What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of the recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
–Herbert Simon (Recipient of Nobel Memorial Prize)
Located in Florence KY, in a mall parking lot (of all places) is The Pub. Modeled after authentic British pubs, the proprietor, Nick Sanders, says he liked the traditional pub feel with the modern colonial influence. In the center of The Pub is a large well-crafted and ornate wooden bar. From here you can sample one of many beers. On draft, The Pub offered English, Belgian, Scottish, Irish, and local specialty beers as well as assorted bottled beers. I had a sampler of four quarter-pints. Nicely done, these four glasses allowed me to try several flavors for the cost of one. They were presented on a sheet of paper titled “Beer Sampler”.
I tried the English Boddington’s Pub Ale, the Belgian Stella Artois, the Bellhaven Scottish Ale, and the Irish Smithwick’s. While all were good beers my favorites were easily the Bellhaven and the Smithwick’s.
The food selection was above notch for the usual pub. They included appetizers, soups and salads, hot panini sandwiches, classic pub fare, main entrees, and desserts. I tried the more traditional meal with Bangers and Mash. The sausages were good although they both seemed peppery. The server had told me one was sweet and the other was to be spicy to even out the flavors. I did no find this to be the case. The peas and carrots were of the grocery store frozen food variety and not fresh. They included a nice little salad on the plate with balsamic vinegarette – a refreshing addition. The potatoes were advertised as “chive whipped potatoes” and they were. The chives added a bite to the mash that, with the spicy sausage, seemed to overwhelm the dish.
The Pub menu was fun, conversational, and informative. They included witty quotes, beer definitions, a Monty Python drinking song, and English/Brit word equivalents. As Mr. Sander’s letter to patrons commented on the back of the menu, the atmosphere was fun, friendly, and one of conversations and relationships.
Telecommuting continues to be a hot topic among job seekers as people strive for more work/life balance and flexible arrangements. But I think there is a misperception about how to secure a telecommuting arrangement. It’s unlikely that you will land a telecommuting job through an online job board (and be wary, because most of these opportunities are scams). Most telecommuting jobs start out as traditional jobs that evolve to a more flexible arrangement through a mutual agreement between the employer and the employee. You must first prove to an employer that you are trustworthy and loyal and that the telecommuting arrangement presents benefits for the company as well as the employee. If you are considering requesting a telecommuting work arrangement, here are some potential employer benefits you can reference during your conversation.
Increase In Work Hours
The telecommuter can continue to work during the time they would normally be commuting. This increase in productivity can translate into company profits like money earned, saved, or also result in more interaction with important clients.
Reduced Infrastructure Costs
Employers can save on their real estate, technology and telecommunication costs by offering telecommuting arrangements.
Decrease In Distractions
Traditional office settings are plagued by time wasting activities and ongoing interruptions. Who hasn’t been in a situation where they were constantly interrupted by people coming into their office to ask questions? And how often have you seen co–workers wasting time gossiping by the coffee station? All these distractions can be eliminated in the telecommuting arrangement.
Increased Morale
Employees that have greater control over how they manage the competing demands in their lives tend to be happier in their work. This positive attitude can contribute to increased productivity and better rapport with colleagues and clients.
Increased Employee Loyalty And Retention
Employees who feel that their employers are supportive of their need for workplace flexibility tend to stay with their companies longer. In the long run this saves employers the enormous costs associated with sourcing and training their replacements.
If you hope to secure a telecommuting arrangement in the near future, start targeting companies that embrace workplace flexibility now. Start off with a traditional in–office role and prove your ability to be productive with limited supervision. Build trusting relationships with colleagues, clients and supervisors. Doing so will help improve your chances of securing a telecommuting arrangement at some point in the future.
Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, has over twelve years of experience in career management, recruiting, executive coaching, and organizational development.
I really like this genre of art — maybe it’s because of my early love of Anime and Myst. Enjoy!
This piece was built by Alex Holden. Alex says of the project…
The pictured device is a prototype of Joseph Bazalgette’s patent sewer maintenance machine, as demonstrated at the Great Crystal Cyberdrome Exhibition. Its boiler is fired by miasma and it is fitted with a variety of cleaning and pest-control ancillaries. Unfortunately the high manufacturing cost and the temperamental nature of their modified rat brains meant that after the initial batch of fifty had escaped Bazalgette was forced to employ men to maintain London’s sewers. Even today, you can put your ear to a manhole cover in our capital city and hear the distant clanking of brass wheels on brick walkways and the squeal of exterminated rodents.
I came across this old drawing that my friend, Jeff at Jaggedsmile, did after a conversation we had. You see, when my wife and I used to travel, in the BK (Before Kids) days, she told me about a game she used to play with her sister when they traveled. They used to look out their side of the car and count cows. The person with the most cows at the end of the trip was the winner. On a particular trip we took in through southeast we revived this old game for fun. At the end of our trip, my wife informed me she had counted several hundred cows. Not to be outdone I told her I has counted about a hundred that were visible, while the remaining several hundred were “ninja cows” practicing their camouflage skills. Chick-fil-A would have loved it!
How’s this for creative computing? To see all the steps in detail, visit Random Access. Now, go build your own and send me your images to post here. Have fun!
Body armor for the case?
I wanted this case to incorporate aspects of several types of Iron Man armor, starting with his original dull gray steel. Although rivets were not always in evidence, these would add to the effect of heavy plate on the panels. Starting with the case itself, I anchored short lengths of aluminum angle (L brackets) to the top and front edges of the chassis. These were used as anchor points to attach two curved steel panels at the bottom front and top rear of the case. To strengthen the sheet metal, I riveted ribs of aluminum bar stock to the outer edges using two rows of heavy nickel wire for the pins.
To create a layered articulated armor on the top, sections of PVC plastic were cut and then anchored to the aluminum angle with sheet metal screws. A final PVC panel was attached to the front and a piece of foam rubber trimmed to fill the gap between the sections. The foam was trimmed to a smooth shape with a razor blade, and then covered with a layer of epoxy
Several layers of shredded fiberglass-reinforced epoxy were built up over the surface of the PVC with only a light sanding in between. I wanted a slight ripple effect to simulate hammered metal. I prefer to add pigment to the epoxy so that if the surface gets scratched, there is a solid color exposed. The color layers also make it easier to visualize the final effect and in some cases, can be used as the final finish instead of paint.
Ribs made from strips of half-round wood trim were cut to fit the drive bay opening. Two at the top were glued in place; one was attached to the front of the DVD drawer; the fourth rib was attached to the front of the DVD drive using foam mounting tape (this allowed the rib to flex; pressing on the right edge opens the drive tray).
For the mask, I went to a recent version of Iron Man - the 2005 and 2006 release of “Extremis” (also available as a graphic novel of the same name). I used the circuit-style lettering in the title for the IMD plaque. To make the case more than just an armored shell, I wanted to give it a purpose - even a fictional one. Readers rarely see Tony Stark testing his armor. He always seems to rush off, slap something together that works perfectly and is well finished, miniaturized, and usually violating several laws of physics - but hey, it’s fiction, right?
But what if he had to troubleshoot something? That’s what we do in real life… so I came up with the concept of an Iron Man Diagnostic Unit. Since Tony no longer keeps his identity secret, it means we needed to identify that the unit came from Stark Laboratories. Letters were cut from sheet brass, then dots drilled, edges filed, and lines chiseled. The background was printed on a laser printer, then glued between two sheets of 1/8″ high impact plastic. The brass letters received a soft satin finish, then were glued to the plastic. Four small magnets (Tony has always been big on magnets, although his are usually transistor-powered) were glued to the back to allow placement of the plaque on any flat ferrous surface. I was going to stick this on the top of the CPU heat sink, but there wasn’t enough clearance between it and the side panel. So that became the title - Stark Industries IMD.
But what to run diagnostics on? The Iron Man mask is probably one of the most characteristic parts that while frequently changed still has similar features, such as no nose, slitted glowing white eyes, and a slash of a mouth.
The mask was attached to the mesh panel, then the clamps positioned and anchored from the rear with short screws. Two holes were drilled in the mesh behind the eyes. A pair of white LEDs were hot glued onto the mesh to cause the eyes to flicker when the hard drive is accessed. A heavy duty stainless steel switch was located in the side panel, presumably to open and close the clamps (or turn on the power in reality). The bottom of the case was anchored to the base plate treads. The rest of the system components were installed, and cables organized a bit, but spiffed up with some chrome convoluted (AKA split loom) tubing. Then it was time to tear it all down and switch out the stock Intel heatsink with a big blocky Peltier cooled one. Then I stuffed it all back together, and took these final pics.
If you missed it, here is the presentation Leah Buley, from Adaptive Path, did at the IA Summit ‘08. I think you will find it informative and encouraging. Enjoy!
Former Apple employee, Andreas Haas, thinks he has a niche market. He’s taken the MacBook and modified it into a tablet PC. Is the market ready?
Haas founded Axiotron in January 2005. The official ship date for the Modbook was Decemnber 2007. How many units have the they sold? I could not find the answer to that. How does Axiotron intend to stay in business? From their own Web site comes this insight:
Axiotron determines a potential project or market to be a viable case of Solution Hardware if all of the following characteristics are met
Off-the-shelf hardware is insufficient.
Market size warrants full product cycle.
Profitability can be achieved early in product life cycle.
Could I also use the Modbook as a digital notebook? Yes! Take a look at how to use Inkbook as a way to write notes and then transcribe or export them as you’d like.
But, the question stills remains, “is the market ready?” Just because you build it does not guarantee they will come. The buzz may be out but unless the dollars are coming in, Modbook may go the way of the Apple Newton.
Editor’s Note: No matter what you may think of the C.S. Lewis‘ Narnia Chronicles, you have to see Prince Caspian! I took my family on opening night and everyone agreed it was great. Aside from one scene where my youngest had to close his eyes, the movie was by far a big achievement for the director, Andrew Adamson.
For those that have read the books, you’ll find there were many creative liberties taken. Don’t be dismayed — the essence of the story is true to form, while the screen play allows for audience members, who may have never had exposure to the books or previous film, to come up to speed.
By Tiffani Barnes
The second installment in The Chronicles of Narnia series has hit theaters, and it far exceeds its predecessor. The opening of Prince Caspian finds the Pevensie children at a train station traveling to school when they are suddenly transported from the platform to the coastline of Narnia. While only a year has pasted for the children, it has been more than 1300 years for Narnia. As Trumpkin (played by Peter Dinklage) later tells them, they “may find Narnia a more savage place than when [they] left.”
Prince Caspian is a darker movie than its predecessor with battle and fight scenes that resemble The Lord of the Rings. Director Andrew Adamson, however, chose to leave much of the blood and violence to the imagination, which allows the movie to remain suitable for younger viewers without robbing the story of its power. The character of Reepicheep, a sword-wielding mouse (voiced by Eddie Izzard), provided a great deal of comic relief, which helps to break up the more intense moments in the film.
The visual effects, writing and acting in Prince Caspian are all improved over The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Whereas in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe the children didn’t seem completely comfortable in their characters and so gave, at times, stilted and awkward performances, in Prince Caspian the young actors seem at home in their character’s skin.
The movie isn’t without its teachable moments either—themes of humility, patience, trust, and what can happen when greed and anger take over are found throughout the film. They are subtle and woven nicely into the fabric of the film, instead of sticking out like a flashing neon sign on a dark night.
The Bottom Line:Prince Caspian is worth the price of admission and would make a great outing for the whole family. At two hours and 20 minutes, the film might be a bit long for younger viewers, but it does a good job of holding the audience’s attention.
Scott Risner wrote this article on the cyclical nature of creativity within online learning and training development. Scott’s background is similar to mine in that we both came from print production and prepress environments. However, Scott can jam on a mandolin, while I am pretty good at thrashing and pounding on the drums. Enjoy the article! -eb
By Scott Risner
About 20 years ago I started designing and developing computer-based training (CBT) using Authorware. At that time I knew nothing about a process for this type of effort. My experience was primarily in print design and production. It was an interesting experience making the transition. Print designers enjoyed a long established design process which was not the case with development of CBT or “Multimedia”.
So how did we start the transition? Well, what I did was attempted to use existing tools and knowledge to create a process. Funny thing was that the tools for multimedia, for the most part, were not as advanced as those available for print.
The transition struggle was multi-faceted. There was the design, the production process and client management (reviews and revisions). Traditionally the print design process was (roughly explained) thumbnail, design comprehensive (comp), final layout, print proof and then final printed piece. On the other hand software design was (in practice)… Analyze, create a design document, hand it to developers and they would lock themselves in a dark “magic” room and appear weeks or months later with something that loosely resembles what you expected.
While making the transition from print to multimedia wasn’t easy, I learned a few things along the way.
I attend a lot of meetings. I find that I take better notes when I write with pen on paper than trying to type with my 4-finger method. Consequently, I find myself transcribing my notes into my laptop so I can have electronic copies of them.
This takes a LONG time for me.
I have tried scanning in documents and using OCR software, but with handwritten notes it is terrible. I will not even attempt to clean up the documents. It is faster to transcribe.
I have been looking into digital notepads and wondered how well they worked. If you have used one or know someone who has, drop me a note in the comments section below. I wonder if it would be worth inversting in one….
Just saw this and had to share. In 2005 Nikola Basic designed the Sea Organ. Located in Croatia, the Sea Organ is composed of a series of large marble steps hiding 35 tuned tubes located under water. When the ocean waters move back and forth, air is pushed through the tubes, and musical sounds are sent up through holes in the steps.
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Posted by ebrown
By Tiffani Barnes
