Astronaut Projects

Dee Hock on Hiring

2005-09-19T02:58:30Z

Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity;
second, motivation;
third, capacity;
fourth, understanding;
fifth, knowledge;
and last and least, experience.

Without integrity, motivation is dangerous;
without motivation, capacity is impotent;
without capacity, understanding is limited;
without understanding, knowledge is meaningless;
without knowledge, experience is blind.
Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities.

-Dee Hock on Management, M. Mitchell Waldrop, FC5, Oct:Nov 1996

Weekend Music - Marsalis Jazz

2005-09-17T20:53:09Z

Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition asked Mynton Marsalis what his five favorite jazz recordings are:

John Coltrane Quartet - Crescent (1964)
Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin (1958)
Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Monk Play Duke Ellington (1955)
Duke Ellington - The New Orleans Suite (1970)
Charlie Parker - One Night in Birdland (1950)

WSJ has some clips from these albums on their website.

[Just a reminder all my music links go to iTunes.]

WSJ Weekend Edition - Thumbs Up!

2005-09-17T20:39:35Z

Today is the launch of the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Edition. Free to subscribers, this paper comes on Saturdays. It is three sections deep.

The main news section up front. It has some nice weekly summaries and previews. Their Hot Topic looks like it will be interesting. It takes up about a half page and gives a great briefing of a weekly topic. This week it is the Roberts confirmation.

The second section is Money & Investing. This is the section I normally skip, but in the weekend version, you get a personal finance angle. The articles seemed a little too focused on high wealth strategies (hedge ideas to protect gains on your house and discount-broker package deals). The one thing it did get me to do is look through the market data. I think that will be a good thing to do on a weekly basis.

The final section is called Pursuits. This week they have everything from a review of the new Disney Park in Hong Kong to an extensive article on new restaurants opening around the country. They are going to have regular features on books, film, food and drink.

So, a big thumbs up!

I keep hounding all you business people to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. They have just given you another reason with the additional weekend coverage. Go get it now!

9 Tips For Change Agents

2005-09-16T19:48:24Z

Be open to data at the start. "Even if you think you know what you're doing, chances are you don't know what you could be doing. Open up your mind to as much new thinking as you can absorb. You may find different and better ideas than the ones your organization started with."
Network like crazy. "There is a network of people who are thinking about learning organizations. I've found you can get in touch with them easily. People say to me, `I can't believe you talked with so-and-so! How'd you do it?' The answer is, I called him."
Document your own learning. "People in the organization need to see documentation for their own comfort. The smartest thing I did was to create a matrix of ideas from leading thinkers. I documented two categories of thinking -- the elements of a learning organization, and the pitfalls to avoid."
Take senior management along. Turner's own education included benchmarking trips to Saturn, Texas Instruments, Motorola, General Electric, and other companies known for their innovative approaches to learning. "Some of the people in the senior group were very skeptical," Turner says. "It helped to take them on these benchmarking trips to show them other companies that were actually doing some of the same learning practices."
No fear! "You've got to be fearless and not worry about keeping your job."
Be a learning person yourself. "Change agents have to be in love with learning and constantly learning new things themselves. Then they find new ways to communicate those things to the organization as a whole."
Laugh when it hurts. "This can be very discouraging work. You need a good sense of humor. It also helps if you've got a mantra you can say to yourself when things aren't going too well."
Know the business before you try to change anything. "I don't think you can do this work if you're just a theorist. I've been a sales rep, I've been in a marketing job where I worked with the operations side. So when I go about the work of creating a change strategy, I already have an understanding of the people in our organization and what they do."
Finish what you start. "I made a list of change projects we'd started and never finished in the past. We called it 'the black hole.' I determined early on I didn't want to be part of a second-rate movie."

-9 Tips for Change Agents, Nicholas Morgan, FC5, Oct:Nov 1996

8 Principles for Learning

2005-09-15T13:56:21Z

These are learnings from a study put together by Xerox and the Institute for Research on Learning:

Learning is fundamentally social. "Many of the greatest benefits of training are unintentional. When you come out of a training program, you often perform better. But is it the training that's critical or the interaction during the training? You may be able to perform better simply because you have better relationships with people who you can now call."
Cracking the whip stifles learning. "If you are a supervisor and you see two people talking in the hallway, don't say, `Get back to work.' Recognize that this interaction creates a community of practice that stimulates learning -- and it may be precisely what they need."
Learning needs an environment that supports it. "XBS used to think of space in terms of cost-per-square-foot. When you look at a cubicle and you see that it's so small that another person can't get in there, you know something's wrong. For learning to flourish, you need to restructure the physical design of the office to encourage interaction, social learning, and peer learning where and when it happens most effectively -- informally."
Learning crosses hierarchical bounds. "Camp Lurn'ing included all levels of the company. Supervisors, fifth-line managers, and all kinds of operators train together. Inclusiveness inspires cross-functional learning -- it's a powerful motivating factor."
Self-directed learning fuels the fire. "Who knows better what needs to be learned than the people doing the learning? XBS has thrown out the model of HR-driven training. People have a say in structuring their own training, and that means they're more eager to learn."
Learning by doing is more powerful than memorizing. "At Camp Lurn'ing, participants used team simulation exercises in which they assessed customers and devised strategies. They recreated the work environment and learned by doing. This is much more effective than sitting at a desk and listening to a lecture."
Failure to learn is often the fault of the system, not the people. "Rather than blaming people for lack of motivation, examine how the situation is either motivating or debilitating. Look for patterns of participation and exclusion."
Sometimes the best learning is unlearning. "For a long time people have learned that it's best to keep their mouths shut and do what they're told, even if it's not consistent over time. The key is to break those habits and make engagement something that's not only encouraged but also rewarded."

-8 Principles for Learning, Christina Novicki, FC5, Oct:Nov 1996

50 Reasons Why We Can't Change

2005-09-15T02:57:01Z

We've never done it before.
Nobody else has ever done it.
It has never been tried before.
We tried it before.
Another company/person tried it before.
We've been doing it this way for 25 years.
It won't work in a small company.
It won't work in a large company.
It won't work in our company.
Why change--it's working OK.
The boss will never buy it.
It needs further investigation.
Our competitors are not doing it.
It's too much trouble to change.
Our company is different.
The ad department says it can't be done.
Sales department says it can't be done.
The service department won't like it.
The janitor says it can't be done.
It can't be done.
We don't have the money.
We don't have the personnel.
We don't have the equipment.
The union will scream.
It's too visionary.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
It's too radical a change.
It's beyond my responsibility.
It's not my job.
We don't have the time.
It will obsolete other procedures.
Customers won't buy it.
It's contrary to policy.
It will increase overhead.
The employees will never buy it.
It's not our problem.
I don't like it.
You're right, but...
We're not ready for it.
It needs more thought.
Management won't accept it.
We can't take the chance.
We'd lose money on it.
It takes too long to pay out.
We're doing all right as is.
It needs committee study.
Competition won't like it.
It needs sleeping on.
It won't work in this department.
It's impossible.

E.F. Borish,
Product Manager,
Milwaukee Gear Company,
Product Engineering Magazine
July 20, 1959
[This was published in the November 1993 prototype version of Fast Company].

Back to the Future - Introduction

2005-09-14T02:08:19Z

I have been reading back issues of Fast Company over the last week. I got some old issues from Jack and Tom. I now have issue 2 through 15, a smattering of 20 somethings, and everything from 45 on.

There is clearly material that is dated (articles about mouseballs and service that burn CD-ROMs for $100), but there are articles just as relevant today as they were written. I am going to highlight the stuff I ran across over the next couple of weeks.

Fast Company has always been great about making all of its material available for free, but reading it off the website doesn't hold a candle to reading it from the pages of the original magazine.

Ten Favorite TUAW posts

2005-09-12T01:40:47Z

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is giving away a Ipod Nano. The only thing you have to do is post your 10 all-time favorite posts from TUAW. So, here we go:

What are you listening to? - In this post, they asked everyone to look at their iTunes and post what their 5 most played songs were. This was great because it was community based, easy to do, and it was guaranteed to have accurate results (Here were my five).
The New York Times on Mac Geniuses and the Halo Effect - This was a great summary post that highlighted some great facts about the Genius Bars. I would have missed this had you not highlighted it.
Freeware February: Notational Velocity - I was watching every day for what new tools you could bring into my life. NV is wonderful and a integral part of my workflow now.
More birthday tributes for Steve - PodBrix are way cool and you brought them into my world.
MacDevCenter on 20 Cool Tiger Features - I was quick to upgrade to Tiger and mostly enjoyed Spotlight. This post showed me some other things I could appreciate by going to 10.4.
Make NetNewsWire Sing - This is the second most important program on my computer after Mail. This was a great tip and helped with slowdowns I was getting.
T-shirt bears quote from Jobs' Standford Speech - This was great for two reasons - the shirt is hilarious and you guys have a link to video of Jobs' speech (I didn't know I could watch it).
When was your Mac Born? - This was a cute post. For people who consider their Apple a part of their identity, it was a great way to become even more attached.
iTunes 5 shuffle got more random - I was always on the side that they must have some special programming built into the shuffle. I know it wasn't true, but it sure seemed like it. I found it really interesting to see them add it as a feature (and I saw it on TUAW first).
How to Create a podcast with .Mac - I liked the possibility of no bandwidth charges with putting my files up on .Mac. But what is great about this post is it referred to a TUAW post the day before that I had missed. The topic was how Apple just put a cap on bandwidth. It pushed me to pursue other avenues.

To summarize, TUAW helps me see things that I don't often have time to find myself.

Citizan Journalism of Katrina

2005-09-10T21:57:11Z

Alvaro was in New Orleans.

His photo album shows you the before, during and after of Katrina. Each photo has his commentary.

Worth checking out...

Hypomanic American

2005-09-10T17:47:06Z

I want to really encourage you to check out The Hypomanic American Manifesto over at ChangeThis.

Psychologist John Gartner theorizes that America is a little crazy and that this is driven by our immigrant history (you have to be a little crazy to leave everything behind for the hope something better). He goes on to say that this has a positive effect on the country. The strong streak of entrepreneurism we have in America is one result of all of this.

Apple PowerBook Carrying Case

2005-09-10T17:30:26Z

I had a short lived Typepad blog called The Switch. It's purpose was to talk about all the challenges associated with going from PC to Apple.

I am shutting down my Typepad account, because I do everything in Movable Type and I haven't updated any of the Typepad blogs I had in about six months.

One of the posts that generated alot of dicussion was around the best bag for your Powerbook. I wanted to capture here for posterity.

P.S. I went with the Tom Bihn Empire Builder and Brain Cell. Worth every penny.

******

This might seem like a trivial question, but I am going to be lugging the Powerbook around a lot.

I am not looking for a portable office, but rather something that can protect the Powerbook and have room for needed wires, a couple of files, and a notebook.

I was looking through the eBags website. I spent a lot of time reading the comments, but there weren't a lot specific to Powerbooks.

Remember, I have the 15" Powerbook G4.

What bags do you like?

Comments

ok todd, here's a list I culled for you from MacWorld, Dec. 2003 of some very cool bags:

www.goincase.com
www.kensington.com
www.macally.com - they have some nice ones at a good price.
www.willow-design.com
www.timbuk2.com - ultra-customizable, very cool
www.brenthaven.com
www.tombihn.com

Personally,I had a guy make me a custom sleeve, padded, with plastic inserts for rigidity, and surrounded in cordura. Closes with a big-ass piece of velcro. I throw it into a courier bag or back pack and it's good to go. This way if I change bags I am not losing the protection - I have a 15" powerbook, I think it cost me about $40cdn to have made. Hope this helps.

cheers - d.

Posted by: David | March 4, 2004 10:59 AM

All good choices

http://www.jrhillandcompany.com/ca06.asp
http://www.casauri.com/
http://www.acmemade.com/
http://www.crumplernyc.com/public/home.ehtml

Not necessarily for Mac but cool fashion: http://www.clivebags.com/

You will definitely want a wrap or pad that goes around the PB - the screens cost about 90% of cost of original to replace - no way to repair if it cracks.

Posted by: jbelkin | March 4, 2004 11:41 AM

www.tombihn.com would be my choice.

Posted by: Mike Strock | March 4, 2004 12:14 PM

Take a look at Waterfield Designs:

http://www.sfbags.com/

I've got one of his cargo bags and it's really nice, although it's probably larger than what you're looking for.

Posted by: Mark | March 4, 2004 02:35 PM

My two favorites are the Laptrap and the Moya by Incase--their site is being reworked, so you may have to use a search engine to look it over. Or try and look at the selection there.

Posted by: Bruce E. Durocher II | March 4, 2004 04:33 PM

For my $$$ Brenthaven.

Posted by: Jeffsters | March 4, 2004 06:57 PM

Zero Halliburton. There's nothing better. I've had the same attache sized Zero for about 6 years now from my Wallstreet to Pismo to TiBook and it's taken an incredible beating whithout transferring so much as a scratch to the PB within. They can be a bit on the pricey side, but they're well worth it.

www.zerohallidburton.com

The Z and DZ lines seem to be the current computer offerings.

Posted by: deraven | March 4, 2004 06:59 PM

I use a sleeve (in my case, the extremely silly and stylish Crumpler School Hymn in silver leather) around the Powerbook, after which I toss it into a canvas briefcase that looks nothing like a laptop bag (mine is a Lands End square rigger). There's plenty of room for all my other stuff as well and cables. I really do recommend choosing a bag that people don't expect to have a laptop in it, but you must protect the Powerbook as well.

Posted by: Alison Scott | March 5, 2004 07:42 AM

Tom Bihn.
I've been through several others.
The Tom Bihn bags have a rigid padded shell that cradles the powerbook inside the bag. It appears to offer much more protection that padding alone. Construction is good, cost not out of line.

Posted by: Ian Lind | March 5, 2004 08:09 AM

Big vote for the incase bags. They're sold at the Apple stores and online at www.goincase.com. They use this incredible fabric I've never seen anywhere else, and are sleeker than any other designs. I've been using one for my iBook for nearly three years, and it still looks and feels great. Good luck!

Posted by: Adam Bezark | March 5, 2004 08:41 AM

Try booq for good designs in the backpack/sling arena. Their sleeve cases are also quite good.

Waterfield makes good sleevecases; I'm not a fan of their designs.

If you want fashion, check out Jack Spade.

If you want pure functionality, go with Timbuk2 and their sleeves. Totally customizable.

For coolness, I'd check out Freitag:
freitag.ch

The others seem hokey, and have no style.

-art director-with-bag-fetish

Posted by: reason | March 5, 2004 06:05 PM

just got a bag at willow...the best bag ever..shame they're closing up shop...clearance prices are very good....

this is highly recommended

Posted by: dixon | March 5, 2004 07:21 PM

I use an InCase sleeve inside a California Pak bag. Total cost was less than $50 (bought the InCase used and CalPak new).

Posted by: e. | March 6, 2004 06:44 AM

I've been very pleased with the STM sport laptop backback. Its rugged but attractive, and has protected my 15" PB through a few hard knocks. The Australian manufacturer is user-friendly and replaced for free a plastic buckle that was cracked by a slammed car door.

See picture: http://www.etravelergear.com/sporlapbac.html

Posted by: Paul Fox | March 7, 2004 07:45 AM

Trager have some great bags. Their Seattle Messenger started it all. They have a hard sleeve Transpod which fits a 15" Powerbook and slips inside a satchell. They are well made and will go the distance.

Posted by: Mark Daley | May 10, 2004 01:51 AM

Check out http://www.bagreview.com

They have many, many reviews of laptop bags from more cos. than you can imagine. They also sell some of their samples.

Posted by: Chris Edwards | May 12, 2004 02:53 PM

Well, I like this one.
http://www.humanbeans.net/powerpizza/index.html

Posted by: anonymous | June 24, 2004 08:43 AM

Technorati Tags: apple, tombihn

Weekend Music - Cool Tool Called Pandora

2005-09-10T16:53:02Z

Zane deliver me a wonderful new tool this morning.

It is called Pandora. All you have to do is tell it an artist or song and will start playing other songs that matches the musical DNA of your choice. It creates your own personal radio stations.

Once decision.
Simple interface.
Great marketing by using product sampling: you get to listen for 10 hours for free.
Compelling pricing: It is $36 per year.

Long live the Long Tail!

Glorious Football Returns

2005-09-09T20:56:58Z

The only sport I watch religiously is professional football. I have been a life long Packers fan and Sunday the Green and Gold return to the field. There are playing the Detriot Lions at Ford Field.

The easy pick for the media right now seems to be that the Packers are going to have a disappointing season. WSJ had something on that. The local media is all over it. Brett is over the hill. They have had too many losses on the offensive line. The secondary is just as bad as they were last year. Whatever.

Like no other player in the NFL, when Brett Favre is on the field, you always have a chance to win the game. Sometimes, he pushes it and starts throwing INTs, but you take the good with the bad. It is the risks that he takes that make him who he is. Consider these stats from the Wisconsin State Journal:

Of his 225 consecutive starts (including playoffs), the Packers are 73-8 (a .901 winning percentage) when he doesn't throw an interception; 48-31 (.608) when he throws one; 18-16 (.529) when he throws two; and 7-18 (.280) when he throws three. They've never won when he's thrown four or more in a game (0-6).

GO PACK GO!

Happy (Belated) Anniversary

2005-09-09T18:08:41Z

This was suppose to go up on Tuesday, but new babies can make free time scare.

I have been married to Amy for seven years today.

We have one of those stories that is hard to believe. Let's just say we were meant to be together.

Amy and I both attended Michigan universities (UofM and Michigan Tech, respectively) and both studied mechanical engineering.

We both got co-op positions with Dow Chemical. I spent a summer in Fresno, CA making Ziploc bags. She spent the next summer there. She even found stuff in the desk that I left. It was a little odd because it was a set of photos from the Winter Carnival at Tech. All the pictures were of snow sculptures. She asked where they came from and somebody said, "Oh, those must have been from Todd Sattersten." She put the pictures back and didn't think much more of it.

Upon graduation, we both took jobs with General Electric and both got positions in their Manufacturing Management Program. She spent her first year in Louisville and I spent mine in Roanoke. With only about 100 people on the program, we heard each other's names in passing, but that was about it.

The program was set-up so that people rotated after 12 months to a new location. The timing was never perfect, so you sometimes you had a chance to met others who were rotating in. Darla showed up in Roanoke about two weeks before I was off to Columbus. At the last minute, I needed someone to help drive my car while I drove my truck of belongings. Darla was best friend's with Amy in Louisville.

Amy had taken a job in Peterbrough, Ontario. In a call to catch up, she asked what Darla was doing for the coming weekend. "Oh, I am helping this guy, Todd Sattersten get moved up to Columbus."

That was the final straw for Amy. "Darla, I need this guy's number. I have to call him."

I came home one night and found a message on the machine - "Hello. My name is Amy Buckley. You don't know me, but we need to talk. Call me."

For whatever reason, I called her back. We talked for about an half hour.

That led to email (remember this is 1995, so it is mainframe email).
And that led to more calls (international long distance calls, before the rates got cheap).
And that led her driving down to meet up with a bunch of GE folks in Columbus.
And that led to me driving to see her.
And that led to more international telephone calls.
And that led to plane trips back and forth.

Fast forward a year - we moved in together.
Fast two forward two more years - we got married.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

(We'll tell you about the wedding some time. It was pretty cool.)

Notational Velocity

2005-09-06T01:45:08Z

If you are a Mac user, I want to strongly recommend Notational Velocity.

It is just an outstanding program for taking notes.

Cool parts of NV:

Everything you type is automatically saved.
All of your notes are immediately acessible in one place. I have teleconference instructions, to-do lists, and conference session notes.
If you type words in the top box, it will search your notes and show you matches. That can help eliminate you starting another note for something you already have.

It is another example of a simple elegant app designed to do a simple set of things.