dvd to ipad, imovie

note to self...
(how i did it..) 

capture dvd with vlc. view -> advanced controls, use record button to start and stop snippets.  

download trial version of videowizard (can convert 2min of snippets).

get it on your ipad, f.ex. via a dedicated image and video folder when synchronizing the ipad.

voila - should be available both in the usual image viewer and in imovie.

Continuous, Real-Time, Semi-Structured Feedback Instead of Annual Reviews

In a question on Quora about how a start-up should handle performance reviews, John Lilly writes:

After believing in annual reviews for most of my career, I don't really believe in them anymore. Not timely enough, demoralizing in general (everyone thinks they're above average), and just a hell of a lot of work for everyone. This negative view of annual & traditional reviews is quite strongly supported by university research -- it's just counter-productive, even though we all think we should do it.

via ben.casnocha.com

brains learn more effectively from success than from failure. http://goo.gl/YVwly via @kevlinhenney

i've watched Kevlin Henney's talk from NDC 2011 on cognitive biases.  about 15-20 min in he references a study on how the brain learns from success and failure.

that we learn better from success because of how we're wired in the brain should inform us in a lot of contexts - that goes for the rest of the biases mentioned in the talk, too.

some of those contexts:

• failed projects - learning from, what you change next time
• strengths-based thinking
• reviews, retrospectives
• learning all sorts of new stuff
• how you teach stuff, trying to get others to learn
• business startups (perhaps motivation for lean startups)
• creating prosess based on revealing failure...
• estimates - expecting them to get better next time
• budgets (optimism, large numbers)
• comprehension of complexity in code
• adding people to a project mid-project
• testing
• usability (from programmers' perspective)
• multitasking, in work and life
• meetings
• planning
• tolerance for randomness, variation in software development

 

Solving a Rubik’s cube in less than 60 seconds

Solving a Rubik’s cube in less than 60 seconds:

"A couple of months ago I bought a Rubik’s cube in a nearby shop and after reading some guides on the net I learned how to solve it. A few hours later I could solve it in about 4 minutes all by myself.

....

While playing with the cube on the bus, at work, at home, in the pub, basically everywhere, all the time, I sometimes meet other geeks that want to learn how to solve the cube fast as well. So I thought I should write up a guide about how to get started.

If you do not know how to solve the cube you need to study one of a billion guides that are available on the net. Here is a beginner solution by Leyan Lo that I recommend. Once you can solve the cube without referring to a guide, you can start to read more advanced stuff. The ultimate guide is written by Jessica Fridrich, but it is not easy to read. I found CubeFreak by Shotaro Makisumi to be the most useful site out there. "

get standalone epub or pdf into ibooks in iphone

the short of it: use dropbox or email.

i.e., copy to dropbox on your computer, and try open it on the iphone.

after you have tried and got an error message that dropbox doesn't understand the format (epub) or you got to open the pdf, you can use the curved arrow to open it elsewhere - select iBooks.