iGuiders in beta

Been a while since I posted. Reason being is I am now working with iGuiders.com. It’s a tool for providing the thought process when researching a complex topic. You can build your own Guider for free. I built my own. iGuiders is currently in beta–so there’s some bugs to work out. I’ll keep you posted.

Technology companies in NE Ohio

As of late, I’ve had my eyes opened to the fact that there really are a large number of tech companies in Cleveland. I’ve known it to be fact for a while, but until recently, I didn’t realize not all are just IT consultants. I don’t mean that in a derogatory manner, just that it seems as though that’s a generic catch all approach. Let me clarify. What I mean is it’s too easy for a tech person who runs their own business to answer “what do you do” with “IT consulting”. I’m a straightforward type of person, so I like a more specific, direct reply when I ask the question “what does your company do”?

If the reply I get is more specific than “IT consulting” then that’s a good start. For instance, a company made up of outstanding techies I know specialize in open source technologies. That is much better than the standard “IT consulting”. Granted, many a business owner is not versed in various information technologies, but if I were seeking services within that category, I’d do a little more digging. It is too easy to make an uninformed purchase decision. So what to do, you ask? Let’s see, standard answer is Google, but as many know you’ll end up with billions of results if you don’t know the specific keywords to search with. I always thought it’d be cool to find a tool that cuts search time in half without sacrificing relevant results Well, there is, and it’s based in Cleveland, Ohio, not Silicon Valley. I also recently met a company exec who’s company provides virtualization services. I’d go deeper into what that is, but that’s for another post.

My opinion on why facebook user demographic is changing

Okay, so there’s all the chatter about how older people (26 yrs +) are the quickest growing segment of facebook users. I joined originally for business purposes. But, after finding a few old friends on FB, I started looking for more. And to my surprise I found them. I can’t believe I found people after 10 years plus of losing contact. Life blows by quicker than we’d like to admit. After high school, college, marriage, family etc. you look up and realize almost 20 yrs have blown by. Then you start to wonder whatever happened to your best friends from junior and senior high school. Why the sudden introspection? After going through many life changing situations, I realized what’s really important are the people in my life. I also realized how much I loved my adolescent years (all insecurity, parental angst, hormones aside). I realized I probably wouldn’t have survived those years without the circle of friends I was a part of. Throughout the years I thought of them often. I’m glad to have found many of them again, most of them courtesy of Facebook. It’s like a time warp back to some of the happiest days of my life. Before I assumed adult responsibilities, when things were pretty much carefree.