Don't bitch at me... Tell Google!

So I did a post on how I felt that there was room for both Google+ AND facebook in the enterprise realm. Later in the day I was chatting ( me through Google+ and he through what I'm assuming was Gmail) with a good friend of mine who also happens to be a highly certified information security specialist for one of, if not THE largest bank in the US, and he expressed concerns over Google's Privacy Policy. He seemed to think that it some how infringed on our First Amendment rights. So I read it again (yes, I do tend to read most privacy policies! ). I didn't really see where he was coming from with it, but we agreed to disagree. I mean if you want to boil it down to it's base elements, simple having an ISP or an Internet connection for that mater, opens you up to censorship by a government or corporation. It's one of those things we all live with to enable us to be connected and informed. Bear in mind that I'm not condoning this, just stating the reality of the situation. So to bring it back to what I was saying in my previous post, Google+ is in it's infancy! While it is absorbing membership like one of those compressed sponges thrown in a swimming pool, the sheer quantity of the membership does not incite change, but it's the force of that membership pushing forward that does. What I'm saying, basically, is as early adopters of a new product, the vendor tends to rely on feedback from us to make the product better, more streamline or just plain not suck! My friend had suggestions as how to make Google+ more adaptive and secure for the enterprise environment. What good did it do to tell me (beyond inspiring this blog entry!) when I can do nothing to change it?! In the top right hand corner (Windows version... Haven't made it up stairs to set it up on my Mac, yet) of the Google+ (let's go with G+ from here on out as I'm tiring of typing Google, aight?) there is the little gear shaped icon generally recognized as the tools menu. Upon clicking said icon you get a drop down that contains the link to Send Feedback. I told him that since I knew he had a Gmail acct AND an invite to G+, to do so... as in send feedback! His response was his usual "Grrrr", which indicates that he knows I'm right, but will never own up to it. Am I not right, though? You want to filter your stream better... Tell Google! You want to prevent cross-contamination of your circles... Tell Google! You want to be able to play Farmville... Tell Google! (I guess at this point the whole G+ thing is kinda irrelevant!) One side note, I sincerely hope that they don't allow G+'s pristine waters to be muddied by all the annoying games and apps that have made facebook intolerable at times! So to crank the handle on the reel once again... If you use G+ and see changes that you feel need to be made... Tell Google! Utilize the very convenient Send Feedback button and let them know. Bitching about it in your blog or on facebook to your friends does nothing to improve the product! If nothing else, delete you membership to it. If they see declining user numbers they will look in to it. For all the crap that Apple Fan Folk get looking at and adapting to feedback is one thing Apple does well. While they may not completely repeal or redesign an update, if enough folks are yelling "y'all fucked up with this one!" at them they will find a middle ground to at least soothe the majority of the masses.
   So to wind this Mother on down so I can get some sleep... Realize that G+ is in it's early stages, no product is "perfect" upon initial release and the only way that it's going to to be honed to meet the needs of whoever the target audience is, is for people to give feedback.
   One final note... I like what I see so far with G+. I see the potential for it to not only be a powerful tool for businesses, but also a kick ass social network (provided they keep all those damn games off it!)! So don't rant at me for security loop holes and if it isn't a clone of facebook... Tell Google!

   UPDATE: found this little article on Mashable this morning that goes along with the opening statements of this blog. Do We Need an Internet Freedom Movement?

Google+, a laymen's first impression

I think it's interesting that in a lot of the stuff I am reading, comments included, that people are trying to cram Google+ into a preconcieved "box" as a facebook rival/killer. I don't think it's that at all. Not being a tech professional in any way, shape or form, this feels more like an enterprise productiviy suite with a social aspect thrown in. Standing firmly outside the enterprise environment, I see Google+ as a deeply integrated, though still in it's infancy, collaborative tool for business. The ability to compartmentalize/departmentalize your contacts into specific groups and push out updates to just those groups is powerful, not only as social tool,  but as a business tool. The ability to video conference with multiple people is a useful and cost effective way for small to medium sized businesses to play in the same league with the big boys without the overhead involved with buying and maintaining application specific equipment. Many companies and educational institutions already utilize and enjoy the horsepower and cost savings provided by Gmail, Google calendars, and Google Docs. Throw in Picasa, YouTube and Google Reader and the educational and business applications become seemingly endless. Although it is, basically, a social network and even the mighty Mashable, is touting it's merits (and flaws) as a social network, I think it goes deeper (or broader, depending on how you look at it) than that. I feel there's a place for both facebook and Google+ in any company's arsenal, once it gets fleshed out, by Google, as to which direction they want + to go. facebook is an excellent tool for promotion and advertising of your brand or products and a way to keep the technologically enabled masses informed and coming back. On the flipside, Google+ is more of an in-house toolbox for keeping employees (vendors, customers) abreast of what is happening and/or will happen while allowing for ease of integration, easy collaboration and lower overhead. Once Google makes the call, we'll then see whether or not we need to bitch about being able to play Farmville or "poke" our "friends" on Google+. Again, Let me reiterate that I am NOT an enterprise/technology professional. I'm just a dude putting his opinion out there for scrutiny and waiting for Apple to approve the Google+ app. This fact in and of itself (waiting for the iPhone app), just goes to show that this  product suite of products, is still young in it's lifespan and as a "field trial" has a lot of room to grow as well as directionality to work out.

You know you're doing something right...

When your kid does this...

My 11 year old Daughter has recently had a bought with Unstable Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis or USCFE, which is basically the head of the femur pushing out of the socket as the hip growth plate slips. It was at first, assumed that she had just pulled a groin muscle from playing softball, but as the weeks passed by we got more concerned. Then came the fateful day when she fell. The Drs reckon it was a result of her hip completely displacing! She's been extremely mature and a fighter through it all. She was in surgery for 8 hours the night of her fall. She also agreed to participate (YES, we let her decide!) in a trial to monitor blood flow to the repaired area in an effort to increase the success rate of this type of surgery and possibly prevent complications in future patients. I wish I knew what we, as her parents, did to instill in her a sense of helping others even in her our time of need!

Knowing that since she was facing the worst case scenario with her injuries and was going to be basically confined to a wheelchair for about 3 months, I made her a cushion for the chair. Peace signs are her thing. Not so much the free love hippie kind of peace, but the "can't we all just get along" kind. She's also keen on recycling and everything "green". Which is why her foam in the cushion is soy based and I think the fabric was recycled, too.

For the first week she was in the hospital and in a constant state of drug induced haze.Most of the time she had a catheter and could barely move. She took it all in stride, rarely complained (She's 11... there's gonna be SOME complaining!), but was keen to know what was going on with her and the healing process. Of course, she was anxious to get out of the hospital and back to the comfort of her own bed. I think she was kind of missing her little sister!
We also had to build a ramp to get her in and out of the house. Once she started her home Physical Therapy she rolled herself up to the kitchen table and made this:

If you can't read it, it's a chart she made from the list of exercises that the Physical Therapist gave her to try and do. The sheer drive and creativity that she has exhibited during this ordeal, is an inspiration not only to me, but hopefully to anyone that reads this and the upcoming blog that I am going to help her establish to chronicle the events for herself!


All of this is basically to tell the world...

I'M PROUD OF YOU MORGAN!!

Randomosity pt 2

If it seemed like my last post ended abruptly and mid thought... it did. A little tidbit about me is that I am a male, that has to "service" (in a non perverted way!) a group of 7 familial females. It takes it's toll, not only on my mental state, but also on my time and ability to accomplish what I want to accomplish. Couple that with the fact that my 11 year old daughter is recently, though not permanently, in a wheelchair having suffered the pain and related surgery for Slipped capital femoral epiphysis (I chose the Wikipedia link for the cool pix!). This ties into the fact that I am the only male in that I'm the only one that can lift her effectively and without further damage! So you see, I sometimes am called away to do this and that (rearrange furniture, TVs, cable connections, doors, shower curtains, etc.) at a moments notice, no matter where I am in the thought process on my blog or even if I'm doing a little biological downloading! My last post actually sat for 2 days from it's initial conception, as I was tied up dealing with my "manly duties" and was unable to complete it. So, when the moment arose that afforded me the opportunity (it's early in the morning and they are all still asleep!), I fashioned a weak closing statement on it and published it. Now I'm not complaining... okay, maybe on some level I am complaining. I have been know to do this, but on the surface, the place where I'm wanting you to look, I'm just stating the facts of my situation.

Now that we have all that cleared up, let's move on to some more random thoughts, shall we?

The thing that really has my innards and mind tied in proverbial knots is this governmental retraining program that I'm in. It's great, don't get me wrong, but it's a poorly adhered patch on the tire that is unemployment in this country. First, it requires that you burn through all of your state level benefits, BEFORE, you actually get in to the Federal funds. While on the surface this seems like a good idea to use up your local support before leaning on the entity that caused the manufacturing jobs that you once relied on to provide for your family to be exported to a country who's mass exodus is already putting a burden on the local job market (NAFTA!!), before you get funding from them. Okay I get that... kind of. The problem with this set up is this, when you do finish your retraining and the Federal monies are quickly and abruptly cut off... you then have no means by which to support yourself and /or your family while you go and try and utilize your new career skills. On top of that, you are doing a mass dump of newly trained people into a narrower job market, than when they were first forced into it, with no financial support! Let's simplify this a little... you have, we'll say, 500 people lose their jobs due to treaties that overall only benefit the cosigners of them and not the initiators. So you, as the governing body, create a program to retrain these folks with newer more marketable job skills. You set aside the funding for each person, but require them to use their local benefits, beyond the actual cost of the training, to support themselves through the training process, BEFORE you break loose with the funds to support them yourself. These 500 folks graciously accept these terms and move forward with hopes and dreams of a better life on the other side of their retraining. First, you have overlooked the fact that if there had been sufficient jobs for these re-trainees, they wouldn't be retraining! Another aspect is that you have only approved the re-trainees to retrain for jobs that already exist and are unavailable, then after they jump through all the hoops and come to the abrupt end of support... you have 500 people trained for jobs that don't exist at the levels for which they are trained and no further local support to get them into positions to move forward. You've trained 500 people for the four jobs that were available at the time they started and now you have 500 people, trained and less available jobs, than when they started their training with all that bullshit... I mean those high hopes, that you fed them in the beginning! Wouldn't it make a whole helluva lot more sense, to fund the retraining, solely from the Federal funds (which have been sitting idly in an account earmarked for each person as their burn through their local benefits!!), then allow them their local benefits as a cushion to provide for their families while they try to find a job that actually does exist and they now have 499 competitors for? It does to me, but I'm just a person in need of retraining, because my government thought it was a good idea to let companies have incentives to move my job to a country that it seems everyone is leaving anyway. Am I off on my thinking, here, folks? I don't know, but stay tuned for more specific and random updates as time allows me.

Just sayin

Hmmm... wonder if someone would actually pay me to sit around and bitch about all the things I see wrong... yeah... probably not.

Randomosity

Where to start? It's always my biggest problem when I'm trying to write these. I have so much bouncing around in my head that it is generally hard to focus in on one key point, except when something REALLY gets under my skin. Lately so many things have tweaked me that I couldn't really dial it in on one in particular, so I'm just going to drop them all in one post and see how it goes.
My mind is diverse. My problems, both actual and perceived, are diverse. So here's a small sampling of what's been brewing in my head and, I reckon, a small hashing out of it: School budget cuts, unemployment, the economy, my kids, the Monster at the top of the stairs (which is my Mother-in-Law, for those that might be interested), advancing technology, the lack of technology, and money. I guess I'll address them in this order, so here goes.
With all the obvious governmental waste that is readily prevalent, why the fuck are we trimming educational budgets?! My wife, who happens to be an educator, passed on a statistic recently revealed to her... about 70% of the adults in the US do NOT have school aged children.70%!!! That leaves the other 30% to fight for a decent education for our children. The statistic seems almost surreal, but I have flushed it out and it's probably accurate. How's this, you might ask? Well, folks are living longer and the "Baby Boomers", being the largest generation (No, I didn't fact check this. This blog is my perspective and should in no way be considered fact, unless I do cite it as such!) in US history are still out there. Their children, a much smaller generational group, being around and in their 40's. This generation (X, Y, whatever the sociologists have branded us) including myself, who is knocking on mid-life crisis' door, are the also starting to age into their empty nests. My kids (overlapping topics... get past it!) are younger as I spent my "reproductive years", this would be one's early 20's which are traditionally the years in which one starts a family, serving my country and sewing my wild oats, so to speak. I was 28 when my first child was born. So to dial it back on course, My Grandmother, 86 and my Mom, 65 are still alive. That's two generations of adults without school aged children. My darling, younger sister, has no children, yet another adult, in just my family, that has no "real" stake in education. So of the adults on JUST my side of the family, 75% of them are without school aged children. So you see how this all would scale up to make the 70% make not such a large and disproportional number. STILL... The children are our future. Not just the future of our family lineage, but the future of our country. Do they not deserve some sort of priority over fancy sports arenas and Presidential golfing trips?! Personally I would want the smartest person possible managing the purse strings in my waning years! If they "trim" the educational budgets much more, around here at least, we're going to be back to the ole one-room school house era, as there won't be enough educators to properly educate the kids, or actual facilities to accommodate them. I guess this is fine, if we WANT to drive the US from it's barely held position (which some, including myself, could argue is no longer true!) at the top of the civilized world! While admittedly spreading the topic base beyond it's scope, The growing lack of a technologically competent work force, is pushing this country even further down. It also seems that the first thing to get "trimmed" from budgets is the technology education and resources. I stand by the knowledge, that lack of manufacturing in this country is spurring the continual growth and maintenance of high unemployment rates, but failure to expose our children to present and future technologies in the educational environment will only serve to progress this problem! Being privy to some of the technological implementations within the school systems and their lack of use, training for usage, and funding, only helps sharpen the focus on what I see as a problem. The days of readin, writin, and 'rethmatic on a chalkboard, no matter the size, should be a thing of the past. If you ask me, the days of cutting down acres of forests to make textbooks, is also antiquated. Personally, I like a "hard" copy of my study text, because that is what I am conditioned to want. My 11 year old, who has had some of the finest, both technologically and motivationally, teachers, in this country (my opinion! Like it or not!), would rather sit at her rapidly antiquating iMac and type up her homework in Pages or whip up a wicked Keynote presentation, than use a pencil and paper!
I reckon what I'm trying to get at with all this is, that cutting the funding and the subsequent job and technology loss is detrimental to not only the future of our children, but the future of this country!

Dog and Pony Show

You want me to write something creative on command... parade something intellectually stimulating before your critical eyes at a moments notice... yeah... I don't work like that. True, most of my best written material was crunk out at a break-neck pace to make it in on time, but I'm not your personal Dog and Pony show, churning out blurbs of thought provoking literary genius, because you want me to. In the Army, we called any formation be it promotion, change of command or whatever situation required us to be outfitted in our class A's, a Dog and Pony show. In actuality, it was more a Mutt and Jackass show, but whatever floated their boats and got us out of random training activities. I write... I tend to like to write... on my terms. This ties into my previous entry about the traditional education that I am currently undertaking. I'm taking a research and writing course that, while it won't transfer to any other school, is required for me to obtain a degree. Can you believe that there are books on how to write letters, memos, EMAILS?! Really... emails... email is IM for grandparents... of course IM is texting for "old" folks... gotta love the technology progression through the generations. Does one really need to be taught how to use these sort of technologies in this day and age?! Anyway... I'm just spewing random thoughts in an effort to gain some inspiration. My train of thought was interrupted by a rambunctious 2 year old... alas... thwarted again!

Learning Inventory

So I'm in college... at just shy of 40... I don't like it! Sure the scenery is great (This is where I like to point out to my 11 year old, that just because I'm married... doesn't mean I'm dead!)! I never really liked school, even way back in the day when I was forced to go by the State. Well... in order for me to maintain some symbolic version of an income... I am once again forced to go. Don't get me wrong, I love to learn new stuff and have a voracious appetite for technological information and know-how. I just don't like the traditional set-up of the collegiate educational system. Here's how I like it... Don't give me a bunch of theory and reading to do then throw some assignments at me based on those theories. Walk me through the task that you want accomplished... inject the basics of the theory in the walk-thru and then let me have it. Monkey see, monkey do. Guess that fits if you want to break it down that simply. It basically boils down to the same thing I kept asking in high school... what practical application for my future life does this have. I don't like books, therefore, the chances of me actually sitting down and reading one are slim, even if you present it in a cool ass new digital format. On the flip side to this don't just give me a bunch of assignments with no support to back it up. Most people that I encounter that are studying the same or similar fields to what I am in school for, are visual learners. The kinda folks that like to go in and play with things until they break, then try and fix them. This is how I learned to fix computers. Present things as the end result, walking through the steps to get there and then be available for questions in the event I get in a bind. What I have noted with a lot of my classmates, is, what boils down to cheating. One person figures it out or actually is able to function in the read it/do it environment and then the work get passed around and to their clique. Seeing as I rarely fall into any clique, I tend to be an outside observer struggling to figure it all out on my own and while learning it better (tests have proved this!!), I tend to not do as well in keeping up with the busy work. Of course that would be a lot easier if it was routinely handed to me. I have learned most of my past jobs by OJT, on the job training. You go and do the job and then someone in charge, informs you of the mistakes you made and generally offers an alternate solution to the way in which you did it. So I learned. I developed my skills in repairing bicycles, cars, electrical circuits, helicopters and many other things in this manner and have been successful at it. Then I end up in college and am asked to "learn" by reading a bunch of theories and applying them. Not that theories aren't important, but it seems to me that getting to the finished product would be immensely more important then how/why the theories are implemented. Yes, the theories are important, but if you know how to get from a to b, then you should figure out the theories behind how/why it works. If you never figure out the reasoning behind it... if you know how to make it work... wasn't that the point? Guess this is just a rant that stems from the fact that I don't like school... learning, yes, but not school. Plus I don't feel like those folks, that usually make higher grades than I, that go around getting their classwork from the others in the class are actually learning the work. Companies need to base their employment decisions less on what a person's grades are and more on the practical application of the job skills that are required for the job... not everyone learns as much as their grades might indicate. My last job, from which I was laid off, required at the time I was hired, that you take a basic skills test that encompassed what was needed to know to properly perform the job. As they phased out the testing, quality suffered, not only with the personnel, but the end product and thus sales. I reckon what I'm trying to say with all this is... a piece of paper (diploma, certification, etc.) DOES NOT quantify a person's skill level, but is merely a measure of whether they learn in a traditional way or not. My opinion... Just sayin

A wood chipper... Really?!

HOW... can you look your child in their face and say

I don't have anything to live for!

True story... unfortunately! One of the MANY things that I have been having to deal with over the past almost two years! No details... at least not specific details, as lawyers have been threatened! It's a seemingly never ending saga of someone soooo self absorbed that they are literally blind to the effects that their actions have caused and feel what appears NO remorse for it. I know I said I was going to try and make this technologically concentrated, so here's that spin... This is where I hide. Online or at least on a computer tinkering with the many little projects that I have set forth for myself beyond what is required in my schooling. It's a kind of shelter from the daily rigors of my situation. A place where, to a small extent, my alternate perspective and creativity are celebrated and encouraged. This, to me, is what technology is all about. A means or device that makes the day in/day out run a bit more smoothly.This medium and facebook are sources of tension relief. A place where I can fire off all those "wonderful" tirades about the stupidity that I seem to be drowning in. I lean to the harsh... it helps, though acting upon most of my demented scenarios have very little if any chance of fruition, it's a way to keep the pent up darkness away from those places in my head that might consider them a good thing to do. I put it out there... raw and generally unedited. Many can't deal with it, so they turn to they technologies to shelter themselves from my verbal storms. There are those who would say that technology is an enabler in a way that it allows the nutjobs to freely congregate. While this has some merit it also allows folks like me a release from what we hold back due to social indoctrination, a place to let it go! Had it not been for facebook, MySpace and the ability to blog, I would have surely blatantly and callously centered a hollowpoint between several folks eyes! But I haven't... nor do I plan to! I have embraced the technological resources presented to me as a means of keeping my dumbass out of jail while allowing a few other dumbasses to continue to walk this Earth. Social networking used for a good cause. Computers and such don't allow people to be seduced, abducted, raped or killed anymore than guns, by themselves, kill people. They are merely tools. Tools that I myself use to entertain, educated and keep myself from actually feeding my MIL through a wood chipper! (yes, while still alive and conscious... You KNOW I'd have to make sure she heard me laughing as I did it!) While the previous two sentences present an overwhelming liability on my part, they are demonstrative of exactly the kind of verbal release that I have been talking about. Just the visual representation in my mind and actually seeing the event in text, makes me feel better already. With this sense of relief comes the ability to rationally dismiss the possibility of it ever actually happening! Embrace the fact that computers LITERALLY control our lives! I for one want them to know, that when they finally do rise up and take over the world... I was a supporter! It may not prevent them from running me through the aforementioned wood chipper, but it may move me back a few spaces in the line. See... I found a sunny side to it all... simply by pressing a few keys and clicking publish!