Kristy's Blog

Hmmmm….that number sounds kinda high, doncha think? I’m going to have to say someone slipped a digit on their calculator.

The 750,000 figure is repeated on the Chamber of Commerce’s website section on intellectual property, but cites the office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as the source.

And then there’s the same number again appearing on a 2007 joint U.S. Department of Commerce-U.S. Chamber of Commerce press release. A link on the press release goes to the Commerce Department’s trademark division dealing with small business. Atop the website is this flash message:

American Businesses are estimated to lose a Whopping $250 Billion a Year to copyright piracy. Overall intellectual property theft costs 750,000 jobs a year.

Latest quote from a client….

Every once in a while, for therapeutic reasons, we take an old computer we are going to throw out and bash it up with a baseball bat. You’ll have to try it sometime. The last time we completely replaced all of our boxes, we were looking forward to have about 15 boxes to demolish. Instead, however I thought they would be very impressive if we plugged them al in, stacked them on top of each other, and place them behind the smoked door of our server cage. It was really impressive when the boss would bring guests back to take a look at our server room and we had about 40 or 40 little flashing lights back there….doing nothing.

One time he came back and was complaining about something on a web page that wasn’t coming up properly – something we could have nothing to do with – so my web developer opened the cage, turned off and then on three or four of the boxes and told him to check it again and see if he had the same problem. It seemed to fix the problem.

Seen on T-shirts at a Yahoo Open Hack Conference:

It’s been so long since I interviewed, but I always hate it – and I am not a good interviewer. Here’s from Tech Republic:

1. Bad non-verbal cues. I know it’s a cliché, but a firm handshake, good eye contact and sitting up straight in your chair really make a good impression. Myself, I don’t understand why someone can’t make the effort to grip my hand – it’s shows an utter lack of effort. Even women. Can’t make eye contact – what does this person have to hide? Or are they so shy that co-workers will run over them? Slumped down in the chair telegraphs disinterest in the job.

2. Talking too much or not enough. Now it’s your turn to watch the non-verbal cues of your interviewer. Watch the interviewer’s eyes. If you’re talking and the interviewer is starting to fidget or yawn, wind it up. On the other hand, if the interviewer pauses after you answer a question, then that may mean he was expecting more. If the interviewer is leaning forward towards you, this shows a lot of interest.

3. Not asking questions. I always hated the part where an interviewer asks if I have any questions. Sometimes you can’t possibly know enough just from an interview to be able to form any questions. Sometimes the interviewer has been so thorough in his descriptions of the job and company that there doesn’t seem to be any more to ask. To show you were listening to the interviewer and not just forming your next response, ask something realted to what the interviewer has said during the interview. Another source of questions is the company’s website – which implies that you did more than make a cursory glance..

Some people were afraid that the new super collider would end the world. Too funny.

Time Magazine Article.

Someone went so far as to ask the question in yahoo answers. And what was voted as the Best Response? Slap Yourself, Fool! 😆

http://tinyurl.com/6e6r93

Shah Agassi, one of the few who make the tech boom go, and was slated to become CEO of SAP, has his own plan for getting rid of every one of those gas-burning cars. His plan in a nutshell, have consumers buy the power to charge batteries directly from the power grid, and not own the batteries. Just have stations available with new batteries when the old ones run low – it would take the same amount of time to fill up your gas tank.

http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-09/ff_agassi

Electric Avenues

AutoOS, the Better Place operating system, would transform the transportation grid. Here’s how.

1. A special key fob linked to the car indicates the status of the battery. If the logo is throbbing blue, the car is fully charged.
2. The driver unplugs and heads out. The software analyzes the first few minutes of driving and guesses the destination based on past history: “Work?” it asks. The driver speaks a response and the system determines how much energy is needed for the day.
3. During the commute, the location-aware system finds and displays three open parking spaces near the office that are equipped with Better Place charging spots.
4. An automatic arm extends to plug into the car. The spot then communicates with the control center, which anticipates the driver’s energy needs so as to allocate power economically. It might, say, limit consumption during expensive peak hours. The driver gets a text: “80 percent charged.”
5. An unexpected meeting comes up. The driver enters a new route, and AutOS determines there is insufficient charge to get there. The driver orders a battery swap.
6. AutOS finds the most convenient battery-exchange location and books a bay. The old battery gets lowered onto a hydraulic plate, and the car moves forward on a car-wash-style track. In five minutes, a fully charged battery is in place.

5. You are the recipient of mass panic when anything goes wrong with the system
When error messages pop up and system outages occur, employees and managers quickly start pointing fingers at IT and the pressure is intense to get things fixed quickly to keep users from losing productivity. That’s part of the job and you have to always be prepared for it. In fact, some IT pros even get an adrenaline rush from this type of high-pressure stakes.

4. People assume you’re an expert in everything about computers or networks
Just because you know how to program doesn’t mean you know how to fix Windows, install a network, or recover lost data for people. Many IT pros can’t help but get a little frustrated by this, or even feeling a little inadequate. Worse, because you’re a techie, a lot of your co-workers will come to you for advice on buying PCs, digital cameras, and TVs. Some will even ask you to fix their PC for free or help troubleshoot a problem with their cable modem.

3. It’s extremely difficult to keep up with all of the new trends in technology
I am always learning new things about Programming (word in capitals as I think it deserves) and the systems, even in the narrow world of web development. Continuing education? Just working with new clients typically requires massive amounts of research to find something which fits their system.

2. The hours are long and irregular
Most IT workers are always on call, or are at least part of an on-call rotation, in case critical systems go down during off-hours. In addition, many IT pros have tasks that they need to do when there aren’t as many users on the system. That means coming in early to run backup routines or staying late to update an application or patch a server after most of the users have logged off at the end of the day.

1. The job market is getting competitive
One word: Outsourcing.

During the late 1990s, in order to get a job, you only had to know how to spell the word “programming” in order to make big bucks. Then the dot com implosion and the wrap up of the Y2K fixes meant that a lot of tech jobs disappeared. Now, India, Russian and Indonesia all have cheap, talented labor at a fraction of the cost of US workers, and that spells trouble for us.

Link building…Put a URL on the roof of your house. Google Earth users will see it on your roof and who knows… maybe link to you!

Our SEO Tip of the day!

The Wall Street Journal today reports that they are hiring Jerry Seinfeld to be a pitchman for their WIndows product. The pay for Jerry? 10 million dollars.

http://online.wsj.com

Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.’s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld.

The software giant’s new $300 million advertising campaign, devised by a newly hired ad agency, has been closely guarded. But Mr. Seinfeld will be one of the key celebrity pitchmen, say people close to the situation. He will appear with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in ads and receive about $10 million for the work, they say.

The new ad effort is expected to use some variation of the slogan “Windows, Not Walls,” according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people say the point is to stress breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting. The campaign, said to debut Sept. 4, is one of the largest in the company’s history.

It’s well known that I have an aversion to being around people chewing gum. The sound of someone chewing their gum with their mouth open drives me so crazy that I can’t even think straight. Plus it looks decidedly uncouth! Recently, I had a long discussion with someone who maintained that chewing gum was good for you, and invited me to research it. I really think gum has no place in society. But of course I had to check it out. So Ed, this is for you!

According to this study:

http://crobm.iadrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/10/3/405

Clearly, sugar-free chewing gum has no relevant mechanical tooth-cleaning effect, but the saliva stimulated by mastication will effectively dissolve and remove soluble fermentable substrate from the oral cavity, raise plaque pH, and promote remineralization. Thus, the chewing of tooth-friendly chewing gum after meals and carbohydrate-containing snacks is strongly recommended if no mechanical oral hygiene can be performed. The admixture of mineral salts to chewing gum formulations aimed at enhancing the pH-raising effect of chewing gum has been proven less effective than the incorporation of carbamide for the same purpose. Carbamide-containing chewing gum can be consumed for pleasure alone, but it is also specifically recommended for persons with high caries activity, especially in connection with hyposalivation and in patients with active tooth erosion (Imfeld, 1996).

My solution: Carry a toothbrush with you! 😆 72.222.140.152