Starbucks plans to make changes...

* The warm sandwiches “are going to be out by year’s end.” In the meantime, they will be “de-emphasized.” * Serving sandwiches got in the way of employees’ “ability to make the perfect shot of espresso.” In other words, spending time on sandwiches took away from the focus on coffee. * The sandwiches will be replaced with “a breakfast menu that delivers what our customers are asking for.” * “We’re going to be in the lunch business; we’re going to modify it.” [From Starbucks to get rid of warm breakfast sandwiches]

What we learned today from the new CEO of Starbucks was good news. The awful breakfast sandwiches are on the way out. Quite frankly, if you actually saw a disgruntled Starbucks employee rip one of these cardboard wonders out of the plastic wrap and toss it into the store space heater it was completely unappealing. Pretty much disgusting. And the CEO of Starbucks hits the smell issue right on the head. The sandwiches stunk up the stores. As a bit of coffee snob, I like to walk into my coffee shop and be presented with the wonderful odor of roasted coffee, not burn cheese and bacon. A bit too MacDonalds if you ask me.

What is interesting is they are going to go full on into a more full lunch offering. I wonder if this is the right move, or if they should focus on the coffee and pastry offerings. If you visit Seattle’s Best stores I think they have it right. Great customer service with the right focus on great tasting coffee drinks and good pastry offerings. Seattle’s Best fells like the brand Starbucks really wants to be. Seattle's best asks your name at the register, and they remember you and your drink orders. Something you will not find at Starbucks very often. It is one of those small personal touches which makes the experience just slightly less corporate.

Apple TV Take 2 LATE!

Ah, I imagine some poor QA guy had to tell Jobs that the software just isn't ready to ship. Unfortunately it was probably the same QA guy who told the program manager that it would be ready to ship 2 weeks after the Macworld Keynote. I am sure that QA guy is not a popular person anymore.

Apple also announced that the free Apple TV software update enabling movie rentals is not quite finished and will now be available in another week or two.

[From Apple - Start]

Kingstad Gallery Opening (Katie Todd)

Kingstad Gallery Opening
Originally uploaded by Shawn Smith

The entire family headed out to the Kingstad gallery tonight to view the newest show by artists from around the Portland area. We recently met Katie Todd when she came to our home to put on a Demarle Party with my wife Julie. Katie is a gifted artist and we happy to get an invite to come out an see her work.

Here is a link to her website.

Here is a sample of her artwork:

Katie's Artwork

Economic Stimulus Package?

I noticed this poll tonight on KATU.com. As I suspected, the tax rebates will serve to put some money back into our pockets but I wouldn't be at all surprised if most people will either use it to pay down debt, or put it in savings to boost their liquidity. Either way, it isn't going to end up being spent on many big screen TVs.

What IT Environments are Needed?

A great write-up by a third party articulating the different environments needed for a mature IT shop. What i think is missing here is Production FIX. This is the environment you develop / test in when the main environments have the next version of IT infrastructure, configurations or software.

There are typically three different environments in IT which have different roles. They tend to reflect the importance of that application/system to the end users.

1. Test/Development - used for the application developers to test their application code or new layered applications - they might have administration rights to the Windows/Linux servers in this environment.
2. Staging/UAT (User Acceptance Testing) - used for functional testing, should ideally be a replication of production. Once my code has been validated, it’s pushed to staging so that I can carry out due diligence and functional testing before I put the code/application into production. Access should be restricted so that code is validated in near production conditions.
3. Production - business affecting or user affecting systems, an outage therefore on these systems might damage our reputation or cause loss of revenue. Administration and security should be restricted in order to protect data and system reliability.

The idea is that by having the different operating environments you can limit any infrastructure or application failures through adequate testing which may include performance load testing.

[From What’s UAT then?]

Apple TV Update ... 2 weeks in Steve RDF time?

Hey, where is my Apple TV Take 2 update? Tomorrow is 2 weeks. Let's see a shiny software update first thing in the morning!

Perhaps the RDF (reality distortion field) also distorts time and space. Maybe it will be released in during Microsoft "summer", (late September).

New Firefox3 OSX Theme Is Coming Along Nicely!

Things are coming along nicely with the latest theme landings. Looks like we won't have the new "keyhole" look for maybe a few days on OS X but for now it is a nice improvement. The app is starting to really fit with the OS. Now, if only Firefox 3 synced with the iPhone I might think about putting Safari Webkit away for a bit.

Time for some more testing...

Apple TV Take 2 .. weeks and counting!?

Each and every day I come home from work and check my RSS feeds for the glorious news of the Apple TV take 2 update being available. Now, Jobs did say 2 weeks at the keynote. I was hoping for a bit earlier launch but it looks like it is coming right down to the wire. Here is hoping for a tuesday launch date! I can't wait to have the ability to buy a show from my couch. Here is also hoping that I can update podcasts from the TV rather then the computer. I can't count how often the NBC news podcast gets stuck and I don't have the latest news downstairs.

Not so mighty mouse...

Arg! My mighty mouse is becoming not so mighty these days, Two things have gone horribly wrong. First no matter how much I clean my scroll wheel I can go down the page like butter but scrolling up just never works. Secondly, the top shell of the mouse seems to have disconnected from the bottom shell. Thus when clicking you get this strange "thunk" sound half of the time. I know this is a common problem and I wonder if it has something to do with the scrolling problem. I am tempted to go and get a new mouse, but I wonder if I should try the apple mouse again. As much as I love apple my Microsoft scroll mouse never gave me these kinds of problems.... sigh!

Living Biblically

"The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible" (A. J. Jacobs)

I am currently reading the newest book by AJ Jacobs. I had recently finished his excellent previous book about his quest to read the entire encyclopedia. So far his latest book is just as good. His quest to not only abide by biblical doctrine but to also understand religion, and faith makes for an amazing tale.

Smart Weapon: The "Decision Bomb"

One of my co-workers coined a new phrase yesterday. "Decision Bomb". It is a carefully placed smart weapon of destruction which strategically targets confusion and results in a series of decisions which drive projects forward.

Starting yesterday afternoon I dropped a perfectly targeted "decision bomb" and this morning it struck home with perfect results. Today was truly a great day seeing a potential tipping point in the areas of demand planning, release concepts and code/environment management understanding.

What do we do with our TAX stimulus dollars?

Pay down debt :)

Using firefox 3 with the proto theme is like driving on the wrong side of the road...

I have visions of driving in Britain each time I hunt for the close button on the wrong side of the firefox tab...

It is like driving on the wrong side of the road...

Google Reader has an iPhone compatible webclip icon...

Delete your old one... make a new one. Cool multi-color RSS feed icon. Nice!

Can Google Health synthesize information from all the data it will collect? (529)

Today I noticed that Google Health is online. I am sure many of us in the health care industry are watching what Google will do in this space. Information mining and management is becoming one of the key differentiators in healthcare delivery. Folks who consume healthcare services (myself included) what to know more about their doctors, costs and medical records then ever before. Plus, there is the entire space dedicated to mining all that information and providing preventative care back to the healthcare consumer now rather then when they get sick. Google, looks like it is entering the information gathering business. But the real question is will it be able to synthesize “information” from all the “data”.

With Google Health, you can:
* Build online health profiles that belong to you
* Download medical records from doctors and pharmacies
* Get personalized health guidance and relevant news
* Find qualified doctors and connect to time-saving services
* Share selected information with family or caregivers

[From Google Reader (529)]

Kate Closeup

Kate Closeup
Originally uploaded by Shawn Smith

Amazing how they grow. Kate is now almost 14 months old. She is communicating better (though her favorite word is don't). She is walking, and having a great time with her big sister. I took both the girls to OMSI last Saturday morning and found that while sometimes they really want to play together other times they are heading away from each other like repelling magnets as fast as possible. When there is only one parent, you sometimes wonder which one to chase.

Sometimes it is better to get something done then do nothing at all...

The title of the post sums up a current challenge at work. Sometimes folks get stuck in analysis land. I am just as guilty of this too. You see a big problem and you get wrapped up in getting the answer/analysis or process perfect, but loose sight of the goal. Sometimes, knowing 80% and going is the right thing to do. For some problems getting even close to perfect is better then not starting at all or heading down a contingency plan rabbit hole.

It is OK to make a mistake. My mantra for Monday.

Whatcha going to do... bad boys... bad boys..

Hmm, for the first time in a year the Trimet cops jumped our bus on Friday night and did a random ticket check. They busted two innocent students off the bus with passes that looked like they hadn't been valid in about 3 years. I have been frisked down for at ticket a few times on the max but never on a bus. You have got to figure the driver is checking tickets? I wonder if this has some relationship to the proposal to get rid of fare-less square. The 94 I catch does roll out of the free zone. Perhaps Trimet is figuring people are not paying to ride the express all the way home.

None the less, it was strange...

Mint Please Add All Spending to SpendSpace!

Mint, I love the changes to your spending trend toolset. It is 100% better then then the first version. The only feature I am missing is the ability to set the compare your to "all spending". This way I can see a graph of where my total spending is heading month over month against the other Mint users. This would give me a quick view of improvement or not. Thanks for listening!

Followup on my Gmail Contacts API Post...

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

I got this great comment from a reader.

If you haven't already visited here: http://code.google.com/p/gdata-issues/issues/detail?id=25

Click on through and register your vote for a Gmail Contacts API. Lots of folks have already voted so make yourself heard.

Google, can you hear us all shouting?!?!

Contact API... contact api...<fades to the distance> ....

Online Money Management with Mint

If you haven't yet tried out the online application called Mint then this might be the time to give it a whirl. If you are someone who tried out the application in the early days I would recommend heading back to try it again. Things have really improved especially in the last 24 hours. The mint folks have released a significant update to the "Spending Trends" application with a few really great improvements:

• With the latest adobe flash updates installed on my Mac I can drill into the spending trends charts without any problem.
• Things are really stable now in Safari and especially WebKit (the nightly builds).
• The spending trends view now shows you how your spending on a particular category compare to the US, a state or even your city. This is especially handy to understand if you are spending less or more then the rest of the folks around you. One feature that would be nice is a setting on the size of your family so when you were comparing it would compare apples with apples. For example, I don't know whether to feel bad about my grocery or healthcare spend as I have 4 people in my family. Are the rest of the mint users single hipsters?

None the less, nice job mint guys. Keep the great features coming.

Thanks Steve Jobs, Never Lost Again!

Thanks for the location feature on my iPhone Steve! Now, I will never be lost ever again... not ever.

Oh, and PS. My wife, and many gas station attendants thank you too. No more stopping for directions :)

Showcase UI for Quicksilver...

Showcase is purely amazing. The core animation brings new life to using quicksilver on the Mac. If you haven't yet checked it out and are a huge quicksilver user take a look at the YouTube video I have linked below. As you are typing the selections appear to fly in at a rapid rate like coverflow on speed. The graphics are large, sharp and easy to read.

Thanks to Julius Eckert for the excellent software.

Do you know your IT capacity?

What amazes me is how many IT shops have no idea of their capacity. They struggle with explaining to the business why they can't deliver consistently or in a timely manner. Amazingly enough all that is needed as a first step is a really simple capacity vs demand tool. It is quite simple really.

Take your total capacity in any given area.

Subtract out your administrative overhead and PTO hours for your staff.

What is remaining is your true capacity.

Then plot out your project hours by release, or month.

Compare your capacity to your demand and produce a chart. It will quite clearly show the problem and will be quite easily consumed by business leadership.

The next discussion is how to adjust demand and perhaps change scope or delivery dates. I will discuss more about this in another post.

Why I choose webkit nightly builds.

Lately, the webkit nightly builds have just been rock solid and super fast. Even firefox 3 nightly builds have nothing on webkit for pure speed when browsing. A couple of folks on twitter pointed out that they just can' t live without the firebug plug-in for firefox. Web inspector (part of the webkit) is coming along as a great tool but it still has a ways to go to catch up with firebug. I wouldn't put it past the webkit team to produce an inspector tool better then firebug in the future. They are certainly working on it.

Thinking about time...

When you have kids (especially 2) time seems to march along too quickly most days. As I took a quick break from the kids I was thinking about time. In reality there are an infinite number of ticks between each minute. Maybe note seconds, how about micro seconds, nano seconds, etc. If we experience each and every one of these ticks time would seem to practically stand still. Perhaps time seems fast because we forget to slow down and enjoy each tick, moment, experience. When you think about it, take a deep breath, and experience the moment, time really does seem to slow.

Moving from ENTJ to INTJ...

Two thoughts popped into my head this weekend.

First, I absolutely loved Thursday. I drove with a coworker up to our Seattle office to spend most of the day with our team who supports web applications infrastructure. We are building out a series of new environments at work to gain more releases per year. But, I digress, the best part of Thursday was the single task. I realized that for the first time in for ever I went to work and spent the entire day focused on one important item. It was pure bliss. I was creative, focused, and generated some strategic thinking at the white board. I wanted to high five myself when it was all over.

Second, Thursday made me realize that 2007 was made up of a series of days running like a washing machine. Each day full of tasks, where I get to spend only an hour focused on designing the right thing. Perhaps with 1-5 interruptions going on. Instant messages, phone calls, emails, people dropping by... sigh.

So, with my GTD focus this year. I am aiming to cleanse my mind of future tasks and get focused on being strategic again. I want to spend less time being so damn "E" and spend a bunch more time being "I". Sorry, career ambitions and ego. It is time to jump out of the spotlight and do some creative work.

In that, I suspect I can find my zen.

The iPhone's storied journey from Steve's brain to your hand

What a totally amazing story of innovation, business dealings and secrecy to launch the world's best mobile phone. I have one of course, and love the sliver of glass and aluminum. Read on below to understand what happened at Apple to build this amazing device.

Filed under: Cellphones

Come, reader. Take a step into our very special Engadget Blog Archive 2000[TM] device, watch as we wave our fingers through the air and say, "Doo-do-dodo, doo-do-dodo," and think back to this time last year when industry conferences CES and MacWorld overlapped, overworked (and heavily caffeinated) tech writers tripped over themselves to cover both, and Apple introduced a little product called the iPhone. Wired's got a look at the development of the groundbreaking handset and, though most of this may be a rehash for our gadget-savvy readers, there are some interesting moments documented in the piece: The chronology of the failed Motorola ROKR; the porting of OS X to the iPhone (which didn't start until early 2006); and the year Apple engineers spent working on a tablet PC, whose tech was obviously rolled into the iPhone's multitouch display. It's worth a stroll down the tattered corridors of your memory before El-Jobso's Macworld keynote next week.
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[From The iPhone's storied journey from Steve's brain to your hand]

Howto: Managing IT Software Release Capacity and Priority

Getting Things Done..

Goals for January 2008: Apply GTD to my email at work.  Means I need to work it now, set a task (with an end date) (for me/waiting for someone), file the email to a project, file the idea for "someday".  So far this is working and I am spending time to triage my email regularity. Apply GTD to my voice mail.  I am listening to my voicemail 2 times a day.  Once in the morning and once before I go home.  Once I triage the messages I apply GTD to the voice mail.  See above. So far it is working.  I feel more organized and more ontop of my work. Must admit I have applied GTD very sucessfully in the past and fell off the wagon.  Time to get back on. Blogged with the Flock Browser

Meet my newest employee!

I just discovered the most wonderful website.  It is called iwantsandy.com.  I have been using google calendar for some time now from my iPhone.  iwantsandy.com bumps the calendaring and todo features to a whole new level. Have you ever needed to remember someone's phone number, or remind yourself to do something in the morning at work?  Well, check out what iwantsandy.com cand do.  You can email her a reminder note and she will send you a handy txt message at the designated time reminding you of that important task.  You say, but I can do that with Google Calendar.  Ya, but wih iwantsandy, you can also do a lookup to see what appointments you have, delete and modify them all from your mobile phone.  Try that with the google services... Blogged with the Flock Browser

2008.1.5 - Weekend At Last

This morning was filled with Gymboree for both the girls. I had a blast with Kate. She is now walking and boy does she love to climb and slide. She was laughing with delight. Julie's friend Christine met us with her daughter Emma. Both Molly and Emma also had a total blast. It was fun for all. The girls then split off from Kate and I as Kate was in much need of a nap. I got a bit of time at home to take care of things then played with Kate until the girls showed back up. We got some much needed help to get all the Christmas decorations down today. I was ready. The tree is now outside and ready to be picked up tomorrow morning. WHEW! Thoughts for the day: Macworld is coming up! Yipee, I can't wait to see if Apple makes AppleTV even more useful. I love the model we have but being able to rent movies and other content would be very very cool. I hear Netflix is partnering with LG to build a setup box so you can "rent" Netflix content. Now that might just displace the AppleTV?! I read this morning that there are new theories that the growing amount of problems in developing countries with problems like hay fever, asthma, etc may in fact be due to being overly clean. Seems as though, many places on earth have never seen these kinds of issues until they start "developing". Also interesting link to the Vitamin D discovery. More about that in another post. That's all for today!

2008.1.3 - Kate is walking!

That is all for today.  Whew, we were all wondering when it would finally occur :) Blogged with the Flock Browser

Will more data create health care shoppers? - OregonLive.com

In Oregon, state officials last year began reporting detailed price comparisons among hospitals, a follow-up to reports on hospital-specific death rates. Ten of Oregon's largest health insurers joined a nonprofit's effort to rank how effectively doctors care for patients. And the Legislature ordered hospitals to divulge infection rates and other long-hidden measures.But with the release of such information, the question remains: Will it compel patients to act more like thrift-minded consumers whose clout will restrain price inflation and boost service quality?

Will more data create health care shoppers? - OregonLive.com What I find most interesting about this disucssion is two things: 1) Are providers capible of functioning like businesses with variable costs and compeditive pricing.  This implies that they are actively marketing their services, cost comparing with their peers, and driving down internal costs to lower prices.  All of these things are quite counter to the training a doctor receives.  So either their will be a whole new business area for provier busienss development consulting or perhaps doctor programs will now include marking and sales training beyond the typical medical training :) 2) Even if a provider "advertises" lower prices, would you as a consumer choose them?  It is one thing to buy a car at the lowest price but it is quite another to take such a risk with your health.  I suspect typically medicine is based on relationship and referal from your "trusted" doctor.  Price is not actively considered.  Even if it became a factor how do you know if you are getting a good "health deal", or taking a risk with your life? Blogged with the Flock Browser

2008.1.2 - Thinking about Cars..

Well, I am thinking about buying a new to me car (see used).  We have been thinking for some time now about selling our Volkswagen and buying a 7 passenger vehicle.  But, the cost just seems astronomical and the gas millage is terrible.  I think for our lifestyle (like the outdoors) a Subaru Outback is the right car.  It doesn't meet the 7 passenger requirement which makes things somewhat painful to venture out in the snow when my mom is in town but I think for the few times a year when we are moving the four of us and 1 more adult we can manage.  So, I have ben researching all night the various options and it seems like the Xi 2.5L is the way to go.  I don't really need the Turbo (tho it would be fun) and can live without the gas millage impact of the H6.  Now on to the funding question :) Blogged with the Flock Browser

2008.1 - Great Grandma

IMG_0435
Originally uploaded by Shawn Smith

This is my great grandma Dorothy. She is 92 years old which means she was alive for new years 1916! Wow, has she ever seen some amazing changes in all those years I bet. It is amazing to think she has seen a great depression, the end of one world war and another after that. She was born in England and lived there throughout World War II, only coming to Canada at the end of the war with two small boys. She married my Grandfather (a Canadian) while he was still in the service taking a huge risk he would survive the horrors of World War II. She is a truely amazing person full of courage and curiosity.

2008.1

Happy New Year everyone! This is my first post of 2008.  We spent last night up at my Brother in Laws house.  He lives just outside of Hood River Oregon in a small town called Mosier.  Their house is on 10 acres and is just above the Gorge snow line.  We had a blast yesterday tobogganing and playing in the snow.  The kids loved playing in the snow and spending time with their cousins. Tomorrow is back to work.  Getting up in the morning is going to be hard after a week off. Blogged with the Flock Browser