Archive for July, 2005
The Web: Where Are We Going?
I stumbled on this interesting concept. A guy out there in the blogosphere is helping put neat domain names in touch with folks who might need them to promote their products or services.
Now, why do I like this idea? Because it fits with the whole: everyone is a producer and the net is an open marketplace. Said another way: I like that there are still ways in which clever people don’t need permission to make a living.
Open source. Open community. Open anything. I think it’s neato.
If you *really* want to blow your mind with thoughts of where the web is going, check out this article by Kevin Kelly on Wired about where the web is going, etc. (If you want to get to the good stuff, skip to where it says 2005).
I’m arguing this stuff at work lately. I’m hoping to get the open source movement and the idea of our platform as a marketplace system out there. It’s where lots of companies are spending their meat. In the interface realm. (If this is sounding like “WTF” to you, then disregard. I’ll probably talk about running on Sunday). : )
Art: Downtown 81
Jean Michel Basquiat was a graffiti artist in the 80s. He roamed with the New York crowd, the Warhol and those, Deborah Harry. He was black and beautiful and seemed loved by all. He died, of course. The 80s were the secret Plague of our time. Anyhow, there’s a great recent documentary release called Downtown 81 that covers him and the scene and stuff like that, but it’s not really a documentary so much in the format. It’s more like a story.
Honestly, the acting is so raw that it all seems like bad porn actors, only no one gets laid. But the music and everything is so interesting, as you know this is fairly indicative of what was going on. I appreciated the film for that.
A wonderful woman in our loft/factory/condo place had us over. She called her place Cinema Macaroni, and that included putting a little sign on the door, etc. She shot the movie onto the wall using a projector she bootlegged from school. Her big fat tiger cat lounged center-stage below the screen. There were a half dozen or so folks. I brought my wonderful Brahms/Mount personal blanket. It’s the one on the left:
And anyhow, I really had a great time. For a treat, I brought them blueberries. There was watermelon already there. It was magic, except that I wanted Kat to be there. Softie.
Random
Completely random stuff. The guy beside just said “black angus” for no discernable reason. Congrats, Mark. You deserve it.
Have you heard of this? A kind of craigslist for bloggers? (it’s a wiki).
Sharing Knowledge
Do you find that folks in your organization aren’t big on sharing knowledge? I hear that complaint from lots of people. They feel left out. I support the exact opposite method. I love it when other people know what I know. Why? It’s about force multiplication.
Tomorrow, I’m going to give 1/2 dozen folks instructions, media, and some hardware and give them all a crack at building some red hat linux servers. I love this because: 1.) the work of building a dozen boxes will get done fairly easily, and 2.) this is stuff they can use in their futures at my company.
But then, say I have a situation where I need LOTS of servers built in no time. Instead of hording this information to myself, I will have seven sets of hands (theirs plus mine) to put against the problem. Doesn’t that rock?
I also find that if you share people’s passions, you’ll learn things outside your normal scope of experience. I talked to a guy today about sailing. He used to do it fairly competitively, and it sounded fascinating. I hope to talk even more about it. Not because I need the information per se, but because it’s great to hear people talk passionately.
A coworker dropped off the switch and router he promised me the other day for my lab. He did it in front of a few other guys from another team. They said, “hey wait! Do you have any more stuff like that?” Turned out he did. Turned out he had LOTS of things they could use for their own lab environments, and that it otherwise would’ve been in a “junk” pile. How cool is that? Folks will be learning just because people took the time to share the knowledge. End result: more people cross-functionally trained and usable should the need arise. Further, when you learn what another team has to do to accomplish their part of the puzzle, you learn PATIENCE and UNDERSTANDING, and that’s invaluable.
How about your situation? What’s the sharing of knowledge like in your realm?
Useful: Really Simple Syndication
I’m reading lots for the sake of business. This includes reading lots of internet news articles and trying to decipher what’s useful. In doing this, I learned a bit more about RSS.
If you’re using Bloglines, you’re using a version of Really Simple Syndication (RSS). If you’re using my.yahoo.com for a news browser, same thing. There are lots of variant products out there. NetNewsWire and Gator are a few other RSS apps out there. But the one I found that I really ended up liking was Thunderbird.
Are you using Firefox as your browser? The folks who did Firefox also made an email application called Thunderbird. The email is probably decent, too, but I’m not using it. I’m using the RSS part of it. But I’ll go you one better.
I read an article about a really neat idea. Do you have one of those tiny USB drives? Some folks call them thumb drives. They’re little portable storage devices that plug into computers via a USB port. Well, I read this idea of putting your own portable applications on there, especially a portable web browser and an RSS reader. This guy named John Haller made teeny tiny versions of Firefox and Thunderbird and that’s what I’m using. Portable Thunderbird.
This thing rocks. Now, I can read through lots of blogs and articles and informational posts in no time. I highly recommend you using a tool like this to get the most out of your browsing time. If you’re busy and have a limited time to surf such information, it’s a great method to keep in touch with the blogs you like. (By the way, if folks are blogging but don’t offer a built-in RSS feed, you can usually make your own, using a free website called feedburner.com). I highly recommend them, too.
I had a great weekend. I took the kid swimming Saturday morning and I went running Sunday morning. Kat and I played Yahtzee at the kitchen table Saturday night and I drank a few Sam’s Summers. What a fine beverage. By the way, check out the book I’m reading about a guy who started his own brewery (right column at my site).
QUESTION: Are any of you (or people you know) either information architects or usability engineers? Let me know.
Nutrition: Rules of Thumb
I’m really focusing on portion size right now, with regards to eating. I have to. My weight is creeping up slightly, and it’s definitely up from my skinniest weight earlier this spring. To that end, I have the following information gleaned from some reading.
Serving Sizes
*Protein: size of a deck of cards.
*Whole grains: 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a serving. Cut out white stuff.
*Fruit: size of a baseball.
*Vegetables: you can kinda eat all you want of most leafy greens, cukes, etc. Carrots and starches and avocados and few things are tricky. In fact, I consider avocados to be more like “good fats.”
*Fat: size of your thumb to the first knuckle.
*Dairy: (based on the “calcium helps burn fat” theory) 8 oz at a time no-fat /1%.
Time of Day
*Stack your carbs towards the morning.
*Have fewer carbs for dinner and more protein.
*60/4 rule: some say it’s best to eat 60% of your food before 4PM.
I’m trying to figure this all out. It hurts the cause that I’m eating out for most of my meals due to work schedules. But you know what? I’m not finding it *too* hard to find healthy foods. Instead, I’m finding it hard to CHOOSE them.
How about you?
Leadership: Passion as a Force Multiplier
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.
You know why that’s cool? Because it has a built-in energy. You WANT in. You want to get involved with this, and it’s so neato-tastic that you have to remind people not to talk about it. I’ve found the same is true with getting people to help with your big passions.
The first rule about Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.
I’m building a lab system at work. What this lab really does is it gives lots of people a chance to touch all my company’s applications and mess with them. The building of the box is a little tricky, as I haven’t done hardware in a while. So, know what I did? I Huck Finned it. I told someone I’m going to build a server, and asked them if they wanted to do something cool like build a server with me.
You can do this with whatever you’re passionate about. Want to get more motivated to run more regularly? Tell someone already open to the idea that you’re going to run every ___ , and that you’re starting a little club. Get the person involved, and then see if you want to add a person or two.
Spin this another way. If you want to get more involved with someone, or with a group of people, or an organization or something, get them to talk about whatever they’re passionate about. It’s AMAZING what happens when you engage people about whatever it is that blows their skirt up. I find that after a while of listening to someone’s big thing, they are *very* receptive to hear what you’re interested in doing. And then… And THEN… you can do something. Whatever. The BIG thing.
I love this. I have this working full force with my folks right now. We’re all doing crazy things to try and learn new technologies, and then we’re going to get even MORE people passionate about it, and get THEM to help us do what we want to do.
Want to *really* top it off big? Buy ‘em a hat. Get a hat or a tee shirt or a mug or something with a custom-made logo (you can do this easy with services like Zazzle). By the way, I have to confess: I am not opposed to spending my own money if the company’s not necessarily going to back a move like this. Why? Because I see it as an investment that will have rewards later. Besides, I see it as a way to get folks to pony up. You show your commitment. Money talks. Right?
Show people that you’re passionate about something and they’ll get jazzed up too.
Whatever you are, be a good one. — Abraham Lincoln.
But then, what if you’re not passionate about anything? I know lots of folks who feel a little “out of love” with what they’re doing for a living. Know anyone like that?
Leadership: The Secret of My Success
Did you ever see that Michael J. Fox film, The Secret of My Success? I have a really vague recollection of it. IMDB says this about it: A talented young man can’t get an executive position without rising through the ranks, so he comes up with a shortcut, which also benefits his love life.
Okay, I can’t say for sure about the love life part, as that’s going great for me, but let me tell you what I know: by somewhat emulating Fox’s methods from this movie, I’ve been really successful at my job over the last four months. Here’s what’s going on.
I’ve moved jobs within the company. Only, I haven’t. I’m still being paid by the same boss, but I’m working almost 100% for a new boss at the same time. It’s a little muddled, I admit, because there’s this weird transition thing that is too technical for me to understand. But, let me tell you what I’ve learned through this process.
*A bias towards positive action is worth more than a job title.
I’ve found that folks around me respond when I ask them for help in getting things done based on the fact that they see things are getting done. It doesn’t matter that I don’t have the official title. I’m doing the work, and that’s good enough for them.
*Doing it yourself works better than waiting for permission.
Provided I’m not endangering my company and that I’m acting for the good of the organization, I’ve found that taking first steps to accomplish things is meeting with more success than asking superiors whether or not it’s a good idea. There are borders and boundaries to this. I haven’t just gone off and sold the farm or anything, but I have worked hard on expanding my circle of influence through taking steps that aren’t directly within my realm. (Covey talks about this in 8th Habit).
*Building momentum through getting others excited helps all around.
It’s amazing what you can accomplish by sharing your passion for something with others. For instance, I have this nifty new lab box. It’s a big honkin’ server where I’m going to load all kinds of our company’s apps so that people can have access to them and learn about our products first-hand. Whenever I talk about it, people immediately want to help. A similar project in another department has been languishing without budget for years. The difference? I believe the difference is that I talk about this lab as being for other people’s use. It’s not my lab. I’m building a lab for YOU to try out the company’s products.
*Help others and they’ll help you.
Boy, what a big one. I find that the more I can solve other people’s needs, the easier it is for me to get my needs met. It’s not quid pro quo. Instead, it’s just taking that extra step to pay attention to what other people require, and then seeing if you can help, or if you know someone who can help. This has given me lots of currency over the last several months.
*Ask.
That sounds really easy, right? Well, I started doing this only over the last week or so. When I need something, I just ask. It’s astounding how that works out. Oh, and the converse is, “ask how you can help.” That way, you’re giving back. These streets must all be two-ways for these efforts to make a difference.
So anyway, maybe check out that movie. Though I have a coworker that, when I shared my analogy, said to me that he lives HIS life by the lessons learned from Teen Wolf.
Wanted: Older Laptop
I’d like to purchase an older (not ancient) laptop for use as a test bed for building Red Hat Fedora Core 3. The box should be only a year or two old, and have similar stats:
*233 or better MHz.
*256 or better memory.
*40 or better GB hard drive.
*USB port.
*CD-ROM (doesn’t have to be r/w).
I’m looking to pay $300 for such an item, plus shipping.
Do you have such a box for sale or have a friend/relative looking to unload an older box that didn’t quite cut it for XP but that’d be great for Linux?
Email me.
New Strategy R2
Starting today, I’m going to do the following with my website:
*Open it up to all the things of interest in my life.
*Notify you via the subject line what the topic is about (so you can choose to read it or not).
*Spread my focus a little bit to cover all the things that make me a whole person, and not just my fitness interests.
I believe this will help me with the malaise I’ve been feeling about my website, and I also think there will be some added value to folks reading the page. This will cover the recent few posts’ topics.
Yes, I’ll still talk about fitness and self-improvement. Yes, I’ll still talk about nutrition. I’ll just cover EVERYTHING I think that helps me be a better whole person. At the end of the day, I’m all about self-improvement and using it as a launchpoint for empowering others.
What’s been bugging me for a while is how to properly reflect all the aspects of self-improvement that matter to me. The site has focused mainly on fitness and nutrition, but I’m doing work with how to be a better leader at work, how to motivate and expact one’s circle of influence, and lots of reflecting on the stuff I learned through Covey and other authors lately. I think I’ve got a way to present that.
So, if you’re here for fitness stuff only, now might be a good drop-off point. If you’re interested in following along and seeing where the journey takes you, stick around. I’ve got more to do with you.
