What I read on reader

Trends on Google Reader, who checks them? I did recently and in doing so was pleasantly surprised. I found out that since September 27, 2007 I read close to 12.000 items.


Who do I read most? This is also provided in a neat schedule that can be filtered based on various indicators. Topping the charts in the last 30 days are Massively, TAGN, Bio Break, Tobold and Hardcore Casual.


What you is difficult to interpret reading behavior, apart from the %Read column. For example I hardly read the full article of Massively. Partly due to the fact these are snippets to attract attention. More so because a lot of the topics interest me less. Why do I keep Massively? It gives me a nice overview what is going on in Games land. Bio Break is a bit high on the chart then I would normally place it. I expect this is due to my current interest in RIFT information.

An odd duck in the Trend is Productive Flourishing. This is part of my Food for Thought category of Blogs that I read out of personal interest in the topics and professional development where I go through a batch every odd week. Another blog I follow on this category is People Skills Decoded.

So what does your Trend look like?

PBS.org - BP Oil Spill

Couple of feeds from pbs on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Gets you thinking if you didn't get the wake up call before.

How much spill is OK?

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

BP Twitter feed..

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Lost Generation found

Getting back in the sadle - Words of Wisdom

I started a path decided upon some time ago, but am faltering. I realise I am in need of strenght and wisdowm, some down to earth truths. I often start my own mental search with some of my favorite (active and non-active) blogs to inspire me and gets my thinking process going and "inner-self feelers" warmed up. In search of my source to get back in the saddle and on the road I tell myself that:

I will not wait for other peoples reminders to take make a step. The only perception that is truly important is the on I have of myself. I am decisive. I take initiative. I think and get my feelings right. I honestly ask myself difficult questions and answer them truthfully. Revealing my inner-self will ultimitaly result in a life better lived and enjoyed. Then when decided I do it and do it now.

Labor and hard work finishes the path taken.

This may remind you of the story about the tortoise and the rabbit. This story tell us that the tortoise won because he had a goal and stuck with it, he was steadfast and believed in himself. The rabbit, although fast, lost because he was unfocussed and was an arrogant prick at it. He was careless and underestimated his opponent based on prejudice and misconception.

Some good thoughts on the meaning of the story beside the obvious can be found here. Besides teamwork and the power of knowing ones own and other competencies I am reminded by it that when you fail you may learn. From learning you becomes richer and can refocus and take another step.


A note to the unknown readers of this obscure blog. The shared experience and knowledge of everyone around us can be very powerful. If you read this and feel you can contribute, then I ask you to take a step and share.

Typing Speed Test

Update for a second attempt 2 days later.. were in the first attempt I had 3 mistakes. Couldn't let that go ofcourse.

"You reached 318 points, so you achieved position 8231 of 152919 on the ranking list"

You type 422 characters per minute
You have 79 correct words and
you have 0 wrong words

79 words

Typing Test

First attempt... "You reached 305 points, so you achieved position 1544 of 24753 on the ranking list".


75 words

Typing Test

Frogs by Productive Flourishing

Another excellent post by Productive Flourishing. Subscribe to their RSS feed.

Mark Twain: “If you know you have to swallow a frog, swallow it first thing in the morning. If there are two frogs, swallow the big one first.”

It does make so much sense. In your day to day dealings there are many "distractions" to forget the frogs.

Enjoy the read.

Road-to-WAR

Mythic, the developer of the hit MMORPG title Dark Age of Camelot (2001) is about to release their newest game (announced release date of September 18). Warhammer: Age of Reckoning or WAR for short. Previously succesful with it's Realm versus Realm concept in DAoC Mythic hopes to gain the masses by combining their RvR concept with the IP of the Warhammer Fantasy miniature model tabletop game of Games Workshop.

Early in the design phase (2005) of the game Mythic has started to reach for their target audience and beyond in an attempt to create hype. With appearence of enthusiastic Mythic representatives calling for "WAAAGH" in games shows in recent months all over the world, they have succeeded in just doing that. The hype is there. Captivating game trailers (see below), monthly news letters and website(s) keep the future customers coming back; wanting more.

With WAR Beta applications of 800.000+ and counting the question arrises whether Mythic will rival World of Warcraft (the leading running MMORPG with a current estimated account base over 10.000.000). That WAR will be a success seems almost certain, whether it will rival and more importantly can rival WOW is to be seen. Will WAR fans care? No. As long as Mythic will be able to deliver the game in line with (hyped) expecations the Road to WAR will be open for fast profits.

You will be able to find me on that open road marching on the forces of Order. See you there?


Sorcerer of Destruction

EVE Personality

Industrialist with teeth
Take The EvE Personality Test today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

You enjoy Eve's economic model and you find that the greatest challenge of the game lies in mastering the market. System security status is a matter of profit/no profit for you, and you always factor in the possibility/probability of PvP in your estimates. To you, Eve isn't a PvP or a PvE game. It's a simulation of capitalizm in its purest form, and a place where the savvy wins the day.

Does this EVE Personality test fit into MBTI (see previous post). Anyone? Some more known bloggers took the test too: TAGN, Morphisat and Godlesswanderer. What personality type would fit them? TAGN is an ESFP, The Performer or also ESTP like me? What personality types do play EVE? Would there be a mix of personalities that matches Real Life? I wonder..

Mozaik

Mozaik comes in many colors and materials. I had not yet come accross a Superhero wall of fame in Mozaik. It's pretty neat. It has heroes and characters from Marvel, DC, Disney, Pixar and many more on it.

Lisboa (Portugal) close to the Art's Hotel - Avenida D Joao II Lote 1 18

I ran into the wall by coincedence at a Hotel I was lodged at with a couple of my colleagues for work in Lisboa. The Hotel itself has a decent quality for it's price (I think I had corporate rates). One major caveat for me as a YCP is the lack of a water cooker and iron in the rooms. Luckily the iron can be requested (have Euro 20,- in your wallet for a deposit!). The location is convenient. It is close to a large shopping mall and a promenade at the riverside with some restaurants and bars. A train station is on walking distance just accross the mall. The airport is just a 5 to 10 minute dirt-cheap taxi ride away.

People in Lisbon are quite friendly. Received a grand tour of the coast area from a Lisboa based colleague. She showed us the seaside at Estoril and Cascais . Thank you Sofia!

Again I didn't have time to visit Lisboa itself. Flew back on Friday evening with TAP.

What is your personality type?

Are you a believer?


Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator offers a way to map your personality. It is often used in corporates as part of recruitment assessments or personality awareness sessions. There are other methods to map personality and personal preferences, for example Belbin (which focus lies more on preferred team roles). I've only got experience with MBTI and performed the test about a year ago. Ran into the information pack this week again and thought I'd share a little of myself - ESTP (with respective preference scores 15/25/53/23). Im unsure whether the ESTP profile still reflects me, might be time for a "second opinion".

A nice informative site on the MBTI types can be found here.

Note on the linked webby. It gives an option to perform an MBTI questionnaire. I did not do my MBTI via this website and have also no experience with it.

Anonymous reference checking

After reading an article by The Whisperer I got interested.. ever wanted to ask someone about their salary, but wasn't sure whether it would be appropriate? Or feeling you'd want to do a reference check on your future employer's work ethics, treatment of work life balance etc.? This site is for you!

Be aware though that you give away personal information, which may never be used as you expected. For those that are uncomfortable with that I would recommend not to use the site and find other means of reference checking.

As it is anonymous some care may need to be taken with the correctness of the information on the site. The user review questionnaire is quite rigid and therefore as any anonymous questionnaire it allows for rigging. The user giving a review of an employer has to rank their (former) employer on several categories on a scale of 1 to 5. Additionally, he/she has to fill in several text fields with Pro's, con's etc. After registering and browsing it I found it provided me with quite some information. Especially for bigger US corporations it showed a significant number of reviews. Enough to form a solid image of the employer and salary levels. Smaller corporations may be harder to find. I found general industry search on comparable companies resulted in some decent information on expected salary levels.

Considering the site only just started and is in it beta I give it a "thumbs up".

24

Those are flight hours, not the american hitseries. Flying from EU to New Zealand took me 24 hours, including a stop over in HK. I'd like to share a couple of snapshots from places visited.

First stop Hong Kong:
















Final destination Auckland - NZ:




With my girfriend in the US (West Coast) in the same period I was able to experience a whopping 19 hour time difference. Her being a day behind me most of the time felt strange. Especially monday around 6PM just after work, at which time she was in full party mode in San Fransisco on Sunday evening.

I enjoyed the stay. Eventhough it was short the spaciousness of the country and friendliness of the kiwi's made me feel relaxed. However, back and forth in 7 days, just over 2 of which spent in the air did leave me exhausted. I am happy I have been able to enjoy bits and pieces of both Hong Kong and New Zealand several years before.

Next destination unknown.

Lyon - La Part Dieu

A recent business trip France had me located in Lyon. I had not yet been there and was hoping to be able to see something of this southern French city. Arriving there I took a taxi and asked the driver if she could bring me to my Hotel located in La Part Dieu. During the trip we had a pleasant conversation in French. Now, my French is not really up to standard, which is a bit embarrassing considering the fact I have a (beautiful) French girlfriend and thus plenty of opportunity to speak the language. Nonetheless, I managed to understand her and make several coherent replies. It seemed they had some problems with brouillard that day, which resulted in some delays on the airport. Nothing serious, but nonetheless inconvenient.

The hotel I was booked into in La Part Dieu was nothing special (don’t believe a word of people that brag of super nice hotels when traveling for business purposes, most of them exaggerate), but it served its purpose and was conveniently located near a taxi stand and a Centre Commercial. The taxi stands facilitated easy access to Lyon centre. The behemoth Centre Commercial had every magasin you can imagine. Though I was a bit surprised it only had one Pharmacy, normally France is littered with them.

In Lyon itself I had a lovely dinner in Le Sud, a brasserie/restaurant of The French Michelin awarded Top chef Paul Bocuse. Normally eating at a Michelin awarded cuisine is expensive. However, to allow the plebs to experience his cuisine the (¿arrogant?) Chef opened one affordable restaurant for all four winds. But I admit that the food was good and indeed very affordable. Bravo Chef.

Next week I’ll be there again, although located in a different hotel in a different area of Lyon. No Centre Commercial, but alas only a 5 min drive from the city centre. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to see something more of the old city of Lyon. I am told it is lovely.

Maybe I’ll try the menu in Ouest.

Page Blocked: Social Network

If you work in a corporate environment and browse the web then there is a chance you have encountered a message saying: Page Blocked.

I admit guilt. I sometimes surf the web during work hours and have seen Content Blocked a few times. I never really thought twice about it. I even thought I was the only one annoyed by it. Up until recently… when from a cubicle a few meters from mine a voice shouted:

"What! They have blocked Facebook AND MyPage."

Shortly followed by;

"Don’t they @#% trust me, it’s not like I don't already spend most of my time working."

It appeared that my colleague had been robbed of his Social Networking Tools. And was pretty annoyed too.

Apparently not everyone can use Facebook after all.

My colleague was truly upset. He was now deprived of his (webbased) Social Networking Tools. With which he maintained and expanded his social network, while working all over the world and not only during office hours, as he himself mentioned so eloquently. Isn´t it strange for a company, which values Integrity, to monitor their employees behaviour. Shouldn´t a company evaluate employees by their performance instead of monitoring their behaviour?

The event made me wonder. Why do companies block access to these Tools and to a lesser extent websites in general?

After browsing the web (at home!) I found lots of reasons that a company, who actively blocks content, provides. And funnily enough I also found a lot of information why other companies, for the same reasons, do not block content. I’ll present you with the two most common and likely most recognisable reasons why active blocking occurs. Additionally, I’ll present some facts that prove them wrong.

1. It reduces productivity of employees - Apparently, some companies forget their history lessons. When the email technology appeared it reduced the size of our world as we knew it and it is now an integral part of our corporate and private social life. Even tough in the early days companies objected to email when it was new, fearing that email made it too easy to inadvertently (or intentionally) leak proprietary information and cause a drop in productivity. Can you imagine work without email today? Would you be able to do the same amount of work without it.

2. It has no business value - Some companies already embrace new Networking technologies and use them to improve networking. Webbased Social Networking Tools are one of them. Other examples are Instant Messaging, Blogging (seen those quirky Corporate Blogs on hobbies and the latest best read?), Video conferencing, RSS feeds. The most extreme may well be Second Life, a MMORPG, were an impressive number of companies have embraced the opportunity to build their Network and gain a market advantage ($$$). All are examples of technologies which take advantage of new ways of communication and information transfer between social networks.
Link

Can it be that one company uses these new Networking Tools to their competitive advantage, while another ignores them. No, even worse, fights against them? Does it all boil down to one thing.

"Don’t they @#% trust me."

Or are there other reasons these companies choose to stay behind?