MapCrunch is a very cool mash-up that’s sort of a cross between Google Street View and ChatRoulette (but with a lot more clicking if you want to see some nudity!)
Instead, the site gives you a random shot from Google Street View, either anywhere in the world or narrowed down by specific country or continent. You can also grab links to particularly striking vistas you may come across.
Amazing to see how different parts of the world can look so familiar and also to realise how much of the world is rural country roads rather than urban areas.
OuiBox (warning: music autoplays) is not only an online word processor and a way to connect to various social media sites but it claims to have the ability to help you fill in facts as you write!
In ten years’ time, can you imagine how powerful this type of predictive search and other AI-type technology will be? (See also: Google and Wolfram Alpha and so on?)
Technically, I should’ve posted this clip yesterday. But with the way the so-called “weather bomb” snow blizzard crap hit us, I wasn’t really in my usual jaunty “first snow of the year” mood. It’s still supposed to get up to +9 by early next week so maybe I’ll have a do-over then…
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what single quality, if any, would be the thing you should look for in hiring new employees. There are a few things that made me think of this – obviously working in the HR Unit at RPL has me thinking about these things, especially when I consider the fact that we’ve done a higher amount of hiring over the past year than usual which has given us a huge opportunity to revitalize our organization. Talking to colleagues who are considering moves to other organizations – both people looking to leave RPL and others who would consider joining us – is another thing that has put this to the front of my brain.
Yet another is that I recently attended a training session where the presenter observed “corporate culture eats strategy for lunch.” I agree that this is true – unless you have a strong, focused organizational culture, you’re going to struggle to implement your strategic directions. And often the organizational culture is a direct result of the people you have. For example, WestJet is a company frequently cited for their outstanding culture – this is a combination of the leadership of the organization and the people they hire who fit the “WestJet ” mold.
One caveat – I’m not saying that your goal should be to hire a bunch of people who all think the same way. Although that may sound desirable (and easier) at first, you lose the diversity of opinion, viewpoint and experience that makes for a stronger whole (in politics, this has been called the “Team of Rivals” approach.)
So what elusive quality is the one defining attribute that would be useful in any type of organization or corporation? Respect for authority? Creativity? Attention to detail? Humour? Intelligence? Risk-taking? Risk aversion? Trust? Proven leadership experience? A certain type of education? Confidence?
There are hundreds of qualities that employees may bring to an organization and some organizations have a set of 3 or 5 things that they try to identify. But I’d argue that the single most desirable quality that we should look for in our employees is optimism. (Again, a caveat in that I don’t think this means that staff can’t be skeptical or even critical. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be happy pollyannas. But I do think that people who have an underlying optimism – about themselves, about the people around them, about the organization they work for – are your greatest chance for guaranteeing success. And after saying that I don’t necessarily equate optimism with happiness, here’s a link to a good article titled “Hire Happy Employees”.)
So is there a way to test for optimism? A quick Google search reveals a few tests though I don’t know how reliable or established any of them are. And who knows – maybe my theory just shows that I’m naively optimistic – also not a good form of optimism!
I first saw Spike Lee’s documentary, “Do It Acapella” back around 1990 or 1991. In those days, if you saw something on TV, it was gone unless you were watching a channel like MuchMusic that repeated it’s programming on a set (six hour?) rotation throughout the day. In that case, you could set your VCR and get a permanent copy the next time the show (or video or whatever) was aired. (I still have dozens of VHS tapes filled with music videos I compiled by doing this.)
This documentary was shown on PBS (which didn’t repeat blocks of programming) but I was able to get a copy when it was re-broadcast later in the day. Then, another piece of serendipity that’s been lost in the age of iTunes – I later found the soundtrack while browsing the “Various Artists” section of a record store while on a family trip the US.
From that soundtrack which became a personal favourite, “Looking for an Echo” is a song I still regularly sing to Pace at bedtime. And this one was another song I loved (ffwd to 2:35 to skip the introductory scene setting):
(via MetaFilter and in honour of some enjoyable time spent with MetaFilter moderator, Jessamyn West today at the RPL Staff Conference. There are exactly four MetaFilter members in the Regina area. I am one of them. Yay me! Also, I’m a nerd.)
I’m pretty excited about our staff conference on Friday (although the last minute details and fire fighting gave me a bastard of a headache today so that I ended up coming home and crashing for two hours.)
But I think we’ve got a great line-up – including having not one but two sessions by the esteemed Jessamyn West. Here’s a preview of her keynote presentation (check out slide seven – yay for collaborative culture!)
We’re also having a Books to Beers after the conference is over. It’ll be at Bushwakkers in their Club Room (downstairs) starting at 4:30pm. If you’re reading this and you’re in Regina or area and you like books and/or libraries and/or want to meet a real life Internet celebrity, feel free to drop by. 😉
