Graham Chastney

I have to quite liking the new Microsoft Office Ribbon interface. Sometime I might write a longer post on why I think it;s an improvement. In the short-term though, here’s something I just discovered.

If you move the mouse cursor up into the ribbon you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to move through the menus.

Enjoy.

This year I’ve had some fun writing about the tools that I use. At the beginning of the series someone asked me to include regular summaries which I have only been moderately good at. So here is the summary for the end of 2008 because I’m not sure I’m going to write anymore before its 2009.

• Introduction – why on earth am I doing this.
• Word Outlining – you really should learn how to write documents this way.
• Twitter and Twhirl – not sure how to summarise Twitter
• FeedDemon – my feed reader of choice.
• Blackberry 8800 – my world in my pocket
• Windows Live Writer – I blog so I writer
• iTunes and iPod – a sweet piece of apple even though I complain about the bloat.
• Synergy – share that keyboard and mouse to get better returns
• Jing – screen snapshot wonders
• Flickr – where I share my pictures, but also interact with others and their pictures too.
• Notebook and Pen – there’s still a bit of old-school in these veins.
• Google Analytics – I know so much more than  am willing to say
• Mindjet MindManager Pro – I am such a fan of mind mapping
• The off switch – the holiday season is a really good time to use this tool. Go on, I dare you.
• Logitech Cordless Presenter – this gets used all over the place, it’s liberating.
• Snipping Tool – simple screen capture
• Word Ctrl + Shift + N – using the keyboard for what it was intended.
• Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V – my keyboard goodness

(Good, I’ve now got a list of topics not to cover next year. It’s amazing how quickly you forget what you’ve written.)

Interesting questions, interesting responses:

• £50 today or £60 in a month?
• £350 in 12 months or £360 pounds in 13 months?

It’s interesting what our response to some questions are.

• You have a ticket to the theatre which cost £20 and a £20 note in your pocket. When you get to the theatre you have lost the ticket. Do you buy another ticket?
• You have two £20 notes in your pocket. When you get tot the theatre you have lost one of the £20 notes. Do you buy a ticket to the theatre?

Your first reaction to these questions and your considered response might be significantly different. The problem with estimating the value is that we use very strange (complex) logic.

I spend a lot of time helping people to change there business by bringing extra value to the way that they do things. These changes normally involve IT, because that’s my area of expertise, but not always. Understanding and agreeing what the value of any particular activity is can be quite a stressful exercise, particularly when it comes to the decision to spend money.

The values that people place on things has always fascinated and frustrated me. Surprisingly few decisions are based cold hard economics. The value is often much more subjective, or so it appears to me. Perhaps I’m just not seeing the complicated value judgement that they are making. Perhaps my value judgement is missing important elements.

I don’t have any answers here, I’m just making an observation, but I’m not the only one that sees the paradox. Dan Gilbert does a much better job of explaining than I do.

If you ever want to extend your thinking TED is a really good place to start.

This is my second, and last Top 10 for a little while, I promise.

I had a few minutes so thought I would put this together:

1. My Tools: Mindjet MindManager Pro – clearly a very interesting tool for people. Personally, I’m seeing mind-maps all over the place.

2. Lotus Notes Tabs – My Usability Problem – I’ve since had a template update and it’s a lot better

3. "Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy" – this one gets a lot of attention, people are clearly starting to become concerned about it as an issue

4. My Tools: Twitter & Twhirl – twitter had to get in the top 10 somewhere

5. The Cost and the Value of Virtual Meetings – I’m starting to evolve my thinking on this, we need to think more holistically about the end-user experience of collaboration.

6. My Tools: BlackBerry 8800 – mobile technology is getting hotter and hotter.

7. I need a new bag – and still do. Other things have taken priority on the Chastney family finances.

8. More iTunes bloat – I think that they started to listen in 2008, but it’s still not great.

9. The Power of the List – a list with a reference to lists.

10. iTunes Update – Interesting Selection of Font – it looks like I wrote a lot about iTunes, I didn’t really.

11. I don’t blog enough! Do you? – yes I know that this is number 11, but it has the same number of visits as number 10.

This isn’t my all-time list, just my Top 10 for the 2008 posts.

I thought I might try a random Top 10 today. Top 10 lists are not normally my stile, but lets give it a go anyway.

There are just times when I would like people to know things without me telling them, so I thought I would tell everyone, so now everyone should know. In no particular order then:

1. That email you have just sent me with “VIRUS ALERT” in the title id 99.999999% certain to be a hoax. Please check before sending it to me, it’s quite easy.
2. Yes, I have seen the christmasbonus.pps, it was mildly funny in 1999 when I first saw it, the humour value has been down hill all the way since then.
3. There is no space at the end of a word before it’s punctuation mark “like this.” – “not like this .”
4. Just because you have sent me an email doesn’t mean I have read it – even if you put “URGENT” in the title.
5. Having a policy that sets the screen saver lock-out to be 5 mins might be good for security, but really messes up a presentation.
6. Yes you can do some really nice 3D effects in PowerPoint these days.
7. No I don’t think I can fit all of that information onto one slide
8. Yes I am working from home because I am sneezing rather a lot and people in the office wouldn’t appreciate it.
9. It would have been helpful for you to tell me that you had finished the milk last night, rather than let me find out this morning.
10. I’m not at grumpy as these things make me sound.