A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.
—John Gall
Friday, November 21, 2008
On Complexity
The crew from 37Signals had a great quote today on complexity:
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
VMWare??
I recently decided to try VMWare on my Mac. The reason was simple...I had a version of Quickbooks Pro that I had purchased for Windows and I wanted to use Quickbooks online which supports Internet Explorer only. I had researched a couple of other solutions, namely BootCamp and Parallels. I chose VMWare due to the fact that I could work on Windows and Mac at the same time and it allegedly was less of a cpu hog than Parallels.
After my for the most part trouble-free 30-day trial period, up pops the splash screen telling me my trial period had one day left. At the bottom of the splash screen was a button "Buy License..." So, being content with the product I clicked on the button and was sent zooming to a web page. Only problem? The page opened up to a "Page Not Found."
Now I'm no genius, but wouldn't you want the button on your splash-licensing-screen to actually take users to a page where they can...oh...purchase a license?
Ok, so I decided to go to the actual website and try to buy one through the online store. No problem. A few clicks and I had a license in my shopping cart. Then clicking on "Checkout" I was asked to log in. I logged in with my username and I received a login error. I thought I may have forgotten my password (unusual) and clicked to reset it, received the new email and used the new password. Still nothing...same error message.
So, thirty minutes into this, I found a phone number and called their customer service. After waiting for FIFETEEN minutes I finally connected with a customer representative. She seemed less than concerned about the web page that was unavailable and had no answers for logging in. Instead she continued to doubt my story by repeating that the login should work.
Then, if matters couldn't be worse, the call was disconnected!!!
After another 30 minutes of hacking I was able to purchase a license. Mind you, I wouldn't have bothered except that I had to have the use of my Quickbooks and didn't have time to install some other product, a new windows installation, and all the bells and whistles.
That said, I will be looking at either Parallels or BootCamp very soon.
After my for the most part trouble-free 30-day trial period, up pops the splash screen telling me my trial period had one day left. At the bottom of the splash screen was a button "Buy License..." So, being content with the product I clicked on the button and was sent zooming to a web page. Only problem? The page opened up to a "Page Not Found."
Now I'm no genius, but wouldn't you want the button on your splash-licensing-screen to actually take users to a page where they can...oh...purchase a license?
Ok, so I decided to go to the actual website and try to buy one through the online store. No problem. A few clicks and I had a license in my shopping cart. Then clicking on "Checkout" I was asked to log in. I logged in with my username and I received a login error. I thought I may have forgotten my password (unusual) and clicked to reset it, received the new email and used the new password. Still nothing...same error message.
So, thirty minutes into this, I found a phone number and called their customer service. After waiting for FIFETEEN minutes I finally connected with a customer representative. She seemed less than concerned about the web page that was unavailable and had no answers for logging in. Instead she continued to doubt my story by repeating that the login should work.
Then, if matters couldn't be worse, the call was disconnected!!!
After another 30 minutes of hacking I was able to purchase a license. Mind you, I wouldn't have bothered except that I had to have the use of my Quickbooks and didn't have time to install some other product, a new windows installation, and all the bells and whistles.
That said, I will be looking at either Parallels or BootCamp very soon.
Back to the Rainy City
Well, I'm back in Seattle...yes it was July when I moved to the Tri-Cities. Beautiful place. Great sunsets. Plenty of sunshine. Wonderful people. I will definitely be back to visit, but Seattle holds so much of what I need for now.
I am spending some time researching some ideas to see what I want to do. Last night at 3am I was deep in thought...yup...3am. I am currently in a place where I could actually plan on finishing my masters in theology. I've tooled around with the idea for a number of years now, but have just not had the real ambition to proceed. And frankly, studying theology in my humble opinion is not something that should be done without ambition.
Throughout the last decade, regardless of whatever hair-brained idea, business, or venture I have been working on, I have never really stopped studying, reading, and conversing on theological matters.
I have not thrown any hats in the ring yet so stay tuned. For now I have some work to do in preparation of such things.
I am spending some time researching some ideas to see what I want to do. Last night at 3am I was deep in thought...yup...3am. I am currently in a place where I could actually plan on finishing my masters in theology. I've tooled around with the idea for a number of years now, but have just not had the real ambition to proceed. And frankly, studying theology in my humble opinion is not something that should be done without ambition.
Throughout the last decade, regardless of whatever hair-brained idea, business, or venture I have been working on, I have never really stopped studying, reading, and conversing on theological matters.
I have not thrown any hats in the ring yet so stay tuned. For now I have some work to do in preparation of such things.
Friday, November 14, 2008
World Uniting, Inc.
So I'm tooling around with the idea of starting a non-profit, World Uniting, Inc. whose purpose is to foster fair and equal political representation and rights for all nations of the world.
Principally I find it ludicrous that 5 nations have power over the total of 192 nations. In the United Nations (our current world governance) there are only 5 permanent member nations (15 including term-limited members) that hold veto power out of 192 nations. That means not even 3% representation of the world.
Since when did everyone get together and decide that we wanted an oligarchy for a world government - a 'rule by a few'?!
Why don't we have equal representation, equal voting power for all nations of the world? We all depend on each other. When one finger is hurt, the whole body aches.
My intention is to investigate the possibility of building coalitions among under represented nations to foster equality in the hopes of moving our world governance from the rule-of-the-few to a Federation of Nations, possessing a balance of powers, but most importantly equal representation for all nations!
Principally I find it ludicrous that 5 nations have power over the total of 192 nations. In the United Nations (our current world governance) there are only 5 permanent member nations (15 including term-limited members) that hold veto power out of 192 nations. That means not even 3% representation of the world.
Since when did everyone get together and decide that we wanted an oligarchy for a world government - a 'rule by a few'?!
Why don't we have equal representation, equal voting power for all nations of the world? We all depend on each other. When one finger is hurt, the whole body aches.
My intention is to investigate the possibility of building coalitions among under represented nations to foster equality in the hopes of moving our world governance from the rule-of-the-few to a Federation of Nations, possessing a balance of powers, but most importantly equal representation for all nations!
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