James VanDyke Blog

Monthly Archives: March 2008

Testing Jott. I’m testing…

By james | March 28th, 2008

Testing Jott. I’m testing the new Jott voice messaging service where you call a phone number and have your messages transcribed anything, and even posted to a block blog. listen Powered by Jott Update: As you can see there were some small errors in the results but it’s still a neat service.

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Bracket Busters

By james | March 21st, 2008

The Belmont Bruins almost made NCAA history by upsetting Duke. Unfortunately, the record books will simply record a close call for basketball powerhouse. YouTube however will remember the 2008 Bruins trip to the tourney through the video blog of SecondMileStyle.

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Bathroom Remodeling

By james | March 17th, 2008

We’re having our bathroom remodeled. It was in need of some work so the contractor has ripped everything out down to the studs in the walls. The plan is to end up with a bigger shower (that doesn’t leak) and new tile on the floor and in the shower. Tags: house

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The Art of Speed

By james | March 13th, 2008

Speed is becoming an essential part of business today, especially on the web. This weekend I attended a panel discussion entitled “The Art of Speed” at South by Southwest Interactive. Here are the points I found useful or interesting: Follow the market to where the growth is – Often companies look to attack new markets [...]

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Work Practices

By james | March 11th, 2008

37signals the makers of BaseCamp and RubyonRails shared some changes to their work environment recently. Here are three interesting ideas.  4 day work week – If people rest for 3 days, they will be refreshed and do better work in four days rather than 5 days of work and 2 days of rest. Pay for [...]

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You should know what your co-workers earn

By james | March 9th, 2008

Companies are artificially secretive about their accounting to internal audiences. Typically granular information about a company’s books is not available to it’s employees and only a small precentage of the company knows exactly how the company is earning and spending money. I offer this suggestion. Be completely transparent about your company’s spending including how much [...]

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Finally at SXSW

By james | March 9th, 2008

After being trapped at La Guardia for most of the day Friday I finally got on a flight headed for Dallas. I spent the night at home and then drove my car down to Austin. It was a long 24 hours in New York but it’s over now.

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Stuck in NYC (at least until 4:30)

By james | March 7th, 2008

I’m sitting at La Guardia waiting for my plane to leave. I’m supposed to be in Austin for the SXSW Interactive Festival. Yesterday, the second winter storm in a week hit Dallas. My 8:15am flight out of NYC was cancelled and I haven’t been able to hit the standby jackpot. I paid $7.95 for internet [...]

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TigerMan in the Snow

By james | March 3rd, 2008

It snowed in Dallas tonight and TigerMan enjoyed playing in the snow.

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A Vision of Students Today

By james | March 3rd, 2008

In preparation for an upcoming presentation I came across this video that I thought was interesting. Embedded Video

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