Archive for 2009

In May of 2007 I gave a commencement speech for the Westwood College graduating class. I had a lot of fun giving the speech and I learned a lot from it too. I was not quite sure what to expect from the commencement, because not only was it my first time giving a commencement speech…

This video is a bit old but I just found it so it is new to me: James May of the BBC show about “Big Ideas” where he takes a quick gander at Microsoft’s SenseCam. James wore the SenseCam he was loaned for just a weekend and immediately hit the issue that everyone who wears…

Previously I wrote about how to simply track your goals using a check-off grid to ensure that you meet daily targets. I have also discovered a unique way of doing the same thing, but with a little creative flair behind it. In the dim and distant past, I was given a set of “magnetic poetry”…

I wrote about seven of the most important considerations for your treadmill desk, and here are another seven variables for you to take in to consideration. 1. It Is A Work Place Forget every notion about a treadmill desk as a novelty or something you should just throw together without a second thought. You need…

There is an insidious evil lurking in buried folders on your hard drive[1]… Every year it seems that we are running out of storage space for our digital files. If you are anything like me, you have something of a pack-rat mentality when it comes to digital possessions, hanging on to every byte of information…

The treadmill has been assembled, the desk has been partially constructed, and wonderfully, almost everything is going according to plan for the second treadmill desk project. With regard to the desk, this is the part of the plan that I have changed. Originally I intended to use chrome shelving, but after measuring the treadmill and…

It looks like I will be pushing off my micro-goal of creating a truckload of desserts for another month or two. I am dedicating the month of June to cooking at least 20 Italian dishes, at least half of which I want to be new and original recipes. Obviously, with Italian food there is going…

There has been a lot of chatter of late about treadmill desks and their benefits. If you do not know what a treadmill desk is, it is a desk that you stand up at, with a treadmill built-in to it, that allows you to walk at a slow to moderate pace whilst you work normally.…

Said the entrepreneur: “I just need to find an engineer to build the app, then get an investor to put some money in, and this could really take off.” Me: “We have a technical term for that kind of thing in the start-up world, it goes by name of ‘Nothing!’” Entrepreneur: “You are way too…

I have a personal quote I often say, “Life is built on experiences.” I use it to remind myself, and those around me, that an interesting and fulfilling life is not created by acquiring stuff. Most of us go through life collecting stuff. We cling to our possessions because our life lacks deep meaning, a…

Just a quick update to mention that the new treadmill desk arrived this morning, ahead of schedule, and is now being assembled at the office. Once the treadmill is finished, I will take some pictures and post a quick how-to on the progress of the desk building. Hopefully that will go as smoothly and come…

Treadmill desks are all the rage right now it seems, I have been using one for the better part of a decade, using it to work and play through hundreds of miles. Now it seems that Infinite Monkey Factory, the video game development company I started in 2001, is about to become a two treadmill…

Of course, you know the saying “A poor workman blames his tools.” Everybody knows that one. My version is “A poor workman blames his tools. And so does a good workman. But they blame their tools for different reasons.” Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Time-Wasting Tip-off. Today, I am expounding the desirable necessity in anybody…

You own a tricked out treadmill desk and you have lost pounds upon pounds of weight walking all day, every day, whilst you play World of Warcraft or blog about your life. But… you just seem to be missing that essential “something,” that would make your treadmill desk just the perfect little place to work…

Now that I am all set up on my treadmill desk, I am off to a great start. No weight loss to speak of yet, but that is what I was expecting. Every log I have of weight loss for exercising on the treadmill desk shows improvement after the first month rather than in the…

Ever recalled “facts” about an event in your personal life that simply were not true? Sometimes termed False Memory Syndrome, it has come to public consciousness mostly because of sexual abuse victims that were never abused. Instead, the alleged victims were lead to believe false memories created by a psychotherapist. This can also happen to…

Multiple e-mail systems, each requiring their own login details, are a huge productivity killer. Checking on a regular basis for new messages from co-workers, clients and contractors sucks even more time. The ability to aggregate all of your e-mail in one location can save a huge amount of time over the course of a week…

As a professional in your field you no doubt attend more than your fair share of conferences and conventions each year, but are you extracting the greatest amount of benefit from them that you can? Why let such a huge educational and business networking resource go to waste by using your same tired, worn-out conference…

Unlike 30-day trials or micro-goals, improvement sprints focus all of your attention on to one of your current skills. An improvement sprint passes that skill and the knowledge that goes with it, through a concentrating lens to improve an area you are already adept at. You use one of your strengths to push far beyond…

I am confident that if you are reading this, you love gadgets as much as I do. Gadgets of all kinds rule your life, at your computer, at your office, at your desk, in your kitchen, in your garage, in your workshop; you have so many gadgets to choose from and so little time to…