The Hidden Talents of our Dog

And now for something completely different...

We have a dog named 'Pudge' approaching 10 years of age. Sure, we've taught him a few tricks-- the basic 'Shake', a simple 'Roll Over' and a couple more. Turns out he had one more trick up his sleeve (yes, our dog thinks he's human so yes, he has sleeves). We would never have found it without the help of our two daughters playing with their blocks.

The kids were playing with 'animal sounds' blocks that, when joined correctly, make sounds-- a pig grunting, a cow mooing..... and a horse whinnying. Imagine our surprise when the kids were trying the sounds of the farmyard and we heard Pudge's contribution.



For whatever reason, it only works with the horse.

Rain Makes Headlines in Seattle

From today's front page of the Seattle Times:



Really? Rain in Seattle? At this hour?

This must be a sign of something... a sign it's been a great summer!

The Perfect Graphic for that AH! Moment

You know the moment I'm talking about-- the one where a mystery has been cleared up for you. I usually experience after I've been trying 1023 permutations of the wrong way to do something. Maybe you receive a cryptic email from tech-support that tangentially applies to the question at hand, but seems like an accident. Perhaps you've wondered why everyone was going the wrong way on a street except you. You might have even wondered what compelled that person sitting next to you to eat your cookies.

And then it's magically explained and the 'Ah!' moment occurs.

I'm pleased to present the Ah! graphic:



Feel free to pass it around so everyone can share the moment :)

Microsoft's Magic Milan Touch

How could I not have noticed this earlier???

From a recent CNet headline: "Microsoft hopes Milan has magic touch".

OK, so I edited the headline just a little bit. But still, it's always fun when your name comes in vogue. Only recently has the self-satisfaction of having a car named after you begun to wear off. I really have to get one of those.

I wonder if I can put one of them new-fangled Milan table PC's in the back of my Milan? When I get in and drive off, would that be similar to the Russian dolls where one fits inside another which fits inside another?

Of course, at times like these I have to bring back my old standard:



Cheers!

Building Intuitive UIs

If you've read any of my posts at ReadWriteWeb, you know I love to look at things with an eye towards the past. So many times a new problem is really an old problem. Like User Interface Design.

I came across this video (Introducing the Book) while reading Scott Maxwell's blog. After I stopped laughing, I began to think about our own UI and how well it performs for our customers-- especially for a 'complex' business segment like project management.

In my opinion, we're doing pretty well. In fact, we recently did a screencast to show a few UI niceties we bring to project management. Little things like telling you whether your tasks are to the left or to the right of your current Gantt view. Or showing you why you can't link two tasks together-- highlighting the path that would create the circular link.

But I don't think we've built the most intuitive UI by any stretch. Project Management does have a certain amount of complexity. Connecting business systems to the web is not trivial. However, if you happen to hear from a customer 'That's all you have to do?', then you know you're on the right path.

And we do listen to our customers.

Freudian Slip

The picture of the Fire Rainbow I posted the other day certainly received a lot of attention. Thanks for all the interesting comments. The one I really enjoyed, however, was a nastygram from, of course, an anonymous commenter.

Pathetic way to steal a photograph, you didn't even clone out the (C) AP. This has to be a joke or you are about as stupid as one can me.

Heh heh, can't argue with that :)

Ever Heard of a Fire Rainbow?

[UPDATE -- I've been duped -- see below]
[UPDATE II -- If you're curious about Digg and Attention]

Under the category of 'There's something you don't see every day', a friend of friend lives on the Washington/Idaho border and took this shot last week. In fact, I have never seen this before-- wish I had.

In her words:

This is a Fire Rainbow-- the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phemonema. The picture was captured this week, with the event lasting about 1 hour.

Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20,000 feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.

Enjoy




[The Duping Scoop]

Good thing I didn't name names! This email comes in from a good, reputable source (my father-- sorry dad :) Beautiful photo of an event I've never seen before. Add in the fact of local connection and I think 'I can't wait to share this'.

So I go to Digg and write up my title and description (here's the link)

http://intelligantt.blogspot.com/2007/03/ever-heard-of-fire-rainbow.html

And what should show up but the exact same photo from August of 2006. (here's that link)

http://learnandtell.com/2006/08/01/rainbow-that-set-the-sky-on-fire/

Now I'm not one to show the world my family's dirty laundry, but someone's in troooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubbbbbbbbllllllllllleeee :)

The other reason I immediately believed it? The statistics. I'm a sucker for statistics. 20,000 feet. 58 degrees. Yeah Baby!

And people wonder how rumors and mistruths propagate.