Lessons Learned from Leading a Team
Being a leader is an interesting and challenging responsibility, but leading a cross-departmental team where influencing an already busy group of folks kicks it up a notch. For the last couple of months I’ve been leading an intranet implementation team for a global enterprise. I work with folks from several department from more than one […]
Tribal Language
This morning I dropped into Starbucks for a non-fat GRTL (Green Tea Latte). Vicariously I’m learning what one Barista called Starbonics, the tribal language of Starbucks. Tribal languages abound in every organization. To communicate effectively within any group it is important to pick-up their language. The development of a tribal language is a natural and […]
How to Get Better Service from IT Workers
IT professionals, contrary to popular belief are wired for customer service. In fact, Creating innovative solutions and solving problems is a driving factor for why we do what we do.
When technical personnel are approached to solve a technical issue we need clear information in order to most effectively help the person making […]
Work Like Water
In the quiet moments early in the morning I sometimes wax philosophical in pursuit of understanding my day-to-day existence. What is it that I really am doing? What difference does pushing 0’s and 1’s around? To the degree that I am successful, what makes my work stand apart from another? Is it creative ingenuity to […]
10 Dependable Desktop & Browser Utilities
A quick search on desktop utilities will reveal a plethora of bells and whistles. Sometimes it’s challenging to discern between the helpful suggestions and self-promotion. After trying many utilities, there are a few that have worked their way into my daily work life, utilities I depend on to help me through my day.
Keepass - I […]
Tech is the Easy Stuff
Just this past week I was appointed team lead on an intranet implementation team. Endeavoring to structure a site in a meaningful way that will serve the needs of different departments in multiple locations in America, Europe and Asia is more than a little challenging. It reminds me once again that technology per sa is […]
How Much to Charge for Side Work?
Calculating what to charge for freelance work on the side is a question I wrestled with for a good while. Search the internet and you’ll come up with everything from vague answers to complicated formulas. What I’ve landed on is a simple formula: Take your yearly salary working full-time and drop-off the last three zeros. […]
Track Specific Information with RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide a means to extract topical information from a website. Often there are subtopics within a site that hold particular value or interest to me that I want to track. Instead of subscribing to the site as a whole, I often add select feeds to my reader. This can be extremely useful in […]
Spam Slime Leaches Everywhere
There is a pandemic plague afflicting business and home users of technology that is growing exponentially by the day. Spam is a resource parasite that is leaching into every crevice of our communication systems. The economic impact of spam continues to be a fundamental driver for more innovative and rapid change on the IT horizon.
Spammers […]
Road Warriors Access Google Reader Offline
For all of you road warriors looking for ways to keep up-to-date with your latest blogs and news sites, I’ve got good news for you. Google Reader can be read offline.
A few quick steps will get you reading sites offline.
Install Google Gears. Google Gears is an open source extension that enables you to pull […]
The Rhythm of Writing
Ever hit a dry spell in your writing? Was it a mental block, life distractions or just in a funk? I’ve never been much for a loss of words but noticed that the rate of posts this last week slowed-down considerably from the rhythm I’ve been keeping in the weeks preceding it. In my case […]
What I Learned from the 35-Day No Caffeine Experiment
Day 35 came and went on Sunday and two days later I still have not imbibed on a caffeine drink. Why? I really haven’t gotten the urge. People have asked me whether I am going to start drinking coffee again and I don’t have an answer for them, well not a simple one. Here are […]
13 Good Alternatives to Email
If I were to take a pole I think we’d all agree, Email is the bane to our existence. How much time do we spend dealing with email that is sucking the life out of your productivity. I know I have other things I’d rather be doing than wading through spam, vendor notifications and […]
FireFox Hack Opens Favorite Sites in Sidebar
Browser plug-ins present some fantastic efficiencies. Any regular reader of this site knows my affinity for the browser, specifically Firefox and the amazing power of adding the right extensions. One must use constraint however to know the right plug-ins as each one requires more resources which can slow launching the browser and CPU utilization.
One nifty […]
16 Simple Steps Towards Becoming a Better Writer
Becoming a better writer is possible for everyone, no matter your educational level or experience. Whether writing an email, a blog post, comments on another blog, or a report at work this skill can be strengthened through some simple steps.
Apply these ideas and I promise you will improve your writing or your money back. […]
Brew-up Some Short URLs with urlTea
Every once in a while I run across an application or online service that works its way into my everyday life. Quite often the most meaningful ones have such a narrow focus and perform one function very well. One of these services is urlTea.com. urlTea essentially does one thing, it makes long URLs shorter.
Now, […]
FireFTP Add-on for FireFox is Divine
Finally, I found a quick and convenient way to launch an FTP session in my browser. FireFTP add-on for Firefox now ranks as my top Plug-in. The program launches quickly within FireFox, is convenient to use because I already have Firefox open and was a snap to setup. The interace worked very similar to FileZilla […]
Stickies on the Desktop
Ok, all of my dear Mac users, go ahead snicker, gloat and smile. Yeah you’ve had this feature for a gazillion years. Well, stickiesforwindows.com offers a utility that Windows should have built into their OS or at least got it right with Outlook, but alas they didn’t.
The primary issue w/ the Outlook notes is […]
Quick Tips for Finding Stuff Online
As a web developer I spend an inordinate amount of time each day in research and discovery of answers to specific issues. This daily process has helped refine my search habits to provide quick and comprehensive results. Here are some handy tips to find stuff online:
Open a new instance of FireFox each time you search […]
Technology Tyranny or Submission
Information technology, web-enabled functionality, social online media is a rapidly evolving phenomena that is shaping and altering society in the greater developing world. Technology can either be an empowering or overpowering force in ones life. It gives the illusion that we somehow can expand our days, getting more done in a shorter amount of time. […]
Life Drivers
What guns your engines? What gets you up in the morning and propels you into another day in the story of your life?
I believe everyone is motivated by one, two or three primary factors that provide a greater force than the entropy of life. Is there a love, a fear or a conviction for […]
The Wow Factor
What is the Wow Factor. In short the Wow Factor is people’s first impression when they say, "wow that is really cool." Digging a little deeper however, it is much much more.
The Wow Factor is excellence in motion. First and foremost the Wow Factor is the result of top quality work that often involves blood, […]
Ten Reasons I’ll Read Your Blog
Your blog is written with a professional and creative tone. Becoming an excellent communicator takes time. No matter where you are starting from, you can improve and develop your voice. I am pleasantly surprised by my twelve year-old’s blog Gloriana’s Book Blog. Call me biased, but for her age I find her short posts entertaining […]
Huge Money Saving Tips
Too often I read bogus money saving tips like, "use a credit card with points back." The idea is that you could get something for nothing. Or the typical ad that says, "Buy now and save 50%." I often make the comment, "Don’t buy now and save 100%".
If you want to save huge amounts of […]
Meme: Eight SMART Goals
Goal setting is a challenging thing to do effectively. As I look down the short road to 40 as mentioned in my post, "A Techie Looks at 40", I am setting some SMART Goals for the next 15 months. SMART Goals are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. There are eight specific goals that I […]
The Power of Less
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 […]
Is Web 2.0 Changing the World?
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 […]
Demotivators and what to do about them
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 […]
Sowing Good Ideas
My mind is an idea generator. Just about every day I wake-up with a new one. Some of them are not more than passing thoughts, some are glimpses of a growing concept and some are a collective of several ideas. Being the verbal processor that I am, I readily share my ideas with others. Fortuanetly […]
What do these four things have in common?
Remember the game from when you were a kid? You look at four pictures and identify what’s similar about them. Have you guessed yet? If you said they are all broken, you won. A lights out, a screen door doesn’t work, a towel rack has come loose from the wall and the lawn mower is […]
The One Degree of Difference
There is a difference between good and shoddy work. It’s a one degree difference. One definition of perfect is: "excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement." Being perfect, complete in ones projects sometimes is the difference of a few minutes well spent.
Did you take out a piece of paper and think through the project?
Did […]
Poisoned Ivy and Poisoned Thinking
Recently I posted about organic thinking. It’s Spring, and to my delight the garden is in bloom. But to my shagrin, so is poison ivy. For a recent service project I was mowing a field and got a good case of poison ivy. Been thinking about "thought" and what propels new initiatives in business and […]
Organic Thinking
This weekend I began the intensive ritual of Spring gardening. Beyond the cutting, trimming, fertilizing, watering, and weed pulling, there is the delightful process of transplanting seedlings that have spontaneously sprung-up over the course of the year. I also dug-up and transplanted some flowers that are virtually roots with seemingly dead stems. They are now […]
How to Get Stuff Done
Procrastination is a productivity killer for many because it bogs them down into ambiguity that is both uncomfortable and confusing for folks. There are a few simple steps to take to move past this problem which will have a dramatic affect on your job performance. There are many self-help books, articles, etc. on time management, […]
Occam’s Razor
Technology can seem so complex, but in truth the greatest challenge is to not over complicate the matter. Programming clean code, designing a sharp website, presenting a succinct marketing message can be accomplished with relatively straight forward creative development. Yes, that’s the challenge. The essentials, the bear necessities…William of Occam in the 14th century said […]
