Misc
Mediocrity
Sunday, June 15, 2008
I was originally going to write a post on enterprise software. The gist of it was going to be: Why does enterprise software tend to suck in general? It’s not a new observation, nor a particularly interesting one, so I thought about what really bothered me with enterprise software. I think what really bothers me is mediocrity.
It is easy to remove oneself from the discussion of mediocrity and place the focus on everyone else, but I can’t let myself off the hook that easy. I’ve certainly created more than my fair share of mediocre (or worse!) software. I’ve only put in mediocre effort into any number of tasks over the years. I can probably come up with many arguments to justify my mediocre efforts. I won’t do it. The point is not to justify the behavior but to examine why it happens and take action.
This week at work seemed to be one invite after another to perform mediocre work. Tasks needed to get done but it was difficult to get excited about them. Situations like these often get my checklist approach. Don’t get me wrong, checklists are not bad. But, when I get into “checklist mode”, it typically means I’m trying to make myself feel as though I’m accomplishing something even when I’m not particularly proud of the work. Sometimes there are things you just have to do. You can only change so much at one time and the changes that have to wait their turn often result in falling into that category of things that have to get done but whose quality, creativity, and inspiration will suffer as a result.
The work week ended with learning about my official responsibilities as a career counselor. I have seven people assigned to me that I’m responsible for serving as their career counselor. I’m there to listen, provide coaching, and do my part to help further each individual’s career within the company. I’d like to think that’s the approach I take regardless of whether I’m an official career counselor or simply doing my job. That last statement is one that leads me to justify mediocrity when it comes my duties as a career counselor. Telling myself that I already do the job let’s me off the hook in my own mind. I can scoff at the apparent corporate bureaucracy surrounding the career counseling program and get into my “checklist mode”. After all, I already do the job so these new activities are nothing more than overhead, right?
I decided on the way home from work on Friday that I wasn’t going to settle for mediocrity. I wanted to make the career counseling activities meaningful and fun for everyone involved. I decided right then that I wasn’t going to fill in the blanks on the career counselor intro email template that was provided. There is nothing inherently wrong with the template, but for me to simply fill in the blanks and send out the emails would certainly not meet my goals of making the career counselor activities meaningful and fun for everyone involved. So I brainstormed a bit and came up with a quick video that I’m sending out to all those I’m a career counselor for. The video isn’t the second coming of Citizen Kane, but it is completely different than the email template and (I hope) sends the message that I’m not just going through the motions; rather I’m committed to the role and the people I’m serving as their career counselor. Plus, I think the video conveys that we can all have some fun along the way. We don’t have to begrudgingly go through this process. We don’t have to settle for mediocrity, even when it can feel justifiable to do so.
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Cross Platform Web Conferencing
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Have you ever been on a web conference where people complained about it not working on their operating system of choice? Tired of hearing Linux and OS X users (rightfully) object to the use of web conferencing software that gives them limited (if any) screen sharing capabilities? I am and I think I may have found a solution in WebHuddle.
Every so often I go out and do a search for cross platform web conferencing and normally come up empty handed. Sure, there are plenty of solutions that give you cross platform viewing of web conferences, but the holy grail is being able to transfer screen sharing functionality to anyone on the web conference, regardless of whether they’re running Windows, Linux or OS X. I think WebHuddle may have hit this holy grail. No, it’s not the fanciest product. Nor is it likely to win any awards for user interface design. But based on some early testing, it does what most other tools in its space cannot and that is provide true cross platform web conferencing.
P.S. Yes, I know about Yugma. I liked Yugma quite a bit. It was quick, easy and cheap. Keywords there: “liked” and “was”. Then version 3.0 came out and I’ve had enough problems with it to give up on Yugma entirely. Three different web conferences I attended/hosted with Yugma 3.0 and all were plagued by a variety of issues. I ran out of patience.
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Test
Saturday, March 29, 2008
This is a test from the Nokia N800.
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Welcome to The Year 2002
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
OK, it’s been a while since I last posted here. It’s been a long while. I’d like to report that I’ve been busy doing something amazing but that would be stretching the truth just a wee bit too much. Instead, I’m here to report that I’ve made a discovery that most probably made around 2002 or so.
Today, I finally broke down and tried video conferencing to do some meetings. There were two of us in the Joplin, MO office and up to five people in our King of Prussia office. We were doing a team formation meeting and a backlog selection/planning meeting. It’s amazing how much of a difference the video makes over just using the phone. And this was using web cams, Skype, and normal phones, none of that fancy stuff Cisco and others are peddling these days.
At the rate I’m going, I fully expect to be up to the year 2008 in about 6 or 7 years from now, which means I’ll be actively networking with Facebook, watching HDTV, navigating with GPS devices, browsing the web on my mobile, and driving a hybrid.
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An Ancient Thanksgiving Recipe
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Although many of my co-workers did not believe I made the delicious dish known as squash stuffing, I will still post the recipe here as requested. I know what some of you are already thinking, “he’s like some sort of Renaissance Scrum Master.” Who am I to argue? I coach agile software development teams, write some code on occasion, invent new ways of doing software development, create new lines of clothing, and now cook fine dishes such as squash stuffing. The best part is that it’s all in a day’s work.
Without further ado, here’s the recipe for squash stuffing. Enjoy!
- 1-1 1/2 lbs. sliced & steamed yellow & green squash
- 1/2 cup finely diced onion
- 1 grated carrot
- 1/4 cup margarine
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 2 1/2 cups Pepperidge Farm or Brownberry stuffing mix (not cube type)
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
Saute onions and grated carrot in margarine. Put the sauted onions and grated carrots in a bowl and add sour cream, cream of chicken soup, squash and then mix together. Next add 2 cups of stuffing mix and mix together. Put in baking dish (the Hoover family has a special dish made of granite, quartz, and rare jewels in the shape of a hobbit’s head – good luck finding one.) Top with 1/2 cup of remaining stuffing mix.
Bake for 35-40 minutes just until hot and delicious.
P.S. One of the developers at work commented the other day that my recently injured ankle is likely a result of how large my head has become; i.e. supporting all that weight can’t be good for my ankles. I’m guessing this post will only add to support that opinion. Such is the life of the Renaissance Scrum Master.
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