Home -- Archives -- Contact Me -- Search Welchwrite.com

Friday, August 15, 2003

Career Column

Career-Op: Inertia
by Douglas E. Welch, ComputorEdge Magazine

Repeat after me…I will stop waiting for other people to help me out of my career problems and address them myself, every day, in every way possible. That was easy, wasn’t it. I am sure you are wondering just what I am talking about, though. What I am describing is the way many high-tech careerists, myself included, who allow the world, the computer industry and the marketplace to push them around from job to job, instead of “taking the bull by the horns” and directing their own career. It is a simple fact of life that it is much easier to let fate dictate your job choices, but it is no way to develop the career and the life you want.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

How small can you go?

Popular Science has an interesting piece on the world's smallest, free-roaming robots. While Joe and I have made some small one's these take the cake.

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

The Innovation Weblog

The Innovation Weblog linked over to My Word, regarding Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies creativity tool.

The weblog looks very neat and I am spending some time reading through their past entries.

Check it out!

Monday, August 11, 2003

Software

Microsoft cuts price of Mac Office v.X

It looks like the price of Microsoft Office v.X for Mac OS X got a little less painful this week. The price is still steep for your average user, $399, down from $499, but a $100 savings is nothing to sneeze at. (Although a groan at the thought of all that money might be appropriate.)

A "Professional Version" ($499) includes a copy of VIrtual PC and Windows XP for running Windows applications on your Mac.

If you don't need the entire suite of products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage) you can still purchase the individual programs separately at much reduced cost.

From News.com

Books

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

I just finished this book tonight (I have been on a reading binge lately) and was very impressed. Dysfunctions is structured more like a short story or novelette than a traditional business book. This allowed me to get very involved in the story. Indeed, I believe a good story is always the best way to approach life and business. Whether you are writing a resume or trying to solve difficult business problems, a good story can illuminate the issue better than any combination of charts and reports.

The end of the book contains a more "business-like" restatement of the lessons, for those who want a more traditional review.

More importantly, I saw many aspects of my past business dealings echoed in the book. I think that anyone who is involved in business, in any form, has faced many of these same problems and issues. I requested this book from the library after seeing a short mention, possibly just the title in some magazine I was reading. I had no preconceptions about what I might find within, and I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality and importance of Dysfunctions.

While telling a good story helped to clearly explain the concepts, there were a few times when the characters came around too quickly to the lesson.The main character, a newly minuted CEO brought in to build a better executive team, seems a bit too assured with her process, but yet exhibits some moments of fear and regret.

Overall, this is a great book and I would highly suggest that it be recommended to your employees and your peers as a way of explaining how teamwork can and will develop if everyone is committed to making it happen.

Also available from the author:

The Leadership Fables of Patrick Lencioni, Box Set (The Five Temptations of a CEO; The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive; The Five Dysfunctions of a Team), Box Set, contains: The Five Temptations of a CEO; The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive; The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Virus/Worm

A new exploit was released "into the wild" today which attempts to use a Windows bug to gain control of your system. "In the wild" means that someone has created an actual Worm/Virus program to exploit the already known vulnerability and placed it on the Internet.

MS03-026: Buffer Overrun in RPC Interface May Allow Code Execution

The link about will take you to a tech note at Microsoft.com that explains the situation, although it is a bit dense for non-technical readers (and even myself, sometimes (SMILE)).

I highly recommend you run Windows Update as soon as possible to download and install any waiting Critical Updates.

In order to insure that your machine is protected from this exploit, visit...

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

...today and download/install any Critical Updates it recommends.

If no updates are listed, your machine has already installed the update.

Web

My First Garden

A Guide to the World of Fun and Clever Gardening.

This site is a great introduction to gardening for kids. It includes activities, information and a teacher's guide on how to integrate gardening into the classroom.

Sunday, August 10, 2003

Events

SAT 8/16 9:30am

From Set to Screen
Paramount Ranch

Illusions and hard work turn a dusty set into a realistic town. Join a ranger on this easy-paced walk to discover movie magic and the history of Paramount Ranch. 1hr -- National Park Service Event

Looking for more things to do in LA? -- Subscribe to the WelchEvents Mailing List

Events

SUN 8/17 2pm

Sculpture with Shahin
Sooky Goldman Nature Center

Express your creativity in this ongoing sculpture workshop. Learn to manipulate oil-based clay and make armatures and molds. Reservations required

310-858-7272, extension 131.
Materials FEE
2hrs
WODOC

Looking for more things to do in LA? -- Subscribe to the WelchEvents Mailing List