I followed documentation from a couple of very key people, which helped a lot. Still, there are certain issues that threw me off. I have added my experiences where I had issues. The Arduino IDE is the standard method to connect to and program the Arduino. It is simple to use. If you want a more rich programming environment you can also use Eclipse, with the Arduino plugin. Either method can be used to program and run the Arduino. Here are the steps:

1. Download the Arduino IDE, install and test
2. Download and install Eclipse, configure
3. While in Eclipse, download the Arduino plugin, configure and test.

My little Arduino is so cute, as cute as a microprocessor can be. To install the Arduino IDE go here. Scroll down to the “All Ubuntu versions (old and new) can get the newest packages from Debian Sid”. This is the section for Xubuntu 10.04 LTS. You cannot install the Arduino IDE through the Ubuntu Software Centre, though some prerequisites are there. There are two packages to install, but the second package, only called “Arduino” has prerequisites that need to be installed before. The Arduino Core installed without issue. The Arduino only package has prerequisites, so install these first. The java6-runtime is available through the Software Centre. The librxtx-java is also available through the Software Centre, but is backlevel at v1.01. You must override this and install the one at Debian, even though it says the one at the Software Centre is more stable. Install libjna-java. After these prerequisites are installed, then install Arduino. This completes the Arduino IDE installation.

The Arduino IDE will be located at /usr/share/arduino. An icon will be added to your Xubuntu menu, under “Development”. Put an LED into port 13 (long leg of the LED) and ground (beside port 13, the short leg and flat side of the LED). Plug a USB cable into your PC and into your Arduino. From your Xubuntu screen, go “Applications”, “Development”, “Arduino”, which start up the Arduino IDE. Within the Arduino program go “Tools”, “Serial Port”, and select “/dev/ttyACM0″, which is the USB port. Then go “File” “Open” “Examples” “1. Basics” “Blink/” “Blink.ino”. Click the “check mark in a circle” on the top left side of the screen to verify. Then click the “right arrow in a circle”, right beside the “check mark in a circle”, which will send the program to the Arduino unit. The Arduino should start blinking. You are done verifying the Arduino IDE and its connection to the Arduino. If the Arduino IDE is good enough for you, you can stop here and play with your Arduino.

The next step, if you wish, is to install Eclipse and the Arduino plugin. The instructions are here and are very well written. I will add some comments for my Xubuntu 10.04 LTS experience. Specifically here are the instructions for installing Eclipse. Download the “Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers (includes Incubating components)” here, Linux 32 bit version (My computer is 32 bit). The download is pretty easy. Once downloaded, find it in your system. I found mine under /tmp. Double ckick it and it will install under your Xubuntu login name. It will create a folder called “Eclipse”. Using Terminal, move this folder to the /opt directory. For me a Xubuntu novice, this move to the /opt directory was the most difficult. Find the Eclipse icon in the /opt/eclipse directory, right click and make a desktop icon.

You now have Eclipse installed. Follow the Arduino Eclipse instructions. Where the instructions say “give a name to the workspace”, within Eclipse go “Window” “Preferences” “General” “Workspace” to get to the screen in the picture.

To Install the Arduino plugin follow the instructions and use: “http://www.baeyens.it/eclipse/update site”. Yes, there is a space between “update” and “site”. Ensure the URL is correct. I added the http:// in front and inadvertently duplicated this. Select the most current version under Arduino, which for me was 1.2.

In configuring the Arduino, go “Windows” “preferences” “Arduino” “Arduino”. My system put the Arduino IDE into “/usr/share/arduino”.

Once configured, Eclipse would not recognize the ttyACM0 USB port, the same one we used in the Arduino IDE. On the left side of Eclipse, right click on My_Sketch, then “Properties” at the very bottom. In port type “dev/ttyACM0″ over top “dev/ttyS0″. Copy an Arduino program, compile it and send it to the Arduino. This will give you an error like “port ttyACM0 not found”, but will successfully upload and run on your Arduino unit. To remove this error message follow these instructions at the very bottom, which says to edit your eclipse.ini file and add the following line: “-Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ttyACM0″ at the right spot. The error message will disappear and you can now easily develop in Eclipse with your little Arduino. When you unplug the Arduino, Eclipse will put in the ttyS0 port. Reattach the Arduino and the ttyACM0 port will return.

That is it for my experience. The most frustrating issues for this install were how to untar the Eclipse program into a folder /opt/Eclipse, but these are Xubuntu issues and not Eclipse nor Arduino issues.

Good Luck

There is absolutely nothing wrong with old PCs and they should last decades, not 4 years. When the Windows OS as well as other software cannot be upgraded, this reduces the usability of your PC. Often times the system as taken on so much bloated software baggage that it can hardly run. This software baggage can be from the OS or from downloaded programs. While there are programs that can help reduce this garbage, a slimmer and more efficient operating system may be your answer. Great care is needed when deleting software from an Old Windows PC because the delete of an important file could disable the computer.

Ubuntu, a variant of the Linux operating system, is by far much smaller than Windows. You can download the base of Ubuntu onto one CD, or 700MB. From this single CD you can actually run the OS on your Windows PC in order to test it, or you can install it. Installation can be a pure Ubuntu or a dual boot, where you have a choice to boot up with Ubuntu or Windows. This all comes on one single CD. I call that efficient.

Granted when you boot up with the Ubuntu CD, your PC will run slow. You really cannot run an operating system efficiently from a CD player, so expect this. When you install Ubuntu on your system everything will be faster than running from the CD.

Xubuntu is the slimmer version of Ubuntu, slimmer meaning there is less software and therefore works better on old PCs. Like its larger sibling Ubuntu, Xubuntu fits on one single CD. I chose to install Xubuntu on my old Intel P3 boxes. I noticed that with my original 256k of memory, Windows XP actually ran a little better than Xubuntu. Once I upgraded to 512k of RAM Xubuntu was much superior. It is really important to check how much memory and disk space you have before trying an install. Note that installing Xubuntu on 256m of RAM takes a long time, like 1.5 hrs.

Once Xubuntu 10.04 LTS was installed there were quite a few updates that were needed. This was easily done from Uubuntu’s Software Centre. Here there are trusted software upgrades that are pretty much guaranteed to work. This is quite different in the Windows world, where you hope that an upgrade will not impale your beloved PC. The Software Centre is quite impressive, not only efficiently upgrading your PC, but keeps track of all your installed packages. More importantly, the installs all worked. This was impressive, coming from the Windows world.

Xubuntu’s Software Centre also has many other downloads such as games. The Little Weed was happy to download and test these games, which he was easily able, and the games worked. What he did not like, he deleted, all without impacting the PC.

Firefox was very easy to upgrade and ran straight out of the box, as did hooking up to the internet. I also downloaded and upgraded Google Chrome as well as Skype, all without issue.

After the initial install, I had a PC running Xubuntu, with a functioning browser that can get to the internet. There were a few more games on the PC, I noticed. I have yet to install Open Office, but I know I can do this from the Software Centre. Impressive.

Networking was a big issue with Xubuntu. I found it very easy to find my Windows-based network printer, and attach to it and print a test sheet. The issue I struggled with is that Xubuntu could not view files on other Windows PCs on my network. After a lot of internet searching I found the answer: Xubuntu, which uses Thor as its file manager, has no such capability as yet. Ubuntu, the larger sibling, can do this. The solution is to download and install Ubuntu’s file manager, called Nautilus. Seriously? An OS that does not allow you to browse other PCs on your network? This issue should be included in the new version of Xubuntu.

Once I installed Nautilus, again through the Software Centre, I had a PC that I can use to browse the internet, using Firefox or Chrome, instant messaging through Skype, print to my network printer, browse files on my other networked Windows PCs, and is quite fast to run. There is also an easy way to find new software that is safe to download, run and if you do not like it, to delete, all without impacting your PC. All this, without having to pay royalties to any company to use the software. This, I think is the advantage of Xubuntu.

The next step in my Xubuntu experience was to install Eclipse and set up the PC to interface with an Arduino microprocessor. While I found numerous instructions on the internet, most were outdated. Downloading Eclipse was easy. What was difficult, much to my surprise, was to find a logical location on the disk to put installed programs and to install them there. This is similar to the “Program Files” directory on Windows.

This is where I ran into issues with Xubuntu. From internet advice, best practice was to install all programs in the /opt directory. In fact, this is where Google Chrome automagically installed. I am good with this. I will simply create another directory in /opt called /Eclipse, unzip/untar and install Eclipse in this new subdirectory. Much to my surprise from Thor or Nautilus I did not have authorization to create a new directory, even as an administrator. I was a little surprised at the high requirements to create a directory, but then again, this would prevent users from messing their PC up with unnecessary directories.

To create a directory the administrator has to go into Terminal mode, a command line interface, and do a sudo command. Not only does the admin have to be more technically savvy, they need know a lot more about Xubuntu. Similar to DOS from the 1980s, Terminal has some online help. Switching back and forth from Terminal (ctrl alt 1) and Xubuntu (ctrl alt 7) was easy, thankfully. Making the Eclipse directory was not so difficult after I was in Terminal and did a sudo. Ditto for deleting a directory. Moving from one directory to another was similar to DOS. Extracting Eclipse into a directory did not work. What I eventually did was extract Eclipse to a directory under my user name, and then using Terminal and sudo to move this directory to /opt. In the end it all worked.

There is a lot to Xubuntu. For the average user Xubuntu offers a safe and efficient operating system which runs very well on low powered PCs with 512m of RAM or more. With 256m of RAM Xubuntu will be a little laggy, but will still work.

For administrators, installing software and getting around the file system in Xubuntu can be more difficult. Overall I am really impressed with Xubuntu and so are my Little Weeds.

A case in point the question above: What is the next in the sequence SSS SCC C SC? This IT interview question is said to be from Google Corp. You can google for the answer, as I did. I found the solution here.

The answer is neither logical, binary nor very clever. “SSS” stands for 3 straight lines, with which you can print the letter “A”. “SCC” stands for one straight line and two curved lines, which makes for the spine of the “B”, as well as the chest and belly. “C” simply stands for itself. The “S” of “SC” stands for the spine of “D”, and the “C” is the belly. Logically the next in the sequence is “SSSS”, four straight lines which can then create “E”. Write code like this and the support programmer after you will curse you and your ancestors for 1,000 years, and rightly so.

As a backlash against these corporate interview questions, the Career Cup has created a database of interview questions, sorted by job type, company and question type. This is a logical step in this interview arms race, and I applaud their efforts. Still I wonder if the effort put into remembering the solutions to these obscure questions is really wasted effort. They add nothing to the candidate’s technical or interpersonal skills, nor do they add to the candidate’s general knowledge of the world. While learning useless facts and figures may be acceptable for those who wish to learn such, I am sure this is not the case for the vast majority of candidates.

And what about those who’s first language is not English? Do these interview questions help find the best candidates, or simply eliminate qualified and talented individuals?

I wonder aloud if these questions by interviewers are meant to satisfy some perverse need to psychologically torture candidates? Are interviewers simply spicing up their daily grind of a job by having fun at the expense of interviewing candidates? I am unsure. While these questions are not technically illegal they do cast the interviewing company in a very bad light.

As an interviewer we all have personal choices. Asking questions that have seemingly no bearing on the candidate’s background, experience, education and applicability to the job position seems like an abuse of your authority over a candidate.

More bluntly, if you are an interviewer, don’t be a jerk.

The Pharma Hack is very intelligent. Your content is not changed, and when you browse your own site you can detect no change. Search for your site on Google Search and your blog titles and short description will be changed to flogging pharmaceuticals. Search for these blog title changes and you will find none.

From what I have researched, this Pharma Hack is very common. Even spookier, no one knows how sites get infected. This makes prevention more difficult. Somehow some code is changed in one of your plugins and some extra PHP files are added to this plugin. When WordPress is loaded, this plugin is loaded along with this virus. Certain database changes are also changed.

I have checked with my host service provider. Their audit of my site shows no breaches of security and no unauthorized changes to my WordPress blog nor account.

This blog entry from Pearsonified helped me diagnose and immunize myself. Securi‘s tool did not detect the virus. DigWP recommended some really good plugins that hardens WordPress as well as reports file changes. The Ultimate Security Checker grades your site and recommends steps to increase your grade.

It is worth taking these remedial steps to harden your WordPress install. Having someone take destroy your hard work on Google Search really is disappointing. Google Search has already started to reindex my site, a big step in the right direction. A pox on all those that use the Pharma Hack on all unsuspecting and innocent WordPress authors.

Addendum Mar 14 2012: Found a cool tool to detect malicious or suspicious code.

Since I became the custodian of my Imperial 535 sewing machine I have been looking for a user manual. Many people have written in looking for the same. As luck would have it, Gord Bestwick of British Columbia, Canada happened upon my blog page and has kindly cleaned up and offered me an electronic version of his user manual, for free non-commercial distribution. This means no one need pay for this manual and all Imperial, New Home and Janome 535 owners can enjoy it. This manual is applicable to many Japanese sewing machines of similar era. Between us, the world is a better sewing place.

Imperial sewing machine model 535, as illustrated in the user manual. May also be branded as New Home 535 or Janome 535.

It looks like when the Japanese were manufacturing sewing machines in the 1950-60s, much “sharing” occurred. Sewing machines of a wide variety of makes and models looked and operated very much the same. Specifically the brands New Home, Janome and Imperial, were made by Janome. Janome had bought the brand New Home in 1960. Janome manufactured many sewing machines that were later branded to suit the needs of retailers.

What this means is that Gord’s Imperial 535 looks exactly the same as the one in his manual, yet my Imperial 535 is just slightly different. Important operational issues such as needle threading, bobbin operation and sewing are identical. Minor differences include how to refill the bobbin and the placement of certain buttons and switches. In almost all other respects the user manual is very applicable.

Differences with my Imperial 535 include:

• illustration
• thread guides
• bobbin winder mechanism
• drop feed knob: I only have a darn/sew option, no silk
• winding a bobbin, adjust bobbin winding device (I use my finger)

As stated, this document is provided free for non-commercial use. If you have information on the Imperial, New Home or Janome 535 that would be a good addition to this manual or to my blog post, feel free to contact me or Gord Bestwick at gbestwickatshaw.ca (change the “at” to @).

If you download this document please leave a comment with a valid email address. This document will be amended as we find more information. When it is I will email you, provided you leave a valid email address. Imperial/New Home/Janome 535 Sewing Machine User Manual

Imperial sewing machine, model 535, as depicted in the user manual.

Chubb Monitor Qx started warnings, the trouble LED always lit. The battery needed replacing.

Somethings in your house just keep working silently in the background. You eventually take them for granted, out of mind and out of sight. Such was my Chubb Monitor Qx security system, 452-4713, until the alarm started going off in the middle of the night, here in Toronto, Canada. It aurally called for attention. The trouble LED light remained lit, but with no station indicated. It turned out the battery was near dead. Once replaced it returned to its normal state of silence.

The Chubb Monitor Qx is a small pad type security monitor. Every so often it would sound a high pitched warning and the trouble LED would be lit. I would clear it and the problem would go away. Last night the warning went off seven times in the middle of the night. It needed attention.

The user manual is online from Chubb, but does not state much about the trouble LED. Do a “*23″ + pin and see if it gives you a station code. Mine did not. Maybe one of the 8 stations need attention.

Downstairs I looked at the closed security box. Check that the phone line is firmly plugged into the phone outlet. Undo the cover. Check the three fuses with a multimeter to ensure continuity. All were Ok. The security system has a 12v 7ahr lead acid battery. This metered at 9v. I found my problem. Unfortunately for me there is no code from the Monitor Qx to tell me the battery is dying.

I got a new 12v 7aHr battery from my local electronics store for ~$12CAD, plugged it in, closed up the box and cleared the alarm. The trouble LED turned off, and all is back to normal.

Yes, Firefox 4.0 is faster, but they did not tell you that if you leave your browser idle for 5 minutes it would lock up. I have the habit of leaving my computer for a couple of hours during the day, and upon return FF would be locked up tighter than a bank. While it does not crash it also does not respond. Even if you continue to browse Firefox 4.0 starts to slow down markedly so that after an hour it crawls. This is not sufficiently usable. I prefer slightly slower but overall more usable. For the first time I downgraded Firefox to the previous version.

Maybe it is time to acknowledge that the previous versions were pretty good and future versions will be worse. I don’t know. Overall Firefox 3.6.17 is markedly faster than 4.0. The downgrade process went without issue.

Ibanez basses are difficult to identify. They often have no specific model numbers written on the bass. After heavy use these model markings can wear off, making identification of vintage models difficult. Many sellers using Craigslist and Kijiji will also post poor photos of basses, making ID very difficult. This post will positively identify the Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, as well as provide related internet links. There is actually very little information about this Made in Japan, Fugigen factory 1987 model on the internet, so every little bit helps.

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: body finishes were black, pearl, red, fountain blue

The Ibanez RB800 has the model label on the bass body to the left of the strings and just above the neck pickup. This area is prone to heavy use and scratching with the thumb and pick. Over time the label will wear off. On the black version, you can tilt the bass and in the right light, you will still be able to read the “Ibanez RB800″ label as well as “Ultimate Expression of Craftsmanship” byline. Reading this is very difficult.

Putting the model label in this location was a mistake. While it might be Ok for a guitar, it is terrible for a bass. Most other Ibanez bass models do not use this location, thankfully.

Another interesting feature of the RB800 is the triangular headstock. I read somewhere that they were then sued by Hamer for the triangular headstock design, and therefore were not used in subsequent versions. The triangle tilts more to the right than the left. There is no make nor model marking on the headstock itself. The truss bar cover is plastic and is marked “Roadstar”, but because it is a black cover on black varnish, this will not be easily seen in a photo.

The fretboard has a full 2 octaves, 24 frets. Double dots are used on the 12th and 24th fret. The neck is bolted on the back using 4 bolts. Between the end of the fretboard and the neck pickups is a sloped piece of plastic that transitions the fretboard to the level of the body in one smooth curved surface. This plasic piece is glued to the fretboard and is part of the neck.

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: Label to left of strings on body a bad design

The neck is lovely. The bass is a 34″ scale. The neck is very slim, only 3.9cm/1.5″ at the top of the neck, making playing very easy. The neck cross dimensional shape fits the hand very nicely. I find the bass very easy to play.

The RB800 uses active EMG pickups that use a 9v battery. There are two pickups at the neck and one very wide pickup at the bridge. All are marked EMG in white uppercase lettering. There are 4 knobs, but I find it difficult to understand them. They are supposed to be 1 volume (nearest to pickups), 2 EQ (one for each pickup, cuts treble) and one balancer (nearest headstock). While I can identify the balancer, the others are not so clear to me. Maybe when I play more it will be more clear.

The back cover is held closed using 4 Philips head screws. The cover needs to be removed to change the batter and to service the electronics. The cover is made of plastic.

I do not know much about bass bridges. There are adjustments for intonation and string height, all individual to each string. I have not messed with this. The bridge is marked with an embossed Ibanez label.

There are four Ibanez labeled tuners. They are marked “Smooth Tuner BII”. Each tuner is held to the headstock with two Philips head screws. The tuners work very well and the bass does not easily go out of tune. The plastic truss rod cover is labeled “Roadstar”.

The finish is a deep black laquer, which seems very hard wearing. It is also very difficult to keep clean. Black seems to attract a lot of dust and I can never seem to keep it clean. I use Lemon Pledge, which gives the bass a lovely shine.

Links:
-RB800 bass on Youtube. He is really good.
-Used on Ankorage Craiglist: most likely out of date or removed
-comments from Big Al on Guitarsite
-Two photos of a black RB800
-specs: Dated to 1987

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: 1987 Ibanez catalogue

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: tuner labeled Ibanez Smooth Tuner BII

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: Truss rod cover labeled Roadstar

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: Active EMG pickups powered by a 9v battery

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: bridge labeled Ibanez

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: rear cover used 4 Philips head screws

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: electronics use a 9v battery and no ICs. Click for larger photo

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue: tuners

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue: headstock

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue: back

Ibanez RB800 Roadstar II electric Bass, 1987 in black: front

Ibanez RB800 Roadstar II electric Bass, 1987 in black: front2

Man vs Mother Nature, Mother Nature won: Japanese earthquake and Tsunami, Mar 2011. The Fukushima DaiIchi nuclear incident is a man made disaster.

Having taught English in Japan for a year, I have first hand experience with people from Japan. I was stationed in Kyushu, the largest southern island of Japan, about 100km away from a very large volcano. When you live in close proximity to a volcano that often blows its top, you become pretty nonchalant about tremors. Being Canadian, this never happened to me. The Japanese people love fresh food, especially vegetables. Having some of their food supply deemed unfit to eat is a big psychological blow. We can only hope that this nuclear disaster can be averted. Earthquake, tsunami, and now a nuclear incident: How much can they endure?

Japan loves fresh. You can see this in their homes, where there is no large refrigerator. All food is bought fresh daily and eaten soon after. Because much of Japan is tropical, this saves energy and increases your quality of food. Imported food is looked on sceptically. I recall a grocer telling me that the cheap “Grown in America” oranges were laced with pesticides and would kill me. They were Sunkist from Florida. Of course I bought them and they were delicious.

It is this attitude of “Fresh First” that makes the current nuclear incident even more serious. Contaminated land due to nuclear fallout may never again bear produce fit for human consumption. Here in Canada we would probably import fruit and veggies from some other part of the world and not bat an eye, but in Japan, this will not be the case.

The other issue is that Japan is a crowded country. In my little area of Japan, far from a large city, land is used intensively. There are fields for planting, and for living, not no area is fallow or otherwise unused. Here in Toronto you can go to many areas and see totally unused land. Small villages in Japan are really not very small when compared to Canadian villages. Japanese homes are not large and have small back yards. My point is that even in small villages in Japan, population density is high. This means that there is really no place to go to get away from a contaminated area. Those that are forced to flee will simply crowd out others in another area.

I have faith in the Japanese people in that they are hard working and resilient. How they will solve this problem I do not know, but I wish them luck. I hope that the Fukushima DaiIchi Nuclear Powerplant will change the nuclear power industry for the better. In the mean time those in harm’s way need to move to safety.

Japan is known for their advanced earthquake technology. Was it a calculated gamble to use nuclear reactors in Japan? Unfortunately the downside of this gamble will now play itself out. I wonder if mankind is really smart enough to control Mother Nature. Maybe the smartest thing for mankind to do may be to coexist with Mother Nature and not try to conquer her. She is unpredictable and incredibly strong. Mankind needs to understand that we are small.

The Force is with Her, not mankind.

There are key tell-tale signs that all is not well on a project. These include:

• Promising a work item without consulting the person doing the work: It is not so obvious to all that a work item will get done. There are many more permutations to the solution than the one you envision. Without consulting and getting approval from the person doing the actual work, providing a guarantee that a specific work item will be completed, or that certain products will be used, will cause confusion, back tracking, loss of credibility and frustration on your part as well as the customer.
• Promising an end date for the completion of a project without consulting those that will implement, nor having a project plan with some buffer. You might think that you have left a lot of time for the project, but without consulting with the implementer, what do you base this on? Even with discussions with the implementer, there are dependencies between work items, such as one item must be completed prior to another item, that need to be considered. Contingency time must be added so that when some item takes longer than expected, or an unplanned issue arises there is buffer in the schedule. All large projects need a project plan.
• Delegate the project plan to someone you have no prior project familiarity. Yes, they are very nice, but if this is your project how can you delegate responsibility of the completion of the project to someone you have not previously worked? Implementers usually have many projects on the go, and yours might not be very high priority.
• Of course everyone can plan. This is untrue. Most people think they can plan, until something goes off the rails. Project planning requires more discipline than most people acknowledge. The final list of work items is crucial for the implementer as well as the customer. If the customer believes that are getting a work item and the implementer does not have this on their list, then it simply will not get done. This clarity of communication is the key to a happy customer, and is often the downfall of even a simple project.
• Not having a formal process for project changes. Project changes are inevitable. You dig down and hit a large rock, so need to veer left or right. By not formalizing this process, which includes writing down how the change will be handled, issues will inevitably arise. Assuming that you can handle these changes by sweet talking customers and implementers is fraught with danger. Customers do not like surprises.

As the project progresses, issues will arise. Customers seek changes or wonder why certain work items are not being done. They have expectations that they may not have vocalized. Implementers go on their merry way, checking off their “To Do” list, oblivious of the storm brewing in the background. The leader is stuck in the middle, trying to keep it all together.

Half way through a project that is going off the rails, the leader is usually oblivious to the pending storm. The time line progressively slips. No matter, just pressure the implementers, who can suck it up, but for a little while. Changes and unrealized expectations come from the customer, which comes as a surprise to implementer. Oh they cannot do these changes, and besides, it was not in the original scope of work and there is no additional money nor time to complete it. Customer squeezes the leader, leader squeezes the implementer, implementer pushes back, leader is in a tight spot, never to dig oneself out.

Heart brealking it is, to see a train wreck before it occurs. Still, if you have done your due diligence then there is really nothing left to be done. Sit back and wait, watch and learn. An excellent beginning paves the way for a smoother, more controlled landing.

Addendum March 18 2011: Here’s an excellent article from Brian Baeumler on project management in the home renovation field. It is insightful and a must read for all wanting to do a renovation.