ProjectX Blog

On Prime TV, last night there was a programme from the BBC looking at the people’s personality types. It was a really thought provoking show and essential viewing for any manager or anyone else that wants to get the best out of their people. Understanding people’s differences is the key to creating a better workplace. I would recommend that everyone should take the test, as the more you know yourself –  the more you can achieve.

It was really interesting to see just how different the personality types are, especially when they mix together to complete some tasks.

There are 16 personality types that they highlighted: Big Thinker,Counsellor, Go-getter, Idealist, Innovator, Leader, Mastermind, Mentor, Nurturer, Peacemaker, Performer, Provider, Realist, Resolver, Strategist and Supervisor.

You can take the test online at the BBC website – What am I like to find out for yourself. (The site also has some other interesting surveys on Memory, Can you spot a fake smile ? and art and personality.)

According to the the test, I’m a mastermind.

Summary of Masterminds

• Visionaries who put energy into achieving their goals
• Prefer to work independently and dislike inefficiency
• Think of themselves as logical, thorough, and bright
• Values practicality and common sense above ideas and theories

I’m not sure that I totally agree with the Introvert / Extrovert rating. But it seems to be pretty bang on.

What type of personality are you ?

Tomorrow, the Codeblacks battle for glory against the Australian team (webabies???) in the full code press. (This challenge should be called the “Blediscode Cup”)

Zef is over covering the action. Hopefully, he’ll be using the traditional commentary, “Full credit to…” and “It was a website of two halves…”

The big question is will they be doing the haka before kick-off ? And what will be the Australian reply???

There’s a lot of coverage on the web, Youtube , flickr , the official blog, codeblacks blog and the WIPA blog.

Go the Codeblacks, do us proud.

You’ve got a new phone line. You can now reach us at:

Phone: +64 4 910 3100
Fax: +64 4 910 3100

This week, both Nokia and Mattel have had to issue product recalls.. Nokia have had to recall 36 million BL-5C batteries and Mattel are recalling 19 million toys because of the lead paint. Some of the toys have been sold in NZ and date back to 2003. Here is the pdf with information on the affected toys from NZ.

Respect to both companies for fronting up and recalling the products. It takes a lot of guts to admit you’ve made a mistake. Unfortunately, the markets will not like the news.

All these recalls remind be me of Tyler Durden’s speech about recalls …..

JACK (V.O.)
I’m a recall coordinator. My job is
to apply the formula. It’s a story
problem.

TECHNICIAN #1
Here’s where the infant went through
the windshield. Three points.

JACK (V.O.)
A new car built by my company leaves
somewhere traveling at 60 miles per
hour. The rear differential locks up.

TECHNICIAN #2
The teenager’s braces around the
backseat ashtray would make a good
“anti-smoking” ad.

JACK (V.O.)
The car crashes and burns with
everyone trapped inside. Now: do we
initiate a recall?

TECHNICIAN #1
The father must’ve been huge. See
how the fat burnt into the driver’s
seat with his polyester shirt? Very
“modern art.”

JACK (V.O.)
Take the number of vehicles in the
field, (A), and multiply it by the
probable rate of failure, (B), then
multiply the result by the average
out-of-court settlement, (C). A
times B times C equals X…

Why think up new plans for your next product, when you can generate ideas !?! Enjoy

Forgot running a webserver on your computer, phone or pda. We have reached the epitome of low-fi webservers – SpudServer: a “12 core” potato webserver. (Brings new meaning to the webserver farm!)

Frederic White built a stripped down webserver powered by potatoes. He has written a full account of his experiment on his site. The server was capable of a whopping 0.2 requests per second!

Only a couple of drawbacks, potatoe power lasts about 14 days and then there’s what to do with all the rotting potatoes.

Just think Trade Me could place their server farm with 20,000 pototoes. No more sys-admin, just hire some farmers. That keep the costs down!

We’ve started to use video to help promote our company and advertise our initiatives were involved in. (PlanHQ have also been doing a great job of promoting the use of video to show how your business works.)

With modern editing tools like iMovie etc. its a breeze to create your own video and promotions. With Youtube, distribution is really easy. Some companies are starting to create documentaries to help raise their profile and promote their products. ie. Mojopages

If you don’t have time to make them yourself, then there are a huge pool of talented film students, who are waiting for the chance to show their skills. We were referrred budding film maker Pattara Jaikasemwong by PlanHQ, who have employed Pattara’s skills on Tim’s presentations at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. Pattara did a fantastic job on our video for Summer of Code and we’ll be using him for more of our promotions. He’s looking for work, so if you’re looking for some help to make some video, let me know and I’ll send him your way.

Forget blog posts, roll on with more videos!

Rock on Summer of Code 2.0Big thanks to film student Pattara Jaikasemwong for his awesome work on the video.

Know any students who are looking for a job over the summer?

The Summer of Code 2.0 is open to any Computer Science or Information Technology students, who will be completing their 2nd year this year or above and want to work for a Wellington company this summer. We have over 20 companies signed up for this years programme and they’re eagerly looking for students to help them work on research and open source projects.

We starting the recruitment process this week. If you’ve already signed up on the site you would have received an email giving you instructions on want you need to do to apply. Its not too late to join up if you haven’t done so already. You’ll need to get your resumes ready as application close on the 31st of August.

This week, I’ll be up at the universities to promote Summer of Code 2.0. I’ll be giving an outline of Summer of Code 2.0 programme and providing help on how to apply to the Summer of Code. Here are the time’s that I’ll be up at the universities.

Vic Students: 6:00pm, Wednesday 15th August – Cotton 341
Massey Students: 12pm Monday 13th of August – Room 5C19

Come along if you want to know what its all about.

We have a lot of cool stuff planned for this years Summer of Code. Don’t miss out!

Summer of Code is looking for someone to give a seminar on database basics – a “MySQL 101”, so to speak.

We’re looking to prime all of the students for this years Summer of Code and we would like to accelerate their knowledge in databases, and SQL. We want to host a workshop / tutorial to students in September. So I’m looking for a Database guru who wants to share their knowledge.

If you interested in helping please let me know.