My current employer has students very interested in learning podcasting and coming to have their own voices on the Internet. I have long wanted this for myself, so we are all learning podcasting together. I hope within the next couple weeks we will finally start putting some stuff up there.
We're fortunate to have a guy like Jason van Orden out there, putting up loads of podcast smarts -- written in very accessible language -- for us to study from. The high points are outlined here:
What should you talk about?
something that you love enough that you'd do it for nothing
something that has an audience that you can define and you can find and will be interested
something you can write a script for
Formatting considerations
length of individual program
frequency of programs
single or multiple voices
background or other music
segments or single subject
Hardware and software
microphone
headphones
"pop filter"
recording software (like Audacity or Sound Forge)
file conversion from MP3 (like LAME or -- again -- Sound Forge)
Preparation
outline/script (DO NOT IMPROV until/unless you are GOOD)
select music
advance reading/timing
Where to go to get content or new interview subjects
listeners
current co-hosts and interview subjects
advisors
blog readers (text must be posted!)
I've written my first script, on "seven seconds to get to the point," and students James and Da'Jawn are writing on "why women are interested in guys who play games." Which of us will get there first? LOL
Mary Anne Bitetto on Small Manufacturers using Outsourcing
Mary Anne Bitetto was assigned the following question in her management class: discuss why the manufacturing sector in the US has been losing jobs to other nations. Her answer, which I thought showed some insight, follows:
So far, a lot of the focus in this discussion has been on medium-sized to larger companies. Some primary goals for these corporations have been established: cutting costs and avoiding strict US environmental policies. Small businesses, however, are left out of the picture. The increasingly globalized economy, particularly since the onset of the internet, creates an environment conducive to small businesses and specialized products. For many of these businesses, reasons for outsourcing may go beyond cutting costs. It is possible that the small-business owner wants to maintain only a certain aspect of the product development. Perhaps he doesn't have the means to set up a large manufacturing plant. Since a lot of small businesses sell products that are specialized, it may not behoove the business-owner to expand if only a small customer demographic is targeted. Increasing in size to accommodate for all of the manufacturing processes may force the company to compete with larger ones. This could cause a shift of focus that may go beyond the scope of the original business plan.
Many small businesses are turning to outsourcing as a viable means to produce a product. For example, I was reading a magazine article a few years ago about an entrepreneur who had decided to start an online business selling custom stuffed toys he had personally designed. As someone who was able to work from his home office using design software, it was in his best interest to look elsewhere for manufacturing. A company in China was able to interface with his designs, and would send him samples of his designs so he could modify the patterns to get the look he wanted. In this way, he was able to control the aspects of the business he wanted, without having to move away from his artistically creative focus. This is indicative that inexpensive manufacturing processes could be increasingly used by small-business owners in order to quickly produce a specialized product without having to expand their businesses.
I also added, for her edification and yours, first, that for some small manufacturers labor costs, including medical benefits, are a great burden, unless the manufacturer has what amounts to a constant flow of work. Small companies have a tough time maintaining that. So nobody gets replaced after attrition.
Second, nobody is listening to W. Edwards Deming any more. (A great shame for the Western world.) In Out of the Crisis, one of Deming's 14 Points is stated this way:
End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
This note came in from TCNJ about the Get-It Card, a rechargeable mini-credit card that also gave TCNJ students discounts from local merchants. Looks like canceling the program was a responsible business decision.
It is our ultimate desire to offer services that are efficient, successful, and more importantly, mutually beneficial to students, faculty and staff, the Ewing community, and the College. A decision was made this fall to temporarily suspend the off-campus component of the GetIt Card program to examine how shifts in customer usage of commercial credit/debit cards and recent advancements in campus technology have impacted the program.
During this time, TCNJ staff conducted an analysis of all aspects of the program. This included a forum with participating Ewing vendors, held in spring 2007. Additionally, surveys were distributed to vendors and the campus community to solicit feedback about the program. Data received indicated that while vendors were generally satisfied with the program, interest and usage levels varied. Families and students indicated that they were most interested in overall convenience when using this type of service. Feedback also revealed that more of our students/families prefer using debit and/or credit cards (many of which offer reward incentives) to pay for purchases rather than the GetIt Card.
The required upgrade to the College's technological infrastructure occurred during the fall 2007 semester. This upgrade impacted many services, including the GetIt Card functions. While the upgrade allows us to implement some enhancements to the present GetIt Card Off-Campus Vendor program, it also would result in additional costs and fees to vendors, such as the purchase and installation of new hardware.
It is our ultimate desire to offer services that are efficient, successful, and as important, mutually beneficial to the students, faculty and staff, Ewing community and to the College. Based on the information obtained, the GetIt Off-Campus Vendor program cannot fulfill these expectations. Thus, the College will permanently disband the program, effective January 2008.
We are seeking new opportunities for collaborations with Ewing businesses because merchants in Ewing Township are a great asset, providing valued goods and services as community partners. While the off-campus component of the GetIt program is no longer in use, your patronage is important, and we encourage all students, faculty, and staff to continue to take advantage of the wonderful businesses in our local community.
Four years of blogging on the subject of young entrepreneurs and their interests (or what they should be interested in) have been condensed into start me up! Young Entrepreneurs, the e-book. It's available FREE. But it's a 10 MB Microsoft Word file. You have to want it. And if you use any of it, you have to attribute what you use to me. It's for educational purposes, but I still want my credit.
And I'm starting to take down the old posts too, since most of them are in the book. I will leave up just a few of the best. But it's time for me to clean up my Web site. In a few years, GTFW willing, there'll be a follow-up book. :-)
FOLLOW-UP: A wiki, eh...? That's not a bad idea... I will look into that. But it won't be posted on my Web site. I put the book together in the first place to clear some old pages out of the Web site. And I have no problem with users editing it to suit their needs, as long as I get original credit.
It's been a long time. Sorry. Really busy at the start of the school year.
I like Meebo because it allows us to use instant messaging even in places where instant messaging programs aren't installed. (I don't get to do that much, but it's nice to have it in a pinch.) But now I like these guys all the more. Check out what they had to say about their summer interns:
This summer's been great at meebo and a large part of that is because we had great interns. Last week we said our goodbyes and sent the last of them back to school. We were very lucky to have AJ, Matt, Mila, and Tri join our ranks and the work they've done has both helped the efficiency of meebo and helped our product.
Matt and Tri joined the server-side of things, with Matt on the development side and Tri on our operations side. Many of you have seen Matt's contribution: file transfer! We're really proud of him for starting the project from scratch, spec-ing out the design, and working with Vijay to tie it all up for production. Tri helped out Simon and Bob tremendously with internal operations and there wasn't a day that went by where he wasn't needed for something.
Many of you may have gotten emails from Mila in response to comments, bugs, suggestions, and general questions about meebo. In addition to helping out on customer service, she even got a chance to exercise some JavaScript skills for her hack day project. AJ's been with us the longest, starting out on the customer service side and transitioning to a great front-end developer. He worked on an awesome new system for helping us debug our releases, keep track of bugs, and increase efficiency during release time, and we're now all hooked on his summer creation.
We can't thank our interns enough for all their hard work, they'll all be missed.
This is how interns SHOULD be treated: with meaningful work, and with public praise. A lesson to us all. Be a good mentor.
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?
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. :-) :-) :-)
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.
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.
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.
A good friend of mine asked me to look over her resume. I don't have permission to repost it here, but I had some comments and thought I'd better summarize them.
She's after a job as an assistant office manager. The job description gives some characteristics of the person the company wants. She did a good job of pointing out in her resume, and emphasizing in a cover letter, the ways she exceeds the minimums in the position description. Give 'em more than they want.
She says she's got experience with "the Internet and Windows XP." Both of those are broad, and she needs to tighten that up by giving specific examples of experience. I suggested that evidence of Internet experience could be provided in the resume if she shows either that she knows Web-creation codes (e.g. HTML, JavaScript, Java, etc.), or Web-creation programs (e.g. FrontPage, DreamWeaver, etc.), or applications other than Web searching (e.g. FTP, e-mail list management, etc.), and she took advantage of that. As for Windows XP, she should demonstrate the basics, like disk cleanup and defrag, changing default printers, etc.
She hasn't graduated yet, and lists "some college coursework," and gives the major. She needs to say how much she has left. She's got a good major -- it matches the company's interests -- and they may want her to finish up. Use even a partial education for leverage.
She has impressive work experience for a young person, but needs to show examples of accomplishments, not just assignments. Something like "trusted with the responsibility of a customer service supervisor." And "managed insurance card and policy package distribution, as well as training meetings for sales agents."
Finally, if the editing she does makes her resume longer, she must try to cut it back to a single page by making the font a size smaller or fiddling with the margins.
All this stuff is simple but will enhance her attractiveness to the company. And it didn't hurt me to go through it. :-)
Jane is a bright gal from China who wants to pursue graduate school in the USA, but she didn't get a fellowship. She wants to be a writer, and a professor, and hopes also to help her brother expand a clothing line from China into the USA. But if she wants to go to school here, she can't wait for business success (unfortunately). She writes,
I've been accepted into the graduate program of University of Indianapolis, but need to raise financial support. If you can help me, even with a dollar, please contact me. I'll write a note in return, and will share my new knowledge with you if you'd like. Thank you!
She'd like to find micropatrons of her own. If you want to find out more, here is her own page.
I learned the following from Brian Holcombe in an IM exchange:
Brian: got a new hot item....transmission crossmembers, 9 guys want them. i dont know how many will actually follow through with the $$$, but one has so far and i'd expect 2-3 more to follow
Dr. Ron: that is great! send me a diagram of these things?
Brian goes on:
The new hot item is called a transmission crossmember. It's constructed of round tubing, and has two tabs on ether end for mounting. They're lighter than the factory crossmember by 6-8 lbs, and I will be able to tailor the mount to the specific transmission in the car. The price I'm asking is $120.
My costs are:
[such-and-such an amount] to have the tubing bent
[so-and-so more] for tubing
[and about this much] for shop overhead.
Leaving [a decent enough to live with] profit... not bad for a small product.
Anthony Thompson is about to graduate. His plan has always been to be able to make a living from Juterphusion Recording Solutions after graduation, and his recent news indicates that he is certainly heading in that direction:
Just wanted to tell you things are progressing, I am even graduating on time; to boot. I have a great mix disc of the RAT from the performances of Melody [Gardot] and up[-and-]comer John Dutton. I will try to get you a copy ASAP because you probably will be impressed. The total amount of shows for TCNJ is 84 :) and Ms. [Jessica] Valiente [of Los Mas Valientes] is actually a music professor at MSU, so this is great.
I have indicated a willingness to invest further in Juterphusion as a result of this progress. Not a LOT, but how much can a teacher really fork over? I'm fulfilling the role of the micropatron; someday soon Juterphusion will outgrow me.
Gardot has a terrific, professional site redesign, by the way.
And Valiente gives Anthony valuable advice:
Let's say you do a job for me in Philly, nearly 2 hours drive, and it's a 4-hour gig. Getting paid your rate for travel and the gig brings you up to still only $160, and if you have an assistant that you're paying $15/hour, it's less than $300. You're definitely worth more money than that--keep in mind for these kinds of jobs you're using your own equipment and your own vehicle, and these are all expensive items that have to be maintained.
My good friend Rich Barrett has passed away. He was one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of fasteners -- a subject often overlooked by engineering organizations both small and large. He deserves credit from all of us for caring about a subject so many ignore as an afterthought; a subject that, if ignored, can lead to momentous engineering failures and loss of life and property. For my money, if an engineer CAN be a hero, Rich Barrett was a hero.
I've maintained a large portion of his Fastener Design Manual on this Web site. It'll stay here until I leave TCNJ for good and all, or until Rich's family asks me to pull it down. In the meantime, there will be no answers to e-mail inquiries made to Rich. I certainly won't do it, and I never have. Dozens of engineers has written to ask Rich for free help, which he didn't have time to give during his life, and which I am neither qualified nor inclined to pitch in. It's just a book -- read it or don't, but don't bother with questions. Rich did a fine job collecting a cache of info about fasteners, but he didn't leave behind a support service. You certainly won't honor his life by asking for help now.
This is his last communication to me, dated 03.17.2007:
My spouse and I divorced over religious differences. She thought she was God and I didn't.
I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
God must love stupid people; He made so many.
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!
Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
Procrastinate Now!
I have a degree in Liberal Arts. Do you want fries with that?
A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!
They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
Ham and eggs...A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.
The trouble with life is there's no background music.
The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.
I smile because I don't know what the heck is going on.
This list has probably been around the Internet and back. But it shows that Rich was keeping a sense of humor around until the last.
Standardized tests require teachers and professors to "keep time" for test-takers by writing the number of minutes left on the blackboard. Am I the only person on the planet who sees that this method is only good for exactly one minute?
Hey! ETS! And you other standardized test makers! Find a way to the 21st century! You can put up a Web screen in the classroom with a simple, easily readable Javascript timer, that'll be good for the duration of the test! So why isn't it happening already?
It does have one weakness: I want to suppress the number of days and the author appears to have overriden me. Hmph. I might have to write my own before the next wave of tests. LOL
The "Teacher's Version" in the table below is a list of "Ten Commandments" for teachers, and it comes from developingteachers.com. (It's actually written for language teachers, but it seems reasonable for many subjects, if not all.) It's not a perfect match with ten of W. Edwards Deming's 14 Points for industry, but it's reasonably close.
Teachers' Version
Deming's Version
Lower inhibitions
Drive out fear and build trust so that everyone can work more effectively.
Encourage risk-taking
Remove barriers that rob people of joy in their work.
Build self-confidence
Adopt and institute leadership for the management of people, recognizing their different abilities, capabilities, and aspirations.
Develop intrinsic motivation
Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets asking for zero defects or new levels of productivity.
Engage in cooperative learning
Adopt a new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) in which everybody wins and put it into practice by teaching it to employees, customers and suppliers.
Use right-brain processes
Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality.
Promote ambiguity tolerance
Eliminate numerical goals, numerical quotas and management by objectives. Substitute leadership.
Practice intuition
End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. Instead, minimize total cost in the long run.
Process error feedback
Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
Set personal goals
Improve constantly, and forever, the system of production, service, planning, of any activity.
Even if PowerPoint is responsible for the dumbing-down of America, it's still a de facto industry standard. If we can't embrace it, we can at least try to tame it to serve our purposes.
And here's another one -- it talks about making a simple plot of dependent v. independent variable more readable. If you are waiting for Microsoft Excel to take care of plot readability for you, don't hold your breath.
I think the thing I hate most about filling out recommendation forms and writing recommendation letters is that I seldom hear what happens. For the last several years, a few students each year have asked me for recommendations for various honors: scholarships or student jobs, usually. And almost none of them has ever written me back to tell me what happened. The funny thing is that even sites that describe the etiquette involved in requesting one of these things don't suggest that the requester report on the results.
But I can't help it. I want to know. I'd at least like the students who request a favor like that not to forget me. LOL And I'm learning a lesson here myself: I have to tell the people who've recommended me in the past that my own job is going just fine. And thank them again.
A bit of history: five years ago, I worked with a group called the Weather Boys in one of my Rhetoric classes. (They got the idea for their team name from watching the film October Sky.) These kids, over the course of two semesters, performed the heroic feat of supplying Ewing's Antheil Elementary School with a weather station. They convinced the Antheil Parent-Teacher Organization to donate $1000 for the purchase of the station, the rain gauge of which is pictured here. They installed the station. They prepared the software so Antheil's computers could receive data. And they did the groundwork for Antheil's weather feed to be supplied to TCNJ's Web site.
All this work is now pretty much unknown except to the Weather Boys, myself, and a couple of Antheil staff members. This is because in the summer of 2003, Ewing schools put up a new firewall which prevented the weather station from sending data inside the building 20 feet away. And nobody would do anything about it. That situation still rankles me, years later.
But I digress. I brought this up because Matt Ledyard of the Weather Boys came along this week seeking a recommendation letter, as...
I am on the homestretch here at TCNJ, and upon graduation I hope to continue my service with the Air Force by becoming a pilot. Within the next few weeks I will be sending off application packets to various Air National Guard units across the United States. My top choice would be to fly fighter jets, specifically the F-15, F-16 or A-10 airframe.
This note came along just as I was beginning to get the annual spring rush of recommendation requests, and was most discouraged about them. Now I have to rethink my discouragement, because Matt is such a super guy. I see him as one of my greatest success stories.
Matt's the reason I'm posting this. I think my recommendation for a good young person is one of the best gifts I can give, and it really is flattering to be asked. It suggests that at least one person gives a shit about what I think. LOL
Students ask me all the time how they'd use such skills in "real life" anyway. And I think that's part of the problem. We're used to having it done; we're not used to doing it. We're used to computer assistance; we're not used to getting our hands in there. We're used to having it ready to go right now; we're not used to taking the time to see something's done right.
And then we wonder why things don't turn out the way we want 'em to. Didn't we hire a professional? Didn't we use a computer? Here's a hot news flash: we fell over ourselves to find ways to get the wrong answer sooner. To have a wrong answer that's more precise. Our inability to understand, much less construct parallel lines is a symptom.
And the beauty of the world is less than it was. <sigh>
Someone I work with wanted to know about broken axis graphs (like the one pictured) -- where you put what I call "the zigzag" on the axis. Is there a name for that zigzag? Are there special cases where you use it? How in the name of GTFW do you create one of these things?
You've got data that doesn't fill the entire data range. If you show the entire data range, there is a chance that you won't be able to see interesting features the data contains. So I posed the question to the Rhetoric for Engineers mailing list and got the following responses:
Lisa Henn broke out her old drafting book (Giesecke is the author) and found that
[C]ertain circumstances require special consideration to avoid wasted space. For example, if the values to be plotted along one of the axes do not range near zero, a 'break' in the grid may be shown... [W]hen relative amount of change is required... the axes or grid should not be broken, and the zero line should not be omitted. If the absolute amount is the important consideration, the zero line may be omitted.
And Lisa herself adds,
On graphs, you'd want to put breaks such that there is still a gap shown in the data. In other words, you wouldn't want the data points crowding the break too much.
She finally points out that Edward Tufte probably addresses the issue.
Glen Hadley argues that it's not just that we want to ignore empty parts of the data range, but that we may want the data range to appear fully populated as well. This is an appearance issue, meaning that we might not be interested in an axis break for analysis. It's for presentations. So there are several sites where educators and consultants have found ways to fool Excel into creating axis breaks (why wouldn't Microsoft make that a standard option?) -- this is a long and tedious process, and you can be sure most engineers will never bother with it. I did it myself with the graph above, to make sure I could follow directions, and it took me 20 minutes. I also added a trendline to the original data, something the people writing on this subject didn't add to theirs. Here are the sites where they work this issue:
It's too bad the financial world doesn't read this. The economic, stock, and such graphs (almost) always show the top 0.1% of a curve which magnifies the miniscule noise into major ups and downs making it appear that the noise is significant when it isn't.
I was surprised to get the following e-mail from "the" Howard Gardner, the multiple intelligences guru I wrote about earlier.
I'd be inclined to include what you describe as part of interpersonal intelligence. I am also a bit wary about the stereotyping that the notion of cultural intelligence might encourage. The one time that I publicly denounced the use of my ideas was when some educators in Australia tried to describe the various indigenous populations in terms of the intelligences that they had and those that they lacked.
It wasn't clear what stereotyping he was talking about, but you know how we are. As long as we are human, if we can stereotype instead of actually getting to know people, we will. We're always looking for shortcuts and sometimes we look in the wrong places.
You could certainly argue that there are resources well beyond what I can supply on this topic. But just because what I say isn't exhaustive doesn't mean it's not TRUE. What follows is a summary of the best principles I have observed and tried to follow in my years of teaching entrepreneurs, engineers, writers and high-school Algebra students. If they're too brief or too vague, that's only because one size doesn't fit all.
Start with baby steps. Remember how a baby walks, man. Tiny little steps with tiny little feet on wobbly legs, holding on to anything it can reach on the way, and falling on its baby ass more often than not. Sure, you gotta help that baby be safe; but you gotta let it fall too, so baby learns to get back up. You have to show baby more than one way to get to the same place; but you gotta let baby choose which way. And if baby can't get there fast enough, maybe baby can't go just yet.
Find out what they've learned. Make sure to check regularly, especially after a baby-ass landing. If they haven't learned anything from it, maybe they're not ready to go further.
They're never too young for a sanity check. Make sure they've read the signs and looked both ways. Make sure they haven't forgotten anything. Make sure they know where they're going, how to get there, and when they have to arrive. Make sure they know who to call and when. And for the love of mercy make sure they take notes. :-)
Multicultural workplace education, ten years later
In my NASA days, I was exposed to an organization-wide required training course entitled "New Leadership Strategy." It was intended to be a marriage of diversity awareness training and Total Quality Management [tm]. As it happened, what we got was not "New" -- we'd had it before. It wasn't "Leadership" -- we were all given responsibility for it, with no clear evidence that it was applied from the top down, except for "target goals" in hiring and promotion. And it wasn't "Strategy" either -- because what we saw was just another training class. But that was a long time ago. What I want to summarize now are the lessons I learned then that are still applicable now:
Such training drags us away from "real work." I don't buy that and I never have. Our ability to recognize, understand and relate to customers and colleagues IS "real work." We need to come to terms with this, and have that knowledge periodically refreshed. At NASA, the job was to "sell technology" to the American public, and to the world. It isn't now, nor has it ever been, to have our heads down over our desks, just handling our own small piece of things. It's real work if it contributes to the mission. (If you don't have a mission, well, that's another thing.)
Who's willing to take personal responsibility for a lack of diversity, or a diverse but ineffective workplace? It's like, "hey, I just work here, I never screwed anyone myself, why should I be made to bear this burden?" My response, which has been shown to generate little enthusiasm among white males I have worked with: "because we are products of a racist system and as such have benefited from it." We all have to come to terms with that knowledge as well. Our job security and satisfaction are purchased from society and carried on the backs of others.
Several people in my organization for whom English was a second language brought up the subject of poor English speakers in the workplace. Each of them, having started at LeRC as poor English speakers themselves, agreed that they were open to being asked to repeat or clarify what they say. They took ownership of problems of communication as their own both as speakers and listeners. Nearly everyone I mentioned this to later was touched by this display of openness and trust. And some of us felt guilty because of our lack of willingness to take on personal responsibility for making it easier to communicate with our co-workers. We are all of us responsible for communication with each other.
I guess I'm amazed that after so many years these lessons still have power. :-)
Parallel lines intersect in various ways [well, actually, by the definition of parallel lines, they don't...] plane and plane together the following shape is made a little triple connection spray-painted as a little sign Andre [student] in turn created it with his tiny minute mind But now it's all completed yesterday it was just an egg Plane plane together Never and Forever again
I'm sorry to say that apparently none of my students this term will be rushing out to start businesses of their own. There were four business plans developed: three of them are simply too ambitious to be undertaken by college freshmen (two clubs for teenagers and a beauty salon); the fourth, involving personalized scrubs for medical personnel, is highly interesting but the idea-people here are a bit nervous. Even when you can start slow, develop a business in your spare time (as Juterphusion is doing), and grow it without a huge investment of early capital, young college students still see their primary job (as they probably should see it) as doing well in school -- and that of course includes having lives of their own (as opposed to the life of the business) while they are in school. [sigh...] For the scrubs I would've invested and served, as I have been doing with the other small businesses most often mentioned here.
Anyway, the scrub-makers (called "Allica") had an interesting idea for a logo:
...the shape of a capital "A" made from a stethoscope would be cute for Allica. The "A" would be a good symbol of the company name, and then the stethoscope would show what the company deals with.
I mentioned the great interest in clubs for teenagers. This is something cities should be looking at when they are serious about reviving a business district:
There is just nothing to do in Union City. There's a $2 movie theater that only shows movies that are already on DVD; and also a $5 theater that it is so poorly managed that someone can be eating Chinese food next to you or even changing diapers. There's a bowling alley, too expensive and not even worth it in the end; and the same goes for the billiard parlor located on top of a Laundromat, also too expensive.
Even when students are not ready to start new businesses, that will not stop them from thinking critically about what they see others doing, and that might mean they will be better prepared when it's their turn:
Another concern I have about Juterphusion, though a small nuance, is the name of the business itself -- try remembering how to spell "Juterphusion" the next time you want to "Google it" (by the way, I think that the phrase "Google it" should be used in their advertising... then again, they really don't advertise at all, so scratch that).
The thought of "Google It" as a tagline for almost any business -- except possibly Juterphusion :-) -- is intriguing, and I am giving this student a bunch of points for coming up with what may be the single best idea of the term. (Of course it's not new. But the idea that any of us can apply it is not one that comes to mind readily. At least, not until now.)
Finally, I like it when students think critically about customer service. I mean, really think about it, instead of simply complaining like most of us do:
Once last week I was standing at the bus stop by 10:48am, to catch a bus scheduled to leave at 10:50am. Usually the buses are pretty accurate in their arrival and departure, but this day it was a different story. The bus driver often sits for a short period of time before he leaves for his rounds and when he leaves it is exactly the time on the bus schedule. But that day I did not get on the bus until 11:50am. What went wrong? I cannot tell you. Did I miss the bus? I doubt it. If there was a previous bus, was that bus driver wrong for leaving more then two minutes earlier then he was suppose to? I believe so.
This is a capture from my son Rob's first short film, "The Golden Axe," which stars (if that's the operative word here) Rob (pictured left), my daughter Beth's boyfriend Joe Holt (right), and Mark Wetherbee Jr., who wrote the theme:
You have discovered the Axe It is a Golden Axe It is a magical Magical magical magical magical mag-ic-al Gol-den Axe!
Hey, it's a first film. He wants to be a director one day. I could name Hollywood directors who, inexplicably, have jobs whenever they want them, while my 18-year-old son is already thinking about the craft more critically than they do. Of course, a critical eye on the craft may not be what puts a new director in business; it may be explosions rather than cosmic jokes like a Golden Axe.
Well, it's the time of year when student evaluations are taken. Here's how we do it:
Pass out two separate evaluation sheets to each student.
Get a volunteer to collect them and seal them in envelopes.
Leave the room until the students are done and the envelopes are sealed.
A simple process, one which yields meaningless results. Here's why:
I leave the room so I can't influence the students' responses, but they're still there to influence each other. Is that type of influence somehow much less significant than my own?
I know not all authorities are convinced that students' evaluations are tied in to their grades. (This study, for instance, is cautiously convinced.) But I AM convinced. Sure, the students don't KNOW what they're getting yet when the survey gets to them, but they can guess. If they think they are getting a good grade, they will praise me; if they think they are not, they will point out that it is my fault. And if they think they are getting a good grade and don't, they will make up for their survey "error" by blasting me on Virtual Ratings.
Now, I used to encourage students to say stuff about me on Virtual Ratings (as in the picture), but as time went on, I found that the site was never updated. You can see that a year would pass by between ratings for me, at least, and my wife, a full-time faculty member, is rated even less often. You'd also find that the two highest-rated profs on campus, Matt Winkel and Burt Klein, haven't taught a class in nearly two years. AND, you'd find on their home page a link to comments I wrote about four years ago under the heading "NEW!" Finally, you see in the picture that I was evaluated at least once by someone who never took a course from me, and indeed has probably never met me. I would like to know what's keeping Virtual Ratings on the Internet, frankly.
Pick-a-Prof is the new thing, and I'm told that TCNJ was paying for the Pick-a-Prof service until about a year ago. Their site is clean, regularly updated, and endorsed heartily by both students and faculty (though I haven't seen any testimonials from anyone at TCNJ). So far, I only have one evaluation there, and when you read it, you can see several reasons for not taking evaluations seriously:
He's a 20 year old trapped in a 45 year old body. He can get boring, but it's a boring subject sometimes. We watched Jerry Maguire and the Apprentice and just talked about starting a business. I want to teach music, and I still enjoyed the class very much, he knows a lot. [...] He can get monotonous, but that's it.
While I don't deny the truth of anything the student ("tcnjmusic") said (except maybe about my actual age, about which the student was generous), none of it is relevant to my actual performance. What you see is a student who has no interest in the subject, and was evidently taking a required class because it was required; a student whose interest was in being entertained rather than in learning life skills.
I know from experience that the formal TCNJ evaluations that I wrote about above get information that's no different. They tell me I'm not supposed to see them until they've been processed by management and then returned some months later. For my part, I don't give a shit: I stopped reading them altogether two years ago. They verify things we should know about surveys, and in fact don't:
that people responding to surveys will sometimes LIE
that they will answer the wrong questions
that they will say (even accidentally) what they perceive that the survey taker wants to hear
...and none of that is valid, in terms of actually evaluating whether or not faculty members (or any employee, for that matter) are any good.
Forrester's speaker series continues -- good stuff!
Doug Forrester (pictured) lost the last Governor's race here in New Jersey. After he lost, though, he didn't just disappear. The Republican former mayor of West Windsor has been a busy guy, and unlike a host of politicians I could name has been active on behalf of entrepreneurs. For instance, he and his wife Andrea are now underwriting the Entrepreneurship for the Public Good program at TCNJ. This program has among its features a regular speaker series, and I attended the most recent forum in this series a few days ago. Forrester was there, and I'm guessing had I not been dressed in a "Ewing Marching Blue Devils" t-shirt and bluejeans, I might've gotten to meet him. :-(
The speakers for the event, and how they define "entrepreneur," are as follows:
"...their house on the line, behind a good idea and a passion."
How can I begin to describe what was said among these entrepreneurial big-brains in an hour and a half? All I can tell you is that though there were a paltry 50 people in the audience, most were recharged and reinforced in their desire to change a piece of the world, outside of the context of a larger company. That's what I'm talkin' about!
I've worked with enough young people on their math that I know when I walk in the room some smart-ass will ask me, "how do I use this in real life?" Or more to the point, "why do I need to learn this?" (Like they're the first people in history to ask that question...) But didja ever notice that the people who ask are the ones who, five years later, will not be able to tell whether they have enough gas in their tank to make it to the gas station? Or whether they can afford BOTH the movie AND the popcorn? This is why the United States if falling behind most of the rest of the world in economic competitiveness -- you need look no further.
But math is more subtle even than that. I have met a fair number of adults, most of them in supervisory positions, who fail to understand that it will cost them more to fire or lay off an employee and then hire and train a new one than it will to keep the old one and offer some extra training and maybe a deadline for performance improvement. This is why Deming said "drive out fear". Employees who are in fear for their careers are not naturally productive, and will not generally go out of their way to bless customers. Consider the following comment from a Fast Company panel discussion:
What we found in our study was that companies that have soft and fuzzy behaviors -- making all employees feel like owners and feel connected to the company's vision and values -- were growing at 141%. The companies without these behaviors were growing at 10%. Those "nice things" ultimately produce dramatically different economic impacts.
We don't understand math, so we don't value the things the math tells us we ought to value.
Let's face it, kids will be kids and they can't possibly always be happy with every single decision that is made for them. Even from a very young age a child realizes that he/she is, in fact, a REAL person, with feelings, thoughts and emotions. This often leads to them wanting to do things their own way, making their own choices, or just not wanting to do as they're told.
Here's a scenario: your child is sitting happily playing with building bricks, or maybe playing on a games console, totally engulfed in his or her own world, and it's time for dinner. You ask your child to drop what they’re doing there and then, to tidy up quickly, to leave their "happy place" and come eat. Your child refuses to do as asked, wondering within why on earth you're being mean and spoiling their fun.
You, on the other hand may think the child is being naughty or obstinate. You remove the toys/games abruptly and the volcano erupts! Your child is throwing a full-blown tantrum!
Now, let's re-create the scenario: As before, your child is sitting happily playing and you're about to start making dinner. You give the child fair warning that playtime will be ending soon, in say 5-10 minutes, and that they will then need to put their things away so that they can help you make dinner.
Stick to your time-frame and get the things put away (help if you're needed), and involve your child in the dinner-making. Depending on your child's age this could be anything from wiping the table to boiling potatoes or even carving the meat. (Ok, so we may not have huge set meals every day, but you get the idea).
Wow! You just avoided a MAJOR tantrum! Your child is involved and happy, you are happy and non-stressed! Well Done You!
You can do this sort of thing with just about any scenario. Turn it around from something negative i.e. removing child from "happy place" and replacing in "upset place", to moving child from one happy place to another. You just have to make sure that your child knows beforehand that something other than what they are doing at the moment will soon be happening.
Let your child get involved and make sure you tell him/her how much you appreciate their help and co-operation. This way you will avoid the horrid confusion that ultimately leads to those dreadful tantrums.
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With young people, even those who KNOW they want to be entrepreneurs, it's difficult to teach even the concept of breaking even. They (like other, even older, entrepreneurs) will lie to themselves and convince themselves they will make a million zillion dollars in year one; or they may simply have no reasonable view of costs v. money coming in. This chart is greatly oversimplified, but I think it helps get the point across. :-)
This week, my students got to hear Jim Pankiewicz, the Area Director of the local Club Z Tutoring. As you may know, Club Z's gig is in-home tutoring. Of course, most in-home tutors are on their own. (You might see their flyers with rip-off phone numbers in your friendly neighborhood grocery store.)
So much is on the line with standardized tests that those tests become a major incentive of customers for the tutoring business, whether in-home or otherwise. Jim's making money faster than many new businesses. He is in -- or nearly in -- "the black." He's making a living. So he feels the impact of the standardized tests. Part of tutoring is content, but part of it is study skills and test preparation. That's getting to be a bigger and bigger part.
Franchises come with a fee (in this case $50K). This fee (the major fixed expense) includes
the name
the training
marketing materials and support
solo rights to a territory
good business practices advice
advice on selecting tutors
pool of knowledge from other franchises' experiences
(Notice that the franchise fee is a LOT cheaper than buying into a storefront competitor, e.g. Huntington.)
Tutors are "independent contractors." Jim does not have to pay their (our) taxes -- and with tutors only working a few hours a week each in general, that saves a great deal of paperwork as well as money. Other fixed (and mostly infrequent, as opposed to ongoing) expenses incurred relate to advertising:
Yellow Pages (remember -- these guys only put out a book once a year -- that may govern when you open!)
private individuals (which you really can't concentrate on)
NOTE: At any given time one percent of the students in the area need tutoring. And Jim has found that the competitors' ads raise the parents' awareness of this. In other words, they draw customers not just toward themselves, but toward Jim and Club Z as well. It comes as no surprise, then, that Jim takes advantage of a small ad in the Yellow Pages, and Club Z franchises will by a sponsored ad on Google, near where the larger competitors place their larger ads, so comparison shoppers will call him when they call them.
In this particular business, the students' parents pay the cost of tutoring before the tutor is even selected. This means Jim has money in hand for possibly several weeks before having to pay it out.
Jim acts as an "advance scout" on behalf of the tutors, which is an advantage to the tutors' comfort and safety. He makes use of Craigslist to find t
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. 
Jane is a bright gal from China who wants to pursue graduate school in the USA, but she didn't get a fellowship. She wants to be a writer, and a professor, and hopes also to help her brother expand a clothing line from China into the USA. But if she wants to go to school here, she can't wait for business success (unfortunately). She writes, 
My good friend Rich Barrett has passed away. He was one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of fasteners -- a subject often overlooked by engineering organizations both small and large. He deserves credit from all of us for caring about a subject so many ignore as an afterthought; a subject that, if ignored, can lead to momentous engineering failures and loss of life and property. For my money, if an engineer CAN be a hero, Rich Barrett was a hero.
I think the thing I hate most about filling out recommendation forms and writing recommendation letters is that I seldom hear what happens. For the last several years, a few students each year have asked me for recommendations for various honors: scholarships or student jobs, usually. And almost none of them has ever written me back to tell me what happened. The funny thing is that even 
Someone I work with wanted to know about broken axis graphs (like the one pictured) -- where you put what I call "the zigzag" on the axis. Is there a name for that zigzag? Are there special cases where you use it? How in the name of GTFW do you create one of these things?
This is a capture from my son Rob's first short film, "The Golden Axe," which stars (if that's the operative word here) Rob (pictured left), my daughter Beth's boyfriend Joe Holt (right), and Mark Wetherbee Jr., who wrote the theme:
Now, I used to encourage students to 
