Meriblog: Meri Williams' Weblog

links for 2008-08-28

2008-08-29T02:01:41Z

YouTube - Eddie Izzard- Do you have a Flag?

One of my FAVE Eddie Izzard bits, only improved by the wicked lego animation

(tags: satire funny humour eddieizzard standup comedy lego animation)
7 ways I’ve almost killed FreshBooks

"Here’s a list of ways that I’ve almost killed FreshBooks over the years"

Some interesting stuff here

(tags: business startups entrepeneurship lessonslearnt marketing advice motivation)
So I got a box in the mail filled with 80 body parts » The Bloggess

"… this pretty much sums up my entire life. Other bloggers get invited to go on CNN or get free furniture. I get an angry transvestite army." ROFLMAO!

(tags: funny gender genderqueer lego samples free)

links for 2008-06-06

2008-06-06T23:34:15Z

Wayward Alzheimer’s patients foiled by fake bus stop - Telegraph

“A German nursing home has come up with a novel idea to stop Alzheimer’s patients from wandering off: a phantom bus stop.”

(tags: lifehacks funny german alzheimers ingenious health)

My New Book!

2008-03-27T19:38:48Z

(Cross-posting from Geek | Manager)

I’m pleased to announce that one of my own projects has just come to fruition. My new book, The Principles of Project Management has just been published by SitePoint. It’s a short book aimed at folks like myself who have come from a technical background and are increasingly finding themselves in need of project management skills — whether to officially take that role or to help make the hard work they put in as developers or designers actually mean something, by ensuring the project is delivered properly.

The book was expert reviewed by Kevin Lawver and Drew McLellan who both did an admirable job of ensuring that the content stayed applicable to all sorts of projects and teams, both big and small. They also bravely took on the role of managementese-weeding and survived with remarkably few lasting scars Drew has written some thoughts on the book on his own blog. I thoroughly enjoyed working with both Drew & Kevin, as well as the team at SitePoint.

If your interest is piqued, then check out The Principles of Project Management book page or download a sample chapter.

In the interests of full disclosure, I would highlight that all the links are affiliate links — i.e. if you buy the book via that link I will both be able to track it and get something back

My Year in Cities (2007)

2008-01-03T14:24:02Z

Here is the list of cities I visited in 2007 — please take it both as a long-overdue post to the blog and an apology/explanation of why posting frequency is so low at the moment!!

It’s also the reason that Dopplr is firmly entrenched as my favourite new application of 2007. Flickr also remained a firm favourite, even if I don’t always upload as regularly as I ought to… You can see photos from some (but sadly not all) of these trips here.

OVERSEAS:

Cincinnati, OH, USA*
San Antonio, NM, USA
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Austin, TX, USA
Hong Kong, SAR, People’s Republic of China*
Manila, Philippines
Sydney, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Cape Town, South Africa**
Port Elizabeth, South Africa**
San Jose, Costa Rica
Playa Jaco, Costa Rica

UK:

Newcastle upon Tyne [Home]
Exeter, Devon*
Tiverton, Devon*
Bath, Avon*
Bristol, Somerset*
Weybridge, Surrey*
Woking, Surrey*
Market Bosworth, Warwickshire
Cambridge
London

For reference, I also wrote a similar summary in 2006.

* Denotes multiple visits
** And everywhere in between. We visited Durbanville, Darling, Simonstown & Boulders, Knysna, Mossel Bay, Plettenberg Bay, Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Hout Bay, Cape Point and numerous other smaller destinations. Photos available on Flickr

links for 2007-11-19

2007-11-19T23:33:10Z

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Tutu chides Church for gay stance

“It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It’s like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.” Mr Tutu, you are THE MAN!

(tags: africa gay desmondtutu desmondtutuistheman rights gayrights tolerance preaching)
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Dolly scientist abandons cloning

Dear BBC - do you really think that is an appropriate headline? He isn’t abandoning cloning, just cloning via human embryos. Tabloid, much?

(tags: ethics life bbc impartialmyass bias headlines cloning science)

links for 2007-11-18

2007-11-18T23:33:42Z

Starz Bunnies - Snakes on a Plane

Samuel L Jackson is even better as a bunny.

(tags: bunnies fun movies videos snakesonaplane hilarious summary)
Dykes do Web standards ¶ Personal Weblog of Joe Clark, Toronto

“But then there’s the dykes! The other white meat!”
I can never decide whether Joe is hilarious or deranged. I love this article though. Will have to go tap him on the shoulder and remind him some of us are already here!

(tags: webstandards gaypolitics webdevelopment webdesign windows lesbians)
Corporate Cat « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures - I Can Has Cheezburger?

Corporate cat is not amused.

(tags: lolcats cats funny photography work corporate)
Simpli Hosting

Anyone used these guys before? Considering a move away from Dreamhost, given they keep blocking Googlebot from my sites ::rolleyes::

(tags: hosting webhosting dreamhost simplihosting 10for10 slashchick colocation isp blogher)

links for 2007-11-14

2007-11-14T23:39:47Z

Outside In

This is amazing. Man, I miss maths.

(tags: maths physics science learning understanding theorem proof video google graphics teaching)

Women in Technology

2007-11-07T13:06:05Z

Last night I attended my first Women in Technology event. It was quite interesting, but more importantly inspiring to meet so many women from the industry.

When I think back to the ongoing “Where are the women?” conversations in the geek conference space, where some claim it’s impossible to get women to attend, it was wonderful to see a mid-week evening event with an attendance approaching 400.

Sadly I’m not down in London frequently enough to make it to many of these events, though I still hold out hope that I’ll make it to a Girl Geek Dinner!

Soul Poets

2007-11-05T00:58:49Z

A few weeks ago I travelled down to Bath from Newcastle. Sitting in the sushi bar in Bristol Temple Meads train station (yes, how times have changed, eh?!) having breakfast, a middle-aged backpacker struck up conversation with me. I evidently have a “ask me about sushi, I’ll explain” aura about me - every time we go NEAR the Yo Sushi! in Newcastle I end up explaining what the food is and how the conveyor belt system works to every 50+ in Fenwicks - but I digress.

Having had me explain that sushi is really rather nice, Mike (the backpacker) started telling me about his life. He’d given up his house, his work and (I presume, though he shied away from the subject) his family a few years before and started travelling around the UK, camping as he went. That day he was on his way down to Weston Super Mare to see a friend. He talked about long evenings spent alone in his tent and how he was thinking about getting a dog, perhaps a Jack Russell, to keep him company.

Then I noticed his t-shirt, yellow with “Better to burn out than it is to rust” emblazoned across the chest in bright red letters. For those of you who perhaps didn’t have the same 70s protest song upbringing as me, that particular line is from Neil Young’s iconic song Hey Hey, My My. An enthusiastic conversation about the great man followed, right down to naming our favourite song. We both picked Powderfinger, which was spooky to start with. The fact that we both had the same reason — a belief that “And my face splashed in the sky” is one of the most beautifully disturbing and visually evocative lines of poetry ever written — was downright weird.

Sitting there, mid business trip, about to go back to my old university to represent the multinational corporation I work for at a Careers Fair, I realised what an odd pair we must look sat there in the station. You’d never guess that our commonality ran so deep.

links for 2007-11-04

2007-11-04T23:29:06Z

Tomorrow’s finest leaders may well be today’s gamers

“80 percent of managers in the US under the age of 35 had significant video game experience and that gamers had a more positive outlook on life than non-gamers. Gamers tended to prefer multitasking to individual assignments, to stave off boredom.”

(tags: business gaming skills leadership strategy future games technology learning)
A Breakup Letter - Juice Analytics

This breakup letter written to PowerPoint is hilarious!

(tags: funny humour presentations software powerpoint microsoft keynote tools tech)
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Huge fine for anti-gay US church

“But they later extended their pickets to the funerals of soldiers, who they say are being punished by God because of America’s tolerance of homosexuality.”
Wow, if that’s their attitude, imagine what would happen if the US actually WAS tolerant!

(tags: bigotry bbc homophobia soldiers death picketing funerals religion usa)
Natalie Downe » Blog Archive » ‘Networking’

I’m with Nat on this one. I hate it when people tell me I’m a good “networker”. Networking is Machiavellian. I just like talking to people.

(tags: networking socialising friends people talking new)