When I got a copy of the book Howard Stern Comes Again for my birthday from my family last year, I was grateful but indifferent. Where I have always had respect for Stern’s accomplishments in radio and media, I was never a fan of his style. As I read his past 2 books, and was curious as to what this one was about, I dove into it. And I am glad I did.

This third book of Stern’s is a collection of segments from celebrity interviews he has done on his radio and satellite radio shows over the years, many of them in the last decade. I emphasize the time period for a reason, which will be a nice segue to my takeaways from this book.

Howard Stern has changed – The introduction to the book is 19 pages, which is the longest I have ever seen for an introduction. However it is necessary to paint the picture of the change in Stern’s life, from a health scare to going into psychotherapy. This is reflective in the more recent interviews in the book, where they are less sex-focused and less reflective of his narcissism and are now more insightful, both in the questions he asked and the responses of the celebrities he is interviewing.

Being real can be entertaining too – When I say real I don’t mean “reality” as in the faux-reality shows on TV like Survivor, but real as in conversation that appears on the surface as honest and, and as a result, real. Whether the celebrity responses were scripted ahead of time, who knows. But as I read through the interviews I actually enjoyed them, and that’s coming from someone who isn’t into celebrity interviews.

There’s sex talk too – It wouldn’t be Howard Stern if there was no talk about sex at all. But it’s not like I recall from hearing him in the past where he would open with questions like, “so what is it like to have sex with you?” This was a large part of my lack of interest in listening to him – it’s was raw for no reason other than being raw, and to me not entertaining. Then again, I have seen articles written about how Stern has gotten “soft” as he is now in his 60’s, so others are not a fan of his newer style as well.

If you are into celebrity interviews or just want some mind-candy, Howard Stern Comes Again is a book for you. It is a long book – over 550 pages and formatted in a multi-column format, and took much longer than I would have thought to read. If you’re not sure about whether to dive-in to the full book, the introduction alone is worth the read.

As I give away all books I read, this one is going to a great friend in Florida who is a devoted Howard Stern fan. Though he probably heard each and every one of these interviews, I am sure he will enjoy reading them as well.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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“Define the sandbox for me to play in.”

This is a phrase I find myself saying more and more. It is something I have said in the past on occasion, but now it is creeping into my speech with greater frequency.

“The sandbox” I refer to comes from the childhood play thing – a literal box or tray, perhaps a half a foot in depth and a yard square, filled with sand that infants or toddlers would play in. This confined area is designed to keep the sand and the child in a defined space, all the while still allowing them to be creative and have fun.

Later in life the analogy of the sandbox would come into play (pun intended) in my chosen career of software development. Here, a sandbox is an isolated system of servers, network, software and end-user computers and mobile devices where development and experimentation can go on without impacting live software. Though there’s no sand in a technology sandbox, it can easily be as messy.

Thinking Inside and Outside The Box

Many years have passed since my early playing and I have been in all sorts of environments – business, volunteering, social, among others. I have invoked this metaphor of the sandbox as the definition of the overall boundaries or rules of engagement with whatever endeavor I am involved with. In raising this, I am asking for these parameters to be defined, upfront and complete, so I know the limits I am to work within.

In asking for the sandbox definition, I am not looking to limit what I can do. It’s actually the opposite; I want to know the boundaries so I can push them to the limits. When you think about it, there are limits in some way, shape or form in most aspects of life. There’s laws, regulations, policies, traditions, norms, emotions, budgets, physical space, time and design guidelines to name a few. If they exist, let me know them going into whatever I am going to do, so rather than being a hindrance, they are taken into consideration in my planning and actions.

Define your sand-what?

When I speak this phrase – and I find it most effective when spoken – it is often met with puzzlement. What I am asking for is not only something that is not often asked for, but the answer may not even exist, or exist in a form beneficial to myself and others. I am not a perfectionist, and I am not asking for the perfect sandbox either. In some cases, I get various documents or a conversation with someone. When this happens, I try to document what information I have received and as a result am defining the sandbox from these materials. When I do this it is met with some apprehension, especially from those who don’t want to commit or acknowledge the sandbox I have just defined from them.

It’s all play until someone pokes an eye out

Running up against the definition of the sandbox has had both positive and negative results for me in the past.

One time I felt I knew definition of the sandbox, only to find out I didn’t, which had a big impact on my work and emotions. I had to create the technical components of a presentation on a topic, with others creating the other supporting materials. The presentation was short, and I knew I was not going to be able to discuss all aspects of it, so I included external resources for the participants to explore further after the presentation. These resources were Web sites that are known for their leadership on the topic and ones I use myself. However, the day before the presentation, all but one of the links I included was struck from it by the firm’s legal counsel.

Why? They said the sites they had an issue with were run by organizations that also offered consulting services, and by including them it could be implied that the firm were endorsing these vendors. As the firm had strict policies on endorsing vendors, which I found out only as a result of this presentation, these links had to be removed. Period. When I pushed back the lawyers wouldn’t let me finish my sentence.

With the presentation so close, I had no time to find other links to include – I had the best of them, and would have to vet their information thoroughly, as well as ensure they were not offered by someone who was also consulting. So my slide had one link, the one at the bottom of the list, which I had included simply as a reference site. The presentation went on and caused confusion in the mind of some participants, and some told me this. Had I known about this endorsement policy going into it, I would have had plenty of time to rethink my material overall, from what I wrote to what I linked to. But I didn’t, and I couldn’t, and had no fun playing in this tiny sandbox this time.

A more positive example of pushing the limits of a sandbox is when I moved for a more prominent search function on an Intranet portal project I wrote about recently. Even though in this case I didn’t have the full definition of the sandbox in the form of lack of support from my director, I had the confidence that leadership would approve of this change, which they did. Even if it had not been approved, my team and I felt the effort to play to the edge of the sandbox was worth it.

Do you want to play a game?

Even with the sandbox defined for you, it is ultimately up to you if you want to play in it. Though I don’t remember specifically, I bet there were times when I would crawl or jump out of the sandbox as a child. If you do choose to play in it, be aware that on some occasions the sandbox definition may change while you are playing, and this can also trigger a decision point if you want to continue playing or move on.

The decision not to play can be unfortunate for both the person who could have played in it and for the sandbox owner as well. For the owner it can, if they accept it, create a learning moment. Typically a sandbox is there for someone to play with. But what if nobody wants to play in it? The owner – the employer, organization, what have you – has a decision to make. Do they have a sandbox nobody wants to play in?

Deconstructing Defining Sandboxes

I hope the metaphor of a sandbox resonated with your and did not distract from my overall points. In any endeavor there are boundaries. Knowing what they are going into it will make the activity smoother. Changing or just disclosing boundaries late in the process can cause disruption to all involved with the endeavor and can have repercussions to the individuals – the players – and the organization – the sandbox owner.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Where I am in no hurry for my own children to become teenagers, something else in my life has reached that milestone – this blog.

Over the last 13 years I have used The Hot Iron as a platform for whatever is on my mind. In the beginning it was more frequent, and over time it has not been as much. Interestingly as I am writing this post I went back to the archives to see how many times I wrote here in 2019 as it seemed like more than in recent years, but that wasn’t the case. Perhaps I was just thinking about it more this year?

If you are reading this, you are one of the few and much-appreciated people who have stuck with me for some time to read this, and for this I am very grateful. I gave up years ago on making promises for writing more, but I have not given up completely on this site.

As this will be my last post for the year, may the new decade beginning on January 1, 2020 be a time where all that you want becomes real!

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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A few weeks ago I attended what I will call a "meta meetup" – it was a showcase of business and technology meetup networking groups in Northeast Wisconsin. The event was called Meet the Meetups and was a local version of a similar event held in the Milwaukee area.

Following the event I reached out to the organizers and shared with them how I wished something like this took place a couple of years ago when I moved to the area. My quest for such groups when I first arrived here was nowhere near as bountiful as what I encountered at this gathering in Green Bay.

As one of my goals for the coming year is to immerse myself more in technology – both in general and local – I am sharing this list of meetup groups here. Perhaps it can help someone looking now as I did then, and perhaps I will see you at one of their events?

Rising Tide Society / Tuesday's Together

BAM (Big Data, Advanced Analytics, and Machine Learning)

The Nest

Women In Entrepreneurship - Northeast Wisconsin

Current - Young Professionals (Green Bay Chamber)

1 Million Cups

Green Bay Power BI User Group

Northeast Wisconsin Cloud Users Group

Fox Valley Dev Ops

Northeast Wisconsin Agile Users Group

Digital Fertilizer

Wisconsin UX

ReactJS Green Bay

Fox Valley Business Data Intelligence and Analytics

Fox Valley Microsoft Data Platform

Fox Valley Game Development

WI Kentico User Group

Northeast Wisconsin Developers Users Group

Fox Valley Sharepoint User Group

Thought-Hacking Wisconsin

I would like to share one that was not at this event, but is also a worthwhile networking and learning opportunity. Women in Technology Wisconsin hosts monthly events and networking, and is not only for women – I know, I have attended one of their events.

If you know of other networking opportunities in Northeast Wisconsin for business and technology, please share them in the comments of this post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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They’re everywhere. They’re annoying. But they’re effective.

Where the above 3 sentences could apply to a lot of things, here I’m talking about Internet advertising. From banner ads to text ads to search ads, they are what supposedly finances the Web site you are on, or at least that’s the idea. The earnings from ads here on The Hot Iron this month won’t even buy me an hour of on-street parking in my city. But some ads, especially those found when searching for something, can be very lucrative.

My thoughts on these ads and how they are pervasive on Amazon.com was featured in an article published today by the Associated Press. Titled “Ad business a boon for Amazon but a turn-off for shoppers” by Joseph Pisani, I was one of a few who talked about the ads and their impact on consumers. An example of a recent frustration I had when searching for a product on Amazon opened the article.

I connected with the author through Twitter, seeing a tweet of his asking for people to share their experiences on searching for products on Amazon. The example I stated was real – when I was searching for one product the results showed a different “featured” brand, followed by other brands then 4 or 5 items down the list (differing on various searches) I found the brand and model I was looking for.

Is this type of advertising deceptive? It’s hard to see the small text or icon stating the other items are ads. These days I look for these things, others may just buy the product that paid to be at the top of the list. The ads on Amazon are unique as most all of the items are for sale through the site, and I say that as Amazon even displays paid ads for products on other sites.

The reach of the AP

Articles published by the Associated Press are often carried verbatim or in a modified form on many news outlets. As a result this article can be read on the Web sites for the New York Times, Fox Business, ABC News and even in the Spanish Edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Thanks to Jonathan Hoenig for first bringing the article to my attention.

I welcome your thoughts on these types of ads and if they have impacted you, as well as any comments on the article in general.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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