Improving Ads

This site is currently on target to make $100 in Google advertising by March 2015, which will be about 25 months after my last Google advertising payout. This seems like a challenge to me: I’m going to leverage my technical and social networking skills to see if I can cut this time in half or better. And I’m going to blog about my tactics, and the overall results.

GFIRST 2013 Canceled!

Citing sequestration and the need for financial tightening, the Department of Homeland Security just canceled GFIRST 2013, a major cyber security conference that I was scheduled to speak at. They may also have had some concerns about the scrutiny to which the IRS is currently being subjected.

Blip.tv Goes to 1.5 GB

I’m so glad Blip.tv raised their video size limit to 1.5 GB. Previously, it was 1 GB, and I had a devil of a time meeting that size limit with 45-minute RubyNation conference videos.

Crazy Public Speaking Stat

In the past 6 years, I have stood up and given a prepared speech in front of an audience 57 times, including conferences, user groups and other types of meetings.

Working On a New SOLR Talk

I’m working with Jonathan Quigg on a new talk, “Security Strategies With SOLR and Rails.” We last spoke together at the GFIRST Cyber Security Conference in Atlanta, GA. This topic seems like a good follow-up to my “Rails and the Apache SOLR Search Engine’ talk from RubyNation 2012.

Toastmasters 2012 Fall Conference

The Toastmasters District 29 Fall Conference was very successful. It was an interesting event to organize and run because it has a lot more moving parts than technical conferences such as RubyNation or DevIgnition. It featured an opening ceremony, a political keynote (the mayor of Herndon, VA), two speaking competitions, a variety contest, educational sessions, a leadership luncheon, a district business meeting, a raffle, fund-raising activities and a book sale.