The Musings of a Curious Technologist

"I don’t look for problems, they find me just fine. I focus on looking for solutions."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:29:48 -0500

“I don’t look for problems, they find me just fine. I focus on looking for solutions.”

- Sometimes the solutions even get created before the problems show up, so we can be fully ready to tackle the problems or perhaps even prevent them in the first place.

"Process disruptions should be looked at as a blessing, not a curse."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:23:02 -0500

“Process disruptions should be looked at as a blessing, not a curse.”

- It is easy to get too comfortable within the confines of an existing process, but when it gets disruptive, and it will, don’t fret about it, learn from and start doing things better.

"Designing processes should never become process bound."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:20:24 -0500

“Designing processes should never become process bound.”

- A well designed process requires creativity and cannot be simply following an existing process.

"We are all in sales and we are all teachers."

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 09:51:27 -0500

“We are all in sales and we are all teachers.”

- While we must teach about what we sell, we must also teach our internal and external customers more for all of us to be effective in our roles and lives.

"Is your company’s consistency and reliability described as … Consistently inconsistent..."

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 09:43:45 -0500

“Is your company’s consistency and reliability described as … Consistently inconsistent and reliability unreliable?”

"If pushing the rock uphill seems to be an impossible task, why not break the rock up into pieces and..."

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 09:38:00 -0500

“If pushing the rock uphill seems to be an impossible task, why not break the rock up into pieces and carry each piece up the hill. Even better, enlist others to help you carry the pieces up the hill.”

WriteThatName ... 1 month in and going well

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:56:19 -0600

WriteThatName ... 1 month in and going well:

I have been using this service for 1 month so far, seems to just work, which is how I like it.

"Customer experience is the ‘eat healthy and exercise’ of the business world."

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:48:55 -0600

“Customer experience is the ‘eat healthy and exercise’ of the business world.”

-
Everyone knows it’s important, and why.

When talking to others we probably pretend we do it better than we actually do.

Deep down we aren’t quite sure what we should do – it’s complicated and confusing.

The things we know we should do just aren’t that fun or exciting, so we often avoid them.

Via Megan Burns, Forrester (via ibmsocialbiz)

Moving beyond Events to Signals

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 11:15:31 -0500

I was so busy trying to figure out how to deal with event management that I almost missed the signal that we should be focused on signals coming from my clients and their data.

While all events are signals, not all signals are events. Sometimes signals tell us events are about to or have just happened, but by focusing on signals we can do so much more in the ecosystem we operate in.

Think about a car’s turn signal, it tells us a car is about to perform an event, such as a turn or a lane change. If we focus on the event vs. the signal, we are reacting vs. being pro-active.

Of course not all drivers use their turn signals, but their actions often signal that they are about to perform an event, so learning to watch for these signals will make us better drivers as well as better signal processors in other facets of our personal and work lives.

"Blowing the Box Up - BTBU"

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:05:36 -0500

“Blowing the Box Up - BTBU”

- It is often hard to think outside of the box when you are so close to the existing box. In those cases, it is best to “blow the box up”.

"I never realized how powerful patterns really were. They are certainly not limited to writing code...."

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:34:55 -0500

“I never realized how powerful patterns really were. They are certainly not limited to writing code. Finding a pattern that can be repeated for different cases is total amazing, at least to me.”

- My thinking after discovering that business, technical and operational patterns can be generalized and repeated in a many different areas and ways. Nature showed us the power of patterns, so it is up to all of us to find those patterns in what we do and then apply them in as many creative ways as possible.

"People just want a hand up, not a hand out."

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:27:09 -0500

“People just want a hand up, not a hand out.”

- Quote overheard on NPR and to me really applies to everyone no matter if you are in the 1% or the 99%. After all, how do you think the 1% got to where they are. The introduction to the right person or idea at the right time is just as much a hand up as is job training or educational assistance.

@lifehacker: If you're bad at keeping up with podcasts--like me--here's how to turn them into a custom, streaming radio station: http://t.co/VTQEkQPs

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:38:32 -0500

@lifehacker: If you're bad at keeping up with podcasts--like me--here's how to turn them into a custom, streaming radio station: http://t.co/VTQEkQPs

@waltmossberg: Want to collect and back up all your pic from FB and elsewhere? @kabster728 tells you how. http://t.co/JfhJZ7kx

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:22:57 -0500

@waltmossberg: Want to collect and back up all your pic from FB and elsewhere? @kabster728 tells you how. http://t.co/JfhJZ7kx

@openmethodology: Reinventing Data Integration: Accommodating the Changing Approaches to Business Intelligence http://t.co/ok1PjDXn #bi

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:41:28 -0500

@openmethodology: Reinventing Data Integration: Accommodating the Changing Approaches to Business Intelligence http://t.co/ok1PjDXn #bi

@gigaom: #CloudFail: Six pitfalls to avoid with enterprise cloud deployment http://t.co/BBybDofl

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 11:29:27 -0500

@gigaom: #CloudFail: Six pitfalls to avoid with enterprise cloud deployment http://t.co/BBybDofl

@Finextra: Bank branches set to disappear as more customers go online http://t.co/TUX3KXbn

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:47:53 -0500

@Finextra: Bank branches set to disappear as more customers go online http://t.co/TUX3KXbn

@TheNextWeb: IFTTT being forced to remove Twitter triggers hasn’t gone down well with commenters on our story. What do you think? http://t.co/HpmJXXbB

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:47:49 -0500

@TheNextWeb: IFTTT being forced to remove Twitter triggers hasn’t gone down well with commenters on our story. What do you think? http://t.co/HpmJXXbB

"Spend your time making this year sucessful, setting up sucess for next year and ensuring your..."

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:59:15 -0500

“Spend your time making this year sucessful, setting up sucess for next year and ensuring your passion is maintained for your given situation.”

- Things to think about when determining what to work on in your current job or company.

Economics Expressed in Football terms - Offense vs. Defense

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:55:35 -0500

Since Football season is here and Football analogies are being used by both the Republicans and the Democrats, let me give you an explanation of economics in terms a football fan can understand.

First of all, let me note that both the right and the left are citing extremes that make little sense and don’t allow us to make any progress in addressing our problems. Using Football terms perhaps we can find a way to agree on a way forward :).

Let’s start with an easy one and we can go from there …

There are folks who think that Football is all about the offense; and there are folks who think Football is all about the defense. Of course it cannot be exclusively about just one, it has to be a balance of scoring when you have the ball and stopping the other team when they have the ball. Without balance you have games that end 3-0 or 56-49, neither of which is sustainable as the fans will lose interest in games at the extreme on a constant basis.

In the economy, business exist to create profits for its investors; while creating jobs as side-effect from its profit-making activities. Consumers buy things they need and want, but their needs and wants will vary based on their incomes, which are based on their job status and stability.

So as in Football, neither business nor consumers will succeed on their own for very long if there is not a meeting and matching of interests. Allowing the offense and the defense to be in balance in much the same way as we need business and consumers to be in balance.

I admit these analogies are simplistic and will cause educated economists to moan, but do make valid enough points, at least for this purpose, I am hoping.