TechBays my new blog

I have created another blog called TechBays that will feature new or updated technologies that simplify or enrich our lives, or at least my life. Most of the technology related topics will be posted via TechBays.

I grew up in Iligan City, in the southern part of the Philippines, known as the industrial city of the south. The industries are situated along the Iligan bay. Currently I live in San Jose, California, part of what is known as Silicon Valley, which is situated in the San Francisco bay area.

My passion for technology plus the bays of my interest. Hence TechBays.

Hope to also see you guys in TechBays. Thanks!

Blogging II

What has changed?

I've been playing around with posts and templates. I moved some posts to other blogs I created, that is, for Iligan related postings I recreated them in CMonIligan.blogspot.com. Ditto postings related to business, technology, consulting, and perhaps more if necessary.

I played around with templates in Blogger. Previously I thought I can only use two column templates as made available by Blogger. I googled and found three column templates that you can use by tweaking your current template or use preset three column templates, but you'll have to trust the source on this one.

I also created a blog by Wordpress and Typepad. Wordpress is more flexible in terms of template usage. The blog CMonTech and CMonBusiness are Wordpress managed. Wordpress has a dashboard that allows you to see your postings from your different W-blogs. Management of pictures and videos is quite different. I have never successfully embedded a video yet.

You will need some CSS skills though to tweak your template. It's not as straightforward as Blogger. So this is an area to learn and do.

I started to add links to other personal sites found at the right hand area with title CM Links and, in the process, found the service Spock. It’s a person search facility that allows for multiple tagging criteria. It’s easy to use it’s like a game. I noticed that LinkedIn members are preloaded.

(By the way, this post was interrupted by Blogger access issues and some paragraphs were deleted, which sucked. So I will be looking for offline editors that can interface with Blogger.)

Typepad has already charged me $5 for this month. Since my blog CMon.Typepad is only experimental, I may want to remove this in the future. Typepad has a clean user interface and is probably most user friendly.

The idea to have multiple blogs for different categories for me is again experimental. I may want to revert to a single blog for all postings that will show notes from serious to trivial. I find that awkward but we’ll see.

Well, it’s fun. So many blogs to read.

And thank you for reading this blog!

The Best Rules

There are certain rules we follow. There are three that I call my Best rules or guidelines. So here goes.

Rule 1. Do your best in every thing you do every single moment.

In everything you do. When you take a bath, eat breakfast, drink coffee, dress up for work or school, drive a car, talk or text by mobile phone, set up your work table, prepare your meeting minutes, conduct a meeting, write an email, address a business issue, write an issue document, write a proposal, eat lunch, freshen up, configure a system, reply an email, record an issue, update notes, attend a meeting, address process owners, summarize a meeting, record finances, drive home, fix stuff, eat dinner, write a blog, keep gadgets, freshen up, have sex, and sleep.

By keeping this everyday, it helps me in trying to achieve some level of excellence. This guideline for me has opened the path, and my understanding, on the next rule.

Rule 2. Do what you do best.

I knew growing up there were things I did better than other kids. Like dance, for example, no kidding, don't laugh. Okay, perhaps solve math problems. Or lead a group, a science team, an inventors' group, a brotherhood, a class, an editorial team, an activist group, a project team, a business. It didn't stop there. The more I put myself in challenging tasks, the more I understood myself and realized areas that I'm stronger in character and skills than most.

So for me the way was simple. To optimize my stay in this life, I do what I do best. I just focus on what I do best. And get rid of the crappy ones that others do best. It sounds simple but you have to filter through to find your finest abilities. In so doing and knowing and doing and knowing, repeatedly, you put yourself ahead of a certain pack, ahead of the curve in your area of expertise or competence. And economics wise, this translates into services that value more than the average.

There are probably at least three things right now that you yourself can say that you do better than most people. Dwell on those know-how, work on them and grow them like nobody does.

The more I let my skills grow, the more I need parameters for optimization.

Rule 3. Adapt best practices in your area of expertise.

The most part of what you do have some great history ingrained into it. Other people have done it multiple times that some form of better, if not, best, practices have been formulated. Adapt them.

If you think you're the best technologist in your school or industry, try comparing yourself to other people around the world. Read through their works and listen to their advises. Practice them as you see fit to your projects.

The process in integrating these best practices may provide you with further innovations or inventions. That again will allow you to further expand your competency and be ahead of the pack.

Blogging

I think I tried to post my first blog by Blogger more than two years ago. I received two long spam comments within a few days. That wasn't what I expected. So I stopped.

Since late last year though, I have been enjoying reading blogs such as TechCrunch, AVC, Joel on Software, Paul Graham, Paul Kedrosky, Mashable, GigaOm, Boing Boing, Scobleizer, even recent ones like How to Change the World, Pmarca, among many others.

Some of these work like a brotherhood, referencing and linking within their network or group of friends. I find it fun to read how they hit each other and then shake on later.

I didn't quite get blogging at first. It really starts with oneself and extends to your group of friends or interests. I would want to have most of my friends in the blogosphere and have fun hyperlinking. Perhaps they're already out there and I just need to look and browse more.

The first barrier I had to overcome was deciding on a blog provider. Blogger, Typepad, or Wordpress. Finally, I chose Blogger probably because I had some experience using it. And I think it's the easiest. But certainly I would want to try out Typepad and Wordpress in the coming months.

The next barrier was deciding on templates. But I found out these are changeable. Then off to your first post. I had one anomaly sometime March. But it's like that. It's a blog.

Then you do your second, third, fourth, and so on. And so far it's not stopping anytime. I feel good blogging to tell you honestly. And it works in a different time in your mind.

So you have the widgets, which two months ago for me sounded weird. But there you go, the videos, the embeds, the photos, the news, the logs, widgets are your closest friends in your blog space. And they continue to grow and interact and make sense and make nonsense.

Ah the adsense. Ads on the right panel, header, footer, in texts, in blocks, by auctions, by Google and more. You have to read statistics if you prefer; reports that show daily, monthly cpms. But so far this has not been an issue for me. Because with all this talk on millions, my total so far is, get this, $1.

But I'm having fun. That's really the point for me.

Just try it!

Remote Consulting

I do management consulting for almost a decade now; SAP consulting for the most part. From time to time, I also get requirements for remote consulting work. It means that even if the client is in Spain, New York, or Toronto, I get paid for joining remote conferences, by the hour or minute as per contract. After the online meeting, I get paid for spending time on my own analyzing the business issues, outlining options to resolve the issues, and documenting the entire resolution or proposal - as stipulated in the contract as well.

Apart from knowing the business requirements, I have to be adept at certain technologies to do the entire remote consulting process. This is what I want to share with the readers. To those who want remote consulting work, you should know at least the following technology services. They are not that complicated.

1. Document processor like Google Docs or Zoho Writer. While MS word is a de facto service for most users, an online processing service will do better in publishing and sharing docs with other users. Its practice allows you to adapt quicker to doing remote work from wherever you are, at home, in a cafe, or at the beach. Cost: Free.
   
2. Spreadsheet application such as Google Spreadsheet or Zoho Sheet. If you're familiar with MS Excel, then shifting practice to online services will be easy, and for similar reasons as item 1. Cost: Free.
   
3. Voice over internet telephony (VoIP) service such as Skype. Most business users, including your customer, will understand the use of Skype. It's free and easy to use. You can also use SkypeOut, for reduced fees, if the other party doesn't have Skype installed. Cost: Free (Skype-to-Skype); ~0.02/min. (SkypeOut.)
   
4. Online meeting services such as GotoMeeting. This application allows you to share your desktop with your customers, and vice versa; allowing both of you to see presentations, documents, even fixing the other's system. Normally, your customer will have this facility and will provide you with user access. You'll just have to be familiar on how to use it. The sharing function behaves similarly with services such as Google Docs or Zoho Sheet. But this one allows access to the other person's computer. Cost: $49/mo (if necessary.)

Perhaps there are free alternatives to item 4. We'll check this out.

The hardware side of this includes a computer (of course) with mike and speaker, or a headset combo. And an internet connection that is not a dial-up. Set this up in a quiet room.

The contract side of this includes your tax ID number (or company tax ID, if applicable) and bank account. Some customers prefer to pay by check.

Therefore, what you need to do is identify your area of expertise and offer that as a service. That expertise, together with standard writing and speaking skills, should put you in the consulting map.

For questions, leave a comment, or you may email me at carlo@maglinao.com.

Skyflyer

Contrary to obvious impression, the fall was actually relaxing for me. Promise. I got more pressure and suffering riding the Vortex.

Filipino Heritage Festival

I joined friends at Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in celebrating the annual Filipino Heritage Festival. Here are some pics. Mabuhay!