"The Brain"

Folks who have followed my thoughts for any length of time know that Gudrun and I are really excited to study and follow threads on getting "stuff" (facts, thoughts, etc) firmly rooted in the organic computer we call the brain.

Gudrun found a software entry in the category known as 'mind mapping'. This is not some voodoo trick. It has been around a while, just not really well known.

What makes this entry unique is the 'Personal Edition' is really free, not trialware. Sure its limited in the fact that you cannot tie a base thought to files on you drive. That takes the version that is $150. USD. And yes, multi-user versions have a higher price tag.

The part that got my attention is they offer Windows, OS X and Linux versions.

While the Personal Version (free) is limited to connecting web sites, anyone preparing to study in a particular area of study is probably searching the Internet. The first glance at this offering suggests it would be much more intuitive than bookmarks on the subject.

Maybe you want to give this method a shot. Check out the Personal Version of The Brain from http://www.TheBrain.com

If you have given it a try, please offer your thoughts here. Thanks. And thank you Gudrun for this great find.

The Trojan Horse still works

Sigh.

A really good article from Wired reminds me that the 1st Trojan Horse appeared 3K years ago, give or take a bit.

And Ryan Singel points out that not much has changed.

I read, a lot.

I *get* human nature hasn't changed much in thousands of years.

Maybe if we relate the cost to the city of this 'victory' prize, we'll get people to think.

Hope springs eternal.

And right now, that is about all I got, hope.

So I hope we can change the thoughts of oh, 0.5% of the users.
And hope like hell the 1st really new Windows since 1985 really is here soon, and it may safe the other 96% of those....

Training Intelligence

Oh boy.

Here I'm going to ask for what is probably impossible.

I am hoping that I live long enough to see us as IT folks to train intelligence to our end users.

Why? Because it is in there best interests.

As a electronics geek, I've always had a bit of a bleeding edge, excuse me, leading edge leaning. So I have a number of email accounts, including Gmail.

I noticed enough attempts actually getting through to my inbox to join some Google Group, asking me to verify my account request, not just saying, no such group.

It got to a point where I am going, WTF?

I got the answer, and it is here.

Damn!

I get things change. I have learned to roll with that.

And clearly, we are not going to stop spam by a single great idea, like Sender Policy Framework (SPF).

The 'final' answer is to make Spam unattractive from a reward standpoint. That will only happen when we as IT geeks educate our people to not buy stuff sold in spam. AND to not accept "baiting" that something was taken from them. AND to not follow links to "racy" topics.

This is a high bar. Probably impossible. Maybe we can train our users (and ourselves) to a point where spam is a less attractive business, thereby reducing spam.

It's a sad day when CAPCHA has been "had" by the black hats. Again, this isn't theory. I'm seeing it myself in my own inbox. For the readers that want the "how data", here you go.
http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/Blogs/2919.aspx

I have faith that the Googlers can control this.
I have hope that we who care of, the end users, make all this not worth while by not responding. Get rid of the demand and the supply will dry up. Simple math. Hard solution.

Tcat

Hello Boys! I'm Back!

I do believe that is one of the great lines from the Si-Fi movie, Independence Day.

My co-author Gudrun sold me that it is time to look @ IT Training Today.

Obviously the most comments came from my FL thoughts. To answer a few questions I saw...

I was the lead on Exam Prep i-Net+. Matt and L.A. certainly killed themselves along with me getting that out the door in a couple weeks (yes, weeks). Matt did fantastic graphics.

Someone else suggested Sunbelt should sue me for my thoughts. I suspect Stu is pretty happy I at least spelled the name of the company right ;-) And, yes there are great folks in the Sunshine state.

So what has been going on out there?

I'm getting a number of reports that IT Training (and testing) is on the rise. Well we always seem to do better when the "R" word is tied to the economy.

CompTIA wants a 'super cert' if you got A+, Network+, Security+ and Server+. I was promoting a Triple Crown (no Server+) years ago. It appears CompTIA is reversing course after 'drinking the Kool-Aid'.

Cisco and Microsoft are really starting to play hard ball with the illegal brain dump sites. Yes, some folks call guidance 'a brain dump'. Maybe that is a marketing thing. Illegal is posting actual questions or having someone take the test for you!

MS-Vista just isn't taking the world by storm. It never will. The DRM stuff takes so many cycles making sure you didn't stick electronic probe to suck a movie off the video card, Vista will join MS-Me and MS-BOB. However if your studying Windows 2008 Server, you are probably surprised at the power and features!

The Electronic Industry Association International ( http://www.eta-i.org ) has taken CompTIA rollovers back in house. I *finally* got my Master status, taking and passing all the RESI (Residential Electronic Systems Integrator) exams. And as a Master, I'm done for life.

Gudrun and I have finally gotten moving in the direction we we're looking at for http://effectivegeek.com

Only we really haven't done IT there! We have teamed up with Harry from http://www.SMBNation.com/

The first offering (fast becoming a series) is Certification Success
http://www.amazon.com/Certification-Success-success-anything-getting/dp/0977094979/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208176626&sr=8-1

Since our work is *really* about the fantastic organic computer located between the ears, our new effort can be applied to any 'high bar' endeavorer. We're working on a "Project Mgt." book, taking on the weird ways of being human.

Folks that have known me since almost forever have been surprised that I had pretty much stopped beating the drum for subliminal learning the past couple years. Beyond experiments I conducted on myself, http://TcatU.net really laid to rest (for me) that subliminal study is a great aid. How great depends on you preferred learning style in the first 20% of Dale's Cone of Experience. And even if hearing or seeing (as opposed to reading) is on the bottom of your brain preferences, anything extra is, well extra.

So finally, a study was done that pretty well goes against the opinion that subliminal learning cannot work.

Quoting from:
http://www.technoccult.com/archives/2008/03/30/subliminal-exposure-to-corporate-logos-effect-how-people-think-study-says

“This is the first clear evidence that subliminal brand exposures can cause people to act in very specific ways,” said Gráinne Fitzsimons. “We’ve performed tests where we’ve offered people $100 to tell us what logo was being flashed on screen, and none of them could do it. But even this imperceptible exposure is enough to spark changes in behavior.”

The blog from the Wall Street Journal:
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/03/20/think-apple-it-boosts-creativity/ says:

"Scientists have long debated whether subliminal messages, the idea that subconscious exposure can shape behavior, really work. In recent years, the consensus opinion has tended towards no. But most studies measured if subliminal messages caused people to buy products. Fitzsimons and his colleagues wondered if the exposure resulted in behavioral changes that don't show up on the balance sheet."

I am *so* glad both Gudrun and Harry had the courage to grant me the mini-rant on subliminal learning, as well as allowing me to offer my research on the best (Windows) program for subliminal delivery to the computer screen (the program is free of adware, spyware or even cost), in the Certification Success book. Thank you to both of you!

The two of us are releasing some of our training material for Certified Technical Trainer through http://www.TotalRecallPress.com shortly. Yeah, I know it has a + sign now. And I earned my CTT years before CompTIA had it, so I'm proud to say I'm sans +.

If you met me about oh, 40 years or more years ago, you correctly assumed I slept with a camera. (Freelance photographers don't make $ when you don't have a camera). I pretty much gave up the idea of photography when I had to do it for a living, for Uncle Sam, wearing a green suit. Me shooting silver while the other side is shooting pieces of lead back sorta turned me off to the idea.

Well my polite yet firm friend and co-author finally sold me on picking up a camera again, in 2008. I started with Berlin Germany and found taking pictures was fun again. So I'm putting up cities as I fancy @ http://photos.Travel4RoadWarriors.com/

My choice of shots is not what you would normally think of. My Philadelphia stuff has no liberty bell, for example.

Looking not too far out, it appears the 3rd MS-Windows will be out soon. (The 1st was DOS Windows, the 2nd, NT Windows). Don't believe me, do a Start-Run and enter CMD (return). You see the NT Version # and final build #.

Hardware is getting pretty exciting too. The same folks that gave us the 3.5" 'DeathStar' HD (now a Hitachi product), have RaceTrack Memory coming.
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn13648-ibm-creates-working-racetrack-memory-device.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

1/2 million MP3's, (or 3,500 movies) stored while using less power could mean a heck of a lot of subliminal learning.

I'm going to experiment with allowing comments. Certainly, you Don't have to agree with me, or even like me. All I ask is to keep in mind your word choices might be read by minors.

Best,
Tcat