My Company's Craaaazy Internal Blogosphere

Looking for a corporate .ppt template, I stumbled into a blogging-for-employees feature on our intranet. I almost got excited - then I read one.
Bookmarks>highlight name>right click>Delete.

SUBJECT: Just amazing what we are doing...

Hi everybody it's quite hard these days to keep posting some blog entries as I am a bit lost in /buried by work due to the fact that I do work intensively for the GSS IT Competence Center Desktop in addition to my AIP job. But still some news that were astonishing enough to sit down and write another post: We (competence center desktop) were enjoying a presentation by Johann Lindmeyr about WAN Traffic Impact compensation within Shared Services IT.

What is that about? Well, during the transformation of IT Services into their future mode of operation we will (hopefully) see a certain degree of consolidation - which e.g. refers to the fact that systems, services, servers are moved into just a few central facilities. Data traffic (Wide Area Network, WAN) between these central facilities and customer locations will increase therefore. WAN costs stay with the customer - which causes potentially higher WAN costs on the customer side just by the fact the the IT Service Provider consolidates systems . This has been widely regarded as an issue....

Now, Johann has shown us what both sides GSS and SIS have jointly developed and agreed: A comprehensive set of methodology and measurement services that gives fully transparency on WAN traffic before and after transformation. Drilled down into each different service (e.g. email, SAP, filespace etc.) and per customer location. Any change and cost impact can easily be made transparent. Absolutely amazing!! And nobody knows yet just because we are not the best marketeers...

The WAN traffic topic is now a non issue. Yeah!

Have a good day & see you soon,
Boris

Tags: Traffic, WAN
Boris S.

We All Get Pinched. But You Did it Right. You Told 'em Nothing And They Got Nothing.

"Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say ‘no’ to Karl Rove.”
- Senate majority leader Harry Reid

Oges shot me this:

Published on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 by The Rocky Mountain News

from "Gonzales & Son: The Legacy of An Honest Day’s Work" by Paul Campos

"…Abject loyalty is a fine thing in a dog, but Gonzales’ unlimited devotion to his master became, after a time, a rather stomach-churning sight. Thus I found it particularly offensive that, in announcing his resignation, Gonzales noted that he had “lived the American dream,” because “even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father’s best days.”

Pablo Gonzales, who died 25 years ago, was a construction worker with an elementary school education who, with his wife Maria, raised Alberto as one of their eight children.

I know nothing more about the man that that, but it seems he did an honest day’s work for a day’s pay, and that he found a way to put food on the table and clothes on the backs of eight children despite his elementary school education. And we know he never lied to Congress, or helped make it possible for his country’s government to torture people, or made a mockery of the rule of law.

I imagine he had a lot of good days."

Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado.

Jon Stewart Explains US/Middle East Foreign Policy

Biggest "I Didn't Do It" ever.

Paula Scher Diagrams the Blog

This was an NYT Op-Art, but I got it from Personism.

Change the World in a Tiny Way

Just take a point called Z in the complex plane
Let Z1 be Z squared plus C
And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C
And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C
and so on

If the series of Zs should always stay
Close to Z and never trend away

That point is in the Mandelbrot Set.

Jenny Cool wrote and said she also likes Coulton's Mandelbrot Set, which I do to, so there you go.

Jenny and I started going out in my senior year at AES. Always wicked smart and true to her last name, she was the one who convinced me to run for school president, which I did, and won. 23 years later, she now has a mind and drive capable of altering the movement of planets. Don't take my word for it: Check her schmidt out.

-- Jenny Cool
anthropologist, filmmaker, intelligent savage
"Count the Moon." "One." "Whoa...."

I Don't Code, So I Don't Get It.

Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey

(Meeeet Me In Monnnntauk...)

This editor's choice of song ("Breathe Me," by the very left-of-center SIA) was eerily intuitive. It's also the soundtrack to Frank Warren's Post Secret mini-movie.

As compelling as it all tends to be, it's hard to be a Charlie Kaufman completist when people like Laila S. keep cranking out this shite.

Happy Indiapendence Day

\
August 15, 1947, midnight. The British ceded power to two vast semi-unified nations, India and Pakistan. The latter was separated and divided into two states, crowded in the middle by India (East Pakistan, refusing to "scooch over," became Bangladesh in 1971, two years before we moved there).

Lisa Lemon Gloria pointed to this excellent article today:

Exit Wounds
The legacy of Indian partition.
by Pankaj Mishra

And here's my short list of essential India books:
- Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
- City of Joy, by Dominique Lapierre
- Freedom at Midnight, by Larry Collins (and Lapierre)
- Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Gitanjali, by Rabindranath Tagore

Ever wonder what that wheel thing is, in the flag of India?

When Indians were forced to buy their own cloth re-imported from England, Gandhi got everyone to make thread and loom clothes out of raw Indian cotton. MLK heard about this and thought, "Back of the bus? Why don't we just just walk?"

Reporter: "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
Gandhi: "I think it would be a good idea."

I Found These Pics of Francesca

Shot on 35mm film, in Wimberley, about 4 years ago.


May Tumse Pyara Karta Hoon



Two daughters down, one to go (Toots loved staring at fans)



Ladies day out



Hey! Very funny! It's raining! Let me in!



Making sure Scout knows about Sponge Bob

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended

June 2, 2007 | Issue 43•22
MORRISTOWN, NJ—In an innovative, tradition-defying rethinking of one of the greatest comedies in the English language, Morristown Community Players director Kevin Hiles announced Monday his bold intention to set his theater's production of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in 16th-century Venice.

"I know when most people hear The Merchant Of Venice, they think 1960s Las Vegas, a high-powered Manhattan stock brokerage, or an 18th-century Georgia slave plantation, but I think it's high time to shake things up a bit," Hiles said. "The great thing about Shakespeare is that the themes in his plays are so universal that they can be adapted to just about any time and place." More >>

The Bloom Fades on the Turd Blossom

Genius Boy will soon arrive at his 800 ft² villa in Ingram, midway between Kerrville and Heart of the Hills. Look for him at the next folk fest, all tie-dyed and looped on Lone Star longnecks.

Meanwhile, in the words of the press:

"Karl Rove leaves the White House in anything but victory. Even some of his former lieutenants are apt, in private moments, to speak of Mr. Rove in tones of disappointment, disillusionment and no small amount of anger.

...(M)any wonder if a strategy aimed entirely at methodically identifying and stoking the party’s conservative base, with issues like gay marriage, abortion and terrorism, was ever a recipe for long-term political dominance, much less for governing a country." - Adam Nagourney, August 13, 2007, NY Times

________________________________

"The Jack Abramoff affair. The mid-term elections defeat. The CIA spy leak. The firing of federal prosecutors. Mr Rove's name was dragged into a series of Republican scandals, but his precise role and responsibilities never revealed — and not without people trying to find out. He was questioned in front of a grand jury five times before prosecutors decided not to charge him in the CIA leak case.
During the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, who was eventually jailed for obstructing the investigaton, lawyers tried to pin the blame on Mr Rove but, as the Washington Post reported, "his job was never fully explained. His influence was never clearly defined." - Sam Knight, August 13, 2007, Times Online

________________________________

"Rove has been the target of congressional scrutiny as he and other White House staffers have been subpoenaed by Congress to testify in the case of several fired U.S. attorneys. Rove served as Bush's political adviser last year as the president failed to overhaul U.S. immigration law and Democrats won control of Congress.

Other White House officials who left after the election include White House counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Rob Portman, chief White House attorney Harriet Miers, political director Sara Taylor and deputy national security adviser J.D. Crouch. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left his job immediately following the election, as the Iraq war's influence on voters became clear." -CNN, Aug 13 '07

________________________________

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."
- Karl Rove
Undereducated Republican war profiteer, who will never be accused by anyone of being too much of a good thing.

(To be fair, he does have an honorary degree from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Baptist University)

Fire in the Water/Earth in the Air PAR-TAY in Lubbock!

OK, last year, when this was held at Stubb's here in Austin, Billy Gibbons jumped the stage and tore it up with some of the stinkiest blues antics I've ever heard live, ever. I shot some of the pics of it. Billy Bob Thornton and Stu Cook were wandering around. If this is anything like last year's, it'll be one of the SINGULAR live music experiences of your life, beyond hyperbole.

Southwest Airlines is offering $74 non-stop flights, so if you don't go, it wasn't because you couldn't afford it. I pee myself slightly just thinking about it. In case you're not on the list (you should get on the list), here's Oges' invite email:

Help us Celebrate!

Friday September 7, 2007
6:00pm - midnight
@ Tornado Gallery,
1822 Buddy Holly Ave., Lubbock, TX

Mark your calendars because you want to be at this party!
Help us celebrate the one-year anniversary of the University of Texas Press publication of
"Fire in the Water, Earth in the Air: Legends of West Texas Music," and more importantly to celebrate West Texas music and the musicians themselves.

• Author Chris Oglesby will sign your copy of his award winning book.
• Many musical guests from the book will attend and perform!
  INCLUDING:
  • Gonzo Bob Livingston
  • Jay Boy Adams & band
  • Kenny Maines
  • Tommy Hancock with Louie and Joaquin Hancock &
    the Sons of Roadside Playboys
  • Cary Swinney with Brian McRae
  • Wade Parks with Matthew McLarty
  • The Texas Belairs
  • Andy Eppler
  • Susan Grisanti
  • Bruno & the Prophets of Rockabilly
  • Rearview Mirror
  • Paul Bullock
• schedule & tickets:
  6pm - 9pm: FREE (in connection with First Friday Art Trail )
  9pm - midnight: admission with purchase of the book ($22.95) or a special commemorative poster for $15.
• Location: Tornado Gallery - corner of 19th Street & Buddy Holly Ave. , Lubbock TX
• Cash bar & food by Triple J Chophouse & Brewery.

Read what William Kerns of the Lubbock AJ has to say about the book & our party.
(note: Colin Gilmore and Jo Carol Pierce have had to cancel, with regrets. - co.)

Check out the book release party we had in Austin at Stubb's!


(Here's the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's writeup)

Help Me, Bobby. Bach Me Up.

Rough weekend. Need relief. I did this before, and it worked so well I'm doing it again. Only this time, with cello.

Grin, grin, grin.

Mom's Red Cross "Restructure"

UPDATE: From Wikipedia:
"On November 27, the American Red Cross Board of Governors asked for and received the resignation of President and CEO Mark W. Everson, effective immediately. The Board acted quickly after learning that Mr. Everson engaged in a personal relationship with a subordinate employee. It concluded that the situation constituted poor judgment on Mr. Everson’s part and diminished his ability to lead the organization in the future.^[3]
Mr. Everson is married and has two children."

Mom got laid off from the Red Cross today. She was one of their senior editors, and had been there for almost 10 years. I was unclear what they meant by "Give Blood" until today. Maybe should have seen it coming from this story off the AP wire last month:

New Red Cross Chief Tackles Multiple Challenges
By David Crary, AP National Writer
Jul 3, 2007

"...after four years running the Internal Revenue Service, Mark Everson has at least one new advantage. "My 18-year-old daughter said, 'People will like you now,'" Everson observed with a smile Tuesday during an interview with The Associated Press."

I know a few people who won't like him, now or ever. Mark Everson's a Reagan & Bush-appointed lackey who made his millions as a VP of finance for Sky Chefs, a multi-billion dollar airline food supply company in Irving (near Siemens). So the guy in charge of feeding the poor got rich selling airplane food. (There has got to be a joke in there somewhere. Help me out here, people.)

Here's our 20/20 hindsight clue:

"Internally, Everson will have his hands full with management challenges. He said the Red Cross has an operational deficit (he didn't give figures) and is looking for ways to cut administrative costs at its Washington headquarters as it invests more money in disaster preparedness. He declined to say whether layoffs might be part of the needed restructuring which also will include efforts to standardize financial procedures among the charity's 760 chapters nationwide."

Four paragraphs later, we learn that Everson's annual salary is half a million dollars. Did I mention he's already a millionaire?

Exactly how much is the Red Cross saving with these layoffs? Pesos to tacos that figure is in the neighborhood of $500,000 a year.

(That last analogy is funny because Everson was behind Reagan's racist 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. And by "funny" I mean "splenetic.")

On the plus side, Mom's an excellent technical writer, and as of this post probably has another solid gig lined up.