Back to firefox?

Having seen that firefox4 was out last week, I couldn't resist downloading and installing. I like what I see. As I gave it a spin, I remembered a few things that I had forgottend I missed about firefox as it'd been superceeded by the simple interface and speed of chrome:

Delicious Bookmarks sidebar. I do like opening my bookmarks quickly and easily, the official delicious plugin for chrome only realistically allows you to add bookmarks.

Firebug & colorzilla. I haven't found a suitable replacement for these in chrome.

For the time being at least, firefox is back as my default browser...

Steve Ranford : 28 Mar 2011 14:58 |  Tags: Browser Chrome Firefox |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Different kind of enterprise IT support?

I just helped a colleague improve their productivity with an IT tip. It feels good to do so, because I know this will have a lasting, albeit small, impact. Thinking wider, I'm sure everyone could do with a tip or two a day related to their work. This, it would be hard for me to justify, because in the process, doing so for my team alone, I wouldn't get my job done! It also dawned on me that because I and others do this kind of help, and the issues we solve and tips we provide, never actually enter an IT helpdesk call logging system, and as such are unknown to them.

We often look to better network infrastructure, or hardware upgrades to equipment to boost improvements in ‘speed’ or productivity in enterprise IT, but I think an equally important aspect may be overlooked. Let me propose a radical idea:

A model of IT support where support staff actively came and sat down with individuals going about their daily roles, using their daily computer. An IT solution ‘health assessment’ as it were conducted at the desk, with the PC setup the user uses daily, asking questions like “what’s the most frustrating thing about your computer?”. “What tasks do you loathe, and why?” and to get them to demonstrate it, could a) help support improve/optimise people’s most common/critical working procedures, even showing people things they don’t know they don’t know, and taking the real issues exist either to the department (e.g. for a second monitor where effective, or a label printer) and take IT issues that need to be fixed in the system, back to those who can make it happen, the service owner teams, to act on the system.

This is something I’ve not seen before, have you? I'd be keen to hear your experiences.

We often call ITS when we’re at the end of our tether, no other options, and we wait until support arrives. I don't think IT services frontline staff/floor-walkers/helpdesk often see users in the best of moods, so it may have positive impacts on their work environment too.

This, I believe, would be a systems thinking approach.

Steve Ranford : 08 Dec 2010 18:19 |  Tags: Idea Musings Systems Thinking |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Dandelion Effect: Increasing the impact of skills development

When I attend a conference, my team expects me to report back. Give them a summary of what it was like, what I learned, and what I want to apply to my practice. This is time well spent, it means that my colleagues get a bite-sized summary, get a glance at what took place, and they themselves can benefit from the conference, without having attended for two days. An action similar to blowing the seeds from a dandelion into the soil around it.

We deliver skills development opportunities for students, and I think encouraging a similar culture amongst students could be a good thing to do.

• I would testify to experiencing the saying "If you want to know you've learned something, teach it to someone else". It's hard (and obvious) when teaching if you haven't grasped a concept. To ensure that you represent accurately what was taught.
• If one in a research group attends a session, what is the likelihood that the rest of the research group could benefit from having some snippets? I'd guess quite a lot actually. It may even provide a forum for peer to peer fertilisation of ideas, strategies and accountability to put into practice what is learnt.
• For the skills development team such activity encourages learning to be further embedded, and multiplied to others. Those others may be sceptical of attending skills development activities, this is a vehicle of increasing our reach to them with very little resource. 

Steve Ranford : 09 Sep 2010 17:06 |  Tags: Development Impact Reach Skills |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Christmas Card Tutorial

Steve Ranford : 17 Dec 2008 19:56 |  Tags: Card Christmas Craft How To Reindeer |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Learning Spaces

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7292600.stm

Now there's a great learning space.

Steve Ranford : 16 Oct 2008 18:23 |  Tags: Google Learning Spaces |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Webcam's on Linux

Writing about Flash 9 webcam support in Linux from [Ux]

As Steve suggests, this could be problematic.

Steve Ranford : 21 Apr 2008 16:44 |  Tags: Flash Linux Rich Media Streaming Webcam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Webcams to another use

An idea sprung to mind just a moment ago. I think it's got potential, what do you think?

I often have bad posture at my desk.  I appreciate cues to remind me of this. I thought that a good cue would be to have a mirror, so I could see just how bad my posture was. But then I thought that it might get distracting.  I have however recently been testing out a webcam, and I have this perched on my monitor. While it's not doing anything else, I wonder if the technology that looks for car number plates, does facial recognition and looks for suspicious activity on unmanned CCTV stations could also be put to use with posture in the office.

Initial thoughts on now this would be implemented would be:

• Calibration with the person using the system, and identifying the ergonomics of the desk setup, including the rough whereabouts of the webcam.
• Webcam could identify your distance from the monitor according to the distance between your eyes.
• Could look for geometric patterns with your shoulders, head and neck & make suggestions.
• Could analyse the length of time you've been in one single position, and suggest times to take a break based upon more than the workrave mouse & keyboard activity. Could even suggest a regime of excersises to improve your posture, and check you're doing them right!
  

Comments please...

Steve Ranford : 10 Jan 2008 11:13 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Next Gen Clipboard Thinking

Writing about web page http://downloads.zdnet.com/search.aspx?q=clipboard

While there are many clipboard enhancements on the web, many focus on the much desired ability to store more than one item in the clipboard or have clipboard contents saved.

I'm more interested in what I'm coining 'clipboard transforms'. This is about taking information from a context, and pasting it in another, with some kind of transform applied to it. For example:

Audio clip copied from Adobe Audition transformed into an amplitude wave visualisation and pasted as a vector graphic into a PowerPoint Slide. I realise the technical undertaking here is immense, I know, but I think this could be the future of what we once called the clipboard.

Has this done before? Is it done, but through another guise? Have I missed the point? Is this an effecient work model for computing? Please, let me know your thoughts.

Steve Ranford : 06 Dec 2007 14:19 |  Tags: Clipboard Copy Cut Innovation Paste |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My must–have mind mapping features

Writing about web page http://mindmapping.typepad.com/the_mind_mapping_software/2007/03/comparison_of_w.html

In deciding which online mind-mapping tool to start using, I found a comprehensive comparison table of four solutions (at time of writing). My priorities for a mind map go a little something like this:

• Output
  • I'd like to produce maps that are easy to share, by publishing on paper, blogs, websites... the lot!
• Collaboration
  • I see the benefit of having a web based mind-map is having collaborative aspect. I want others to be able to contribute to my mind-maps.
• Permissions
  • I want to be able to specify who sees and contributes to my maps
• Speed
  • It needs to be fast to input and create mind maps.
• Flexibility of Representation
  • I'd like to be able to move posts around, group them and link them in a way that represents the way I see them in my head... which, I hasten to add, could be messy!

If I think of any more, I'll add them.

I did while browsing come across a hybrid called kayuda. I call it 'mind map meets wiki'... which is exactly what I've been after. I'm going to give it a go, and will report back on how it compares to the other four already in the comparison table.

Steve Ranford : 28 Mar 2007 12:46 |  Tags: Mind-Mapping |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem