JOBSEARCH: On being roadkill on the highway of life … …

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/092706-yourtake-indiana.html?page=1

Q&A: How Indiana cleaned up its big IT mess
CTO says: “The vendors were running wild.”
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World, 09/27/06

In 18 months, the state of Indiana has gone from disarray to discipline in its IT infrastructure. Brought in by Governor Mitch Daniels, an experienced IT management team has cut 230 jobs, consolidated hardware and services, renegotiated contracts and saved the state $25 million in annual costs. Network World Senior Editor Carolyn Duffy Marsan interviewed Gerry Weaver, CTO of Indiana’s Office of Technology, about how he pulled off this remarkable turnaround.

***Begin Quote***

What were the biggest challenges you faced in terms of changing the way Indiana acquires and manages its IT infrastructure?

Getting all the other agencies to understand what was going to happen. We had a few hard meetings with agency IT directors. There were a couple that didn’t buy into our plan and, quite frankly, they’re gone.

***End Quote***

It would seem that when change happens, it’s in one’s own best interest to get on board with the new guy’s program. It’s either that or be “roadkill” in front of the steam roller. Or, be a displaced outplaced outsourced “turkey” down at the “turkey farm” protesting you was robbed, misunderstood, or misappraised. As we used to tell new turkeys arriving a the Delta Beta Mu turkey farm, “you’re here. that prima facie evidence that you’re here for a reason.”.


TECH: PLAXO didn’t have the latest info for one of my contacts. Hmmm!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

One of my contacts is Plaxo, but he has his old employers address. So, Plaxo SAYS it’s the latest but it is in fact ng. Perhaps I have uncovered a flaw in the model? Hmmm?


RANT: The Mouse screws Sam’s; it should be entertaining

Monday, October 9, 2006

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0610target.html

Target joins Wal-Mart in expressing iTunes concerns
By Ryan Katz, Senior Editor

***Begin Quote***

October 9, 2006 – U.S. retail giant Target has joined rival Wal-Mart in expressing concern regarding the adverse effect digital movie sales could have on the DVD business. Like Wal-Mart, Target is less than pleased that Apple’s wholesale price for new movies from Disney is several dollars less than the wholesale price charged to Target for DVDs, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

***AND***

The Journal also discloses that shortly after Apple launched movie sales at the iTunes Store, Wal-Mart sent a top executive to Hollywood to express its displeasure over the development. The retail leader is known for using its massive clout to bring suppliers in line with its wishes.

**End Quote***

Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation? What will WalMart do? I bet it will be a doozey.


TECH: Free DIKW being given away

Monday, October 9, 2006

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/10/07/freetechbookscom/

FreeTechBooks.com Posted Oct 7th 2006 4:35PM by Ryan Carter

***Begin Quote***

Looking for some great free books, or some stored knowledge in the form of e-books, lecture notes, programming texts? FreeTechBooks.com has you covered. All books are legally free and available for online viewing or download. There is a lot of great stuff here, and the only “catch” is that the texts are bound by their own terms, which isn’t a problem in my book. Most of the titles are in the computer science or related areas like operating systems, programming, logic and systems analysis and design. There is enough stuff here to keep you busy for a weekend, or several weekends depending on how many programming languages and texts you are interested in.

***End Quote***

I like free!


WRITING: Ambition and success thru writing?

Monday, October 9, 2006

http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20061009GetPublishedtoGetAhead.html

Get Published To Get Ahead
Gerry McGovern
Expert Author
Published: 2006-10-09

***Begin Quote***

If you are ambitious, you must publish the important things you do today. Publishing is about visibility. It’s about getting your name in front of those who matter to you. If you do something great and don’t create a record of what you did, did you really do it? As far as the Web is concerned, you didn’t, and the Web is becoming the global memory. So you’ve got to get it down – get it recorded.

***End Quote***

Not very likely for fowgs!


GUNS: The “liberal media” lives in a fantasy land where law do “stuff”

Monday, October 9, 2006

From: agunnut08824
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 9:08 AM
To: Associate Editor Karen Hunter
(who handles concerns about the accuracy and fairness of news coverage)
c/o readerep [AT] courant [DOT] com
Subject: US unwilling to ban guns despite plague of school shootings AFP via Yahoo! News – Sat, Oct 07, 2006

Dear Ms. Hunter,

With all due respect to all the so called Liberals in the media, I respectfully submit that you are living in Fantasy Land. I’m a “gun nut”; I blog https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/tag/guns/ about it. May I point out some “facts of life”? (I’m not going to drag everything from my blog here. I’ll just hit the high points.)

(1) “Gun free schools zones” are an invitation to nut jobs, terrorists, and criminals to enter, in complete safety, and have minutes, days, and possible hours to act. This particularly dumb law creates what the military would call a “target rich environment with zero opposition”. Does anyone think that a Principal, Teacher, or Custodian can’t be trusted to protect their students? And if they are crazy, what prevents them from bringing a gun to school and killing people? A law? please don’t make me cry.

(2) Now I am not saying arm every one in the school! Although that’s not a bad idea. I’m just saying repeal the “gun free school zones” law. (Isn’t is Orwellian to use the word law to cover the Law of Gravity and anything produce be a Legislature anywhere? Go ahead an defy the Law of Gravity. You can’t do it. That’s a law.) If you can make a “law” like gravity, where a gun wouldn’t operate inside a school zone, then you would have something.

(3) “Victim Disarmament” laws, comically called “Gun Control” laws (IMHO “gun control” is being able to hit what you aim at.), is one of the steps on the way to tyranny and genocide. The dead old white guys knew that and enshrined in our Constitution a recognition of the natural right of self-defense. When we ignore the wisdom of the ages, we do so at our peril. Can’t happen here? Japanese Internment and Halliburton’s contract to build illegal immigrant detention centers and the suspension of habeas corpus for “enemy combatants”. Yeah, right!

(4) The world is dangerous place. There are two legged ne’er-do-wells and four legged predators out there. A gun is just a tool. A very powerful tool, but still a tool. It makes women equal to men. It make strong thugs very compliant. Quite frankly, I trust my fellow humans here in the USA to be responsible and smart enough to distinguish between kids in school and crazed milkmen. The police are merely the distillation of society’s desire for peace. they can’t be everywhere. And really depend upon the good people to back them up (i.e., NOLA).

(5) Wishing for peace doesn’t make it happen. Protecting school kids requires us to be smart. (I’m not a fan of government schools in the first place, but that’s another matter for another day.) We don’t make banks gun free zones. Aren’t kids as important or valuable as money? And “gun control” will never work. Criminals don’t obey legislative laws. If the government can’t keep weapons, drugs, and cell phones out of its prisons, then why do you think they can keep these things out of the country.

No, you don’t “reduce the number of these tragedies” by “making it harder for people to get guns”. Criminals have no problem getting the guns they want to do bad things. If you truly want to reduce the number of these tragedies, then you make guns easier to get. When the ordinary person can defend themselves, then criminals will seek other employment. Actually wide spread concealed carry is ideal because then the criminals have to guess.

All right, I’ll quote from my blog, because I think I made the point best:

***Begin Quote***

There are other benefits of an armed society. The value of concealed carry is that you don’t have to carry to receive a benefit. If a criminal has 100 potential victims, then he has to pick one. If out of that hundred people ten are packing, then the criminal has a 10% chance of facing an armed victim. “Hmmm” says the criminal who should I pick? The gay guy. Ever hear of the Pink Pistols? The thin spindly blond woman. Agggg, that’s Paxton Quigley and she’s describing what a center of mass is to me with a laser assist sight. I know. says out hypothetical criminal, the squat little brownish guy with the big mustache, looks like an mexican arab. Ohhh, good day Mr. Massad Ayoob. Yes sir, I’d be happy to put my hands up. See the unarmed sheep are protected when we “salt” the flock with a few armed sheep. The criminal has to guess. Sometimes they will guess wrong … dead criminal! Don’t have to worry about recidivism then. There’s reason why burglars choose unoccupied houses. And remember that TV show that ask hardened criminals what they feared most? Not the cops, the courts, or jail. It was an armed potential victim!

***End Quote***

Events like the school shootings are terrible, but they are the direct result of legislative stupidity.

Hope this helps change your mind,
F. J. Reinke

=========================

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/
editorials/hc-guns.artoct04,0,4527041.
story?coll=hc-headlines-editorials

http://tinyurl.com/tkx7o

School Killings, Gun Control
October 4 2006

A horrifying rampage at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa. – the third incident of a fatal shooting at a school in less than a week – has sparked nationwide debate about the vulnerability of our schools. But where is the talk of gun control?

On Monday, a milk-truck driver with three guns pushed his way into the one-room Pennsylvania schoolhouse, ordered the boys and adults to leave, then barricaded himself inside. He fired on a dozen girls, killing three before turning the gun on himself. Two girls injured in the shooting died Tuesday.

In Colorado on Wednesday, a drifter with a gun broke into a school and, after a standoff, killed a teenage girl and himself. In Wisconsin on Friday, a 15-year-old student fatally shot his principal.

The incidents have provoked a dialogue about the safety of schools. Early this week, the Bush administration announced a plan for a conference involving education and law enforcement experts to discuss the nature of the problem and ways the federal government can help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath.

Maybe there are ways we can better protect our schools and children from such attacks. In the Pennsylvania shooting, officials speculate the gunman may have chosen the school because it was the closest one accessible and had little security.

But we can’t build walls around all our schools or shroud them in barbed wire. It’s also true that even the best gun-control laws won’t put a stop to these terrible and senseless deaths. By making it harder for people to get guns, however, maybe we can at least reduce the number of these tragedies.

###


JOBSEARCH: Gray hair has value extract it!

Sunday, October 8, 2006

http://www.enewsbuilder.net/theayersgroup/e_article000541048.cfm?x=b11,0,w

http://www.enewsbuilder.net/theayersgroup/e_article000649698.cfm?x=b8b45Nl,b55f1D3v

The Age-Advantaged Workforce
A Different Job Strategy
by Terry Ebert

***Begin Quote***

“The leading edge of the baby boom still has the old hiring mentality, that age is a negative rather than an advantage, ” says Ayers’ Senior Vice President Doug O’Connor, CFP. “It usually comes out at our first meeting with a 55+ candidate: ‘Will I ever be able to find a job again?’ As we work with these candidates on positioning, they begin to recognize the depth of the resources they’ve accumulated over the years.”

***End Quote***

Demand a contract and take a full measure of “value retained”!


TECH: Sharewood Picnic 73 has one good idea

Sunday, October 8, 2006

http://www.masternewmedia.org/new_media/new_media_tools/
best_new_media_tools_of_the_week_20061008.htm

http://tinyurl.com/pddmm

October 8, 2006

New Media Tools Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 73

***Begin Quote***

1. Octopz http://www.octopz.com is a online service that facilitates online collaboration, in either synchronous or asynchronous enviroments through the use of digital media, web conferencing, VoIP and content management technologies.

Nah, what about privacy and security.

2. Cruxy https://www.cruxy.com is a place for people to buy, sell, and promote each other’s original creative works.

Nah, I do do creative works. At least, nothing anyone would pay me for.

3. Mozeo http://www.mozeo.com is a mobile community that connects you to your friends and information, anytime and anywhere.

Nah, don’t need it.

4. RightCart http://rightcart.com/ allows you to add a store to your own blog, your personal webpage, or your small business website in minutes.

Nah, nothing to sell.

5. Speechi http://www.speechi.net/us/ is a tool that allows you to convert your PowerPoint presentations into a Flash files (with no audio) and showcase them online.

Nah, no need.

6. PlinkMe http://plinkme.com is an online service that enables photographers to upload and get their pictures used across the internet with links back to their site, enabling them to check how their photos are being used.

Nah, no need.

7. Nakama http://nakama.ca/ is a web service that enables you to take pictures or videos from your phone and publish them straight to your blog, Flickr gallery, even your MySpace or Windows Live Spaces page.

Nah, no need.

8. PollDaddy http://www.polldaddy.com is a online tool which allows you to create polls and place them on your website or blog, or anywhere online.

That sounds useful.

9. MagneticTime http://www.magnetictime.com is a software which allows you to ‘listen’ to your Outlook emails and Word documents on your iPod, mobile phone or PDA, in mp3 format.

Nah, no need.

10. SubmitEmNow http://www.submitemnow.com is a Mozilla Firefox extension which will allows bloggers to submit their blogs easily and freely to the most important online directories.

Nah, no need.

***End Quote***

One possibility, but it made me think.


TECH: SYNAPSELIFE is a mobile tool that just came out to beta

Sunday, October 8, 2006

http://www.synapselife.com/

***Begin Quote***

SynapseLife is currently 8 web/mobile applications available for you to use for free. Take the time to set-up your personal account/URL and enjoy. We are here for you so please provide us with any feedback, bad or good, that could help us make your experience with SynapseLife better.

***End Quote***

May be useful.


LIBERTY: When do we pull the plug on “publik eddycation”?

Sunday, October 8, 2006

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/norwood1.html

Public Schools Have Flunked Out
by James Erwin Norwood

***Begin Quote***

Public schools have stayed in business, in spite of their bad results. Their failures have not been punished by bankruptcy or loss of jobs. Their failures have been rewarded with more money, which has operated as a perverse incentive to fail again and again.

***End Quote***

So when does the plug get pulled?