to see what it could do.
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