The Alan Zone

by Alan on September 21, 2019 at 3:56 am

It was a teacher workshop day, so we quickly snuck over to the zoo for a quick visit. Augie got a bunch ‘o Pokemon in Pokemon Go along with hanging out with a friend.  It was a beautiful day, and although the GoPro isn’t zoomed in, you’ll still see some neat views (close and distant).

by JegErAlan on September 2, 2019 at 7:53 pm

UPDATE: Gene Kim’s reaction added at the bottom… Why you should preorder The Unicorn Project in four tweets. 🙂 As someone who frequently speaks publicly, I know how powerful answering “How does this apply to me?” is. If you are in IT dev or ops, you will have that answer from @RealGeneKim’s upcoming to-be classic, “The Unicorn

by Alan on September 1, 2019 at 4:00 pm

Punishing the Class I’m going to assume two things of everyone here. First, that during school you were (or are) perfect angels. Never the troublemakers. Always the innocent, well-behaved bystanders. Second, that you’ll relate to this experience… You are just there, doing what the teacher wants, as white as snow…but the other kids in class

by Alan on August 24, 2019 at 7:53 pm

No bicycle video today, but how about seeing how the awesome sub I eat whenever I ride to the Byers Country Store is made?!: Actually, what you see there is two subs being made (kind of three actually). This time my wife and son met me at the store and we had lunch together. So,

by Alan Fahrner on August 20, 2019 at 2:18 am

You can see a longer post on Strasburg Rocks!, but I figured I’d share the time lapse I recorded this morning with my oldest son. One of my favorite features of my GoPro HERO7 Black is its Time Warp.

by Alan Fahrner on August 20, 2019 at 2:05 am

I spent quite a bit of time on Amazon comparing prices, features, et cetera for GoPro compatible selfie sticks, and finally settled on this aluminum Smatree Telescoping Selfie Stick. (I almost purchased Smatree’s carbon fiber version with a fixed GoPro head, but this one, with adapters, allows it to support a GoPro, a smartphone, and

by Alan on August 19, 2019 at 6:56 pm

My oldest son is in down for a few days, so he an I beat the heat today by heading for a bicycle ride before the temperatures got into the 90s. Yes, he made dad feel old. (I used to “pull” him along on bicycle rides back in New Hampshire. No longer.) Either way, here’s

by Alan Fahrner on August 19, 2019 at 2:42 pm

This simple, inexpensive device will allow you to film with two action cameras. The Go Pole Dualcam Adapter is well-built, has a great design (very functional), and is ridiculously inexpensive. I used it for the first time yesterday to compare the Apeman A79 and the GoPro HERO7 Black. (Unsurprisingly, the latter, which costs up to

by Alan Fahrner on August 19, 2019 at 1:19 am

Overall, I am impressed by the design and quality of the Sametop Backpack Strap Mount Quick Clip Mount. It will not fall off your backpack strap and is relatively easy to attach. (I say “relatively,” because a secure attachment means it is needfully difficult to open, with a very strong spring.) My only complaint is

by Alan on August 11, 2019 at 8:45 pm

I just returned from another bicycle ride (and a yummy Byers General Store meatball sub midway). As I was cleaning up the remains of my lunch, I received a storm warning for Strasburg. Now, the adult thing to do would have been to wait it out. Instead I unpacked the GoPro, climbed on my bicycle,

by Alan on August 11, 2019 at 1:30 am

Although it’s a little deep into the celebrations to begin a running Strasburg Hometown Days post…better late than never, right?! Updates will be added on top (right under this introductory paragraph). Fifth Update Alas, it’s a wet, stormy end to the weekend. This is a picture of what, at that the time of my riding

by Alan Fahrner on August 10, 2019 at 7:00 pm

Although I want to get the GoPro Fusion at some point, my 360 camera right now is a Samsung Gear 360. I went to install the Gear 360 ActionDirector for it, and it failed because of a Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2013 Redistributable Packages issue (saying it couldn’t install it). This video showed exactly what

by Alan on August 4, 2019 at 6:17 pm

From yesterday, here is a quick bicycle Time Warp video from our home in Strasburg to the Byers General Store: Byers General Store has awesome food! 🙂 (And great people too…) This is the second trip where I enjoyed a meatball sub as my halfway reward. Hot day. Hovering around 90 degrees the whole time.

by Alan on August 4, 2019 at 1:55 am

We previously had the Inaugural Chewie Bicycle Cam, but this is the Inaugural Chewie Cam (no “Bicycle”) thanks to a GoPro dog harness we purchased from…of all places…Circuit City (on eBay). Yes, that Circuit City. 🙂 Here is your chance to see life from a dog’s perspective. This is a short neighborhood work in Coyote

by Alan on August 2, 2019 at 2:02 pm

Sure…I get up way early to provide everyone with a sunrise video of Strasburg, and… 🙂 Instead, you get to see a fog bank roll in and it thinning and thickening over about an hour (which is still pretty neat): Using a GoPro HERO7 Black’s Time Lapse Video feature, 1 frame taken per second (so,

by Alan on July 29, 2019 at 2:16 am

A week+ ago, my body was tortured into better shape by camping six days with Bennett Boy Scout Troop 30, so I am trying to keep my exercise up so as not to lose it. On Monday I rode back-and-forth from the General Store in Byers…and today it was McDonald’s in Bennett. This is a

by Alan on July 27, 2019 at 2:33 am

I love riding my bicycle…and I love our four dogs. Speaking of love, our largest dog Chewie (65 pounds) loves going out and about whether for a walk or a ride in the car. Thanks to Amazon, Discount Ramps, and Lucky Dog (who actually makes the trailer), Chewie now loves joining dad on his rides. 🙂

by Alan on July 26, 2019 at 3:51 pm

Yesterday, our Lucky Dog bicycle pet bicycle trailer arrived, and although it was late by the time I got home and had dinner, I had to try it out. You are rewarded, however, by being able to watch the Inaugural Chewie Bicycle Cam!: Please zoom to 6 minutes in, because initially Chewie tried to climb

by Alan on July 24, 2019 at 4:41 am

As I continue to try out the features of my GoPro HERO7 Black, here is an example of a Time Lapse Video (.5 seconds between images and 30 FPS). It was a very calm night…with stationary clouds. If you are able to watch it at full resolution, it’ll be 4K: It’s worth viewing full screen

by Alan Fahrner on July 23, 2019 at 3:08 am

I also posted this video on my Strasburg Rocks! blog…since…well, it’s a bicycle ride from Byers to Strasburg, Colorado. 🙂 This is the first GoPro Monster branded video I created. Sometime in the future I’ll start posting them on a GoPro Monster YouTube channel. This is also the first video I edited with Adobe Premiere

by Alan on July 23, 2019 at 2:54 am

I’m a bit tuckered tonight…but I wanted to sneak this out before my day wraps up. 10x GoPro Time Warp bicycle ride from Byers to Strasburg, Colorado. Happy Monday everybody!

by Alan Fahrner on July 21, 2019 at 5:47 pm

To kick off this new GoPro Monster blog, here is a GoPro Time Warp video of a bicycle ride around the great little town I call home, Strasburg, Colorado: Needless to say, more to come…but it’s a start! 🙂 P.S. A lot of the GoPro videos I’ll share will be available on the Strasburg Rocks!

by Alan on July 14, 2019 at 2:10 am

I’ll be away for a week at Boy Scout camp with Augie, so here are the last few bicycle rides before we leave tomorrow. Today (when it was greater than 95º when I left): Beautiful day…and the ride wasn’t bad. Low humidity rules! 🙂 This was Tuesday’s ride in two parts (out to the Strasburg

by Alan on July 7, 2019 at 10:14 pm

Be Like Daniel Daniel Duda We didn’t have church last weekend, because I was in Redlands, California visiting a non-profit I volunteer for. It was a recording weekend for them, and the speaker/facilitator was Daniel Duda. Now, even though this sermon is titled “Be Like Daniel” and I think Daniel Duda would generally be a good

by Alan on July 7, 2019 at 12:24 am

Independence Day brought you a GoPro Time Warp scooter video. Today rewards you with a bicycle ride! 🙂 Again at 5x speed…see a ton of downtown in less than 10 minutes. It’s like zooming through streets at 50 MPH, but without the carnage. 🙂 Music from Bensound.

by Alan on July 4, 2019 at 8:58 pm

Ever wondered what it would be like to scooter from the Strasburg Convenience Store to a home in Coyote Ridge? Of course you have! 🙂 Well, here you go: If you are curious as to why the video rocks up and down…well, we are riding Rockboard scooters, which are propelled by rocking. (Sadly, the company

by JegErAlan on June 13, 2019 at 2:32 pm

Now for a change of pace here on the Data Guy (Me) blog… A bit of self-history here: The first two albums I purchased were “Macho Man” and “Cruisin'” by Village People. The next two were “Zoso” (or “IV”) by Led Zeppelin and “Left Overture” by Kansas… And I’ve never looked back. I have a ridiculously

by JegErAlan on June 11, 2019 at 12:07 am

This past Friday, June 7, I had the honor of interviewing Jack Maher and Carmen DeArdo, coauthors of Standing on Shoulders: A Leader’s Guide to Digital Transformation (you can check out my review here). Here is your chance to learn at the feet of a couple of masters in the leadership, Lean, and DevOps spaces. Find

by Alan on June 2, 2019 at 3:44 pm

Power of Three I’ve mentioned before that if you are doing a presentation, there is a power of three. For instance, on a page supporting a given idea, only have three bullets. Not two, not five, but three. This sermon is titled “Short and Sweet.” you might say three concise bullets are exactly that, “short

by JegErAlan on May 29, 2019 at 4:56 pm

On Memorial Day, I had the honor of interviewing Mike Rognlien, author of This Is Now Your Company (my review of that book).  Mike was a key HR leader for Facebook during their exponential growth (in part, building its industry-leading unconscious bias training), and is now Chief Builder of Awesome People at Multiple Hats Management.

by Alan on May 26, 2019 at 10:18 pm

I’m generally a 70s rock-and-roll kind ‘a guy, but I can appreciate music from pretty much any genre, as long I can make out a melody and someone isn’t screaming at me the whole time. 🙂 One genre I didn’t like as a kid, but grew to enjoy, was a country…especially traditional country. If there is

by Alan on May 26, 2019 at 4:12 pm

Megachurches Has anyone else here attended a megachurch? Wikipedia says… A megachurch is defined by the Hartford Institute as any Protestant Christian church having 2,000 or more people in average weekend attendance.[1][2][3][4] The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term, first documented in 1984, as a church with an unusually large membership, especially one preaching a

by JegErAlan on May 26, 2019 at 12:07 am

Great quote from Randy Travis’ new book, Forever and Ever, Amen: L.D. and I were talking one night after a show about another artist we had recently seen. The artist seemed almost rude and uncaring about the fans and so arrogant. I was certain I must have gotten the wrong impression, so I asked L.D., “Did

by JegErAlan on May 21, 2019 at 2:04 am

Have you ever read a book and said to yourself, “I want to lock my executives in a room and make them read this”? Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration :-), but Mark Schwartz’s latest work is one that all levels of IT management should digest, especially executives. My copy is filled why highlights

by JegErAlan on May 19, 2019 at 12:41 am

These are rough notes I put together for a ~90 minute presentation to my company’s Agile Community of Interest. I have edited them to remove any direct references to who I work for…not because you aren’t smart enough to use Google, Bing, or your favorite search engine to figure that out :-)…but because it has

by JegErAlan on May 7, 2019 at 3:01 pm

Over the weekend I ran into this tweet by Charles Betz, whose Twittter bio describes him as “Digital management analyst, author, and instructor. DevOps lead @ Forrester. Adjunct @ U of St Thomas – MN. Occasional jazz riffs.”: Study questions to the original waterfall paper by Royce. Great work by @Morendil. This is what we

by JegErAlan on May 5, 2019 at 11:33 pm

Today Nicole Forsgren started an inspiring conversation on Twitter with these three tweets: I want to do a talk: Hidden Figures of DevOps. Women’s contributions thru history. I know we’re there. I we’re erased or forgotten. Help me remember. Give me dates and names and what we did. Please RT. — nicole forsgren PHD IN

by Alan on April 28, 2019 at 11:02 pm

by JegErAlan on April 25, 2019 at 3:44 pm

If you are a people manager, how many direct reports should you have? I had an Executive VP who thought it should never be more than 6. Other companies set guidelines by management level (e.g. a Manager should have 15-20, a Director less, etc.) Is there a good way to establish this number? I’m partway

by JegErAlan on April 24, 2019 at 3:40 pm

I’m not 100% sure where I heard about it last week, but I was intrigued by a mention that Ben Franklin had a 5-hour rule around learning. Short version: he spent an hour a day, 5 days a week, learning. I’ve basically been trying to do that myself, mainly through reading (but hoping to expand to spending more time

by JegErAlan on April 14, 2019 at 11:03 pm

Since I stepped more into the Agile and DevOps world, I’ve been blessed by getting to meet and/or talk to some great people, including authors of books everyone should read. Now, I have not met Carmen DeArdo in person yet, but I have spoken with him a couple times (and exchanged e-mails), so I was

by Alan on April 14, 2019 at 7:33 pm

Don’t Judge Mephibosheth Too Quickly Pronouncing Names Am I the only person, when they run into a hard name in the Bible, basically reads past it? And there are a lot of names like that in Scripture, eh? 🙂 However, before we try to pronounce the name of the main biblical character in today’s message,

by JegErAlan on April 8, 2019 at 2:43 am

I’ve just started what looks to be a tremendous work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World. I’m in a section about realities, which starts off quickly discussing “objective” and “subjective” ones. Then: But Harari goes on to argue that there is a third

by JegErAlan on April 7, 2019 at 7:32 pm

I was blessed to be able to work in the tremendous country of Australia for a couple of years on the Olympics, but I came close to being buried there. I almost drowned. I enjoyed body surfing, but because I am a tall guy, I needed to go out relatively far to decrease the chance

by Alan on March 31, 2019 at 5:42 pm

If there is one thing I should hate my wife for, it’s training my youngest to like food channels. For instance, when you are in a hotel (like we are right now), who would put on the Food Network (or whatever other horrible one this one is)?! Either way, there is a program on that

by JegErAlan on March 26, 2019 at 3:15 pm

I am very impressed with these new business cards from Vistaprint. (What you cannot see is how well they also did raised graphics and text.) Beautiful and professional visually and tactilely. Way to go Vistaprint!

by JegErAlan on March 22, 2019 at 2:55 pm

This awesome mathematics teaching tool came in yesterday from Amazon: Okay, it was a bit hard to hold my Note9 and flip it…but you get the idea! The Bell curve and standard distribution are obvious, but it also… Both the Galton Board and the superimposed Pascal’s Triangle incorporate many related mathematical, statistical and probability concepts.

by Alan on March 17, 2019 at 7:00 pm

My Samsung Galaxy Watch Okay, I’ll admit it. I like to have the latest and greatest toys when it comes to technology. Latest smartphone. Latest tablet. Latest watch. And, sure enough, I am wearing the Galaxy Watch…Samsung’s latest wearable offering if you don’t count the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active. (But, I am not sure Active

by JegErAlan on March 16, 2019 at 10:32 pm

A week and a half ago, I attended a 90 minute talk by Mike Rognlien in Denver thanks to VitalSmarts. A bonus was getting a free copy of Mike’s 2018 book, This Is Now Your Company. That unexpected gift was quite serendipitous given I’ll be presenting “Counterintuitive IT™: How Do We Change Culture?” at my

by JegErAlan on March 16, 2019 at 8:10 pm

A “must read” book for anyone is Crucial Conversatons. This video gives a great summary. Please check it out…but still read the book! 🙂

by JegErAlan on March 11, 2019 at 8:02 pm

I have been so busy rebuilding my home office with a Human Solution UPLIFT Desk (more on that another day), I have been remiss in not noting how much I enjoyed a presentation by Mike Rognlien at a morning VitalSmarts conference last Thursday. Considering how much I am highlighting passages, his book, This Is Now

by JegErAlan on March 2, 2019 at 10:35 pm

Figured I’d repeat a post I put on LinkedIn this morning: You know that when a book starts off with a forward by Gene Kim and then immediately quotes something written in 1159, it’s going to be great. Congrats to Carmen DeArdo on the release of Standing on Shoulders: A Leader’s Guide to Digital Transformation

by Alan on February 24, 2019 at 8:41 pm

Bad Spies This is going to be a short sermon with one basic point…so let’s jump right into Scripture, specifically Numbers 13:1-3: 13 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send

by Alan on February 10, 2019 at 9:14 pm

Old Testament or New Testament Let’s pretend that right now I said, “Instead of a sermon, we are going to read the Bible for an hour.” Would you want to spend that hour reading the Old Testament or the New Testament? [Wait for answers. ] Why? [Wait for answers.] I think in a crowd of

by Alan on February 3, 2019 at 9:14 pm

In Search of Connor MacLeod Who is Connor MacLeod? No…he’s not a real person…but a movie character. Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. Who is he? He’s the fictional hero in the sci-fi film, “The Highlander.” Beyond having one of the most awesome movie soundtracks of all time thanks to Queen, it has an interesting

by Alan on January 20, 2019 at 9:14 pm

Carl’s Jr in Bennett, Colorado During our weekly Saturday morning breakfast excursion, a song came on overhead at the Carl’s Junior in Bennett. It was catchy, and I thought it was a new release by Aloe Blacc…but when I looked it up on my Samsung Galaxy Note9, it was actually by a guy called Rag’n’Bone Man…a

by Alan on January 13, 2019 at 8:50 pm

Kevin Hart Anyone familiar with Kevin Hart and the Oscars? Short version is that the comedian, Kevin Hart, was chosen to host the Oscars this year. Some folks looked through his Twitter history and found some old jokes that could be taken negatively against homosexuals. Tweets from back from 2009 to 2011. He apologized. Do you

by Alan on December 30, 2018 at 10:00 pm

Being Held Accountable Let’s hop directly into Scripture today, turning Ezekiel 18:19-20: 19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall

by Alan on December 27, 2018 at 7:18 pm

I’ve been blessed by a brother in Christ who recently moved to Strasburg (he and his wife being potential attendees of the church I am minister for). When I meet with a possible new member who especially cares about theology, I figure it is best to be up front about anything he or she might

by Alan on December 23, 2018 at 8:57 pm

Your All Time Favorite Christmas Gift Christmas is how many days away kids? Part of today, all of tomorrow…so just two days! Everyone…what is your favorite Christmas gift ever? One that causes you to smile whenever you think back about it? Growing up, there was a period where everything I wanted was G.I. Joe related…but