Four short links: 15 September 2009

Delegation, Journalism, Dating Numbers, Learn Git

1. Why You Shouldn't Do It All Yourself -- this resonated with where I am in a few projects. One of the hardest things to learn in management is how not to do it all yourself. People often call this a problem with "delegation". But the problem isn't with telling others what to do. The problem is learning how not to do it all yourself. (via br3nda)
2. The Story Behind The Story (The Atlantic) -- I would describe their approach as post-journalistic. It sees democracy, by definition, as perpetual political battle. The blogger’s role is to help his side. Distortions and inaccuracies, lapses of judgment, the absence of context, all of these things matter only a little, because they are committed by both sides, and tend to come out a wash. Nobody is actually right about anything, no matter how certain they pretend to be. The truth is something that emerges from the cauldron of debate. No, not the truth: victory, because winning is way more important than being right. Power is the highest achievement. There is nothing new about this. But we never used to mistake it for journalism. Today it is rapidly replacing journalism, leading us toward a world where all information is spun, and where all “news” is unapologetically propaganda.
3. OkTrends -- analytics from a dating site show what works in email. We analyzed over 500,000 first contacts on our dating site, OkCupid. Our program looked at keywords and phrases, how they affected reply rates, and what trends were statistically significant. The result: a set of rules for what you should and shouldn’t say when introducing yourself online. (read their note on how they protected privacy before freaking out)
4. Learn GitHub -- Here we have tried to compile the best online learning Git resource available. There are a number of articles and screencasts, written and arranged to try to make learning Git as quick and easy as possible.

Four short links: 13 Feb 2009

One work-related and three fun geeky links to set you up for the weekend:

1. Continuous Deployment and Continuous Learning -- I've been reading about the processes and structures that different organizations use to develop software, and this was interesting. "Our eventual conclusion was that there was no reason to have code that had passed the integration step but was not yet deployed."
2. Pixel Art with Book Jackets -- the perfect thing to do with a shelf of O'Reilly books ....
3. WhatTheFont -- take a photo of some text with your iPhone and this app will identify the font.
4. La Princesse in Liverpool -- an amazing piece of civic theatre. I am in awe of Liverpool for greenlighting it, and of La Machine, the French creators of La Princesse.

Four short links: 5 Feb 2009

Dearest Reader, for today's compendium of brief pointers to the writings of the world's greatest minds features language not suitable for children. So please stop reading this blog post to your child. Please. Think of the children.

1. Don't Work for Assholes (Derek Powazek) -- sound advice that we all have to learn, then relearn.
2. Broadband Stimulus Package Explained by Yochai Benkler -- understanding the state of the bills in House and Senate, what each proposes to spend, where, and why. I, like many, were surprised to learn that the House's bill gives half the money to the Secretary for Agriculture to spend. There is no sarcastic comment I can make about the Secretary of Agriculture that the Internets have now not already made. (via BoingBoing)
3. The Web In The World -- Slideshare presentation by Timo Arnall. Good intro to pervasive computing. "I think the hyperlink is a flawed model for physical interaction. (via Liz Goodman)
4. Offshoring, Does It Ever Work? -- very interesting responses to this question on Stack Overflow. As far as "does it EVER work" concerned: it does. It doesn't work well though. Most people can run, doesn't mean that most people can run as fast as Usain Bolt.

Four short links: 7 Jan 2009

Draw closer around the flickering firescreen, and hear four tales of brains, words, medical improvement, and the sharp ache of the wisdom teeth of the future poking through the soft gum of the 21st century as diagnosed by Dr Sterling.

1. Mind Bites - Flickr set of findings from neuroscience on top of beautiful photos. Mind candy meets eye candy.
2. Dr Johnson's Dictionary - the original dictionary of the English language, reborn as a word a day blog. Love the old citations, e.g.

   A’DAGE. n.s. [adagium, Lat.] A maxim handed down from antiquity; a proverb.
   Shallow, unimproved intellects, that are confident pretenders
   to certainty; as if, contrary to the adage, science had no friend
   but ignorance. Glanville’s Scepsis Scientifica, c.2.
   Fine fruits of learning! old ambitious fool,
   Dar’st apply that adage of the school;
   As if ’tis nothing worth that lies conceal’d;
   And science is not science ’til reveal’d? Dryd. Pers. Sat. i.

3. Peter Provonost - prevented untold infections in hospital procedures by instituting a simple checklist. This is a long article, but worth reading as it shows how to institute change. He was diligent, scientific, and worked with the teams instead of against them. For more like this, read The Best Practice: How the New Quality Movement is Transforming MedicineThe Best Practice by Charles Kenney, a fascinating look at the quality movement in healthcare.
4. Bruce Sterling's State of the World 2009 - I'm just skipping through reading Bruce's responses. Some fabulous zingers that make me look forward to his presence at Webstock in February: "The Americans don't have a place to offshore their money. They can offshore their LABOR, that's dead easy, but their money? If the American dollar goes, finance as an industry gets the blue screen of death.. On urban reinvention: "Suppose you found some dead James Howard Kunstler strip-mall burg, bought it for a dollar, and turned it into "OpenSource-opolis" where every possible object and service was creatively commonized. Would that be heaven, hell -- or what we've got now only different?" On netbooks + cloud slowing the upgrade cycle: "I've been a computer "consumer" for decades now, in the sense that I follow the trade press and buy computers regularly, but I dunno: if a $300 netbook running freeware lets me get the job done, 2009 may be the year when I just plain vanish off the radar.". Oh forget it, as is always the way with Sterling every damn sentence is quotable—go read the whole thing yourself and enjoy.

Understanding Web Operations Culture (Part 1)

“You don’t choose the moment, the moment chooses you. You only choose how prepared you are when it does.” - Fire Chief Mike Burtch

(Note: I became a Firefighter-1 and EMT in 2000. My experiences in the fire service profoundly influence my efforts in technology. Much of my work over the past few years has been translating and distilling my knowledge from these two worlds, teaching others, and finding ways to apply it in the service of both.)

Last week I came upon a truck vs. scooter accident on my way home. I could hear a woman yelling in pain from underneath the truck (a good sign!) and could see a guy in the cab looking panicked and touching his controls. I stopped my car and “surveyed the scene” looking for things that might kill me (traffic, hazmat, downed power lines) or make the situation worse if undetected (additional victims, deflating tires, fires).

It looked like the driver was about to move his truck, which would have definitely made things worse. I used my ‘command voice’ to yell “Put it in park! Stop your engine! Set your brake! Get out and wait!” as I approached the truck.

A city crew came over, and one of them told me “We’ve called 911 and they are on their way.”

I asked them to handle traffic control as I approached my patient. I then introduced myself and asked her if I could help. (I have to obtain consent before assisting an injured person, and a response means I know they have still have their Airway, Breathing, and Circulation intact.)

Her legs were entangled in her scooter which was trapped underneath the truck. While she probably had broken her leg, it didn’t look all that bad. She was still wearing her helmet and it wasn't seriously damaged which meant her head was probably okay too. I did a quick check for bleeding and other serious injuries and did a “mental status check” by asking her name, where she was (“on my way to school”), and what had happened (“I was riding and that a**hole RAN OVER ME!”). This meant she was alert and oriented, which was good.

Now that I was sure there weren’t any other life threatening injuries, I prepared to hold her head for c-spine stabilization. (Once you start holding stabilization, you cannot move again until you are ready to put the patient on a backboard.)

As I positioned myself on the ground and took hold of her head, I explained “I’m going to hold your head now to protect your neck and back. Once the fire department gets here, they are going to get your legs unstuck and then we’ll get you on a backboard. Your job is to keep still and keep talking to us. There will be a lot of commotion and noise around you, and that’s okay. Everyone will be watching out for you and so there is no reason to be scared. We’ve got you.”

(continue reading)