Archive for the ‘Fun’ category

Less is More

October 23rd, 2009

I saw a link to this on Flowing Data just now. Jessica Hagy is the illustrator and author and she’s been doing similar wonderful work for over 3 years and won countless awards for it.

I think it is a great reminder to those of us working in BI/DW that sometimes we can overwhelm our audiences with information and that there is a trick to finding the right balance.

card2282

The temptation is to give lots and lots and lots of information and let the audience worry about interpreting and acting on it.  I think I’m guilty of that at times.  We’re working on our Exec Dashboard delivery right now and guidance from visualisation experts like Stephen Few points to the same thing - keeping it simple can actually be quite difficult but makes the consumption so much easier.

No comments »

Posted in Business Intelligence, Fun

Let the Bruising Begin…

March 12th, 2009

Yes, it is indeed that time again.

The FOURTH Annual ITD Conker Challenge is well and truly on.

Friday 20th March 2009 in the ITD Breakout Room, Level 3 C34 @ 2pm.

11

Will reigning champion bheywoo2 dare return to defend his title or will kday3 make sure the ladies take the podium once again?

This year the entry fee has been entirely abolished, there is absolutely no charge and the winner of the contest will take away and retain for an entire year, the Annual ITD Conker Challenge Trophy engraved with their UNE userid.

What do I do?

  • You submit a comment on this page saying you are up for the challenge
  • You are automatically entered into the draw and will receive an email with further details
  • You will be provided with FREE conker and string on the day

RULES

1. All Conkers and Strings are supplied. Strings must not be knotted further or tampered with
2. The game will commence with the toss of a coin, the winner may elect to strike or receive
3. A distance of no less than 8″ or 20cm of string must be between knuckle and nut
4. Each player takes three alternate strikes at the opponent’s conker
5. Each attempted strike must be clearly aimed at the nut, no deliberate miss hits
6. The game will be decided once one of the conkers is smashed
7. A small piece of nut or skin remaining shall be judged out, it must be enough to mount an attack
8. If both nuts smash at the same time the match shall be replayed
9. Any nut being knocked from the string but not smashed may be re-threaded
10. A player causing a knotting of the strings (a snag) will be noted, three snags and you’re out
11. Players not present within 2 minutes of each round starting will forfeit their gam
12. Rob is able to change rules at his absolute discretion and at any stage
13. UNE, ITD and Rob are not responsible for any injuries sustained
14. Where any dispute arises, refer to rule 12

20 comments »

Posted in Fun

Pie Humour

February 27th, 2009

Presumably in response to Why Pies are unAustralian, my good friend Patrick sent me the following today. I think no further words are required.

piepic

Thanks Patrick, as always…

Update: 2nd June 2009

This wonderful Dilbert - spotted here and taken from the officiail Dilbert comic strips archive

piebert

No comments »

Posted in Fun, Visualisation

Playing at Working

December 10th, 2008

Tim Brown is the CEO of the “innovation and design” firm Ideo and he has a very interesting presentation on the powerful link between creativity and play that is worth a view.

I know I’m going off the formal BI track here but as I said the other day, BI is about creativity and some of the things Tim entertains us with in his presentation hit home - like fearing the judgement of our peers and letting adult behaviour get in the way of ideas.

So here’s one little way of breaking the ice in meetings and encouraging people to shed a few inhibitions and maybe even suggest some crazy ideas.

More than ice breaking

With a little help I discovered purely by accident about a year ago that laptop lids have a fantastic matte ’sketchpad surface’ presumably designed with crayons in mind. Dell’s Latitude D820 isn’t bad but you can’t beat a MacBook Pro - even white works…

I’ve proudly carried a variety of designs about with me over the last year (box jellyfish, Lightning McQueen and my recent favourite ‘Giraffe Eating Pear’). They never fail to get a comment. Opening up the laptop lid atop a conference podium or round a boardroom table gets people smiling and that gets people talking and that as we all know, is half the battle.

If you’re interested in this stuff then you might also want to check out:

No comments »

Posted in Design, Fun