Perfection is an Illusion: Fighting Perfectionism

For as long as Chris Martin can remember, he has fought with perfectionism. He has wanted his work to be perfect and over time, his productivity slowed down. He struggled getting ideas off the ground because he would evaluate the merit of the ideas before they were finished. In this episode, Chris shares a few ways perfectionism impacts creative professionals and six ways you can fight perfectionism today.

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What I Can Offer You and Your Company

A year ago I re-opened my professional consultancy and have had the pleasure of working with several local and global companies and organizations. Here’s a partial list of some of the things I can do for you:
  • Provide an honest assessment of your information technology operation
  • Offer executives a “plain English” explanation of technology
  • Provide you a motivated and expert speaker for company events and conferences
  • Personalized executive technology coaching and training
  • Help you answer the question “IT tells me everything is perfect but is it really?”
  • Offer you the cold hard facts about social media
  • Provide opinions and constructive feedback for new software and hardware initiatives
  • Help you learn more about the “cloud”, its benefits and how it can be implemented
  • Assist you in determining if your company’s data is secure

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Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Images

Jessica Tate, senior user experience designer at Portland’s ThinkShout gave a very good presentation at Devsigner entitled “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Images”.

On the outside, images on the web seem simple: save an image, compress it, and upload it to a website. If only it were that easy. What file type do I use? What size compression (or k-weight) should I aim for? What way is the “proper” way to save an image for the web? Are there different rules for images in Drupal and WordPress? If you’ve asked yourself any one of these questions, then this is the perfect session for you.

We will begin by setting a baseline for image standards and the basics of images as applied to the web. We will explore guidelines and practical applications of saving images for web optimization, image file types, and what they are best used for from a technical perspective.

Here’s a link to her slide deck which is packed with great information.

Taking control of the Browser Security Model

This past weekend at the Devsigner Conference held in Portland, Oregon, Dylan Tack gave an excellent presentation entitled “Taking control of the Browser Security Model”:

Since the birth of the web, the browser security model has remained nearly static. Recent evolutions make it possible for site operators to fine-tune the security model, and enforce mandatory access controls. This session will focus on Content-Security-Policy, and other browser security features like Strict Transport Security and Public Key Pins.

47% of all web applications have a cross-site-scripting vulnerability, and this potential security flaw ranks in the top three classes of all vulnerabilities. [ White Hat Security, 2015 Website Security Statistics Report ]

A Content Security Policy is a systematic way to block these attacks, by whitelisting allowed sources of script, style, and other resources. The holy grail – blocking “unsafe-inline” code – offers the strongest defense, but can be a big surprise for front-end developers when inline scripts and styles stop working!

If you are developing for the web you need to take a look at his slide deck. If you have any questions, feel free to let let me know.

Getting Work To Work Podcast: Filling Your Journal

Chris Martin is a huge fan of notebooks and sketchbooks, both expensive and cheap. He loves the feeling of writing his thoughts down on paper. At any given point in time, he has at least 4-5 notebooks to write in. These are his journals. The map of his life. A friend recently asked him, “What do you put in your journal?”  In this episode, Chris shares what he puts into his journals, the fear of journals, and five ways you can begin filling your journal.

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9 Microsoft MTA’s Now Completed

Today I completed my ninth Microsoft Certified Technology Associate (MTA) exam. The test was the “Cloud Fundamentals (Exam 98-369). This exam focussed on the following:

  • Understand the cloud
  • Enable Microsoft cloud services
  • Administer Office 365 and Microsoft Intune
  • Use and configure Microsoft cloud services
  • Support cloud users

Here is a list of the MTA’s that I have completed:

  1. Microsoft Technology Associate: Cloud Fundamentals (June 1, 2016)
  2. Microsoft Technology Associate: Windows Server Administration Fundamentals (January 15, 2015)
  3. Microsoft Technology Associate: HTML5 Application Development Fundamentals, July 17, 2014
  4. Microsoft Technology Associate: Networking Fundamentals, June 18, 2014
  5. Microsoft Technology Associate: Security Fundamentals, June 11, 2014
  6. Microsoft Technology Associate: Database Administration Fundamentals, June 09, 2014
  7. Microsoft Technology Associate: Web Development Fundamentals, June 09, 2014
  8. Microsoft Technology Associate: Windows Operating System Fundamentals, June 04, 2014
  9. Microsoft Technology Associate: Software Development Fundamentals, February 25, 2014

What Were You Born To Do?

Every week Chris Martin starts his podcast with the same description: “…overcoming the barriers that prevent them from doing the work they were born to do.” In this episode Chris talks about the importance of finding the work you were born to do, the importance of doing work that impacts others, and six ways you can reveal the work you were born to do.

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