More Horn Tooting

Not that long ago,I mentioned that Citigroup’s NAIT was interested in the recognition program I wrote for The Student Loan Corporation.

Well,this past Friday,I presented a portion of the program to a representative of that project team and he was impressed. He’ll be presenting his findings to the team this week so we’ll have to see where it goes from there.

To see my little web app go from the several hundred employee Student Loan Corporation to adoption by Citigroup,the world’s largest financial institution,might blow my mind.

On a side note,the shirts I designed for the 2006 Corporate Challenge were apparently a big hit although I was a little disappointed. To reduce the printing costs and because of possibly foul weather,they decided to print in a single color on not white. I guess I can’t blame them for being frugal but I was not a big fan of the turquoise color that was chosen. Ugh.

CSS Floats and Absolute Positioning

Just yesterday I made what I thought was a simple change to a layout. It had a horizontal navigation at the top (an floated list) and two floating content areas below it taking up approximately half the screen each.

For some reason,when I removed a menu item from the end of the navigation,all hell broke loose in Firefox. The left-hand float moved right and the right-hand float bumped down under it. Amazingly the design still rendered as desired in Internet Explorer so I didn’t put a whole lot of detective work into it. The site would only be accessibly on our corporate network where Firefox is almost a four letter word. But it did bother me that removing that one item (which should have no effect on the floats) broke everything so badly. Alas,I still had bigger fish to fry and other problems to focus on so that was going on the back burner.

It’s funny how solutions sometimes present themselves in unlikely places just when you need them. I had cut out reading my regular blogs some time ago to focus on other things but I had a few minutes so I decided to check some out. I’m glad I did since the latest post from Shaun Inman discusses the fragile nature of floats and his solution.

I think I may have found the solution I’m looking for. Check it out,it’s definitely worth a read.

Mother Nature’s Role

While writing this recognition application for The Student Loan Corporation,overlapping roles has been a constant thorn in my side.

Application administrators and managers have access to certain functions,such as the ability to approve nominations of different levels,that general users do not.

Managers were relatively easy to handle. Creating an employee table that correlated managers and their direct reports allowed me to move nominations for specific employees to the appropriate manager’s queue.

Adminstrators are a whole different beast however. Not only do admins need to be able to function as normal users and administrators,they can also be people managers. As far as approvals were concerned,it was tricky (but doable) to figure out when a nomination needed to be approved by a specific employee acting as an administrator and when that specific employee needed to function as a people manager. Their role in these instances affected whether or not the nomination moved on and to where.

I solved this problem by creating different statuses to indicate where each nomination was in the approval process. Based on that information,I was able to determine where it should go next. That problem has been behind me for a little while now and it’s been smooth sailing until recently.

Roles are starting to get muddled again now that I’m working on the redemption portion of the application. The idea is that an employee’s accumulated recognition points can be redeemed for prizes. These prizes reside in an inventory maintained by the administrator.

This is where it gets slightly complicated. Because quite a few of the prizes are company branded and the program sponsor is Human Resources,these items are also used for other purposes such as charity give-aways or gifts for visiting executives. The admin now needs to be able to remove items from inventory from time to time for these purposes. Since the recognition program depends upon an accurate count of the items available for redemption,these withdrawals really need to take place through the system. The rub for me was how to determine when the administrator is removing these items as an adminstrator for the purposes just discussed and when they are legitimately redeeming credits accumulated as a normal user. In one instance,this action would mean reducing their accumulated credits for the redeemed prizes while in the other,it would not.

The idea that I’d need to figure this out eventually has been floating around in the back of my mind nagging me. I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to invest the brain power I thought would be necessary to figure it out. Little did I know how short an amount of time it would actually take.

SLC is rapidly outgrowing the available space in their current location so people are tight. I’ve had a tough time concentrating lately with anywhere from 6 to 8 people within three feet of me all having their own conversations and working. Maybe I just have superhuman hearing but there’s this constant chatter than once I pick up on,I can’t drown out,even with headphones.

Anyway,I’m getting down to the wire on this project and this functionality is one of the few remaining pieces so I decided it was time to just knock it out.

Yesterday at lunch I headed over to a trail nearby with the idea that I would get some fresh air (and quiet),focus exclusively on this problem,and come back to work with a solution. I’m proud to report that less than two minutes from the trailhead,I had everything worked out. About an hour after returning to work,the solution was implemented.

I guess the next time I’m strugging with something,instead of putting it off,I’ll just take a walk.

(Some) Big News

I’ve threatened to reveal big news here many times in the past and lately has been no exception. So here is some of the latest…

1. I’m working on three new web sites for clients. The URLs will be revealed here when they’re complete but I’m pretty excited about them.

2. The biggest news however is that the employee recognition program I’ve been writing for The Student Loan Corporation will be reviewed by North American Information Technology for possible use within all of Citigroup. NAIT has really gotten serious about standardizing technology across Citigroup’s multiple businesses.

   One of the ways they’d do this is by rolling out certain applications to the entire business. Since my recognition application already meets a lot of their requirments and is well liked by The Student Loan Corporation employees,I’ve been told it will be considered. It’s really going to be pushed up since it’s great visibility for the technology department at SLC but also great visibility for me. I never imagined I’ve been writing an application for the world’s largest financial institution. It would be nice if it works out that way. Stay tuned…

DropSend

Speaking of real products from real companies…I’ve been using DropSend a lot lately.

DropSend is a nifty web app from Carson Systems that solves the problem of transferring files too large for email from one computer or person to another. Want to transfer some files from work to home or vice versa but don’t have a thumb drive handy? DropSend. Want to get a comp to a client but the file size would blow out their email server? DropSend.

DropSend lets you upload files to their server either for storage or for sending to another person. Pricing for this service varies depending on a couple factors including frequency of use or desired storage size. Up to 5 sends/month and 250MB of storage is free. FREE!

They also offer business plans up to 250GB of storage,unlimited sends,100 or more users,and file encryption. The business plan is also brandable so a hosting or other technology services company can offer it to their clients as a value-add.

Holy Sh!t

This is a real web site for a real product from a real company. Talk about balls…literally.

Feng Shui

Ok,so it’s been a very,very long time since I’ve written here. As usual,there is lots of stuff going on. It’s all subjects for other posts however.

I attended a seminar today on Feng Shui in the workplace. May is Asian American History Month (I think) so the company sponsored this seminar at lunch. I had some free time and I’m sometimes interested in stuff like this so I dropped in.

The seminar was taught by a local Feng Shui Master named Louisa Ong-Lee who put on a very captivating presentation. She trained under a well known Feng Shui Master in Singapore for many years and now she consults here as well as speaks and writes on topics related to Feng Shui.

For those of you that aren’t familiar,Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of position and placement of objects to create positive energy. For those of you that are familiar,I apologize,those are my own words to describe it. The idea is that placing certain objects in certain locations can result in a more harmonious environment which in turn can attract health,wealth,happiness,etc. The brochure says that although this is an art,a lot of it is based on mathematical and scientific calculations. I don’t know if it is or is not,we only had an hour so we focused more on the whats than the whys.

The idea that simply placing certain objects in certain locations facing in certain directions can bring health,wealth,and happiness would certainly be enticing. Afterall,who doesn’t want those things? Unfortunately,I don’t think it’s that simple. It never is.

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness lately. What it really is,meaning,how does it feel to be happy? Where it comes from,meaning,does it come from having things,from other people,from personal achievement,etc. This is pretty on topic because by practicing Feng Shui you can supposedly attract positive energy and repel negative energy. If that’s true and your life becomes filled with positive energy,then it stands to reason that all other aspects of your life will improve.

Your new positive energy will probably result in a better mood,which you will probably bring to your workplace,which will probably be noticed by your boss,which will probably enhance your career,which will probably enhance your bottom line,which will probably reduce any possible financial stressed in your life,which will put you in a better mood…

I guess my question,and the ultimate point of this article is if the expectation that placing certain objects in certain locations will bring positive energy to your life and mood,is it necessary to actually do it? Just like the recipients of a placebo often times report their symptoms relieved,could simply making a conscious decision to practice Feng Shui and the expectation of the results be enough to bring about those results without actually doing anything more? Maybe the decision by that person to learn and practice Feng Shui is more important than the actual act of placing the objects. Maybe that’s the commitment necessary to make positive changes.

As an example of what I mean,a recent combination of busy-ness and laziness has kept me from getting as much exercise as I need and like. I know I feel better and less stressed when I’m getting that exercise so I decided to make a conscious decision to make time for it. Even though I’ve only found time to run once since making the decision (give me a break,I said it was a recent decision),I’ve actually felt better since making the decision.

Don’t get me wrong,I’m not knocking Feng Shui. People can use all the help they can get when it comes to health,wealth,and happiness. I just think it can’t be as easy as having an aquarium in a certain corner of your house. A martial-artist friend of mine used to have a t-shirt that said something like Discipline…if it came in a can,everyone would have it. Or something like that. What the attribute is really isn’t important. The point is,if it’s worth having,you need to work for it. So whether you practice Feng Shui or not,make a conscious decision to put yourself in surroundings that lift you up and improve your mood. You’ll be glad you did.

I apologize for the off-topic posts lately. I’ll be making two or three major announcements before the month is over that will bring the focus of this site back to technology.

The Happiest Celebration on Earth

I just got back from a week in Orlando visiting some of Disney’s different theme parks. My parents tell me that when I was much younger,we went almost every year just before school started. I only have vague recollections of some of it and of course the Wonder Years-style home movies of the experience.

The various parks are all adjacent to one another and inter-connected either by parkings lots,tram,the monorail,or ferries. Even though each park is massive,there are still only three or four ways into the complex and then visitors are sent in different directions to each park. I don’t remember the exact wording but above each entrance is a sign that says something to the effect of “Welcome to Disney World” and under that,“The Happiest Celebration on Earth”

Like I said earlier,I have only vague memories of Disney but wasn’t it always referred to as “The Happiest Place on Earth”? Maybe I made that up but that’s the way I remember it.

The happiest celebration is certainly more fitting since it can reasonably be assumed that anyone celebrating is happy. Maybe they secretly and quietly changed it from the happiest place because some of the people that I saw weren’t all that happy.

They weren’t happy about trudging around in the hot hot sun for 12 hours on a death march to see everything or waiting in line for 40 minutes to ride a 3 minute ride. They weren’t happy to pay $2.50 for a bag of Doritos that would cost 99¢ anywhere else. It should be noted that while I experienced all of those things,I’m not complaining about them. I fully realize that that is the cost of vacationing. I’m merely reporting what I observed. Parents upset with their children,children upset with their parents,couples frustrated with each other. Everyone with their own idea of what vacation means.

Anyhow,this is all just a convenient segue for me to explore the idea of happiness in future posts. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Different people have different ideas of what happiness is and sometimes it’s not even what they think.

Corporate Challenge

Here it is,The Student Loan Corporation/Citigroup/Smith Barney shirt for the 2006 JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge:

Congratulations!

I got a call yesterday from a good friend and former coworker of mine.

A year or so ago he sat next to the CIO of well known company on a flight back here from the West Coast. They talked,he impressed this gentleman,and they stayed in touch.

He called to tell me that he was offered one of their coveted project management internship positions this summer (he has one semester left). He also wanted to thank me for my support all these years and the opportunities he had while working for me to get the experience necessary to get this internship.

Clark,I wish I could take credit for your success but that’s all you. I just let you do what you’re good at. You’re one of the most motivated,hardest working people I know and I’d work with you on any project,any time.

Congratulations,you deserve it.