Innovating? Are you?

I work in an industry that if you are not innovating then your going out of business (You may be the last one to know) So the question is how do you innovate? I have been trying to break this down lately.

1. Have creative ideas of new innovation (This comes easy to me)
2. Research the ideas for functionality (Many spend way too much time here and never get the innovation off the ground or they have people telling them that change is bad)
3. Implementation must be proactive, directed and measured.
4. Problems in launch are expected. If your 80% good you can fix the other 20%
5. Fail Fast


More on this later!

TV Repair update?

Wow, I recently have been successful at repairing the Dishwasher and Ice maker. Can I make it 3 for 3?

Of course. Part came in, I took about 5 minutes to install it and perfect picture once again. And Jamie, I did not manage to electrocute myself. That is just a bonus. I think (Quietly knocking on wood) I have everything fixed around the house.

Carsen is cracking me up!

We are sitting in the chair tonight listening to music and he gets real serious and says..."Dad, it is good to be a boy" Me "Why is that?" Carsen "You don't have to lay babies"

Can't argue with that logic.

Selling the value. First you must understand the value

Many times I go back to the hammer. When you buy a hammer you don't really want a hammer, rather you want a nail pounded in. Really you don't want that nail pounded in you want a house built.

Many times in sales we focus on that product that we sell. How many times have you had a client come up to you and ask for a server. People do not want a server, they want to make their business run more efficiently. In both examples if you sell the value of building a house or making a business run more efficiently and you give people what they want this is where the value really is. Don't focus on the immediate question. Figure out what people really want and then you both win.

Only one more day of copying files from the Home Server

It is amazing how long it takes copying almost 2 Terabytes of data. It looks like the data loss is minimal. However it has been painful messing with this. I do have backups that I can go back to however it has not been necessary.

Next time I will not rely on a RAID 5 system and go to simple RAID 1 (Mirroring) system. Faster in operation and easier to repair. Lesson learned.

Meanwhile my operation X-Mas lights has been a bit painful today. It has rained and caused my GFI to continuously trip. I can check in the next couple of days to see where the weak connection is. I feel a bit like Clark Griswald when it comes to finding that one loose connection.

Moving from Appliance Repair to TV Repair?

A while back I bent the HDMI Port on my Big Screen. I have done everything I could but I think I broke the PC board behind the HDMI Port. This causes some lines that show up on the screen. I took out the tools a week ago and opened up the TV. Looks simple enough. Found what needed replaced and found a used part.

I will let you know how it goes. If no one hears from me for a while I probably electrocuted myself, come get me in the basement.

Update on the ICE maker. The part came in and 5 minutes later we were making ice. Whoo Hoo!

Home Server time to go?

This weekend I had a Hard Drive fail on the home server. It is at least 4 or 5 years old and it is amazing how technology changes. I looked into updating to the must current version of Home Server. However when I checked into this there was very little that had changed and if anything they had removed some functionality. However it has been been serving well.

Now that I have to make an investment into at least one new HD I think it is time for a change. The Home Server has increasingly found itself less and less valuable. The PC backups it was doing are really not valuable anymore. The PCs are only running core and more and more I am running most apps in the cloud. As for basic storage, the Synology is much better and easier to use with the mobile apps. Apps for the iPad and Android phone. Plus the removes a piece of hardware that I have to deal with. The Synology does not require AV, maint and constant attention as it seems that the Server has needed.