Spotted the office plaque of my old school friend.
Haircut, check. 18 month vaccination, check. Not one cry during the jabs. Check!
Brrrr. Canberra!
Entropy in Business
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Entropy is the loss of energy in a system to the point that it is no longer available for doing mechanical work. It is the reversion to mean; nature’s effort to return everything to stasis. Entropy is occurring everywhere, all around us. It is a fact of our life. Companies are fighting entropy as well. Without concerted effort and capital being invested, and ensuring there is talent deployed throughout all levels of the business, the expectation is they will wither and die.
Comments are Enabled
Monday, July 3, 2017
So as an experiment, I have enabled comments for the site. I’m not totally convinced that it’s a good idea, and fear that managing spam may outweigh any possible benefits. Nevertheless, in true scientific fashion, let’s run the experiment. As for the real readers, play nice, okay?
Turning my Kid into a Meme
Monday, July 3, 2017
My lovely wife took a humorous photo of our son having a babyccino, a classic drink in Australian coffee shops these days, purpose designed for the little ones. The photo was super-cute and funny in its own right, but I couldn’t resist turning it into an image macro meme. I like to think it makes a funny photo into something just a little better.
Now You CV Me
Sunday, July 2, 2017
In a further effort to establish andrewcanion.com as a genuinely useful resource for all things pertaining to me, I have now included a page dedicated to showcasing my curriculum vitae. I was looking at my current CV a few days ago which still exists as a Word document based upon a custom design I cooked up about 15 years ago. Since it’s creation I’ve just continued to add to and tweak the design rather than build a new document.
Day One Goes Subscription
Thursday, June 29, 2017
So Day One has become the next software application to adopt a subscription pricing model. This app developer has monkeyed around with its price/product offering for some time, and Day One has always been towards the expensive end of the curve for what could harshly be described as a glorified text editor. I guess it was inevitable they would ultimately end up converting to a subscription model in an effort to smooth revenue flow.
The Weekly Plan
Monday, June 26, 2017
I consider the two fundamental resources in work planning to be: The calendar The to-do list The calendar represents the hard landscape: events that are non-negotiable, time-based and require you to be doing a certain thing, at a certain time, at a certain place, possibly with another certain person. If it’s in the calendar, it’s a certainty. Calendar entries are commitments to yourself and possibly others. The to-do list is used to track tasks needed to be done to move the ball forward.
Moving to Ulysses
Sunday, June 25, 2017
I’ve decided to go all-in with Ulysses for my writing. I’ve been a Scrivener user for the longest time, but writing in Markdown is now more relevant to me than rich text, and Ulysses makes writing in this format easy and enjoyable. Ulysses' iCloud sync is also much less annoying than Scrivener’s modal Dropbox sync.
Hardware Decisions are Hard
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
In the aftermath of Apple’s WWDC conference and an almost unprecedented number of new pieces of hardware have been released at what is theoretically a software development conference, I get to do some imaginary shopping. For the past 18 months, Apple’s hardware lineup has been so out of date (except for iPhone, of course) that I’ve not even wanted to buy anything with imaginary money. They’ve righted the ship now, but in doing so are almost listing to the other side.
More Productive on a Mac
Monday, June 19, 2017
A good tradesman values his tools, and generally has a preference for one piece of equipment over another. In my trade, the computer I use is my primary tool. My tool of choice is a Mac. I am able to be so much more productive on a Mac because it’s the tool I know inside out. Over years I have customised how the operating system works, added on various tools, and generally made it work even better for me than it does out of the box.
That way!
Personal Kanban
Monday, June 12, 2017
What is Kanban? Traditional Kanban boards are used in manufacturing and other production environments to help visualise the flow of work and bring to attention any potential backlogs or other issues that might impact upon efficiency or productivity. When I travelled to Japan a few years ago as part of a study tour on lean manufacturing, I witnessed all sorts of kanban boards in operation to help provide factories with necessary production information.
Friday afternoon in the park.
Budgeting and YNAB
Friday, June 2, 2017
I’ve always been a money tracker. I still have ledger books from when I was 14 years old, with my handwriting tracking my money in and out. I would reconcile it to my bank savings account with little ticks. I think I learned this habit watching my Mom as she would carefully manage the family finances at the kitchen table.1 There was never enough money to go around (not that I was aware of that at the time), so much of my Mom’s job was timing cheque payments, deferring bills, and calculating how much, if any, might be left over for the week.
A Recent Customer Story
Thursday, June 1, 2017
I recently worked with Asterisk Information Security on their Entrepreneurs' Programme Business Evaluation. Asterisk provide information security advice, services and infrastructure to other companies. The owners are dedicated to their craft and are really working hard to grow and improve their company. Through the Business Evaluation process we dug deep into their business model and identified a number of ways to improve the business even further. What’s more, is the Entrepreneurs' Programme also provided them with $20,000 of government funding to help make their plans a reality.
Park contemplation.
Canion’s everywhere
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
The Canion family’s website game is strong. My brother has launched his new website at http://patrickcanion.com/. If you’re looking for a Canion on the Internet, between Patrick and I, we’ve got you covered.