Looks like I won an award!

I think this is the first award I've received. Uh, yes, I think it is. Thanks RSS Pundit for bestowing this wonderful award on my post.

Please take a moment to visit the RSS Pundit site and read about all the winners here.

I think this is a very import award and I will be proud to display the logo.

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It happened just like I predicted it would

I have been feverishly working on systems that will allow me to be more mobile in my real estate business. I know, I could hire an assistant, but when a client calls and wants to talk about a specific paragraph in a contract and you don't have access to it, you're going to be in trouble. Take for example my day today:

Mind you it's two days before Christmas and I have never, ever, had this much business even the week before Christmas. But, I was trying to get one client into a home today and negotiate a purchase contract for another. My problem? The FAX. Yes, the FAX. Why? Because I needed to pass copies of signed documents from one client to the next. The problem isn't with FAX documents themselves, it's the total archaic technology used to create them. After one or two passes through a fax machine the quality is degraded to a point you can't read anything.

What I really want, no, what I really need, is an application that would allow me to store an encrypted signature of my clients, or anyone’s clients, post a document on a website for them to sign, they log in, open the document, attach the digital signature, and viola, a signed document that is still completely readable. Now, I as a Realtor can log into this same application via my mobile phone, PDA or computer, locate the documents and send them to the next person via email, fax or printer.

HINT: Print or save all your client documents to PDF format, buy a large SD or CF card, or a large USB Thumb Drive, create folders for each client and store their documents on one of these devices. Why? Quick access to them at almost any PC or PDA.

HINT: Use a service like uReach to mange all your fax documents. You can get to them via the phone or web. I do as described above and create folders for each of my clients and store their documents online. Then I can email or fax right from my PC and I don't need to stand a fax machine.

So, how does all this apply to Real Estate 2.0? This industry generates so much paper we are literally swimming in it. We need to come up with a way to reduce the killing of trees and reducing the amount of time it takes to complete a transaction. We have the technology, now we just need to apply it in the right places.

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RSS and Real Estate

My good friend Kip and I talk about RSS and it's coming impact on business often. While Kip is fairly new but aggressive in the blogosphere, I on the other hand have been blogging for almost 5 years now. January on 2001 is when I made my first weblog post.I don't use or have access to posts from years past but it would be nice. That got me thinking... what about archiving RSS/ATOM feeds for future reference. I mean it is only XML text, it's not like we need to real post. Of course if you only share an excerpt then you could have a problem.

I recommend you create a second feed that contain all your posts and off load it somewhere for safe keeping (you could also offer this feed as an archive online for your readers.) If you ever think you might change blogging software or hosts or you can't export post from your blogging software then this is a great alternative.

Thinking at this from a business perspective, there are a lot of things you could archive in static RSS feeds; company reports, old articles and white papers, podcasts (you are podcasting, right?) and many other things.

Now to the part where RSS and Real Estate meet. As the real estate business continues to change and more information is online, Realtors should look at ways to stay informed with the smallest amount of effort. Enter RSS. I am going to coin phrase here (Kip, are you listening?), I'm going to call it Real Estate 2.0. The web has it's 2.0, so does software, and there is Business 2.0 and 2.0 version of just about everything. But I think we are just about to release Real Estate 2.0. As the baby boomers become less and less interested in purchasing real estate we can turn a larger portion of our marketing budget and efforts to the GenX crowd. This is the next major generation to make large investments in Real Estate. And most of them have grown up with computers as part of their every day lives.

Real Estate 2.0 will consist of many technologies and I think RSS will be an important one. Personally I'm in the process of bringing a new technology to market using RSS that will make real estate information on the Internet consistent and valuable. Because as agents we must make our services valuable or we won't be around very long.

I believe the days of it being just about "you" are pretty much gone. When a perspective buyer can get about 90% of the data they need to make a purchasing decision online, it only means one thing, if you aren't in some way offering valuable services via the Internet to the GenX crowd you will begin to lose market share. I don't care what you are doing right now; it isn't going to work very much longer.

In a future post, probably the next one, I'm going to talk about websites and why agents grossly over state their success and how you can overcome that. My job will be to help you, with real world practical experience begin to make a move towards Real Estate 2.0, and the closer I get to releasing this new RSS technology I will begin to share the vision and the value which you can use to build a larger consistent and profitable lead generation system, all using RSS.

** Update 12/18/2005 **
I was lurking through my RSS reader tonight and came across this post on Freshblog. I have used many of the hacks from this site. Anyway, John talks about using OPML as a standard way of importing/exporting blog content. I wanted to update this post since I basically bring up the same point. Anyway, here is the post.

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First snow for the new dog

This is the first time our new dog has seen snow. He can't figure out why he keeps sliding.



See more photos here

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Mr. Miyagi and TDD

Today I was reading this great article on TDD. In the article Scott makes reference to the Karate Kid and how Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel the "wax on, wax off" technique. Later in the day I found this article. Seems actor Pat Morita has passed away. He was great in his role in Karate Kid and other acting gigs. Sayônara Mr. Miyagi.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

As is tradition with my family, we attended a movie, and for the past few years it has been a Harry Potty movie, and this year was the Goblet of Fire. Why, I'm not sure. I haven't read all the books, I'm in book 3, last few chapters. But my kids love it and they have read all the books. I know when I've read a book prior to the movie I have a certain level of expectation from the movie and I'm usually disappointed. Since I haven't read the Goblet of Fire yet, but I expected to see the same thing as the others. But it wasn't.

You can definitely see the maturity of the actors finally coming through. You can also see the directors are getting comfortable with the story and the expectation. The movie was great. This time around it was all about the clumsy Harry, Ron and Hermione. They actually had substance and there were a lot more supporting roles that played a bigger part. The story seemed to have breadth the others didn't.

So, our usual Thanksgiving movie was better than I expected. But, even if it wasn't I was having fun with the family.

Categories: movies

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Creating an RSS Feed with IceRocket

First you want to go to this URL http://rss.icerocket.com/. Once you're there create a free account. It only takes about 5 minutes and then you're on your way.

Start with their 3 step process. First, create a channel. This is basically the details on your RSS feed. The channel link is basically where you want someone to go when they click on your feed link. I just choose the main URL like http://www.thomallen.com/blog.

Next, you will want to add content. What I did was take the first paragraph of a press release and put that in the Entry Summary field. in the Entry Link I added the URL to the actual press release. This way when the reader clicks on the entry link they will be taken to the main thomallen.com site.

The last step is to publish your RSS feed. You can do a couple of things here. The first is to host the actual XML on your server. This requires you to upload the file via FTP. What I would recommend at first is to let IceRocket host the feed. They give you a URL that basically generates the RSS (XML) on the fly. In the future when your feed gets larger or you want to customize it more, you should think about hosting it on your own server.

IceRocket provides an XML button to add to your site which allows someone to add the RSS feed to their reader. That's about all there is to it. Then, every time you add new content, you just log into IceRocket, add the Entry Summary and the URL to the full page and then save. The next time someone refreshes their reader your new post will be available.

The whole process took me about 15 minutes from start to finish. If you are in the market to create an RSS feed from content that isn't related to a blog, this is a great solution.

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Talking in the 3rd person

The guy that owns this blog wants to post tonight about people who write in the 3rd person. Why in the hell do people do this? Is it supposed to sound more professional? It's like if you write in the 3rd person I'm supposed to believe or agree with what you write?

Bull. Writing about yourself in the 3rd person only makes seem a little self centered and unbelievable. Just say it like it is. Writing in the 3rd person won't make me believe you.

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Another hockey day

The Av's did pretty good today winning 3-2 over Dallas. Dallas is a tough team and I didn't think we could pull out a win.

As I was reading other hockey news I came across this story. Uh yeah, it's stupid not to be wearing a facemask in the NHL today. If you take too many objects to the head at 95 MPH you bound to have a
problem. So yeah, wear the damn thing. If I we're the owner and I had invested several million dollars in a player you can bet your ass he'd be wearing a full face mask and
helmet. I don't care how tough the guy thinks he is. It's just common sense.

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Google Reader, oh my!

I'm a bloglines user, for now. Have you seen Google Reader yet? Wow, nice. Same awesome simple interface that seems to have great usability. I'm giving it a go for a while.

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Hockey is back, my team tanks!

I'm a casual Hockey fan, not nearly as addicted as Robert, but I love to watch. I root for the Colorado Avalanche, no real reason; I just started rooting for them. Looking at the scores across the score boards, the teams are a little rusty.

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Free software isn’t really free

<soapbox>
If you're going to offer free software, just let me download it. If you want my email address to so you can make some money selling it to spammers, tell me, I'm likely to give you a throw away email address anyway. But when you want me to fill in my address, date of birth, income level, gender, and numerous other things that you obviously have no reason to have, you just piss me off and make me not want to try your software. If I like I'm going to pay. If I don't I won't. But
asking me all kinds of personal information will always make me lie or try something else.
</soapbox>

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. I really wanted to try this recommended software program called Cmap. But just as I stated above, if you want too much information just to download a program you're going to give me for free then you're not really giving it to me for free. Information isn't cheap and personal information is very expensive. Try again my friends. And for anyone else out there requiring a large amount of personal data just to download, why don't you give Sourceforge.net a try. At least I know you really support an open source or free software model.

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Do you foos?

I was reminded about a great video on foosball. Here's the link.
There is one great line in this little commercial that says "The verocity of his beatdowns would be the stuff of legends." This is so great.

Had a great foosball match at work yesterday. Here are some photos.

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Get GmailThis

If you're an avid Gmail user like I am, you need to get your hands on this little ditty.

There have been numerous times where was reading a web page and thought I wanted to email someone about it. I had to stop reading, load up Gmail, find the address, copy the link and they send it off. It was just a hassle. Now you can send off email easily.

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Does RSS need a pundit?

My good friend Kip started a blog recently. His goal and or mission is to learn about and share information on how business could benefit from RSS and ATOM type content systems. I like the title RSSPundit. I'm not sure that RSS needs a pundit
but if it does Kip's your man. I think more companies should take a look at using RSS to distribute all kinds of data. With the advent of podcasting it's becoming easier and easier to distribute more than just text to anyone who wants to listen, read or interact.

Kip and I had a short discussion on RSS yesterday and how we thought our company could integrate the technology into our marketing and product offerings. He had recently visited the Blog Business Summit and I'm sure came away with some really great ideas.

According to Wikipedia a pundit is someone who is an expert on a subject. I'm sure Kip will work diligently to become an expert on RSS in the corporate world. Please take some time to read Kip's blog. Oh and Kip, seeing how your blog is focused on RSS feeds, I thought I would help you get a feed on your site so others can read your awesome blog.

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Real time flight info

This is so cool. My wife was flying back from New York and I wanted to know if JetBlue had updates on their web site about flights. Sure enough, there is a place to enter the flight number and up pops a ton of information, like current air speed, altitude, departure time, arrival time, and the best part, a real time graphic that shows you the flight pattern and the current location.

This technology would be great for things like buses, trains, and even your own vehicles (which I know already exist.)

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For my reading and viewing pleasure

I picked up a couple of new items today. The first is the Star Trek: Voyager Season 2, Disks 3 and 4 (of 7) on DVD of course. I've been waiting a few weeks for them to come into the library.

The second is a book called Extreme Programming Adventures in C#. I first saw
this book on the XProgramming.com
web site. Since I'm learning more and more about xtreme programming and agile
development in general I thought this would be a good book to read.

The few hours a day I spend riding the bus has allowed me to make some pretty good head way in studying my next MCSD.Net test, 70-300, Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .Net Solution Architectures. It's a pretty broad subject and covers a lot of skills I know. Now it's making sure I understand them the way Microsoft intended.

Interestingly enough I started working on a couple of use cases I forgot I had committed to creating for two features in the product I have been working on for the past year. I learned a few things about use cases that I didn't really understand before. According to the study guide I'm reading (Microsoft Press), an Actor can also be "an entity, such as another system or database, that resides outside the system." In my applications case, there are a couple of external "actors" I didn't think about until I read the chapter on Use Cases.

Changed my site a little bit again. Since the Blog is the focal point I decided to make it the actual landing page. We'll see how that goes for a while.

I know links are king when it comes to blog posts but right now I'm too tired to try and find the Amazon links for the Voyager DVD.

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Marines Prayer

Marine’s Prayer

Almighty Father, whose command is over all and whose love never fails, make me aware of Thy presence and obedient to Thy will. Keep me true to my best self, guarding me against dishonesty in purpose and deed and helping me to live so that I can face my fellow Marines, my loved ones, and Thee without shame or fear. Protect my family.

Give me the will to do the work of a Marine and to accept my share of responsibilities with vigor and enthusiasm. Grant me the courage to be proficient in my daily performance. Keep me loyal and faithful to my superiors and to the duties my Country and the Marine Corps have entrusted to me. Help me to wear my uniform with dignity, and let it remind me daily of the traditions which I must uphold.

If I am inclined to doubt, steady my faith; if I am tempted, make me strong to resist; if I should miss the mark, give me courage to try again.

Guide me with the light of truth and grant me wisdom by which I may understand the answer to my prayer.

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Listening to the sounds

My Wife bless her heart is learning to play the piano. It's
wonderful. She plays on a piano that she inherited from her deceased Mother. We
have had that piano for almost 10 years. All three of my daughters have had
piano lessons but never really got into it. But my Wife is discovering a lot of
hobbies as she finds more time on her hands. This is funny because she really
doesn’t have that much extra time. But she's finding it.

I'm sitting here in the office while she is playing in the living room. It's beautiful.
It's mostly hunt and peck at the moment. But she is giving it her all. I can
tell that she is really trying to learn the music. Understand the notes. Get a
feel for the keyboard. I'm proud of her.

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9/11 Remembered

Remembering those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001

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Beating 30 days

So I thought I would post today, duh! It's been exactly 1 month since my last. Forgive me Father!

A lot of stuff has happened in a month so I will try and put everything in bullet points.

1. Trying to shift career gears is like trying to turn a very large ship. It could take

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The library isn’t quite anymore

I went to the library tonight in hopes of finding a quite place to start writing down some ideas for the first chapter of my book. The library I frequent is one of the largest and busiest in the city and it's a Monday night, which always means lost of people.

When I was growing up I remember the librarian's shushing anyone if they were talking to loud or asking them to leave if they got out of hand. Not any more. There were at least 8 library staff members in the main area of the library and the noise level was so bad that I couldn't even concentrate. They were basically ignoring the noise.

The question I always have is why? Is it impossible to keep people from talking at a level so distracting? Is the library staff to timid to ask people to keep quite?

I will cover something similar in the first chapter of my book, respect and boundaries, which most kids and adults seem to have forgotten exists.

Filed under: writing

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Finished my first Harry Potter audio book

I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books although I've seen (and own) all the movies. When the sixth book came out I thought it would be a good time to read them. I decided to listen to them on tape instead since I travel to and from the office alone, I figured it would be a great way to pass an hour a day.

I finished the audio’s today and I must admit the book is a lot different than the movie. Sure the plot line is basically the same, but I like the nuances that J.K. Rowling adds to each of the characters. On the screen you see them as facial expressions or passing glanced. And in many cases you miss the little things all together because there is just too much happening on the screen. That is where the book makes a big difference.

I liked the book and the narrator and I have my hands on book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Filed under: books

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Iraq war, is it still a war?

As a former Marine, stories like this make me sick and mad.

I'm a supporter of our troops. Not the war, or so called war. I was for the removal of a dictator who clearly harboured terrorist that were making more plans to attack the US. I also believe that the Iraqi dictators were making and or selling weapons technology to other terrorist countries.

But I feel it's time to step out of that area. Let the people of Iraq defend their country. If they really want freedom then they will have to fight for it. Take a stand.

Filed under: military

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How do you file your thoughts?

I read this in a newsgroup today. Someone trying to be technical without really knowing what they are talking about.

"What happens next time the logorythems change in Google?" ... logorythems?

Seeing how I needed to post about something today, I recall a conversation my wife and I had the other day. She really hates it when she starts to tell me something and I say "oh yeah, I heard that, or oh yeah I read that..." It drives her crazy. I have really been trying hard to let her tell me things she learns. It's important that she know things before I do. Anyway, what I was thinking was why is it that I know these things and how can I recall them? I mean I'm no Ken Jennings, but I do know a lot of current events and like staying on top of things. I guess the reason I know so much about current events it the fact that I interface with a computer all day. I have access to news and weblogs when ever I want.

But the conversation we had was how each of us store things we see, hear, smell, tast, everything. Somethings are stored in short term memory and we don't have to think very hard to recall them. Others are stored long term and take more of an effort remember them. Here is what I do. Everything piece of information I come across that I may want to remember I associate it with a picture or phrase. Things I want to remember frequently I try and store a hyperlink to it in my short term memory.

Why I am able to remember these things? I think comes from years of reading technical books and developing software. But I really think it's just that I see it all the time, every day, every where.

Filed in: technology

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TiVo and Vonage working at last

I finally got my TiVo DVR to dial out using Vonage after trying several options. Admittedly it's because my brother has the same setup and he spent two hours figuring it out. So thanks little brother.

Here is what ended up working for me:

Phone line from back of TiVo DVR to Linksys Vonage Router (Phone 1)

RJ45 cable running from back of Linksys router to Belkin Wireless Router which is hooked to my Comcast DSL Cable Modem.

Using 2122773895

Dialing prefix of *99,,#019,,

Selected Tone

Check for phone line in use off

Check for dial tone off

Save and test. Viola! It worked.

Not sure why this is cool other than I don't have to run a phone line to the TiVo where there isn't one. Thanks again Bro!

Filed in: tivo | technology

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Chiming in on Performance Appraisals

I've been told and have read numerous accounts of prospective employers seeking out a candidates weblog to determine their personality, character and communication ability. I hope that never happens to me, but it could. This might be one of those posts that could get me into trouble but I feel the need to chime in.

I was reading a great post on Talking Story about abolishing the Annual Performance Review. There are many reasons I agree with this movement and hope more people push their companies to stop using them against their employees.

Depending on the type of work you do, performance may be easy to measure. If you work on an assembly line and you put together widgets, and your quota is 100 widgets a day, then you can measure how many you build in a day and measure performance. But what if your job performance is subjective? If you're a writer your deliverables may be the total number of stories, the total number of words, deadlines and so on. But in the end, is actual delivery the best way to measure performance? I say no, and here's why.

I believe quality goes hand in hand with performance. You can't just throw 100 widgets in the box and ship them. They need to be checked for completeness and meeting design criteria. Anything less is a failure of the product and the person building it. The same can be said for a writer. Just because I make a deadline or produce 5 stories with eight hundred to a thousnad words each a week doesn't mean they have any value to the reader. How do you measure those things?

I know I have strayed off the performance review thought, but it's all tied together. The one thing most companies miss with performance reviews is the coaching or mentoring that should come with them. If for instance you and an employee agree on a set of tasks that they will be measured against, you, as a manager, need to make sure they have all the tools and skills necessary to accomplish the tasks. Please don't use the lame excuse that "they should be motivated enough to learn the skills on their own." It won't happen. Why? Because most people need help reaching the next level. They don't want goals or tasks that are menial. They want something challenging. If you are letting your employees get away with menial tasks then that's your fault as well.

The reason I would say the annual performance review should be abolished is because it's counter productive. Whether you like it or not people need to be praised. They need slaps on the back in front of their peers. They need to know you appreciate their efforts. They also need to know in private when they aren't reaching their potential. Having charge over other brings a responsibility to improve their abilities, not just point out flaws. Work with them, help them be the best they can. If you can't, then managing people isn't your cup of tea and you should hand it off to someone else.

Please read this article and the other links that are on that page. Join the movement.

Filed in: job | management

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Thinking about writing a book

I've had this idea about writing a series of books. My Father actually put the seed in my head. His idea was very simplistic and made some sense, but of course I felt like I had no time for a new project.

My thoughts have been on what value could I offer in a book, and what would the topics be. My Fathers idea? "Write about what you know. You're a successful Father, raising children, working a job, running a business. You have a lot of experience and insight that could be shared." He's right I do. I have all of those things. But what value could they be to other "Fathers" or prospective "Fathers"?

A few days ago I was watching a television and noticed several shows had portrayed men in general, but focused on Fathers, that we weren't dependable, we were mean, couldn't love our children, and would most likely abandon our families for the "good life". The good life being a dead end job in a rat infested apartment on the wrong side of town and can't make child support payments.

There are far too many Fathers who go above and beyond for their families. Many who go un-noticed, un-thanked and completely selfless. This is the type of stories I want to write about. Positive male role models. I'm not talking about billionaire athletes or platinum musicians. I'm talking about real life every day hero's, Dad's, the ones who carry families on their backs, and do it with the love and gratitude every day. It's where they want to be and there is nothing more important than making sure his family has everything they need.

So hopefully I can get some ideas flowing. I hope to use my blog here to start. I could use comments, encouragement, stories, experiences. Share with me what makes you, the Dad, want to be a Dad.

Filed in: writing | father

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Follow up to rolling my own categories

I spent some time yesterday researching how others have implemented categories when using Blogger. Freshblog provided the best resources, for me anyway, on the subject. There were several choices and many other links to Blogger hacks.

So the scenario basically works like this. Because Blogger doesn't support categories, and I wanted to give my readers (um, the one guy who stops by every so often) a way to search for specific topics without having to read through all the archives. Setting out to find a solution brought me to Freshblog.

I first thought I could just add some categories as text at the bottom of each post then my site could be searched for key words. But, that was a lot of work. There were too many manual process that needed to take place. Still, even with the process I have now it takes a couple of manual steps to get categories but I like the outcome.

So today I thought, it would be nice to take the implementation of the blogger/del.icio.us hack and add it to wBloggar. Nice tool for publishing, and if I could add the categories feature in one process, it would be so much nicer. It should be pretty easy. All you would need is to add a couple of entries in the configuration for del.icio.us and a field on the entry form to add categories. Or better yet, just make them a drop down, queried from del.icio.us and your user name.

I might even consider building a tool just to try it out. Now I need to search for the Blogger API and give it a whirl.

Filed in: blogger | del.icio.us

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Rolling my own categories

Since blogger doesn't support Categories, I thought I would try something. At the end of each post I am going to attach a list of Categories. Maybe someone will find what I'm talking about with these little ditties.

Filed in: sitenews | blogger | weblog

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Moleskine and PDA, the perfect match

For months I have been experimenting with several organization systems such as GTD, HipsterPDA, Pocket PC and Outlook. I say experiment because that's what they are. I have liked a couple and have even gone so far as to create a Ductster (a HipsterPDA made out of duct tape.)

Today I ran across two different posts that I thought were worth mentioning. The first is at The Wanderings of a Wanton Wordsmith, a portable Post-It notebook. I am a pretty heavy user of post-it's. I like the ability to quickly take a note and then stick in my view. I even have a 3x5 card with a few post-it's in the file portion of my Moleskine. I also cam across this post at Rearden Metal.

I admit the one problem I have is the note taking portion. I want to take notes at work and not mix them with my personal notes. I guess what I need to do is get a separate Moleskine for my office. If I follow the process that Alastair Johnston came up with, using a Moleskine and a PDA to track all the information you need, I will be getting the best of both worlds. I think I will try that and see how it works. Off to Barnes and Noble to purchase a new Moleskine for my office.

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A poem by my daughter

"I Am..."

I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.
I wonder if the world will have peace.
I hear the animals roar in there homes.
I see the world full of beautiful trees.
I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.

I pretend that I'm a dance teacher, though I am not.
I feel happy when the audience claps at a dance competition.
I touch the wind blowing through my hair.
I worry that if I don't believe in myself, I won't succeed.
I cry when I see my grandma suffer walking.
I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.

I understand that you and I can't always have our ways.
I say you can do it if you have confidence in yourself.
I dream that one day I will fulfill my dreams.
I try to understand the hard things in life.
I hope that one day this will all come true.
I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.

-- Ashley Allen

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A plea for boldness

I don't remember where I got this article. I want to give the author full credit and I apologize if I am violating any copyrights by posting it. But I wanted to share the information. If you know the author please let me know and I will change the post to show a link to the original.

What can I say? The times call for boldness. In managing our careers and lives. I don't mean brash. Nor flash. Nor large, uncalculated risks.

The situation is as follows: There are way more job seekers than jobs at the moment. Companies aren't hiring very much. High paying jobs are getting outsourced. There are a lot of well qualified folks out there under or unemployed.

So, what's your strategy for success? Take your chances? Wait for a turnaround? Keep doing the same things even if they aren't working? Let me ask you a question. Among your professional peer group, do you stand out from the crowd? Do you have a reputation for excellence, performance, quality, specialized knowledge, service or sheer doggedness in the face of adversity? How credible are you? You need something to hang your hat on. To distinguish yourself.

There has NEVER been a better time to develop a bold career.

Being bold means having the courage and vision to stand out from the crowd. Be yourself. Be confident. Stand for something. Commit. Be the best you can possibly be. Take calculated risks. Change your patterns. Learn new things. Develop your own brand. Invent. Serve. Follow-up. Deliver. Define who you are and what you do well and improve on that. Change. Learn. Adapt. Pursue. Have a mission and a vision.

Not only will this give you purpose and meaning, but it will also separate you from the vast majority of folks who go through the motions. And, speaking from personal experience, it is way more fun.

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My name spelled out in Flickr

Get yours here.

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Switching gears

Have you ever gone on vacation, come back to work, and everything has changed? The people, the job, the atmosphere? It happened to me. Taking on a role I've never done before.

One of the things I've noticed when you are put in a situation that requires you to learn at an accelerated pace is the total exhaustion I feel. See, I don't even think I'm making any sense. You see how many times I have to back space as I type this.

I also don't know why, of all the days since my last post, I am choosing tonight. Maybe its because I'm so totally exhausted I am partially psychotic.Not sure how long this new role will last, but I hope I get the hang of it soon because it's driving me insane.

Filed in: sitenews

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DucterPDA - from all things Duct Tape

I don't really have a need for this (basically a case for a HipsterPDA) but think I will put one together just to see how it works. Interesting idea.

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I’m goal setting

I was told early on that a goal is a dream if it isn't written down with specific attainable actions. As with most people I have read many books on goal setting, don't worry about goal setting, and alternatives to goals and actions is Getting Things Done by David Allen. All of these approaches have their advantages.

Personally I use most of the GTD(tm) process where goals and projects are only as far away as the next action that needs to be performed. Nothing overwhelming. You don't look at the entire picture every day, only the next logical step. This is supposed to eliminate the need to keep hundreds of loops bouncing around your head.

Today I found a great link about goals. I'm sharing this more as a link than anything. I would also recommend that you look into the GTD system.

Goals in the works are:
1. Lose x number of pounds in 12 months (you would be shocked if I shared the real amount)
2. Finish a 10k
3. Finish a full marathon
4. Finish a full triathalon
5. Go on vacation this summer
6. Ride my bike to work at least 3 times a week
7. Form a business networking group
8. Rebuild real estate web site
9. Build deck in back yard
10. Find good CRM Software
11. Read Seth Godin's new book All Marketers Are Liars

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What is it about hiring technical people?

I know companies don't want to hire people who can't perform. Using interview tests has been around for a long time. Personally, I hate them. If a prospective employer ever reads this, I'm sure I'll be doomed with some type of test. And that's the problem.

I believe employers have the wrong expectations when it comes to surprise interview tests. I believe most employers administer them out of ego rather than necessity. Almost every perspective employee will go through several types of emotions. The least of which is panic. Speaking from experience, when faced with one of these tests, I'm always on the defensive, wondering what they really want from the test, will my coding style be their style, will my approach be what they consider acceptable.

Now, if the test is simply to learn how someone approaches a problem, review their coding style, and as described in the link above, experience how they explain their solution, then I'm all for it. I'm not a walking encyclopedia of syntax. I may not always know the correct syntax from memory, but I might be able to pseudo code something on paper or even a text file, and explain how I would solve the problem.

If I can leave any amount of influence on these types of test is that employers truly look for characteristics of the prospective employee, rather than how much syntax they can recall from memory.

Oh, and to tie in my subject line, what is it about hiring technical people? It seems employers hiring for technical positions are hell bent on testing someone's skills, but don't think twice about testing someone for a product marketing, project management or administration position. If you do, what kinds of test do you perform?

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Flying home

Flying home
Originally uploaded by thomallen.

Coming back from a trip to Missouri. Cramped in a commuter jet. Ouch.

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