“I have never met a lazy person who thinks he is lazy. If you take time off and call in sick when you are not sick or if you work at half speed when the supervisor is not watching you are guilty of theft. You steal from the company that supports your family, but worst of all, you steal from yourself and make a statement about who you really are.” (Financial Peace Revisited, Dave Ramsey 2003 pg. 50)
These are serious claims, yet ring true for each of us. I realize better than most that if you run full tilt all the time something is going to break. Balance is necessary.
FiOS is the fiber optic network which delivers ultra high speed internet access to homes and businesses. Today we had FiOS installed in the home bundling phone, internet, and HD-television in a single package. The bundled package is affordably priced and reduces our cost for having all the services previously done separately.
I am impressed that FiOS allows us to continue serving our home web server. This was a selling point for me. When I spoke the FiOS representative I explained that I have web applications (I refrained from saying server) that I use in the home that must be accessible on the internet. I indicated that the FiOS plan I needed must allow port 80 incoming. The technician indicated they do not block any ports.
Now I have a dynamic IP which I use my account with dyndns.com to update my server record (DNS A-record) for this blog, and my pauldone.com web server. Sorry, this may sound very geeky, but the projects I work on in my personal time have benefits both professionally and satisfy a hobby.
I am pleased and would recommend this service to anyone where it is available.
The speed that information flows on the internet now is spectacular. However the speed at which information flows does not always allow for proper verification of facts. Case in point the Twitter post byJon Washburn was re-tweeted or re-broadcast by from a Matt Wilkins
There is no means to verify the validity of this article. However, the lesson learned here is that people who Twitter have a tendency to build credibility. Those who have a history of credibility generally gain that based on either first hand knowledge or credible contacts.
With credible Twitter contacts you can use Twitter to gain important decision making information as it happens from people who have a history of knowing. Don’t think that Twitter is a kids game, or marketing tool alone. If you require information what source is faster than immediately from people on the scene or in the know?
This is likely where most people consider social networks to be too vain, yet a profile picture is important. After reading the proper (i.e. professional) ways to use social networks a profile picture is as important and what you say. The photo included is the latest profile picture used for my professional dossier including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, VisualCV and other sites I use across the internet.
Every once in a while I come across a real gem. Today was a discovery day when a number of things surfaced. The first one was Phonevite.com a service that allows you to broadcast voice messages to a select group of phone numbers. Technically, I have heard this called a phone tree where one person calls a phone tree and the message is routed and directed to a number of selected people.
This has great promise for people you need to get emergency notices to in a hurry. For me I considered using this in an emergency to call twenty key people to let them know an email server is down. It can also be used in disaster situations where your job is to broadcast a notice for action among twenty people who will call twenty other people each. My supervising co-worker (boss -sorry :)) created one of these called ‘Now Hear This’ for daily agenda items.
A new feature is the ability to archive these messages and spread them through other social media like Twitter, Facebook or email.
This is a product with great potential. For the basic version it is free which can’t be beat for small deployments.
Give it a try at http://www.phonevite.com
Did you ever have one of those days when you started off just fine and all heck breaks loose? You know the day, you wake up read some news online, respond to a couple of emails. Then bam! Your wife says she is pregnant, or your neighbor’s house burn down, your kid gets accepted to Harvard (she is 15) or you win the mega-millions lottery.
Yeah me either, but it would probably be an exciting ride.
“It is one quality of leadership to exceed the expectation of those you lead. Leaders are followers of a great plan that is universally beneficial.” (Paul M. Done)
It is sometimes by sad experience I learn from my mistakes. I much prefer learning from other’s mistakes so as not to make them myself. Nevertheless life is educational experience with the potential for great rewards.
I have considered what it means for those who lead us. It is not just an admirable quality to be different, it is required. A leader must stand before us and be different, have vision, and have personal integrity. It is too often the proud, well-spoken and persuasive alone who think they are leaders and make us believe so. If these are those we follow we end the trip no better off than if we had walked alone.
True leaders do not feed the population milk and honey to simply make them fat and happy, they lead them to a better way having personal integrity. Leaders make the choice of difficult alternatives beneficial and encourage others by their example to want to follow. Leaders love those whom they serve.
This is what I am learning - integrity, love, and service.
WALLOPS ISLAND, VIRGINIA – NASA’S Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will be the site of the launch of an Air Force Minotaur I rocket carrying the Air Force Research Laboratory’s TacSat-3 satellite and two secondary payloads between 8 and11 p.m. EDT, May 5
The back-up launch days for this mission are May 6 through 9.
Note: As of this writing the May 8 2009 launch was scrubbed on the account of weather. Given the right conditions the rocket’s glow during a nightime launch can be seen for nearly 800 miles.
This evening the family and I played Wii Sports. My favorite was boxing; it is a very active experience and rather accurate with blocking, weaving, jabbing and dodging. One of our sons was obviously well-versed in the game and quickly pummeled anyone that came along. Eventually, the game became less enjoyable to watch and even less enjoyable to play against someone so pleased with his winning record.
Later the thought occurred to me that that gaming experience may be like our lives sometimes. In our expertise we become intolerant and even abusive to those around us. There are some people well-advanced in their professions, highly decorated with experience who look upon others with contempt and loathing. Face it, many of us do this without being fully aware of how we treat others. It can be self-gratifying to know we are better than someone else. Yet, at the end of the day what have we gained?
In our game tonight we finally ended early. The prize purse that sat on top of the television was revoked and a life lesson on sportsmanship was taught. If you beat everyone around you, you win the match but lose the game.
In our life we can have attain expertise through diligence, effort, and innate skill. This will allow us to enjoy a high level of success, recognition and pleasure in life. However, the true test of lives are not how often we win the game but how many people we have won it with.
Source: Adam Ostrow Of course, now that Swine Flu has indeed broken out, there are plenty of scientists and pundits bringing attention to their own past predictions. For example, check out the YouTube video below of a scientist talking about his prediction of a global pandemic (though he says it’s not clear if Swine Flu meets this criteria yet) five years ago:
In any event, the lesson here is clear: if it’s not on the Web, it didn’t happen. So if you have a bold prediction to make, be sure to document it somewhere – whether it’s your blog, YouTube, Twitter, a press release, or any of the hundreds of other options available for sharing content online.
Every once in a while I come across a real gem. Today was a discovery day when a number of things surfaced. The first one was Phonevite.com a service that allows you to broadcast voice messages to a select group of phone numbers. Technically, I have heard this called a phone tree where one person calls a phone tree and the message is routed and directed to a number of selected people.
It is sometimes by sad experience I learn from my mistakes. I much prefer learning from other’s mistakes so as not to make them myself. Nevertheless life is educational experience with the potential for great rewards.
WALLOPS ISLAND, VIRGINIA – NASA’S Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will be the site of the launch of an Air Force Minotaur I rocket carrying the Air Force Research Laboratory’s TacSat-3 satellite and two secondary payloads between 8 and11 p.m. EDT, May 5
This evening the family and I played Wii Sports. My favorite was boxing; it is a very active experience and rather accurate with blocking, weaving, jabbing and dodging. One of our sons was obviously well-versed in the game and quickly pummeled anyone that came along. Eventually, the game became less enjoyable to watch and even less enjoyable to play against someone so pleased with his winning record.