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Adilas.biz Developer's Notebook Report - 12/1/2012 to 12/31/2012 - (43)
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Time Id | Color | Title/Caption | Start Date | Notes | |
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AU 997 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/1/2012 |
• New logo for a company. I had previously tweaked their logo for them; they sent a new one, so I responded to the change. • Preparing files for a project for grouped sales by location. • Worked on modified pages, posted files online and wrote an email to the concerned party for the grouped sales project. |
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AU 998 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/3/2012 |
• Bank work. • Prep and research on converting My SQL tables into smaller MS Access tables for mini sub projects. • On the phone with the customer for grouped sales going over questions and ideas. He had some questions on flow between invoices and expenses/receipts. His other questions were dealing with multi-line items for transfer invoices. (We have ended up using this company’s tech guy to essentially work on some adilas projects, like a sub-contractor.) • Did some research on copying tables between My SQL. • After talking with customer, we needed to switch from a smaller MS Access database to a small My SQL database for testing. • More research on bulk moving and copying data. • Added code to allow transfer invoices to handle more than one item at a time. • Small page changes. Added help graphics to the steps to success (user manual). Added a few more links to the my favorites page. • Posted files online. • Full database back-up. |
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AU 1021 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/3/2012 |
-On transfer invoices – they would like to submit multi at the same time. Currently, the code will only allow one things at a time. We may need to add a loop capacity to building transfers. Finished on 12/3/12. -On expense/receipts – we have had a request to be able to create a reoccurring system similar to our reoccurring invoice section. |
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AU 999 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/4/2012 |
• Getting data ready for the grouped sales by location project. • On the phone with a customer about a mini blog or a tweet of what is new and what is coming. I told him we would try to get things going by Jan. 1st. • Created my first .sql flat file. |
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AU 1022 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/4/2012 |
IDEAS for LTF (Learn to Free-ride) Last night I was reviewing the LTF Volume 1 product as I was downloading the whole adilas database. It was a lot of stop and start, multi-tasking. Here are some ideas to help the LTF product. 1. Don’t be too hard on yourself or others. It was meant to be a visual, exploratory, non-linear learning tool – that is it. 2. If you want to change the whole scope – make a new product or explain what the product is or is about. Make a DVD to introduce the learning tool. Entertain and teach them how to use it. Then, if they want, they can get in there and play with the video tools. 3. The punk skin has the best music switching options – maybe add something like that to all the skins. 4. People want to hear things – maybe have a reader or read it button. This could be for captions, credits or commentary. It may be nice to toggle between music mode and reading mode. Explain that the video clips and amount of verbiage are not meant to be in sync or perfectly together. We could possibly sync up the credits and the clips. 5. The player size – I like the original 800x600. Maybe make that the default and allow the user to go full screen if they want to. Fix the minimize buttons to be a restore button. Keep it the same size for the user, even if they change skins. If needed, go to a browser and play with the buttons to get the right visual effect of what button does what. 6. On the classic, we need a way to help the user know where to click next. May draw the lines different, prompt with a title or helper caption, and make the buttons pop or standout more. We had one person mention a small image or photo on the buttons. 7. We had another person ask us for a play all button. The people wanted to be lazy and just be entertained. Maybe the DVD is all they will want. 8. I really like the idea about having an intro type clip that shows off some of the features of what the user could and can do. Help them know what they have and how to use it. This would be a specific video with audio and small captions (like the promo DVD). 9. On the text – be able to switch back and forth between the credits and the main text. A reader or audio option would really help if people want to hear something. 10. This is more for me – it might be cool if we could take over the clip and the audio and do a full commentary on what we see and give little subtle tips and info. 11. There is a lot of clicking – that is part of the interactive process. I fully know that I might war out my users and they may lose interest. 12. If the music is very important – allow it to be controlled and modified easier. Maybe turn it off by default and add the words (reader). Let the user have the option of background music or not. Maybe even call it background. 13. If linking videos together, just an option, it might be cool if things could flow together with a specific transition or some sort of indication that clips are changing. The only way to sync audio and video is to take control of the player and run things on a parallel timeline of sorts. 14. I’d like to put stuff on the web; however, the band width requirements might be pretty high. The product is designed for local (to the computer) viewing. It needs quick access to the download (bandwidth) issues. 15. Once we create the DVD, a few YouTube videos, broken into sections, could put the entire DVD online and downloadable to anyone. 16. Maybe help prompt for the next action. If not looping, show the trick video menus in the player window. Help them know where to click. 17. When doing the credits, try to do it in time with the video clip. 18. Use the resources we already have. We already have a 10 minute promo video that shows great footage and has tons of captions and verbiage. 19. At some point, I’d love to provide the product for free or for a minimal fee. Cover production and shipping. 20. Expand to a DVD-ROM. Have a full on DVD and a DVD for your computer more space for new files and audio stuff. 21. Redo the website and make it more user friendly. Take off height on images, allow user to get in/out easier, provide YouTube videos, allow for zip downloads or actual products. 22. Package in a standard DVD case. Maybe a dual DVD option. 23. I would love to pay the people that helped for the work they did above and beyond. Be generous and thank them for a job well done. 24. Push the contrast on the punk logo. Make it useable right from the start. Currently only usable once in a sub-menu. 25. If there is time and money – we had a few people complain that we used the same footage over and over again. If possible, maybe redo the pre-reqs, as they are all the same clip, just different verbiage. 26. Just an idea – maybe break the downloadable version into sections or tricks. Make it more chewable or bite size. 27. We already have two videos – one is the 10 minute DVD and the other is the two minute intro. I would like to get both of those videos and use them on YouTube and on the LearnToFreeride.com and in the actual product. 28. I would love to turn this thing into a fun non-profit and help give, give, give. It could be online, at shops, stores, events, at local mountains, camps, clinics, etc. Spread! 29. Include the tricks and such for Volume 2; jumps, grabs and spins. We have tons of new footage that has never been seen or used. 30. All I need is time and money – I’ve got basically everything else! 31. It is okay to include and allow others to help. Share the load! 32. Use the product to show the product. Step by steps, slow motion, etc. Ideas from 12/21/12 -Go fully online. If you want, make the product fully downloadable, although a DVD is easy to give out. -Make the whole thing into an app. -Make is free and charge for ad space and sponsors. -Use YouTube and then allow for people to link to their videos. |
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AU 1000 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/5/2012 |
• Working on numbers and projections for adilas. • Light tech support. • On the phone with Steve and then on the phone with a customer, making progress on his mini side project. • Phone calls and tech support. • Met with a contact at my home. We discussed LTF (Learn to Free-ride) and adilas. Discussed history and concepts for hours and hours. Really enjoyable and I sent him home with an LTF CD and some adilas flyers. |
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AU 1001 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/6/2012 |
• Customer import for a customer. Lots of custom code. Uploaded their customers, contacts, logs and flex grid fields. • On the phone going over some ColdFusion questions. • Added the customer phone number to the printer friendly invoice. • Added the average age for customer by customer type. We already had a global average age but we had a request to break it down by customer type. • Added a few new values (average age things) to a customer’s page. |
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AU 1002 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/7/2012 |
• Brainstorming and changing our marketing focus to operations and being a real-time data portal as compared to a real-time accounting system. Basically, change the focus from accounting to operations. Let the operations lead. • Working on some new verbiage for the main adilas.biz site. Adding some graphics and trying to help explain what we are trying to do. • Finished up the page and posted it online. The whole day was spent writing and typing who we are and what we do for the main adilas.biz homepage. |
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AU 1023 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/7/2012 |
-We need to get the mini log up and online. We have tons of data and tons of updates but no one knows what is going on. I’d like to get something up and online by January 1st of 2013. -On favorites – maybe remember the last five things that the user was doing. Help them (the users) get back there quickly. -On locations – it is one of the biggest benefits and one of the biggest problems (until we get some of the processes modified). Each location adds a level of complexity. We need a full scale-able model. -I was talking to a friend at my house and we were talking about adilas concepts and history. One of my favorite topics was dealing with how we set up adilas on a foundation of settings (user and corp-wide) and permissions. Those are the foundations of the whole system. -We are really good at tracking data. We have a great operations or operational tracking system. We claim to have a great accounting system. It is there, but I think that the system’s strong point is on the operational side. This is just a thought, but what if we marketed ourselves more on the operational and data tracking side and less on the accounting side? We do have the other pieces but I’m wondering if by saying we are an accounting system, we create this impression that we follow traditional accounting practices, and that the accounting side is our strong point, and fully done and automated. I think we need to flip it around and also point out that we are trying to take a more modern or non-traditional approach to accounting by letting operations lead and having the accounting follow in a natural cause and effect relationship. If you, as a user, are looking for a system that does debits and credits (traditional accounting), we might not by your product. However, if you want to use business data mapping to track objects and data over time, we are definitely your choice. (Added a portion of this to the main adilas.biz homepage on 12/8/12) -I’m grateful for gaps, holes and questions. They provide room for improvement and growth. What if we tell people that adilas, as a product, has some gaps, holes, places that are under construction. Tell people that it is not done but we are working on it. Be honest. -There are tons of concepts and website ideas for adilas in the old blue notebook dated 8/21/09. Tons of ideas about features, advantages, and benefits of using adilas. -Use the product to show the product. -On eCommerce – Pass all incoming data through a verifier so that we know we have all of the pieces. This allows us to update things and older outside code will still work. |
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AU 2264 |
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Brainstorming Outline for the Main adilas.biz Homepage & What It Is We Do | 12/7/2012 |
E.D.G.E – Explain, demonstrate, guide, enable – Boy Scouts of America Outline for the main adilas.biz homepage and what is it that we do: Build on common ground… you win more bees with honey than salt. - Very simple… we help people track data - Data means different things to different people - Help you see the whole picture - “System” is a key word - Start with operations - A full system allows you to do things that others can’t do…. - Cause & effect will create accounting - Small review of where traditional accounting came from - We do things differently now - Accounting needs to follow the changes in trends - One huge key is “time” - Here is what we want to do about it - Invite people to participate & help - Why do you do it? Because it needs to be done! - Ask the question… what would I do? This helps develop the why. The why takes time and is counter to the fast food mentality of I want it now! - Add an audio version to the website… read it for the people |
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AU 1003 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/8/2012 |
• Emails and tech support. • Worked on some meta tags and editing verbiage on the main homepage. • Posted files online. • Signing off on interface things. • Updating help files. |
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AU 1004 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/10/2012 |
• On the phone with Steve talking about future projects, we want to grow! We see eCommerce, dynamic interface, more clients and fixing some of the black holes, etc., as ways to grow. • Made some tweaks on the verbiage for the main adilas.biz homepage. • New logos for multiple companies. • Checking and testing files for the interface chooser page. • Tech support. |
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AU 1024 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/10/2012 |
-Lately I’ve been thinking, I need to scan my notebooks and store that data off site. I have tons and tons of ideas, notes, brainstorming papers, and future tools all laid out on paper. If something happens, I might lose it all. The word all just means the paper copy; it is still in my head. -My job – I’m really starting to think that my job is more than a developer. It is a recorder, a supporter, a thinker, and a writer. There are also pieces that could be an artist, a designer, a negotiator, a brake, a bottle neck, a voice of reason, a dreamer, etc. … kind of random. |
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AU 1005 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/11/2012 |
• Reviewing code and working with our customer on the grouped sales by location project. • On the phone with Steve talking about code, interfaces, and marketing options. • Small changes to hidden invoice line items. Added an auto force to a zero price for hidden line items. • Bank work. • Research on SQL joins. • Tech support and brainstorming on life-cycle date tracking. |
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AU 1025 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/11/2012 |
-Once we update the graphical interface, we will need to go update the screen shots from the tools and features page on the main adilas.biz website. -On the parts inventory look back report - we’ve had the request to hid inactive items. It could be as simple as a status filter or it could be deeper. We may want to show the status. -Interesting concept about dates – we are seeing a need for even more dates going back in time. We are seeing a start date and an end date (life-cycle). This is for things like parts – active between x & y. Locations – active between x & y. Banks – active between x & y. Corporations, vendors, customers, etc. If they are still active the end date is unknown, so we need to include them. However, if an end date is known and the item is currently set to inactive, this is where the data range or life-cycle window comes in to play. These items should only play if going back in time to when they were active between the start and end dates – kind of interesting. -Along these same lines (life-cycle tracking), what if we limited items that were inactive so that they can’t play unless active. I’m talking all around the board (parts, balance sheet items, stock/units, customers, locations, banks, departments, vendors, employees, etc.). If they are active, we allow them to play. If not, meaning inactive, they get locked down and even somewhat hidden. We could also help by checking for start dates (earliest usage date) and end dates (last or oldest usage dates). In a way, according to data that exists, we could control those start and end dates. This control would be best done behind the scenes. Otherwise, we could have some holes if the user pushes things backward or forwards. (Crazy how things come back to dates and times.) |
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AU 1006 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/12/2012 |
• Looking over new code from the user working on the grouped sales report by location. He added some column heading sorts and then used some Java Script to resubmit the form. This will be pretty cool. • Did some research online and then some general work on the different daily/weekly sales reports. • Working on adding customer info to the invoice line items search results. • On the phone with Steve talking about business, direction and upcoming projects. We know that Internal Cost Corrections will be coming up here soon. That is where we go through and help companies match cost in and cost out. We do this on an invoice with a positive one (quantity) and a negative one (quantity). This makes it so that inventory is not affected, no revenue, no receivables, and only affects the cost of goods sold. • Made a couple of report adjustments. • Added some filters to the part and inventory reports. • Added the parts status to the grouped parts look-back report. • Posted files online and sent final code pages to user for his grouped sales by location project. |
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AU 1007 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/13/2012 |
• Working on help files and signing off on code. • Sent a few email updates around. • Small page tweaks (layout and visual things). • Emails and items to Steve. • Research on adding on Click events to a table data cell. • Playing around with different button options for the column heading sorts. • Added a new drill-down link for all stores and posted the file online. |
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AU 1026 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/13/2012 |
-Internal Cost Corrections (ICC’s) – we need them soon! See elements of time and email dated 10/8/12. The key is time and tracking things over time. -On refunds – what if all you needed to do was provide a date and a CC approval number (authorization code). The system could then look things up and get the data from there. Along the way, it could validate amounts (too high) and then it could create a cross tie-in between the two invoices. This helps with fraud and someone trying to get a credit from multiple locations or stores. Use flex grid to tie things together. -We need the reflexive side of the flex grid and the roll call page for every major player. -We have had many requests to be able to fully delete or remove payments. Maybe allow this if the value is set to zero. |
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AU 1008 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/14/2012 |
• Brainstorming on customer gift cards and loyalty points. • On the phone with Steve going over current pain, pressures, and options to move forward. We talked about the main adilas.biz site, marketing, new features, grouped by locations project, and goals for moving forward. • Research and reviewing old notes and reading sections from old brainstorming pages. Sometimes it helps me to go back and see where we’ve been and where we are headed. • Read some good stuff dated 10/6/10 to 11/6/10 (one month back in 2010) dealing with mapping out the system and what each piece does. • Lining up the customer gift card project for the user who has been working on the grouping by locations project. |
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AU 1027 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/14/2012 |
*”Fly the plane!” the #1 job of any pilot! -Sometimes pressure and pain can help you know what or where needs the most help. It can be almost like a map to the source of what is happening or what needs to happen. -Instead of trying to control everything on the hard coded parts side – what would happen if we allowed a user to create those at will? How would we track revenue and payroll settings? How would we tie things together and make the rules easy to understand? -Maybe custom special items don’t have to go through a PO at all. Maybe we also allow the special settings to be added at will. If you want a special line item, you just create it and then assign it special rules. -I looked up the word “pilot” and here are the synonyms: direct, show, steer, lead, conduct, channel, funnel, point. This deals with the saying – “Fly the plane!” -On the multi corp sales and profit report, we had a request to expand it to more than 7 days. They would like to see a month at a time. As a side note, this could involve a loop per corporation, a loop for each location with the corporation, and a loop for each part category. The smallest loop then needs to do each day within the report window. It could potentially be a computer memory hog. -If needed, we might allow a month for a single corporation instead of a multi corp report. That helps to control some of the variables. |
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AU 2265 |
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Brainstorming Loyalty Points, Gift Cards, Discounts | 12/14/2012 |
- Factor amount corp-wide settings o Loyalty points o How much spent o Discount accordingly - Special line item(s) (possibly more than one) o Control the line item name and id but allow - Card #’s & values - No revenue - All balance sheet - Liability - Kind of like a deposit on merchandise - Pull to balance sheet and show eve if $0 - Principal - Gift card - Standard Operating Procedure (S.O.P) – add this to the learning module - Custom help files or procedures (More info on the scan in photo gallery 12/14/12) |
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AU 1009 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/15/2012 | • Emails and tech support. | |
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AU 2266 |
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Note - Planning With Purpose & Meeting With My Dad | 12/15/2012 |
Planning with a purpose – do purpose/goal first, then plan - Invoice homepage - Edit line items - Edit main - Printer friendly - Save as pdf - Show/hide menu - Buttons, icons, or links – different categories Places for LTF that I visited: Notes from my Dad: Had a small meeting with my dad at BATC. These are my notes mid December 2012 - Take a few steps back - Make a plan - Show the current tools in the shed - Teach & show - Use the product to show the product - Get ready to expand “as is” – set it up for duplication o Split databases o Add numeric date times - Let people know what we are doing o Share the vision & the future - Work smart - Offer classes – trade out web work for class time - Take yourself out of the pivot point - A time for each scenario - cats blankets or folded paper vs. flat paper - Promises made 7 work to be done - Play as a team |
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AU 1010 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/17/2012 |
• Checking out a new homepage for a customer. • Lots of emails and tech support business. • Posted the new homepage online • New logo for a company. |
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AU 1011 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/18/2012 |
• On the phone with Steve. We talked about interface and then on to money and what is needed there. We need to either, get more clients, do training, or work for people. If not, I will need to supplement with other work. • Started on personal settings but stopped mid-stream. [This was somewhat of a breaking point for me. What this means is that I have years and years left to make everything happen, we need money, and I felt very trapped. I couldn’t sit there and make another feature. Not that it was hard, I just felt buried and trapped. I spent the rest of the day doing LTF stuff and going into town. Good change of pace.] • Went into Logan to show people the LTF product. Stopped by tons of shops, book stores, and places. Gave demos and gave away lots of copies of the product. Went to Beaver Mountain ski office and talked with the director of the ski school, BATC Bookstore (Bridgerland Applied Technology College), BATC West Campus. my dad’s office, Al’s Sporting Goods, Directive Board Shop, Zummies, The Game Stop, Sports Authority, Seagull Book, Deseret Book, Books of Yesterday, and Oasis Books. Fun and interesting day, 40 miles. |
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AU 1028 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/18/2012 | -We need to add some validation on carts and invoices to not allow both salespersons as the same value. We may also need to do a bulk clean-up of existing data. | |
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AU 1012 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/19/2012 |
• Prep, review and getting things in order. • Planning what we want to do with adilas and how to prep for moving forward. • Tech support. • Spent some time writing in my notebook. • Customer uploads. |
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AU 1029 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/19/2012 |
Random notes, brainstorming, and other ideas….. -What if we taught a class and trained the trainers. I could lead it and then video type it. We could then post it online for other trainers to see. We could even let our customers see it so that they could train their staff or other companies. -On elements of time – allow people to assign a task to a user and then have it show up until it is done or marked off. This is somewhat of a reminder type thing. -On elements of time – add a temp span or color block and id if an end date or time is known. Instead of full color blocks taking up the entire cell, just use a little piece that says, I’m a “blocked in” or “scheduled” piece. -On eCommerce – our first go at it may be only existing customers, web pricing, and only go to the quote or order level. No payments, no inventory, tweaks, etc. -On the orders or quotes (eCommerce) – maybe set the invoice classification to “online order” and then make all normal quotes without the invoice classification (or a default) so we can tell what is what. It would also be cool to be able to sort or pull back data according to the classification. It may be cool to track the classifications as difference windows or date ranges, one-to-many. -Yesterday, 12/18/12, I went in to town to run some errands and spread some love for Learn to Freeride (an interactive CD-ROM that shows freestyle tricks and moves.) As part of my day I went by the technical college where my dad works. I chatted with him for a good half an hour and he pointe me in a good direction. We talked about a bunch of things and here are the cliff notes or shortened version. o Take a few steps back o Make a plan o Show the current tools in the shed o Teach and show o Use the product to show the product o Get ready to expand “as is” o Let people know what we are doing o Work smart o Offer classes, use technology, trade out we work for class time (there at the college) o Take yourself out of the pivot point These may not be his exact words, but this is what I took out of it. -Since then, yesterday, I have added a few more key points that I think need to play in to the mix: o The mix or blend may be what we are looking for. There is a time for each scenario. Order, disorder, speed, slow and steady, work and rest, new and old, etc. o I still need to keep promises made and work to be done. o Play as a team! -Where are we headed? Do I know? Am I okay with that? What would I like to change? I have so many questions and my head is in competition for which emotion to follow. It is kind of weird; I’m at peace yet anxious, scared yet excited, overwhelmed yet driven, doubting yet confident. It is really hard to pin down my thoughts. I can be focused like a laser beam and in no time flat, be as random and spread out as a light hitting a rough, yet reflective surface. I feel in control yet desperately grasping for stability. I keep seeing life lessons being played out before me. I’m part of them, then watching from the outside, then back inside. -Random change of events – one minute I am writing the above message, the next minute Steve calls and we talk for an hour. Then later today, I go on a walk in the snow with my dad and now I am super pumped up and ready to make things happen. -We may end up using the content server as a second adilas data server. Build with major growth in mind. -We need to under promise and over deliver. -Build up the education and self-help sections. Create some points marketing and really put it out there. -Show the vision – make a lot of it public knowledge. -Dream the dream and then live it! -Any outside report – pull the in under the main adilas wing, that way when we expand, they already exist inside the main core or application files. -What if we built things out so adding a new server was as easy as adding a new corporation. Automate database creation, settings, starting values, etc. -Eventually we will need to the ability to talk back and forth between servers and share data via web services. It may be good to start laying that foundation. -We may want to spread things out (servers and services) just to protect ourselves. Think of the saints when they came to Utah, once they got set-up, almost immediately they sent other parties out to settle other areas. That way it was harder for someone to come in and shut everything down. It also created mini bases and strong holds. I’d like to do something similar. |
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AU 1013 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/20/2012 |
• Brainstorming ideas and concepts for adilas training. • Worked on getting a new credit card on file for hosting fees. • Did a patient migration for a company. • On the phone with Steve going over things. We talked about all kinds of stuff including getting a loan, reps, a group training meetings and putting a lid on current development. We also talked about duplicating stuff for a new server to handle new clients and their data. • Phone calls and tech support. • Patient uploads for companies. |
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AU 1014 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/22/2012 | • Recording ideas and brainstorming. See notes in the blue notebook, multiple pages of ideas and notes. (Recorded below) | |
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AU 1030 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/22/2012 |
-On payroll and time clocks – we’ve had a request to help log or clock a person in/out if they work past midnight. Basically the code checks for specific dates and doesn’t let anything cross over the magic midnight line. We may need to automate the roll over. -Our biggest competition is “tradition” and what people consider “normal”. -If we end up sharing code, with the public, we may need to strip off some of the security stuff to keep our code safe. This could include the decoders and the decoder key. There may be some other pieces that don’t get included. -Match the right tool to the right job. -Consulting is key! -Good education and maintenance might be better than a great feature. -Adilas may not be the right fit for every business. -Teach database logic and relations. Teach one-to-many, one-to-one, and one-to-many-to-many. Teach them how to create objects. Symbols for these relationships are: normal 1-many, 1-1, 1-many-many -Features, advantages, and benefits! -Make a power-point slide show. Use bullets, graphics, and minimal transitions. -Be willing to share the road way and even provide a map to what we have learned. -We do the same basic things over and over again. We use the main homepages as a hub or starting point. We then jump to sub stations or sub homepages. We use basic searches, advanced searches, reports, permissions, settings, histories, add and edit processes and tons of 1-many relationships over and over again. -Once you learn our flavor and methods, it helps you to figure out the other pieces. -Review and help teach the history of double entry accounting. -Make sure and use my son’s graphic (drawing) of a boat sailing off the world. (Columbus 1492) -Old school accounting – paper copies and transferring from place to place or book to book. (Journals and ledgers) -I think that I could use my son’s skill in talking and negotiating – he is amazing at it! -My son loves to go driving with me. I control the pedals. Once we are in a safe location, I let him have fun and play around. Care is taken to only let him play in certain, safe situations. -Our product is a service. It falls somewhere between millions for custom write ups and $200-$600 far off the shelf products at Wal-Mart or Best Buy -Our service is software as a service or “saas”. A cloud based data portal. Your data, you cache and retrieve it, we secure it. -Centralized data – it all starts here. -Some of the other solutions are $6,000,000 for a license and $1,500,000 for implementations. -Plenty of room, enough to share the knowledge. -We are actively experimenting, exploring and pioneering. -Lots of sci-fi analogies: flying, transporting, mother ship, clones, time-travel, virtual reality. -Examples of a flat file vs. a 3D object with multiple entry points. It would be fun to show a comparison between the two. -I end up borrowing thoughts, sayings and ideas from lots of other places. This is called learning for transfer. -At some time we will need to add features for waste removal. -Pattern after nature or existing models and objects. -Help people connect the dots, help them see how things are inter-connected. -Different personalities and styles are great. Diversity is great! -Lots of life lessons. -Teach about relations and relationships. -Multiple entry points. -Elements of control – relate to what I do and how I feel sometimes. -Different needs and personalities are great and needed. Let the system and permissions be the bad guy. This may help to create a commonality between skills and personalities. -Often tying things to pay makes a huge difference. Sometimes this helps to get compliance. Money speaks… -Change can be tough – sometimes it helps to have a burning platform. Imaging an off-shore oil platform; most people won’t jump if you tell them to. However, if the platform is on fire, they will jump on their own. -We use a thing called “try-storming”. This is brainstorming and then implementing, knowing that we might have to come back around. This creates a very dynamic pioneering process. -Plan it out, take a stab at it, and be willing to come back around. There may be multiple rounds or trials. Time plays a part in this type of development. -We need to let people see our tick list. This may help them see the vision or even look forward to future projects. -We need to put a lid on it! We need to temporarily limit the development and focus on training and education! -Sell the current system “as is”! -Give the analogy of going down a rabbit hole; lots of options, tunnels, exploring, depth. -We only have created one of thousands of possible solutions. We have taken some broad strokes on some main pieces. There is literally tons of room for niche or industry specific applications. (Kind of like tunnels off the main rabbit hole.) -We really shine with multi locations and tracking details. That usually means that we need a detail oriented person somewhere in the organization. Old adage of, garbage in equals garbage out. -How do you learn and/or apply knowledge. Is it like a drop at a time (a drip system) or do you do flood irrigating. Little by little is a great way to go. This could be knowledge, information, tasks, settings, permissions. -Give your clients homework assignments and then return and report. -We are based on a foundation of permissions and settings. -You can or will be able to build your own interface. What do you want? What do you need? -Elements of time – use tasks and reminders for employees. Assign something and then have it show-up until completed or finished. -We use multi check and balances to create happy and sad objects. We even use happy faces and sad faces. We might need more of this. -We need to train the trainers. -On database dates, I would like to store numeric dates. This includes dates, times, date/time stamp and days. The ‘days’ is a new twist. Store Sunday –Saturday as a number. This will allow for reports, what happens on Fridays? -Just like LTF we need to show common mistakes and ways to fix things. -LTF used a great model of get the skills, learn the moves, go ride. Each of those sections was broken up into smaller pieces such as pre-requisite sites, exercises, beginner, intermediate, common mistakes, freeride, and next steps. -This is not a product you buy off the shelf. It is in a constant state of change. Possible lifetime work in progress. It may never be done. That’s why we are getting things out there; we don’t know what is going to happen. -3D accounting – running things through times to virtually build structure, texture and depth. -If we get lots of money, maybe buy back some of the domain names we had to let go, protect that piece. They kind of tell a story of where we are going. -Help other people look good. -Train the competition. -Ours is one of many possible solutions, lots of options. -We, as a company, know and are okay with the fact that at some point we will be leap frogged. It is just part of the game. -Simplicity through simple steps. Complexity through simple steps. -Solicit God’s help through prayer. Then be thankful for the help. Acknowledge His hand! -One of our greatest assets is the ideas and suggestions that we get from other people. This could be our users, reps, business owners, clients and other people. -We truly have become a community effort. -Help people see and compare the amount of work it takes to do real double entry and possible holes that can and may happen. This could be fat fingers, forgot, transposed, misplaced, time issues, not done in a timely fashion, gaps, holes and human error. -Get multiple eyes on the same data. Enter once, use many. If correct (the data) let it flow. Use the analogy of water droplets turning to ice: water (loose), slush, crystals, ice. Approve and pass it on. -It is very hard to jump to the end without a base or the small steps it takes to get there. Maybe even do an object lesson. Get a starting place, pick a goal, then figure out a plan. Make it real and attainable. No magic, no jet packs, no speeders, no flying crafts – unless that is part of the plan. It is okay to dream, we just need to remember how much time, money or energy things take. -Plan, Pace, Perform, Review – get a base, take small steps, you’ll get there. -Tell the story – it is amazing what that solves. -Take the time to do things right. Put it to bed, tuck it in, turn off the lights, let it rest. Once it is done, move on, next! -I love the word “again” - like a little child going down a slide – “again”. Keep it positive. -Draw a line in the sand – help bring things forward. This is how you start in the middle. -Isaiah the prophet (Old Testament) - sometimes hard to understand. He talked about the past, present, and the future sometimes without a transition. -Driving a car, you have to take drivers Ed, you have to be a certain age, you get a permit, you practice, you take a test, and then later on, you may get tested again. -Getting a little bit here and a little bit there – organic and smooth (at least in theory). -Data mapping is like a GPS tracking system for data. Kind of like tracking an UPS of FedEx package. Every check point is recorded and documented. If needed, you could virtually go back in time. This is tracking data items (packages) over time. -Do exercises – build 1-many relationships. Teach people the concept, enable them! -Many people want things all at once – maybe use the analogy of a rough circle rolling until it becomes a smooth and polished circle. This is a process that takes time. -Simple drawings – make them available without tons of words, then be able to point and explain. I’d like to refer to them at will. Maybe even make each one the size of a page 8 ½ x 11 or 11 x 8 ½. -Figure out – what is your goal or your client’s goal? How quick do you want to get there? Are you willing to take a step-by-step approach or do you want to make a single leap? -There is a great story in the Bible about sharing and giving. It deals with Elisha the prophet (2 Kings 7). There is a great famine in the land and the people of Israel are under siege from the Syrian army. Four leprous guys are outside the main city and decide, if we stay we die, if we go into the city we will die. Let’s go see if the Syrians have any food. If they kill us, we die anyway, so let’s go check it out. They found the whole camp empty of people but loaded with stuff. They take some of the stuff and hide it. Eventually they decide to tell the people. The people are saved from both the famine and the ward. Kind of a fun story about sharing and giving away information. -Little tid-bits go a long way. -Adilas (the data portal section) will starve without data and input. |
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AU 1015 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/24/2012 |
• Emails, business cards, paying bills and bank work. • Added the phrase “Our biggest competition is tradition” to the main website and homepage. • Lots of recording and brainstorming notes. (Pages and pages recorded in the blue notebook) |
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AU 1031 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/24/2012 |
-If we give out the code, ask that the companies and the developer give credit where credit is due. This includes God above! Thanks! -I’m thankful for being able to record and write things down. Writing and reading things that have been written help remind us and expands the options. Otherwise we have to keep re-learning and we are never able to stand on other people’s shoulders (their learning, mistakes, knowledge and experiences). -From Joseph Smith – “Teach people correct principles and let them govern themselves.” What a great way to do it! -Empower the people and your users. Then let them take responsibility for their actions. This is called “return and report”. -We need to update and clean-up the help files. We could add graphics, step-by-steps, videos and other links. This could be a huge but needed project. Teach the people! The subjects come second. -Help people get inspired! -Help people see the options and take their own spin off of the vision. This could be training, niche, set-up, consulting, web, design, sales, education, accounting, distribution, etc. -Education for the upcoming generations. -Broad strokes – general sweep of business functions. -Teach people how to do dynamic searches using built-in wild cards. -Elevate the knowledge of those who are willing to learn and play. -We enjoy doing this – it has been a ton of fun. Sometimes stressful, but really fun! Every day is like Christmas! New toys and lots of excitement! -Our goal is not to balance, our goal is to show you what we have and help you balance. -Get back to mapping out the system – see notes from 10/6/10 to 11/6/10 (loose papers). Transfer that information into the steps for success. -As a general note, if you jump in, it is easier than staying on the sidelines and watching. Come on in and get some experience! It is fun! -Kind of like a buffet or self-service restaurant. -If you need help, you need to ask for it. -We can help hold your hand, no problem. We consider that an additional service and will charge for that. You can pay us directly or use an independent rep to help where ever you have a need. Those reps will bill and charge you directly. Adilas never sees that money or those transactions. That is between the reps and their clients. -We don’t have a contract. If you like our service, keep paying for it. If not, that is up to you. We want to make you happy. -I am so thankful for paths, trails, maps and roads. There have been some very kind people who have gone before us! I think that is great! -The goal is to get people to think! (For themselves) -When teaching a class or giving a presentation, request and get feedback and ideas from students. This could be copies of notes or some other kind of voluntary type of sharing. -Harness the creativity of others! Then give back in a way that benefits others. -Wayne Gretzky – “Skate where the pack’s going, not where it’s been.” Head is up and we are actively looking and planning our next couple of moves. -What are the next 3 thing we need to do? -All we need is 200 happy customers! -Think of a time line with multiple levels or lines on it. What business functions are needed for what level? What types of businesses reside or play on what level? -I went to a Christmas party and my brother-in-law had a table runner going down the middle of the table. It was striped with lots of different colors and thicknesses of the lines. I used that table runner multiple times to represent a timeline, difference industries (businesses), and different functions that run or have run over time. It was great! I’d love to use something like that for teaching and demos. -“TIME” is one of the biggest keys to the whole puzzle. It is a moving constant. Because it moves, it could be considered a variable, yet it is measureable and finite. -I’ve got pages (10-12 loose pages) that were part of the brainstorming on elements of time. Make sure and get those documents and record them digitally. -Going back to the party (Christmas party) – we used real objects to talk and teach concepts. We used cups, plates, pans, etc. -You could put pieces of paper in the cups as they moved through time. You could create bridges or relationships. You could run things together; you could create objects and run them through time. We even compared what we had (our objects) to old traditional ways of doing accounting and book keeping. Because the objects had so many pieces, it virtually broke the old model without tons of extra work. It made sense to just map back to the object and have it report what it had. -Show and use simple objects to teach object lessons, cups, cans, plates, string, paper, etc. -To push the object lessons a little further, you could even break things into smaller pieces, job functions, or virtual areas of operation (like permissions). Each person does their own piece of the puzzle or process. In the end it all comes together. -Lean manufacturing and just in time inventory functions. Similar to the above ideas but for data not inventory. -If you relate this to the multi layered timeline, you could use different lines to make or create different components and outcomes. -Everything is headed to the mobile world and mobile level. We need to make certain parts of adilas and our business model into an app or at least be mobile friendly. On the go? No, problem! -I was up snowboarding and rod the life with a guy who I used to work with years ago. On the lift rides up, we were talking up a storm and catching up. He had been a mechanic and used appliance repair guy. Anyway, we talked about tons of life lessons and learning on the job. Here were a few of the notes from our conversations: 1. Cater to your customers and don’t worry about the other guys. For example in the appliance market – was the customer looking for something new at Lowe’s or Sears or were they looking at a used item or appliance? 2. Pace (speed) – start clean and organize as you go – keep things clean. This saves time, energy and frustration. 3. Explore all options to get around the financial burden. 4. Flow, setting yourself up for success and good flow, and documenting flow, steps and processes. 5. He was talking about a good airplane mechanic and the guy would literally flag things as he found possible problems. They, the mechanics, would then write on the flagging what was wrong. If they were off or the next shift came on, the flags were literally there to help with communications. Anyway, I saw some great cross over options for us and what we do with flags. Good stuff. (General flags, dates, flex grid tie-ins, elements of time, etc.) 6. Get the tools and supplies read in advance. 7. Make a plan for the process. 8. Best practices – do it right the first time. This is a huge time saver. Even if you are in a hurry, do it right. 9. Pace – constant movement in a good direction. 10. Eliminating distractions – for example: walking away from your project to take a phone call. 11. Be candid and honest – let your customers know what they are getting. (Expectations) 12. Knowing your customers – who they are and who they are not? 13. Who is your competition and who is not your competition? This part of our discussion led to the comment and thought – our biggest competition is tradition. 14. Along with competition, what level are you playing at? 15. Time (development time) can be an asset or it can be an enemy. For example: His friend had an idea to develop a product line for teens. It took 5 years to develop. The graphics were cool 5 years ago but not when he tried to release it. However, the friend was stuck on the idea because he had, had so much time, energy, marketing, focus groups and effort into the project. The time to market was a big problem. I can see that our time to market needs a boost and an upgrade to what our clients want. We live in a fast paces world that often changes based on expectations and other outside influences. 16. Leaving plenty of time at the end! Wrap things up, test, walk around, touch and push on the changes. 17. Price point – we don’t have to take crud from people, we are good at doing what we do. 18. Map things out! Paper works great! 19. Harness other people’s work. What do they do to be successful? Mix and blend and be your own style. 20. Teach people how to use the product. This includes common features, concepts, underlying technologies, dynamic templates, dynamic searches and build your own stuff. -Some of what we do is considered “smoke and mirrors”. It is not magic; it is showing one thing while doing another thing. This helps us give the appearance of one thing while still satisfying something else. -I’d really like to go in and chop the database into smaller pieces. Then have the application code connect and join things on the fly. My initial thought were make new tables for every 25 corporations. It may be better every 10 or for each corp??? Not sure on that, we’ll see. |
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AU 1016 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/26/2012 |
• Bank work and recording more notes. (See blue notebook) • Tech support and tax table prep stuff. • Built a bulk copy and paste page for existing tax tables. • Did a full copy of the existing 2012 tax tables for 2013. • Working on the 1099 and W-2 forms for 2012. |
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AU 1032 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/26/2012 |
-We had a good Sunday school lesson in church last week (12/23/12) covering the first 6 chapters in Moroni. I scratched out a few notes that I thought were relative to adilas and what we are doing at this phase of the game. 1. As a little bit of history, Moroni is alone, all of his kinsfolk are dead, and he is being hunted by his enemies. He keeps writing things down that were either forgotten or weren’t perfectly clear. His goal was to record things so that future generations would know what to do. 2. The teacher used a great mix of humor and spirituality. Humor – what a great thing. 3. Standard stuff – If you go to McDonald’s or Wal-Mart, you can expect certain things. The same is true with the church. If you go to a ski resort, you would expect to have a lift pass, runs, rules, parking and a lodge. 4. When things are standardized, people tend to have a level of comfort and that helps them. Same skills, different setting or same setting, different skills. 5. How would I feel (or you feel) if I went to our church (used our program) for the first time? You may feel uncomfortable. How can we help users feel more comfortable? 6. Our use of terms and language we use – it becomes its own culture and you have to help people use and understand what is being said. 7. Progression and order. The word order is a big key – house of order. 8. I’d like to make a text version of our code – maybe tweak a few security things and change the cypher or the code encoder functions. 9. We need to get fed! Where do we get that? Church, school, home, work? Just curious…? 10. If man can’t help you – call on God! 11. What do you carry with you? How does that sustain you? 12. Cross reference, buddy systems and other ways to look things up. We use the flex grid tie-ins and dynamic searches to look things up and make connections. This feature is very important. -On the income statement – it would be nice to be able to refine your search or change settings. Along with this, we need a place to store corp-wide settings for running the P&C or income statement. -I’d like to chop things down (meaning inside the database), maybe I should wait until we start seeing a need. Keep things as they are until we wither have time and/or see the need. Maybe break the project up into super small micro steps, only as needed vs. a big huge full blown overhaul. Interesting… -We had an idea about tying the customer logs and follow-ups to the calendar and elements of time. I can foresee the time that almost every report will have or need a calendar type overlay or format. |
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AU 2267 |
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Drawings - Buddy System | 12/26/2012 |
Buddy System: - Things that go together - Buddy check - Linking objects together - Stacking things - Maybe like atoms – molecules - Cross reference - Ways to look things up - Things tied together with rope - Buddies (Sketches on scan in photo gallery for 12/26/12) - Over time – the flow of operations & accounting - Part placeholder (Sketches on scan in photo gallery for 12/26/12) |
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AU 1017 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/27/2012 |
• Emails and tech support. • Working on the PDF for 1099’s. • On the phone with Steve going over clients and their needs. • Steve is getting lots of good feedback about the simple interface changes. He is also trying to round up some money. |
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AU 1033 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/27/2012 |
-When exporting the customer list to MS Excel – we had a request to show the customers contact. This is actually a non-required one-to-many relationship between customers and contacts. Nonetheless, we had a request to merge the options for output into Excel. -Another option to the above request is to use the customer tax id field. It has its own corp-wide setting name that could be changed to “primary contact” or something like that. -We always paint a positive picture of database logic and one-to-many relationships. What are the cons to the model? One is details and things spread all over. Another is education and helping people know what is what and where or how things are stored (education). Complexity and dynamics are some other possible cons. However, if the education is there, it allows for all of the positive possibilities as well. Without the education, it just looks complicated. -When we first started, here were a few things that helped me: o Stuff things in big Pringles cans. o It is okay to have a disconnect as long as it comes together in the end. (Perfect match – everything is in line. Slight disconnect – but it comes back together over time.) o My job is not to make things balance – my job is to show you what is there or how it got recorded. o Open entry, open exit, you decide the level to play at. o Put it out there, beat on it, push it, and then circle back if needed. -Use the map and interactive map layout when teaching. Make it very big, so people can read it while sitting in their seats (while taking a class). -On LTF – what if we took out the trick sub menus or allowed a play all. I was also thinking that people may enjoy the credits more than the instruction as the default text verbiage. Make the credits flow with the clip and allow the instruction to be non-linear and an extra click. -We could also use YouTube for LTF and combing all of the clips together to form one big 5-10 minute clip per trick. This may be nicer for persons who go online to view things. |
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AU 1018 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/28/2012 |
• Working on the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) page for Steve. • Finished up the page and posted the file online. |
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AU 1019 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/29/2012 |
• Working on the 1099’s and populating the PDF documents. • Brainstorming on ideas for the adilas course and seminar. • Quick change to the update inventory page. Added more pagination options. Added a new button to update the quantities and go to the next page. • Posted files online. |
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AU 1034 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/29/2012 |
-Sometimes we get so focused on a certain thing, it blocks our creativity. Kind of like me looking for my window scraper – I was starting to get mad because I couldn’t find it. A nice lady came over and used her coat sleeve to clean off my window. I just stood there in shock. Super simple but I needed someone else to show it to me. -For the class and train the trainers course (seminar) – I think it would by funny to play off the inside joke about what does adilas do? Did you bring a lunch? (Example role play: Participant 1, “So what does adilas do?” Answering party, “Tons of things! Did you bring a lunch? What have you heard? What would you like to know?”) Keep it positive! -For the class, we then provide the instruction and the lunch for the class members. Run from 8am to 4pm with an hour lunch. Do a two day course or 14 hours of instructor led training. That would be a $700 value for the course. -The train the trainers course should be: vision, concepts, how-to’s, step-by-steps, tips and tricks, question and answer sessions. -Engage and empower our users! -The touch of a master’s hand – like the song about the old violin and how it had little worth until the master played it. Kind of like getting adilas into the hands of a power user, they can make it dance! |
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AU 1020 |
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Daily Tasks | 12/31/2012 |
• Working on the 1099’s for year-end stuff. • On the phone with Steve. We talked about how to help a customer run their custom jobs and show/hide line items at will. We also talked a lot about interface options and the upcoming train the trainers course. Lots of good stuff. • I then changed buttons on the CRM homepage to run down the page instead of across the page. • Steve and others are playing with the mobile options. • More work on populating the 1099 PDF forms. |
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AU 1035 |
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Daily Ideas | 12/31/2012 |
-Balance the human side with the business side. Enter on the human side, take care of business, and exit back on the human side. (I used to have a mug with this on it (and graphic). I got it as an intern for Moore Business Forms in 2000.) -On training – it would be really cool if we could visually show what each piece has, does or contain. For example: the reason we call this an expense/receipt is this - it has three main compartments… each of these allows for… common uses are… special options are… etc. -Even though a chain saw saves tons of work it still takes work to use it. -Unlock the built-in potential in the current tool set! Barcodes, custom PDF docs, data exports, my cart favorites, custom interfaces, corp-wide settings, the quick search, flex grid tie-in, elements of time, dynamic search options, histories, roll calls, recipe/builds, unlimited parts, no upgrades, web-basses, no hardware requirements, mobile, any device, centralized data, etc. -Tons of work has already been done on paper and in the help files. Show and bring things to the foreground. -Continue to build on a solid base and foundation. -Bring real objects for the object lessons: cans of Pringles, striped cloth, different sizes of fire wood (what are you trying to start on fire), pots, pans, dishes, cups, paper, legos, blocks, duct tape, bailing twine, wire, cookie cutters, tools, notebooks, blank paper, pen, pencils, ice trays, bridges, flagging, string, yarn, scissors, markers, post-it notes, etc. -Another analogy of tracking data over time is what they do at FedEx or UPS with their package tracking. Date and flags through the entire process. Combine this with centralized data, multiple persons doing their job, storage, search options and display functions. You get data or packages being tracked over time. This may be a common analogy that people are familiar with. Idea came from an associate at Thanksgiving. |
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