Jekyll2024-01-08T17:26:48+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/feed.xmlJeff Barr’s BlogJeff Barr's BlogJeff BarrMy Maker Content2023-05-29T21:38:00+00:002023-05-29T21:38:00+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2023/05/29/my-maker-content<p>I am working to create some maker-oriented content, and have decided to host it on <a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a>. Here’s what I have so far:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/@nextjeff/my-ambient-information-display-e3c026a2d325">My Ambient Information Display</a></li>
<li><a href="https://nextjeff.medium.com/3d-printable-aws-tile-generator-833a7f925ffa">3D Printable AWS Tile Generator</a></li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/@nextjeff/3d-printing-on-fabric-tips-and-tricks-f306f4d56833">3D Printing on Fabric - Tips, Tricks, and Code</a></li>
</ul>
<p>The Medium author system is clean and easy to use, and I can dash off posts very quickly. I also get followers, metrics, views view their recommendations, and more.</p>Jeff BarrI am working to create some maker-oriented content, and have decided to host it on Medium. Here’s what I have so far:Operation #BringDadHome - The Whole Story2020-09-18T14:04:00+00:002020-09-18T14:04:00+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2020/09/18/operation-bringdadhome<p>Now that I have sorted out multiple issues with my personal storage
and blogging environment, I am ready to start blogging here again! To
get started, I want to tell the story of <strong>Operation #BringDadHome</strong>.</p>
<p>My father (Stephen Barr) began to have memory issues a year or two
ago. He would ask the same question several times in the course of a
short conversation, and would unashamedly say that his memory was
failing him. He moved from Seattle to Arizona a decade or so ago, and
was in an independent living facility in the town of Glendale,
outside of Phoenix. Each time that I would visit him, his unit was
slightly messier and more disorganized that the time before.</p>
<p>Due to the pandemic, Dad and the other residents of his facility were
confined to their units for extended periods of time, with meals
delivered and very little opportunity for human interaction. This
forced isolation may have accelerated the decline of his faculties,
and we realized that it was time for a change.</p>
<p>After a lot of research, my sister L found a nice facility outside of
Philadelphia, not too far from her home. By chance, one of my father’s
brothers also lived fairly close, making this new
location ideal for just about everyone involved.</p>
<p>Once we settled on a new location, we consulted our calendars and
found a 4-day span that would work for everyone involved – my father,
Carmen, my sister, and the two facilities – and set up an aggressive
but workable plan: fly to Phoenix on Sunday, pack him up on Monday,
and fly to Philadelphia on Tuesday:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_itin_2.gif" alt="Itinerary Blurred" /></p>
<p>There was plenty of uncertainty to go around, starting with my
father’s willingness to move. Even though we had reviewed the entire
plan with him multiple times and sought his approval and consent, we
still worried that he might resist at the last moment. We did not know
how much he had to pack, and we were worried about exposing him to
Coronavirus. To make matters worse, smoke from the firess in Oregon,
California, and Eastern Washington blanketed Seattle with a thick haze
of ash:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_seattle_saturday_1.jpg" alt="Seattle on Saturday" /></p>
<p>My father served in the
<a href="https://www.airforce.com/">United States Air Force</a>
from 1955 to 1958 and often spoke of
his time “in the service.” With our plans in place I decided that he
deserved a special welcome and set out to do what I could in the short
time that I had available. The day before I left I issued an emotional plea for help:</p>
<div class="jekyll-twitter-plugin"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I need a *GIANT* favor, and have no other way to ask. Let me start with some background. My father is suffering from dementia and we are moving him from Arizona to Pennsylvania on September 15. He served in the US Air Force (<a href="https://twitter.com/usairforce?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@usairforce</a>) from 1955 to 1958. <a href="https://t.co/tnkJ92FQ8p">pic.twitter.com/tnkJ92FQ8p</a></p>— Jeff Barr ☁️ (@ 🏠 ) (@jeffbarr) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffbarr/status/1304838967422889985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>
<p>As I noted in my Tweet thread, I wanted a Hollywood-style warm and
friendly greeting for him. Within minutes, responses and
recommendations came in. I was fielding Twitter DMs, emails, Facebook messages,
<a href="https://aws.amazon.com/chime/">Chime</a> and
<a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a> messages, including several from the
commnuity of
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=20125988011">veterans at Amazon</a>.</p>
<p>I had unleased a torrent of goodwill just 24 hours before the start of
our trip. People that I had never met were more than willing to do
something, anything to help out or to point me in the right
direction. My heart was on fire, but when we set off on our trip I had
no idea what to expect, and did not want to get my hopes up. I did not
provide a lot of lead time (our plans did not gel until the last
minute), and everyone needs to be mindful of their health due to
Coronavirus. I was still messaging as we left Seattle and continued with multiple
conversations throughout our time in Phoenix.</p>
<p>Through multiple routes,
my request reached the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the <a href="http://www.warriorswatch.org/">Warriors Watch
Riders</a> and they told me that they
would do their absolute best to help out. We arranged to meet about 5
miles from Dad’s new facility and set up a tentative time.</p>
<p>We arrived in Phoenix, purchased a bunch of boxes and packing
supplies, and showed up at my Dad’s facility bright and early Monday
morning. He was happy to see us, and we worked together so organize,
sort, and pack his things. Due to his failing memory, we had to
explain and re-explain our plan, but it was clear that he was getting
excited for his big move!</p>
<p>I tried to anticipate every possible issue that might arise along the
route, and had contingency plans for as many of them as possible. If
the flight from Seattle was cancelled, we would drive to Arizona. If
the one to Philadelphia could not happen, I had a line on a charter. I
had asked Dad about his IDs and he was not sure what he had. I brought
some family photos to establish our relationship just in case we had
any trouble, and we were lucky to find two driver’s licenses and his
passport (all expired but usable) as we sorted and packed.</p>
<p>Before leaving him on Monday evening, we set his alarm, arranged for a
wake-up call at the front desk, and also asked my sister L to call
him. There was one direct flight from Phoenix to Philadelphia, and we
simply had to make it.</p>
<p>We showed up shortly after 4 AM on Tuesday and Dad was already waiting
for us in his lobby. We had given him a travel bag to pack, and it was
all set and ready to go! I bought a
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HFJC9EY/">US AF Veteran</a> hat for
my father and gave it to him as we were leaving his old facility:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_dad_hat_1.jpg" alt="Dad, Jeff, Hat" /></p>
<p>I checked his maibox one last time, turned in his keys, and we were off to the airport:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_phx_carmen_1.jpg" alt="Dad and Carmen, Phoenix Airport" /></p>
<p>As requested, I texted the leader of the Warriors Watch Riders when we
pushed back and again when we landed so that they could anticipate our
arrival. They told me to expect between 2 and 50 cyclists!</p>
<p>The American Airlines flight was nearly empty, and Dad was a bit
chilly, but the time passed quickly and we were in Philadelphia by
mid-afternoon. I did not want to get my hopes up, but I knew that two
groups were ready to give us some greetings. We left the plane, and my
colleague <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-maguire-336b82/">Brian Maguire</a> messaged
me to let me know that he and
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerlynch/">Tyler Lynch</a> were waiting
for us at baggage claim, along with an AWS partner (I did not catch
his name):</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_phl_3x_1.jpg" alt="Dad, Tyler, Brian, Philadelphia Airport" /></p>
<p>I got our rental car and we set out for Richboro! Traffic was heavy
due to construction, and I was so eager to get there. My sister L
messaged me to let me know that there were at least 10 cyclists
waiting for us, and I started to get excited. We pulled in to the
parking lot and there they were:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_dad_wwr_1.jpg" alt="Dad and Warrior Watch Riders" /></p>
<p>We explained to Dad that these people remembered him from his days in
the Air Force, and that they were there to celebrate and honor his
service. He was all smiles, and enjoyed speaking with them. We did
our best to keep him masked and distant, but were not 100%
successful. These big, tough-looking folks were the kindest, gentlest,
and most big-hearted people that I have ever met.</p>
<p>After the initial meeting, we hopped into / onto our respective
vehicles and our motorcade roared to life! Cycles in front, then us,
then my sister and her busband, and two pickups with flashing lights
bringing up the rear!</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_motorcade_1.jpg" alt="Motorcade" /></p>
<p>We pulled in to Dad’s new facility and the Warriors spent more time
talking to Dad and presenting him with some awesome medals and beads,
taking the time to explain the significance of each one:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_rewards_1.jpg" alt="Medals" /></p>
<p>He was all smiles and spent a lot of time talking about how he served in Japan at
the conclusion of the Korean War.</p>
<p>We said goodbye to this group of amazing people, got Dad checked in,
unpacked and organized his belongings, hung up his poster, and left
him to rest:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_welcome_home_1.jpg" alt="Poster" /></p>
<p>The next day we met up with my father’s brother and his brother’s spouse,
flew back to Seattle, and declared Operation #BringDadHome a success:</p>
<p><img src="https://images.jeff-barr.com/blog/2020/bdh_jeff_carmen_sea_1.jpg" alt="Back in Seattle" /></p>
<p>As I noted in my tweet, this move, while challenging, was a good reminder:</p>
<div class="jekyll-twitter-plugin"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Suffice it to say that the events of this week served to reinforce my belief that the vast majority of people in the world are good and generous, and more than ready to do something great if asked. Thank you one and all for helping to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BringDadHome?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BringDadHome</a>!</p>— Jeff Barr ☁️ (@ 🏠 ) (@jeffbarr) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffbarr/status/1306332652409171970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>
<p>I would like to thank the 100+ people who helped, offered to help,
referred me to help, wished us well, and made my father’s journey home
so easy, comfortable, and welcoming for him. He’s still getting
adjusted to his new location, and I think that he will do well there.</p>Jeff BarrNow that I have sorted out multiple issues with my personal storage and blogging environment, I am ready to start blogging here again! To get started, I want to tell the story of Operation #BringDadHome.Back for Good This Time2020-08-25T09:00:00+00:002020-08-25T09:00:00+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2020/08/25/back-for-good<p>After a couple of false starts, this blog is back and I will be producing content on a regular and
frequent basis. I finally straightened out some embarassing technical isues and some source code
control problems, and also took the time to clean up some legacy stuff. I’ll have a lot more to
say about all of that very soon.</p>
<p>Since writing my <a href="http://jeff-barr.com/2015/01/03/lego-investment-resources/">previous post</a> way back in 2015 I have been promoted
to VP and Chief Evangelist for AWS. I have also moved from Sammamish to Seattle, and have become a devoted city-dweller.
I have also written hundreds of posts for the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/">AWS News Blog</a>, recorded lots of videos, and learned
many new skills.</p>Jeff BarrAfter a couple of false starts, this blog is back and I will be producing content on a regular and frequent basis. I finally straightened out some embarassing technical isues and some source code control problems, and also took the time to clean up some legacy stuff. I’ll have a lot more to say about all of that very soon.Lego Investment Resources2015-01-03T17:31:59+00:002015-01-03T17:31:59+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2015/01/03/lego-investment-resources<p>Over the last couple of years I have slowly become an Adult Fan of
LEGO®, otherwise known as an AFOL! After building dozens of LEGO sets
with my children when they were young, I rediscovered my fondness for
carefully following directions in order to end up with the desired
result. This is in marked contrast to my day job, where I am routinely
called upon to create thousands of words of fresh content from scratch
with no structure or guidance whatsoever.</p>
<p>I have built all of the following large-scale sets in the last two years, along with four or five smaller ones:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Service-Truck-42008">Service Truck</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Mercedes-Benz-Unimog-U-400-8110">Mercedes-Benz Unimog U-400</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Mobile-Crane-MK-II-42009">Mobile Crane MK II</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Remote-Controlled-VOLVO-L350F-Wheel-Loader-42030">Remote-Controlled VOLVO L350F Wheel Loader</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Cargo-Plane-42025">Cargo Plane</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Logging-Truck-9397">Logging Truck</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Mobile-Crane-8053">Mobile Crane</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Supercar-8070">Supercar</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Motorized-Excavator-8043">Motorized Excavator</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Fire-Brigade-10197">Fire Brigade</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Grand-Emporium-10211">Grand Emporium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Town-Hall-10224">Town Hall</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Parisian-Restaurant-10243">Parisian Restaurant</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pet-Shop-10218">Pet Shop</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Palace-Cinema-10232">Palace Cinema</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/MINI-Cooper-10242">MINI Cooper</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/AT-AT-75054">AT-AT</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Shuttle-Expedition-10231">Shuttle Expedition</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Volkswagen-T1-Camper-Van-10220">Volkswagen T1 Camper Van</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Here is one corner of my home office:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_corner_1.jpg" />
</div>
<p>In 2015, I hope to design and build a <a href="http://www.brickwiki.info/wiki/Great_ball_contraption">Great Ball Contraption</a> of
my very own! In order to do this, I’ll need a healthy supply of
various parts. It turns out that there’s a really interesting and
well-organized international marketplace for new and used LEGO sets
and parts and that’s why I am writing this post. While I have no plans
to be a LEGO seller, I thought I would take the time to organize and
document what I found.</p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">The Challenge</span></strong><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AUSCOR4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00AUSCOR4&linkCode=as2&tag=vertexdevelopmen&linkId=VKRS5NYOXQRKYMF5"><img border="0" style="float:right;margin-left:8px;margin-bottom:8px;" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00AUSCOR4&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=vertexdevelopmen" /></a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=vertexdevelopmen&l=as2&o=1&a=B00AUSCOR4" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
According to the <a href="http://brickset.com/parts">Brickset Parts Database</a> over
27,197 LEGO parts have been in production at some point over the last 26 years.
At any given time, a subset of these parts (in a subset of the 141 official
colors) are actually in production. Each new part represents an
investment of $50K to $80K in tooling and the company is careful to keep the number under
control. According to the book
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AUSCOR4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00AUSCOR4&linkCode=as2&tag=vertexdevelopmen&linkId=VKRS5NYOXQRKYMF5">Brick by Brick</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=vertexdevelopmen&l=as2&o=1&a=B00AUSCOR4" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> an
earlier failure to pay attention to the proliferation of parts nearly destroyed
the company just a decade or so ago. Today, according to a recent article
in <a href="http://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/sites/default/files/Descargas/hbm021_ing_high.pdf">Issue 21 of HispaBrick</a>,
they design and produce 300 to 350 new parts per year and cease to produce
about the same number.</p>
<p>Most LEGO sets are available for a limited time. A particular part in a desired color
might be found in a handful of sets. This scarcity is what creates value and makes
the buying and selling of individual parts worthwhile for sellers.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.newelementary.com/">New Elemenary</a> blog
is one of several sources for information about new parts. The parts
databases at <a href="http://brickset.com/parts">Brickset</a> and <a href="http://www.bricklink.com/catalog.asp">BrickLink</a>
allow you to browse by part, set, year, color, and so forth. For example, here’s
the BrickLink entry for the <a href="http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=57585">Technic Axle Connector Hub with 3 Axles</a>:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_techic_axle_connector_57585_1.png" />
</div>
<p>I should note that BrickLinks is just one place to buy and sell LEGO parts online. You can
buy direct from <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=Ebj8w5dK6dg&subid=&offerid=115554.1&type=10&tmpid=2294&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fshop.lego.com%252Fen-US%252FPick-A-Brick-ByTheme">LEGO Pick-A-Brick</a> and you can also check out
the new <a href="http://www.brickowl.com/">Brick Owl</a> marketplace.</p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Buying LEGO Parts</span></strong><br />
Let’s say that I need 20 of these parts for a project. I can simply search BrickLink to find a
seller who has them in inventory and make the purchase:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_bricklink_connector_for_sale_1.png" />
</div>
<p>After I select a seller (based on price, reputation, location, terms of sale, and so forth) I make my
purchase (which can consist of one or more lots) and wait for the seller to send me a payment
request. I pay the seller, they ship the items to me, and I enter my feedback. The site maintains
feedback for buyers and for sellers. Here’s mine:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_bricklink_feedback_1.png" />
</div>
<p>If I am buying a lot of parts and want to be sure that I am getting a good deal, I can
consult the BrickLink price guide:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_bricklink_price_guide_57585_1.png" />
</div>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Some Observations</span></strong><br />
After spending some time browsing through the parts catalog, seller inventory, and other information
on BrickLink, a couple things became apparent to me. First, there’s a lot of inventory and many
sellers:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_bricklink_metrics_2015_1.png" />
</div>
<p>Second, sellers can find many ways to differentiate themselves. They can decide to focus on shipments
to or from a particular geographic area. They can accept various forms of payment, and they can
specialize in different types of LEGO products (Duplo bricks, mini-figures, Technic parts, and
so forth). They can also set minimum lot and order sizes, and they can deal in sets, parts, or
both. There’s a market for just about everything including the original boxes, sheets of stickers,
and instructions. Sellers can offer new parts (taken directly from newly opened boxes), used
parts (often acquired in bulk), or both. They can buy popular sets and hold them until production
ceases, hoping that the value will rise over time (the <a href="http://blog.brickpicker.com/">Brick Picker Blog</a>
analyzes sets and themes and attempts to pick suitable long-term investments).</p>
<p>Third, is that people are very clever and can turn almost any opportunity in to a full or part-time
business of some sort. Some of the largest stores on BrickLink have millions of parts in their
inventory; many others have 100,000 or more.</p>
<p>Fourth, there are a multitude of variables to consider. Buying sets and parting them
out is clearly labor-intensive. You’ll need to be well organized and have an eye for detail.
Buying and holding sets can be lucrative but risky. You may need to hold on to sets well
past their retirement dates in order to realize a good return. In order to do this you will
need a large amount of secure, low-cost storage space (the “value density” of a box of
bricks is fairly low, all things considered). International shipments can be profitable
but complex and (again) labor-intensive due to the paperwork involved.</p>
<p>Fifth, good accounting is key. With an inventory of tens or hundreds of thousands
of low-cost parts, you need to know which parts and sets are the most profitable, which items are
simply taking up space in your inventory, and so forth. You need to understand storage,
shipping, packaging, and handling costs. You need to track costs and revenue, track
and pay all appropriate taxes, and properly value and account for your time.</p>
<p>With all of these thoughts in mind, I spent some time exploring this space from the seller’s
point of view.</p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Selling LEGO Parts</span></strong><br />
Sellers must be able to find a unique selling proposition and then capitalize on it
in order to create a successful business. As I mentioned above, they have many options.</p>
<p>With a business model in mind, sellers need to acquire inventory. They
can acquired used inventory in bulk from <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">eBay</a>,
<a href="http://www.craigslist.org">Craigslist</a>, and local sources such as
garage sales. New inventory comes from big-box stores, toy stores, and
the link. Astute sellers are quick to jump on sales and take advantage
of LEGO VIP membership, coupons, special offers, discount codes, and credit card loyalty
programs.</p>
<p>Some good tools are available to help sellers make good acquisition and
pricing decisions. For example, the <a href="http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp">BrickLink Price Guide</a>
allows you to enter the item number for a set and determine the value of
the parts inside. I happen to have the
<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=Ebj8w5dK6dg&subid=&offerid=115554.1&type=10&tmpid=2294&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fshop.lego.com%252Fen-US%252FPassenger-Train-7938">Passenger Train</a> in my pile of sets to be built. Let’s see what it is worth
as parts:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_bricklink_partout_value_7938_1.png" />
</div>
<p>And the answer is (assuming that I can sell all of the parts):</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_bricklink_7938_value_final_1.png" />
</div>
<p>I paid $129 (plus tax). It looks like I could part out this set and almost double
my money. That’s not too bad. There are, however, ways to increase my return. I could
hold on to the set for another year or two (the value appears to be increasing). I
can also do a better job of acquiring inventory. This set is about to go “EOL” (End of Life)
and was sold on close-out for just $103.98:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_city_train_sold_out_eol_too_bad_1.png" />
</div>
<p>A savvy seller would pick up some sets at this time in order to maximize their return. Obviously,
there’s a very short time window between “End of Life” and “Sold Out” and you need to act fast.
Buying sets at this time should increase returns due to the lower purchase price and the
opportunity for a faster inventory turn.</p>
<p>Selling parts and sets is a service business and good customer service is a must! A successful
seller has to be able to pack and ship the goods on time and as promised, provide tracking
numbers, and respond to complaints and other inquiries on a timely basis. Reputation is
everything in this business.</p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Resources</span></strong><br />
This post is getting kind of long and I have just scratched the surface of this fascinating
topic. I’ll wrap up with some interesting resources so that you can continue to investigate.</p>
<p>First, a pair of helpful books. Both of these are relatively short, but are written
by experienced sellers and are jam-packed with good information:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LW9YNZQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00LW9YNZQ&linkCode=as2&tag=vertexdevelopmen&linkId=VIRPUVRKUAD6W4GX"><img style="border:1px solid black;" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00LW9YNZQ&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=vertexdevelopmen" /></a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=vertexdevelopmen&l=as2&o=1&a=B00LW9YNZQ" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BXRHVNS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BXRHVNS&linkCode=as2&tag=vertexdevelopmen&linkId=YWWPLUXEO5MUJ6XZ"><img style="border:1px solid black;" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00BXRHVNS&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=vertexdevelopmen" /></a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=vertexdevelopmen&l=as2&o=1&a=B00BXRHVNS" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
</div>
<p>The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/legoinvesting/">Lego Investing Group</a> on Facebook is home to an active
seller community:</p>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/legoinvesting/">
<img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/lego_facebook_investing_group_1.png" />
</a>
</div>
<p>There are also lots of good YouTube videos. Chris Byrne
(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/BricksOnTheDollar/videos">Bricks on the Dollar</a>) is prolific, entertaining,
and informative. He also writes the <a href="https://bricksonthedollar.wordpress.com/">Bricks on the Dollar</a> blog.
Check out his <a href="http://instagram.com/bricksonthedollar/">Instagram Feed</a> to get a sense for the scale of his operation.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jMZ8XvUbbBycmnwY0uyVg">Yankee Brick Picker</a> seems to run on a smaller scale, but
also looks interesting.</p>
<p>I hope you have enjoyed this quick look at a fascinating brick-based economy! If you have
suggestions for updates, please <a href="http://jeff-barr.com/contact-jeff-barr/">contact me</a>.</p>Jeff BarrOver the last couple of years I have slowly become an Adult Fan of LEGO®, otherwise known as an AFOL! After building dozens of LEGO sets with my children when they were young, I rediscovered my fondness for carefully following directions in order to end up with the desired result. This is in marked contrast to my day job, where I am routinely called upon to create thousands of words of fresh content from scratch with no structure or guidance whatsoever.My First 12 Years at Amazon.com2014-08-19T11:36:35+00:002014-08-19T11:36:35+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2014/08/19/my-first-12-years-at-amazon-dot-com<p>Twelve years ago today I drove to Seattle and started working at <a href="http://www.amazon.com">Amazon.com</a>. Today seems like a good time to tell
the story of how and why I joined the company and to retrace my career path to date.</p>
<p>I have been an Amazon customer since the fall of 1996. My first order was a book called
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568843488/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1568843488&linkCode=as2&tag=vertexdevelopmen&linkId=YH5HZVNFEY5ZEBTB">PC Roadkill</a>:</p>
<p><img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/pc_roadkill_amazon_order_1.png" alt="PC Roadkill Order" /></p>
<h1 id="the-first-web-service">The First Web Service</h1>
<p>In early 2002 I was happily self-employed. I had a nice consulting
business and made a good living working with a wide variety of early
Internet and web services companies. Several of my customers were
preparing for a future where web services (discovered via UDDI and
accessed via SOAP) were commonplace. At that point in time, however,
working examples were few and far between. There were some simple demo
services that could return a stock quote or a weather forecast,
package tracking from UPS, and a limited bookkeeping service from
Intuit. It was easy to talk about the promise of web services but
there was very little to actually show. I must have drawn diagrams
like this several dozen times (this is taken from a presentation that
I delivered in late 2002):</p>
<p><img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/web_service_model_1.png" alt="Web Service Mode" /></p>
<p>All that changed in the spring of 2002 when the very first <em>Amazon.com
Web Service</em> (as it was called at the time) emerged in beta form. This
simple service offered SOAP and XML interfaces to the Amazon product
catalog and allowed developers to earn revenue through the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/associates">Amazon
Associates</a> program. I became aware
of this service, signed up for the beta, and downloaded the SDK. I
wrote some simple PHP applications to try it out, and then built and
briefly distributed a PHP library to simplify access to the data. I
was impressed and intrigued and sent them some feedback and offered to
meet with them to share my feedback in person.</p>
<p>At this time I was also running Syndic8, a directory of RSS and Atom
feeds. Syndic8 included a fairly comprehensive web services API built
on top of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC">XML-RPC</a>
protocol.</p>
<p>The product manager responded quickly and was happy to meet with me and to
listen to my feedback. He also invited me to a modest developer conference that
they were planning to conduct later that spring.</p>
<h1 id="developer-conference">Developer Conference</h1>
<p>The conference was held on the 6th floor of the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Tower_%28Seattle%29">Pac-Med</a>
building. Once a Marine hospital, this imposing edifice dates back to
1933 and sits on a prominent piece of land on Seattle’s Beacon
Hill. It turned out that “modest” was an overstatement. There were
either four or five guests, including <a href="http://www.meetup.com/AWSUGUK/members/36567242/">Allan Engelhardt</a> , who is
still involved in what is now AWS. One of the other attendees was
under the age of 18, and came to the conference from Germany.</p>
<p>The attendees were outnumbered by the Amazon employees. We sat and
listened as the speakers talked about their plans to build on their
success and to expand their web service offering over time. One
speaker (it may have been Colin Bryar but I am not sure) looked to the
future and said that they would be looking around the company for
other services to expose in the future.</p>
<p>This was the proverbial <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/light-bulb-moment">light-bulb moment</a> for me!
It was obvious that they were thinking about developers, platforms, and APIs and I wanted to be a part of it. I turned to
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sarah-bryar/2/383/a52">Sarah Spillman</a> (who later married Colin Bryar) and
said “You need to interview me for a position here.” She was happy to hear this and told me that recruiting was one of the
goals of the conference.</p>
<p>Jeff Bezos made a cameo appearance. He spent a few minutes with each
of the guests and expressed his gratitude for our attendance. Later
that summer, Jeff’s prescient quote formed an important part of the
<a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=503034">press release</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re putting out a welcome mat for developers – this is an
important beginning and new direction for us. Developers can now
incorporate Amazon.com content and features directly onto their own
websites. We can’t wait to see how they’re going to surprise us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I left the conference and drove home, not realizing that I had just seen the future and that I would get to be a part of it!</p>
<h1 id="interview-hiring-coming-on-board">Interview, Hiring, Coming On-Board</h1>
<p>Later that week, the recruiting coordinator got in touch to initiate the hiring process. The first step was a phone screen. Given
my development background, I was quizzed on C, C++, and even had to write some SQL over the phone. I must have done fine and they
scheduled an in-person interview. I met with Colin, Sarah, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/larryhughes">Larry Hughes</a>,
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/carl-christofferson/4/366/325">Carl Christofferson</a>, and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/rafrederick">Rob Frederick</a>.
Sarah actually asked me if I knew what Amazon.com did and if I had ever made a purchase! I expressed surprise that she would even
need to ask, and she told me that many candidates knew nothing about the company and had yet to shop online.</p>
<p>I was hired as a Senior Developer on the Amazon Associates team,
reporting to Larry Hughes and reported for work on August 19, 2002. At
that point the nascent web services effort was joined at the hip with
the Associates program, sharing management and marketing
leadership. My primary responsibility was a set of daily reports that
tracked the growth of the Associates program. However, Larry also gave
me the freedom to spend a little bit of my time (10% or so) helping out
the web services team as I saw fit.</p>
<p>The service was growing by leaps and bounds. I wrote some monitoring tools to make sure that it was healthy, built some sample
code, and also helped out on the developer forums where possible.</p>
<h1 id="first-talk">First Talk</h1>
<p>A few months in, I was asked to speak at a conference. This was presented to me as “None of us want to do it and you are the new guy, so we
are dumping this on you.” Little did they know that I actually enjoyed speaking at conferences and that I was happy to accept their
offer. I am fairly certain that this was a Seybold conference and that it was held in San Francisco, but I cannot find the presentation
or any information about the conference.</p>
<p>The talk went well and they booked me for a couple of other conferences in early 2003. Again, I enjoyed spreading the word about
technology and was comfortable in front of an audience. I also distributed a very simple SDK on a small CD:</p>
<p><img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/aws_early_mini_cd_1.jpg" alt="AWS SDK CD" /></p>
<h1 id="becoming-an-evangelist">Becoming an Evangelist</h1>
<p>In early 2003, Sarah and Larry met with me. They said “We have been
searching for a Web Services Evangelist for months, but it appears
that you are already doing the job. Would you like a new role?” The
job sounded intriguing but would require a lot of travel. I checked
with my wife and my children to make sure that this would be
acceptable, and it was. I accepted the position and the title change
(to “Web Services Evangelist”) became effective on March 24, 2003!</p>
<p>I brushed up my PowerPoint skills and decided that my goal was to
simply spread the word about AWS to developers all over the world,
raising awareness and encouraging them to build applications. Eleven
years later, that’s still my job description. My early travels took me
all over the US, to Japan, and to the UK (Hello, Slough!).</p>
<h1 id="aws-emerges">AWS Emerges</h1>
<p>Jeff Bezos and the “S Team” (the Senior VPs reporting to him) saw the potential for infrastructure
services and put Andy Jassy in charge of the effort in 2003. Andy had
built several other Amazon businesses from scratch and was ready to do
it again. Andy shared early drafts of his “vision document” with me
and I provided him with lots of feedback. The label AWS, once used to
describe the service which provided access to the Amazon product
catalog, became an umbrella term for a set of <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/">infrastructure services</a>.</p>
<p>Andy’s vision document outlined a broad collection of services and a long-term roadmap to build,
promote, scale, and charge for them. I discussed various aspects of developer relations and
product marketing with Andy and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/drew-herdener/1/b5/362">Drew Herdener</a>
and we decided to create the <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/welcome/">AWS Blog</a> in late 2004. At that point, blogs were
primarily used for personal self-expression and it was up to me to choose the best
content, voice, and style. As I said in the “Welcome” post:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We plan to provide you with useful information about AWS, products
built with AWS, web services development tools, interviews with
successful AWS developers,case studies, and information about the
web services industry.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I had no idea that this simple communication vehicle would become my primary work product a
decade (and over 2000 posts) later.</p>
<h1 id="lots-of-opportunities">Lots of Opportunities</h1>
<p>The decade has flown by and I don’t have the time or the space to
cover it in depth. We launched the <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/sqs/">Simple Queue Service</a> in late 2004,
<a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3</a> in early 2006,
and <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/">Amazon EC2</a> later that summer.</p>
<p>I am proud of what I have accomplished, but I know that there’s a lot more to do.
I have written over 2000 blog posts, one
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0046ZRKZ8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0046ZRKZ8&linkCode=as2&tag=vertexdevelopmen&linkId=2RD22XLVP564HG3U">AWS book</a>,
and have earned six patents. I
have traveled the world and have appeared in front of tens of thousands of people, and
I drove across the United States for the <a href="http://awsroadtrip.com/">AWS Road Trip</a>
and was the host of almost one hundred AWS Report videos.</p>
<p>I have been promoted several times and am now Director of AWS
Evangelism. I have had opportunities to manage people, but I am not
very good at it and strongly prefer to be an individual
contributor (IC). Fortunately, there’s a place for senior ICs at Amazon
(me, <a href="http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/">James Hamilton</a>, and
<a href="http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/">Werner Vogels</a>, to name some public
examples) and there’s an IC ladder with another rung or two for me to
climb in the future!</p>
<h1 id="looking-ahead">Looking Ahead</h1>
<p>Twelve years in, it is clear that joining Amazon was the right thing for me to do. It is hard
to imagine another place to work that would be more fun, more rewarding, or that would allow
me to have a greater impact on the world. As it says on that CD, “Work hard, have fun, make history!”</p>Jeff BarrTwelve years ago today I drove to Seattle and started working at Amazon.com. Today seems like a good time to tell the story of how and why I joined the company and to retrace my career path to date.Links for Sunday, February 23, 20142014-02-24T02:22:04+00:002014-02-24T02:22:04+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2014/02/24/links-for-sunday<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://leafletjs.com/">Leaflet</a> – “<em>An Open-Source JavaScript Library for Mobile-Friendly Interactive Maps.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://yelmworms.com/index.php">Yelm Earthworm & Castings</a> – “<em>Red Wiggler, Red worms, Worms-Eisenia Fetida, Worms, Organic Soil & Produce,Vermiculture, Worm Composting.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/rootbeer_jn0.htm">Making Root Beer At Home</a> – “<em>We will set up a fermentation in a closed system and capture the generated carbon dioxide to carbonate root beer. You may of course adjust the quantities of sugar and/or extract to taste</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.hughhowey.com/my-advice-to-aspiring-authors/">Hugh Howey: My Advice to Aspiring Authors</a> – “<em>To begin with, you need to write. This seems axiomatic because it is. The only way to amass a pile of words into a book is to shovel some every single day. No days off. You have to form this habit; without it you are screwed.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.legoengineering.com/">LEGO Engineering</a> – “<em>The aim of this site is to inspire and support teachers to go beyond the basics in bringing LEGO-based engineering to all students.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://robotsquare.com/2013/08/01/lego-mindstorms-ev3-bonus-models/">Robot<sup>2</sup>: LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3: 12 Bonus Models</a> – “<em>The LEGO Group has just revealed the 12 official bonus models that you can build with the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 31313 set. They were designed by members of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Expert Panel, and they.re officially endorsed by LEGO. Some of them also appear on the EV3 packaging.</em>”
</li>Jeff BarrLeaflet – “An Open-Source JavaScript Library for Mobile-Friendly Interactive Maps.”Links for Friday - LEGO2014-01-31T14:04:49+00:002014-01-31T14:04:49+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2014/01/31/links-for-friday<p>Long-time readers of this blog know that I like to collect and share links that are of interest to
me. With the blog’s rebirth, I am resuming this practice. On some days I’ll just throw out random
links. On other days I am going to try for a theme. Today’s theme is <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>.</p>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.crowkillers.com/model.php?model=JF-JCB-excavator">Crowkillers: Jennifer Clark's JCB JS220 Track Excavator</a>
– “<em>Now you can build the ultimate LEGO pneumatic model, the JCB JS220 tracked excavator designed by Jennifer Clark. This model has almost 1700 parts and features 13 pneumatic actuators and pumps, 5 motors, and all the functions you'd expect from a scale model of the real thing.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.robotc.net/support/nxt/">RobotC - A C Programming Language for Robotics</a> – “<em>ROBOTC is the premiere robotics programming language for educational robotics and competitions. ROBOTC is a C-Based Programming Language with an Easy-to-Use Development Environment.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://sr3dbuilder.altervista.org/">SR 3D Builder</a> – “<em> new way to create your Lego models with PC.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-lego-building-program.htm">Gizmo's Freeware: Best Free Lego Building Software</a> – “<em>Fancy clicking some virtual bricks together on your PC? Over the years, the Lego toy brand has become increasingly oriented towards prebuilt models making it more difficult to think outside the predesigned blocks. But on a computer you can let your fantasy rip without having to shell out for designer components. And Lego building programs are a spatially intriguing experience for youngsters of all ages.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.greatballcontraption.com/">The Great Ball Contraption</a> – “<em>Welcome to the Great Ball Contraption (GBC) website. Here you will find information regarding some of what it is and what some of us are currently working on. There are always several projects currently ongoing, and many of them are finished.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYhAKxOlfXQ&feature=related">LEGO GBC Module: Ball Factory ver.2</a> – “<em>I added some improvements to the ball factory module, because the former module didn't support 1.0 balls/s.This new module can carry at 1.3 balls/s.</em>”
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://pv-productions.com/gbc-8-published/">PV-Productions: GBC-8 Published</a> – “<em>It has been a while since my last GBC. But I have made a new one with new modules in it - See more at: http://pv-productions.com/gbc-8-published/</em>”
</li>Jeff BarrLong-time readers of this blog know that I like to collect and share links that are of interest to me. With the blog’s rebirth, I am resuming this practice. On some days I’ll just throw out random links. On other days I am going to try for a theme. Today’s theme is LEGO.My Personal Productivity Tips2014-01-13T01:59:28+00:002014-01-13T01:59:28+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2014/01/13/my-personal-productivity-tips<p>Over the years I have developed a set of productivity tips that seems to work well for me. I have shared
them with my coworkers from time time with positive results, so I figured that they would make for a good
post to get my blog back up and running. Once again, these work well for me. I am not religious about any
of these; if you were to shadow me around for a week or two you would undoubtedly find me breaking each
of them at one time or another. I have tried to illustrate each tip with an example or two of how I put
it to use in practice.</p>
<p>Here’s a quick summary of what I have to offer. The tips themselves are described in more detail
later in the post:</p>
<ul>
<li>All Of Your Minutes Are The Same</li>
<li>Pay Bills as They Arrive</li>
<li>Find Joy in Being Productive</li>
<li>Enjoy Living Life</li>
<li>Keep a TODO List</li>
<li>Ensure that Done is Really Done</li>
<li>Put it On Your Calendar</li>
<li>Keep a Clean Desk</li>
<li>Learn and Use Shortcut Keys</li>
<li>Keep a Worklog and Good Notes</li>
<li>Re-Read The Fine Manual (RRTFM)</li>
<li>Don’t Lose Your Keys</li>
<li>Always Be Learning / Charging</li>
<li>Get Double Value From Your Efforts</li>
<li>Stay Balanced</li>
<li>Shape and Customize Your Environment</li>
<li>Be a Half Step Ahead</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="all-of-your-minutes-are-the-same">All Of Your Minutes Are The Same</h1>
<p>I try to treat all of my minutes as the same precious entities that they are. I don’t believe that
I have “good” minutes when I am productive, and “bad” ones when I am not. In practice, this tip
means that I try to take care of little things are they come in to view, rather than setting them
aside where they might be forgotten.</p>
<h1 id="pay-bills-as-they-arrive">Pay Bills as They Arrive</h1>
<p>This tip is a direct consequence of the previous one. I still receive a fair number of paper bills
in my mail box. I fetch the mail, recycle as much as I can right away, unsubscribe from stuff
that I don’t want by using the <a href="https://www.paperkarma.com/">Paper Karma</a> app, put all magazines
into my reading pile, and then immediately schedule all bills for online payment. This tip
avoids late fees, piles of paper, and makes sure that I am on top of my financial situation.</p>
<h1 id="find-joy-in-being-productive">Find Joy in Being Productive</h1>
<p>It is possible to classify a lot of tedious stuff that must be done every day or week as
boring. I don’t. Instead, I find fulfilment in expeditiously managing all of the routine
stuff so that I have more time to be creative.</p>
<h1 id="enjoy-living-life">Enjoy Living Life</h1>
<p>A lot of people seem to think that their life will change in some fundamental way if they
suddenly or eventually become “successful,” whatever that is supposed to mean. They envision
days filled with caviar, champagne, and private jets, not realizing that they still need
to handle the everyday realities of life. I believe that this attitude leads to long-term
dissatisfaction and to a life spent pursuing a fantasy lifestyle that does not actually
exist. I try to simply enjoy being alive and doing what I enjoy.</p>
<h1 id="keep-a-todo-list">Keep a TODO List</h1>
<p>Over the years I have tried and ultimately discarded many different systems and tools for
managing my TODO list. I used to track my tasks, calendar, and my days in a large
<a href="http://www.daytimer.com/">Day-Timer</a>. I used Emacs <a href="http://orgmode.org/">Org Mode</a> for a while.
Today, I keep a long-term TODO list as a draft-mode Outlook message. This list contains
items that I want to do over the course of the upcoming hours, days, and weeks. Every morning,
I examine the list, adding new items and reordering existing ones to reflect changing
priorities. I also keep a handwritten list for smaller items.</p>
<p><img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/yellow_todo_1.jpg" alt="Paper TODO" /></p>
<p>I do not obsess over my list, and I know that I will never get to the
end of it. I will confess that I have managed to train myself to feel
really good about checking off an item from the list. I’ll often put a
couple of simple (yet entirely necessary) items on the list in order
to have something worthwhile to do if I need a break from the bigger
items. I also like to break large items into smaller, bite-sized items
that I can push forward when I need some quick victories.</p>
<h1 id="ensure-that-done-is-really-done">Ensure that Done is Really Done</h1>
<p>Once again building on earlier items, I don’t check something off of the list until it is
well and truly done. I don’t consider my paper bills to be actually paid until I have
deposited them in the mail drop of our community mailbox and filed away the residual
paper.</p>
<h1 id="put-it-on-your-calendar">Put it On Your Calendar</h1>
<p>When someone asks me to do something, I need to allocate time for it in order to make sure
that it will actually get done. For work-related items, I estimate the amount of time
required to do the work, and then I reserve that time on my Outlook calendar, marking it
as Busy and Important. I also paste the original email and other necessary files into
the appoinment to create a nice, self-contained “object” that I can just open up when
the time comes to work on the item.</p>
<h1 id="keep-a-clean-desk">Keep a Clean Desk</h1>
<p>I try to rid my desk of clutter and distractions. Besides my computer, my goal is to
have my TODO list, one pen, one glass of water, and my phone close at hand. I’m not
quite there yet, but that’s my goal.</p>
<h1 id="learn-and-use-shortcut-keys">Learn and Use Shortcut Keys</h1>
<p>I strongly prefer the keyboard to the mouse, and sometimes tell myself that having
to use the mouse is a “bug.” I will even navigate through menus using the appropriate
keys on occasion. This tip, more than some of the others, is certainly a personal
preference, but it definitely works for me.</p>
<h1 id="keep-a-worklog-and-good-notes">Keep a Worklog and Good Notes</h1>
<p>For long-running projects, it is a good idea to keep a log of what you did, and how
you did it. This is great for development projects; you can track successes,
failures, obscure commands that took you 30 minutes to discover, and much more.</p>
<p>For my now-dead Syndic8 website, my worklog grew to over 34,000 lines over the
course of 11 years. Here’s an early entry:</p>
<p><img src="http://images.jeff-barr.com/syndic8_log_1.png" alt="Syndic8 Worklog" /></p>
<p>My one-time colleague <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-dalrymple/0/0/b17">Mark Dalrymple</a> took my suggestion to heart many years
ago; he documented his model in <a href="http://borkopolis.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/logs-is-logs/">Logs is Logs</a>.</p>
<h1 id="re-read-the-fine-manual-rrtfm">Re-Read The Fine Manual (RRTFM)</h1>
<p>When I first started working with computers, my time at the keyboard was often
limited to an hour or less per day. In order to satisfy my curiousity, I became
an inveterate manual-reader. I would explore interesting commands and functions
offline and then plan ahead so as to be able to make the most of my time at
the keyboard.</p>
<p>After I learned the language or system, I would always read the manual a
second, third, or even fourth time. This allowed me to make sense of more
complex features that I didn’t understand the first time or two. I have
noticed that many people spend all day in their chosen text editor without
bothering to learn how to take full advantage of it. Go back and read the
manual again!</p>
<h1 id="dont-lose-your-keys">Don’t Lose Your Keys</h1>
<p>I hate to spend time looking for my car keys. In general, I try to make
certain kinds of things so routine that I don’t have to think twice about
how do to them.</p>
<p>When I arrive home my keys go into a designated container
on my desk (I realize that the existence of this container conflicts with
an earlier tip). When packing up after giving a conference talk, I
unplug my laptop’s power supply, and put it into my messenger bag
before doing anything else.</p>
<h1 id="always-be-learning--charging">Always Be Learning / Charging</h1>
<p>Be curious, and read something intersting every day. Never wonder about things,
dig it, search, and figure out what’s going on. Take some online courses,
learn a new human or programming language, or go back to school.</p>
<p>On a related note, be sure to keep all of your devices charged up. My
colleague <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/barneson">Scott Barneson</a> refers
to this as ABC - Always Be Charging.</p>
<h1 id="get-double-value-from-your-efforts">Get Double Value From Your Efforts</h1>
<p>I have found that it is often possible to do something once and get credit for it
twice! I’m not cheating, I am creating interesting synergies between my work,
personal, and school lives.</p>
<p>For example, I had always wanted to drive across
the United States, stopping in interesting cities and giving <a href="http://aws.amazon.com">AWS</a>
talks every night. As I was wrapping my time in the University of Washington’s
<a href="http://commlead.uw.edu/">MCDM</a> program, I realized that trip could form the basis for an independent
study project. The resulting <a href="http://awsroadtrip.com">web site</a> and
<a href="http://awsroadtrip.com/blog/2013/06/12/the-final-report/">final report</a> simultaneously
satisified my work and school requirements. I also got a lot of first-hand experience
with <a href="http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/WebsiteHosting.html">S3 Website Hosting</a>
and video processing.</p>
<p>If you are taking on a new work project, see if you can use it as an opportunity
to learn a new programming language or framework.</p>
<h1 id="stay-balanced">Stay Balanced</h1>
<p>My day job (writing the <a href="http://aws.typepad.com">AWS Blog</a> is surprisingly
unstructured. Every day, I start out with a blank page and work to fill it with
words and pictures that describe our offerings. I have found that I need to
balance my unstructured job with other activities that are very structured. Lately,
I have enjoyed building advanced LEGO Technic sets containing thousands of
pieces. There’s something reassuring about being able to follow directions
that result in a defined product at the end.</p>
<h1 id="shape-and-customize-your-environment">Shape and Customize Your Environment</h1>
<p>This tip can take on a variety of forms. For me, it means that I fine-tune
the settings on my tools and applications in order to make them work the way
that I want. My .emacs file dates back to the late 1980’s; the shortcut
keystrokes therein are now second nature to me.</p>
<p>Similar recommendations apply to your physical working environment. Fine-tune
your desk, car, office, and phone with affordances and tweaks to make them
work the way that you want. I suspect that 3D printing will make customization
of this time even more commonplace. The trick is to recognize friction points
and to see what you can do to work past or around them.</p>
<h1 id="be-a-half-step-ahead">Be a Half Step Ahead</h1>
<p>This may very well be my strangest tip; it is definitely the hardest one to
describe. The idea here is to anticipate the next step of something that
you do, and to do it as early as possible, preferably in conjunction with the
prior step. The best example that comes to mind is sitting in my garage! I
drive a manual transmission car. After I pull in to my garage and set the
parking brake, I shift in to reverse before killing the engine. This leaves
my car all set up and ready to go; I can start it up, let the oil circulate,
and then let out the clutch to be on my way.</p>
<p>I hope that you have enjoyed these tips, and that you are able to make
use of them (suitably adopted).</p>Jeff BarrOver the years I have developed a set of productivity tips that seems to work well for me. I have shared them with my coworkers from time time with positive results, so I figured that they would make for a good post to get my blog back up and running. Once again, these work well for me. I am not religious about any of these; if you were to shadow me around for a week or two you would undoubtedly find me breaking each of them at one time or another. I have tried to illustrate each tip with an example or two of how I put it to use in practice.Links for Saturday, January 11, 20142014-01-11T20:42:19+00:002014-01-11T20:42:19+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2014/01/11/links-for-saturday<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p835L4HWH68">5' and 3' Ends of DNA</a> – “<em>What do we mean when we talk about the 3' and 5' ends of DNA or RNA?</em>“
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="https://github.com/TheAshwanik/aws_s3_imagetag">aws_S3_imagetag</a> – “<em>An octopress plugin to upload files to AWS S3 account and Provide a tag to reference the files in your views.</em>“
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://www.visitseattle.org/Tourism-Development/Cruise-from-Seattle.aspx">Cruise From Seattle: Cruise Alaska... And Beyond</a> – “<em>Seattle is the homeport for cruise ships that voyage to Alaska and around the Pacific Northwest. Cruisers can experience wildlife and unspoiled water views while skimming the Pacific Ocean and inland waterways.</em>“
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 8px;">
<a href="http://styleshapes.com/">Style Shapes</a> – “<em>Styleshapes.com is a creative fashion 3D Designers community. We feature most astonishing 3D Printed Fashion pieces and link to their authors stores where the actual items can be bought! We decided to create a home for all creative fashion designers starting with 3D printing to have a place to share their 3D designs and gain more exposure and appreciation that they need so much at the start!</em>“
</li>Jeff Barr5' and 3' Ends of DNA – “What do we mean when we talk about the 3' and 5' ends of DNA or RNA?“Blogging Has Resumed2014-01-09T08:36:57+00:002014-01-09T08:36:57+00:00http://jeff-barr.com/2014/01/09/blogging-has-resumed<p>I had planned to resume my longstanding personal blogging regimen several months
ago. The summer and the fall were very busy due to the <a href="http://reinvent.awsevents.com/">AWS re:Invent</a> conference
and a large-scale kitchen renovation. both of these items are now in the past and
I am once again ready to blog on a regular and frequent basis!</p>
<p>This blog is now statically hosted on <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3">Amazon S3</a>. The content
is written in <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">Markdown</a> and turned into HTML by <a href="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</a>.
The static blogging model obviates all of my scaling and security worries, and will let
me focus on writing new and interesting content. I still have to sand off a few rough
edges before the new hosting model is complete. I need to install a theme and I need to decide
how I want to handle comments.</p>
<p>With this new burst of excitement and energy, I will also be changing the focus (if there ever
was one) of this blog to reflect my current interests.</p>
<p>You’ll read a lot less about virtual worlds, news feeds, and syndication (I have nothing to
do with any of these topics at present), and some more about cloud computing (above and
beyond what I write in the <a href="http://aws.typepad.com">AWS Blog</a>, LEGO (especially Technic), and home-made pizza.</p>
<p>After graduating from the University of Washington’s <a href="http://commlead.uw.edu/">MCDM</a> program last year, I decided to
continue my education and applied to the <a href="http://www.cs.washington.edu/prospective_students/pmp/">Professional Master’s Program in Computer Science</a> (PMP
for short), also at the UW. I was accepted and am starting my first class today.</p>Jeff BarrI had planned to resume my longstanding personal blogging regimen several months ago. The summer and the fall were very busy due to the AWS re:Invent conference and a large-scale kitchen renovation. both of these items are now in the past and I am once again ready to blog on a regular and frequent basis!