From TNW: “Google Chrome has been long expected to leapfrog Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) to take its position as the Web’s most used browser and, according to data from Statcounter, the momentous change of leadership happened last week.”
How does the largest software maker in the world let this happen?
Poor leadership? Wake up Microsoft Board…
Apple Supplier in China Pledges Changes After Report Cites Violations
Foxconn, which manufactures electronics for such companies as Apple, Dell, Amazon and others, has pledged to sharply curtail the number of working hours within its Chinese factories and significantly increase wages.
The moves come after a wide-ranging inspection by the Fair Labor Association, a monitoring group, found widespread problems — including numerous instances where Foxconn violated Chinese law and industry codes of conduct by having employees work more than 60 hours a week, sometimes for more than 11 days in a row.
Microsoft Banning Corporate Purchasing of Apple Products
Couple of things about this new policy:
1. Apparently Microsoft Marketing has been buying such a dizzying about of Macs & iPads that Corporate had to clamp down. I guess the company’s marketing team does not practice what it preaches.
2.Microsoft being an engineering firm says; screw you marketing…we are the only ones who should be buying the good stuff!
I love this…it’s funny and true. Social Media is not a brand strategy it’s a communications channel! http://bit.ly/z0yJQ3!
Awesome video of ancient Rome! Yes this is worth 3 minutes of your time. http://bit.ly/txD3lr
After watching the Super Bowl last night…it occurred to me if we all played with such an intensity and focus…we could rise above almost anything and move our team, company or ourselves down the field.
Truth be told it was the first Super Bowl I have watched in many years. It was exciting and interesting as well. As I watch both teams go toe to toe in a very close contest. I noticed that they kept true to the basics. There were no fancy plays, just good clean basics of running and passing. Players seemed to be fully aware of the play on the field. No one person seemed to have tunnel vision. Defense and offense read each other and did what they had to do to give their team the strategic position to win the game.
In the end, the Pats took a risk by giving the Giants a touchdown. The Patriots then pinned their hopes on scoring a touch down with 57 seconds on the clock. The rest, as they say, is history.
Why am I writing this? Why am I so impressed with a game? In business we talk about team all the time. We usually associate that with collaboration. What we forget is that a great team consists of passionate and intensely focused individuals who are working toward a collective goal as part of a strategic plan that completes the company’s mission.
By the way, if you are wonder why I watched the game? I’ve been a Giants fan since I was 12 years old. Yup, that’s my helmet, hand pained by yours truly many years ago.
My 6 word story “By the skin of my teeth” http://bit.ly/wtODxm 
Change is a strange thing. Earlier this evening I was putting my 8 year old to bed. As I laid down next to him, following his bedtime story, a police siren shrieked from a few blocks away. He didn’t toss or turn or even hear it. I barely noticed it myself. When I finally did take note of the shrill, I remembered how as a young boy we would run to the window or out on the porch to find out what the problem was. Now we hardly notice. It’s not like we live in a high crime area. We don’t. It’s a quiet, middle class neighborhood with comfortable homes and yards. Neighbors who work hard and take pride in their children’s achievements.
I guess the amount of trouble has increased in our lives. At one time, trouble would make a rare appearance, now it’s familiar visitor. So familiar that it’s high pitched yelp has become the background noise to a normal life. While you and I are not facing trouble we know it’s out there. Surrounding us. Have we really come that far from living in a cave? Tonight I know how that Neanderthal felt when heard the roar of a cave lion in the middle of the night.
Migration in and out of Onondaga County (Map) onforb.es/vzLPtR -very cool.
This post was originally published on April 10, 2009 on my first web site.
Don’t dismiss sites like Facebook and My Space. It’s an awesome resource. It’s amazing how easy it is to keep up with the people and it’s quite addicting. The social network can be unsettling as well. It was last summer when a friend said she couldn’t believe I wasn’t on Facebook. I told her I worked in a newsroom and one of the first places we go to look for a public picture of someone in trouble or dead is Facebook and My Space.
I always felt sorry for the poor SOB who was already suffering from the indignity of being on the nightly newscast to double their embarrassment because their “My Space” or “Facebook” picture was of them drunk on a beach in a speedo.
Even though I never have owned a speedo, I resigned myself to not take part in these digital shenanigans. Another friend had a strict rule when it came to social web sites, their circle of friends are all people who live out of town and they had to be more than a three hour car or a plane trip away. Their thinking was people who live in town are an easy visit or a phone call away…why bother talking to colleagues, friends or family when you see them all of the time? More opinions floated in. Most were positive. And, I kept on reading more blogs and articles about Facebook. By the end of summer I was up and running on FB. Thank the digital gods, I didn’t have many friends who are even slightly geeky enough to be on FB. So the curiosity began to subside for this 50 year old. I said to myself “this would be really cool if I was 20 something.” But slowly the 5 friends and family led to 10 and then to 20. And then the first eye opening thing happened.
A person I never expected to see or hear from ever again asked to be part of my circle of friends. This was unsettling, I had moved on with my life. And getting hung up in the past, while fun for a while, rarely moves you forward. But, just the opposite happened. Rediscovering my high school friend brought me back to center. I was so caught up in a bad work situation that I kind of got lost in the minutiae of a career in an industry in transition. I suppose turning 50 added to my befuddled state. In any event, our conversations reminded me of the reasons why I took the path, I took in my life. And, I began to remember what’s really important and what really isn’t. And, then the second thing happened.
I and 39 of my colleagues one Monday morning were directed into one of our station’s studios and, putting it politely, were fired. Suddenly, the group of people I listened to and spoke with everyday about all the stories we covered from the Wall Street bailout to SU basketball we no longer around.
After my son got on the bus for school in the morning it was very quiet in the house. But not on Facebook. Just about everyone I worked with or befriended in the last 6 months chimed in with what they were doing or not doing and it became a nice connection to make even if it was just small talk. Actually, without the backdrop of a wound-up, tight as a drum newsroom to deal with many of us found we really enjoyed each others company.
So if you have been thinking about, my advice is to go for it. I think Facebook really adds to life. And, like food or wine, use it in moderation because Facebook can be addicting!
