Category Archives: How To

A FAQ About Frequently Asked Questions

November 18, 2018
Amazon Way, How To, Writing
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A list of questions with answers written in English are a great way to drive clear thinking on all the stuff that surround the central idea presented in a narrative. This ‘stuff’ includes things like strategy, execution, technology, business, and resources.Continue reading →

Be a Great Reader

April 24, 2018
Amazon Way, Books, How To, Writing
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When an organization has a culture where the written word is valued, being a great reader is just as important as being a great writer. Over time, I’ve tried to have a very high-bar for my own writing. I wrote a little about this in my post Details Matter. I’ve also learned the importance of being a great reader, and that’s the topic of this post. In the 2017 Amazon Shareholder letter Jeff Bezos wrote …Continue reading →

Details Matter in Presenting Narratives

April 18, 2018
Amazon Way, How To, Leadership, Writing
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Narratives are written documents used to present clear thinking. Narratives enable readers to quickly understand the author’s ideas in order to drive robust conversations and decisive decision making. Details matter when it comes to printing narratives for others to read. Sloppy presentation of the written word detracts from content and shows the author lacks obsession about his or her customer (the reader). Authors must apply a very high standard for making it easy and pleasing …Continue reading →

How to install a 2 port USB power adapter in an ‘87 BMW

April 21, 2013
Cars, How To
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For some reason BMW forgot to put USB power sockets in my ’87 535is. In addition, while the JVC stereo the previous owner installed has a USB port, I use it for a memory card for music. Lastly, the cig lighter socket in these cars is “always on”. For these reasons I decided to do a little mod: Adding a 2 port USB power socket. This post explains how I did it and the parts …Continue reading →

Have a Plan

March 2, 2013
Clarity of Thought, How To, Startups
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Yesterday someone asked me to share my thoughts on the secret to building excellent things. I summarized what I know as: “Put the customer first, have a plan, create a shared mission, get early victories, remove process, and make it fun.” – me, yesterday. This was the formula my cohorts that built the Windows Phone app platform used. It worked. This is what the small team that created www.milelogr.com did. “No battle was ever won …Continue reading →

Crowd Sourced Design Works

September 26, 2011
How To, Startups
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I have updated the look and feel of the Kindel Systems, LLC website and this blog using a crowd source design. And I like how it turned out. Now that I am no longer working for a big corporate giant I have a bunch of endeavors I am working on (including my yet-to-be-announced new company). I’m doing consulting, angel investing, serving on boards of directors/advisors, and several other things that either generate income or assets. …Continue reading →

From the Archives: STOP 0xC2 aka BAD_POOL_CALLER Blue Screen and bad memory

June 19, 2011
How To
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In 2004 one of my computers had a bluescreen with a STOP 0xC2, BAD_POOL_CALLER fault. It turns out it was a bad memory chip. I wrote a blog post about it here: STOP 0xC2 aka BAD_POOL_CALLER Blue Screen and bad memory It is amazing to me that after all this time, my blog post remains the top hit on both Bing and Google for this blue screen. If I had a nickel…

Now using WordPress

May 7, 2011
How To
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This blog is now running on WordPress. I’ve been meaning to move from Community Server (hosted on a server in my house) to something more modern & flexible (and hosted in the cloud) for ages. The desire to dig into the latest in Linux and cloud hosting finally drove me to actually do it.  I decided to force myself to use no Microsoft technologies for this project. Step one was updating my Ubuntu Linux desktop …Continue reading →

Kindle Tips & Tricks

June 15, 2009
How To
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Here’s a list of tips, tricks, and hacks for the Amazon Kindle that I’ve uncovered. Some of these are valid for the original Kindle and some are valid for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX. Keyboard Shortcuts Alt+Shift+M – Start a game of Minesweeper.  While in the game you can press G for a version of “Go” Alt-T – Shows time (only on the original Kindle; does not work on the Kindle 2 or Kindle …Continue reading →

STOP 0xC2 aka BAD_POOL_CALLER Blue Screen and bad memory

May 26, 2004
How To
43 Comments

My computer bluescreened with a STOP 0xC2, BAD_POOL_CALLER fault. I discovered the reason was some memory chips had failed. This post describes what happened and how you can figure out if this is why you are getting this error. See the details below, but the summary is: In almost all cases the STOP 0xC2, BAD_BOOL_CALLER blue-screen indicates failed or failing RAM (random access memory) in your computer. You can easily test the memory in your …Continue reading →