michaelwender.com

Links of Interest – First Person Perspectives on Flying

Michael Wender — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:13:15 +0000

Today’s Links of Interest feature videos that give you some amazing first person perspectives on flying. While each is spectacular in its own right, together this set takes you through an increasingly exhilarating exploration of man’s quest to soar through the heavens. Get a pilot’s eye view of what it’s like to fly a corporate jet, strap on a carbon-fiber jet wing and fly in formation with two jets, and base jump off of a mountain wearing only a “wing suit” and parachute:

1) A Day in the Life of a Corporate Pilot

Ryan Roth is married to one of my favorite business colleagues. He’s also a corporate pilot. Using a GoPro camera mounted on his forehead, Ryan gives us an up close look at his work day as he delivers a Pilatus PC-12 to a maintenance facility for its annual inspection.

2) Jetman Flies in Formation With Actual Jets

Swiss pilot Yves “Jetman” Rossy was featured on the cover of National Geographic in September of this year. He has designed his own carbon-fiber wing fitted with jet engines which he uses to race through the sky at speeds up to 184-189mph. In this video, he flys in formation with two jets. (HT: WIRED.com)

3) Sense of Flying

Espen Fadnes has been dubbed “The World’s Fastest Flying Human Being”. This video takes us to the top of a high peak in Norway to watch as Espen jumps off a cliff for a 155mph controlled descent to the alpine lake far below. Using multiple camera angles and top-quality production, I was absolutely floored as I watched his flight unfold. As soon as I finished watching it, I immediately watched it again. If you are going to watch one video in this set, this one is it.

Book Review: Bruce Catton’s A Stillness at Appomattox

Michael Wender — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:24:51 +0000

The third book in Bruce Catton’s non-fiction Civil War trilogy, A Stillness at Appomattox, came to my attention via a lofty recommendation. It was described as an accurate, heavily footnoted work which reads like a well-written work of fiction. Reviewer John Miller commented, “If every historian wrote like Bruce Catton, no one would read fiction.” Another reviewer commented that he was so taken by the writing that he read the book in one sitting. With reviews such as these in mind, I began Catton’s book back in April of this year and finished it this week, and although I certainly didn’t read it all in one sitting, I did find it a very satisfying read.

For the genre of wartime histories, Catton’s work was ahead of its time. He puts you right in the thick of the action by relying on first-hand accounts from the soldiers who fought the war. Amidst the grand drama of the conflict, Catton shows you what it was like to be an infantry man marching for miles along alternately dry and dust choked roads or bogged down highways of mud. Perhaps for a moment you have time to make your bivouac and rest only to be summoned into battle, leaving your half-cooked breakfast on the fire. It’s as if Catton was there although he was writing nearly one-hundred years after the war.

Given the quality of Catton’s writing, you may wonder why it took me so long to read his book. Life circumstances aside, the book wasn’t a “page-turner” for me because it was a little too drawn out at times. However, despite the slow going, reading the book was a satisfying and rewarding glimpse into our history, the kind of thing that’s worth reading all the way through.

The book’s lasting image in my mind occurs on its last page. General Ulysses S. Grant’s army has surrounded General Robert E. Lee’s army outside the small Virginia hamlet of Appomattox Court House (this is the name of the town, not just a building). The armies have faced off against each other with the Rebels quickly realizing they must declare a truce or be annihilated. A great stillness takes over the land as the two great armies solemnly face one another. General Grant makes his way into town to meet with General Lee at the McClean House. Catton concludes his book by writing that “as [Grant and his generals] neared the end of their ride, a Yankee band in a field near the town struck up ‘Auld Lang Syne’” (377). Considering the great drama that has played out over the proceeding pages, that detail gave me a sublime sense of the moment. I could hear the sounds, see the men, and feel the emotion of a profound moment in our nation’s history. It’s details like these that Catton includes throughout his book, and they make his account of history come alive.

Rediscovering Twitter

Michael Wender — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:00:04 +0000

My use of Twitter has vacillated between moderate to non-existent during the three and a half years I’ve used the service. During my first year or so of tweeting, I was amazed by how it constantly facilitated real world connections. Then as I reached a relational saturation point, it became more noise in my digital world. However, despite its ability to distract, Twitter keeps drawing me back with its unique mix of entertainment, education and community. I’ve found the key to using it has been mastering Twitter lists and using my favorite Twitter app, Tweetdeck.

Filter Out the Noise with Lists
Once you start following a large number of people who tweet regularly, your Twitter stream serves more as a overwhelming river of distraction. All the tweets with links, photos and quips will either serve to prevent you from getting any work done, or you’ll feel hopelessly lost amidst all the conversation.

At this point, you need to learn how to use Twitter’s list feature to start filtering out valuable topics and conversations. Twitter Lists let you create subsets of people to follow. You can add people you follow or even someone you’re not following. As an example, here are the lists I currently maintain with my account:

From reading my list titles and descriptions you can probably get the gist of what they’re about. The only thing I’ll add is that the little padlock next to a list means that it’s private, only I can see it. The others are publicly available for other people to follow. You can follow lists on Twitter in a fashion similar to following an individual user on Twitter.

If you’re interested in using lists with your Twitter account, the best place to start is the Twitter Help Center article How To Use Twitter Lists.

Tweetdeck – Tweet Like a Power User
While you’re getting a handle on Twitter lists, you should also get a handle on Tweetdeck. My favorite feature is how it lets you display multiple columns of tweets. These columns can be made up of your main stream, replies, mentions and DMs; however, my favorite use for columns are to display the Twitter lists I mentioned above. The following screenshot shows my Tweetdeck (click the image to see it full-size):

I use Tweetdeck to display my various Twitter lists.

At first blush, I’m sure it looks distracting and overwhelming. However, once you get used to how the information is organized, you can quickly and efficiently scan the interface to find the information you’re looking for.

As you can see in the screenshot, I have my columns setup for All Friends, Mentions and three lists:

My Conversationalists list is what makes Twitter fun. These are folks whom I either know personally, have met via Twitter or both. Throughout the day I’ll check that list to see what my friends are talking about. These are the folks that I joke with, share links with and converse with on a regular basis.
The WordPress list is comprised of people who work with WordPress, the software I use to develop websites. This list keeps me up-to-date on the latest industry news and helps to supplement my professional development.
Finally, my Clients list keeps me apprised of what the people I work for are talking about on the web.

Reaping the Benefits
With the help of Twitter Lists and Tweetdeck, Twitter has become vastly more useful and beneficial to me lately. Here are a handful of benefits I’ve gained from Twitter in the past two weeks:

Nextdoor.com – A Social Network for Neighborhoods – Via a tweet from my friend Scott Adcox (@sadcox), I learned about Nextdoor. It’s an easy-to-use social network optimized for use by neighborhoods. To join a Nextdoor network, you must verify that you actually live in the neighborhood whose network you’re trying to join. I learned about this service at the same time I was trying to solve some communication problems for the HOA in my neighborhood.
jAVERDE Coffee is Open for Business – Ever since their first location closed this past March, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the grand re-opening of jAVERDE Coffee in their new West Town Mall Location. By following the owner’s tweets on Twitter, I learned of their “soft-opening”, and I was able to drop by for coffee on their first day open.
Email Subscriptions Now Available in WordPress Jetpack – I use the WordPress Jetpack plugin on many of the websites I develop for my clients. Yesterday, a tweet by @lloydbudd alerted me to the fact that the plugin’s new email subscriptions feature would solve a problem one of my clients was having.
Reconnecting with Old Friends – If you haven’t used Twitter to tweet with people you actually know, you may smirk at my suggestion. But, when you tweet with people you know in the real-world, it actually forms meaningful connections. Now that I’m up on many of my friend’s online conversations, the next time we see each other we’ll already have a small sense of what we’ve been up to. Our shared tweets help to bridge the gap that happens after you haven’t seen one another for a while.

In sharing how I use Twitter and how I benefit from it, I hope it helps you see one great way to use the service. It doesn’t have to be about self-promotion, inane chatter, celebrity gossip, mindless distraction or any other use that comes to mind. Rather, with the right technique and tools, Twitter can be a very valuable part of your online presence.

Links of Interest – Home Technology

Michael Wender — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:31:14 +0000

As we prepare for adding an addition to our home, new home technologies have caught my eye. In this Links of Interest, I highlight two home technologies which promise to help you save money and a social network designed specifically for your neighborhood.

Nest | The Learning Thermostat – One might wonder how a thermostat can be updated to the 21st century. Check out the Nest thermostat to find your answer. A team of former Apple engineers have created a consumer friendly “smart” thermostat. It learns your patterns of life, adjusting the temperature accordingly, all the while saving you money.

SWITCH Light Bulbs – SWITCH is looking to re-write the book on energy efficient light bulbs. Rather than using fluorescent bulbs, their bulbs use LEDs which emit a natural light, last longer and don’t cause a home environmental hazard if you break them.

Nextdoor | Your Neighborhood Social Network – Nextdoor is a neighborhood social network which may actually help facilitate what has become a rare occurrence in our modern world: real-world interaction with your neighbors. Just yesterday, I signed up to create a Nextdoor site for my neighborhood. I look forward to reporting my findings here on this blog. Until then, check out Nextdoor. Watch their 90 second video to quickly get a sense of how it works.

Links of Interest: Remembering Steve Jobs

Michael Wender — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:26:41 +0000

Like many people, I’ve been fascinated by Steve Jobs impact upon our world. With his passing last week, I’ve come across many good reads offering different perspectives on one of the greatest innovators of our time:

Steve Jobs and the Portal to the Invisible – Esquire
Originally published in October 2008 with updates in 2011, this article looks at various aspects of Jobs’ life and their influence upon his passions, drive and genius.

Xerox PARC, Apple, and the Truth About Innovation – The New Yorker
This piece by Malcolm Gladwell provided me with a clearer picture of Steve Jobs’ fabled visit to Xerox’s Palo-Alto Research Center (PARC). Reading it was like watching a dimly viewed myth materialize into reality.

The Wizard and the Mortal: Two Sides of Genius – NY Times
Many have likened Steve Jobs to a modern day Thomas Edison. This piece, by a man who wrote books about both men, does a good job of providing profound comparisons and contrasts between the two.

What are some great stories about Steve Jobs? – Quora
Here’s a great collection of user contributed stories about Steve Jobs.

Thank You, Mr. Jobs

Michael Wender — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:05:33 +0000

I learned about Jobs' death while browsing on my iPad.

As our second daughter was born a week and a half ago, I haven’t had time lately to peruse my usual news outlets. However, last night before bed, we’d laid Paige down, and I had a spare moment to browse the web on my iPad. I pulled up the NY Times, and I was greeted by the news that Steve Jobs had died. I was immediately taken by the sadness of his passing, a much admired tech-icon taken too soon.

This morning before I get to work, I’m aware of how much what I do has been influenced by Steve Jobs. I develop websites with my iMac. I stay up-to-date with the latest developments in web design by browsing the web and reading feeds on my iPad. Each day I talk to my clients on my iPhone. Yet, as I’ve written before, I’ve made the switch to Mac only recently. However, even before the switch, Steve Job’s fingerprints have been upon the tools of my trade.

The very concept of a “personal computer” found much of its genesis in Job’s mind. During his fabled visit to Xerox’s Palo-Alto Research Campus (PARC), it was Jobs who saw how the combination of a computer, a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI) was the key to bringing computing power to the masses. Now thirty some-odd years later, I, like many other freelancers, benefit from the power of personal computing. Via these machines, we’re able to do meaningful work and make a living from the comfort of our home offices.

During our lifetimes, we’ve been witness to a remarkable explosion of technology. Steve Jobs stands out as a true innovator and visionary of our time. For those of us who work with, play with and use computers and mobile devices each day, we are indebted to Mr. Jobs’ skill, vision and aesthetic. Thank you, Mr. Jobs for your contributions to this world and our lives.

Celebrating 10 Years in Business

Michael Wender — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:54:38 +0000

Tomorrow will be the 10th anniversary of michaelwender.com. I started this business in my old bedroom at my parents house, and through the years it has grown into an enterprise servicing over seventy clients all across the United States and Canada. I never dreamed I’d spend my career working from my own home, but along the way I’ve discovered that freelancing is truly my “dream job”. Funny thing is, ten years ago my career as a freelancer was almost over before it started…

“Do I really want to do this?”

Ten years ago my career aspirations were suffering from a serious lack of motivation. In June of 2001, I was laid off from my job as a web designer/graphic artist for QuVIS¹ Semiconductor (Quality Visual Image Systems) in Oak Ridge. During the previous year, I’d taken over their entire online branding. However, being primarily an engineering/technical company, their management under utilized my creative services. I got burned out because my skills and talents didn’t amount to much in the overall scheme of the company. I was an expansive, round peg trying to fit in a small square hole.

I was so disenchanted with web design and graphic arts that I considered a career change. I had an offer to be a youth minister at a church in Orlando, Florida, and I was also having a blast working with youth at a church in Knoxville. Working with people has always been something I enjoy and do well and perhaps the ministry was where I should be. However, as I was considering my options, I also made plans to start my own freelance consultancy.

Tennessee’s “Silicon Gulch” Provides a Steady Stream of Clients

California may have “Silicon Valley”; however, Oak Ridge National Labs along with many other tech startups, make East Tennessee another hotbed of high technology jobs and opportunities. My brother, an electrical engineer and VP of Marketing for a micro-chip company, calls our region the “Silicon Gulch”.

Working for a year in the Oak Ridge tech sector provided me with a wealth of contacts. Tech savvy firms are always in need of graphic designers and web developers who can translate their jargon and concepts into marketing materials. Graphic designers who excel in this environment must have a rare combination of an artist’s heart and an engineer’s mind. This fits me to a “t” as I love to create while paying close attention to details and specifications. The day I was laid off, I received two offers for freelance work from our office mates at ASIC International.

My First Gig – Should I take it?

That summer I dabbled with a couple of freelance projects, but it wasn’t until Monday, September 17, 2001 that I took my first real, paying gig. It was a small software firm who’d heard about me through my brother and my work in Oak Ridge. They needed help with their logo, website and overall branding.

Prior to our meeting I was having doubts as to whether or not I should go. I was afraid I’d take the job and then discover I lacked the motivation to finish. But, thanks to my mother speaking frankly with me (yes, I owe a lot to my mother…and father too for that matter), I decided to go and see what would happen. I could always do this one project and move on to something else if I didn’t enjoy the work.

As it turns out, that first meeting renewed my love for what I do. I was called in as the expert, and my client allowed me to advise, consult and direct using my expertise. No longer burdened by a QuVIS middle-management that didn’t know what to do with me, now I was free to manage the project and help my client achieve their goals.

Working from Home for Ten Years

My biggest fear as I began my freelance career was that my skill-set would stagnate since I wasn’t working in close contact with others in my field. However, I soon found out that wasn’t the case. In fact, given my field, freelancing has helped to broaden my skill-set as I often must find solutions on my own without relying on an office-mate who has the answer.

This has been just one of the many perks and surprises I’ve gleaned from working from the “home office” through the years. Others include:

Clients from all over – My primary means of gaining new clients has been via word-of-mouth referrals. However, I’ve gotten quite a few via my online footprint. I’ve gained one client from New Mexico simply because he liked my personal website. Many other clients have found me through various tutorials and screencasts I’ve published through the years. I currently work with clients in Georgia, North Carolina, New York, New Mexico and California.
Serving as an “expert witness” – A couple of years back I was hired to serve as an “expert witness”, testifying about the semi-permanence and residual effects of person’s online activities.
Discovering my “dream job” – The saying goes, “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work another day for the rest of your life.” When I graduated from Full Sail University in 1999, my plan to was to get a “dream job” working in special effects or digital animation in Southern California. But, as I followed my passions, I ended up working as a freelancer. Now, ten years into it, I must say it is my “dream job”. I love being able to use my expertise to help others accomplish their goals online.
Being my own boss – There are more perks to this than just setting my own schedule. For example, when I’m racing to finish a project for a client, I love the fact that I don’t have to get approval from management if I determine purchasing some new software will help me to get the job done quicker.

The other day I was commenting how I don’t believe I have many (if any) friends who have been working the same job for the past ten years. I’ve found that becoming your own boss solves this problem. However, much as I’ve been working the “same” job for ten years, the technology I use to build websites has changed tremendously during that time. I’ve supplemented my skill-set by learning new programming languages, softwares, techniques and operating systems. Through it all, the one thing that has stayed the same is how much I enjoy helping my clients succeed online. The satisfaction I gain from this is what keeps me doing what I do. So, to all my clients, friends and family who have helped make me what I am today: Thank you! Here’s to the next ten years and beyond!

¹QuVIS was a pioneer in digital cinema. Headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, they primarily worked with the film industry and were involved in several historic digital cinema “firsts” (e.g. first digital theatrical release, The Last Broadcast, 1998, Cannes Film Festival, Source: Wikipedia: Digital Cinema – Claims to significant events).

²QuVIS’ Oak Ridge offices were home to QuVIS Semiconductor. Our staff consisted of my brother, Reid Wender, James Miller and myself. We were working on using QuVIS’ technology to make high-quality Internet streaming video a reality.

New Business Cards, Conversation Starters

Michael Wender — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:31:59 +0000

My new business cards arrived this past weekend. On the front they have my name, a listing of four areas of my expertise, and my email address. This is plenty enough information for someone to get in touch with me; however, given my dealings on the web, they lack many other communication options that I frequently use (e.g. telephone, website, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, mailing address, etc.). In addition, these are the first set of business cards I’ve ordered in at least seven or eight years.

Why the obscurity, and why no business cards for so long?

When you provide consulting services it’s important to know the type of client you’re targeting. While I aim to make the web easy for my clients, it’s important for them to have a certain level of computer literacy. If an email isn’t a sufficient means of first contact with me, then that person should probably look elsewhere for help. Being selective about who I work with saves frustration on both of our parts.

During the past ten years, I’ve provided web consulting services to a steadily growing list of clients. Some clients have been with me since day one, others have come aboard in recent months. I haven’t needed business cards because of client referrals and limited bandwidth. Getting other people talking about you and your business is the best way to grow. Service providers shouldn’t have to rely on themselves for sales. Concentrate on doing an excellent job for your current clients, and you’ll find that you’ll soon have your own “sales team” of satisfied customers.

Given my selectivity in taking on clients and my steady stream of referrals, Why get business cards now? As it turns out, I’ve been in several meetings lately where cards have been exchanged, and I’ve had nothing to give in return. I’m hoping this new set of cards will allow me to join in on the fun while keeping to my ideals of selectivity and new business by referrals. I designed these cards to start a conversation rather than seal the deal.

Sharing Your Expertise

Michael Wender — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:01:22 +0000

In their 1993 paper, made famous in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, K. Anders Ericsson et al argue that to become an expert at something (think violinist, concert pianist, etc) you must log 10,000 or more hours of practice¹. And, they don’t mean just any kind of practice. They refer to “a kind of practice that includes an ‘active search for methods to improve performance,’ immediate informative feedback, structure, supervision from an expert, and ‘close attention to every detail of performance “each one done correctly, time and again, until excellence in every detail becomes firmly ingrained habit”‘”².

That equates to about ten years if you practice for twenty hours a week every week. In other words, rather than being the product of natural talent, expert proficiency, they argue, is a product of a lot of hard work. Of course, this flies in the face of our culture’s obsession with instant gratification and the quick fix. Want to be an expert at something? Read this book, apply these principles, summon your innate ability and BOOM! you’re there. Contrast this with a prescribed regimen of hard work, and it sounds like you’re taking advice from someone who still lives in a world filled with typewriters and rotary phones.

All of these ideas got me thinking about my career as a web developer. September 17th will mark ten years since I took my first project as a freelancer. During that time I’ve built a lot of websites, picked up several new skills and cultivated relationships with clients and colleagues which persist to this day. Although there are better designers and developers out there, in some sense of the word, having spent forty or so hours a week working on the web for ten+ years straight, I feel safe in saying I’m an expert at what I do: I help my clients go from concept to fully hosted website in as efficient and “painless” manner as possible. My business isn’t just about the websites I create, but also the client interaction that goes along with them. My development process as it stands now is the product of years of applied effort and cultivation of my craft. This has become evident to me via two recent interactions: one with a client and the other with a person I’ve been mentoring.

A couple of months ago, one of my clients asked me to train one of their staff who had been promoted to a new position. This new position combined both overall company marketing and branding along with responsibility, oversight and management of the company’s multiple websites.

Upon meeting this person, it was evident that he came from a good design background; however, he lacked any concept of how modern websites work. He was used to designing and building a website’s front-end without having to worry about the backend code, the database, and the site’s interaction with the server. This type of specialization is perfectly acceptable at a bigger company. Having specialists allows for certain efficiencies when teams are working together on projects. You do what you do well, while others do what they do well. However, this new position required that in addition to being a “web designer”, he also be a “web developer”, and my client wanted me to teach him. Without saying this out loud, I questioned whether my client’s request was possible. I can’t teach someone to do what I do over ten to twenty hours of consulting. But, I decided I’d try, and together we’d see what was possible.

As it turned out, my initial concerns held true. Over the course of many emails and a handful of on-site meetings, rather than working his way towards proficiency, this designer was becoming overwhelmed. Part of the problem was his desire to learn, and I don’t blame him. He had so much mental capital invested in marketing and branding for the entire company, that he didn’t have time for learning how to manage all the company’s websites. The more I worked with this person, the more apparent this situation became to me. So much in fact, that I wasn’t a bit surprised to learn later that he’d given them his notice. He’d found another job, and my guess is that it’s one where he can continue to specialize as a designer.

In the other situation I mentioned, I’ve been mentoring a friend by inviting him into my office to shadow me while I work. On and off for the past year and a half, I’ve spent a couple of hours with my protegé every other Friday afternoon. We’ve covered the gamut of what I do. I’ve shown him how I code sites, administer servers and create graphics. We’ve talked theory, trade-craft and business process. He’s been a great student and an avid learner. At times I douse him with a fire-hose of information, other times we focus on one detail. Along the way, things have begun to stick, and he has enjoyed several “Ah-ha!” moments. Given our limited time together, we both realize that this won’t make him an expert web developer, but it has broadened his “digital horizons” and sparked his creativity.

Lately I’ve been wondering, and this gets us to my real reason for writing this post, “What exactly would it take for me to bring my friend up to my level of expertise?” More time and practice would help, but how best to facilitate that? In addition, many of my clients share that it’s the little things, the in-tangibles like good communication and rapport that keep them coming back to use my services. It’s not so much that I’m a good web developer, it’s that my clients see me as a person of good character who handles their online needs. And, if that really is true about me, then training someone else to be all of those things involves more than just sharing information. It requires an apprenticeship.

If I really wanted to train my friend to do all that I do, one of the best ways to do it would be to have him move in and become a part of my family so we could share our lives together. This would require great sacrifice on both of our parts, but the close proximity would maximize the potential for learning and training. I wouldn’t be limited to sharing just technical knowledge. I could also share my lifestyle. I could show how I balance my professional and personal live and help him to do the same.

Now, before my friend or anyone else gets the idea that I’m accepting applications for an apprenticeship, I’ll let you know that I’m not currently up to this challenge. However, all this talk about sharing knowledge and lives has gotten me thinking about you. What is your expertise? What have you spent most of your time doing? Is it related to your career or a hobby? Are you an expert mechanic? Do you have three degrees worth of “life-time experience” raising children? Do you have excellent inter-personal skills honed from a lifetime of studying and getting to know people?

If you pause to think about it, you probably have some level of expertise at something. What is it, and how do you share it with others? Hopefully, I’ve gotten you thinking, and I’d love it if you’d please share your expertise in the comments…

¹The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance – By Ericsson, K. Anders; Krampe, Ralf T.; Tesch-Römer, Clemens, Psychological Review, Vol 100(3), Jul 1993, 363-406.

²Composition 1.01: How Email Can Change the Way Professors Teach – James Somers – The Atlantic

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