Wednesday, January 25, 2012



I hope my daughters Sasha and Gabbie read wisely and live even more wise --- When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. Life is a choice. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness…

I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
I wish I didn't work so hard.
I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.



Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now: "Last week we asked readers for their predictions of life in 100 years time. Inspired by ten 100-year predictions made by American civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins in 1900, many of you wrote in with your vision of the world in 2112. Many of the "strange, almost impossible" predictions made by Watkins came true. Here is what futurologists Ian Pearson (IP) and Patrick Tucker (PT) think of your ideas : Twenty top predictions for life 100 years ; Strange, almost impossible

Help Me To Save … You Sweating The Big Stuff
From the obituary of Jonathan Richardson (shoe shine worker, dead at 74): In the context of his reaction to joining civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama:" When someone puts you down, you just smile at them, and that makes them wonder what you're thinking. You just smile at them and walk away".

From the obituary of Aimee Joan Grunberger (mother, teacher and poet, dead at 44 from complications related to breast cancer): "From where she sat in her study, she could see through the town. She saw the pettiness and the politics. She saw the people hurrying around and the squabbles. "These people need cancer," Aimee Grunberger said. "These people need cancer, not enough to kill them, just enough to make them see what's important". It was something she wouldn't wish on anyone. To a degree, it was something she would wish on everyone".


Obituaries - what are they good for? - When someone goes "before their time" there is often reflection on the meaning of live, and what a well-lived life, purpose-inspired might look like. I found some deep meaning in a recent post by Bronnie Ware, who worked for many years in palliative care. She found that every single patient found their peace before they departed. When questioned about any regrets they had, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five she found... Regrets of the Dying/Lessons for the Living [Mounted intellectual property actions will not need much scrutiny in terms of credibility The Wikipedia Blackout: Congress and digital erasure; Sitting as Chair or Director on a board can merely mean maintaining a privileged culture of insider game playing Protest and Occupy: the promise for 2012 ]
• · Social media is revolutionising the way we all communicate. Despite this the financial sector has been slow to embrace the opportunities that social media provides. Within this research report we explore and analyse current perceptions and future perspectives within the financial sector towards social media Made in heaven or marriage from hell? Social media and the financial sector (PDF); Given that today’s world is faster paced and more dynamic than ever before, and the increasingly complex and overwhelming amount of information that is therefore available, the rise of organizations whose primary goals include the generation of research and the provision of information should, perhaps, come as no great surprise. Indeed, think tanks have enjoyed massive growth – both in number and in their role in global policymaking – over the last decade 2011 Global Go To Think Tank Index
• · · The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over ; Employees who chat over the photo copier or around the coffee machine are not necessarily wasting time. Gallup research shows that socialising is good for employees' wellbeing - and company performance. Office socialising found to be good for wellbeing and company performance
• · · · Making good on part of the House of Representative's commitment to increase congressional transparency, today the House Clerk's office launched http://docs.house.gov/, a one stop website where the public can access all House bills, amendments, resolutions for floor consideration, and conference reports in XML, as well as information on floor proceedings and more. Information will ultimately be published online in real time and archived for perpetuity. The Clerk is hosting the site, and the information will primarily come from the leadership, the Committee on House Administration, the Rules Committee, and the Clerk's office Sunlight Foundation: ; A seductive approach to homemaking Bigger and better
• · · · · William Browder is head of Hermitage Capital in London’s Golden Square. He is a naturalized British citizen, the grandson, as it happens, of Earl Browder, the head of the US Communist Party in the 1940s. That link did neither him nor his mathematician father no favours in life. In the last year he has received 11 death threats – a text message quoted the Godfather about history showing that ‘there is no one so powerful they cannot be killed’. The calls were traced back to Russia. They probably did not come from gangsters, but from the senior figures in the Russian police, or more worryingly the FSB secret police. They are the ones who poisoned the late Mr Litvinienko with polonium in the middle of London Biziness and justice, Russian style ; We decided to help raise the level of integrity Italians turn to the Internet against tax evasion
• · · · · ·
When city services can autonomously go online and digest information from the cloud, they can reach a level of performance never before seen. How the "Internet of Things" Is Turning Cities Into Living Organisms ; Social and internet fill the top two slots, echoing what we saw in the 2010 API stats. Telephony has become a larger part of the directory for likely two reasons. First, telco operators are waking up to the API world. And secondly, the Twilio API has shown everyone the utility of infrastructure-as-a-service.
o Twilio (234)
o Google Maps (169)
o Twitter (142)
o Twilio SMS (133)
o Facebook (99) Programmable Web Services Directory of over 100 government [local, state and federal] APIs released in 2011

CODA: Zappos.com Email to 24 Millions Customers on Password Hacking January 15, 2012 - "Subject: Information on the Zappos.com site - please create a new password. First, the bad news: We are writing to let you know that there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of your customer account information on Zappos.com, including one or more of the following: your name, e-mail address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last four digits of your credit card number (the standard information you find on receipts), and/or your cryptographically scrambled password (but not your actual password). THE BETTER NEWS: The database that stores your critical credit card and other payment data was NOT affected or accessed. SECURITY PRECAUTIONS: For your protection and to prevent unauthorized access, we have expired and reset your password so you can create a new password. Please follow the instructions below to create a new password. We also recommend that you change your password on any other web site where you use the same or a similar password. As always, please remember that Zappos.com will never ask you for personal or account information in an e-mail. Please exercise caution if you receive any emails or phone calls that ask for personal information or direct you to a web site where you are asked to provide personal information. PLEASE CREATE A NEW PASSWORD: We have expired and reset your password so you can create a new password. Please create a new password by visiting Zappos.com and clicking on the "Create a New Password" link in the upper right corner of the web site and follow the steps from there. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any additional questions about this process, please email us at passwordchange@zappos.com"