start me up!

The laws of time estimates

I was once given a rule by folks much wiser than I: when you are estimating how long it will take you to finish a job, always take your original estimate, multiply it by two, add one, and raise to the next higher unit. What you THINK can be done in two days you tell others will be done in five weeks. This way you can at least be sure you will get the two days.

Labels: consulting, recommendations

posted by Ron @ 9:17 PM 0 comments

The last speech ever

Ben Casnocha sent an e-newsletter where he proposed this:

Death and Mortality - What would you say if you had to deliver a three-minute speech knowing you'd die at the end of it? And to whom would you say it? This is an interesting exercise that makes you think.

And I countered with variations for high school and college writing assignments:

• I've got one more day. To whom do I need to deliver my last message(s)? What are the messages? I can do more than one, but I have to allow for prep time and time to find the hearers.
• I've got an appointment at the pearly gates. I have three minutes to justify my admission. How do I do it?
• I get to compose my own eulogy. What do I do?

Labels: education

posted by Ron @ 4:19 PM 0 comments

The time for "Persepolis" has come!

You may have heard that the animated version of the graphic novel Persepolis has been racking up the attention at film festivals around the world. Except in Iran. :-( It's coming to the USA, supposedly yet this year, with Sean Penn providing one of the voices for this black & white feature.

I've been looking forward to it ever since author Marjane Satrapi came to TCNJ to lecture. She's nice, she's funny, and she's highly motivated. (Satrapi: Although this film is universal, I wish to dedicate the prize to all Iranians. Referring to the Jury Award this film won at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival...) The students loved her and I got to drive her to the airport. :-) :-) :-)

I hope this scene makes the movie:

Labels: education

posted by Ron @ 2:05 PM 0 comments

Blast from the past

Here's a list of similar blasts, collected from Lisa Henn, Joe Geluso, and Glen Hadley on the Rhetoric for Engineers Mailing List: Who is General Failure and why is he reading my A: drive? It's difficult to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys. Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. Back up my hard drive? How do I put it in reverse? Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do. I can only please one person a day, and today's not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good, either.

Labels: diversions

posted by Ron @ 1:33 PM 0 comments

I never valued networking enough...

...but I'm learning to place the right value on it. At my age, and at this stage in my career, it's not only more critical than it ever was, it's more difficult to ignore. I've met so many people -- why should I allow bridges to be burned with them? But in the past, that's exactly what I've done! I can't use the excuse that "engineers don't know how to do it" any more, either. I've been away from engineering for too long. Consultant Debra Fine gives a list of strategies that are sometimes overlooked for networking, and I wanna add comments to it:

1. Make yourself look approachable.
2. Make other people feel comfortable.
3. Set a specific task or goal for events.
4. Ask open-ended questions.
5. Express your interest in follow-up.

What she doesn't discuss in the article is the need to take a strategic approach to networking:

• Know before you attend an event what your networking goal is, because fortune favors the well-prepared. Even though chance occurrences may lead to your best networking opportunities, you must prepare as though chance will play no role at all. You must be ready.
• And you must have a ready answer to those who give you an opening, whether the opening comes through chance or preparation. I always tell entrepreneurs to be ready to explain their business idea within seven seconds in case they meet a rich investor on an elevator. But if you are that ready, you can give more information easily when a longer opportunity comes along.
• Don't just talk, listen. And don't you think for a minute that you can't leave an impression by listening.
• If you make a contact, make sure you write down the context. Make a note not only who the contacts are, but the way you met them and what -- as specifically as you can remember, without actually writing in front of them -- was discussed. And keep the records in a file! And keep the file where you can find it!

OK, I think I can rest easy now. This stuff was what I wanted most to remember. LOL

Labels: recommendations

posted by Ron @ 11:58 PM 0 comments

"The Golden Axe" finally debuts!

So my son takes his first baby step, out of probably thousands ahead, toward becoming a filmmaker. :-) :-) :-)

Here's a note from a friend on the video:

Ah, the epic story of the golden axe; where has it been all this time? :) Was that Rob singing? He's a real Renaissance man! Seriously, though, good to see Rob acting, working with friends, etc.

Labels: diversions, education, young entrepreneurs

posted by Ron @ 11:40 PM 0 comments

"Decision Maker," in C

This concept predates the Web -- it may even give the Internet competition for age. A friend showed me a good online copy here. But here is a version of the same thing, written in Dr. Ron's sloppy C:

//
// This is a program used to debug your brain when writing code
// -- it was originally published in BASIC, but this is a C equivalent.
// The original was here: http://www.meowfishies.com/code/flowchart.f
// It could be made simpler with more functions, but I figured the
// essential structure was enough visible this way. -- RG, 08.2007
//

include

int main {

int i1, i2, i3, i4, i5;
printf ("Does the damn thing work? (enter 1 for yes, 0 for no)");
scanf ("%d", &i2);

if (i1 != 0) then {
printf ("Don't mess with it!!!");
} else {
printf ("Did you screw around with it? (enter 1 for yes, 0 for no)");
scanf ("%d", &i2);

if (i2 != 0) then {
printf ("You fricken idiot! Does anyone know? (enter 1 for yes, 0 for no)");
scanf ("%d", &i3);

if (i3 != 0) then {
printf ("You poor sod. Can you blame someone else? (enter 1 for yes, 0 for no)");
scanf ("%d", &i4);

if (i4 != 0) then { np (); } else { ys (); }

} else { ti (); np (); }

} else { hi (); np (); }

} else {
printf ("Will you be blamed for it? (enter 1 for yes, 0 for no)");
scanf ("%d", &i5);

if (i5 != 0) then {
printf ("You poor sod. Can you blame someone else? (enter 1 for yes, 0 for no)");
scanf ("%d", &i4);

if (i4 != 0) then { np (); } else { ys (); }

} else { ti (); np (); }

} else { hi (); np (); }

}
return 0;

} // end of main program

int np () { printf ("No problem! \n"); return 0; }
int ys () { printf ("You are so screwed! \n"); return 0; }
int hi () { printf ("Hide it! \n"); return 0; }
int ti () { printf ("Trash it! \n"); return 0; }

// end of functions

Labels: diversions

posted by Ron @ 12:01 AM 0 comments

The Mysterious Secret of "tell us about yourself"

If you've ever interviewed for a job (meaning, if you've ever been an adult), you've heard someone say "tell us about yourself." Ewwwww... possibly the most evil job interview question ever devised by the darkest hearts of humankind. You can't escape once the question is on the table. And the value of every minute you spend in that room depends on your response.

There are a number of decent online articles written on this subject -- some good advice out there. I'm going to add to some of it and overthrow the rest. If you want to read what others are saying, do a Google search on the phrase.

Now, you know the question is coming. Doesn't matter whether you like it or not. Even though you know they are going to use this question probably more than your resume or anything else to decide whether or not to hire you. It's still coming. And if you come up with your answer on the fly, you will fail. There is no excuse for you not to prepare an answer in advance. We saw this with Ms. Limelight (pictured), eliminated from the competition in Who Wants to Be a Superhero? She couldn't come up with an answer to a very similar question thrown at her by Stan Lee.

Anyway, here are my tips, above and beyond the experts:

• You're done in two minutes, even if you're not done. And save ten seconds at the end to ask the interviewers whether you missed any info they really wanted.
• Don't tell them what's right in front of them. If it's on your resume, you might say it's there (as long as you're quick about it), but do not repeat it.
• Stay away from anything in your background that is controversial -- charitable activities of a political or religious nature come readily to mind -- because even when you do something for humanity, someone who interviews you might not like the company you're keeping when you serve society, and shut you out for it.
• Find a way to be interesting anyway.
• Stay away from your feelings on past work, unless it's a feeling of satisfaction on a job well-done. Any other feeling is risky, and might be interpreted as a sign of boredom or dissatisfaction or something else they don't want. Stay close to the facts.
• Find a way to be interesting anyway.

Labels: education, office space

posted by Ron @ 3:20 PM 0 comments

Thompson plays key role in "The Shift"

Anthony Thompson of Juterphusion is the Key Audio Recordist for "The Shift," the trailer for which is here:

Labels: young entrepreneurs

posted by Ron @ 10:35 PM 0 comments

Lessons learned from CAPW "Night of Legends"

Here are the basic results from the Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling "Night of Legends":

• Ironman won the "King of Cleveland Gauntlet" battle royal
• Jake Crist & Nevaeh def. Robby Starr & Lexi Lane (pictured right) in a
  mixed tag match
• Nigel McGuinness def. Matt "MDogg-20" Cross
• "Wildfire" Tommy Rich and "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka went to a double-countout
• Super Hentai won a three-way dance with the Aftermath and Sharkboy to defend the CAPW Jr. Heavyweight title
• Johnny Gargano & Josh Prohibition def. Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin
• Conrad Kennedy III (AKA CK3) def. Chris Cronus to defend the CAPW TV title
• Luna Vachon def. Jessicka Havok in a ladies' hardcore match
• Doink the Clown def. Lord Zoltan
• Da Munchies and JT Lightning (pictured 2nd left) def. Carlton Kaz and Q&A to defend the "mythical CAPW six-man tag championship"
• Rick Steiner def. Buff Bagwell
• Faith 'n Nothing (Christian Faith and Vincent Nothing, pictured second right) def. Southern Comfort (Tracy Smothers and Chris Hamrick) to defend the CAPW Tag-Team Championship
• Jason Bane (pictured left) def. the Blue Meanie in a "barbed-wire baseball bat match" and won the CAPW Championship

But I have observations as well, based on the card and my assumption that pro wrestlers are almost all entrepreneurs by nature.

• Rich and Snuka are getting too old for this, and they look it. Plus, neither wanted the other guy to win. Funny thing is, Smothers is as old as they are, but he's not afraid to be knocked to the mat. Even the referee knocked him down once! But the lesson here is that an entrepreneur cannot be a "one-trick pony." I saw Snuka sitting in the back throughout most of the card, trying to sell autographed photos of himself, and the photos weren't very good. Not personal, not action shots, and Snuka didn't reach out to the fans. Nobody owes an entrepreneur a living. We are only as good to our customers as we are right now -- not as we were (say) 30 years ago.
• Smothers did the same thing, selling photos, but he reached out to the fans, riled up the crowd excellently during his match, and cheated gratuitously. That, plus the bumps he took, suggests that Smothers is a better marketer than Rich or Snuka. And probably a better buy. Luna Vachon even adds to that marketability, for her part, by carrying her match all through the arena. And Doink, though his best days are in the rear-view mirror as well, at least knows to reach out to the kids with the clown gimmick.
• Again with the photos: Bagwell and Steiner sold photos with fans in the ring during intermission. (At that time we didn't know who'd be the bad guy.) Personalizing the product. From a B2B perspective, Bagwell is a whiner, as I learned later from booker JT Lightning, but that serves as a reminder to always leave our bridges intact. Lightning likes Bagwell, but says he complains like Hulk Hogan. LOL
• The wise entrepreneur is always looking to release new products, and reach out to new markets. We might be seeing new CAPW champ Bane in the WWE before long, for instance.
• The wise entrepreneur always takes care of the regular customers while reaching out. Lightning tells me each CAPW card tends to draw the same 250 people, but they are faithful because of the way they are treated by the hard-working local wrestlers.
• Finally, the wise entrepreneur isn't stuck on any particular venue. Lightning was dissatisfied with the treatment he received from the Plain Dealer Pavilion, so he will rightly take his business elsewhere in future. Entrepreneurs are not locked into any particular vendor.

And as for you people who say "wrestling is fake," suggesting it isn't worthy of our attention, all I can say is you'd better not watch TV at all, and you better read only textbooks and your Bibles. Because everything else you read and watch is fake too. So there.

Labels: education, young entrepreneurs

posted by Ron @ 12:09 PM 0 comments

Dr. Ron makes a widget!

If this works for you, as it does for me, then widgets are really pretty easy. And no doubt if I can make one, as I have done here, you can make a better one. :-)

Just copy the following and stick it where it goes. LOL

<iframe src="http://www.tcnj.edu/~rgraham/test/test-01.html" length=90 width=425 scrolling="no" frameborder=0> <script language="JavaScript"><!-- moviesticker (); --></script></iframe>There is a problem with this widget: I cannot publish it on MySpace. It looks like MySpace has trouble with iframe and object tags. No use even trying.

Labels: internet

posted by Ron @ 6:53 PM 0 comments