Tell us a little about yourself. What do you do at Imulus?
I make myself obsolete. Everyday I try to start things up, get things going and then find someone better then me to get the job done. I’m always reinventing my job and I’m often critical of my own performance; most times I really wish I had a mentor to point me in the right direction. That would save a lot of time.

If you were a smell, what would you be and why?
I think the opinion of the office is different then mine. I would say I’d like to be Ammonia. It really wakes up the senses.

Where do you see Imulus going in 5 years?
I see us with several small web-products, a strong client base, a team of 20 or so people and a work environment and methodology which is emulated by others.

What do you love more than anything?
My baby girl Jillian. I thought I loved when I got married; but there really isn’t any love which is even close to the love of a parent for their kids. It’s way momma bear will always take on any foe which threatens her cubs, it’s hard wired love.

But if we are looking for something work related, I’d say I love change. I really enjoy adapting to the new challenges of the current economic crisis, shifting technologies and ideologies. It keeps my mind fresh and alive.

We all know that Kat is the best. What I want to know is, why do you think that? Please don’t be afraid to go into detail.
Well, she is. We struck gold when we found her and you’d have to pry her out of our cold-dead-hands before we’d give her up.

What kind of strange habits do you have?
I’m not a habit guy, sometime I really wish I had a few. But I honestly can’t think of any habits, maybe others have some opinion here.

How did you bag that foxy lady of a wife?
Roofies. I drugged her back in ‘96 and the effects haven’t worn off yet. Actually, I’m REALLY not sure. I certainly gave her plenty of reasons to go elsewhere but she stuck around and I decided to keep her. She is pretty awesome and I’m thankful to spend my life with her.

Tell me 10 ways to use a pencil other than writing.
1. A Weapon
2. Lever
3. Catapult
4. Dart
5. A deadfall trap
6. Eating Utensil
7. Post for tying back indoor plants
8. Support brace for a broken finger
9. Add stiff wire to make stick figures
10. To hold the jaws of an attacking beast open

How do you feel about hot pants?
If I wore them I would look like a Perdue Chicken reject.

What kind of qualities do you look for in a client?
1. Decisiveness
2. Good Communication
3. Mutual Respect and Honest Feedback
4. Actual money to pay us.

With your eyes closed, tell me step-by-step how to tie my shoes.
Pull the fuzzy Velcro strap across the harder side. You do wear Velcro right?

Are you hungry?
For food no. For work, yes.

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
A Raven. They are key to so many stories across cultures and throughout time, yet they aren’t colorful and they aren’t song birds. They work well in groups but are just as often seen alone. They can survive in almost any condition and they aren’t hunted.

Where is my shaker of salt?
You used it up this morning on that Margarita.

If Imulus was a person, what kind of personality would he/she have?
An easy going, friendly, somewhat social 26 year old. Certainly opinionated, passionate and honest. It would look fairly fit but still carry a bit of a belly from all the partying.

Today I found a site named iSerenity that offers ambient backgrounds for your work or home. Instead of offering minimal beats of ambient musicians, iSerenity offers environmental sounds. Not only things like waterfalls mind you, but the obviously relaxing sound of highways, typewriters, and vacuums. You know, things most people find relaxing. Yes, the concept makes me giggle a little.

Some of their selections are not very successful in producing a relaxed environment. The heartbeat makes me want turn into Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and the purring is as about as relaxing as a chainsaw.

Still, some of their efforts work surprisingly well. I found the dryer noise to be oddly focusing. As I listened to it I forgot it was there – yet it still helped me focus on my tasks. Turning off the sound felt strange, too – everything was suddenly different and I was back in the real world.

Give it a try at http://www.iserenity.com/.

Being a massive nerd I have a tendency to do a lot of things while at my computer.

This includes: eating, brushing my teeth, lifting weights, sleeping, wine tasting, texting, changing, and crying about my pathetic state of nerdery.

Hence, it was no surprise last week when I dumped an entire bowl of Rice Krispies onto my brand new Apple bluetooth keyboard. And let me clarify, we aren’t talking some minor spill. I literally dumped the entire bowl onto my keyboard. In fact, I mind as well have used the keyboard as a bowl in the first place. However, before losing all hope I quickly removed the keyboard’s batteries, dashed it to the sink, and washed the whole thing with water. After a good shake I set it down on a towel at a 45 degree angle and let it dry for the next six days.

To my surprise when I plugged the batteries back in last night the keyboard came back to life as if nothing had gone wrong. Now… I’ve heard rumors about being able to place keyboards in the dishwasher, but I myself have never successfully had this work. And therefore I have to admit that I was not only extremely happy (not to mention $80 richer), but also somewhat amazed that my keyboard was still functioning.

Either way, I hope this tale helps fellow geeks resurrect what would otherwise be a dead keyboard or laptop. Or better yet, helps them realize that food and drink directly over the keyboard might be a questionable idea in the first place.

Now that most of you have visited the Imulus Insights blog, you will notice a change that has taken place just last week. The blog has been redesigned, but please be patient with us if you would like to read or leave comments…they are missing. The blog is still undergoing work, but your ability to read or leave comments will be available soon.

Enjoy reading our articles that flow in at random times from our creative team of people at Imulus. In the meantime we will ramble about design and coding goodness and sip on caffeine to get our creative juices flowing. Please stay tuned or should I say blogged.

It is unbelievable to me that after countless election problems over the years that the same mistakes continue to be made. A study by CALTECH/MIT estimated that 1.5 million votes were not recorded in the 2000 election because of equipment and ballot design problems. Another 3 million votes were lost because of registration issues caused by problems with the registration forms. Since elections are handled at the state and county level there is no consistency of election process and ballot design. This is horribly inefficient, with process and ballot design being reproduced by various election officials all over the nation (some better than others). The lack of consistency also fails voters. As a voter, every time that my local election officials decide to change the ballots, or I move to another area, I have to learn a whole new way to vote. Even a bad ballot would be better than the current situation, if only the ballot were the same everywhere and every election.

From what I understand, it might be extremely difficult to change the laws and make federal standards for election process and ballot design. But as an alternative standards could be developed and ballot designs created that could be adopted by the states on a voluntary basis. If local officials were presented with an option that was proven to be effective and reduced their costs for doing all the work themselves, I would imagine that adoption would be very high.

Visit the following links to learn more about this issue:

http://www.reformelections.org
http://www.vote.caltech.edu/
http://www.designfordemocracy.org