Just a quickie, this has probably been used many times before, probably with other terms, but meaning the same. It amused us in the office, so maybe it will you.
‘Google Time’ is the period between a question being asked and the answer being found. You know the sound already, the moment after the inaudible question mark is applied. A short mental hum, quickly followed by the clicking of keys, then a pause… and with luck, Google Time ends.
When you can’t think of it.
The comma may not be grammatically correct but the intention is to separate the word ‘dangerous’ from the the word ‘dog’. The classic statement that ‘guns don’t kill people, people do’ is apt here. In London the latest ‘Homo Hoodie Erectus’ badge of honour is a dog with a reputation. Specifically one that resemble a Pit Bull Terrier, the American Bulldog, American Pit Bull, Dogo Argentino or Staffordshire Bull Terrier. So long as it looks mean and stout, best viewed pulling at a chain or fancy leather leash.
People fear these dogs through reputation, however the vicious fighting instinct is not pre-programmed into these dogs from birth. It takes the lack of discipline and training from a suitably irresponsible owner. The type of owner that wants to promote the lethal reputation in the vain hope it rubs off on them. Here we find the ‘Homo Hoodie Erectus’ of South East London. One lucky HHE finds himself in charge of an American BullDog cross, a dual loop of leather with swivel for quick release. Suddenly he has a rep that has his HHE peers by his side. The West side Massive now cross the street when they see him leaning back into a stroll with ‘throat’, the chestnut legged shark. Grannies hearts race and pin-stripes sweat into their Pinks. The basketball courts now have a new activity, two dogs in and close the gate, it’s not pretty but it resolves which tribe currently rules.
Most cities have signs of this growing trend at some level or another, but some parts of London have gone into a Pit Bull frenzy, every estate has a group or two of HHE’s huddled round pooch that has been carefully encouraged to bite hard on the shredded heavy rope and not leg go. Swung from it’s jaws it clings, the rope thrown from youth to youth until the slabbering shotgun decides to up the stakes and snaps at one of the group. The group scatters and chucks the rope heading for a fence. I’ve witnessed many of these, some where the dog gets to draw some blood and other times it’s left confused why the game stopped and where did everyone go. It’s Russian-roulette for any passing innocent.
Recently three of these HHE dog led groups were passing each other and the inital reaction of the groups were to shake the leash, rattle the cage and fire up their Minotaur to phase the other. All three dogs responded just as they thought their owners wanted, barks, gnashing teeth and leashed gurgled growls ensued. The look of pride on the teenagers faces soon turned as the dogs wound each other up and closed in, then they met. Minatours met and morphed into Tasmanian Devils, leashes were pulled from the children’s hands and the grown ups went to work on each other. The situation quickly went bad and one dog was floored and the other two joined forces, one at each end, fighting over the screaming prize. Watching the groups of kids uselessly kicking and whipping the dogs in a vain hope to separate the animals it quickly became clear that there was too many innocents watching and it could quickly become a whole different issue. The police were called but were too busy to attend. The RSPCA took a report, but it was only the Dog Warden that suggested they would take action and look into it.
These kids are playing games with the wrong type of gold chain, irresponsible parents and pets no being given a fair chance. More dogs, more attitude, the percentage of a serious event grows, it’s not if, but when and really how many. My local HHE dog tow group practice their dog handling skills a few yards from a open junior playground. A 3 year old agression trained American Bull Dog, hyped to red mist level coming face to face with a 3 year old girl at the bottom of a slide. It’s not a matter of if…
Bring back dog licenses, Police that actually stop dog walkers to request the license and huge fines for those that are too cool to respect others. Above all we have to detract attention from the dogs as this is a misfire and only attracts the wrong people to the particular breeds. The dogs are only doing what they have been taught to do, they are obeying instruction. If the same penalties were enforced for humans, the HHE population and their owners, would dwindle.
FYI: BBC News Report on Dangerous Dogs – DEFRA Dangerous Dogs Act Info –
Running a small business is like treading water, you’re constantly attempting to get your head well above water and further from drowning, without over exerting yourself, or getting fatigued by just focusing on the water line.
The ability to expand is based on the ability to make a profit, making a profit is done by creating revenue above your hourly/daily/weekly break even point.
If the business is product driven, it’s simply selling enough boxes a day to reach that point. If the business is client based and revenue is from charging these clients, then it’s about having enough clients paying you the right amount of roubles to clear that break even point. For those working in the latter, time is money and time needs to be charged.
Forecasting to a client, estimates on predictive costs and then meeting those accurately is only really possible through practical experience of previous comparable projects. However if this project information is kept in the grey matter, it’s only good for estimating, post project evaluation for future development is made harder and even the best memory is only semi-accurate in a busy office.
So the rational says, keep records of your time.
After searching and trialling for the right product and not finding the specific business processes or adding the value a dynamic company that builds software, would hope for, we decided to right our own. After spending time building components add creating a structure to host these, we started to find many different ways to skin the cat.
While in build we found a very interesting product, Klok. Built using the same tools we were using (Flash and Air), it showed yet another way to log time for client projects. Klok deals with the logging of time specifically, just one of the components we were looking for but even this showed we hadn’t thought of other approaches.
We decided to test run Klok, if only to give more perspective to our own toolset. The results were impressive, it’s a great tool that works well and is very intuitive. If you’re not building your own or just want a time logging tool for projects, it’s a great tool and it’s freeware. You can’t argue with that.
Once ours if finished and polished, we shall release ours under similar terms, it’s a great help when useful tools are readily available .
Useful thinking.