Back on the bus -- lots going on, and a bunch of crunch...

You can't build a house with a rubber hammer.
Okay, I got a new job and love it. Back to the creamy-centered core with the old crew. the workshop The project is coming along nicely, but we're flying under the radar so I can't discuss it. We've got engaged customers, and a system to build from the roots-up -- but not a whole lot of time to build it. This is agile development from the trenches. Basically, we brainstorm often and communicate a lot. We figure out what we need to do in manageable chunks, divy-up tasks and get right to it. We don't do a great deal of documentation just yet either.

I'm staring at one of the new Dell 24" panels, with a Dell820 (Dual chips, 2Gb RAM, and all the fixin's) under the hood. Still stuck on WindowsXP, but that's okay for now.

Riding on the right bus...
You know things are going well for a company when employees are happy, collaborative, and courteous to each other, and the kitchen is stocked better than your favorite grocery store. It's really nice to have a window seat because it provides opportunity for perspective.

A good working environment, good communication, the right tools. These are some of the things that make great companies great. Great companies make great products. These are basic but critical factors that tend to lead to success.

You can build things with a good hammer. Just about everyone likes a good bus ride. Everyone likes success.

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

Check out these fun Mac-mods (why is it that Mac folks tend to mod, and others maybe not so much?) for Halloween!

Mac-o-lantern
http://www3.uark.edu/bkst/macmod/index.htm

Pumputer 1.0
http://www.rendered-dreams.com/pumputer


Have fun, and be safe out there. Here's some helpful safety tips...

Children's Halloween Safety Tips for Trick-or-Treating

Yankee Halloweens excellent list of Halloween Safety Tips
 I'm not sure about this caution though... "DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT wear and use rollerblades to go out trick-or-treating" -- what if I'm planning to be "a rollerblader" this year?



:P


And for the next day...
Info on "upset stomach", or "indigestion"

Cool Stuff Reviews - Products & Services: ScrapBlog, Verizon, and DirecTV

ScrapBlog is Scrap-a-licious!
This ScrapBlog tool is just amazing. You can assemble artwork, photos, or anything else into slideshows and mess with this little gem for hours. Flash 9 required, but worth the upgrade.

You can set permissions, create an rss feed, blast emails to share with contacts. Tools include crop, add link, edit photo, shadow, grid and more. The Scrapblog application also comes with some backgrounds, stickers, text, frames, and shapes -- and you can add more as you need them. Just get some photos and get started!

Verizon Quick Review:
By the way I switched my ISP to Verizon in August and its great. I get 15Mbs. bandwidth via fiber and its fast -- this old machine can't really take full advantage of it though. The install was free, but they had to put the dish on my roof rather than the side of the house to get the best angle to the satellite. I'll check it when I clean the gutters in the Fall and Spring. So far, I'm really happy with the service and it's a little cheaper than my previous ISP.

DirecTV Quick Review:
I also get DirecTV and its really good, unless the weather's rotten. I'm not as impressed about the NFL Sunday Ticket as I thought I'd be because it seems like I'm not getting as many games as I should (sometimes the games are "not in my area" or something). Having
the "mix" channels is cool too because you get to see small screens of the most popular channels being watched for several categories: Kids Mix, Sports Mix, and the News Mix for example. You can switch the audio for the screen you want to listen to, and select the channel from there.