Moments of Clarity

The Brave New Economy

I have an intern doing some great work for me.  He's a sophomore in college at Iowa State. We had a frank discussion about what business is "really like" out there and what's possible these days.  He's seen the inside of big corporate.  Now he's seeing the gritty trench warfare that we engage in daily.  Phone ringing. 30+ websites.  Team members executing web strategy for small businesses and political clients. 

We're running at least 2 full time operations for ourselves here and we're the marketing arm for many others.  This boggles big corporate.  But we can do it because of technology and leverage. Build online courses in how to leverage new media once. Use many times in multiple verticals.  Use project management software to keep tasks and due dates clear for 20+ active projects. Use instant messenger to have real time chats on execution. Use skype video chats and google wave to collaborate in real time regardless of geography.  Record Internet Business Podcast - Managing the Edge, a political technology podcast, and plan for an upcoming 6 episodes of BizTactical at Entrefest in February.

When I take a breath and examine what we can do today using technology to gain leverage and replicate ourselves via content outposts and markets online...sometimes I can't believe it.  Back to the trenches for your typical day in the Matrix.

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Actiontec PK5000 Mac Wireless Connection Problems

Here's a quick post that I hope will save someone some pain out there.  I was just sent an Actiontec PK5000 router from Qwest as a replacement for my Motorola 3347 Netopia due to slow Internet speeds in my home network.  I've been dealing with a slow degradation of speed that brings my 12up/896k down speeds into the the 4-5mb down and 200-300 up range after only a couple hours of a fresh reboot of the Snow Leopard iMac and the router.  I must give Qwest Kudos for listening online because they found my query via twitter (They're at @talktoqwest).  They assigned what I'd describe as an "non-scripted excellent free thinking tech support" expert onto my case.  Only 24 hours before I'd gone through "scripted step by step no outside the box thinking" tech support and the summarization was that "It's a problem on your end so thanks for calling."  You know that drill.  But Qwest really has done a great job in this case and I expect to get a call tomorrow to confirm that things are going well.  That 3347 modem was ALWAYS a bit sketchy IMHO.  The guy who installed it had to replace it to get decent speed on "go live" day.  So far I'm still cruising around 10mb down and 725k up so perhaps my speeds will be stable from here on out.  I'm getting full speed to the router...so I think that's about as good as it will get???

Well I've set up my Actiontek PK5000 and for the life of me couldn't get my Mac Airport wireless to connect to the network.  I used the same SSID that I had before...so I figured same settings, same password, reboot the machines...and I'm good.  Wrong.  After struggling for hours my solution was less elegant but effective.  I simply had to change my SSID to a brand new one that "My Mac's had never seen".  I'm not sure what's up in the Mac Airport wireless configuration that prevents the machines from "forgetting the old and looking for the new" but that seems to be the only thing I can come up with.  I thought there was some kind of DHCP issue or something but my non-technical view is that "The Mac just wouldn't forget the OLD IP address it was given by the old router/modem."  I know that's not very technical but you know.

So changing the network name (SSID) to a new one and setting up the network fresh got all devices on board just fine.  Now my wife is not going to harm me from lack of web access and I'm able to get the snow storm weather alerts via wifi on my phone.  That is all.

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Clive Church Living Faith Web Progress

My Church Living Faith Lutheran in Clive pastor Luke Timm has been working very hard on their website using SquareSpace.  I tried to take him down the path of using WordPress by understand his decision.  He wanted something that put a user friendly GUI on top of the "guts".  I haven't used Squarespace before...but it seems pretty straightforward.  The last "friendly GUI" blog platform I used (and still use on this site) is TypePad.  It's amazing what can be done today with template driven sites.  CliveChurch.com is a pretty SEO friendly URL too so nice grab. 

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What if Google Just Quit

As I was pruning RSS feeds this morning in between coffee sips and my facebook stream I started thinking about the information overload that many of us face.  Becoming a better filterer is really the secret to becoming efficient.  Not getting overwhelmed and saying, "Forget this!" is a necessary skill to acquire or one risks being lumped in with the phone book.

So what if you woke up tomorrow and the precious resource called google was gone?  "We're clOOsed" the search box might read if they left up a splash page (no doubt they'd sell an add on that page for $1mil per click). 

Would it crush you to hit the restart button?  Imagine the subtle rejoicing around the globe when everyone's reached inbox to zero nirvana.  Starting anew might make the universe learn something new about how to filter better.  It might also teach us something about cloud computing.  Don't get me wrong I'm right there with all of you and use Google for just about everything you can imagine.  But I'd also be fine if they tOOk their ball and went home.

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The Verdict Is In

I have been having left knee trouble lately far beyond my normal slight discomfort.  What began in my youth as an unknown trauma to my leg (your guess is as good as mine) progressed into a condition called Osteochondritis Dissicans in my late teens.  This resulted in a chunk of bone separating from the "knuckle" on my femur.  Back then, 1989'ish...they told me, "There's nothing you can do except treat your knee good and don't go up and down ladders a lot".  I was told I'd eventually need a knee replacement as this rough spot on my bone would likely cause arthritis and cartilage degeneration.  They were right.

Recent Xrays and and MRI show that I have the knee of a pretty severely arthritic seasoned citizen with and that besides injections...there's really nothing that can be done to help me.  I need to hold out until it becomes unbearable and then get the replacement knee (robo knee).  Oh yeah, and because I'm "so young" I'll probably need another knee in XX years in the prime of my "kids are college now so let's party" years. 

Hey it could be worse and I'm thankful I have 2 legs and 1 knee that works.  I will need to alter my lifestyle somewhat and I've started taking the less proven more holistic stuff like fish oil and glucosamine/chondroitin in addition to the normal compliment of inflammatories and pain meds (when it gets bad).  I figure dropping 50lbs won't hurt either.  I think I've been eating like a bear about to hibernate while having little mobility so I can spare the 50...trust me. 

I just need to get into a position where cycling is my world and I think my world record squat attempts are going to have to wait.  Thank the maker I'm not in Britain or some other "universal health care" country where I'd have to wait 2 years if I decide the knee needs to become titanium.  I'd have cyberjoint in 2 weeks if I asked because of our system. 

Now go forth and enjoy your good joints.

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still amazed at how much we recycle

The big green bin has revolutionized how much we recycle vs. throw away.  Just making recycling easy and giving us the higher volume container has allowed us to reduce our "trash" by about 4 X.
Amazing.  I think the city should offer up a discounted second bin to those who have the volume....or collected once per week vs. every other. 

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Two records broken this weekend

Today is the 2nd anniversary of full-time creating WOW at http://createWOWmedia.com.  Thank you all SO much for allowing me to live a life of passion every day.  And thanks to all the partners and supporters that have enabled us to grow and thrive in this economy.  I'm so thankful for you all.

Next.  I haven't been on a plane in over 2 years.  Tomorrow I board one at 7AM to head to Washington DC with Dave Funk, the amazing candidate for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District.  I hope to build http://OperationRedState.com business while there. I'll be directly interacting with 50+ current/active Congressional candidates for 3 days so wish me luck.

Thanks again to ALL of you. 

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Dad's and Son's and Sports

I'm not "that sports dad" that shoved a football in his kid's hands for his first birthday. (I did have a Jimmie Johnson fire suit onesey however).  I truly don't care if he chooses acting, dancing, chess, or whatever other less physical pursuit as he progresses in life.  Gavin's always been extremely coordinated and has innate hand-eye coordination, timing when hitting a fairly fast pitched ball, etc. 

But over the summer, we asked the question of him as we've done for about a year..."Do you want to play a sport yet?  This time he said yes and chose soccer. Now of course since daddy played soccer this tickled me. 

He's been doing great and we've been talking about never quitting on the ball, following up until the play is over, going into open space and not bunching up, etc.  We also talked about aggressively taking the ball to the goal vs. taking a more defensive role.  (In under 7 it's 4 vs. 4 with no goal keeper so playing defensively doesn't help that much). 

We made a deal last night before the game.  "If you score a goal tomorrow, I'll take you to Culver's for ice cream".  The game was today and Gavin's team won 8 to 7.  Of the 8 goals, my boy scored FOUR of them.

Dad's psychology and coaching...or vanilla custard with Nerds candy on top.  Which do YOU think was the greater motivator.  Just let me have my moment OK...

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A Class Act from Another Generation

I bought a car this week.  The gentleman I bought the car from was the original owner.  He treated this car like a family member (maintenance, washing, care).  He explained in detail everything about the car including the slight imperfections.  He gave me a detailed functional overview and even bought me a coffee as we sat down to discuss the deal.  I brought out my iPhone with the Kelly Blue Book website up...while he displayed a piece of paper with the same data (identical by the way).  He made an offer and I looked at him and said, "I'm a man who believes that negotiating for the sake of negotiating is a waste of two men's time...sold." We shook hands. Deal done.

I went to pick up the car the next day and drop the cash.  We had to do some car swapping and ended up driving together back to his house.  I didn't even ask to drive that last leg.  I could tell he was saying goodbye to a good friend that had treated him right for a decade.  On the way, he also gave me a very special hat with the car emblem on it as a gift.

Later that night, he called me to ask me how I was getting along with the car and how I liked it. 

Now that's the kind of special attention to detail and service that would make any car dealer or repair shop jealous. That is what has made this man successful and what makes me proud to drive this car.  Thanks a million Ed.

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This tweet packs more meaning that it knows

From @garlicgirl
Going through the bag of stuff my brother brought me. My mom sent my old Swatch phone. I wish we still had a land line.

Ahh yes...the days of landlines and Swatch phones.  Considering that one fifth of households have cell only now and that number is on the rise, when do you think we'll see the full demise of copper to the home?
Or, like radio in some cases...will there be a resurgence of copper line popularity since cyber attacks can cripple our other web based telephony outlets?  One might consider that even when the "Internets are broken"  that copper line based people can still do business.  The question is "Who would they do business with?"

http://twitter.com/garlicgirl/status/4391707190

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