Artistic Integrity and Profit

SUMMARY: I expand my "create then show" mantra to include the means of producing products and distributing them. Maybe this is the way to sell out with integrity.

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Five Podcasts Down: Production Notes

Back in October, I started a podcasting experiment with portrait photographer Sid Ceaser. We didn't have any specific goals other than to see what it would be like. Sure, I was excited for the chance to play with new gear and put some old software to work. And I was pretty sure that Sid and I would finally get some good rants recorded that could bottle the energy we have to prodding each other to make stuff. Figured it could be good stuff.

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Compact Calendar Change for Reported Easter Calculation Bugs

This year's Compact Calendar added "automatic holiday calculation" when the year is changed in the Excel spreadsheet. Holiday calculations are terribly tricky, though, and a bug in the Easter Calculation was reported by Mike Kennedy with OpenOffice. The Easter calculation I'm using, he pointed out, assume date entry in a certain text format which is not universal. I went back and looked at it and saw he was right, though I couldn't duplicate the other reported bug. Anyway, I've uploaded a more robustly-coded version of original Easter calculation, which substitutes the locale-specific date string with the Excel DATE function.

UPDATE: After downloading OpenOffice and cross-checking the calculation with Google Spreadsheet, it appears that the cause of the bug is due to a difference between in how the DAY() function works for values under 61. So if you are using Excel you are fine, but OpenOffice users should probably use the EASTERSUNDAY() function.

UPDATE2: Here's an explanation of why Excel's DAY() function is buggy; it was originally to maintain compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3, which used to be the dominant spreadsheet.

In Excel 2007, Easter appears to be calculated correctly for the next five years. If you are outside the USA, you can re-download the ZIP file from the Compact Calendar Page for the more robust version of the calculation.

Virtual Terrain Maps IV: Inspired Guessing

SUMMARY: I write about the experience of unintentional, high-quality collaboration leading to insights of how I know more than I knew, and that I should apply GUESSING more frequently because it actually works well as a starting point.

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Virtual Terrain Maps III: Reframing Tasks

SUMMARY: Exploring the difference between a "values-based" task list and a "goals-based" task list.

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Virtual Terrain Maps II

SUMMARY: I did a dump of everything that's on my mind, and then started to sort it out to figure out what's really the management challenge I'm facing. A sudden epiphany why the word "shrine" keeps coming to mind in this context.

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My “Most Important Productivity Message”?

Jack Kinsella, who blogs at Hermes Technology LTD, emailed me a question: What is your most important productivity message for 2010. I usually don't think in terms of "The Most Important", but it seemed like I should give it a go. You can see my answer to the question along with the responses from other productivity bloggers Gretchin Rubin, Mike Torres, Terry Prince, Scott Young, Kelly Sutton, Monica Ricci, and Eyal Sela. Many of these names are new to me, so I'm looking forward to checking them out when I catch a little time to myself. Thanks Jack!

Interview on “Two Geeks and a Girl”

I was recently on the Two Geeks and a Girl podcast hosted by Scott, Richard, and Julianne on the topic of User Interface in web development. It went up a few days ago, and you can hear me sputter and opine about some of my user interface philosophies. Check them out at Two Geeks and a Girl; they cover a broad range of web development and business topics.

On a side note, after recording this podcast and editing the podcasts I do with Sid, I'm really starting to get a good sense of my bad speech patterns :-) Slowing down, taking the time to formulate a sentence rather than restart it constantly, and perhaps opening my mouth wide might help! Perhaps I should do some solo podcasts just for practice. If someone would like to submit a question in the comments, any question at all, I'll answer them in a microphone :-)

Virtual Terrain Maps I

With the beginning of the new year, I've been busy trying to make headway on three fronts: self-promotion and horn-tooting (which I've always had difficulty doing), web development technology (a necessary evil), and developing the design businesses (both Agenceum and David Seah Design). It might sound like I'm being busy, but it never feels like I'm making real progress. That's probably because I've been remiss in really tracking what I do on a daily basis. Of course, I've also stopped caring so much about logging real progress; for the past few weeks I've switched from an accountancy model to faith that it'll all work out. While I'm waiting for that to kick in, though, I feel compelled to keep pushing on those three fronts.

The major challenge, I think, has been the lack of a central physical management "shrine". The shrine is a place where I keep all my project to-dos and reminders of what I've been doing for what reason. The shrine, ideally, is a physical station with high visibility within the greater workplace. For example, a central team whiteboard is a good example of a shrine, because people can check up on it and remember what it was that they were doing for whom. I don't really , and this problem is exacerbated by my tendency to work in multiple locations doing work that requires different mindsets. Sometimes I'm in "writer" mode (like right now), and I tend to be using the Netbook on the couch or sitting in the big purple chair at Starbucks with the MBP 17 (the extra width makes it a comfortable and stable typing platform when I sit down. I'd like to have some kind of physical map of the terrain, something that I can see constantly and experience with my actual senses. I have some ideas.

Since this is a "daily blather", I'm going to stop here. This is a theme for this week, for future exploration.

Yup, I’m Releasing The ETT Online to Creative Commons

SUMMARY: I release the Flash 7-ish source code to the Online Emergent Task Timer under Creative Commons, after getting a couple of requests for it. Details follow.

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