Disqus - Latest Comments for brhubart

Re: The Sound of Ideas: Delayed Financial Independence / ideastream - Northeast Ohio Public Radio, Television and Multiple Media

Bob Rhubart — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 09:45:54 -0000

While every generation has its unique problems, complaints by young people about difficulties in finding lucrative, meaningful employment are nothing new. I'm 59 years old and I've heard these complaints my entire adult life. Certainly the current financial situation is a major hurdle. But talent and a college degree have never been a guarantee for a job, let alone a "rewarding career." I spent 25 years at a variety of mostly blue collar jobs, jobs that provided for my family, before I found my career. Success takes time and patience.

Re: The Sound of Ideas: Gun Safety in the Home / ideastream - Northeast Ohio Public Radio, Television and Multiple Media

Bob Rhubart — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 09:37:04 -0000

Must the issue of gun safety and kids also become yet another hot-button political issue? Doesn't a parent's right to insure the safety of children supersede gun rights? Are there any statistics on the number of home-break-ins thwarted by gun owners versus the number of accidental gun deaths? I can't help but think home defense is a trumped-up rationale in this disturbing balancing act between child safety and gun rights.

Re: SETI Suspends Its Search for Alien Life

Bob Rhubart — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:33:32 -0000

That sucks! I've been participating in SETI@Home for years. And back in '98 I interviewed Seth Shostak for the old Book Stacks Unlimited online bookstore. I may have that interview laying around.

Re: Why I Run a Flat Company by Jason Fried

Bob Rhubart — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:45:59 -0000

Agreed. The trick is to get passionate people and let them apply those passions to moving the company forward. Everybody wins.

Re: Board to Death – Gear Head Installment #1

Bob Rhubart — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:24:34 -0000

My stage set-up is one acoustic guitar, an acoustic mandolin, and a Nady condenser mic. Sometimes a bring a lap steel, which I plug into a $50 10-watt Fender amp. No effects.

I love gadgets, but I like to travel light...

Re: Film Fest prep

Bob Rhubart — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:27:22 -0000

Three times I've devoted an entire weekend to watching a video series. The first time I watched an entire season of the X-Files, a boxed set borrowed from the Bay Village branch of the Cuyahoga County Library.

The next time was when I discovered Firefly -- after the show had been canceled. Fortunately my cable provider at the time had the entire series on on-demand for free as a promotion.

The most recent time, though probably not the last, was an almost identical circumstance. I hadn't even heard of the HBO series 'The Wire" until I read all the press coverage about the show's final season. Luckily, HBO had the entire previous season on on-demand, and there went another weekend.

Re: What Do You Think of the iPad?

Bob Rhubart — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:27:32 -0000

Old people?

Anyway, the iPad matters, and the reason, simply put, is simplicity. It brings the ease of use of the iPhone/Touch to a larger unit that, by virtue of its size, is a better tool for reading, video, and may of the things people do with the iPad's smaller siblings. Downloading apps is quick and easy, the apps themselves are (generally) easy to use, and the whole thing requires little or no technical skill. That last bit, based on the comments here and elsewhere, appears to be a turn-off for the more technically adept, but it is nevertheless a valuable feature. I have two laptops, a desktop, and a netbook in my home, but a significant portion of my computer use is on my iPhone, becuase it's fast and easy to use.

I won't rush out an buy an iPad right away, but I will eventually own one. And it will very definitely replace my netbook.

Re: The Writing Practice

Bob Rhubart — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:26:47 -0000

I made the decision to be a writer in 1990, and I know all about the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that comes with writing for publication. Get over it! While you're worrying about what people will think, or that you're not good enough, people with far less talent are writing like crazy and getting all the attention. Don't let that happen.

When I started there were no blogs and no email. I spent weeknights writing and weekends printing out copies and submitting my stuff to various publications via snail mail. These days you don't need an editor's approval in order to find an audience. There's no excuse -- you're either a writer or you're not. The difference is in putting in the work and hitting the "publish" button.

Re: The Writing Practice

Bob Rhubart — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:25:56 -0000

If I ever get a tattoo, it'll be this quote from Peter de Vries: "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork."

Re: Why Gaming is the Future of Everything

Bob Rhubart — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:04 -0000

My first thought after reading this was of Pekka Himanen's 2001 book, "The Hacker Ethic," and it's description of the enthusiasm software developers apply to their work. It also brings to mind a conversation I had with Floyd Teter and John Stouffer at the Oracle ACE dinner during OOW09, in which we talked at length about how software development is as much a lifestyle and a culture as it is a career path. I know this is somewhat tangental to the subject of Paul's post, but there is a connection.

The first bunch of developers I met when I began my IT career in 1997 were young people who had little or no formal training in computer science or software. They were, without exception, gamers, who learned their craft by customizing or deconstructing their favorite games, starting as kids. The passion and focus they applied while playing -- and playing with -- those games as kids became the defining characteristics of their approach to the work they did as highly innovative -- and highly employable -- developers.

So, to bring this back around to Paul's post, imagine what kind of an economy we'd have --hell, what kind of world we'd have -- if every job, every task, could inspire that kind of passion and focus and sense of fun and challenge and satisfaction.

BTW: Similar thoughts expressed in my 2001 review of "The Hacker Ethic": http://bit.ly/h4WR2

Re: Feeds: Dead to You or Still Kicking?

Bob Rhubart — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:39:22 -0000

That should be "I didn't mean to imply..."

This is what happens when I multitask...

Re: What Was I Doing Again?

Bob Rhubart — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:25:31 -0000

Jake, if you're a dinosaur, what am I? Don't answer that.

Re: The Rise of Microfame

Bob Rhubart — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:23:41 -0000

"Microfame" is a term that attempts to define a particular state or condition in the in the evolving nature of human connection in the Internet Age. The use of Web 2.0 and Social Media is all about The Three Ds: democratization, decentralization, and disintermediation. Anyone with access to a computer has access to a global audience. That means that the fame pie is being sliced into increasingly thin pieces as more and more people compete, consciously or not, for the attention of an increasingly fragmented and distracted audience. Ultimately that means that Andy Warhol was right about fame, but he was wildly optimistic in his prediction of how long each of us gets to be famous. In the end, microfame is the flattening of fame. It's what happens as Web 2.0 and Social Media continue to transform fame from a vertical to a horizontal phenomenon.

Re: Video- Find Your Voice in Business

Bob Rhubart — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 10:56:27 -0000

Chris,

You've hit on my primary soapbox issue when talking to people about the use of Social Media in a business context. The problem -- well, my problem -- with "traditional" marketing communication is that it's so obviously fluffy and phoney and too often absent any signs of life. Yet in my experience so many marketing people seem to think that the audience will suck that up. That's one aspect.

Another is the idea that businesses don't communicate, people communicate. The use of Social Media makes old-school faceless, sanitized, "official" communication obsolete. This is the age of technologically extended personal connection to a global personal network. In that network the lines between business interests and personal interests is very blurry indeed. And that's as it should be. As individuals our professional and personal lives are inextricably intertwined.

In that environment, can a business survive if it continues to engage with customers, partners, suppliers, or employees as a single monolithic entity? I think not. A business is a collection of individual people, a kind of techno-organic network -- a network within the larger global network. The use of Social Media allows individuals within one network to engage with individuals in other networks on a more personal, and thereby more effective level.

As individuals we are all nodes on that overarching global network. Social Media tools allow us to create and manage our own connections. This is a cataclysmic change in the business environment, but it's a cataclysm that businesses can survive if they learn to unleash -- and trust -- the individual voices within.

In order to be effective, those individual voices must reflect the legitimate passions, interests, and expertise of the individual, rather than spewing out the same tired old monolithic marketing message. Every time I see a press release disguised as a blog post I want to stab myself in the brain with a pencil.

And that brings us back to your excellent point about the importantance of the legitimate, real, individual voice. With a little luck and a lot of enthusiasm Social Media can finally drive a stake through the heart of the monolithic business-speak and marketing fluff that gets in the way of the more valuable personal connection businesses of all sizes must make with customers and the other roles that are essential to the business.

Re: Taking the Plunge: Part 2

Bob Rhubart — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:11:21 -0000

I recently converted an old laptop to Ubuntu. I'm not a command-line kind of guy, which has complicated earlier excursions into Linux. But I've found Ubuntu to be very easy to use. I haven't had any of the problems I used to have with XP on that same machine. And let's face it, there's a lot of appeal to what amounts to flipping the bird at Windows.