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Internet Radio Mashup Episode 2 [Podcast]

November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Internet Radio Mashup LogoThree great guests joined me  for the second Internet Radio Mashup episode on my Blog Talk Radio program:

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Summary

The interactions between the panelists provided for a very enjoyable discussion. Vacations, books, leadership and vocations were among the main discoveries.

Quotable

“I have a passion around helping people see how powerful they are.” – Erna Grasz

This episode was live on Blog Talk Radio on 11/2/2011.

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You can also signup to be notified when I have new Podcasts scheduled by clicking the “follow” button for my show on Blog Talk Radio.

Filed Under: Business, Interviews, Leadership, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Twenty Dollar Glasses got me Blogging

October 23, 2011 By 6 Comments

While scanning my National Geographic Magazine back in 2009 I came across a very fascinating article about adaptive eyeglasses for the developing world. This article was the inspiration for me to launch my first blog (it was on WordPress.com). What really inspired me about this particular invention is that it appeals to several very important interests of mine:

  • Science
  • Humanities
  • Innovation

Imagine if you will, you are a poor nearly blind individual in Sub-Saharan Africa. For $19 someone has figured out how to provide you with crisp vision without having to go see a non-existent specialist. How would that change your life? It is hard to fathom for me, but I salute the not just reasonable but incredibly beneficial technology developed by Joshua Silver a Oxford University Physics professor.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Technology, Video Tagged With: , ,

Problem Solver Series Episode #2 Youth and Education [Podcast]

October 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Problem Solver Series LogoA passionate panel of individuals who work with youth related causes:

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Summary

The three passionate panelists discuss the realities of the problems with keeping youth on track and solutions to achieving that end.

The Problems

  • Lack of Adult involvement
  • Digital Distraction
  • “Shutdown”
  • Drugs, Alcohol and Sex (Adult problems)
  • The critical hours 3-6PM

The Solutions

  • After school programs
  • Awareness
  • Animal therapy
  • Constructive safe environments
  • Communication

Quotable

“What animals do for a child is display non-judgmental unconditional love. A child is able to read and talk to an animal and get no negative feedback.” – Patrick Major

This episode was live on Blog Talk Radio on 10/19/2011.

Browser or RSS Reader doesn’t support flash? Download/Listen to this episode 

You can also signup to be notified when I have new Podcasts scheduled by clicking the “follow” button for my show on Blog Talk Radio.

Filed Under: Community, Interviews, Leadership, Parenting, Podcasts, Serious Topics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Efficiency is the essential 21st Century Skill

October 12, 2011 By 3 Comments

You’ve probably heard the term sustainability thrown around a lot recently. It’s for good reason, we see evidence everywhere that businesses, governments, educational systems, laws, and everything else under the sun has to be able to survive the tests of time. There is no such thing as “too big to fail” just look back in history and we’ve seen Empires collapse under their own weight. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how great you think you are, if you aren’t prepared to sustain whatever you are doing it won’t last forever. Knowing that we need to be sustainable and actually functioning in a sustainable fashion are totally different things.

Be careful what you ask for

It’s time for every individual, business, political party, interest group, etc. to think long and hard about what they are asking for. If you are thinking today that someone else is going to rescue you, think again. At best they will delay the inevitable.

A society of individuals that aren’t taught to sustain themselves will fail.

Who doesn’t love the idea of a social service? I believe it is part of human nature to want to care for each other. I would even go so far as to argue that life without caring and serving others is probably not life worth living. Sometimes really caring though is asking for the right things, sustainable things, like teaching people that they matter and can stand on their own. Mentoring kids, especially those in difficult situations is one way you can really do this.

Never pass up a chance to tell a young person that they can do anything they set their mind to do.

Why Efficiency is the essential 21st Century Skill

We don’t have the luxury of excessive budgets to pay for inefficiencies and blow money on things that don’t work, the party is over and we just got the bill. Today we all have to emphasize the reality that we have to do more with less. With our debt piling up and our social systems strained to a breaking point there is only one real answer to the crisis – doing more with less while also being mindful of what we ask for.

3 Years ago my company leased an entire rack at a co-location facility to the tune of $900 per month. Today I rely on companies that leverage resources in a much more sustainable and efficient way to provide those services. The co-location facility has to do without my business, and so does the staff that is no longer needed to operate it, but in hindsight it would be pointless to place my business in the precarious and un-competitive position to support that co-location facility and the staff to operate it. This could easily be looked at by many as “killing jobs” but if my company goes under I’ll be out there competing for a new one.

The old way was not sustainable, the new way is and in the future it is my responsibility to ensure that it stays that way.

Opportunity is everywhere

Human beings have adapted to survive some incredibly challenging environments. We’ve launched successful business ventures during economic crisis’s including the Great Depression. We’ve huddled together to survive unimaginable natural disasters and hardships including horrific wars and genocides. Today you don’t have to look too far to see an incredible amount of energy being exerted, people are angry, they are fed up, many appear desperate and I think many of us are yearning for something I know that I am. What am I yearning for?

I yearn most for people to seize the opportunity to work together to solve the problems we face, instead of blaming others for them.

What do you yearn most for?

Filed Under: Community, Leadership, Parenting, Politics, Serious Topics Tagged With: , , , , ,

For Infosec Geeks: Geographic Routing Controls

September 7, 2011 By 1 Comment

The average PC user does not need access to the entire Internet. The more they have access to the more potential sources of security issues. Consider that many high profile crime syndicates operate out of the APNIC, what if the average user could just turn off that entire address space from his computer with a click of the mouse? Imagine being able to open up a window and just select the Regional Internet Registry zones that you have a need to access from the selections below:

Regional Internet Registry Zones

Regional Internet Registry zones - Image Credit Arin.net

In an “advance mode” you could choose to drill down farther and pick other locales within the zones. For example perhaps you need access to only Japan, Australia and India but want to limit exposure to hosts in China and other ACPNIC countries. Lazy users could just subscribe to “recommended” settings for their region based on levels of security desired.

Why bother?

There are several very good reasons why this approach can contribute to making end users more secure but more importantly make it more difficult for internet criminals and countries that harbor them. This idea actually came to me as a result of writing an article about the RSA hack that resulted in a re-issue of all of their secure-ID products. I learned that the host that the Poison Ivy malware had contacted was a known source in other attacks.

Why was RSA allowing traffic to communicate with a known malicious host?

The host in the RSA hack was located in APNIC, again a zone that the average user does not need access to and probably would not even miss. In this example the attack would have failed and if the criminal was determined they would have to find another way creating more risk for them (of detection) and having to work harder at it. Potentially becoming discouraged and finding something more lucrative to do with their time (with a little luck something legal). As to the governments that allow these sites to function within their borders, they will drive themselves into further isolation. There are few nations in the world that would not be bothered by significant volumes of users bypassing sites in their country.

Corporate and Government Applications

This technology could quite easily be adapted to corporate use, centrally managed and even include a dynamic black list of emerging dangerous addresses. Say for example that a particularly nasty virus was spreading through the internet; most malicious apps have to phone home somewhere (to get instructions, etc). Push that out to the blacklist for millions of users and you have millions of users that even if they do get infected the command and control is effectively cut off instantly.

What would happen when you try to access a site in the blocked zone?

We know malicious programs attempting to access blocked sites would fail but what about when you attempt to access something you know to be legitimate? In these cases the connection would fail if it was within the blocked zone. A screen could easily be added for a web browser “this site falls within your blocked zone” with conceivably the option to allow adding it to the safe list.

It’s not perfect, how can we make it better?

I realize this solution is not perfect but I think the idea is a solid one. It introduces some new leverage to the information security problem. Ok Infosec pros, what would you do to make this an even better solution?

Filed Under: Business, Idea Farm, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What expecting Mothers and Entrepreneurs have in common

August 30, 2011 By 9 Comments

Have you observed a expecting woman’s behavior closely? It’s fascinating to watch expecting moms organizing, cleaning, arranging and planning for their babies (father’s get involved, too of course!). Many refer to this as nesting behavior, did you know that entrepreneurs do the same thing? A couple of weeks ago I was meeting with a friend of mine who is CEO of a successful company. We chatted for an hour and at the end of the hour I walked away realizing:

  1. My friend is very good at giving critical commentary in a constructive way.
  2. I was feeling really good about who I am, what I have accomplished and what I am capable of.
  3. The bar had been raised.

That was a great example of Leadership, a great leader brings out the best in others.

It’s awesome to see people succeed, to be passionate and to be inspired. Though the road to that success is not a ten lane freeway at midnight or a short flight with clear skies and no turbulence. It is usually a winding road with periods of dense traffic, accidents and other disruptions or setbacks. One way to reduce these disruptions is to occasionally take a step back and carefully evaluate, clean up your house, and plan a route that avoids obvious peril. Take inspiration from a nesting mother, there is nothing more important than what she is doing and let her attention to detail inspire you in your preparations.

My Entrepreneurial Nesting

I started my entrepreneurial nesting around my home office and garage after the inspiration unleashed by my friends leadership had surfaced. In my garage I methodically but purposefully separated equipment to keep, sell and e-waste. You could say not unlike a soon to be mother would be preparing the babies room.

Have I mentioned I love the symbolism between garages and startups?

I have also felt quite un-settled, knowing that my blissfull ignorance about my professional future has been shattered. Then I posted this on Facebook:

Facebook Update

Within an hour or so of that wall post I had started writing this blog post, recognizing the genesis of that un-settled feeling.

Hindsight evidence

My Drobo that I use for my personal bulk storage has dropped from 2.4TB of data to well under 1TB of data in less than 1 week. Instead of buying a crib, baby toys and pastel colored paint I bought 4 2TB hard drives to consolidate some of the archives in the data vault (tip – low cost serial ata hard drives + a usb to sata adapter is the cheapest and fastest archive media system money can buy).

Clean, Organize, Clean, Organize, Archive, Plan, Brainstorm, Clean, Archive… Repeat…

I have zealously defended my inbox, not allowing more than a dozen or so messages left that require action at the end of each day. I frugally re-purposed my old laptop to act as a local virtual server. My office environment is calm, clean and quiet. I’ve re-organized 2 of my desk drawers and have amassed a large pile of paper and other documents to shred. Our trash can and recycle bin have remained full. I’ve enjoyed using my evenings, free time on weekends and even part of my birthday to do these things. The excitement is building….

I am at the precipice of where any hint of complacency is getting properly obliterated by un-bridled entrepreneurial spirit.

I’ve run my IT business Managed Solutions since January of 1997. During those years I’ve observed huge swings in some of my clients fortunes. Many of them have made it, some have not and others have struggled for long periods of time. I’ve watched a lot of people succeed and I feel very fortunate to have been able to do what I’ve been doing for so long. I’ve been a student of success and failures both of my own doing and those of others. I’ve operated instinctively and with little direction from any mentors or leaders and that is the biggest thing that has changed.

The Leadership examples that I have experienced the last couple of years have made me realize that in the future that leadership is the one that is going to matter the most.

I promise not to ask any of you to buy me pickles and peanut butter or put any A1 sauce on my Macaroni and Cheese….

Stay tuned for more.. :)

Filed Under: Business, Inspiration, News, Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

What can we do better?

July 18, 2011 By 2 Comments

Be your BestI watched a really cheesy movie last night called “Twelve“. It had popped up in the new movies section and clicked play instead of more information on accident and decided to roll with it. Twelve is what you might call a trash movie, lots of young actors and actresses, drug use, and violence. There was one gem in the movie (for me anyway) the main character imagines his deceased mother telling him (paraphrasing):

Be the best you can at everything you do.

I really like that message for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that it’s easy to not live up to your potential. That message stuck with me and this morning as I walked into each room I thought to myself:

What can I do better?

and I made a commitment to do everything I do this week “better”.

Imagine the impact if we all took the time, the extra few seconds to consider “how can I do this better”. This week I’m making a commitment to be the best I can at everything I do, will you join me in this exercise?

Filed Under: Idea Farm, Inspiration Tagged With: , , , ,

This is personal – Pancreatic Cancer Sucks

June 1, 2011 By 22 Comments
Mom Christmas Eve 1999

Mom Christmas Eve 1999

Around the holidays in 1999 my mom was experiencing serious abdominal pain. Within 1 month she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She passed away early Easter Sunday morning just months later. Mom was in her sixties and at the time had a half a dozen kids and 7 grandkids, I rarely talk about it and it is the hardest experience of my life. The rare occasions that I do are usually just because a casual conversation leads to me speaking of mom in the past tense and people inquire about her. I then just usually say:

My mom is deceased, she passed away from pancreatic cancer.

Thankfully for our family we were close and the experience of losing a parent brought us even closer together. I also learned about the resilience of young people, specifically my nieces and nephews on that day. Easter celebrations went forward and the kids laughing and experiencing Easter was very therapeutic for all the adults watching. Mom passing at that point was in many ways a relief, there was nothing peaceful about her suffering and watching it changed me forever.

Pancreatic Cancer is a Lethal Disease

I recently learned from survivor Diane Borrison that 43,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease this year and 39,000 of them will die from the disease. Diane’s story as a survivor is somewhat rare, and I am grateful that I will be able to speak with her on June 8th along with two other guests that lost parents on my Blog Talk Radio program.

There are two reasons you are reading about this on my blog. The first is that I read several serious posts on blogs that I am a frequent reader of but in particular Danny Brown’s post “You Don’t Have to Die to Live” where he recounts a very dark moment in his life. (Thanks for paving the way, mate). The second reason is one of my panelists, Judy Loyd, was a past guest on my program. We happened to be exchanging E-Mails recently and she asked me if I would do a show about Pancreatic Cancer awareness. Neither one of us realized at the time that we’d both lost parents to the disease; Judy definitely came to the right person and for me at the right time. I honestly don’t think I could have come within 1,000 miles of an episode on Pancreatic cancer up until about maybe 2 years ago. I applaud Judy, Diane and my third panelist Michelle Monhart for their courage to champion the cause of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness as part of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Mom’s Inspiring Legacy

While losing Mom was a horrible experience, I consider myself to be extremely fortunate. I was extremely lucky to have grown up with her as my mom. She left quite a legacy behind and it has driven me to be a better person and example to my own son. I have been told from time to time that I wear a friendly inviting smile, I still remember mom’s smile beaming back at me teaching me at a young age that it was important (coincidently whenever I picture her she is always smiling, that is how I will remember her). I share similar smiles with my son every day. Service to others is part of my life through Rotary and volunteerism. Mom was a tireless volunteer her entire life and introduced her kids to it by bringing us with her some times. My mom had a reputation for loving babies; she had a total of seven. It is often said that mom was happiest when she was pregnant or caring for her many babies. Even though you may have not met my mom, rest assured there is a good chance that if you know me you know her too. I am grateful for her powerful and inspiring legacy.

A simple request…

I hope you will join me in raising awareness about Pancreatic Cancer. Please visit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. Like their Facebook Page, Follow their Twitter Account, Donate or share with your network of friends. If you’d like to join the discussion on June 8th, listen to the show on Blog Talk Radio. If you are in Northern California or wish to make a trip to the Napa Valley in June, you can also join in the 9th Annual Walk Through the Vineyards.

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Get Involved

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Get Involved

Filed Under: Community, Inspiration, Interviews, Parenting, Podcasts, Serious Topics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

3 Survivor Panel Episode (Podcast)

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Survivor Episode Panelists

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Summary

Sonja, Yau-Man and Marty provide an insiders look at CBS Reality Show Survivor. There are some excellent discussions among the panelists. If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to be a contestant on a Reality Show listen to these three as they share their insights.

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Filed Under: Interviews, Lighter Side of Things, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , ,

Hyperalerts provides a hint of monetization strategy

February 17, 2011 By 5 Comments

This morning I saw something new in a Hyper Alert notice that provided a hint of a potential monetization strategy:

Hint of Hyper Alerts monetization strategy

The “We are hiring” portion of this alert is new, and could just as easily have been a paid advertisement for a product or service. This is both brilliant and appropriate as long as the ads don’t get more and more annoying and disruptive. If Hyper Interaktiv were to ask me my opinion about monetizing their service, here are some tips I would give them:

  1. Limit the ads to one very small ad at the very top and any additional ads after all of the alert content.
  2. Bend over backwards to protect the privacy of your users.
  3. Build a community around your application and enlist the support and ideas of that community to keep your product viable.

Limiting Ads

The big concern with advertisements would be cramming too many of them in-line and ruining the clean and easy to read alerts that your system produces. A very small advertisement at the top of the page would be easy enough to read or skip over and one larger ad after all alert content could be easily ignored or read/clicked if they had interest. If ads were included in the alert stream itself it would disrupt the value of the alert messages.

Privacy is of utmost importance

Your users are already feeling pinched on privacy, there is a vacuum for leadership in this area from the provider side. Too few companies take the high road with this, the temptation is evidently too great to opt people in to features that they are not fully aware of these days. One classic example here in the USA is how we have to mail, call or fill out a form to opt out of our information being shared by our creditors.

Community Involvement

Too few companies fail to really engage and enlist the support and ideas of their users, or they do it too late. There seems to be great opportunity in this area to build a much stronger community and product/service by really listening and engaging the audience that is ready to be heard and to participate. @Ginidietrich really nailed this issue in a recent comment on my post about Headup closing shop:

See…we’re all becoming social companies yet so few actually engage their users. Sad. – Gini Dietrich, Arment Dietrich

It is evident to me that this is an example where a more robust community could have taken up the charge to help the product become viable and be a commercial success.

Hyper Interaktiv Weigh’s In

I contacted Are Sundnes to find out the official company position on this feature. He indicated to me that right now quality of the service has been the top priority:

This is all in a very early stage, and our main focus now is to make the service as good as possible. -Are Sundnes, Hyper Interaktiv

When I queried him more directly about any plans to monetize the service he said only:

We don’t know where Hyper Alerts will take us, but as for now we’re not trying to monetize. -Are Sundnes, Hyper Interaktiv

So what do you think, do you like my advice?

Filed Under: Facebook, Leadership, New Media, News, Tools Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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