I'm glad it's not just me - Jeffrey Veen on his design process.

And I sort of realized that I do design that way. I build up a tremendous amount of background data, let it synthesize, then "blink" it out as a fully-formed solution. It typically works like this: Talk to everybody I possibly can about the problem. Read everything that would even be remotely related to what I'm doing. Hang charts, graphs, diagrams, and screenshots all over my office. Observe user research; recall past research. Stew in it all, panic as deadline approaches, stop sleeping, stop eating. Be struck with an epiphany. Instantly see the solution. Curse my tools for being too slow as I frantically get it all down in a document. Sleep for three days.

[via kottke] [tags]design, process, consulting[/tags]

Well, I'm feeling slightly broken - some kind of virus/fluey thing that won't quite go away, but far more importantly, the hard disk in my mac mini is making clicking sounds of death, and the mac itself is refusing to boot. Now, I'm an old hand at hard disk failures, having replaced 5 or so in the last 3 years (2 in my Sky+ box), 1 in main server, 1 in desktop, 1 in MC's PC. Seems like a lot doesn't it - is that really normal ? Anyway - I've splashed out on a decent storage solution - the Buffalo Terastation - a NAS box with 1 Terabyte of disky goodness. Configured as RAID-5, it comes down to 750GB, but it's still lovely, and makes me feel slightly less paranoid about data loss. I'm also going to sign up for a Carbonite account, and that should mean that our data is secure. So far the Terastation has proved to be easy as pie to setup, although I haven't spent a huge amount of time setting up groups and access etc. And we all like pie. And yes, I know I could have put a bunch of disks into an old PC and saved a ton of money, but I would have had to put up with the noise my old server makes (think your mum's old vacuum cleaner) and the fear of trusting data to a machine that is on its last legs. But, back to the main story - does anyone know if there are any special requirements for replacement mac mini hard disks ? A quick bit of googling didn't turn up much, and there's no way I'm giving Apple £50 (or whatever it is) to fit one, so if anyone does know, pop a comment. [Update - hmm..looks as if Carbonite doesn't backup mapped network drives...which means I can't use it in conjunction with the Terastation...ho hum..the search continues] [tags]mac, mini, macmini, buffalo, terastation, nas, carbonite, backup[/tags]

Well, the first 4 days at Headshift have gone by in a bit of a blur. A fun blur though. Obviously it's a bit of a change moving from a huge organisation to a much smaller one, but it's a change that suits me. Already working on an interesting project, and by the looks of it there's plenty more where that came from. Good people, great location, freedom to customise my laptop as I see fit (which amazingly enough hasn't caused the sky to fall and the earth to shatter) and all around me people are muttering social software related mutterings. Happy. [tags]headshift, socialsoftware[/tags]

Mikel Maron posts about Kiva, a site that allows microloans (and aggregated microloans) to entrepeneurs in developing countries.

Seems like an excellent idea, and it coincides with my reading of the quite excellent State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence. I have no special insight into the plight, and I think it is a plight, of the various countries that make up Africa, but it's certainly depressing, and shocking, to read through the litany of tragedies and disasters that have affected the continent.

So, I'm going to sign up - I share some of Mikel's questions, especially whether this is actually a beneficial thing to do. But I'm going to sign up, even if it's a just a salve for my conscience.

[Update - done. 2 small loans, to: Daouda Mbaye and Rosa Akiteng]

[tags]kiva, africa, microfinance[/tags]

Not the best Dilbert ever, but the last panel has a great line

"Don't ping my cheese with your bandwidth"

No surprise that this is coming out of the mouth of a "mildly retarded consultant". [tags]consultants, dilbert, humour, cheese[/tags]

Boy - does this ever ring true.

I think we make a big mistake when we use terms like counterculture and rebel and deviant loosely. They've had it as terms. Defunct. Finito. Past their sell-by-date.Because every time we do that, we paint a big red X across the backs of the people we so describe and put the firm's immune system on full alert. And the rebels are toast. Which is often a shame. Because they weren't rebels. Or deviants. Or counterculture whatevers. They were doing their job. Trying to find a better way of doing things. [In a strange way, I think that Malcolm's feeling for consultants is related. When a "consultant" finds a better way of doing things firms roll out the green carpet, papered with spondulicks; when someone in the organisation quietly does the same thing, he's a deviant…]

Confused Of Calcutta » Blog Archive » On rebels and deviants and counterculturals

Although I'm not sure it's even about explicit labelling - which at least gives you (being the rebel in question) something tangible to tangle with. Implicit labelling is probably even more pernicious and, as there's nothing overt, harder to fight against. [tags]internal, corporate, culture[/tags]