I am not scared of.... Hugh :)

But I do have a new found respect for HUGH! I got to spend some more time with Sigurd Rinde and all I can say is WOW! Thingamy is HUGH - No, not macleod I mean BIG! No, I don't mean massively volumetrically large, I mean Thingamy has incredible potential.

There I said it.

After Sigurd walked me through a demonstration I was just blown away. And to borrow a telling line from Firesign Theatre, "Yes, kinda like having bees in your head, but there they are..."

Which in turn reminded me of this visual Commitment explanation offered by the real Hugh.

Ok, enough linguistic gymnastics. Let me cite the attribute of Thingamy that tells me so clearly that it has so much potential - Simplicity. Blown away, with bees in your head over simplicity? Yes, emphatically! (I am sure that both Sigurd and Hugh are now laughing and wondering just kind of groat clusters I have been smoking.) Yes, simplicity.

Joe Average will open his shrink-wrapped copy of Thingamy and pours it out on the table and find very few moving parts. There won't be bright shiney baubles, there won't be an excess of progromatic chrome. There will only be a Thingamy.

How then will Joe be satisfied and fulfilled by his new Thingamy? Joe will quickly realize that Thingamy doesn't impose itself on Joe's business process. It doesn't make Joe pound square pegs into round holes. Thingamy doesn't make Joe do things differently. In fact it will help Joe do the things he has always done better. It will help Joe see his business in a clear and focused light.

Business is not a game but it should be. We should all be able to play at our work as we did games when we were young. Thingamy has a characteristic that is shared with the greatest of the games we humans play. I am not sure to whom it should be attibuted but it is said that the best games have the fewest rules. Thingamy has some structure to be sure but it has only a few "rules" - making it one of the best systems for giving you the edge in the "playing" of your business.

Tomorrow I have the great honor to be able to open my "shrink-wrapped" copy of Thingamy and begin to "play"... (Oh to be young again.)

10 Lessons

This is the list I wish some one had sat me down with...and then used a 2x4 to get my attention...

1. How to talk to your boss.
2. How to survive a meeting that’s poorly run.
3. How to run a meeting.
4. How to figure out anything on your own.
5. How to negotiate.
6. How to have a conversation.
7. How to explain something in thirty seconds.
8. How to write a one-page report.
9. How to write a five-sentence email.
10. How to get along with co-workers.
11. How to use PowerPoint.
12. How to leave a voicemail.

Thanks Guy!

At the time...

At the time the tone will be exactly 261.625565 Hz.  I really have no idea what the tone really is.  I do know what time it is.  Now the question arises, which time?

I finally broke down and bought clocks.  Oh I know the old saw about a man with two clocks doesn't know what time it is... true enough.  I bought three clocks.  Like the command center I have the clocks lined up across one wall.

All of this so I can begin to answer for myself "Which time is it?"   Here in the Central Timezone (USA) during the month of August we enjoy Daylight Savings Time (CDT = GMT -5).  During the winter months we revert back to CST = GMT -6.  This is only moderately confusing if you focus only on one timezone.  But our corporate headquarters is in EDT now (EST during the winter).  Because we have settled on coordinated standard time changes ( April and October ) we are always 1 hour different from the HQ.

This may be all well and good for systems that programmatically understand the vagaries of Daylight Savings Time (Kudos to Microsoft on that) but what of systems that do not or don't care to?  In a manufacturing environment the trending for our process, graphs of data over time, don't fare will when DST kicks in.  Either data points cover each other for 1 hour (fall back) or there is a blank spot in the graph when time is advanced 1 hour (spring forward).

And then there is the matter of trying to coordinate meetings with individuals that are half (or more?) the world away.  Not only is there the difficulty of dealing with the hours common decency but there is the confusion of "what time is displayed on the clock where you are?"

So in an attempt to resolve this matter for myself I now have three clocks.  One set to local time, Central Dalight Time.  One set to HQ time; Eastern Daylight Time.  The last is the most important.  It is set to the Universal Time Coordinate.




Technorati Tags: Time, GMT, UTC

I just got paged by one of my computers

05:00 CDT - Pager went off

Under any other circumstances my pager going off is not a good thing. Either someone at work is paging because they are having a problem or the NMS system is paging to indicate there is a computer problem. Or both.

But in this case I just cron-ed a job to page me at 05:00 Monday thru Friday - so I don't have to set my alarm clock any more. This has a number of advantages. First on Saturday and Sunday my "alarm" doesn't go off. On the days when I need it...it is there right on schedule, not susceptable to power outages. How many times have you awoken to an alarm clock blinking 12:00 AND you are late for work.

The other advantage is that I have affirmation on a work-daily basis that both my paging system and my primary NMS system are on-line.

Good morning... and I can smell fresh coffee brewing. Ahhhh


Technorati Tags: NMS, pager

Salmon Day from the Cardboard Spaceship

Go here and read... and when you get to Salmon Day take a moment to laugh and cry... truer words were ne'r spoken, "A Salmon Day is when you swim upstream all day..."

RestauRANT: Ban The Brat!

I found my way to Charlotte's Web-log and was just cruising along until I stumbled over her entry, "Little Devils, Little Darling and their Somewhat Silly Parents" At first I was afraid this would be another of those cloying How-can-you-be-so-cruel? tirades...and then I got to the line that read, "... if they cry at the restaurant, comfort them, feed them or better still, take them outside." Better still, take them outside. Yes! Accept and assume responsibility. Yes!

I would like to respond briefly to the concept that is put forth earlier in the article, "I would rather my kids were true to themselves than “good”, which means that they sometimes fall apart." I have great difficulty with this. Children should be allowed to "fall apart" to be sure. I am not sure that I have to pay restaurant prices for an interrupted meal because little Johnny or Janey needs to 'fall apart'. Appropriate restaurant behavior is part of the overall experience. If your children are not prepared to act accordingly then they should not be allowed in - this is a decision of the parents, proactively. I know because from the earliest ages this was the arrangement that I put before my children. And they knew full well that they would be escorted out promptly at the first sign of crumbling.

I am particularly fortunate that my children were always able to maintain. I don't believe they were or are any the worse for ware enduring such rigors.

Keep a secret, be held hostage by it.

Tell a secret and be free... try it and see!

This bears repeating... until we get it right!

Author : Richard M. Stallman

Free as in Freedom
The term “free software” is sometimes misunderstood—it has nothing to do with
price. It is about freedom. Here, therefore, is the definition of free software: a
program is free software, for you, a particular user, if:
• You have the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
• You have the freedom to modify the program to suit your needs. (To make this
freedom effective in practice, you must have access to the source code, since
making changes in a program without having the source code is exceedingly
difficult.)
• You have the freedom to redistribute copies, either gratis or for a fee.
• You have the freedom to distribute modified versions of the program, so that
the community can benefit from your improvements.

Googling Redux

Just wrote about my Googling yesterday... and look what they are doing for me today. :)

Googling

Google is changing the way I compute. This is no great earth shattering story. People much smarter than me identified Google as a driving force long ago. So why is this of any import what so ever?

I am for the most part a regular guy. My only real claim to fame, such as it is, was writing a 500+ card Tic-Tac-Toe Fortran 4 program in 1970. Oh yeah, we were hot then. Three hours of system time on Friday night to make the Lansing School System IBM System/360 get up and dance. The rest of the week we poured over greenbar print outs of cryptic code. Making corrections using a hand-me-down keypunch machine in the back room of the Eastern High School Physics lab. Oh yeah, we were hot. Took a COBOL sub-routine to access the IBM Selectric keyboard mounted in the washing machine sized module for you to enter your "X" or "O". Smokin'! Worst thing was the program would never ever lose. At the very best you could force it into a draw but it would never ever lose. Not very sophisticated as a game went. But then again, losing was not in the mind of a then 17 year old programmer.

But I digress... Google is becoming my computing platform. This is important how? Well for an average, regular guy like me to begin to have his paradigm shifted is very significant. It means that net-centric computing is coming of age. It means that I am no longer tied to any given PC. It means that I am now willing to commit to the net. And you know how difficult it is for us old guys to make commitments.

So far I have chosen a home page. My Google personalized home page which contains my Gmail, my calendar, weather for favorite locations, and the Google Notebook icon down in my status bar. When I open my Gmail I have access to my Spreadsheets as well. While not directly linked from my home page or Gmail I have taken to doing word processing in Writely.

What is most significant in all this is the absence of the Redmond Software Giant. We are (I am) finally breaking the bonds of PC centric computing (AKA Microsofting).

Oh, one last note before closing... As a die hard Linux fan Googling means that I can have the same great functionality and work in a great OS as well.


Technorati Tags:
Google,
FORTRAN 4,
IBM,
writely.com,
Linux

Here we go...

As Manager of Information Systems for a mid-sized manufacturing concern* I am charged with maintaining technology as well as keeping up with technology. As I have previously posted (see below - "The IT staff Leaves at 5 PM") my expectation is 24x365^2 where ^2 is the time and effort put into keeping up with technology.

I am always on the lookout for the "better mousetrap" and I think I have found one. How I found it is in-and-of-itself a great Internet viral 6-degrees-of-separation story. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away I encountered a social-networker entrepreneur, Joi Ito. Joi engendered a community forum to explore social networking (#joiito) and the many assembled. Great and small (like me) we gathered and shared, laughter and tears, joys and fears. I listened. One day somebody mentioned Hugh at GapingVoid and how great his business-card-back cartoons were. So I go to check out the no-nonsense-cut-the-crap-speak-your-mind observations and I am hooked. I needed daily fixes. (Thanks Joi.)

Then his "How To Be Creative" weasels its way into my psyche, into my subconscious. I am taken with the thought of hard work, integrity and "Ignore everybody." The first two I can identify with thanks to my father who instilled in me the great dictums of the Protestant Work Ethic. The last, but not least, is the true liberator. Be free to go, look, be, taste, feel the world not as others would but as you would, as I would. True freedom. (Thanks Hugh.)

Amid all of Hugh's acerbic observations and glasses of wine is a mention of a guy and a "Thingamy" ... What ever the hell that is... Says Hugh, "What's interesting is that he's building software that actually allows companies to replace hierarchies with "something better"." So off I go in search of this Thingamy... And I read, and I follow links and I read and I follow links and I finally determine that Thingamy is most aptly named. It defies pigeon-holing, categorizing, labeling or defining.

So all of that happened, figuratively, the day-before-yesterday. Yesterday through the wonders of Skype I got to spend some time with Sigurd Rinde, the principal architect of Thingmay. I can say that I still don't know what Thingamy is...HOWEVER, I can say that I know it has great potential. I know because the man I spoke with is not hampered by the traditional encumberences that force a project into a given mold.

In truth I do know what Thingamy is. Thingamy is a knowledge container system. Not just any old static written-down knowledge but living dynamic open-for-business real-world working knowledge. What is very important about Thingamy is that the container is designed by the knowledge. In most, if not all, existing systems the container defines the contents (knowledge). If what you know doesn't fit into one of their containers/boxes/compartments then it is not valid. If it is not valid then it is not important to your process. If it is not valid then you do not know it.

This is the paradigm shift that I have been searching for. This is the "better-moustrap" that I have been seeking for some time. "What's interesting is not that Sig thinks thinks traditional corporate hierarchies (including the marketing department) are inefficient and should be replaced with something better." says Huge. This is the very essence of "^2" that I demand of IT.

On Tuesday next I will get to spend some more time with Sigurd via Skype and RealVNC. He has offered to show me a demo of Thingamy that he developed for a Bicycle Factory. This is of particular interest as I am, as previously mentioned, the MIS for a mid-sized manufacturing concern. To date one of the major software problems we have encountered it the inability of existing software packages to properly contain the knowledge of our business. It is my great wish that Thingamy will change all of that.

Tuesday will tell...



* Mid-sized manufacturing concern - is a privately held, family business that I do not speak for.

When Kobi Alexander made a 1 minute Skype "call" he made a very big mistake. Not unlike Will Smith's character, Robert Clayton Dean, in "Enemy of the State" the call cost him his freedom. I am not here to speak to the relative legitimacy of Kobi's freedom but rather the nature of the incident.

In all the world the law enforcement/ information analysts (LE/IA) somebody knew either to monitor Kobi's Skype account _or_ they had the ability to monitor the account(s) of possible call recipients.

Because there are no clear international standards for personal privacy on the Internet then LE/IA is not prevented from eavesdropping on any Internet communication. So I am sure it was a simple matter to single out his Skype account and then just sit back and listen. IF on the other hand Kobi established a unique, anonymous account then the matter becomes a bit sticky-er.

Not knowing where a possible call would be coming from or who might be placing such a call then suggests a completely different scenario. Possibly LE/IA was ingaged in listening to Internet traffic directed to individuals known to Mr. Alexander. Instead of targeting a known or suspected/alledged criminal LE/IA quite possibly is listening to the incoming traffic of innocent folks in the remote hopes of catching a possiblel bad guy.

Here in the USA we have well crafted laws that are designed to protect individuals from unlawful searches. These types of laws have been extended to protect individuals from illegal monitoring of telephone communication, wiretapping. It is unclear to me the subtle distinction between voice communication carried by TPC (The Phone Company) and other electronic forms of communication carried by... in my case, my telephone service provider.

Bottom line: DON"T SKYPE! Somebody or everybody is listening to calls made and received. Or, don't be an internationally wanted fugitive and make the Robert Clayton Dean mistake.

I am mad as hell...

I am just pissed!

I logged onto one of my linux systems and my "fortune" was a quote from Hunter S. Thompson...

Todays weirdness is tomorrows reason why.
-- H.S. Thompson


...and to make matters worse I then SSHed to another system and the "fortune" there was by H.S. himself... (Quoted below...) So, why am I mad as hell? Pissed? Because the dumb SOB went and blew his brains out instead of becoming the GonzoBlogger that he should have become.

What could possibly been more natural than Hunter S. Thompson blogging?

Quick, get your lawyer and a quart of EverClear...and BLOG this!

After two or three weeks of this madness, you begin to feel As One with
the man who said, "No news is good news." In twenty-eight papers, only
the rarest kind of luck will turn up more than two or three articles of
any interest... but even then the interest items are usually buried
deep around paragraph 16 on the jump (or "Cont. on ...") page...

The Post will have a story about Muskie making a speech in Iowa. The
Star will say the same thing, and the Journal will say nothing at all.
But the Times might have enough room on the jump page to include a line
or so that says something like: "When he finished his speech, Muskie
burst into tears and seized his campaign manager by the side of the
neck. They grappled briefly, but the struggle was kicked apart by an
oriental woman who seemed to be in control."

Now that's good journalism. Totally objective; very active and
straight to the point.
-- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing '72"

Meta-blog, blah, blah, blah... DO NOT READ THIS!!!

"He generalizes half the time about most of the stuff he says...so that he can be right some of the time regardless how reality comes out..."

I have spent way too much time in the company of intellectual idea mongers. Folks who by virtue of their linguistic abilities can mount a "meaningful" arguement for or against anything. I know because I am one of the folks I need to get away from. Then I met a fellow who had no feet...er, mind, ...had no intellect. Which is not to say that this person could not think but rather that he could not afford to expend any energy fabricating "meaningful" positions about anything. He is too tired. He is too hungry. He is too socially compromised by greed, lust, gluttony and the worst, fear.

The greed of having to get his before the person next to him takes it away. The lust of tele-idols flashing skin flavored treats as rewards for buying the next great widget. Gluttony bourne of a poor diet of fast convenient foods that hold little or no real nuitritional value. Fear as tangible as the smell of two-week old socks showing through worn shoes. Fear that in the Land-o-Plenty there won't be enough for him. Fear that being second class will keep him distant from a loving and caring God.

All too quickly the intellectual construct forms the ideological foundation of self-will and self-rule beneath the dirty feet of this fellow. "It is readily evident that this person has made their own decisions, picked his choices, accepted his lot in life."
His lot is not my concern in real-time but rather a Greater-Good issue that must be addressed by established systems that are designed to provide a Safety-net.



"I generalizes half the time about most of the stuff I says...so
that I can be right some of the time regardless how reality comes
out..."

Happy New Year

A GREAT AND WONDERFUL GIFT...

Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth

Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, researchshows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behavior

By Roy F. Baumeister, Jennifer D. Campbell, Joachim I. Krueger and Kathleen D. Vohs

Yeah, yippee, yahoooooooooo!!!!! It is about flipping time someone said this out loud!

Self-esteem is not something you are born with! Self-esteem is something you earn just like every other perc.

And the thought of protecting an individual's self-esteem is tantamount to keeping them from it! Let people fail and succeed and fail and be hurt and be fulfilled and be _themselves_!!!

Yeah, yippeeeeee, yahooooooo...

Microsofting, to Microsoft - a verb

Originally published 12/17/04

Using Microsoft applications on a computer running a Microsoft Operating System.

While the practice is well known, the name of the practice is still new to many people. I became aware of the need for this verb when I attempted to explain why many people cannot warm up to Linux. They do not use the computer, they are not computing. Rather, they are Microsofting.

Unless or until this realization is made, it is all but impossible to convince people to try anything else.

Common Microsofting examples...

"I don't do spreadsheets, I use Excel."

"I don't have an OS on my computer, I use Windows."

I rest my case.

The IT staff that leaves at 5pm

Originally published 12/17/04

URL: The IT staff that leaves at 5pm I'm sorry, I haven't heard the important word, yet. And the word is? Expectation. As an IT leader I believe there are really only two issues that need to be addressed in this scenario. Is the Mail Server down and who is going to fix it? My expectation? 24x365^2 Ok, the 24x365 is rather self explanitory but for those unfamiliar let me elaborate. IT operations, big ones, small ones and even tiny ones must be operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This is not optional. The system that is broken at 3:AM will be the same system that is broken at the start of business at 8:AM. When should it be fixed? When it is broken, not when it is "convenient"! But what about that "^2"? What does that mean? My expectation is that any IT person worth their salt must be responsible for self improvement and personal development. In what other industry is technological evolution happening at the "speed of thought"? (Thanks Bill G.) In what other industry is "hurry-up-and-wait" any more prevalent? During the wait time my expectation is that IT personnel are growing. They are engaged in R&D, Information Gathering, Position Building/Clarification, Experimentation and Innovation. IT personnel are expected to keep systems up 24x365 _AND_ they are resourced to keep up with IT(^2).

• Source Blog

Microsoft redux, again...Casting USofA Americans as the least... smacks of the Favoritism
shown to some XP users. Why is it that Microsoft insists on alienating the very folks that have afforded the Redmond giant the opportunity to flourish?

Reuters reports the XP deal...again! HARUMPH!!!

The difference between fear and respect... Fear is a noun, the name of a feeling... "of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger." Respect is a kind of a verb (tr.), an action, "to feel or show deferential regard for; esteem."

As a society we have lost the finer distinctions between fear and respect. In fact we have favored fear and disregarded respect. Respect has become a sign of weakness. In this day and age, if I respect my enemies, then I am weak. If I am weak, I will be vanquished.

Fear has become the banner of the unknown. We indeed fear the unknown. The extent of our fear is a direct indication of our lack of knowledge. (Side note: we are instructed to "know" our enemies, so as not to fear them.) But our lack of knowledge prevails. Perhaps because we sense how little we really know abuot the world we live in.

Example 1: I know a fellow who insists on carrying a licensed concealed weapon where ever he goes. His stated rationale is that the weapon is for his personal protection. To date I have never heard of him needing to even show the weapon in response to a compormising situation, let alone use it. What sense does he have that prompts such a behavior? I suggest that he is afraid, fearful of his surroundings. More specifically, he is filled with fear. Fear of what? He cannot say, specifically. He does not know. More to the point, the experience of his 38 years has not shown him one instance to substantiate his stated rationale.

Example 2: I have encountered a pervasive fear of snakes in my social travels. No where was that more clearly demonstrated than when I went out on the soccer field to "rescue" a 6" Garter snake. Players, moms and dads were aghast that I would pick it up and carry it off to the tall grass behind the playing field. And then let it go!

"Why didn't you just kill it."

"Oh, I just hate snakes!"

"You are so brave."

I have never been in the presence of a snake that attempted to harm a human being. I have been on the Island of Tortuga (Gulf of Mexico) where you couldn't take a step without hearing another rattle snake buzzzzzzing. A few actually coiled defensively, in preparation, in fear, of being attacked by the giant featherless bi-ped, me. I have cleaned the cage of a hungry and nervous Red Boa who hissed and postured, telling me of her discomfort at being disturbed. Was I afraid? Was I fearful? No!

Was I respectful? You betcha!!! I may look silly but I ain't stooopid!

Here in lies the great and important difference. Correctly identifying a situation where there is an actual and impending threat to one's well being - that is something to be feared. Having the presence of mind to subjugate the adrenaline rush and correctly assess the situation, that is being respecful.

I suggest that we, as a society, put a stop to living in hyperbole and work at respecting our world not fearing it. Respecting ourselves and each other not being so filled with fear that we cannot walk down the street without our licensed concealed weapons.