Home - Miloš

5/21/2008

If you haven't heard of Twitter yet, that's ok, it's only a matter of time before it becomes as commonly known as that crappy, poorly designed/developed site, MySpace. Having said that, we are still on it, as MySpace was one of the first to bring something new and allow each of us to have our own little space on the world wide web.

Twitter is different than most other social networking sites as it focuses on one thing, and one thing only, your answer to a question "What are you doing?"

That's its intended use at least, but people have been using it for anything from updating what they are doing, thinking, plotting, business ideas, to random bit** sessions about work, weather, people, sports,...an the list goes on. What makes it interesting besides real time responses and interaction is this sense of unity and camaraderie where people generally try to help others by answering their questions or providing suggestions on a particular dilemma.

Here's what I mean. Last night Robert Scoble, also known on Twitter (and everywhere else) as @Scobleizer posted a link to a video of his lecture at Mediabistro Circus where he talks about a number of social networking sites and tools. However, what got my attention was this scrolling display on the left hand of his screen so I asked what it was. You can see the message exchange below.

So in little over 10 minutes I was able to find out what he uses and got to test it against his recommendation. :)

Being able to exchange info, share ideas, tools and knowledge in a very informal way with someone who is very busy and at times thousands of miles away is very cool. What's even more amazing is the facts that I don't even know the guy, we've never met and he answered my question on Twitter. Furthermore, there was some luck involved considering that he's "following" over 24,000 people on Twitter and I can imagine that those updates (tweets) go by fairly quickly.

So give Twitter a try if you haven't already, just be aware that it can get addictive. ;)

Posted at 11:40 AM by topicm | Category: Web; Software; People | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

5/12/2008

VOTW - May 12, 2008

I'm finally done with this semester after being swamped with papers and exams over the last couple of weeks I'm now excited to have more time to do some cooler things and watching Euro 2008 next month will definitely be one of them. Even though Serbia didn't qualify it will be very interesting to watch and enjoy some high quality football (soccer). It is one of those cyclical sports events that I truly enjoy and try to watch as much as I can.

I came across this video the other day and found it to be a great example of good marketing. A couple of guys on a train from different backgrounds and nations found something to bridge the gap and enable them to have a "great conversation." :) Football, world's most popular sport is something anyone should be able to talk about. Btw, who will be watching EURO2008?

Posted at 9:46 AM by topicm | Category: Sports; FunStuff | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

5/5/2008

VOTW - May 5, 2008

Here's a video of a show I watched growing up in the '80s and I really liked it. I came across it again not that long ago and figured I would share it with you to see if any of you have seen it before and what you think of it.

Happy viewing!

Posted at 3:55 PM by topicm | Category: FunStuff | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Is it May 12th yet?

For the past couple of weeks I've been extremely busy with work, school and personal life. It has just been insane and I can't wait until the following Monday, May 12th when things should (hopefully) slow down a bit. I will be done with this semester; work should ease up a bit considering that finals will be nearing completion and most people will be gone until September.

Now that doesn't mean that we (IT folks) won't have anything to do, because we will, but our time and effort will be mainly focused on cooler projects and tasks which will hopefully allow us to be better prepared for the Fall 2008 semester. It's so much nicer to work on a new innovative project then to fix someone's printer or tell them to press the power button to turn their monitor on. Yes, I'm oversimplifying things a bit here, but I'm sure you understand what I mean. You do, don't you? ;)

In the mean time, I have a 30-35 page paper to submit tonight; take two finals (tonight and Wednesday night); get my knee back where it needs to be so I can start training later this week and prepare some ground work for a couple of ventures with my friends.

I guess a fairly busy period is ahead of me as well, but I don't mind it at all when the stuff preoccupying me is interesting.

Posted at 11:41 AM by topicm | Category: Random | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

4/28/2008

Dickson Hall HVAC - an oxymoron?

Why is it so difficult to get the temperature right in Dickson Hall? Our HVAC system is a joke, and compared to some of the other buildings (i.e. College Hall) Dickson Hall is not that old. Sadly, most of the time it is either too hot or like today way too cold. People are freezing at work, not comfortable at all sitting around in our jackets drinking coffee/tea or walking around trying to stay warm. If this doesn't improve soon, I think we might be shutting down earlier. These are not humane working conditions. Earlier this morning, I actually ran hot water over my hands to stay warm...this is ridiculous!

Is it too much to ask for a temperature in a 68-72 degree range?

Posted at 2:25 PM by topicm | Category: MSU; Grumble | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

4/23/2008

Please discipline your children

I think that poor home upbringing is one of the main causes of stupidity we see in schools and colleges today and this time I'm not actually referring to the level of knowledge. While education and familiarity with global concepts could definitely be improved, I'm talking about threats and unfortunate events across the country. This doesn't seem to happen in other countries and if it does it is certainly on a much smaller scale than in America, why is that?

Is it because parents don't spend enough time with their kids (not involved in their lives) or is it because they let them do whatever they want? Is it something else?

In addition to what MSU experienced not that long ago, Stevens Institute of Technology is dealing with something similar today:

"From: Stevens Announcement
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:23 AM
Subject: CAMPUS ALERT

To: Stevens Community

Date: April 23, 2008

On Tuesday, April 22, 2008, there was a case of arson on the fourth floor of Davis Hall, the Hoboken Fire Department responded and there were no injuries or serious damage. An arson investigation is underway. In addition, a threatening note was found in the fourth floor bathroom on Wednesday, April 23rd at approximately 8:30 a.m.

Effective immediately campus police officers will be posted at the main entry way of Davis Hall and all bags will be checked. The side doors will be closed for entry. Only Davis residents with valid IDs will be permitted in the building.

All members of the campus community are asked to have their Stevens ID available on their person.

Any members of the Stevens community with information about this incident are encouraged to contact Dean Ken Nilsen, 201-745-xxxx.

An email update will be distributed by 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, April 23, 2008. Please contact Maureen W., 201-216-xxxx with any questions about this advisory."*

* contact info taken out.

You see what I mean, WTF is wrong with these people who think that stuff like this is cool and all right to do. Maybe if they were disciplined better when they were kids the rest of us wouldn't have to deal with these morons.

Posted at 3:50 PM by topicm | Category: People; Security | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

4/22/2008

Creating a great team

I've been thinking about challenges of creating a great team where everyone works well together, understands and respects each other and is valuable to the organization they are a part of. It is important for everyone on a team to bring certain knowledge and expertise and as such complement the rest of the group by filling the gaps should there be any.

Having said that (which should be logical and common sense) I've been a bit puzzled by how some people pick their direct reports or try to influence who their coworkers might be. To some it is more important to work with a friend then with a person who can best address particular job requirements. Some people base their decisions on nepotism and familiarity outside work while others put that aside and look at who is the best fit for a particular position regardless of their familiarity status, language, racial or religions attributes.

I'm aware of the importance of finding a balance between being comfortable with someone and them contributing to the team, but is one thing more important than the other? If so, what ends up being more important and why? Shouldn't they be of equal value to the overall productivity and effectiveness or is that overrated as well?

Posted at 12:20 PM by topicm | Category: People; Services | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

4/21/2008

VOTW - April 21, 2008

This video* has been circulating the web for a while now and I believe that I might have talked about it years ago (on old Newton blog), but the first two support calls we got this morning were very similar to this level of difficulty so I found it appropriate to use as this week's video. :)

Also, it's a nice laugh for all of us IT folks as things like this happen more often than we would like.

* for some of you who asked...videos are located on the site, not viewable through the RSS feed. :P

Posted at 9:13 AM by topicm | Category: FunStuff; Services; Random | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

4/20/2008

Why is it called an emergency room?

On Saturday my dad cut his finger (really bad, deep cut) doing some yard work and we spent 3+ hours waiting in an "emergency" room at St. Joseph's-Wayne (former Wayne General) Hospital before he was seen by a doctor. WTF! Why are they called emergency rooms if you have to sit outside for hours with a bad laceration, risking a serious tendon injury and therefore potentially losing mobility of the affected body part? This is crazy and it really got me frustrated. Conversely, they were very efficient in getting my dad's insurance and personal info.

I understand that they need to see heart attack, stroke as well as patients with shortness of breath first, but it shouldn't take that long for someone with such a severe injury to be seen by a doctor. Also, it seems as if they were seeing people in the order they came in (except the above mentioned heart attack, stroke and shortness of breath patients). WTF! Someone who sprained an ankle should have to wait a bit longer than someone who has an open wound on their hand. I mean isn't that logical, am I the only one who sees this as poorly managed service/facility? In addition, they only had one doctor, one doctor! Several nurses and other supports staff, but one Medical Doctor. How is that possible!? Everything up to that point was very frustrating and unnerving.

On the other hand, once we were seen by a doctor we were pleased how knowledgeable, capable and professional the staff was. My dad was seen by Lisa Campanella M.D. and she was wonderful. Clearly had amazing medical knowledge and was even a better person who was easy to talk to and made as all feel at ease while at the same time being honest with what was happening with my dad's injury.

My dad got lucky in a sense as no tendons were injured, but it will take several weeks for the cut to heal. Overall, looking at this experience things could have gone much worse, but I still believe that the wait time has to be reduced somehow. It shouldn't be acceptable for patients to wait for hours in emergency rooms in the US in 2008. Some of us often complain about services provided outside the US, but this is shameful and sad. Something has to be done to provide more efficient essential services to all of us.

Posted at 9:35 PM by topicm | Category: People; Services; Grumble | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

4/16/2008

Chubb(y) Institute's shady games

Yesterday I called the Chubb Institute to get more info on some of their technical programs. I ended up calling as my friend was unsuccessful in getting the info he needed for a project so he asked me to give it a shot. Mos of the conversation was annoying and unprofessional (however, by the end I got what we were looking for ;)). Here's what happened.

I called their main number and was transfered to their Parsippany campus as it was closest to me. All I wanted to get was basic info such as the length of the course (# of credits/weekly class times), topics covered, placement success rate, and of course the price. This ended up being much more difficult than expected.

After speaking to an operator and someone from admissions I wasn't able to get the price or a clear answer on how long does a particular course last. They kept saying..."it depends, we don't discuss pricing over the phone, only in person when you come in a spend a couple of hours touring out facilities." WTF! That means that anyone remotely interested in learning more about their programs has to waste hours on their campus just to get several bits of information essential to making their decision whether to pursue it further or not. As they were adamant on not providing me with this information and I wasn't satisfied with their answer I asked to be transfered to the Director of Admissions who after another 5 minutes of BS (tried to stick to their story) finally provided me with the info I wanted all along. :)

After all was said and done I've asked him why are they doing this, why was it so difficult to get answers to my questions and was told that it is their policy not to discuss info over the phone due to their "typical" client base. As as I wasn't sure what he meant I asked him to clarify and he basically said that people applying to trade schools don't understand what's important to look for before making the decision, most of them get turned off by the price.

Well, genius, when you charge almost $11K for 9 months it's not surprising that most people would lose interest in your school! Also, it is wrong to force people to have to come in for something they should be able to get over the phone or online. They shouldn't assume how people make their decisions and should focus on quality of services offered and better customer service as well on convenience of their prospective students. Stop being shady and try to lure people in to one of your campuses where certain percentage of them will cave in under pressure and maybe do what's not best for them. What happened to just being up front and direct in business!?

BTW, in case anyone is interested their typical evening program is 9 months long and costs $10,550. :)

Posted at 10:35 AM by topicm | Category: Grumble; Services; Random; People | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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