Victor Rozek
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As I See It: Blurred Vision
February 8, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreSam Palmisano hasn’t changed much over the years. From his photos, IBM‘s president, chief executive officer, and chairman appears to be a slightly larger version of his former self–a middle-aged man with a round, boyish face and a soft body; a stranger to physical exertion. Granted, as an executive he isn’t paid to chop wood, but I was hoping for a little more mental exertion than was evident in his recent Newsweek column, The Future of the City.
Newsweek, after all, has some prestige, and when guest columnists are invited to contribute their thoughts, they usually put
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As I See It: What Did You Do At Work Today, Daddy?
January 25, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreSpot Quiz: What’s not a drug, but is addictive? What contains no alcohol, but provides a buzz? What’s not smoked, but alters brain chemistry? What’s not food, but produces cravings. Hint: In recent years, it has become a silent workplace epidemic.
Every day millions of men (and to a lesser degree women) sequester themselves in offices around the country and, in an attempt to relieve stress, assuage boredom, or mollify intense biochemical urges, Google their favorite Internet porno site. “A whopping 25 percent of all daily Internet search engine requests and 35 percent of all downloads are for pornography,” report
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As I See It: Waiting on Hope
January 11, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreIt’s the time of year when we reset the clock. No matter our failings and excesses of the prior year, January 1st brings with it a hopeful cleansing. Optimism abounds. This year I’m going to _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (fill in the blank): exercise more, lose weight, read the classics, write the great American novel, take tango lessons, run a marathon. Everything is possible again. Like Charlie Brown preparing to kick the Lucy-held football, we approach even the longest odds with great confidence. At least until March.
Hope appears to be a uniquely human attribute,
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As I See It: What’s Next?
December 14, 2009 Victor Rozek
… Read moreEveryone is an expert now, but two years ago very few economists predicted the coming tumble, much less the depth and severity of the recession now gripping the country. Therefore, a good deal of skepticism is in order when listening to talk of recovery. For one thing, “recovery” is a relative term. Slowing job losses are heralded as proof of recovery–happy signs for economists, but meaningless to the 8 million people whose jobs have been eliminated.
These days, however, even the optimists are cautious. One thing almost everyone agrees on is that things will either get slightly better, or horribly
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As I See It: Al and Me
December 7, 2009 Victor Rozek
… Read moreTwice I’ve traveled to Portland, Oregon, to see Al Gore and twice I’ve been punked. The first time was 16 years ago when he and Bill Clinton presided over the Northwest Forest Summit. The conference was organized because environmentalists were successfully blocking timber sales in court. The Forest Service had been repeatedly found guilty of what one federal judge called “systematic and deliberate” violations of law. The fact that the agency was peppered with former timber industry executives probably didn’t help its cause. Now, the two highest elected officials in the land were in Portland to hammer out a plan
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As I See It: High on Quack
November 16, 2009 Victor Rozek
… Read moreIt was November 1st and the Pacific Northwest was so vibrantly attired in Autumnal splendor that you’d think God was showing off. I was riding my bike along the Willamette River, through dappled sunlight and a steady sprinkle of golden leaves. The air was crisp and scented with mulch, and the river sparkled like molten silver as it made its unhurried journey to the sea. It was unexpectedly warm and dry for this time of year, and I rode without urgency or agenda, past frolicking dogs, stately blue herons, and lawnfuls of Canadian geese.
Beyond the rose garden, the path
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As I See It: The Great American Recovery
November 9, 2009 Victor Rozek
… Read moreHow kindly the new year will treat IT professionals depends on the elusive recovery. But did we have one or didn’t we? Unlike experiencing a migraine, you can actually be in the middle of a recovery and apparently not even know it. Just ask the 15.7 million people looking for work, and the millions more who stopped looking. A jobless recovery they’re calling it, which is like a joyless orgasm. Whoop-tee-do.
The term “jobless recovery” is a telling oxymoron. It is a measure of the contempt in which the elites hold the rest of us. Once the banks and brokerage
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As I See It: The Salary Reduction Plan
October 26, 2009 Victor Rozek
… Read moreJobless recoveries, working retirees, and President Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize. We live in a land of contradictions. For fans of the oxymoron, it’s a target rich environment. Leaders who don’t lead, lenders that don’t lend, and health care so expensive it makes you sick. We’re heading toward Halloween and there’s plenty of things out there to scare us. Haunted houses worth less than their mortgage, skeletal 401(k)s, and a vampire financial system designed to suck every last dollar from your wallet. Oh, and by the way, the ghouls who helped orchestrate the Great Recession are now running the
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As I See It: The Greening of IT
October 12, 2009 Victor Rozek
… Read moreOne of the persistent annoyances of the Do-Unto-Others-While-You-Still-Can era is polluters pretending that global warming has nothing to do with them. Not coincidentally, the loudest deniers are also pumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere at record levels, while their lobbyists pump record amounts of cash into congressional pockets. Meanwhile, as the world heats, hucksters would have us believe that 20 mile-per-gallon SUVs are planet-friendly, and dirty coal can produce clean energy.
The contradictions are tolerated, in part, because pollution contributes to the GDP by employing people twice: Once when it’s created, and again when it’s cleaned up. To paraphrase Upton
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As I See It: After You’re Gone (.com)
September 28, 2009 Victor Rozek
… Read moreMy wife’s grandmother was born while the Ottoman Empire was still in business–which is to say a long time ago. When she died, she left behind memorabilia from a life that spanned nearly a century. There were photos–boxes of them–some in albums, some loose, some marked, some not, some capturing moments with people known to the family, some showing the smiling faces of strangers. There were letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, mementos, knick-knacks, and memorabilia documenting the lives of four children. It was a mountain of minutia; the physical remnants of a long, full life.
Family members were undoubtedly comforted by