Spielberg and Black Holes - What's the Connection?

For any of you long-time science fiction fans out there, you probably remember Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars as changing movie sci fi forever and bringing it into the mainstream of box-office success stories. What I've always loved about "real science fiction" is when it is written by a real-life scientist and not only entertains you, but educates you about some arcane field of science you may never have heard about before.

Imagine my surprise when I heard Dr Kip S. Thorne, The Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at California Institute of Technology, announce the link.

But first, let Amaryllis tell you about his talk at the APS conference.

Dr. Thorne started off his talk with a bang. Instead of the old man wandering on to stage to lecture the audience, an attractively dressed woman walked on to stage with a fuzzy witch’s hat, cackled evilly, then said, “Hit it!” and proceeded to sing a song about gravitational waves and black holes. After the song had finished, Dr. Thorne came on stage and explained that he had pulled a few strings to get his friend to perform before his talk.

Dr. Thorne then began his talk, starting by describing black holes. He presented a rubber sheet with a massive object stretching the center as a visual image. He then preceded to talk about some very recent discoveries about black holes, namely when there is a system of two black holes. In an instance where two black holes merge, he displayed a three dimensional animation where, as the black holes got closer to one another, they extend long fingers towards each other, which mesh, followed by the merge of both black holes. If the two black holes have opposite spins at the time when they collide, the newly created black hole oscillates between a vertical ellipsoid, a sphere, and a horizontal ellipsoid. On the four ‘corners’ of the oscillating shape, the original spins of the two black holes becomes evident as the shape becomes a horizontal ellipsoid. This effects reappears each time the black holes reverts to said shape.

This research break through just happened, Dr Thorne & his associates are modeling quite a few types of black hole interactions, and will be publishing a paper on their results soon. And Steven Spielberg is making a movie, Interstellar about it. Planned to release in 2012, so mark it on your calendars.



Visit Amaryllis to learn more and share in the fun.

CSS Stylesheets and a New Website

At long last, the website refresh is complete. Even though my webmaster created the CSS and the layout, there was still a pretty solid learning curve for me. Not too difficult, but learning the difference between html and shtml (no, its NOT "secure" html as I had been led to believe), what a #include statement means, making sure you have all your relative and absolute path names correct, then making that final tar ball, waiting FOREVER for it to upload, then figuring out what to use ftp vs telnet vs ssh for. Once the tar ball was unzipped, there's that final little QA check and the "oops, thought I'd done that," with a few quick little ftp file transfers and voila, we have a new web site.

I like it. Let me know what you think. http://tonig.net

A New Look for tonig.net

Well, the technology rewrite is in progress and very soon I'll be moving a whole new version of my website on line. It won't look too different from the current website, but the underlying technology upgrade will improve the consistency of the site and allow much easier "face lifts" in the future. Plus, a new site for Knowledge Integration: Retro will be launched. For the technology history buffs out there, there will be some trips down technology's memory lane.

Will You Know When You Are Wealthy?

What if you were taking a road trip and got lost? Has that ever happened to you?

But even worse, are you trying to reach a destination in life, but have gotten lost?

Have you ever written down the signposts to success? Don't be caught by this trap! Read
How Will You Know When You Are Wealthy?

Moving Day - Tech Refresher http://www.tonig.net

Wow, its a lot more work hosting your own web site. First you have to create the directory structure. Then you have to make sure all your html references the correct directories for images, index.html, and all the articles. Then you have to make sure each index page has the links to the articles, and that the articles are formatted correctly. And we won't even go into CSS and stylesheets.

Then the fun part, going back to shell scripts, ftp, telnet, and tar files. I do miss the old days.

Come visit my new home http://www.tonig.net

SDLC and Intuition

I'm very excited to be giving a talk on SDLC at the Sacramento Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Its a refreshing change of pace to climb back out of the trenches for a while and go back to the roots, which is theory and process.

SDLC always seemed so obvious to me, especially having both software engineering and PMBOK backgrounds, but there are some companies that really struggle with it. I've come to the conclusion that intuition and process cannot easily coexist in the same brain. Add to that a regulatory-compliance mentality, where the regulators tell you what you must & must not do, and life gets really complicated really fast.

The intuitive problem solver relies on relationships and feelings to solve their problems. Things either "feel right" or they trust that others have done their part to solve the problem and know when all the pieces fit together because of the way it feels. They tend to get sidetracked by too much detail.

The logical problem solver, on the other hand, understands the value of reasoning and breaking down a problem into its component parts and process flows. No level of detail is too great if the problem is important enough.

Now ask yourself, have you ever tried to build a process flow chart to document your organization's trust relationships?

Or have you ever tried to feel your way to the answer to a complex mathematical algorithm?

Each problem solving style works great for certain types of problems, but fails miserably for others.

And this is the SDLC nightmare I have been living with one of my clients: trying to build process into an intuitive corporate culture.

Starting with more modest goals, ie an "SDLC Light" for the business side and a full-featured SDLC for the IT side, has allowed for faster adoption and better results in other companies. Starting with a few core departments and slowly spreading it throughout the corporation over a 2 year period generally creates less pain. Many have found putting less emphasis on templates and more emphasis on communication and responsibility will always yield high return on investment. Hiring a VP with a Six Sigma blackbelt and no people skills is just not the right strategy for an intuitive corporation. But what a rare bird to find an intuitive, process-oriented person who can lead and teach.

The Principle of Reciprocity

"You scratch my back & I'll scratch yours."

That old saying always left me feeling a little creeped out because I always associated it with corrupt politicians. But I have come to realize that friendship is the key to so much in life. If you look at reciprocity as a part of a friendship, you begin to see the power of it.

I'm wrapping up a $2,000,000 project at my company and looking for my next project. During the course of the two years this project has been going, I have worked with many people. Some of them have been a joy to work with, some have been a real challenge. This one person was a little of both. Whenever I talked to him it just seemed like I couldn't pin him down on anything. I'd leave a meeting thinking we'd worked out the impact to his area, then a week later I'd find out he was off onto something new. Eventually I realized that there was no easy answer and that he was "peeling the onion" as it were to figure out how best to meet a regulatory requirement while keeping the cost to the company as low as possible. So rather than the "waffler" I at first thought him to be, he was actually very conscientious & thorough in his job. This was proven to me when I saw that he had been promoted a month or two ago.

I called to say hello and congratulate him on his promotion. He was in a great mood and was very happy to talk about it. After he had "talked my ear off" he took a breath and asked if there was anything he could do for me? It turned out there is a project I was looking at that he is involved with. His vice president was looking for someone to take on the project. I let him know I would love to and we are in the process of putting it together.

This is a perfect example of the principle of reciprocity.

I gave my business associate a chance to talk about something he is passionate about: himself and his recent success. After he had "talked my ear off" it was like he had just enjoyed Thanksgiving feast. He was happy. Since I had been the one to let him feel this happiness, he felt obligated to return the favor. Luckily, there was something he needed that I can help with. So his sense of obligation to me motivated him to take some action on my behalf.

Now would this have worked if I had waited till the next day to call him back and ask a favor of him?

No. Reciprocity only works immediately after the other person shares his or her joy with you. Just like Thanksgiving feast, by the next morning you are hungry again. You no longer feel a sense of obligation to the other person.

Timing is just so important in relationships with other people. If you mess up your timing, rather than adding joy and happiness to your relationship, you may be putting a sense of burden or resentful obligation on the other person. Same request, but the emotions are different, and the request is different.

August Blog Carnivals

I am privileged to be featured on the following blog carnivals this month.



Weight Management & Fitness Forum has been posted at:
http://weight-master.blogspot.com/2008/08/weight-management-and-fitness-forum.html

Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance which is now up at:
http://moneyandvalues.blogspot.com/2008/08/carnival-of-ethics-values-and-personal.html

3 Way Calling - Why and When

When is the sum of the parts greater than the whole? Why are team sports so much fun? Why is synergy such a cool word? And why do I want to do a 3 way call?

With a degree in psychology, I learned pretty early on about Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Once you get through your basic eat/breathe/sleep and safety needs, your most important needs are your social needs. The need for companionship, approval and a sense of belonging are among the strongest human needs. And this, in a nutshell, is why 3 way calling is such an important tool.

But first, what is 3 way calling? 

Mechanically, it is just a way to have you, your prospective customer/associate/employee and a credible, neutral third party together in a conversation. Any proper office phone has a conference call feature. Most cell phones do. And you can even set up your home phone to allow you the ability to talk to 2 people at once. If you don't know how to do this, practice on a friend or family member until it becomes natural. You DON'T want to practice on your prospective customers and associates.

Here is how it works.

You have a product or service to sell. You have a person you wish to sell this product or service to. The person is somewhat interested, but not convinced. Your job is to help them work through any fears, concerns, or objections they may have that are preventing them from saying "Yes" to what you are offering them. By using 3 way calling appropriately, you will address their social needs by letting them see you are part of a larger team and inviting them to be part of the team. You will be bringing in an "expert," which will let them know they are important to you. You will be building trust and friendship with them by taking the time to talk through their questions. If all this is done with a desire to do what is best for the customer, you will either "get the sale" or at least get a few referrals for other possible customers.

Your next step is to say something like the following.

"Mary, I can tell you have a few questions that I'm not able to answer for you. Would you mind if I bring Chris on the line for a few minutes? She has a lot more experience in the area you are asking about and she can do a great job of answering your questions."

When Mary says yes, use your telephone to dial Chris. Chris is someone who has a great deal of credibility and expertise in whatever it is Mary is uncertain about. Mary will be on hold during this time, so please don't make her wait more than 10-15 seconds. Remember how much you hate to be on hold.

When Chris picks up the line, give her a brief description of who Mary is, what she is interested in, and what her objections or questions are.  Then conference Mary into the phone call.

This next step is VERY IMPORTANT.

Introduce Chris by talking briefly about her expertise and why you asked her to join the call. Let's say for example Mary was interested in a weight loss product, but was uncomfortable about having to take pills every day. Your 3 way call might go something like this.

"Mary, I've asked Chris to join us. 

"Chris is a certified nutritional therapist and has been working many years with people who are looking for better ways to manage their weight. She has had  lot of success helping people with this product.

"Chris, Mary has been asking some great questions about our weight loss product. She really understands how weight management can work. But she has some questions about where our product fits in.

"Mary, please ask Chris the question we were just talking about."

Now the next part is for you to be very quiet and let Chris and Mary talk things through. If handled correctly, Chris will have left Mary feeling happy about purchasing your product. Or, if it turns out the product really is not right for Mary, she will know that you care about her and aren't trying to force her to buy something she doesn't want. When Chris hangs up, you move on to the next step with Mary. Either take the order, or ask for referrals. And enjoy the fact that you have made a new friend today.

As Angel Lee says, "Being a millionaire isn't about having a million dollars. Its about having a million friends."