The Scooter Infestation
As Spatial Networks is in St. Petersburg I’m spending my first week at the company here for orientation and meeting the team. If you’ve never been to St. Pete its a great small city that isn’t that complicated. The one thing I’ve noticed walking around the city is the lack of electric scooters. There are no Bird, Lime, Razor, Uber or whatever latest company is throwing scooters around. In Tempe, there are so many brands that I can’t even keep track of them anymore. But not here in St. Pete. It makes the sidewalks less crowded, you don’t seem scooters knocked over on ever street corner and honestly seeing everyone actually walking around feels relaxing. You just don’t notice it until you don’t see them. I miss those days…
Spatial Networks
Well today is a big day for me. I’ve join Spatial Networks as VP of Professional Services. This is a great opportunity for me because the team that Tony has put together is really second to none. I was going to list all the people at SNI that I’m exicte to work with but realized it was basically the whole team. On the latest podcast (which isn’t out yet) Bill and I talked about how I’ve worked with so many of these great people but never at the same company. Well that’s no longer the case.
I’ll be heading up the Professional Services team at SNI so this is a great opportunity to work with many of the companies I have in the past, implementing some of the best technology and data sources out there. I’m in St. Petersburg for much of this week and then back again in 2 weeks for the whole week. Should give me some great 1 on 1 time with most of the staff and catch up with those who I respect greatly.
As I alluded to the other day, this blog is back and I’ll be blogging about technology and what gets me excited these days. Some GIS, some programming, some hardware and probably some photoshops. Should be a great time, I’m very excited!
Spatial Networks
Well today is a big day for me. I’ve join Spatial Networks as VP of Professional Services. This is a great opportunity for me because the team that Tony has put together is really second to none. I was going to list all the people at SNI that I’m exicte to work with but realized it was basically the whole team. On the latest podcast (which isn’t out yet) Bill and I talked about how I’ve worked with so many of these great people but never at the same company. Well that’s no longer the case.
I’ll be heading up the Professional Services team at SNI so this is a great opportunity to work with many of the companies I have in the past, implementing some of the best technology and data sources out there. I’m in St. Petersburg for much of this week and then back again in 2 weeks for the whole week. Should give me some great 1 on 1 time with most of the staff and catch up with those who I respect greatly.
As I alluded to the other day, this blog is back and I’ll be blogging about technology and what gets me excited these days. Some GIS, some programming, some hardware and probably some photoshops. Should be a great time, I’m very excited!
Reading Workflow
I never had a Amazon Kindle, either I read books with a physical copy or I just used my iPad with the Apple Books app. This worked great for years but lately I’ve found myself being distracted more by life and reading has become difficult on the iPad. There are so many distractions with notifications, alerts and tweets that concentration becomes difficult. I’ve noticed that I listen to books more than read them, not because I have a long commute, but that when you listen to a book, you’re not looking at anything.
I’ve wanted to get back into reading because I find it very therapeutic and I finally bit the bullet and bought an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. I looked at a Kobo but the Paperwhite 2018 was just so compelling. Since this is my first Kindle, I was taken back a bit by the E-ink technology given I was used to the high fidelity iPad displays but after reading books for a couple minutes, it was clear that my eyes preferred the E-ink to Apple’s True Tone displays. As this Kindle is my first one, I can’t compare it to the previous devices but it feels high quality and given I paid only $100 for it on sale, it feels like a steal.
So after the past 2 weeks of reading with the Kindle, what have I noticed?
- I read much more than before and for much longer. I don’t get distracted.
- The Kindle Store is so slick, buying a book is so easy and smooth that I dare call it enjoyable.
- I can use the Libby app to check out books at my local bookstore. I find myself using the library much more than I did before.
- Selection is so much better than Apple’s book store. I no longer have to compromise what I read because of Apple’s lack of focus.
I feel so late to this party but I’m OK with that. I’m always nervous about Amazon’s ecosystem knowing more about me but so far it feels good. Libby is working great for me so using the Tempe Library seems to be my biggest use so far. 2019 seems to be where reading gets back on top of my todo list.
Reading Workflow
I never had a Amazon Kindle, either I read books with a physical copy or I just used my iPad with the Apple Books app. This worked great for years but lately I’ve found myself being distracted more by life and reading has become difficult on the iPad. There are so many distractions with notifications, alerts and tweets that concentration becomes difficult. I’ve noticed that I listen to books more than read them, not because I have a long commute, but that when you listen to a book, you’re not looking at anything.
I’ve wanted to get back into reading because I find it very therapeutic and I finally bit the bullet and bought an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. I looked at a Kobo but the Paperwhite 2018 was just so compelling. Since this is my first Kindle, I was taken back a bit by the E-ink technology given I was used to the high fidelity iPad displays but after reading books for a couple minutes, it was clear that my eyes preferred the E-ink to Apple’s True Tone displays. As this Kindle is my first one, I can’t compare it to the previous devices but it feels high quality and given I paid only $100 for it on sale, it feels like a steal.
So after the past 2 weeks of reading with the Kindle, what have I noticed?
- I read much more than before and for much longer. I don’t get distracted.
- The Kindle Store is so slick, buying a book is so easy and smooth that I dare call it enjoyable.
- I can use the Libby app to check out books at my local bookstore. I find myself using the library much more than I did before.
- Selection is so much better than Apple’s book store. I no longer have to compromise what I read because of Apple’s lack of focus.
I feel so late to this party but I’m OK with that. I’m always nervous about Amazon’s ecosystem knowing more about me but so far it feels good. Libby is working great for me so using the Tempe Library seems to be my biggest use so far. 2019 seems to be where reading gets back on top of my todo list.
Nothing Ever Ends
So remember when I said GIS was dead to me? Well nothing is ever set in stone, I’m back in the GIS world. More Monday…
Oh and this blog is back.