This afternoon we had a hail storm here at the house. It lasted about five minutes, and within about 10 minutes the sun was out. My neighbor's car was badly dented, but apparently I was lucky because my car was under a tree. Still, this was a really awesome display of nature's fury.
- posted by Perry @ 8:59 PM 0 comments

 
Interesting! While reading other people's blogs this morning I ran across the following.

snowdeal.org | conflux ""You're not a designer, you're not a writer, and you're not an editor!"

Well, no, blogger, you're not. And therein lies your gift. Because even if it's true the vast majority of blogs would not be missed by more than a handful of people were the earth to open up and swallow them, and even if the best are still no substitute for the sustained attention of literary or journalistic works, it's also true that sustained attention is not what Web logs are about anyway. At their most interesting they embody something that exceeds attention, and transforms it: They are constructed from and pay implicit tribute to a peculiarly contemporary sort of wonder.

...[T]he Web log reflects our own attempts to assimilate the glut of immaterial data loosed upon us by the "discovery" of the networked world. And there are surely lessons for us in the parallel. For just as the cabinet of wonders took centuries to evolve into the more orderly, logically crystalline museum, so it may be a while before the chaos of the Web submits to any very tidy scheme of organization."
- posted by Perry @ 8:22 AM 0 comments

 
This article, A New Risk to Computers Worldwide, in today's New York Times is worth reading. It describes the threat thusly. "The program, W32/KLEZ.H, is a "blended threat," combining elements of a virus, which infects machines, and a worm, which transports itself from machine to machine. It also tries to disable some antivirus programs."

Fortunately, my ISP, Virtual Interactive Center, provides a virus check before I can even download my mail. It caught this particular virus the other night, sent to me from a friend, Ed Beaver, with whom I rarely exchange mail.
- posted by Perry @ 8:53 PM 0 comments

 
Reading other blogs is almost always interesting, and sometimes doing so shows that some people may just have too much time on their hands.

Paul Bausch's blog, onfocus.com, contains these comments:

"I stayed up past my bedtime playing with the new Google API. The result? Google Smackdown!

Two words or phrases go head-to-head to see which reigns supreme on the Web. Perhaps you're wondering who is more popular: Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin? Which German Philosopher has web cred: Nietzsche or Hegel? Do people really say touch wood instead of knock on wood? There's only one way to find the answers: a G-Smack."
- posted by Perry @ 7:12 AM 0 comments

 
Anyone who works where I do will find this horror story painfully familiar.
- posted by Perry @ 6:16 AM 0 comments

 
Here's an article about issues at the edge that demands your attention, if you have any interest at all in facilitating the future.

In The FCC in Context Bob Frankston says, "The FCC is like a promising student who had to drop out of school to support his family. At some point he finds his options limited by the lack of education. Congress abets this process by it's own lack of technical understanding that leads it to pander to its constituents expectations. As Clayton Christiansen has shown in The Innovator's Dilemma, you shouldn't be indifferent to your customers but you won't succeed unless you have a vision to translate expectations couched in the moment into what will meet the needs in the future."
- posted by Perry @ 7:22 PM 0 comments

 
Here's an interesting little applet. How to create a BlogThis! bookmarklet
- posted by Perry @ 6:38 AM 0 comments

 
A note in Dan Gillmor's weblog relates how he introduced a class of Chinese journalism students to blogging.
- posted by Perry @ 6:09 AM 0 comments

 
It's another of those days on which our database is down, thus providing me the opportunity to make a few notes here.

When a company chooses to update the software on which it depends for its operation, there are inevitably unintended consequences. Today is a prime example of that. Though the update has repaired some problems, it has introduced others. I'm not sure the cure isn't worse than the disease, in this case. Trying to make sure the end user of our service doesn't experience all these problems as disruption in his or her service is the real trick.
- posted by Perry @ 1:52 PM 0 comments

 
I prefer writing in the morning. I can't say why, but for some reason when I wake up I can think of more to say then I can late at night. I suppose I'm what people refer to as a "morning person." However, I have a relatively limited amount of time in the mornings while I'm drinking coffee and listening to the news on the television before I shower to go to work. So on some mornings I give priority to answering email that has arrived over night, and on others this blog gets my attention. Yesterday it was email that took priority and the blog got short shrift; today I am beginning with the blog.

Over the weekend I was able to make an email introduction of one friend to another. One of them is a CEO and the other is in search of a new job and perhaps a new career. I found it possible to send one email to the CEO with a copy to the job seeker that served the purpose of giving both the email address of the other and letting me step back out of the way for them to pursue the development of the relationship, if they choose. All-in-all from my point of view, it was a very satisfactory example of networking via the net.

In August of this year, the consulting firm of which I was a part for about 20 years is getting together for a reunion to celebrate its beginning almost 30 years ago. Plans for this event are likely to show up in this blog as the time for the get-together draws closer. We began these plans back in February when Jane Hascall sent an email to four or five of us indicating that she had heard from Carol Medlang at Christmas and that Carol had included her email address in her Christmas card. Jane said that since then she and Carol had carried on a regular email conversation. From that beginning we have made a concerted effort to call or write other employees and friends of our company to learn their email addresses. Now we communicate with the collective group by email and have agreed on the date. The next thing is to agree about what we'll do during our time together on August 24th. Though we could have pulled this off without the 'net, it would have been much more trouble. During a part of our conversation Juan Gutierrez even communicated with the group while he was in Australia. Twenty years ago, such connectivity wasn't available to us, the average citizen. It's far too easy to take this kind of constant connectivity for granted and not appreciate it for the wonder it is. I'm sure we'll find more and more ways to take advantage of it as the years go on and as our sophistication about using it grows.

I'm facing an interesting quandry -- two weeks of vacation bearing down on me. Why, you ask, is that a quandry? Well, because I can't decide where to go. Although I'll enjoy time off and could just travel locally -- the Smokey Mountains National Park is a delightful place to spend some time -- because I have that much time, I have the opportunity to visit some friends in Florida or travel cross country to San Diego and visit friends whom I know from our work together on the net over the last couple of years. My original plans to travel to Berlin for a visit with Paul Moor haven't materialized because I was unable to get everything needed for that trip done in time for it to happen. I'll have to make up my mind soon as May 10th is fast approaching.

- posted by Perry @ 5:34 AM 0 comments

 
Here's an interesting article from Business Week Online about the significance of the Web.
- posted by Perry @ 6:43 PM 0 comments

 
Not much time or news to report this morning. Dan Gillmor has this link to an article on the cost and nuisance of spam. I chose to follow a link to Spamcop, a service I had heard about before but never explored.

For some time I've been using Spamkiller, and it does a nice job of standing between my email program and the mail server and catching most of the spam that comes my way. And though it grabs a lot of the spam I receive, still a small portion slips through its filters, enough to be annoying. I suppose this is one of those annoyances one just has to deal with, similiar in some ways to receiving solicitation phone calls. If you want to benefit from the technology (telephone / Internet), you will always have someone trying to exploit it to their benefit (telemarketers / spammers).
- posted by Perry @ 6:43 AM 0 comments

 
Given the popularity of talk shows, both on radio and TV, where the host appears to be "interviewing" a guest but in reality uses the guest only as an excuse to espouse his own point of view to his audience, there isn't likely to be much interest in logical falacies but I was delighted to discover this site today. It's interesting to me to see how sound logic is done. I'd like very much to be more skilled in reasoning logically and sanely. In fact, I'd like it if all of us tried a more toned-down and reasoned approach to the resolution of differences. I'm afraid I'm a bit cynical though about whether this change in national debates will take place. Volume seems to be more valued than reason nowadays.
- posted by Perry @ 11:56 AM 0 comments

 
Yesterday, I received a call from a friend inquiring about advice on buying a digital camera. He knew that late last year I purchased a Canon G2 and just wanted some information about how to make a decision about which camera would meet his needs. Fortunately, this bit of advice is easy to give because I am pretty confident that the answer to almost any question someone in the market for such a camera could want to ask can be found at Digital Photography Review. There are, of course, other fine sites out there on this subject, but it is hard to match the accuracy, completeness and depth of information that Phil Askey provides at this site. It is an easy recommendation.

And if Phil hasn't already answered your question in his articles or reviews, one of the large number of uses who log on from around the world will be glad to contribute his or her two cents worth. Just pose your question in the appropriate forum and soon you'll have an opinion, usually based on hard won and sometimes painful experience. You do have to join the site (at no cost) in order to post a question to a forum, but that process is painless and safe.

Although I know where to find out about digital photography, I certainly don't consider myself an authority on the subject. I'm learning, and I'm having fun doing so, but there's a lot to know first about photography and then about what is unique about digital photography. And that is, as I understand it, the proper order in which to learn, first about photography and then about the digital version of it. A lot of the problems people raise on the forums in which I've participated have as at least one component of their answer something that relates to basic photography. A relatively few of the problems that people have with their digital pictures involve things unique to digital photography alone.
- posted by Perry @ 7:15 AM 0 comments

 
While exploring some of the functionality in Blogger this morning, I discovered that you can set up a blog in which you permit others to be co-authors. Given how quirky and personal some blogs are, co-authorship seems a strange concept. However, I've been thinking how appropriate a co-authored blog would be for a web site where a group wishes to permit its members to have a meeting place where they can post their musings about the topic to which the web site is devoted.

As it turns out, I am a member of such a group -- The New Edge Leadership Alliance. We have a section on our web site called The Water Cooler. The original intent of that part of the site was that it would be a place, like the water cooler used to be in businesses, where employees met and discussed informally what was going on in their company. Because we, as a group, are exploring ways in which widely dispersed organizations relate, communicate and coordinate their activities, a co-authored blog seems ideally suited to serve the original intent of our virtual water cooler. We would first create the blog, then invite the individual members to become co-authors, and once they had done so each of them could log on with their browser, post thoughts and react to those posted by others. Seems an ideal use of this tool to me. What do you think Stan and Patrick?
- posted by Perry @ 6:07 AM 0 comments

 
Last night, a bit before midnight, I got a call from my friend, Phil Petty, seeking some help with his email program. (It isn't too unusual for him to call late at night since he tends to operate on that end of the day.) While we were talking he mentioned that he had visited my blog and posed a rather interesting and legitimate question. He asked why I wanted to have a blog anyway. Why does anyone create a blog?

I'm sure there are as many different answers to Phil's question as there are people who blog. All of us probably share some reasons. We have the audacity to want to express an opinion. We are egotistical enough to be vocal. We have interests that we enjoy sharing with others. We like being able to put something on the Internet where others can find it. We all also probably share the fun of experimenting and learning to how to manipulate this new communications tool. We also probably want to do it because we can. It's like owning a megaphone. You just want to use it.

Besides sharing all those reasons for creating a blog with others, I have reasons that may be mine alone. I have already confessed to finding it fun to explore how to use software. As Phil's call for help last night illustrated, I often get requests from people to help them resolve some software or hardware issue with their computer. I enjoy answering those questions. I also believe that if I post such experiences on the Internet, I may be reaching a wider audience than if I answer them one at a time for an individual.

My sons, Mike and Jeff, can also visit this site and keep in touch with their Dad. It provides a way for us to communicate, not directly perhaps, but more regularly than if we only waited for the occasion of our weekly phone call. Wherever they are, if they want to know what their Dad is thinking and doing and if they have access to the Internet, they can find out. If they want to comment, they can -- just by clicking on the email link. And that's not just true for my immediate family. Other less closely related members of the family can do the same, as can friends everywhere.

I enjoy sharing the things I discover online with other people. If I send people an email saying, "Wow, I just found this or that here or there," some of them may wonder why I am telling them. A blog provides a place where I can share such things. Those who are interested can explore them, and those who are not may ignore them. And those who just don't care can choose not to visit the site at all. In many ways, posting here is much better than sending such discoveries by email, because it's available to everyone I know (plus those "old friends I've never met") without imposing my opinion or discovery on them.

An example of that last reason for creating a blog is my learning yesterday of a tool called HTML Kit. I saw an associate using it yesterday and asked what it was. He explained and praised it highly. This free program rivals much more expensive programs such as Microsoft's FrontPage for creating web pages. Though it isn't a WYSIWYG editor, as is FrontPage, it is a powerful program with a lot of features, some of which are missing from the commercial programs like FrontPage. And you can't beat the cost!
- posted by Perry @ 6:22 AM 0 comments

 
At the moment we're having a system problem here at work, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to prove that one can indeed update his blog from work. Hooray!
- posted by Perry @ 2:00 PM 0 comments

 
Some days at work are really depleting, as I'm sure you know. Yesterday was one of those days for me.

A large client, for whom I am the person with overall responsibility, had one of her requests for service cancelled by one of our newer representatives. I spent the last four hours of my day trying everything I knew to save the situation. In the end, I had to face defeat for the day and leave without resolving the problem. That means I have this problem as the first item on my plate for today.

At the end of the day, no matter how hard you've had to work during the day, it seems to me that the most important need is to feel like you've gotten something done, that you've conquered some problem or achieved some goal. Yesterday I felt depleted because I didn't get that satisfaction.
- posted by Perry @ 6:31 AM 0 comments

 
On Saturday the 6th I received a phone call from a friend whom I've known for more than 10 years announcing that he was no longer with the company who had employed him for the last 20 years. He began work for this utility digging ditches and working on their gas lines in the street. At the time of his separation he had risen to the position of Vice President of Customer Services and Marketing. We met when he was a supervisor in Customer Services who had just taken over responsibility for training and had called our company to inquire about the services we offered for training his people. After a sales visit to his company at his invitation in 1988, I went on to do a variety of training and consulting services with them through the years, so I know most of the people involved there, from the front-line employees to the CEO.

My friend's departure was sudden and apparently unforeseen. In his call, which went to my answering machine since I was working that Saturday, the shock and hurt that he felt was evident. We've talked only briefly a couple of times since that first call, because each time I've called to try to offer some support he's had others there, and it didn't seem to be a good time for him. I suspect we'll have a chance to talk again soon, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to support him as he as done for me in the past.

This event has prompted me to do a lot of thinking about the place such sudden "tragic" events have in the long-term course of a person's life. So often in the moment of experiencing them we feel the pain, see the negative consequences of them and tremble with the prospect of what they mean for our immediate future. I'm also struck by the number of people with whom I've spoken through the years who, when looking back on experiences like this, say they were a turning point for something better in their life. It causes me to think of these experiences as similar to a baby bird's experience of being kicked out of the nest by the mother bird. From the young bird's perspective, it is a "tragic" disruption of its comfort and security, but is also the beginning of its taking wing on its own. No longer can the bird sit in the nest and wait to be fed by its parent, but now it is free to soar through the sky and to build a nest of its own wherever it chooses. There is loss, certainly, but that loss is compensated by the requirement to be free.

Sometimes the thing we call a tragedy is nothing more than the doorway to a growth spirt.
- posted by Perry @ 6:46 AM 0 comments

 
My friend, Patrick Ahern, suggests I need to supply a link to email so that others can react to what they find here. That seems like a good idea to me, however I haven't yet found a place where I can place a permanent mailto link in the template used to post this page. So I have added to the information in the general description at the top left corner of the page, since it appears in the same place all the time. That should do as an interim solution, until I figure out another strategy.

Thanks for the suggestion, Patrick.
- posted by Perry @ 6:20 AM 0 comments

 
I was delighted to see in Dan Gillmor's blog today his reference to this article that describes how blogs are now being used among business users. Highly recommended, if you have an interest in new ways to use the Internet.
- posted by Perry @ 7:33 PM 0 comments

 
For some folks learning new software is a chore to be avoided with an enthusiasm normally reserved for things like cleaning out the gutters, going to the dentist or, as in my case, going shopping for clothes (something I absolutely hate to do). However there are a strange few of us who routinely subject ourselves to this learning experience for fun. No matter which of these groups you fall into, I want to share some observations about the value I have gained from learning to use my latest email program -- The Bat.

After having been a devoted Eudora Pro user for long time, I grew tired of it's demand for system resources and it's occasional lockups and refusal to shutdown so I migrated about six months ago to The Bat. On the surface it looks a lot like Eudora Pro but The Bat has an a number of very powerful features like the use of templates and filters that make it quite attractive. When I downloaded The Bat for the 30 day free trial, I knew that the quickest way to learn to use it was to join The Bat User Discussion List so that I could pose questions if I had them about the program's operation. As it turns out, I discovered that by lurking on that list and reading the questions others ask about its operation, I picked up things I didn't even known I needed to know. I began experimenting with the features and I continue to learn how to use the program to its maximum.

My reason for raising this issue is to point out the serendipity of discovering information you didn't know you needed or wanted to know. While reading The Bat User Discussion List (TBUDL, for short), I found both Spamkiller and more recently Time and Chaos which have become an integral part of my software toolbox. I found them when I saw them recommended as a solution to a problem that someone had mentioned on TBUDL. Discussion lists like this are useful for a number of reasons. They obviously meet the objective for which they were created, which is to say they inform about products like The Bat, but in the process of learning those lessons, one also sees examples of how others deal with one another online. I'm freqently impressed with the way moderators of such groups "control" off-topic discussions, dead-horse threads and hair-pulls between members of the list. The interpersonal aspects of these lists are sometimes more educational than the technical details they provide.

The primary downside I see from being a member of such lists is dealing with a high volume of mail, a lot of which may be only marginally of interest. But for the occasional surprise of discovering an application you didn't know you needed and the chance to see others deal with online "problem situations" it's hard to beat the education a discussion list provides.


- posted by Perry @ 6:01 AM 0 comments

 
I heard from my friend, Stan Herman, with a couple of thought-provoking questions that I'd like to address. First, he asked "Is it your intent to keep it like a running diary of external events that cross your path + internal musings about yourself?--how deep will you go?" The answer as to the depth question is probably further than I should. That's my general tendency anyway. Once when I was being quite open about things that were going on with me in an online community called ILink Writers, one of the participants asked why I didn't just keep a diary rather than put such things out in the public online. My answer was "a diary doesn't talk back." It's nice to have others contribute their thoughts when you are so stupidly-bold as to reveal your inner thoughts online. And of course, not all that feedback is necessarily supportive. Still, I value openness and I'm too old to hold back any more, just to gain people's acceptance.

Stan's other question was "Do you want others to join in?--if so, how?" The answer to that is more problematic. The first part is yes, of course, I want others to join but how? So far as I'm aware, Blogger, the program used to generate these entries online, doesn't have the capability for others to post to the page. Therefore, the main way for you to participate is by emailing me directly and recognizing that so long as you are dealing with what is posted on these pages, I may be replying to your comments in this space.

Blogger Pro, an fee-based version of this software, may have other capabilities that I haven't yet explored. I think I'll continue to use the free version for a time while I learn to use the system before moving to the more advanced version.

While I'm talking about Blogger, I must say that one of the nicest features of it is that it is browser based. That means that you don't need any special software to be able to make entries. From any browser, anywhere you can log into the site and post updates. That is a real advantage. If I should even have some free time at work, I can post to this site from there. Free time at work, however, seems to be hard to come by.
- posted by Perry @ 9:37 PM 0 comments

 
I've now notified a few of you that I have this weblog. I'll welcome your feedback on the things you see here, once you've had a chance to check it out.

A part of the fun of Weblogs is the interaction and dialog that they provoke among the regular readers. Dan Gillmor, one of the first Weblog authors I read with any regularity, commented in a recent column on how this kind of interaction caused a paradigm shift for him about journalism. Though I don't suspect I'll be posting to this Weblog while sitting in a conference or meeting (as he was doing at the time), it will still be fun to experience the dialog a blog such as this can provoke. So your comments are welcome.

While I'm speaking of Dan Gillmor and his blog, let me also mention Dan Bricklin, and Bob Frankston as others whom I read regularly. I am particularly drawn to Frankston's blog because of the nature of what he chooses to report in it. It is mostly a report on his reactions to developments within the Internet community and the surrounding technology, and so far it has avoided content that is so personal as to be irrelevant to me. (Though, as they say on Sienfeld, "not that there's anything wrong with that.")

Today, in case you haven't heard, is tax day. In my own situation I'm having to file for an extension to get one more 1099 form from one of my mutual funds. I'm sure they sent it to me, because they always do, but for the life of me I can't find it now. I've got to get in touch with them to get a copy before I can file. It illustrates something about my so-called filing system here at the house that I've misplaced this document. Recently I ran across an envelope containing an official copy of my birth certificate, and I recall thinking to myself "I need to put this some place where I'll be able to find it." Now that I need it to apply for a passport, I can't find it. It's here I'm sure, but where it is baffles me.
- posted by Perry @ 6:19 AM 0 comments

 
During the past couple of years, I've been involved with a group of organizational managers and consultants in the creation of The New Edge Leadership Alliance. We joined together to track how the ability to use the Internet to facilitate organizational goals is being implemented and how it might be maximized. We approach the issue from a somewhat irreverant point of view and by doing so seek to spur organizations to face the challenge this new technology provides because we are convinced that it must be mastered if organizations are to succeed. In March of 2002 we published a book, Rewiring Organizatons for the Networked Economy, which is available through Amazon.com.

If you have an interest in our efforts, we'd welcome your participation. The only cost to you is time and effort.
- posted by Perry @ 9:20 AM 0 comments

 
I finally decided to join the crowd and take a crack at this "blogging" thing. I created this site primarily to have a place to post to the Internet regularly. Among the things I want to comment on are the discoveries that I make online and perhaps daily observations about what is going on in my life. As I get comfortable with the process, I'll refine the intent and I'm sure the content.

One reason I wanted to experiment with blogging was to know what is involved and to see what uses I can make of this technology. More later, but for now, this gets me started.

Another attempt at this sort of thing was begun last Father's day (2001) at Tripod, but circumstances have resulted in my having to abandon that effort.
- posted by Perry @ 8:03 AM 0 comments