Holy cow. Have you seen the snow outside? I’m guessing most of us just stayed home on Friday. I worked remotely. I’m amazed how much gets accomplished without the general office distractions. Still, internet access was somewhat spotty as every Fairfield student, home from school on Friday, spent the day YouTube-ing. Here’s a re-cap of the week and look ahead. [...]

The podcast with Chris Howard was posted this week. Shane Young should be next. Many of you know Shane. If you would like Shane to address a particular topic please make a note of it in the comments and we’ll try to fit it in. Also, feel free to suggest some interesting people in the Cincinnati IT community that you would like to hear from in interview format.

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You ever work someplace that blocks access to Yahoo! or Google? Please, allow me to repeat this. It’s important. This is an IT blog. You, as an IT professional, have you ever had to do your job in an environment that blocks access to Yahoo! or Google. Uh…yeah. It’s happened to me. It’s happened to a lot of us. I generally see this happening to consultants because of the security risk. Okay, good argument, “I’ll hire you, Mr. Consultant, and I’ll give you access to the tools you need to do your job so that you can rob us blind, ruin your own reputation, and never find work in this town again.” Besides, consultants are the experts and they shouldn’t need “tools.” Never mind that [F1] takes you to a website anymore.

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LÛCRUM, my company, turns 15 on Saturday! Here’s a snippet from the surprise party we threw ourselves I’m the guy holding the camera.  The best thing about LÛCRUM turns out to be our people, with my mother taking a distant second

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This week I had the opportunity to spend some time with Ciber’s Global Program Manager, Tom Kent. Tom has been a mentor to me for the last seven years or so. We discussed the different dynamics in the corporate world in comparison to the consulting world, over french toast and oatmeal at the Kenwood First Watch. Many of you probably understand this, still I cannot stress enough the positive affect a mentor can have on one’s life and career. I know that my father struggled when his best friend and confidant moved away, and my dad stressed to me over the years the importance of having someone to talk to. If you don’t have a mentor, look around. Look for someone who’s life you respect and approach them. Ask them if you could get their advice. Most folks are flattered by this question. Use it to begin a valuable relationship that will serve both of you well.

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I’ve known Mark Windholtz, currently of ObjectWind, for a number of years. In fact, while I led LÛCRUM’s custom application group and was considering a different role within LÛCRUM, I contacted Mark to see if he would be interested in taking over in my place. I led a team of about 20 incredibly talented developers and architects. My leadership and management philosophy required my giving my full attention to my guys. They came first. I practiced servant leadership, I trusted fully in my team, and they gave me their full respect in return. Not that I’m anything special, but I didn’t want just anyone taking over this team. Now it’s not that Mark and I are best friends - our families don’t hang out together on weekends or anything like that - still, I considered a very short list of folks to take the reigns, and Mark was on that list. Although flattered, Mark declined the offer, and he and I are still friends.

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Phewww, what a busy couple of days. A marathon MSDN event in Mason and the XP User Group at Children’s Hospital in Clifton on Tuesday made for an information packed day. Quite a bit to absorb. I’ll get to those in my next couple of posts.

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