James VanDyke

Author: james

  • Lessons learned from working at home

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    Part of this week I worked from home because the air conditioning was out at work. Along the way I learned a few important things. Keep a to do list so you don’t get distracted Having animals around makes for a better work environment Check your meeting calendar before deciding to work from home for…

  • Is this thing on?

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    I found an interesting site today, downforeveryoneorjustme.com. If you’ve ever wondered if a website is really down or just singling you out this site tries to give you an answer.

  • The Art Collectors

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    Erin and my favorite art festival was this weekend. The Main Street Art Festivial in Fort Worth is one of the highlights of our cultural year. This year we brought home our first real piece of art work, a print by Daniel Ng. Sunrise Tuscany (giclee print 4 of 450) is now hanging in our…

  • Mavericks lose another playoff game

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    The Dallas Mavericks lost in the playoffs again Tuesday night which is disappointing because since my transplant to Dallas they are the one team that I would be willing to call myself a fan of. Three years in a row Dallas has choked in the playoffs, so they have to get their act together for…

  • Royal Caribbean: Not so bad in the end

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    A few months ago I wrote a post about Royal Caribbean adding a fuel supplement to our cruise bill after we made our reservation and paid a deposit. For this I called them out as a bad company. Well a few weeks ago they decided they were wrong and revised the fuel supplement. Now people…

  • Testing Jott. I’m testing…

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    Testing Jott. I’m testing the new Jott voice messaging service where you call a phone number and have your messages transcribed anything, and even posted to a block blog. listen Powered by Jott Update: As you can see there were some small errors in the results but it’s still a neat service.

  • Bracket Busters

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    The Belmont Bruins almost made NCAA history by upsetting Duke. Unfortunately, the record books will simply record a close call for basketball powerhouse. YouTube however will remember the 2008 Bruins trip to the tourney through the video blog of SecondMileStyle.

  • Bathroom Remodeling

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    We’re having our bathroom remodeled. It was in need of some work so the contractor has ripped everything out down to the studs in the walls. The plan is to end up with a bigger shower (that doesn’t leak) and new tile on the floor and in the shower. Tags: house

  • The Art of Speed

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    Speed is becoming an essential part of business today, especially on the web. This weekend I attended a panel discussion entitled “The Art of Speed” at South by Southwest Interactive. Here are the points I found useful or interesting: Follow the market to where the growth is – Often companies look to attack new markets…

  • Work Practices

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    37signals the makers of BaseCamp and RubyonRails shared some changes to their work environment recently. Here are three interesting ideas.  4 day work week – If people rest for 3 days, they will be refreshed and do better work in four days rather than 5 days of work and 2 days of rest. Pay for…