Cloudy Skies Ahead

This was a big week for the borough as it relates to IT. This week brought the beginning of email cloud computing. After a couple of months of investigation and discussion we headed into the cloud earlier this week!

After migrating myself on Tuesday to "the cloud"" a few other were migrated as the week came to a close. The first "victims" included the Police Records clerks, Communication Officers Widmayer, Jones, Lt. Morris and finally Staci King. All were migrated into the Microsoft Cloud without incident. Next week I hope to move the Housing Office, Finance Office, Recreation Office, Borough Council, and a couple more communication officers into the cloud.

Many have asked me recently "why are we moving into the cloud"? Here are some quick answers to these questions:

Why Move Into the Cloud?
1. Less cost to the borough because of reduced hardware and licensing.
2. More efficent data protection.
3. Improved archiving (14 days to 10 years).
4. Ability to continue sustaining a strong ROI (return on investment) for IT.

As I go through this process I will meet with everyone to talk about this exciting change.

the joy of the bike ride

Lots is written today on making our communities green, providing bike lanes and what not. But while many sit around and wait for ideal biking conditions, time is passing when you could be biking. Conditions are never going to be perfect unless on a bike trail. But bike trails are far and few between and are often crowded with families and children and dog walkers.

The best place to ride is ultimately the roads. Now many of you may not live in places that are conveniently located to great road biking. Nothing is preventing you from throwing your bike into the back of your car and driving a few miles to an ideal locale.

If you live on a busy highway or on top of a big hill, find a spot near by where you can park your car and hop on your bike.

Get a map or study Google Maps and plot out a nice ride. There are many sites online that allow you to make a map and print a cue sheet. But good old-fashioned map reading seems to be a dying skill. Try resurrecting it and you will be surprised what horizons open up for you.

Many of you are busy, busy and more busy. Still there is nothing stopping you from taking a few hours once a week and doing a short bike ride. When my children were young, I would get up on Sunday morning at 5 am and go out and do a 2 hour ride. I was home before they woke up. Once my kids were older, I took them on bike rides.

Find a way in your busy schedule to squeeze in one bike ride each week. Trust me, over time you will want to ride more and will start to plan more time for your rides.

A habit starts slowly, one ride at a time and over time more rides. There is nothing comparable to a solo ride to help you unwind or enjoy your own private thoughts whilst you meander along on a country road.

North Texas Sign of the Year

Southlake, TX Drilling Facts

Day of Action Against Extraction: 

North Texas Unites to End Gas Drilling! 

April 20, 2011

Sundance Square, Downtown Fort Worth, TX

5:00pm - 7:00pm

Part time Traffic Assistant (tv job)

RNN TV in Rye Brook needs a Part-time Traffic Assistant.

• Organize and maintain ALL tape rooms including, but not limited to, the following:
• Organize RNN, TVE tape room according to PP number
• Organize FiOS DC, LI JobDescription NJ tape room
• Purge any and all outdated longform (infomercial) tapes
• Organize RNN and TVE commercial tapes
• Purge any and all outdated shortform commercial tapes
• Pull all necessary tapes for ALL 6 channels to be brought down to Master Control
• Assist with traffic team on preparing logs in advance. This would lead into eventually working ahead on weekend logs for all stations.
•Assisting in bringing materials to and from Traffic and Master Control as necessary. This includes tapes to be ingested, tapes for the following day, and any other extraneous materials either department may require.

READ MORE AND APPLY HERE

Headhunter seeks unemployed for TV project (NY/NJ/CT)

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR JOB IN THE LAST TWO YEARS?

DO YOU FACE THE POSSIBILITY OF LOSING YOUR CURRENT JOB?

IS YOUR EMPLOYMENT STATUS CAUSING STRESS IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE?

Seeking unemployed OR under-employed* individuals from traditional families who need to get their careers back on track. Renowned headhunter Stephen Viscusi is seeking unemployed men and women from suburbs in the Tri-State area who have been out of work for up to two (2) years to participate in a career makeover project for a major TV network. Mr. Viscusi will provide significant career advice and guidance by analyzing and providing help with everything from resumes, job interview skills and wardrobe, all with the intention of getting your job, and life, back on track.

We are interested in every field of work except the entertainment industry, both white and blue collar fields.

Individuals must:
- be between the ages of 25-50 years old
- come from a traditional family with children and/or dependents who are willing to appear on camera
- have a high school or college degree
- be able to send in a current resume
- have had a former annual salary between $45-100K+ at one point in time
- be able to list three (3) things that you've lost since being unemployed (or under-employed)
- not have appeared on any other reality docu-series

If you're down-and-out, looking for a new opportunity or in an emergency situation and need a job, apply now!!! Every response will be read.

To apply, contact us at CareerMakeover@vinniep.com. Please include the following information:

- Name
- Age
- Location
- 1-3 pictures of you
- Resume
- Brief description of who you are and how long you've been out of work
- Top three things you've lost since experiencing employment problems

*under-employed - someone who's had a job and was recently demoted, forced to take a pay cut or was given additional duties with no additional pay.

Exploring Cluster One

I realize that there is no information here that can really help you in a technical way but I found this video of Pink Floyd's "Cluster One" matched with some amazing images from the Hubble telescope. It is awe inspiring. Watch this, relax and remember that the universe is unbelievably and unknowingly mass and our problems are nothing in comparison. This piece of music is simply Gilmour's guitar and Rick Wright's keyboards. Genius.

Backing Up Your Files with MOZY

All this talk of the cloud has me revisiting cloud services for the home user. One of the most popular “cloud services” today is in the area of remote backups. As the earthquake and tsunami in Japan has sadly demonstrated, natural disasters do strike, usually without warning. If a natural disaster, fire or theft was to occur to you and your computer was unavailable or destroyed are your files safe?

Because our computers are becoming more and more critical remote backup service providers have been cropping up everywhere these past few years. The Borough of West Chester has been remotely backing up critical data files for years. Should you?

If you store financial files, tax documents, letters, family photos and video you probably should be backing up remotely. There are many providers with many price points. Be sure to check these providers out and protect your files today.

What about Mozy?
Mozy is a great backup service. This service lets you store files online and retrieve them remotely, which is all you really need from an online storage service.

The real reason that Mozy is attractive as an online storage solution is the price; this service’s subscription is practically unbeatable. Another advantage for using this service is the strong security features. Because it is designed to be a backup service, this service has a lot of security measures in place that other online storage services don’t have. If you want to make sure that your data is safe, this service is one of the best places to store it.

Regardless of what you call the service or what it was initially designed to be, this service is a spectacular choice. The combination of cheap storage space with useful features and strong security make this service the perfect place to store files, photos, videos, documents and anything you want to safely store outside of your home computer.

Another great ability of Mozy is that you can back up to 3 computers and remote (usb) drives. Many services such as Carbonite charge additions fees for devices and drives outside of the primary computer. This cost can add up.

Cost for Mozy's Services
2GB for free
125GB, up to 2 computers for $9.99 per month
You can learn more about Mozy at mozy.com.