BASEBALL’S BLOODLINE
The small, red pool on the subway floor looked like blood but could have easily been Tahitian Treat Soda spilled from a kid in a stroller. Like everyone else entering the orange line subway car, Carl Pittman immediately noticed the red puddle and the stark contrast it made with an otherwise grey and boring floor.
“Scar……let threa….ds,” Pittman sounded out slowly as if he were speaking in Haikus.
“One hundred and eight red threads, same as a Rosary.”
Pittman was referring of course to a baseball’s 108 red stitches which happen to be the same number of beads in a Catholic Rosary. If you were an atheist, this would be no more than a coincidence, but if you were a baseball romantic, it would inspire thoughts similar to Annie Savoy’s in baseball’s biggest box office Hollywood hit, ”Bull Durham.” Savoy, played by a ravishing Susan Sarandon, said, “I tried all the major religions, but nothing moved my soul quite like the Church of Baseball.”
Pittman had conjured up a baseball from the same red spill that sent other passengers either seeking safety in books or plugged into electronic distractions, but his hallucination seemed fitting considering he soon announced that there was a baseball game beginning in less than one hour. Pittman promised to the dozen or so subway riders that it would be MORE than a baseball game in Montreal North’s Ahuntsic Park, but left out any further details except his parting clue.
When the prerecorded voice droned out “Henri Bourassa,” the exit doors opened. Pittman pushed his way through the crowd and raced towards the stairs. His last words were “Djebbar. Mehdi Djebbar.”
Through the ground level Metro windows, the lit-up diamond was striking in contrast with the surrounding pitch-black night. It was like a donut shop in the middle of nowhere after a long and lonely Greyhound bus ride through what always seems like outer space. It was soothing. Albino white chalk lines separated fair and foul. Players spread out across the red granite infield and perfectly trimmed crisp, green grass.
A young man stood in a full colored costume and heaved a baseball from atop the mound to a squatter, some 60 feet, 6 inches away.
The pitcher contorted his body into a pretzel, pushed off a rectangular slab, wound up his arm and then with considerable strain, let the ball go towards the catcher’s target.
“Mehdi Djebbar,” I yelled.
The catcher smiled and inched closer to the fence like an eager tour guide ready to offer assistance.
“Are you a scout, he asked? “Follow me.”
Weighed down by catcher shin guards and a chest protector, he stomped with surprising grace toward the outfield grass where Mehdi was approaching. We met halfway to the right of third base in fair territory.
Mehdi Djebbar immigrated to Canada from North Africa at the age of six. He spoke no English.
Mehdi`s father Adel was born in Algers, Algeria, his mother Nadia Boutaleb in Constantine, Algeria. Arabic is their first language. Shortly after arriving to Montreal, Mehdi followed his older brother Ali to Westmount Park and saw a strange collection of boys with bat and ball gathered in an attractive symmetry around a diamond. He liked it, was drawn to the pace, and so the dream began like it does for so many North American boys.
Mehdi looked off towards the opposition’s dugout and recalled his first Expos game.
“I was nine years old,” he explained. “Pedro Martinez was pitching. He looked like a master out on the mound, completely in control and ready for blood.”
For the first time, I noticed that he was wearing glasses and wondered if that drive to be a pitcher is embedded in some ancient gene. But Mehdi is not a baseball name. I mustered up some courage and delved a little deeper into his origins.
“Mehdi means Messiah in Arabic,” he explained. “But it also means message and teacher and the transfer of knowledge.”
Mehdi then peeled back his game jersey and revealed a plain red T-shirt without saying another word. He winked at me and walked back into fair territory to join his teammates.
Outside the fenced in stadium, along the bike path was Carl Pittman. He slowly emerged from the shadows and into the stadium light.
“Albert Spalding led an all star team that circled the globe promoting baseball back in 1888,” Pittman insisted. “One of their pit stops was the Sphinx in Egypt. Some say baseball was played there as far back as 1475 B.C. in a game called Seker Hamet.”

I never promised you a rose garden in the desert…

Recently, The Milwaukee Business Journal posted a Business Pulse Survey asking “Should regional leaders offer free water to lure businesses to southeastern Wisconsin?”  Although the majority of readers voted “NO,” there were still some folks in the area that wondered if “YES” might be an OK answer if the proposed plan contained provisions for the water to be cleaned and returned, and that assurances would be made that our plentiful water in the region would not be depleted by this practice.

In Milwaukee, we have many very talented, resourceful and creative business leaders, who sincerely want to help develop the floundering economic climate in the Milwaukee area.  I’m not trying to take anything away from their goals to bring new businesses to Milwaukee, however, I’m not convinced that this “free water” deal would be a sound, sustainable, long-term solution. 

I’m a member of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council – World Water Hub group and I am passionate about Water.  Working with other individuals, businesses and organizations to keep water plentiful, available, clean and healthy for all of us –  everywhere, not just in Milwaukee, or the “dryer” states in the US, but for everyone in every state, country and continent is an important goal of mine.  To that end, I would not feel that I was acting as a responsible caretaker of our water supply if it were used as a ”free gift” for businesses to move to our area.

When considering this idea further, here are some other thoughts I had:  

What kinds of businesses would/could be lured to Milwaukee by the promise of free water?  If I owned a company that used lots and lots of water, I would accept that offer and move my business here.

Has criteria been set for capacities, cleanliness standards, or the maximum number of companies that Milwaukee could afford to give free water, etc? 

 What if Wisconsin is pulled into the national issue of sending water to Western or Southern states? 

In an article in Salon.com, Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico  ”…had his region’s plight in mind when he told the Las Vegas Sun that Northern states need to start sharing their water: ‘I want a national water policy. We need a dialogue between states to deal with issues like water conservation, water reuse technology, water delivery and water production. States like Wisconsin are awash in water.’”

 It’s my opinion that Milwaukee’s treasure of “BLUE GOLD” should be carefully watched over by conservative stewardship. I don’t believe it should be given away “free” to lure businesses to the area, or sent via pipeline to drier states. If a business can no longer be sustainable in a dry climate, then the company owner/s should learn more responsible business practices and move the business to the appropriate climate. If that happens to be Milwaukee, then they should pay for their water the same way I pay for it – quarterly! 

I applaud our business leaders for looking for innovative ideas to help the Milwaukee econonomy, but isn’t just advertising the idea that our region does have plentiful water for their businesses a good enough reason to lure them here? 

For further reading on this topic:

Business Pulse: Tap jobs with free water – The Business Journal of Milwaukee:.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/01/07/water_problems/index.html

Delta 2530-LHP Innovations Bathroom Faucet, Chrome Review

Delta 2530-LHP Innovations Bathroom Faucet, Chrome Feature

• Delta Faucet Company
• 2530-LHP
• Two Handle Centerset Bathroom Faucets
• Chrome

Delta 2530-LHP Innovations Bathroom Faucet, Chrome Overview

Delta 2530-LHP Innovations Bathroom Faucet, ChromeDelta 2530-LHP Innovations Centerset Bath Faucet Features and Benefits:; Elegant simplicity for the entire home. ; Sleek lines offer a distinctive look. ; Sleek 5-1/4″ long, 3-7/8″ high spout is easy-to-clean ; Precise handle turn allows for accurate temperature selection ; Matching tub/shower, jetted shower and Roman tub faucets provide complete coordination ; Lifetime Faucet and Finish Warranty 3-Hole 4″ (Centerset) Delta 2530-LHP Innovations Bathroom Faucet Specifications:; Innovations Series; Chrome finish; 3 hole installation ; 4″ center set ; 1/4 turn stop handle stops ; 5-1/4″ long , 3-7/8″ high spout ; Metal pop-up (drain) included ; 1/2 ” I.P.S. Shank ; Less Handle Model=LHP ; Shown With Handles H25 (not included); Handles not included* Handles not included, LHP is Less Handles Program

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 26, 2009 10:27:12

Recommend : iPod Touch Guide

Ikea’s Facebook campaign was a hit – I need a new Ikea sofa, Swedes begged on Facebook. Ikea’s campaign promoted the opening of a new store using Facebook photo tagging.

“Facebook being what it is, word got out and needy, enthusiastic Swedes begged for more pictures so that they could tag themselves to a new sofa, a new bed, or a new vase into which they could stick their plastic flowers or their dead grandparents’ ashes.” (Cnet)

No surprises in 2009. Dell and Intel were jointly named the digital brand of the year 2009.

“The campaign involved a microsite to support Swarm and maintained a heavy social media focus, integrating the use of Twitter, mobile and rich media to engage audiences. Bloggers were also given special previews to drive buzz. Swarm used Singapore as a test ground before rolling it out on a wider scale.” (media.asia)

Swarm Campaign Page here!

By Dominic Custodio

Has it really been over 10 years of internet? The Internet has come a long way, and with 2010 just around the corner The Webby Awards came out with a list of the Top 10 most influential Internet moments of the decade. Whether you agree or disagree with their selection, it’s as good time as any to look back and appreciate how far we’ve come; to remember that what is now taken for granted, used to be biggest buzz.  The list:

Craigslist expands outside San Francisco (2000)
In 2000, the free classifieds site broadened its reach outside of San Francisco into nine additional U.S. cities, sending chills down the spines of newspaper publishers everywhere. Today Craigslist serves free listings in more than 500 cities in 50 countries, serving as a model for no-frills business and community success and the catalyst for countless jobs, apartments, and just about anything else you can think of.

Google AdWords launches (2000)
With the launch of AdWords in October 2000, Google turned advertising on its head. The self-service ad program opened up the marketplace to any business, no matter how big or small, and allowed advertisers to target their customers with laser-sharp precision.

Wikipedia launches (2001)
Containing 20,000 articles in 18 languages by the end of its first year online, Wikipedia today boasts more than 14 million articles in 271 different languages. The free open-source encyclopedia epitomizes the Internet’s power to bring strangers from around the world together to collaborate on projects both big and small.

Napster Shut Down (2001)
Although Napster was shut down in 2001, it opened the file-sharing floodgates. Its demise sparked a wave of innovations that forever changed how we obtain and experience music and video – from Hulu to iTunes to Radiohead famously dropping its label and self-distributing their “In Rainbows” CD online for free.

Google IPO (2004)
Google’s IPO, one of the largest in history, put the six year old search engine on the path to becoming the most dominant and influential company of the decade. From gmail and YouTube to Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Android, the Internet giant and constant innovator is the engine that powers countless aspects of our everyday lives.

Online video revolution (2006)
In 2006, a perfect storm of faster bandwidth, cheaper camcorders, and the groundbreaking use of Adobe’s Flash 9 video player by YouTube combined to launch the online video revolution. The trifecta led to a boom in homemade and professional content – the Diet Coke and Mentos guys, lonelygirl15, SNL’s Lazy Sunday, and Senator George Allen’s “macacagate” – that has reshaped everything from pop culture to politics.

Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter takes off (2006)
In September 2006, a social networking site for college students changed its user qualifications to include anyone 13 and older with a valid e-mail address. Facebook struck an immediate chord — and almost overnight, social media went mainstream. Less than a month later, the creators of Twitter acquired the company and its assets from its investors, paving the way for the service to take off in 2007. Both companies took social media mainstream, radically changing the way we connect, collaborate, and communicate with everyone from friends to colleagues to customers.

The iPhone debuts (2007)
The iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. By the end of the weekend, half a million had been sold, and smartphones had gone from a luxury item to a necessity. The iPhone inspired the development of operating systems like Google Android, as well as an app for just about every aspect of modern life. Over the next decade, it’s estimated that a billion new users will come to the Internet for the first time through mobile devices.

U.S. Presidential Campaign (2008)
The Internet altered presidential politicking in 2008 much as television had forty years earlier during the Kennedy/Nixon race. From videos like “Obama Girl” and the Reverend Wright clip shaping the debate, to social media mobilizing voters, to record-breaking online fundraising from small donors, every facet of the way campaigns are run was permanently transformed.

Iranian election protests (2009)
When Iran’s 2009 presidential election produced fishy results, the opposition took to the tweets — and the “Twitter Revolution” was born. In fact, it was so vital to organizing demonstrations that the U.S. State Department asked the company to delay planned maintenance.. The protests also highlighted Twitter’s key asset as a protest tool: Since most users don’t access it through a central website, it’s nearly impossible to censor.

An interesting selection. I would add a few that really stand out from personal experience:

• Gmail launches: It’s hard to believe that once upon a time, the battle was between Yahoo and Hotmail. Even I had my doubts about the new contender. E-mail addresses are a sticky commodity, like a cell phone number, which you’d ideally like to keep forever (unless you want to go MIA). Who uses yahoo and hotmail as their primary address anymore? Exactly. Conversation style email, combined with the power of Google search tipped the scales. Can you imagine your life without it?
• Adobe buys Macromedia: Momentous, especially as a designer, because it meant the merging of the de facto design tools (photoshop/illustrator) and with the de facto web tools (dreamweaver/flash). From a production standpoint, it really meant streamlining the flow between designing and buildling sites, and blasted the creative doors wide open for web designers.
• The rise of AJAX: Another thanks to google. With AJAX, web applications could now retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. Everything Google (gmail, docs, maps), not to mention many of the standard functionalities we find on Web 2.0 sites would not have been possible without it.
• Amazon Kindle: eBooks. Up until this point, it all seemed like a pipe dream – an empty promise from the beginning of the digital revolution. Many had tried to come up with a good e-reader and a viable business model, but with little success. And then the Kindle came a long. With its smart interface, simplicity and the backing of the largest online bookstore in the world, it became a runaway hit. You could now download not just books, but magazines and newspapers, wirelessly as well. Sony and Barnes and Noble have followed suit with their own readers, but whoever wins the battle in the end, eBooks/eReaders are a pipe dream no longer.

What are your moments?

source: http://www.webbyawards.com/press/topwebmomentsdecade.php

Johann Heinrich Lambert

Johann Heinrich Lambert was born on August 26, 1728 at Mulhausen, Alsace, now Mulhouse, France.  He died on September 25, 1777 at Berlin.  Swiss-German mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher who provided the first rigorous  proof than π (the ration  of a circle’s circumference to its diameter) is irrational, meaning it cannot be expressed as the quotient of two integers.

The son of tailor, Lambert was largely self-educated and early began geometric and astronomical investigations by means of instruments he designed and built himself.  He worked for a time as a bookkeeper, secretary and editor.  As a private tutor in 1748, he gained access to a good library, which he utilized for self-improvement until 1759, when he resigned to settle in Augsburg.  In 1764 he went to Berlin, where he received the patronage of Frederick the Great.  His memoir containing the proof that π is irrational was published in 1768.  In 1774 at ‘Berlin, he became editor of Astronomisches Jahrbuch oder Ephemeriden, an astronomical almanac.

Lambert made the first systematic development of hyperbolic functions.  He is also responsible for many innovations in the study of heat and light.  The lambert, a measurement of light intensity, was named in his honour.  Among his most important works are Photometria (1760), Die Theorie der Parallellinien (1766; “The Theory of Parallel Lines”), and Pyrometrie (1779).  The Neues Organon (1764; “New Organon”), his principal philosophical work, contains and analysis of a great variety of questions, among them formal logic, probability, and the principles of science.

The magic of BlackBerry Storm!

…And  I got my new BlackBerry Storm at last! In fact I’ve had it for 5 days already.

The phone shoppe had decided to give me a new handset. In my heart, I knew the shoppe owner had no choice but to give me a another set as the previous piece was compromised. As I placed my SIM card inside the device, the big 3G appeared and almost immediately I received an email from BlackBerry telling me that the device was registered already. I sighed a breath of relief. After all the effort finally paid off. I thank the lady and went home with my prize.

Naturally I was very pleased and spent the next couple of days tinkering with it.

As I compared the Storm to the Bold, the difference is so vast. The Bold looks archaic in comparison whereas the Storm looks shiny and modern with sharper graphics. However when it comes down to typing, the Bold wins as its tactile keypad is second to none. Other than that, its Storm all the way. I love the touchscreen interface and it clickable surface. Though I must admit that I’m still learning on how to use the Storm’s typing features effectively.

Physically, the Bold is more robust and the Storm as solid it may be but it seems is breakable. So I’m pretty much careful in handling it. I also like the Storm’s media player especially the video. Watching movies for me now is a joy as I no longer had to squint my eyes like I did on the Bold. The resolution is much, much higher of course.

Anyway, I later discovered that when one upgrades his/her BlackBerry device, the difficult part is figuring how to dispose of the older mobile. I must admit that I’m still very fond of my Bold and I’m still thinking on how give it the fitting send off which it deserves. Since the trackball is already fixed, my Bold is as good as ever except that it cannot detect earphones cables anymore otherwise it would still be perfect. I was contemplating of letting it go at RM 1,500 and later decided to put the sale decision on hold for now. I guess I’m just feeling a little guilty about this whole thing since I’ve decided to change device because of a problem that only took RM 55 to fix up!

So now I’m very happy with my new BlackBerry Storm of which I got for RM 1750. To date it’s my best piece.

For now that is :p

So I hereby conclude my BlackBerry Storm Saga! *

*If you ask me then whether I’d still go for the Storm after experiencing the iPhone, I say ‘ if the shoppe owner had given me back my money, I would’ve headed over to Maxis and used it to get myself the iPhone!’

I saw a commercial on TV the other day, and I realized that many of today’s most popular technologies are the result of combining two or more older technologies. The commercial was for Pyrex kitchen utensils that included wire whisks with thin rubber spatulas attached to each piece of the whisk so that you could beat stuff and then scrape the side of the bowl. Another example was a baking dish that comes with a cover so that you could just store the cooked food in its original baking dish in the refrigerator.

Another thing that occurred to me is that, when we think of emerging technologies, we usually think of high-tech, electronic contraptions. Kitchen utensils doesn’t spring immediately to mind, at least until now. The Pyrex commercial reminded me to think about simple innovations as well as complex ones.

Winning a Silver at the recently concluded Brandon-Hall 2009 Awards is something special! We were nominated along with our fantastic partners at ICICI Bank in the Best Use of Games for Learning category. Our “work of art” was a game that allows sales people to sell banking products to a set of customers. What was great was this was something built over a framework that we specially created for the bank. This framework has been leveraged to create more games and simulations since we created it.

All in all, I don’t think we could have done it without the support, vision and encouragement of the brilliant team at the bank. Kudos!

The new battleground is the datacentre, with HP acquiring 3Com and offering switching products and Cisco moving into the server market.

HP is three times bigger in terms of revenues across all sectors of its products and services, but Cisco is wholly focussed on IT infrastructure.

So who would you bet on to win out in the datacentre?

Mark Cadbury

Marketing Director

Hardware.com

YouTube have launched their greatly anticipated new initiative – YouTube Direct!

While it has amazing implications for news organisations (see video),

This is also a real opportunity for business to showcase their products in video format, leverage community to grow brand and service awareness, encourage real time feedback, offer video tutorials on how to use their products, target traffic and more.

Many organisations have been finding it increasingly difficult to connect directly with the YouTube community and by introducing this great online activity, YouTube Direct has just made it a whole lot easier to leverage video campaigns, coverage or programming initiatives.

What YouTube are saying about their new Direct service:

“YouTube Direct allows you to embed the upload functionality of YouTube directly into your own site, enabling your organisation to request, review, and re-broadcast user-submitted videos with ease.

News organisations can ask for citizen reporting; nonprofits can call-out for support videos around social campaigns; businesses can ask users to submit promotional videos about your brand.

With YouTube Direct, the opportunities to connect directly with the YouTube community are endless.

Key features of YouTube Direct include:

• Built on the YouTube API, this 100% open-source solution provides you with an easily-integrated audience engagement platform for your website
• The customizable interface allows you to tailor the look and feel of the tool precisely to your audience
• Visitors can answer your call for content by uploading their videos to YouTube via your site without leaving the page
• A moderation panel enables your editors to review and approve/reject all submitted videos, deciding which ones meet your organization’s editorial criteria
• All videos approved by your editors include a link back to your site when viewed on YouTube”

This is an amazing opportunity for marketers to get on board instantly to take advantage of another channel to promote business and drive traffic to websites and blogs, cost effectively and directly!

So why wait? You can get started straight away by visiting the YouTube Direct project page, and your developers can get to work today! 

Or, if you want to more you can visit the YouTube Direct FAQ pages.

Blue Skies Ahead!

(Bonus! Don’t forget to watch the video at the end of the post!)

In my daily work, I sometimes wonder where I’ll “end up” on this road of Life.  I have wonderful, creative, intelligent friends and colleagues to work with, and they often ask me and themselves the same question.  It’s a new road; one with different ground, covered with what may – or may not be… acres of opportunities for personal and professional growth.  Many of us may never have the prestige, status, job title, postion, or salary that we once had when we ran for our lives on the old road – but truthfully, I’m not complaining as much anymore.  I’ve met so many diverse and intelligent individuals that I would have never known before I found this route – which is really not as much of a route, or a destination as I would have once described it at all.  I have experienced some of the most fulfilling adventures I’ve not paid for, or been paid for…does that make sense?  and for some of them, I don’t believe I would accept compensation for it, even if possible. 

Before this year, it had been a long time since I’d left work at the end of the day and said, “Today, they didn’t have to pay me for doing this job!” 

Some of the stops along this road have become pleasant destinations, some short, some I hope will be long-term, but where ever I end up, with the help of friends, family and strangers, I’ll be fine.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to return the favours and opportunities presented to me in the same way, or – this being a really different road, a different way…but after the many kindnesses given to me,  the generous compassion, empathy and yes – help and assistance given freely to me at the exact time I needed it, how can I do anything else accept hope for an opportunity to reciprocate these actions as needed.

And so, we just keep on walking, running, stopping for a break, helping someone else up, allowing and accepting help from others (whether we want to, or know how to!), and living our lives as we continue to walk carefully in this strange, new world.  

But, be careful of the strange, new sights that can distract you along the way as well!    Not all New and Improved Options are Good!

When you need some new directions, why not stop at a destination designed to help you, and anyone else that wants to join you and us?  The information about an event planned for just this sort of respite is below:            

 (there’s a glass of wine waiting for you at this one too!)           

This week, The Alliance for Creative Professional Transitions (a happy partnership of several Milwaukee-based professional services consulting groups: Triumvirate Consulting Group, My Personal Networking Group, Percival Enterprises,The Backbone Institute, KB Associates and Blue Skies Consulting), continues the 2nd of the 3 evening series: Get Happy!  Get Connected!  Get Busy!  on Tuesday, November 17, at 6:00pm, at the Brookfield location for Wine Styles. 

The price for this week’s event:   $20.00** per person - Price includes a featured glass of wine from Wine Styles.  Attendees are encouraged to linger after the event and participate in a Wine Styles Tasting. (I can attest to the high quality and deliciousness of their wines!  You can tell I didn’t attend their class yet on how to speak properly about wines!  I do plan on attending soon, so after that I will tell you of the smokiness, oaky or fruity flavours….but until then, I just drink what tastes good.  And all the wines I tasted that evening were good!  So there!   

The event – Get Connected! at Wine Styles is easy to find.  Below is the address:

 Wine Styles 
 17000E W. Bluemound Road 
 Brookfield, WI 53005

Pre-Registration is recommended as seating is limited. Call 262-751-2619 or Register Online: http://tiny.cc/cvlAy.  

                  This Tuesday evening, speakers Karen Jahnke (Triumvirate Consulting Group) and Ally Blackburn (My Personal Networking Group), bring you an event to help you  Get Connected!  They’ve geared the evening towards bring advice,resources, and ideas to utilize for understanding and utilizing the myriad of Social Media Tools that are available to everyone.  Upon completion of this evening, you’ll know how to uncover your untapped potential. You’ll have a better understanding of the future business landscape. You’ll find new ways to connect with your personal community and expand your virtual network. 

 Last month, we had a great deal of fun, laughter and learning lots of interesting new ideas and information about ourselves.  Jeff Percival and I talked about how to Get Happy! on this new road of Business.   Jeff offered ideas and methods to assess your current skills, upgrade or enhance them.  I talked about how the old skillsets and the new skillsets of work have begun to emerge in similar but different industries and niches along the way, and the new trends that businesses are developing to ensure sustainability and profitability (whether they want to go with the trend or not!).  I also gave my newest update on the FUTURE trends I’ve observed and researched that are rapidly evolving and pushing the current World of Work towards becoming – whatever it becomes, otherwise known as the FUTURE.  As of now, the trend towards a more Right-Brain dominat business place is still going strong as Left Brain jobs continue to be Automated, Outsourced, or Obsolete.  This gave attendees a new “map” of opportunities to look towards, and maybe even a brand new direction on their career journey. 

And don’t forget that next month on Tuesday, December 8th, (same time, same place), we’ll present the 3rd and final evening of this particular series (don’t worry, there will always be more!), with Get Busy! as Susan Marshall (The Backbone Institute) and Kathy Bornheimer (KB & Associates) bring you strategies, advice and resources that will strengthen your attitude towards your job search or career transition.  They’ll share methods to use that give you the Confidence, Energy and Motivation needed to Succeed in this Current and the FUTURE Business Landscape. 

Kathy and Jeff have also written an excellent Career Resource Book called “Work Makes Me Sick!  Prescribe Something   Quick!”  An informative and helpful book written with humour to help you in a new job search.  You can order the book at http://tiny.cc/o8Zoo.

This series is for Job Seekers, Career Transition Seekers, Educators, Consultants and Anyone who wants to Learn how to Thrive in the New “Normal” and the FUTURE Business World. We look to give you a better Understanding of this Brand New Business Landscape, to provide you with different methods to Connect with Your Community and Network, and for everyone attending to Discover that Your Journey is Just Beginning and that Your Destinations are indeed Many.  Many more than we ever Dreamed about (or ever Wanted to Know about!

I’ll end with the advice?  prayer? admonishment? blessing? or warning? that I give to my 15 year old son as he leaves the house each morning to begin his own personal journey down the road (up the road?) through the perilous world of high school, complete with it’s own dragons and monsters:     

MAKE GOOD CHOICES!                                                                    

(what else can you say to a teenager or to us as adults as we head out on the road each day?  whenever someone tells me to “have a nice day!”  i begin to worry about a bad day… when someone says “take care!” i begin to become fearful of being careless! and really, what other actions can make the biggest difference in where you end up in this world than your choices? and i’m leaving the relativity issue around “what are good choices?” to your Mom!  she’ll tell you what’s what!)

I am a sucker for awesome GREEN inventions. Since it’s Tuesday and everyone needs a little premid-week pick-me-up (that’s a mouthful), here are some awesome items found by The Independent that I couldn’t resist posting!

THE ECO KETTLE

It is estimated that, on average, we boil twice the volume of water needed every time we use our kettles. With a 3kW kettle that’s the same as wasting the energy of around 50 light bulbs. And standard kettles are often highly inefficient – a stove-top kettle, for instance, requires energy

to heat the handle and shell in addition to the water. But British designer Brian Hartley’s Eco Kettle solves these problems at a stroke. You fill it up, and then use the measuring button to release the exact amount of water you require – from a single cup to a full jug – into a separate chamber for boiling. It is also insulated to keep the water hot. The result is an energy saving of up to 30 per cent.

www.ecokettle.com

GREEN ROOFS

Cities may be losing their green spaces to development, but all is not lost. Look up to the roofs of buildings, especially office blocks, and there, where once there was dead space, you could now find a “sky garden” (Barclays’ HQ in Canary Wharf, London, has one). They could be used as community spaces, chill-out areas for hassled workers, or even to grow food. But there are other advantages for the bottom line, too: they reduce run-off in periods of heavy rain, and they cut back on the heat that gets trapped in built-up areas, thus reducing the need for air conditioning. They could even improve air quality in congested cities.

www.greenroofs.com

FRICTIONLESS WIND TURBINES

The problem with wind turbines? Often, it’s just not windy enough to get them turning. It’s not really the lack of wind that is the problem, but the friction in the turbines themselves. Chinese scientists may have cracked this problem with the first “magnetic levitation” (or MagLev) wind turbines, which replace ball-bearings with the technology used in advanced monorails, making a frictionless turbine that can generate electricity from winds as low as 1.5m per second. They’re ideal for low wind areas, such as mountain regions and small islands. The MagLev wind turbines could also use the airflow caused by passing cars to generate roadside lighting.

SOLAR-POWERED CELLPHONES

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, an alliance of 50 technology research organisations, is looking at how to integrate solar cells into mobile phones, allowing them to be powered continuously on just two hours of sunlight a day. The big manufacturers are interested, as the more software that’s packed into mobiles, the bigger batteries they need.

www.fraunhofer.de

ICE ENERGY

Air conditioning can be a huge drain on electricity supplies. Enter Ice Energy’s Ice Bear, which integrates with a standard AC unit. The water in the Ice Bear is frozen overnight when temperatures are lower and electricity, in many countries, is cheaper, and the ice then cools the AC unit’s refridgerant during the day. This results in a 30 per cent saving in energy use. An AC unit should last 15 years, by which time the Ice Bear will have paid for itself several times.

www.ice-energy.com

GREENER AIRCRAFT

Conventional airliners are heavy, thirsty, noisy and polluting, despite aeronautical designers’ best efforts. But in the future we may be travelling in a flying wing or batwing (in which the entire fuselage becomes the means of lift) – an idea first suggested by Frederick Handley Page in 1961. Made of plastic and with areas of the surface punctured with tiny holes to reduce drag, the wings would be much lighter and so more fuel efficient, and the engines would be mounted on top to deflect noise away from the ground. And they would be flown differently, too: in formation perhaps, which would reduce fuel consumption, and at different altitudes to prevent the formation of polluting condensation trails. The result could bring aircraft emissions below today’s levels by 2025, despite an expected doubling in the amount of passenger air traffic. Both Boeing and Airbus are already working on flying-wing projects.

DESIGNER CARAFES

It’s ironic that in our bid to become healthier by drinking more water, our conviction that only bottled water will do is causing increasingly precious plastics to be thrown away (oil being an essential component in plastic’s manufacture). Fashion designer Pierre Cardin may have the solution. He has just distributed 30,000 of his Eau de Paris designer carafes for free in a bid to convince Parisians that the local tap water is just as healthy. The idea is that many people buy bottled water in response to marketing, so getting them to drink tap water requires a similar strategy. It’s a simple idea that, if it spread around the world, could keep millions of plastic bottles out of landfills.

THE SUPER-POWERED ELECTRIC CAR

Electric cars: they’re rather slow, aren’t they? They whir a bit and then run out of juice on the motorway? Not Tesla Motors’ first car. This will be a clutchless, Lotus-inspired roadster capable of going from 0 to 60mph in just four seconds, with a top speed of 130mph. That’s electricity with attitude. And it does the equivalent of 135mpg. The real benefit? This car (named after the electrical engineer Nikola Tesla) will generate one-third the CO₂ and one-tenth the pollution of hybrid cars – and, as Richard notes, as electricity supplies get cleaner, so will the car. It can drive for a respectable 250 miles before its lithium-ion battery needs recharging and will be available for delivery from autumn of next year. Tesla Motors is new in terms of its business model as well as engineering; it’s backed by the founders of eBay, Google and PayPal. www.teslamotors.com

THE POWERISER

If ever you thought people wobbling around on in-line skates looked silly, you’ll be tickled pink by the Poweriser. Essentially, these are springy stilts that strap on to your calves and, once you’ve got the hang of the correct rocking motion, allow you to leap forward around five metres with a single bound, leap vertically about two metres, and generally upset the animals. With practice, this mode of transport is just as green as skates, but faster. And a few stunts (of the kind used in The Lion King stage production) will impress the doubters: there is already a “scene” developing around the device in Germany, where the idea was first developed. “This one is a bit out there,” admits Richard, “but as far as alternative transportation goes, this has got to be the coolest.”

www.powerisers.de

SOLAR-POWERED LEDs

Picture a world in which the kids have to stop reading because the sun has set. Or where you have to burn dangerous, dirty and expensive kerosene to see what you’re doing. The Indian government hopes to remedy this sutuation, which affects 112,000 rural villages across the country, over the next decade. The solution is a combination of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar power. The former are more efficient than lightbulbs – the power required to light one conventional 100w bulb can now light an entire village – and the latter allows electricity to be stored in batteries and provides lighting where there is no grid supply. Both LEDs and solar panels can also take the rough and tumble of village life: having few moving parts, they are very durable. “People in the West often take electricity for granted, but in some places just being able to see once the sun is gone is a big deal, ” says Richard.

Hope you enjoyed Tuesday’s GREEN Inventions! Again, don’t forget to take a look at the original article here.

One of the hottest trends in social media is the growth of location-aware mobile applications. With the immense popularity of the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android-powered mobile devices, software developers are pushing the mobile platform forward faster than any segment of consumer electronics.

Of all the location-aware mobile applications, Foursquare is perhaps the most exciting. Foursquare was created by Dennis Crowley and Neveen Selvadurai and launched earlier this year. Crowley’s previous project, Dodgeball, was one of the pioneering social networking services for mobile devices. Dodgeball required users to text their location into the service and they would be instantly notified of friends, other Dodgeball users and points of interest all in their close vicinity. Dodgeball was purchased by Google and has since morphed into Google Latitude, Google’s up-and-coming foray into location-aware social networking still in its infancy.

Foursquare takes the basic principles behind Dodgeball but presents it in a much more robust and user-friendly way. Rather than text in one’s location, Foursquare users simply fire up the mobile application on their device and it utilizes the phone’s GPS technology and data network to presents them with a list of venues near their current location. The user selects their location from the list (or adds it if it’s not currently in the system) and they are “checked in.” By connecting to Twitter and Facebook, users can instantly and automatically alert their social networks of their location.

Foursquare doesn’t end there; Crowley and Neveen have implemented an ingenious reward system into their applications that not only encourages repeat use of the applications, but truly bridges that gap from “virtual world” to “real world.” Based on the city one is in, Foursquare users can unlocked badges basedjavascript:; on their check-ins. For example, New Yorker’s that check into a venue above 59th Street can unlock the “Far Far Away” badge. Check in to three karaoke venues unlocks you the “Don’t Stop Believin’” badge while checking in at a gym venue 10 times or more in 30 days earns you the “Gym Rat” badge.

Perhaps the most innovative feature built into Foursquare is the “Mayor” system. Users that check into a venue with the most frequency in a set period of time are tagged as the mayor of that particular venue. Aside from the bragging rights that come along with being the mayor, more and more locations are taking Foursquare off the mobile devices and into the real world by rewarding mayors with a variety of prizes. Restaurants are offering free food to the Foursquare mayor while some bars have been known to give free drinks to their respective mayors.

Foursquare users also have the option to leave a tip for others at the venue they are checked into. Whether it’s raving about a particular restaurant’s salmon dish or urging others to try the Long Island Iced Tea, Foursquare’s system is posing a real threat to popular social review services like Yelp and CitySearch.

Crowley and Selvadurai have created a system that not only is immensely fun for its users, but allows local businesses to market themselves leveraging social media in a whole new way. Whether this was truly intended or is simply a side-effect of the game’s popularity, there’s no denying that Foursquare is creating a new level of interaction between businesses and customers that is sure to be a growing trend in 2010 and beyond.

Image from Guardian Online.

Alternative skydiving? This man is in a tracking position, vertically, but still. Who said good weather and parachutes are needed for skydiving? It’s all about creativity and innovation.

I feel like I have some great ideas but can never get them off the ground. They would either cost too much for me alone to attempt to implement, or I do not have the knowledge or expertise to bring them from half-baked, to well, full-baked. I then become frustrated when ideas I have had to throw away or put on the far back burner come into the public eye to great applause directed not at me. Most notably, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/madmec-roof.html. I had the idea for that color changing roof in 8th grade. I was about 13 at the time and well ahead of predicting an energy crisis and the search for alternative fuels and ways to reduce energy consumption. Admittedly, I was thinking plainly more about efficiency back then and not really saving the environment, but it’s not like those two things don’t go hand in hand. And to think, MIT rejected my undergraduate admission application…

I had another good idea recently. It stems from some frustration with computer manufacturers and their recent decisions to stop issuing recovery discs with new computers. Their logic is not entirely invalid and it’s not a huge hassle to a tech guy like myself, but I still don’t have to like it. A side effect of not giving consumers a disc, is that they still have to provide a means to recover their system should something happen. The solution I have seen the most of is a backup partition on the hard drive. This consumes some (some might say negligible) space that could otherwise be used for “real” data. Although the hard disk is the logical place to store something, having some of the only moving parts in a computer makes it one of the most prone to failure. If your HDD craps out, so does your backup! This brings me to my idea. Flash storage. Embed a ROM of flash memory, accessible only through a recovery menu of the BIOS, with the OS image and a bootstrap program to expand the image. The advantages to this recovery system are numerous. It is not susceptible to HDD failure. It frees up space on the HDD, consumers get ALL of what they pay for. OS companies can node lock the specific image on that ROM to the hardware making the software harder to pirate. The list goes on….

I have a third and final idea for this post. I envision a future of comfortable reading. The Amazon Kindle is a great piece of technology and it is central to this vision. I picture a library having a bunch of these, or similar, devices available for the public to utilize. Just walk into the library, pick up a Kindle off of the charging rack, and start reading. No searching through card catalogs to find what you want, it’s all right there in your hands. No hunching in front of monitors to do research, you can relax in a big comfy chair, book store style, and browse the archives. Yes, laptops can do the same thing… But they are bulkier, have shorter battery life, and may not have direct access to the library’s collections. As a student at RIT, I first imagined this at the Wallace Library on campus. Our library, like most campuses, has access to numerous periodical archives and scholarly databases. If there were digital copies of every book in the library in there too, the system would be complete. But, wait! Many books HAVE digital copies! Well then, what are we waiting for? There’s the money issue, and I don’t think the stock Kindle software would be the best for this purpose. And since Kindles are not cheap, some protection plan would have to go in place, like a built-in GPS unit that can not only notify authorities of it’s location if removed from the library, but guide users to the specific location of a hardcopy book on a shelf!

The future is bright, but alas, I have no matches….

BlackBerry Storm

This November my beloved BlackBerry Bold’s track-ball died on me. My first impulse was to get a new handset and to avoid the trackball issue, I opted for BlackBerry Storm (version 1). When I told my wife this, she said I should just go with the iPhone since my desktop happens to be a Mac Mini and my laptop a MacBook.

I over-confidently stated “Yeah but if I were to do that then I have to get a new line from Maxis and my thumbs won’t be able to navigate the iPhone. Storm at least has push email and has profile with landscape keyboard features.”  So there, I was getting a Storm from a shop that was being sold for RM 1788. Not bad huh?

I went to the shop and tested the Storm with my SIM card, it was fine. Calls and web-browsing features were fine except the push-email ones. I hadn’t thought much of it until I asked the lady whether she can help me set the piece. She told me no. Well what can I say? I’ve given her my money and I was desperate eager to bring home the Storm. I thought it was a mere gesture of simple device change inside my BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) account.

So I went home, switched on my computer and logged onto my BIS account. To my horror it said that my account has been either suspended or deactivated. Since the shop lady wouldn’t know how to fix it, I didn’t want to go back to there. So I chose another route. I went to the place where I’ve gotten my BlackBerry Bold.

The shop owner was kind enough to try and help me with my problem. he went to the Maxis website and keyed in my particulars….but still no results. He did everything, took out the battery, wiped out the phone (I learned a new trick) and a lot more. Finally we called the maxis customer care service. They told us to repeat the same thing. Again nothing. We were disappointed and before I left I thanked him for his troubles and (I later returned the next day to service my faulty Bold) went home.

Upon reaching home, I spent many more hours tinkering with the Storm and calling the Maxis customer care services. They were very friendly and helpful but they too couldn’t solve my problem. I tried until I retired at 1 AM. Still nada.

So the next day after church, I went back to the shop that sold me the device. I related my story to the lady and she kindly let me try another Storm device to check whether there’s a detection from Maxis. Again nothing. I thanked her and finally went to Maxis and told them my problem.

They confidently took my device and started tinkering with it. While I was waiting they managed to get me to change my BIS plan. I okayed it thinking about the Storm being fixed soon. I also took the time to fiddle around with an iPhone that was being displayed.

Apple iPhone 3G

I was amazed that handling the iPhone wasn’t so difficult as I envisioned it to be! I was very easy and fun to use. I just had to agree with any of the plans and would’ve been able to bring home the iPhone for RM 1290. But of course it had to be an new line. After spending much time with it, I realized that I should’ve gone and bought it in the first place!

Anyway, the Maxis staff themselves couldn’t figure out the problem. The only reason that I was given were the original carrier for my piece was Celcom. Celcom then has to release the Storm’s IMEI number for another user apart from the first owner. Simply you cannot sell your BlackBerry device to anyone else. I thanked them and went back to the shop which sold me the device.

I explained the lady my dilemma and asked whether it was possible for them to call their supplier to help me. She told me to wait and later her boss appeared. Again I explained myself to him. He finally said he’d do whatever he can to help me. I surrendered to him my device for checking. He said that he’ll call me once they have solved the problem. I agreed and now I wait.

End of Part 1

The company is riding high with a wide range of new hull construction projects as well as upgrade work on previously-manufactured submersibles.

“Certainly our relationship with Camper Nicholsons has been an important alliance for SEAmagine.” Said Bernard Demers, V.P. Marketing.  “Campers is an amazing organization and their worldwide presence is certainly a practical home run for us.  Most of all, their exclusive vote of confidence in SEAmagine yacht-based submersibles is a huge feather in our cap”. According to Demers.

SEAmagine was present at the Russian Boat show and received impressive attention from the press and attendees.

“The Monaco Yacht Show in September was the busiest show yet for our company in terms of new project discovery and development.  We are delighted with the incredible amount of high-level interest and sales activities from the Monaco show.” Demers said.

The good news continued in Florida.  Recession?  What recession?

Bernard Demers, SEAmagine VP Marketing at Monaco Yacht Show 2009

Researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered ways to make Ice Cream tastier and healthier by adding nutrients

such as  fibre, antioxidants and pro-biotics to premium ice cream.