I would like to think that I run a fairly well organized reliable configuration for my main production machine and for the last four years things have been mostly stable.  Sure I had a blow out of my video card a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t really worried about my data then.  I run a nice Mac Pro configuration that I have updated over the years.  A 240Gb SSD boot drive that makes things nice and quick.  A 1Tb main hard drive that just held my user folder and a 250Gb time machine disk that kept my important stuff backed up.  I am a Dropbox user so all of my documents are really stored in the cloud and I use IMAP email so they are stored in the cloud as well.  Yea cloud…

So there it was the dreaded spinning beach ball…

Not just one of those made-up-for-marketing-purposes "holidays," Social Media Week is a biannual, world-wide event for everyone from beginners to experts.

Take a look at what’s scheduled here in Chicago, or see what’s happening in more than a dozen cities around the globe.  You can even listen to educational sessions live from the comfort of your own desk throughout the week.

Events like this get you educated, energized and empowered! But then next week comes and you start questioning: Is social media really worth my effort?

Attributed to Nicholas Carr five years ago, the term "digital sharecropping" has once again been a topic of discussion in recent weeks. Seems sort of appropriate since this year is the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, a time in our history when sharecropping was most prevalent.

Comparing sharecroppers of the 1860's to digital sharecroppers of today is an interesting exercise with some conclusions that may surprise you.