Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I add the ZaggMate carrying case with a BlueTooth keyboard. It is great.

I like the iPad, but…

My iPad in the ZaggMate case

Of course there is a “but.” I write as much as I read and that makes me different from most people and that is the “but” about the iPad – I can’t write well on the iPad. As much as I have tried to use the touchscreen “keyboard” on the iPad, I haven’t mastered it. On several occasions I have come within a breath of buying Apple’s cool bluetooth keyboard to use with the iPad. I am now glad I didn’t.

I caught a glimpse on the recent MacWorld conference on the Internet. Someone pointed to this product called the ZaggMate from Zagg.com. I bought it; I am glad I did.

The ZaggMate is an aluminum carrying case for the iPad with a BlueTooth keyboard built in. It costs $100, not cheap, but it has transformed my iPad from a nice reader into a writing machine as well. I had never used a BlueTooth anything before buying this. There was no learning curve. It took longer to unpack the ZaggMate from its childproof packaging than it did to integrate it with my iPad. Boom, bang, done.

The ZaggMate keyboard

I love this. It just works. The keyboard is a little cramped, but ten minutes of practice and I am typing. One of my favorite features is that I can copy and paste on the iPad using the familiar Command-C and Command-V keystrokes.

The iPad (horizontal, vertical also works) and the ZaggMate

This iPad thing keeps improving every month.

I took the accompanying photos with my iPhone.

by Dwayne Phillips

How specific should a system specification be? How many resources should the spec consume? I propose a measure to help answer these questions – the Return on Specification Investment.

A few years ago, I was reviewing a specification for a system that someone in the office had written. I came to one part where the engineer was specifying a controller. All he wrote was:

a rugged laptop

Hmmm, not very specific for a specification. A contractor could go a lot of different ways with that vague statement, claim compliance, and not satisfy the user. We had to do something, or did we? This brings the question,

how specific should you be when writing a specification (spec for short)?

Consider the “rugged laptop.” Panasonic makes the flagship Toughbooks as listed here. There are a few other companies that make laptops that are “rugged.” That usually means that you can drop them and they still work. Some of these rugged machines can take a cup of coffee spilled on the keyboard; some can take a few hand fulls of dirt on them. Others can take more heat and cold than I can.

So what is important? Well, that depends on the system with which you want a rugged laptop, and that brings us back to the situation where we started. The engineer specifying the system didn’t know what to write. So, in my opinion, he was lazy and wrote “a rugged laptop.”

What could he have done? One thing is go to the Panasonic web site, as one example, print the marketing information for their Toughbook, and use those numbers as the specification. That is a little less lazy, but not quite creative. The short cut there is to specify

any computer meeting or exceeding the specifications of a Panasonic ToughBook model ABC

I guess that would work. A similar solution would be:

Use a Panasonic ToughBook model ABC as the system’s field controller

Okay, enough with the rugged laptop. The general concern is

How much resources should be spent on specifications?

The answer is

Enough to justify a return on investment, but no more.

Sort of vague, huh? Let’s discuss this for a few lines and see what we have.

A specification costs money. It costs time and effort to write by the specifier. The big cost is for the builder or the organization that delivers the system. They have to track the specifications all through the system build and have to test to the specifications. If the specifier lists all the numbers from Panasonic’s marketing, the builder will have to run all those tests to ensure that the laptop chosen meets them. If, however, the specifier writes, “Use Panasonic model ABC,” the builder only has to say, “yes, we provided that model.” See how much cheaper that method is? Of course, that is cheaper if the specifier was correct in stating which Panasonic model to buy. There are many possible problems that come with that type of specification.

Consider the case where the builder buys a Panasonic model for a few thousand dollars. If they buy the wrong model, they can toss it and buy another one. Only a few thousand dollars are wasted. How much money will the specifier and the builder spend if the specifier gives tiny details in the spec? If that is tens of thousands of dollars, that is a poor return on investment.

I guess that is the point, the return on investment or what I will call the Return on Specification Investment (ROSI for short – pronounced like rosey or ro-zee).

If the resources needed to specify an item and test the item to that specification are greater than the cost of the item, you have a poor ROSI.

If the resources needed to specify an item and test the item to that specification are less than the cost of the item, you have a good ROSI.

That seems to make sense. Using these guidelines requires calculating a few things before starting. The hardest part of the calculation would be to estimate the resources the builder will spend testing a specification. That cost is usually much higher than most people who haven’t built a system to a spec would think.

Anyways, give this a little thought. The concept is still swirling in my head. Maybe one did it will come to something.

by Dwayne Phillips

This one has been buzzing around in my head for a few years. What do you call it when you are trying to write and you need to write words?

Words on the page – doesn’t work until you run your printer.

Words on the screen – that sort of works, but those words aren’t really stored on the computer, just temporary.

So, it hit me – Words on Disk. That even becomes a pronounceable acronym – WOD (pronounced wod to rhyme with dirt clod and bod-y and slob).

And Words on Disk leads me to the phrase Blank Disk to be the computer equivalent of blank page.

Okay, this isn’t earth shattering, but it is something that hit me while encouraging a team of people to stop talking and start writing so that we could finish a proposal and earn some business.

by Dwayne Phillips

Have some spare time? How about tutoring people using online course materials posted by universities?

Here is a new opportunity for people with knowledge to connect with people seeking knowledge. MIT and others have put many of their courses online. MIT has recently added a set of courses that are tailored for independent learners. I guess that means people who really want to learn, but are far away in time, space, and funding from MIT. It seems that MIT’s open course ware was not built for such independent learners. MIT felt that other professors and teachers would use the online course materials to create their own courses. The new material is much for friendly for someone wanting to learn.

Hence the new opportunity. I wish I had thought of this; someone else had the idea, but everyone has the opportunity. The online courses from MIT and others, yes there are lots of others, is incomplete. That is, it is difficult for a person seeking to learn to look at the materials and master the subject. You enter the picture as a local person with knowledge. Put an ad in the local paper or online somewhere. The ad would be something like:

Do you want to learn from so-and-so’s online course ware but have been frustrated? Call me. I will tutor you on the material. Affordable rates.

Viola. There you have it. Someone else has developed the course material, you understand it, all you have to do is connect with persons who want to learn.

Affordable rates? How about meals.

Yes, meet at a restaurant, the learner buys lunch, and I tutor on this week’s material. Everyone wins here. The learner learns, I have something constructive to do with my time, I eat lunch, the restaurant has more business, and so on.

And here is the big win for the tutor. I have been working with students at George Mason University as they write their papers in Engineering and Computer Science. I learn much more than they do. I grow. I keep fresh with current ideas. Tutoring eager learners is one of the most rewarding things a semi-retired person can do.

Even if you are not semi-retired, you probably know a lot and can assist others in knowing. What better use of your lunch time is there?

by Dwayne Phillips

An old lesson holds true today: getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

Twenty-five years ago, I was involved in a fence-building project. Members of the community gathered to start from scratch and erect a 50-meter-long fence. I was one of the first people there and was talking to one of the organizers. I don’t recall what triggered what he said, but I remember it to this day,

Getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

There is much to gathering the tools and materials to build a fence. There is much to having people show at the job site. Truly, getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

This past week, I was involved in a project at work. This was the kind of work you do sitting in chairs in front of computers with your hands on the keyboard. We were doing this work at an offsite building. I was one of the first people to arrive on Monday morning – punctuality seems to be one of my traits, perhaps it isn’t a good trait.

• There were a few problems getting people into a locked building.
• There were a few problems with the custom computer network we were to use.
• We took an hour to create accounts on the machines
• Several people arrived an hour or two late

Yes, that man was right years ago. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of work you are doing. Still,

Getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

by Dwayne Phillips

Compliant meets the minimum requirements while compelling puts some excitement into a product. Still, I would be satisfied with compliance when it comes to dishwasher delivery and installation.

I ran into the phrase that inspired the title of this post one day last week. We were writing a proposal for a contract. One of the things you want to be in a proposal for a government contract is compliant. Compliance means that you address every element in in the government’s request for proposal. If you are not compliant, you are not considered by the government.

We were compliant in what we had drafted. We were not, however, compelling in our description of what we could do. We had not given the government a compelling reason to consider our services.

First, let’s hear the worth of compliance. A person who arrives on time for a job is compliant. My wife and I recently went through two weeks of pain because a dishwasher installer would not arrive on time; he was not compliant, and we suffered. Compliance is pretty darn good and it seems to be harder to find as time goes by. Perhaps that is the ranting of an old man.

Now on to compelling. That is something that is more than the minimum. Compelling grabs my attention. Instead of daydreaming during television commercials, I awaken and register what is happening when a compelling advertisement appears on the screen.

So now this week we are trying to change our compliant proposal into one that is compelling. I tell people that we need to put the “magic” into the proposal. I’ll have to think of something as clever as “compliant but not compelling.” Maybe something like “from mundane to magic.” Maybe I’ll just go with what I heard last week. It is pretty good.

by Dwayne Phillips

Here is a little secret about me:

When I walk through any store that sells writing instruments and writing surfaces, I stop and wonder how it would feel to write words with those instruments on those surfaces.

It doesn’t matter what type of store it is. Grocery stores sell “school supplies.” I stop and look at the pens and pencils and the different notebooks, pads, and paper. I stand there staring for five minutes. I don’t know what people think I am doing, but my mind is racing through the different combinations of pen and paper. My fingers tingle trying to imagine the feel of each. When in grocery stores, I try to avoid the school supplies section.

I have to go to the Office Depot to buy printer supplies. I run away from the pen and pencil section. I run away from the notebook section. Given all the possible combinations in a huge store like the Depot, I would never leave.

I don’t know anyone else who has this same tendency. Perhaps there are millions of us out there all hiding this little secret.

Is this tendency odd? Is it an affliction common to people who like to write?

by Dwayne Phillips

The MOI Model has one more part – the jiggle. Use it to restart the group when you hit the flat or descending part of the MOI curves.

The MOI Model has three parts – motivation, organization, and information. Recent posts have discussed how more of these helps until we reach a point where they stop helping. Then there is a point where more starts hurting.

Let’s introduce a fourth part to this three-part model. The fourth part is the jiggle. The jiggle is one of those things that you can’t describe, but you know it when you see it. How’s that for an excuse from a writer? It is another way of saying, “you guys just go out there and figure it out for yourselves.”

Let’s try to describe it with a few questions.

Have you ever been working on something with a few people and you all become stuck? The ideas stop flowing? Every one stares at the floor or the ceiling or both? An outsider walks in the room, tells a stupid joke, everyone laughs a minute, then the ideas flow again. That was a jiggle! That stupid joke that broke the impasse.

Here are some other possible jiggles:

• Bathroom break (please don’t say, “everyone to the bathroom to jiggle.” Bad form)
• Lunch break
• Walk around the block
• Reading the weather report or anything else from the newspaper
• Stupid joke (about yourself, not about anyone or anything else)
• Hold a silly face contest
• See who can hold their breath the longest (take medical care with this one)

Take care with your jiggles so that no one is hurt.

What good is a jiggle? When in the MOI model you reach the flat part of the curve and more of motivation, organization, and information leads no where, JIGGLE the group. Then more MOI may become helpful again.

by Dwayne Phillips

In my industry job, I see people making phone calls to obtain answers to questions right now. I never say that in 28 years of government. Here are some thoughts on the practice.

I worked in government for 28 years. I have since worked in private industry for two years. A current project highlighted to me one of the main differences between government and industry:

In industry, things get done in meetings.

I’m not swift; sometimes I take a couple of years to notice something. What I noticed is that during meetings in industry, people make phone calls. We will be discussing something, a question will arise, someone will pick up the phone, make a call, and get the answer right then. Next item.

That – pick up the phone, make a call, get the answer – never happened in any meeting I attended in government (and believe me, I attended thousands of meetings in government). Why didn’t we make the phone call in government meetings? Several reasons that come to mind. In government,

(1) No use trying to call someone else, because they are sitting in another meeting at the same time.

(2) We (mostly incorrectly) assume the right people are in the room.

And the reason that keeps coming to the forefront of my mind:

(3) There is no “get it done” (GID) mentality in government.

There were rare occasions in my government life that we were anxious to GID. So, we persevered and GID. Still, in government, there was never any urge to do it now (DIN).

I recall in 1980s, reading a little newspaper article tacked to a bulletin board. The point of the article: if you have something to get done, DIN. The funny thing, this bulletin board was in a government building where the only people who would see it were government employees. Perhaps I was the only person in the building who read the article.

These phone calls I keep witnessing in industry meetings, the are the epitome of GID-DIN. I guess every time I see this I could yell “giddin” or something silly.

By the way, these phone calls are quite effective. What surprises me is that the people we are calling are in their offices at their desks and answer their phones. They aren’t sitting in a meeting behind a closed door. Wow. What a concept. Another good reason to NOT be in meetings.

by Dwayne Phillips

People use one set of postures for thinking. There are another set of postures that make it easy for other people to hear what you are saying when you are talking. Please try to switch postures when thinking and then talking. This request is especially strong when in meeting with other people.

I sat in a meeting this week. No, this isn’t about unproductive, waste-of-time meetings. We accomplished much in this meeting. We had a number of questions before us, we talked, there was much contemplation, and we decided what to do next. Good meeting.

I noticed something about people thinking. There are a few postures or body positions that people around a table assume when thinking. Some are:

• scratching chin
• biting finger nails
• scratching nose
• resting chin on fist
• rubbing eyes and face

After thinking, people would describe their thoughts, i.e., they would talk a while. There are a few postures that are good for speaking in a manner that is easily heard by others. Some are:

• nothing in front of your face
• nothing touching your face
• neck straight
• head up

Notice that there is no intersection between the two lists of postures. In almost all cases,

the thinking posture is terrible talking posture.

Something else I noticed in the meeting,

people in deep thought usually don’t change posture before talking

In fact, they usually stay in the thinking posture while talking. Ouch, that makes it difficult for everyone else to understand. Hence, the next time you follow a period of deep thought with some description of your thoughts,

please try to switch postures.