Why do people try so hard to make simple stupid things sound important?
I'm putting up an electric fence around my rose garden as a deer deterrant. Lowe's had a package of danger signs which I purchased to warn away children and neighbors, should they wander near the fence. A plastic yellow sign which says "Electric Fence" (in three languages, for well travelled deer) seemed self-explanatory, but nooo...this is so much more...
The packaging points out that they have "two holes in top for fastening to fence wire" which I thought was nice of them. But it continues, "or for nailing to wood post." Wow! Without those holes I couldn't have done it.
Lest you think I'm being over-critical, let me share the final line of the description. "MADE OF RUSTPROOF PLASTIC." I'll sleep well tonight knowing my plastic signs will never rust.
What will them thar Tennessee folks (Fi-Shock inc) think of next? Dehydrated powder?
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Manual Arts
John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin) was on GMA this morning promoting Pixar's new Ratatouille film. His other comments were most notable to me. He started the "Nuts, Bolts, and Thingamajigs Foundation" to foster manual skills required by industries.
http://www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org/
See http://www.ratzenberger.com
http://www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org/
His book, Made in America, honors skilled labor within the United States. The following excerpt caught my attention:
ON WORKERS: The manual arts always has and always will take precedence over the fine arts. Everything physical that the fine arts depends on—from theaters to canvases to printing and binding—depends on the manual arts. Educators who make the rules have bought into the popular notion that we’ve moved out of an industrial economy and into an information age, and therefore, they think, every student has to be educated in the same cookie-cutter way that ignores the importance of manual skills.
See http://www.ratzenberger.com
I guess I should at least look for his show on the Discovery Channel.
Information Systems
The most important part of an information system is not what features it has, it is who uses the system. Wherever your network of people and information resides, that is where you must be to operate effectively.
The World Wide Web is an information system. The world participates and search engines like google make it useful. It'd be technically simple to create an all new WWW and use a different port and protocol, but futilely ignorant. The world uses the WWW. Join the system or be irrelevant.
Wikipedia.org is effective because that is the wiki that the world updates. There must be millions of other public wikis, but they don't work as well as wikipedia...because the people use wikipedia. It is an information system all its own. Join the system or be irrelevant to it.
Digg, Delicious, and reddit are information systems for labelling and sharing information on the Internet. These systems can be useful when that is where the people and information reside. Same with myspace,facebook,live spaces,xanga, and tons of others. Which tools will eventually win over the people? Those will be the ones with relevance.
How many information systems exist within your organization? How do you migrate people from one system to another? Every system has it's strengths and weaknesses, so 100% buy in is impossible when you suggest any "upgrade." The result is a splintered mess of information systems which do not work. The solution is seldom technical. The solution lies with the people.
The World Wide Web is an information system. The world participates and search engines like google make it useful. It'd be technically simple to create an all new WWW and use a different port and protocol, but futilely ignorant. The world uses the WWW. Join the system or be irrelevant.
Wikipedia.org is effective because that is the wiki that the world updates. There must be millions of other public wikis, but they don't work as well as wikipedia...because the people use wikipedia. It is an information system all its own. Join the system or be irrelevant to it.
Digg, Delicious, and reddit are information systems for labelling and sharing information on the Internet. These systems can be useful when that is where the people and information reside. Same with myspace,facebook,live spaces,xanga, and tons of others. Which tools will eventually win over the people? Those will be the ones with relevance.
How many information systems exist within your organization? How do you migrate people from one system to another? Every system has it's strengths and weaknesses, so 100% buy in is impossible when you suggest any "upgrade." The result is a splintered mess of information systems which do not work. The solution is seldom technical. The solution lies with the people.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Life's Lessons
Years ago while I was working as a software engineer at a small company I was reminded to respect those who take pride in their craft...by the janitor. I had moved my pc and was wiping the dust off my desk (as any anal-retentive engineer might do) when the janitor appeared in my cubicle doorway. He was quite put out by the fact that I was cleaning my own desk. It took a bit to sink in what this man was telling me. He was quite proud of the way he did his job. Cleaning was his duty and he took it very seriously. I've thought back to that moment many times. Take pride in what you do to gain the respect of others.
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