Simon G's Blog

This week I learnt how to draw abnormal filled-in shapes in Visio, and it is actually easy to do.  I’m using Visio 2003 so other versions may differ slightly. For my example I start with 6 boxes and want to draw a shape around the 4 orange ones. I start by using the Line Tool, which is part of the Drawing toolbar. I then draw my first line segment and then continue it with a new line segment where the other one stopped, and continue until I get back to where I started. Changing back to the normal pointer once the shape is complete allows you to then tinker with it a bit. The first task I do at this point is to send the Shape to the Back. I then change the colour using a transparency of 80%. and finish by rounding off the line corners.   You can actually also use the same technique with the freehand drawing tool too.  Thanks to http://help.lockergnome.com/office2/Irregular-Shapes-Visio--ftopict803521.html for the tutorial steps.

I had a great day at Webstock on Day 1 and below is my synopsis of Day 2, which was also excellent. If you get the opportunity to attend Webstock, do it. Some of the key themes from the conference can be summarised as: Build with love, use common reusable blocks, deploy quickly, deploy often, listen to explicit and implicit feedback from real users, understand what their needs are (not what they say they are), consider social and ethical impacts. Repeat. The Lean Startup Eric Ries ( @ericries ) http://startuplessonslearned.com #leanstartup Slides can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/startuplessonslearned/2010-02-19-the-lean-startup-webstock-2010 Why build a startup? Change the world Build an organisation of lasting value Make customers' lives better Pivot: change directions but stay grounded in what you've launched ...

I had heard lots of great stuff about Webstock in previous years so decided to go along this year to experience it for myself. This is a very professional conference and has (mostly) excellent speakers covering a variety of Web related technologies. Here’s my synopsis of Day 1. Opening Mike Brown ( @maupuia ) You will fall in love with things that are made with love Web Design that grabs people Scott Thomas ( @simplescott ) – Design Director for Obama's campaign Web and Print overlap in campaign Deliver clear and concise messaging, focussed on the “We” rather than the “He” Keep the message of hope while dismantling the notion of being aloof Establish a consistency and balance to exemplify stability and experience Persuading people was the mission of the home page therefore needed to be prominent, with localised information Spend more time researching than design Information ...

“ Cloud Application Architectures: Building Applications and Infrastructure in the Cloud ” by George Reese is more of an Amazon EC2 and S3 user manual than covering Cloud Application Architecture in general. Having said that I did find that it still did have some good content although in many areas it was very high level.  Some diagrams were also missing from my copy. There was a good Cloud Computing and Amazon Web Services overview.  Cloud ROI, Monitoring & Management, and reiteration that Laws need to be considered were also covered, as were development implications, and in particular multiple-server transaction management. If you want an overview of Amazon Web Services, EC2 and S3 then this book may be right for you.

We have been staying at the St Ives Motel in Hobart for the past few days and there are a number of small little touches that this basic but clean motel about 10 minutes walk from Salamanca Place has that would cause us to strongly consider returning. Broadband : Whilst the broadband is not free, it is very reasonable at 5 cents per MB download.  There is not wireless available, however there is an Internet connection point in our room and there is also a computer available for use down at reception (for no additional cost than the MB) and free printing. Mini Bar : Mini Bar’s are notorious for being ridiculously priced.  The prices here however are just what you would pay if you at the liquor shop, which is in fact right next door. Continental Breakfast : At AU$3 per person for a Continental Breakfast Pack that contains Bread for Toast, a spread for the Toast, a pack of Cereal and Milk, this is very well priced. Phone Calls : Local calls at 15 cents for the call, and ...

I decided to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional on the HP Mini 5101 from its base install of Windows XP so sent off for the "free" upgrade from HP which requires US$19.99 for postage and handling.  From the time I placed the order until the DVD arrived in my hands in New Zealand was 9 days. Since I do not have a DVD drive for the HP Mini I copied the Windows 7 installation files to a 4GB USB Stick using WinToFlash (which had been recommended by a work colleague) on another machine that did have a DVD drive.  WinToFlash creates a bootable Windows install on the USB Stick, was reasonably intuitive to use, and took about 30 minutes to complete (I suspect my Anti-virus program slowed things down).  Upon completion I noticed there was 409MB remaining on the USB Stick. I checked in the Bios on the HP Mini and by default the option to install from a bootable USB device was turned on but changed the ordering so that USB Hard Disk and USB SuperDisk were prior to the Hard Driv...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from Richard Branson.  This is a good inspirational and motivating book that is very easy to read.  I knew that there were a number of Virgin companies prior to reading this book, however I was not aware of how many different industries Virgin is involved with (music, mobile, space travel, planes, trains, finance, health clubs, …). The culture of Virgin is a key component of the why the Virgin companies have been successful.  Whilst there is not a step by step guide for how to build a successful company, there are many useful insights and lessons learnt.  Caring and Encouraging your people, Customer-focus, Innovation, Embracing leadership, Fun, Learning from mistakes and Social Responsibility are key attributes I now associate with the Virgin brand.