My Tools: Logitech Cordless Presenter

Posted on 23/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

I’m not very often in the position where I am making formal presentations. It’s more likely that I am leading a discussion or a workshop. But, when I am presenting I hate sitting down.

I’ve been in many situations where people are sat down at the end of a table talking through a set of bullet-points. This has to be the dullest way of presenting, what’s to engage with. One of the reasons that people sit down to present is because they feel tethered to the control of their presentation, their laptop.

A while ago I was provided with a Logitech Cordless Presenter, this completely removes the tether. It’s great to work without a tether, walking around, pointing, being visible. Hopefully presenting in this way is a lot more interesting than presenting from a seat with a laptop in front of me. I want my presentations to be engaging and Cordless Presenter really helps me to do it.

The Presenter has a really simple set of buttons which are just what you need:

Forward and backward buttons which take me forward and backward through a presentation.
F5/esc button which allows me to start and end a presentation.
Black screen button that allows me to get people’s attention back.
Volume up and volume down. I’m not often presenting video or audio, but when I do it’s great to be able to adjust the volume.

The Presenter also has a couple of features that I rarely use.

Laser pointer – I tend to use my finger to point rather than to use a laser pointer. If people are near enough to see the laser dot, they ought to be near enough to work out where my finger is pointing. The other challenge with the laser pointer is that it causes me problems with airport check-in, a laser pointer cannot be carried within hand luggage. It seems a bit strange to check-in a single object that fits in your hand.
Timer – There is a timer on the device that you can set in increments of 5 mins. When the time is reached the device vibrates. I’ve tried using it, but the device only vibrates once, and I’ve actually missed it a couple of times. It doesn’t really vibrate enough for me to notice it.

There is also an on-switch and an off-switch.

The Presenter is a great piece of kit, it always surprises me that so few people make use of them.

Technorati tags: logitech, cordless, presenter

My Tools: The Off Switch

Posted on 22/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

I’m told that I live in an always-on world, and there are many times when it feels that way. Like many of you I have a tool available to me that keeps me in control of the times that I am available. It’s an invaluable tool and it’s called the off-switch.

Most of the devices I have include an off-switch, even if they don’t I am still in control of the power supply. I have the power to unplug, or to remove the battery.

The off-switch is very good for your brain. As we are approaching the season of holidays and vacations now is the time that you should employ this tool as often as possible and preferably for an extended period.

Here’s my guide to the off switch:

On my laptop it’s the small silver button just above the F9 key.
On my desktop it’s the larger silver button on the front towards the rear.
On my blackberry it’s a silver button on the top left of the device.

Go on, you can do it.

My Tools: Mindjet MindManager Pro

Posted on 18/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

I find mind maps to be a fabulous way of thinking about things.

I regularly find myself in the situation where I am doing what I call a personal brainstorm. There are a huge set of ideas that are floating around about a subject, placing them all down onto a mind map and then structuring them is a very powerful way of visualising them. It often sparks new ideas, highlights things that are not really related to the subject and highlights activities or ideas that are dependent upon each other.

The tool that I use for mind mapping is Mindjet MindManger Pro.

I’ve struggled for a while to know quite how to write about this subject. It’s one of those where you either stay shallow or you dive in deep, and I’m not sure I see the real value in one and I don’t have time for the other. I’ve decided just to start and see where I get to.

I nearly always use mind maps for structuring thought. I have tried to present mind maps for people to talk around, it normally results in lots of vacant looks. I’ve, therefore, moved away from presenting mind maps other than the simplest of diagrams (You can now do really simple diagrams in PowerPoint 2007).

As a thought structuring technique I nearly always start with a blank sheet and type.

Mind Manager allows you to do a lot of the working from the keyboard so it’s relatively easy to stream-type. In this mode the two most powerful keys that you have available are the “Enter” key and the “Insert” key.

Pressing “Enter” adds a topic at the same level as the one you are currently in. This is great for creating a list of things all at the same level.
Pressing the “Insert” key adds a topic as a child of your current topic. Great for adding a sub-thought.

I don’t classify, mark, annotate, or even worry too much about the structure it’s just how the thoughts come out. It’s amazing, though, how often that these thoughts are reasonably well structured. If you stop to think too much about the structure you loose the flow a bit.

Ideas tend to come faster than I can type so type as much as possible to make sure that I don’t miss something.

After I’ve brainstormed I’ll then structure and annotate. Mind Manager has a great set of Map Markers. I normally expand these out so they are all visible on the right of the screen. From here I’ll pick topics and mark them. My favourites are priorities, because that’s often what I am trying to get to understand.

The one thing I’ve always thought would be useful, but never been able to work out, is the ability to filter a set of topics based on the markers. Perhaps I just haven’t looked hard enough.

Once I’ve been through this activity I normally go and create something that communicates the thoughts that I have just worked out. I’d like people to be able to just look at my maps and understand them, but that doesn’t seem to communicate very well. Perhaps it’s a culture thing.

I’m actually quite a simple Mind Manager user, and lots of people do far more explicit things, this way of working helps me though.

Technorati Tags: Mind Map,Mind Manager

More iTunes bloat

Posted on 18/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

I really like iTunes, I do really, but I find myself on a reasonably pleasant Friday afternoon writing negatively about it.

My problem this time is yet another expansion of its scope. This expansion, in my opinion, goes beyond what iTunes does and moves it steadily into the arena of bloatware.

This time I’m talking about the bundling of MobileMe stuff into iTunes 7.7.

It’s not an optional install, it just gets deployed, without warning and without question.

Is this just Apple arrogance – “Why wouldn’t you want my software?”

Speaking as an enterprise IT person this would make iTunes a real problem within a secure corporate environment. I might not mind my employees using iTunes for their media, but why would I want them synchronising information outside the firewall. If I want to lock down this capability I need to take some special measures.

MobileMe might even be great software, I just don’t want it thrust down my throat.

Like I say, I like iTunes, but…

Technorati tags: itunes

My Tools: Google Analytics

Posted on 15/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time will know that I’m a bit of a numbers freak. I used to think that everyone was like me, but I’m steadily realising that not everyone approaches graphs and charts with quite the same level of enthusiasm.

If you are a numbers person – read on. If you think numbers are as interesting as a postman’s socks you have my permission to go and read something more appropriate to your needs.

For a numbers man link me Google Analytics is heaven. I can tell you more information than you could possibly want to know, or could be bothered to ask about.

I can tell you where people came from, where they went to, what browser they were using, where there device is situated, what search keywords they used, and so much more.

Probably the best bit about Analytics is that you get all of this information for the princely sum of £0. Now there’s a bargain.

For those of you not aware of analytics it works like this:

You register for an account at analytics.google.com.
You then add a website profile.
It then generates some code which you put in a sensible place on your site. In the case of this site typepad even have a widget to make it that much easier, and I know that wordpress allows the same.
Then you wait a while, preferably 24 hours.

Bit by bit, the numbers start rolling in and you can enter numbers heaven.

I have a number of favourite views.

The first thing I normally notice is the Traffic Source view. In recent times there has been a shift here. Google used to absolutely dominate these numbers, they are still big, but they are down to 30%. The difference has been twitter and a myriad of other referers who have said something about one of my posts on their blog (thanks).

Having said that, I still have a good look through the search keywords. Should I be worried that the top two keywords are “graham chastney blog” and “graham chastney”, are people really trying to find me.

As a technologist I’m also interested in things like the browsers that people use – Internet Explorer is still out in front, but Firefox is catching fast.

I’m also really interested in the location of my visitors. Being based in the UK and would expect many visitors from there, the number of visitors from the USA is nearly as big. Being able to drill down beyond country is fun, but it’s not really that useful for my blog.

A blog is really about the content though, and that’s where I get the best information, what are people reading? The simple answer to that is – all sorts of stuff. There have been a few really popular ones, but the reading is very varied, which I suppose reflects the variance in my writing.

You can also decide to share your analytics with other Google users if you so desire. I don’t, primarily because it’s a person blog and I’m not sure else would care about my statistics.

Analytics is so good that I regularly ask myself the question – “why can’t I have this at work?”

Technorati Tags: google,analytics,statistics

3 Years of Blogging

Posted on 11/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

I bit of reflection for a Friday evening.

When I first started writing this blog I was still in my thirties – three years later I am into my forties and still writing.

I know lots of people who have started blogging and stalled, or crashed altogether, but something keeps me going. I’ve often wondered what that “something” is, actually I think that it’s “somethings”.

Probably the single biggest reason is that I enjoy it. Sometimes the reason doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that, but there is more. I regard it as a privileged that people actually read what I write. I get very little interaction directly on my blog, what I do get are people commenting to me when I meet them and sideline conversations that have been prompted by something I’ve written. That feedback cycle is quite edifying and gives me an encouraging lift.

This is post number 631, which isn’t the thousands that I see other write, but it is roughly 1 every working day which is actually amazing.

Writing about things helps to develop the thoughts around a subject, I’ve particularly found this in the My Brain series of posts, where a little reading got me thinking about something which then urged me on to read some more. Reading a bit, writing a bit, cemented the thinking. I started with a couple of big questions; while pondering them I asked and answered other questions. It’s growth and growth is good. Those with agile brains will be the ones of value in years to come, not to mention the ones who have a happy and fulfilling retirement.

I’ve recently been really enjoying thinking about the tools that I use and why I use them. I have a friend whose garage is immaculate, the tools all have their place and only depart from it when they are being used. I have a few boxes in my garage where my assortment of tools lurk in wonderful randomness. My IT tools are similar, I collect them, use them, leave them lying around. They wait, lurking on hard disks all over the place. Writing about why I use the ones that I use is actually helping me to sort them out a bit.

There is another theme that I think about quite a bit, it’s kind of links the brain theme with the tools theme. I am concerned that the tools and working environment that we are currently exposing ourselves too might actually be as dangerous as the ones that other heavier industry exposed our fathers too. I don’t mean that there is a disease like asbestosis lying undiscovered out there, what concerns me is what we are doing to our brains. I’m think of conditions like ADT, and Deindividuation, we don’t really know that much about the long term impact of high IT use. My son has finished school (already) after completing his GCSE’s. Some of his friends are really proud of the amount of time that they have been spending on WoW. One of them is playing so late into the night that he is almost nocturnal. He’s in danger of working his body clock all the way around until he’s back on the right time. These are brains that are going through rapid development and very susceptable. Are we really sure that this is not doing them irreparable harm?

On a lighter note, I also really enjoyed the company of Jimmy and Grandad. It started as a bit of fun, and has continued that way. Emily (who take many of the pictures) and I have had some strange looks from people as we have exposed them to the delights of these two fellows and the rest of the family.

It’s now Friday evening and time for me to go into the garden and remove some weeds. Gardens are definitely good for the brain.

My Tools: Notebook + Pen

Posted on 09/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

Part of my daily routine is to “free journal”. After my morning walk I sit down for a time of quiet with an A4 Ruled notebook and a pen and I write.

I call it free journaling because I write whatever comes into my head. There are many different types of journaling, I’ve tried a few, but keep coming back to simply streaming out my thoughts.

It’s surprising how often my thoughts come streaming out, thoughts on work, thoughts on the family, personal thoughts, thoughts on faith and grace.

One of the things that writing does is to get things out of my head. I can let things swirl around and around, once they are written down they stand still. It’s much easier to look at something that is standing still.

That’s about all I’m going to say about the reason why I journal, there are many people who have written far better explanations on the benefits than I could. This post is about the tools that I use to journal.

I’ve tried technology solutions for journaling but they all fail, not because of the technology, because of me.

With a notebook and pen there is nothing else, I sit on a sofa away from a keyboard so there are no distractions. When I write, I’m not worrying whether it’s legible, spelled correctly or whether it is good grammar, I’m just writing. When I use a keyboard my brain won’t allow me to be free, it wants me to be correct. While I’m trying to be correct I can’t stream, it’s disruptive.

I’ve tried to use a PC Tablet as a pseudo notebook, but still there is a deep felt need to be correct.

Some days I will only write a few lines, other days I will write a full page of thoughts. This used to trouble me, I measured the value of the journal by it’s length. One of the ways I would overcome this fear was to write in an A5 sides notebook so I have a few of them too. I’m more laid back about it now so the A4 notebook does just fine.

There’s more to it than that though.

A notebook and pen are tactile things. When I’m sitting in that place with those object my brain knows what is coming, I’ve build a routine and the routine helps. When I first started it took me ages to get into a stream, if I follow the routine the stream now comes quite easily.

When I have finished one notebook it goes on a bookshelf next to my other notebooks, there is something very satisfying about seeing the number of books increase. Seeing files feel a computer disk doesn’t feel the same.

If you are interested in journaling D*I*Y Planner has a good introduction.

Technorati tags: journal, paper, pen

My Tools: Flickr

Posted on 08/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

There are a number of things that I do with my pictures, my main purpose for posting on Flickr could be classified as publishing.

It’s not my backup location for all of my important pictures, though I could view it that way. It’s not the place that I manipulate my pictures, though it could do some of that.

Flickr is the place where I put pictures that I want others to see.

I love taking pictures, and I love for others to be able to see them, and interact around them. As an example you’ll notice that most of the pictures I post on this blog are actually hosted on flickr. I’m actually hoping that people will click on the pictures and interact which has happened on a number of occasions.

There are all sorts of features to flickr and I only use a subset of them, here are a few of the ones I do use:

Sets and Collections

Sets are the place where you put photos that you want to group together – like an album. Collections are groups of sets. I use a number of both. If we go out for a fun day like we did this weekend I’ll create a set for that day and then add it to the Adventures and Days Out collection. Set and collections are both unique to our account.

Groups

Groups are like global sets, or global albums. If you want to highlight a picture to a set of people then putting it into a group is a good way to do it. Anyone is free to create a group, but in many instances it’s likely that a group already exists.

Batch Organize

One of flickr’s most powerful features is the batch Organize capability. What you do is to select a set of photos that you want to work on from the stream at the bottom. Drag and drop them into the middle area and then perform tasks on that set of picture – add tags, add to groups, add to sets, etc. You can even drag them onto a map and set the geotags.

Map and Geotag

Adding a picture to a map sets the geotag for it, showing where it was taken. I try to geotag most of my pictures and the Batch organize capability makes this an easy thing to do. The Yahoo maps used in the system aren’t the best and sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint where the picture was taken from the.

Creative Commons Licensing

I set the license on all of my pictures to be Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic which allows me to share my pictures with a legal framework to avoid exploitation. I can’t be sure that someone somewhere isn’t breaking my copyright, but I do have experience of it working. I’ve noticed recently that many flickr pictures are set to be All Rights Reserved which I think is a real shame. If you do set the license model to be All Rights Reserved flickr removes the ability for anyone else to download your picture.

Flickr Uploadr

I use the wonderful Uploadr tool to add my pictures to Flickr. This allows me to set all of the meta-data for a picture before it’s uploaded. Once you’ve set up a batch of pictures to upload you I then set it running and forget about it.

Favourites and Comments

I love to receive feedback on my pictures. It’s great to learn from others, and occasionally to receive praise. Adding comments is something that flickr does really well, as is adding pictures to you list of favourites (favorites). This is one of the main reasons that I think flickr has been so successful.

Statistics

If I am being honest I would admit that I spend a bit too much time reading statistics in general. I really like the flickr ones, they are clean and informative. There are some areas where I would like more details, but the ones I have are the most useful ones.

Tags

I use all sorts of tags, some of them are only meaningful to me, I hope no one searches on them expecting to find something useful.

Flickr Blog

I love to read the flickr blog. they are really good at picking different types of pictures. It challenges me to broaden the types of pictures that I take and gives me inspiration to try different things. Now I’m using a digital SLR camera I’m finding some of these things possible and really enjoying the challenge,

I haven’t used the new video feature, I’m a stills man rather than a video man. I’ve not used any of the integrated picture printing services so I’m not in a position to comment on them either.

I’ve used flickr for a long time now, my first picture was posted on 9th December 2004, in Internet terms that’s a lifetime.

Feel free to interact on some of my latest pictures (you can comment on the old ones too if you prefer):

Technorati Tags: flickr,pictures

Morning walk tracking on gpsed.com

Posted on 04/07/2008 by Graham Chastney

Well, having been nominated for an Lifestyle Blog award, I suppose I’d better write something about an IT Lifestyle (and yes, this is the last time I’m gong to mention it).

I try and do a walk before I start work on most days, it’s a body fitness thing mainly, but it’s also good for the brain.

Recently I’ve been trying to estimate how much I walk. It’s too easy to short-change myself when I’m busy so I wanted something that I couldn’t kid.

I didn’t want to spend any money, because I’m cheap, so I wanted to use what I already had available. Then one of colleagues pointed out gpsed.com, I’m not sure whether it was Steve or Stu so I’ll credit both of them.

gpsed.com has a free client for the BlackBerry, and I have a Blackberry, so that met the criteria of free. It allows me to upload my data for the whole world to see, making it impossible to cheat myself on how far I’ve actually walked.

So I’ve uploaded some of my walks:

There you go, you all know how far I walk, or do you? I’m a bit dubious about the actual distances, the client on my BlackBerry says that I did 2.7 miles this morning, but gpsed.com says that I did 2.7 km. I’ll have to try and work out which is correct at some point, it makes a big difference.

The other thing I’ve not been able to work out is how to show you all of the walks together on one map. I can see them all together, but there doesn’t appear to be a URL for me to show them to you.