The Shaved Soapbox » General

Take responsibility for what you do with your tools

Baldy — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:42:32 +0000

While reading Scott Berkun's defence of PowerPoint, a phrase came to mind "A bad workman will always blame his tools".

I've sat through so many bad presentations where the first thing the speaker does is to apologise for the "Death By PowerPoint", and the converse, which doesn't happen that often, is a good presentation where the speaker uses the tool as an aid to draw your attention, like it was designed to do.

I agree with Scott, YOU need to take responsibility for the work you deliver, you should never blame a tool for your shortcomings.

Use a bit of common sense in traffic

Baldy — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:30:57 +0000

One of the things that annoy me the most is someone that does not use his/her nut while driving in traffic.

You are not special, and you don't have special privileges based on the price of your car, the size of your car or the colour of your skin (this is not a racist statement, just an observation).

If everyone used a little bit of common sense, we would actually get out of the traffic a lot sooner.

If you think you're special and you race down the wrong lane to try and push into a line at the front, you're holding up everyone that actually had the patience and common sense to be in the correct lane for where they want to go early enough.

When two rows of traffic merge for whatever reason, this should work like a zipper. If you don't know how that works, look down at your clothing and figure it out. Take note that no matter how fast you operate said zipper, it always works. Same for traffic merging, if everyone takes their alternate place in the line, you could potentially do this at a steady speed without everyone having to slow down. But notice what happens when you decide you're special, and you don't leave a gap for the next person to integrate with the lane in front of you. You hold up both lines, because the person that needed to come in had to slow down, and the person behind you had to slow down to now let two cars in.

When you get to a traffic light, and the line of cars is backed up to the line across the intersection, don't race across and park IN the intersection, in-case you miss the light. Now you are holding up the line of traffic going across your route. Your impatience is selfish. Rather wait for the road to clear enough so you can fit your car in the line while not standing in the intersection, even if that means to wait for another change of lights.

There is no racing line on public roads. That's right you heard me, stick to the middle of the lane you're in, if you move towards the side, or heaven forbid, cross the line slightly, you're only endangering your fellow road users.

What have we learnt in 2 millenia?

Baldy — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:05:00 +0000

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
--- Cicero, 55 BC

Evidently, nothing....

Is it worth it trying to maintain multiple blogs?

Baldy — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:34:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks I've written a few articles on MyDigitalLife, where, should you be deemed a good enough writer, you start getting paid per hit. While checking on my hit count etc, I've fallen into the bad habit of reading the latest blog posts every time I visit. I have to honestly say that I'm a worse person for reading some of the mind numbing posts out there.

There are a FEW of the bloggers there that write quality stuff, but mostly...Well let's not comment any further, go have a look at this beauty. And there are a few more of these.

I strive for constant improvement in my life, in everything I attempt, whether it be writing - in comprehensible language - or watching the grass grow - trying to see more detail every time . And in this constant quest for improvement, I do not want to be associated with the likes of snake.

I have also been neglecting this blog because of my writing on that side, and I do not want to neglect my primary site, so I've decided to commit site suicide (removing my profile, not killing myself), but I have to say it seems that it may be more difficult than trying to commit FaceBook suicide, which can be nearly impossible, according to the few who've tried.

So, I'll now move my articles from that side to this one, and see if the kick me off for breaking one of the rules of the site - linking back to your own blog.

So, back to my question, is it worth maintaining multiple blogs? Only if you want to hide your political/personal views...

The few who spoil it for the rest of us

Baldy — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:26:00 +0000

Let me start with some background...

Last night at about half past 10 my doorbell rang. When I answered the
intercom, there was a guy outside asking me to come outside as he'd
just had an accident at the end of the cul-de-sac where I stay. He had
just come from the local pub, and did not have a clue where he was...

Now, normally I would jump to the opportunity to help a fellow human
being, but unfortunately in our country you never know when it is a
scam to get you outside as an easy target for more sinister things.

In my view I made the right decision to deny the request, giving the
person my phone number to pass on to his relatives for directions to
the location, in case the story was true.

This morning when leaving for work I drive down to the end of the
street to check out the story, and lo-and-behold, he was telling the
truth, the fence posts of the compex there were bent, and you could
clearly see where he went off the road.

Firstly, whoever you are, I have to apologise for not coming out to
help, but I think if the roles were reversed you would probably make
the same decision that I did.

Secondly, whoever you are, you should not be driving at high speed in
the rain and dark on roads you don't know, even when you're sober, but
especially not after you've visited the local pub, that is just
irresponsible, and you would not have been in the position you were in
if there was a inkling of responsiblity in you.

Back to the heading of this post.

Why is our country in this position, where people have to think twice
before answering a call for help. Where criminals have sunk so low as
to target people's natural will to help fellow human beings, to turn
them in to easy targets. It's despicable behaviour, and our government
is still doing very little to curb crime...

Food for Thought

Baldy — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:17:00 +0000

A boat docked in a tinyMexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on thequality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. 'Notvery long,' answered the Mexican.

'But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?' asked the American.

The Mexican explained thathis small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of hisfamily.

The American asked, 'But what do you do with the rest of your time?'

'I sleep late, fish a little, playwith my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings,I go into the village to see my
friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs...I have a full life.'

The American interrupted, 'I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you!

You should start by fishinglonger every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extrarevenue, you can buy a bigger boat.'

'And after that?' asked the Mexican.

'With the extra money the larger boatwill bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you havean entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to amiddle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants andmaybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this littlevillage and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even NewYork City! From there you can direct yourhuge new enterprise.'

'How long would that take?' asked the Mexican.

'Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,' replied the American.

'And after that?'

'Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting,' answered the American, laughing. 'When your business gets really big, you can startselling stocks and make millions!'

'Millions? Really? And after that?' said the Mexican.

'After that you'llbe able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play withyour children, catch a few fish, take a
siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoyingyour friends.'

Garmin, educate your vendors

Baldy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:25:00 +0000

I've helped two people in the last year to update the firmware on their Garmin units. It is a fairly simple procedure, and it is FREE. But in both cases that is not what the stores where the bought the units told them. Both stores, different ones, tried to sell them new map software, which would not help to fix the issues they were experiencing, but on which the store would make a big profit.

Surely these sales people should have the training and INTEGRITY to help Garmin's clients, and if not, why are they still agents?

How far can we trust software awards

Sounds quite kinky

Baldy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:04:00 +0000

I received the following sentence in a document from a vendor, quite a well known company as well.

"The ... system poles the staging area to see ifany changes are received"

Moral of the story, get someone else to proofread your documents before sending them to your client, Word's spell-check does not pick this up.

Honest CV

Baldy — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:07:00 +0000

If you read between the lines in about 70% of the CVs I receive, this is exactly what they look like, excluding the experience.

The moment I see a lack of passion on a CV, it goes one way. Shift-Delete, don't even bother with a recycle bin, I don't want to see it again.

No related posts.

How far can we trust software awards

Baldy — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 11:56:00 +0000

According to this post by Andy Brice, not too much. He submitted a fake program to various sites, and got 16 5-star awards for software that can't run. Very nice. So be careful before believing the awards calimed by software packages.