Who proofread this spam?

My spell checker is frantic.

Free virtualization tutorial

Sure, I like free things.  That's why I appreciate the Storage Networking Industry Association's posting free tutorials on their website.

When I downloaded the Virtualizations/Applications tutorial, though, I hoped for a simple explanation,  preferably a video with one-syllable words, of the benefits of dynamic provisioning.  Instead I found three PowerPoint presentations full of sophisticated network-speak.

So I did what any writer would do.  I wrote down the phrases that appealed to me.  Here they are:

• Heuristic shifting
• Transparent on-the-fly reconfiguration
• Virtual disks
• Switch-based fabric topology is preferable to appliance-based failover mechanisms
• A smart switch comprises a metadata controller and a data controller
• A full block copy is better than a live volume
• Volume updates replicate to remote servers
• "Do not rely on only one network-based appliance or intelligent switch only"
• You use two redundant volumes, one active and one passive, stored in a mirrored backend.  The passive one has host-based multipathing software
• Policy-based service level management handles error-prone administrative tasks such as storage provisioning.  In fact, policy-based service must have no user interaction.  This one made me think of Vonnegut's Player Piano.
• " Map storage to server volume(s) (online)!!" This one is obviously important because it has two exclamation marks
• Hypervisor This is a new word to me, and I like it.

If I got them wrong, don't blame the experts at the SNIA.  Do look for these phrases on web copy and newsletters coming from my desk very soon :D

Finally, slide 21 of Trends in Application Recovery by Andreas Schwegman makes it all worthwhile.  So grab some popcorn and download those tutorials.

What bituminous rock did I crawl out from under?

Last night two TV ads astonished me.  Both were for Citizen's Energy, an alliance that's been providing one-time 100 gallon shipments of free heating oil to impoverished US households in 23 states.  The oil comes from Venezuela, from CITGO, in fact.

I wish I could find the ads on the internet so I could link you to them.  When I do, I will.

According to Citizen's Energy website, the program has been distributing free oil since 1979.  1979 was only four years after the US sold wheat to the USSR to supplement the Soviet Republic's poor grain harvest.  Everybody knows that the US provides foreign aid, it doesn't receive it, right?

US citizens shivering in possibly-to-be-foreclosed houses will be grateful for foreign aid or anything that keeps their pipes from freezing.  I hope that those of us with more choices will bear in mind that Venezuela's Orinoco Belt is the world's greatest supplier of orimulsion(r).

My father, Ken Hadow, waged the best fight of his life combating Florida Power & Light's application to burn Venezuelan orimulsion at its Manatee Power Plant. 

Orimulsion is a tar-like bituminous fuel with a sulfur content of 3.8%.  To evade OPEC quotas on oil, Venezuela tagged it a "non-conventional fuel" or "liquid coal."  Others just call it "the world's dirtiest fuel."

Thanks to efforts like my father's, the market in the US, Canada and the UK dried up.  Now Venezuela sells millions of tons of inexpensive orimulsion to China, where, mixed with water, it burns like coal, releasing heavy concentrations of sulfur, and fueling cheap Chinese exports.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez calls the trade between China and Venezuela "a "Great Wall" against American hegemonism."

In 2006, Bloomberg News reported that

Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest oil producer, had hinted he would seize the assets by raising taxes and royalties on the four ventures. Chavez, a critic of U.S. President George W. Bush, also blames capitalism for global poverty and has endorsed socialism as the best way to right economic inequalities.

Chávez did seize those assets.  In 2008, Reuters reported that

President Hugo Chavez last year led a nationalization crusade that gave the state control over the projects once run by companies including Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and ConocoPhillips (COP.N), which have taken Venezuela to arbitration for the takeover.

Why would a nation that obviously finds the US overweening and benighted give us free heating oil, except to cock a snook, the snook paid for by the sale of orimulsion and by nationalizing private production plants?

Ginny Hillenbrand’s “Instant Focus” Works

There was a problem with the way I presented myself. I’d read books about it, prayed about it, asked others. Still I couldn’t put my finger on exactly where the problem was and what I could do about it.

So I called Ginny Hillenbrand. Ginny trained me when I started out as a realtor. Some of the best advice you see on this blog actually comes from her.

Ginny is now a life coach. She offers three kinds of coaching.

• Presentation Skills
• Instant Focus™
• Leadership Coaching

I want instant results, of course. So I went for the Instant Focus™

As Ginny puts it

“Instant Focus” is a one-time coaching session designed to help you move quickly toward an answer, an idea, a solution… NOW! This unique hybrid between Coaching and Consulting has helped scores of top executives and salespeople pump energy and clarity into confusing or exasperating situations.

I described my problem as best I could. And within minutes Ginny responded in a way that made me understand where I could improve my performance, and how to do it. I’d been fretting over this issue for months. Ginny got right to the heart of it. I can’t say enough how impressed I am.

Here’s how Ginny’s Instant Focus™ sessions work:

1. Initial phone call to discuss the format (no charge). This will help you clarify your goals. If you don’t move ahead, no problem, but what do you have to lose from making the call?
2. “Discovery” survey exploring the goal of the process for the individual. All information shared is totally confidential.
3. 90-minute coaching session over the phone.
4. One week after the session, follow-up call to reinforce and identify areas of progress.

I’m touched and grateful that Ginny pinpointed the problem area for me and gave me concrete ways to address it. If you have a work or life problem, contact Ginny for that initial phone call and see if she can help you the way she helped me. Ginny’s website is www.1-866-IMPROVE.com

Why are used Blackberries so expensive?

I'm embarrassed to say that my phone isn't web-enabled.  So far I just haven't seen the point since I'm not on the road enough.

Still I know many efficient people who love their PDAs for contact and schedule management.  So I thought, what the heck?  I'll buy a used Blackberry for cheap and try it out for a month, no internet, just the calendar and contact management.

To my surprise, there are no cheap Blackberries, even used ones.  What's with that?  Even the used ones  cost hundreds of dollars.  They've been on the market long enough that somebody must have tired of theirs, or upgraded, right?

If you have a used Blackberry that I can borrow for a month or so, please let me know.

Too bad I don’t lead a community foundation

The Pew Internet & American Life Project will present a media learning seminar about the information ecosystems of communities at the end of this month.

 

The new research looks at citizen experiences and attitudes in Macon, Philadelphia, and Santa Clara about local media and institutions. It explores the ways local news organizations, governments, libraries, and other anchor institutions are serving the information appetites of their communities.

Even though I’d like to be there, I’m not invited because I don’t lead a community foundation.

Still, from my own computer I get lots of information from the Pew Center, such as this report on the use of the internet in higher-income households :

• Higher-income households are more likely to own more internet-ready devices and to have broadband access than their less wealthy counterparts.  (Well, it's a good idea to confirm the obvious.)
• "79% of the internet users in the higher earning bracket have visited a government website at the local, state or federal level versus 56% of those who fall into the lowest-income group ."
• "Internet users in the top income brackets are more likely to search for medical information online, seek treatment information, seek material about doctors and medical facilities, and get data concerning test results."  (Speculation: Maybe that’s because lower household income correlates to lower likelihood to have health insurance? If your coverage is good, it pays to try to find the most effective treatment, rather than what your insurance company dictates or what you can pay out of pocket.)

 

The report separates out the internet use statistics for ultra-high income households.

 

 

Also, have a look at the Pew reports on social and demographic trends, because, as Benjamin Franklin said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

 

 

 

 

Free college classes--online

I do like free things, as long as I trust the organization offering them.  Here's one I think is a great deal.

Always wish you’d studied Modern Poetry? Music appreciation? Psychology?

You can study at Yale, via the internet, at no charge under a program called Open Yale Courses.

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.

I’m taking PSYC 123: The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food. Maybe it’ll give me ideas for the cookbook.

If you take one of these classes, let me know what you think.

Unwelcome edits

This just makes me laugh:

Nothing, not love, not greed, not passion or hatred, is stronger than a writer's need to change another writer's copy. --Arthur Evans

The Ring Cycle: I

I want to create a custom ringtone to give to donors at a fundraiser.

If only I knew how, not just to create the ringtone, but to patent or trademark this innovative idea, I would.

Lloyd can make me an MP3 file. The problem is how to load it on my own phone and onto donors’ phones.

So I type “custom ringtone” and “create ringtone” into my search engine. Result:

• make your own ringtones,online ringtone maker,free custom ringtones,free ...
• Create free MP3 ringtones for your cell phone. .... Free T-Mobile Ringtones • Free Apple iPhone Wallpapers • Make Your Own MP3 Ringtones Online! ...
• Make m4r Ringtones Online: computer rpg tetris pokemon monopoly. Make Free Midi Ringtones, Make Money Online Toolbar, Ringtones Librarian.

 I’m suspicious.

  

My mother-in-law is so cautious that she won’t visit blogs, even mine. But I don’t think it’s hypercautious not to want to visit a free ringtone site.

•  You already know that the creators are technically savvy enough to transmit information to your phone, and presumably to your computer as well.
• Why are they offering this ability to you for free? What’s in it for them?
• Could they plan to deliver malware to your pc? Or to your phone?
• Even if most of them are honest, how do you know you won’t land on the malefactor?

Note that I didn’t search for “free ringtone.” I’d rather pay a few bucks and

• Not feel guilty for depriving someone of a due livelihood
• Not worry that I couldn’t really trust the supplier
• Otherwise live with the boring ringtones I already have

In the end, the donors who install the ringtone on their phones are going to have to trust me, especially if they have to hand me their SIM cards to insert into a multi-card reader (though I hope there's an easier way). I need a solution I can trust.

I’ll keep you posted.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Price

At the cookbook committee meeting today we settled on a price: $20/copy.

We're happy to say that we plan to design the book to fit in a small flat-rate mailer, so it'll cost $6 for postage and handling to ship anywhere in the United States.  We'd have been so irritated if we'd only thought of it after the books came back from the printer.

The funny thing is that even though we haven't announced the price, we have two advance orders.  This reminds us that if the book sells really well, it won't be entirely due to our editorial skills or our marketing acumen.  It's a fundraiser, and people do want to support the Women of Calvary.

Photo courtesy PSE&G