Friday, August 27, 2010

Quote of the Day: Trust!



 "It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself."
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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Google's Acquisition History

A look at the history of all the acquisitions that Google has made since February 2001. You can click on the image below to see the full view document. I know my blog frame is narrow to hold the entire graphic!

Google Acquisitions.
Research by Scores.org
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Quote of the day: Goal!

"Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus. "


Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, July 2003
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YouTube Video Resource: Jennifer Aniston uses the R-word

Use of the word 'retard' (the R-word) whether casual or intentional, hurts people with intellectual disabilities and those who love them.  The short video clip is from the Regis Show on which Jennifer Aniston is a guest and she uses the word 'retard' casually describing how she likes 'dress-up' in her acting career.  This video is part of the spread the word to end the word campaign, that is helping raise awareness to the harmful nature of the R-word and to promote the inclusion and acceptance of persons with intellectual disabilities.


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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Video: Being Agile is our favorite thing



Funniest video on Agile teams!
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Media Event: Night out in Cleveland & Road trip back home

After a great conference and closing session, I headed out to downtown Cleveland with the family for dinner. After cruising around taking in the sights of downtown Cleveland, we headed to the House of Blues restaurant. This restaurant is located in the East 4th Street entertainment district. The place was bustling with a lot of young people enjoying the Friday night scene in downtown Cleveland! We got a table outside, tucked away in a cozy corner. Some of the other restaurants in that street were Pickwick & Frolick restaurant, Saigon, Lola and a few others I cannot seem to remember now. We ordered the fish special they had that night. It was an almond crusted Sole with rice and fresh veggies. The dish was just OK, nothing over the top delicious. After dinner, we headed back to our room. Our hotel was taken over by a large group of little league football players from Illinois. I am glad we checked out bright & early Saturday!

We headed to the West Side Market for breakfast. It is apparently one of the oldest & publicly owned markets in Cleveland, Ohio. They have vendors selling everything from fresh fruits to exotic spices to fresh fish & meat! It was an amazing experience! I had the most delicious Greek meat pie for $2.00 and huge apple fritter for another couple dollars !!! It just made me wish we had something similar here in Milwaukee! After the market trip, we decided to check out the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Cleveland, OH. It was just less than 30 minutes away. I was disappointed because once we got there, the park was not as impressive as it was made out to be. If you had a bike or were a hiker, perhaps you might have enjoyed it better. It is not a park if you are just driving through it. After spending about an hour, we headed back home to Milwaukee. It was just pouring since the time we got on the freeway until we got off the Ohio Turnpike. Then, we had sunny skies all the way into Milwaukee, Wisconsin! The total drive time was approximately 6 hours and 30 minutes. Overall, it was a great trip attending the MWLUG Conference 2010, great learning experience, amazing city! I would definitely want to go back there if I had an opportunity.
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How to Socialize User Experience Design: Thinking Outside Your Website

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SlideShare: What is Social Media?

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
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Friday, August 20, 2010

Media Event: Another knowledge packed day at MWLUG Conference, Cleveland

Ok, here is part II of my post continuing where I left off. The next session I attended after the delicious lunch was:

1:30-2:30 An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming for Notes/Domino Developers presented by Brandt Fundak, Olympic Steel.
My review: The session was very well presented. I enjoyed Brandt's effortless, engaging presentation stlye. I would love to see more topics presented by him, perhaps on "Introduction to Java for Lotus Domino Developers". The session introduced the concepts of class, properties, methods, declarations, how to invoke & use them, scope etc. Very useful session for folks that are not already familiar with OOP concepts. Brandt will also have his presentation available on the MWLUG site for download.
After this session, I took an afternoon break and came back to my room and got caught up with emails etc. My next and last session for the day was
4:00-5:00PM Low Fidelity Prototyping presented by Chris Blatnick Interface Matters.
My review: This session was being presented by Chris in the place of Fast-track to plugin developed since Michael Masterson could not attend to present his session. I found this session very interesting to learn application prototyping in paper! I use the PostIt methodology in my user requirements gathering sessions. It is similar, but this technique is for prototyping an application before you even go near your computer to code anything. Very kool!
The closing session was from 5:00-6PM and a few t-shirts were raffled off. I did not win anything.. The dates for MWLUG 2011 were announced! I was excited to find out it will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!!!

That was my day for today at the MWLUG 2010 conference in Cleveland, Ohio. I am ready to head out for dinner now with the family in the lovely downtown area.
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Media Event: Another knowledge packed day at MWLUG Conference 2010 !

Well, today, I missed the Birds of a Feather session for Building Your Lotus User Group Community by Richard Moy. It was just a bit too early for me at 7AM! Oh well, I plan to connect with Richard at some point to discuss plans for rebuilding the SouthEast Wisconsin User Group community. In any case, the sessions I attended today were as follows:

9:00-10AM Getting Social in the Lotus Space presented by Gregg Eldred & Denny Russell.
My Review: It was a great session!! Lots of nice information on the social networking sites. I learnt about PlanetLotus & BleedYellow! Best practices and tips for social networking, twitter, facebook & blogs were presented. Lots of stories relating to personal experiences with social networking were also shared. I am definetely connecting with these guys!!

After a quick coffee break, I attended

10:15-11:15 XPages: Beyond the Introduction presented by David Leedy, Notes in 9
My Review: Since I attended David's Introduction to XPages session, I had to attend this to learn more about XPages and boy did I learn some great NEW things!! I am just getting very anxious to dive into this material once I get back home! There is just so much to absorb and David presented this session with lots of deep dive demos with real examples. It helped to see how things work in XPages. I wish I could spend more time learning what David knows! Great presenter! Will need to watch his Notes in 9 videos!! He has said he will make his material available on his website and perhaps even a video, which obviously will be more than just 9 minutes!!
After yet another coffee break, I attended an amazing, mind boggling session

11:30-12:30 XPages: The Evolution of Possible presented by Tim Tripcony, GROUP Business Software.
My Review: WOW! in a nutshell. Some of the things Tim talked and presented
went way over my head. I think it was very advanced, very high tech. But it set the tone for what is possible with XPages! Expect the unexpected and there is no such thing as "NOT POSSIBLE" anymore! I would love to first feel comfortable writing my first XPages app and then perhaps try out some of the kool things Tim talked about in this session. I know I left the session with my brain hurting from all that I saw that is possible with XPages. Ouch! Another very strong & kool expert that I would want to connect with!

After that brain hurting session, it was finally time for lunch!
12:30-1:30PM: Lunch Break
I was almost going to pass on it since the previous day we just had a basic boxed lunch. I am glad I did go, since the spread was pretty large! It was a hot buffet lunch with fresh green salad, pasta with marinara sauce, sandwiches with smoked turkey, roast beef, choice of yummy rolls, soup and the most delicious dessert table!! Yummy!!! What can I say, it was very well done! I think I will take a nap after this! More to come about the rest of the day in the following post, so stay tuned....
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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Media Event: Attending the Midwest Lotus User Group MWLUG Conference in Cleveland, Ohio!

I am currently in lovely Cleveland, Ohio just soaking in all the knowledge from the experts that are presenting great topics & hands on workshops here at the MWLUG Conference! We got here early this morning at 2:30AM, Cleveland time, driving almost 7.5 hours from Milwaukee, Wisconsin! It was a smooth drive on Interstate 80/90 East. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I am staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown. We were first given a room on the seventh floor and when we were walking down the hallway, I smelled cigarette smoke. When I walked into my room, I was surprised to find an ashtray and room reeked of more smoke. So, I called the front desk and they told me I was on the smoking floor!! I just assumed that they would have all my preferences noted (made reservations online), but apparently not. The front desk receptionist was kind enough to move us to the 11th floor promptly and get us new key cards and boy was I glad to get another room!! What a difference!!! The room is quite comfortable and I have a view of the freeway.
After barely about 4 hours of sleep after 7 some hours of driving, I feel a bit tired now. I woke up at 7:30AM EST and got ready to attend the 8AM breakfast & registration at the conference. They had a nice spread of fresh fruit, pastries, bagels with cream cheese, fresh fruit juices, coffee and tea! The opening general sessions were presented by Richard Moi, President of GRANITE Lotus User Group, Scot Rourke, oneCommunity, David Via, IBM and Kris Snyder, Vox Mobile.
I attended the Web Technologies Every Domino Developer Must Know session presented by Brandt Fundak, Olympic Steel and Introduction to XPages session presented by David Leedy, Notes in 9. After lunch & some much needed rest, I attended a 2 hour workshop on Building your first XPages application with Roy Rumaner & Michael MacGarel! Hence, today was totally packed with lots of exciting new material for me and I am looking forward to tomorrow's sessions!
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Monday, August 16, 2010

Media Event: The Presidential fundraiser event was WONDERFUL!!!

Today, I had an interesting opportunity to attend a Democratic fundraiser event for Mayor Tom Barrett at which President Barack Obama was speaking. This was a private event not open to the public. We were seated at table #2, very up close and personal to the podium. The lunch was delicious and included a pasta salad, grilled chicken, and a yummy caramel apple pie! Mayor Tom Barrett took to the podium first, welcomed everyone and spoke briefly. He then introduced the next speaker, President Barack Obama! I have not had the opportunity to see and hear the President in person, and it was amazing! The highlight for me was to be able to shake his hand at the end of his speech and for him to ask me "so how are you?". That sums up this post for today! To hear his speech and schedule at Milwaukee, visit these links:
Presidential visit in Milwaukee, WI
For others that are reading my blog that have also attended this event today, feel free to share your thoughts below.
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Media Event: Attending a fundraiser event for Mayor Tom Barrett

The President of the United States of America is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin today and I will be attending an event in which he will be speaking! It is such a privelege to have such an opportunity. I will be representing my company at the event.

Thank You iCare! To learn more about the President's schedule in Milwaukee today, check this schedule.  I hope to have photos later in the day.
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Media Event: MWLUG Conference Attendees get 50% off on IBM Certification Exams!!

This is latest from the MWLUG 2010 Conference that is coming up later this week. All attendees will receive a voucher for 50% off their certification exams from IBM!! Just in time for me to take advantage of this offer to take my recertification for 8.x!!
You can check out the details here: IBM Exam Certification Discount Vouchers
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Sunday, August 8, 2010

Blog Updates: New feature- A Job Board!

I am pleased to announce my newest service to all my blog readers-- a job board feature powered by Job*a*matic, a Simply Hired career management service!  The job board is called "Get me hired now!".  Job seekers are able to browse through all available jobs in Wisconsin, search for a specific job by keywords, and also see the most recently posted jobs on the site.  Employers and recruiters can post jobs on this site for a small monthly subscription fee.  I would love to hear your feedback on this new career management feature! Please post your comments below.

Also, if you would like to get help in setting up a job board service for your blog, drop me a line below.  Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far!
Get me hired NOW!
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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Media Event: Department of Workforce Development DWD - Reemployment Services Session

Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Website
Today, I was invited to attend and participate in a 2 hour session from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development's Reemployment Services.  RES is an important program that has proven effective in helping job seekers.  This program was made possible through a DOL grant.  For those of you interested in learning about this program, view this PowerPoint presentation.  The letter I received mandated me to attend it and that I was randomly chosen due to my layoff in 2009.  I also had to take a survey and create a candiate profile on the Job Center of Wisconsin before the session.  I found out that it did not matter that I am currently employed.  They are offering this as a useful resource to everyone that has been, is, or will become unemployed. I am glad I attended, as I found a lot of great information at the event!  The session was held in the MATC, Mequon location at 5555 W. Highland Ave. on the West Campus. I had to sign in and then received a bright pink parking permit to put inside the dash of my car. The receptionist informed me I can use the same permit for future events I attend at that DWD Center.  There were atleast 10-15 other attendees today.  We were escorted by Mr. Ken Moravec, our RES coach to a classroom down the hallway.  We received helpful handouts on resources that are available through DWD, local networking groups, calendar of events for training, career workshops etc. It was all very useful information.  Ken presented our orientation session offering various helpful resources that are available, interviewing tips, networking events, career workshops, and the National Career Readiness Certificate Program (NCRC Certification Program). I will be doing more research on this in the upcoming weeks to see if that is something I might be interested in acheiving for my jobskills portfolio. Overall, it was a very helpful session.  I picked up a lot of good resources from the center.  If my blog readers are interested, I can blog about topics of interest such as: networking for job seekers, dress for success, job resources for persons with disabilities, How to get started on LinkedIn, how to setup a blog and use it as a tool for your job search etc.
If you are interested, leave a comment below with your topic of interest and I will queue up my posts per your requests.

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