email: It's one of the tools in your communication repertoire, don't let it become the only one.

Huh?

~tod

I read The Scarlet Letter in school.  Granted, it's been more than 20 years since then, but I remember that when used as a punitive system public humiliation can have unintended consequences.

From The Seattle Times:

Sen. Mike Carrell is sponsoring a bill that would require people convicted of drunken driving to put fluorescent-yellow license plates on their cars for one year.

My gut reaction was "sure, why not," but then I started thinking about it a little more. Could this simply be a modern (aka: humane) method of inflicting mob justice?

~tod

life: An acknowledgement when I open the door for you would be nice or the next one might just swing back to smack you in that snooty nose.

Huh?

~tod

I'm torn between the traditional piggy bank and the farting butt bank. Really, I can't decide which to get my 4 year old daughter!

On the one hand, the traditional 'piggy bank' would look nice in her room and give her a life-long memento of learning to save. The responsible parent inside of me, however deep that persona is [I think it's still there], is leaning towards this option.

On the other hand, I can totally envision her laughing her little head off every single time the 'butt bank' farts as she drops coins into it.  Like me, she has a very basic sense of humor...farts, burps and pretty much all bodily functions are a continued source of hilarity. The fun parent inside of me, which I try to keep at the surface, thinks that this would be a hilarious way to get my little girl interested in saving money.

Hmm, any thoughts?

~tod

PS: Initially I questioned the appropriateness of a farting butt bank for a 4 year old, but think about it.... She already knows what farting is. She knows that it's not socially acceptable to just 'let em rip.' And she knows to say 'excuse me' when one slips by. So this isn't teaching her to do something that is socially unacceptable since she already knows better (and which I'll continue to reinforce). I just think it would be a damn funny way to teach her about saving.

life: Spandex is no longer a valid fashion option, seriously.

Huh?

~tod

The other day my lead walked into my office and asked me a question about a meeting we both attended. He then followed it up with "do you have it in that magic book of yours?"    He meant my Moleskine notebook that I take to every meeting.

For years I struggled with how to take and organize my chicken scratch from meetings [aka: notes]. First there was the spiral tabbed notebook organized in some manner according to the colored little tabs. I ended up with 2 or 3 of these floating around as I unsuccessfully tried to categorize everything. Next there was my paperless attempt with OneNote, which is an awesome program that I use regularly, but having to drag my laptop to every meeting [and all that entailed] soon became more irritation than anything else.

Then a few years ago my manager at the time gave everyone in his group a Moleskine ruled notebook. Using the KISS principle, this has been my note taking system of choice ever since.

• All notes go here. Whether they're from meetings, training sessions or notes to myself for action items...this is where they live. Caveat: I'm talking about notes containing reference information. I don't use this for small actionable notes to myself like 'pick up Valentine's card for my awesome girlfriend.' That sort of actionable stuff is either in my Outlook Tasks or an Appointment to remind me.
• Ordered chronologically. The next set of notes simply goes on the next page and no need to worry about what category or folder to put it in.
• Title each page with a short, descriptive title and the date (e.g.: Feature Crew Meeting for X ... 2.12.2008). I can easily thumb through it based on the date [I'm very date/time driven] and quickly find the notes I need to review.

Now, this book goes with me to every single meeting. It doesn't take 5 minutes to boot up or require me to categorize each meeting. Plus I have a single place for all my notes. It's my magic book.

~tod

In the last seven years there have been four increases to the first class postage rate, according to Wikipedia. This May there will be another penny increase.  At least now we have the Forever stamp [instead of those stupid little 1-cent stamps]!

~tod

The Freakonomics blog has an interesting post on The Economics of Obesity: A Q&A With the Author of The Fattening of America. 

Basically, the financial costs of being overweight are getting lower and lower as our society [the U.S. in particular] makes significant advances in medicine, specifically drugs. Our own technological advances are creating less costly economic options that in turn give us less incentive to be physically fit.

Here's a personal example.... I have a small refrigerator in my office so I can keep cold water, my lunch, yogurt and beer [yes, that's allowed at MSFT ] close by instead of having to walk half way across my building to the 'common' refrigerator. I bought the little fridge cheap as it was a scratch-n-dent display model for sale. Sure, it would help me burn some extra calories to use the 'community' fridge, but mine is very convenient, I don't have to worry about other people taking my stuff or leaving it too long to be thrown away by the cleaning crew.

But here's another example of the flip side.... I was diagnosed with slightly high cholesterol last year and my doctor said I have two choices. Take a pill [Lipitor anyone?] or change my diet/exercise. For me it was pretty obvious what to do based on my lifestyle [I already go the gym regularly and eat fairly well], but consider that person for whom diet and exercise would be a significant lifestyle change. If they have good medical insurance and no intention of exercising then the pill could be the obvious [and most economic] choice.

~tod

meetings: When you call a meeting remember that you own directing it.

Huh?

~tod

In 2004, President Bush pledged that all Americans should have affordable access to high-speed Internet service by 2007. A report to be released Thursday by the administration says it has succeeded — mostly.

Bush promises broadband and delivers [drum roll please]...diddly. 

If this article is accurate about the report's findings, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has their collective heads up their collective asses for issuing said report.

They say:

The NTIA report drew its conclusion using data from the Federal Communications Commission and other sources. The FCC reported that more than 99 percent of all U.S. ZIP codes received broadband service from at least one provider by the end of 2006.

With the applied definition of broadband:

The FCC defined it as 200 kilobits per second.

Whoa! That isn't even 4 times as fast as the standard 56k dial-up modem. For comparison's sake, Verizon's bottom-of-the-barrel DSL package provides a 768k connection. I suggest the FCC consider the marketplace when defining their terms. Come on guys, check out Economics 101 at your local community college for an exercise in fair market valuation.

So, in a nutshell, the NTIA has issued a report stating that Bush's broadband pledge is a success based on a measurement with limited value [only 1 provider per zip code] that uses invalid definitions [200kbps = broadband]. Nicely done! Um, not.

Yes, there has been significant progress in broadband availability, but to claim 99% penetration in the whole of the United States is ludicrous. Suffice it to say that I have two sets of parents living in 2 different states and neither of them have access to affordable broadband internet access that delivers comparable service to mine (3,000kbps). Ludicrous.

~tod

life: An optimist sees opportunities where a cynic sees obstacles...while a realist has a beer and says 'fuck it.'

Huh?

~tod