Host: Danny Scrilla Mashup Plus goes Parang in this week’s show: Trini christmas tunes encased by old and fresh soca tunes. Some Dubstep in the end of the show. Today’s show features artists like: Machel Montano, Patch, Gypsy, Kassav, Baron, Kenny J., Marcia Miranda, Thrid Bass, Square One, Benga, Skream, Rusko and many more! Less

You can get your best ideas when talking with people outside your business or area of expertise. Get out of your neighborhood By Douglas E. Welch Listen: Get out of your neighborhood I have spent the last four weekends speaking at conferences, and speaking with many people, in California and Arizona. Despite being a bit tired from the long drives and long hours, I am also energized. It is amazing how exciting and enlightening it can be to talk to people outside your normal area of expertise. Too often, we find ourselves in an echo chamber where we hear the same thoughts, the same advice, the same voices again and again. If you want to build your career, it is important to step outside your neighborhood and see what others may be doing. My first stop on this travel session was right here in my own backyard, BarCampLA-6. This freewheeling unconference covers amazingly wide-ranging topics. I heard talks on the Dunbar number, the history of the pixel, hosted an acoustic music jam and a meeting of my own technology group, New Media Interchange. While BarCampLA attracts technology folks, it also brings in experts from all areas of life. Every time I attend BarCampLA and rub shoulders with scientists, musicians, activists and entertainment industry folks it expands my thinking in some amazing ways. Next on my agenda was PodCampAZ, a new media conference that is quickly becoming the premiere conference in the Southwest. While PodCampAZ is more focused on New Media, I still met people from all walks of life. They were all there to see how New Media can help them in their businesses and their lives. This included massage therapists, artists, programmers, writers, retail store and service owners and more. As I talked with each of them, new ideas began to form over how New Media might be used. I was constantly making notes which I hope to put into action, now that I am back home. I might not have ever captured these ideas had I not been exposed to all these different people and thoughts. Early this week, I drove from my home in Los Angeles to San Jose to attend the Adobe Learning Summit and speak at DevLearn2008. These conferences were dedicated to e-Learning professionals, people who are responsible for creating training for small companies and large corporations. I haven’t previously had the opportunity to learn much about the e-learning world, even though it is heavily immersed in technology and education, two areas in which I am deeply involved. Once again, learning about the unique challenges and theories surrounding e-learning gave me a huge amount of new material to mull over. While your own work might be quite different, there are always lessons to be learned from other worlds. Finally, just a few days ago, I presented another New Media seminar along with my sister, a fellow computer consultant in the Palm Springs area. This New Media ID seminar is the commercial side of my New Media Interchange group which is designed to bring the power of New Media to everyone. Talking with these shop owners, hotel and B&B managers, restaurateurs and others challenged me to find ways to make New Media effective for them and their businesses. Speaking with them, adapting existing ideas and developing new strategies kicks my thinking into high gear and drives my thinking for days after. From these examples, you can see how “getting out of my neighborhood” really helps to drive my thinking and helps me to develop new and hopefully great ideas. It can do exactly the same for you. Take every opportunity to attend conferences, meetings and other events that introduce you to new people, with new goals, new work and new thoughts. It can be the conferences that seem peripheral to your work or in entirely different areas that can actually be the most useful to you. While attending conferences in your area of expertise can be useful, in many cases you have already heard the messages and information being delivered. Expanding your view can help you develop entirely new ideas for your line of work that others may have missed. Join me on these networks Follow Douglas on FriendFeed | Follow Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Become a Facebook Fan of Career Opportunities Support Career Opportunities: iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Get out of your neighborhood Related posts: Our Passions [audio:http://welchwrite.com/career/audio/2008/career-op-20080314.mp3] Listen: Our Passions Our Passions by Douglas E. Welch... Share your ideas sooner, not later [audio:http://welchwrite.com/career/audio/2008/career-op-20080125.mp3] Listen: Share your ideas sooner, not later As a... Douglas E. Welch on “The Struggling Entrepreneur” Frank Castaneda had me on his show, The Struggling Entrepreneur,... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

You can get your best ideas when talking with people outside your business or area of expertise. Get out of your neighborhood By Douglas E. Welch Listen: Get out of your neighborhood I have spent the last four weekends speaking at conferences, and speaking with many people, in California and Arizona. Despite being a bit tired from the long drives and long hours, I am also energized. It is amazing how exciting and enlightening it can be to talk to people outside your normal area of expertise. Too often, we find ourselves in an echo chamber where we hear the same thoughts, the same advice, the same voices again and again. If you want to build your career, it is important to step outside your neighborhood and see what others may be doing. My first stop on this travel session was right here in my own backyard, BarCampLA-6. This freewheeling unconference covers amazingly wide-ranging topics. I heard talks on the Dunbar number, the history of the pixel, hosted an acoustic music jam and a meeting of my own technology group, New Media Interchange. While BarCampLA attracts technology folks, it also brings in experts from all areas of life. Every time I attend BarCampLA and rub shoulders with scientists, musicians, activists and entertainment industry folks it expands my thinking in some amazing ways. Next on my agenda was PodCampAZ, a new media conference that is quickly becoming the premiere conference in the Southwest. While PodCampAZ is more focused on New Media, I still met people from all walks of life. They were all there to see how New Media can help them in their businesses and their lives. This included massage therapists, artists, programmers, writers, retail store and service owners and more. As I talked with each of them, new ideas began to form over how New Media might be used. I was constantly making notes which I hope to put into action, now that I am back home. I might not have ever captured these ideas had I not been exposed to all these different people and thoughts. Early this week, I drove from my home in Los Angeles to San Jose to attend the Adobe Learning Summit and speak at DevLearn2008. These conferences were dedicated to e-Learning professionals, people who are responsible for creating training for small companies and large corporations. I haven’t previously had the opportunity to learn much about the e-learning world, even though it is heavily immersed in technology and education, two areas in which I am deeply involved. Once again, learning about the unique challenges and theories surrounding e-learning gave me a huge amount of new material to mull over. While your own work might be quite different, there are always lessons to be learned from other worlds. Finally, just a few days ago, I presented another New Media seminar along with my sister, a fellow computer consultant in the Palm Springs area. This New Media ID seminar is the commercial side of my New Media Interchange group which is designed to bring the power of New Media to everyone. Talking with these shop owners, hotel and B&B managers, restaurateurs and others challenged me to find ways to make New Media effective for them and their businesses. Speaking with them, adapting existing ideas and developing new strategies kicks my thinking into high gear and drives my thinking for days after. From these examples, you can see how “getting out of my neighborhood” really helps to drive my thinking and helps me to develop new and hopefully great ideas. It can do exactly the same for you. Take every opportunity to attend conferences, meetings and other events that introduce you to new people, with new goals, new work and new thoughts. It can be the conferences that seem peripheral to your work or in entirely different areas that can actually be the most useful to you. While attending conferences in your area of expertise can be useful, in many cases you have already heard the messages and information being delivered. Expanding your view can help you develop entirely new ideas for your line of work that others may have missed. Join me on these networks Follow Douglas on FriendFeed | Follow Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Become a Facebook Fan of Career Opportunities Support Career Opportunities: iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Get out of your neighborhood Related posts: Our Passions [audio:http://welchwrite.com/career/audio/2008/career-op-20080314.mp3] Listen: Our Passions Our Passions by Douglas E. Welch... Share your ideas sooner, not later [audio:http://welchwrite.com/career/audio/2008/career-op-20080125.mp3] Listen: Share your ideas sooner, not later As a... Douglas E. Welch on “The Struggling Entrepreneur” Frank Castaneda had me on his show, The Struggling Entrepreneur,... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

Host: Marflix & Tim Turbo (myspace) as guest dj Rockin some new soca slow wineeez, movin on to electrolypso, tropicalistics, parang-rave, chutney house and some wobbles.. everything there. Including handicaps for the djs: fernandez black label rum, methusalem rum and a toy console Sorry for the mic probs.. straight mixing this time…besser is, wa 1:45h | 175MB Spread the word if you like it! Soon on raggakings: the MashUp weekend… we’ll stream from friday night to sunday morning - thanks again GBF Less

No last-minute dramas this week, except that the show before ran on for three minutes into our slot and we were outraged. And which week is this? It's week in which Simon organised one party but mostly One Life Left got excited about another one. It's show #82. And we'll let the actual content of the show reveal itself to you, with all the features, news, reviews and music waiting for you like a girl on stage awkwardly awaiting carnal instruction. No spoilers, except to say we do actually genuinely talk quite a lot about videogames in this one. I know! We were quite surprised too. Especially Ann. Most pertinently, the Facebook party page for people who want to join us at our once-a-year Christmas bash on Saturday 29th of November is here. If you are reading this then you are genuinely invited. We want to see you there. You will have fun. Music in #82: Not a lot, really, but the one chiptune thing we played is worth it... Sexy Synthesizer -- Follow Me Love Machine -- Girls Aloud I'll leave you to guess which one that is. Oh, and two contributions from our friends, of course. No spoilers. See you next week! Less

Should major failures lead to dismissal? I think so. Sometimes we deserve to be fired By Douglas E. Welch Listen: Sometimes we deserve to be fired I will ask you to forgive me in advance if this column rambles a bit, as I am still coming to grips with the topic, even as I write. Firing someone, and being fired, is always an emotional event. Still, I believe that today we have forgotten that there are times when we deserve to be fired, especially when we show that we cannot complete even the most fundamental tasks of the position. Instead, we allow ourselves or people in our departments to continue in a role long after proven incapable of doing the job. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “Insanity (is) doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” While failure is a part of every job, shouldn’t complete failure be a clear indicator that someone else needs to be given a chance? Let m e be clear that when I say failure, I am not talking about the average, everyday failures we all experience. This isn’t about the lost contract or client, the failed project, the marketing misstep. This is about complete failure, like not being able to accept or accurately count the votes in your precinct, county or state or being unable to produce accurate paychecks for your workers like the LA County Schools recent problem. These are failures of both the highest and lowest degrees. These people are unable to fulfill even the most basic tenets of their job and this, unfortunately, has the most dramatic effect on their clients and customers. For myself, if I was to experience such a complete failure, and I can tell you that I have experienced them over my 25 year career, I would expect to be fired. I would expect my management to look to someone more capable, or barring that, simply someone else. In my world, this is usually manifested by a client never calling again. It happens to all of us, especially as the years mount. It is simply a matter of odds in some cases. The more work you do, the more chances for a complete failure. That said, I also know that that failure is mine alone. Many people, when faced with a complete failure, immediately to try to blame it on others or on the surrounding circumstances. While the failure might indeed have been precipitated by an outside force, as the sign on Harry Truman’s desk read, “The buck stops here.” It is often a clear sign of complete failure when people don’t understand this fact. If you have failed, then you need to accept that fact and also accept the consequences that arise from that failure. Looking from the outside — as a constituent, customer or client — I feel even more strongly about the need to fire people. When I see someone fail repeatedly, it makes me wonder if anyone is paying attention. It calls into doubt the abilities of their managers and executives and may even point to deep dysfunction within a company or governmental department. Failure to acknowledge failure simply compounds the damage already done. It erodes our faith in the company and allows one person to have a dramatic effect far beyond the original failure. What do you think? Are people too often given a pass when they fail dramatically? Are there times when people deserve to be fired for their failures? Would you resign from a job, or take a demotion if you failed in some basic and fundamental way? Would you feel ill served if your company decided to fire you after such a failure? I’d love to know what you think. Please add your comments to the web site, send email to careeer@welchwrite.com or call the reader/listener line at 818-804-5049. Join me on these networks Follow Douglas on FriendFeed | Follow Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Become a Facebook Fan of Career Opportunities Support Career Opportunities: iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Sometimes we deserve to be fired Related posts: From Fired to Hired Seminar with Mitch Krayton Good friend, Mitch Krayton is hosting a series of seminars,... Failure is a constant, and welcome, companion in our work Failure is a constant, and welcome, companion in our work... Archive: Don’t Wait - September 2, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

Should major failures lead to dismissal? I think so. Sometimes we deserve to be fired By Douglas E. Welch Listen: Sometimes we deserve to be fired I will ask you to forgive me in advance if this column rambles a bit, as I am still coming to grips with the topic, even as I write. Firing someone, and being fired, is always an emotional event. Still, I believe that today we have forgotten that there are times when we deserve to be fired, especially when we show that we cannot complete even the most fundamental tasks of the position. Instead, we allow ourselves or people in our departments to continue in a role long after proven incapable of doing the job. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “Insanity (is) doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” While failure is a part of every job, shouldn’t complete failure be a clear indicator that someone else needs to be given a chance? Let m e be clear that when I say failure, I am not talking about the average, everyday failures we all experience. This isn’t about the lost contract or client, the failed project, the marketing misstep. This is about complete failure, like not being able to accept or accurately count the votes in your precinct, county or state or being unable to produce accurate paychecks for your workers like the LA County Schools recent problem. These are failures of both the highest and lowest degrees. These people are unable to fulfill even the most basic tenets of their job and this, unfortunately, has the most dramatic effect on their clients and customers. For myself, if I was to experience such a complete failure, and I can tell you that I have experienced them over my 25 year career, I would expect to be fired. I would expect my management to look to someone more capable, or barring that, simply someone else. In my world, this is usually manifested by a client never calling again. It happens to all of us, especially as the years mount. It is simply a matter of odds in some cases. The more work you do, the more chances for a complete failure. That said, I also know that that failure is mine alone. Many people, when faced with a complete failure, immediately to try to blame it on others or on the surrounding circumstances. While the failure might indeed have been precipitated by an outside force, as the sign on Harry Truman’s desk read, “The buck stops here.” It is often a clear sign of complete failure when people don’t understand this fact. If you have failed, then you need to accept that fact and also accept the consequences that arise from that failure. Looking from the outside — as a constituent, customer or client — I feel even more strongly about the need to fire people. When I see someone fail repeatedly, it makes me wonder if anyone is paying attention. It calls into doubt the abilities of their managers and executives and may even point to deep dysfunction within a company or governmental department. Failure to acknowledge failure simply compounds the damage already done. It erodes our faith in the company and allows one person to have a dramatic effect far beyond the original failure. What do you think? Are people too often given a pass when they fail dramatically? Are there times when people deserve to be fired for their failures? Would you resign from a job, or take a demotion if you failed in some basic and fundamental way? Would you feel ill served if your company decided to fire you after such a failure? I’d love to know what you think. Please add your comments to the web site, send email to careeer@welchwrite.com or call the reader/listener line at 818-804-5049. Join me on these networks Follow Douglas on FriendFeed | Follow Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Become a Facebook Fan of Career Opportunities Support Career Opportunities: iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Sometimes we deserve to be fired Related posts: From Fired to Hired Seminar with Mitch Krayton Good friend, Mitch Krayton is hosting a series of seminars,... Failure is a constant, and welcome, companion in our work Failure is a constant, and welcome, companion in our work... Archive: Don’t Wait - September 2, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

Zaplive.Tv erlaubt sehr einfach eine eigene Sendung ins Internet zu streamen. Es ist der erste deutsche Streamingservice, der mit international vergleichbaren Dienstleistern gleichziehen kann. Der Service ist kostenlos. Less

Are companies keeping employees on the help desk forever instead of letting them grow? (This podcast is pulled “from the archives” and presented here as a service to more recent listeners — Douglas) Listen to this episode Read the entire article We all had to start our high-tech career somewhere. The usual entry point within most companies was. and still is, the help desk. It is here we learn our craft, creating solutions out of research, hard work and our own creativity. After spending some time “in the trenches”, we move out into different areas of the organization, creating specialties and building our knowledge further. Of course, this is an idealistic view and one that is being threatened by companies who seem intent on keeping help desk staff on the help desk instead of helping them grow. Stick to the script If you have had any reason to call a help desk lately, you have probably experienced “the script”. Despite your attempts to solve your question quickly, the person on the other end of the phone takes you through a step-by-step process, most of which you have already tried. I can’t blame the support person, though. This is clearly company policy. The focus on help desk managers is to get as many callers off the phone as quickly as possible. In most cases, though, this is a dis-service to both the caller and the help desk staffer. Spending your day working through troubleshooting rubrics created by someone else is no way to improve your high-tech career. In order to move into jobs that offer better pay and are more satisfying you need to be learning something every single day. In the old days, this education was built into the job. You simply had to learn in order to solve the problems. You had to create the script before you could think of using it and failing to solve a problem was not an option. In such an environment, either you learned or you found another job. It might seem a bit far-fetched, but keeping people “on script” might have another purpose. Help desk operations have notoriously high turnover rates. In the past, it was expected that you would move up and out of the help desk department, Today, though, if you find yourself on a help desk, your supervisors and managers might be doing everything they can to keep you there. In some operations, there might be an active policy to keep workers from learning too much and then taking that knowledge elsewhere. Instead of facilitating learning, companies are starting to see the help desk as the final destination. Move up or get out As you might imagine, if you are starting your career in a help desk operation you will want to carefully choose the company. Investigate their operation thoroughly. Talk with existing and past employees and try to gain some understanding of how the company views its help desk workers and procedures. Is education an important part of every day? Do they attempt to script every possible situation with the callers? When finding a solution for the customer is creativity rewarded or punished? Is there a clear career path for help desk employees? I would be wary of any help desk operation with too many 5-6 year veterans in the department. Occasionally, there will be some people who have found their specialty in the help desk environment but spending an entire career there should not be the norm. Above all, you must remember that the goals of help desk management might not necessarily be your goals. If you are looking to build a long and prosperous high-tech career, you need every opportunity to learn and grow. Sometimes you will do this with the assistance of your management and, at other times, without. Be particularly aware of any overt disapproval of your attempts to learn more. No one should ever make you feel that a help desk position is the end of the line. This is a sure sign that some thing is wrong. A position with a high-tech help desk operation was once the birthplace of many a high-tech career and it can be still, if you find the right company. Seek out those companies that maintain a policy of growing their employees from within, allowing them to move from entry-level positions up through the IT ranks. If you find yourself in a company where the help desk is the beginning and the end you might find that your entry-level job has become a dead end. Join me on these networks: Douglas on FriendFeed | Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Support Career Opportunities iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Archive: Entry Level or Dead End - October 7, 2005 Related posts: Extra: Paper resumes are dead, dead, dead…or ought to be This guest post appeared today in the blog, The Graduate... What do you think? — You’ll Pay to Quit This Job! One Company’s Nightmare Hiring Policy… I have my own opinions on policies like this, but... Archive: Off the edge - October 29, 2004 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

Are companies keeping employees on the help desk forever instead of letting them grow? (This podcast is pulled “from the archives” and presented here as a service to more recent listeners — Douglas) Listen to this episode Read the entire article We all had to start our high-tech career somewhere. The usual entry point within most companies was. and still is, the help desk. It is here we learn our craft, creating solutions out of research, hard work and our own creativity. After spending some time “in the trenches”, we move out into different areas of the organization, creating specialties and building our knowledge further. Of course, this is an idealistic view and one that is being threatened by companies who seem intent on keeping help desk staff on the help desk instead of helping them grow. Stick to the script If you have had any reason to call a help desk lately, you have probably experienced “the script”. Despite your attempts to solve your question quickly, the person on the other end of the phone takes you through a step-by-step process, most of which you have already tried. I can’t blame the support person, though. This is clearly company policy. The focus on help desk managers is to get as many callers off the phone as quickly as possible. In most cases, though, this is a dis-service to both the caller and the help desk staffer. Spending your day working through troubleshooting rubrics created by someone else is no way to improve your high-tech career. In order to move into jobs that offer better pay and are more satisfying you need to be learning something every single day. In the old days, this education was built into the job. You simply had to learn in order to solve the problems. You had to create the script before you could think of using it and failing to solve a problem was not an option. In such an environment, either you learned or you found another job. It might seem a bit far-fetched, but keeping people “on script” might have another purpose. Help desk operations have notoriously high turnover rates. In the past, it was expected that you would move up and out of the help desk department, Today, though, if you find yourself on a help desk, your supervisors and managers might be doing everything they can to keep you there. In some operations, there might be an active policy to keep workers from learning too much and then taking that knowledge elsewhere. Instead of facilitating learning, companies are starting to see the help desk as the final destination. Move up or get out As you might imagine, if you are starting your career in a help desk operation you will want to carefully choose the company. Investigate their operation thoroughly. Talk with existing and past employees and try to gain some understanding of how the company views its help desk workers and procedures. Is education an important part of every day? Do they attempt to script every possible situation with the callers? When finding a solution for the customer is creativity rewarded or punished? Is there a clear career path for help desk employees? I would be wary of any help desk operation with too many 5-6 year veterans in the department. Occasionally, there will be some people who have found their specialty in the help desk environment but spending an entire career there should not be the norm. Above all, you must remember that the goals of help desk management might not necessarily be your goals. If you are looking to build a long and prosperous high-tech career, you need every opportunity to learn and grow. Sometimes you will do this with the assistance of your management and, at other times, without. Be particularly aware of any overt disapproval of your attempts to learn more. No one should ever make you feel that a help desk position is the end of the line. This is a sure sign that some thing is wrong. A position with a high-tech help desk operation was once the birthplace of many a high-tech career and it can be still, if you find the right company. Seek out those companies that maintain a policy of growing their employees from within, allowing them to move from entry-level positions up through the IT ranks. If you find yourself in a company where the help desk is the beginning and the end you might find that your entry-level job has become a dead end. Join me on these networks: Douglas on FriendFeed | Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Support Career Opportunities iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Archive: Entry Level or Dead End - October 7, 2005 Related posts: Extra: Paper resumes are dead, dead, dead…or ought to be This guest post appeared today in the blog, The Graduate... What do you think? — You’ll Pay to Quit This Job! One Company’s Nightmare Hiring Policy… I have my own opinions on policies like this, but... Archive: Off the edge - October 29, 2004 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

host: Danny Scrilla after a small break mashup plus is back again with a set strictly containing all the soca tunes you were desperate to hear! keep an eye on our blog, since marflix is going to post a fresh clubmusic-podcast within the next few days! Less

No time for a long explanation here because 1/3 of One Life Left is getting a flight to Lyon in a few hours, which leaves precious little time for sleep / lying awake, regretting all the things you said today. But we should explain why there's three minutes missing from this week's show... Public transport. Ste left Brighton in plenty of time to reach the Resonance FM studios but a series of problems on the British rail network (four separate issues, detail fans) left him fighting his way through rush hour as Ann and Simon broke out the emergency CDs. Ste made it with seconds to spare -- the theme was about fifteen seconds in -- but, as a few weeks ago, we weren't set up to record. So that's why the show starts just after Ann's pleas with Simon not to talk about what she got up to on Friday night at Nottingham Game City. Some of our listeners will already know. The rest will have to put together pieces from the fragments of information here, in episode 81 of Europe's favourite tenuously-related-to-videogames show, One Life Left. Music: Spring // Resplendent / Downey Illusional Hop // Anthony Lofton & Joshua Morse Glasgow Mega-Snake // Mogwai That's it. See you next week. Oh, and please come to our party on the 29th of November. It's going to be brilliant and you'll be able to buy a CD! Srsly. Less

And the next president of the Screen Animal Actors Guild is... Unleashed is an animated comedy show that follows the trials and tribulations of animal actors in Hollywood. A new episode every Monday, here and at http://www.Unleashed.tv Less

Listen: New Media Answers 010: Facebook Revisited In this episode, Douglas E. Welch and Tracy Pattin revisit Facebook Fan Pages and how to use Facebook for your New Media projects. Links: Sizzle in the Middle web site New Media Interchange New Media Interchange Facebook Fan Page This interview recorded with the Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder. Posted in Audio, New Media, New Media Answers, podcast, Show       Less

Career transitions are the worst, but necessary By Douglas E. Welch Listen: Career transitions are the worst, but necessary As someone who is constantly in the middle of a career transition, I am frequently reminded how difficult it can be. Like many transitions, mine are not the “short, sharp, shock” of moving between companies or towns, but rather a slow, almost daily progression. To outsiders, it might not even appear I am changing careers, but at the very heart of my work life, I am. As with any transition, there are days when I wonder whether the process will ever end. The fact that you can’t see the end can makes it ephemeral. I have an idea where I want to end up, but I am sure once I get there I will see another path and start a new journey. I think this is a normal part of life, even if it can worry us and leave us feeling a bit confused. The fact is transitions, both large and small, will always be a part of your life and work, so you might as well learn how to embrace them. There are ways you can manage your fears and use regular reflection to make sure that you stay on track. First, have an end in mind. Your vision of the completed career transition will never quite match the reality, once it arrives, but like every good navigator, you have to have a destination in mind. Like a golfer aiming for the flag, even when they can’t see the actual hole, you at least know that your goal is in that general direction. Being aimless will have you turning in circles almost immediately. It may seem counter intuitive, but once you have a goal, you need to start adapting it almost immediately. Sometimes we don’t know what a job or project entails until we actually start to work on it. These early discoveries can influence our goals immensely. Correct and adapt at every occasion. Otherwise you risk sticking with a goal long after it is feasible or useful. I see this quite often. People profess to want something, but having achieved it, they find themselves at a dead end. This is particularly true with teachers. Making the transition from being a student in a classroom to being responsible for 30 children in a classroom is often insurmountable. It is very likely that they already knew this as they worked though their required student teaching, but after spending so much time getting their degree they probably thought they couldn’t change their goal. Do everything you can to adapt your career transitions so you don’t go down this path. Don’t go it alone, either. Talk to your friends, your family, even selective co-workers about what you are trying to accomplish. It is very likely that they will have some good advice to offer. Sure, you might hear “why do you have to do that?”, but this is actually a good thing. People who challenge our assumptions force us to think more clearly about those assumptions. If we can answer our friend’s concerns then we can be assured we have taken the time to think things through. Now, some people will be universally negative where change is concerned, but these people are easy to recognize and easy to avoid. Their reaction to transition is often more illustrative of their fears than any flaws in your plan. We face transitions large and small every day of our career. Making one decision instead of another leads us down a different path. Your job is to insure that your are thinking clearly each step of the way, adjusting your thinking and goals and navigating in the right direction for you. Transitions can be challenging, but they are desperately necessary to a long and productive career. If you are not changing, you are not growing and if you are not growing then you may never build the career you deserve. Join me on these networks Follow Douglas on FriendFeed | Follow Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Become a Facebook Fan of Career Opportunities Support Career Opportunities: iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Career transitions are the worst, but necessary Related posts: Economic downturns makes career planning even more important Economic downturns makes career planning even more important By Douglas... Retirement is not a goal, it is a path Retirement is not a goal, it is a path By... Organizing can be a great boost to your career Organizing can be a great boost to your career By... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

Career transitions are the worst, but necessary By Douglas E. Welch Listen: Career transitions are the worst, but necessary As someone who is constantly in the middle of a career transition, I am frequently reminded how difficult it can be. Like many transitions, mine are not the “short, sharp, shock” of moving between companies or towns, but rather a slow, almost daily progression. To outsiders, it might not even appear I am changing careers, but at the very heart of my work life, I am. As with any transition, there are days when I wonder whether the process will ever end. The fact that you can’t see the end can makes it ephemeral. I have an idea where I want to end up, but I am sure once I get there I will see another path and start a new journey. I think this is a normal part of life, even if it can worry us and leave us feeling a bit confused. The fact is transitions, both large and small, will always be a part of your life and work, so you might as well learn how to embrace them. There are ways you can manage your fears and use regular reflection to make sure that you stay on track. First, have an end in mind. Your vision of the completed career transition will never quite match the reality, once it arrives, but like every good navigator, you have to have a destination in mind. Like a golfer aiming for the flag, even when they can’t see the actual hole, you at least know that your goal is in that general direction. Being aimless will have you turning in circles almost immediately. It may seem counter intuitive, but once you have a goal, you need to start adapting it almost immediately. Sometimes we don’t know what a job or project entails until we actually start to work on it. These early discoveries can influence our goals immensely. Correct and adapt at every occasion. Otherwise you risk sticking with a goal long after it is feasible or useful. I see this quite often. People profess to want something, but having achieved it, they find themselves at a dead end. This is particularly true with teachers. Making the transition from being a student in a classroom to being responsible for 30 children in a classroom is often insurmountable. It is very likely that they already knew this as they worked though their required student teaching, but after spending so much time getting their degree they probably thought they couldn’t change their goal. Do everything you can to adapt your career transitions so you don’t go down this path. Don’t go it alone, either. Talk to your friends, your family, even selective co-workers about what you are trying to accomplish. It is very likely that they will have some good advice to offer. Sure, you might hear “why do you have to do that?”, but this is actually a good thing. People who challenge our assumptions force us to think more clearly about those assumptions. If we can answer our friend’s concerns then we can be assured we have taken the time to think things through. Now, some people will be universally negative where change is concerned, but these people are easy to recognize and easy to avoid. Their reaction to transition is often more illustrative of their fears than any flaws in your plan. We face transitions large and small every day of our career. Making one decision instead of another leads us down a different path. Your job is to insure that your are thinking clearly each step of the way, adjusting your thinking and goals and navigating in the right direction for you. Transitions can be challenging, but they are desperately necessary to a long and productive career. If you are not changing, you are not growing and if you are not growing then you may never build the career you deserve. Join me on these networks Follow Douglas on FriendFeed | Follow Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Become a Facebook Fan of Career Opportunities Support Career Opportunities: iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Career transitions are the worst, but necessary Related posts: Economic downturns makes career planning even more important Economic downturns makes career planning even more important By Douglas... Organizing can be a great boost to your career Organizing can be a great boost to your career By... Retirement is not a goal, it is a path Retirement is not a goal, it is a path By... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

(This podcast is pulled “from the archives” and presented here as a service to more recent listeners — Douglas) Listen to this episode Read the entire article When you are starting a new project or pitching a new client, do you ever feel overwhelmed by the choices available? I know it cannot just be me, so at the risk of surrendering my computer consultant badge for all time, I am going to make some very personal confessions. Lately I have found it horribly confusing to decide which hardware, which software, which server, which printer to recommend to all my varying clients. At times, it seems to absorb much more time than I think it should. Still, projects seem to turn out for the best, even if my initial thoughts are a bit confused. Choice above all else I know, for Americans, choice is considered a fundamental right. Not only do we deserve the right to choose, but we also deserve the largest number of choices possible. If I want a vanilla ice cream cone, made with chocolate ice cream, I should be able to get it. While that is a ludicrous example, there is a grain of truth within. In today’s high-tech market, consumers are often given choices that, in the end, really don’t make a lot of sense. Still, for most people, it is the quantity of choices, not the quality that make them happiest. Of course, such a bounty of choices leaves me staggered sometimes. Not only do you have to make the big choices, Mac vs. PC, Windows vs. Linux, you also have to make the smaller choices, 120 GB hard disk or 360 GB, 1 GB of RAM or 512MB, the blue one or the pink one. The choices provided are almost that ludicrous, at times. Still, we all have to make a decision eventually, so even though you might have misgivings and wonder if you have made the right choice, you do have to make it. There are ways, though, to help you make better decisions among the choices you have. From the outside, in So, how do you start weeding out the choices for your project? First, you have to have as much information as possible from your client. What type of work do they do? How many people do they have? How much data do they store? All the usual questions, and more. Dig a little deeper. Do they have a preferred vendor? Do they have a preferred manufacturer? Do they want it to be red, blue or pink? Sometimes clients have had dealings with vendors and manufacturers that have left them cold. You don’t necessarily want to recommend a vendor, only to bring up bad memories. Once you have learned all you can from you client, turn to your collection of high-tech peers and get their input. It is rare I make any major recommendation or purchase for a client until I run it by my friend and colleague, Sam. Sam not only is a high-tech expert, he also has something I am sorely lacking, experience in sales. Whenever I find myself overwhelmed by the “chaos of choice” a quick email, IM or phone call can usually get me back on track. Where I might have to create a small spreadsheet to compare features and prices, he can quickly rule out entire product lines with his insight. If you don’t have an advisory board of peers that you can turn to at a moment’s notice, start building one today. You will find that while someone else may be an advisor to you on one particular issue, you can often provide the same services for them on some other topic. This isn’t a one way street. Everyone benefits. Hopefully, your advisory board will pare down the choices to a more manageable level. Then you can turn to various online resources such as review web sites, user forums and such to give you more insight into your, now more limited, choices. For me, it makes little sense to start doing Google searches or looking at vendor web sites until I have a more manageable list of choices. Without a smaller area of focus, online tools just lead me deeper into the chaos. If you find yourself a bit confused when trying to specify equipment and software, you aren’t alone. Everyone, from the newly-minted IT staffer, to the grizzled tech consultant can find themselves mired in the chaos of choice. The best way to resolve this confusion, though, is to work from the outside in, hacking the choices down to a manageable size and then whittling these possibilities down to a perfect match for you and your client. Join me on these networks: Douglas on FriendFeed | Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Support Career Opportunities iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Archive: The Chaos of Choice - September 30, 2005 Related posts: Archive: Change Everything - September 23, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Archive: Straight lines and circles - September 16, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Archive: Don’t Wait - September 2, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

(This podcast is pulled “from the archives” and presented here as a service to more recent listeners — Douglas) Listen to this episode Read the entire article When you are starting a new project or pitching a new client, do you ever feel overwhelmed by the choices available? I know it cannot just be me, so at the risk of surrendering my computer consultant badge for all time, I am going to make some very personal confessions. Lately I have found it horribly confusing to decide which hardware, which software, which server, which printer to recommend to all my varying clients. At times, it seems to absorb much more time than I think it should. Still, projects seem to turn out for the best, even if my initial thoughts are a bit confused. Choice above all else I know, for Americans, choice is considered a fundamental right. Not only do we deserve the right to choose, but we also deserve the largest number of choices possible. If I want a vanilla ice cream cone, made with chocolate ice cream, I should be able to get it. While that is a ludicrous example, there is a grain of truth within. In today’s high-tech market, consumers are often given choices that, in the end, really don’t make a lot of sense. Still, for most people, it is the quantity of choices, not the quality that make them happiest. Of course, such a bounty of choices leaves me staggered sometimes. Not only do you have to make the big choices, Mac vs. PC, Windows vs. Linux, you also have to make the smaller choices, 120 GB hard disk or 360 GB, 1 GB of RAM or 512MB, the blue one or the pink one. The choices provided are almost that ludicrous, at times. Still, we all have to make a decision eventually, so even though you might have misgivings and wonder if you have made the right choice, you do have to make it. There are ways, though, to help you make better decisions among the choices you have. From the outside, in So, how do you start weeding out the choices for your project? First, you have to have as much information as possible from your client. What type of work do they do? How many people do they have? How much data do they store? All the usual questions, and more. Dig a little deeper. Do they have a preferred vendor? Do they have a preferred manufacturer? Do they want it to be red, blue or pink? Sometimes clients have had dealings with vendors and manufacturers that have left them cold. You don’t necessarily want to recommend a vendor, only to bring up bad memories. Once you have learned all you can from you client, turn to your collection of high-tech peers and get their input. It is rare I make any major recommendation or purchase for a client until I run it by my friend and colleague, Sam. Sam not only is a high-tech expert, he also has something I am sorely lacking, experience in sales. Whenever I find myself overwhelmed by the “chaos of choice” a quick email, IM or phone call can usually get me back on track. Where I might have to create a small spreadsheet to compare features and prices, he can quickly rule out entire product lines with his insight. If you don’t have an advisory board of peers that you can turn to at a moment’s notice, start building one today. You will find that while someone else may be an advisor to you on one particular issue, you can often provide the same services for them on some other topic. This isn’t a one way street. Everyone benefits. Hopefully, your advisory board will pare down the choices to a more manageable level. Then you can turn to various online resources such as review web sites, user forums and such to give you more insight into your, now more limited, choices. For me, it makes little sense to start doing Google searches or looking at vendor web sites until I have a more manageable list of choices. Without a smaller area of focus, online tools just lead me deeper into the chaos. If you find yourself a bit confused when trying to specify equipment and software, you aren’t alone. Everyone, from the newly-minted IT staffer, to the grizzled tech consultant can find themselves mired in the chaos of choice. The best way to resolve this confusion, though, is to work from the outside in, hacking the choices down to a manageable size and then whittling these possibilities down to a perfect match for you and your client. Join me on these networks: Douglas on FriendFeed | Douglas on Twitter | Douglas on MySpace | Douglas on Facebook | Douglas on LinkedIn Support Career Opportunities iTunes Review | Career-Op Forums | Digg.com | Podcast Alley Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049 From Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch Archive: The Chaos of Choice - September 30, 2005 Related posts: Archive: Change Everything - September 23, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Archive: Straight lines and circles - September 16, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Archive: Don’t Wait - September 2, 2005 (This podcast is pulled "from the archives" and presented here... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Less

Douglas E. Welch, Founder of New Media Interchange talks about the group’s goals and hosts an open question and answer session. Click to Watch - 43 Mins iPod Ready Video Posted in Events, Meeting, New Media, podcast, Show, Video       Less