ArkansasBusiness.com - Dynamic Duo Combine Skills for Web Training

Here is a great article that was just released by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal about our company and www.genonow.com, the online training website that we have put together. If you want to know more about SVI, Rockfish Interactive, and Genonow check it out.

Rockfish is an online development company that works with some pretty impressive clients while we, SVI, are an organizational development company that helps companies keep its rockstars through training and development tools.

Hooking a laptop up to a Samsung HD television

Right now I have my laptop connected to my new Samsung HD television via an SVGA cable. You may ask me “Why would you want to do that?” Well, … ummm…. I know there has to be a good reason for this… Hey, I know I could watch those videos that I downloaded but won’t stream through the XBOX.

It works pretty good, but I did have a few problems out of the box. Here is how I fixed them.

First of all, you must be using the right resolution. If you don’t, the TV may show an image but something will be off. In my case, the right screen resolution is 800×600. I don’t have one of those new schmancy 1080P screens, but it looks pretty good!

When I had the resolution set to 1026×768 I got some strange strobing and the entire screen wasn’t displayed.

The second step I had to do was to go into the menu of the television and have it sync up to the signal. When I first plugged the computer into the tv, I got a signal, but it wasn’t aligned right on the screen. I did the sync step and the image was aligned, but I was getting the strobe…thus the whole resolution thing.

I have one remaining problem and that is how to get the image into native 16×9. If I use the 16×9 setting on the TV, it stretches and distorts the image. (My laptop is sending a 4×3 image.)

I went online to look to see if the drivers for the video card in this laptop have been updated, but alas the latest drivers were from 2004, before the crush of 16×9 monitors on the market. My video card assumes that the only monitor it would ever be hooked up to is a standard 4×3…drats!!!

That means if I want to watch a movie from my laptop on my schmancy HDTV, I will have both letterboxing and pillars. If you don’t know what that means, do a Google search…well let me save you the trouble. Simply put, it means that I have a big black square surrounding my video content….again drats!!!

With a quick upgrade of my laptop, I should be in business. And since I am swimming in an ocean of money, that shouldn’t be a problem….wait…..DRATS!!!

Oh well, at least I have a schnazzy new monitor to look at www.murdog.com.

By the way, even I am getting sick of the ’sch…’ thing. I believe I will stop that now!

Sights from Google Street View

A big shout out to Stan Schroeder at Mashable.com for coming up with a top 15 shots captured by Google’s brand new service, Google Street View. This is worth at least 5 minutes of your time.

The Strengths of Being Small

There seems to be an almost universal drive in business to grow and become big. It seems like a laudable goal, but growing large just for growing large’s sake could be a recipe for disaster for your organization.

There will always be a need for large organizations. But, there is also a need for small, nimble organizations that can turn on a dime and affect change quickly. In fact, large organizations, which have long since lost the ability to move quickly, need smaller organizations to reach important side goals.

The Leadership of companies need to look long and hard at whether becoming large is a goal that is in the best interest of their organization. The fact that your company is fast on its feet may be the most marketable product you have to offer. Growing to the size of your competitors could thrust you into a market where you are no longer noteworthy.

There is a reason that the military has small special forces units. They are quick, mobile and easy to deploy. That is nothing to be ashamed of; it’s actually a point of pride.

If You Are Big, Be Big

The biggest danger in this conversation is when organizations forget their identity and try to act outside of their nature. If you are a part of a large company, embrace it. There are advantages to being big. Leverage those advantages and outsource those quick moving goals to organizations or teams that can move quickly.

If you are part of a smaller company, leverage your strengths. You can move fast and meet the dynamic needs of your clients better than anyone else. This is competitive advantage that will make you money. In other words, if you are in a bass boat, be careful of trying to land a whale whose needs could pull your boat under and destroy your business altogether.

I’m not saying that growing to be the biggest fish in the pond isn’t a great and desirable goal. What I am saying is, be careful of what you wish for. You may find yourself in the middle of a large organization that has morphed into something that is completely different from your original vision.

Look at the problem or need that your organization addresses. Is that need better addressed by a large infantry or a small specialized force? If the answer is special forces, set your sights on becoming the most nimble specialized force out there.