The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

Check out this SlideShare Presentation. Steve Jobs a man who went after his dreams.

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

View more presentations from Carmine Gallo.

Cynical Project Mamangement tips

This is a guest post from Michael Krigsman of TechRepublic’s sister site ZDNet. You can follow Michael on his ZDNet blog IT Project Failures, or subscribe to the RSS feed.
1. PROJECTS WITH REALISTIC BUDGETS AND TIMETABLES DON’T GET APPROVED.
2. THE MORE DESPERATE THE SITUATION THE MORE OPTIMISTIC THE PROGRESS REPORT.
3. A USER IS SOMEBODY WHO REJECTS THE SYSTEM BECAUSE IT’S WHAT HE ASKED FOR.
4. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROJECT SUCCESS AND FAILURE IS A GOOD PR COMPANY.
5. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE PERSON WHO DOESN’T HAVE TO DO IT.
6. EVERY FAILING, OVERLY AMBITIOUS PROJECT, HAS AT ITS HEART A SERIES OF SUCCESSFUL SMALL ONES TRYING TO ESCAPE.
7. A FREEZE ON CHANGE MELTS WHENEVER HEAT IS APPLIED.
8. YOU UNDERSTOOD WHAT I SAID, NOT WHAT I MEANT.
9. IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING, JUST TALK ABOUT SPECIFICS.
10. IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED, RENAME THE PROJECT.
11. EVERYONE WANTS A STRONG PROJECT MANAGER - UNTIL THEY GET HIM. – (I LOVE THIS ONE!!!)
12. ONLY IDIOTS OWN UP TO WHAT THEY REALLY KNOW.
13. THE WORST PROJECT MANAGERS SLEEP AT NIGHT.
14. A FAILING PROJECT HAS BENEFITS WHICH ARE ALWAYS SPOKEN OF IN THE FUTURE TENSE.
15. PROJECTS DON’T FAIL IN THE END; THEY FAIL AT CONCEPTION.
16. VISIONS ARE USUALLY TREATABLE.
17. OVERLY AMBITIOUS PROJECTS CAN NEVER FAIL IF THEY HAVE A BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND NO END.
18. MOST COMPANIES DON’T PUNISH ERROR, ONLY ITS DISCLOSURE.
19. THE MOST DIFFICULT WAY IS, IN THE LONG RUN, THE EASIEST.
20. A REALIST IS ONE WHO’S PRESCIENTLY DISAPPOINTED IN THE FUTURE.

Superstitions

The town of Aurora in Ontario Canada has just voted to allow the removal of the number 4 from addresses because people of Asian origin claim it brings bad luck. Apparently it sounds like "Death". See the UPI article here.

On the other hand, a city officiel of the city of Palmerston North in New Zealand want to remove the ban on number 13. Apparently the ban is in effect to not allow houses to have 13 as their street address. See the UPI article here.

An introduction

Since I am now listed on the Atheist blogroll it was suggested that I write a short note to introduce myself to the blogroll readers. I submitted it to the Atheist blogroll, but here's a copy.

If you got here from the blogroll, thanks for visiting, there's a lot more fun things to see below.

THE INTRODUCTION

Like many other atheists, I was raised in a religious household in a very religious family in a small village in Canada. I never questioned our faith and practiced “religiously” well into my twenties.

In my early twenties, I chose to become an electrical engineer and was introduced to critical questioning by many of my teachers and professors. Nothing to do with religion but more to understand before I applied something I learned. To understand, one has to question, to study, to analyse and I was turned on to this approach.

This brought my religion into question. Why this and why that. How does THIS make sense? Is it reasonable to believe A, B or C? So as a matter of course, I decided to study further into my own Roman Catholic religion and took it upon myself to obtain a certificate in theology from the University of Montreal. A “certificate” is one of many potential degrees one can get towards a full Bachelor’s degree. Students are assigned to a mentor, in my case a most intelligent and articulate priest who was assisted by a deacon. For 3 years, I learned the foundation of religions, of faith and of my own religion. In order to obtain a certificate, students are given “missions” or responsibilities. I was assigned to accompany the dying and those who were left behind. Not a fun assignment but with God’s help, I was sure I could make it work.

My first very deep question came one night when I was visiting the parents of a 3 day old baby who had died before being baptised. The mother told me: ”What hurts the most is knowing that he will never enter heaven, that he will linger in limbo for the rest of time and that we will not see him for eternity” I had no intelligent, or even “faith based” answer to this one. I could not believe it myself but this was the teaching of our Church. “I am sure God will see to it that your child will join you when the time comes” I said. “But this is not what the Church teaches”, the mom said.

I went home that night with the seed of doubt firmly planted in my soul.

To tell the rest would take too long but my faith slowly ebbed, my reasoning took over. Regularly, I saw inconsistencies and contradictions in the bible and in the Church’s teaching and actions. I did not set out to prove I was right; I simply looked for things that would make sense. Finally, I simply stopped asking questions (to myself and to others) and just let this part of my pass fade away.

Two years ago, my son gave me “The God Delusion” from Prof. Richard Dawkins. That was the key that opened the floodgates. It EXPLAINED, in simple terms why religion is wrong, why evolution is right and why “there is probably no God”. I then read Sam Harris’ “Letter to a Christian Nation” and “The end of faith” which put a different color on the subject and then Christopher Hitchen’s “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”, which put a totally different twist on the whole thing. Since Mr. Hitchen is a lot more confrontational and direct than either Harris or Dawkins, his message comes off a lot stronger. His position that it is morally wrong, even abusive to teach religion to children is totally aligned with my own point of view.

I therefore decided to “come out” and simply, without patronizing, confirm that I was an atheist. I joined the “Out Campaign” and even translated Prof. Dawkin’s introduction letter to the campaign. The next logical bit was to add these elements to my already existing blog which has now taken a definite turn presenting the wrongs of religion, the abuse of so called “religious models” (such as priests molesting little boys – a far too common occurrence). In my life, I have simply stopped “respecting” religious people just because they were religious. I have started to speak to people who want to represent me in our governments (local, school, provincial etc) asking them what their stance is on the separation of church and state.

One of the most important events of my atheist life was brought to me again from my son, and his girlfriend when my grandson was born about a year ago. They decided that he would not get baptised. This is important in that his parents are the first of their generation in our family to live by their true values. If he wants to adopt a religion, he may do so when he’s grown up – hopefully he won’t, but that will be HIS choice, not an inheritance from other people’s beliefs.

Well I do run off at the mouth don’t I?

All this to say that I thought I would share this bit of life with you dear reader. Nothing earth shattering, nothing that will change your life no doubt. Just another drop in the ocean of disbelief and of rejoicing in the amazing beauty of nature, of life IN THIS LIFE and in the liberating feeling one gets in “coming out”, simply stating who I am and why.

If you want to know a little more, just visit my blog. It's not all about atheism. It's about humor, photography and the quirky things I see here and there.

References:

The God Delusion on Wikipedia.

Richard Dawkins web site

Same Harris' web site

Christopher Hitchen's web site

The Out Campaign

Starred for life

Starred for life my ass.

This girl obviously has some problems and they're not all on her face.

Just to think that people like that get to vote scares me.

A new blog I found

This is a great blog.

Ordinary words with extraordinary meanings.

Love it

Check it out

http://myfirstdictionary.blogspot.com/

Latest scapegoat

Latest scapegoat, originally uploaded by JumpinJack.

A text from my cyber-friend Jumping Jack that rings a note with me.

After caving in to demands of sheep breeders (even though sheep never played any major role in stock breeding in Slovenia, which is OTOH proudly boasting about "preserving" its uniquely diverse environment) and approving killing off more than a half of brown bear and wolf population, the Ministry of Environment is now approving more-or-less unlimited hunting of grey crows to please the farmers.

Crows are allegedly responsible for huge losses of crop and (also allegedly) "decimating the population of other birds" (the latter most likely claimed just to hush the environmentalists) - though no major study was actually done about it and in spite of EU directives about protecting all bird species.

Well, crows certainly aren't my favourite birds either - and yes, they are omnivorous and sometimes hunt smaller birds and steal their eggs - but fer cryin' out loud, that's no reason to exterminate them (and destroy the natural balance again in a new way)!

If you want to protect smaller birds, stop destroying their habitats, chopping down old, hollow trees and poisoning them with pesticides and herbicides. Rather start feeding them in winter, provide them with nesting birdhouses and plant a new hedge or a tree in your backyard, instead of those you chopped down to make a parking lot for your new car.

As far as the farmers are concerned - better start worrying about the urban sprawl that turns your farming land into suburbs at alarming rate. Not to mention climate changes (that cattle breeders also contribute quite a lot to). Last year's hail storms destroyed the crop more completely that any birds - even in hitchcockian quantities - could ever do.

Why don't you install those bloody nets - they'll keep out the hail as well as birds. If the crows won't get so much free food, their population will go down by itself and stabilise at a new natural balance.Plus first and foremost - stop growing those genetically modified plants, containing toxins that not only make people, birds and livestock sick and sterile, but also demand that you use herbicides to fight weeds, instead of mowing etc. etc.

Fer goodness sake, start living with the land, instead of fighting it all the time!

.. and I agree with JJ. Small, natural approaches. Feeding birds, protecting animals not "taking charge of them".

We are so arrogant, believing that we control the planet, we control animals and we control everything.

Some days I feel we are simply passers-by and that "the planet" tolerates human kind - and please stop talking about THE PLANET like it was your best friend or some human-like entity.

Do you believe the arrogance? "The planet" has been gently rolling on for MILLIONS OF YEARS and WE think WE can make a difference?

People who want to "save the planet" don't want to do that, they want to save THEIR SKIN. Even more, they want YOU to do something while they navigate on large ships, get MILLIONS OF DOLLARS from governments and generally make life difficult for others. Sure we should be careful, but SAVING THE PLANET??? Come on give me a break will ya?

When "the planet" gets tired, to paraphrase George Carlin, it will simply shake US off like a bunch of flees and integrate the hydro-carbon, plastic and the waste we have left behind into a new, renewed echo-system.

Save the planet.

Sheeesh, the arrogance of human kind is unbelievable.

Studio Boo

James 6 Vintage, originally uploaded by Amber... Bamberboo. Click either to get to Amber's Flickr photo site.

A "Cyber friend" of mine has just opened a photography studio in Scotland and has confided that now all she needs is "to do a little advertising"
Well from Canada, there isn't a lot of business to be had but I'm just passing the word. Amber is a great photgrapher, trukly close to her subjects and will make yuo look better than you do in real life. Althoug it wasn't hard to do with little James over here.

You can visit the studio right here. http://www.studioboo.co.uk/index2.php

Photoshop Disaster - Take 2

Je ne peux simplement pas résister.
C'est sans doute un tueur / démembreur en série qui veut se faire passer pour un jardinier. Le problème c'est qu'il laisse ses membres traîner partout!

Photoshop Disasters

Les "artistes" qui utilisent Photoshop et pire encore les modèles qui espèrent que des artiste vont utiliser photoshop devraient vraiment jeter un deuxième coup d'oeil avant la publication du produit final. La pauvre fille est peut être en string très serré, mais il devait vraiment être trop petit lors du shooting.
Vu sur un site de "Photoshop Disaster".

Allez checker ce site http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

Vraiment drôle

Pierre Léon Lalonde

Pierre Léon, un nom inhabituel pour un gars tout à fait spécial. Rencontré une seule fois lors du lancement de son livre, j'ai tout de suite compris que le gars était vrai. Aye, c'est pas rien et ça court pas les rues de Montréal du vrai monde.

Chauffeur de taxi, écrivain, bonne gueule à la télé, photographe. Pas toujours nécessairement dans cet ordre. J’me dis que le talent est certainement pas réparti également et que certains en attrapent plus que d’autres au passage. Tant mieux que des gens comme Pierre le partagent avec nous.

Aller checker son blog. Ça vaut vraiment le détour.
Aller checker ses photos. Ça vaut vraiment le détour.
Si vous voulez écouter sa voix, cliquez.
Et si vous repassez par ici, le lien vers son blogue est toujours à gauche de ma page

Roger McGuinn

Ceux d’entre vous qui êtes âgés de plus de 45 ans vous souviendrez de « The Byrds » et de leur chanteur principal Roger McGuinn, ben imaginez vous donc qu’il a un blog lui aussi. Écrit par un de ses "roadies" mais très proche de la réalité. Un bon mélange de musique, tour dates, un peu d'arrière scène et des nouvelles de Camilla, sa femme, tour manager etc.
Son blog est ici.
Un peu de nostalgie.