cozicentral.cozi.com is yet another site doing lists, calendar, blog/journal, etc...  The interesting concept behind it is the ease of calendaring.  You can type in your appointment in natural english and it will determine when and who it needs to schedule the appointment for.

And when you hit return you see that Date Night has been scheduled for both Bryan and Noel (the colors represent different people).  If you click on Date Night you'll see the details down to the Movie Theater as the location for the event.

The natural language scheduling technology is really cool.  The site has the ability to sync with Outlook and send event details and list details to your phone.  All nice technology, but nothing beyond the natural language technology that really differentiates the site.  It is also hard to imagine me wanting to have my calendar info separate from my mail and contacts.  That is what gives the Google, Yahoo, and Windows Live platforms so much power is the integration between mail, contacts, calendar, and other features.  It will be interesting to see if any of the big companies look to match or purchase the natural language capabilities that Cozi shows.

Two good articles below that explore what an architect really means in the world of software development.  In particular the last one is excellent in analyzing the origins of the term architect and applying that to the world of software development.  My feelings on the role of architect mirror much of what is said in the second article.  I think an architect role is garnered by experience and that an architect is to be a leader.  A true leader needs to be able to get in the trenches and deliver working code as well as be in the room with the customer mapping customer requirements into actionable development tasks.

http://www.agilearchitect.org/agile/role.htm

http://codebetter.com/blogs/ian_cooper/archive/2008/01/02/architects-back-to-the-future.aspx

Ericsson argues that what matters is not experience per se but "effortful study," which entails continually tackling challenges that lie just beyond one's competence. That is why it is possible for enthusiasts to spend tens of thousands of hours playing chess or golf or a musical instrument without ever advancing beyond the amateur level and why a properly trained student can overtake them in a relatively short time. It is interesting to note that time spent playing chess, even in tournaments, appears to contribute less than such study to a player's progress; the main training value of such games is to point up weaknesses for future study - page 4

Thus, motivation appears to be a more important factor than innate ability in the development of expertise. It is no accident that in music, chess and sports--all domains in which expertise is defined by competitive performance rather than academic credentialing--professionalism has been emerging at ever younger ages, under the ministrations of increasingly dedicated parents and even extended families.  Page 5

The preponderance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born. What is more, the demonstrated ability to turn a child quickly into an expert--in chess, music and a host of other subjects--sets a clear challenge before the schools. Can educators find ways to encourage students to engage in the kind of effortful study that will improve their reading and math skills? - Page 6

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=00010347-101C-14C1-8F9E83414B7F4945&page=1

Noel passed this along to me - she got it from a friend from Arizona that had sent it to us.

Noel, E, Carolyn, Noel's mom, and I went early this morning to President Hinckley's viewing.  It was held in the Conference Center which was a change from the initial plans because of the potential bad weather and the limited space in the Church Administration Building (known as the CAB here at work).  As an employee I got to bring my immediate family (those living in the same house as me) with me before things opened up for the general public.  E having been through the death of two great-grandparents and her grandpa in her short little life has a pretty good understanding of death, much better than I did.  I don't recall going to a viewing until my Grandpa's early in my 20s.

I love the Conference Center - it is such a gorgeous building - just walking through it and thinking of the vision that Pres. Hinckley had to build such a magnificent building was very special.  E was enthralled by all the beautiful art especially the huge painting of the Savior coming to America.  She was great the whole way there too - the ushers gave a gentle reminder to us as we entered to make sure that we were reverent and limited the talking I am sure because E was so young - she was fabulous. 

President Hinckley's casket was situated in the Hall of the Prophets up on the third floor of the Conference Center.  It was another testimony to me as we looked at our dear Prophet of the divinity of the soul!  It was definitely Pres. Hinckley, but it wasn't.  The power, humility, kindness, and vitality that were such a hallmark of him in my mind were missing from his face.  His spirit, possessor of those wonderful traits, had moved on to the Spirit World to continue his work.

As we walked away Sister Hinckley, one of his daughter-in-laws, saw E and came over and said hello and thanked us for coming and was so kind.  As we walked back into the seating area of the Conference Center to exit the area they had the flowers from the family along the way.  There were some tender moments as we read the expressions of love from kids, grandkids, and great grandkids.  There were references to "Standing a little taller and being a little better", to the 6 Be's, and one that referenced a statement Pres. Hinckley must have made after the passing of his wife - it was something to the effect of, "Christmas just isn't the same without your grandmother" with a follow on statement of "Christmas just won't be the same without the both of you Grandpa."

We also got two tickets to the funeral so Noel and I will be going on Saturday - we are so looking forward to going.  As we walked out of the Conference Center I was talking quietly to E about how we saw Pres. Hinckley's body and that his spirit had gone to Heaven.  She turned to me and said, "yep and that is the most important thing!" 

I received a couple of invites to try out NotchUp.com today so I decided to go over and try it out.  It is a YASNS (Yet Another Social Networking Site).  Apparently the model it is using is to pair up interviewers with interviewees with the niche being that you can set a price that interviewers have to pay you to interview you.  Sounds good - It'll be interesting to see how it works or if it works.

Out of the gate though things were bad - performance is HORRIBLE!  So bad that the site is almost unusable.  I have no idea what employer would be willing to pay money to sit there and wait for the site to come back.  Major negative points there.  In fact the only reason I stuck around is I imported my information and wanted to correct it so that in the off chance someone was able to get the site to work long enough to find me that they would see the right information (it crashed on me many times).

If you are listening NotchUp - you should have never launched with those kinds of issues - just awful user experience - I will never go back to the site by choice that is for sure!

It is all over the Utah news (and many other news stations) - President Hinckley passed away Sunday evening at 7pm at his apartment from "causes incident to age".  It was interesting we were at a family gathering out in Saratoga Springs at all at once calls came into different family members from people reporting the passing of President Hinckley.  One of my cousins suggested we join in prayer for Pres. Hinckley's family and for the leaders who will carry on especially Pres. Monson.  I tried for a solid 30 minutes to call various family members, but the cell phone circuits were overwhelmed and no calls could get out.

That speaks to the magnitude of the news - many if not most of the 13 million members of the Church associate Pres. Hinckley with the Church's First Presidency (the Church's presiding body).  He has served there for 26 some odd years.  He has always been there during my lifetime - a stalwart, a rock, an example.  I was inspired by his biography and it affected me deeply and has throughout my life.  I often reflect on what he said and did and strive (albeit poorly) to follow his shining example.  He gave his life to his faith.  He was an optimistic man - impressively so. 

We are watching the tribute to him on KSL TV right now.  I work for the Church and work I am sure will be a somber and sober tomorrow and for days going forward. 

Mormons recognized Gordon B. Hinckley as God's prophet the same as we do Adam, Noah, Moses, and all the others from the Old and New Testaments.  He bore a powerful witness of the divinity of The Savior of the World, Jesus Christ.  I bear testimony that Gordon B. Hinckley was a Prophet of God.  He was God's mouthpiece to our troubled world.  He was an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ as were Peter, James, John, and others both in New Testament times and in modern times. 

As we mourn his passing there is no confusion or politicking for who will take his place.  The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles now leads the Church (the First Presidency being dissolved upon the death of the President) with President Monson as the presiding authority of the Quorum of the Twelve.  In time they will convene and by revelation set apart a new President/Prophet who will then reorganize the First Presidency.  If you look at how the Lord has worked over the preceding years Pres. Monson is the likely person to become the 16th President of the Church.  When that happens I will raise my hand in sustaining vote for him along with the millions of others knowing that God's work will go forward.

The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

--Joseph Smith

We got a lot of snow today which only added to the tons that we already had and so we got out in it this afternoon.  We love playing with our new video camera these days and took quite a bit of video.  The highlight was Noel's sled ride.  I decided I would play with some video editing really quick to hack together something to highlight her fun ride!

I hate to just post links here - I want to put more original thoughts - but when someone says something that I don't feel like I could say better or don't need to add to why talk (or write) just because - Peter Provost has some great thoughts in regards to Teams that I shared off my link blog, but since many don't see that I thought I would repost it here.

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/01/06/rangekeyed_1.html