Sharing a passion for people, bringing joy to work, and data. Perpetual newbie. #LetsLearnTogether
Please watch the video for a more complete review, but I gave the Smatree Hard Carrying Case for the DJI Mavic Air 2 five stars on Amazon because:
One con:
[Read more…] about Review: Smatree Hard Carrying Case for the DJI Mavic Air 2
I recently purchased the GAOMON PD2200 drawing monitor from Amazon to create math tutorial videos (and for live tutoring). I have no artistic abilities, but my wife…who has an art degree…hopefully will push it a bit harder than me.
(Quick note: please read the update at the bottom of the post. The monitor is not red-ish like the image to the left and the video make it look.)
I am very impressed with the PD2200. Why? [Read more…] about Review: GAOMON PD2200 Drawing Monitor
I debated which of my blogs to post this on…but settled here. Although I love what I do for work, “work/life” balance is important, and part of “life” should be exercising.
Where I live on the high plains east of Denver, I consider it relatively temperate. However, my favorite mode of staying in shape, bicycle rides, isn’t always…err…comfortable. 🙂
So, I always have an indoor exercycle too. Bowflex just released their version last week, although it is an “exercise bike” versus an exercycle. (What is the difference, if any? Are exercycles recumbent?)
I’m a huge fan of Bowflex equipment, so I bought the Bowflex C6 Indoor Exercycle the first day was available and assembled it two days ago. Yesterday I exercised it (pun intended!) and a few applications that work with it. Here is my first use/first impressions review based on that positive experience: [Read more…] about Review: Bowflex C6 Indoor Exercise Bike
Have you ever read a book and said to yourself, “I want to lock my executives in a room and make them read this”?
Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration :-), but Mark Schwartz’s latest work is one that all levels of IT management should digest, especially executives. My copy is filled why highlights and I have pages of notes. It is near impossible to select a few points to focus on for a review, but…
In the end… [Read more…] about Review: War and Peace and IT
Since I stepped more into the Agile and DevOps world, I’ve been blessed by getting to meet and/or talk to some great people, including authors of books everyone should read. Now, I have not met Carmen DeArdo in person yet, but I have spoken with him a couple times (and exchanged e-mails), so I was excited to find out he and Jack Maher came out with Standing on Shoulders: A Leader’s Guide to Digital Transformation.
I think with this review I am going to start rating books 5 (high) to 1 (low):
5 – Pay for both the electronic and paper versions
4 – Pay for the electronic or paper version (whichever is your preference)
3 – Pay for it if it is heavily discounted
2 – Read it if it is free
1 – Unless you need a cure for insomnia, skip it
Based on what I actually did, Standing on Shoulders is a 5. 🙂
Why? I’ll provide three major reasons… [Read more…] about Review: Standing on Shoulders: A Leader’s Guide to Digital Tranformation
I was blessed to be able to work in the tremendous country of Australia for a couple of years on the Olympics, but I came close to being buried there.
I almost drowned.
I enjoyed body surfing, but because I am a tall guy, I needed to go out relatively far to decrease the chance a wave would slam me into the ocean floor. I was cautious, staying between the flags on Maroubra Beach (where I loved the large waves). However, after swimming from the shore a bit one time, when I looked back I was no longer between the flags and much further out than I expected. A riptide had “assisted” me.
No matter how hard I tried to get back, I was getting no closer to the beach. Those gigantic waves I loved were pounding me, especially when I finally gave up on my male ego and raised my hands so the lifeguards would see, and save, me.
But they didn’t see, or save, me. All raising my hand did was bring me closer to drowning. I was spent. [Read more…] about Review: Free to Focus
A week and a half ago, I attended a 90 minute talk by Mike Rognlien in Denver thanks to VitalSmarts. A bonus was getting a free copy of Mike’s 2018 book, This Is Now Your Company. That unexpected gift was quite serendipitous given I’ll be presenting “Counterintuitive IT™: How Do We Change Culture?” at my company’s April 1st Agile Community of Interest meeting. As he did during his talk, Mike shares plenty of unexpected, consummate insights in Now This Is Your Company.
Why am I giving his work five stars? Because it is the right mix of focusing on what needs to change in companies, those you interact with, and (most importantly) in you. (Well, let’s be painfully honest and admit that it helped me focus on what needs to change in me. And there is plenty.)
This physically striking book (it is truly a beautiful thing to hold and look at) is broken into three sections: [Read more…] about Review: This Is Now Your Company
Recently I was lucky enough to speak with Mik Kersten, author of a new “must read” book, Project to Product, and CEO of Tasktop.
Last year, when I completed reading his work, I put this review on Amazon with the title, “A Book that Demands a Decision”:
DevOps guru Gene Kim rightly introduced this book with, “Every decade there are a couple of books that genuinely change my worldview. … This is one such book.”
Mik Kersten provides ample evidence that the project and cost center orientation of so many software producing companies doesn’t fit the Age of Software, and suggests a way becoming product-centric via a focus on value flow. The book is a an appealing combination of real-world examples of those who got it right (and who didn’t) and practical explanations of what needs to be done to build measurable value networks.
Net effect for me? A mind that is racing on how best to distill it into something I can evangelize in my workplace. This isn’t a “single read” type of work, and extra kudos to Kersten for the useful glossary and extensive index.
Get the book. Your company’s future may depend on what it’ll bring to light.
I stand by those words. [Read more…] about A Conversation about Project to Product with Mik Kersten