Mon Nov 28, 2005
The Computer Productivity Reference Scale
I'm working on a project at the moment that has required a great deal of concentration and lots of long hours at the computer(s). Heck, I should really be working on it right now. But while my fingers are limber and the synapses are firing I thought I'd take a little brain break and dash off a quick posting. You've missed me, right?
OK, today's treatise is on the topic of remaining productive in a connected environment. You probably know what I mean. It can be darn hard to stay focused when there are so many distractions just a few mouse clicks away. So I've devised my own personal gauge of whether I'm being productive and avoiding the all-too-tempting and entertaining things that I want to do instead of work.
Here's how it goes. To be truly productive you should be able to score a 10 on the CPRS--Computer Productivity Reference Scale. Everyone starts with a 10 as soon as they sit down at the computer but you have to subtract points for certain activities:
E-mail: Subtract 1 point for checking e-mail. Subtract another point for answering a work-related e-mail. Subtract 3 points for opening an e-mail that has FW: in the subject line even though you know it's some stupid joke or something else that is non-productive. Subtract 8 points if you forward that e-mail to a buddy.
Newsgroups: Subtract 2 points for checking in at your favorite newsgroup just to see if there are any new messages posted. Subtract 3 for checking out individual threads. Subtract 4 for posting a reply. Subtract 9 for looking for a long thread that has veered wildly off-topic so you can get in on the fun.
Blogs: Subtract 2 points for checking your aggregator for new postings. Subtract 4 for reading individual blog entries. Subtract 6 for posting a comment. Take off 9 points if you use the word "dude" in the comment. Subtract 12 points for writing your own blog entry.
News: Do you check CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, and other web sites just to see if anything has happened while you were in front of the computer and several minutes passed by? That will be 2 points each--per visit.
Based on this scale my daily CPRS average is a staggering minus 238. OK, some days are better than others, but it reminds me of an old saying that I can't remember where I saw, and probably won't get right anyway, but it went something like:
"Writing computer books is 20% inspiration, 30% perspiration, and 50% staying off the Web."
Yeah, that's about right.
Mon Nov 21, 2005
An Interview with Apple's Chief Designer
A fascinating look into the mind that drives the designs at Apple can be found at this interview with Jonathan Ive from London's Design Museum. Ive has a lot to say about how form and function are married together in the designs he creates (Oh, let's see. Some little things like the iMac and the iPod are among his creations.) and how the design team at Apple approaches their tasks. Many of the principles he discusses could be applied to not only graphic design, but almost any endeavor that requires a team to work together towards a common goal.
I particularly liked the final question where he is asked, in so many words, why so many designs just suck.
Q. Conversely, why are so many new products so bland and derivative?
A. So many companies are competing against each other with similar agendas. Being superficially different is the goal of so many of the products we see. A preoccupation with differentiation is the concern of many corporations rather than trying to innovate and genuinely taking the time, investing the resources and caring enough to try and make something better.
via OS X Code.
Thu Nov 17, 2005
Periodic Table in Flash
You'll find a nice demonstration of the use of XML and Flash to display data in the periodic table of elements posted at the Galaxy Goo website. Float your mouse over the table to see the name of each element or click the element to get a chart with all the details.
OK, chemistry geeks. What's the atomic number of silicon?
Reading and exploring a little further, Galaxy Goo has some other great resources, including a blog written by the organization's president, Kristin Henry. Great to see a fellow Macromedia geek working in the education field.
Thanks to LK for sharing.
Wed Nov 16, 2005
What is the Goal of Education?
During a few conversations at work this week a simple question has been posed. What is the goal of education? And more to the point, what is it that a classroom teacher is trying to accomplish with their students?
One answer I heard yesterday reflects the new party line in education. The goal of teachers is to increase student achievement. But as I've reflected on that seemingly innocuous and obvious answer, I realize that not only is it overly simplistic, it begs too many questions about what we're trying to accomplish with and for our kids. Of course we want students to achieve, but measured against what standard?
State-mandated and District-level tests that all students must take in these days of "school accountability" have overtaken what many of us really hope our students will be able to accomplish when their education is complete. That's the political reality, but is it enough? Certainly these tests can measure how well a 3rd grade student can read and understand a particular passage or if a 10th grade student can perform a set of algebraic equations. But when we work with students should our goal be to educate them, or for them to be able to perform like circus animals when the next round of testing begins?
What about the immeasurable goals that teachers have for their students? Will our students be able to [i]think[i]? Will they be able to evaluate information and form opinions based on facts that overcome preconceptions? Will they be good citizens who care for their families and communities? Will they be responsible adults who pay their taxes and raise their own kids properly? Will they be able to work well with others in a collaborative environment? Will they possess the skills necessary to get good jobs in today's economy? Will they be able to formulate hypotheses about the world around them and evaluate their own ideas?
I wonder about those things, and what my fellow teachers set as their goals when they develop lessons and curriculum for their students. In a day and age where multi-colored reports generated after nearly continuous testing of our kids have become the new standard of what education should be, I wonder if we're not missing the whole point of what education and educators should be trying to accomplish.
Tue Nov 15, 2005
Creating a Rollover Location Map in Fireworks
My latest tutorial at Community MX is live this morning. In this set of 3 Captivate video lessons I demonstrate how to use frames, layers, and hotspots to create a rollover location map in Fireworks. This is a commercial tutorial--free to subscribers of Community MX or available for a small fee to non-subscribers. Here's the abstract describing this tutorial:
Many times the best way to learn a technique is to tackle a common design task. In this case, let's imagine that you have clients who have asked for a rollover map for their site showing the locations of their stores in California. There are any number of ways to get this done, but in this case we'll look at one of the easiest methods of all—using Fireworks to create all of the images and interactions in a single composition.
This series of three video tutorials will take you through the process of setting up your Fireworks file, inserting frames to hold the rollover objects, then using slices and hotspots to generate the final Fireworks HTML that can be inserted into your Dreamweaver page. Along the way you'll pick up some valuable tips and techniques for working with interactive images in Fireworks as well as best practices for making short work of a complicated design task.
Sun Nov 13, 2005
The Manly Art of Trailer Backing
I am filled with manly pride this evening my friends. You see, tonight I have accomplished one of the most difficult assignments given to a man--successfully backing a trailer into a restricted space.
This evening the beautiful brown-eyed girls and I went out for a little sunset cruise. Just an hour or so out on the water, a little cruise to watch the sun go down and see the sights along the waterway. It was fun, but the real challenge of any boating excursion really happens at the boat ramp and on return to the home front.
Now I know what you're thinking. So what. So you backed up a boat trailer. It's something that happens everyday. True enough, but I think that there isn't enough credit given to how difficult the task can be. In fact, I think there's a certain stereotype that assumes guys can back trailers well as if it's a skill hard-coded into our genes. But the truth is, it's not easy, and it's especially difficult when you have to perform a 90 degree turn from the street into your driveway and then into a space that is just barely larger than the boat and trailer combined. And doing it without causing major damage to the landscaping, which I must admit has happened here from time to time.
But tonight I was in my glory. Not only was the initial turn accomplished flawlessly, with the trailer swinging obediently into position, but it took only one--yes, that's right, I said one--pass to get the trailer smartly through the gate and into its parking spot alongside the house. No pulling in and out. No straightening things up for another run. Just one shot and there she was. This is a feat that I have to admit has not been something I routinely am able to do. But tonight! Tonight the heavens were in alignment and I could do not wrong.
So, you'll have to excuse me my own personal opportunity to crow just a bit. For tonight I am feeling like a complete man, secure in my masculinity and my ability to handle complicated maneuvers with a gasoline powered vehicle.
Sun Nov 06, 2005
Someday This Kid Will Be Skewing Our Test Scores
I had to make a milk run to my local grocery store this morning and encountered one of our future students. Dad was pushing this little 4-year old monster--I mean lovely child who will not be left behind by our failing public schools--around the store in a shopping cart and patiently ignoring the tantrums, yells, and threats issuing from his pint-sized gob.
As I watched Dad either ignore these constant outbursts or cave in to each and every one of Junior's demands I couldn't help but flash back to the days when I would sit in a parent conference and hear "We don't know what to do with him/her. He/she just won't do what we need them to do." I wish that father could see into his son's future too. By failing to demand that his child behave in a manner appropriate to the situation and firmly correct him when needed to he was failing the child.
Of course, the school system and its teachers will be the ones who get blamed when Johnny won't sit still long enough to learn and won't follow directions from his teacher. We'll invest countless hours of testing, re-mediation, and special programs designed to reach this child when what he really needed--starting young and continuing on through his home years--was a little bit of parental discipline.
I know what my Dad would have done if I'd behaved like this boy was today, and I can promise you I'd have been sitting gingerly the first time I screamed at him and demanded to have my way. Too bad this boy isn't getting it from his father, and I mean that in the literal sense.
Fri Nov 04, 2005
Perfect Storm
No, it's not what happens when you get three hurricanes in the space of 14 months. Instead it is this combination:
Three 12-year old girls on their 9th day out of school due to Hurricane Wilma,
plus,
Several bags of Halloween candy,
plus,
One stressed-out Dad who stayed home to work on a project requiring long periods of concentration.
NOT a good combination.
Wed Nov 02, 2005
An Introduction to Breeze Presenter
My latest tutorial at Community MX went live yesterday. This time around I'm looking at Macromedia Breeze Presenter in a free 10 minute video overview of the software cleverly titled An Introduction to Breeze Presenter. Here's the description from the article abstract:
With so much going on in the world of Flash-based eLearning content, it's easy to overlook one of the little gems now available for those who need to deliver learning content online. If you think that delivering eLearning content is too hard, or too technically difficult for the people in your organization, then you haven't met Macromedia Breeze Presenter.
Breeze Presenter delivers Flash-based eLearning in the same method that its sibling Breeze Live does—via the ubiquitous Flash Player. But unlike Breeze Live, Breeze Presenter is a product firmly entertwined with the one tool that almost all trainers are familiar with--PowerPoint. This marriage between the familiar PowerPoint interface and the world of eLearning makes for a powerful combination.
Tue Nov 01, 2005
Should Web Content Be Free?
Edward Wasserman has a thought-provoking article today at the Miami Herald (annoying and counter-productive free registration may be required) entitled There's no such thing as a free Web.
Wasserman makes a strong start by pointing out:
The notion that Internet content is generally ''free'' is one of the cyberworld's most cherished lies.
In fact, Internet economics is complex and bizarre. It consists of overlapping levels of subsidy, direct payment and covert transfers, along with under-the-table bribes to Web users for personal information most of us don't know we're giving up.
But free it's not. One way or the other, somebody's always paying. Usually, that's you.
A great deal of content is funded through straight-up subsidy. Stories, weblogs, commentary -- much is produced by people whose day jobs spill over onto the Web. If the authors are freelancers, they are providing uncompensated labor. This column may be picked up by any number of blogs and read by people who pay nothing for it. They think it's free; it's not. It costs me plenty, in time and sweat. In these cases, it's the content producers who do the paying.
Wasserman argues that this methodology is limiting and doomed to failure, and goes on to make the point that a better means of funding the creation of content is needed to forward the progress of the Web. I'm not sure I buy his model, but it's certainly something to think about.
In the same vein, Heather Armstrong over at my favorite humor blog, dooce, reacts to a storm of protest from her readers who take umbrage at the new advertising that she has placed on her site. In Wherein a whole bunch of you just roll your eyes she takes on her critics with the simple justification that her blog takes time and she needs to be paid. Well, there's a concept.
I also get paid (not as my main source of income) for writing and publishing on-line content, so perhaps my viewpoint is skewed, but I've always been a bit puzzled by the whole attitude that everything on the Web should be free. When I joined with a group of authors and experts on Macromedia software to form Community MX a few years ago--offering tutorials and newsgroup support for a monthly fee--the howls of protest in the newsgroups that most of us frequented were loud and long.
Why? Because we were expected to write and study and develop tutorials for free for some reason. Never mind that a good solid tutorial might take a good 10 hours of study and writing to produce. Not to mention the time we spend thinking about new articles, trying out new techniques, studying the software, volunteering our time for different programs, and generally spending plenty of our own time and sweat to put things together. And yet certain people expected that this would be done for free, and were outraged that we would be so blatant as to actually charge for what we do. Sure, we could offer free tutorials and depend on advertising revenue to compensate us for our time, but the subscription model allows us to be right up front about what customers will get for the money they spend. In the case of Community MX it's worked out quite well, thank you, despite the nay-sayers and chronic complainers.
So, next time you hit that "free" resource take a look around. As Mr. Wasserman points out, its likely that you're paying in one way or the other.