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Dear Congressmen Rangel…

Scott LaPlant — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:14:22 +0000

You’re a decorated war hero – thank you for your service to our country. However, for the past 40 years you’ve been a member of the United States congress – again, thank you for your service to our country.

As you’re probably aware, you’re now embroiled in a bit of an ethics problem; 13 ethics charges have been leveled against you. Apparently, you were in “negotiations” to settle the charges which most likely means you’re at least partially guilty.

I would again like to thank you for the service to our country. I would also like to ask you to resign. Decorated war hero or not, you’ve been in the congress for 40 years and with numerous ethics charges leveled against you it’s high time that people in congress understand it’s a privilege to serve. It’s not a lifetime appointment Congressmen! Just because you’ve been there awhile doesn’t allow you the right to act as if the laws don’t apply to you.

Please, do the right thing and move on – set an example for the rest of your colleagues. Again, thank you for your service.

A review of drobo

Scott LaPlant — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:59:46 +0000

Sometimes, technology sucks! I can see you nodding your head in agreement. – We’re off to a good start with this article already, right?! Actually, technology really doesn’t suck. What does suck is that sometimes things break, don’t work according to how they’re advertised – this is true of anything, not just technology. Murphy’s law applies here.

The fine people at Data Robotics have an enormous task of making backup easy – all the while keeping their reputation intact. No easy feat when you’re dealing with people, their digital life and the age of social media.

Face it, your life’s memories sit on a hard drive. Memories tend to elicit emotions that run the gamut – imagine the emotion of losing those memories. I’m instantly mortified. I can see all my memories gone forever. Am I sad? Sure. Mortification turns to panic pretty quick. That pretty much defines the task Data Robotics has indirectly on top of their day job of keeping your data safe. Needless to say, when a person thinks their memories are gone forever, calm and rational are not the emotions at the top of the pecking order.

The situation I describe in the previous paragraph is the predicament I encountered a few weeks back. Fortunately, I utilize more than one method of backup. Doubly fortunate for me that my computing platform of choice (Mac) has a wonderful utility called ‘Time machine’ that does an admirable job. However, while time machine is fine for a quick recovery here and there, it’s not the solution for optimum safety and redundancy.

With backup, the key is redundancy. The drobo makes backup easy. You plug the drobo in to an electrical outlet, plug it into your computer and finally, pop the drives into your drobo. That’s all you do. It takes your data and spreads it over several drives, for redundancy. It also does this automagically. You don’t need intimate knowledge of RAID arrays, or anything technical. It does all the difficult, mundane and boring stuff for you. It makes an incredibly complex and difficult task as easy as turning something on and plugging something in.

Ok, back to things going wrong. In very short order I had three drives go bad and it appeared my drobo was acting weird. I’m writing this article while I await the arrival of my replacement drobo. I wanted to take a few minutes to share a few lessons I learned about this experience:

Backup is important.

The people at Data Robotics care about their customers.

Sometimes, thing don’t always work, so have a backup plan – especially if it’s important to you.

I’ve been incredibly impressed with the support from the people of Data Robotics. You have real people trying to make a great product, improve the safety of our digital lives and do it with kindness and humility.

Is it Data Robotics fault that hard drives sometimes fail? No, it’s not. They’re taking a bad situation and attempting to make the experience of something that fails into an experience of “we’ve got your back”. How many companies can you say that about?

Dream big

Scott LaPlant — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:04:32 +0000

Recently, I had seen a headline where President Obama said to dream big goals. I forget the the sub heading of the article but, I believe it was something like “even if they seem impossible.” The point being, we need people to dream big and do bigger.

I’m not sure why but, this reminded me of another article I had read where there was a survey done (seems there is a survey for anything anymore) where “most” people in this country feel as if the American dream is unattainable anymore. I refuse to believe this myself.

Granted, this isn’t the 60′s anymore and people do tend to be less caring of others. Our politics is more about personal destruction than about being constructive – this goes for both parties. While I’m hopeful President Obama can be successful and bring real honest to goodness change, I’m doubtful it’ll happen. Not in the way change needs to happen but, that’s a topic for another day.

Dreaming big is only the first step. Looking inside yourself and determine what needs to happen to make the dream reality is the step before the first step.

Today is just a very exciting day. I’m looking forward to putting some goals in place myself and to dream big. My dream? To get people to understand that we’re in this together. Just because we may disagree with a political philosophy or view point doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, or civil or respectful. It just means we have things to discuss and debate

Looking forward to the New Year

Scott LaPlant — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:11:40 +0000

I’ve been busy getting accustomed to the new job and loving every minute of it. As sometimes happens, you get busy and forget about the other things you have going on in life, namely this blog.

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new design. I’ve never really finished this one – it just never felt like it fit me.

My hope for everyone is that you’re spending the holiday season with friends and family and you’re taking time to enjoy the peace and quiet. I’m looking forward to the extended time off. I can’t wait for the New Year. This past year has been a good one for a lot of reasons and I’m hoping to continue the trend and get on a roll.

From my family to yours, I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and a wonderful New Year!

Your future is today

Scott LaPlant — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:25:14 +0000

I recently left my job without having another one lined up, while the world is in the midst of the worst recession in recent memory. The job was helping to feed my family but, it was doing nothing to feed my soul. Despite reading some sage advice from the Harvard Business Review website, titled: How to Protect Your Job in a Recession I was throwing mine to the wind!

Maybe it’s my 40th birthday fast approaching or a loving and supportive wife. Perhaps it was just time for me to stop settling and start pursuing my passions. There was never going to be a perfect time to make the leap – so I decided to take a page from Nike and “just do it”.

The results have been nothing short of amazing. My wife recently commented about how less stressed I appear. I sure feel that way. It’s been a tremendous month since I made the decision to live my life the way I want to.

When something like this happens, there doesn’t need to be a villian. Life is too short to be miserable because of a work environment. The people of Dutchland, Inc., my former employer is filled with good, decent people. It just wasn’t the ideal situation for me. Since leaving, I’ve secured a great position where I’m working with some crazy smart people. The environment is great – I’m learning a lot and I’m getting back to my roots.

I’ve learned a lot of life lessons this past month and it’s been a wonderful experience. With the holiday season fast approaching, I’m excited to see what the New Year will bring. The winds of change are blowing and I’m incredibly excited by what they’ll blow my way.

Learn more about health care

Scott LaPlant — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:19:42 +0000

I will be the first to admit I’m no expert on Health care. I’ve never practiced medicine. My only real exposure to health care is when my wife tells me I can no longer get away with not seeing a doctor for whatever ailment I have at that moment. I’ve become quite good at avoiding doctors. Unfortunately, my wife has become much better and “convincing” me it’s in my best interest to go.

Yet, being an expert on health care shouldn’t disqualify me to speak intelligently about it and the problems my family and others across this country face. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist (which I am most admittedly not) to understand there is something fundamentally wrong with health care in America. When people across this nation are having to decide between refilling their prescription or buying groceries, we need to do more than just talk about it. We need to fix it.

What amazes me is the sheer volume of dis-information. It’s no small wonder how people and organizations are legally able to spread dis-information. In this ultra connected world, with information at our fingertips, it’s still incredibly difficult to find the truth. How is that possible?

Like anything in life, the key is knowing where to find information. When looking for information pertaining to the proposed health care changes, a good source of reference can make all the difference. Here’s a few I’ve come across:

Reality Check
Health Care Reform Myths
Health Reform.gov

Do you have a favorite source of information pertaining to the proposed health care legislation? I’d love to discover other sources of information. Please, share where you get your information and together, we can all become better informed.