Colbert Rally!

I've been following this the past few days at http://www.colbertrally.com/, but this DC blog  pretty much sums it up! This is the perfect cause, raising nearly $250,000 in less than a week for schools across America. It's not getting coverage, but it should! Check it out!

Promises Promises

Blatantly ripping off of another blog here but apparently:

PolitiFact.com has diligently kept track of what this president has done and not done. By their count Obama has currently kept 121 promises. He’s compromised on 39 and broken 22. Currently, 81 are stalled, and 240 are in the works. According to their calculations he’s kept way over five times more promises than he’s broken.

Usually I'd say that 22 broken promises are 22 too many. But in the case of a presidency, I'm not going to expect some one to realistically keep 100% of his promises. Despite what we think, presidents are not all-powerful-omnipotent beings who are not constrained by political, cultural, and environmental factors. Like everyone else, they do what they can with what they can.

AZ Pride...ok not really

Watch governor Jan Brewer stumble through her opening in her recent debate v. Democratic opponent Terry Goddard.

Apparently she also believes that illegal immigrants are beheading people left and right in Arizona.

All the while inmate are being slowly cooked to death in Arizona prisons, with no repercussions.

While the sources may be biased (haven't done research on TPM), just take a look at the videos. If that kind of weak performance is tolerated from the highest elected official in the state government, I'm afraid we're simply voting for incompetence. I'd rather have an intelligent person I ideologically disagree with in office than someone who cannot prepare a 30 second opening for a debate. How can she possibly manage a state?

Ringing in NYSE

Check out how Terry Crews decided to ring in the stock exchange. Not exactly the way I would do it...no its exactly the way I would do it.

Federer and the Water Bottle

http://creativity-online.com/work/gillette-roger-federer-trick-shot/21035

Real or not?
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Apparently it is real.

The Format - Rocket Summer - Brand New

My roommate, Scot, is taking us back through some good high school music via his guitar skills. Check out what are a few of my favorites he's been playing. Also be sure to check out his videos on youtube at tabletalkmusic and follow him there.

Format
http://s0.ilike.com/play#The+Format:On+Your+Porch:58766:s542071.8340006.14258627.0.2.122%2Cstd_eeb3d3a41fb94c2f98be411c71319b97

Rocket Summer
http://s0.ilike.com/play#The+Rocket+Summer:Brat+Pack:90685:m35504393

Brand New
http://s0.ilike.com/play#Brand+New:Okay+I+believe+You+But+My+Tommy+Gun+Don't:46662:m31968049

Ninjas in Times Square

Not that you could actually see them...but here are a few ninjas robbing a jewelry store in The City. In my spare time last night I saw G4 had a whole hour devoted a Japanese show on Ninjas as well, apparently it's called Ninja Warrior. Maybe these two items are related. Probably not. Its still awesome.

Five Guys beats a Clown

One of my favorite places to grab 1600 calories, Five Guys, just uprooted McDonald's on Zagat's as America's Favorite Burger. Although, apparently, Ronald still has hold as the Prince of Fries. Five Guys seriously is this good, and does a great job in providing fresh ingredients in an East-Coast version of In-N-Out. To me, the difference between East and West Coast burgers is quite large, and of course, you'll never replace Animal Style Fries. But, however it pains me, I'm going to have to agree with Zagat. Here's their list:

Best Burger

1. Five Guys
2. In-N-Out Burger
3. Wendy’s
4. Burger King
5. McDonald's

Five Guys is my favorite burger: there's nothing more tasty, greasy, or filling. There are a couple in Arizona, most recently opening in Scottsdale and one that has been on Mill for a little while. I urge anyone near a Five Guys to go...immediately. (But remember to jog it off!)

Image via Wikipedia

Net Neutrality

Check out Google's blatant hypocrisy, highlighted by TechCrunch:

Further, here’s the note Google CEO Eric Schmidt also wrote in 2006 leading up to the act (which was co-sponosored by then-Senator Barack Obama, by the way):

A Note to Google Users on Net Neutrality:

The Internet as we know it is facing a serious threat. There’s a debate heating up in Washington, DC on something called “net neutrality” – and it’s a debate that’s so important Google is asking you to get involved. We’re asking you to take action to protect Internet freedom.

In the next few days, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a bill that would fundamentally alter the Internet. That bill, and one that may come up for a key vote in the Senate in the next few weeks, would give the big phone and cable companies the power to pick and choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet.

Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody – no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional – has equal access. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all Internet access, want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can’t pay.

Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight. Please call your representative (202-224-3121) and let your voice be heard.

Thanks for your time, your concern and your support.

Eric Schmidt

1TERM

I'll be moving all of my Email Archiving, Records Management and eDiscovery thoughts to my new blog 1TERM now, in an effort to keep my personal and professional thoughts in two different buckets. Be sure to keep on checking back on both, along with The Modern Archivist for more!

That Sinking Feeling

I just wanted to go ahead and add onto my post from Wednesday. Its not only municipalities or cities or even the federal government who have zero control over their data. It's the military as well!

Can you imagine not being able to locate OR destroy classified and sensitive documents? Leaving emails and files tucked away in nooks and crannies of an enormous industrial complex spread over the world with a million employees is no way to do business, much less organize a war. Vital pieces of information can get lost or fall into the wrong hands. Legacy data can be kept...forever. E-mail is never captured and left up to end-users to keep as records (as they see fit). Retention policies are not enforced by any tool, but are trusted to end-users.

This system basically lends itself to failure at the hands of each soldier. How can anyone see this as being logical to our national security? Well apparently the Navy does.

This is why we need H.R. 1387 - the Electronic Message Preservation Act - which would force government bodies to take their information governance into the 21st century. It is now up to a vote in the Senate, and I'm telling you to walk...no, run to your senator's office. It's our nation, our information, let's protect it.

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Also check out Stephen A. Arnold's post in his Beyond Search blog which explores a recent TREC study on enterprise-wide search. They key take-away here is that companies (and the government!) cannot solely depend on custodian-based search when litigation or investigation arises. Basically, to do a thorough investigation someone might have to look through the entire enterprise (or at least very large and relevant groups). Is that really a surprise?

Get Ready to Rumble

There's a lot going on in the current eDiscovery space, and in my view the proof is in the pudding. Let's take the government as one example; the retention, disclosure and review of litigation-relevant documents is mandatory, yet almost no municipality has a system in place which can deal with this. What this points to is how eDiscovery is hard, and the traditional reactive approach litigation is not going to cut it anymore. Municipalities, states, and companies all have to be proactive in their litigation-preparedness from now on. Its not just a question of liability, but of an organization's integrity.

What's Obama Done for You Lately?

Many on the left and right have been claiming that Obama has not done anything lately. In response some supporters have posted this long list, which I will copy below. Personally, I'm not sure that everyone's missing the point here. It's not the quantity of things an administration does, but the quality. So instead of asking, "What have you done for me lately?" people should be asking "What worthwhile things have you done for me lately?". But of course, things are always more complicated than that, as presidents are faced with unique environments in the economy, political atmosphere, and global perceptions. To judge on a litmus test of How Many Things I've Done, would be myopic indeed.

On another note, I'm hoping that a 3rd party emerges at some point in the next couple of decades. One that can run a large national campaign with broad support (i.e. Tea Party), but which stresses BOTH economic conservatism and social conservatism, in the sense of limited government in either domain, and is not viewed as a crank extremist (i.e. Ron Paul). For now we are stuck with the hypocritical duo of Democrats (liberal economics, less social government intervention) and Republicans (conservative economics and more government social

Image by Jayel Aheram via Flickr

intervention). D&R just won't cut it anymore, and I hope that Gen X can begin the slow process of change. Hopefully, this will one day lead to a 3rd Party. Hopefully what I'm describing is the Libertarian Party. What they believe in is as follows:

"We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose."

Here's the (shortened) list of what Obama's done lately:

(1/29/10)   Stopped restrictions on releasing visitor logs of White House (2/1/10)    Cut massively overbudget constellation program out of budget (2/12/10)   Reinstated congressional restriction to offset spending w/revenue (2/16/10)   Tax cuts and infrastructure improvement to combat recession (2/18/10)   Created commission to provide full plan on reducing debt (3/18/10)   Tax cuts for employees and employers (3/23/10)   Largest reform of health care since 1965 (3/30/10)   Removed need for student loans to be run through banks/marked up (3/31/10)   Announced increase in hybrid purchases for federal autos (4/6/10)    Approved targeted killing of Al-queda regardless of citizenship              (4/8/10)    Reduction of US and Russian nuclear arms by 1/3, focus on Iran (4/15/10)   Introduced plan to incentivize private space travel companies (5/14/10)   Froze congressional salaries through 2011 (5/25/10)   Sent 1,200 National Guard troops to Mexico border (6/9/10)    Started a fund to pay transportation of fallen soldier's families (7/2/10)    Increased security of biological agents and toxins stored in US (7/21/10)   Largest reform of background financial transactions since 1924 (7/22/10)   Extended basic unemployment benefits for 2.3 mil Americans (7/22/10)   Started investigations into stopping fraudulent federal payments (8/2/10)    Reduced racial divide in sentencing for crack and cocaine (8/4/10)    Posthumously restored rank of Vietnam scapegoat commander

ZLog Through Blog Posts

It has been quite a while since I've been posting to the blog! In an exciting development, I'm beginning to contribute to The Modern Archivist blog for ZL Technologies. At The Modern Archivist, ZL's corporate blog, I'll be exploring email archiving, records management and eDiscovery. Hopefully I'll be able to provide some edutainment to a rather complex subject!

Image via CrunchBase

Check out my most recent post to the site, on Goldman's dirty mouth ways. Looks like they'll need to clean up more than their accounting books!

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