Friday, September 30, 2011

No comment needed

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Wabbit Season - the people have spoken


Summer's over and so is the contest to vote for your favorite Year of the Rabbit sculpture. 19 of the 24 Rabbits received at least one vote. The Rabbit that got both the most votes and the most first place votes was Ralphie Rabbit at 1419 East 40th.

Here are the Top 5 Rabbits that you voted for:


Ralphie Rabbit at 1419 East 40th
Metallago, Heavy Metal Rabbit in Asia Plaza
Patches at East 30th
Garden Party at 3601 Chester
Blue Snow Bunnies at East 30th

You can still view most of the Rabbits in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood. See photos of all the Rabbits and read some of the comments.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Vietnam remembered

I first met Luis Martinez when he was nominated for the Cleveland International Hall of Fame.

I didn't know he was a two-time Purple Heart Vietnam Veteran - I just knew about his great work in the Cleveland Hispanic community.

He wrote a tribute article about a young friend who died in his arms in Vietnam. He sent it to the Chicago Tribune in hopes of having it published on Memorial Day. The article did not make the paper but we thought it should be published.

It begins:


I tried to keep your son alive that night in 1970. Our Corpsman, "Doc" Coonfield, pronounced him dead but he was a MARINE. I just couldn`t accept the fact that one of us, a good guy, had been killed.

Oblivious to the growl of weapons blindly seeking revenge against an invisible enemy, I kept pumping his heart and blowing air into his mouth trying in desperation to bring him back to life. Our unit, CAP 2-7-10, operated in an isolated area, perhaps a 30 minute flight South of DaNang. We agonized what seemed an eternity for the arrival of the med-evac chopper.

In the meantime another Marine, the dog handler, snapped; he shook uncontrollably the way a person can when overcome by horror. By the time the thunderous apparition found its way to us through the hostile night air I had been overcome with rage.

As we loaded the helicopter and it lifted off, I unleashed my contempt at the perceived delay with pitched profanity and a gesture of disrespect as it disappeared into the black of night.

***
Read the rest of this gripping tribute from Luis Martinez

Monday, September 26, 2011

Ivan Bezugloff

For those of us who knew Ivan we probably knew about his life with horses (dressage) and publishing (his horse magazines). He was an early adopter of desktop publishing and was always searching for the proper font and often Cyrillic typefaces.

I met him in the Greater Cleveland PC Users Group and those are my recollections.

But he had another career before that I was just reminded of by an e-mail.

Here it is:

I was interested to find your online article about Ivan Bezugloff; just this past Saturday I bought (at an Amateur Radio "swap meet" in Adrian, MI) a voltmeter his second firm -- IB Instruments -- had made. Interestingly, it is the world of dressage that remembers him, not electronics, there having been thousands of small companies that existed only a few years in the 1960's - 1970's. But your article was a memory passed on.

The voltmeter still works.

With best regards,
Cortland Richmond
Ada, MI

***
Pretty cool. Read the profile of Ivan Bezugloff

Post any comments about Ivan that you may have and we will include them in his profile.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Divine Comedy by Dante


What better place to hear readings from and discussion about the classic Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri than the Italian Cultural Garden?

That's what happened last week.

Dr. Paola Basile and Sculptor Sandro Bonaiuto discussed the classic and read selections in Italian and English.

Pictures and videos of Dante's Divine Comedy in the Cleveland Italian Garden.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Halloween Election Predictions

I was just working on a Halloween Virtual Store for ClevelandSeniors.Com and ClevelandWomen.Com. Lots of costume ideas, decorations, party stuff - as expected.

I looked at a previous store and saw the John McCain and Sarah Palin masks. This isn't a prez election year so I didn't expect much along those lines but there are a bunch of Obama masks such as



but there are also some that may be reflecting the current political mood a little more like this one





I recall some pretty nasty George W Bush masks too.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

International Entrepreneur Awards



Award winner Stella Moga-Kennedy of Le Chaperon Rouge


The 2nd annual TiE International Entrepreneur Awards were held in a ceremony at Windows on the River. The awards were created to recognize the achievements of international entrepreneurs helping to reshape and rebuild Ohio's business landscape and to highlight how international entrepreneurs contribute to the local economy.

The stories of the finalists and winners were truly inspiring.

Photos and videos from the TiE International Entrepreneur Awards

Friday, September 16, 2011

Cloud Connectivity from CIOs

What good is having apps or data in the Cloud if you don't have good connectivity? US broadband speeds have lagged many much less technical countries. Is that a concern for Cloud computing? And what is an acceptable level of downtime for Cloud computing?

The Great Lakes Geek asked these questions to a panel of CIOs at the NEOSA CIO Symposium. Check out the interesting responses from Greg Kall, CIO of Summa Health Systems and Bill Blausey Jr., CIO of Eaton Corporation.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Ukrainian Garden


The Ukrainian Cultural Garden was the host for the 64th One World Day.

Hundreds enjoyed the beautifully refurbished Garden and the rededication of the statue of Lesya Ukrainka on its 50th anniversary and the 140th birthday of the poetess.

Postcard moment for Cleveland


The Syrian Cultural Garden was the staging ground for the Parade of Flags at the recent One World Day. The cool part was that a group of women, in various ethnic costumes, started an impromptu dance around the Garden as Syrian musicians played.

Women in costumes of Croatia, Estonia, India, Korea, Poland, Syria and more.

Check out the pics and video of the dance in the Syrian garden

Friday, September 09, 2011

Let's Roll


The 10th annual Support Our Troops Luncheon was held on September 8, 2011 at Windows on The River.

This year, which also marks the 10th Anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, the luncheon had a very special keynote speaker, Mr. David Beamer. Mr. Beamer is the father of Todd Beamer. Todd is the young man who rallied the passengers of United Flight 93 together with his cry "Are you guys ready? Let's roll!"


Mr Beamer had some very harsh warnings for us all - the enemy is out there, infiltrating our way of life.

Bob Hope's nephew (also named Bob Hope) was another speaker.

User Groups and 9-11-2001

Here is the transcript of the Great Lakes Geek one minute podcast on User Groups and 9/11.
***

I remember 10 years ago after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 that we were all looking for some way to help the victims. I received a message from a friend in New York who indicated that the emergency personnel were short on PC hardware because much was lost or damaged.

I brought this to the attention of the volunteers of Computers Assisting People (CAP) and we adapted the words of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer and said ‘Let’s Roll.’

I sent out a message to some other user group leaders and they all wanted to assist. Bob Kwater in Dayton was ready to hop in his car. Many of us were making plans to make the trip to New York with our equipment to assist.

Then we got the word that the authorities needed to limit travel into the area and that even our shipments of PC gear would not reach their destination in a timely manner. So we called off the New York plans and spread the word to the other user groups.

We weren’t able to directly assist but the willingness of so many to drop everything to help was a great example of the ‘users helping users’ philosophy that has been the mantra of user groups since the 1970’s. Groups like CAP have extended this to the next level – ‘users helping the community.’

Hopefully we will be free of such tragedies in the future and user groups will be able to focus their volunteer efforts to helping their communities.

9-11-01

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Free Windows Office 365 eBook

In case you haven’t logged on to GreatLakesGeek.Com yet today, I wanted to let you know that you can download Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime by Katherine Murray as a free eBook.

Haven't had a chance to read it all yet but the Table of Contents and what I've read so far is promising. Office 365 and the Cloud are a whole new approach.

The official blurb says: "Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime is all about cloud solutions for small businesses, focusing on the core software services (Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Office Web Apps, and Microsoft Lync), and demonstrating ways you can create, manage, and lead teams effectively using the communications and collaborative online tools."

Grab it here:


Of course if you already went to GreatLakesGeek.Com or follow the Geek on Twitter or Facebook (@greatlakesgeek) you'd already have the book