Been gone a long time...

Well, moved from the mountains of Colorado to the mountains of Tennessee. I exchanged the rocks and trees of the west with rocks and trees of the east. Much more moisture (moss actually grows on the north side of my house!).

Speaking of things biological. Thing to watch these days is molecular computing. Si, Ga, In your days are numbered. The days of "C" are here, and I'm not talking a programming language folks! Look for a biochemist near you.

Let it snow! -- a comment on virtual work

Today in Colorado we are having the quintessential spring snow storm. Up to 8-15 inches for my location. Nothing new, and it reminds me of the Jeff Foxworthy "You might be from Colorado if..."

"You can drive over a 12,000 foot pass in 4 feet of snow, but can't get to work if there are 4 inches of snow."

I made it to work, but I might not make it home tonight... with all the other folks doing the other behavior Foxworthy describes:

"You're able to drive 65 miles per hour through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without even flinching."

Yes, four-wheel drive does not equal four-wheel stop!

With high-speed Internet, VPNs, a telephone, scanning FAX machines for signatures, we could all be home today. There-in lies the nub. Personal work ethic is greatly needed too. Some have it, some don't. Having had a career of needing to be electronically present at another physical location, it is the need to provide a product and service, and be available for others (voice/E-mail), while being in more locations electronically that makes virtual work good. But then again, it is the ability to walk over to a co-worker's office/cube/desk and work on a white-board/paper/computer screen/lab bench that makes virtual work as useful as a screen door on the outside of a submarine.

I'm waiting for holographic telepresence!

And one more from Mr. Foxworthy,

"You've gone skiing in June."

I've done that, and went skiing at A-Basin on the 4th of July too!

The ability to change

I've just had two friends get laid-off from their jobs. Both are now starting a new job this week. One was looking for four months, the other was looking for three weeks. In both cases these people were very skilled, dynamic, and capible. In both cases they had to change the way they viewed employment.

Having lived in socialist countries, I can tell you that looking to the Government is not an option. Indeed, it is up to the individial to change the way their situation. With the people now out of work in the tens of millions, and the unemployment numbers at eight percent and climbing, it is a matter of looking within yourself and having to make the changes needed to depend on people around you. Do you know your neighbors? Would they help you? Would you help them? This is the change in focus for all of us to come out of this depression -- both economically and mentally.

Finding Information is interesting!

So, I went out and tried -- on purpose -- to find non-electronic information (i.e. paper) and I even used the telephone to call the library. Why? Well, the point was to see if information was available to the non-electronic enabled citizens. In short, it was, but it was old and quite spotty. I cringe at using electronic "references" as the liquidity of these "references" reminds me of Eric Arthur Blair's book "1984." Don't recognize the name? Because the "references" tend to use the pen-name of George Orwell. References will be a future Lateral Thought.

Thus the best information is via the web, but be careful of your sources!

List of Representatives http://www.house.gov/

List of Senators: http://www.senate.gov/

Next, the State and Local.

How low is low?

We're in for it now...

The evil bankers...

Do we really know what's going on with Congress and the $350+ billion bailout? Can any real action be taken by any one of us? Well I think so. First, do you know who your represetative is? Have you even spoken to your neighbor this week? If you can answer "Yes." to these two questions then you are on your way to getting something done.

We do have something to loose. Be aware. Be proactive.

I'm going to be spending some time in this blog documenting my results. Let's see what can really happen.