George S. Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon This book is not really a single book but a collection of short pamphlets that Mr. Clason, a businessman in the early 1900’s, wrote on the topic of financial success. Using parables set in ancient Babylonia, the pamphlets provide, generally, seven keys for becoming wealthy. Although I quickly acknowledge that repetition of concepts aids in internalizing those ideas, I don’t usually care for books that include a lot of repetitive materialBecause the book is a collection of pamphlets, the same seven concepts, with the occasional additional idea thrown in, are repeated multiple times throughout the book using different characters and settings to convey the seven principles. Knowing that the book is a compilation makes the repetition a bit more palatable. ...

My Technology A common discussion in any of the technology forums is which platform is better. Some argue that Windows is best, others that Mac is and others, still, argue that Linux beats them all. What is my take? Well… it depends. ###I am Operating System Agnostic Truly, I am. I have all three operating systems in use in my home as I write this. I started my technology back in 1984 or 1985 with a Commodore 128. It didn’t take long at all to capture my imagination and soon I was doing some Basic programming, playing games, writing papers, etc all on that little computer. I’m not sure my wife was all that impressed. But, boy, I sure was! ...

Returning to Basics The title of this blog is iamcuri.us. That title was chosen to reflect the many and sundry interests that I have and the drive I have to explore new ideas and to learn new things. While I think some of my posts here have reflected that, others seems to skew in specific directions that seem to narrow the focus on the blog. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the posts that outline my tinkering in websites and self-hosting do reflect my questioning and exploring and learning. Still, I think that it’s time I pushed into some new areas and revisit in more detail some old areas, too. ...

My 2020 Reading List I set as a goal in 2020 the ambitious aim to complete 50 books over 52 weeks. I didn’t quite get there, but I did manage to complete 26. In addition, I read parts of four others and read probably a 100 or more journal and long-form magazine articles from a variety of sources. The four that I did not complete simply failed to sustain my interest. In general, I try to muddle through a book out of respect to the author’s efforts. But, I have come to realize that sometimes the best use of my time is not to spend time on an endeavor that I found not interesting or relevant to my interests. A couple of others, chiefly on electronics, I’m still working on, as they are detailed, and time-consuming. ...

Tips for Working from Home In response to the coronavirus, many employers have shifted as many workers as possible to teleworking. That is, working from home. This can be a real challenge if you’ve not had experience with working from home. I’ve worked from home for the last seven years, so I think I have some pretty reasonable suggestions to help you be successful while working from home and to help you ensure you have an appopriate balance between work and not-work. ...

Doing the Same Thing And … You’ve heard the saying “the definition insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” And I think you’ll agree that this ‘definition’ is commonly true. But, what about those times when you do the same thing each and every time and get a different result? That, my friends, is the definition of randomness. And, it’s far more common than you think. ...

The Evolution of an Academic Had someone told me on the day of my high school graduation in 1977 that I would one day be an academic, in possession of a doctoral degree and teaching at the university level, I’d have warned them that whatever they were smoking was muddling their brain. Yet, here I am, forty years later, in possession of not one, but two master’s degrees, and a doctorate, teaching at a university. How did that happen? ...

The ONE THING I love to read and love to learn, so it is no suprise that one of my favorite pastimes is to wander through bookstores. I love perusing the titles, skimming a few pages of those that interest me and maybe marking a few to add to my reading list. It’s a habit I developed probably thirty years ago. One of the subject areas I generally skim is the business management section. Learning about management styles and techniques is interesting and informative. Last fall, however, as I was skimming titles, I had an epihany. As I skimmed the titles I became aware of just how many titles purported to embue the reader with “the one thing” that they could do to be the best leader, the best manager, to build the most successful company, and … well, you get the idea. As I looked further, I found books of similar types in other subject areas. It seems that everyone one is looking for the ONE THING that gives them an advantagse. The problem was that in skimming the books it quickly became apparent that the “one thing” differed from book to book. ...

What’s Wrong with Asking for a “Highly Satisified” Rating? Virtually all businesses today are concerned about how the public perceives them. They recognize – and rightfully so, in my opinion – that customers who have a positive experience, who receive great service, or receive quality, tasty foods are more likely to be repeat customers. They also know that customers who have a poor experience are just as unlikely to return. Thus, measuring the customer experience by asking the customer to complete a survey of their experience is an important means for getting information on how well the company is doing in meeting the customers’ needs and expectations. I’m not sure all managers understand the value of the survey and the need for accurate feedback. ...

Updates to Technology Projects I’ve had several technology projects running for a while now and thought it was time for an update. Nextcloud, OnlyOffice, and the Like Back in February I set up a Nextcloud server and incorporated OnlyOffice. The concepts are pretty cool, but I have abandoned both of those projects. In all honesty, having completed my dissertation, I write so little that requires a word processor that I’ve not yet found a need for OnlyOffice. And when I do need such services, I have LibreOffice available on all of my computers. MS Office is on its way out since I no longer need to power of a word processor for my writing and my licenses are beginning to expire. (I still have a couple of licenses that will be expiring soon.) ...