books
The Amazon Kindle is great and it's incredible it was introduced almost 8 years ago. I realize it can still be a controversial topic for hard-core readers regarding whether paper for e-ink is better, but for anyone who doesn't own a Kindle or does and doesn&
miscellaneous
There's lots of great advice about learning web development (creating websites and web applications) from people much smarter than me with far better web development skills. That said, if someone were to ask me where to start, my recommendations would be: 1. Start tinkering with your language, to
technology
I went to a great Introduction to Python Django Web Framework meetup tonight (http://www.meetup.com/django-district/events/223451662/), put on by Django District and TechTalkDC. We've been using Python more and more at my work for data mining, and I was excited to tinker with a
miscellaneous
I was chatting with some good friends about investing recently, and I realized that I consistently love to make a few key points about personal financial management and investing tips (focused on long-term investing, not on getting out of debt), so I thought I'd share with the Internet.
miscellaneous
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process maturity model focused on helping organizations mature how they create things (CMMI for Development), provide services (CMMI for Services), or buy things (CMMI for Acquisition). The predecessor to CMMI, CMM, was created back in the late 80's and early 90&
lessons-learned
Growing up, my father had a few mantra that he would repeat over and over again for my sister and me. One of them was: Always return things to the way you found them When I would borrow my Dad's tools to take a part something (hopefully something
CIO
Way back in 2009, NIST released a 20 page document that is a great set of fundamental recommendations for small business cyber/information security. * NISTIR 7621 Small Business Information Security: The Fundamentals There's certainly many more things you should be doing, but it's a great place
faith
Kathleen and I just got back from a mission trip to Somotillo, Nicaragua where we served local villages, schools, and churches. The trip was coordinated and run by Because We Care Ministries (BWMC). Kathleen and I went down with 6 people from Portico Charlottesville and 16 midshipmen (men and women)
leadership
Have you ever noticed how when something is simplified enough that it doesn't intimidate people, people start to have a lot more opinions? It makes sense that people who aren't rocket scientists shouldn't make recommendations on rocket ship designs. But as complexity is reduced,
CIO
The military classifies some missiles as "fire and forget" because they don't need to be monitored after they are fired. Great leaders are like this -- their boss can give them an objective and know they don't need to follow up over and over
CMMI
There are a lot of ways you can measure and categorize organizational maturity. I'm sure there are several classes you can take on it if you get a MBA. The CMMI Institute, as an example, talks about how organizations move from being managed, to defined, to starting to
leadership
Several years ago, near the beginning of my professional career, I was a junior engineer helping with the design and issuance of new access badges for a campus of employees where I worked. Thousands of employees would be getting new badges, they would wear it around their neck on a