Geek Tip – How to take (or find) a good profile picture

Profile pictures are now one of those things that we all need. On your twitter page, your facebook page, linkedin page etc etc. Services like gravatar attempt to make it easy and centralize your profile photo as well.

Several times I've had profile photos taken with a photographer for press/company articles etc. and the hardest thing to do is to fake a smile or to look naturally warm. Recently,  I was using iPhoto/Aperture and going through all of the various pictures I have to pick out one that I liked. The Apple products now have face detection, which allows you to sort photos by person. Here's one observation I found:

When I am in photos with the ones that I love - namely my kids or wife - my photos look better.

So, I  picked out one of those instead. Note that those family photos were taken by a professional photographer, so they are good photos in themselves.

The added bonus along with having some great family photos is that I get is that I know when/where the photo was taken and how I felt at the time. Which is a lot better than seeing a profile photo everywhere and remembering how awkward it was to stand in front of a camera and trying to look natural.

Sleeping in the dark silence

After reading Siimon's book on people failing, and also continually forgetting to take my own earplugs on my flights, I set out to REI to see what they had in terms of eye shields.

I struck gold, and they were only $9.50 they even have a compartment for ear plugs.

http://www.rei.com/product/765731/rei-cushioned-eye-mask-and-earplugs-set

Geek Tip – Bags in bags

Bags in bags - or Subfolders for real life.

Since moving to the US 18 months ago, it started me re-evaluating all of the different bits and pieces that I carry around with me. Every time I travel, I need to remember to take dongles, adaptors, cables, bits and pieces. I was always forgetting things. So I thought I would improve this aspect of my life and reduce stress.

The solution I came up with was at my local REI store - bags within bags. I bought a couple of different Eagle Creek travel bags. I now use these to carry all my tackle and it means that when I need to change bags (backpacks with suits sometimes just doesn't work!) it is easy. I just grab the inner bags and chuck them into the different outer bag.

I have a few different bags, one for international and one for all the time. So I know when to carry what I need. Combined with my label maker, I'm now a totally efficient dongle carrier. Isn't that exciting?  Not since Apple released folders in iOS has there been so much excitement about the concept of a folder!

Seriously though, go ahead and try it, it feels good to have the confidence knowing that you have all the bits you'll need with you.

Preparing a presentation

A few weeks ago I got the chance to present at a conference. I had to prepare a 15 minute talk and go through various items, present some key concepts etc. In doing that, I had to draft up my slides and talk and present the structure to various people to get their buy-in, opinions, feedback etc.

In the past, what I've done is send out some basic power point slides, but always had the problem come back where the feedback would be centered around the slides, rather than the theme or direction of the talk. It becomes annoying, distracting and wastes time.

I remember talking with Peldi from Balsamiq a while back. Balsamiq is a tool for doing screen mockups. The mockups deliberately look like hand sketches so that you don't take them seriously in look and feel, but instead focus on structure. Smart.

So, I borrowed this technique for my slides - except I tend to step away from a computer when brainstorming - otherwise some email or skype message will come in and distract me. Here's what I did:

• In powerpoint (or keynote), create 6 blank slides
• print out notes, 6 to a page
• pick up a pencil
• draw away!

It's pretty simple, but it worked a treat, and I was able to then put the slides together *after* I knew what I wanted to put on them. For me, this talk included references to IKEA, so I searched online for photos and when I couldn't get exactly what I wanted - I ended up taking a trip down to the local store with my daughter, and then took photos for the exact purpose that I wanted.

This approach is very empowering, it puts you in the position of a producer, the artist and creator of your presentation. You can download the PDF at 2011.05- Summit Slide Sketch - the final slides did vary, but at that point I was on the home stretch. This was invaluable to getting the engine roaring along and I hope this tip will help you.

Reduce conference call stress – use pause and wait

Yes, I know, it's a feature that has existed for many many years, but hey...

I can't recall how many times I was on time for a conference call, only to have my fat fingers mis-dial a number during the 45 digit access code and then I am late.

I have no freakin' clue as to why I never prioritized this before. But I finally got around to it in my Things list. The item was listed as: "quick dial conference call numbers" and what I wanted to do was to add an item to my favorites list on my iPhone for each of the recurring conference calls that I need to dial into - complete with access and pin codes. So that wherever I am, I just need to click a button and it will dial away. Combined with my Sennheiser headset - I am now in conference call heaven. Even when in the car, I just have to click a button and I'm dialed in.

It's pretty easy to do this, when adding a phone number, click on the "+*#" button and you'll then get pause and wait buttons. Play around with it, it's fun and you'll wish you did it a long time ago. Now I wish that every time someone sent me dial-in details in a calendar invite, they would put them in the format so I could save the number complete with access code, pauses and waits!

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