Work begins on a couple of software products. I'm not getting too wrapped up in the finished product, it's just too distracting.
Star Wars Battlefront - Fighter Squadron Gameplay
Star Wars Battlefront just keeps getting more and more awesome. Can't wait for November.
Measure the Right Things
This brings back nightmares of timesheets being used to measure performance. It's a poor way of measuring any employees performance regardless of what they do.
What do you use to measure employee performance? For many years I worked in places where time was what I was paid for and so work time was what was measured.
This became a problem when I’d see other people spending the day on Facebook and still getting paid. They produced nothing, but production wasn’t measured, time in seat was. So by that standard, those employees were doing what was required.
— Measure the Right Things
by Curtis McHale
Free Can Be Good
If you know me and you read my blog on a regular basis you’ll know that I’m an advocate for paying for the software you use. It’s simple, support the software that supports you. Lately though I felt that I was paying for software that I rarely got any use from. As I checked my recent outgoings I noticed that there were a number of software services I was using where I couldn’t justify the monthly fee for using them.
For the last three months I’ve been using OnePageCRM for managing leads and deals. It’s a nice and simple CRM for small businesses and it does a fine job of managing leads and contacts but I was using it just once a week. It cost me £8 per month to use but when you multiply this by four or five similar services, I was looking at £40 in software that wasn't necessary.
OnePageCRM didn’t fit the bill but I still needed something that will let me manage my contacts and deals but on a free plan. Then when the time comes for more functionality and there’s room in the budget, I’ll be able to scale up to a paid plan.
In the past I gave Highrise a short spin, but at the time I couldn’t justify the $29 for the Solo plan. It was simply too much money for what I needed but I didn’t give the free plan a look.
After a quick import of contacts from OnePageCRM I’m now up and running on Highrise’s free plan. Okay, I’m not paying for it now but in time I’m hoping that with a busier schedule and more clients, I’ll be able to spring for the solo plan and it will continue to help keep my business ticking over.
Paying for the software you use is good to do, but when you your own needs are for a service that gives functionality on an ‘as and when’ basis then free plans are an ideal way to make sure that you get the functionality you need while also ensuring that you can upgrade to a paid plan in the future.
We went through two cabled headsets before I suggested spending more for a wireless headset.
War of the Words
All I can say is thank goodness for books.
The Daily PKM Routine
The seek, sense and share workflow of personal knowledge management.
I’ve been holding onto a few ideas for software products. There’s two in particular that I would like to start building but actually starting them is the problem. I keep looking at these ideas in from the point of a finished product. What I end up visualising is a finished and polished product that has seen at least a year of development. When I do this it ends up putting me off even writing that first line of code and what I’m simply left with is an idea.
The book Rework puts it nicely:
Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea. And everyone’s got one of those.
— Rework
Ideas are nice, but so is coffee, donuts and other forms of instant gratification. They’re within easy reach and quickly consumed. Ideas require time, in fact they can take a considerable length of time and that's the part that puts me off.
Despite the many advances in software development frameworks, there’s only so much of an application that can be generated automatically, the real work lies in the taking the idea and making it into something that’s more than an idea. It doesn’t need to be a finished product, it can be a well executed feature of the product that provides some value. Once that’s built, it’s time to move onto delivering the next set of value and so on. It's about breaking the idea down into manageable features that can be shipped on a regular schedule.
Right, I’ve put it off long enough. Time for a coffee and a few hours in front of my text editor. Let’s see where we can take these ideas.
The Rockin' 1000
Forget the Foo Fighters, I'd pay to see this lot sing.
Life or Death on the Roll of the Dice
This brought back a few memories.
Despite their unique preferences and stylistic tendencies, all of the module authors I spoke with agree that there’s a difference between being a good Dungeon Master and writing a great adventure. A Dungeon Master should be concerned with creating a seamless and engaging narrative for their players. An adventure writer, on the other hand, needs to produce modules that will motivate those DMs, capturing their imaginations while leaving them room to embellish, adjust, and alter as desired.
— Total Party Kill - The Architects of Dungeons & Dragons by Wills Plummer
I had a short spell (groan) as a DM but I didn't have a full grasp of the rules at the time. Enjoyed my time as a player though.