This[^] is what happened.

I'm writing a book on this subject now, titled "Social Media for Engineers and Scientists[^]." Many left-brained professionals like programmers and engineers believe they are bad designers and/or not creative. I thought the same thing, but what I've learned is that it is entirely possible to learn how to be a MUCH better designer. There are rules, tips, and tricks that they don't teach you in your computer science or engineering school. You can start by checking out a presentation I created on Slideshare (Creating Great Content[^]) that introduces some basics. If you're interested you can contact me directly and I can suggest some books and resources to get you from novice designer to apprentice artist.

I don't see anyone attacking Apple on the merits of their arguments. It seems the best they can do is, "I know you are, but what am I?" and "Look who's calling the kettle black." Whether or not they're accurate attacks makes no difference to any of the points Apple is making.

John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:

The second problem is that the CEO also insists on configuring the routers, switches, and servers himself, and refuses to give permissions to our netwrok team to do so.

That tells you everything you need to know about the company. It's doomed, no question. He's a control freak and egomaniac who does not know how to delegate. As Guy Kawasaki says, A's hire B's and B's hire C's, leading to the business talent death spiral. If an A is accidentally hired, they don't stick around long... case in point.

Had a "same but different" problem with Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse. The mouse wheel did not play nice with MS Virtual Machine. Went back to Logitech and works flawlessly.

I am conducting a survey of social media usage and awareness. So far, I have been getting most of my responses from Facebook and Twitter connections. Due to the overwhelmingly negativity perception of those services here, it seems the perfect place to collect some contrasting responses. It will take about three to five minutes. I hope this is not an inappropriate use of the Lounge. Once I get to 100 responses, I'll be happy to report the results here if people are interested. Click here to take the survey.[^]

Heh heh. In that case, you can always substitute perseverance.

First step, create a fan page - don't post work/career stuff to your personal profile. Second step, use the Networked Blogs application to link your blog (you do have a blog, don't you?) to the fan page. Domesticating IT[^]

Trending topics are least common denominator garbage. Twitter has plenty of value if you are smart enough to figure it out.

In Outlook, you can change the settings on the account to "Leave mail on server" and they won't be removed from the server. However, my understanding is that once you set up the account to use personal folders you're stuck. You'd have to delete the account and recreate it, or add another account for the same email address. Then again, I haven't used Outlook for a couple of years now. You can configure Gmail to check up to 5 POP accounts from within a single browser. Click on "Settings" on the top right and then the "Accounts and Import" tab. There's a "Check mail using POP3" section that allows you to add other accounts. Then they all flow through that one account. I've been using it for five accounts for years.

Thanks for that link. I was in tears. Big Eddie Izzard fan.

It wasn't even 9 months. The deadline for nominations was back in February - 11 days into his administration. He won this over a Chinese dissident and woman risking her life for women's rights in Afghanistan.

Who is more pretentious? The author who writes a book for entertainment value or the critic shouting "I am smarter than he is!!!" Kittens on treadmills are not entertainment either, until they are viewed millions upon millions of times on YouTube when they become, prima facie, entertainment. I'm curious why you continue to read his books when they are so inferior and rubbish-filled. I met Dan Brown and attended a lecture of his before he was "famous" at a NH writer's club event. It's your prerogative to criticize his stories as inept and clumsy - reasonable people can disagree on that. I can tell you, however, that he is anything but lazy, ignorant, and pretentious. Have you ever met the man? Personal attacks like that are cheap, uncalled for, ignorant (by definition if you know nothing about him), and say far more about your shortcomings than his, if you ask me. Though I know you didn't. :D I do thank you, however, for these rantings because it underscores how lucky the rest of us dumb folk are who can just enjoy an entertaining, (but apparently) poorly written story.

My background is writing automation software for manufacturing companies and this sort of attitude is nearly identical to the illusion of "100% inspection" for quality control. There is no such thing, and this myth was debunked by Deming back in the 50's. It took about 40 years for it to permeate the manufacturing industry, by which time it was too late of course. Control freak IT departments are under the same delusion that they can put technological solutions in place to (effectively) catch 100% of the "bad stuff." To quote one of my favorite movies (Full Metal Jacket), they are "silly and ignorant." Hopefully it won't take 40 years, but eventually they will learn the same lesson that manufacturers did. Train users on how to use their tools (the computer) and how to solve problems. Teach people what the dangers are, what they should and should not be doing, and hold them accountable. It's not perfect, but then again neither are ridiculous firewall restrictions.

This LifeHacker article[^] shows you how to share your iTunes library across multiple computers. I did it a few weeks ago and it's not a cure-all, but does eliminate some headaches. We have three iPods in the house with multiple user profiles for the kids and it was getting to be a nightmare managing the purchases. All neatly bundled into one shared library now.

I find this deliciously ironic, given that anthropogenic global warming is, itself, "fake".

"It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools." I'm sure you get spam in your email account as well, but you still use it because a) you've developed a system for dealing with it and b) the positives outweigh the negatives. I find it amusing that so many of the forum trolls here at CP pontificate about the worthlessness of Twitter when there is really important, poignant stuff here on CP like: Retro Lunch[^] Hello[^] Complete these well known song titles[^] I'm not casting aspersions on anyone here (except maybe those who are casting aspersions on Twitter users). My point is that the Twitter stream may have more noise but if you know how to use it, you can easily filter that out and it is no more inane than some of the stuff that's tolerated here. By they way, you can follow me on Twitter: @JonDiPietro[^] :rolleyes:

The Carolinas are nice - not as oppressive as Florida. Low cost of living and decent quality of life. I've lived in New Hampshire all my life and southern Virginia/Northern North Carolina are the only other places I'd consider living.

Scratch[^] is a free tool built by MIT to introduce programming constructs and principles to kids.

I feel your pain, which is why I've starting grouping my buzz words into competency groups on my CV; Expert, Proficient, and Familiar. I don't feel it's safe to leave anything out, because many recruiters still use templates for job descriptions that include out of date technologies. I was just laughing yesterday at a Craigslist posting from a recruiter looking for someone with at least 5 years' experience with "developing social networking sites using C#". And it's not the first time I've seen one like that (think I even posted it here).