John Kay, one of my favourite economists, writes:

I do not think children should be taught that greed is the most powerful human motivation. The people who are most successful in business in the long run are people who are passionate about business, not money.

I don't approve of pasta but this LA Times article about cooking pasta was surprisingly interesing.

From Andy Hunt:

What would you do if the big boss told you, with total conviction, that there was a problem with the email server, and he could not send email to anyone beyond a 500 mile radius. 

And then you found out he was right.

In this classic tale of debugging you'll see what happened.

I love the bit about the geostatistician ...

Occassionally I buy audio books on CD rather than downloading them.  This usually happens when they're available on CD but not from audible or itunes or it they're cheaper on CD.  The trouble is that when  import them onto my ipod they get imported as zillions of tracks - as if they were individual songs.  Itunes has a way around this but it's well hidden.  

Lawrence and I met on January 22nd 1992.  We both worked at the Bank of New Zealand as Cobol programmers.  Out of work we were best friends. We both had ambitions to not be Cobol programmers.  I wanted to manage people and probably one day write books.  Lawrence wanted to work in modern languages and do creative things.

If the words "I guess santa didn't flush" make you nervous then don't click here.

[thanks to my good friend Lawrence]

... for 5 years this month.  According to typepad I've had over 198K page downloads (not including xml readers).  According to feedburner I have just under 1,000 xml subscribers on this blog and another 5-600 on my other blogs.

Not bad for a fella who can't spell and who doesn't really write anything particularily important. 

Rob Newbold, critical chain guru, has just started writing a blog. 

I envy Rob's clarity of thought.  It really shows in his writing.

You can read more about Rob and his new book on my Toc Thinker Blog.

You're a skier, your lost on a hill, your phone battery has just died and your rescuers can't find you.  Your mp3 player still works. [something happens involving your mp3 player].  You survive!

I use sugarsynch to back up my files and stuff. It got great reviews when it first lauched ... but it's a pile of shite. There is a possibility that I'm thick and it is really good, but I do find it terribly confusing to use, despite it's apparantly simple interface.

It pisses me off several times a week and I'm quite sure I'm going to dump it.

Amazon.co.uk just sent me a £0.13 gift voucher. It's valid for a year so I'll probably not spend it straight away.

"Being certain is nice, but it's doubt that gets you an education."

Dan Gilbert wrote a wonderful book called Stumbling on Happiness ... which I never read all the way through.  The essence of the book is that we -  people - aren't very good at figuring out what will make us happy.

You can save yourself some time and some money, and make yourself quite happy by watching him speak at the ted conference, for free:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_researches_happiness.html

'tis a good investment of 30 minutes.

My wife spent the evening wrapping gifts for the two chinglings.

The oldest daughter (or should that be eldest?) put out a plate of stuff for santa and the reindeer - two carrots, a cup of milk, a couple of clementines. 

We're off to bed now and my lovely wife has just drunk the milk, put one of the carrots back in the cupboard under the sink where we keep the root veges and taken a good solid bite out of the other one (it now looks just like one the reindeer did it). 

I ate the clementines.

I also offered to take a reindeer sized dump in the back garden to add to the "authenticity" of our ruse, but my offer was declined.  Oh well. I'm trying to get into the christmas rythm ...

I'm reading co-opetition (which is the somethingerater of competition and co-operation) by Nalebuff and Brandenburger.

Its about using game theory in business and life. You could call it win-win thinking I suppose. I'm thinking of it as "the toc way" or, as Bob Billington from new book might put it "I tried to figure out how I could get what I want by getting them what they want".

'Tis a good book.

Here's a thought paraphrased from the book: creating value is inherently co-operative, capturing value is inherently competitive.

A few pages on: Suppliers to the car industry haven't forgotten compliments, either. Until tire manufacturers figure out a way to add a fifth wheel to a car, there's really only one way for them to boost sales, and that's to whet people's appetite to drive. That's why the French maker of Michelin sells the Michelin guidebooks. These guidebooks don't give the shortest route, they make sure to point out the longer scenic routes as well. It encourages travelers to keep moving, to wear down those tires.

Fascinating book.

Sent using my BlackBerry Bold - the thinking man's iphone. www.clarkeching.com +44(0)7920114893 Clarke Ching - Author of "Rolling Rocks Downhill" ... a business novel about software development; coming soon from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

The kids behaviour has improved dramatically since it leaked that I have Santa's email address.
Sent using my BlackBerry Bold - the thinking man's iphone. www.clarkeching.com +44(0)7920114893 Clarke Ching - Author of "Rolling Rocks Downhill" ... a business novel about software development; coming soon from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

My good friend and fellow Kiwi Kelvyn Youngman has developed a really nice little TOC "dice" simulation - if you've read the goal then you'll know what I mean.  He built it in excel using VBA.

He has one little technical problem that I used to know how to fix - once upon a time - but I can't know. I'm wondering if just one of you out there can remember enough VB or VBA to help out.  It should only take a minute!

The problem is this:

• Kelvyn's VBA code moves the cursor around the screen as it recalculates values 
• Although the cursor moves very quickly you can still see the movement
• The cursor moves from right to left ... but the simulation is meant to move from left to right.  So, even though it's a minor cosmetic thing, it sends the brain every-so-slightly mixed messages

So, in the old days, there used to be a way to turn screen refresh/drawing off and on.  (I can't think of the correct words otherwise I could have googled a solution.)

Can you help with a tiny snippet of VBA code or a link?

Help!  How do you publish a book online?

I should get the copy edited version of my book back late next week.  I'm then going to add a few short paragraphs which address the feedback I've received so far (mostly a mixture of "you make it sound easy" and "the economy is screwed, theirs no point in trying, we'll all soon be living in caves again", and "the sex scenes were too short") and then I'm going to publish it online where the world can view if for free.  Perhaps my ambitions are bold ... but it is an important message, it could save jobs ... so I want to share it.

I've decided to modelling the book website along the lines of Philip and Alex's Buide to Web Publishing whcih contains loads of really nice photos, very few of which are related to the text, but they do make it nice to read.  A colleague, Gardner Little, is also a gift photographer and he has very kindly given me permission to use his photographs. He's also gotten permission from several members of his local photography club.  I like the idea of using local photographs.  I particularily like this photo and I'm going to use it for my front page and for the cover of my self-published book.  The rocks, the gold, and the watefall all gel for me.

But I need your help! 

Given that I only want static pages, that I'm willing to spend a little money, that I already have a typepad account I can use for free ... but I have no sense of visual beauty (or even how to describe that skill that other people have of making things look nice)  ... how would you go about publishing this book online?

A UPS van just pulled up and the driver - a fellow kiwi - dropped off a nice xmas gift from Rob Newbold a long term TOC friend.

The box contained two copies of his latest book - The Billion Dollar Solution - Secrets of Prochain Project Management. 

You can keep your fancy Wii's and expensive Wotnots, this is the best Xmas present I can think of.  Thanks Rob!

I only just realised this: when I was a kid I didn't play with jigsaws, I played with jigsaw puzzles - puzzles that had been cut up by a jig saw.  Playing with jigsaws would have been messy.

I've been playing around with Balsamiq Mockups - a lovely little prototyping / mockup application which is easy to use and nicely put together (from a techie point of view).  It produces prototypes which look nice, are useful AND which look like deliberately mock (i.e. rough around the edges) so that no one will mistake them for screenshots or for real working software.  Very Nice.  If you produce a software prodcut for a living then take a look at their company page - Why?  Because it shriecks "commerically viable".

I've just been using MindMiester to  do a little mind mapping. Wow!  That's a snazzy little product ... and the version I was using is FREE.  I have mindmanager ... but I kinda like mindmiester better - at least for the quick stuff and when I'm using my wife's PC which doesn't have mindmanager installed.

Just got a wii ... want a game that my 3 year old can play ... any suggestions?

I've been in a creative mode of late.  Not actually creating but thinking of ideas that someeone else needs to create.

I don't like Xmas. Being an atheist probably doesn't help; Being a grumpy old bastard probably doesn't help either. Anyway I can't wait until the 26th when I don't have to think about Xmas for another 9 or 10 months.

Did I mention that I don't like Xmas?

My friend Graeme doesn't like Xmas either. This year he is flying home from Scotland to New Zealand to visit his parents. He is flying out at 9pm from London, Heathrow on Christmas Eve and landing in Auckland, NZ on the 26th thus missing Xmas entirely. I'm proud of him. I wish I'd thought of that.

While he's up there I've asked him to keep an eye out for santa. I reckon that since Graeme is in the air for over 24 hours there is a reasonable chance their paths will cross. If he does spot the old bearded one I've asked him to check if Rudolph is in fact at the front of the reindeer and to check if he is the only reindeer with a red nose. If he is then I've asked him to check out if the other reindeer are following each other too closely. I have theory, you see, that all reindeer have red noses and that the other reindeer have brown noses because they follow too closely and Santa occassionally makes sudden abrupt stops. Just a theory.

Bah humbug.
Sent using my BlackBerry Bold - the thinking man's iphone. www.clarkeching.com +44(0)7920114893 Clarke Ching - Author of "Rolling Rocks Downhill" ... a business novel about software development; coming soon from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

Sent using my BlackBerry Bold - the thinking man's iphone. www.clarkeching.com +44(0)7920114893 Clarke Ching - Author of "Rolling Rocks Downhill" ... a business novel about software development; coming soon from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

... it preceeds enlightenment.

- a friend's favourite quote.

You've probably seen me rant on about my Excell TDD exercise before.  I'm thrilled with it and I use it a lot in my training.  

A while back I turned it into a little website but I held off telling anyone about it because it still needs a little polishing.

I looked at it briefly this morning and - you know what - I'm happy enough with it.

So here it is:  http://www.tddtestdrive.com/

If you want to learn just a little about Test Driven Development then take a look.  It's easy enough to work through by yourself (not that you'd need it).

The exercise comes into its own in a room with 30 people all "pair programming", trying to solve the problem together.  You need a little showmanship - showpersonship? - to make the session work best, but it is fun, and it gets the point across. 

Why Parents Drink

The boss wondered why one of his most valued employees was absent one day but had not phoned in sick. Needing to have an urgent problem with one of the main computers resolved, he dialled the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper. 'Hello ? '

'Is your daddy home?' he asked.

' Yes ,' whispered the small voice.

'May I talk with him?'

The child whispered, ' No .'

Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, 'Is your Mummy there?'

 ' Yes '

'May I talk with her?'

Again the small voice whispered, ' No '

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, 'Is anybody else there?'

' Yes ,' whispered the child, ' a policeman. '

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, 'May I speak with the policeman?'

' No, he's busy , ' whispered the child.

'Busy doing what?'

' Talking to Daddy and Mummy and the Fireman , ' came the whispered answer.

Growing more worried as he heard a loud noise in the background through the earpiece on the phone, the boss asked, 'What is that noise?'

' A helicopter ' answered the whispering voice.

'What is going on there?' demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.

Again, whispering, the child answered, ' The search team just landed a helicopter '

Alarmed, concerned and a little frustrated the boss asked, 'What are they searching for?'

Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle...

' ME . '

http://www.toc-goldratt.com/TV/video.php?id=166&type=2

My guru Eli Goldratt spends an hour answering the question "What is TOC?" on video for free.

I haven't watched it all yet - just the first 5 minutes - and I suspect it may be a thinly disguised advert with loads of useful stuff.

Early next year I will self publishing a business parable called Rocks Into Gold. 

I've just discovered that (often) if you are looking at a book in amazon.com then edit the url in your browswer and change the .com to .co.uk then you end up looking at the same book.  Very handy.

Okay, I've just watched the first episode of James Burke's connections programme.  I've read some of Burke's books and I remember watching the series during the 80s (when I was a teenager) and liking it but ... WOW, the series i brilliant.

One of my favourite TV shows ever: James Burke's 1970's documentary series Connections.  

Once upon a time, there was a blameless girl called Consumerella, who didn’t have enough money to buy all the lovely things she wanted. She went to her Fairy Godmother, who called a man called Rumpelstiltskin who lived on Wall Street and claimed to be able to spin straw into gold. Rumpelstiltskin sent the Fairy Godmother the recipe for this magic spell. It was written in tiny, tiny writing, so she did not read it but hoped the Sorcerers’ Exchange Commission had checked it.

[...]

I just learned today that Sheila is the Scottish version of Jean.

I guess we can all be thankful that Levi Strauss wasn't Scottish or otherwise we'd all be wearing Sheilas to work on dress down Friday.