Agile Complexification Inverter

 ... no shit, here I am... taking a break from the redundantly recursive link sifting that is iOS development in the 21st Century.  I can not count the stack pushes I've had since about 11 AM and it's only 6:37 PM still time for a beer and a pondering session... A great story allways starts... no shit, there we were... So at my Day Job <euphemism for what I get PAID to do... but I'm unemployeed> I'm writing a little easy App for a colleague - it's a learning chance for me... and it might provide some value.  I'm busily rewiring my brain (there is some question to its inherent plasticity) at my age - so ONE valuable technique is to get drunk enough not to care so damn much and bang out some crap one night - then in the morning come back and fix the hell out of it.  There may be other valuable techniques... Well, last night I decided that the easy array data structure was just going to have to go... that was simple at first and went a long way - but I'd ...

Great artist sign their work. There is one part of the original Macintosh I'd like to frame on the wall. Apple part number 810-0374 - the case. It contains signatures of Macintosh design team in raised human font. Folklore about the Macintosh design team's signing party . Great artist sign their work Are you an artist? I was thinking about this story...  imagine telling it like this. Some years ago, when the computer industry was not yet launched, and might fold on any quarterly earning report on Wall Street, there was an SOB that drove many team members crazy.  This SOB parked a motorcycle along with a piano in the lobby to inspire the designers.  Some people believe this SOB didn't know how to build teams.  Yet he did know how to build products.  And he did build one of the most successful late 20th/21st Century organizations.  Compare it's operation to that of conglomerates it's revenue size and you will see a stark difference.  T...

So you have the new Apple Watch - yes, it's quite nice, and you love the convenience of all your notification right on your wrist.  Did you notice that when the VP was asking about the project, as you were describing the challenges you paused, lifted your arm, checked the latest notification that she was a bit put-out by the exchange.  Although you went on to tell her that your team had overcome the challenges with an innovative solution.  The VP disengaged in the dialogue and walked away.  Wonder why? What was the unintended message of your body language during that encounter? Did you signal that you were busy, late for an appointment, not interested in the conversation, that you were dismissing the participant - what did your raised arm and glancing at your watch tell the VP?  Is that truly what you wished to signal? We have had 10 years to learn to use a iPhone and now in meetings you will notice people signaling that they are prepared to engage i...

There's a lot of talk these days in the tech sector about "digital _________" or a "______ Platform" - have you noticed it also?  I find this astonishing, as the world turned digital back in the 1980s along with disco.  And as for platform - well adding the word to shoes was a bad idea back then also. So what causes this echo from the past? I don't know - shall we investigate this over the next few months - the dog days of summer 2017? Summer is a season.  Season are cyclical - they come around again and again.  So this brings us to ponder... When do the days get longer and why?  Most people answer Summer.  And what's the longest day of the year (Northern Hemisphere)?  Right June 20th, the summer solstice .  And so the next few days the daylight is getting less and less - all summer long the days get shorter and shorter.  Almost completely backwards from what we thought we knew. Do you remember way back in 2001... when Steve Jobs ...

My progress in The Impossible Room - iOS app puzzle game by Maruf Nebil. “Only one room  Only one way  Key is alive  Leave or stay" Spoiler Alert --- some puzzles are solved below. Day 1. Collected Items  ———— paper scrap lamp shade screwdriver tesla book USB cord Book Shelf  - opens Screwdriver ------------------------------------- Aristotle  384 BCE Roger Bacon  1214 - 1292 Leonardo Da Vinci  1452 - 1519 Copernicus  1473 - 1543 Galileo  1564 - 1642 Newton  1642 - 1727 Faraday  1791 - 1867 Tesla  1856- 1943 Alan Turing  1912 - 1954 Stephen Hawking  1942  3 Stars - 5 points; ball on one point - 1 missing star;  color of stars & books may signify the overlap of authors lives shark - pinguen - robot   - got a  USB cord in drawer (^^^)   <(“)   :|] Bird - Dog - Elephant - Dolphin   (...

Apple and IBM joining forces - oh really?  Will George Orwell be rolling over in his grave - will his 1984 become truth in 2014? Well, one must follow the news to make sense of that gibberish... and the 1984 reference.... it goes back to the famous Superbowl Apple commercial introducing the Mac . An IBM/Apple partnership to tunnel into the enterprise walled garden for devices is a great idea.  As a consumer it works for me.  I don't know of any enterprises that can pass the Starbucks Test (test for the ubiquity of access for the digital native). In 2005 (years before the iPhone) Apple joined forces with Motorola to launch the ROKR, a cell phone and iTunes connected music player. It took the world a few years to recognize that the Wright brothers had flown the first airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC (first flight in Dec. 1903 to 1908 public demonstrations). -- The Wright Brothers by  David McCullough   "Jointly developed with Motorola and made available ...

Many companies have initiatives to become innovative.  There are some companies that don't appear to need a leadership sponsor to get competitive innovation - wonder why.  Perhaps they have some fundamental aspect to their organization that allows them to be creative.  What would be those aspects? Why It Feels Like We're Falling Behind It can take years to notice a life-changing invention.  - Motley Fool It took the world a few years to recognize that the Wright brothers had flown the first airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC (first flight in Dec. 1903 to 1908 public demonstrations). Here's my research on the topic of creativity. The musical group OK-Go! describes their process to achieve creativity - and the math behind the wonder and surprise they are reliably able to deliver. An awesome lesson in discovery - planning to play - to achieve innovation. Predicting Creativity in the Wild -- a research paper on the use of sociometric monitoring of teams by Sociom...

People just don't like change.  Case in point, all the hubbub over the new iPhone 5 lightening adapter plug.  So many people are upset that the connector is changing from the 9 year old iPod 30 pin adaptor to the new lightning adaptor.  Yet at the same time the iPhone 5 pre-orders have record sells ( 2 million in first 24 hrs ). Why did Apple force this change on it's loyal customer base?  Dont they know we humans don't adapt well to changes.  Oh yes, we want the new shinny iPhone but we want it to stay the same AND get better. Maybe this picture will give you a clue as to why Apple changed the connector. It shows a typical iPhone and it's 30 pin connector, with a Raspberry Pi.  The Raspberry Pi is a full fledged computer on a board.  Take a look at the board and the most obvious thing is all the connectors.  The interface connections are the largest things.  They occupy the most space. Raspberry Pi & iPhone compared The ...

What does it take to have a first rate customer experience when there are more customers than sales representatives?  Yes, this means there is going to be some form of wait, a queue.  Here is my comparison of experience at the Apple Store to that of the restaurant, CheeseCake Factory which we went to right afterwards. At the Apple store we were put on a wait list to see a representative (the greeter used a text description and my wife's name to put her on the list explaining that the next available person would find us, as we browsed).  I asked what the description was, and this is how my wife was described: "tall, with long hair, in a jean jacket with multi-colored scarf".  I suggested that they had the technology to just snap a picture and attached it.  She said there might be privacy concerns with that. We browsed and found the item we needed (a Mini Display Port - HDMI adapter).  About the time we had found it an Apple ...

I am the Koontz family's designated Apple fan-boy.  The one that had the first iPhone, the one that talked Mom into buying an iMac.  But lately it has occurred to me that the title is being usurped.  First it was my mother-in-law that got the first iPad, when all I had was an iWant.  Now my mother has an iPad 2, I still only have iEnvy. While they have the new shiny toys - I've got more apps on my iPhone than they do.  However there are a few iPad only apps I cannot get.  Mom told me to get the NC Muesum of Art's app for the Rodin exhibit.  It is only avaliable on the iPad.  But the HD video is awesome on my MacBook Pro (bigger screen than the iPad). Rodin: The Cantor Foundation Gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art So what are the required apps for happiness? A list: Filxster - movie & theater search IMDb - Internet Movie Database Pandora - customized / personalized radio station Kindle / iBooks / Audiobooks / Google B...

I was sitting with some colleagues at the pub the other night, talking about one of my favorite subjects - Apple computer's highly innovate nature.  One person reflected that the one thing that made the iPhone successful was the touch screen.  That other devices had used a touch screen, but had not gotten in quite right.  Other devices that were using touch screens were clunky to use. He had apparently used several different devices with touch interfaces.  A benefit of the company he works for that has a loner program (want to try their software on a mobile device - borrow it for a few weeks).  I chatted with the person that runs the program, they have all the new toys and every week its like Christmas morning opening new packages.  What a brilliant program. Yes, I'd have to agree that one of the keys to the iPhone's success is the new user experience it allows.  Along with the wonderful opportunity for people (mere babes) to use a computer with abso...

Why is it so challenging for a company to get the Scrum Product Owner role right?  It is a great job.  Lots of power to envision a market an deliver the product that makes a difference in that space.  Plenty of feedback and opportunity to learn by guiding a truly Agile team toward achieving the goals. The responsibilities are few but require discipline and dedication to the vision of the product.  The key task is to prioritize (stack rank - not hi-low bucketing) the product backlog.  By doing this the product owner optimizes the return on investment for the project as a whole and within the enterprise ecosystem. Steve Jobs on innovation. "It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much." -- BusinessWeek Online , Oct. 12, 2004 I was reminded this week of why the committee of product owners will not work. I was working with a Steering Committee.  [Aside:  Is that term an oxymoron or wha...

What would you say to an iPad with a Thunderbolt port ?  Both high-res video and high speed data transfer. Well March 2, 2011 came and went, the iPad 2 didn't get a Thunderbolt port but did get HDMI output.  Looks like they've made the iPad 2 too thin for a Thunderbolt port.  Didn't see that coming. UPDATE:  But wait, perhaps a redesigned iOS connector would do the trick.  This is what some think is coming to the iPad and iPhone. Thunderbolt coming to iPhone and iPad  

I was just sent a link to a good article on smart phone security and safety.  It got me thinking about the mistakes I had made in my iPhone info security strategy.  Why had I made these simple mistakes? Common Sense Security for Your iPhone This article is about the basic.  Since I've had my iPhone stolen on a trip to Europe I'm an expert.  My iPhone had at the time: Find My iPhone installed and active.  But it didn't work, as the iPhone was in Airplane mode (being in Europe and off the home AT&T network).  Since the iPhone would not connect to the network, the Wipe Commands from Apple would never reach the iPhone (in Airplane mode).  A severe limitation to the security while traveling out of country (and an opportunity for a global service provider). My iPhone had Passcode turned on, it had SplashID - a safe for sensitive info like credit card numbers, etc.  I had all my credit card info, banking account numbers, driver's license, passp...

Well it's that time of year again,  Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas time, where all the companies roll out their iPad killers (circa 2010 & 2011).  If it were circa 2008 the theme would be iPhone killers, but we have progressed as a society. One great quote I read on the web was from Steve Martin in reference to CES - "Saw large wooden device that can fling boulders over castle walls. iPad killer." There are great minds trying to help companies unseat the Great and Powerful Oz ... uh Jobs, but even they are missing the silver slippers (that got ruby-ized for the Technicolor movie).  Note dear reader that I have a personal misconception that all allegories in America stem from the Wizard of Oz and I subscribe to the Monitery reform allegory of Frank Braum . I have gone so far as to require people on my teams to watch the movie and eat popcorn in order to better understand the idioms of their village idiot. Quick Toto, into the twister (worm hole) an...

Here's a fun exercise for an Agile training. Build a Fruity Logo. The story is to build a logo (new or well known) from the source material to be supplied. First have the team estimate the story in Story Points. Give no hints of the materials to be supplied. Then after some time go to Sprint Planning where the story to be considered is the logo. Have the PO discuss the story of building a logo. The team may of course resize the story. At this point the PO will allow the requirement of the logo being constructed from fruit to surface. Don't allow the team to just get the materials - they should have to estimate what they need in Story - Tasking. Perhaps they may discover during the Spring needs - these become impediments and my be provided (may not - discretion of facilitator). Team the start the Sprint. Constructs the logo from the fruit provided. Product Review & Retrospective (debrief). Materials: Example logos to choose from, Fruit many types, Cut...

You know of the droids of which I speak, correct? A Jedi Master uses mind control tricks to plant ideas in weaker minds.  It is an overt manipulation.  But what's the difference between manipulation and influence?  It is only when influence comes into our consciousness that it could be even considered manipulation.  And then all manipulation can not be the same, some must even be welcomed.  If one asked a coach for help with their tennis back swing, surely they would be open to manipulation. So when I've been manipulated by a Master Jedi, I smile and wonder how they did it. Guy Kawasaki just got me to FaceBook "Like" his new book Enchantment .  What manipulation did he use?  He offered me his first book "The Macintosh Way" in PDF for free (click link above for your copy).  How did he target me - a Mac fan - I don't know - could be I'm a fan.  Seemed a fair trade to me.  I'm sure I bought the book some 12 - 20 years ago, and it ma...