marathon blog session upcoming

I just wanted to let everyone that may be reading my blog know that I will be doing a marathon session either today or tomorrow with all of my back-logged posts and some new posts.

Even an idea for a book....which I would greatly appreciate feedback about that idea.

Hope all is well and you're enjoying the summer weather. For some reason I think my predominantly Norwegian blood just doesn't like anything over 85 degrees....but I digress.

PA pictures 2

Hemlock Mountain Vista


Blurry Forest Path


Old Main up close
\

Old Main from afar


Mountain Man Matt making nice with the Penn State Lion

PA pictures

This post is just some of the more interesting photos from my trip.

This is in Belfonte, PA. Just an interesting building


picture of a building built in 1816!!!!


mansion in Belfonte


Feeding the ducks in the park


Bear tracks in the hills...I figured this was a better picture than the other vestiges of the bears


I'm getting errors adding more...I'll post more in another post.

back from PA--off to OH

Well I've returned from Penn State....great place by the way. I recommend visiting the area at some point. It really reminds me of Oregon in many regards. But, I will try to catch up with a few postings tonight or tomorrow.

Plus some neat pictures from the trip. All taken with the iPhone...so you'll have to accept the inadequacies of a 2.0 Megapixel camera.

I will be off to Dayton tomorrow. So, perhaps I'll be able to catch up on postings then....as I will have an internet connection (I hope)


Oh, and a very strange thing happened. I really need help or comments on this one. My biological father called my parents out of the blue whom I haven't spoken with or seen since I was a kid (20 years without contact) wanting to talk with me. Has anyone here had an experience like this? What should I expect when I call him? Do you suggest I call him?

On the road.....again.

Well, I feel like I've done quite a bit the past few days, and blogging ins't one of them. However, I am preparing for a nice weekend at Penn State University this weekend. Funny relation there....I was in the Google Online Marketing Challenge which our team, the Six Amigos (even though there were four of us) came in 13th in the AMERICAS. Pretty cool when there were around 1600 teams, and probably just under 2/3 of them were based in the Americas. Well, the team that won the Americas group is based out of Penn State University...perhaps I'll go pop in on the professor and congratulate him.

I will eventually catch up on my blogging. I swear. I have all the ideas in my head--I just need to put them on "paper"

And so my great summer trip..........BEGINS!!!!

Image Content

I was listening to a podcast a few days ago and heard mention of a few websites that are great to access internet content to add to one's blog for free. Hmm...where did I put those links.... *paper shuffling for a few minutes*

The pages that the Small Biz Tech Girl mentioned are:

• Morgue File


• Flickr - Creative Commons


• Creative Commons


• iStock Photo


• StockXpert


• Every Stock Photo


• Getty Images

Ok...I guess some of these links are to sites that the photos have costs associated with the media....but most of them are free.

That's all for now.

12 hours of grading???

Ok, I'm getting further and further behind on my posts here, aren't I?

Some small news....I've added a new blog feed. "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" from CNBC.

For the past 12 hours (working hours) I've been grading papers as a Graduate Assistant. Trust me when I say that the job is NOT glamourous. It only pays $9/hr and you're grading graduate level work that requires subject matter expertise. Kind of strange, isn't it? I'm used to billing at $150/hr. Oh well. It makes me feel good to grade papers and help these grad students learn the material a little better with my "insights". But seriously, $9/hr to grade Database Design ER Diagrams? Relational Modeling? Functional Dependency? really???? seriously....

crazy stock markets....

I may just be crazy...but I recently purchased 400 shares of Freddie Mac and 100 shares of Fannie Mae in various accounts. With these stocks at such ridiculously low prices, is it a bad thing to buy now? Long-term strategies tell me that this short-term issue will probably not effect the long-term plans of either business.

Of course, I'm crossing my fingers.

Fannie Mae CEO, Daniel H. Mudd, made a statement:

We continue to hold more than adequate capital reserves and maintain access to liquidity from the capital markets. Given the market turmoil, having options to access provisional sources of liquidity if needed will help to strengthen overall confidence in the market. We will continue to do our part to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the housing market now and in the future.

Of course...his name is Mudd.

Freddie Mac CEO, Richard F. Syron made a statement:

......This affirmation of the important role of the GSEs, and that we should continue to operate as shareholder-owned companies, should go a long way toward reassuring world markets that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will continue to support America's homebuyers and renters......We are in the process of finalizing our June 30, 2008 results and we estimate that they will show we have a substantial capital cushion above the 20% mandatory target surplus established by our regulator. We expect the results will also show that we have a much greater surplus above the statutory minimum capital requirement. The company's capital and liquidity resources will enable it to continue to serve its public mission as it has always done.

Hmm....I don't see a reason for them to lie given that their company stocks are taking a beating.

iPhone Apps

Ok. So, the stress of Friday updating is done. I do admit that I was probably too irate about not having access to my phone to really write logically about the likely issues that Apple may have had. If I think about all of the symptoms....downloading iTunes 7.7 and downloading iPhone 2.0 software Friday morning without any problems. It was solely the iPhone 2.0 installation process that was problematic.

Now, I'm not certain on how many phones have been sold over this past year--but I would guess around 1 million. Of course all the media hype about this new release is going to create a certain buzz about how great the new phone applications will be and how much value and productivity they will add to your life. So, a lot of people were ready to push the install button.

I'm guessing that there is a singular application warehoused on one server at Apple that transacts all of the registrations. Which is basically what we were all doing. Re-registering. So, this single application. This single server was getting hit by all of us....and it got overloaded.

Now, if this was a corporate client....I'm certain that there would be a seperate server....or a dedicated connection. This would likely be built into the Service Level Agreement. So, they wouldn't be affected. Or, I would hope so anyhow. Additionally, Apple has corporate account managers that would be communicating with the external corporations about any issues.

Ultimately, yea...I felt like my life was disrupted for a few hours and it was a huge hassle. But, I'm an individual customer. Not a large corporation. Yes--Apple cares about all us individual customers. But, we're already committed to the product.

So, I don't have any issues with Apple and the debacle that was iPhone Friday 2.0. Certainly they could have handled things differently. They could have made the "go-live" of downloading more exotic and allowed users to download at 8am in their location. Meaning New Yorkers could have downloaded at 8am EST and Californians at 8am PDT. But, they didn't. They could have created a parallel application processing server at a seperate site (like their Disaster Recovery site) and merged all of the transactions in the coming week or so. But, they didn't do that either.

We all fell to the desire to get the new application as soon as possible because we love the iPhone so much and wanted to see how the new software would make the product even better. Personally, I have noticed a few bugs already. Hopefully those will be fixed fairly quickly, but all in all I like my "new" iPhone very much!Do you have any issues?

backlog of posts...

So, I realize that I have missed a few posts...so I want to keep viewers happy and let know what to expect in the coming posts:

• HBR July Case Study (about a guy putting all his eggs in one demographic--the boomers)


• A fun discussion about cars and personality (is there a true relationship?)


• A list of websites I heard of for pictures (you can tell I haven't been proactive on searching the sites...look at all my pictures!) from a Podcast. Small Biz Tech Girl.


• The new Apple iPhone apps--likes/dislikes (I will tell you that the lightsaber app is awesome)


• I'm sure that there are others...but my memory is lapsing at the moment. Getting prepped for a wedding (not mine) and working on a final project (Bus. Continuity/Disaster Recovery) and grading papers (for a Database Design class) and finally thinking about recruiters and looking at timelines for various consulting firms.

Not a long list...but the posts should be lively. If you have suggestions on what other topics you want to see...please, let me know. I'm a man that likes to know at least a little about everything....and a lot about a few things. Also, based upon feedback from a website owner I should probably create some more positive feedback (or at least critique with solutions to problems). I mean, if I were at work I wouldn't just identify the problems. You need to have solutions (or recommendations) to problems and issues, right?

Ok--wish me luck at the wedding. My sitting muscles will be getting quite a workout!

Up and Running.....5 hours later

The majority of my afternoon was spent trying to hit the iTunes server. Yay. 5 hours later, I am not fully integrated into iTunes 2.0 heaven. All of my apps are installed...and things are going pretty darn good.

Blue skys are here again!

I would love to hear any other horror stories about the problems today.

iPhone 2.0...irritating

Well, I've been able to successfully install the iTunes 7.7 software. That happened last night from 11:50 - 1:30. I then attempted to get my new Apps installed (or ported) over to my iPhone. This didn't work. Of course, by 2:00am I was beginning to get tired...so I didn't think to change my BIOS timestamp to after 8:00am and reset my computer to be in Japan...or somewhere where the phone was currently released.

So, when I woke up and hopped on my PC I was able to download the new iPhone 2.0 firmware.

Now I'm sitting here with a phone (that doesn't work in any capacity) that has been trying to do some sort of access to the iTunes store and an error message of:

"We could not complete your iTunes store request. The network connection was reset. Make sure your network connection is active and try again."

Which is annoying because I can access the iTunes store. And I obviously have a network connection. Is it just crazy busy right now.....? What's happening? I need to use my phone. I have business calls!!!! Recruiter follow-ups....

Apple Network guys....hit the reboot button on your servers!!

iTunes 2.0? iPhone 3G

I thought I'd get started on this blog posting early. As I am currently downloading the new iTunes package....as I type.

But, I would love to hear feedback from others with an iPhone. I don't currently have any desire to get the iPhone 3G. Perhaps in another year when they come out with another phone. Or...if I land a job at a company that uses iPhones instead of BlackBerry devices. I have heard rumors about Deloitte switching over to the iPhone crowd.

Anyway, i'm at the installation phase now. I can't wait for the ability to install applications legally on my phone. I admit, I did unlock the phone for awhile....but it seemed like it was a little buggy....so I took off the installer.

Ok. So, now the installation is done. I was interrupted with an unscheduled closing of all my internet windows. After the install was done it was recommended that I reboot. Fortunately, I had some other Windows Updates that I installed today...making my reboot/restart incredibly long. And guess what...I still have new updates for Windows available...goodie.

But, I have been to the new iTunes store. iTunes applications are now available. And there are a TON of FREE applications. Even Bloomberg! Sweet.

Ok...time to go play with all my new applications. Since it was my birthday on Wednesday I can call it a belated birthday gift...otherwise it feels like Christmas in July!

Do any of you have the new apps on your iPhone or iTouch? Which are the coolest? What do you recommend???

the circle of death?!

Ok...so, this may seem like an odd posting. But, here I was watching this show...while "surfing" the net called Really Big Things. So, I looked up toward the tv and I saw this incredible stage. There were people running up the side of a vertical stage and these metal spires were popping out. It was really pretty cool. Then there was this great scene of a sandstorm and a guy falling off a sand waterfall. So, my attention changed to the tv obviously.

Then, I saw this really crazy skit that was called "the circle of death" from the Cirque de Soleil show Ka. After watching that I saw that there was a YouTube video. So, please, check it out, and write a comment about what you think. Are these guys crazy!??! And awesome simultaneously!??!

Fire at the Theatre? Nope, free movie ticket.

I ended up going to see Hancock on Friday at the theater. Which...as far as the movie goes, it was decent. Unfortunately, some dumbass pulled the fire alarm (it may have been an accident). So, it was interesting actually experiencing the disaster plan for the movie theatre.

The movie stopped immediately -- some sort of pause mechanism. Then the alarm went off -- the lights in the theatre came on. Then there was a siren.

At this point I was glad I had seen hundreds of pre-movie descriptions to find the nearest exit (yea....) as there was no audio advising people to find the exits and leave in an orderly fashion.

I then took the opportunity to take the exit behind the screen. It is completely different. Just drywall and drywall mud. No carpeting....all concrete. But, still fairly clean.

So, I took the back way...and eventually made my way outside (without any employee assistance). When outside I noticed that there wasn't any staff member outside directing the patrons safely away from the building (just in case).

Eventually, someone came out and told us to go to the other side of the parking lot....and after the Fire Department came and turned the alarm off we were let back in with a free movie pass and a movie that was at the same exact spot where we left off.

However, I do think that AMC needs to have a better Safety protocol in place. In the advent of a real fire....there would have been A LOT of people hurt.

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

Should I help my Professor?

This is a general question that I'm trying to figure out the value, and potential negatives......so please leave a comment.

My Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery professor, Mary Sandy, is developing a new Disaster Recovery product. Of course, I have no knowledge on the specifics...but by the way she is directing class I'm thinking it could be some sort of dashboard utility that keeps track of hardware and the existing backup (or recovery) procedures of a company. It could be more...it could be less. I have to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement (NDA) to find out any additional details.

Anyway, she needs someone with some of my skills (like Database design and programming) to help create the product. She is currently an independent consultant, but has worked for Gartner, Comdisco, and other companies in the past.

This almost seems like a rhetorical blog question, but I'd love to hear people's opinions on the benefits/drawbacks they may see in doing something like this.

Catching up on Blogs (SQL)

Some of you know (because I think I've mentioned it) that I'm the grader for a graduate level Database Design class. This summer term one of the students is a friend. So, I offered to help him. By help, I meant to explain what SQL is, how to use it...and make it understandable in everyday terms. Then help them determine a method of identifying what the professor is asking and how to find the solution. It is easy enough when you have a "process" or "methodology" to help drive your work.

IT stuff really does make sense if it is explained well enough. What I see most often is that IT people can't explain the concepts in everyday terminology to people. Or they don't want to. Which is dumb....but anyway.

Since I am the grader I feel bad when I see a ton of grades that are lower than 80%. I mean....this is Graduate School....they should be getting at least Bs in their classes (and I grade fairly leniently).

So, I have offered to be a tutor in the fall. I'm crossing my fingers that I can get this gig. It has been awhile since I've "gotten my hands dirty" with SQL but I think that a push in the right direction could help a lot of these students.

The structure of a database is really similar to an organizational structure. But--it does take time to sit and think about all the variables.

Anyway, enough of that. If you have any SQL questions...or database design questions please leave a comment. I'd be glad to help. Free of charge.

HCM-Solutions Interview

I guess since I commented about Teleformix I should also comment about my other interview this week from HCM Solutions. This is an IT Recruiting firm here in Chicago. I guess they mainly have positions in the finance industry. It makes sense as Chicago is a big financial hub for the US. 2nd to New York City. This is just my opinion...I could be wrong.

Anyway, that conversation went well. They actually see me as filling the role of Business Analyst (I'm assuming senior) and Project Manager. Since I am planning my extended trip this summer it was basically just a sit down chat to get a feel for what they do...and likely to see what my capabilities are and how I interact.

Things were good and I think they can be a great source for an immediate position upon graduation (if I need it). But, I'm still pushing for a career in Consulting post grad school. Not for the money (everyone always says how the money is great). I just want to travel and meet other like-minded people that really want to make a difference in this world of ours.

Telefomix interview...

So, I mentioned that I interviewed with Teleformix. Well, as to be expected it wasn't really the right fit (as someone looking to move beyond software engineering). I could do the job easy enough...and the person I sat down with said the same. "You can do the job, but I don't think you want this job. It isn't what fits for you. You want to do Project Management or Consulting. This is 8 hours in front of a computer. No customer interaction, etc."

Unfortunately, Ying (the interviewer) was correct. That isn't what I want. And he saw the highly likely issue of me leaving the company right after finishing the degree to move into a job that I would want. So, I had a fairly brief conversation with him. He seemed like a nice guy, and I do hope that he finds a good programmer with aspirations to only work behind a computer to fill the spot.

So, all in all...I think I learned that my resume actually has been tailored fairly well to strip away most of the software engineering lingo...and push towards a new career path that will help me climb to higher heights within an organization. Or at least have more responsibility and strategic input.