A new study proves what I have known for a long time: a fun office environment is a productive one. At ArcStone we believe in this so much, it is even part of our core values.
The basic idea is that as people form tighter bonds through fun shared experiences they open up more, trust each other more, and can generally work better as a team.
To all my past bosses who frowned on my antics: I told you so.
There have been a few nerds who have attained prominent positions in politics, but you rarely hear about the flip side of the coin: the nerd vote.
Chris Knight of North Carolina is clearly vying for the nerd vote with his campaign commercial.
It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, tries to capture the nerd vote in the 2008 presidential race. Without Al Gore running I fear this growing and misunderstood voter group will once again be ignored. [Gizmodo]
I am not even sure what this is. Gizmodo rarely breaks away from their usual fare of programmable toasters and Apple news. So when they blog about a mysterious, non-English shopping site you have to look.
Take note: if you are on psychedelic drugs when viewing the site you may not notice anything special.
This year I used Google Maps to plan my trick or treating route. This way we won’t forget to hit any sweet spots, and we can more efficiently rake in the treats.
Millions of people have iPods, and the majority of them use iTunes to manage their music. As I have mentioned before, iTunes lacks some truly useful features, many of which users are pining for.
One major feature absent is the ability to copy music from an iPod to iTunes. This, no doubtingly, was left out of the feature set to keep users from sharing their entire music collection with everyone they know, and to keep Apple from being sued into oblivion.
Unfortunately, there are many legitimate uses for being able to copy music back and forth freely. Fear not gentle readers, because third party developers have come to the rescue.
I personally use Senuti, which has an interface almost identical to iTunes, except file syncing works in reverse (from iPod to iTunes). Senuti is Mac only, but there are many other options, and many are cross platform.
Enjoy your newfound freedom, but use it wisely.
The explosive growth of Americans’ interest in gadgets has not escaped the notice of other industries. Everyone wants a piece of this lucrative pie. The proof lies in some of the strangest retail combinations I have ever seen.
Headphones and Razors: because everyone likes to rock out while they shave.
Laptop Memory and Fresh Bread: because nothing goes better with warm bread than a warm laptop with new memory.
This bizarre trend is so prevalent, Gizmodo has dedicated an entire page to these weird combination deals. What’s next? Peanut butter and a Bluetooth headset? Socks and USB thumb drive? At this point I wouldn’t be surprised.
Everyone at ArcStone has a multi-monitor setup. Long ago I convinced ArcStone’s owner of the vast productivity benefits that come with more screen real estate. At first, like many people, he was a skeptic. However, after using multiple monitors himself, the value became apparent.
Some might argue it simply amounts to what you become used to. I disagree. I see a significant drop in my productivity when I work out of the office, and have to rely on my laptop screen alone.
If you have the means, I urge you to try adding another monitor to your setup.
Here are some examples of ArcStonians multi-monitor setups:
Our Top Sales Person
Our Systems Administrator
Yours Truly
Part blog, part polling system, Oobject picks topics of interest and lets users submit their top picks, sort of like a pageant of gadgets. Sometimes the lists are full of beautiful things, old things, or just supremely weird things.
Each day a new topic is highlighted for users to peruse. I urge you to take a look, there is a good chance you’ll see something you never knew existed.
Working late at night on a project, all alone, your cubicle can seem so much larger and more lonely. I suggest filling it with little paper friends from ReadyMech. They have many designs, catering to all sorts of tastes. All you need is a printer, scissors, and some tape to whip up a companion.
If you are skilled with the scissors, and have some time on your hands, I suggest making them all. Take a picture and send it to me; I will reward you with my personal kudos and a hearty round of applause.
Here is my new friend:
If you have been following the console wars you are surly aware of Nintendo’s success with the uniquely named, and marketed Wii. Although I don’t own one yet, my son and I stop at our local GameStop every chance we get to play.
Before we started doing these freeloading recreational excursions, my son had never played a video game. He immediately picked up the Wii, and was able to play games without instruction or frustration.
This got me thinking about how the Wii was different from other gaming systems. By making the game controls a natural extension of the user, Nintendo has tapped into a very powerful control mechanism: the human body.
Although my son had not yet mastered a mouse, keyboard, or complicated button combinations, he had already mastered his body, and therefore the Wii.
Here is a video of my four year old playing a racing game on the Wii: