That word is a combination of synopsis and synapse.  Technically it’s the plural of synapse but in my case it’s intended to be a combination of the two words since I’m combining short commentary (synopsis) with witty commentary (synapse, or brain activity).

The reason I am doing this is because I do a lot of reading during the day.  A lot.  Much of it is technical but there is much that is not.  As I am shutting down my company and pursuing gainful employment I figured that I might benefit humanity somehow by providing a quick synopsis of the interesting, and pertinent, things that I’ve read.  It won’t be all of them, and I will omit various pieces that might be interesting and pertinent, but contentious.  The reason for this is that items of contentiousness should be discussed in person, where you have to face your opponent (who can also be your friend), and not on the Internet.  If someone uses the word “hater” to describe your position then it’s likely that they don’t understand your position and arguing with them over the Internet will be fruitless.

I am going to try and do this on a daily basis… until i get bored with it.  🙂

How to Optimize Every Decision in Your Life and Accomplish Nothing

I got this link from Linked in and I found it interesting because I have some distrust over decision making made purely on data.

“Fear of missing out is a paralyzing force”  I have found this quote to be true as I’m going through the search for employment.  I have several very good opportunities in front of me.  I am in a scenario that is quite enviable.  I actually get to choose the best option for me.  But one of my big problems is that I have so many options for which there are so many variables that I was (until yesterday) quite paralyzed to indecision.

“done is better than perfect”  Apparently this is written on Facebook’s walls.  I am the creative type.  One of the handicaps of the creative type is that we are interested in creating, not completing.  When working on a large(ish) project I need to intentionally focus my mind on the end product.  It can be done, but it takes discipline.

HAProxy and Varnish comparison

Doing some work on a system administrator’s course.  Found some useful lists here.  Basically, HAProxy is a load balancer, Varnish is a cache.  That does not mean that they don’t have features in common.  But “focus” is often important when making a determination about which software to use.

Why Michael Dell Really had to Take Dell Private

Let me start off by saying that I am a fan of the stock market.  The stock market has created tremendous wealth and expanded the middle class like nothing else.  Where else can moderately talented people who have moderate means earn a kingly living?

But that said, if you are publicly traded and you seem to have stagnated people get very nervous, very quickly.  Someone smarter than me one told me that it was the institutional investors, not the general trading public, that tend to dump a stock in a hurry.  They are the most impatient.

And I can understand this.  If you have $10 million invested in a company and you expect to make $2 million in two years why wouldn’t you dump that stock if you found an opportunity to make $3 million?  That’s not greed.  Greed is when you forsake things that are truly more important, such as friends, family or people in general, in the name of making money.  Dumping stock in a company for a company with better returns isn’t greed (though it can be).

But it can be really problematic if you need to take a risk that will take longer than a few quarters to implement.  If Michael Dell has some place interesting that he wants to take Dell it would seem to be a good move to buy out the people who would dump the stock on the slightest bad news while he executes his plan.

Or it may be ego, or greed.  We’ll see.

The one thing I can guarantee is that there will be tons of “analysis” on this move which will amount to a bunch of half-assed guesswork.

The Worst CEOs of 2012

I could have made this list.   RIP, App Happy.

WHY DELL GOING PRIVATE IS LESS RISK FOR CUSTOMERS THAN THEIR CURRENT PATH

There is one reason why I posted this link and it is this quote.

“What I often see in organizations struggling with changes are 3 things: 1/ When I ask five different people what the aim of the company is and what their role is in getting there, I’ll get five completely different answers”

This made me think of an important question you need to ask your boss.  “What is the aim of the company and what is my role in getting there?”  If the answer has more than three points to it you might need to look at how you might re-align or define your job more succinctly.

“Purpose” is incredibly important for an organization to succeed.

That’s it for today.