Month: February 2008

bookmark_borderMusic I've forgotten

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There is one major downside to owning a lot of music. It’s not the worry of storage space, nor the concern of quality, instead it’s rather more trivial than that.

I can’t remember what I’ve got.

In any given month I’ll buy at least 2 or 3 albums (not CDs), and they’ll go into rotation at home and at work. Of course I don’t always pick up new albums, sometimes older ones grab my fancy, for example I went through a spate of purchasing old Rolling Stones albums a couple of years ago. Those months are pretty easy to handle, as the new stuff slots into rotation easily. The problems arise when I purchase multiple CDs, which I do tend to do, leaving newer albums to be bulk purchased at the one time.

With several new albums arriving in my playlist, I naturally gravitate to the ones that instantly appeal and stick to those for until I get bored, at which point I revert back to the tried and trusted (my last.fm account gives an accurate depiction of what those are). And there in lies the problem.

I don’t make a conscious effort to revisit music that falls in-between, the music that I last listened to a few months back lies dormant until I stumble across it randomly. I’ve been deliberately using iTunes Party Shuffle to try and revisit the depths of my music collection but I think I need to be smarter than that. Possibly knock up a Smart List that only lists tracks that either haven’t been played at all, or haven’t been played in the past six months. Yes, that might do it.. (the reverse of this, kinda..)

This post is brought to you by Aimee Mann (Bachelor No.2), The Divine Comedy (Fin de Siecle), Joanna Newsom (The Milk-Eyed Mender), and Chungking.

So, go on, delve deep into your music collection and drag out an old friend. And, if you feel like it, do let me know what you found.

bookmark_borderInterviewing

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How do you do it?

I’ve conducted a fair number of interviews over the past few years, not a huge amount but definitely into double figures. Some have been good, some not so good, and some just embarassing.

I recently read about an interview that was more like a planning meeting, outlining the job in terms of the issue that was being addressed, discussing requirements and asking for ideas. As a way to evaluate how a prospective employee works, and how they would fit into your organisation or team, it makes some sense. I’d still use the more traditional question and response session as well, but this has gotten me thinking.

Are there other, better ways, to conduct an interview?

Just for kicks, here is my typical interview routine:

  1. Meet and greet with a firm handshake and set the tone with a friendly enquiry. Check that the formalities have been dealt with (interviewee has signed in and has a pass).
  2. Take them to the location of the interview, usually one of our meeting rooms.
  3. Outline the interview process to them.
  4. Give them a tour of the building, and talk a little about the history of the company, and point out some ‘how we work’ stuff.
  5. Back to the interview room, offer them a drink (coffee, tea and water will already be there).
  6. Then chat with them through their CV, asking them to explain and expand on certain points. I do ask for examples of work as well.
  7. I’ll then expand a little on the role they are interviewing for, and go over some of the employment terms.
  8. Then it’s final questions and we’re done.

It’s point 7 that could be expanded to be more of a scenario based discussion, and whilst I do use that approach on a small scale when I’m asking them questions, it might be interesting to outline a larger scenario and see how they handle that.

I’m always looking for better ways to do these things, as interviews can be hit or miss for both participants, so anything that would help keep it interesting and engaging would be beneficial.

Do you interview when hiring new staff? Any favoured approaches?

bookmark_borderBeginner's Guide to Guitar Hero

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We got a Wii in January, and Guitar Hero arrived this week. I’ve not played it much but there are a few tips I thought I’d pass on.

The first one is obvious, if you don’t have it (and you like rock music) GET IT! I know it’s hard to find, I ended up ordering mine online. I first played it at about 2am on New Year morning, and was instantly taken with it. It’s quite a straightforward game but is completely absorbing, mind you I’m not sure the word ‘game’ is adequate, it’s more an entertainment experience or something…

The next tip is to make sure you’ve closed the curtains, drawn the blinds, and generally are free to prance around your living room like a twat. Not that you’ll be prancing much but you do want to be…

…standing up. Tip three made a real difference to me, and whilst I’m not entirely sure why I do know that being able to move along to the music really helped me suss out the combinations and rhythms.

And finally have an alarm clock or some method of alerting you of the time. The temptation for just one more song is high and before you know it, you’ll hearing a banging from upstairs as your wife gently yells that it’s TWO FUCKING AM! SHUT UP!! as you shred through some more AC/DC… allegedly.

bookmark_borderWhy AuthorIT?

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As I mentioned before, we are planning to migrate content from FrameMaker to AuthorIT, staging the migration across two different product sets (and no small amount of time!). I’m in the process of evaluating AuthorIT for, despite having used it before, it has recently been overhauled with a spiffy new UI and some new features.

AuthorIT is a single source system, with content stored in a central database, which can publish to most (all?) of the formats that anyone would ever need. It includes an editor, supports multiple users, and has some additional add-ons for localisation and so on. Their website is very good if you want more information on their product.

After downloading and installing the trial version, which limits your import and publishing but otherwise has all the features available for use, I fired it up and was greeted with the new interface. Based on the ribbons used in the latest version of Microsoft Office, it is quite a shift away from the previous version and it took me a while to get to grips with. However it is a huge improvement over the old version and once you are used to it, like anything, it’s very nice to use. Yes I know there are still issues being dealt with, but I didn’t run across that many during my testing, so I’m happy.

During my evaluation I spoke to their Business Development Manager who was very helpful in delving into some of the issues I had around versioning and set my mind at rest. I’ll outline how we are going to handle maintaining multiple versions of documents in another post, once I’ve given it a dry run or two.

One issue that cropped up was the location and format of the supporting database. You can run AuthorIT on a Jet database either locally or on a network drive although that is particularly performant, or run it on a SQL Server. As we are a small team I did consider the Jet database but our situation suggests a server database would be better. Which introduced another problem, price. SQL Server isn’t the cheapest and we don’t have an installation in-house. Thankfully one of our IT guys suggested SQL Express (a limited free version of SQL Server) as a possibility, and after a quick check on the AuthorIT Yahoo Group, I’ve found that it will run quite happily on that database.

There is a limit of 4GB on the database size but as long as we keep our images elsewhere there is little chance we’ll hit that limit. Our total content at present, including images, tops out under 500MB for one version of the documentation. So we’ll actually be saving space on a server as we won’t be maintaining multiple versions of entire documents. Must remember to point that out to our IT guys!

Aside from versioning the only feature I was unfamiliar with was the batch runner, which allows you to run a batch file (.bat) as a scheduled task. Our current system runs at night, using Webworks to create a Javahelp file which is then included in the software build and AuthorIT will give us similar functionality.

Why AuthorIT? Well, quite simply it gives us what we need.

I spent some time at the X-Pubs conference last year, and throughout the presentations the underlying message was “get your requirements sorted before hunting for a system”. The premise is obvious enough, if you decide on a system first, you end up shoe-horning your processes around how it works rather than getting a system that works you way YOU work.

I also spent some time considering DITA but ultimately switching to an XML-based system is still too cost-prohibitive. AuthorIT is a compromise, allowing us to work how we want to work, whilst giving us single source benefits. We will use DITA as a framework for how we plan and write the content, but the simple fact is that AuthorIT is a much better value proposition than a bespoke system, both in monetary and resource terms. This makes the business case much easier to sell.

If you are considering single sourcing your content, then I’d strongly suggest you investigate AuthorIT as a possibility. It has limitations, including the oft-cited reliance on Word as a publishing engine, but for me the advantages outweight those.

And no, I am not being paid to endorse AuthorIT.

bookmark_borderKid for a day

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Cue dream sequence.

wibblywobbly ~ wibblywobbly ~ wibblywobbly

When I am grand poobah, leader of all and ruler of the land, my first act will be to create a new law which will read: “You, my loyal and humble subject, are entitled to choose one day of the calendar year during which you will be free from the constraints of adulthood and allowed to act and think like a child.”

Actually, that’s not strictly true.

My FIRST act as grand poobah, leader of all and ruler of the land will probably be to order a bigger robe and crown, then do a little jig in celebration of my, somewhat unexpectedly, acquired position.

After I’ve calmed down, beheaded a few oiks in Burberry justbecauseIcan and had a good hearty meal, for one should never make rash decisions on an empty stomach (just ask Alfred von Schlieffen who’s SECOND plan was “have dinner”), I will then proceed to lay down the law. Don’t worry though, I will be a benevolent ruler. Unless I don’t like the cut of your jib of course, whereby an entirely different law will be invoked and you shall be cast out along with the Spice Girls (except Baby) and made to watch endless repeats of Saturday night family TV.

My law will free adults of their responsbilities for a day, remove the persistent nagging in their head and allow them to revert to childhood. Throw tantrums and food, stomp in puddles, lie about in a field staring at the clouds, or create elaborate structures from nothing but dirt and twigs. My subjects would worship me, and I’d get to have one day eating nothing but marshmallows.

wibblywobbly ~ wibblywobbly ~ wibblywobbly

This idea, the law, not my sudden ascension to becoming grand poobah, leader of etc etc (although, why not?) came to me the other morning as we were driving into work through the sleet and snow. The weather had changed suddenly and as soon as the first flakes appeared I immediately started thinking about the driving conditions and that I’d maybe have to scrap the ice off the car later on and how the journey home could, if it kept snowing, be a royal pain in the arse, and so on and on…

The thing is, I can still (just) remember a time when all it took was a single snowflake to flutter down from the sky to illicit a single thought, in a distinctly pavlovian manner, from my brain. SLEDGE!

I miss those days. I want them back. Hence the “when I am grand poobah… new law… etc etc”.

Who’s with me?

Come on, let’s start a revolution. Don’t you miss quaffing entire Sherbert Fountains in one go? Playing catch with a tennis ball for hours on end? Spending entire afternoons exploring the local burn?

bookmark_borderClipX

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Working with text, and graphics, can be a time consuming job. If you are like me you’ll know many keyboard shortcuts, some of which will be used repeatedly throughout your working day.

For example:

  • CTRL+C
  • ALT+TAB
  • CTRL+V

Go on, who can hit that oft repeated key combination without even looking at the keyboard (you touch-typists can shush).

Cut and paste is so frequently used that it is often overlooked, yet it does warrant some thinking. I’ve tried adapting the way I work in the past but it turns out that I use a variety of different tools for a variety of different, yet very similar, tasks and the tool chosen largely depends on my mood.

I sometimes take text from an email into a Word document, sometimes I’ll start in Notepad (Notepad2 actually) and go from there, and other times I’ll just be moving things from one place to another in a FrameMaker document. The process is the same, cut and paste, cut and paste.

The flaw comes when you need to multiple items in multiple locations, leaving you flicking between windows and trying to remember what you last CUT so you PASTE the correct thing… how many times has that gone wrong for you?

Clipboard managers, as such pieces of software are known, have been around for a while, but I’ve never managed to work one into my workflow. Typically they are only need now and again but as that is the case how do they know WHEN they are needed, and when not?

I think I’ve found the answer, and it goes by the name of ClipX (yeah, the title of the post was a bit of a giveaway). It is a light-weight, unobtrusive clipboard manager that, with a little tweak to the default settings, makes it very easy to have the ability to go back through the previously copied items, without getting in the road of the more regular, one-to-one copy/paste activities.

If you download and install the application, you need to change one of the Popup settings. Right-click the icon in the system notification area, select Configure and then, on the left of the Configuration dialog, select Popup. Change the Default item setting to Last clipboard and you are good to go. I’ve also turned off the search and limited the number of items.

The really smart thing about ClipX is that it also handles graphics. I’ve been doing some web design work recently, hacking away and creating some basic graphics for the site. This is what my current CTRL+V action looks like (hitting Enter pastes the selected item, with the top-most, or most recent, item selected by default):



Smart, isn’t it.

Admittedly my infatuation with this little application may be because I’ve finally adjust the way I work to accomodate such a tool, but I like to think it’s also because it is an application that takes something simple and makes it work.