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Summer is packed with special events perfect for the weekend traveler. Consider the holiday weekends below, each with their own line-up of performances, festivals and events fit for the whole family:
Arizona has no DST. During summer Arizona has the same time as California, in winter it has the same time as Colorado.
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[Guest Blog] Lessons learned from my experience using Market Dojo eAuction software ~ The Secret Diary of Market Dojo
Jon Brinsmead has been buying goods and services for clients for over 20 years, working with the likes of Unilever and Transport for London whilst providing training in commercial management for the same period of time.
Jon shares his thoughts on his years of experience using Market Dojo to teach IT managers about deal making and eAuctions.
As a seller or buyer - when you decide to run an eAuction for the first time a few things are worth thinking about and taking time over to get the best outcome. As a buyer it’s good to undertake the same preparations that the seller will do – so you can get into the minds of your sellers.
Preparation – Like most things in life, it’s all about the preparation. You need to design your bid strategy ahead of executing it. Like DJ’s you need 2 decks to run an eAuction well.
This is where you put in your bid prices and set out your strategy for each round, based on what you plan to happen. Here you should work (in advance) through all of the different scenarios and strategies, planning on what could happen during the auction – giving you the ability to adapt and react to what the other sellers are doing. I usually run this in Excel but whichever software you are most comfortable using is best.
This is where you will be putting in your selling prices and watching what is happening with the auction in real time.
The technical side – make sure your IT is working and solid, internet connections must be good and reliable and it’s no bad thing to ensure you are logged in ahead of time.
Market Dojo has a sandbox feature where you can practice an auction ahead of using it in anger – this is a really useful feature and worth taking any staff who are planning to be involved in auctions through. You may need to arrange for user IDs from Market Dojo to be able to use this.
Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!
31.3.17Craig KnowlesAuctions, commercial training, deal making, eAuctions, jon, jon brinsmead, sourcing, teach, teaching, trainingNo comments
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Studying myself in the mirror these days, it's hard not to notice the jungle of hairs in my nasal cavities. They're prolific, and they're getting bolder too. I caught a few the other day sneaking ever further downward, trying to disguise themselves as mustache.
I don't tell you this because I think you're fascinated with nose hair (though I certainly won't judge you if you are), I mention this only to illustrate the unintentional theme of this year, which seems to be "getting older." Yes, between listening to NPR on my way to and from my 8-5 job, and doing household tasks like raking the leaves and cleaning out the gutters on my new house, I'm feeling more and more like an old man, and it doesn't help that I'm now halfway to 50 years old.
Luckily, I can still pretend I'm young and hip by tweeting on Twitter. That's the "micro-blogging" web service that exploded into pop culture this year, and now even the old folks like CNN and my mother are using it regularly. It seems the world only wants information now if it comes to them in 140 characters or less. So I've decided to embrace it and write the Christmas letter using this series of fake and informative tweets. Be forewarned: like Twitter, not all of these "tweets" below are substantive or appropriate. Re-tweet if you like it.
markjlehman: "Back in Sac from Deutschland. Good to be home, but already missing pretzels and bratwursts. Oh, and Ellen, too." - 10:24 AM, Dec 23, 2008
MichelleLehman: "Tricked the Sac Assoc. of Realtors into putting me on Board of Directors. Taking over the world, 1 board at a time, 1 year at a time." - 10:56 AM, Jan 9, 2009
DanoManoLehman: "RIP Black Beauty aka my bitchin' Camaro. New Mazda will never quite replace you, but at least it will run reliably and with 1/2 the fuel." - 8:19 PM, Feb 1, 2009
markjlehman: "Now gainfully employed as estimator for contracting firm. That makes 2 jobs I've had where my Euro Studies degree was basically useless." - 5:27 PM, Feb 4, 2009
DeaconDave: "Durty Nelly's was a bad idea last night. At C21 Convention in San Antonio & just ripped a smelly beer fart in the middle of keynote address." - 12:32 PM, March 9, 2009
EllenKLehman: "Working on my Scottish brogue in Edinburgh. Tried Scotch - big mistake. Still trying to find Scottish flag underwear." - 8:46 PM, April 8, 2009
Deacon Dave: "Just rocked that homily - Ta DA! Best one since my MC Hammer rap sesh in 2001. Anxious to see reaction of the RCIA class I teach tomorrow." - 11:08 AM, April 12, 2009
EllenKLehman: "My family's here in Germany! 1st stop- Switzerland, then we'll be the only folks on our block to see the mini-country of Liechtenstein." - 8:17 AM, April 13, 2009
markjlehman: "House hunting in this market is insane. 10+ offers but keep getting beat out by cash buyers. Moving to tent city becoming viable option." - 7:57 PM, May 13, 2009
DeaconDave: "On top of Angel's Landing in Zion Nat'l Park, UT. King of the Mountain! Climbing 1200ft in desert in summer = great vacation. Mom disagrees." - 3:22 PM, May 20, 2009
MichelleLehman: "Vegas! Last stop of vacation with Reibolds. One more play on the penny slots and I'm sure I'd win big, but Dad says no. I can quit anytime." - 2:03 PM, May 26, 2009
markjlehman: "Weeklong Ireland trip. At Dublin Zoo - was hoping animals would have Irish lilt. Not sure why I expected that, but still left disappointed." - 11:12 AM, May 24, 2009
EllenKLehman: "Mark dragged me to Jameson Distillery in Dublin. Blech! At least now we know: if I don't like whiskey here, I won't like it anywhere." - 4:23 PM, May 25, 2009
EllenKLehman: "Said goodbye and good riddance to Germany, now tackling a mountain of wedding planning all summer. Mark's 'helping' with about 3 things." - 2:11 PM, July 2, 2009
DanoManoLehman: "Checked out Jimi Hendrix Experience Museum in Seattle with good friends Becky and Christina. Becoming more a hippie every minute of my trip." 11:42 PM, Aug 15, 2009
DeaconDave: "Babies everywhere! Drove to San Diego to visit cousins Jeff & Rach & little goofball Kai, then to LA to baptize friends' new baby." - 6:17 PM, Aug 23, 2009
MichelleLehman: "Closed escrow today on my youngest (and favorite) son's 1st house, a month late but in time for his wedding Saturday. Just call me Supermom." - 2:15 PM, Sept 1, 2009
DanoManoLehman: "It's wedding season! Bro's and high school buddy's weddings this month. Grab that net and catch that beautiful butterfly!" - 6:37 PM, Sept 3, 2009
DeaconDave: "Frist Irsh car bomb. Mark's getining is getting married tomomorrow! Michelelle and I os excited to have a daugiheter! Rom is spinnning" - 1:12 AM, Sept 5, 2009
EllenKLehman: "As of yesterday, I'm the newest Mrs. Lehman. Mark 'Freudian slipped' and said he's made an 'awesome' woman of me." - 8:11 AM, Sept 6, 2009
markjlehman: "Yosemite on honeymoon with the wifey. Nothing quite like the excitement generated by the constant threat of a bear attack." - 12:31 PM, Sept 12, 2009
DeaconDave: "Weekly visit w/ my dad. At the dentist, filling 8 cavities - Grandpa says 'I think I'd rather die of tooth decay.'" - 4:14 PM, Sept 14, 2009
MichelleLehman: "9:30 Sunday mass with choir group. Today, someone let out a tooter while the mics were on. In this situation, What Would Jesus Do?" - 10:42 AM, Oct 18, 2009
DanoManoLehman: "Finally back surfing after ruptured ligaments in foot, ankle and lower back strain. Was basically a broken and bitter man this season." - 8:12 AM, Nov 14, 2009
EllenKLehman: "Finished 1st day as holiday help at Macy's fragrance counter. Great success! But now I smell like a weird mixture of diva & gold digger." - 9:23 PM, Dec 6, 2009
markjlehman: "Married and moved out, yet me writing Christmas letter still foregone conclusion. I should really start charging a fee for this..." - 4:47 PM, Dec 13, 2009
Having been surrounded almost all my life by people with a not-so-rare condition called "persistent and chronic tardiness," I've become a sort of expert on deciphering their language. In case you are wondering -- your boss at work who keeps you later because he didn't get there until 10, or that friend who rolls up at 5:30 when you were supposed to meet at 5 -- these people aren't going to change. They're not going to wake up one day and think, "I'd like to make an improvement in my life that will directly and positively affect the most people around me. I know, I'll start being punctual!" No, these people will probably be late for their own funerals. So the best way to deal with them is just to learn their language.
That said, here are a few common expressions of the chronically tardy, and their translations for the rest of us:
"I'm thinking about leaving in the next half hour. And yes, I know I was supposed to be there an hour ago."
"At one point I intended to make it there at the specified time, but as soon as I got out of bed this morning I knew it would be a wash."
We got a Wii machine as a gift for our wedding a few months back, and I've been having fun tinkering with it and playing all sorts of games on it. Just read about how to play the original Duck Hunt on the Wii, so I was giving that the old college try. It's fun, but definitely not the same.
I have fond memories of playing Duck Hunt and holding the gun right up against the TV to "cheat," and still not being able to get past level 10 or so when grandpa, who hunts real ducks with real guns, came along, grabbed the gun, and wasted ducks like he was Rambo and killing was going out of style.
However, something occurred to me while playing this new version on the Wii... How the heck did the original Duck Hunt work?
This was the early 80s, before the iPod, before the World Wide Web, and before Jamaica had a bobsled team. We didn't have the cool techno-craziness we do now where we can push a button on our phones and cook dinner, mow the lawn and flush the toilet at the same time. We just had a big gray box called a Nintendo Entertainment System and an orange gun that looked like it belonged in a cartoon version of "Star Wars."
Well, apparently I'm not the only one who has wondered this. A quick Google search led me to my answer:
Here's what happens. You shoot at a duck, which appears on an ordinary TV screen. The gun is connected to the game console; pressing the trigger blackens the screen, then causes a duck-shaped white target to appear momentarily. If your aim is true, a photo sensor in the gun detects the shift from dark to light, and bingo--dead duck. In short, the TV emits the light pulse and the gun detects it, not the other way around. [via The Straight Dope]
It's when I find out about something like this -- a simple, yet ingenious trick that provided endless entertainment throughout my childhood and adult life -- that I wonder to myself if we as a species just aren't as creative as we used to be.
Stay away from Britain if you're afraid of uggos. According to a dating website called BeautifulPeople.com, the British are some of the ugliest people in the world. Scandinavians, on the other hand, are some of the most attractive. From the Reuters news article:
Fewer than one in eight British men and just three in 20 women who have applied to BeautifulPeople.com have been accepted, an emailed statement from the website showed.
Swedish men have proved the most successful, with 65 percent being accepted, while Norwegian women are considered the most beautiful with 76 percent accepted, the website said.
I wrote a similar news article back in 2004 without any concrete sources and entirely based on anecdotal experience from studying abroad in Spain and traveling around Europe. However, my conclusion was as follows:
German chicks are cute. British chicks are attractive. Italian chicks are hot. Spanish chicks are hotter. Swedish chicks are hottest. And Scottish chicks are downright ugly.
A. I must have seen a disproportionate number of attractive British women during my brief passes through.
I'm not sure which would be sadder. If 'A' is accurate, then British women have always been unattractive and I just got lucky with the visuals. However, 'B' does not bode well for the future, because we can reasonably assume that they will continue to become less attractive over time, as illustrated in the graph below:
I've been doing a lot of packing, moving, organizing, and going through old stuff lately because I've had a few life changes (more on that in later posts). However, I came upon a gem when I was cleaning out my closet: an old journal from 6th grade. My 6th grade teacher use to schedule journaling sessions every so often, and being a 6th grade boy, it seems my journaling was only used as a channel to air my grievances about the unfairness of life.
I like hamsters because they’re cute and furry. Whenever you get bored you can hold them and pet them. Most of them are really nice. I had two but they both died of the same disease.
For the record, I still agree with all of those points, but through life experience, I've learned that when it come to animals, nothing quite beats the turtle -- they're just so wise. I learned that from the Tootsie Roll Pop commercials of yesteryear:
Of course, every time you think you know something with any degree of certainty, life turns it on its head. Example:
I love this Google Doodle for today! One of my favorite books, with this gloriously awesome animation. I really need to start drawing again, all this great animation stuff with JS and HTML5/CSS3 gives a great way to convey art without the bloat of an additional plugin.
I hate getting tripped up on silly interview questions, and I usually always rework them afterwards to see what brief moment of dumbness I was suffering during the interview.
On a “field trip” I took recently just for fun b/c of who it was, I had a problem presented like this, with a jsFiddle link to my current solution below.
An interview question, to create a generic function that will give a path for cursor animation on a “search menu” that is displayed like:
The problem assumptions were that you are always dealing with uppercase letters, no special characters, no spaces, etc. The beginning always starts at ‘A’. You are also given a dynamic width (to worry about), so your function can traverse any size menu. I got tripped up on this after getting barraged with a bunch of core JS language questions, so here’s a stab at the solution, minus some additional work to not traverse boundaries (outside the matrix or in places where there are no selectable letters).
Well, I wish I would have had this at a previous job. This is really nice approach to building apps in the system, and will definitely make it easier and quicker to build IT apps without muddying up the core application, and further “hindering people from trivial tasks”. With the amount of hacking I used to do in there, I wonder how hackable this is in the sense of keeping everything contained. I’ll probably do some tinkering with their demo site just to see. Well done ServiceNow!
(Also love the new Santa Clara office building I saw a couple of weeks ago, guess that means no more “renting”)
[update]: Another tidbit one of my friends at the ServiceNow conference just sent me, a way to tie a real editor (Sublime in this case) into working with SN scripting: https://fruition18.service-now.com/sn_sublime.do
After fully playing with AngularJS for a recent hack at work, I fell in love with it’s simplicity. Using ExpressJS, NodeJS, and AngularJS together is awesome, but then I ran into some headaches (that I easily worked through) using Redis as the NoSQL db. After reading this article, I think I know what I’ll be experimenting with on the next (next) hack day.
Can’t get much simpler for quickly and nimbly building an app for a hack, and potentially further expanding it’s awesomeness.
In a recent hack day at work, a coworker approached me about toying around with D3, a cool Javascript library to do really rich, interactive visualizations of data. Since my last hack day I only decided to quietly redo my marshallupshur.com site, I decided to jump in on the fun.
In a nutshell, D3.js is AWESOME, THE BEES KNEES, EPIC…. and a great way to make you remember geometry
We ended up creating a visualized way of monitoring events with our home product, so you can see alarm notifications, arming info, etc. all on a cool little graph. Best thing about, it’s all real-time, must better than the cached long poll list that is there now.
Great fun, I hope to participate in more of these hack days, as it has branched out into me hacking together things for other hobbies of mine….
Just finished up this great book a friend passed my way called “Javascript Enlightenment”. File this under “a book I wish I would have read years ago”. It is a great read for a couple of days, and if you are really trying to understand some of the key concepts and behaviors of the language, read it.
It doesn’t go into as much depth of why stuff is good or bad, like Javascript: The Good Parts, but it takes the good parts and really hammers them home on how they work, why they work, and when to use them effectively. If you mostly use provided libraries to get things done, this book will glass door to how these libraries do the things they do, and hopefully start you on a path to writing your own libraries or adding your own contributions. It also includes the best explanation of closures and the prototype chain that I’ve seen, which finally gave me my light bulb *click* moment of full understanding.
Since my old blog on mbu Creations is pretty much dead (and I’m working on revamping/upgrading that anyway), I think I’ll start a new one here. I’ll keep it Tumblr-ish to keep it simple, but I won’t use Tumblr b/c well, I like having more control over my stuff and playing around.
I’ll do posts about general thoughts, things I’m tinkering with, and cool stuff I see around the internet (and in the real world).
This blog may not stay in this overly simplistic state. Since I love messing around with anything web, I’ll more than likely use this as a test ground for something, be it cool CSS3, some HTML5 wizardry, or some funky JS, expect to see stuff change.