Not by Abraham Lincoln: The "Ten Cannots"

Apparently these have a lot more clout if you think Abraham Lincoln came up with them. Or if you think Ronald Reagan used them in a speech in 1992. The truth is Reagan did but Lincoln didn't. They're actually by a little-known German pastor whose life overlapped with JFK's. But they certainly do sound like Lincoln.

Sometimes you can find great stuff at Wal-Mart (don't tell Paris Hilton).

The Ten Cannots
- You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
- You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
- You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
- You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
- You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
- You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
- You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
- You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
- You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
- And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

William J. H. Boetcker, 1873-1962

The Pulse Event (IBM in Orlando)

Just got back from IBM's powerhouse "Pulse" event at the Swan and Dolphin in Orlando this week. If you can imagine every parking spot on the acres and acres of Disney property being filled, you get the idea. Of course, in the larger-than-life Disney/Epcot atmosphere, everything seems all the more enormous.

generationE Technologies was a major sponsor of the event this year as our focus on IBM solutions has become increasingly central to the business. Three big splashes were the service management partner award for our work creating a Google Earth-Tivoli Netcool mashup with Aircell (see their intro to wi-fi when you fly here), special recognition as the partner with the most certifications in IBM's new AAA partner ranking system, and a rollout of a collaborative wiki around the application dependency and discovery solution "TADDM," where generationE was a featured contributor.

In the photo above is generationE's Managed Services Director Gregg Spencer, who ranks as one of the people with the most diverse backgrounds I have ever met. Gregg has faced down an angry mob as a Dallas policeman, single-handedly rescued a large software-driven embroidery company, spent some time in firefighting, miraculously survived a high-speed truck crash and in his spare time takes care of all our internal technical systems. And he's an all-around great guy to work with.

Do You Want to Permanently Erase These Files?

Have you ever considered donating your old computer(s) to a school or other organization, but been reluctant because of the chance of your data still being on the hard drive somewhere? If you've been thinking about about selling, donating or otherwise getting rid of a pc, how do you make sure you've eliminated all the sensitive information (passwords, financial information, work-related documents) you've stored on your hard drive? Deleting only eliminates the file reference until the space on the drive is overwritten; hence the usefulness of programs that "undelete." Here's a free Windows utility to overwrite your data with a random pattern and make sure it's really gone before you find a new home for your pc.

Now i c stars

Today's big event in Chicago was the i.c. stars Capitalize on Illinois event. Wow - what an assembly of CIO and other executives all in one room. Founder Sandee Kastrul commands a fantastic energy level and a list of participants from companies like Siemens, Allstate, IBM, Hewitt, Motorola and a roomful of others. If you're in business in Chicago and you don't know about this yet, you need to get on board. i.c. stars is a remarkable program in Chicago that transforms aspiring young talent into IT professionals over 1000 hours of concentrated training, many times doubling and even tripling their income. See their recruiting page here and their corporate page here.

Kellogg MBA Dave Peak made a special presentation on his latest endeavor, LiquidTalk, which is a solution designed to increase productivity among mobile workers by pushing content out to their phones and PDA's while they're on the road. Particularly for companies with large sales teams, this has real potential for adding value. Here's an article about their launch with Blackberry earlier this year.