the other hand

Amazing Week: AirSoft, Sweden, Pregnant, Valley Apprentice, and Citrix XenApp 6 Farm

2011-03-13T20:55:00.001-07:00

Originally written by Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers.

Wow! What an amazing week. I played my first AirSoft game, we booked our trip to Sweden, found out we’re pregnant, and I found out I’m one of the finalists for the Valley Apprentice.

AirSoft

Last Saturday I played my first AirSoft game. I had found out about an AirSoft facility that is just down the street from me called CQB City. They were hosting a special night game where everyone had to be over 18, had to have comms, and they permitted full auto. Most of the players were ex-military, and all of the scenarios were extremely tactical. It was truly an amazing evening.

Booked Trip to Sweden

Early in the week we booked a family vacation to Sweden. It has been 3 years since we’ve visited our family in Sweden. We have been trying to get back there for sometime now, but it has been difficult to coordinate work, finances, and the kids in order to be able to visit my grandparents that are growing old, and all of our cousins. We are excited to have our kids meet their cousins over there, who are all about the same age. We had book our flight for September, but had to move it, as we just found out on Friday that my wife will not be able to fly in September because we’re…

Expecting Another Child

My wife came down stairs Wednesday night, after spending several hours trying to fall asleep. She came down with a look of panic on her face, and she said “Josh, I need to talk to you.” From experience, this has never been a good thing. I started run the day, then the week, then the month through my head. I was trying to figure out what I could have gotten in trouble for. I couldn’t figure it out.

She proceeded to tell me that she thought that she was pregnant. We had planned on having another child, just not yet. Our plan was to have 2, wait 4 years, and then have another pair. No we were going to have 3 kids all within 4 years. This was exiting and scary, all at the same time. My wife went to get a blood test on Thursday, and we got the final results on Friday. It is now official, we are having another baby.

Valley Apprentice

Later, on Friday, I received an email, flag with importance, informing me that I was one of the 40 finalists for the Valley Apprentice. I had kept this under wraps, as I wasn’t sure I’d even get past the application stage, but I have and am excited for this amazing opportunity to give back to the community, and to possibly become an apprentice to some of the Valley’s strongest business men. Tuesday is an interview in front of a panel, and then on Friday the competitors will be announced and the teams will be picked.

XenApp6 Citrix Farm

After an amazing week, I still sat down at my computer and proceeded to work on building a new Citrix XenApp 6 Farm for Florsheim Homes. It has been challenging, as I had to rebuild the servers twice, due to a corrupted installations. Once I got it all built again, the final challenge was resolved with a few firewall tweaks on the Windows 2008 Server itself.

This has been a phenomenal week. In addition to these amazing milestones, I also hit the next phases for several of the applications I’m writing, joined the Rotary Club, caught up with some old friends, and started building an electronic flash grenade for AirSoft.

I’m looking forward to this week, and the new adventures to come. I will need to start thinking more about some community charity events for The Valley Apprentice, but am looking forward to the challenge.

HTML to PDF component: A review of ExpertPDF

2011-02-24T09:38:00.001-08:00

Often I am converting HTML documents to PDF, as this seems to be the easiest way to create dynamic PDF’s populated with a variety of data. ExpertPDF has been my favorite tool and I wanted to share my latest experience. Their site was not the prettiest site, and the feature list was a little too much to read. It would have been nice to be able to see a list of features, than a release schedule. I was initially hesitant in trying out yet another component for converting HTML to PDF.

The install went quick, and I added the component as a reference to an existing project I was working with. I wanted quickly get to where the rubber meets the road to see what the PDF would look like an a report I was having challenges getting to render properly. My quick test was to set anonymous access to file, and point the tool to the page. I was amazed at the speed and clarity of the PDF. It rendered perfectly out of the gates.

Anonymous access to HTML files is not very common in my world, so I needed to get in to the security and figure out how to lock my report back down, but still be able to get the rendering engine to load my PDF. The security credentials were easy to load, and the sample code that ExperPDF had put together showed 2 methods, one of which was to use the credentials of the current user, rather than some server side credentials. This was a nice bonus.

After locking down the HTML report (aspx page), and wanted to try something a little more challenging. I needed to render a PDF with custom margins, orientation, header, footer, etc… and then secure it before the emailed it off. Another set of tasks that just came easy with ExpertPDF. The level of control that the control provides has been outstanding. Their documentation is easy to follow and the processes make sense.

Spell Check Control–c#, vb.NET and beyond

2011-02-15T13:02:00.001-08:00

Before going in to my review of Infragistics Spell Check control, and how it compares to other controls I’ve used, I’m going to discuss the importance of spellcheck. If you want to skip down to the review, click here.
Original Article written by Joshua Shackelford (IT Expediter, Systems Analyst, IT Liaison)

Communication getting Relaxed

It is amazing at how lax communication has become. With so many quick methods for communicating, less thought is going in to our communications. As more methods move mainstream, and become part of everyday life, more people are communicating less professionally. As a professional you need to take the time to use proper case, punctuation and spell check. It can be a poor reflection on you and your business if you do not. Even as I type this, Live Writer is constantly underlining misspelt words, forcing me to correct the words before publishing my post.

Recently I was tasked with adding Spell Check to a thick client application that has been in development for over 5 years. As soon as it was brought up I thought, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”. This particular application focuses on transportation maintenance management, and the maintenance managers commented that they want spell check added to work orders, and comments, so that they can correct their spelling before these reports get passed up to corporate. Before, nobody ever thought of who might eventually read their work orders, but as the company pushes more on professionalism, the importance of every communication portraying their skill and dedication to the business, as risen to the surface.

When tasked with adding spell check throughout the application, I first went to Google. I was looking for a free solution spell check component that I could quickly integrate through out the solution. The first suggestion was using Microsoft Word’s Interop to leverage the spell check capabilities behind Microsoft, but I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of being tied to a 3rd party application. We did have a discussion as to whether or not this was a feasible requirement for our end users to have Microsoft Word installed. Most (if not all) of our users do have Microsoft Word installed, but we were hoping to find a better solution.

Recently I’ve been working on a web based .NET application for an insurance company. We use Telerik’s suite of tools within that application. They have an ASP.NET spell check control, that we have integrated with parts of the application. It was not the greatest thing to integrate, but I was hoping that their WinForms version might be better. Unfortunately, it turned out that they don’t yet offer a WinForms Spell Check control.

Next I discovered NHunspell. This looked very promising. I downloaded the libraries, and started working with it. It looked like it was going to get the job done, but there were a lot of little features that I wanted (red squiggle underline, right click correction options, pop-up replacement, custom dictionary, etc), but would have to build out myself. I was up to the challenge, but could not get over the fact that spell check has been around for so long, that there should be a faster way to implement all of these features. Hopefully one day, someone, will write a nice library based on the free spell check component NHunspell.

Review of Infragistics’ Spell Check Control for WinForms

We use the Infragistics suite of tools within this project currently, but I had forgotten that they have a spell check control. After realizing that we already had a spell check control here at our fingertips, that should already be fully developed, I removed the NHunspell code that I had started, and started down this new path. It was amazingly simple. I added the component as a reference, dragged it to the form, and then enabled it for each of the text boxes that we wanted spell check on. I was shocked at how simple it was. I ran the application, and all of my mistyped words had red squiggles under them.

Next it was time to add some of the other “bonus” features that we have all come to love. Right-click context menu with spelling options was added with ease, just following the Infragistics sample code. To make sure that it worked, I added it to a specific control on the form, but then later was able to move it to a generic function so that I could quickly add this feature to any text box. It worked out great. The only thing I wasn’t thrilled with, was that the new context menu replaced the default context menu that had copy and paste options. Eventually I want to go back and figure out how to get the original context menu back, if there are no misspelt words.

Pop-up spelling correction was just a matter of invoking a method built into the Infragistics spell check control to show the dialog box. I was disappointed that I could quickly loop through all controls that had spell check enabled, in order to invoke this method. However, this was remedied rather quickly within the previously created function for adding and initializing other spell check features.

The last feature I really wanted to be part of this release was a shared dictionary. In order to share the dictionary amongst all users, I wanted the dictionary of words to be stored in the database. I did not see anything within the library where I could just point it to a table, or database, so back to the drawing board. I elected to add a few more functions to the now growing spell check helper utility. I added methods to complete the following, sync local text file dictionary to a new database word dictionary table, sync database to local text file, and then a method to perform 2 way synchronization. Calls to these methods are triggered when a user adds a word to the user dictionary, or by clicking an option manually within the context menu to synchronize with the dictionary.

I am so glad that Infragistics had included the WinForm spell check component amongst their suite of tools, but even if we hadn’t already owned it, I would at this point gladly have purchased it. It was a great library to work with, and has added a very professional feature to our application, that no only will make our application a stronger application, but will reflect on the staff that use it as they are portrayed in a better light to their corporate management team.

Tracy and Kate best man wedding speech

2010-07-24T21:29:00.001-07:00

I was told I only got two minutes. And anyone that knows Tracy knows that it takes far more than two minutes to share Tracy’s traits with everyone and to congratulate him on the wonderful wife that he has just taken. So after much deliberation and review, I was able to cut my speech down to the following.

---------------------------------
I’ve known Tracy since we were 12. There is only a week between us and we have been through many different life changing events. All of you know where Tracy is today, many of you have even been able to share moments of his journey with him, but few have had a chance to see him change the way that I have.

Tracy has dated some very odd girls, even some very dark women. There was a period in Tracy’s life that he lived at night. He pretended to be a vampire and played live action roll playing games. It is quite a site to see grown women and men walking around playing “rock, paper, scissors” and holding fingers up in front of them to show that they are invisible.

He has always worked to earn the approval of the people around him. Playing by their rules, struggling to fit in, while pushing to the top to be a leader. He has been constantly changing, working to adapt to the people around him, moving to where ever he thought life would be better. It has been exciting to see him find himself, and to be himself.

Before he could commit to someone else, he needed to find himself. When Tracy first told me about Katie, I was skeptical. I was curious to find out more about this “Hot Freshman”, that he had met in college, but doubted this deep connection that he said was growing.

Tracy is a brother to me, I’ve always watched his back, and tried to support him in whatever it was he wanted to do, but also tried to protect him from getting hurt. I remember telling him to be careful with this relationship, and not to grow too attached. I feared that she wouldn’t be ready for his strong personality, and that they both hadn’t figured out what they wanted from life.

When I finally did meet her for the first time, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that he had finally found and caught what seemed to be a normal girl. Typically his girlfriends would be dumb and beautiful, or smart and strange. As the night unfolded, I was constantly looking for a fault. She wasn’t just normal, but extraordinary and when they left, I turned to my wife and said. “Wow, she is really awesome.” Tracy had finally found someone that was the whole package.

Over the next several months, we spoke more often. I was very curious to see how this relationship would unfold. I was worried that she was just another person to help boost his ego. I tried to stay close, in case he lost this woman he was falling in love with, but noticed that he spoke differently about her. I could tell that she was someone special.

[Turn to Tracy]
I’d like to congratulate you on finding such a wonderful woman. As men we are looking to create a legacy, looking for a woman to support us on our journey, but as husbands, we are looking to support our wives and to protect them and the families we build.

[To Katie]
Katie. As you know, you have just married a very stubborn and strong man. I know that he will always be there to protect you and to stand by you through every battle that life brings your way. Even when you’re angry with him, and need some more space. He will be right there. It is out of love that he stands next to your side. Try not to hold this against him.

[To Both of them]
One of the pieces of advice that stands out most to me, that I want to pass on to you both, is that Love and Marriage is a daily decision. Every day you need to wake up and decide that you are committed to your husband or wife. Regardless of the events that are going to unfold that day, you are deciding that you will work through and stand by your spouse through anything.

God created marriage, and it is through this holy matrimony, that you both will be blessed. He has created it as life long, submissive, commitment to each other. Often the world looks at God’s design as a marriage of bondage, and tries to reshape it. It will push you and pull you in various different directions. It will tell you that marriage is in the way of your own personal advancement, and try to persuade you to seek your own treasures. It is through these fires that your marriage will become stronger, and blessings will be forged.

[To All]
I’d like everyone to join me in raising their glass as we thank God that he has brought this couple together, and ask that he continue to bless them. That He may give them strength and knowledge, wisdom in the face of challenges, love, joy and patience with each other, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, and peace within their home.

To Tracy and Katie.

Best Backup Solution: Moving away from tapes with full disaster recovery II

2010-05-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Part II: Backup and Disaster Recovery
Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

What do you need?
In Part I, we discussed the 3 types of scenarios we are trying to meet. We are looking to archive our data, recover from the occasional oops, and then of course the ever so important, disaster recovery. While archival needs vary from holding data for a couple of weeks, a few years, 10 years or even forever, everyone needs to be able to recover from the occasional oops and, the heaven forbid, disaster. Through out all three of these cases we are looking to maintain business continuity. Enter Verve’s Backup and Disaster Recovery solution, or BDR.

Archival
Archival dictates how much storage you need. If you are looking to store your data for a few months, or even years, your requirements will be a lot less than someone who needs to hold data for 10 years or in the case of banking, forever. The solution that I’m going to propose will be able to securely store your data for any length of time. You don’t have to worry about cycling tapes.

Our solution comprises of:

Disk-based BDR device to be deployed onsite at client location.
Built-in virtualization software that provides a Standby Server if a server fails.
Features that enable recovering a single email, mailbox, file OR database.
Redundant datacenters replicate data offsite coupled with services to recover data in case of site failure.
24x7 monitoring and maintenance of NAS device through Network Operations Center (NOC) on select models with various service plans.
Comprehensive 3 year warranty standard with each BDR.

Oops! I deleted a file
With our BDR, you can quickly load up a secure interface that will present you with your files. Simply select a file and choose a destination to restore the file to, and your done. You have just recovered a deleted file, without hunting through tapes, hoping that the one that you need is one site, and not at the owners house.

Oh No! We lost the entire server!
Maybe you had a fire, a flood, or simply lost power to your air-conditioning unit, causing your servers to over heat. A more common occurrence is the random filed hardware, from mother boards to hard drives. In this case, our BDR can act as a temporary server, spinning up the last backup of your data from just 15 minutes ago. And if you the whole building went down, you could spin up your last online backup from our servers, to put you back in business within hours.

The best setup with our BDR is to do regular backups through out the day to the local BDR, and then to push a nightly back up to our servers, offsite. Giving you quick local backups, and quick data restoration, while still being able to send your data offsite in case of a major disaster.

Our Backup and Disaster Recovery solution is powered by the tried and true, enterprise backup software, ShadowProtect by StorageCraft.

Tape	BDR
Could take up to 48-72 hours to restore a failed server*	Built-in virtualization provides a Standby Server in less than 30 minutes
Often takes hours to days to restore based on where tapes are located	Recover a single file or a single mailbox item in minutes
Offsite storage can be expensive and tapes are often taken to an employee's home as an alternative	Utilize our datacenter or replicate to another BDR at your own site
Recovering data from tape takes many steps and replacement hardware isn’t always available	Next day delivery services are provided with the Standby Server ready to host servers

This solution is available by Verve Networks.

Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

Best Backup Solution: Moving away from tapes with full disaster recovery

2010-05-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

Part I: Identifying the need
Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

What do you need?
When looking at backup systems, there are 3 types of scenarios we are trying to meet. We are looking to archive our data, recover from the occasional oops, and then of course the ever so important, disaster recovery. While archival needs vary from holding data for a couple of weeks, a few years, 10 years or even forever, everyone needs to be able to recover from the occasional oops and, the heaven forbid, disaster. Through out all three of these cases we are looking to maintain business continuity.

Archival
I won’t go into much depth here as most people understand what their needs are for archiving data, and tend to just throw a bunch of hard drives at the situation. Often archival needs are dictated by governing policies, and you are most likely already doing something about this. After I go into more detail about file recovery, and disaster recovery, you’ll get a better idea of how archival fits into this whole scheme.

Oops! I deleted a file
We’ve all accidentally deleted a file and needed to recover it, or had users that have deleted files and needed to get them back. A solid backup system will enable you to locate and recover a deleted file quickly. If you’ve ever worked with a tape backup system, then you know that this isn’t quick. First you have to locate the file in the backup application, then find the correct tape (which hopefully the tape’s physical label matches the system label) so that you can finally reload the original file. This can be a pain in the butt. Wouldn’t it be nicer if you could just click on it to restore it?

Oh No! We lost the entire server!
In a major disaster, your whole business is at risk. Whether it was a fire, a flood, or something more likely to occur, such as failing hardware, possibly from over heating or just wearing out, you are in a position that you need to recover your entire server. What most people don’t realize is that even if you have a full back up of every file on your server, and all of the configurations, you will still be down for at least a day. You see, before you can restore the files, you must first rebuild the server. Reinstall the operating system, reinstall every single program on the server, and then begin reloading configurations and files. If all of these backups are on tape, you are looking at 48-72 hours until you are fully running.

Finding a solution
There are many different backup options out there today. If you are just starting this research process, you will be reading about hardware, software, virtualization, recovery… on… and on… and on… Trying to sort out which software you need, which hardware it goes with, and then how do you recover if something goes wrong. Finally you will settle on a solution. Mostly likely either a tape solution paired with Backup Exex or ArcServe, an online backup like Mozy or Carbonite, or possibly a cloning application such as Acronis or Shadow Protect. The best backup solution is somewhere in this mix allowing for a full recover in just moments, quick and simple file recovery, and the ability to take your backups offsite.

Please continue to part II, where the best backup solution is described.

Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

Journey To CISSP: A look at how to get the world-wide recognized security certificate

2010-04-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Journey To CISSP: A look at how to get the world-wide recognized security certificate

Tweet This

A little background
Security has been part of my duties since 2003, when I started working for a mortgage company as an analyst. At this mortgage company I was responsible for the entire network and development of their pipeline management application. Within the last couple years I’ve been thinking about taking a class to go in more depth regarding security, but decide on where I wanted to start.

Last week I saw an article about CISSP. I figured that if I was going to take a class to learn more about security, I may as well take one that would lead to a certificate to show that I had the knowledge. CISSP is recognized world wide, with classes and test in almost every country. The requirements are managed by the (ISC)2, focusing on concepts and methods, rather than applications and techniques.

Classes
I first started looking for classes in my area. Stockton didn’t offer any classes. I ended up finding a class in San Francisco and Sacramento, and called them to check on pricing and scheduling. The Sacramento company didn’t offer the class any more, and the San Francisco company was too expensive, with the cost being over $4000. Within continued investigation I discovered several other class offerings in the $3000-$4000 range. Since I can’t afford to pay this myself, I decided to get a book.

All in one CISSP Exam Guide
I started out at Barnes and Nobles website, thinking that I would find the best book and run over to the local store to get it immediately. After settling on a book published in November of 2009, I looked it up on Amazon.com to check on reviews. Later I found that most people were going with the “All in One CISSP Exam Guide” by Shon Harris. The latest book was just published in January of 2010 and people seem to be raving about how great of a read it is, and how they were able to pass the exam on their first try. The Fifth Edition of the All-in-One CISSP Exam Guide seemed like the best book of choice. Now I just need to wait for it to arrive.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

7 Relationships All Leaders Need

2009-10-06T16:55:00.001-07:00

7 Relationships All Leaders Need

(And How to Build Them)

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Tweet This

As a business leader, relationships are critical to your current and future success. But, what sort of people should you surround yourself with? Here are seven people every leader needs in their life and ways you can start (or continue) building these relationships today. Do not be intimidated, as each one of these relationships can be built through the Successful Thinkers network.

1. The Peer Climber

Who They Are: A peer in the same career path, organizational level, field, or industry.
Why You Need Them: This person can help you understand current trends and demands in your business world. They’ll offer insight, ideas, and help when you need to talk to someone who just gets it.
How to Build this Relationship: Spend time together outside of work to cultivate this relationship. Join a professional organization together, or set up regular lunch meetings with this individual. Consider having a peer-to-peer business book club together so you can share insights and issues as they come up.

2. The Trendsetter

Who They Are: This lifelong learner is always on top of the trends. They are always ahead of the curve with innovative thinking and solutions in business and life. They’re not waiting to see what everyone else is doing. They’re too busy forging ahead and trailblazing what’s next.
Why You Need Them: With today’s pressures of tighter budgets, limited personnel, and critical business goals, you need someone in your life to help you keep your eyes open to fresh and interesting ideas. They can help you keep up to date on trends that matter and point you to the people and resources you’ll need when it’s time to move beyond the status quo.
How to Build this Relationship: The trendsetter will appreciate ideas and information, so ask them to share interesting articles they come across, and return the favor by opening up your resources and professional knowledge to them. Register to attend a conference or convention on an emerging trend with this individual to bond over a learning experience.

3. The Experienced Executive

Who They Are: More seasoned in the business world than you are, they broker influence and garner respect within your industry and community, whether or not they have an executive title.
Why You Need Them: Their insight and been-there-done-that knowledge will be a vital resource as you address the continual challenges leadership brings. No matter where you are in your career, they are always someone you can learn from.
How to Build this Relationship: With a busy, seasoned professional, the main challenge to building a relationship will most likely be time. So, be direct and honest with this individual, letting them know you’d like them to serve as a mentor. Then, create a formal or informal time to meet so you can regularly learn from the experience they have to share, and find ways to lead up to make their time investment truly valuable.

4. The Honest Anchor

Who They Are: This person ties you to reality and tells you things like they are. They may or may not be a member of your organization, industry, or even the work world. Regardless, they have the ability to listen first and then cut through the drama, politics, or emotion to help give you perspective to see any situation for what it really is.
Why You Need Them: Their discernment and honesty will help you see the perspective of others, which you will need as you make the difficult decisions leadership requires.
How to Build this Relationship: Don’t just go to this person when you have a problem. Spend time getting to know them so you can develop a close, trusting bond. True honesty only stems from a close relationship of mutual respect, so focus on ways you can build that valuable asset.

5. The Up-And-Comer

Who They Are: An emerging professional with leadership potential who is eager to learn and ready to take on the challenges and rewards of leadership.
Why You Need Them: Surrounding yourself only with people at your level or above can quickly get you out of sync with the realities of those you lead. The passion and drive of an outstanding new professional can energize you and help you stay in tune with the trends and needs of your workforce. Plus, investing time into mentoring someone less experienced than you is one of the greatest rewards of true leadership.
How to Build this Relationship: Whether you develop a formal or informal mentoring relationship, make it a point to meet regularly just to chat and share information and insight. You may find yourself learning just as much as you are teaching.

6. The Community Connection

Who They Are: The go-to guy or gal in your community, this person is involved, connected, and respected in your local market.
Why You Need Them: More than simply a walking, talking Rolodex, they will be able to keep you up to date about community activities you should be involved in as a leader. They’ll have a good idea of what boards you should serve on, what projects to volunteer for, and what people you should get to know locally.
How to Build this Relationship: This person will probably be very visible within the community, but they might be very busy as well. To become more than simply one of many acquaintances, develop a close relationship by finding a common passion and volunteer with this person to help an important cause or organization. Go beyond surface-level networking and build a friendship that adds value to both of your lives.

7. The Breath of Fresh Air

Who They Are: Someone outside of your normal business pace. They may be retired, stay at home with children or family, or be a digital nomad and write their own rules for work.
Why You Need Them: The different pace of life they lead will help you get a fresh look at the world away from work. They will help you set priorities for work and life that aren’t just focused on the here and now or the strategic business future. They’ll help you say “no” when you need to and help you prioritize for important things like family time, vacations, and leisure activities.
How to Build this Relationship: Take an afternoon off every once in a while to experience life in their shoes during your normal workday. Read a book of fiction together, start a cooking club, or take your pets to the park. Spend time with this individual in a setting they’re comfortable in, and try to steer clear of business talk when they’re around. Then, use the inspiration you receive from them to approach work with fresh eyes. And remember that work’s not all there is to life.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Attacks On Twitter, Facebook Shutdown Result Of Massive Attack On One Person

2009-08-10T10:02:00.001-07:00

DDoS Attacks On Twitter, Facebook Result Of Massive Attack On One Person
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Tweet This

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, and for those that know me, you understand some of the crazy things I’ve been going through and working on. Recently there has been some outages on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and some other social giants. Many of us were wondering what was the cause of this massive outage / attack. Below is an article from DarkReading that explains how why so many people had to go without their social addiction for a few hours.

Botnet attack takes aim at pro-Georgian blogger and leaves collateral damage on social networking sites

Aug 07, 2009

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading

It turns out yesterday's major distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that shut down Twitter for hours and disrupted Facebook and LiveJournal came out of a targeted attack waged against one individual with accounts on all of the sites.

A pro-Georgian blogger called "Cyxymu" was apparently the intended target of the massive DDoS that knocked down Twitter and caused major slowdowns on Facebook and LiveJournal when a botnet apparently blasted waves of traffic at his accounts on the sites simultaneously in an effort to shut down his communiques.

Cyxymu tweeted yesterday on his Twitter profile that the attackers were "Russian KGB." The blogger, who later unmasked himself to CNN as "George," 34, of Tbilisi, Georgia, told the cable giant that his recent blog posts may have triggered the attacks. One post, he told CNN, discussed "how Russia was preparing military aggression (sic) against Georgia, how they were training soldiers and mobilizing military equipment, what kind of provocations were carried out by the separatists prior to the war," according to the CNN report. He also said the attacks were timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict.

As of this morning, Cyxymu's LiveJournal site was still down.

Various reports attributed the attack to an email spam run gone wild, but security experts dismissed that theory, saying it had to be a coordinated attack from bots. "There's no way that simply spamming out email containing the links would generate that kind of traffic to the social networking sites. There simply wouldn't be enough people who would click on the links to create a DDoS," says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "So this must have been a 'traditional' DDoS attack from compromised computers [that] could hammer the Websites with multiple requests every few seconds."

Twitter acknowledged it was working with other services on "what appears to be a single, massively coordinated attack. As to the motivation behind this event, we prefer not to speculate." It said no user data was compromised.

Facebook confirmed the attacks were going after one person: "Yesterday's attack appears to be directed at an individual who has a presence on a number of sites, rather than the sites themselves. Specifically, the person is an activist blogger and a botnet was directed to request his pages at such a rate that it impacted service for other users. We've isolated the issue and almost all of our users are able to enjoy the normal Facebook experience," the company said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Facebook's chief security officer, Max Kelly, is quoted in another report: "It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard," he told CNET.

And from the blog of Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure: "Whoever is behind this attack, they had significant bandwidth available. Our best guess is that these attacks were done by nationalistic Russian hackers who wanted to silence a visible online opponent. While doing that, they've only managed to attract more attention to Cyxymu and his message."

In addition to the DDoS attacks on Cyxymu's Twitter, Facebook, and LiveJournal accounts, Hypponen says the blogger's YouTube account was DDoS'ed, and he was also targeted by a so-called "Joe Job'"spamming attack with email purported to be from "George" and trying to lure users to his blog on LiveJournal.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Turn Your Passion into Money

2009-07-07T21:30:00.001-07:00

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford
Tweet This

You will spend more time working than you will with your own family. It is important that you do what your love. Right now there are a lot of people hurting for an income. Many businesses are suffering slower sales, or even a loss. Barely keeping their head above water. It is important that all of these business owners find their passion. If you are are one of the unfortunate unemployed, then it is even more important that you live your passion.

Getting Started
When I first started down my IT career path, it wasn’t for money. There was a large technology boom going on, but I didn’t even notice. I didn’t pay much attention to industry trends at the time. Instead, I was following my heart. I enjoyed helping people. I was going to college, studying organic chemistry, working part time as a business tech support representative. I wanted to go into medicine to help people have a better life. I was working tech support to aid businesses with their technical needs so that I could pay my bills.

My passion to help people, drove me to learn to develop websites, begin programming, and to promote other companies. By following this passion, I became very dedicated to learning to do it better. Passion motivates learning. If you are passionate about something, you will continue continue to push yourself to be better.

Marketing
When we all go out and socialize with other, we talk about our passions. When we meet new people, we talk about our passions. You will naturally share your passions, and people around you will become more interested in what you have to say, as they see that passion come out of you. The people that you meet will recognize your expertise and will be drawn to you.

Building a Team
The hardest part about running your own business and following your passion, is the paperwork. Few people are passionate about paying bills, reading up on laws, paying taxes, etc. However, you will find that there are plenty of people around you that are willing to help you succeed. As they see that fire inside of you, they will catch it. They will want more. They will want to be part of what you have. You will be able to create a win-win team for yourself and the people around you, as you all help to build each other.

Terrible Time to Start
Many people will tell you that it is a terrible time to start a business. And as you begin, you might even be discouraged at the outlook of the current economic trends. But if you look at the experts, they are all saying that now is the best time to build a business. Business that start, build and survive through economic turmoil, will come out stronger and more successful than anyone else. You will find that people are more desperate to work with you, it is cheaper to get started, and your customers are more loyal. Now is the best time to get started, or to start building.

Looking for a Way to Start
I have been helping startups get on their feet for the last 9 years. I have a passion to help brilliant entrepreneurs find their dreams and to find ways to achieve them. Often people have great ideas, but run into challenges in finding economical ways to achieve them. I can help you get the resources that you need to start your business, or to take it to the next step. Please leave questions or comments below, and I will help point you in the right direction. If I am unable to answer your questions, I can put you in touch with someone who is passionate about your topic, and they will help you follow you dreams and keep your passion alive.

Don’t Get Discouraged
As we follow our passions, we often run into things that are not so much fun. Every job as parts that you don’t want to do, parts that your are not passionate about, and parts that you might not be that good at. Do not get discouraged about these things. Instead, reach out to the people around you. Focus on your passion and let them focus on theirs. When you come across someone passionate about their field, they will help you because they love what they do.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Ride a Google Wave to Success

2009-06-09T11:04:00.001-07:00

New technologies are constantly coming out. Our challenge is figuring out out to leverage them for our success.
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Tweet This

Google is will be launching a new platform called Wave. The Google Wave is suppose to leverage social networks to enhance communication.

Check out what one of its founders had to say.

"Back in early 2004, Google took an interest in a tiny mapping startup called Where 2 Tech, founded by my brother Jens and me. We were excited to join Google and help create what would become Google Maps. But we also started thinking about what might come next for us after maps. As always, Jens came up with the answer: communication. He pointed out that two of the most spectacular successes in digital communication, email and instant messaging, were originally designed in the '60s to imitate analog formats — email mimicked snail mail, and IM mimicked phone calls. Since then, so many different forms of communication had been invented — blogs, wikis, collaborative documents, etc. — and computers and networks had dramatically improved. So Jens proposed a new communications model that presumed all these advances as a starting point; I was immediately sold," explains Lars Rasmussen.

What does this mean?
We all have many projects that we are concurrently working on, with many different teams. Well maybe not so many different teams as much so as multiple projects with the same team. Imagine being able to brainstorm, day or night, with your team, and to have a track record of the conversations and the evolution of the project. Your coders can add functional input, your designers can add graphics, your business execs can mold the conversation towards business objectives, and your sales reps or field agents can provide feedback as to what is needed in the field. Real-time, complete, and full collaboration from anywhere in the world.

Just about every demographic should be getting excited about this new platform. Business owners and execs can leverage it for business, while kids can chat about their days or work on hobbies, and gamers can play games with their friends. In order to be successful in anything that we do, we need to invest in the people around us. Google Wave is another way for people investing.

How will Google Wave work?
Google defines a Wave as a new communication project. You would create a wave and add people to it. Everyone you invite on to your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can all edit directly within the wave, adding replies, comments, images, video, etc… It's real-time editing, where you will be able to see instantly, what your fellow team members (or wave members) are typing in your wave. Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for long term content -- it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave to see how it evolved.

How can Google Wave make me more Successful?
Often on Successful Thinkers, people are talking about successful people being continues learners. Successful people are looking for better ways to accomplish their goals, and need to be able to lean on their community to do that. A Google Wave will allow you to communicate more effectively with your community and team. You could even open your wave up to strangers to get some additional expert opinions on your projects.

Some people might even consider creating a wave to discuss marketing strategies. Imagine starting a wave about a billboard, and with the help of your community, you could end up with a video production on TV for a fraction of the cost of the billboard. How this would be accomplished, I’m not sure. But the power of a community and the influence that they have, could bring a great reward your direction.

Once Google Wave becomes live, you can bet we will find a way to integrate it into successful thinkers, so that we can all ride that Wave to Success.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Unexpected Companies from Life’s Adventures

2009-06-03T10:40:00.001-07:00

Here are just a few life adventures that have lead to some extraordinary successful businesses. The people truly were all successful thinkers. Remember to watch for opportunities all around you.
Originally Posted On Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Tweet This

Life Adventure:
Bill Treasurer, 46, conquered his fear of heights by confronting them. Working as a professional high diver for seven years, he performed more than 1,500 high dives--many of them scaling to over 100 feet.

Inspired:
Giant Leap Consulting Inc.
Treasurer’s Asheville, North Carolina consulting firm focuses on helping people take whatever “high dive” they may be facing. Founded in 2002, it has worked with organizations such as NASA and, in 2008, brought in revenue of $590,000.

Life Adventure:
Jeff Kelley, now 50, was in Taiwan when he discovered a grass-like carpet lining the bottom of a cab. Kelley bought a piece of that carpet from the driver.

Inspired:
Sanük
Kelley’s footwear company is as much about funk as function: Just check out its “wire bed” sandal. The Irvine, California-based company was founded in 1997 and reached global sales of $27 million in 2008.

Life Adventure:
As head of worldwide marketing for the Chambord brand, Rob Cooper, 32, traveled the globe looking for the next innovative flavor to introduce in the U.S.

Inspired:
St-Germain, Delice de Sureau
An artisanal liqueur made from wild elderflowers, the beverage launched in 2007 and has received multiple industry awards. And it all happened through Cooper’s brainchild, Cooper Spirits International LLC, a New York City-based brand development company in the beverage and alcohol industry with projected 2009 sales of about $6 million.

Life Adventure:
Wooed by a nine-month global courtship, Katy Leakey moved from California to join her now-husband Philip Leakey in his native Kenya in 2001. They lived among the Maasai. But when a severe drought and political upheaval left them supporting 100 families, Katy and Philip, now 54 and 59, respectively, knew that something had to be done.

Inspired:
Zulugrass jewelry
Made from fibrous, hollow, drought-resistant grass, dyed in a rainbow of colors and strung with hand-blown Czech glass beads, The Leakey Collection is a line of contemporary, eco-chic jewelry designed by Katy and handmade by the Maasai women. The Kenya/Newport Beach, California collection is distributed to over 1,200 retail outlets and projects year-end earnings of $1 million.

Life Adventure:
At 15, Mark Frobose was staying at a youth hostel in Europe, speaking in broken French with a French musician. Though conversation was limited, they formed a connection. That experience was so powerful that Frobose, now 54, was instilled with a passion for languages.

Inspired:
Language Dynamics
Frobose developed this line of language courses out of his garage in Danville, Illinois. He built annual sales up to $350,000 before selling the company to Macmillan Audio in 2007.

Originally Posted On Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Urgency will Close the Deal

2009-05-24T17:10:00.001-07:00

Many entrepreneurs mistakenly think that making the sale has to do with using the consultative selling approach, special listening skills, likeability or any number of popular questioning or closing programs. Sure, they’re all important aspects of selling. But the granddaddy of them all--the one factor that guarantees your sales success more than any other and the one method top producers have in common--is a sense of urgency.

Originally Posted On Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Urgency is what gets top sellers up in the morning and keeps them fired up all day. Their attitude is, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me, and I determine my own success or failure.” They’re constantly asking themselves, “What do I need to do next to move this sale forward? What actions do I have to take to get it done?” It’s about putting your ideas and strategies in motion.

Top sellers don’t waste time when there’s no opportunity. They’re so intensely focused on each of their accounts that they know exactly what each customer wants and what it will take to help them grow their business. When they don’t see the benefit to that customer, they move on and eliminate wasted energy for both sides. But when there’s real opportunity, they’re relentless. A voice inside them keeps saying, “Don’t let customers miss the many ways they can truly benefit from you and your service.”

Recently I spoke to someone that I knew needed to get involved with a particular opportunity. I truly believed that he needed to purchase from me, and to partner with me. I told him that he would see a return on his investment, and would be sold out within just a few weeks, and that if he wasn’t, that I would cover the difference. I realized he never would have bought on the spot like that if he didn’t like me, feel comfortable with me or have a successful relationship with me on previous programs. But the real reason was that I wasn’t leaving him until he bought from me. I knew he would have success, and even before walking in, I based my endgame on that sense of urgency.

To close the deal well, we need to prioritize specific goals for all of our activities and then act on them with confidence, conviction and a desire to move things forward.

Originally Posted On Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Building Success: Where are you headed – Dream Building

2009-05-12T14:53:00.001-07:00

Tweet This

You have probably heard this time and time again. You need to set your dreams to be successful. Even if think that your goals do not pertain to what you are currently working on, you need to set your dreams. Here are a couple of approaches.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Dream Board
Create a dream board. A dream board is a physical location for you to post your dreams. Many people struggle to remember why it is that they are working so hard. For some a dream board is the best way to be reminded of what they are working for. For others, simply placing a picture of their spouse or kids on their desk is enough. All successful people utilize some form of dream building and some fashion of reminding themselves of what those dreams are. You need clearly find and define your why. Your why, will provide you the energy to drive through your challenges and provide the determination to finish.

Managing Your Thoughts
Focus on those dreams and the steps to achieve them. If you continue to focus on the positive goals that you want to reach and push to complete each step of the way, you will make it. Not only will you be able to reach those goals, but you will reach them faster. Most people focus on the things that they don’t want to happen, and as a result those things happen faster, or they run in to more challenges as they push to finish their projects.

Where Am I
Before you can determine where you are headed, or how you can get there, you need to first realize where you are. Where are you financially, emotionally, physically. All of these things affect the way you will map out your plan, and how you will get there.

Constantly Learning
We need to keep in mind that we are constantly learning. When talking to other people, listen to learn. When working on a project, look for ways to push yourself. When faced with a challenge, look for the opportunity to learn. When you crash, or something doesn’t go the way that you had expected… take responsibility for the crash, get up, and learn so that you can avoid that crash in the future.

Set and Achieve Goals
The purpose of setting and then reaching your goals is about becoming the person that it takes to achieve the goals. As we work through our projects, we build off of the previous step. The same is true for becoming successful. You need to build yourself with each step, and each day in order to prepare yourself to make it to your next goal.

Big Goals are Important
Setting big goals is important to becoming a better you. The larger the goal, the better you will become. Make sure that all of your goals are written, specific, and measureable. Only a measurable goal can be achieved.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

National Day of Prayer – Reflecting on answered prayers

2009-05-08T09:51:00.001-07:00

Tweet This

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Opportunity to Share
I recently had an opportunity to share about a few answered prayers. My life is full of answered prayers, so my first challenges was to limit the number I spoke about. I wanted to share those same stories with the online community. Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer.

Complications
A few years ago I receive a call from my brother that his wife and he were at the hospital, getting ready for the birth of their first child. This was extremely exciting, but just the beginning of the night, so my wife and I went to bed. I told him to call me when things got closer. We all know how long it can take for the arrival of someone’s first child.

A couple hours later, I received another phone call, with a trembling voice on the other end. I could tell something was wrong, but could barely hear it what it was. I was told that there was blood, and that some complications had risen. All I could do was let them know that I was on my way for support.

Relief in Prayer
At the end of that brief call, I fell to my knees in prayer. I then continued to pray while I got dress, and continued to pray in the car on the way to the hospital. This was one of my most intense prayers, with tears running down my face. About half way to the hospital, my tears dried up, and I was felt this wave of calmness come over me. I knew that everything was ok.

My Niece is Born
Upon my arrival at the hospital I was greeted by my mom, and told that they had just finished an emergency c-section, and that mom and baby were healthy. The nurses were just cleaning up and doing their first rounds of vitals. My niece was born (pictured right) and sister-in-law were both doing well.

Instant Prayer
This prayer was answered instantly, and I was comforted by the answered prayer, but not all prayers get answered this quickly, or even the way that you want them to be.

Job Interviews
Every job interview that I have ever gone to has been a prayer drive before and after. Often I pray in the car. It is a great time to give praise and to talk with God. So on my way to every job interview I pray. And on the way home from every job interview, I pray. After praying on my way home, I forget it about and trust that the opportunity is in God’s hands. If he wants me to work there, he will open the door.

I have been blessed with many fantastic opportunities, all of which of toned by skills and provided new ones, but not all jobs have been great. I have worked for companies that have bounced paychecks, missed payroll, been evicted from their buildings and one that went through a hostile take over while the owner was in Hawaii. God has always put me where he wants me and provided amazing opportunities.

These job prayers were often answered in unexpected ways. I could see many people asking God why they would be in a situation where they were working hard and not getting rewarded. Or worse, working hard and going into debt. Add a family and kids into the mix and the stress can be overwhelming. God will never give you too much to handle. You need to just pray about the situation, and ask him to help guide you and to open the doors for you. He wants the best for you, and those prayers will be answered. Cast all of your cares on him, and relax. He is in control.

Partial Prayers
Sometimes answered prayers may look like partially answered prayers, and sometimes we feel like giving up. I spent my 10 birthday receiving my first chemotherapy treatment. When I was 9 years old, I was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a bone cancer. The doctors told me and my family that I was going to have to go through 3 years of treatment and that the best way to make sure that the cancer is gone, is to have surgery to remove the bone.

The cancer was on the back of my right shoulder blade and the size of a softball. At 10 years old, that is about the size of the entire shoulder blade. Removing that bone with the cancer would render my right arm useless. I was right handed and not ready to lose my arm. The doctors said that since my arm would just hang, and that it would be useless, that it would be best to remove the arm so that it wouldn’t get caught on things and wouldn’t get in the way.

Pray Without Ceasing
My entire family began to pray. This was the start of tremendous prayer warfare. Day after day, week after week, we prayed. We prayed alone, we prayed with others, we prayed at home, on the road, at church, at other people’s homes. Everywhere we went, we prayed.

One particular evening, we went to a prayer concert. I remember being excited and nervous. I was excited to pray as I felt myself getting closer to God, and nervous as there were hundreds of people there and I didn’t know what to expect.

Cancer Shrinking
The following week, I had another doctors appointment, and the doctors were completely surprised. That softball sized tumor was now the size of a golf ball. God had shrunk that tumor. He could have just as easily healed me, but instead he just shrunk it. The doctors changed the 3 year plan to 1, and I had radiation therapy instead of surgery. A year later I went into remission and still had my arm. My right arm is about 4 inches shorter than my left, but I’m still right handed and can still play sports with the best of them.

God used that year to bring me closer to him. I was able to share and encourage many other children at the hospital and at Oncology Camp, a camp dedicated to kids with cancer and their families. This was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, and looking back, I don’t regret it. I don’t wish that it hadn’t happened.

Cast ALL of Your Cares
Sometimes prayers are answered immediately, other times we need to pray without ceasing, entering into a prayer battle. Sometimes we need to pray and forget, trusting in God, and other times we need to continue to pray. Answered prayers are not always what we want, but God’s plan for us is far better than what we would want for ourselves. It is important to trust in him, and that when you pray… ask that his will be done, and that you are able to see where he wants you, and remember, he will not give you more than you can handle.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Twitter Tips: How And Why To Use Hashtags (#)

2009-05-07T14:46:00.001-07:00

I would like to thank CG Lynch with CIO for this posting
Guest Blog By C.G. Lynch
Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Tweet This

While you can use Twitter's search tool to find specific people, companies, and their messages ("tweets") on the service, Hashtags allow users to sort topics into useful categories to revisit later.

If you've spent any time on Twitter, you've probably seen a hashtag before. A "#" symbol sets off a hashtag. For instance, if you wrote a tweet about Google, it might look like this:

Here's a look at how to utilize Hashtags to organize information that you contribute and consume on Twitter. As the tweets pile up, the extra time you take to thoughtfully categorize your tweets with a hashtag will help the greater Twitter community (and you individually) make the most of the service.

The story behind Hashtags

Twitter (the company) didn't create hashtags. The Twitter community's early adopters came up with the idea to put a "#" in front of topics to add context to tweets. The tag would also help filter and sort them out for future readers.

According to a Twitter fan website, the hashtags achieved significant notoriety with Twitter users in 2007 during the San Diego fires, when users designated their tweets with "#sandiegofires."

The trend to use hashtags led to the community-driven site hashtags.org, where a semi-official index of Twitter's hashtags now resides. To access the site, Twitter users merely need to opt-in (for free) by following @hashtags on Twitter.

If you're writing a tweet about a topic you think might have a unique hashtag assigned to it, you can visit hashtags.org to find it.

When you arrive at the site, choose "Tags" on the right-side menu. After the menu drops down, choose "directory."

Hashtags are listed alphabetically, but the directory won't be helpful unless you have a lot of time. It's jammed with obscure-looking hashtags (many are acronyms). As a result, you might have better luck searching the site for your hashtag of choice.

Say, for instance, that you want to assign a tag to a new product that Google released. To find the official hashtag, type "Google" into Hashtag.org's search bar. It will return results with a list of Google-related hashtags.

The site also keeps analytics for popular tags, showing recent messages in which people used the tag, the people who tweeted it, and related tags.

How Hashtags Are Born

The Twitter community organically and collectively decides what a hashtag should be as it pertains to a certain topic. Third-party sites, such as tagalus and HashDictionary allow Twitter users to define hashtags. HashtagNation facilitates discussions around how certain hashtags should be defined and formed.

All of these user-generated sites have drawbacks. For one, they often fail to return definitions for common hashtags on Twitter. This could be due to the fact that some are really obvious — if you type #facebook into tagulus, for instance, no results appear, as no one bothered to take the time to note that it would be used for a tweet about the social network.

Secondly, because multiple dictionaries chronicle Twitter hashtags, definitions for the same hashtag can vary.

Use Twitter Search to Find Hashtags

As Twitter hashtags became more popular, Twitter integrated them into its search tool. You can search for a hashtag in two ways.

The first: If you perform an advanced search, under the "Words" section, you can search for a hashtag.

Or, you can simply use Twitter's main search bar (which they recently made available on people's home pages), and put a "#" symbol in front of your hashtag.

Whichever method you decide, Twitter will return back results with tweets where users employed the hashtag. The upside to an advanced search is that you can define dates, so you don't return hashtags since the beginning of Twitter time (unless, of course, that's what you want).

Use Hashtags Judiciously

Hashtags can be overused. Chris Messina, a San Francisco-bases social media consultant (who was credited as first formulating the hashtag idea in his blog), noted some of the drawbacks in a post about how to make the most of hashtags.

"Already it's been made clear to me that the use of hashtags can be annoying, adding more noise than value," Messina wrote. "Some people just don't like how they look. Others feel that they encumber a simple communication system that should do one thing and one thing well."

As a result, he said users should make use of hashtags sparingly and only when they bring additional context to a tweet that would otherwise be absent. For instance, take these examples:

"@google gave a nice presentation. #CIOconference."

That tweet, with the hashtag, would provide better context than:

"@google gave a nice presentation."

In this case, the writer of the tweet informs people that his message is meant within the context of a conference he is attending. The benefit: his followers do not need to read past tweets in his Twitter stream to find out where he is or what he means.

My Two Cents

Twitter's hashtagging system remains a nascent form of organizing the Twitter world. Messina's contention that they should be used sparingly is well-taken. Hashtags have largely been employed by Twitter's first adopters, and their overuse has two unfortunate consequences.

First, hashtags can give Twitter an insular feel that will detract people from staying on the service, as evidenced by Twitter's poor retention rate of new users (60 percent bail not long after joining, according to recent Nielsen research). Second, it's presumptuous (and ironic, considering Twitter power users' championing of social technologies) for these folks to assume they know the best way to organize the service before more average Joe Web-Users have their say.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Twitter Tips: How to Write Better Tweets

2009-05-05T11:29:00.001-07:00

Guest Blog by C.G. Lynch, CIO, CXO Media Inc
Original Post on CIO, Guest post on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Tweet This

Twitter's growing popularity has yielded one unusual result: It has exposed the frailty of writing skills in the business world. You can fudge bad writing in a 20-slide presentation, but not in a 140-character tweet. From abbreviation-laden tweets with no discernible value, to tweets that fail to compel followers to click through on a link, examples abound. The process of constructing a good Twitter message takes careful thought, time and analysis.

More Twitter Tips on CIO.com

Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don'ts

Twitter Tips: How to Safely Blend the Personal and the Professional

How and Why to Launch a Business Presence on Twitter

Clearly, the 140-character limit adds a degree of difficulty for people who already struggle with writing for less restrictive, more long-form friendly mediums, such as e-mail or blogs.

While we failed to find a panacea for constructing the perfect tweet — since the "perfect tweet" largely depends on your audience, your profession, and how you use Twitter — we compiled some guidelines from industry analysts and people who tweet uncommonly well.

Avoid Abrevs

Every day, we all receive work e-mails that are littered with improper grammar, spelling and all-lowercase letters. Given how many e-mails most of us receive in a day, such messages become, at best, an unwelcome sight, and, at worst, disrespectful of our time.

Twitter is no different. Some people follow thousands of other people on Twitter, populating their streams (home pages) with, in some cases, hundreds of tweets a minute. Obviously, people will skip over sloppy tweets, or trivial tweets, because they simply don't have the time.

"If you sound like a 13-year-old in an instant message conversation, that's not going to make people want to read your [Twitter] messages," says Susan Daffron (@susandaffron), president of Logical Expressions, a company that helps people self-publish books.

As your user-base diversifies to include people from different backgrounds, you should avoid abbreviations unless it's absolutely necessary, says Laura Fitton (@pistachio), who runs Pistachio Consulting, a firm that helps companies utilize Twitter.

"I generally go out of my way to avoid abbreviations," she says. "There are so many abbreviations you really can't always assume people will know what they are."

Twitter power users can be particular offenders with regards to that rule. Despite the fact that Twitter's user base has broadened substantially during the past six months, the majority of its users descend from a technical background. Depending on how your follower list has diversified, people might not know a lot of the Twitter lingo.

"I had people asking me what are these "#" signs," Daffron says, referring to Hashtags, which Twitter users employ to categorize topics, such as #sanfrancisco. "By writing things that are more obscure to new users, you essentially block them out."

Take Your Time

Twitter allows you to publish information instantly. The open field to tweet a message sits in your web-browser or in an app on your desktop. Since it's such a short message, the natural inclination is to post away without much thought. Much like you'd proofread an important e-mail message, you should consider sitting on a Tweet, Fitton says.

"Don't feel shy that, even though they're short, they [tweets] can be a lot work," Fitton says. "If you take your time, you will most likely put more thought into it. Thoughtful tweets are more likely to be appreciated."

Due to the fact a tweet must measure 140 characters, a quick writing job combined with lack of context can create misunderstandings. If you take time to not only construct the tweet, but also analyze your audience to see how it might be received, you can avoid upsetting people, Fitton says.

Tweeting Links: Headlines Matter

On Twitter, people often tweet links to their own published work, or articles that they have found relevant. In fact, so many people tweet links now that it requires a lot of work to get people to click on them. As a result, you must have a headline that sets your Tweet apart for the other stories of the day, says Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd), a social media analyst who writes the /message blog

"It could be humorous or topical," he says. "But you also must pare down to the absolute minimum."

One key differentiator can be pulling a quote from a piece that might entice people to read it. For instance, if everyone knows the general news of the day on a certain topic, tweeting an article with a general headline on the topic ("Democrats Reach 60 Seats in Senate") might not be as compelling as a new quote from President Obama or a Senator. In other words, assume people already read the nuts-and-bolts news story that first hit the wire, and show them why you read something that has greater depth or value. This approach also shows what about the article stuck out the most for you.

On Pistachio's website, a guest blogger, Marshall Thompson, published a helpful guide, seven steps to writing a successful Twitter headline. In the piece, he includes the following guidelines: keep it short, no puns, use keywords, use hashtags, don't consolidate stories (one tweet per story), link directly to story (not home page — don't be a page-view monger), and don't use subheads.

Learn from Past Tweets

Twitter's web-based version, and its ecosystem of apps such as TweetDeck, track every time your Twitter handle appears in a tweet. After you tweet a link or make a statement, watch how your followers receive it and whether they retweet it.

In addition to following your retweets on Twitter's search tool, other tools help you track the pervasiveness of the links you share. TweetDeck users utilize bit.ly to shorten URLs they tweet. If you visit bit.ly's website, you can track the performance of links you tweet.

Over time, you should notice patterns for what material your followers receive well. In many cases, it will depend on the audience, which can be quite diverse. Figuring out what makes your Twitter followers click and retweet is a process Boyd calls "micro-psychographics."

In his blog post explaining the phenomenon, Boyd observed that, based on anecdotal evidence, Twitter users respond to tweets differently. Some engage more heavily with questions or declarative sentences, while others prefer emotional prompts evincing anger or happiness. "I have noticed very different responses to different styles of URL-ed tweets," Boyd wrote. "And I think it has to do with the psychological makeup of the recipients of the messages, just as much as the text in the message."

Staff Writer C.G. Lynch covers consumer and social technologies for CIO. You can follow him at @cglynch.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Tweet This

Syndicating your blog to multiple sites

2009-04-28T18:11:00.001-07:00

In order to get the most out of your blog you need to get it seen by the most amount of people as possible. Many bloggers setup a new blog on a free service such as wordpress, typepad, blogger, successful thinkers, or even just utilize facebook. Each one of these sites as a unique following and a new network of people that follow them. To get the most exposure you will want to reach out to each of these communities. Here are a few quick tips on getting your blog out to the most number of people, or sites.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Understanding RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are how sites pickup your syndication. RSS provides a standard xml formatted feed in which thousands, if not millions, of RSS readers can pick up. Be sure that which ever blogging site you use supports sending out an RSS feed of your posts. Successful thinkers supports RSS feeds of everything you do. From blogging to comments, posts, forums, our calendar, announcements and even searches. Most social networks today, support sending RSS feeds, and many support RSS readers.

Setting up your RSS
Once you have a blog setup, that you know supports RSS, you will want to register your blog’s RSS for syndication through Feedburner. Feedburner is powered by google, and will convert your RSS blog syndication to multiple standards. As standards evolve, feedburner will be sure to syndicate your blog in the format best formatted for the receiving end.

The next challenge is to find out where to plug in your RSS feed for blog syndication. Some sites such has facebook have built in utilities for merging your blog syndication directly into your wall and the sites content. Other sites such as myBlogLog (powered by yahoo), technorati, blogged and Google Reader make it easy for you to claim her blog, simply by entering the URL address to your blog. Remember to always use your feedburner RSS syndication address in all sites, so that you can easily make changes and control your feed.

Force feeding other Blogging Platforms
Blogspot, friendster, and wordpress are all great blogging platforms. Each one of these has its own audience, and you should include your blog on each one of these sites. The challenge here is that they don’t always provide an easy way for you to just cross post your content. You can add an RSS reader widget to the side bar so that your blog posts will be indexed and listed on the side of that blog, but cross-posting is much easier.

My favorite blogging site is successful thinkers meetup blog, which is why I post there first. Within the configuration of your blog, you can even set it up to cross post your blog to multiple sites, beyond the typical RSS feed. Cross-posting is an easy way to post once, and to have your blog automatically post onto other blogs. This simplifies getting your content the most exposure.

Adding your blog to Feedburner
To add your blog to feedburner, start here.
The steps are really easy, so I’ll let you follow their online guide.

Adding your blog to facebook
It is a little harder to find where to add your blog, so I have outlined the steps below.
To add your blog to facebook follow these steps.
Create a facebook account
Add your blog to facebook
     a. Click Profile
     b. Click on settings (on the far right next to "All Posts"
     c. Click on "Automatically import activity"
     d. Click on "Blog/RSS"
     e. Paste in your URL to your RSS feed to your blog

Setup MyBlogLog
MyBlogLog, powered by yahoo, is a great way to keep track of all of your blogs and sites. By now, you have probably setup at least 6 different accounts, and are starting to loose track of where your blogs are. It is best if you create an account on MyBlogLog so that you can easily keep track of all of these accounts and sources.

Another Shortcut to Cross-posting
If you are still having trouble getting your blog syndicated to multiple blogging sites, try using Microsoft Windows Live Writer. Once you set up each of your blogs within the application, you can quickly switch over to each of your blogs and click the post button to send your post on its way to multiple sites.

More Information
For more information about syndicating your blog to multiple sites, check out my post on Maximizing your blog.

Feedback
If you are posting, cross posting, or syndicating your blog to other sites, that I have not yet mentioned, please list them below in the comments section and I’ll be sure to update this post with your blog.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Syndicating your blog to multiple sites

2009-04-28T18:04:00.001-07:00

Adding your blog to Feedburner
To add your blog to feedburner, start here.
The steps are really easy, so I’ll let you follow their online guide.

More Information
For more information about syndicating your blog to multiple sites, check out my post on Maximizing your blog.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Web Marketing Analysis Steps Up - Google Analytics API

2009-04-24T08:17:00.001-07:00

Google Analytics API Announced
Google announced its new Google Analytics API today. As a developer, this means more work. As a business owner or executive, this means more information. Many of you are already familiar with Google Analytics, as it the best tracking system for free. When you first started using analytics, you probably learned more about your visitors wanted to know. But over time, the information wasn’t enough. You started thinking outside of the box, and began wondering how the tracking information that you saw related to your business data.

With Google’s new Analytics API, you are able to pull data out and match it with data from your proprietary or existing database. The new API is a read only interface into the life of your website. All of the information that is available through Google’s Analytic reporting engine, is also available through the API.

Beyond Simple Reporting
Beyond making the data available for merging with your internal reports, you can now expose your web traffic reports to other medias or platforms. For example, if you want to access Google Analytics from your phone, you can with this Android application from Actual Metrics. Accessing Analytics from your desktop is also an option like Desktop-Reporting as developed.

See What Others are Doing
Others are well on their way to enhancing their business, like MailChimp who integrated Google Analytics into their email marketing platform and ShufflePoint® who provides a service for adding Google Analytics data into PowerPoint® presentations. Also check out youcalc who has created apps that allow you to mashup Google Analytics, AdWords, Salesforce.com and other enterprise data.

There are plenty more customer examples for you to check out on Google’s developer site. These apps demonstrate only some of the creative possibilities and I’m sure you'll discover other interesting ways to use the Analytics API.

Start Developing with Google Analytics
If you are ready to get started, you will want to jump into the code at Google’s developer site Google Code. There are developer guides, example code, FAQ’s, and more. The complete API is available and ready to use. With Google Analytics API being so new, you will want to join the Google Analytics APIs Group so that you can reach out the developer community for some assistance.

Please let me know if you are looking into doing any Analytic API projects. I would be interested to hear about them and would be willing to publish them here, if you’d like.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Google Profiling – Getting your name seen on Google and controlling it

2009-04-22T12:46:00.001-07:00

Google Yourself
We all have googled ourselves. Some more often than others, and most not because we have big ego’s, but we are curious to see what it is that the world sees about us. Google has offered little to no support in controlling what it is that googlers see about us, until now. By simply searching “me” in Google , you will be given the opportunity to create or edit your profile.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Who are you?
Social networking is all the buzz. And I’m sure that if you are reading this you have profiles on mySpace, Facebook, twitter, and linked In. And now… you need to maintain your Google profile. Often these social networks allow us a little more control of expressing who we are.

Set Up a Google Profile
Setting up a Google profile is very easy and pretty quick. So if you haven’t done it yet, I’d recommend doing that as soon as you finish this short article. Google has modified their search results to include profiles at the bottom of the page. These profiles show up like regular search results, and while it is at the bottom of the page, and you have little control over what is delivered on the top half, you can control what is delivered at the bottom and what Google says about you.

So maybe this isn’t as reassuring as we’d all like it to be, but it is a start. With the improved profile options, it makes it even easier to link to your Google profile, and to control what is shared through this profile.

Get Found on Google
I left my Google profile settings as default, but you will notice that it says “If you want your profile to appear in Google search results, make sure you've selected to display your full name on the Edit profile page. Adding more information will help you improve your profile's rank.” If you take this a step further and verify your name (either by credit card or phone number), you can get a verified icon near your name, showing that you truly are who you say. This isn’t completely reliable yet, and I have not done it. These Google profile searches will appear at the bottom of the first page regardless of whether your name has been verified or not.

Google software engineer Brian Stoler explains, "These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We've also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn."

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Things are heating up – Combating project management delays

2009-04-22T07:55:00.001-07:00

These last couple days have been got. We are breaking records, and the cool weekend can’t come quick enough. Yesterday it was 97 degrees, breaking the old record of 94 degrees set in the 80’s. It normally isn’t this hot this early. At work our air conditioning is only working in half of the building, so it is working overtime just to maintain a tolerable temperature. So what does all of this have to do with project management? Happy, comfortable employees work harder.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford

Big Things Coming
We have a big event coming up on May 23rd, and plan to release about 7 new products. Only half of these are even ready for full production. And if they all were all ready by now, we probably would have already launched them. The fact that these products aren’t ready is not an issue. The challenge is that we need to get all of them created, reviewed by legal, and then sent to print. Once the products are ready we need to create all of the marketing material, such as web promotions, print promotions, flyers, postcards, store display signs, video for the internet, and videos for the live events.

Adjusting to Cuts
I’m sure that IT departments across the US have made cuts over the last year. We have all had to deal with the reality of the current situation. So how do you deal with the staffing adjustments you made in the past, and compensate for the increased work load of the current?

One solution would be to pick up some temps. Without committing the long term work force, you can hire some very well qualified individuals to help get you over that hump. We have had tremendous success with Pride Staff, and Express Employment Professions, both of which are temp agencies here in Stockton, California. Though we use Express nationwide, as we host events across the US.

Having a strong workflow management is the only way to adjust to increased work load, without adding additional staff. IT receives projects from just about every imaginable source within a company, and even outside of a company. If all of these tasks are not funneled through an easy to manage task management list, you will lose too much time.

Lost Time
Your staff needs to be effectively communicated to. Without an easily managed task management system for all projects to funnel through, your staff will have a lot of dead time between projects, and questions will not be addressed very quickly. In addition, if people are allowed to circumvent the task management system, tasks will not be completed on time, and your days will be chaotic. Often executives of companies feel that their tasks will be completed more quickly if they circumvent management, going directly to the laborers that perform the task. While their personal task might be completed slightly a head of schedule, the company will suffer. They do not see the impact on the overall workflow.

Team Work Project Manager
About two weeks ago I started putting our current projects into a site on http://www.teamworkpm.net/, and then 3 days later, I introduced the site to our graphic designers. The following day, to our programmers, and the next to the balance of the IT department. This site was met with excitement from everyone. It was rolled out in stages to the department to ensure a smooth adoption, and was a complete success. The next step would be to start introducing the site to the rest of the company.

All of the staff that have begun using this site have really enjoyed it. I was glad to see that the adoption went so smooth. I had been exploring various project management applications and task management resources, when I stumbled on teamwork. It is very close to Basecamp, but came out a head.

Hopefully within the next couple weeks, I will be able to introduce a login for management throughout the company, so that they can track the progress on their projects, without being able to interfere with our workflow. For now, I just meet with them regularly to give them updates.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Moving Forward, While Standing Still – Battling IT Security

2009-04-13T08:01:00.001-07:00

Creating Security Policies in a Down Market
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Security is a big issue for all IT leaders. Whether your a CIO, CTO, IT Director, or an IT manager, you are constantly battling security. It can be very difficult to work on projects to move you forward, when you are constantly fighting to maintain a secure network.

New Sources of Attacks
US infrastructure remains vulnerable to cyber terrorism. While the US seems to behind as a country, many of our corporations practice much stricter polices than our governing agencies. Government agencies will always be targets, but more so by terrorists and other countries. These criminals are not the same criminals that we, as corporations, need to protect against. Don't get me wrong, we still need to be protected, but our focus needs to be on fraud, identity theft, financial theft, etc. Most of our attacks will be geared towards financial gain.

Jump Start your Policies
In a slower economy, often security takes a back seat to corporate priorities. Most projects are going to be focused on saving money or generating money, but security at a time like this is just as important, if not more important. We need to stay aware of the increased risks that are brought on my a recession. There are more qualified, intelligent people in circulation that are getting desperate for income. We need to watch out for threats from past employees, current employees, desperate unemployed, and the casual hacker who is just bored.

So how do you enhance security when your time is already so limited? Here are a couple of tips of increasing security, without having to spend too much time devising your own. When constructing security policies, take a look at Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The SANS Security Policy Project and NIST are also great sources. While these policies might not work for you untouched, they give you a good place to start.

Rising Attacks
Attacks are on the rise. There are even reports of attacks on US power companies. We need to minimize our risks as much as possible and if you are on the internet, have eMail, eCommerce, or just a static website, you need protect yourself from these points of risk. Try starting with something as basic as a Web Agreement like, "By using this website, you agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement"

A well-drawn Web Wrap Agreement can help you to significantly reduce your legal risks. The most basic thing that you should put in every Terms and Conditions is a limitation of liability clause. So even if you get sued and lose, at least the maximum damage award against you is nominal. I'll typically limit damages to something like $50 to $100.

To further insulate you from the claims of users, have them agree that use of the site is at their own risk and that you disclaim all warranties. Also, include a clause making them liable to you if they upload things to the site like copyrighted or trademarked material that they don't have a right to use. This gives you some protection if a third party sues you for something posted to your site by a user. Try including a clause requiring that any lawsuit be filed in my client's home state, not the user's, to discourage getting sued over nonsense. Using the courts looks a whole lot less attractive as the mileage increases.

Be Proactive
Once you get sued, you can't require the other side to come to your home state if you didn't have the agreement already on the site. Don't be like the people that put in the burglar alarm after the burglary. A little preventive law is much cheaper and less stressful than crisis law. Try starting with some basics. Here are 10 steps to improve security within Internet Explorer. Don’t be hesitant on implementing new security practices, even if they seem dumb. Often people reserved when implementing simple security practices, as they now change is always met with resistance, and many people fear being hated. But even the SEC is has many basic security challenges to overcome, such as plain text passwords, or shared security accounts.

And if you’re still looking for an extra little oomph to get that financing for that security project that you just can’t get past… Try going back to some of your current vendors and ask for a discount. You might be surprised how many are willing to negotiate. Then try some scare tactics. Often security is on the back burner because decision makers aren’t aware of the true risks. Try looking into 5 things you can’t see on your network.

Move Forward
Even though you might think that your IT security is at a stand still, try working on some basic, free, and time optimized tasks. Some of these things might be new policies, such as the above mentioned password or data policies, or others might simply be applying new updates to your software. Software updates are often free, simple ways to maintain your security. Oh… and read about the updates. The holes they find and fill, might give you ideas about other holes that you need to fill in your own network and applications.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Government technology to speed up private projects

2009-04-09T21:47:00.001-07:00

Technology in 24
Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Technology in 24
So I’m a 24 addict. If any of you are following this season or caught the episode from 11:00PM – 12:00AM, then you had a chance to see a pardon document produced and signed by the president in just minutes. For those of you that don’t follow the series, you are missing out and I’d like to explain to you what happened.

Request a pardon
The FBI Director requested a pardon from the President, who then asked for him to draw up the documents and send them over to her when he was done. Of course he was already prepared. I imagine that the document was drawn up in MS Word, and converted to a PDF. I would also imagine that this would normally be a template, so this part isn’t impressive, but what happens next was pretty hot.

Remote desktop and file sharing
The director tells the President that he has the document and pulls it up to show her the document through a Cisco Webex. I would have opted with a different solution, one that was less expensive. But if you’ve got the funds behind you, Cisco’s Webex is a very reliable and robust application for sharing. It was pretty cool that they had 4 different people up on webcams for the conference, and had full control over their applications. You’ll also notice that they are using Logitech Webcams.

From here the President was able to add her digital signature to the document by signing it through the webex session. She used a Wacom tablet to add her signature. It caught my attention since I had just blogged about the newest Wacom tablet. This is so awesome that they were able to quickly produce and sign an official document all remotely.

Send document to helicopter agent
While the document was still at the FBI, now with the Presidents digital signature, the FBI director needed to get the document out into the field so that his field agents wouldn’t restrain and arrest the person that was just granted immunity. He was able to send the document wirelessly to his agents while they were in transit in a helicopter.

What makes all of these even more amazing, is that all of this technology is publically available. You could even have all of your templates stored on Microsoft Live, or Google Docs for quick access from anywhere.

Get IT Expediter by eMail

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

The Perfect Tools – The right mouse

2009-04-08T00:56:00.001-07:00

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Like the mighty pen for a writer, our mouse is our tool that we bond with and bring our dreams to life. I had the experience of using a wacom tablet a few years back, and unfortunately I don’t have one right now, but I wanted to take a moment to share a few details about the most recent release. The wacom tablet is the perfect tool for a digital graphic artist. If you really want to expedite your graphic design projects, get your designers the new Wacom tablet, INTUOS4 professional pen tablet.

I’m sure that there would be no argument that Adobe’s Photoshop is the perfect tool for creating original photo quality artwork. The latest version, Adobe’s Photoshop CS4, is phenomenal. All of the new features will speed up productivity immensely. And coupled with the next generation, Wacom Generation 2 tip sensor pen tip, your designers will be unstoppable.

While Wacom’s Cintiq has an LCD surface and can display your screen, I think that most designers would make the transition to the Ituos4 more easily so that you can gain speed without losing focus on the screen.

Since I don’t do much design work myself, this would definitely be a luxury item. I find myself spending most of my time in long documents. Whether it is programming, reading configurations, schema’s, reports, or data documents, my files tend to run really long. My mouse preference is Logitech’s MX Revolution. The endless scroll really speeds up time, and the comfort has no other match. I’ve tried many Microsoft Mice, and while I use a Microsoft keyboard, I prefer the Logitech mouse. On my laptop I use a Logitech's VX Nano, again with many of the same features, but mini for the laptop.

The right keyboard and mouse will make all of the difference in your work day. In fact, I just went out and picked up a new mouse for a CEO. His old mouse was slowing him down.

Which mouse and keyboard combination do you prefer? How about for work versus play? Leave me your comments.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Get IT Expediter by eMail

the other hand

Amazing Week: AirSoft, Sweden, Pregnant, Valley Apprentice, and Citrix XenApp 6 Farm

HTML to PDF component: A review of ExpertPDF

Spell Check Control–c#, vb.NET and beyond

Communication getting Relaxed

Review of Infragistics’ Spell Check Control for WinForms

Tracy and Kate best man wedding speech

Best Backup Solution: Moving away from tapes with full disaster recovery II

Our solution comprises of:

Best Backup Solution: Moving away from tapes with full disaster recovery

Journey To CISSP: A look at how to get the world-wide recognized security certificate

7 Relationships All Leaders Need

7 Relationships All Leaders Need

(And How to Build Them)

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Attacks On Twitter, Facebook Shutdown Result Of Massive Attack On One Person

DDoS Attacks On Twitter, Facebook Result Of Massive Attack On One Person Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Turn Your Passion into Money

Ride a Google Wave to Success

Unexpected Companies from Life’s Adventures

Urgency will Close the Deal

Building Success: Where are you headed – Dream Building

National Day of Prayer – Reflecting on answered prayers

Twitter Tips: How And Why To Use Hashtags (#)

Twitter Tips: How to Write Better Tweets

Syndicating your blog to multiple sites

Syndicating your blog to multiple sites

Web Marketing Analysis Steps Up - Google Analytics API

Google Profiling – Getting your name seen on Google and controlling it

Things are heating up – Combating project management delays

Moving Forward, While Standing Still – Battling IT Security

Government technology to speed up private projects

The Perfect Tools – The right mouse

DDoS Attacks On Twitter, Facebook Result Of Massive Attack On One Person
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford