Life is a Series of Processes

I am quite sure most of us can attest to this. My youth saw me go through the process of attending school, and seeing it through to university. With that in hand, I started the next process, working in my field, computers and software. My work, with some impressive employers, spanned from 1976 to 1990. Then another phase, or process, self-employment.

I started my business, Compunite Enterprises Inc., with an eye toward "Uniting People with Computers" and, during the 90's, enjoyed the good life. That process changed from building custom database applications and selling PCs, to trying to find stable, long term contracts. The contracts became few and far between and the early 2000's had its ups and downs.

I eventually threw in the towel and went to work for a sweat shop in Etobicoke. That lasted one year, as I left in pain, in need of a hip replacement. This latest process saw us taking a leap and moving to Niagara Falls, where we want to end up... our forever home. After surgery and recovery, I began feeling at home.

The second to last process has been that of trying to find work in the Niagara Region. It would be more likely getting hit by lightening... twice. So I am now entering, what I hope will be, my last process. I am taking part-time jobs while I look for full-time work.

"Process" is key here as my objective is to put into play the many skills I have developed over the years when I routinely identified processes and turned them into automated solutions for my clients. My clients made lots of money on my back, and now I am just looking to get some of that for me.

Please have a good hard look at the web-site. I would be very interested to hear what you think of it.

Thou shalt covet thy neighbour's tablet

One of my predictions for 2015 is that the Personal Computer (PC) will be phased out in lieue of the Commodity Computer (CC) and Tablet. It's the Personal aspect that is being minimized. The evolution comes on the edge of multiple fronts. One, miniaturization, it's always around us, and enables the construction of better portable devices. Two, the Cloud, enabling all of us to store that which makes our computing personal, in the Cloud rather than on a hard disk. And three, the time and frenzy factor. Who has the time or will have the time to personalize their computing environment to the extent that we did in the past.

With hard disks going away and being replaced by flash drives, the amount of personalization may be virtually nil. The desktop computer will become nothing more than a commodity, hence 'CC', and the tablet will be as swappable as a GPS device, which is experiencing a hefty number of thefts these days.

As computing migrates more and more to the Cloud, the computers that were once so valuable to our personal endeavours will become throw-aways. Tablets will not be the neat new "gotta have one" gadget, but a "where are my car keys and tablet" common necessity.

Consequently, the tablet will look even more attractive to thieves because of its universality. Aside from the nuances of Apple versus the rest of the world, the tablets will be up and running in someone else's hands within seconds. They won't even be locked like smart phones. Just like in the movies, tablets will be a portable window to the Internet and little more.

For you see, there will be little need to pour more and more power into the little devices as was done with smart-phones. The Internet has caught up and the Cloud is ready. Tablets and Smart-phones will be dumbed-down and become very very inexpensive, aside from the progress usually attributed to time and technology. The quantum leaps forward, in this regard, will actually appear to be backward. Look behind you to see what's coming.

Where will computing go from here?

Have you ever considered, or are you even old enough to care, where computing has been and where it is headed? A loaded question? You betcha!

I come from a generation that grew up with the first computers. No, not PCs. They didn't exist yet. Some of the first computers, just being built when I was a kid, could fill your garage. Typically, in the early days, there was no way to communicate with it or load programs without using toggle switches or other devices like mag tape or punch card readers. All foreign concepts to the current generations.

Eventually something called dumb terminals came to be and these screen-keyboard combos started a rapport with the operating system of the main computer, some might say the 'mainframe'. Simple ASCII character string communications travelled over RS-232 cables to a switchbox near the mainframe. These evolved somewhat and served industry, especially the big banks, quite well.

Huge companies like IBM and CDC and Honeywell built monolithic mainframes and competed for banking and research dollars. Other vendors like Digital Equipment, Tandem, Hewlett Packard and more sprouted up with things called mini-computers.These were the results of advancements in miniaturization and the basic word size with processors and the assembly languages inherent in them. Still the dumb terminals remained.

Suddenly Personal Computers came onto the market aided by an operating system inventor by the name of Bill Gates who devised MS-DOS. About the same time the RS-232 cabling was replaced by Local Area Networks coined with the name Ethernet. Speeds increased and computers were sharing information among themselves, but something centralized was called for. The mainframes gave way, in certain instances, to smaller servers (of information). Even still the servers could also communicate with a mainframe if necessary.

OK, we'll jump ahead a bit, I'm bored too. It's the evolution of the PC that is critical in this discussion. 'Personal' means that local disk storage could help someone personalize their workstation. Give it a look and feel, a number of specialized programs, and even some secrets. Then we got the notebook. Now the individuals could be mobile, and bring their personalizations with them. A new problem arose. We use the desktop for some tasks but the portable/notebook for others. Sharing via the newly popular Internet seemed a likely solution.

Introduce the cel phone. First fairly dumb, it was a phone, after all. Later, it could be personalized, just like a PC. Today these personal smart devices, in so far as they can be carried on one's person, are very powerful, but not in the same way as the PC. The PC gained its power characteristic from having a massive harddrive. Why is this not happening with the smart-phones and tablets of today?

Enter The Cloud. What appears today to be the ultimate personal computing device e.g. smart-phone/tablet will soon be 'dumbed' down dramatically. It will become nothing more that a portal to The Cloud. Everyone will store their information there. The devices themselves will no longer be personal. They will be expendable and replaceable. Don't spend too much on the smartset device. It won't be the smartset thing you do.

The dumb-phones and tablets of the future will be nothing more that conduits to The Cloud! Think ahead.

Data on a Cloud

I recently had the opportunity to investigate the notion of developing a custom database application that could reside off company premises. Typically, there are three general classes involved with servers. First, what most company executives know, is to have your IT staff install a software package on your in-house server. The second is to rent space on a server in some server farm. Here you specify the operating system and the supporting layers of software, even before installing a database package. The third form is to find it already existing on some huge server farm that you may not be able to identfy... a.k.a. The Cloud.

Doing something as complex as defining a database still requires someone with Relational DataBase (RDB) know-how, a.k.a. me, but the savings and expertise required for the server and LAMP layering is reduced to $zero$. Lamp? That's Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl. A very common bundling of software to enable a web server and the software that sits in it such as SaaS (Software as a Service). Other acronyms exist such as PaaS, DaaS, DBaaS but we'll keeps things simple for today.

Anyway... the long and short of it is that computing in the cloud (Cloud Computing) is very economical, and its benefits in comparison to having one's own IT department have been validated many times over. I even have such a spreadsheet if anyone needs it. These packages typically charge a low fee by the month, often by user. Some have additional charges depending upon your need for additional features and disk space. Now, with these SaaS applications, I am not referring to the sharing of pictures or movies and the flashy commercials you see on TV. Though those, and Gmail and Live and Office 365 do constitute the cloud, they keep people from the real truth.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of SaaS applications worldwide and they do a myriad of weird and wonderful things. Virtually anything one could thing of. One references I use in searching for SaaS apps is www.GetApp.com.

Back to my database dilemma though. My search for a database engine in the cloud led me to a very capable product called Caspio Bridge. It's subscription cost was based on a per-application basis as opposed to the more pricey per-user model, so it suited our needs better. If this price model suits you as well, I have already weeded out the competition for you, so have yourself a good look. There are a host of videos that will give you the idea.

Let's Get Kids Writing

I recently learned how to make a Fan Page on Facebook. You may well ask, why I would need one. Well, it's not about me, it's in order to re-energize my web-site Short-Stories-Help-Children.com and Social Networking appears to be something I had left behind.

No more. Now, with a renewed vigor, I am pushing the web-site to regions of (web) space where it has never gone before. I am editing the backlog of story submissions. There were some 550 and I have dwindled that down to about 400. And I am making sure I offer some much needed help to the users, such as a custom search tool, so users can find their stories and parenting information and more.

The fan page is neat because you operate as a non-entity. Nothing personal really, and you can focus on events surrounding your web-site or business. Facebook cripples certain features, but they make sense, since the page is often not for a person.

I called it Let's Get Kids Writing because it supports the web-site, and the web-site is about the battle between young teens running amok versus helping them focus on something engaging (e.g. Writing). Anything engaging, really. It is about the unruly teen not getting caught up in so many distractions of the day. Be it cel phones, peer pressure, TV, parent bashing or what have you, it is tougher for tweens to tow the line now than ever before. It is a statement about the times we live in. The tweens/teens are not bad in and of themselves. They are inundated with bad stuff all around them, and could use our help.

Then consider the parents of said tweens/teens if, heaven forbid, they are also caught up in the cel phones, texting, and keeping up with the Jones'. All is not lost, however, because one just has to recognize that the problem exists and ask for help. This is what my web-site hopefully provides, so I built Let's Get Kids Writing for it.

What will some people do for 5 bucks

I found this awesome site called Fiverr.com. It offers the chance for anyone to state what they will do for 5 bucks, and the seller must do it within a chosen timeframe. Buyers, or potential ones, are able to browse countless wild-ass offerings and have a good laugh in the process. It is quite entertaining.

The offers do seem to fall into a few distinct categories that I have become familiar with. First, there are a ton of 'gigs' as they are called, that involve YouTube. These often involve getting some idea or product promoted. Next, there are a great many gigs involving what they call advertizing, but this could mean writing something on one's stomach and parading around town. Then many writing gigs or even proofing, also advice, and still much more.

The last, however, is SEO aka how to promote your web-site. SEO actually stands for Search Engine Optimization, and is the discipline of how to do everything one can with a web-site in order to win Google over. Winning Google over means advancing the web-sites PageRank, thereby moving the site's position closer to the top of page one on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

Buyer beware. Most people young enough to latch onto something like Fiverr may not be aware of the history surrounding the .COM days. In earlier times, when Google was building its strength. companies and individuals were starting up web-sites in a flurry and trying desparately to get them noticed. It was known at the time that Google responded well to having many other sites linking (backlinking) to yours, so they solicited firms to do this in the thousands. Not good. Google isn't Google for nothing. They soon put the brakes on that practice and initiated, unofficially, the 'sandbox'. That's where new website 'play' for a while, building links 'organically', until they grow into bonified, worthy web-sites.

Google is our gig daddy, and you won't get the keys to the car unless daddy says it's OK. So, to make a long story short, as you search for web-site gadgets such as Fiverr, which I love, don't get me wrong, be cautious. Google will not stand for 'budinskis'.

Google me this Batman!

Wow! You know you've hit it big when your company name makes it into the dictionary and then gets turned into a verb. This happened twice in 2006 and there need not be any end to the ways Google will impact our lives.

And Google is all about impact! With stock prices again nearing the $500 mark Google has exploded in a mere 12 years. Its history has included several alliances and many conflicts, but it remains the strongest of the search engines garnering, at a peak in 2004, results for 85% of all searching on the Internet.

Try to imagine, if you will, several dozen if not hundreds of large data centres scattered around the world all linked and juggling the searching and advertizing needs of millions upon millions of people. The immense complexity and obvious performance kudos related to this is staggering. Goggle is something we have come to rely on. It never fails us. It always gives us what we are looking for, and often a bit more.

For webmasters, it also has many closely guarded secrets. Many techniques that must be mastered in order to have your web site show up on page 1 of a search result. In many cases, small companies hire graphics designers to create flashy, animated web sites. They end up looking great, but graphic designers are specialists at making stuff look great. Don't ask them to get your web site on page 1 of a Google search. It won't happen.

Luckily, I, and a happy collection of web site owners, have used a tried and true method to build our web sites. This service takes all of the guess work out of doing Search Engine Optimization, and in the process, hosts our sites and even registers the domains for us. The real trick is traffic, and lots of it. How would you like to get 50,000 page views a month, each and every month? My one year old site does! Would that kind of traffic bring you more business?

You can read a little about my experience on my About page. However, if you would like to learn more for yourself about the powerful service we use, have a look at Site Build It. With this facility I just follow the bouncing ball and concentrate on the site content itself. The rest is taken care of. The search engines are tickled, I get reminders as needed, I see my stats and progress for my keywords... the works. This and much, much more is all included, and it's all for a fraction of the value delivered. No joke! And there is a 100% money-back guarantee!

The point is that with the help of Site Build It and its associated services, I can build something that is entrenched in the Google search world. I know how to keep Google happy now, and I can dream of more sites to come.

Google is the search king on our planet, and you can be one of those people that know how to make it find you.

The Ultimate Enabler

I do not understand how this is allowed to continue. The internet is a medium that knows no limits. Anyone can portray fact, fiction, lies and even lies made to look like fact. Then, after all is said and done, even the fact is held up for debate. How true is this so-called fact? When is the truth even 100%? And, of course, "that's only your truth". Fortunately, the Internet is also a purveyor of information, right or wrong, and it is left up to the individual to extract what they need or want to know from it.

Then there is the United States Constitution, a document which was a rewrite of the Articles of Declaration of 1777. In addition to the primary text, many amendments are included. The First Amendment, Second and so on are routinely referred to as the Bill of Rights. What is pertinent here is that these amendments are corrections. They change what was wrong in the earlier document. This means that the earlier document was flawed, and who is to say that the next one couldn't use some improvement as well.

Why is a centuries old document, created long before the technology surrounding us today, permitted to stand as a source of law? Moreover, the new document only had to be ratified by nine of the then thirteen states. Perhaps that fact, and many others, have been lost on the general public. When one speaks of their First Amendment rights, it appears that everyone, including the media, cringes in fear, as though some magic wand has been waved over their heads and they will perish. Laws can change, and perhaps some should.

What's the point? Here... I have just viewed several videos regarding the Westboro Baptist Church. This abomination spreads hatred under the guise of religious freedom... their First Amendment right. In the process, they are actually, without exaggeration, brain-washing their children to become the next evangelists. Fortunately they apparently have only family members in their misguided flock, totaling some 70, spawned from one Fred Phelps, a man of dubious distinction and intelligence. If you go to YouTube, you will find many videos highlighting their protests, news appearances and the like. All made possible by the Internet... their new best friend. Their website, GodHatesFags.com, receives too much visitor traffic, which hopefully does not include mindless dupes looking for a new cause.

As you review the videos, it becomes clear that negative publicity for them is welcome and encouraged. Even this article will contribute to some of their notoriety. However, my real concern is two-fold. First, that, even in light of losing an $11 million lawsuit which declared that they were invading privacy, they will continue, even though they can't pay it, and will ultimately be protected by the Constitution. Second that their blatant, evil corruption of young minds remains unchecked.

Amendments are changes that may have to be changed again. There comes a time when certain freedoms go beyond the bounds of decency. Watch the videos and ask yourself why this kind of lunacy is still around.

Can a white lie get you your dream job

Should a little white lie on your resume catch you your ultimate job? Maybe so. If that lie got through and you hung onto the job because you performed up to the job description and your employer's expectations, was that so wrong? Absolutely... well I suppose... I guess so... maybe not?

I take offense with an article published in the Christian Science Monitor entitled 'Fibs Flow on Job Applications' relaying that recruiters routinely discard resumes containing perceived fibs regardless of the candidate's overall qualifications. If they find an error, on some previous job or salary that appears over inflated, wham, the resume is filed under 'G'.

Alright, for those of us who are honest when applying, more room in the job market. However, when I read my own resume, since I've been around quite a while and been on many interesting projects, even mine sounds 'out there'! Would my words fall on deaf ears too?

My roommate in university had many unique traits but his resume writing was one of the best. We were in computer science, and if he had even touched an, as yet unknown, computer, say during a tour, then he noted that he had 'operated an IBM xxxx mainframe' or some such thing. If he had seen some code of a new language, then he had 'experience with APL' or 'PL1' or the like. I never agreed with the practice but he happens to be a successful lawyer today. Hmmm.

On a side note, if applicants are not to fib, then maybe the major job boards should scrutinize their job postings as well. Job descriptions from some HR folks are inflated to put out a net for the super-applicant. Anyone actually working to one of those job descriptions would be a paper pushing, bag of frustration, bent on suicide. Worse, many recruitment firms apparently cast their own net by posting jobs that do not exist, only to attract an inventory of candidate resumes. Then there are the postings that leave out that pertinent piece of information, like if there is a base salary (for a sales job), or an approximate office location.

I respect that recruiters and employers may have to scan up to hundreds of resumes a day, but the industry should keep in mind that job hunters, often emotionally distraught, must wade through hundreds of postings as well.

So if the job hunter occasionally or inadvertently embellishes a job history, at least give him or her a chance to be heard if the qualifications are sound.

th kwik brawn focs jumt ovr th lazi daug

Although reading, as it is so widely promoted, is vital to a child's literacy, I feel that creative writing is the loftier goal.

We want kids to learn and become more informed, for that they require reading skills; however, all that a child reads is typically prepared by someone else. The greater achievement is to have the child write.

Through writing, a child feels a sense of accomplishment, researches material, interviews subjects, draughts a story-line, and the like. In the process, he or she will encounter and absorb proper grammar and spelling via peer review and constructive criticism.

From my perspective, this active (writing) versus passive (reading) activity encourages the use of a plan and better prepares the child for the real world. It doesn't dispense with reading... that would be ridiculous. It merely treats it as a necessary means to an end.

If our education system is going to meet the needs of our children in the decades to come, it will have to adjust some practices before it's too late, and pro-actively build skills for the difficult future ahead.

If you feel, as I do, that a focus on creative writing for children is but one type of realignment our educators might adopt to help our future office workers, then please add your comments or visit the link.

Day 107: SBI bubbles web-site to the top

I have not written anything on this blog for sometime because I've been busy constructing a new web-site called www.short-stories-help-children.com.

Back in November of 2006 I came across an opportunity to acquire an existing web-site that had a strong following in the Greater Toronto Area. I made my proposal, and then set out to locate software or a service that would help me design a portal to direct traffic to the viable components within the prospective web-site.

I soon discovered Site Built-It from SBI. With it I could construct the portal I needed to target the web-site, but I had not acquired it yet. What to do? I chose to study Site Build-It as deeply as I could, check referring sites et cetera until I decided I had better get my feet wet. Then I figured.. 'Why drive traffic to a failing local website when I could talk to the world'. I picked an albeit competitive arena in short stories but with a slant to use short stories as a tool for helping children. It has become a layman's guide for parenting and child development. Consequently, I left the local web-site idea alone.

The SBI web-site can be found at SiteSell.com. The founder, Ken Evoy, made various claims like a 100% unconditional guarantee... that your site would get into the Top 3% of world-wide web-sites, as far as Alexa goes... and that SBI 'over-delivers'. All typical marketing hype, to be sure. Or was it?

Well, the 'over-delivers' aspect is evident even before you purchase the inexpensive web-based service. I was able to access the training tutorials before spending a dime, and I was hooked. The amount of expertise and the crafting of the message and techniques are outstanding and you soon feel that the knowledge you acquire is worth far more than the small fee. It truly over-delivers.

The guarantee is moot since the over-delivery of information, technology , and advice is seemingly limitless. Anyone claiming that guarantee would simply be mean, spiteful and be the kind to blame someone else for their failures.

And as for the Top 3% promise...well, as of this morning, my 107 day old site has made it to an Alexa ranking of 560,220. That effectively puts it into the Top 1% . The work needed to get there wasn't a walk in the park, but that's not the claim. The service provides the tools and the search engine optimization expertise to support all of your efforts... but you will learn. And you will get excited. I promise.