I tried an experiment and tweeted on my facebook. Read from the bottom for chronological order beginning Friday, October 10, 2008.

Ben is home. 8:41pm
Ben hit the 1000 mile mark. 7:35pm
Ben marches on. 7:19pm
Ben has to get pictures! 6:59pm
Ben is where they call the Mississippi a lake. 6:55pm
Ben (tune for ibn khaldun part 1, about to happen, town w/o pitty). 6:54pm
Ben (the deprogrammer, the house is haunted, sgt pepper (reprise), what do I dave to do, under ice, househusband's lament, die young stay pretty...) 6:41pm
Ben 's iPod is throwing down an awesome, creepy mix. 6:33pm
Ben wants a study corolating views on religion and abortion. 6:25pm
Ben caught up on Science Friday. 6:15pm
Ben has fruit and cake. 6:06pm
Ben is in Minnesota. 5:34pm
Ben guesses the SW corner of Wisconsin does't need GSM data. 4:58pm
Ben accidentally tuned his soda bottle to a note in this song. 4:56pm
Ben expected Dickeyville to be a theme park. 3:16pm
Ben finds similarities betwixt black cherry soda and Robitussin. 3:11pm
Ben can see Illinois and Iowa from here, resists border-crossing temptations. 3:08pm
Ben got ice cream and soda instead. 3:04pm
Ben thought about buying rum and porn at a gas station but they didn't have porn. 3:03pm
Ben wonders about the reasoning behind painting parking spots on a gravel lot, and heads home. 2:49pm
Ben hasn't forgotten about you, there's just nothing interesting here. 1:02pm
Ben was nonplussed by his sandwich but chuffed by his shrimp doodles. 12:28pm
Ben waves to New Glarus. 12:17pm
Ben used a lot of battery. 12:13pm
Ben could go for sushi; could find a sandwitch. Filled the tank. 12:08pm
Ben will miss Devil's Lake. 11:58am
Ben didn't know Madison had so much petrolium storage. 11:55am
Ben will have to see The House on The Rock sometime. 11:52am
Ben drove 666 miles so far this weekend. 11:51am
Ben can't pronounce most of Wisconsin. 11:04am
Ben waves to Penzey's. 10:40am
Ben departs Milwaukee toward Madison. 10:22am
Ben crosses Teutonia Ave. Can't decide between musical or religious joke. 9:18am
Ben cranks NIN. 9:13am
Ben could hit those geese from here. 9:06am
Ben ceremonially dips his fingers in Lake Michigan, realizing that he never actually touched the Pacific ocean when he was in San Francisco. 8:51am
Ben will be late but got to Lake Michigan. 8:46am
Ben finally has yesterday's espresso. 8:36am
Ben avoids the word "is" due to issues of repetition and clarity. 8:34am
Ben stopped to take a picture. 8:19am
Ben gets to see what he drove through last night. 8:13am
Ben is on a Mission. 8:11am
Ben is "impressed" by the continental breakfast. 8:06am
Ben needs a photo pass for The Crystal Method at Epic December 19. 7:54am
Ben shouldn't need to be awake. 7:29am
Ben reads about the pictorialism movement. 6:27am
Ben is less than two hours from the museum of science and industry in Chicago. 10:26pm
Ben should have gotten a hotel on the lake. 9:13pm
Ben booked a hotel in da 'hood. 8:29pm
Ben is freaking extatic to see a Caribou. 8:05pm
Ben sits on the cusp of a foggy night. 7:31pm
Ben deems dinner "an experience." leaves Sheboygan for Milwaukee. May find beer. 7:11pm
Ben totally needs a charcoal grill in his kitchen. 6:56pm
Ben is at the Charcoal Inn, should have brought an art history book in from the car. 6:53pm
Ben is not surprised he missed Alabama Ave. 6:44pm
Ben goes "wheee!" again. 6:21pm
Ben smells...burning cows? 6:06pm
Ben is in awe of the patience of the doctor talking about vaccines on Science Friday. (Paul Offett (sp)). 5:56pm
Ben ditches the shades. 5:40pm
Ben goes "wheee!" through the roundabout. 5:23pm
Ben head east. If get lost: find lake, turn right. 5:18pm
Ben isn't sure what that is. 5:11pm
Ben won't go to Oshgosh, by gum! 5:07pm
Ben would prefer a different New London; an old London even. 3:53pm
Ben sees acres of cabbage. 3:46pm
Ben thought he was stuck for a while but the train was really short. 3:29pm
Ben doubts that "latex scented condom" was quite what they meant. 2:53pm
Ben remembers when 3.129 was high for gas. Buys 13 gallons. 2:46pm
Ben got a free Sierra Mist. 2:39pm
Ben went the wrong way. 1:49pm
Ben should have packed camo and a shotgun. 1:37pm
Ben is in Green Bay. 1:26pm
Ben found out commercial citric acid is a fungal product. 1:21pm
Ben is already tired of 25MPH. 1:01pm
Ben turned the A/C on. 12:53pm
Ben almost stopped for pit BBQ too. 12:51pm
Ben found the coffee shop he stopped at a year or two ago is closed. 12:32pm
Ben is in Wisconsin. 12:30pm
Ben is in Michigan with a newly purchased 1/2 pound pastie. 12:27pm
Ben has taken some pictures and is going to Michigan for some pasties. 12:14pm
Ben is very early. 10:44am
Ben likes to say Peshtigo. 10:29am
Ben stopped for a flag man. 10:09am
Ben thinks he just saw his first Piggly Wiggly. 9:58am
Ben went the right way. 9:55am
Ben hopes he went the right way. 9:48am
Ben is disturbed by lawn sheep. 9:34am
Ben thinks Wisconsin state highways need more rest stops. 9:21am
Ben is impressed that Hubble's batteries lasted 18 years. 9:00am
Ben crossed Embarrass River. 8:45am
Ben doesn't have time to stop for the scenery. 8:27am
Ben is in Wausau. 8:16am
Ben wonders what the commonality is between chai and bubblegum. 8:05am
Ben is glad "cool ranch" didn't mean"Dorito flavoured.". 7:59am
Ben should have gotten two donuts. 7:53am
Ben isn't sure about breakfast. 9.00 for chai from a machine, oj, a donut & cool ranch cheese curds. 7:42am
Ben smells cows. 7:30am
Ben switched to sunglasses. 7:20am
Ben passed Chubby's North. 7:09am
Ben passed a tank and a helecopter. 6:57am
Ben has entered the middle of nowhere, a little concerned about espresso supply. 6:28am
Ben sees evidence of the sun. 6:15am
Ben is annoyed that Caribou won't be open in time. 6:13am
Ben is gassing up in Menomonie and will do his best not to wake L & K. 6:06am
Ben is learning about lager yeast. 5:53am
Ben just passed The Drop Zone. 5:38am
Ben is in Wisconsin. 5:20am
Ben wonders what Punjabiyan Di Shaan means. 5:09am
Ben thinks 94 looks creepy that empty. 4:58am
Ben just remembered that I94 is closed this weekend. 4:54am
Ben has tripple checked and is 95% certain everything is packed. 4:46am
Ben got up a little early. 3:43am
Ben is not looking forward to getting up at 4:00 AM. 7:42pm
Ben is going to get his favorite lens from the shop. 1:40pm

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For the first entry, we have Sinfest with a bit of commentary on the current financial situation:

Next up is Gizmodo, with some enlightening information about voters who want deeper broadband penetration.

And finally, for now, is BBC News with a horrifying article about the current wave of mass extinction. -via Greg Laden

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I suppose there are a lot of people who think this applies directly to them, but I thought I'd throw my blog into the ring. (Just replace "Starbucks" with "Caribou.")

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Hey everyone! I've been thinking about adding a comment function to my blog. Leave me a message in the comments and let me know what you think. I'll make a decision based on your input.

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"Mike Hummer had been a private detective so long he could remember Preparation A, his hair reminded everyone of a rat who'd bitten into an electrical cord, but he could still run faster than greased owl snot when he was on a bad guy's trail, and they said his friskings were a lot like getting a vasectomy at Sears." -- Robert B. Robeson

Yes, it's time again for the annual results of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. An attempt to pay homage through satire of classically bad literature. -- Photo by YardSale

Greg Laden brings an update on the evolution v. creationism debate from a US district court. More at Fox news and the San Francisco Chronicle. As it turns out, all that stuff Christian Colleges are teaching about "intelligent design" doesn't really count as "learning."

If you've got a jones to type xyzzy and teleport to someone's house, the iPhone may be the tool for you. Frotz, available from the iTunes App Store is a z-machine interpreter that allows you to play classic text adventure games on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is the ultimate marriage of the inconvenience of typing on a phone and the inconvenience of a maze of twisty passages, all alike. -- Touch Archade via Kotaku

In yet another installment of Things That Herald the Coming of Our Robot Overlords, scientists have joined rat brain cells to a robot with the aid of bluetooth. Not only can the disembodied cells control the robot, they can do it at a distance, much like the Reaper program is controled through Skynet. -- too many sources to credit.

And finally, on the topic of green electronics, Samsung is releasing a phone made with bio-plastic. Cellular mulch anyone? Oh, and it's also PVC and BFR free, but hey, bio-plastic. -- via Gizmodo

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Looks like a video blogwatch today.

Gizmodo has a slow motion lightening video. Wow!

Garage419 has a track test comparing the Dinolicious iPhone app to a commercial accellerometer-based dynomometer.

Greg Laden's Blog has a humorous retort from Paris Hilton regarding John McCain's recent campaign ad.

And Strobist.com has a video from Chase Jarvis giving a 3-minute overview of a commercial photoshoot from contract to delivery.

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The common conception is that women go to the restroom in groups and that the lines are extremely long. Men don't know about that kind of thing so I assume that women don't know what goes on in the men's room. Here's a short public service announcement to help cross-gender understanding.

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Everybody else seems to be jumping this meme, so I guess I will too. I suppose it will tell my stalker what to get me for my birthday.

The following is a list of books that came from the internet. I can't find a source. Supposedly, the average american has read 6 of them. Titles in bold are books I've read, underscored titles are books I've partially read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

This isn't really a good list, but it's not a bad list either. Note that both The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and Hamlet are listed as well as The Chronicles of Narnia and Prince Caspian. Many of these books can be found in High School Curricula or at least could be when I was in High School back in the rotary dial days.

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In the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity to observe several managers within a single organization of around 550 people. This is the first time I've worked in a situation with multiple managers whose behavior and success I could compare. I'd like to share what I've learned about management through that observation.

The most important component of any organization is communication. A good manager is an expert at communication. Larger organizations are more likely to  have problems with communication either within the ranks or between the ranks. There will be groups and managers that don't want to talk to each other and there will be management that doesn't want to communicate up or down the chain of command. A good manager will work to bridge those gaps by bringing in people from outside of their group and will ask questions within their chain of command to facilitate missing communication.

I used to have a saying when I made service calls for a living: "If I ask a yes/no question and the person I'm asking doesn't understand what I mean, their answer will be yes." I tried this out on many occasions by asking questions I knew I'd have to clarify later. Every time, the answer was "yes". A good manager can recognize this type of situation and make sure that the answer given by them or to them is an informed, correct answer.

A good manager delegates work that can be delegated and keeps track of what their employees are working on at any given time. Occasional group/team meetings to keep everyone up to date are good, and it never hurts to go for a short walk and talk to people and see what they're doing and how they feel.

When work that has been delegated is not completed satisfactorily, a good manager will take a step back from the situation and ask a few important questions. "Why didn't this work get done?", "Did I clearly state the requirements and, if not, was the work completed as I requested?", "What can be done to avoid this situation in the future?". If the requirements were complete and the work was not, a good manager will help understand where the shortcomings were.

I want to keep this a positive message of what a good manager does rather than what they don't do, but this one is important. A good manager refers to their employees as people, not resources. Resources are mined and drilled and pumped; people are nurtured, trained and worked. Even the best possible use of the term, "renewable resource", suggests that, once the resource in question has been burned out, you can wait a season and another one will grow back.

So, when hiring a manager, or when managing, keep these things in mind and you'll find that things go well for you and your organization.

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I wouldn't feel like a geek if this didn't make me happy. The way that memory manufacturers have been able to make CF and SD cards have such high capacity is by stacking silicon layers on top of each other. The increase in thickness is minute, there's no increase in board real estate and every time you do it, you double capacity. The problem with moving this technology to other areas, like CPUs is heat. IBM has just solved that problem. IBM via Gizmodo.

Everybody knows that email is a huge time-sink in the workplace. It interrupts work and forces a response or a change of priority. In my experience, people walking into my office to ask a question can be just as bad because I have to respond now, rather than on my own time. The obvious corollary is that instant messaging would be worse than email, but not as bad as a personal visit. A recent study shows that may not be the case. - Science Daily via Lifehacker.

More and more this seems to be the case.

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