A HEEP of information

The 48th annual Highway Engineers Exchange Program (HEEP) International meeting is less than three weeks away. I can't recommend this conference strongly enough. If you work in the areas of Highway and Bridge design, construction or maintenance and having even a passing interest in computers and technology, then this is a conference YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS.

The 2007 conference is being hosted by the NY State DOT and the NY thruway Authority in Albany, New York September 15-20. The conference theme is - "Promoting Advances in Transportation Technology." Here are just a few of the many interesting and diverse presentations at this years conference:

Emerging Technology and the Implications for State and Local Government
- Tom Cowper, NYS Office for Technology, Statewide Wireless Network

3D Models for Machine Guidance Systems
-Ryan Forrestel, Cold Spring Construction

Practical Experiences with Terrestrial Based LiDAR
-Michael Loose, PennDOT

BRASS-PIER(LRFD) analysis/design program
-Micheal J. Watters, Wyoming DOT

Use of 3D Model with On-Site for Inspection
-Phil Klimczak, NYSDOT, Kevin Jackson, Bentley

And even yours truly is doing a little presentation entitled

When Jumping Over the Moon Watch out for Asteroids

Please come and see these and many other presentation on the use of computers by the North American and European Departments & Ministries of Transportation. YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID!

Buddy can you spare a floppy drive?

Saw this posting on Evans Yares blog (EvanYarescom) and it got me to thinking (again)....

The Ticking Time Bomb

BBC News reports:

"The growing problem of accessing old digital file formats is a "ticking
time bomb", the chief executive of the UK National Archives has warned.

Natalie Ceeney said society faced the possibility of "losing years of critical
knowledge" because modern PCs could not always open old file formats."

How many of you out there truly think all your stored data is safe? Even if your hard drives don't fail, how long will your tapes and CDs, DVD last? Or even a better question -- will you have any computers that will be able to read the media your data is now stored on?-- in 10 years? how about 20? Floppy drives are just about gone, as are omega zip drives. It won't be long till CDRs are just a memory. It is some thing to think about.