06.23.00

The "Elevator Test"

Posted in General at 10 am

Jun 23 Fri (10 AM)

The “Elevator Test”

Fill in the missing items in:

“[Product] is a [2- or 3-word description] that [delivers what main function or benefit]. Unlike [competing alternatives], [Product] [differentiating benefit].”

For example: “ZoomMail is a weekly, electronic newsletter that highlights significant events and overlooked products for Internet users. Unlike paper-backed publications, ZoomMail delivers thoughtful articles on a timely basis.”

The elevator test gets its name from the fact that it is short enough to answer someone’s query about your product during an elevator ride.

(From the TibBITS mailing list.)

 

06.22.00

We're Moving!

Posted in General at 10 am

Jun 22 Thu (10 AM)

Amy and I are moving to a new apartment. It’s only a few blocks away, but the new place will be much more quiet and larger and has… Doors!

Strange as it may sound, our current 1 bedroom apartment has two doors: The front door and the bathroom door. Everything else is open, and there’s no way to say, keep the cats out, or let one person sleep while the other plays the stereo. It’s really a strange situation, and I’ll be glad to get moved.

I’ve decided to document this move a bit more closely, so that I’ve got a check off list for the next time. One thing to note is to get the postal address of the new place as soon as possible, followed by the phone number. After that, you’ve got all the stuff you need to contact your other utilities, and agencies.

Speaking of which, it was frightening how easy it was to shut off or move some of our services. Only the bank really did a good job in this department. Talk about potential for abuse…

 

06.21.00

BSA

Posted in General at 8 pm

Jun 21 Wed (08 AM)

Last night after dinner, Amy and I stopped by a bookstore, and I saw the latest issue of Rolling Stone. The magazine had a good solid article on the Boy Scouts of America and it’s problem with discriminating against homosexuals.

The article was very well written and really showed the side of the issue that I understand as a card-carrying member of the organization:

…I’ve become convinced that the BSA is really two organizations. The first, the heart and soul, is composed of the millions of volunteers who spend their time [doing great, selfless things]. This group knows very little about the other half of the Boy Scouts: BSA Inc., the salaried bureaucracy whose well-being depends on constant fund-raising, much of it through alliances with old-line conservative religious groups…

There’s a vast chasm between the volunteer Scoutmasters, Troop Committee Members, Den Leaders, Cubmasters and the paid, professional Scouters that run things outside of the individual districts and councils.

I’ve been a member of the BSA since I was in first grade. Though I haven’t been active since I moved from home, I still consider myself a member of the organization which truly gave me a place to grow. During my years in middle school, I may even call it my saving grace. In school, amongst my peers, I boxed up and put in a particular social cage. I was kept there by my own inability to break out and a lack of friendships outside of that box.

However, in Troop 126, I was allowed, even expected to grow. I was year after year, given more responsibility, challenged to lead in larger and stronger ways. I went through each of the Ranks, but I also went through each of the leadership roles: Asst. Patrol Leader, Patrol Leader, Asst. Senior Patrol Leader, and finally Senior Patrol Leader, whose role was to lead all meetings and represent the boys to the Troop Steering Committee and outside the Troop in District and Council-wide events. What this organization did for me is immeasurable.

However, as I attained these later positions, I learned about the division between the volunteers and the paid employees. (I hate to use the term professionals).

The vast majority of the individuals that I dealt with had a deep distrust for the National organization. Policies, mandates and rules that were either ill-conceived or implemented without explanation weren’t common but they did come to pass, there was loud grumbling and occasional resignations.

When I began hearing about the Homosexual discrimination, I thought, “No, that couldn’t be the Boy Scouts that they’re talking about.” But it was and it was real. At first I held the view that as a private organization, the government should not be able to alter the structure or the policies of the group. But that didn’t hold up because of the ties that the BSA has to the Government in the US. The National Jamboree is held on a military base every four years. BSA has a Congressional Charter. A significant portion of the troops and packs use public school facilities.

If the BSA is going to use the ‘Private Organization’ defense, they better Be Prepared to drop this aspect of their organization as well.

I hope BSA Inc. loses the the Supreme Court case. A ruling should be coming out later this month.

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

Brave indeed.

06.17.00

Read This, Hear That

Posted in General at 5 pm

Jun 17 Sat (08 PM)

This changed my mind about Courtney Love… Not Lars, but certainly Courtney: <http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/>

Also, download Track 1 from <https://www.idrive.com/nardo_polo/files/Web/> which is something that I’ve been looking for for years now. Ponderous man. Really ponderous

 

06.14.00

Working Hard

Posted in General at 7 pm

Jun 14 Wed (07 AM)

Man this dual role thing is a pain.

At work I’ve taken over the responsibility for documenting and enforcing the methodologies that I’ve been espousing at work for the past year. If that was all I was doing, I’d be fine. But I’ve also had to take over Project Management for most of the projects in house. I’ve laid the groundwork for hoisting my own backend. You see, part of my methodology is to take the project management out of the hands of the sales people. Most of them are not equipped to do the daily PM work, so it needed to move from them to actual PMs. Myself and this other person were lined up to take over that work load.

But I wasn’t supposed to do the Project Management stuff full time. It’s an area that I’ve found I have some skills in, but the Admin stuff was supposed to be the biggest portion of my role at work for the next few months.

But our other PM quit, with little notice, and the owner instituted a hiring freeze. Now I’m responsibile for both, and it’s running me ragged. Late August is the target date for our current goal set, and at that point we should be able to bring in another PM, and a second Developer with Solaris/Java/JSP experience.

‘Til then, I’m bound to early mornings in addition to the commonly late nights.

 

06.04.00

Blazers

Posted in General at 7 pm

Damn.

 

06.02.00

Forcing Game 7

Posted in General at 11 pm

Oh yeah, baby! Game 7 on Sunday, at 4:00pm. Tonight’s game *so* rocked. Everyone played hard. Bonzi had more points than Shaq. Smith was on top of every shot, Sheed was nearly perfect inside. It was an incredible game. The Blazers led by 10 points for nearly the entire game.

I even took a 3 foot by 4 foot banner that had ‘Drive Scottie, Drive’ on one side and ‘Drain the Lakers’ on the other. It was a very professional poster as I had it printed out on our HP2500 at work which is a full color plotter that can print up to 3 feet wide and any length. I got some pretty high quality JPEGs off the net of Scottie taking it to the hoop and placed them in opposing corners on one side. On top of that I put the Drive Scottie Drive text, using the official Blazers typeface that we have because of some work we did for them a while back.

On the back was the Drain The Lakers text plus “From your fans at Exact Imaging”, which was a bit cheesy. The only problem was that the poster was WAY TOO BIG and I couldn’t hold it at the seat with me, and I couldn’t hold it up without risking thrown drinks from the people I was blocking the view for.

So the sign was relegated to the very back row, without me for much of the game. But I learned my lesson. Next time I won’t take anything larger than my chest. Unless it’s really long and I can have lots of help holding it…

Anyway it was a great game and I’m on the edge of my seat for Game 7. Go Blazers!

 

05.31.00

New adventures

Posted in General at 11 pm

Last Wednesday, during lunch, I was sitting with our new sales rep bringing him up to speed on web technologies. He’s got 20 years of sales experience, and I’m doing my best to make sure he’s prepared to sell our offerings to his new clients. I’ll be going with him on his first few sales calls to provide technical backup to presentations.

As we’re talking, the owner comes into the lunchroom and begins listening to our conversation. After a bit, he jumps in and begins discussing the vision that I’ve had of our company. They start agreeing with each other.

So the owner turns to us and says, “I want you guys to run your departments like seperate businesses. I want you guys to run your companies.” He wants us to get all of our ducks in a row and our processes dialed in, and dovetail our work so that we can get a good system working between sales and development.

So now I’m basicially in charge of half of the company. I’ve been provided with financials for our 8 guys and charged with making Exact Interactive profitible on a monthly basis, in the next 3 months. It’s a huge responsibility and I’ve also taken on the roll of Project Manager for all of the work that we have and will be getting in-house.

I’m glad that my PSU class has finished off, as I don’t think I would be able to handle all of this at once. Wish me luck.

Scottie Drove to Portland

Posted in General at 9 pm

Last night was my last class for the term. It’s always kinda sad to let my students go, and that’s just after 10 classes. I can’t imagine how Elementry school teachers give up their kids after a full year of 5 days a week schooling.

I had some great students this class, but it was also the first time that I had a class develop a clique. I only watched out of the corner of my eye, but it was there and it was fascinating to watch.

—–

However last night was also game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. Wow. I wish I could have watched it, because it sounds like the Blazers did everything right. And they finally listened to me. *Drive Scottie, Drive!* has been my mantra ever since game 2. When Scottie Pippen takes the ball deep inside, by himself, he creates foul situations for the Lakers, particularly for Kobe. If he does this early in the game, it has a stunning effect on the Lakers as both Kobe and Shaq *have* to be in the game, giving full effort in order to win. Rice can only make up for it a little bit.

When Scottie drives, he scores. After the fouls are called, then you bring in the Blazer perimiter game, and let Brian Grant and ‘Sheed do the heavy lifting. (Rasheed’s sky hook last night was just classic. Do you practice that shot, or does it just come as inspiration?)

—–

This Blazer team is going to drive us to financial ruin. But oh what joyful ruin it is. 🙂 Tickets for Game 6 go on sale at noon on Thursday. /This/ will be interesting.

*Drive Scottie, Drive!*

05.26.00

Where did the Refs go?

Posted in General at 11 pm

It’s like the Refs left the stadium in the last quarter. Kobe had 5 fouls and the refs simply refused to give him the final foul even though he could have been called on three different occasions.

Then there was the point where one of the Lakers was literally holding Scottie down on the floor… 🙁

Sunday will be better.