Eric Richert – Knowledge Work Infrastructure Consultant, Former VP of Sun Microsystems iWork and Open Work Programs, Hiker, and Director for Kirkwood Meadow Public Utility District – Episode 9 Marion Vermazen Podcast

Eric Richert – Knowledge Work Infrastructure Consultant, Former VP of Sun Microsystems iWork and Open Work Programs, Hiker, and Director for Kirkwood Meadow Public Utility District – Episode 9 Marion Vermazen Podcast

One of the things that I did when I was working at Sun Microsystems was to help develop tools and systems to give Sun employees the best, most productive and effective work environment possible. The products that we developed included a work from home program, a flexible office program and change management and collaborations tools among other things. The program was called Open Work or iWork and I am very proud to have been a part of it.

My guest on the podcast today is Eric Richert who was my boss  during my last few years at Sun. Eric was Vice President, of Open Work Solutions at Sun.

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Eric also is an avid hiker and talks about his recent trip to the Dolomites in our conversation

To listen to the podcast run your mouse over the bar below. You will see a play button that you can click on.

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You can find the article by Horst Rittel  which talks about wicked and tame problems here.

There is also a Horst Rittle Melvin Webber article on the same subject here.

The Wikipedia article about Wicked problems is available here.

If you would like to know more about Sun's Open Work program the Sun web page about Open Work is here

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Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center at University of Nevada Reno

I've lived in Reno for two and a half years and there are Reno places I haven't been and Reno things I haven't done. I made a list. This year I want to do it all.

One place on my list is the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center at the University of Nevada Reno. We had a friend from the Bay area visiting the last few days. We were going to go snowshoeing but the weather has been kind of crumby (Rain!) so we decided to check out the Planetarium.

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The planetarium is relatively small it has a 30 foot diameter dome over a 60 seat theater. The small museum and the gift shop are free and the shows in the planetarium are pretty cheap. As a senior I got in for $4 and my friend got in for $6. We saw The Living Sea show which was OK. The photography was pretty amazing but I thought the commentary was pretty boring. I wish we had done one of the digital starshows.

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The free museum and gift shop were really cool. The gift shop had neat stuff like a book on soda pop experiments, ant farms and crystal growing kits. Purchases at the gift shop are tax exempt.

The museum had large rotating earth and moon globes, meteorites, a fascinating display about optical illusions and and a fun black hole demonstrator. For 25 cents we got several ball bearings to drop into the vortex and watch them orbit and accelerate into the hole. 

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I picked up a brochure about becoming a member of the Friends of the Planetarium and also a membership application for the Astronomical Society of Nevada. The whole visit was fun. I would recommend it.

El Tumi Peruvian Restaurant – Reno

Saturday night Duke and I tried El Tumi Peruvian Restaurant at 585 E. Moana Lane in Reno. The waitress said they have been open since August. El Tumi has a very appealing menu with quite a variety of dishes and lots of pictures. It was very hard to chose what to try.

We finally decided on fried yucca with a tangy green sauce for dipping as as an appetizer. It was very good. For our main course Duke had the fried fish special and I had the broiled Camarones (shrimp). I really liked the Cusquena Peruvian beer. The food was good and the atmosphere was friendly. I think we'll have to go back a few more times and try a variety of dishes to decide whether El Tumi will go onto our list of regular restaurants.

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Mango Languages

The Washoe County Library System offers a language learning tool called Mango Languages. It is an interactive languages learning system. I like it a lot, am having fun using it and I find I am retaining what I learn. The library subscribes to the program and because I have a library card I get to use it on my computer at home free. I am studying Spanish but Mango offers basic and complete courses in a long list of languages.

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As I work through the course each phrase is broken down into pieces and I am drilled on the words in the phrase and then phrase as a whole. I like that I am not only listening to the language but I am seeing the words. I am a very visual learner when it comes to languages. I can also choose how much repetition I want. In my current lesson I can go through 92 slides in the entire lesson or just do 49 vocabulary slides or 7 phrasebook slides.

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If your library offers Mango languages you will find it on your library web site. If you don't live in Washoe County, Nevada then on the Mango Languages home page you can put in your zip code and find a library near you that offers the service

Books Finished in 2010

In 2009 I kept a list on this blog of books that I read during the year. I ended up reading 35 books. I guess if I live to be 90 which will be 33 more years and continue to read an average of 35 books a year I can read 1,120 more books before I die.

I really like being able to see a summary of what I read. It is surprising to me how fast I forget some books without a list to look back on. So today I am starting my list of 2010 books read. By clicking on the book title you can go to my review of the book. This year I don't think I'll write a review of every book.

  1. Eden's Outcasts – The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
  2. Men to Match my Mountains by Irving Stone
  3. One Man's Wilderness – An Alaskan Odyssey by Sam Keith from the Journals and photographs of Richard Proenneke
  4. The Sign of the Book by John Dunning
  5. Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer
  6. 9800 Savage Road by M.E, Harrigan
  7. Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods
  8. The Help by Kathryn Stockett  ** My favorite book so far this year
  9. Basin and Range by John McPhee
  10. Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods
  11. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
  12. John Tyler, The Accidental President by Edward P. Crapol
  13. The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop – a memoir, a history by Lewis Busbee
  14. Viva la repartee: clever comebacks and witty retorts from history's great wits & wordsmiths by Mardy Grothe
  15. The Language Hacking Guide by Benny Lewis
  16. Blue Water Green Skipper by Stuart Woods
  17. War is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the World's Worst War Zones by by David Axe and Matt Bors
  18. Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow
  19. Short Straw by Stuart Woods
  20. Santa Se Dead by Stuart Woods
  21. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
  22. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
  23. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
  24. The Longevity Prescription by Robert N. Butler M.D.
  25. Blood Orchid by Stuart Woods
  26. Suddenly Sixty by Judith Viorst
  27. Orchid Beach by Stuart Woods