Why does this sound right?

I don't know if I would like Nick to meet him. What he says sure is a "kick in the teeth" to many people. But - I think a lot of it makes sense.

There's a wealth of information on Nick's site, and I definitely haven't gotten through very much of it yet. I can't say that I'd recommend following his advice (yet), but - I definitely think it's worth it to check out what he has to say.

See this article on the Personal Branding Blog for an interview with Nick and follow the link to the Ask the Headhunter site.

Notes 8.5 on Ubuntu

The install is not the same as for Windows, but the package manager makes it very easy to install software.

Setting up the client is straightforward, even though it's kicked off in a terminal session. I had a VPN connection active before trying to connect to the server, but still was unable to connect to the server. I had to configure locally first.

Passthru (a great feature of Notes!) is working fine. I still need to sort out the connection issues trying to directly connect via VPN.

Being platform-independent, the Notes client looks and acts just like it does on Windows. Well, almost like it, I need to adjust the fonts so that I can see the text on the workspace icons - for some reason all the workspace icons are blank.

Get really good at something

This statement in Chris Brogan's post on Personal Branding stood out;

"Or worse than failed, he’d have done a mediocre job."

I read recently that being really good at something that doesn't matter also represents failure.

1. Decide what matters
2. Get really really good at something that supports #1

Rheinland Bread

Bread that tastes great on it's own!

I do like bread, but I normally have to cover it with something - even if it's just margarine.

Steve Deming of Rheinland Baked Goods stopped by our office today with a sample of three German breads. Each of the breads; sourdough, multi-grain, and whole grain have a unique and distinctive flavor.

I took a slice of each and I'm really enjoying them. It's a good thing I haven't had lunch yet, 'cause I'm stuffed.

Thanks Steve!

Ubuntu on the Desktop

There's still a lot of debate about this, but it's working great for me (right now as a matter of fact).

I didn't finish this article yet, but it made one point that caught my eye. Organizations that are still using Windows XP (or even Windows 2000) are perfect candidates for switching to Linux (Ubuntu was recommended) as they will be facing the need to upgrade their operating systems and hardware just to maintain updates. By switching to Ubuntu; they could avoid the cost of both the software and hardware upgrades.

I'm running Ubuntu 8.10 on a very old "throwaway" laptop (a Dell Latitude C640). It performs better than the Dell D610 that I use at work running Windows XP.

Time will tell if Ubuntu exhibits the kind of decay in performance that XP does after installing and uninstalling applications.

Interesting take on big failures

This blog posting on Tom Ziglar's blog makes some interesting points;

“All great failures are moral failures" is thought provoking.

"Never forget: Just because you are of the opinion that something is not true doesn’t mean that you won’t be governed by it if it is true."

Gravity is true; so I don't jump off of buildings.

Adherence to a moral standard in order for society to function effectively. True?

I know my answer. And I don't define the standard myself, I attempt to adhere to the one given to me.

A faint ray of hope

As I reported on February 25, I've been given the opportunity to seek new opportunities.

My boss has actually been working on a proposal to keep me and have me take on a support role for a Java-based project. It's looking less like that's going to happen. In the interim, I did pick up a Java book and viewed some great tutorials. Java is a cool programming environment that I should stop ignoring.

Speaking of learning Java, check out tip #4 in this article; 5 Savvy Job Search Strategies