DesertStandard

The

Gig Job-hopping Gen Yers aren’t disloyal. They’re smart «
Never mind that it doesn’t do much to encourage employees to become leaders themselves. As Tammy Erickson at the Concours Institute notes on her Harvard Business Online blog, Yers aren’t necessarily eyeing your job. “We were pretty surprised by the number of Y’s who said their boss’ job just didn’t look ‘worth it,’” she writes. Perhaps because it’s more true than ever that we want to reach our own personal best – which means having the best personal life possible, too, and maybe, you know, not having to fire all your friends — becoming CEO isn’t the holy grail it might have been.

ed. Thanks to Nadira A. Hira for pointing out my mistake that this story was from Fortune. Thats called being on top of your story. (Where is my link love? =)

Good stuff on current economic conditions with some plausible answers for moving forward by looking backward.

Fortunately, there is a better way forward than we took after 1974. We need to adopt coherent national and global technology policies to address critical needs in energy, food, water, and climate change. Just as we invest $30 billion of public funds each year in the National Institutes of Health, we should invest at least as much each year in a new National Institutes of Sustainable Technologies. Just as private biomedical firms live in a kind of symbiosis with NIH, the energy and food sectors should be backstopped by a major public effort to promote sustainable technologies.

Stagflation Is back - May. 28, 2008

Ouch that has to sting a little. I mean we are talking about Arizona here, McCain’s home state, where he is the elected Senator.

Poor ticket sales, expected protests scuttle Bush-McCain fundraiser at Phoenix Convention Center - Phoenix Business Journal:

So I am making the move to CFL’s as they save energy and last forever. What I didn’t know is that regular CFL’s don’t work with Dimmers. For a technical explanation see here.

So now I am gonna get to run back to Home Depot and get different ones tomorrow. =)

I try to read Church of the Customer Blog as often as I can. They do a really good job of taking Internet topics and applying them to everyday business issues. In the last week they have had some really great posts talking about Social Media:
In 7 questions with Josh Bernoff they interview Mr. Bernoff about his first book “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies”. The interview is a good read on how businesses can get it right but also where they get it wrong:

Concentrating on the technology first. If you decide on the objectives you want to accomplish, you may get where you’re going. If you say “let’s start a blog” or “let’s start a community” you may be calling me 6 months from now saying “I got this off the ground, now how is this supposed to be helping me?” This is actually a lot more common problem than technology problems or authenticity issues, which get all the discussion.

They discuss the battle between short-term campaigns vs. long-term evangelism in Closing a Disney community. Where Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom is being shut down even though it has attracted more than a million users.

Good coverage of social media and ecommerce. Read up and get a clue.

I just dont see how Microsoft’s new program to pay users to use their search engine helps to build mindshare. Anyone using the program is only there to get their cash and as soon as it ends they will be back to Google. As one quote in the article discusses people will probably use Google to find what they want and then go to Microsoft to get the cash back.
FORTUNE: Techland Microsoft turns to cash to beat back Google «

Good article on saving gas, but also for driving like a sane person.
6 ways you’re wasting gas - May. 21, 2008

One things they leave out: stop driving your car. Take the bus, ride your bike. The next time you complain about gas prices think about how you can avoid having to use any at all.

Fought a bitter wind from the West today. Felt like the four horsemen were riding in and I had to show them it wasn’t time yet. Hadn’t really thought of riding out till I jumped in my pool and relaxed a good bit. After treading around for a few minutes I got the bug to ride and since I had just spent some dough on new equipment there was no good reason not to go. So I donned the new Pearl Izumi Bib Shorts, Descent Jersey, and Bell helmet (first cycling clothing purchases in over 10 years!) and rolled on out on my trusty carbon/aluminum steed.

As soon as I hooked the right out of my sub division and headed west the wind was in my face like a long winded argument that you didn’t necessarily want to get into, but once you are you grin cause you know you got it licked. I am not an overly spiritual man but there are things that I like to give meaning to that isn’t necessarily scientifically verifiable, either that or I just like to make shit up. One of these beliefs is that Wind has a personality and sometimes you get the same ones and a lot of the time they change up. Sometimes they change up in the middle of a ride. Todays ride was an angry wind. It was shifting all over; mostly it came from the West but some times a bit North or South just like someone throwing a tantrum: you got a decent idea of where its coming from, but there are a lot of curve balls that you weren’t expecting. My new suit felt like armor and this angry wind was getting cut to shreds as I sliced up Alma School towards Guadalupe and I knew I had it licked.

My methods for choosing a route vary a lot. Today I opted for Extension Road north to Rio Solado Pkwy west into Tempe. I had done this with a Sat group ride a few weeks earlier and it was a good time. I knew that once I turned onto Rio it was going to be a full on grudge match with this angry shifting bastard of a wind but I am good at lying to myself and distracting my mind with thoughts about life and the day I had, etc. When I made the left onto Rio it came on full force and I backed my gears way down to keep the RPM’s high. Its a nice downhill into Tempe so I felt good.

However once I hit the 101 underpass things changed. First of all my friend the sun said hasta for another day and secondly my other friend, mr.downhill, changed to flat land. I championed the cause and gave a futile laugh as this bastard wind thought it had me licked. On I charged through to Mill Ave where I flipped Windy the bird and took a left south through the shops on Mill and over to College for a nice sprint back into Chandler.

From there the ride was a spinfest. I met up with a few other riders and we had fun trying to make each other puke by maxing out at 30mph through the neighborhoods of south Tempe. Got some funny looks from people walking their dogs and a few cars were caught off guard trying to cut in front of us. Got in at about 8pm for a 1 hour 37 minute 27 mile ride.

Here is the map of the route, calling it the Rio 27, very original.

I think I will go for another ride tomorrow, suckas!

Last Friday, May 17th was National Bike to Work Day and while I woke up to a flat tire and settled for the bus, many others participated. How about you?

Discontent with higher gasoline prices and happiness over the nice weather are credited with the 20-plus percent increase in participation this year. Maybe some of them will keep riding throughout the summer. : Biking Bis - Bicycle Touring and More

Record-setting Bike to Work Day in Seattle area

Good article on commuting on your bike to work via Rails to Trails:

Check out our list of basic preparations to enjoy your bicycle commute, and gear up to join hundreds of thousands all around the country.

1. Functional Bike – If you don’t have a bike, or if it’s been collecting dust in the garage for some time, be sure to visit your local bike shop. Staff there should be helpful in getting you set up for bike commuting on virtually any budget.
2. Helmet – A helmet can save your life…