We have a whiteboard hanging on the wall near the front desk at ArcStone’s Minneapolis office. The intent is to keep track of who is offsite, telecommuting, or out on an errand. In reality, most of us never use it properly. We forget to erase our names when we arrive at the office, forget to put our names up the day before if we plan to telecommute, or neglect to ask someone else to write our status on the board if we’re out sick. And, since it’s hanging on the wall at the office, you can’t read it if you’re working offsite.

In response to the shortcomings of the community whiteboard, ArcStonians have turned to email. We often see messages to the office distribution list, announcing when a team member will be available and where they’ll be during the course of the day. I’ve never liked it; I somehow manage to miss the notifications from members of my project teams.

But, as always, there was a better solution. We recently subscribed to Google Apps, a set of productivity tools offered by Google that includes calendaring. It’s allowed us to have company-wide shared calendars without the hassle and expense of using Zimbra or Microsoft Exchange Server for our email. Google offers an API for their calendar service; you can quickly write web application code that reads data from a Google Calendar and manipulates it. And the idea for the virtual in/out board was born!

The virtual in/out board is nothing more than a ColdFusion page that reads data from a shared calendar. When someone wants put their availability up on the board, they create an event on their own calendar and invite the in/out board as an attendee. The page checks the calendar for updates every five minutes or so, and refreshes the display (which is an otherwise unused PC at our front desk). We even have the data available in the ArcWeb, our custom time tracking and business management application, for viewing by offsite staff.

I’ll never have dry-erase marker on my hands again!

Move over Betty Crocker, there’s a new Sara Lee in town.

Today, ArcStonian Pamela Schott brought in a batch of what she calls Oh! Henry bars. They should be called Be-Still-My-Beating-Heart bars because I’m in love.

I want to be locked in a prison made out of Pam’s Oh! Henry bars so I can eat my way to freedom.

I want to collect them like baseball cards, only to eat my whole collection and start all over again.

I want a device hooked up to my desk that rewards me with a bar every time I click my mouse.

I want Steve Nash to practice his free throws with them, shooting at my mouth.

I want to travel back in time so I have more time to eat them.

I don’t want to write anymore because it means I’m not eating.

HELLO WORLD!!!

Welcome to my very first blog. It’s an honor to write for TechnologyTranslated.com and I plan on making the most of it before I actually get real work to do here at ArcStone. For those you who are wondering who the never-before-heard-of-but-severely-articulate author of this article is, well world… I’m the new guy. “Office Cohesion Specialist” is my title, or OCS for short. An OCS is exactly like the company CEO or COO, minus the experience and responsibilities (and pay). I’m an important piece of the puzzle here at ArcStone… but not really.

For the past couple weeks I have been testing Wonderfile, running through every inch of the site to check for bugs. I used our project manager Bart’s company American Express card to register new accounts for the testing process. Wonderfile accounts cost between free-99 and almost $500, but I was using the company’s card and since the company owns Wonderfile, we were basically paying ourselves. No money was actually be lost in the process.

Short story long, using the company’s credit card got me thinking. If I could buy anything, and I mean anything, what expensive things would I buy? Here’s three items on my wish list (with more to come in the future editions of my blog).

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1. A monkey

Intelligent, agile, funny, and hopefully not of the poop-throwing variety. He would gather donuts and other goods for me (a la Mojo, Homer’s helper monkey from the Simspons) and would attract babes like a magnet (a la a babe magnet). A monkey would be my first purchase. It’s the most obvious choice. Practical and very entertaining.

The site Primatestore.com also sells giraffes and siberian tigers. Doesn’t seem like a legal operation, but they do good work. Mike Tyson rated its customer service a 10 out of 10 in 1994.

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2. The Best Dinner. Ever.

I would have dinner with family and friends 100 feet in the air. With Taco Bell, a personal favorite cuisine. For 8,000 Euros these “Dinner In The Sky” folks will lift a table, along with you and your guests, up into the air for a unique dine. Check out the website for more details. I’m currently taking requests to join me. Request should should be no longer than 250 words; send them to dsundquist@arcstone.com.

I’m curious what happens when you have to go to the bathroom.

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3. The most expensive, ridiculously over-the-top fish aquarium money could buy

I have an aquarium at home right now. I have a catfish, two angelfish, and a beta among a few others.

What I don’t have at home is a 2,500 gallon beast of a tank, filled with with exotic corals and tropical fish/sharks/octopi. I want multiple main chambers spread around the rooms of my house with glass tubing running through the walls, connecting the chambers. It’d be pretty much the most baller thing ever.

I’d definitely throw some lion fish in there too.

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Let me wrap this all up with a favorite quote: shoot for the moon, because if you fall short, you’ll land amongst the stars (credit goes to my 13-year-old cousin Katie’s bulletin board).

Until next time, world.

Sincerely yours,
Daniel Sundquist

On February 16th, 6 ArcStonians raced in the Minneapolis Valentine’s Day 5k around Lake Harriet. We survived, and I have the pic to prove it:

From left to right: Me, Ryan, Bart, Jess, Jess (friend of Tim), Tim, Nik. Don’t ask me what kind of face Tim is making.

Go ArcStone!!!

“Geek Industry Insights” is my series of posts exploring the inner workings of a technology company. I will discuss the unique culture, politics, and challenges that permeate the industry.

In this installment we will explore the lighter side of ArcStone’s company culture, and how humor can bring a boost of morale and productivity when it’s needed most.

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I am a wireless keyboard guy. Actually, wireless everything. I like the freedom to type while spinning in my chair, email with my feet up, or throw the keyboard across the room without endangering my laptop.

So naturally I was puzzled when my co-worked chose to do her daily ration of typing on an older Apple keyboard. That is, until I noticed what she had plugged into it.

Since winter set in our office has been like a meat locker. Many Arcstonians go through the day wearing mittens or clutching hot cups of tea. My cube neighbor found a better way to beat the cold; sport a pair of USB fingerless gloves. With a port on each side, an old school Apple keyboard works great with the gloves, preventing tangles during intense typing sessions.

Alicia 1, Jack Frost 0.

I’ve done some more experimenting with the Papervision3D class library. This experiment uses a “Plane” object, the ArcStone logo for the plane’s “material” property, and a little bit of math to allow a full 360-degree view of the logo. The logo’s X and Y-axis rotation is determined by the mouse position.

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These days it’s nearly impossible to go an entire day without being caught on video, whether you’re a celebrity or not. The UK is saturated with cameras, boasting more than four million CCTV connected cameras.

Most people are not even safe from prying eyes at work. I was able to catch a co-worker on video once with a well-placed phone camera, and the results were stunning.

This relatively unknown individual has now been transformed into a YouTube celebrity of sorts, all without his knowledge or consent. I think the moral of the story is clear: if you’re camera shy, it’s best to just stay home under the covers.

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.

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.

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