It is such a pleasure to have responsible, successful children who also happen to be kind and have a good sense of humor. They each fell very far from my tree.
Cloud Apps and Devices...
Over the past few years virtualization of network servers put us back where IBM had us thirty years ago; large computing appliances that run a lot of things efficiently and securely. Of course we now all have our own PCs and tablets and smart phones...and the ability to type with our thumbs or some sort of stylus, and that is truly progress. It's unfortunate that IBM was steered to the side of channel for concerns of monopolization, but now we have the same with Microsoft...but it's changing. About 140 days ago I purchased a high-end notebook with quite an inventory of software and the standard accessories. It took about two weeks of diddling around to get Windows 7 working correctly, the software installed and it all appropriately recognized where it should be.
For all practical purposes I've used my $249 Samsung Chromebook for ninety-five percent of my work and "in pursuit of work" over the past eighty-two days. The $2500 notebook is in my briefcase. The Chromebook runs almost all day on a charge. The $2500 notebook is good for about three hours, less than a standard airline flight for a good C-level guy like me.
There seems little point with the exception of really graphics intensive work to use other than the Chromebook. At a personal level I'm totally cloud in terms of the device and I'm a heavy user of cloud storage solutions (e.g. www.dropbox.com) and backup tools (www.backblaze.com). Cisco's recent purchase of a firm deep in software defined networking certainly foreshadows the direction of enterprise and personal connectivity data/voice solutions.
Target Security Breach...
Target's move of a 10% discount the weekend before Christmas as appeasement for their security breach seems 1) a bit light and 2) a predictor of a perpetually escalating pattern of discounts to keep shoppers. Red Card (Redcard?) users already get a 5% discount and I get coupons from Target all the time for additional 5% off shopping days. I usually misplace those until after the expiration date. If it's an incentive to shop I'm not sure why there is an expiration date. Target wants my business but only until mm/dd/yy, not mm/dd+1/yy. Penny's fell on their face when they dropped coupons and you have to be an idiot to shop at Kohl's without a coupon and no one eats at Arby's without a coupon.
Given Target's strategy of greatly reduced SKUs and a narrowed target buyer (women 20-40) it seems that this storewide discount strategy will become commonplace.
Target and Walmart already offer a price match on advertised items. If I was in the driver's seat at Walmart I would have lowered prices storewide. At a point the Arkansas giant will simply move a few percentage points below "match" and that will be the match. The old story used to be that Target would be in trouble when WalMart figured out retailing; they have.
I have no idea why I"m talking about Target and Walmart. Yes, I started because of the security issue. We'll not ever get the whole story because that would be remarkably valuable to the the next shark but you can be assured there was some inside work and some collusion.
Monday...
The arrangement with the outplacement firm, LHH, was for twelve months. I've not been there or used their services for somewhere between four and six weeks and I've probably consumed five months of the twelve month arrangement. I'm going to try to negotiate a sabbatical from services for a month or two while I regroup. This seems entirely logical and an option that would set LHH apart, even though they have not competition.
That's on the MON schedule.
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