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    March 31

    Quote of the day

    “Only Robinson got his work done by Friday.” (Rainer Goetzmann)

    March 27

    FW: TGIF: Why boys need parents...

    ROFTL: This is sooooo funny, I couldn’t resist to share the 25 new insights J

     

    Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 8:49 AM
    Subject: TGIF: Why boys need parents...

     

     

    This is for those mothers of boys, sisters of boys, and boys that have grown older.  And anyone else who needs a laugh.

    Why boys need parents...
      

       

       

















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    And  you also find out interesting things when you have  sons, like...

    1.)  A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a  2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

    2! .) If  you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over  them with roller blades, they can ignite.  

    3.) A 3-year old boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.  

    4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a  20x20 ft. room.

    5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A  ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.  

    6.) The glass in windows (even  double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

    7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words 'uh oh', it's already too late.

    8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

    9.) A  six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies.

    10.) Certain Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.

    11.) Playdoh and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.  

    12.) Super glue is forever.

    13.)  No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming  pool, you still can't walk on water.

    14.)  Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

    15.)  VCR's do not eject 'PB & J' sandwiches even  though TV commercials show they do.

    16.)  Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.  

    17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

    18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.

    19.)  Always look in the oven before you turn it on;  plastic toys do not like ovens.

    20.) The fire department in Austin , TX has a 5-minute  response time.

    21.) The spin cycle on the  washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.  

    22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.  

    23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

    24.)  80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of  their friends, with or without kids.

    25.)  80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.
      
      

     

     

     

     

     

    Quote of the day

    Old-school leadership rules :-)

    Todays Comic

    March 26

    Digital Traces

    A conversation with a colleague caused me to revisit my digital traces, using Wayback to figure out what I was involved in. Some of the companies I was involved with don’t exist, but the Internet Archive was able to disclose some traces into the past. So here’s link list:

    That was an interesting experience. Next I’ll try to find traces to my print publications in the 70ies and 80ies, wondering if there is anything digital at all. Let’s fast forward to 3009: Any idea who Plato was, and what he as twittering, or blogging, about?

    Hey - There’s still a real world behind your screen! Is there anything real in front of your LCD?

    USBwine

    Quelle technologie révolutionnaire :-)

     
    March 19

    Funny error message

    This is a funny combination:

    image

    and, off course, you’d want more information, for finding out what went wrong, which gives you this information:

    image

    Looks like a remake of “Error – there was an error with Error.”

    March 15

    Improving presentation skills

    Actually I just wanted to paste that link on Facebook, but obviously I’m too stupid to handle their intelligent user interface in German – couldn’t locate the “post link” feature. Alas, let’s write a normal blog entry then.

    Some time ago my manager recommended to improve my presentation skills, which I translate to “Your presentation sucked”, similar to Dilbert’s example:

    Todays Comic

    So, for quite a while, I’ve been working on improving the different aspects, and just found a great example that shows how distant mastery of presentation Zen still is for me: The 27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis. It’s a great list of examples showing how to compress complexity, and visualize it in a meaningful way, without omitting the essentials (like a colleague just did); here’s one of these examples:

    27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis

    March 09

    Quotes of the day

    “… the two fundamental ways for technology investments to have a substantial impact: developing new insights (for example, by comparing best practices across regions) or optimizing processes and systems, often with targeted work-arounds that generate value disproportionately.” (The McKinsey Quarterly - Reexamining IT for improved performance)

    “Be First A Businessperson, Then An Architect
    Packaged apps selections commonly involve conflicts with established IT standards. Use ABV [Architectural Business Value] to put enterprise architecture concerns into business terms, so that you don't appear to be limited by a view of standards-for-standards'-sake, with no ability to incorporate real-world complexities into your recommendations. Using ABV requires you to establish credibility as a businessperson, but it's also a powerful tool for building such credibility.
    Be sure to carefully prioritize your analysis. The team will want the decision process to move quickly, and you won't likely be able to hold up the show to test everything you want to about each candidate's architecture. Where necessary, make high-level estimates, document your assumptions, and put confidence ranges on your analysis. And always talk from the perspective of business impact, not pure standards compliance.” (Forrester: An Architect's Proper Contribution To Packaged Apps Selection)