William Noyes Technology Services

Sometimes its funny how connections work.  I was recently reading an article on Robert Cain’s blog, ArcaneCode where he was discussing his concept of NET, or “No Extra Time.”  In a nutshell the idea is that many of us have time that is underutilized that we could use to learn something without investing any additional time.  For example,  I have a 45 minute commute to from work each day.  I’d been listening to a local radio show in the mornings, and comedy podcasts each afternoon.  Robert’s article got me thinking about all those business podcasts I’d subscribed to telling myself I’d listen to, but never did.  So that afternoon,  I glanced through the podcasts on my iPod, and found a series by Manager-tools about being an effective manager, and decided to utilized my afternoon drive to better myself.

Manager-tools is a series of podcasts and an associated website published by Mark Horstman and Michael Auzenne.  One of the first podcasts I listened to refered to some older episodes about one-on-one meetings with your direct reports.  The idea that I needed to have more meetings was so outlandish that I had to go to the website and find out more. (more…)

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OK, the real question is does your Technology Consultant (or IT/IS Manager/Director) know YOU?
Anyone who works with computers or technology knows the question, “Which computer is the best?” We geeks get this question constantly from friends, family, neighbors, , coworkers, and people on the street, etc. They want to know which brand, which video card, which printer, how much memory, how fast a processor, and how much money. How should I know? To make an informed recommendation, I need to know what you want to do with it, and what you might want to do tomorrow. The computer I recommended to my niece who is just starting high school is completely different from the one I recommended to a co-worker whose son is an avid first-person shooter game player, and both are different than the ones I buy at work. (more…)

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When I began thinking about this post, I thought it was going to be just a rant about an experience I had at lunch. I have mixed feelings about posting rants, it feels a little unprofessional, but sometimes it feels so good to rant and rave! However as I thought about it, I decided there was a lesson to be learned, that hopefully makes this a worthwhile post.

I frequently eat lunch at one particular sandwich shop, often eating there two or three times in a week. They have a frequent buyer card program, where after five sandwiches, you get 20% off, after ten sandwiches, you get $5 off (basically a free sandwich), after fifteen, its 40%, and after twenty, its $10 (two sandwiches). Several weeks ago, I’d reached the ten sandwich mark on my card, and redeemed it. The cashier gave me the discount, and gave me a new card. Later I was thinking that I should have gotten the old card back to work on the 40% discount. However, I’d been happy with the service and the food, so I let the issue go. Yesterday, I’d gotten to the 20% level on the new card (which should have been 40%), I gave the card to the cashier as I ordered, he ran up the order without the card, and calculated the discount on a hand held calculator, he then keyed in the $20 dollar bill I handed him and gave me my change, without entering the discount into the register! In my head I thought it’s only 20-30 cents, and decided not to make a scene during the busy lunch rush. Driving back to the office, it kept nagging at me, it wasn’t 20 cents, it was really 20% of $10.00, or $2.00, and it should have been 40%! So now I’ve been “cheated” twice within a month by this shop. I kept thinking, I should put this on my blog, and never eat there again. (more…)

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