Is Your Blog A Force for Good or Awesome?

By crooky | August 15, 2008

I always encourage people who own their own businesses to blog. It’s a great way to drive traffic to your site and at some level, fulfills that narcissistic drive we have to see our own words in print. There are a few things you can do with your blog to give back. This post talks about them.

1. reCAPTCHA

If you’re an Internet regular, you’ll have seen a CAPTCHA form at some point (see example below). What CAPTCHA does is combat spammers who would use your comments section to try to sell your readers Viagra or anime porn. It forces them to input a highly distorted text to verify that they are a human and not a computer program.

Computer software is not very good at pattern recognition which is why there are programs like Galaxy Zoo that rely on human’s innate ability to recognize patterns. the reCAPTCHA project uses unreadable optical character recognition (OCR) output from archival scanners as CAPTCHA text instead of creating new distorted text.

That way, everyone who has to use a CAPTCHA entry form to post a comment on your blog is actually helping Carnegie Mellon University researchers digitize old books for future generations to enjoy. I’ve recently added this feature to my own blog thanks to a tip from my wonderful Webmaster - Marta Ekert.

If you have CAPTCHA on your site, you should consider using reCAPTCHA.


2. Blog Action Day

My good friends at Envato (formerly Eden.cc) started Blog Action Day last year - a mass blogging event that saw more than 20,000 bloggers post on the same day to raise awareness of evironmental issues.

This years’ project is calling on everyone to post on October 15, 2008 on the topic of “poverty”. I encourage you to join me in discussing poverty on your own blogs this year. Just click the banner above to register your blog for this worthwhile project.

Ps. Cyan and Collis from Envato are going to be in Vancouver on vacation sometime soon. If you’d like to join us for a drink, drop me a line.

3. Give Some Profile to Local NGOs

I do a lot of work with non-profit organizations like the Learning Disabilities Association of BC and the SFU Alumni Association. These worthy causes need all of the publicity that they can get and I recommend you spend some time on your blog talking about the great organizations you work with.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: social issues | 1 Comment »

Friuch Consulting Continues to Evolve

By crooky | August 13, 2008

Over the past five years, Friuch Consulting has grown into a well-respected consultancy in the Metro Vancouver area. With over $130,000 in projects under management this year alone, the success of Friuch Consulting is starting to outstrip my ability to deliver best-in-class work to all of my clients. In order to better manage this success and nurture my project pipeline, I’ve been talking with a number of other local consultants in Vancouver with complementary skills and experience about forming a new consulting firm with multiple partners and a more professional look and feel.

At the same time, I’ve also recently taken on a long-term project with the Asia Pacific Gateway Skills Table where I will be their Project Manager part-time for the next three years. I start in that role on October 1, 2008. I will be writing in more detail soon as I learn what this role entails. It’s a new organization with an ambitious mandate and I’m excited about being a part of it.

In the few days a week I will have left after my role with the Asia Pacific Gateway Skills Table, I intend to focus my time on the following activities:

1. Developing my adult education business (contact me if you’re interested in more details)
2. Work towards the formation of a new medium-sized consulting firm in Vancouver with some key colleagues
3. Work on some projects with friends such as a business book and some interesting web properties
4. Spend time coaching other consultants who are new to the industry on getting established, setting up their infrastructure and networks and hopefully helping them find work

While I have no intention of shutting down Friuch Consulting, its scope and scale may be limited going forward as I take on new adventures, build new companies and follow my passions. If you notice a change in the content of this blog towards advice for consultants, it’s intentional.

Thanks for all of your support over the past five years and I hope you’ll follow me as I grow into new roles and responsibilities.

- Aaron

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Topics: Business of Consulting | 5 Comments »

Market Opportunity: Gen Y Coaching?

By crooky | August 11, 2008

I just came out of a meeting with some colleagues this morning where we had a deep discussion about “what’s wrong with Generation Y”. We’re doing a project right now for the University of British Columbia who wants to develop a new program that targets recent (within 5 years) graduates of environmental engineering/geological engineering type programs. The issue of “the Generation Y” problem came up.

This was an awkward discussion for me to have because my two co-workers are at least 15 years older than me and probably in the early Gen Xer generation/late Baby Boomer generation. As I’ve mentioned in a previous article, I’m 30 years old so any discussion panning “anyone under 30″ makes me very uncomfortable.

Here’s the gist of why my co-workers think Generation Y is “difficult”:

1. They believe that Generation Y has a “self entitlement” problem.
2. They believe that Generation Y needs “too much reassurance” and that they don’t perform well after getting negative feedback.
3. They believe that Generation Y doesn’t know how to do problem solving and are not self-sufficient.

They also told me that HR managers at one of the Big Five accounting firms has been coaching Baby Boomer managers on how to “deal with” Generation Y employees. Their take on the situation?

“This is [the babyboomers] fault. These employees are the same generation as your children. You, as a cohort of parents have turned them into the kind of problem employees you’re complaining about now.”

To me, this isn’t a contructive way to approach this issue. How does saying “it’s your fault” enable managers to work more effectively with this generation if it’s true that they are as difficult to work with as some people imply?

What I see is a market opportunity. It’s possible that people in my age range (early 30s) can act as a bridge between early Gen Xers and late Babyboomers who are complaining about Gen Yers. I’m not in Gen Y but I understand a lot of the cultural reference points, the economic reality that these young people have grown up in.

People my age have also been around the block a few times and understand the operational realities of running a company or government organization. If I was an older manager and I had employees that were acting like overgrown children, I’d be concerned too. However, I don’t believe that the problem is that simple. If it was, you just fire these guys a few times - teach them some hard life lessons. They’ll grow up fast.

I think the problem is a lot more complicated than that. I want to explore this problem in the future. If you see a market opportunity as well, feel free to get in touch with me and we can talk about how this opportunity might turn into a commercial opportunity.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: Business of Consulting, social issues | 1 Comment »

CERN LHC Armageddon Party - Vancouver - September 12

By crooky | August 9, 2008

Update [September 10]: The party is officially full to capacity.

EDIT: PARTY DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO SEPTEMBER 12TH DUE TO A SCHEDULING CONFLICT

It’s official. On September 10, 2008, CERN in Geneva is going to turn on the Large Hadron Collider, potentially destroying the entire world. Granted, it’s only a 5% chance (according to some) but there’s still a chance. I know there’s a lot of interest in the CERN LHC because I get a lot of people reading my CERN posts. That naturally led me to the conclusion that I needed to throw a CERN LHC Armageddon party.

Click here to see who’s coming.

Here’s the drill:

On September 12, 2008 (starting at 6pm) you, me and a bunch of other meddling kids are going to go out and celebrate our impending doom.
FAQ:

1. Why haven’t you picked a venue?

A: Because I don’t know how many people are coming and that makes a big difference on the type of venue I should book.

2. If I RSVP now, will you let me know which venue its going to be held at eventually?

A: Yes. I will e-mail you two weeks before the event and tell you which venue (definitely somewhere in Vancouver) and give you an opportunity to back out.

3. Will there be t-shirts?

A: Yes. I will be providing commemorative t-shirts to mark the end of the world as we know it. Please let me know what size cotton t-shirt you wear when you RSVP.

So, if you’re wondering what kind of party this is going to be… let me give you a taste:

See you there!!! Don’t forget to vote on what we’re going to do during the party below or in the sidebar.

What should we do at the September 12 CERN LHC Armageddon party in Vancouver?

  • Dark Matter Eating Contest (33%, 13 Votes)
  • Drunken Bocce (26%, 10 Votes)
  • Burn down HR Macmillan Space Centre (23%, 9 Votes)
  • Karoke (18%, 7 Votes)

Total Voters: 39

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Topics: Events | 14 Comments »

15 Elevator Pitches from 14 Good Looking People and 1 Ugly One

By crooky | August 6, 2008

As someone with a very diverse consulting practice, I often struggle with how to describe what I do for a living. I usually tell people:

“I help companies and government agencies turn their questions into answers using research such as surveys, focus groups and interviews. After they’ve got their answer, I also help them figure out how to act on their new knowledge.”

That’s my elevator pitch and yes, I’m the ugly one. That’s a pretty generic way to describe what I do and if I catch their attention with the first bit, I usually follow up with some specific examples that relate to their situation. If you’re interesting in knowing what I do at a more complex level, check out my main website.

It has taken me nearly six years to come up with a succinct description of what I do for a living so I can sympathize when people say it’s hard to develop a killer elevator pitch. Today’s post isn’t about my elevator pitch alone – it’s about how people with interesting careers describe what they do. I e-mailed a number of my colleagues this morning, begging for content.

Specifically, I asked them to tell me where they grew up, what they wanted to be when they were a kid, what they do for a living and how they would explain what they do for a living to someone unfamiliar with their industry. Fifteen of these lovely people got back to me within a few hours with their information. I’ve listed each of their elevator pitches below but if you click on their name, it takes you to a new page with more detailed information about them:

Note: I’ve received a few replies that I don’t have time to squeeze into today’s post. If this posting ends up being popular, I’ll do another one with a different group of people in September. If you’re interested in being profiled on my blog with an accompanying mini bio, drop me a line (link).

I’m the project manager for a 50-person game development team working on a cool action/platforming adventure game for kids.



I work with people and companies that have paper everywhere and they can never find anything when they are looking for it. By the time I leave – approx. 80% of the paper is discarded and the remaining 20% is put into a filing system that the individual or company can understand so that things are no longer lost and they don’t waste their time looking for stuff. Companies save a lot of money by hiring me as they actually pay employees to work rather than just shuffle paper.

I figure out what problems people and businesses have, and what kinds of software my clients could build that solves those problems, how they could tell people about their software, and how they could help the people who sell their software sell more of it.

I’m a communications manager for a technology company. I am responsible for our internal newsletter for staff, pitching stories to the media to get press for our company, website content, podcasts (audio recordings of me interviewing experts in our field), case studies with our clients, monthly webinars, award submissions and client communications.

I work with computers to create new and different ways of doing things.

In science and technology I help decision makers to ask the right questions, and help them understand the risks associated with their decisions.

I help manage computer or technology based training programs for adults at UBC. UBC Continuing Studies focuses on professional development and is more career-oriented and hands-on than a more academic degree program.

I work as a management consultant, mainly with government agencies, in the areas of economic development, competitiveness, program evaluation and strategic planning.

I am a marketing consultant that provides insight and direction from research, data and information. For example, I could help companies like Nintendo understand how it can become “cooler” and sell more consoles and games than its competitors. I would find out what people like to play, what they think is“cool”, what other gaming companies are doing and then help Nintendo decide how to become the best gaming system in the market!

I invest other people’s money and deal with inheritance, divorce and other issues. I’m also a real estate investor.

I help companies get money to start and grow by describing the business in a strong business plan.

I help people who invent things to make money from them, by helping them invent a business to sell them. I also help existing high tech businesses to grow faster and make more money.

I help SFU students understand that the academics complement who they are but it is a combination of their academics, personality, experiences and life that determine who they are. I build on the practical experiences because employers are saying that it is great that you have the marks, but what about the experiences.

I help business people gather and analyse information so they can make better decisions.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: Business of Consulting | No Comments »

Is Your Cellphone Giving You Cancer?

By crooky | August 4, 2008

As someone who uses their cellphone for several hours every day, any research that implicates there is a link between cell phone use and brain cancer catches my attention. According to one study, if you are exposed to radiation from cell phones for more than 260 hours in your entire life, you are two to four times more likely to develop brain cancer.

There is a lot of debate about this research out there. The results were found in animal testing and the results haven’t been replicable. However, I think this issue is worth exploring. There are several things you should consider if you believe this study has any merit:

1. SAR

No, not Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). SAR - specific absorption rate. Simply put, SAR is the amount of radiation in watts that one kilo of your bodily tissue absorbs from exposure to radio frequency energy (the signal that your cell phone emits). In Canada, the SAR legal limit for phones is 1.6 W/kg.

The following chart shows some popular phones and their SAR values but if you want to check other phones, see CNET’s cell phone radiation chart.

If you’re worried about SAR, don’t go with the big SAR emitters. Turns out the Motorola Razr is a good bet.

2. Distance from Body

One of the key recommendations for reducing your exposure to SAR is to keep the phone away from your body while using it. Bluetooth headsets might seem like the ideal solution but turns out they emit SAR as well (much lower amounts but still…). A good, old-fashioned wired headset is the way to go.

May I suggest this beauty:

Keeping it in your pcoket or jacket while using a headset isn’t going to help either because you’ll just cook your leg or heart. Some experts suggest keeping it 8″ - 12″ away while in use.

You’re going to look nuts while doing this so you might as well embrace it.

3. Signal Strength

It turns out that the fewer bars you get on your phone, the more radiation your phone emits as it tries to compensate for the weak signal. Ever notice that your phone gets hot when you try to talk with one bar? It’s not just you - your phone is literally emitting more radiation. That’s the heat.

When using your phone in weak signal areas, try not to use it for as long as you do when you’ve got a good signal.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: Technology, social issues | 7 Comments »

Rate of Black Market Cigarette Seizures Weaken Marijuana Legalization Arguments

By crooky | August 3, 2008

I have always been an unabashed opponent to the legalization of marijuana in Canada. I grew up next to a grow op as a child and I can tell you first-hand, smoking marijuana is not a victimless crime. Now that I’ve gotten that very controversial stance off my chest, I’d like to poke a hole in one of the arguments used in support of legalizing marijuana: that if the government regulated it, the black market would dissapear overnight.

A recent story in the Globe and Mail highlighted how controlled substances, under the watchful eye of the government still leaves room for black market activities. Specifically, black market cigarettes are being seized by the RCMP in record numbers. But wait, aren’t cigarettes legal?

One of the arguments used for legalizing marijuana is that once the government started regulating, taxing and inspecting marijuana so that anyone of legal age can buy in at a corner store, all of the black market for the drug would just dissapear. I’ve always argued that this wouldn’t be the case.

My argument is as follows:

The Globe and Mail article backs up my argument. In that article, it is cited that a smoker buying a carton of legal cigarettes from a store would have to pay $85. A “bag” of the same number of loose cigarettes costs only $6 through black market channels.

RCMP seizures of black market cigarettes are up 210% since 2001. That isn’t necessarily reflective of the scope and scale of the black market cigarette industry since it could mean that the RCMP are doing a better job of seizing goods. However, it is an indication that black market cigarettes are still readily available despite the fact that cigarettes have never been illegal.

Photo credit: Kyle Rodriguez

Photo credit: Kyle Rodriguez

I think it all boils down to pure economics. A significant number of people see black market cigarettes and legal cigarettes as reasonable substitutes for one another. The extremely low cost of the black market cigarettes is definitely an incentive but the cigarettes would have to be of acceptable quality or no one would buy them.

The tobacco industry has seen a relationship between the purchase price of tobacco and the amount of black market cigarettes that are consumed in Canada:

If these numbers are to be believed, when legal cigarettes are cheaper, the black market recedes. I can see the counter-argument now:

That’s a neat argument but it forgets the reason why we tax cigarettes. Cigarettes are a major health risk for anyone who smokes and those around them. Marijuana has the same problems. Another study has shown that smoking a joint is the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes (in terms of carcinogens).

Sure, most pot smokers don’t smoke every day and most wouldn’t smoke more than one joint. That doesn’t change the fact that every joint smoked is almost as bad as an entire pack of cigarettes.

Why would the government want to facilitate that? From a public policy perspective, this is a no-win situation for the government.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: Policy, social issues | No Comments »

Virtual Wastepaper Basketball Better For Environment Than Real Thing

By crooky | August 1, 2008

It’s Friday afternoon. I have deadlines to meet but what am I doing? I’m playing a virtual wastepaper basketball game.

Check it out here. (turn off your sound if you’re at work).

While playing it, I wondered for a moment if I was saving GHG emissions by playing the virtual version of this game or if I’d be a more responsible citizen by actually balling up scrap paper and throwing it into a bin.

Here’s how I figured out that you’re better off to play the online version of this game:

There are some cavets though:

Enjoy the long weekend, if you’re in Canada!

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: Levity, Technology | No Comments »

How Social Isolation Strikes Down The Best Of Us

By crooky | July 31, 2008

As a self-employed consultant, I can honestly say that I suffer from social isolation. The definition of social isolation is roughly a lack of deep, meaningful relationships. Many consultants (and non-consultants) suffer from this problem and recent studies have shown that social isolation can shorten your life just as surely as smoking or alcohol abuse.

My own circumstance is not unusual. I work from home the majority of the time. I’m married and I have children which means that I have a deep, meaningful relationship with three people. That’s not enough though because as any stay-at-home mom will tell you, everyone needs friends outside of their spouse and children. I have good friends that live in town but I don’t get to see them nearly often enough in the kind of environment where we can strengthen our bond with once another. Why? Because I’m always working.

It’s easy to fall into social isolation without realizing it. Before I started working for myself, I had strong relationships with a number of people. I saw people after work, I even formed strong bonds with a number of my co-workers. When you leave the 9-5 life that most people exist in, it’s hard to maintain relationships. You work evenings and weekends, they relax and hang out with friends on their evenings and weekends.

You have time to hang out with people but its often only at the last minute that you realize you have time and when you do have free time, it’s not usually at times that works for your friends (eg. in the middle of the work day or late at night).

Unfortunately, social isolation is self-compounding. As you become socially isolated, you develop tendancies that make you less likely to want to socialize. For example, many people suffering from social isolation develop health problems and vices that makes their already low self-esteem worse. This causes them to go out and socialize less, making them even more socially isolated, and so on.

These unhealthy, self re-inforcing habits have a huge impact on your health. Social isolation has been linked to heart disease, mental illness, morbid obesity and increased risk of diabetes. From a consultant’s point of view, your health is a crucial asset in your business. If you get social isolation ruin your health, your business will suffer.

I don’t feel like social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc…) decrease social isolation. The “relationships” you maintain with others on the Internet aren’t real. I recently withdrew from an online community that I feel supplanted many real-life relationships and worsened my social isolation. Social media is to relationships what CDs are to being in a band.

Let me be clear - social isolation can kill someone just as surely as a major drug habit. If you feel like your life revolves around your work and you don’t have any friends or hobbies, it’s time to get some help. Depression, weight gain, unhealthy lifestyle choices - these are all symptoms of social isolation.

The Plan Institute is an organization whose mandate is to reduce social isolation. I suggest that if you feel you need help, start by contacting the people at the Plan Institute. They have some programs that could help. The first step to beating social isolation is to recognize that you have a problem and reach out to the people who care about you.

Edit (Aug 7 08): There are other organizations like the Plan Institute around. Check out the Plan Institute’s list of affiliates (link).

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: social issues | 4 Comments »

Why Consultants Love Working In Coffee Shops

By crooky | July 28, 2008

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from a grad student named Jaspreet in the UK who is studying at Swansea University in South Wales. They stumbled across Coffee Shop Office – a site that I am peripherally involved in that is exploring how coffee shops have become work spaces for the self-employed, students, artists and anyone that works away from the home or office. She asked me the following question in relation to this work:

“Could you tell me why you work in a coffee shop, when you tend to go there and who you go with?”


Edit Aug 6 08: Jaspreet got some great input from some of my collegues and regular readers and has designed a survey about working in coffee shops based on your input. She’s giving away a 1GB iPod Shuffle at the end of August to one lucky respondent. Check out her survey here (link).

I’m always keen to help out students and this was my response:

Let me approach your question from two perspectives: my personal perspective and my thoughts on the larger trend.

1. My personal perspective

My situation is not unique. In Canada, there are legions of self-employed individuals such as myself. In Vancouver (where I live), the cost of living is so high that few of us can afford homes with enough space to have a dedicated office. This means that many self-employed individuals in dense metropolises like Vancouver end up with small workspaces adjacent to a high-traffic room in their home (my last apartment had a desk to one side of the kitchen). This is not the best environment for getting work done, especially if you are married with kids (like myself).

A typical site at your local coffee shop.

A typical site at your local coffee shop.

This arrangement drove me out of the home and into coffee shops to get work done. Sure, coffee shops are often just as noisy as a house full of kids but there are no demands placed on you while you’re at a coffee shop. One of the other patrons isn’t going to come up and try to sit on your lap while you’re typing. Well, there was that one time but… I digress.

There’s a steady supply of refreshments. There are distractions when you need them like trying to figure out which patrons are on a first date, which ones are insane and which ones are also working, like yourself. There are other options out there for me such as the library, my old university, offices of other colleagues or the pub.

None of these options are as viable of a location as a coffee shop with WiFi access and lots of power outlets. Why?

Update: July 28, 5pm

Karen Fung, one of my more blog and mobile-work savvy friends, has pointed out in the comments section that I forgot to discuss Co-working space. There are a number of good co-working spaces in Vancouver. One of my partner organizations - Rocket Builders - is in the New Look Business Centre just outside of downtown and it’s a great space.

I favour coffee shops over co-working space because there aren’t any co-working spaces closer than 40 km from where I live. I’m not going to drive 80 km (round trip) to hang out with a better class of mobile workers. That said, I think there’s an opportunity for some form of co-working space in the ‘burbs.

/update

So the “why” for me is this: coffee shops provide the right environment for me to work without all of the distractions of home.

When? I work in coffee shops a lot less now than I used to because I have a proper office at home now. When I was working in coffee shops – there were two times that I used to go: between breakfast and lunch and after dinner. The coffee shops are markedly less busy during these times and I don’t feel guilty for hogging a table for a few hours when there are other empty tables.

I go to coffee shops alone – that’s the point. I’m not there to socialize, I’m there to work. I’ve seen people meet in coffee shops to plan projects but working with someone else, while in a coffee shop? I’m not a big fan of it.

2. The larger trend

I think there are a few issues that are coming together to drive people into coffee shops (in Vancouver anyhow):

There are a few issues that I feel might reverse this trend of working in coffee shops:

That’s my $0.02.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.

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Topics: social issues | 5 Comments »

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