As a little boy I watched the Jetsons and several other shows that told me that by the time I grew up I would have a flying car and most everything I needed to do could be done for me by a robot. I truely believed this and in early 2002 I was rewarded as the first “home robot” was introduced… I thought who wouldn’t want a Roomba? I shortly realized that most people thought it was a gimmick, too expensive for a toy, or used any excuse they could think of to pass off this miracle. I on the other hand could not wait to get one. I encountered one in 2003 at a job I was working and could not believe that this little bot just toiled away cleaning a floor while I was away doing something else… amazing. In 2008 I happened across a Roomba for $3 that’s right Three bucks! I couldn’t believe when the wife told me not to purchase it… I just had to. Even if it was broke I wanted to dissect it.

Well that $3 has went a long way in our household my wife loves her little robot and uses it almost on a daily basis to keep our downstairs floors clean. It still holds about a 2 hour charge and I have not had to replace a single component on it… not even a filter.

So now to my title, my trusty craftsman lawn mower (a hand me down of 14yrs) is finally not worth fixing and I need to purchase another. I don’t want to just purchase a lawnmower though. I would like to do away with that chore all-together. I would love to purchase a robo-mower, but even after the years of faithful cleaning our little $3 roomba has given her I can’t convince her that buying a robot to mow our lawn would be a good decision. She is willing to buy me a zero turn John Deere instead However I am not satisfied, I must prove that just like the Jettsons we can have machines today that make our lives easier.

So today I have decided to at least investigate how much it would cost for me to replicate our Roomba and make a DIY robotic mowing solution. If your interested stay tuned and I will post updates along the way.

Update 1: Nov, 13^th Procured possible wheels and motor from broke RC toy of Daniels:

Update 2: Nov, 28^th A list of Current Robot Mowers available for purchase:
RoboMow
LawnBott
AutoMower

At work recently (and in every other enterprise I have worked for) I have been noticing that policies and procedures reign even if the policy or procedure is completely wrong for a certain scenario.
I pride myself in being a very logical thinker and creating steps/procedures/functions to solve a problem is what I get paid for so when I see others using a procedure that is not fit for a particular scenario or developing a new procedure because it worked one time in a certain environment I cringe.

So I would like to take a moment and share with you a few tips on handling projects in the enterprise and avoiding policies/procedures that can hinder:

1. Start each project with a brainstorming meeting where you include all parties that could be involved.
Doing this will give you the advantage of nailing down procedures that will be involved and even flesh out other people that may need to be involved that you didn’t think about. Doing this will help reveal broken procedures or policies that will get in the way. having the meeting early will also give the people involved a heads up to when you will be making further meetings and will let them know when to schedule time to devote to your project. Come up with stages or phases during this time so that the parties involved will be able to put a name or number to their task. Given the time constraints I see everybody under these days the parties involved will appreciate the heads up.

2. Document as you go.
In programming this is essential and I would say this is essential in other areas as well. When creating code, procedure, new processes, or even documentation itself document it. This is always easier said than done but if you document as you go you will familiarize yourself with the subject matter and will be better prepared to dispute the nay-sayers and policy-spitters that come along during long projects trying to deter your efforts.

3. If you find a faulty procedure don’t abandon it go to the source and find out why it was created.
Many many times procedures are made by people who don’t have a clue about the effects of it but create them anyway to satisfy a need they have. So never abandon a procedure unless you first find out what need is to be satisfied. Most procedure writers will work with you to come to a common goal and some will even improve the procedure so that it better meets their need.

4. Don’t get pushed around.
People will doubt your systems and methods especially if you are in a position to create procedures that they must abide by. Always consider their needs but never change the end goal of a project or allow them to push your scope outside of your goal. Policy-spitters will also come along and tell you that you are stepping out of line. Be prepared to discuss the matter but be well versed in your goal and project so that they cannot push you into a position that may hinder production.

5. Send update emails.
Most people will not read update emails as they see it as a waist of time but it will allow the people who need to know what stage you are at. Put the stage near the beginning of the subject line as most users will see the subject and can decide if it is time for them to step in. This is where the defining stages point in #1 comes into play.

I wont guarantee that these steps will keep polices or procedures from getting in your way when working in the enterprise but I can assure you that by putting the effort up front to include as many players as possible and updating them along the way you will be able to reduce the problems you encounter.

Thanks
David Bates

Morning all,

Today is the first day of CSUC09 (Cascade Server User’s Conference 2009). I am excited about what I am going to learn today and even more excited about the people I am going to meet. I have already met @KevWorks, @nShontz, @danbowling, @brockbrown, and Beacon Technologies They are all great people and all very knowledgeable. But on to my drive to ATL.

I wanted to take the scenic route down to Atlanta since I never get to take my time and just drive to different places. The map above is the exact route I took and I would recommend it to anybody in the fall of the year. it was wonderful especially Nantahala, Nantahala is the most beautiful stretch of pavement I have ever been on. Waterfalls where on my left, a raging river on the right, and the smell of woodsmoke was in the air. Leaves piled on the road in many different colors just waiting for me to drive over them and kick them in the air. The road was windy and long. As I said before I would recommend it to anyone. Below is a map and images from my trip. Enjoy:

From Flickr

I recently made a bold statement on twitter that may cost me my dignity in the near future. I said that if I got 500 people to retweet the following tweet I would panhandle holding this sign with all money going to GSO Urban Ministries. The 500 rt’s have to be made by midnight Sept the 19th. So if your interested copy and paste the following into twitter:

RT @davidbates: the deal: rt this and I will hold http://tinyurl.com/nv7h3u for charity donations to http://bit.ly/21Ysqj must get 500 rt’s

Below is an easy way to track the number of retweets so far. Please copy and past above text instead of using retweet buttons below. Thanks

Thank you
David Bates