Monthly Archives: May 2007

The Power of Less

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Posted by Phil on May 30, 2007 – 5:53 am
Filed under Productivity

We are constantly barraged with advertising that says, more is better. Truth is, less has greater power than more. Commonly referred to as "less is more", this mantra of minimalism is a term that grew out of the art community in the late 60s and early 70s. The concept however is age old and is true in every area of our life.

Economics

Do you want more financial freedom and less financial worries? Live a simpler life. You can give yourself a significant raise without changing jobs or taking a job that pays the same. It’s actually simple: Live in a smaller house, commute a shorter distance, drive-out the miles on your car and save to pay for one in cash, eat-out less, shop at Goodwill and garage sales. Purposely choose to lower your standard of living. Life can be very exciting when you see the long-term affect in giving and saving more.

Productivity

I hear a typical complaint and have been guilty myself. "Too much is demanded of me." Most of the time people are really saying, "I don’t know how to manage myself well." Being productive starts with simplifying your work flow. Group, prioritize and categorize work into a few key segments. My post on How to Get Stuff Done goes into more detail on how to tackle a tough project. The key is to streamline and group tasks to eliminate work flow noise, i.e. do like work together.

Spiritual

Jesus said in Luke 17:33 "Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." Living life to help others is much more fun and enjoyable than to simply gratify and fill ones own whims and desires. I don’t do this well enough, but when I set my mind and heart towards serving God and others, I find that the many troubles of this life become smaller and the joys larger. It’s a sure fire way to gain more in life and decreases the constant tug of desire for more money, possessions, and other elusive, temporal pursuits.

Software and Web Development

Wirth’s law states, "Software is decelerating faster than hardware is accelerating." As a web developer, I’m constantly challenged to reduce complexity and streamline variables for both management and performance. My latest major project reduced a site from 80+ tables and several thousand pages of code to six tables with a few pages of code. An earlier post  WordPress Plug-in Tips discusses practical ways to utilize features on your site. Whether managing a blog or a full-scale enterprise site, the KISS method will always serve you well for a more optimized and user-friendly experience.

Design

Good design generally follows a simple guideline: form follows function. Part of Googles success is their devotion to simplistic design. They have not deviated from offering the lightest loading search engine on the web. Part of the rise of the blog is the realization that people are not wowed anymore by groovy, heavy page wrappers. They are interested in content that is fresh and offers useful information. Website design should be more like a picture frame with the content being the real work of art. The frame complements and helps focus the reader on the content, but a frame alone does little to educate, entertain or bring pleasure to the reader. For more on web design, check out: Priniciples of Design at Digital Web Magazine.

Go for It

Do yourself a favor and let go of things that hinder and entangle you from being who you were created to be. Life really can be exciting when we let go of unnecessary stuff. There are many tips and tricks in almost any arena to living life with less. The power is in the pursuit and the constant choice for what is important. I wish you well and look forward to learning what works for you.

That Place

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Posted by Phil on May 26, 2007 – 12:20 pm
Filed under Just for Fun, Ponderings

That place I go to when life throws a curve ball that I don’t catch. Sometimes it just smacks. That place is a song I play on the guitar, strumming "Jamaica Farewell". It’s a cold mountain morning, it’s the summer sun on an island beach. That place is a shade covered road in the hills beyond cities reach. It’s a stroll through the streets of old Istanbul. That place is the memories of dusty Managua streets, it’s dining on a Greek island, it’s wine tasting in Monterrey, it’s a lightening storm in the Black Hills, it’s beer in a pub in Portland, it’s a Chicago pizza. That place is locations yet visited, friends yet made and adventures yet lived. That place is larger than life and greater than pain, toil or disappointment. That place is the heart and soul of lovers and romantics that know myth and legend is more real than the front page news. Come and go with me friends to that place. Your place will be different, known by some, understood by few. Go there anyway, you’ll be glad you did. Let’s go.

Note: Photo by my dear friend Billy Ray from www.sxc.hu. Thanks Billy!

Bloggers Getting Younger

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Posted by Phil on May 24, 2007 – 9:31 pm
Filed under Just for Fun, Reviews
  
My 12 year-old daughter has started a book review blog. She’s using Tumblr and posts reviews of the books she reads as part of her homeschool experience. She’s an avid reader and blogging is a great outlet for her to hone her writing skills. I won’t be surprised if she is a writer or editor one day. Check out her blog at: bookblog.tumblr.com.

WordPress Plug-in Tips

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Posted by Phil on May 24, 2007 – 6:34 am
Filed under Blog Tip, Plug-ins, Web and Tech Helps, WordPress

WordPress, largely due to its huge user base has become a fairly robust blog app. Even for some sites it works well as a limited Content Managed System. As of late there has been an increased proliferation of Plug-ins that make it easy, even for the newbies to web publishing to custom configure their site. Plug-ins however have their pluses and minuses.

Tips for Using Plug-ins

  1. Don’t use more plug-ins that are necessary. Plug-ins like any other addition to your page slow the load time. Most of your users are probably on broadband, but I’ve seen all too often bloggers overload their site to a noticeable degree.
  2. Trust your friends not the coder. There are some really great solutions developed by brilliant folks out there. If they are solid someone will pick-up on it, use it and tell the world about it. Go with proven solutions.
  3. Use traditional scripting when possible. I’ve noticed that some of the plug-ins developed are bloated and have seen some take my site down when applied. When possible I find a script that I can apply directly to the code rather than a plug-in. Those tend to be lighter and less problematic. Scripts usually involve placing some code in the header and a piece of code in the location to apply the affect on the page.

Alternate Example to a Plug-in

Last night I was mucking around with Jaiku and decided it was time to go the Jaiku way over Twitter. (Still posting to both but I like Jaikus stability and features). I found a plug-in to display latest Jaiku posts. The plug-in took my site down until I deactivated it. There were three things I noticed about the plug-in.

  1. It wanted my Jaiku API code which is really not necessary with an RSS feed. This should have been my first tip-off that the guy didn’t think through his app.
  2. The code was bloated. More code means slower load time.
  3. He was a marketing guy doing coding. No offense here, I’m a designer and marketer as much as a coder which is why I don’t develop plug-ins, hehe.

I did a little more research and found a really light solution from PluggedOut Development that required placing a script in the header and a small piece of code in the side bar. It was light, non-invasive and developed by folks who know what they are doing. Works really well and I am one happy camper.

Recommended Plug-ins

  1. Akismet - protection against spam. This is a no brainer. It comes already loaded, works amazingly well and is non-invasive to your users.
  2. Global Translator. This plug-in boosts traffic from around the globe and is nicely configurable for layout. If you want to be more reachable to the world outside strong native speaker, use this plug-in.
  3. WP-Print. This plug-in really shouldn’t be necessary but the designers of WordPress and tempate builders rarely think about making the site print-friendly which is really a no brainer in my book. Print-friendly pages largely involve dropping-out unnecessary elements on the page.

Plug-ins That Work OK

  1. FCKEditor - Replaces the WordPress Editor buttons. It’s a little klunky, but better than the one pre-installed.
  2. Sociable – This plug-in is ok, but I might ditch it with just some hardcoded icons and links. It’s an alternate way have folks bookmark your site.
  3. Inline Ajax Comments – This plug-in looks cool but I’m thinking of ditching it. Not really sure if how much of an added benefit to the site.

Why Be More Conservative with Plug-ins and Buttons

  1. Page loads lighter as I already indicated.
  2. Many blogs look tacky with bright colors that cloud your message.
  3. You are promoting other sites often without real benefit back to the purpose of your site.
  4. You won’t win readership by cool effects, unless you are a generator of those effects.
  5. Only use them if it makes your site more user-friendly or effective.

Keep your site light, focus on generating original content and apply good design principles to your site and you will win readership and respect from folks.

Peace out.

An Unfinished Portrait

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Posted by Phil on May 23, 2007 – 1:09 am
Filed under Just for Fun

A while back I started this drawing in Illustrator from a photo of our family before we added our third off-spring to the fold. I never got around to drawing my lovely wife (sorry about that honey), but then again I could not do her justice as she really is a beauty. This was obviously back when I had a little more hair on my face and well…on top as well. Maybe this photo is indicative of many things in my life. I love to start new projects but generally less gunned about maintaining and finishing the finer points down the line. I’m an innovator, creator and problem solver. I enjoy a new challenge. I thrive in the unknown and going for the difficult or near impossible. It definitely keeps life exciting.

Is Web 2.0 Changing the World?

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Posted by Phil on May 23, 2007 – 12:39 am
Filed under Productivity

I have been thinking about where this integration of web mashup communication is heading. I asked myself the question, “OK does my life look any different than it did a year ago? How much time have I spent in new forms of communication and is it positive or negative? Does it all just go to feed the ADD tendencies within us or is there real value to this next phase of technology to our lives.”

Well, let me look at this past week:

  1. Skyped a conversation with a friend in Europe for an hour. Talked about weighty stuff and think I was able to be an encouragement to him.
  2. IM’d with a company online about their service offerings.
  3. Left a few encouraging words and interacted with some good folks on blogs.
  4. Created a few posts and was encouraged myself by the thoughtful comments of others.
  5. IM’d my wife several times which kept us in touch when talking would have had to wait.
  6. Supported a co-worker in another state with online training.
  7. Caught-up with a friend who I stumbled-upon that I haven’t spoken with for a couple of years.
  8. Communicated cross-departmental IT efforts sending data, URL’s and status reports.
  9. Published a podcast from our church giving folks access to the Sunday sermon.
  10. Published news stories that were picked-up through RSS feeds.
  11. Jumped into the micro-blogging Twitter and Jaiku communities. Picked-up on a few cutting-edge resources and expanded my blog community network.

Many of these items are not unique compared to a year ago. What has changed is the frequency, intensity and variety of instant communication.

Meebo is for Me

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Posted by Phil on May 22, 2007 – 9:14 am
Filed under Reviews, Web and Tech Helps


Meebo.com enables users to setup an account that aggregates all of the popular IM services into one location. Services include: MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, GoogleTalk, and Jabber.

This site is convenient for several reasons:

  1. It is more efficient CPU and bandwidth utilization which is important for power users.
  2. It eliminates the need to install another program on your machine.
  3. When accessing IM while travelling you can jump right into your accounts when installing a client is prohibitive.
  4. It provides an alternative means of using IM in the case of being in a wi-fi setting where the firewall configurations prohibits IM usage.\
  5. It has a widget that can be published to your site allowing easy direct communication with online visitors. For some blogs and sites this may be an effective way to promote more interactivity with visitors and customers.

IM has and is becoming an integral part of personal and professional communication. Many folks have been using it for years but there is still an amazing number of folks who are slowly acclimating. Services like Twitter, IMified and Meebo bring together some valuable tools to advance this communication platform.

Full Disclosure: Thoughtsparks.net receives no compensation for this post or any other post to date. The purpose of this review is to give you an unbiased review of the site from an avid technical user.

Get Out and Live a Little

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Posted by Phil on May 21, 2007 – 12:47 pm
Filed under Just for Fun

We took-off for a three-day camping trip with another family this past weekend at Inks Lake State Park. A little under an hour away, the wildflowers were absolutely breathtaking as they blanketed the ground like a spring snow of color. There is something almost surrealistic about traipsing through the follage of the landscape of the Texas Hill Country.

Dead limb

By Friday evening I began to loosen-up, by Saturday I was lost in the splendor of it all and by Sunday morning I was wondering how we have grown to live such an artificial existence. It is no wonder we get demotivated and distracted by things that truly matter little. Life is a journey, a path, a process to experience. It is so easy for it to become a task, a project and a problem to solve.

This weekend I chose to live life to the fullest. It was invigorating to swim in fresh water, take in the sun and feel the cool breezes, to smell the fresh vegitation. It was also a time to play and really act more my age. At a place called the Devil’s Watering Hole (now I know where it gets its name) we found a marvellous tree trunk that spanned the width of the stream. The kid’s went for it, one after the other, and successfully balanced across it. After a couple of adults unsuccessfully attempted the feat, I thought I’d show them how it’s really done, telling myself, "hey you’ve got exceptional balance."

A quick few steps, a plunge in the water and a sharp pain in my left arch and I figured out quickly where this was heading. Forcing myself to climb-up a steep cliff, snagging a stick for support, I hobbled a good distance before beginning my descent to the parking lot. With the help of my friend and a few helpful folks, I managed to get out of the woods and on to the ER to discover I’ve done a good number tearing and bruising the main ligament.

My conclusion from the weekend. Living life is exciting, you will experience things you never dreamed of, you will have opportunities others may never conceive of and you may also take a few knocks along the way. Would I have it any other way…no not really.

 

Demotivators and what to do about them

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Posted by Phil on May 15, 2007 – 9:32 pm
Filed under Productivity

As regular readers of ThoughtSparks may have noticed, I’ve had a gap in postings this past week. I don’t think I’m alone as I’ve noticed a number of folks in the blogosphere tapped-out as of late. Maybe it’s the month of May being so busy, but I’ve ran into a series of demotivating forces that have occupied my attention, zapped my zest for communication and generally added a measure of fatigue to my days. Now, I’m not complaining or taking this lying down. When faced with these obstacles, playing the victim will do no good. No, I am identifying these gremlins, facing them and taking steps to overcome these challenges. Here are some things that have come up and how I’m handling them:

  1. Telemarketers. I don’t answer the landline in the early evening, so friends either call my cell or leave a message. One telemarketer called as late as 9 p.m. this evening. I may just cancel my land line altogether. 
  2. Spammers. They rate below telemarketers, those low-life individuals send spam via email and try to submit junk on both personal and public sites. I’ve gotten aggressive and wrote a custom app to stop ‘em on the work sites. That did the job. It was actually quite fun to stick it to them.
  3. Online Services Not Working. Twitter has been hosed a lot lately. IMified has been fried. Inconsistent functionality for a service is a real motivation killer for its use. I’ve not totally given-up just yet on Twitter, but I’m not as enthralled with something that is down with as many interruptions.
  4. Fatigue. To much work, not enough play. Life too easily can boil down to a list of todo’s. I am a human being not a human doing. Spent a little more time lately being instead of just doing and getting some rest.
  5. Obstinate people. When someone takes a strong stance about something that matters little, I have learned to step away, focus on things where I can make a difference and truly let stuff go.
  6. Negative attitudes. Life is just too short to absorb and take on the poor attitude of others. Situations are usually not as bad as they appear and a positive bent on life is often one of the key ingredients to making your way through a potentially difficult time.
  7. Feeling Trapped. Peace comes from within, not from outward circumstances. God is the source of this peace and He is faithful to give the peace "that passes all understanding." This is not a trite statement when it makes contact in my life where rubber meets the road.

This is just a brief list of things that can so easily demotivate me, if I let them. When I look at obstacles and irritants for what they are, I can develop an action plan or a simple shift in thinking. This empowers me to do something about my circumstances.

A Techie Looks at 40

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Posted by Phil on May 9, 2007 – 9:06 pm
Filed under Just for Fun


Still a little over a year away, but it’s starting to hit me, I’m heading towards the big 4-0. There are meme’s about getting goals, unusual facts about oneself and so on. I guess in usual fashion I’m taking a different spin and concatenating those concepts into one post. I figure, hey a little narcissistic, self-reflective, navel gazing is good for the soul every once in a while. Life is a trip, quite literally. We start with eyes filled with wonder and end wondering where the time went. Since I’m hitting the half-way mark, I’m taking a look at what has been and what might be.

What Has Been

At sixteen I was playing the guitar, seventeen I dropped into college, took a four year hiatus to live in California with organic farmers, work with special needs children, served in a church, learned a bit of Spanish, served in giving humanitarian aid to people in Nicaragua and headed back to Texas to learn professional landscaping. I met my soon to be beautiful wife, worked as a chef in a gourmet kitchen and finished my degree in history from the University of Texas a week before my first daughter was born. Later with two kiddos in tow we headed off to Turkey learning the language and giving a go at a web design office. Returned to Texas, learned a few things, headed to Austin and entered life in higher-ed as a webmaster. Gained experience, lost my dad to cancer, gained a third daughter, gained a few pounds, lost some hair…gains and loses seems to be a theme. Worked as a techie, director, system admin, freelance designer and flash dude. I Bought a house in the country that now is the burbs, took a job at a great company a couple miles away and realized I don’t like travelling unless it involves a passport or the open road across America. Now I’m helping to start a church, raise our kids, gardening, blogging, still playing the guitar and trying to take life one day at a time. As a Techie looking at 40, how did I get here already and what could be next…

What Might Be

Maybe I’ll work a few years, get the right idea, start a business and become very wealthy by 45. By 50 money concerns will be minimal as we’ll invest well, pay off our little abode and sock some money away for the kiddos college, weddings, first car… The right property will come along, perhaps a vineyard where we’ll produce the best darn wine in the Texas hill country, raise olives, fruit, animals and host folks who travel from afar. We’ll travel ourselves to the orient and summer along the southern coast of Turkey. Our kids may live who knows where so we’ll bop around seeing them and playing with grandkids. Another great idea will develop, a second major venture will ensue and I’ll plow back into a business for a few more choice years. The business will be wildly successful and I’ll sell it off ending our concern for funds all together. We’ll give more to our kids, more to our church and start philantropic efforts that touch peoples lives. My wife and I will grow old together and enjoy long walks in land we occupy. We’ll end our days with a smile on our faces, a heart of thankfulness to God for good days, and the blessing of giving more than we received.