Outlook: Cleaning up contacts

I love my BlackBerry.

I hate manually cleaning up after the fact when it snargleblatts itself inside Outlook.

Here's a quick-and-dirty macro I wrote to clean up after it snargleblatted my contact list by adding the string "(Home)" and "(Work)" to the names of some of my contacts without asking.

Sub AdjustContactName()
On Error Resume Next
  Dim ns As NameSpace
  Dim fld As Folder
  Dim contact As ContactItem
  Dim items As Outlook.items
  Dim i As Integer
  i = 0
  Dim changeflag As Boolean
  changeflag = False

  Set ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
  Set fld = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts)
  Set items = fld.items
  For Each contact In items
      If InStr(1, contact.FullName, "(Home)") Then
          contact.FullName = Replace(contact.FullName, "(Home)", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If InStr(1, contact.FullName, "(Work)") Then
          contact.FullName = Replace(contact.FullName, "(Work)", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If InStr(1, contact.FileAs, "(Home),") Then
          contact.FileAs = Replace(contact.FileAs, "(Home),", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If InStr(1, contact.FileAs, "(Work),") Then
          contact.FileAs = Replace(contact.FileAs, "(Work),", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If changeflag Then
          contact.Save
          changeflag = False
      End If
  Next

  MsgBox ("Done." + vbCrLf + "Counted: " + CStr(i))

  Set ns = Nothing
  Set fld = Nothing
  Set contact = Nothing
  Set items = Nothing

End Sub

Event Horizons

I believe in communicating graphically and out loud whenever possible. This is not always immediately grasped by those who understand communication as "words". It isn't. One very common example of this are event horizons.

An event horizon is defined by the dictionary as:

event horizon. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/event horizon

When I describe it to people, I tell them it's:

An event that, although the timing is potentially unknown or uncontrollable, will change everything around it.

I use this all the time to share with people how key events are going to impact them, and so I want to share it with you.

In its graphical form, they look like the dotted line here:



It's worth noting that event horizons are vastly different from critical paths. In critical paths, what you're communicating is the sequence of events, their importance to the overall plan, their cost, both relative and absolute, and several other things (can you tell I like that method? )

With an event horizon, what you're doing is communicating grahpically to someone the decisions that will be impacted by something outside of their flow. This isn't very well handled by the traditional critical path, which is a series of linked events. Instead, you have to start thinking graphically. For example, if you add color to your critical path, during the planning phase, that is, before color is used to communicate status, then you can begin to get an idea of how you might approximate this.

For me, the big difference is that the event horizon in and of itself, can be an event generator.

For example:



Since you can't control or sometimes even plan for the things/people/places/events/articles/mishaps/synchronicities that spawn event horizons, you can't fit that event *neatly* into a project plan.

Yes, I know you can fit them in, but I'm saying *neatly*, not "at all". There's a big difference. Event Horizons, as I'm using the term today, are the 1% chance game changers - the 100 year floods, so to speak.

My graphical model is designed to quickly communicate to people how significantly changed the world on the other side of that event looks.

Patching a VPC: Revisited

So after installing my VPC, and starting it up to update it, I realized it wasn't getting SQL Server updates.

Here's what I did to fix that:

1. Click Start >> All Programs
2. Click Windows Update
3. In the Windows Update window, there's a link that says "Learn More" or "More Info"... click it
4. This takes you to a Microsoft Page where you get to make a choice. While the verbage is designed to steer you towards picking their reccommended setting, as I understand it, either choice will upgrade your Windows Update to now include SQL Server.
5. Click Install, and you should be brought back to the Windows Update window, where it should already have begun a scan of your local drive.

You'll know your update type changed if the section of the window "Most recent check for updates" now says "Never" instead of the date/time it held before.

SQL 2005 Login Issues

If you see error messages like this one:

Date 1/1/2010 5:54:32 AM
Log SQL Server (Current - 1/1/2010 8:40:00 PM)

Source Logon

Message
Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 16.

Followed by something like this:

Date 1/1/2010 5:54:32 AM
Log SQL Server (Current - 1/1/2010 8:40:00 PM)

Source Logon

Message
Login failed for user 'DOMAIN\userid'. [CLIENT: 192.168.1.1]

You might just find you have this issue:

FIX: Error message when you try to use a SQL Server authenticated login to log on to an instance of SQL Server 2005: "Logon error: 18456"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925744

Lessons learned from WoW: Showing Progress

There's clear progress markers on your way to the bank.

There's also a ready dashboard of your progress.

Think about it.

Let's say you get a small refund from your local office supply store for that latest thingamabob that you just bought. Let's also say you have a chance over your lunch hour at work to run the check to the bank. Let's also say, just for fun, that you're NOT going to drive.

How would you know you're making progress on your way to the bank? What if you haven't been to this branch before (perhaps the job is new)?

You would

look for indicators

watch for changes in the landscape

recognize the landmarks from the path you researched

see things changing around you

All of these are positives. Now, what if it's raining out? Would that change how you measured your progress?

And how would you tell your wife/sister/lover/brother/kid/boss/coworker that you had made progress, if they called you while you were walking? To someone who isn't familiar with your methods, ways, speed(s), knowledge, how would you communicate clearly how close/far you are to/from the bank?

I think, if you're like most people, you would try to make the abstract concrete by wrapping your progress in artificial numbers. Meaningless, really, since that branch could be closed for remodeling this week, and your *actual* progress is really much smaller. While we're not getting into scope creep in this entry, how do you communicate your progress?

In WoW, the presentation format (3-d PC graphics rendered in a 2-d screen) allows for graphical progress representation. How could you do that for your walk to the bank? There are some ways, actually.

However, what if it were more complex than just a walk to the bank? What if it were showing progress on your Software Development project, across teams, divisions, and software versions? How would you show the same progress?

Would you treat it as a walk to the bank?

Lessons Learned from WoW: Vision

Warcraft's vision is easy to swallow.

It's easy to understand, and you can grasp it within minutes of playing for the first time.

The vision becomes personal or personalized very quickly, and seemingly anyone, IF A PLAYER, can internalize how the goals ("quests") align with the vision.

I describe the player vision as

"Get to level 80"

However, it seems to me the larger corporate vision is best described as

"Create an immersive environment that encourages social connection and self-accomplishment"

I find that creating a description that's easily digested by friends and family of my own vision for my own life is equally simple:

"Raise three model citizens"

However, the underlying version is much more complex:

"While successfully raising three model citizens, keep moving forward and evolving"

What if you KNEW

What if you KNEW your car was going to break down?

I don't mean you THINK your car is going downhill. I mean exactly what I said - you KNOW, for ABSOLUTE, for CERTAIN, that your car is going to break down.

To think of it another way, the "IF" has been handled. The only question now is "When?"

If you knew this, with confidence, what would you do?

Would you get a qualified estimate of "when" from someone who could guess better than you?

How would you prepare?

Would you look at other cars? Maybe take a test drive or two? Or sixteen?

Would you call your bank, to see what kind of financing you could get?

Are you the type who would start noticing everything wrong with your current ride, in order to begin preparing yourself mentally for the expense you're about to be hit with?

How about maintenance - would you stop maintaining the vehicle, or would you suddenly pay even better attention to the little repairs, hoping to stave off the inevitable day? What about the old saying "Clean it like you're gonna sell it, and you won't want to"?

Now, what would you do if it was your job that had a shelf life of six months?