Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum
The Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum is an excellent vacuum. It has incredible suction power that rivals any Dyson available today. In addition, the air in my home smells cleaner because it is filtered through the vacuum's large HEPA filter. In three months of testing in normal and sometimes not-so-normal household use, I can say that the Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum can stand up to and handle anything you throw at it. In a test of the Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum, I used alot of carpet powder. My Eureka Boss was not able to pull all of the powder up out of the carpet. The Bissell was able to pull up most, if not all, of the carpet powder. Unfortunately, this overwhelmed the filter and I needed to replace it. I soon found out that while this vacuum is available is many stores, the filters are not. I had to order them online at Bissell.com. Why sell a product in stores and not sell its accessories? Labels: Home Improvement, Technology
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Pirate Master Cancelled
Pirate Master has been canceled. Well...sort of. Let's call it "pulled." It is now an "online exclusive" on CBS.com. I guess "online exclusive" is marketing speak for "not bringing in the ratings." I enjoyed the show and would love to see it show up on iTunes. Labels: Culture
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iPhone Issues
I purchased an iPhone on the first weekend it was released. For the most part, it is a very capable phone. This post is intended to list any issues I encounter while using the iPhone. Everyone has already commented on the lask of MMS, the inability to add ringtones, and the lack of a flash. The biggest missing feature for me is that the iPhone does not allow you to save pre-defined text messages, such as "I am in a meeting." No one has documented this yet and I am surprised. The first time I tried an iPhone in the Apple store, the lack of this feature turned me away. Lately, I have been noticing that I cannot hear people very well on the iPhone. Perhaps Apple has implemented some sort of volume limiter on the iPhone, similar to iPods. If so, Apple needs to add a control to allow you to change the maximum volume just like the iPods. Labels: Technology: Apple
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Superman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Superman is a fictional character and superhero, created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, who first appeared in comic books in 1938, and eventually became the most popular comic book hero of all time. He subsequently appeared in various television series and in movies. Superman was born on the planet Krypton and was sent to Earth moments before the planet exploded. While growing up on Earth in the guise of Clark Kent, he discovered that he possessed superhuman powers. Superman returns to his alter-ego between episodes of using his powers to combat evil. For so much more, visit Wikipedia. Labels: Culture
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Office Presentations
My advice to you on giving presentations in your conference roomsWhen giving a presentation, 1) Dress nicely. 2) Get up there, remember to BREATHE, and look around at your audience. If you have a friend in the audience, pretend you are talking to that person. Don't stare though. Look around at your audience.
3) Tell the audience what you will talk about (Introduce the topic and background)
4) Tell the audience about it (The core of the presentation)
5) Tell the audience what you told them (Conclusion/Summary)
6) Phrases like "In conclusion." are overused. If you must transition using a phrase, be creative.
7) Don't be afraid to move around the room a little. Don't glue yourself to the PC. If you can have a "silent partner" run the presentation for you while you talk, even better. This affords you the opportunity to move around a bit, or stand opposite the computer on the other side of the projection screen.
8) Don't talk to the screen if you are presenting Powerpoint slides...talk to your audience. This requires that you know your topic well. You only need to look back at the screen to start you off into what you want to talk about...
9) Don't use index cards, a sheet of paper, or anything else that makes you look like you don't know what you are talking about.
10) Just reading your slides to people results in you talking to the screen and a boring presentation.
11) Make eye contact and talk; don't read.
12) Finally...the secret weapon...play with a paperclip, pen (my favorite), or some other discreet item during the presentation to alleviate nervous tension. It draws away your nervous energy. If you have a pointer or laser pen, even better! Its ok to have the pen out in your hands during the presentation, because it can double as a pointing device. No one needs to know the real reason!
Labels: Office Insanity
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The Future
"This may not make much sense to you now...a young man at the beginning of his career...but one of the things you'll learn as you move up the ranks and get a little older, is that, you wish you had more time in your youth to really absorb all the things that happen to you. It goes by so fast...Its so easy to become jaded...to treat the extraordinary as just another day at the office." - Captain Janeway, Star Trek Voyager, 1995 Labels: Culture, Office Insanity
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Warming Up Your Vehicle by Idling is Bad
Thanks to max_headroom for this post at ColoradoFans.com"News flash! Idling is not good for your engine. Perhaps the greatest myth about idling is that it's good for the engine. The truth is that excessive idling can actually damage a vehicle's engine.
Contrary to popular belief, idling is not an effective way to warm up a vehicle, even in cold weather. The best way to do this is to drive the vehicle. Today's electronically controlled engines allow you to drive away after only 30 seconds of idling, even on the coldest winter days.
Excessive idling can be a problem for a few reasons:
First, since an idling engine is not operating at its peak temperature, fuel combustion is incomplete. As a result, fuel residues can condense on cylinder walls, contaminate oil and damage engine components. For example, these residues tend to deposit on spark plugs. With more engine idling there is a drop in the average plug temperature and accelerated plug fouling. This can increase fuel consumption by 4 to 5 percent. Excessive idling can cause water to condense in the vehicle's exhaust. This can lead to corrosion and reduce the life of the exhaust system. There's another good reason for motorists to drive away soon after starting a vehicle. The engine is only one component of a vehicle. Other parts, such as the wheel bearings, steering, suspension, transmission and tires, also need to be warmed up, and the only way to do that is to get the vehicle moving.
Another common misconception is that it's better to let an engine idle than to continually shut off and restart the vehicle. Research has shown that frequent restarting has little impact on engine components such as the battery and starter motor. Component wear caused by restarting is estimated to add $10 per year to the cost of driving, money that can be recovered several times over in fuel savings from reduced idling.
A good rule of thumb for smart, idle-free driving is this:
If you are going to be parked for more than 10 seconds, turn off the engine. Ten seconds of idling can use more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it
Block heaters save fuel and help the environment. Starting a vehicle on a cold winter day can be hard on the engine and the environment. The best way to get around this problem is to use a block heater when the temperature drops below 0°C.
Here's the problem: When an engine starts up, it pumps oil through the engine block to lubricate moving parts. In a cold engine, the oil is thick and resists flow, so the engine has to work harder to overcome internal friction. As a result, the engine uses more fuel and creates more pollution in the first minutes after a cold start than when it reaches normal operating temperatures.
Fuel combustion is also less efficient in a cold engine, and the air-fuel mixture is richer – in other words, there is more fuel than needed in the mixture, and less air. The combined effect is a sharp increase in pollutants. Since a vehicle's catalytic converter doesn't work when it is cold, all of the engine's emissions pass through the exhaust untreated.
Here's the solution: A block heater is an inexpensive device that warms the coolant, which in turn warms the engine block and lubricants. The engine will start more easily, reach its peak operating temperature faster and won't have to work as hard to pump oil through the block.
At –20°C, block heaters can improve overall fuel economy by as much as 10 percent. For a single short trip on a cold day, fuel savings could be in the order of 20 percent.
An automatic timer can be used to turn on the block heater a couple of hours before the vehicle is to be started." Labels: Automotive
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Motorola Cable Signal Booster
I purchased a Monster Cable TGHZ-3RF 3-Way Low-Loss RF Splitter for the cable drop's main entry point into my home. The cable installer used a cheap 1 Ghz splitter to split the single drop into three. I'll be testing out the Motorola Signal Booster (#484095-001-00) tonight. The analog cable channels (channels 1-80) on Digital Cable are grainier than my satellite was. This device is supposed to boost the signal and correct this. Plus it will allow me to put my cable modem and HD-DVR cable box on the same cable drop. I will split the drop with the Monster Cable TGHZ-2RF Two-Gigahertz Low-Loss RF Splitter. Labels: Technology
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Precluding the Centralization Versus Decentralization Argument
In an industry where productivity is often measured by cpu cycles, a different sort of cycle has emerged, one which is defined by the vacillation between centralization and decentralization. This vacillation, or cycling, back and forth has caused some industry analysts to propose a middle ground, one that seeks to provide a balance of the best of both centralization and decentralization. While achieving such a balance is seemingly possible, it requires strong leadership at the top of the organization and ultimately requires the ability to align business goals with the information technology function.
In his 1990 article, “The ‘Centrally Decentralized’ IS Organization,” Ernest M. von Simpson makes the case for a hybrid model that incorporates the best of both the centralized model and the decentralized model. Speaking largely from the perspective of a period of decentralization, von Simpson (1990) states that decentralization successfully “minimized turf battles over budget allocations and ensured closer connections to users – but too often with the results of creating a rudderless IS staff” (p. 3). In an effort to provide the staff with some direction, he argues that an organization should centralize its information technology functions, while still allowing business units to maintain their flexibility provided by the decentralized model (von Simpson, 1990). Centralizing the information technology functions would enable an organization to take advantage of lower licensing fees, volume discounts, and increased support options while providing structure to companywide efforts such as managing the network infrastructure, staff training and recruitment, and standard establishment (von Simpson, 1990). To achieve this sort of structure, von Simpson (1990) argues that an organization must operate in a bidirectional fashion regarding the interaction between the corporate community and the information technology community.
This sort of bidirectional interaction appears thirteen years later, when Barbara T. Bauer essentially argues the same points as von Simpson in her article “Is a Centralized or Decentralized IT Organization Better?” She describes a movement toward centralization, which was brought on by the need for Year 2000 conversions and the emergence of “new network and database technologies” that required “centralized IT organizations for development and operation” (Bauer, 2003). Acknowledging that these arguments have been made in the past, Bauer indicates that the same issues von Simpson highlighted still remain and are now accompanied by the addition of business’ almost total reliance on information technology (2003). In addition, the effective use of information technology has become a “life or death matter” in her opinion (Bauer, 2003).
Bauer highlights the major advantages and disadvantages of each model before proposing her hybrid/federated model. Specifically, she states that the benefits of centralization are in software and hardware procurement, redundancy elimination, and resource integration (Bauer, 2003). The disadvantages are the inability to be responsive to users and the perception of information technology as a huge cost center to the business (Bauer, 2003). Regarding decentralization, she states that ease of integrating various systems using the client/server model and the ability to respond rapidly to change are advantages. The disadvantages are higher operating cost due to redundancy, a lack of unified presence, and the lack of a single point of accountability (Bauer, 2003).
In her hybrid model, “functions that require consistency across the entire company are centralized” (Bauer, 2003). These functions include procurement, operations, architecture, standards and processes, and ERP application development. Unique applications, however, are left to each business unit, as well as unit specific service level agreements, resources, and strategies (Bauer, 2003). In essence, business units maintain “budget control over the decentralized functions” (Bauer, 2003) and technical resources remain the responsibility of the centralized organization.
Bauer’s arguments for the hybrid/federated model are very similar to those of von Simpson, perhaps speaking ironically to the cyclical nature of the centralization versus decentralization argument itself. Notable, however, is the way Bauer branches off her argument into a discussion of alignment by stating, "The corresponding challenge, and possible disadvantage to a federated model, is that it requires strong, collaborative leadership in both headquarters and individual business units. The CIO, in particular, must be an executive who can lead a complex technical organization as well as understand the business needs and strategy of each business unit. It also requires effective strategy, planning and resource allocation processes in the company so that centralized resources continue to meet the needs of specific business activities" (2003).
Indeed, this task is quite daunting, but it is exactly one of the skills that define successful leadership by the CIO and other executive level leaders. As Ben Worthen (2003) notes, tradition places information technology and business units on different pages. It therefore becomes necessary for the CIO to practice alignment, which is the art of anticipating business needs and translating them into successful information technology systems (Worthen, 2003). While numerous alignment techniques exist, the importance of the goal remains the same. The coordination between the information technology staff and the business units is paramount, and is perhaps the most important function of executive leadership.
Worthen (2003) states that the seemingly difficult task of executive leadership can be accomplished and illustrates it with two examples. The first example details the business “playbook” developed by Christine Modie, CIO of the Massachusetts Mutual Fund Financial Group. She developed this playbook by interviewing users, assessing their business needs, and prioritizing them as a series of goals for the year. Implementing the initiatives of the playbook saved the company 12.6 million in one year alone and her information technology group became more aware of the business as a result (Worthen, 2003). In addition, by saving money, the idea of information technology as a cost center was reduced and the credibility of her group increased in the eyes of the business (Worthen, 2003).
Worthen’s second example details Sheleen Quish’s “rankings game,” which she developed for U.S. Can. The goal of the rankings games was to “mesh the corporate goals with divisional goals” (Worthen, 2003). Using a series of rankings, corporate goals and divisional goals are mapped out and prioritized. Once the priorities are established, each goal is labeled as a “must-do, should-do, or a nice-to-do” (Worthen, 2003). In the end, the goal is to ensure that the information technology staff and the company’s business units see “eye-to-eye” (Worthen, 2003). Seeing eye-to-eye is exactly Bauer’s point regarding the hybrid/federated model’s capability to allow centralized resources to meet business needs in a decentralized environment. From Worthen’s examples, one can see that the CIO must play an integral role in bringing together both the information technology staff and the business units, whether thorough interviewing techniques, prioritization activities, or other alignment procedures.
Such examples illustrate that alignment procedures are not limited to the hybrid/federated model. While Bauer places this extra responsibility on the CIO only in the hybrid/federated model, one could argue the conceivability of these techniques in any organizational structure. Alignment, then, becomes the issue, and the centralization versus decentralization argument is seemingly precluded. In fact, applying the alignment techniques could aid in overcoming the disadvantages of the other models. Worthen’s examples illustrate these applications. For example, responsiveness and cost were labeled as disadvantages of the centralized model. If a CIO in a centralized environment were to incorporate the techniques Modie developed, these issues could be alleviated to some degree, due to the heightened awareness that results from interaction with the users.
Alignment techniques have implications for the decentralized model as well. For example, redundancy, accountability, and a lack of a unified presence were labeled as disadvantages. Quish successfully addressed these issues in her rankings analysis by requiring that every submitted project include an ROI figure, and a statement of how the project increases revenue, reduces cost, improves customer service, or stabilizes the work environment. In order for the project to proceed, it must have buy-in from everyone. In fact, her largest goal was to eliminate the “everyone-for-himself affair” (Worthen, 2003) that largely characterized the yearly allocation of information technology projects.
While the debate about centralized and decentralized models may continue to cycle for years to come, these examples indicate that alignment strategies can mitigate their respective disadvantages and bring them closer to the balance sought by the hybrid/federated model. Perhaps it is the nature of the information technology industry and the ever-changing technologies involved are the cause for such cycling between models. In any event, The importance of the executive leadership’s ability to align resources with business goals will remain the key to successfully implementing information technology in an effort to advance the company’s future.
References
Bauer, Barbara T. (2003, October). Is a Centralized or Decentralized IT Organization Better? Darwin. Retrieved October 28, 2003, from http://www.darwinmag.com/read/100103/question54.html
von Simpson, Ernest M. (1990). The ‘Centrally Decentralized’ IS Organization. Harvard Business Review, 1-6.
Worthen, Ben. (2003, April). Line Up the Team. Retrieved October 29, 2003, from
http://www.cio.com/archive/040103/hs_team.html
Labels: Academic Papers
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