Meanderings

Carol Bartz has been named as the new CEO of Yahoo! I remember her leadership of Autodesk VERY well. I was an ADN registered developer for many years prior to dunking myself into the "mainstream" IT world. I may be heading back in that direction but I can't say for sure yet. More to come later. Anyhow, Carol was a fairly prominent leader during her tenure. More focused on shareholder value than developer communities, it marked a departure from the history of Autodesk being a Mecca for those that liked to manipulate the product features with their own programming efforts. Packaged solutions were to become the new mantra. That direction appears to be continuing on under Carl Bass. I think it's a little sad though.

I'm not sure I want to continue on with getting an MCSE/MCITP. At 45, and living in an area with minimal prospects, I don't see the benefit. I have my MCSA and MCTS/SCCM 2007, even though they haven't done anything for me. I'm just glad to be employed, and software packaging and deployment isn't the worst job. I work with some really cool people who don't get wrapped up in back-stabbing politics. I had enough of that in previous jobs.

I finally finished my Creatology Wooden Dragon Puzzle. It took two days (totalling about 4 hours, spread out). I used to build extremely details models for a hobby shop store front when I was a kid. I made elaborate dioramas of battle scenes for military layouts, racing cars on drag strips, etc. I remember making bullet holes in the armor of a half-track vehicle, painting it to look like the paint was chipped and rust was running from the rivets on the rear corners. Ah, the good ole days.

Windows 7 is very nice indeed. I have two of our four home computers running it now. I have mixed views on the new task bar, but I really like the rest of it. A big improvement over Vista. It runs great in VMware Workstation 6, and Server 2.0 also.

Two good friends of mine are doing well following cancer treatment. My friend Larry in Texas and Jim in Richmond. Congratulations guys! I'm glad you're doing better and I hope 2009 is a fantastic year for you both.

It's pretty chilly out and the forecast is to get a bit chillier. Still not "cold" by Michigan standards, but it sure smacks me in the face at 5:00 AM on the way to work.

My oldest just turned 18. My youngest just turned 10. I think 2009 will be about spending more time with them. Many of the people I used to hang around with stopped calling or emailing because I don't have time to hang out like I used to. Oh well. That's life, and my four kids are what's most important to me.

I have a few more posts coming and then I'm going to take a break for a while. I think I've run out of things to blog about.