Monthly Archives: December 2007

postgresql

Whatever it takes: the politics of the man behind “24”

Haven't read this in entirety yet.. http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/070219fa_fact_mayer

A few years ago, Surnow received it as a gift from an Army regiment stationed in Iraq; the soldiers had shared a collection of “24” DVDs, he told me, until it was destroyed by an enemy bomb. “The military loves our show,” he said recently. Surnow is fifty-two, and has the gangly, coiled energy of an athlete; his hair is close-cropped, and he has a “soul patch”—a smidgen of beard beneath his lower lip. When he was young, he worked as a carpet salesman with his father. The trick to selling anything, he learned, is to carry yourself with confidence and get the customer to like you within the first five minutes. He’s got it down. “People in the Administration love the series, too,” he said. “It’s a patriotic show. They should love it.”

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postgresql

seven steps to remarkable customer service

This is one person's perspective on components of great customer service. I thought it was a nice perspective, and general enough – even though it's focused on software. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html 1. Fix everything two ways 2. Suggest blowing out the dust 3. Make customers into fans 4. Take the blame 5. Memorize awkward phrases 6. Practice puppetry 7. Greed will get you nowhere 8. (Bonus!) Give customer service people a career path

postgresql

talk idea

What does it take to get a technical user group started and then sustained? We started with bribery (free books!) and a great talk from a local expert, followed with many pitchers of good beer. And lots of home-baked cookies. Now we have a group that meets every month and always has interesting things to talk about. I'd like to present a case-study that describes my experience with the Portland PostgreSQL Users Group. I'll list our starting ingredients and motivation, describe the methods we used to get people to the meeting, and the tactics to keep people coming back. I'll draw on some popular books (i.e. _The Tipping Point_, Martha Stewart's _Entertaining_, Douglas' _PostgreSQL_), feedback from our members and members of other successful user groups, and maybe an academic paper or two on community building.

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postgresql

liberal rant for the day

Here's what I wrote after listening to an NPR story about sleep deprivation and teens. Here's what I wrote to NPR:

I waited to hear something about diet and exercise in Allison Aubrey's story about teens and sleep. The message seemed to be that 2/3 of teens suffer from sleep problems, and to solve the problem parents need sleep specialists to tell them what to do. I had a hard time with the implication that a melatonin pill is easier and more effective than removing TVs and computers from bedrooms! C'mon! Parents need to help their kids make healthy choices that are sustainable. Part of that is putting limits on entertainment. Another part is showing their kids that exercise and diet are the keys to long term health and a good night's sleep. We'll see if I'm famous tomorrow.

igniteportland, legionoftech, oregon, portland, user groups 2 Comments

legion of tech

I recently joined the board of a tech non-profit called Legion of Tech. Our goals are:

  • Grow and nurture the local Portland technology community through educational, not-for-profit, community-run events.
  • Make it easier for community members to organize technology events.
  • Provide resources and assistance for technology community events.

Dawn also just wrote about it. We had a great first board meeting, full of interesting ideas and energetic people.

A few of us at the board meeting talked about event calendaring and keeping in touch with all the user groups in the greater Portland area. Members of the Perl community recently volunteered some time to write some code in support of a better calendaring system. We currently have at least two Google calendars, a PBwiki, dozens of mailing lists and many individual blogs.

Have ideas for how we could all work together and make a better system? Raven suggested the hCal microformat for announcing meetings, I thought it would be cool to have a Planet Portland and someone else mentioned Drupal. What do you think?

postgresql

Emissions slowly begin to drop ?

I guess I should have read the whole article first. There are plenty of fun wording issues to ridicule… http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=34902 U.S. Greenhouse Emissions Slowly Begin to Drop Source: GreenBiz.com WASHINGTON, April 17, 2007 — In the EPA's annual national greenhouse gas inventory, the agency has found that overall emissions during 2005 increased by less than one percent from the previous year. The drop follows a steady increase over the last 15 years, when greenhouse gases climbed 16 percent between 1990 and 2005. The Department of Energy reports that greenhouse gas emissions have risen an average of 1.2 percent per year each year.

postgresql

guerilla project facilitation

From a thread that came up today on 'post-mortems': I've been searching around for a replacement term for a long time: Retrospectives After Action Reviews Neither really roll off the tongue, but they feel a little better than post-mortem. But really – the questions to ask are the most important: What did we learn? What are we going to do better next time? What are we going to do? If there's a problem, what changes will solve it? And what is the commitment to make that change?

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flood, oregon, vernonia, volunteering

vernonia

wide shot of city hall

I went to Vernonia today with my husband to volunteer. We went directly to city hall, got a red work ticket, and drove out to a house that needed the garage cleared out. They were incredibly efficient, handing out tickets as fast as people were able to sign in.

one of many down fences

The folks on our red ticket needed their garage cleaned out. We found out that the person living there had been staying since the flood at a shelter with her three children. They were trying to clear out the garage to have Christmas there, instead of in the shelter.

santa!

We talked while we worked, learning that a neighbor needed help with his fence, that some stuff in the garage going to the dump was old, emotional baggage that at least one person was happy to see gone, and that these folks had all been around for the 1996 flood.

We had a free lunch from good folks who BBQ’d all day downtown. And we visited the schools.

vernonia high

All three schools – elementary, middle and high – were stripped to where the flood waters had reached. The rooms were all empty and full of drying equipment. Many rooms still had student work hanging from the walls.

DSC_0037.JPG

The high school lost most or maybe all of their computer labs. At least one lab was in a portable classroom that was completely flooded.

former computer lab

It was chilly outside, but not raining most of the day. We walked for probably half an hour, all around the schools. Then we went back to the garage to finish up the cleaning.

There was only about an hour’s worth of work left. We helped move boxes into the attic, and open up the area around a tiny wood stove in the back of the garage. A local church is coming out on Monday to get the large appliances out, and then they’ll do a final wash before bringing a Christmas tree, and a few pieces of furniture in.

Another friendly neighbor is loaning the family a trailer to live in while their home is stripped and hopefully raised a few more feet off the ground. They didn’t know how long any of that would take, but were applying for FEMA assistance.

Link to vernoniafloodinfo.blogspot.com.