wanderings of a curious mind

Don't look up

Michael Heukels — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:51:13 +0000

Seafood in Toledo.

Not sure what else to say about that.

Shorts organizer

Michael Heukels — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:24:33 +0000

A byproduct of all the shop work I have been doing is that I have lots of short pieces of perfectly good wood. So I built a cart to store at least some of it in.

Of course 20 minutes after I took this picture the cart was full...I need another one. Or time to make more stuff.

Really?

Michael Heukels — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:18:50 +0000

Where I come from

Michael Heukels — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:00:21 +0000

We call it a 'bell'

A place to post it all

Michael Heukels — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:50:11 +0000

Made a couple of corkboards. The wood is Sassafras. The cork....well, that came from a different hobby.

But they don't specify what purposes

Michael Heukels — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:48:33 +0000

Forks and knives however, are strictly single purpose devices.

Bad software

Michael Heukels — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:45:22 +0000

Knocked out a birdhouse from scrap cedar while I was waiting for other projects to dry.

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Article in CIO magazine talking about how end users are dissatisfied with the user interface of traditional enterprise applications. This has been something that has bothered me since the 90's. Enterprise software interfaces seem stuck in the 1980s. Not surprisingly people are pushing back after the widespread penetration of new modes of interface being led by SmartPhone and tablets.

Companies do not focus enough on the user experience. I think Google has a pretty good grasp on the concept. Their software is pretty easy to use, no matter what it is. Look at Picassa, Sketchup, Google Earth and all their web products. You can do the basics without a complex interface, but, if you dig, there is a lot more hidden away. Intuit has long been a leader in this with Quickbooks and Quicken. The story goes, they view good UI as a way of keeping customer service costs down. If you have to call them to figure out how to do something, that call just ate up all the profits they earned from you.

Mobile should not mean 'painful'

Michael Heukels — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:24:56 +0000

If you try to use Marriott's website via a smartphone Marriott has decided you can only use their mobile formatted site. It's quite annoying because something as simple as finding the information about a hotel's restaurant is impossible this way. They really need to allow people to view the regular site via their mobile phones.

And they need to get rid of the orange ginger soap in the Marriott brand hotels.

I'm rich

Michael Heukels — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:36:11 +0000

Some sort of class action lawsuit against Ebay from years ago. The processor got a $2 fee for my $.13 check.

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I almost got creamed the other day while driving into Washington, DC. I was in the right lane and a dump truck was in the left lane. As we rounded a curve on the 11th street bridge a shovel came flying off the truck, bounced once on the road in front of me and fell to the side of the road...missing me by about 5 feet. It would have hurt if that shovel hit.

I tried contacting the company, Fort Myer Construction, but their 'contact us' email function doesn't work. Keep an eye out for Truck 5107.

Light 'em up

Michael Heukels — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:16:44 +0000

So, I replaced most of the lights in the kitchen with LED replacement kits from Home Depot. Then they raised the price, so I didn't finish. I found some by Sylvania at Lowes the other day and bought those to finish. They are a lot whiter in color (3000K).

But overall, happy with the LED replacement. Tons of light, no heat and less electrical usage.