Cory’s in-class demo of “Read More”

I want to make a blog post to demonstrate the “Read more” feature

UPS Fixes Toshiba Laptops

UPS’s partnership with Toshiba to repair Toshiba’s laptops at the UPS hub in Louisville must still be going strong: UPS touts the program prominently on its Supply Chain Solutions webpage. WordPress won’t let me embed the Windows Media file, but if you’d like to see a video from UPS on this outsourcing deal, click here. (And here’s another link to the CNNMoney 2004 article we read in class.)

So what can you outsource? And what can you convince someone else to outsource to you?

Update 16:00 CST: Here’s a CNet News photo essay on UPS and its Toshiba repair operation. The article notes that the UPS has drawn 110 companies (like CafePress.com!) to move their operations to Louisville, just to be close to UPS’s hub.

Netflix & XBOX 360

I might never buy another DVD in my life. In fact the last DVD/Blu-Ray I bought for myself was when I was in Iraq in May of 2007. Being in Iraq was the only reason I bought DVDs. The internet connection was to slow to stream any movies at all. This is all beside the point though, Netflix is one of the more popular on-line movie rental stores and XBOX 360 is one of the most popular mainstream game consoles. When these two giants announced a partnership it raised eyebrows everywhere. I myself was beside myself with joy, this union to me is as powerful as Brad and Angelina. I thought with my XBOX and my Netflix subscription that I would never buy another movie in my life, and I do not see that happening anytime soon.

The problem with this though is that the movie selection for streaming from Netflix to your XBOX is limited to about 100,000 movies and a number of TV Show’s. This list is continually growing but lacks in quality bock office movies. Netflix is currently toying with the idea of adding premium movie channels like HBO to its arsenal of selections, but this would come at an aditional cost to the monthly fee.

With all this said I’m not sure what has been done with the partnership has made a huge impact in the IT field. I think it is IT related in the fact that it will be the forefront for the movie industry in the years to come.

Meeting 2: Technical Difficulties (or, How to Use WordPress)

Well, that worked about as well as a three-legged table…

Ah, it wasn’t that bad. WordPress worked fine, and my computer evenually talked to the projector and the recorder. Online students, my apologies for the long dead spot in the video as we switched from Pam’s laptop to mine.

Key points:

1. WordPress isn’t the best tool, but for a quick ad hoc project like this course blog, it gets the job done. Sure, for this class, you need to know how to do basic tasks in WordPress (post, comment, tag, categorize, add links), but it’s more important that you be able to look at any software like this and determine whether it meets your needs for the job at hand (hmmm… sounds like a midterm project).
2. That said, do play around with WordPress. I think links, bullet lists, and blockquotes are basic and important features you should be able to add to any web document. Feel free to add more links, graphics, videos, HTML tricks, etc. in your posts and comments here. See what you can make it do to add value to your communications.
3. If you aren’t showing up as an author (“Who We Are”), e-mail me at my pluto.dsu.edu address and tell me which e-mail address you used to create your WordPress account. I’ll get you on toute de suite!

If you have any technical difficulties, give me a shout! You can also post your questions and observations about today’s demo right here.

Spend More on IT? During a Recession?!?

Money’s tight everywhere. Walking into a meeting during a recession and asking to spend more money takes chutzpah… and a really good business case. Can you make that case for your IT department?

Chris Murphy thinks some IT projects can make that case. One key question: is your project a nice-to-have or a need-to-have? Murphy also notes that while IT folks usually prioritize cutting cost, business folks usually prioritize supporting growth of the company.

New hardware or software might cut costs—one business bought a Kaseya system that manages power settings on its 350 PCs and servers and cut the power bill by $30K. But new IT might also increase business, and sometimes, even during a recession, you’ve got to spend money to make money.

So which way do you go as a manager in a recession? Do you sit on the gear you have and play it safe until the economy recovers? Or do you invest in IT improvements now to gain advantage on your competitors? (Whew—questions like these make me glad I’m just teaching. )