2017: 55% of Enterprises Use Private Clouds

A bit of work-life reminiscing tonight thanks to an Intel article I ran across.  Made me smile inside at how far ahead of the times we were.  I guess I might even have laughed a bit too knowing how far behind the times they are now ... still working and building a government mentality environment and doing stupid things.

We built a Citrix based private cloud in or about 2005 and 2006 - adding our first remote field office in April of 2006 (I think the years are correct - I was debriefed as I went into retirement and pledged to forget about the work life, thus, they may be off a bit).  The point is, no one else understood or believed in the vision until several years later, and then they thought they knew it all and wanted to build things their way...  building things the same way they use to, and it still isn't smart or right.

Nevertheless, we, me and a select few of my staff with the complete support of "Marvin", that saw my vision, we built our own private cloud, saved money and proved it could work.  Here we are 10 plus years later and only about half of all enterprises get it and built it.... my old work environment is still muddling along, so I hear, all wrapped up in government red tape, doing things with the mentality they always had, without the vision and foresight.  But, I'm as happy as if I were a famous explorer or pioneer like Marco Polo, Daniel Boone, or Neil Armstrong.  We led the way, as the first 1% to step forward and build it.

Worth Thinking About and Remembering

The post I just read on Facebook is not worth a simple “Share”, it’s worth saving so it can be easily referred back to without haven’t to search through the drama and trash found throughout social media.  I hope you read it to the end and then take the time to think about when Ben Stein penned and shared on Facebook.  It’s copied here just so I know where to go find it... it’s that profound.  I hope it helps us both play a bigger part in making this a better world.

Ben Stein’s Facebook post...
Ben Stein:  Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year, which prompted Ben Stein, to say, on CBS Sunday Morning,

My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a nativity scene, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what a bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

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Merry Christmas

What is this he asked...

Have you ever been talking to someone and they are telling you the same story they've told you before?  Perhaps they have repeatedly asked the same question multiple times.  Does it drive you insane, or do you just go with the flow?  What actually amuses me is when someone is telling me how it drives them crazy when so-in-so keeps telling them the same story over and over ....  and they do exactly the same thing.  I probably do too.

I had a story passed along to me in an email today, I thought it was worth sharing ... perhaps as a reminder to slow down and relax.  I know I have personally felt a difference over the years with those I interact with, and not for the better.   So, I share as food for thought, it's stuff like this that will make this a better world if we all could just chill a bit, and show some respect for others.

The author is unknown, but that doesn't change the story....

An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45 years old highly educated son. Suddenly a crow perched on their window.

The Father asked his Son, “What is this?” The Son replied, “It is a crow”. After a few minutes, the Father asked his Son the 2nd time, “What is this?” The Son said “Father, I have just now told you “It’s a crow”. After a little while, the old Father again asked his Son the 3rd time, What is this?”

At this time some expression of irritation was felt in the Son’s tone when he said to his Father with a rebuff. “It’s a crow, a crow”.A little after, the Father again asked his Son the 4th time, “What is this?”

This time the Son shouted at his Father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times ‘IT IS A CROW’. Are you not able to understand this?”

A little later the Father went to his room and came back with an old tattered diary, which he had maintained since his Son was born. On opening a page, he asked his Son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary:

“Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow was sitting on the window. My Son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a Crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel irritated I rather felt affection for my innocent child”.

While the little child asked him 23 times “What is this”, the Father had felt no irritation in replying to the same question all 23 times and when today the Father asked his Son the same question just 4 times, the Son felt irritated and annoyed.

So..

If your parents attain old age, do not repulse them or look at them as a burden, but speak to them a gracious word, be cool, obedient, humble and kind to them. Be considerate to your parents.From today say this aloud, “I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered their selfless love on me.

They crossed all mountains and valleys without seeing the storm and heat to make me a person presentable in the society today”. Say a prayer to God, “I will serve my old parents in the BEST way. I will say all good and kind words to my dear parents, no matter how they behave.

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Ya, I'm Tired

Doesn't this say it all ....

.... I'm sick of depression

The Right To and The Ability To Are Two Different Things

I originally made this post on Facebook. As much as I want to stay out of this political conversation, or whatever kind of conversation you wish to refer to it as, we are being sucked into it whichever way we turn. I hope to post it here so others may read and know where I see things. Here's what I previously posted:

"The Patriots and the NFL as a whole have lost a large piece of their fan base.

The very flag players are disrespecting is the very flag many families have, as a legacy, of their fallen soldier.

There are a time and place for everything... there is no place ever for disrespecting our flag. Don't confuse your freedom of speech with saying or doing whatever you want whenever you want for whatever excuse you want to use to justify your inappropriate actions."

As a follow-up, I'd like to add that those that served our country, including me, did so to protect the rights we have, including your right to Free Speech and Peaceful Protest. Today, NBC released a poll that said 51% of Americans agreed that players had the right to take a knee during the playing of the National Anthem. At first, that made me sick... then, twisting the scenario, I agree. The players do have that right. I also agree that 100% of them have the right to be suspended or fired for conduct unbecoming of a professional athlete. If I owned the team, they would have been fired after the first warning. The right does not mean you should, not on my time.

Can't Wait Until I'm 21

A friend's posted Facebook post requesting that people who had previously been smokers and subsequently quit, to post a comment about when and how they quit.

I quit November 11, 1982, five months before my third child was born.  It was at least the third or fourth time I tried to quit, and quit I did.

Here's my abbreviated response about quitting:

I tried going cold turkey - Fail
I tried hypnosis - worked for a few weeks
Saw a commercial on TV November 11, 1982 - Quit Cold

I was 32 years old, have smoked for who knows, 12 or 14 years, 1-2 packs a day

Laying on my couch doing some work reading, TV on... I reached to the coffee table to pick up the pack of Marlboro. The commercial starts with a close up of a guy, probably 10 years older than my age. As the camera pans back to see all of him holding a birthday cake with candles burning.... he says: paraphrased: today is my birthday. I'm 18 today (he obviously was a lot older)... it was 18 years ago today I had my final surgery to remove lung cancer from my body. Then he blows out the candles and says: I can't wait until I'm 21. I believe the commercial was sponsored by American Lung Association, not positive about that.... but the message was clear.... smoking caused lung cancer and it kills. I squeezed the pack of Marlboro and have never had a cigarette since. All I thought was... I'm going to live to see my kids grow up.

Since then, I've had 5 more kids (7 total) and so far have 4 grandchildren and expect to see more.

It's an addiction and will quit when your inner self says, today is the day. Good luck, it's hard without a real "why". What's your "why"?

Can't wait until I'm 29

What's your "why"?

No Help at WalMart, but Javianne is the Exception

Getting help at Walmart Chicopee, MA or nearly ANY Walmart is normally just a horrid experience.  Last nights visit started out as a WalMart norm.  The 1% milk cooler was empty ... looking through the doors, I could see cases of 1% milk sitting there.  There were several of us customers standing around looking and waiting for someone that worked there to come by so they could help us.  That didn't happen.  I waited nearly 5 minutes, several others walked away.  I looked through the cooler doors again and finally saw someone inside... on his phone, earbuds in, texting away.  He did look up once but ignored my gestures to come closer.  When I went to the cooler door, he walked away like he didn't see me or care.

I headed to the front of the store towards customer service, I walked away myself last time this happened, but not tonight. When I passed another worker stocking cheese, all I could so is shake my head.  As I approached all I could see was this guy bent over a box with his pants below his green skivvies, and I mean below his skivvies, so I made a "presumption" he had the same mental capacity as the dude in the cooler. I thought,this guy lacks care and common sense (not to mention his pants are falling off)... his lack of personal appearance and WalMart's apparent not caring how employees appear to their customers just pissed me off, as customers, we deserve better.  These guys are probably two of the ones protesting for $15.00/hour.   I went on looking for someone in management.

As I approached the Customer Service counter, which appeared to be closed, it was about 10:30 pm or so, a young lady came out met me and asked if she could help.  I explained I was trying to get 1% milk but the cooler was empty and those working were inattentive... before I got much further, she repeated 1% and asked if the WalMart Great Value brand was what I was looking for.  I hardly got yes out and she said I'll get it for you and off she went.  A few minutes later, the smiling, helpful young lady returned, milk in hand.

She seemed a bit embarrassed when I asked for her name (her hair covered her name tag) and with a bit of a dialect and my loss of hearing on my part, I didn't understand "Javianne".  I said I was going to write up my experience with her and thanked her for her assistance.  Sheepishly she smiled and said thank you and was off to help someone at another register.

I got checked out and realized my CRS kicked in (Can't Remember Shit), so I went over to ask her if I could take a picture of her name tag... totally embarrassed now, she said sure and pronounced her name to me yet again.

I don't know if WalMart needs more like her or if she needs to be at a company that cares about customer service like she showed me ... I think the later would be the best for her.  Either way, she made WalMart look good in the end.  Kudos to you Javianne.