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In today's regular department meeting, the topic of coal powered generation was discussed. Specifically, after the coal is used, the ash goes into an ash pond. New regulations are requiring companies to move the coal ash to lined pits, use it in concrete, or find alternate uses.
Last week, 15 more sites were announced as on the clean up list.
When they're done, all that will be left is 15 ash holes.
8)
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Groan...
Seriously, though, when the local coal fired plant was forced to close by a spurious lawsuit, all but one concrete plant in the area had to close because no one can afford the cost of fly ash. The cost per yard more than doubled, mostly due to the high cost of trucking in the required ash.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Roger Wright wrote: the cost of fly ash
Well it can't be easy getting the required number of flies! I should think it would be expensive!
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I've been reading with interest recently about the advances in Agile Techniques, and I thought I'd share the latest method to be tested in our offices. It's similar in principle to Mob Programming[^], but it has the added advantage of getting the hole group more involved through a process we are calling "Audio Kinetic Interaction".
The technique involves 1 computer and (typically) ten programmers operating in a Dojo environment, being provided with Audio Stimulation by the Dojo Master (or DJ). During this period of stimulation, relaxation and contemplation, the programmers are encouraged to get up and move around, reducing effects such as RSI and Carpel Tunnel as well as stimulating the production of endorphins which boost the thought processes. When this Audio Stimulation stops, the programmers enter the 'Sprint', and often 'Scrum', as they return to their seats to begin coding. There are (typically) only 9 chairs, and none of them are in front of the keyboard...
The programmer who entered the deepest states of contemplation and / or generated the most endorphins (by moving furthest away from a chair) gets to write the next line of code.
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Danny Martin wrote: the added advantage of getting the hole group more involved
And what exactly does the hole group do?
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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That's the general attitude of most marketing departments toward most software groups
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Danny Martin wrote: entered the deepest states of contemplation
crawl (away from the chair) into a corner and curl up and have a snooze. I like deep states of contemplation!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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It seems to me Agile Meditation rather than Agile Programming. 
modified 29-Jun-15 20:08pm.
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Well, a course in javaScript will take this paradigm to whole new level of multimedia experience.
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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If anyone here can make a helpful suggestion about Customer Relationship Management software, thanks. I need to implement something; no clue as to what that something may turn out to be; but I know I need something now.
Google and Bing took me down various paths, and honestly, I was overwhelmed at the number of choices.
I wound up at a download site called CNET.COM[^] from which most of the members of this following list were obtained, by asking it to show me freeware CRM packages. The response list contained more than two hundred items.
So,,,,
With no knowledge of what to ask, how to evaluate, etc., I'm looking at these seven...
PIPELINER[^]
TOP SALES[^]
EQMS Lite (Free Edition)[^]
SONAR[^]
BusinessTracker[^]
CRM Express Free[^]
TBF CRM[^]
I welcome feedback from personal experience, as well as other suggestions about other freeware.
My current need is to organize 110 business cards picked up at a recent trade show. There's another show coming up next month, same thing again. I'm guessing that I will typically spend 20 to 30 minutes per card.
The word "organize" in this case means to make a record so that I can know stuff like...
- Where/when/how did I meet these guys ?
- What does this company do ?
- Into Which category[categories] does this company fit ?
- Company size
- Name, address, phone, E-Mail, website,
- Initial impression of the place/people/operation/etc.
- Others we are working with who are also involved with this/these/them
- History of our phone calls, E-mails, Dinners, whatever
- Whether their earlobes are attached or not
- Anything else you can think of to suggest
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<edit>Seems like most of my post dissappeared somewhere.
Anyway, have a look at vTiger or SugarCRM if they are within your needs.</edit>
modified 29-Jun-15 16:31pm.
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Agreed, but it's not free.
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ScottM1 wrote: but it's not free.
I missed that requirement. 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Thanks, really, but I don't even know the vocabulary, so that page overwhelms me with jargon.
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I would recommend using the open source version of SugarCRM to start.
Eric
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Totally missed it.
My search for the term SugarCRM led me to some bizarre pay'm site that I closed in five seconds (worried that I picked up yet another malware disaster).
A good link will be welcome.
No clue why Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the entire internet all hate me.
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I do a lot of heavy data work with enterprise CRM systems (Sales Cloud, Oracle CRM OnDemand, etc). My particular job is getting the data in/out of these systems by writing code to synchronize with other systems or sources (external lists, legacy databases, customer-facing web apps, etc.).
If I may be so bold, a couple of suggestions: First, go with a free version. I'm with the guys who suggested SugarCRM. I've never used it professionally, but I played around with it to learn how it compares with the other products I use.
Second, each of your requirements fits well into a normal usage of a CRM system. However, you're going to have to translate your data into the lingo of CRM world for it to fit well. It's not hard, but it's a basic hurdle I had to get over when I started.
This is all general, but it's kinda how CRM systems look at the world. For example:
There are two kinds of "people" according to CRM systems: "Leads" and "Contacts". Contact is someone you have some interaction with (in your case, the business cards...so they would all be contacts), while a Lead is someone that you haven't really met, so far (say, you bought a list of people who might be interested in buying your widgets).
What you are looking at is most likely a Contact record per business card, with added custom attributes for the Contact record (earlobes, initial impression), and Account/Company records that those people are associated with.
Where/when/how did I meet these guys ? --Contact detailWhat does this company do ? --Associated Account recordInto Which category[categories] does this company fit ? --Associated Account recordCompany size --Associated Account recordName, address, phone, E-Mail, website, --Contact detailInitial impression of the place/people/operation/etc. --Custom Contact detailOthers we are working with who are also involved with this/these/them --Related Contact recordHistory of our phone calls, E-mails, Dinners, whatever --"Activity" entryWhether their earlobes are attached or not --Custom Contact Detail
CRM systems are pretty flexible, once you get your brain wrapped around their world view. SugarCRM looks like a good system with all the same capabilities as the big boys, and it will probably handle all your needs without any real cost but your time and the electricity to run it.
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare
--The answer to Minos and any question of "Why are we doing it this way?"
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THANK YOU !!!
David Days wrote: ... you're going to have to translate your data into the lingo of CRM world ... it's a basic hurdle ...
Consider me to be the TWIT OF THE YEAR[^] at this moment. Forward to about 2:00 in that vid clip and you'll get a good depiction of where I am right now with my current CRM knowledge and the very hurdle you have described.
I can't thank you enough for the elementary vocabulary lesson.
Major help; ultra turbo major big help for sure.
Vocabulary is half the game.
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Glad to help--just talking from (painful) experience.
Other vocabulary mappings (you can use or avoid as you see fit):
"Opportunity": That's a sales opportunity in CRM-speak. Basically, you can use this record to store anything that would be loosely described as a sales process. For example, a sales process  , or a contract with someone, or a project, or an application for something.
"Activity": Something that happened. Activity records are the go-to for "doesn't exactly fit but is associated with other type(s)". Generally, activity records are treated differently based on their individual types: appointments, meetings, phone calls, complaints, etc. CRM coding takes care of how it's presented (based on type).
"Work flow" (or equivalent): CRM systems use a variety of backend magic to allow users to set up internal event-based changes to data. If you think of them as basically database triggers with extra bells and whistles, you're on the right track (some actually are DB triggers). So when someone adds a record, checks a box, etc. you can set up a bunch of crazy stuff to happen (change values, change Oppty sales stage, send an email, etc)
Hopefully that'll get you started, and you'll be able to ignore stuff you don't care about and concentrate on what you want to happen.
Good luck!
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare
--The answer to Minos and any question of "Why are we doing it this way?"
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We've defined 4 type of "people":
1. Prospects - People in a purchased list or a business card etc.
2. Lead - When we've actually made contact with them.
3. Client - Some who with whom we are doing business.
4. Inactive - Someone we could not reach or is someone not wanting to do business with us.
Depending one's business, I suppose you could expand the list. Although too much granularity would make it a bit unwieldy.
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SugarCRM (Played with, never officially used).
But I have 3 clients who love Act! It is a heavy windows client. (www.act.com)
But it has been around forever, and it works fairly well and is mature.
For me, I would rather pay for stability than deal with installation issues.
I prefer thick clients over web interfaces, and I love things that export to Excel.
HTH
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