Portfolio Viewer on Computer World
Created: September 13, 2008 / Updated: September 13, 2008There is a great article on Computerworld and PC World called "Running on AIR: Great office apps you can get now" and lists out several great AIR applications. You can find the article on Computerworld here and on PC World here (same article, but there are screenshots of the apps on the Computerworld article).
One reason that I like this article is because it lists my own Portfolio Viewer application as one of the "great" AIR apps. I have to say I agree completely with the author here. The author mentions that I am working on some new features for Portfolio Viewer and that a new release is going to come out in the next couple of months. If you haven't tried the application yet, go to http://mentalecho.com/portViewer and give it a shot. If you have tried it and have any feature requests, let me know what they are and I will try to get them in to the next release. You can contact me throught he contact link at the top of this page or through the feedback feature in the Portfolio Viewer application.
Other than mentioning my application, there were several other intriguing applications mentioned. One of them, MiniTask, I started using as soon as I read about it and am very impressed. It is just a simple task list application but it does its job pretty well and look good too. Another one I look forward to trying out is Klok which is used to help track time for freelancers.
Take a look at the article try out some of the AIR applications, especially Portfolio Viewer.
Tags: PortfolioViewer, AdobeAIRCategories: General, Technology
Thomas Edison and Me
Created: June 28, 2008So what do I have in common with Thomas Edison? Apparently we are both inventors. While thumbing through some junk mail the other day, I found a letter from the patent and trademark office letting me know that I am now an inventor on patent number 7384380. The patent is for a "Method and System for Detecting and Displaying the Impact of a Blow"and basically boils down to a three part system of embedding sensors in boxing gloves that measure the force of a punch, transmitting the measurements to a computer, and then displaying them.
Now, I hope you note the sarcasm in comparing myself to Edison and even to calling myself an inventor. I don't think the work I did on the system warrants me being called an inventor. The work the others did was truly inventive, but I don't really feel the same way about my contributions. That being said, it is still kind of cool to be named on the patent, and I really do like the work I did and the prospect of that work one day being on ESPN or any of the other big networks is awesome.
I think a more important point to make here is how caught off guard I was with getting the letter saying the patent was issued. Why was I caught off guard? Well, mostly because it has been five and a half years since the patent was submitted. How can it take that long to get a patent issued? It is ridiculous that any process would take that long. I am on my second job since then. I have moved twice. I completely forgot that I was even waiting for the patent to be approved. I don't understand how they could have that much of a backlog and how they couldn't fix the obvious problems with the system.
I hope something can get done to fix the patent system. In the meantime, I will bask in the glory of my new status as inventor extraordinaire (again, please note heavy sarcasm).
Onwards and Upwards
Created: June 13, 2008Today was my last day of work at my current employer. I have been there for almost three years and it was pretty hard to leave. I am really excited about my new job, which I start on Monday, and look forward to the new opportunities I will hopefully encounter.
In a way, I kind of feel like I am letting people down by leaving, but it was definitely time for me to on. The people at my current employer are great. I am going to miss the entire development team, from the more seasoned developers that I have worked with from day 1, to the newer guys that I like to think I was able to mentor a little bit. I think we all learned a lot from each other, and I hope to one day work with them again.
Around the time I started looking for a new job, I picked up The Dip by Seth Godin. I am a little torn over how I feel about this book. On one hand, there are a lot of good points about making decisions about when to quit something and when to stick it out. But on the other hand, I kind of feel like it is irresponsible. Don't get me wrong, Godin constantly provides a disclaimer that you should only quit for a good reason, but I can see how this book could possibly push someone over the edge prematurely. In my experience, people tend to extract only the information they want to hear from a book/speach/article/etc. I can easily see how someone could gloss over Godin's counterpoints and just hear "Quit Now, Quit Now, Quit Now."
I personally don't think quitting should ever be an easy decision. When I look back at what I gained from my current employer, I realize that I wouldn't be anywhere close to where I am today if I hadn't worked there. The stack of technologies that I consider myself fairly proficient with has doubled or tripled in size from my first job to this last job. Even more importantly than that, I think I have matured a lot with my soft skills and a lot of that has to do with the quality of the team I worked with. Looking back at all of that, plus the relationships I made over the last couple of years, and it is no wonder that it was so hard to leave and say goodbye today.
In the interest of wrapping this up in a logical conclusion, I think if you decide to read The Dip, make sure you read all the words, and make sure you think long and hard about whatever decision you make. I am excited for the future and a little melancholy about what I am leaving behind. I am actually really glad I feel this way. It means that the last 3 years meant something to me. And that is pretty important
Tags: BooksCategories: Books, General
Book Review: Made To Stick
Created: April 30, 2008
Made To Stick - Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath Made To Stick was an all around great book. I find one of my main weaknesses is my ability to convey ideas to others in a way where they have the same enthusiasm for those ideas as I do. This book lays out a set of techniques to overcome the problem that most people have with expressing their ideas to others.
The basis of the book is around their six principles of SUCCES (typo intended) - Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories. These principles are used to overcome the main culprit: The Curse of Knowledge. The curse of knowledge is a simple concept that most people will probably recognize. You have an idea, you believe in it, you are an expert in it. Why doesn't everyone else see what you see??? If it isn't obvious, its because you know too much about it and you haven't done a good enough job of letting those around you know about it. These concepts are laid out in the beginning of the book and the rest of the book is dedicated to expounding upon these topics to drive home their points.
The Heath brothers do a great job using their own principles of SUCCES to drive home their ideas (definitely eating their own dog food) and they do it in a way that is very friendly to the reader, by offering up numerous anecdotes. In addition, the book is broken up into small sections that are great if you like to read small chunks at a time like I do.
Overall, great book. I highly recommend it to anyone that ever plans on having an idea.
Categories: BooksStealing Ideas
Created: April 29, 2008
I am just finishing up reading Made To Stick (book review coming soon) and came across an anecdote in the final chapter that got me thinking. The anecdote describes a manager at the World Bank that was asked to look into knowledge management. In a bank, where the chief concern is usually money, knowledge management seems like a bum job. Undeterred, the manager did some research and came back to senior management with his ideas. He didn't just push his ideas on the committee with statistics or a boring power point deck, he expressed his ideas in a manner (read the book to find out how) that resonated with the listeners. As soon as his presentation was done, two members of the committee began peppering him with ideas for how he should get the knowledge management program moving forward. They had so fully embraced his ideas that they assumed ownership of them and were moving forward as if it had been their project all along.
Suddenly, the knowledge management program was no longer the black sheep for the World Bank; it was a top priority. The manager was immediately upset, because the committee had all of the sudden stolen his idea. Shortly thereafter, the manager realized that this was the best possible outcome of the meeting. The moral here is that there is no better way to get buy in on an idea than to have your audience embrace it so tightly that they begin to believe that it was their own idea.
Everyone has probably been on both sides of a situation like this and it usually happens in brainstorming sessions. This is what brainstorming sessions are about after all. You gather together and let the ideas flow and eventually start building off the ideas until you get to your solution(s). By the end of it, no one knows where the ideas started and it doesn't matter that much since everyone took part in the process. The anecdote in the book applies this concept to a very different situation. A single person presents an idea to a group in such a way as to gain a level of group buy in that borders on a perceived group ownership of the idea.
This concept is awesomely powerful -- in a Utopian world. You convey your idea and everyone is on board. What could be better? The problem is that we don't live in a Utopian world. Whether you are in the corporate world or in a start-up, ownership of the idea is very important. Having good ideas leads to bonuses and promotions (corporate world) and financing (start-up). If you lose ownership of an idea, what else do you lose?
So what is the solution? Should you be just good enough at "selling" your idea so that people accept it as their own but still recognize you as the originator of said idea? It seems kind of silly to hold back at all when you are trying to convince others to build a certain product or make an important change. What if you hold back too much?
I don't really have a solution, but I know that going forward, I will follow the strategies in Made to Stick as much as possible. I know I want my audience to have complete buy in. I want them to feel the "a ha" moment and feel like the idea is theirs. I feel like I will be able to get so much more done in life if I can convince others around me of my ideas. You just have to hope at the end of the day that you are recognized for your ideas. Maybe just having your ideas embraced at that level will be recognition enough.
Tags: Books, Communication, MarketingCategories: Books
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Portfolio Viewer on Computer WorldThomas Edison and Me
Onwards and Upwards
Book Review: Made To Stick
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