Posts By Ed Albetski

Re-Branding, a Dangerous Strategy

A while ago, in the misty dawn of internet commerce, a government agency I know decided to change its web site address, dropping its parent department and just going by WWW.WHOZIT.GOV. Needless to say this caused a storm in the user community with suddenly invalid bookmarks, frantic e-mails that the website was down, etc. TheyRead… Read more »

Crackberries

My son got a new phone; he chose a Blackberry. You ever notice that folks who have these NEVER stop fiddling with them? Waiting in line, on the subway, ESPECIALLY in meetings, Blackberry owners are constantly surfing, reading email, playing Tetris, doing God knows what, instead of paying attention to where they are and whatRead… Read more »

The Archiving Challenge

A few years ago it was made public that Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s political adviser, and Vice-President Dick Cheney were using a political party’s email system for work related communication instead of their official government accounts. A political party is under no obligation by law to archive its emails for posterity. This broughtRead… Read more »

Life in the Trenches with Security for Security’s Sake

Being an IT dweeb, I work an internal Helpdesk occasionally. I’m on the receiving end of a lot of complaints about the websites the web-blocking software blocks. And they all ask me why. Sometimes I can take a good guess. Gambling, porno, hate speech, those are pretty easy to explain, even to upper management. ButRead… Read more »

Father’s Day

Father’s Day has become a bittersweet holiday since I lost my father. I’m a father myself, so we still celebrate with dinners and gifts and our own family circle of love; but for the child in me, there will always be someone missing. My dad skipped college to join the Army as World War IIRead… Read more »

Urban Renewal

My wife Kathy is a great arbiter of architectural tastes. She constantly laments why is it that when they tear down old buildings they always replace them with uglier ones? There was a particularly hideous building near K Street and Vermont Avenue in DC that looked like a stack of concrete chicken wire. Oddly, itRead… Read more »

The Dark Side of Web 2.0

We have to get involved in Web 2.0! Hurry, we have to start planning for our rollout strategy for Web 3.0, whatever the hell that is. Or maybe we have to stop and think about things a bit. Social networks are fun, conferring with our peers can be enlightening and informative. However a major questionRead… Read more »

“Leader”ship

Ever wonder why folks in charge nowadays are still called “leaders” when they are really no where near the front of the column? I mean Alexander the Great and William Wallace, they actually “led” their men into battle and the title was appropriate, but today that isn’t the case. Comedian Redd Foxx once had aRead… Read more »