http://www.thoughtsparks.net Igniting Ideas for the Common Good Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:09:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Not one to usually get on any soap box, but after reviewing the new game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed I couldn't help but be dissappointed in George Lucas. Let me say that I am a diehard fan of the original three movies. I was out of the country when ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/07/17/new-star-wars-game-distorts-right-and-wrong-for-gamers/ Yes, it's a great title for any adventure, Thank you Mr. Tolkein. My wife, kiddos and I embarked on the 4th of July from Austin up through Santa Fe, New Mexico on to South Central Colorado for a twelve day journey. We enjoyed Family Camp with Sky Ranch at Ute ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/07/15/there-and-back-again/ Finding it a challenge to get good honest reviews of decent destinations on the web for overnight stays, I want to give a thumbs-up to the KOA in Abilene. Too many KOA campgrounds I've seen have been little more than a wide spot in the road. This one, though immediately ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/07/04/koa-in-abilene-tx-is-ok/ Being a leader is an interesting and challenging responsibility, but leading a cross-departmental team where influencing an already busy group of folks kicks it up a notch. For the last couple of months I've been leading an intranet implementation team for a global enterprise. I work with folks from several ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/06/27/lessons-learned-from-leading-a-team/ Just released, Adobe Acrobat 9 is a major upgrade offering many slick new features such as: Play media within the document. Acrobat will now convert MOV, WMV, FLV and H.264 files to Flash to for playing audio and video content. Easy file conversion from ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/06/25/acrobat-9-is-pdf-on-steroids/ This morning I dropped into Starbucks for a non-fat GRTL (Green Tea Latte).  Vicariously I'm learning what one Barista called Starbonics, the tribal language of Starbucks. Tribal languages abound in every organization. To communicate effectively within any group it is important to pick-up their language. The development of a tribal ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/06/24/tribal-language/ Maybe Tim Berners-Lee the man credited with the invention of the World Wide Web (not our buddy Al Gore) was actually not thinking big enough. Will the web shortly be renamed Galaxy-Wide Web? It seems that Google has their sites set on taking the web into our galaxy. ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/06/20/is-it-the-gww-instead-of-the-www/ Realizing I probably had too many categories for my posts, well over a hundred, I decided it was time to trim the number down a bit. But what would be the criteria? Certainly dropping-off the single post references made sense. How does one then quantify what constitutes enough for a ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/06/18/rule-of-thumb-three-or-more-for-categories/ ul.checklist { list-style-image: url(/wp-content/uploads/Image/checkmark.png); } Setting up WordPress websites has become a regular part of my work. Much more than just for blogs, the platform is ideal for rapidly launching sites. In fact, nine out of ten WP sites I launch are non-blogging sites. I thought for my sake and for others who are ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/06/17/checklist-for-setting-up-a-wordpress-website/ Being a Jimmy Buffett fan for the last 20+ years, I've enjoyed more than a few albums and caught a couple of live shows. He was one of the main inspirations in picking-up the guitar when I was a spry 16 years-old. Jimmy always puts on a great show. Today ... http://www.thoughtsparks.net/2008/06/14/this-parrothead-is-happy/