justdrew

This is the full movie (about an hour long), feel free to use the full-screen control to view.

Much of this is old hat to those of us who already grok collaborative systems, but exciting to see so many real-world examples and most exciting of all- that some day soon we (the people) may truly, not just figuratively or by proxy, rule ourselves. Government, corporations, services.

This film does a great job of driving some of these concepts home. Share!

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

Small coincidence for me: during the community football management story, they reference Wrexham where I used to live.

It’s important for us (people, that is) to remember that when technology steps in to help us do things better and more efficiently, it’s critical in every sense of the word, that we maintain a connection with what makes us human.

Here’s a great example of how someone (Dr. Yehonatan N. Turner) was brilliant enough to see a simple solution to what could appear to be a purely technical problem. How to improve effectiveness at reading medical scans for cancer detection? Re-connect the human element and remind scanning technicians that they are helping a real person.
Actually, he wanted to reconnect the human element first, but his solution turns out to heighten effectiveness as well.

By including a picture or pictures of a patient with his or her scans, radiologists tended to spend more time and be more thorough in their recommendations. Recent studies confirmed that there is a significant impact, the only question seems to be whether this effect will dull over time or that seeing facial features triggers something in the health professional’s brain.

Keep trying folks, we’ll get this technology::humanity ratio right eventually!

Okay, there are some products that just rock. WordPress is one of them.

I am continually impressed with the improvements over the past (how many?) half-dozen years since I started working with it.

Just did an upgrade that in any other system would be painful to the point of drawing blood… yet everything went so smoothly I was convinced nothing happened.

Nothing, other than even more improvements to the UI (easily the biggest weak point of all other opensource projects) and a noticeable improvement in performance.

In this crazy, fucked-up world it’s so refreshing to have something work for a change. Thank you WordPress team!

–Drew…justdrew

Well, I haven’t posted on this topic yet but a couple months ago, my employer made some what some might call trendy, yet I called income-reducing, decision to cut a significant percentage of its workforce.

Though I was cut, I don’t consider myself a victim of any larger trend. I believe my former employer failed to more aggressively capture a growing segment in the market still hungry for professional services like I provide.

News of all the layoffs in many industries grabs all the headlines and to be sure, there’s a lot of scaling back being done. Fortunately, there are segments who will weather the storm and some who are actually growing right now. To be fair, some of these are growing not in spite of the downturn but because of it. However, there are other areas that are just not as affected by large labor cutbacks or dips in stock values.

One area that continues to grow is that of companies trying to improve their business efficiencies. Even those who must cut jobs to appease investors, need more efficient back-office tools to get work done even more efficiently since they now have fewer staff.

We’ll start to see the economy turning around once the media has had its fill of doom-and-gloom… or some new distraction surfaces to get consumers spending again.

Since I’m doing freelance work but keeping one eye on the job market at the same time, I’m seeing more and more confirmation of my hunch that there are places to go where you can contribute value and be compensated for it, you just have to look a little harder.

Indeed article here.

Cute, if somewhat awkward interview by a Wired writer who’s obviously more comfortable penning articles than interviewing, but this show is one of my guilty pleasures, so I’m always interested in behind-the-scenes things about it:

Jeopardy Technology Interview

When I first started getting into the show in the early 80′s, I was astounded at how much (what was to me, at least) obscure stuff people knew with such confidence. I had a long way to go, since I didn’t really start learning useless (and some, not-so-useless) trivia until I got a bit older.

What amazed me even more as I started watching the show regularly is the discovery that it is the most watched gameshow in history. Really? With all those esoteric facts and references to art, literature and world history (notwithstanding the occasional factoid gleaned from People magazine or the E! channel). If most Americans are so stupid (I find evidence to contradict this harder and harder to find), why are they all watching this show? Do they like to be reminded of how dull and ignorant they are?

Maybe someday I’ll find the answer to this puzzler. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy this great quiz-show (second in my book only to the old British program Mastermind with the late, great Magnus Magnusson).

For me, though, the one critical piece of technology that enables me to truly enjoy Jeopardy: the DVR (I loathe the commercials and the insipid interviews with the contestants, let’s get on with it already!!)

Which is no doubt one of the awesome strengths of Mastermind. No dallying about pretending to care about the contestant whose aunt knits sweaters out of cat hair. It’s a quiz show, you ask questions and the contestants try to answer them. Simple as that.

Never heard the Beatles before¦

There’s this guy I know so well. I’ve known him since the day he was born. For all we have in common, there is an amazing fact about him where we differ. He has never heard the Beatles before.

Okay, so he’s my 2 month-old grandson. He has an excuse.

I can’t wait to watch him as he experiences the richness of our modern culture for the first time as he grows up. Will he love and appreciate the wonders that I do- as I do? Will he come to know and love Voltaire and Kafka? Will he “get” Lenny Bruce, Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac? Will he hear and understand the Beatles, the Pixies and The Sex Pistols? … let alone Daniel Johnston, Laurie Anderson and Joanna Newsome?

Okay, so what has brought on this spate of musings? Well, the other day while listening to the radio, an old Beatles tune came up and the thought occurred to me to try and hear it as if I had never heard of the band before. Never knew its influence. Never ‘Met the Beatles’ as it were.

It was an amazing experience. I managed to listen to the heart of the music without all the baggage that comes with their cultural identity and history. The song was: A Day In The Life. I now try to do that every time I hear their music- if only for the mental exercise. It is exquisite (except for some of the early stuff which isn’t- let’s face it- very good on purely musical merit).

Total Tangent: All this reminded me of a great Kids in the Hall skit where Dave Foley plays a character at a cocktail party who pretends to never have heard of the Beatles and not to have known about the Sergeant Pepper’s album’s existence. This will be amusing to Kid’s fans only, thanks for indulging.

Okay, so why this nostalgia about the Beatles? Well, I have been a big fan for so many years, I cannot remember a time when they weren’t a huge part of my life (inside my head, at least… which is where I spend most of my time). I’m NOT, however, what you would ever call a *fanatic*. That is partially why I didn’t rush out to see the film “Across the Universe” when it first came out.

However, I *just* watched it tonight on DVD. While I was braced to experience the corniest, cheesiest movie ever made- I have to say it was nothing short of brilliant.

It was brilliant in so many ways, I cannot begin to express. Superb acting. GREAT musical integration into a story that reminded me of an existentialist novel (except for the end, which I can excuse- hey, the thing had to get made and it had to sell to an American audience, right?).

Still, it had exciting choreography (and I *HATE* dancing in movies). But most of all – I’ve gotta say- there are some really good versions of some excellent Beatles’ tunes in this flick.

Put simply, I am dumbfounded that someone could make a movie so without fault- especially a musical. It is so without maudlin sentiment, yet is so moving- I am just blown away. There were so many opportunities for this to go south of stupid. Yet it never seemed to go there.

Looking back over a huge collection of films, I have not seen a musical movie so emotionally powerful and so masterfully done since I saw The Wall (which I similarly postponed for several years after its original release, thinking it would be too corny… until I finally saw it in 1985 in a Paris theater… that remains one of my most satisfying cinematic memories).

Okay- so after all that gushing, I guess I need an ending to this post. Let’s just say that I am full of the love of art and of the arts that I go to sleep tonight satisfied and happy with the universe, content in the knowledge that there are real artists who continue to make this world a better place… or at the very least- more interesting. Good night.

Yeah, it’s crazy- not only do I look too young, I almost am too young- but I’m the proud grandfather of a bouncing baby boy, Brighton Dylan Mattke.
He’s adorable and at three weeks of age, is just about the cutest kid I’ve ever seen (and Jeanette & I raised a couple cuties ourselves).

More pictures coming soon- I might even update our Mattkefamily.com site… but no promises.

Greetings, any of you who know me or know of me, and might be wondering what I’m doing.

I am no longer recruiting for a living. It was a fun run, but ultimately that career lacks something I discovered I MUST have in my professional life: the ability to build things.

Now, I’m with a terrific company called Optaros. They’re a consulting firm with an innovative and creative development methodology. Effectively, we develop solutions for companies and leverage opensource solutions to deliver high quality with short turnaround.

The challenge I have embraced coming to the company is to provide leadership around the User Experience discipline. You’ll read more about my thoughts on UX design and how it factors into the coming wave of opensource development and implementation.

For now, feel free to contact me if you’re looking for opportunities- I may not be able to help you as actively as when I was recruiting, but I can very likely point you in a positive direction or introduce you to folks who can help.

What will Spring bring for you?

New prosperity, disorienting time-change, frolicking in the bluebonnets, more daylight, helping more people find their dream job, but mostly frolicking.

(From Consumating)