Microsoft is releasing a new hub site at Technet in early January. This site will showcase content for IT Managers which will help to make them more productive and make more information available in one place.
I have started blogging for the hub and will continue to post content there in the future.
Click here to visit the site
Here we are inside of a week until Christmas and somehow it doesnt feel much like the holidays. Don’t get me wrong, I am still in the holiday spirit and all that, but to me it feels like there should be at least a month until Christmas.
I guess the few days to take a break from work and spend time with family are a good thing, even if it happens over the entire week period because all cannot get together over a day or two. Hopefully we can get everything done for all the ensuing visitors descending on the area for the season.
Hopefully everyone has a memorable and safe holiday for 2008.
I was recruited recently to help raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of northeast wisconsin. The goal was $800 and the idea was to be in jail while making calls to help the charity.
Being the age of the Internet, the MDA allows participants to raise money online. This allowed me to raise almost all of the money for today’s lockup ahead of time.
When I went to the lockup this morning, I had reached my goal and then some. The total I raised was $920.00.
I am glad I was able to help and hopefully the organization raises a good amount of money to help those who need it.
It’s also veterans day today and I wanted to pass along a thank you to all veterans and current service members serviing to defend our country and keep us safe. I am proud of you for the choice you made to serve your country and thank you for helping keep America a great country.
Now that the election in 2008 is in the books and Obama has won the white house I think there is a new era coming to the United States. Yes the problems facing our nation today will be here for the current President to fix and for President Obama to continue working on, but the changes needed in America can begin right now.
I voted for Obama and am proud as hell of that fact. Sure it made history. Biggest turnout of voters, first African-American President, but mostly we need to change how we operate as a nation. Could I do it? No. But I was on board from day one to vote for this change.
I like the fact that Barack Obama has not been in Washington forever and is new to the national political scene. It may bring brand new change… or a fresh start. Policies and actions are important in the governing of nations but being set in the ways of previous administrations and the politics that have been around as long as I can remember just doesnt make sense.
Making adjustments to move forward and better the organizations that keep people working in this country and upgrading technologies to make the companies more efficient is a top priority, so why is a change in the politics and beliefs of our government change with the times to better our nation as a whole?
Maybe things will not be all that different and changes will take a long time, but I for one am on that bus. I want to see what great things We the People can acheive with new leaders and new ideas.
I am proud to have had the opportunity to vote in this or in any election and proud to support Obama.
Read the acceptance speech here, it was well worth a look. Do I know if I made the right decision in a candidate and that my choice will right the ship that is our country? No, but I look forward to the next four years.
I really think this new theme fits me the best of any I have tried. It is a bit messy around the edges and just a bit technology driven. We’ll see how long I keep it.
I have, like many, been watching the debates and the plethora of rather slimy or less than useful television ads put forth by the candidates for President.
while I lean toward Obama, I am not sure either is the candidate that is going to get this republic back on the golden path. I just hope we can start getting away from the misteps of the current administration.
I have a concern about all this that i am not sure amounts to much, but it is simple.
Senators McCain and Obama:
Please do the citizens of this great nation a favor and stop flinging mudpies at each other. Tell us about your plans. Do not worry about how you are better or not worse than the other guy. I want to know what YOU are going to do to make the USA better. What is your plan… and how do we get there. When does it start? How can we learn about it? Help we the voters of the United States of America choose the right man for the job.
Thank you… that is all.
Derek
Making the usual blog rounds this evening I found a post over at BNet to be quite refreshing. Written by Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate school of Business, the post touches on the fear caused by crowds and the fact that starting rumors or constantly talking about the issue simply continues thoes fears.
Dr. Pfeffer goes on to point out that many companies still around today have withstood severe financial crises. It is an interesting read. You can get the rest here
I read an interesting story at CNN this morning about Google and it got me thinking a bit. Sure 10 years ago, Microsoft was king (and to a large extent still is) and the startup from Stanford was more an idea than anything else.
Fast forward to now. Google is valued at 150 Billion dollars (give or take a billion) and the US government and probably a good number of competing companies (or the media… not sure yet) are beginning to discuss that Google is a monopoly.
First… Monopoly is a board game by parker brothers and a corporation who dominates a market to extinguish competition (or something like that).
Google is just better than the competition at what it chose to do. Search. Microsoft certainly has the capital to compete, they just need to get in the game. Yahoo should have taken the Microsoft deal earlier this year and gone quietly into whatever comes next. I have a feeling the ad deal from Google will be like the loan from Microsoft to Apple in the mid 90’s. Here is a bit of money so you can keep playing. See we arent a monopoly.
Things in the US are sliding all over the place, banks gettting bought and sold and the US government bailing out the entire finance industry a piece at a time. Sure AIG needs help, but to provide 85 Billion in loans to do so should require the top brass at the company to be gone with only enough severence to get in line for other jobs (read 1500 - 2000/ month). Their million dollar paydays and all that should be over when the company goes bust. Mark Cuban made an iteresting point on this topic here.
Right now, Google is doing something better than many companies… making money. Sure YouTube wasnt the perfect deal for them, but it will be a money maker and allow them to grow.
I guess I have trouble getting my mind around why the US government (or whoever else) is worried about any type of Monopoly investigations into Google when they need to fix housing and taxes and oil and banking and the remaining industries that cannot seem to get it going again.
Fix what is broken now… let the rest carry on until the problems we have now are moving in the right direction.
I read alot of blogs. Sometimes they are the so called “A-list” blogs and get a lot of traffic, sometimes they are not but I read them.
Today I found a post by Fast Compnay’s Robert Scoble that was very interesting in regard to how he feels the Democratic voters in the nation can handle the election in a positive and possibly a winning way.
I found the content of the post very interesting, and hope that more than a few of the voters out there give it some thought before the election.
Hopefully it is inspiring or at least thought provoking to those who take the time to read it.
In an end of day scour of a few RSS feeds I saw something that was truly disterbing. A newspaper in Colorado twittered the funeral of a 3 year old.
I am a twitter user and think the technology is great for getting the word out, but there are somethings that just do not need to be done.
A reporter for the Rocky Mountain News did the twittering. Somehow, I cannot believe the editors let this stuff get out. Read more here. I think this is rather disturbing and should be looked at both by the news agency and maybe even twitter.com staffers.
Yesterday I decided to get a new digital camera, a Sony A350 DSLR and paid a pretty penny for it. I am looking forward to a photo class this fall and just getting out to take pictures starting later today.
The camera is very fast and seems to help even me stand still while taking pictures.
I have been thinking about how I spend my money allot lately and realize that I have been very good at needing wants rather than wanting needs. I am going to pay a lot more attention to these two areas moving forward. It will be like weight watchers for my wallet… stick to it and things go well but fall off the wagon too long and things need a lot of help getting back on track.
The weight watchers reference reminds me that I have to do better there too… all the leftovers from the party last week sure dont help, but we will get back on the right track and it will all work out.
I cannot wait to play with and get used to the new camera but at the same time I cannot wait to get moving toward the goal of being out of debt very soon. That is going to be a big achievement for Laura and I and I am excited to get started as soon as possible.
