Category Technology

Happy Fathers Day to me! I got one of the coolest gifts you can imagine! That’s right! USB Rechargeable batteries! When you’re as hard to shop for as I happen to be… finding something I’ll enjoy that I don’t already own is nearly impossible, but that task was accomplished with this!  (Yes I know Fathers Day isn’t for a few weeks, but we’re celebrating early this year!)

Part of what makes this so cool is it’s sheer portability!  I don’t know about you, but I have a number of devices I carry with me which use AA Batteries (or batteries in general) and having to carry a charger is quite lame, let alone the fact that they tend to explode in their chargers.

Problem no more though!   So I want to thank the folks of USBCell and Moixa for this, oh and thanks to Emily for thinking of this gift idea to give to me! :)

TEASER Alert!

It also looks like they’re creating some new devices.. AAA, C/D, 9V and Phone/Device batteries! So be on the look out for the other stuff which is so often running out of juice! :)

97i8crwrc4

Come on down June 2nd to the Chicago Microsoft Office to learn how to not only cut costs by virtualizing your datacenter but by learning so much more, and my good friend Ray LaMarca who will be presenting at the AON Center in Chicago on June 2nd!

The rest of the locations I’m sure will be an absolute blast, but considering I live in Chicago and personally know Ray, I think you should step up and take the morning to attend, learn, and perhaps win!   Do go sign up, the registration is handled through APC’s site, so don’t be surprised! :) 

What? Seriously? Are you seriously trying to tell me that Calculator is cooler than just ‘watch me add, watch me divide! ooh, scientific view? whatevah!”

Seriously though, it is!  I didn’t even give it a second glance until someone I’m working with here launched it and the world started to shift before my eyes! (Our unspoken voices have been heard?!?)

While on the surface it looks like it always did “oh blah, calc”

When you start to look under the covers, things start to shift and change!@

Sure, Programmer Mode is kind of cool, and even Statistics

But once you turn on Unit Conversion or Date Calculation, we enter near zOMFG territory!

What is the killer? the true Zed in zOMFG?!?! It’s the Worksheets! THIS IS CALC DAMNIT!

So, whoa, wow and check it out! I wonder if they’ve drastically changed any other ‘core’ functionality that we all take for granted!

So, you’ve been using twitter for awhile, infact you may have even used How to mass unfollow or follow people on Twitter .. and more! and found the tools to be just absolutely amazing! until.. your cumulative follower/following exceeded 10k, and found the tools to break, oh my!

Well, once you’ve exceeded 10k and want to keep growing (Yea I know who you are!) welcome a new tool! Yes, while Huitter and others give you a nice ‘whackamole’ mentality to unfollow everyone, let’s take it up a notch with.. Tweepular!

It’s broken down into a few key areas most of which have features like Bulk Follow or unfollow!

It’s all driven by checkboxes… so you can bulk-checkbox them all and unselect the ones you want, then hit Go!  It’s rightly proper and amazing and very colorful, oh my!

I suggest you give it a try today! “Srsly Guiz” said the lolcat, so it’s lolcat approved! Tweepular!

How many of you have ever attended a “Lunch and Learn”.  For those of you not familiar it typically will involved a Partner, Vendor or someone with some information to share, and often involves food (Usually Pizza or Sandwiches).

Here are the typical conditions following lunch and learns “Wow, you mean there’ll be free food? Sure I’ll come to the lunch and learn!” or “I’m interested in that topic, but I love free food!”

Yes, those are very true and strong conditions when it comes to lunch and learns.   Now let’s shift the tables a bit, and you become me.  Hi, I’m Christopher and I’m vegan, and I love people and technology.  So what does this mean?

If I am attending a lunch and learn, it is NOT for the food.    When I attend these events it is because I want the “Learn” component of the lunch and learn.  Even when it’s a subject that I know implicitly, it also has it’s value of my ability to ask questions (Both those questions I want to know the answers to, and those which others may not be asking but they really need to know the answers to and it isn’t being covered).   These same guidelines apply to user groups as well, which is to say, whenever I go somewhere it is RARELY if ever for the food.

Just think about that, if you ever see me at a Lunch and Learn, a TechEd Party, User Group meeting or who knows what – I am either there to learn, meet you, or educate in my ever so technical evangelist way, but I’m never there for the food, nor am I ever there to be the ‘know it all ass who wants to show you what I know’.  I’m more interested in what you know and if you have any questions or challenges, I love solving problems!

I did this before I did it for a living, and if I won the lotto tomorrow (Let’s make that Tuesday, for $180million please) I’ll continue to do it, because I care more about the education and growth of our community than I do anything else.   An attitude of growth, sincerity and caring matter far more to me than egos, or free food :)   Think about it the next time you meet a Vegan Technologist, we’re definitely not in it for the food ;)