More on random thoughts…

It still bothers me that a person who gets walked out of an account forever, can be labeled a leader of the future. To me this seems almost like a slap to the rest of us. Consultants are communicators, if you so annoy a customer that they say “we don’t ever want this person back.” you can’t communicate. You’ve failed at the essence of consulting. But apparently you are a leader of the future.

That really saddens me. I don’t know what to do about that.

It makes me feel like everything I’ve done in the past 3 years is a complete and utter waste of time.

Anyway – blog will be sporadic for the next few days – in Southeast Asia. Have a great week all!

/Doc

A series of Random Thoughts…

Random thought 1:
Why does the world look different when you are in a cab? I’ve been driving now for more than 30 years.
It’s curious to me how the world appears differently from a cab – just a random thought.

Random thought 2:
Why is it more fun to travel with my wife? by a factor of 10 in fact?

Random Thought 3:
How can a consultant that has been removed (forever) and told by one of the largest customer’s the company has to never come back, be one of the leaders of tomorrow? My thought would be that person needs to be on a performance plan, not patted on the back.

Architects as sponges

How much data can you absorb?

As an architect I often wonder about that question as it is something that both impacts me and at the same time is a skill I use and leverage more than any other.

1. Learning quickly
As a sponge I find that it is a curse and a boon to pick up things quickly. Bad for me when I jump to conclusions too quickly, but good for the most part in the sense that I am able to pick up a net new technology quickly.
2. Sponges can be quiet 🙂
Sometimes as an architect you just have to listen. I hate it at times, but it is all about what the requirements are. Knowing what the requirements are reduces proejct risk – becuase frankly you build wha the customer wants.
3. Sponges can take a hit 🙂
Fill a sponge up with water and hit the sponge. It will bounce back pretty quickly 🙂

It’s an interesting idea – one that I have been thinking about for a long time. The value of a sponge is that information is easily produced (squeeze the sponge too hard and you will end up with a mess but that is a pretty much a rule with just about anything anyway.)

/Doc

what remains of my quest

Many years ago I founded the Society of Dead Teachers. We originally met in the Chi Chis restaurant in Bloomington Indiana every Friday afternoon (they gave free nachos) 🙂 The organization grew into an international teaching organization peaking in 1990 at nearly 15,000 members world wide. We had an internet discussion list that was syndicated world wide (DTS-L@Indiana.edu).

It was a labor of love…We had a magazine that ran reviews of things relavent to teachers (technology, education etc). We had vast discussions (I talk about one of them here http://docandersen.spaces.live.com/feed.rss ).

For a time we solved th problems of the world, but that passed with the changing (me leaving teaching and no longer as engaged/invovled in the issues of education).

And that passion is something I’ve talked about missing before.

Anyway on this day, the muse of athletics bothers me. There is so much promise in college, high school and even younger athletes. For every steriod using athlete there are a 1000 athletes that never turn pro, never do steriods and love the game.

There was great Kevin Costner movie “For the Love of the Game.” That is what I miss in athletics today. I used to coach kids who loved the game. Not money. Not fame. Not steriods. The game. You see the game is something tangible. It is something that will change your life.

You may never be a professional, but you have to play.

hp touchsmart tx2-1025dx notebook pc

Another day – another review – this one for the new HP Tablet PC. I have been a huge fan of tablet pc’s (as a concept) but not happy with the overall quality of the various Tablet’s on the market.

However this device touches just about every issue I have, and makes them go away.

1. Price Point – less than a $1000 for a fully loaded tablet – awesome
2. quality – I am a huge HP computer fan – so that is pretty safe. I have the touchsmart desktop as well – and frankly they did a good job with these.
3. 64 bit (tablets are often memory intensive rather than disk intensive based on how you interact with them).

So now the review….
1. The 5400 rpm drive is a little slow – took longer becuase of that to load the software but overall not a horrible drive.
2. screen is awesome – you can touch with pen or your fingers! I lose the bloody pens all the time so that is a good thing.
3. So far no driver issues – but that is mostly a market improving issue rather than the drivers not having issues (more 64 bit systems).

Dragon 10 doesn’t work on the device – as it doesn’t support 64 bit vista – that is extremly disappointing – one of the value props of the tablet is to move me away from my desktop and installing D10 helps with that

I give this laptop a 7 out of 10.

/Doc

I wonder if…

Today I heard an interesting lesson, that moment when you as a child start doing the things your parent used to do, and your parent begins doing the things you used to do – role reversal.

I wonder about that. As a parent that seems to me to be the ultimate moment. When my child is able to do things better than I can. I guess I would feel like that was success – complete and utter success.

Then I wondered how I would feel if it happened becuase I could no longer do the things that I used to do – then it changed my perception.

I am looking forward to the day when my children can do something better than I can. But I dread the day they have to do something becuase I no longer can…

/Doc

My newest list – hd

HD Radio – very cool (other than the fact that none of my favorite stations don’t broadcast in HD yet) very cool. I have the sony and it’s a great device!

HD – TV I noticed the other day when I was flipping channels that the difference between analog and digital broadcast is significant. You can actually see the difference. And it’s not that the analog broadcast is on a cheap tv – same tv just a split signal. The difference is amazing.

Soon it will all be digital!

/Doc