The Chief

The Chief was the name we used when refering to our GrandFather: John Hiczwa.

He came from Poland or Serbia with his wife: Sophie and they started their new life in the United States in the early 1920’s. You can read more about them in my book: “A Cowboy’s Reflections” on Amazon but this is my current INTRO video for the Training Segments I am producing for my, hopefully, ever-growing audience.

I hope that you will send me a note, reply to this posting, and/or subscribe to my blog so that we can talk, listen, learn, discuss for a long, long time.

…

When do Enterprenuers become Entreprenuers?

Enjoy, bgbg

Insert Header – Footer Google Doc

Attached is an early attempt at building brief technical training segments that I am planning on offering from this web site for my clients.

At first, I was thinking of naming this offering “Five Dollar Bill” and posting these videos on You Tube but that didn’t work for various reasons. Then, I tried calling these offerings “Technically.Retired” and “TECHnical.e.retired” but those names didn’t work either. For now, there is no official name for these offerings but I am still starting to produce the training sessions, so here is an early segment for your review.

Please let me know if you think this material, this effort, is worthwhile.

Thanx bgbg – whendoyoustoplooking@gmail.com

Headers and Footers in Google Docs – 2022

PS: Apparently I still have some Video Editing skills to refine before I will consider these any where close to finished video products; however, I also believe that I have made some significant strides in the last few days and week.

bg

Some of us MAY have been CRAZY

Reviewing some old content on a PC I have, I found this as PROOF that I was crazy.

I might still be crazy but in different ways now. Enjoy:

I hope wordpress allows you to view this short video of me being younger, dumber, crazier!

Project Management Handbook Introduction

I have been in Information Technology (IT) since before it was called IT!

At the beginning of my technology-based career, our groups or departments were typically referred to as “Electronic Data Processing” using “Electronic Accounting Machines” and the media for the data that was processed in the accounting machines was punched cards that were either 51 or 80 columns wide. Some of the more advanced machines also used paper tape as the data media – it was so much faster than those card readers; however, like the punched cards, if the punched paper tape was ever torn or bent too much, it became un-readable.

Since that early start for my career, many things have changed, and hopefully these changes remain improvements:

  • Data media has evolved to hard surfaced disks residing in a Storage Area Network (SAN) or stored in a “Cloud” for wireless access. And we now have viable Solid State Data Storage so that there will no longer be moving parts for these data storage devices.
  • Computers have increased dramatically in speed, memory, and capabilities
    • Speeds that were measured in 1 to 4 MHz to Chip Sets that are now measured in multiple MegaFlops (millions of Floating-Point Mathematical Operations) or faster
    • Memory sizes measured in fractions of “K” (1024 bytes or characters) to Terabytes (10,000 x 1 Mega Byte or 1,024,000 bytes)
    • Capabilities in computers have changed from one Stand Alone device that had to produce output either electronically for use again at another Stand-Alone device or hard copy for manual review and re-use; to the ability to network with thousands of other computers and post results to SAN or CLOUD storage resources that no longer need a wired connection to receive the data
    • Wireless devices that have continuous access to the Internet and CLOUD or SAN based data that can be retrieved and processed wherever there is an adequate wireless signal from the device to the Internet to download data
  • What might be next could be CLOUD based processing capability with access to secured data that also resides in the CLOUD so that the wireless device is less limited to only software and data that can be downloaded and run on these devices

My question for those of you who choose to read this material is: “How do you manage the creation of operational business capabilities with an evolving automation capability in time for being ‘first to market’ whenever possible?”

My answer is in the effective and persistent application of the best-known Project Management and Software Engineering techniques and skills available at all times.

So, this Project Management Handbook will include techniques and suggestions that help to define the scope of each project and maintain the planned efforts within that scope from Initiation to Deployment and Operational Support. It will also help to identify the work tasks, their sequences, and inter-dependencies so that the resources required at any point in time through the execution of a project’s plan are predictable in advance and that measuring the results from these plans can be quantified. These Project Management techniques will identify work that needs to be performed to review burgeoning project deliverables (from the SDLC) to their final state so that the team can repeatedly confirm that the content of these deliverables is within the Scope and are an evolution from their preceding deliverables that can successfully move the planned work of the project forward.

The Project Management Handbook provides Predictability, Labor and Cost Management, Quality of all planned Deliverables, and a Foundation for controlling Scope, Issues, Risks, and Change requests during the execution of any individual project or group of projects that are understood to make up an inter-dependent program.

Please let me know what you think about these writings using my email address: Whendoyoustoplooking@gmail.com or bgutches@thepathtoinkc.com . You can also subscribe to future materials as I develop them for my other books at my blogs in WordPress:

And the predecessors to these newer blogs:

Thank you, Bill Gutches

Five Dollar Bill

9 Aug 2022: Found out that “technical.e.retired.wordpress.com” is already owned and been in use since 2006. ‘Gonna have to look for another title!

25 May 2022: “Five Dollar Bill” is now being called “TECHNically Retired” and the contents are being posted on You Tube under this channel name. Check it out.

What can you get for $5 these days?

A gallon of gas – at some places. A pack of cigarettes – nope. How about a pair of socks – maybe. One good cigar – possibly.

How about some technical user training on products that act like / are similar to Microsoft’s Office software: WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT, OUTLOOK, ACCESS? Things like: Google Apps, LibreOffice and a few other “Open-Source” products that simulate and/or behave like MS Office products.

Some of the topics I can deliver in Five Dollar Bill increments are already available in old version Podcasts and I am about to upgrade them to a new delivery format (ZOOM pre-recorded video segments). The topics I am thinking about include the following:

  • EXCEL
    • Pivot Tables
    • Lookup functions: H, V, X
    • Data Validation
    • Conditional Formatting
    • Sorting
    • Filtering
    • etc.
  • WORD
    • Table Set up / Formatting
    • Inserting Drawings and PowerPoint Slides
    • Header / Footer Setup
    • Letterhead Formatting
    • Mail Merge
    • Envelopes and Labels
    • Style setup and Usage
    • Track / Accept Changes
    • Table of Contents
    • Index Tables
  • POWERPOINT
    • Master Slide Formatting
    • Notes Pages
    • Animation(s)
    • Recording Presentations
    • Designs and Page Sizing
    • Inserting Pictures, Shapes, Icons

My plan is to add OUTLOOK and ACCESS to this list but I will be focusing first on these three software products and using equivalents from LibreOffice and / or Google depending on where I find the features most similar to a recent version of MicroSoft Office (locally installed or Office 360).

My questions to you readers are these:

  • Which of these feature topics should I produce for you?
  • Which of the topics listed above are you NOT interested in?
  • What other topics would you like me to prepare for you?

At $n.nn (Price yet to be decided, especially now that I have changed the offering name from “Five Dollar Bill” to TECHnically Retired) each to download to your PC (would you be willing to pay that amount for any of these topics?), it appears to me that this could be a very valuable resource for most people who are interested in using these products but believe they could use more training in their use.

What do you think?

Damn the Republicans, Full Speed Ahead

The current roster of elected Republicans have lost their moorings. Lost their connections to those who elected them, those who trusted them, those who still hope that they will adhere to the history of the Republican party, its programs, its philosophies, and its published platform.

However, the current elected Republicans are NOT adhering to their published beliefs. They have become outliers and outlaws making decisions from their positions of power to take care of themselves first, last, and foremost.

If only Democrats could be as ruthless. But they have not shown any tendency to be that focused and so I can only hope that some of the remaining TRUE Republicans will switch to the RetroPublican party and begin, anew, where the real Republicans left off so many years ago.

Please Bring Back The Truth of the Republican Party! Don’t wait until another election passes us by where we make meager gains – if any.

Comprehensive Data Solutions for Businesses

Since April 2022, I have been providing these services:

  • Building Spreadsheet / Powerpoint Dashboards for company performance
    • Sales Proposals to Win and Deliver
    • Expense Tracking by Business Function
  • Processing Client Requests through stages for:
    • Tech equipment Requests
    • Shopping / Pricing Items
    • Invoicing per Client Requests
    • Ordering items and Shippingf
    • Delivery / Set up (optional)
    • Coordinating Client Acceptance / Service Requests / Invoice Payment
  • FORMS Apps to collect detailed data per event: upload to xlsx “Data Base”
    • Warehouse Sales Appointments and Marketing Info Capture
    • College Classroom Inventory Capture (pics, dimensions, condition, …)
  • Receive Annual (3 years running) list of Job Searching employees from Economic Development Council:
    • The EDC Pays me
    • I help refine individual job search plans, web presence (SEO), resumes, profiles, interview prep
  • Wrote and Published – Royalties trickling in / Needs a Marketing Plan:
    • “IT’s Lost Art of Software Engineering”
    • “A Cowboy’s Reflections”
  • Writing materials for at least two more books
    • The Agilist Series
    • A Managed Project’s Story
    • How to be a Methodology Manager: A Process Management Office (PMO)
  • Creating Podcasts on several of my wordpress blogs
    • Accounts on VOQUENT and VOICES 
    • trying to get Voice Acting work
  • Contributing to blogs (looking to build enough of a following to sell Ad Space on the “wordpress.com” sites):
  • Offering “The Path To Inkc” and other services on:

Recognize and Recommend

I had a thought (yes, another one!) today and decided it would be a good idea to record it for my Podcast list.

Please let me know what you think about this one:

Thank you, bgbg

Do You Have any Questions?

Many times at the end of an interview, the interviewer will ask the candidate if they have any questions.

This is the time that you should be very prepared for with your list of questions.

It is certainly appropriate to ask about recent news that you have found in your research as long as it doesn’t lead to any type of embarrassing position for the interviewer or the company you are interviewing for.

And, it is also a good idea to ask about how you can be successful when they decide to hire you. Here are a couple of questions I suggest you consider asking at these types of opportunities:

  • What are the most important things you would like me to do in the first three months if I am hired for this position?
    • It could also be very valuable for you to have an answer to each of these questions from your point of view: i.e.: “At this point, my most important things to do would be: …”
  • Is there anything at all you would like me to clarify for you about my experience?
  • How do you see my skills and experience fitting with the needs of your company?
  • What are the prospects for growth in this position and company?
  • What do you enjoy most about working here?
  • How is performance typically measured and reviewed?
  • When do you expect to be making a hiring decision?
  • May I follow up with you to find out your decision (can I have a business card, please?))

Also remember that when you do get the interviewer’s contact information, it is a very good idea to send a follow up / Thank You note for their time and efforts.