Rockman’s Ramblings

Rockman aka Randy Post is the Owner and Editor In Chief of GeoPrac.net. This category is where posts regarding the GeoPrac site itself will be made. It is also a place for Randy to blog about issues affecting his professional practice, current projects and occasionally more esoteric topics.

No Picture
Rockman's Ramblings

Southwest Geotechnical Conference Wrapup

May 13, 2009 rockman Comments Off on Southwest Geotechnical Conference Wrapup

[Editor] Updated Thursday May 28, 2009 2:15pm [/Editor]

I was able to attend the first full day of the 34th Southwest Geotechnical Conference in Phoenix, AZ yesterday. The conference, sponsored by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the FHWA, is going on through tomorrow, and I wish I could have attended the rest of the sessions, but I had to get back to work! There were some very interesting presentations, and I made some valuable contacts that will hopefully result in some additional articles and other content for GeoPrac. Below are some of the highlights for me, some of which I plan to elaborate on in separate posts. When I do, I’ll update this post with the links. The highlights were…

[…]

Twitter
Rockman's Ramblings

Twitter and Widgets

April 30, 2009 rockman 3

TwitterI hope that GeoPrac is always near the front of the pack in the geo-industry when it comes to Web 2.0 and social media. With that in mind, I’m excited to announce that GeoPrac is finally on twitter! (http://twitter.com/geoprac/) You can use it as an alternative to the RSS feeds as each item posted to the site will show up in the twitter feed (with a little lag perhaps). But I also hope to start using it to interact with visitors and members and as a micro-blog where I post links to news items and stories that either didn’t lend themselves well to a GeoNews post or I flat out didn’t have time to write up. I admit I’m still discovering twitter, but feel free to drop me a tweet!

I also wanted to create a Widget for the items posted here, so I decided to use Widgetbox.com. I think it looks pretty slick with the teaser images I usually post showing up along with the post’s title. If you run a blog or website, by all means feel free to add it! Click through to see it in action.

[…]

GeoPrac.net turns two! Geology cake stratigraphy by Khol-y (Flickr) after original design by Tim Babb.
Rockman's Ramblings

GeoPrac Turns Two!

April 5, 2009 rockman Comments Off on GeoPrac Turns Two!

GeoPrac.net is now well into its toddler years! Today marks the second anniversary of the site. The past year has seen a major upgrade to the content management system, a new design, Geothreads, Delicious geotech, […]

image
Rockman's Ramblings

There and Back Again…Ed Medley

March 27, 2009 rockman Comments Off on There and Back Again…Ed Medley

imageIts been a while since I’ve posted in Rockman’s ramblings. But tonight as I try to wind down from a stressful drive back to Tucson from Phoenix on a very windy night, I feel the muse at work. Maybe the martini is helping too! Tonight was a meeting of the Arizona Section of the Association of Engineering and Environmental Geologists (AEG). The speaker was the 2009 AEG Jahns Distinguished  Lecturer, Dr. Edmund Medley of Geosyntec Consultants.

He’s perhaps best known for coining the phrase “bimrocks” for block-in-matrix-rock. He’s also written and presented some stuff on terrestrial 3d photogrammetry for geological engineering.  He’s an incredibly colorful, energetic, and genuine man who is a very entertaining and gifted writer and presenter. I was glad to meet him after trading a few emails previously. I’m not sure how he would feel about this comparison, but for some reason he reminded me of Bilbo Baggins. (Photo from EdMedley.com)

[…]

Rockman's Ramblings

Top Content of 2008

January 2, 2009 rockman Comments Off on Top Content of 2008

Happy New Year to all GeoPrac.net members and visitors! I send you warmest wishes for a happy, healthy and fulfilling 2009. As is the custom on most blogs, I’ve taken a look at the most popular items on the site from 2008. I define popularity as highest average hits/day, not just the most hits, otherwise it biases things towards those articles that have been posted longer. I also break down the most read articles of 2008 including those published earlier, and the most popular items published in the last quarter. Click through for the lists.

[…]

No Picture
Rockman's Ramblings

New Feature – GeoThreads

October 21, 2008 rockman Comments Off on New Feature – GeoThreads

I made a conscious decision when creating GeoPrac.net to NOT include a forum or bulletin board. I feel that with my technical skills and using one of the excellent open source products out there I […]

No Picture
Rockman's Ramblings

GeoPrac.net Facelift

October 21, 2008 rockman Comments Off on GeoPrac.net Facelift

As you can probably tell, there have been a few cosmetic and behind the scenes changes to the GeoPrac.net website. Rest assured it is still one of the premier sites for news and articles related to geotechnical engineering, geological engineering and engineering geology. But the software that runs the site was in dire need of upgrades, both for security and ease of maintenance. The new look was a byproduct of those upgrades (long story).

There are going to be some growing pains with the upgrades, including some broken links and other glitches. I appreciate your patience as I work to sort them out and I ask you to do me a favor, and if you come accross a problem, drop me a note – feedback@geoprac.net. If you’re interested in more details about the new site, click through.

[…]

No Picture
Rockman's Ramblings

Remembering Geology Fieldcamp

August 5, 2008 rockman Comments Off on Remembering Geology Fieldcamp

Randy on the Rocks

I wrote this post for my personal blog, but I thought a few people might get a kick out of it here. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years! Read on for my fuzzy recollections.

[…]