miscellaneous
I've been interested in getting back into sailing, after my days teaching sailing down at Camp Pianktank; so I've been checking out DC-area sailing options. I thought I'd share what I've found for those interested: * DC Sail * Classes: Yes, members can take
CMMI
The CMMI process improvement model is focused on improving the overall processes involved with designing, creating, and supporting technology products and services. While the overall framework can be confusing, I enjoyed Watts Humphrey's explanation of the focus for each of the maturity levels in Looking Ahead: * Maturity Level
agile
Ken Schwaber's book on Scrum, which falls under the Agile umbrella of methodologies, is a great introduction to Scrum, and I love the mini case studies (1-2 pages) he puts in the book to make the concepts more accessible. Here's how I'd summarize Ken&
miscellaneous
Back in late 2012 I went to a great Acceleprise Demo Day, and tonight I caught yet another class of cool companies doing impressive stuff in DC through http://www.Acceleprise.vc (DC-based accelerator focused on enterprise technology): * Apozy - sadly I missed this one due to exciting DC traffic
miscellaneous
It's very easy to get caught in a constant posture of reaction, where you are constantly putting out fires instead of actually improving teams/systems/processes. I was listening to a 22 Feb 2012 podcast from Michael Ellsberg (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-ellsberg-show/id673996932) recently, where
productivity
Windows 7 has a great little utility, the Snipping Tool, hidden away where most users don't find it. If you click the Start button, and type in "snipping" it will show up as the the Snipping Tool. It lets you highlight an area of the screen
miscellaneous
I just finished reading Michael Holley's War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team and Reed Hastings' 2009 presentation on Netflix's culture. Both are full of great ideas on leadership, and as I read them I was struck
technology
I was reminded tonight how difficult it will be for Google+ to overtake Facebook. The advantages Google has, with platforms like gmail, youtube, and google.com integrating into G+ will certainly help; but the network effect of Facebook's popularity makes such a high barrier to entry. I don&
miscellaneous
I'm a huge fan of audiobooks, especially listening to them on my iPhone through bluetooth while driving. Here's the process I use to load them into iTunes so my iPhone treats them as audiobook files and not music: 1. Open iTunes on your computer 2. Insert
technology
I recently finished reading The Phoenix Project, which was a great read. It's a fictional story that teaches DevOps (the intersection of the worlds of software development and application operations), and is actually much more fun to read than you'd expect based on that topic. The
miscellaneous
I continue to see the concepts (said in many different ways) in my life and in what I'm reading and listening, so I thought I'd reflect on them in front of the internet: 1. Objectives - Define what's actually important (goals, passions, values, etc.
miscellaneous
- Mark Twain I read 2 great blog posts recently that make great points about the need for simplicity in designing a brand (relevant both to professional development (personal brand) and strategically growing a business). * HBR blog post "The disciplined pursuit of less" http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/