I am starting to work with some folks to build awareness on the part of parents by teaching internet safety…”Everything your kids are doing, but didn’t want you to know”.  LOTS of material, lots of bunny holes you could go down if not careful.  The twist is to make sure the parents are armed with the right knowledge and tools to get ahead of things before they corrupt the kids.

The internet brings the world to you, but also brings the world into your house.  One misstep and you could have a bunch if issues, things you didn’t intend for your kids to see, or worse….

Kids are worth protecting, and as parents/adults/care givers, it is our imperative to make sure we protect them as much as possible.

Till next time!

Eg #1) Japan:  wants the US to sign the Kyoto protocol to limit/reduce/ban Green house emissions, and other type of airborne materials.    My counter point:  This is the SAME Japan which continues to hunt Whales (illegal), source out their manufacturing to other countries which have not restrictions, and, oh yea, have it in for the US in knocking them off the leadership board in various industries……*um* OK….you first.

Eg #2) <*insert non-profit org here*>:  These groups want you to go green, adopt new standards, reduce waste…etc..etc, basically creating a “Green Czar” in your companies, and other such locations.  My counter point:  Maybe they do have a way of stimulating the economy by creating useless jobs, but again, I am of the strong “old fashioned” opinion, that everyone is responsible to pickup their own litter, dispose of things which are broken, and be a responsible person as a whole, and your community matters.   Why do we need extra jobs and careers to tell us something we have been brought up with?!  Secondly, their advertisements are the papers I see posted on telephone poles, flying down the city streets from the handouts, and lets face it, are causing undo additional labor, effort, and resources because now we have to calculate emissions.  Please….give me a break.  Again, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure some of this out, just common sense- that everyone *does* posses, but do not employ.

Eg #3) Corporations:  There are many corporations which are touting “green” alternatives, products, etc for your existing, fully functioning, in working order – widget.  They are trying to make a buck by saying you are saving trees, or some resources by purchasing their products.   My counter point:  If my widget is in good working order, I save money by not buying another item, prevent landfills from filling with my old one working AND saving additional “carbon units” by not manufacturing something I don’t need because mine still works!  What ever happened to fixing what you have?  Your car – does it blow up after 3 years? No – not if you have maintained it, and, even if you have poor gas mileage, it still is cheaper per year to operate a “guzzler” that is fully paid off than having payments, and still paying for gas to feed the new car.  Sure your burn rate is slower -LONG TERM- , but lets face it, unless you maintain anything, it wont last long anyway.   It is marketing at it’s best.

Lets face it, we (humans) breathe air, and exhale carbon dioxide and ingest oxygen.  We ARE carbon units…  Trees, exchange oxygen for the carbon dioxide.  Are you seeing a symbiotic relationship, and how we have to be good stewards to begin with???  Net-net, this is the new “vogue” thing to talk about.  If you really want to have some fun, go to your local gym – the one which has a green construction program and recycle even air, and ask the “green” soy, artificial sales person this question:  ” Do you have a green carbon displacement program where I can offset or save carbon credits by having others exercise for me?”  It makes for interesting stares, and if they are “really Green” they will walk away and look into that for you.  BTW…don’t wait for the answer or a call back.

I will wait for this fad to pass, and hopefully not witness people limiting their breathing in order not to get a ticket for excessive emissions!     … time for a ride in my safe, paid for SUV.

So what is the “new economic trend”  you ask…..  I call it (and you heard it HERE first!)  “O-Commerce“.

Here is what O-Commerce is:

* The Executive branch (Obama)  gets to

1) Change the free market economy by firing executives of well established, publicly held companies (GM).  The danger is that *although GM did accept the money, which should not have been offered in the first place*,  now the Government ala Executive branch steps in and appoints another individual who’s charter is to make the Government happy, and is in the process of striping off brands of car divisions, and making the #1 car company in the world into a former shadow of itself.  (Read point 2.)  This is an abuse of power from the Executive Branch, and I am WAITING for the Judicial branch to check and balance this as UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!  I am not holding my breath.

2) Encourages and approves the wholesale of Chrysler / Dodge to Fiat.  First, a foreign investment, which is still part of a free market economy.  But more brazen, is that FIAT is a holding company which has FINANCIAL TROUBLES ITSELF!!  What?!!  I can see an approval to some profitable company…but Fiat???  Wow.   (Anyone want to buy California?  Maybe sell it back to Mexico with the drug money surplus they have now thanks to our boarders!)  Really this takes the cake.  Thank God FORD did not accept the blood money!  We at least have ONE company left.

3) Employment statistics:  Well, apparently we are at 9% reported unemployment.  A jump UP of 3%.  Roughly translates to 4 Million unemployed.   SO….Obama decides in a press conference to suggest he saved 110,000 jobs……  First, how does one collect those statistics (*hint* you can’t as this is not collected and speculative at best – vapor stats), and secondly, did I miss that part of the formula where the unemployment went up and he is selling /parsing off America and it’s assets like Dodge, etc?!!!

4) “When all else fails…re-write History and the facts”:  Where to begin.   Read Obama’s claims, his “historical prospective” , and get a sanity check.  He is the master of spin.  Wake up, smell the coffee, and get your head out of the sand.  It is convenient for him to even change the history of his family contributions to World War  II. (reference: Uncle freeing up a particular concentration camp, which he referenced and was not even in the country he said it was!) Remember, he IS a Lawyer…and as such, is a master of spinning the facts into half truths and convincing you what truth is.

5) Congress:  OK.  So a “harmonic convergence” of sorts for the Democrats happened where the Executive AND Congress is Democratically controlled.  So where did that get us? No where, and more PORK than at a Barbque.  What happened to “Controlling run away spending”, “A Change we can believe in”, or a balanced budget?  Lets do a sanity check here…..My local county Emergency shelter for Child Protective services just got shut down for lack of funds….but the Speaker of the House (Pelosi) is including $30 MILLION in Pork to save a wild wetlands mouse in the San Francisco Bay area.   (Fast forward a few years….it is a rodent…they will breed…..will be an over population, become a pest, then spend $60 Million in exterminating them).  Also the House Speaker has her private Jet parties to Europe that cost taxpayers $10,000 for every hour in the air, not to mention it was a Junket.    Ok Obama…where is the change…oh..I get it….out of every dollar of tax revenue…you get 50 cents in CHANGE….got it…you keep the change.  I guess Americans thought you meant  a switch in direction, not You keep the change (money)….We forgot…you are a lawyer….

There is more…but this is a BLOG, not a rant, or a venting (although I could).

So here is the definition of “O-Commerce” :    n. 1) the systematic abuse of power from the Executive branch which methodically strips freedoms, restructures government from a Republic (not a democracy!! read your history books again!!!)  to a Socialist model, and revises history to suit the agenda (hidden or public) of the Executive.

-ed v. 2) “I’ve been O-Commerced”, when said policy is applied to affects individuals, agencies, and/or corporations; usage – “GM was completely O-Commerced when it was called Government Motors”   <*insert picture and sound byte of Obama*>

So here we go….in for a hopefully 4 year (ONLY) term….. I hope I do not have to wear red and celebrate “May day” instead of “4th of July” at the end of the term.   Then again,  why change it,  just change history to say “July 4th” was Obama’s first 100th day in power…and the day the earth changed.  God help us all.

A few thoughts came to mind, so here they are in no specific order.

Speeches:  Let’s face it, in ANY party, there are teleprompters, and pre-written speeches.  Regardless, I have to say that I would be interested in an impromptu speech from both sides, but let PEOPLE ask questions.

Candidates:  It will be an interesting race this year.  I am not sure if this is becoming more of an indicator for this race, but did you notice that the polls did not go up much if at all during either convention?  I seem to remember in that past, during and immediately after a convention, the respective poll numbers go up for the respective party.  Not so, it seems, lately.  Are Americans split down the middle and are polarizing or aare the polls now ineffective?  Either way, there is no “clear winner” throughout the course of this political race.  And by the way, candidates (regardless of party) all have good and bad sides.

Press:  It was VERY evident that this race is being pushed especially hard by the press.  What is THEIR agenda?  It is no surprise that they are controlling (or attempting to) the thoughts of Americans.

People:  No matter what party you agree with, endorse, or are against, I hope you use YOUR opinion, and not someone elses.  It bothers me that people align themselves with some snippet of information and claim it as their own.  Don’t believe me, read the previous paragraph again.

Protesters:  Why is it that the protesters are getting weirder and wackier?  It seems like they are ineffective, and just looking for a press pass to impress.  Quite frankly, they are stupid.  Instead of properly representing your cause and REALLY influencing a ticket, they cant even come to the election table because of the WAY they do it, not because of their message!  Grow up already….  and by the way, the protesters complain about the “conformists” ie: the parties, but if you look at the protesters themselves, they all dress alike, carry the same stuff, wear similar gear…..as Jeff Foxworthy says, “Here’s your sign – Conformist”.

That’s all for now.  Going to put in some serious hours and help pull the plug on this show.

May the best man/woman/candidate win.

Cheers,

Andrew

1) Protesters: There is a group which wants a “Democratic Country again”.  First, they were students which I have to ask which classes they skipped (history maybe?).  Secondly, the United States NEVER was/is/will be, a Democracy….we are, and have been, and will be, ALWAYS a REPUBLIC!!!!!!  Get a clue.  What are skewls teaching these days? Phonics?

2) Two party system:  Why do we have only 2 major parties?  Are we not ready for a third or forth serious party?  I think so.  If Americans (according to the TV and journalists) really are tired of the “same old politics, then sign up with a new party!  Easy.

3) Speaking your mind vs. complaining:  OK….where to start.  There is a difference between the two, and only one matters – Speaking your mind.  It is different from complaining when you decide to push the button or pull the leaver, or mark the card when you VOTE.  Make sure you vote and speak your mind through you vote…..or stop complaining!!! I am not complaining. I am writing a blog with MY opinion.  Get your own or say “me too” and agree with me.

4) News:  It always amazes me what the news agencies fixate on.  They will look for the weirdest shoes/dress/people/stories to interview and create.  Why? I want the real news….not some staged bogus story.  I think I am giving up NEWS as a whole.  Let ME make up my mind as to what to think – you present the raw story.

Well back to the RNC!  Someone has to thwart the hackers!

Cheers for now.

So At some point, Microsoft hit the brick wall of innovation and has stopped making technical strides with block buster innovation, and just started acquiring companies just to stay on par or slightly ahead of the industry.  this is when I  realized that maybe the EU is on the money with it’s feud  with Microsoft in declaring it a monopoly.  Certainly there is supporting evidence of this.

So who DOES innovate, and why can’t Msft seem to hit it out of the park these days?  Could it be it is some of our fault?  We had seen some amazing collaborative efforts in the past on a PC (notice I did not mention an Apple, as this is where Msft got inspiration from most times?!) and welcomed them as a major advancement in innovation.  We expect Msft will be making more “big” advancements, and to some degree, our expectations are not met by Msft in their next releases.  Maybe we setup Msft up for failure to some degree.

Certainly, Msft has let us down in many respects, however.  Breaking workflow (and the way we do things) just to make it “look and feel” new….Vista anyone?   How about the collaborative features not really collaborating as expected (ever see a spreadsheet macro not “function as designed”?).  Or what about API’s which only Msft knows about and their “Gold Standard Application vendors” not receiving the memo about that hyper channel API??  Lastly, how about tethering  applications so closely to the OS that you REALLY cant uninstall them to perform correctly (try windows update with Firefox…NOT gonna happen!).

So once you get SO big, something interesting happens.  Instead of moving forward leaving everyone behind, you look back..and one of two things happen.  1)  You refocus to your forward direction and leave everyone in your dust,  or 2) you look back, and worry about who is in your rear view mirror to such a degree that you get paranoid and start closing collaborative efforts in fear of being passed by.

I think Microsoft is looking in it’s rear view mirror.  Remember,  Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

Cheers.

“Better at what?” I ask myself.  Better at graphics performance, um, not really – just some rendering and smoothing.  Graphics editing and such takes hours on a PC, where it is very intuitive with a MAC….even a Amiga (remember those?!) with Video Toaster would rip video edits in a flash (no pun).

Better at security then?! , again, um, not really as they only succeeded in causing issues with real security products.  By designing a system where you protect the core from privileged calls, it certainly has the right flavor of something that may make sense.  The “gotcha” is that by doing so, and shutting down API’s for security vendors, you succeed in blocking good code that should be protecting the castle, and allowing a window of opportunity for less than stellar software [read malware] to go unchecked.  Hum….not liking that.

I know!!! Better for Microsoft!  THATS IT!!  It has the typical development mile markers….  Long development cycle, marketing [over]hype, reporters in your pocket to publish propaganda, and, oh yea, lets not forget the hardware manufacturers too!  They need a cut.  I know!  Make the software MORE bloated and make everyone upgrade/replace  AGAIN!!!

Only this time its different….. very different.  It seems like Vista will alienate already frustrated users, and businesses. It is already equated to Microsoft ME!  My prediction?  If Windows 7 replaces [and quickly] Vista in the early adoption, and truely has innovative components again, then MAYBE Microsoft will be ok.  I have an itch behind my ear to go an buy Apple and RedHat stock and give them a few more years.  I think if they can really hang in there, they will depose the M$FT monarchy.  Time to shop for a distribution of Linux.

My $0.02 worth.

Cheers!

Today, I still believe that this is VERY possible and even probable, such that it is even more of a threat with the broad implementation of virtual technology.  This would bring an interesting addendum to the whitepaper and would be something that would have to activate and correlate at the hypervisor level.

Interesting to see what the next morph would be.  Time will, unfortunately, tell.

Cheers, for now…. back to the bunker.

* The decisions are often tactical, and not strategic. It looks good initially for cost savings and initial shareholder value, but you loose intellectual capital in farming out your enterprise, which costs you exponentially more without anything tangible to show for it.

* aside from language barriers (and there ARE barriers – remember communication is a TWO way street), there are definite conceptual and articulation issues of them between cultures.

* you inherit the deficiencies and stigmas of the company you outsource to. For eg. If outsourcing to a company in a foreign country, you take on immature infrastructure issues, natural disasters, government strife issues, and this can cause downtime, and force you to “invest” in bringing those entities back on line and fixing their issues. (Why not invest in your own company to begin with and leverage it?!) Tactical.

* No matter how “justified” it is to outsource, it is just that – justified by someone who most likely has their job on the line if their recommendation to outsource does not pan out. Makes you wonder.

* Your loose control of intellectual capital, quality, and controls for managing data loss. Lets face it, if someone abroad walks out with your data, (and it HAS happened), it is up for the highest bidder. Nuff said!

In short, I am not a fan of organized labor, they had their day. I AM a fan of keeping your knowledge and capital where it ought to be … with you, not your competition.. or one day.. a future GLOBAL (thank YOU very much) competitor.

Just my two cents worth. Common sense, that is.

I will be going “free agent” come the first of May.  Interestingly enough, my current employer did not see the value of having someone talk strategy, but rather just have folks selling.  Tactical, but not a strategic decision, in my humble opinion.

It is interesting to see that their competitors (big and smaller) have all expressed an interest in staffing up strategic positions as they admitted they were too vertical or silo’ed.

Important safety tip: If you are leading the thought leadership, don’t look backwards – keep driving new trends.   I will carry that lesson into the next company I suppose!

In the meantime, there are some interesting trends and things to comment on, and so I will as the days go by.

To my readers, my apologies for being away, but when you fight to justify your job to folks who have a hard time understanding what you do in a pure sales environment, it becomes a full time job in and of itself!

Anyone interested in a Security Strategist/Evangelist – let me know.

Cheers!