Threat of Cyberterrorism…

Every generation lives with some looming fear. When I was a kid it was fear that the cold war with the Soviets would turn into WW3. In this first decade of the 21st century we now live in fear of another terrorist attack. NPR presented a story recently titled "Assessing The Threat of Cyberterrorism".

While this does need to be a concern that we should not ignore, we need to be careful that our response is measured equal to the threat. Once again, our government needs to learn to deal with these issues logically, without developing another layer of confusing, redundant rules that everyone has to conform too. Lets hope this does not become another misuse of the Patriot Act.

Senior Adviser on Innovation…

What a great title. To me it also a little ambiguous. It's the job title of Alec Ross, who was named to the position to assist Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, after working on the Obama election campaign. He is known for his entrepreneurial spirit and aggressive drive, having launched his non-profit organization One Economy out of a basement.

I like entrepreneurs, having worked for two of them in my life, I know it can be exciting at times. Interestingly, I identify entrepreneurs with conservatives, since they are often responsible for new business growth. In his new role, Mr. Ross is responsible for figuring out ways to use new technology for problem solving; for example, to warn of natural disasters, to harness social networking to unite the youth of warring tribes, and to to make broadband and information technology a key part of policymaking.

I would be concerned about the line being crossed that allows technological problem solving to push us closer to a "big brother is watching" government run society. Right now that is my biggest concern. I think there is a strong tendency right now for government to want to involve itself in our private lives way too much.

One Other Reinvention? Watch This Video!

I believe that recalling my past experiences can only enrich my future efforts. For about 5 years I was a motorcycle enthusiast, belonging to an informal group named "THE POETS MC". One summer I rode along with a friend to Arkansas and back on motorcycles, and the following year I traveled solo from Illinois to Niagara Falls and back. The following slide show video documents of some of my travels during that time. I gave up bikes after being hit by a motorist in an auto, and landing in the hospital with a badly broken left leg and fractured spine. I understand the definition of pain, and thank God that I was not killed that day.

Creative at Home

A few years ago, before I decided it was necessary to return to school, I was spending a lot of my time doing woodwork for my home. Its really another extension of my creative nature, but I have always enjoyed trying new or more challenging things. In this case it became a necessity because of the expense involved in owning an old house. More on that another time.

My wife needed a nice cabinet for our dinning room. The image at left is the result. It is based on an early project done on the program "The New Yankee Workshop". I am still trying to master a number of wood working skills, but I am at the moment facing other priorities. I believe I can develop my skills further than where I am now.

For the moment though my main priority is to learn more about web technology, especially understanding blogs and related technology, and how they might aid me in marketing my freelance business and have fun in the process.

Class Activity Tonight
We had a guest speaker tonight, Jami, a fellow member of last semesters classes, who is an experienced blogger. An English major, she has moved into web design now, and has a wide range to talents. One of the things I was impressed with was that she started blogging while in the military, and her subject matter was what she was most familiar with at the time, the military. It made me recall the comments of a Marketing/Salesmanship instructor I had in college many years ago. He said that "successful salespeople are those who really know and believe in their product". This holds true for artists, designers, and writers. Whatever the subject matter of a blog, the author must have a passion for and believe in the subject he or she has picked as the focus of their blog if it is to be successful. Otherwise it is just a shell, and thin at best.

I also liked Jami's opening comments in her talk.  She presented classic comments and quotes from clients from hell.  Regardless of how sophisticated our technology might be, some client comments always seem the same.

New Life for my Zip Drive

When I upgraded my operating system last fall, I discovered that my old 100MB zip disks had become read only. No information from the Iomega home page (100MB technology isn't really supported directly any longer). I was about to get rid of my drive and all the disks, many new, but when I tried reformatting one of them before discarding it I realized that the disk was again read and write accessible.

I'm back to using my zip disks for temporary archive back ups of work in progress or offline storage until I have enough material for a CD or DVD backup.

Verification Post

Among other projects, I'm in the process of verifying the ownership of my new blog for the purpose of listing it on blog search engines. This is all new to me, so I hope I know what I am doing. Wish me luck.

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Linkedin

I just updated my profile at Linkedin.

I'm spending a little time this weekend just contemplating ideas for the theme graphics for a nursing annual report I am beginning working on. I'll conference with the writer this coming week, share some ideas.