With regard to my trip to India, there were two disappointments.

1) I learned that Chandigarh is a several day trip from the primary
orchid growing areas of India (Assam and Sikkim). Maybe, if the
opportunity arises I will return to visit those two states in India.

2) Almost all of my orchids died of neglect while I was gone. Only a
catt survived. Damn, now I am starting over!

Since returning, I changed ISP to resolve some issues with our
connection that primarily plagued my sister. I have only now begun to
view newsgroups using google. And, I have been busy starting a new
business (see the URL in my signatu comments, suggestions, and
reciprocal links are welcome). There is nothing related to orchids on
my site yet, but if anyone needs custom decision support software to
help in learning about orchid culture, I'm just an email away. ;-)
Actually, I have a horticultural application in mind, serving both
vendors and consumers, but it will have to wait until sufficient
funding can be found.

Any interesting developments in the last year?

Cheers,

Ted


R.E. (Ted) Byers, Ph.D., Ed.D.
R & D Decision Support Solutions
http://www.randddecisionsupportsolutions.com/
Healthy Living Through Informed Decision Making

Welcome back Ted, will check out your new site. Hope you can get a
collection going soon.

--
Cheers Wendy

Remove PETERPAN for email reply

Ted wrote:
With regard to my trip to India, there were two disappointments.

1) I learned that Chandigarh is a several day trip from the primary
orchid growing areas of India (Assam and Sikkim). Maybe, if the
opportunity arises I will return to visit those two states in India.

2) Almost all of my orchids died of neglect while I was gone. Only a
catt survived. Damn, now I am starting over!

Since returning, I changed ISP to resolve some issues with our
connection that primarily plagued my sister. I have only now begun to
view newsgroups using google. And, I have been busy starting a new
business (see the URL in my signatu comments, suggestions, and
reciprocal links are welcome). There is nothing related to orchids on
my site yet, but if anyone needs custom decision support software to
help in learning about orchid culture, I'm just an email away. ;-)
Actually, I have a horticultural application in mind, serving both
vendors and consumers, but it will have to wait until sufficient
funding can be found.

Any interesting developments in the last year?

Cheers,

Ted


R.E. (Ted) Byers, Ph.D., Ed.D.
R & D Decision Support Solutions
http://www.randddecisionsupportsolutions.com/
Healthy Living Through Informed Decision Making

Hi Wendy.

Thanks. I have the one catt that survived, and have now bought two
more catts, a paph and a phrag.

Next month, and the big show in Guelph, I hope to pick up some phals
and maybe a vanilla (mostly to show my neices and nephews where vanilla
comes from). I'm not sure I'll live long enough to see an orchid the
size of vanilla bloom (I understand they have to get huge before
they'll bloom), but according to a cheesy site the Ontario ministry of
health has (that computes life expectancy based on simple genetic
patterns and current state of health), I ought to live to at least 90,
so that's another 40 years. But with my diabetes, it often feels like
I won't see next month. :-(

Actually, I have conceived a design for a web application that may
prove useful to both growers and consumers. Wat I was thinking is that
the application would provide two different ways to identify, as well
as one can, plants. One method would be based on illustrated keys
where available, and the other would be based on numerical taxonomic
methods. This latter method would require a considerable database of
known specimens to provide a basis for, e.g., discriminant functions
analysis, the output of which can be used to identify unknown specimens
that are clearly related to specimens already in the database. In
response to a user entering a detailed description of the plant he
wants idenitified, he would get a web page that identifies the species,
hybrids or cultivars that are most similar to the unknown specimen, or
a message that the unknown specimen isn't like anything presently in
the database. The result page would also have a link to culture sheets
as well as a description of where the plant is normally found, a basic
description of its ecology, and links to vendors who normally carry it
or who currently have it in stock. I even thougt it could provide an
interface where growers can enter growth and environmental data
(temperature, humidity, &c.), so that empirical data can be available
for viewing so the curious can explore the range of environmental
conditions and cultural treatments in which a given plant has been
grown and how it has responded to these. This data could be
sufficiently detailed to allow assessment of the natural variability in
all plants and provide a basis for various kinds of scientific
research. I would have, as a result of my own background as a research
scientist, web pages in the application designed to support fellow
scientists who are interested in doing basic taxonomic and ecological
research using the associated database.

I invite comment both from orchid vendors and orchid lovers, both
newbies and old hands, on this idea. Are there any other features,
beyond what I described, you'd like to see to make it really, really
useful to you personally or professionally? Of course, I recognise
that this idea applies generally in horticulture, but that is another
issue. Is this a kind of resource you'd be willing to pay for (either
subscription fees for consumers, or advertising for vendours)? At
present, I do not have the resources to develop this without making it
available as a commercial venture.

Cheers,

Ted


R.E. (Ted) Byers, Ph.D., Ed.D.
R & D Decision Support Solutions
http://www.randddecisionsupportsolutions.com/
Healthy Living Through Informed Decision Making

On 19 Aug 2005 20:53:08 -0700, "Ted"
wrote:

Actually, I have conceived a design for a web application that may
prove useful to both growers and consumers. Wat I was thinking is that
the application would provide two different ways to identify, as well
as one can, plants.
Cheers,

Ted

This was posted on the Orchid Digest. It should carry the news
source from a London paper.


Quote from OD --
From a news story : "LONDON, England...

A group of London-based scientists hope computer software they
are creating will help uncover previously unknown plant ...
species.

Professor Norman MacLeod, ... Natural History Museum, is among
those creating a database of every known species, covering all
known ... plant life on Earth.

The system, called Digital Automated Identification System
(Daisy), will eventually give anyone in the world the ability to
identify species almost instantly...

"Only a handful of experts are currently able to identify species
in any given group of organisms accurately, and even these
experts disagree with each other over aspects of these
identifications and can make mistakes," he said.
....
"This technology will not replace basic human expertise, but it
will give access to that expertise to people in remote locations,
where the identifications are often needed most."
.....
"If we can identify species more quickly and accurately then we
can use this information to focus more on addressing the larger
issues of evolution and biodiversity."

Previously, if, for example, a botanist discovered what was
believed to be a new species of orchid, they would need to take
the specimen to an expert, which could often mean transporting it
to the other side of the world.

By using Daisy, the botanist would be able to confirm the type of
species with the click of a mouse.

The software program works by combining artificial intelligence
and computer vision technologies, which will load computers with
virtual collections of identified specimens.
....
a user could simply photograph a specimen with a mobile phone
camera out in the field, upload it to a computer which has the
Daisy software on it, and the identification could be made in
seconds.
....
MacLeod presented his vision for the automated identification of
biological groups in a conference at the Natural History Museum
Friday [19 August 2005].

source and complete news item :

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/08/19/s...ion=cnn_latest

End Quote

Great ideas often have many working on them at once. Good Luck.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

Susan Erickson wrote:

This was posted on the Orchid Digest. It should carry the news
source from a London paper.


Quote from OD --
From a news story : "LONDON, England...

A group of London-based scientists hope computer software they
are creating will help uncover previously unknown plant ...
species.

[snip]

The software program works by combining artificial intelligence
and computer vision technologies, which will load computers with
virtual collections of identified specimens.
...
Hi Sue,

Thanks. This was interesting. I have visited cnn.com where it was
originally published, and will print it out later. I really miss
working in a university context where I'd have the freedom and
resources to pursue such an interesting project!

Combining AI with computer vision? Talk about overkill! And this is
overkill that will take years to implement and probably decades before
it can be relied on! And I'd expect that it will, as conceived, be
outrageously expensive. It is a great research project and I'd love to
have the opportunity to work on it, but to be honest, if the purpose is
to identify plants, animals, fungae or any other taxon, one needs only
some basic software technologies that have existed for well over a
decade, and a few that are even older. What I have conceived could, if
I had funding, be implemented in less than a year, with another couple
years to build up the database. And at that point, it would be as
reliable as any taxonomist (since it would be doing automatically what
taxonomists, or at least numerical taxonomists, normally do), and more
useful than most since it would provide useful results for any kind of
organism while taxonomists are normally specialized on a small group of
taxa.

And I could make it more useful to research scientists eventually by
adding support for DNA finger printing of specimens and code to analyse
DNA sequence data; something that may prove useful in assessing
relationships among horticultural treasures. Imagine the professional
potential fr breeders and other vendors if they can have their plants
finger printed. If enough of them do so, relationships among breeding
lines, or plants of unknown provenance, could be assessed.

Thanks again.

Cheers,

Ted



R.E. (Ted) Byers, Ph.D., Ed.D.
R & D Decision Support Solutions
http://www.randddecisionsupportsolutions.com/
Healthy Living Through Informed Decision Making

On 19 Aug 2005 20:53:08 -0700, "Ted" wrote:

Hi Wendy.

Thanks. I have the one catt that survived, and have now bought two
more catts, a paph and a phrag.

Next month, and the big show in Guelph, I hope to pick up some phals
and maybe a vanilla (mostly to show my neices and nephews where vanilla
comes from).
snip

Big show in Guelph? Do you happen to have any details, and any dates,
(a website perhaps) any idea how big "big" is? g

I mean I don't really need to buy another orchid. I don't have the
room for one, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't enjoy spending
part of an afternoon looking at other people's pretty flowers.
--Vic

da wrote:
On 19 Aug 2005 20:53:08 -0700, "Ted" wrote:


Hi Wendy.

Thanks. I have the one catt that survived, and have now bought two
more catts, a paph and a phrag.

Next month, and the big show in Guelph, I hope to pick up some phals
and maybe a vanilla (mostly to show my neices and nephews where vanilla
comes from).

snip

Big show in Guelph? Do you happen to have any details, and any dates,
(a website perhaps) any idea how big "big" is? g

I mean I don't really need to buy another orchid. I don't have the
room for one, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't enjoy spending
part of an afternoon looking at other people's pretty flowers.
--Vic
Central Ontario Orchid Society Show and Sale

Date: September 24th, 2005 at 11 am, through the 25th

Location: Hespeler Arena, 640 Ellis Road, Cambridge, ON

The Central Ontario Orchid Society is hosting it's 20th annual
Orchid Show and Sale, Saturday September 24th 11am to 5pm, and Sunday
September 25th 9am to 5pm. Admission $6, children under 12 free. The
show will be held at the Cambridge Hespeler Arena, 640 Ellis Rd
Cambridge (exit Hwy 401 at Townline Road, go north to the second left).
For more information visit
http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/coos.html

Maybe you'll have more luck getting onto the website than I did!

--
Reka

This is LIFE! It's not a rehearsal. Don't miss it!
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 08:27:10 +0200, Reka
wrote:


Central Ontario Orchid Society Show and Sale

Date: September 24th, 2005 at 11 am, through the 25th

Location: Hespeler Arena, 640 Ellis Road, Cambridge, ON

The Central Ontario Orchid Society is hosting it's 20th annual
Orchid Show and Sale, Saturday September 24th 11am to 5pm, and Sunday
September 25th 9am to 5pm. Admission $6, children under 12 free. The
show will be held at the Cambridge Hespeler Arena, 640 Ellis Rd
Cambridge (exit Hwy 401 at Townline Road, go north to the second left).
For more information visit
http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/coos.html

Maybe you'll have more luck getting onto the website than I did!

--
Reka


Thanks Reka.

Although I hate to point out that Guelph is not Cambridge, thank you
very much. g

I guess this is the same show I attended last year. So that's a "big"
show? Somehow I would have thought it was a small, local show --
basically one medium sized room (and I'm not talking convention
hall-sized rooms) with displays and one with plants for sale. While
I've never been to any other orchid show, somehow it just didn't seem
that big to me.
--Vic