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Archives for January 2010
Small Home Office in Your Backyard : OfficePOD
Small Home Office in Your Backyard : OfficePOD In these days working from home is becoming a trend thanks to the internet. For those of you who work from home, or want to have a quiet place to work the OfficePODp rovides a new additional space that is dedicated to work only. This creates a very important mental and physical boundary between home and work. The Office POD brings a whole new meaning to the idea of remote working as it comprises a rather sleek workspace in an all inclusive capsule. The OfficePOD is of optimum size (2.1m x 2.1m) and does not require planning consent in the greater majority of cases. It’s modular design enables speedy construction even in gardens with the most difficult access. The POD has been designed to provide appropriate security when empty or occupied. The external and internal look and feel of the space as well as the overall user experience is the product of an extensive design process. The OfficePODprovides the user with an efficient use of space with innovative storage and …
Small Home Office in Your Backyard : OfficePOD
In these days working from home is becoming a trend thanks to the internet. For those of you who work from home, or want to have a quiet place to work the OfficePODp rovides a new additional space that is dedicated to work only. This creates a very important mental and physical boundary between home and work. The Office POD brings a whole new meaning to the idea of remote working as it comprises a rather sleek workspace in an all inclusive capsule. The OfficePOD is of optimum size (2.1m x 2.1m) and does not require planning consent in the greater majority of cases. It’s modular design enables speedy construction even in gardens with the most difficult access. The POD has been designed to provide appropriate security when empty or occupied. The external and internal look and feel of the space as well as the overall user experience is the product of an extensive design process.
The OfficePODprovides the user with an efficient use of space with innovative storage and desktop solutions. High quality materials have been carefully chosen for their combination of visual, physical and environmental characteristics. Power is provided via a discrete and protected connection to the house or garage; IT and phone connectivity is generally wireless but can be similarly cabled. The POD is provided with a secure locking system of the highest quality. So what do you think about this small office that can be placed in your garden ? Hot or not ?
The Value of Free eBooks
A year and a half ago, Tor a publisher of Fantasy and Sci-Fi released a selection of their books for free on PDF. Like so many others who love to read, I downloaded a significant number of them (at least 15). And they sat on my hard drive untouched as I didn’t have a great way to read them (computer screens aren’t ideal for late night reading).
Out of those 15 I was genuinely excited about a few, but most were by authors unknown to me or were books that I likely would have never bothered to look at (I’m not that interested in Fantasy) but I thought it worthwhile to snag them as the only investment on my part would be the time it takes to read a chapter before deciding whether the book was worth completing.
Two months ago I was fortunate to receive a Kindle for my birthday, which quickly became a repository for the Tor PDFs. They were free from the shadows of my computer. With this new, convenient way to read them I decided to start with Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. I devoured it. The book was enjoyable to read and the Kindle simply faded away into convenience. Half way through the book I was sidelined by a nasty cold, so I had plenty of time to finish the story and the first thing I did upon clicking through to the last screen was to buy Ghost Brigades, the next in the series, which was delivered straight to my device.
I did the same with the The Last Colony, the third in the series.
And I did this in a span of only a few days.
By providing free access to the first book, Tor profited from my purchase of two that I likely would not have picked up. And those two were in electronic format, which return a higher margin per item. Tor also recruited a new fan for one of their authors.
Tor wasn’t scared of the new format and they were willing to risk giving away a very real product. For their efforts, they have seen short-term benefits and will likely see long-term ones as well as I will likely pick up other works penned by Mr. Scalzi.
I hope to be as enthralled with some of the other free books I downloaded as I’ll be more than happy to give Tor more money for books by authors new to me.
Tor made it attractive and easy for me to give them money and I really wish other publishers would do the same.
Weekly Digest for January 11th
A collection of my actions and interactions from around the Net over the last week.
Air fresheners in bathrooms are good, but it shouldn’t smell like I’m walking into a box of Fruit Loops. [#] Reading Volunteer Legal Assistance for Artists | Copyright & Trademark FAQs: http://bit.ly/5jVuqs [#] I just applied for a TEDxAustin ticket. I’m psyched about the opportunity and I really hope I get a ticket. http://j.mp/TEDxA [#] One of the best things about @1Password is that I don’t have to remember if I’ve signed up for a site in the past. CMD-\ FTW! [#] To have 1/10th the talent of Tom Waits… [#] I love the phrase: "montage of tropes" heard in this Morning Edition ‘s piece on Avatar and Ke$ha: http://j.mp/4FCBLl [#] Cheap Trick headlining SXSW… I miss SXSW headliners that I’d never heard of. Hrmph. Ahh well. "Mama’s all right…" [#] So, if I’m in your address book and you sync it with Facebook, does that mean FB has my number, even though I didn’t give it to them? :P [#] Reading jsdoc-toolkit: "
JsDoc Toolkit is an application, written in JavaScript, for automatically generating temp… http://bit.ly/58jyqV [#]
Game time! Hook ’em! [#] Is anyone else who’s watching the game getting stutters in video/audio here in Austin? We’re on Uverse [#] BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, great fake Bama! [#] C’mon Horns! [#] Damnit. Well, UT did better than expected given what they faced and it proved a much more interesting game than expected. [#] Sharing knowledge ensures a healthy ecosystem of information from which we all benefit. Support your local infojunkie (me). [#] Reading jQuery Enlightenment | by Cody Lindley | 1st Edition | based on jQuery 1.3.2: "A book for jQuery developer… http://bit.ly/6cP4jR [#] Reading The 14 Days of jQuery: "The 14 days of jQuery is an online event marking the release of jQuery 1.4. To cel… http://jquery14.com/ [#] RT @mgenovese: Dept. of Labor is crowd-sourcing ideas for job / career tools. Vote for door64! (use your Google acct): http://bit.ly/7h16EI [#] If I could choose any singer’s voice for my own, I would pick either Tom Waits or David Bowie. You? [#] Answers to my ? so far: Imogen Heap, Sam Cooke, Freddie Mercury, Marvin Gaye, Billy Holiday, Streisand, Suzanne Vega, Sting, Chrissie Hynde [#] More answers to my question: Johnny Cash (can’t believe I didn’t include him originally), Brandi Carlisle, Rachael Yamagata, Lady Gaga [#] C’mon Cowboys, whomp the Eagles and next time that Vick comes to the field grind him into the turf instead of letting him score. [#] Oooh Benecio Del Toro as The Wolfman plus Anthony Hopkins. Sweet. [#] Cowboys! Yay for getting the fumble, next time please remember to whomp Vick for good measure. [#] Man it feels good to see the Cowboys finally take a playoff game. It’s been far too long. Favre you and you’re purple helmets are next. [#] The Who will play the Super Bowl. Yay. Can we have a slide presentation on the finer points of sewage treatment instead? [#]
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Setting consistent meeting times and regular communication is key to the success of your group, but without a bit of experimentation, you may not find what works best. Each compliments the other.
Consistency
Set up a regular schedule for your meetings. Refresh Austin meets the second Tuesday of every month from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Those few times […]
Big thanks to @chris_bailey for including me on his visibility2010 list! Now to do something worth visibility… http://j.mp/72Mve7 [#] Submitted my panel idea to Product PotLuck (@PP_Austin | http://j.mp/8YYPFu). I need to tweak the title, but it should be fun. [#] RT @drdigipol Zuckerberg’s "end of personal privacy" should be accompanied by total corporate & government transparency. /via @Silona [#] Enjoying a very tasty beer brewed by @wcyarbrough as I work on a site redesign. If he offers you one of his brews, say yes. Do not pause. [#] I’ve never wanted to live in New York, but damn Jay-Z’s ‘Empire State of Mind’ with Alicia Keys is close to talking me into it. [#] Enjoying the rich smells wafting from the kitchen (Sarah’s making Pollo En Cacahuate (Chicken in a peanut sauce)) and the margaritas I made. [#] Just watched 9 (the Tim Burton produced, post-apocalyptic film, not the new musical). Most excellent. [#]Consistency, Communication & Experimentation
Setting consistent meeting times and regular communication is key to the success of your group, but without a bit of experimentation, you may not find what works best. Each compliments the other.
Consistency
Set up a regular schedule for your meetings. Refresh Austin meets the second Tuesday of every month from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Those few times when we’ve had to find a new venue, we have made sure to get a guarantee from the new spot that we will have that day and time every month. Switching the day, time or location in any but the most extreme of circumstances is a recipe for confusion, resulting in reduced participation. Make a choice and stick with it for at least three months.
Your members will appreciate the consistent schedule as that gives them a chance to arrange for babysitters, reschedule other events and make it easy for them to avoid conflicts down the line.
Communication
It’s easy to let the days slip by without sending an update to the group, yet we all hate a communication vacuum. Make sure you let people know what’s happening early and often. This is your opportunity to build some excitement and provide some warning when change is in the air. Once you have established your routines and the group is running smoothly, make sure you continue to send updates. I cannot stress this enough – update update update!
Experimentation
It’s important to try things – what works for one group may not work for another, so be willing to give something different a shot. This may seem to go against the consistency point above, but it’s the one way that you can strike the right balance.
Be ready to kill off an experiment if it isn’t working, but make sure that you won’t frustrate the members of the group with too many changes in too short of a time. Don’t forget to communicate the changes and the reasons behind them to the group. People don’t likely care about all of the details, but everyone likes to know that there’s a reason for a chance.