Several unexpected, critical issues and tasks came up today which required me to drop my planned activities to handle. At times, in several different jobs, I've moaned and complained, or even railed at the injustice, inefficiency, or sheer stupidity of having things like this happen. These types of reactions have never had a positive impact on my career.

I had a chance to talk to some people at permissionTV. They have some really nice services and software. In particular I was very interested in their PDK, Permission TV Platform Development Kit. It made me think of think specifically of the pros/cons between paying to license something like this or building on an open source project like JV FLV Media Player.

I think I'm starting to get it, use it and live it: Facebook, texting, mobile email, mobile photos, mobile video, and even Twitter. You can see my Twitter feed on http://www.hawthorneblog.com/content/about-stephen-kelley. Do you want to play? Come on in, the water's fine! Twitter sskelley.

It's a new digital world out there and I'm feeling a little behind the times. My 13 year old son knows more about using mobile phones and social networking than I do. OK, maybe the REAL issue is that being social is a prerequisite and I'd rather be in deep solitude contemplating esoteric technical issues, but I can fake it. I "got" chat rooms and instant messaging though I eventually decided using them often did not fit my personality and work habits.

Unemployment among computer-related jobs hovers near historic lows as the U.S. information technology workforce tops 4 million for the first time.

The flip side of this is that it can sometimes be tough to find good IT talent.

O'Reilly Safari books online has been an excellent source of technical books for me. I really appreciate Hawthorne footing the bill for my subscription. It has almost completely eliminated what used to be a hefty personal and company spending buying physical technical books.

It's a beautiful summer in Iowa, except if you're under water. I've been enjoying riding my bike to work. I do it mainly for the fresh air and exercise although it feels good not to be paying $3.89/gallon. On my way back for lunch, I saw two other members of our IT department riding their bikes. Hey, get outside and enjoy!

Here's a screenshot of one of our sites at #3 for a Google search on DRTV. Personally I'm rooting for Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage TV to capture the top spot for DRTV.

Josh Gaumer, has been working at Hawthorne on a school to work intern program on an advergame. Please check out the CMO Survival Game and give us some feedback. Great work Josh!