I spent much of my career directing think-tank organizations that focused on the needs of the US Intelligence community.  My organization investigated the forefront of every new technology that came along, which meant that I bought them the latest and greatest processing equipment. We were intrigued by an expensive and novel computing asset for our laboratory.  Because it was so expensive, our corporate officer, Gene Stapp, and my division president, Marshall Williamson had to be sign off on the purchase.  They had me fly to Redwood, California with them so they could be convinced that this investment would have a suitable return. Now, Marshall Williamson had joined our predominantly hardware company as a software programmer.  His notable distinction was being the first software person to be promoted to division president.  At company functions, employees would surreptitiously post an old photo […]

I was in the community of Cranfills Gap, Texas over the holiday weekend.  The only reason you might ever have heard of this Norwegian town of 350 people, two stop signs, and no traffic lights is that in 2008 the Las Vegas tourism bureau made national news by picking the entire community for a promotion.  The Las Vegas bureau flew half the residents, virtually all the persons over 21 years of age, to Las Vegas for a fun-filled five days of gambling and shows. This past weekend, however, I was not having fun in Cranfills Gap.  It was Friday afternoon of a three-day weekend and my vacation property had no water. Now, even though this is a remote area, a private company runs lines from their water wells to their customers.  So, my son and I journey to the property

If you want to persuade a decision maker, your first requirement is to capture and hold her attention.  You can scarcely influence one who is not at least drawn into your arguments.  Obviously, even when drawn in, the decision maker may not confer your recommendations, but you have no chance if she is abstracted.  Practice audience capture by taking a single argument and examining how you might present it in a compelling way. For example, yesterday we all watched the century event of the Indianapolis 500.  It finished with flair as rookie J.R. Hildebrand stuck the wall only a few hundred yards from the finish allowing Briton Dan Weldon to whiz past him for the trophy and the several millions dollars that accompany it. Weldon started in the number six position with a qualifying speed of 226.4 mph, only one

This is the final part of a four-part series comparing four different methods I used for creating this web site.  You are viewing the results of the fourth.  In  Part I, I contracted a third party for design and development.  From that experience, I concluded that the use of a third party was the obvious and good choice for those who wanted to focus on web content and not be concerned with the underlying technology, likely the vast majority of users.  Part II described my adventure using iWeb, Apple’s WYSIWYG site builder.  I concluded that the iWeb capability is best suited for personal use and small networking , similar to Facebook.  In Part III, l studied and learned HTML and CSS over a period of about two weeks and built my own site.  This was wonderfully satisfying.  And now, armed with the ability to

This is the third part of a four-part series comparing four different methods I used for creating this web site.  (You are viewing the results of the fourth method).  Part I dealt with the use of a third party for design and development.  I concluded that third party development required an unsatisfactory amount of interaction and iteration.  Part II describes my adventure using iWeb, Apple’s WYSIWYG site builder.  I concluded that the iWeb capability is best suited for personal use and small networking , similar to Facebook.  That did not suit my needs.  The third approach would be to build one from scratch.  This would be  more difficult than either of the other two approaches.  Did I want to invest the time and resources to program my own site?  That would mean I must learn the HTML and CSS programming languages.

This is the second part of a four-part series comparing four different methods I used for creating this web site.  (You are viewing the results of the fourth method).  Part I dealt with using a third party for the design and implementation.  In Part I, I discussed two problems with using a third party.  The first was cost upon which I did not elaborate because of my special situation.  The second was the necessity always to coordinate with the third party for modifications and alterations, an inefficient approach.  It is unrealistic to expect a third party to read your mind.  Exchanging ideas, iterating options, and implementing changes was cumbersome.  I felt the third party utilization did not suit my constant need to envision and alter, so I tried a second method, the use of iWeb. iWeb is an Apple product

ABC is an acronym in Sales organizations for Always Be Closing.  In other words, always be working to finalize the deal, complete the sale, get the signature on the bottom line, cash in and take the money to the bank.  This pithy admonition was ingrained long before Alec Baldwin made it a centerpiece it in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. But, if ABC means Always Be Closing to the Sales organization, what should it mean to the Technology organization? What it too often means is  Always Be Completing.  In other words, for the scientist, engineer, or technology wizard, nothing is ever actually completed because there is always something else that must be done, adjustments to be made, tweaks to try, improvements to add, bells and whistles to bolt on, ideas to try, bugs to fix, research to finish, or a new

I was reading Tacitus, a first century Roman historian, and in doing so was drawn to a recorded dialog between a Parthian prince and his subjugated listeners, “Might is right with those who are at the summit of power,” he admonishes them.  His words echoed the Athenian edict of almost 500 years earlier.  Well-armed Athens was ruthlessly and causelessly annihilating the tiny island of Milos.  Thucydides tells us the Athenians justified their actions with, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”  Thus, was handed down the rationalization that “might makes right.” Now, this Parthian prince was destroyed by Rome and great Athens was subdued by an even greater Sparta, so one might conclude that “might makes right” is not the foremost criterion.  Nevertheless, it persists as a philosophy of implementation.  While I indeed have

For any hands-on technologist who might visit Colonial Williamsburg, a trip to the Gunsmith’s Shop is mandatory.  The heat from the forge, the radiation of glowing steel, the waft of oil, the grinding of the reamers, the pounding of hammers, all proclaim the considerable technology required to build a flintlock weapon two centuries ago. Of special note, here, is the firing mechanism.  When the cock (firing lever) is pulled back completely, it seats until the trigger is pulled, whereby a metal spring energizes the flint to spark the powder.  Boom!  It goes, smoke fills the air, and a projectile sails to its target.  Now, to load the pan with powder, you must clear the flint.  Clearly, you do not want the cock in firing position since the weapon is already loaded and an unintentional firing will be troublesome.  So, the

Most technologists work for a company that has business goals as well as technology goals.  These two should should be in lock synchronization.  When a company is first started, they are.  However, over time, the business direction and the technology direction can vector apart, become misaligned, even orthogonal.  When that happens, there are obvious telltale clues: shrinking backlog, declining sales, increasing maintenance costs, complaining customers, cancelled contracts, uncertain direction in business growth, yet accompanied by an escalating demand for research and development dollars.  All are evident signs that the technology goals and the business goals are divergent. Excellent research is still being done, of course.  But, is it the right research?  “Huh,” all my technologists say, “If we are getting new ideas, creating new products, and within our budget, doesn’t that define technology success?”  No.  Just because you design and make