I little while back, i am jen posted a new idea on her website. She offered up custom hand made CDs for sale. You pick the tracks and the title, she creates unique artwork to go with it.
I have a thing for signed stuff, not so much as a collector, but more for the experience of connection and closeness to the artists whose music I love. So of course I had to jump on this. I agonized about the playlist and title for a long time but got there eventually, and here's the result:
I'm really jazzed. It's a one of a kind piece of artwork to go with a custom mix and a cool way to connect with an artist. I love it and I'm glad I did it. Jen posted a video on Youtube called "Each one is Unique." You can see mine here and there in the video, especially around 00:32.I have ben thinking of what to write about Ideajam since it came out this week. When I started thinking, I figured it would be easy, but it turned out to not be as easy as I hoped.
The idea behind IdeaJam is simple enough...it gives members of the Domino community to post ideas for projects, changes, improvements, etc and allows other community members to comment upon and promote or demote the idea.
With a bunch of smart, active users, IdeaJam could be really fertile ground which could grow great projects at IBM, various business partners and would-be open-source developers. From where I sit, it's a great way for the community to give feedback on what they want in a more direct way than normal.
For me, personally, it's a way to keep connected to the Domino community now that I don't work with Lotus software in my new job. I've been thinking of ways to contribute to the community over the last couple of weeks. I haven't had any great ideas on my own yet, but participating in IdeaJam is at least a small contribution in the mean time.
I hope IBM and the Business Partner community see it as the opportunity that it is.
I'm also really curious to see how the IdeaJam framework works outside of the Domino community when Elguji puts it out as a product. While I think it's a great idea, I'm wondering how big a population it takes in a corporate setting to reach critical mass for it to drive itself.
Manager Tools' latest podcast, "Getting Laid Off - Finances Rule" is a great illustration of why I listen every week.
This week's episode cuts through the BS straight to the core of the issue in Mike and Mark's typical direct style: Whether you get laid off or terminated, the state of your finances are what determine how well you are able to handle the situation.
Most folks reaction is focusing on the job hunt and totally miss the fact that if their finances are in order, and have a an emergency fund that they can live on while they search, they can afford to take the time and make better choices in resolving the situation.
In early 2001, the tech bubble was collapsing and I went through a layoff situation. One company I was in was collapsing, so I got laid off, but I quickly landed another job and thought I was set. Then I got laid off from that job a couple weeks later and spent the next few weeks without a job. I didn't have my finances together then and we suffered through that time. By the time I was able to land my next job, I was desperate and glad to drive 40 miles each way to get a paycheck.
If I was in a better financial situation at the time, I wouldn't have taken the job. On the flip side though, I spent the next seven years working there. Tomorrow's my last day there, actually, so I guess it wasn't all bad. I learned a lot and grew a lot and got to work with some really great people.
We've been working really hard getting our finances together...taking care of things, building that emergency fund, etc. I got lucky pulling out of my last layoff, but I'm not taking that chance next time.
This episode of Manager Tools comes at a good time. While I'm already working hard on my finances, but it puts financial issues in an atypical context that really hit home for me. Thanks, guys.
Next week will be the last week for me to work at my current employer. I have been working at the same org in the same billet for over six years. I've grown a lot since the summer of 2001. So has the environment I worked in. I'm excited and am looking forward to taking my career to the next level in this new opportunity.
While I'm excited about the future, there is one thing about the new job that makes me a little sad. For the first time in almost 10 years, being a Lotus Domino administrator will not be part of my job.
I really love the community that has come up around Lotus as much as I love the products themselves. There's a lot of passion and enthusiasm for the Lotus suite of products that you don't often see for enterprise software. It's almost like the cult of Mac, but I think they party harder at Lotusphere.
I don't know if I'll get to work with Lotus software in my career. Only time will tell.
In the short term, I'm going to be throwing myself into my new job. Once I get settled, I'll spend time figuring out what I'm going to do about Lotus software in the future. Bruce Elgort, with his work on OpenNTF, Taking Notes and IdeaJAM is loving proof that you can be a part of the community and not work with Lotus software in your day job. While I don't expect that I can make the kind of impact that Bruce has, I may be able to find a way to contribute anyway.
Last year, I posted a blog entry called: The problem with "mobile is that it wants to be more than it is
In it, I complained that the mobile providers are concentrating too much on gadgety, feature-bloated handsets and not enough on basic units that are just a phone and nothing else. Not long after that, I bought a used t610 on ebay. It's small, has bluetooth and the Mac can see it in iSync and that's about it. Lately, it's been blasting noise at me if I'm on a call and the signal starts to fade so I'm looking at possibilities for replacement.
What am I looking at? Helio Ocean, HTC Touch and the TMobile Shadow. You may notice that each of these is quite a bit more than just a phone. One's a custom media/smartphone, the other two are Windows Mobile phones with new clever UI's. They have decent cameras in them, and decent high-speed wireless connectivity. They're also right around $200 which is the only reason I'm considering them at all. If money was no object I would have already gotten a Nokia N95 a long time ago.
Why the change? Price, mostly. I have a hard time with the idea of spending $300+ on what a lot of the 'smart phones' go for but $200 is a lot easier to swallow. Since each of the three that I'm looking at are on different networks, I have to include the provider information in the decision as well (I'm on TMo, so I'll have to fight to get the new subscriber price, Margo's on Sprint and it's coverage is flakey for her, and Helio's poor customer service is the stuff legends are made of)..
The t610 isn't dead yet so I still have time to make a decision. I'm sure I'll post something here when the choice is made. I just wanted to go on the record as saying that, yes, I am a hypocrite before someone notices me fiddling around with a new fancy phone.
I love Freezepop and I love Guitar Hero. I love keytars too. Good thing they come together...even if it is a bit odd that a band with no guitar is in a guitar game.
Less Talk More Rokk is one of the bonus tracks on Guitar Hero 2. When I'm just playing around, it's one of my go-to songs behind Jordan. Freezepop just put out a video for it...It's watchable below. Fun stuff.
Freezepop "Less Talk More Rokk"
Also, the new album Future Future Future Perfect is up for pre-order at Newberry Comics
Technorati Tags: Games, GuitarHero, Music
or, How and Why I Switched to the serial cable.
Since we cut over to the Verizon FiOS video service this year, we have been having occasional issues with the Tivo. I have always used the IR sprayer for the Tivo to change channels on the cable boxes but for some reason, the box that we got for FiOS had trouble receiving the channel codes sometimes…especially on 3-digit channels. That caused the Tivo to record a different show that it meant to.
I decided to give the serial cable a try in spite of the fact that a lot of people out there in the world have been saying that Verison’s disabling the serial port on the Motorola QIP 2500-3 that I have.
I plugged in and in a couple minutes the config was changed. The serial port’s definitely working on my unit. Channel changing has been reliable so far. Will be watching it closely for a while. I’m pleased…I never really liked the idea of using the IR sprayer to change channels.
Interestingly, the Wii's Mii characters have a little bit of social netowkring built into them. You can allow them to mingle with other players' Miis on their Wii. I'm not sure how that affects setting up multi-player gaming sessions over the net yet, but it's an interesting idea.
In Wii Sports, apparently other players' Miis show up in the audience to watch. There's a Mii Parade feature that's supposed to show you what Miis are currently mingling on your Wii.
The only problem I have so far is that Nintendo added a request/authorize step that needs to be completed before your Mii can go anywhere and before anyone's Miis can visit you. The procedure seems a little complicated...I'm not going to repeat it here...it in Google.
For anyone reading this with a Wii, my Wii number is: 6517 4737 3499 4541
Technorati Tags: Wii
I have an odd fascination with the supply/demand surrounding the Wii vs the PS3. Sometime since Christmas it's become a habit of mine when I'm in a store that would carry them, I wander over to the electronics department and see how many PS3's are sitting on the shelf (usually several) vs how many Wii's are sitting on the shelf (usually none).
I was in a local Target yesterday afternoon when I made my way to electronics. As I approached, there were some people walking out of there with Wii boxes in-hand. When I got to the Wii aisle, there was a Treget staffer pulling a Wii box out of an otherwise empty box and almost automatically held it out to me. I didn't reach out to grab it right away. "Do you want the last one?" Initially, I said "No thanks" and he put it on the shelf.
I had second thoughts a couple minutes later, went back and bought it.
Setup was easy. I had a little trouble getting it on the wireless network, but it wasn't that big a deal.
It's an interesting little device. The nunchuk has a lot going on with it...a lot smarter than I thought it'd be. It's comfortable to use too. Bundling Wii Sports with it was smart...it's a fun set of games that very easily gets you up to speed on how to use the controllers.
Now I don't have to pay $500 to play Guitar Hero 3. In the mean time I need to find out what the good Wii games are.
Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology
