The Philips Pronto series of universal remotes was on my short list for handling my little home “theater” setup. After seeing some interesting reviews (here and here) I decided to take the plunge.
Archive for the ‘Recommendations’ Category
Who Knew “Universal” Would Be So Much Work?
Tethering Saved My Sanity
A recent WSJ article (may require registration) brings more attention to a lesser-known capability of cellphones: connecting your phone to a computer as a USB modem to gain access to the Internet, a.k.a. tethering. This feature was critical to me in a fairly common setting in the consulting life: having spotty or no Internet access on the road or at the client’s office. And I’m arguing now that wireless carriers should include this value-add service in all of their wireless data plans for free, not to charge a monthly fee for it separately.
What’s Wolfram Alpha for?
The other day, I was preparing a quickie assessment of the biggest office suppliers in the US, and I thought “Instead of trying Google or Wikipedia, I’ll use this newfangled Wolfram Alpha thingy that’s out now.” And after approaching that query, along with some other spur-of-the-moment questions, I’ve finally realized what Wolfram Alpha is.
Refereeing the Holy Trinity: Creative, Business, and Technical Folks
When it comes to the classic “iron triangle” project management model of time, scope, and cost, the three key stakeholder groups which directly influence and work on a typical interactive project are in constant conflict based on their perspectives. I’ve been asked many times in the past: “What’s your approach to handling this kind of situation? How do you resolve the differences between the creative, business, and technical teams?”
Did You Get the Status Report? – Project Management Tools and Communication Capabilities
One of the key elements (perhaps arguably the key element) of effective project management is proactive and compendious (my little word of the day) communication with all stakeholders involved. I have been in many situations where I was in charge of multiple streams of work for multiple clients and initiatives. Keeping things straight in a high intensity environment with multiple klaxons going off makes it difficult to keep issues and stakeholders lined up to be resolved or simply informed. I came across the following article recently about a project management tool that was supposed to emphasize usability, but there was no mention of integration with diagrammatic (eg. Visio, MindManager) or communication (eg. Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail) tools. Why hasn’t someone come up with this?
Poking O’s in the FDA
In many organizations that I’ve worked with in the past, product and marketing development have had a business process to guide the development of marketing copy and product claims to ensure that a legally compliant but flexible approach is taken to communicate with the consumer. That’s why this recent article at WSJ.com (may require registration) caught my attention. I’m nearly certain that General Mills and their marketing agencies have negotiated the language time and again with all manner of experts to ensure accuracy. Instead, my focus is on the group that’s supposed to protect us: the FDA!
How to Write A Good Software Requirement
Software development lifecycle processes can sometimes be seen as impediments or tedious tasks. But it is worth reminding everyone that the smart work up front will save you headaches later. In my experience, well-written software requirements serve two main purposes: it orients all project participants and helps get buy-in about what you’re trying to do (since you’re articulating what you’re trying to accomplish), and it makes sure that everyone (from the project sponsor(s) down to the technologist and back up to the end user) can say that the project is done to expectations.
The trick is how to write a good requirement, for any number of situations. Part of the answer is to follow this convention:
The [your words here: system, actor, function, dependency, etc.]
must [your words here: do, process, store, etc.]
to [your words here: accomplish a goal, serve a purpose, etc.].
and to focus on the “what” (substance) of the need as opposed to the “how” (design) of the need. In addition, there are 8 key criteria that each requirement should satisfy to be considered well written.
The App Store “Gatekeeper” – Arbiter or Observer?
Before we explore this idea further, I’d like to point out that Apple’s App Store is unique as an entity, but hardly any different from Handango or BPlay. These portals which supported many mobile devices and PDAs aggregated downloadable software offerings for users to load onto their (sometimes, at the time) connected devices. With this context, it is interesting that this Wall Street Journal article discusses two distinct issues that the interactive community has faced for a while: What is the line that moderators/gatekeepers/administrators must adhere to, and who determines that line?
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Access Control and Social Networking Applications
There’s been some articles over the past few years about this, but I’m surprised that it hasn’t become a more hot-button issue for people. It seems that people simply use different applications for different purposes (using myself as an example, I keep LinkedIn (link) quite distinct from Facebook). But what about exploring the idea of the “inner circle” and implementing a way to manage the flow of information at a very fine-grained level? Read the rest of this entry »
Moving from Brooklyn to Manhattan
I recently moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan and it was quite an ordeal. The move itself was fairly smooth and the flat rate quote was very comforting. However, packing turned out to be more of an issue. Who knew that there were so many different sized boxes and reasons for them. Not to mention that I had no idea there was an American Moving and Storage Association that acts as an industry group. Read the rest of this entry »
