Month: May 2005

Go Nick Bradbury! [here]

David Parmet has a wife who truly understand the geek nature of her husband.
David recommended the Waterfield Cargo bag (a la Joi Ito) to me, as a possible replacement for my tired (and now too small) Targus backpack.
Sue was rumbling through Technorati, and came across my post.
Sue gave David the Waterfield Cargo for his birthday. [here]

Happy Birthday, David.
PS: I prefer the orange one.

Predictive technologies are becoming recogmized as a very important comonent in any large information system. The data that these systems contain is useless, unless the patterns inside can be drawn out.
The Business Intelligence companies take these massive amount of existing data, crunch it, and find patterns within the data. Based on these patterns (or rules), BI systems can begin to extrapolate (LOVE that word!) future behaviour out of the patterns that appear in the new data. These are presented as scenarios to business users who can then take (what you hope is appropriate) action.
This will be very important in so many industries…including the one that I work in.
Via Silicon Valley Watcher

eBay Stores announces its new logo…SO WHAT?
eBay, this is not something that you should announce. Make it happen, have people talk about it…let it spread. This is not a talking point that Meg Whitman needs to have in her backpocket.
Focus on making your customers happy, one at a time, like you used to.
Via Seth Godin

I am trying to consciously implement a GTD process here at work. Today has been a bit rough, because I am stuck on a task I am not motivated for.
On the other hand, I have been extremely productive in getting the do tasks out of the way. Many small things that usually would have been stalling me are now gone. Now it is the truly large tasks that are getting in the way!
Onward we go…

I don’t know what’s cooler: that Dave Winer’s mom has a blog; or that she did a smackdown on the city of New York!
Go Eve!

Tony Goodson riffs on an idea that Doc Searls threw out there this weekend.
This post brings back very painful memories of looking for jobs in Canada. Every time that I applied for a position, no matter how low in the food chain, the hiring process felt designed to make me feel inferior, especially since I had been let go from a position, prior to returning to school to get further qualified.
The US firms I spoke with (no, it was 1999, a very different time) seemed enthusiastic about my skills and curiousity. Canadian firms, on the other hand, wanted 20 years of experience for an entry-level position at $35,000(CDN).
Now, what I am finding is that many firms search the Internet looking for key words. They don’t actually look at your resume. That is why I added the note to the top of my online resume, to force people to understand what I am looking for, what I need in a company.
Any company that is only hiring because of what they think I can do, I don’t want to work for them.
I salute you Tony!

Tom Foster at the Management Skills Blog takes his lessons, and weaves them into narratives that make it easier to understand and absorb the message he is trying to get across.
Today’s message is simple:

ItÂ’s relatively difficult for team members to execute your brilliant strategic plan when they donÂ’t know the details.

This is a question that I find myself asking as I try to achieve some level of GTD in my life.

If I don’t do it, who will?

This allows to determine if I can do it (in a two-minute window), someone else can be delegated to do it, or if it should deferred.

Dave Winer and Dare Obasanjo both go after the relevance of O’Reilly Conferences.
I went to OSCON 2000 in Monterey, CA and thought it was an ok conference. But I was struck by the cliques that were there. And now, it appears that O’Reilly only invites “stars” to its conferences. Too bad.