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I sure hope most companies run into the same problem that we have been facing lately. Streamlining your products. Most of the time, sales reps need to be able to sell anything to get the sale! From a development stand point, that is really hard to fulfill. Not only is it hard to fulfill, but it is really confusing when trying to explain to people what we do and what we offer!

I have recent read an article from ars technica and they nailed it on the head. They nailed it while making fun of NBC and their TV Offerings.

They had a great quote that we all need to think about and really think if we are offering a similar delima to our products!

Why NBC continues to make valiant efforts to dilute the strength of its brand by launching all of these services is a little beyond us. Focusing efforts on a single service that kicks ass does a lot more good than making things available through every outlet imaginable, all with different content and restrictions that only serve to confuse users.

Are we confusing our customers and our employees by allowing sales the ability to sale anything just to get the sale?

Today, I had a few realization that just set me back.  And it all stems from a simple question which is, am I responsible?  It begs the bigger question, what are you responsible for? (more…)

At my company, we have launched a nice little dream home finder tool! It is quite funny if I don’t say so myself. See for yourself. After taking the short quiz, below is my dream home:

Recently, the company I work for, eHarbor, has decided to put a few individuals feet to the fire.  Basically, we have given them an ultimatum.  Perform, or go home.

I personally love this.  As the Chief Technology Officer, I demand this of everyone in my department.  They clearly know that even though they did something great yesterday, that doesn’t buy them much today.

So, now that my thoughts are out there, when is your job really on the line?  Am I a bit too extreme in thinking you have to prove yourself everyday?  Or can one rest on their laurels knowing they did a good job yesterday, or six months ago?
IMHO, the simple answer is you must prove yourself everyday.  Sure, some days there won’t be much to prove.  But why rest?  Resting is for the weary, I choose to believe that I am not the weary.  I am the  few, the proud … wait, I am not a marine, but I am not weary.  I am a leader and have to show it everyday.  I feel all should feel the same way.  Whether you are in a management position or not.  You need to prove yourself day in and day out.

Now the trick here is showing your manager what you have done and what you are worth on a daily basis.  That is a topic for another day.

Yesterday, I had to do something I have never done before.  I had to let someone from my team go.  Now, being the CTO as eHarbor Inc., I have hired about 10 people, but I  haven’t had to let anyone of them go.  Until yesterday.

Luckily, he saw it coming.  When you are the low man on the totem pole, and your work is sub par compared to the team, you see these things coming.

So long story short, my foray into firing went well, if you could call it that.  No tears were shed and I think my ulcer didn’t have too much added to it.

I just stumbled across this wonderful article on update your permalink settings in wordpress.  While customizing my permalink structure, I came across list of permalink options on the wordpress site itself.

I would suggest that everyone should check it out, it could help out quite a bit.

While upgrading a site and adding in flash, I got this nice little “feature” in IE. When every you hover over the embeded flash file, it A) creates a border around the file and B) asks you to “click to activate and use this control”.

After a little research, I figured it out. The problem stems from Microsoft ActiveX Change. The resolution is quite easy. All you have to do it have JavaScript insert the flash instead of embeding it into the HTML. The solution is demonstrated below.

As you can tell, all I am doing is passing the ID of the div, the url, width and height of the flash and letting javascript embed it for me.

Do I really need to continue? Why is prioritizing is such an art and why is it so under valued?

The answer is quite simple. No one wants to say no to a client in fear of losing the client. If your clients barks loud, then you will do what ever it is in your power to make them happy. The only problem with that mentality, is it makes it so your other clients, or the base product itself suffer. You cannot properly survive while jumping from tiny project to tiny project. You cannot honestly think that your products will have quality or reliability when jumping from here to there.

When prioritizing, you need to constantly evaluate:

1. What projects are currently open
2. What have you promised to all other clients
3. What is truly the most important

It is a sad fact that point number three is the hardest on the entire list. Now I could go on for hours on how to properly prioritize, with tips and examples but I need to get back to work.

I cannot let my priorities get out of whack!

Answering Bush’s competition challenge

This is a good read for all. We need to all figure out where we stand and then actually stand there. Helping out the economy isn’t the governments jobs, it is all of our’s job.