Musings

Have You Caught The Irony in Criticizing Romney for Bain Capital?

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ January 31, 2012 / Leave a comment

I have a feeling it’s going to be a theme for the next 10 months or so to criticize Mitt Romney’s role at Bain Capital. This is just raw ignorance, it shows a lack of understanding about private equity, struggling companies or capitalism in general. Unfortunately, there’s a very sad,...
Integrating Services and Why Google Doesn’t Bother Me

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ January 28, 2012 / Leave a comment

Every couple of months I go to see a short little man who works at the Nordstrom’s in Charlotte to talk work clothes and usually buy a few shirts, a pair of pants or two and sometimes a pair of shoes. I know that Nordstrom’s is not the cheapest place...
My Evolving Thoughts on Fun

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ January 26, 2012 / Leave a comment

If you know me very well, you know I’m a bit of a workaholic. I am very committed to my day job and usually have a project or two going in my spare time. The truth is, I’m not usually very happy if I don’t feel that I’m accomplishing something...
Joe Paterno and Making Something Great

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ January 25, 2012 / Leave a comment

I have been busy helping get my brother married and haven’t had much of a chance to think about, let alone mark, the passing of Joe Paterno. Now that I’m back on the blog though, I thought it would be worth doing. I considered listing his accomplishments. I considered explaining...
What Made Steve Jobs Rich

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ January 11, 2012 / Leave a comment

Different industrial titans have risen to their throne for different reasons. Henry Ford and IBM figured how to make something that previously had to be built by hand in an efficient, industrial manner. Thomas Edison came up with a completely new invention. Bill Gates created an ecosystem by enabling both...
Too Big to Fail and IT

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ December 30, 2011 / 3 Comments

People have their lives, their IP on IT systems like Google Docs or iTunes or Facebook, and many businesses rely on the software and support of companies like Microsoft. Imagine what would happen to the American economy if Google or Microsoft failed. Imagine if Facebook shut its doors and you...
Breadth, Focus, and the Need to Practice Thinking

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ December 21, 2011 / Leave a comment

I had a great conversation a few evenings back with a new friend. She had read many of the same books I used to read when you saw Book Reviews popping up on this blog on a very regular basis. I still read those books, but MUCH MUCH slower than...
On Respecting Steve Jobs

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ October 6, 2011 / Leave a comment

Note: I wasn’t going to do a Steve Jobs post. I have another post prepared about the protesters on Wall Street that’s far more interesting and informative. At the same time, I feel like every technology focused blog owes him a post of some sort today, so here is mine....
Creator/Consumer Ratio and Innovation

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ August 10, 2011 / Leave a comment

Fifty years ago, the ratio was a million to one. For every person on the news or on primetime, there were a million viewers. The explosion of magazines brought the ratio to 100,000:1. If you wrote for a major magazine, you were going to impact a lot of people. Most...
The Speed of Innovation: The 30 Year Anniversary of the IBM PC

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ August 2, 2011 / Leave a comment

This month is the 30 year anniversary of IBM producing its first personal computer, the IBM 5150. It had absolutely no connection to the internet or network and no speakers. It had little built in functionality, requiring the user to develop their own applications in BASIC. It cost upwards of...