Graham Chastney (oak-grove)

"Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy"

Attention deficit and the impacts of multi-tasking have been themes on this blog for a while now. It all started with me thinking about whether it is possible to have a "strong" brain, and whether it was possible to do things to exercise your brain and make it "stronger". Along the way I came across the issue of attention deficit trait and the impact of multi-tasking.

Walter Kirn has written a fascinating article on the impact of multi-tasking. It starts with this bold statement:

Neuroscience is confirming what we all suspect: Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy. One man’s odyssey through the nightmare of infinite connectivity.

It even gives some wonderful statistics on the impact:

Six hundred and fifty billion dollars. That’s what we might call our National Attention Deficit, according to Jonathan B. Spira, who’s the chief analyst at a business- research firm called Basex and has estimated the per annum cost to the economy of multitasking-induced disruptions. (He obtained the figure by surveying office workers across the country, who reported that some 28 percent of their time was wasted dealing with multitasking- related transitions and interruptions.)

But the real joy in this article is the story that surrounds all of the information, and for that, you need to read the article.

One of the reasons I am writing this post is that I had planned to work from home today because I need to get my head around some thing. Working from home normally allows me to blank out everything and focus in on the core task. Unfortunately my neighbour has started some building work today and the trucks keep reversing up the cul-de-sac with those annoying reversing warnings blaring away. However much I try to focus in on the important thing, the distractions keep coming, and you can only turn the quiet music up so load. There's no point in me trying to get my head around the task that is ahead of me because I will just get distracted, try to regain my thought, get distracted, get frustrated, and on and on.

If this post comes to you as an interruption - sorry, but it's really your fault for not turning off the notification on whatever reader you are using. You are allowed to turn things off you know.

(Jimmy and Grandad are watching Mr. Benn at the National Media Museum in Bradford. One of the attractions of the museum is to be able to go into one section, choose a programme from the archives and show your kids what television was like when you were a kid. We were all surprised how slow Mr. Benn was. Another sign of the impact we are having on our brains.)

Technorati tags: Attenteion Deficit, Multi Tasking, Brainstorm, Dumb, Concentration

Appreciating Office 2007: Shadows

There are a lot of things that I am starting to really appreciate about Office 2007.

The first one is probably the most cosmetic, but it's making a real difference and that's shadows.

I have always been stunned by the lack of flexibility in shadows in earlier versions of Office. Let's be honest, they didn't even look like shadows. I'm not sure what they looked like, but it wasn't a shadow.

The new shadow capabilities in Office 2007 are far batter. They now look like, and behave like shadows.

The options in 2003 were so limiting as to make them unusable:

What can I do here? I can make the shadow bigger, I can change the colour, and I can make it semi-transparent. And the result:

Even the drop shadows in Live Writer look more like a shadow than that.

In 2007 it's all changed:

The presets in there own are enough, but I now have the ability to adjust so much more: transparency, size, blur, angle, distance.

Now that actually looks like a shadow.

I'm not sure how much fiddling I will do with these new options though, because the Quick Styles do a pretty good job on there own (another post, another time).

And that's just shadows on objects, shadows on text has radically changed, and definitely for the better (another post another time).

Technorati tags: Office 2007, Shadows

iTunes Update - A Different Machine a Different Font

Sometimes it's the little things that get noticed.

The other day I wrote about the strange experience of getting a rather odd font for the iTunes Update License Agreement.

Today I am using a different machine, and I got a different odd font:

At least I'm not the only one being picked on. Search the Internet and you'll find hundreds of examples - not surprisingly. At least I could just about read both of mine unlike this person.

Anyone else think it's rather shoddy?

Technorati tags: iTunes, Fonts

A Time to Acquire - Those Busy Lawyers

It seems to have been a very busy period for those acquisition lawyers (they are obviously hoping for a good quarter ). Some of these purchases have the potential to significantly change the IT landscape. Here are the ones that I have noticed:

• 2nd Jan - IBM to acquire XIV
• 3rd Jan - NetApp to acquire Onaro
• 8th Jan - Microsoft to acquire Fast Search and Transfer
• 15th Jan - VMware to acquire Thinstall
• 18th Jan - Sun to acquire MySQL
• 18th Jan - IBM to acquire Net Integration Technologies
• 21st Jan - Microsoft to acquire Calista

And that's not including the spate of acquisitions at the end of 2007, including IBM's purchase of Cognos.

All of these things take a while to work there way through, but there are some interesting moves ahead.

(Seems a bit ironic to be writing this as stock markets around the world are tumbling - but that's the way it goes sometimes.)

Technorati tags: IBM, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware, XIV, Onaro, Fast Search and Transfer, Sun, MySQL, Net Integration Technologies, Calista, Cognos

iTunes Update - Interesting Selection of Font

As seems to be mandatory after Macworld - today iTunes has been updated.

I've ranted about the volume of updates and the level of disruption that iTunes updates cause in another post - so I'm not going to do that today.

Today's observation is a quirk. For some reason the update program decided upon a rather strange font for the License Agreement this time.

Not sure what it would do to my head if I actually tried to read this thing in that font.

I'm giving Apple the benefit of the doubt and assuming that this is a quirk on my machine and that they haven't gone completely mad.

See you soon - my machines off for a reboot now, in true iTunes update fashion .

Technorati tags: iTunes, Apple

Will this be the last time I do this

Every now and then I go through the list of applications installed on my laptop as a clean-up exercise. It's amazing how many applications get installed that I forget about. I don't expect any performance benefit from doing this, I'm just trying to get id of some of the clutter.

One of the programs that always gets deleted as I tidy up is the Microsoft Network Monitor Tool. It always gets deleted because every time I do the clean up activity I haven't used it for months. But why do I keep reinstalling it?

It's a great tool for problem solving, especially if you know how to read the data. I've managed to work my way out of all sorts of problems using the information that it gives me. But problem solving isn't my real job, it's just something I get pulled in to do when things need some detailed analysis.

So I uninstall Network Monitor again, I can't see a reason why I would need it, it's no longer part of my role, so why would I need it.

I wonder whether this will be the last time that I uninstall it though. Do I really think that my problem solving days are over? Have I really turned my back on that part of my life? We'll see .

Technorati tags: Network Monitor

VMWare purchases Thinstall

One of the challenges that Thinstall has had in the market place has been the classic small company problem. How can a small company provide assurance to large customers that it will be there in the future. Well that concern went away yesterday with its purchase by VMWare.

Most of the reporting is just restating the news release. There has been some commentary though.

Randall Kennedy of Infoworld:

Some might see the acquisition as a "tasty morsel," a way for VMware to expand into the nascent Application Virtualization space by purchasing a smaller (20+ people at last count) player with an outsized presence in the market. I, on the other hand, see a potential "hairball" in the making.

Not surprisingly from VMware's Warren Ponder:

For years now customers and IT visionaries have been planning their next generation desktop architectures. IT organizations have been stepping outside the traditional way of deploying desktop services and regaining the control of their desktop environments by leveraging the power and benefits of VMware virtualization technology. Where server based computing solutions such as Citrix and Terminal services have allen short, VMware VDI has been able to step in and revive the promise of server based computing and dynamic desktop environments.

Brian Madden:

The most obvious place for Thinstall in VMware's solution stack is for use with their Windows XP and Windows Vista desktop delivery products, including their VDI solutions for server-based computing scenarios and VMware ACE for local computing scenarios. Thinstall is great here because the more apps you package with Thinstall, the less you have to build into your base Windows disk image that your desktop users will use.

From a personal perspective, VMWare is one of the few companies that could have purchased Thinstall and still given it the potential to remain within the mainstream. VMWare is a trusted middleware organisation and Thinstall would fit in as an extension to existing capabilities. If, however, Thinstall retreats into the VDI stack then it's of limited applicability.

Technorati tags: Thinstall, VMWare, Virtualisation

The Lone Server

Someone recently spoke to me about a plan to turn off the first server I ever installed, it's an old NT 4.0 server and has been doing a sterling job as a PDC for more years than I am going to let on.

I'm starting to get worried that they might be planning to turn me off at the same time.

I thought about my old friend  server as I watched this video:

Video: The Lone Server - extended version

I particularly liked the reference to Windows ME.

Follow along at the Windows Server Blog.

So "where do you want to go today?"

Technorati tags: Windows, Server, Lone Server, Microsoft

PowerPoint - An Old Feature Newly Found

This weekend I discovered something new in PowerPoint that has been there for generations (at least since 2002 anyway). I was amazed to find that it existed, because it's something I have looked for in the past.

Occasionally I want to load a lot of pictures into separate slides in PowerPoint to make a photo album in the middle of a presentation. I've always done this manually, create slide, add picture, create slide add picture. It takes ages.

This weekend someone pointed out to me a feature which does just that, automatically.

You'll find it under "Insert Picture" - "New Photo Album".

If you then click on "File/Disk" you can select a load of picture files.

You can then reorder the pictures and even pick a layout for the pictures on the slides.

I hate to think how many hours this would have saved me over the years.

But I suppose you all knew that this feature existed and just hadn't bothered to tell me.

Technorati tags: PowerPoint, Feature

Half Hour Meetings

We all avoid things we dislike, it's in our nature. I am always trying to find ways of avoiding meetings.

It's not that I don't like interacting with people, it's because I think that most meetings are waste of time. there are multiple reasons for this, and the primary one is lack of planning.

I work in a culture where an meeting agenda is a rare thing, meeting minutes are even rarer, people reading either minutes or agenda prior to a meeting are as common as an excited man in Ikea.

This lack of planning makes the whole thing drift along like a discarded quavers packet. As you may have picked up I'm definitely a task oriented individual.

The other issue I have with meetings are that they are always booked in 1 hour slots. It's the default in the company Notes system and I'm sure that is a big reason for it.

Today I have five separate 1 hour meetings booked. Three of the meetings are update meetings on which there are few update because we have been off for nearly two weeks since we last met, I have no idea why one of the sessions even exists.

The one remaining meeting is with one of our senior managers. He has an attention span of less than 10 minutes. I have some information to communicate to him. I have structured it to fit into the 10 minute attention span I know that I will get from him. His PA has still booked an hour, and always does.

Perhaps we should all agree to 30 minute meetings so that we regain the focus that they deserve.

Perhaps I'm being too task oriented though, perhaps all of the other things we  talk about during our meetings are just as important as getting on with the task. Perhaps the meeting is the important thing and not the agenda.

Or perhaps not.