Resources for Productivity

Here's a sample appeal letter which earned over $25,000 in three months for a charity in America.

Fig_21SampleAppeal.pdf

Brandalism is a Portmanteau and has many definitions. The Urban Dictionary defines it as the creeping corporatisation of schools, libraries and other public buildings, which are gradually being daubed with company logos and slogans. Coined by graffiti artist Banksy, and expounded on in his book “Wall and Piece”

However there was an earlier citation by —Gareth Branwyn, “Jargon Watch, Wired, February 1999 who defines Brandalism as the increased “defacing” of schools, libraries, and other public spaces with logos, advertisements, and corporate slogans.

I've set myself a challenge.. which means I need to learn a few things!

The challenge, with my friend Mike, is to join the 'Mongol Rally' in July 2010, driving 10,000 miles from the UK to Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia. The point of the exercise is to have fun and raise money for various charities.

But to make it work, I'll need to learn a few things:

* Most critically, some basic car maintenance! We intend to drive a second hand verhicle of some sort, which we can be almost certain, is likely to breakdown various times.

Learn how to tether your DSLR camera to your computer.

watch and explore

ProXalt is still offering its Flash based 35 hour course for the Project Management Professional exam for only $35. The thirty five hours are required by PMI - the Project Management Institute - when applying to sit for the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam. PMI requires proof of 35 hours or more of coursework in project management.

Nice post from David Meerman Scott about online PR here:
http://www.webinknow.com/2008/05/top-ten-pr-tips.html

I don't know David, but I liked his statement: "I realized that sometimes there is value to top-of-mind ideas. Nuggets of value may be lost when you obsess over getting every detail perfect." Couldn't agree more.

Here's his list:

1. The old ways to get noticed were to buy expensive advertising and beg the media to write about you and your products. The best way to get noticed today is to publish great content online.

Great article (via @guykawasaki) on how the expectations of the next generation are reshaping the businesses they work for. 12 points about how the new workplace will need to reflect the principles of the social web.

Here are my favourites:
* All ideas compete on an equal footing.
* Leaders serve rather than preside.
* Resources get attracted, not allocated.

Another great article from Seth Godin who talks about how we should all have a super power, particularly in business. The example he gives is the Wasp
“I’m the Wasp. I have the ability to shrink to a height of several centimeters, fly by means of insectoid wings and fire energy blasts.”
Some fancy marketers might call this a positioning statement or a unique selling proposition. Of course, it’s not that. It’s just her super power.

March is just such a wonderful busy time for gardeners and so full of promise for the vegetable grower in particular. Decide what your favourite foods are then resolve to grow them.
I soak large seeds such as broad beans overnight before planting them in recycled yoghurt cups. Salad leaves and herbs often go in the same pot so that they can be cut to order from the kitchen windowsill pots.
But the key to successful croping is a plan of action with a few seeds planted at say fortnightly intervals rather than pouring the whole packet into your first planting.

I was into email about a decade ago. These days I prefer to avoid communication forms that demand my attention. I can definitely recommend ending an email (and twitter) (and RSS) addiction.

For a presentation for other students at Roskilde University, I created this presentation of various (mostly) free software tools/services for introducing them in ways to use the internet and their computer in ways that makes studying or their life in general 'easier' in some sense.

At the end of the pdf there are links to the Keynote-file to the presentation so that people can modify it further if desired. (I'll see if I can save it as a PowerPoint as well if any of you are interested)

Nice post about the perils of building or buying IT systems. Lots of good lessons learned.

I know that it is only just past Christmas, but thought that you would want to be the first to know that our latest 2009 information brochure is available.

A "must have" for any serious business student or corporate training manager.

email - [email protected] - today & we will be delighted to send you a copy

Happy New Year!

great range of material covered

I have been trying to get my head around ssh tunnels lately as I need to be able to access a development web server on our private network that doesn't have an IP accessible from the internet.
It's taken me a while to understand what is going on; it can be pretty confusing.

I'd recommend the following for a good explanation of what ports are used, e.g. when your browser requests a page:

http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_TCPIPClientEphemeralPortsandClientServerApplicatio.htm

And I thought this was probably the best single page explanation of tunneling: