Bill Merrow - Who is he?

Bill Merrow works in computers 

My postings are solely my own and not related to my previous CA Technologies job.
Boring info about Bill Merrow's work (LinkedIn has limits and I wanted to reduce size of  About page information)

SVP R&D / Distinguished Engineer
Author of 3 Ranade IBM Series books

Focus areas: Computer software architecture, design, programming, project management - create/mature profitable product lines and design/deliver client usable solutions (content, integrations combined with client proof "best practices"). Not "solutions" requiring gurus but Business "Solutions" compatible with the skills and process maturity of real clients, that can be installed/configured/customized by partners and field services, are secure/scalable/supportable by client staff and easily migrated to future versions.

Has more than 25 years experience managing large projects, has built profitable product lines, created web based systems, built customer/field best practices library and field architect training program.

Architect and lead UI programmer for Asset Intelligence: data organizer/unknown relationship discovery tool, ad hoc query and reporting system.

Designed and lead effort for technical Best Practices library growing it to thousands of documents spanning solution architecture, multi-product integrations, content creation and software management disciplines (including Change Management, OS Hardening/Security Lockdown, High Availability, Virtualization, Disaster Recovery, Scalability/Tuning, Diagnosis, Automated Use Case Testing and QA) .

Created architect training, mentoring/certification program and lead field teams implementing Unicenter products at hundreds of client sites.
Designed and taught classes in architecting solutions, problem diagnosis, security, performance analysis, tuning/scalability, virtualization and high availability.

Skills include php, javascript, python, c/c++, java, perl, bash, several machine languages. Worked extensively with Windows, Linux and various Unix flavors. Have written compilers/interpreters and cross assemblers, loader/linkage editors, schedulers, librarian tools, unstructured text parsers, web tools/browser extensions, operating system components/drivers, embedded systems, spooling system, typesetting software and data entry systems.
Tech hobbies include custom Server/Desktop building, compiler writing, OS drivers/mods, machine language programming and vulnerability testing/securing networks/systems.  Other hobbies include Hiking, Biking, Photography.

Specialties

Managing complex projects, developing training/certification programs, best practices - focused on client satisfaction, usability/quality and profitable product portfolio.

- outside work I am an avid River Runner, Hiker and amateur photographer: this is my hobby blog - see Flickr for more info on Southwest/Grand Canyon geology/river running/hiking.

Much of the blog content is Grand Canyon and Northwest and Southwest Hiking/Geology oriented.

Some Seattle plus New York City area related blog entries are also included here.

Web Tools - The 2009 View

This blog was written in 2009 and shared here for historical purposes.

I was recently reflecting on activities I perform that have moved to the web or have been adapted to now leverage the web.  I want to briefly talk about some routine activities that I cannot do without the web.

I am a runner who currently uses a Garmin GPS running watch to track my course, distance, elevation gain/loss, time/speed while running and store the history in the web via Garmin Connect (a pure web 2.0 application – the watch connects via Bluetooth to a USB plug that uploads data directly to the web leaving nothing on the PC).  You can later export Garmin Connect data to any PC if you really want kml or tcx files (and there is a web 2.0 app that will convert tcx to gpx if you want that).

I used to estimate distance/speed with a wristwatch and kept a “my documents” based running log and (much earlier) a “paper” log.

I run on the beach around Port Jeff and check the tides at http://mobilegeographics.com:81/locations/4934.jhtml to avoid starting a course that ends under water.  Beats using a paper tide chart; really beats getting wet.

I log my training runs via twitter (twitter.com/billmerrow is joined to facebook.com/bmerrow so both social networking tools log my exercise/runs).

Sometimes I even tweet about less important things than exercise.

I use a Garmin Colorado hiking GPS for geotagging photos as well as plotting routes and logging waypoints for quick returns.  I export kml files for Google Earth maps with links to my photos.

I used to use topo maps and log notes in a paper journal and keep numerous image directories with “manual” notes files/explanations of what was shot/where/when.

Prior to getting the running watch I used my Garmin Colorado for runs and geotagged photos of the key course elements/created Google maps of various courses.

As a prosumer photographer (that means Canon charges me more for cameras and lens than they charge you),  I share photos via my flickr Pro account and do quick edits of flickr resident photos using web based tools (my fav now is the Picnik web photo editor).

I also use fat client software (ACDSee or Photoshop Elements) for fancier editing but more and more the authoritative source of my images is the web – and I see a time when my permanent images will exist only there.

Gmail is my web email – it recognizes and displays flickr picture references just as it does Picasa (which I used to use).

Previously I managed all my images in several large folders – I still have these as a backup/dump out back (143GB with 73500 and counting photos) but my primary workspaces are web based.

My banking and insurance and investments are all handled via the web – I am not sure I would even know how to go about doing most of this offline.  I certainly could not even find the phone number of the (probably insolvent) financial institution’s computer voice response system without the web.  Oh, I guess I still sometimes use an ATM but more and more I use less and less “paper” money.

I use the web based medhelp.org weight and exercise tracker.  I also use the Weight-Tracker.com web site to summarize data to share with my doctor (for its nice looking charts).  Most of my medical records test results are available online and no place else (I am fairly confident of this as my doctor’s office can do NOTHING without their online systems and PDAs).

I can often get free copies of my own records via email but have to pay for any paper copies.

All my own records and indices are maintained in html for a private (home based) set of web pages.  Prior to modern times, I kept my own records in a text log file on a PC or in Outlook contacts.

Many Years Ago (in a time before Lady Lovelace gave birth to computer programming), I used to keep paper notes.

I have been using Gmail as my personal email since 2004 and keep roughly 10k emails that reside in the cloud.  I make email notes of important information that I send to myself because the Gmail search is really REALLY good (beats paper notes that I cannot find once I forget where I put them).  I also have various Outlook pst files for work and personal use but welcome all mail moving to the web - relying on 40GB spread across too many pst files is just asking for problems.

Before PCs I used a CMS based mainframe email system.  Before that I have heard that you handed your mail to Ben Franklin and I guess he must have used lightning bolts to transmit it thru the ether . . . or something like that.

I welcome hearing your own experiences about depending on web based tools and what you used to do Before Web (send me your thoughts/comments via email and interesting items will be reported in a follow-up blog).

Bill Merrow

bmerrow@gmail.com

2008 November S Kaibab hike - selected geology highlights

Geology highlights from S Kaibab Trail Hike

Since the trail is named the S Kaibab we start off hike with the top of the Grand Canyon stack Kaibab Limestone

07:44 minutes down the trail we are into the Toroweap

07:45 Looking up from Toroweap we see a nice example of a Toreva block (ok, nice very small Toreva block slide)

07:53 Salt Dome example in the Toroweap – generally Salt Domes form wherever a prolonged period of flooding/evaporation occurs in an arid climate – here salt deposits above the low tide zone of the Toroweap sea are lighter than the rock above and later rose thru the Toroweap.

08:02 after traverse in Toroweap we encounter the Coconino

 begin a rapid descent thru the Coconino Sandstone where we see classic cross-bedding

08:07 Ooh-Aah Point obligatory photo

08:22 More steep descent thru Coconino – slowly as I needed to wait for the sun which I am ahead of at this point

08:55 nearing Cedar Ridge we are in the Hermit Shale.  Notice the Grand Canyon Supergroup (red Hakatai Shale) in the Cremation graben (across the river and below the Tapeats – later we will hike into it below the Tipoff on this side of the river).  The GC Supergroup is eroded away in much of the Grand Canyon but visible/accessible thruout this hike (in fact, we came this way to walk on and thru the Supergroup plus see it in several grabens).  The graben down dropped the Supergroup layers in the distant past so later erosion did not remove it.

Detail showing Hakatai visible across river

O’Neil Butte is a nice exposure of Supai Group Esplanade Sandstone

09:02 Supai Group

09:09 below Cedar Ridge we descend thru the Supai Group

09:29 went slightly off trail to photograph a nice example of a Breccia pipe (formed by collapse of a solution cave where the rubble was filled in/cemented by later sediments) – this is especially nice as the pipe later partially eroded out

09:44 Back on S Kaibab at Skeleton Point we get a good look at the Cremation Graben Supergroup Exposures on the other side of the river – we will be hiking thru this on this side of the river soon

09:52 we hike thru the Redwall limestone – notice the solution caves beside and above the trail

10:14 at base of Redwall photographed a nice exposure of Temple Butte (not as large as on N Kaibab, but this is prettier and I was S not N) – you can also reach out and touch this as it is just meters off the trail at end of last switchback before Muav – the sun was perfect on a great day in the Grand Canyon.  Temple Butte Limestone in the eastern Grand Canyon was deposited in river/stream channels forming a smiley face (do you see that shape in the below?).  It is not generally found as a separate layer in the eastern Grand Canyon (this changes as you go further west).
This purple in this smiley face is not typical of many Temple Butte lens exposures as they tend to weather into a blah slightly purple gray.

10:17 rapid descent thru Muav Limestone

10:51 hiking on the Bright Angel Shale we approach the Tipoff

11:13 hiking in the Shinumo Quartzite we see the Hakatai ahead

11:14 at Tipoff we get a great view of Tapeats on top of Hakatai Shale on this side of river as well as a view of the Hakatai on other side of the river (also in the Cremation graben) to the right is Shinumo Quartzite just as it should be (we just looked ahead and down to skip it for a minute) – the Hakatai was lifted up hundreds of feet above the rest of the Supergroup below it by a normal fault

11:18 house sized block of Shinumo Quartzite with trail blasted thru

11:26 Tapeats Boulder with Shinumo Quartzite pieces in it – oh yes, Shinumo fell off cliff at edge of Tapeats Sea into the Tapeats sand at water edge – Blacktail Canyon has (or had) a boulder in it in 2008 that is similar - see 2008 trip

Discussion of five criteria needed to form the Grand Canyon from lectures by Wayne Ranney (author of Carving Grand Canyon and other Geology texts):

1.    Large expanse of stratified rock (the Grand Canyon layers are known to extend across a very large area – some strata from well east of the Grand Canyon to west of Las Vegas).

2.    Variably colored (pretty/brightly colored in our case) – the different colors help make the strata obvious to non-geologists.

3.    Gently uplifted

4.    Eroded/Exposed by Big River(s)

5.    Dry Arid Environment near sea level (lacking the dry environment natural weathering would dominate and strip many layers completely; if well above sea level any deposits would almost certainly be eroded along with the mountains they lie upon; much of the grand canyon sedimentary rock was laid down in shallow seas or formed as part of near shore Aeolian deposits)

Wayne Ranney and Ron Blakey in Ancient Landscapes discuss and show on maps / images what the southwest US looked like when the various layers of the grand canyon were deposited (at sea level).  These support and elaborate on the five criteria discussed above.  I highly recommend Wayne's books.  

9/11 Memorial Christmas Day 2011

We spent Christmas afternoon at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City
Although the museum is under construction, this is a "must see" if in New York.
Tickets are free / available at www.911memorial.org but plan ahead as there is a significant wait.

Walking into the Memorial site the largest image is that of the new One WTC going up - Freedom Tower

but the 9/11 Memorial is centered on the footprints of the old World Trade Center North and South Towers - you are constantly reminded this is a construction site

 below is the new museum - it is between the old tower footprints

 each tower footprint is surrounded by a low wall engraved with the names of the fallen

south tower footprint - each footprint is a pool constantly replenished by a waterfall

museum is itself still a construction site

 museum and south tower footprint

north tower footprint - note names of the dead are backlit and visible by day or night

museum and new Freedom Tower

north tower pool and museum

site at sunset

as we walk away from the site we see Freedom Tower with coloured lights - Merry Christmas to all 

Magazines I subscribe to and their RSS status

Revised Mar 2104 Magazines I subscribe to/read - rss==in my reader
cIDs authoritative source (drop/add realtime) - this copy less often:
EE Times http://www.eetimes.com/ rss
EE Times Embedded Archive link 


ESD Embedded Systems Design http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/cmp/esd1211/ 
EDN Electronic Design News http://www.edn.com/ rss 
Electronic Design http://electronicdesign RSS
Design News http://www.designnews.com/ Sherlock Ohms & Designed By Monkeys - rss
Design News (UBM) http://designnews.canonresourcecenter.com/resource_center - rss
Electronic Products http://www.electronicproducts.com - rss
T&MW Test and Measurement World http://www.tmworld.com/ - rss
VSD Vision Systems Design http://www.vision-systems.com/index.html - rss Boards/Fact Auto
Assembly http://www.assemblymag.com/ get paper copy - rss
MH&L Material Handling & Logistics News http://mhlnews.com - rss
HPAC Engineering http://hpac.com NOrss
Control Engineering http://www.controleng.com LP;NOrss
Plant Engineering http://www.PlantEngineering.com NOrss
IMPO Industrial Maintenance and Plant Operation http://impomag.com NOrss KillList
TMCnet http://www.tmcnet.com/ rss http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/
ECN Electronic Component News http://www.ecnmag.com/ - rss
DE Desktop Engineering http://www.deskeng.com/ - rss
EEandT Energy Efficiency and Technology http://www.eetweb.com/ - rss
NASA Tech Briefs http://www.techbriefs.com/ - rss
Military and Aerospace Electronics http://militaryaerospace.com NOrss follow channels
Avionics Intelligence Newsletter http://www.avionics-intelligence.com/index.html - email
Defense Systems http://defensesystems.com - rss
Lightwave http://www.lightwaveonline.com/ NOrss
Wireless Design and Development http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ NOrss
CED Broadband focus http://www.CEDmagazine.com rss
IW Industry Week http://www.industryweek.com/ - rss
Business Solutions http://bsminfo.com - NOrss
LFW Laser Focus World http://LaserFocusWorld.com - rss
BioOptics World http://www.bioopticsworld.com - rss
R&D Magazine http://www.rdmag.com - rss
Chemical Processing http://chemicalprocessing.com - rss
BioPharm http://biopharminternational.com - rss
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing http://pharmamanufacturing.com - rss
Drug Discovery and Development http://dddmag.com - NOrss
Medical Design Technology http://www.mdtmag.com/ - rss 
Medical Design Briefs http://medicaldesignbriefs.com - NOrss (was but cannot find now) sister pub of NASA tech briefs
Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry http://mddionline.com - rss
Suppliers to Medical Industry http://www.qmed.com/ rss (in gReader; MPMN&blog articles good)
InfoTech Spotlight tmcnet.com content at http://it.tmcnet.com/magazine/Default.aspx rss
TN TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ rss (for security notices)
Baseline Mag http://www.baselinemag.com/ get paper copy - rss
InformationWeek http://informationweek.com/ rss
BtoBonline.com rss
MCM http://multichannelmerchant.com rss
SCMR http://scmr.com/ Supply Chain Management Review

Time.com/time rss
PC World http://www.pcworld.com/ rss
PC Mag digital edition Zinio on iPad/PC http://www.pcmag.com/ rss

2011 River Trip Day 16 10/9 exit via Diamond Creek, lavacados photos/story

2011 River Trip Day 16 exit via Diamond Creek, lavacados photos/story

06:28 sunrise

 06:28 last breakfast

07:39 small scorpion in camp

 07:46 Teddy

 07:59 heading downriver

 10:06 takeout ahead

 10:07 pull in and unload gear

 10:27 gear unloaded - next we will derig boats - we all helped

 14:08 route 66 stop for ice cream

 19:40 dinner

xx