Quantum Work Patterns

Quantum physics talks about the phenomenon of sub atomic particles existing in more than one state simultaneously. In my life, quantum working means having to do more than one thing at the same time or is it more a case of juggling when you start a task, toss it in the air and take on another for a split second while hoping not to drop any of the others?

Anyway, I have spent the last week building a school reporting system in Access. Building the system was easy. It feels like this task has eclipsed everything most recently. The difficulty lay in piecing together all the data for the different groups and classlists but at least it is now done, although now I have to actually submit my own report grades and keep up with planning and marking that has been piling up. I normally try and clear my work in the week so I can spend time with Jenny on the weekend, but that is not possible this weekend especially as our school has an inspection in 10 days time.

Meanwhile, there is a school trip to Hong Kong to organise. This is hardly a technology project, although there have been a volley of E-mails between the holiday company, parents and colleagues.

I am planning on recording Catshanghai Netcast 2 this weekend. I have an interview with Jenny about her ideas on fashion and I just bought a Logitech USB mic that I want to try out, maybe even review. I'm looking out for some new exciting music to enthuse about, but failing that I should have some source material from the Fuxing Park jazz festival and a Jimi Tenor night at Fabrique. Plus, I have some new DVDs to get through. If only I could exist in more than one state at the same time!

Autumn has just started properly. The sky has just burst and I reckon it will be another 5 months before the temperature goes above 27C.

Information Overload

Shanghai is going through a bit of a tiger at the moment. Everyday is hot, sunny and 27 Celsius.

Yesterday, we went to the Shanghai Sculpture Space on 50 Huai Hai Xi Lu near Hongqiao as part of the Biennale and most of it was much better than the art on display by the proper artists at Shanghai Art Museum.

Meanwhile, I am gathering articles about information overload to explore how technology can degrade the quality of work by making it difficult for us to concentrate given that we are bombarded with E-mail, IM chats, SMS, phonecalls and the temptation to go off on endless time wasting tangents.

I have also been having fun with one of these tangents called mojopac (www.mojopac.com), which allows you to make your own portable virtual xp desktop that you can carry around on your portable drives. It is basically like portable apps, but with more choice. I am going to try it on a few different workstations and see if it is good enough to buy.

I have also been thinking about ways of improving the sound for my podcast. Last week I solved the hosting problem by going with libsyn and found the beta version of blogger really improves the layout. I might go to Metro City in Xuijiahui to buy a decent mic, such as a Seinheisser or Shure SM 58. I don't want to spend more than 600 RMB. I am currently using the TuneTalk stero mic, which I reviewed on Netcast 1. It's OK, but I;ve got the bug to make the sound almost professional. In future months, I want to upgrade by adding a mixer to record interviews and maybe even some decent noise cancelling headphones.

The other challenge is to use liquid layers in CSS to improve Jenny's webpage by making it dynamically upscale with different resolution monitors. I confess to still using table base design and I plan to fix that as soon as possible. One day, I'll get time to read non geeky books again.

Videos to show Teleworking

Here are a couple of Youtube videos I found that are a good introduction for my ITGS students researching the pros and cons to teleworking.


1. Siemens UMTS Promo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJod4NcaufY

2. Marratech Teleworking NBC Story - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJod4NcaufY -accessed on Friday October 13th