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Social Media – The new ‘Internet’, hello 1998

Anyhoo. history aside, I was struck the other day at a MHSMC meeting that social media is the new ‘internet’. Mainly this relates to my love of all things Cluetrain Manifesto. One of the of the primary things I took away from Cluetrain in my first reading as a lowly Software developer at a mortgage company where marketing outnumbered IT (as well as my many subsequent readings), was that it’s important, and beneficial for enterprises to let their people be people. Lower the walls, don’t raise them. I thought we were making progress here.

It seems that social media is moving away from that if MHSMC is any indicator. The presentation this month was on Corporate use of Social Media.

Looking Forward, Looking Back

It’s been an interesting year. More so than normal years. It’s also the end of a decade, so I’ve got some thoughts on that too. Fair warning. This is a longy.

Decade first:

in 2000 I worked for a company that was basically an IT Staffing firm that decided to get into software. I worked internally on a web app that would (in their terms) revolutionize staffing. I bailed, they failed, it was 2000, that happened a lot to a lot of people and companies.

I spent most of the 2000’s as a programmer, first doing ColdFusion, then moving to Flex. It never occurred to me to try out M$ tools, or any other. I liked Macromedia (Now Adobe) offerings and stuck with them.

The TSA – Killer of Air Travel

So I was reading about the Nigerian dude that tried to blow up that plane… A few things came to mind about the TSA and the current state of air travel. You can see one post on the subject here. Are we safer now than in pre TSA days? Bombers seem to be getting on planes still, and people are constantly talking about “Oh snap, I’ve been carrying this knife thru airports for years, totally forgot”

Wil Wheaton said it best “It’s only a matter of time before the TSA decides that passengers simply will not be permitted to board airplanes. You know, for safety.”

The TSA and United are colluding to rip off customers

In what is surely another attempt by the TSA to ruin air travel “in the name of safety” they’ve apparently instituted a rule where they randomly select passengers and deny them the ability to check-in online before their flight.
Why? Beats me. I didn’t undergo any additional screening. The ticket agent simply followed the normal steps, [...]

I build community, organize events, and rock!

It wasn’t a bad break up at all, or anything like that. Anthony and I had several conversations about my role at the company and how best I fit with the company’s needs and goals.

It takes 10 years?!?!?

Towards the end of the day today AP got into a conversation with TB and TO. The best part was when AP says, getting streamlined with the kinds of processes we’re trying to put into place takes 10 years or so. “We’re doing pretty good after only one.”
What a load of crap. It’s unlikely AP [...]

10 bucks for a fucked up duck

Had two interesting meetings today. Met with a friend of mine for lunch. Talked about his company and the things he’s doing there. Was really hoping he was gonna say, “we need web and system architects like white people need rhythm.” and actually he did say something like that, unfortunately he’s fighting the good fight, [...]

How to go nowhere fast

or… How do I always manage to be the employee that does his job, works hard, keeps abreast of business and technology, steps up to manage projects and architect solutions, yet still not be the employee that is a) given the position with responsibility. b) Treated like he knows anything at all about 1-the business, [...]

Are you really telling me how to do my job?

Some days I just want to punch, kick, or strangle someone. Today it was one of our “senior engineer” fellas. Now on a normal day I like him a lot. He knows his shit. Today though he honestly tried to tell me how to set up a ColdFusion server. I’ve installed and set up CF [...]

No you can’t have my stapler

Among the weirdos I work with, several stick out as extra special weird. SK is one of them. I am fortunate enough to not be on many projects with him. He’s a PM, and I’ve dodged that bullet so far. However he comes around often enough looking for co-workers in my row. Twice now he’s [...]

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