I concur wholeheartedly:
21
Jan 10
President Obama wimps out on Healthcare
NPR Reported yesterday that President Obama has advised democrats not to try and push through a health care plan that doesn’t have bipartisan support. This because we’ve lost a democratic seat in the Senate.
I’ve been defending the President up to this point. No more. To say I am disappointed does not do justice to how I feel. We hired (elected) to affect change. Part of the change he was supposed to affect is health care reform. The legislation that will come out is neither reform nor meaningful change. If any of us mere mortals failed to achieve objectives we were hired to achieve we would be out of a job. That’s what I propose for Obama – we vote him out of office in 2012. I’m not planning to vote for him again. In fact, I may just vote Republican next time – as long as it isn’t for that twit Sarah Palin who is just an absolute joke.
14
Jan 10
Pat Robertson gives Christians a BAD name
I’m not a Christian. I’m an agnostic. If you pin me down I’ll tell you that I don’t believe there is an all knowing, all powerful being up in the sky who has a hand in our daily lives. I don’t buy into the notion that everything is preordained and what is going to happen right now or tomorrow has been mapped out by some benevolent human project manager. I just don’t buy it.
I have many friends who are Christians and I love and respect them and their beliefs. They try and get me to come over to their side and I respectfully explain that it will never happen. I don’t judge them for their beliefs – if it weren’t for Christians and their good works the world would have much more suffering that it does.
That said, my favorite quote of all time is one by Ghandi – “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” That quote is on a bumper sticker on the back of my vehicle. Pat Robertson personifies this quote. He is the least Christ like person and every time he opens his mouth I imagine Christians all over the world groaning.
The guy is plain and simple – a moron. His latest idiotic statement is that the earthquake in Haiti occurred because , and I quote:
“When Haiti was still a French colony its leaders swore a pact to the devil to get out from under the heel of the French.
They said, ‘we will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal’.
But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle on the one side is Haiti the other is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty.
Not only is he unlike Christ, he’s just plain stupid or crazy or both. I really don’t understand why the 700 club keeps this old codger on the air. He can’t be doing any good at all for their recruitment. Unless of course they want to recruit old, fat, moronic, judgmental fools. Maybe that’s their target audience.
Whatever the case, Pat Robertson continues to prove Ghandi’s point.
13
Jan 10
Simpsons 20 years and still going strong
Watch this documentary by Morgan Spurlock on the popularity of the Simpson’s. It’s really worth it. I am a definite fan of the Simpson’s – I’ve not missed a single episode and have watched them all more than once – but I learned some things about the show and it’s impact on popular culture – even that of other countries – by watching it.
05
Jan 10
Thornton Software Exec shoots former COO
I just heard about this story from a friend and I am shocked to say the least. I know one of the guys who works here who was in the office when this happened and I can only imagine how frightening the experience could have been for him.
05
Jan 10
I’m sick of unprofessionalism
I’m fed up. I’m sick and tired. Of being treated like a piece of meat by recruiters. Each week I get at least 4 emails from recruiters about potential jobs. None of these boneheaded recruiters ever address me by name. Clearly either I’m only one of multiple recipients or the recruiters are just too damned lazy to copy my name off the resume they looked at to get to me in the first place and paste it into the email.
Here is the response I send to each and every one of them:
Dear Recruiter,
As a candidate I don’t work with recruiters who don’t have the professionalism to address me by name in an email about a possible job.
As a hiring manager who typically spends ~$2 million a year on contract staff I also don’t work with the companies who employ recruiters who lack the professionalism to address potential candidates by name. In my experience companies who do so are body shops and only interested in making a fast buck not in finding quality talent.
Best of luck.
James Sweet
It may sound crabby or worse but let me tell you, as a hiring manager for many years I can tell you that never once has a staffing firm that employs recruiters who employ these tactics provided me with a candidate that was even remotely close to what I was looking for. This is why I keep proselytizing the benefits of a company like Tek Systems that focuses on building a partnership with hiring managers. I don’t say this becuase I’m currently on a project through Tek. In fact, it is because of the way Tek treated me as a hiring manager that I’m with them as talent. They truly get it. I knew if I put out a requirement that Tek Systems would send me 2-3 candidates and that I would chose one of them because Tek took the time to learn about me, my company, the culture and the need.
If you need talent, please call Tek Systems. You cannot do better.
17
Nov 09
A new fun, fast and functional way of getting yourself online
Sometimes I forget that there are a lot of people out there who, for various reasons, don’t have the need for a full-on website of their own – maybe they don’t have the time or enough information or the skills or the money. Whatever the reason, for folks who want a web presence but don’t have the need or desire for a full fledged website there is a new tool that will that let you create simple but elegant online presence. Magntize provides you a free, slick website that acts as your digital business card.
The free web-based tool is nice and simple to implement. All you need to do is add your profile information, a picture, a short bio, and contact information. After that, you can add links to your blog, company website, and all your social media accounts. The beauty of Magntize is that it can automatically detect new content within your links and add them to a social stream that appears on your digital card. Once you’ve added links, you can pick from a set of 9 unique themes and countless color schemes.
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16
Nov 09
NASA knows the power of twitter
NASA has never been known as a fast moving, quick to change and/or adopt new ideas and technologies. You can’t really blame them with billions of dollars of tax payer money and the lives of astronauts and support people on the line. That’s why I was a bit surprised to see that NASA has embraces social media as a marketing tool. NASA is sending 100 of its Twitter followers to Cape Canaveral for today’s launch of Atlantis. NASA awarded tickets to the Tweetup to the first 100 people to register on its site. The move is an attempt to drive more interest in space exploration.
NASA gets how to use social media – in this case twitter to augment its marketing strategy and to build relationships that enhance its brand. This is a great example for me to use when talking to clients about specific uses of twitter and other social media. Thanks NASA. Oh, and I”ll be watching the launch. I still get goose bumps when I see that enormous machine lift off the ground and soar heavenward.
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13
Nov 09
Where to give your money
Most who know me know that I believe in giving back – I have a list of organizations to which I contribute here on my site. It takes time to find charities that are a right fit and that are trustworthy – that’s why I was so heartened this morning when I hear on KBCO that Colorado had launched a new website that helps those who want to give money check out potential charities. The site is Check the Charity. As I said I was heartened when I heard about it and quickly went to the site. That’s when my hopes were dashed. Instead of having a simple, intuitive site where those wanting to check out the validity of a charity could go and either enter the name of the charity or pull it down from a list, there is this:
check the charity dotcom
This is not only an unattractive site but it’s not intuitive – which of the four giant buttons does a visitor click on and why? And when a visitor does click on one of the four big button they are taken to a completely different site and the only one that actually offers any kind of information useful to someone coming here to find out about charities is the Attorney General site which gives six tips on charitable giving. The tips are good so I’m going to include them at the end of this post. I am amazed that the state of Colorado could not find someone with appropriate design and development skills to build a site that would actually be useful to people who want to give their money but want to make sure they are doing so responsibly. In this economy they could have had 50 candidates in an hour if they had posted on Craigslist.
The goal of the state of Colorado was a good one. But as is so often the case, the execution is sub-optimal. I would love to see the figures on abandonment for this site. I can image that the majority of people who come here will look at the page, be confused about why they are there and what to do once they are and will leave. A great and altruistic goal – protecting potential donors – will not be achieved because there was no upfront design time spent on this site. It’s a shame really.
A much better site – thought there are problems with the design of this one as well – is Charity Navigator. On this site they did the right thing – they put a search box way up top and highlighted it in yellow so visitors could do what they came to do without hunting, pecking and getting confused and frustrated.
much better, more usable design
The State of Colorado could have used this site as a starting point and made some improvements -hell they could even have simply linked to it and not attempted to reinvent the wheel. Makes me wonder how much of my tax dollars went to the site the Colorado put up.
Here is the six point list fromt he Colorado Attorney General’s site:
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