Site Aministration

What Do You Think Of The New Layout?

Feb 9th

Posted by Scott Coughlin in Site Aministration

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As you can no doubt tell, I launched a brand new look for The Information Technology Thought of the Day website today!  I know that many of you will no like the change because you have become familiar with the old layout and interface, but a few factors combined to influence my decision.

  1. Spam. Wordpress.com removed my original theme from their marketplace.  The sited the previous theme developer for using their theme to spread spam.  I can neither confirm nor deny that this was happening, but I suspect that they know better than me what the underlying code was doing.
  2. Features. My old theme would not play well with Ajax features or Digg.com.  Basically, I was unable to take advantage of many of the newest web technologies and I wanted to be able to do that.  For a preview, take a look at my new extended footer, the area at the bottom of the page.  That is one feature that my new theme provides that my old one did not.
  3. Expandability.  As our blog grows up, I have begun to consider paying for a premium theme so that I can work through updates to WordPress (the underlying machine that powers the blog) without changing appearances.  The company that produced my new theme, Themes by bavotasan.com, offers upgrades that I may want to seek in the future.  I am trying before buying.

So, please share your feedback on our new layout.  You can use the comments section for this post or use the “contact me” button near the top of the page to give me that feedback.

Thank you for your readership and patience during this change.

-Scott

Three Reasons Why It Is So Challenging To Be In The Information Technology Commentary Business

Feb 4th

Posted by Scott Coughlin in Business of IT

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Today’s post is a “woe is me” type one where I explain why it is so hard to be me… Seriously, some days it is just tough to get the motivation up to comment on the Information Technology world. 

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This is why…

  1. Fast Moving Train. It is very hard to keep up with the ever accelerating pace of change in the industry.  Today’s experts are yesterday’s old farts.
  2. Future Telling.  See #1.  The effect is that you have to actually be constantly predicting where the industry will be tomorrow vice reporting what is hot today.
  3. 50/50/90 Rule.  See #1 and #2.  It follows that when you go about predicting the future and have to make calls that are essentially go/no go on where the future of information technology is going, you will have a 90% chance of being wrong because a third future always becomes important.  The early bird usually is just left cold in this business…

To be honest, when I look back at this list, I am left thinking that these are also the three biggest reasons why I got into this sector in the first place!  Seriously, at least it is never boring doing what I do!

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for February 4, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image credit: florida employment law.wordpress.com

 

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The IT Thought of The Day Holiday Store Fund Raiser

Nov 20th

Posted by Scott Coughlin in Productivity

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With the Holiday Season upon us, it is time for all good IT Professionals to make up their naughty and nice lists!

As a reminder, this year, I have decided to produce a Geek Holiday Gift Guide for Information Technology Thought of the Day site readers!  It includes items that you might be interested in either owning or giving to others.  I hope that you like it. Don’t forget that I continuously add new items to it, too!

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How can you use this?  Well, you could buy the stuff for yourself!  Or you could buy it for yourself and give it to a significant other to wrap for you as your present!  You might even pass this post’s link address to your friends, loved ones, and family to come select something for you.  Or you could buy gifts to give to others – don’t forget your help desk team and other IT technicians at work!  There is always the mail carrier, dog sitter, and school teacher, too.  If they are not geeks now, why not get them started with a gift that tells them it is ‘ok’ to let their geek show.  If you have recommendations for the list, please feel free to send them to me or post them below in the comments.

The complete list of selections is available by going to The Information Technology Thought of The Day Store at Amazon.com.  There you can purchase items off our list, or any other item that you like from Amazon.  The prices are exactly the same as you would get by going to Amazon directly!  Same shipping, payment, and return policies and costs.

Here are some examples of the goodies that are available there:

So go ahead and have a browse through our store.  Bookmark it!  Pass the link about on Twitter and Facebook!  Most of all, let me be the first to wish you and yours the most wonderful of Holiday seasons with sincere wishes for your happy, healthy, and fulfilling New Year. Thank you for reading, contributing to, and supporting our Information Technology Thought of The Day community.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 20, 2009 by Scott Coughlin.

Image credit: trends.move.com

[Disclaimer: Shameless groveling follows - Believe it or not, our web site costs me money to run.  On average, it costs about $12/month in hosting bandwidth, and administration costs. Every item that I have included above on the gift guide is available from stores online that I have an affiliate relationship with.  This means that if you follow a link from my site to that store or go to my custom store on their site, I make between 2-7% of your purchase price towards site costs, while you pay nothing more and get all the regular services of the vendor.  Seems like a great win-win opportunity to me…]

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