Based on the contest at One Stop Poetry and the Photography of Scott Wyden http://scottwyden.com/
Month: May 2011
The Monk who Danced
Some monks pray
Some monks dance
Some monks drink
All monks hope for a second chance
I have played all
kinds of funny games
Been to all kinds of places
Called all unkind names
The thrill of the chase
The prospect of romance
is rarely expressed in thudding crashes
More often expressed in dance
Here comes tango
There goes hip hop
Ballroom dancing for the propah
Disco dancing for the lower crop
This monk got grace
It helps he has style
For very soon he will start sweating
Because he has not practiced in a while
While the forbidden and elusive
Pleasures of the flesh are often the downfall
Of talented men who began to crawl
Dancing never killed anyone
and no one got killed dancing.
The wars the fights and the peacock struts
Have continued since mankind begun
Choose your arena, choose your weapon
Dancing shoes or the barrel of a gun.
Music heals what people hurt
Poetry steals what movies covet
Paintings end up hugging stony walls
But dancing above all is in the moment
Transitory like a flutter of a piano sheet
Dance now or forever hold your feet.
Related-
http://www.themonkwholovestodance.com/
http://www.gakkaionline.net/Myths/Dancing.html
Interview with Rob La Gesse Chief Disruption Officer Rackspace
Here is an interview with Rob La Gesse ,Chief Disruption Officer ,Rackspace Hosting.
Ajay- Describe your career journey from not finishing college to writing software to your present projects?
Rob- I joined the Navy right out of High School. I had neither the money for college, or a real desire for it. I had several roles in the Navy, to include a Combat Medic station with the US Marine Corps and eventually becoming a Neonatal Respiratory Therapist.
After the Navy I worked as a Respiratory Therapist, a roofer, and I repaired print shop equipment. Basically whatever it took to make a buck or two. Eventually I started selling computers. That led me to running a multi-line dial-up BBS and I taught myself how to program. Eventually that led to a job with a small engineering company where we developed WiFi.
After the WiFi project I started consulting on my own. I used Rackspace to host my clients, and eventually they hired me. I’ve been here almost three years and have held several roles. I currently manage Social Media, building 43 and am involved in several other projects such as the Rackspace Startup Program.
Ajay- What is building43 all about ?
Rob- Building43 is a web site devoted to telling the stories behind technology startups. Basically, after we hired Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica we were figuring out how best we could work with them to both highlight Rackspace and customers. That idea expanded beyond customers to highlighting anyone doing something incredible in the technology industry – mostly software startups. We’ve had interviews with people like Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of FaceBook. We’ve broken some news on the site, but it isn’t really a news site. It is a story telling site.
Rackspace has met some amazing new customers through the relationships that started with an interview.
Ajay- How is life as Robert Scoble’s boss. Is he an easy guy to work with? Does he have super powers while he types?
Rob- Robert isn’t much different to manage than the rest of my employees. He is a person – no super powers. But he does establish a unique perspective on things because he gets to see so much new technology early. Often earlier than almost anyone else. It helps him to spot trends that others might not be seeing yet.
Ajay – Hosting companies are so so many. What makes Rackspace special for different kinds of customers?
Rob- I think what we do better than anyone is add that human touch – the people really care about your business. We are a company that is focused on building one of the greatest service companies on the planet. We sell support. Hosting is secondary to service. Our motto is Fanatic Support®
and we actually look for people focused on delivering amazing customer experiences during our interviewing and hiring practices. People that find a personal sense of pride and reward by helping others should apply at
Rackspace. We are hiring like crazy!
Ajay – Where do you see technology and the internet 5 years down the line? (we will visit the answers in 5 years 🙂 )?
Rob- I think the shift to Cloud computing is going to be dramatic. I think in five years we will be much further down that path. The scaling, cost-effectiveness, and on-demand nature of the Cloud are just too compelling for companies not to embrace. This changes business in fundamental ways – lower capital expenses, no need for in house IT staff, etc will save companies a lot of money and let them focus more on their core businesses. Computing will become another utility. I also think mobile use of computing will be much more common than it is today. And it is VERY common today. Phones will replace car keys and credit cards (they already are). This too will drive use of Cloud computing because we all want our data wherever we are – on whatever computing device we happen tobe using.
Ajay- GoDaddy CEO shoots elephants. What do you do in your spare time, if any.
Rob- Well, I don’t hunt. We do shoot a lot of video though! I enjoy playing poker, specifically Texas Hold ’em. It is a very people oriented game, and people are my passion.
Brief Biography- (in his own words from http://www.lagesse.org/about/)
My technical background includes working on the development of WiFi, writing wireless applications for the Apple Newton, mentoring/managing several software-based start-ups, running software quality assurance teams and more. In 2008 I joined Rackspace as an employee – a “Racker”. I was previously a 7 year customer and the company impressed me. My initial role was as Director of Software Development for the Rackspace Cloud. It was soon evident that I was better suited to a customer facing role since I LOVE talking to customers. I am currently the Director of Customer Development Chief Disruption Officer. I manage building43 and enjoy working with Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica to make that happen. The org chart says they work for me. Reality tells me the opposite 
Go take a look – I’m proud of what we are building there (pardon the pun!).
I do a lot of other stuff at Rackspace – mostly because they let me! I love a company that lets me try. Rackspace does that.Going further back, I have been a Mayor (in Hawaii). I have written successful shareware software. I have managed employees all over the world. I have been all over the world. I have also done roofing, repaired high end print-shop equipment, been a Neonatal Respiratory Therapist, done CPR on a boat, in a plane, and in a hardware store (and of course in hospitals).
I have treated jumpers from the Golden Gate Bridge – and helped save a few. I have lived in Illinois (Kankakee), California (San Diego, San Francisco and Novato), Texas (Corpus Christi and San Antonio), Florida (Pensacola and Palm Bay), Hawaii (Honolulu/Fort Shafter) and several other places for shorter durations.
For the last 8+ years I have been a single parent – and have done an amazing job (yes, I am a proud papa) thanks to having great kids. They are both in College now – something I did NOT manage to accomplish. I love doing anything someone thinks I am not qualified to do.
I can be contacted at rob (at) lagesse (dot) org
you can follow Rob at http://twitter.com/kr8tr
Related articles
- Rackspace offers hosted virtual desktops from Citrix (infoworld.com)
- Citrix Taps Open Stack For Building Private Clouds (informationweek.com)
- A2SM Podcast #22 – Special Report: Robert Scoble on the Rackspace Cloud Going Open Source (a2sm.com)
- Support from Rackspace Customers Helped me Finish the Ironman (rackspace.com)
The Departing
I thought she dropped from Heaven
But all she did was leave
Broke my heart and my credit card
Left me wondering which one to grieve
I thought our time was special
We shared some mystic divine ties
It turns out I had been blitzed
By 140 pounds of sugar speaking 300 pounds of lies
Still life is okay
Fools have to learn
Poets have to write poetry
Even when nagged to pimp out and earn
Awesome used to be an adjective
It is now a proper noun for some
We dont care we wont change
We just sing and hum.
Every Revolution Needs a Poet
Every revolution needs a poet.
Every poet needs a revolution.
Every bird needs a branch to sit.
Every tree wishes for some birds to meet.
Every hacker deserves some respect.
Every corporation needs to pay its bills.
Every scumbag was once a human baby.
Every baby will grow up to do atleast one horrible thing.
Forget and Forgive.
Let it be and let it go.
And if you cant forget, forgive then fight
Will each cell in your brain, each sinew in your fingers
Kill all the killers if you cannot forgive the killing
Hack all the servers, tear them root by root,
if you cannot forgive the deceptions.
Violent begets violence,
be aware and beware.
Jaspersoft 4.1 launched
http://www.jaspersoft.com/events/jaspersoft-41-webinar-north-america
one more webinar, but a newer software and a changing paradigm.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Webinar: Introducing Jaspersoft 4.1- North America
Date: June 8, 2011
Time: 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET
Duration: 60 Minutes
Language: English
Self-service Business Intelligence helps individuals and organizations respond quickly to operational and strategic decisions. A driving factor for the success of self-service BI is an intuitive and integrated UI that spans reporting, dashboards, and data analysis. Additionally, the rise of the cloud and big-data environments presents new opportunities for organizations that can analyze and respond to these emerging data sources.
In this webinar, see how the new Jaspersoft Business Intelligence Suite 4.1 release achieves all this and more.
Register now and learn how you can now take advantage of:
- Modern self-service BI for reporting and analysis: powerful, unified capabilities for both ad hoc reporting and analysis tasks.
- Flexible insight into any data source: a seamless analytics UI for both data stored within relational, OLAP, and big data stores.
- Maximum performance—now designed to take advantage of 64-bit processors.
Join the webinar and explore the world’s most advanced and affordable BI suite through live demos, interactive Q&A and more.
the upcoming Jaspersoft 4.1 Webinar and Demo. Here’s a preview of what you’ll see:
- Unified drag-and-drop UI for reporting and analytics. Jaspersoft 4.1 delivers powerful, unified drag-and-drop usability to both ad hoc reporting and analysis tasks while supporting both in-memory and OLAP engines. That means easier, more powerful analysis for business users and a faster route to self-service BI.
- Insight against any data source. The analytics UI provides easier, more powerful analysis across relational, OLAP, and Big Data stores.
- High performance with native 64-bit installer support. With Jaspersoft 4.1, you can also scale BI applications to new performance heights, thanks to full support for today’s powerful 64-bit processors.
Join us for the webinar and see how quickly and easily BI Builders like you can deliver true, self-service BI, combining reports, dashboards, and analytics, against virtually any data source — all through a single, web-based UI.
Related articles
- Calling R from JasperReports Server (r-bloggers.com)
Tableau Interactive "Viz" Contest
One more contest- open only for US though but the prizes are hmm okay. The catch is you have to use the software Tableau created not R or J or ggobi or ggplot or java Check out http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/biz-viz-contest/?=decisionstats
Tableau Interactive “Viz” Contest
AS FEATURED AT
Win a trip to Vegas and a chance for $2,000 & an iPad2
Are you a business, finance or real estate geek? This contest is for you! In cooperation with The Economist Ideas Economy conference, the Tableau Software Interactive “Viz” Contest will focus on business, finance and real estate data… Find some data then use Tableau Public to analyze and visualize it. That’s all it takes.
What you’ll win
A 3-day trip to Las Vegas and a chance to win $2,000 & an iPad2
The winner chosen by our judges will also take away a free roundtrip ticket to attend the2011 Tableau Customer Conference. This includes 3 night’s accommodations at theEncore and a chance to compete in the Iron Viz championship with the winners of two other contests. The winner of Iron Viz will take away a new iPad2, and $2,000.
Cash for the crowd favorite
After entering you’ll receive a custom bit.ly link to your viz. Tweet, Facebook and e-mail that link to everyone you can! Whoever gets the most clicks through their link will become our Crowd Favorite and receive a $250 debit card.
Recognition from The Economist Ideas Economy
Your winning entry will be announced live on stage at The Economist Ideas Economy conference, and Tableau will issue a national press release naming the winner.
Everyone who enters gets a t-shirt!
Everyone who enters will get a very cool Tableau t-shirt. The winner will also receive increased Tableau Public limits and a free copy of Tableau Desktop (a $1999 value)!
How it works
(Click on the steps to expand and get the details.)
Check the box to view all steps and details.
Contest Rules Summary
The following contest is open to legal residents of the United Sates only. You must publish your “viz” on your blog or website to be qualified. Submission form must be submitted by June 3, 2011. Winners will be notified by June 7, 2010. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
Please read all the rules in their entirety before entering.
Read details at http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/biz-viz-contest/?=decisionstats
Related articles
- Visualizing marketing analytics with Tableau (customerthink.com)
DECISION STATS 