How To Listen

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Listening is an obvious skill everyone must have.  In business, it’s especially critical.  Companies must listen to their customers.  Supervisors must listen to their subordinates.  Peers must listen to each other.  The key is removing the emotions and focus on the following actions:

  1. Evaluate the need to listen.
  2. Manage internal and external noises.
  3. Demonstrate a curious and open mind.
  4. Manage the flow of conversation.

Effective listening is critical to sorting through and keeping up with the information needed to get results.

Samba and Windows 7

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Windows 7 has upgraded security.  This will effectively cause trouble in making connections to legacy apps (ie. Windows XP supported).  One of them is Samba on Unix.

Fortunately, there’s a solution to this:

  1. Open Control Panel.
  2. Choose Administrative Tools.
  3. Click Local Security Policy.
  4. Under Local Policies and Security Options:
    1. Change Network security: LAN Manager Authentication Level to “Send LM & NTLM responses”
    2. Change Minimum Session Security for NTLM SSP to disable “Require 128-bit encryption” into “No Minimum Security”.

Illustrations below:

How To Build A Web App

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ApprovedDeveloping a good web application is a tricky job.  Deploying one that gains people’s acceptance can be a big challenge.  The good ones that come into mind are Twitter, Pandora, and tumblr.

Is there a recipe for building a good web application?

I watched an excellent presentation by Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist who invested in several successful companies, that summarized the basic rules of building a great web app:

  1. Fast
  2. Instantly Useful
  3. Unique Style
  4. Less and simple
  5. Programmable (ie. APIs)
  6. Personal
  7. REST – REpresentational State Transfer (ie. Unique URL)
  8. SEO – Search Engine Optimization
  9. Clean Design
  10. Playful

These guidelines are definitely a good start for new companies.  They’re also useful for established companies who want to redefine their products.

Here’s the presentation by Fred Wilson on The 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps: