IT in the D

Another week, another really fun episode with some great guests. Thanks to our guests Major General Amy Courter of Youngsoft, Hans Erickson of New Mind, and Katrina and Mark from our newest sponsor, W3R, for joining us in-studio tonight. We talked about the state of the industry here in the metro Detroit area, a little about our upcoming events, some cool new software out on the market and more... As per usual, we started off with the latest stories that have caught our eyes in the past week.  This time around, it seemed like everything's making us feel old.  The 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live.  The 35th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.  The 30th anniversary of The Breakfast Club. In our second segment, we talked with Major General Amy Courter about her work both in and out of the military, transitioning between the two worlds, what Youngsoft has going on and more. Youngsoft encourages students of IT and those technologists looking for their next opportunity to download and use the Liferay Community Edition Data Visualization / Portal software, and begin learning the Liferay skill set. Youngsoft has a Center of Excellence in Liferay and is a Liferay Platinum Partner - and Youngsoft is one of only two US-based organizations authorized to perform Level I support for customers. Check out these links for Liferay at: Download Link https://www.liferay.com/downloads/liferay-portal/available-releases Learning Center https://dev.liferay.com/ And please take a look at Youngsoft - we are hiring! If you don't see an open position there, please email info@youngsoft.com - and here is our URL: www.Youngsoft.com Segment three had us chatting with Hans Erickson, who's had quite a career and is now off doing his own thing, including a pretty cool piece of software for anyone who happens to be a privacy and security freak like we tend to be. For our final segment, we dove in with Katrina and Mark from W3R and talked about some of the things W3R is looking for these days, a little preview of our longer conversation with them that'll be taking place during next week's episode about an upcoming event, and their view on the market and how things are going for them. Youngsoft can be found at http://youngsoft.com/ New Mind can be found at http://newmindgroup.com W3R can be found at http://www.w3r.com/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763 On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD       

What a fun, fun night. Thanks to our guests Scott and Nuri from Penguicon, Kelly O'Hara of Bebop Art and Kasey from Kosmic Kasey for joining us for just a great night of conversations, laughs, and we even managed to be a little informative...not to mention running a giveaway that you can still be a part of. We talked conventions, comics, art, women at cons, and all sorts of really great topics... As always though, our first segment kicked things off with the stories that have caught our eye over the past week.  Samsung's announcement that their smart televisions are recording everything you say.  Radio Shack filing bankruptcy.  The problems with state income tax returns via Turbo Tax, which actually likely had more to do with the Anthem hack that resulted in 80 million full identities being stolen than anything else. In our second segment, we chatted with Kelly and Kasey about art, comics, and the female perspective on several of the conversations we've been having lately.  We met Kelly at Motor City Comic Con last year in Artist's Alley (you can catch that earlier conversation with her here: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/motor-city-comic-con-2014-interview-kelly-ohara-bebop-art), and it was great to hear more about what she's got going on, the various shows that she's involved, her art, Kasey's writing, and their take on things.  Kelly is a Detroit-based portrait painter that has sold works internationally and shown work for over a decade from multiple galleries in and around the Detroit area, like the one taking place later this month that hit: https://www.facebook.com/events/922314677780270/.  Catch up with her at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bebop-Art/239939760127  Kasey Pierce is a writer, vidcast-host, and comic-con personality from the Metro Detroit area. She’s written pieces for AllThingsGeeks.com, AlmostNerdy.com, and quoted on the back of Dirk Manning’s graphic novel, Tales of Mr. Rhee (Procreation of the Wicked). Kasey is also in the works on a horror anthology for Rocket Ink Studios to be released early 2015.  Check her out at https://www.facebook.com/kosmickasey Segment three focused in on Penguicon, a convention taking place at the end of April that's definitely different than a lot of cons in the area.  They describe themselves as a happy place where all geeky interests are represented, explored, and respected. A place with hackers, makers, foodies, open source software junkies, anime buffs, and science fiction fans of all ages and backgrounds come together in a hotel for a weekend and totally blow the roof off.  And nothing we've heard or read so far can dispute any of that - programming tracks for the hardcore geek to the casual cosplay enthusiast, events, panels and fun for just about everyone.  It's a safe bet that you're going to see us there.  Read more about them and get your tickets today at http://www.penguicon.org/ In our fourth segment, we continued learning a little more about Penguicon and then doubled back into our conversation with Kelly and Kasey...and then we made the decision to continue things even on out into a fifth segment, which went pretty much like those usually do. That's all for this week's episode. Kelly O'Hara can be found at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bebop-Art/239939760127 or http://www.bebopart.webs.com/ Kasey can be found at https://www.facebook.com/kosmickasey or http://www.kosmickasey.com/ Penguicon can be found at http://www.penguicon.org/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763 On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

Episode 77.  We had a few Detroit-themed guests on the show tonight, as you can tell. Thanks to our guests Courtney and Ian from Detroit Beer Press, Monica Wheat of Pipeline Fellowship Detroit, and repeat offender Daily Detroit for joining us for a night of laughs and fun conversations... Of course we talked a little Super Bowl...well, we talked about the commercials. Especially the Nationwide one.  Wow.  Nothing like dead kids to really kick the party up a notch... We chatted about the naked guy in a cowboy hat wandering down I-75, the Star Wars comic "Into The Great Unknown", the amazing profit margin one company gets on high speed cable, and the usual smattering of stories and rants you've come to expect by now from us. In our second segment, we dove in with Ian and Courtney from Detroit Beer Press. If you're not familiar with them by now, then you haven't been paying attention.  In addition to chatting about their upcoming issue coming out next week, we also chatted about Yelp reviews, their new Howler Membership program that can get you some sweet deals at some great locations, where you can find their publication, and everything else they've got going on currently.  Check them out at http://www.detroitbeerpress.com/ Our third segment brought Monica Wheat to the forefront to chat about Pipeline Fellowship Detroit, a new organization that's spinning up to change the face of angel investing.  Pipeline Fellowship is an angel investing bootcamp for women.  They work to increase diversity in the U.S. angel investing community and create capital for women social entrepreneurs. Pipeline Fellowship has opened a call for applications for its spring 2015 angel investing bootcamps in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, DC, Detroit, Memphis, Miami, NYC, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Candidates are encouraged to apply by Friday, February 6, 2015.  For more information, please check them out at http://www.pipelinefellowship.com/, hit info@pipelinefellowship.com, or feel free to contact Monica directly at mwheat@pixeldsi.co Our fourth and final segment had us chatting with Daily Detroit about Google Fiber, what's going on in the city, and we seriously questioned their selection of "10 awesome movies filmed in Detroit" because, well, because we're opinionated and it's fun to give him a hard time sometimes, that's why.  Really great conversation, as it always is.  If you're not checking Daily Detroit out on a regular basis, you're missing out.  See everything they've got going on at http://www.dailydetroit.com/ That's all for this week.  Tune in next week as we talk with the organizers of Penguicon, and we dive headfirst into the conversations and issues that have evolved surrounding the blog entry about a trip to the comic shop - from women attending cons to the comic book industry in general, it should be an excellent conversation as we're joined by two ladies who have a few things to say about it all...since they live it every day. Detroit Beer Press can be found at http://www.detroitbeerpress.com/ Pipeline Fellowship can be found at http://www.pipelinefellowship.com/ Daily Detroit can be found at http://www.dailydetroit.com/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763 On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  The stories we got to...and a lot we didn't: Top 25 jobs: http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/jobs-america/ Youtube, Flash and HTML5: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Youtube-Says-Goodbye-to-Flash-HTML5-Is-Now-Default-471426.shtml

Episode 76, and yet another episode that's full of a lot of laughter and great conversations. Thanks to our in-studio guests Anthony Tocco, Kyle Nelson, Andrew Mortemore, and Wade Kean, all from one of our sponsors - Quantum - for joining us... From the Skymall bankruptcy to the measles outbreak at Disney, our first segment was all about the stories that caught our eye this past week.  How the FBI's trying to say that using a TOR or even a VPN connection constitutes probable cause.  A drone showing up on the White House lawn.  Disney rejecting Lucas' drafts for future Star Wars flicks and more. After that, we dove right in with Quantum. Quantum is one of our core sponsors, and so we're obviously more than happy to have them in-studio, but it wasn't a dry, boring commercial as one might expect.  Nope, we had a great and lively series of conversations about what they're doing in the industry with the NHL, GoPro, and several other seriously interesting applications of their technologies. If you're not familiar with them, Quantum is a leading expert in scale-out storage, archive and data protection, providing intelligent solutions for capturing, sharing and preserving digital assets over the entire data lifecycle. We help customers maximize the value of these assets to achieve their goals, whether it’s top movie studios looking to create the next blockbuster, researchers working to accelerate scientific discovery, or small businesses trying to streamline their operations. With a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class disk, tape and software solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, we enable customers to address their most demanding workflow challenges and opportunities. In our final segment, we doubled back on a few earlier topics and wrapped things up for the week. Tune in next week as we're joined by the folks from Caliber Comics talking about their Nain Rouge comic with a Detroit flavor, our friends from Detroit Beer Press discussing their new issue, and Monica Wheat giving us some information about a new program in the city helping women develop and strengthen their skills. Quantum can be found at http://www.quantum.com/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/     

Our 75th episode, and this one's full of rants, raves, laughter and great conversations. Lots of rants.  Lots...and lots...of rants... Thanks to our guests local entrepreneur Bradley Hoos, as well as Jimi Plouffe and Nick Daniels from Momentum for hanging out, hopping in on the rants, hanging for the laughs, and providing a lot of great information in between the outbursts, and we even had a voice from the past call in... Our first segment was pretty much wholly occupied by our discussion of what happened when the internet went nuts over one of our posts. Over the span of three days last week, our blog entry about taking my kids to a comic book shop took just under 250,000 unique page views.  To put that into perspective, we normally get about 100,000 per month...and we had a single day that did more than that. If you haven't read it yet, you should, just to have the proper context for listening to our first segment if nothing else.  You can find that over at http://www.itinthed.com/16328/what-taking-my-daughter-to-a-comic-book-store-taught-me/ The internet is full of fascinating things and people, the vast majority of whom were outstanding and some really good conversations evolved... ...but then there are...the others.  The people who love to get offended about anything. The ones just looking to pick a fight.  The geniuses who don't have kids but think they know everything about being a parent.  The keyboard courage commandos who think being behind a screen means that they can say whatever they want. We talked about them all, so enjoy the conversation and venting. That took up the entire first segment, and so we didn't get a chance to talk about other events or items that caught our eye this past week, so if you're interested, you can catch the topics we were going to get to down at the bottom. In our second segment, we started things off with a surprise phone call, prior guest Russ Dotson (he was on our first episode, as well as others) back stateside after a tour of duty overseas. Then we dove in with Brad Hoos, also a repeat offender guest, to talk about the various things he has going on these days. We discussed Hacker Fellows, a program recruiting recent Michigan and national college graduates to participate in a one-year program. The Hacker Fellows lasts one year and you'll get to work at an amazing Michigan tech start-up. You'll start with 6 weeks of training with your cohorts and dive into the start-up world by getting matched with a Michigan start-up. In short, you'll learn with the best and brightest in Michigan as you start your career.   Pretty decent concept, and you can learn more at http://www.hackerfellows.com/ You can also learn more about Brad and his endeavors at http://disciplinedentrepreneur.com/ Our third segment was supposed to be a dive in with our other guests...but turned into a collection of rants about people trying to tell business owners what they can and cannot do with their own companies, and a few other fun topics. So then our fourth segment we dove in with Jimi and Nick from Momentum.  Since Momentum was founded in 2010 by Jimi Plouffe and Adam Sgammotta, it has been our primary goal to deliver every client a digital strategy that will help them achieve their goals. We also maintain that our client remains our priority, and that we provide them with the education and solutions to move their business forward on the web. Our first client, Michigan Head & Neck, remains a client today. We have since welcomed many new clients to the Momentum family who have partnered with us on their web design, development or internet marketing project and have recognized our passion, as well as our integrity. We never lose focus on what got us to where we are today,

Episode 74, and wow was this a packed one. Lots of great topics, tons of good conversation, a whole slew of new drops to be isolated for our opening... ...but I digress.  Thanks to our guests Kinsay Mantay and Nicole Johnson for coming out to talk about a cool program that gets you paid while earning your Associate's Degree as well as getting you a job once you're done, a $10,000 Internet of Things contest for young girls, a new group that's starting up that we're looking forward to doing more with in the future, and much, much more. So let's get to some details... As we typically do, we dove into the news, stories, events and topics that caught our attention over the past week. We ranted about the Punch Bowl Social dust-up via social media that we believe got all too ridiculous all too quickly.  We talked about our event coming up this Thursday night (the 15th! Blackfinn! Royal Oak! 5pm! Be there!) for folks in and around the metro Detroit information technology community.  We got into some of the feedback that's been coming in and the original thoughts behind my blog entry recapping my trip to a comic book shop with my kids...and the surprise I got from my daughter while there. In our second segment, we talked with Kinsay Mantay about the MAT2 program. Now people...look.  We cannot make this any more clear for you.  This program: 1. Is wide open. 2. Gets you an associates degree.  That you don't pay for. 3. Partners you up with a company that you work at while getting that degree.  That you don't pay for. 4. You have a job at that company that you're partnered up with.  While getting that degree.  That you don't pay for. 5. So you're earning money. From that job with that company you're partnered up with.  While still getting that degree.  That you still don't pay for. 6. When the program's over, you move into a full time job.  Probably earning more money than you were earning before from that job with that company that you're partnered up with.  While getting that degree.  That you still aren't paying for. Did you finish high school?  Do you want a decent job?  Would you like a degree without having to pay for it?  Would you like a more decent job after getting that degree?  CLICK HERE: http://www.mitalent.org/mat2/ I really don't know how much more simple than that we can make it, people. Our third segment had us chatting with our other in-studio guest, Nicole Johnson.  Nicole's got a lot going on at the moment: - She's a systems engineer at Cisco. - She's one of the women launching Diva Tech Talk.  From CFOs of corporations to scrappy entrepreneurs, women are making a huge impact in technology today. Yet the numbers of women in tech are still small. We interview these leaders and highlight issues and trends in technology.  If other women can see IT, they can be IT. - She's working to get the word out about Cisco's Internet of Things competition for girls aged 13-18 where the winner walks away with $20,000 and there are multiple other prizes ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. In our fourth segment, we doubled back a bit on some earlier topics, dove into a few others, and then called it quits for the night with Bob vowing revenge for my musical selections during our breaks.  Which you can't hear here in syndication, so ha ha, you missed it, you totally need to start listening live. The MAT2 program can be found at http://www.mitalent.org/mat2/ Diva Tech Talk can be found at http://www.divatechtalk.com/ Cisco's Internet of Things contest can be found at http://iotchallenge-cisco.younoodle.com/ As always, we can be found:

IT in the D, Episode 73 Holy wow, what a great way to kick off the year. Huge thanks to our guests Tom Nardone and Ian Sterrett who joined us tonight to talk about everything from the continually evolving Sony hack to bulletproof hats to geeks and conventions around the area. Yes, it was that random...and it was that much fun... In our opening segment, we talked about the college football fan who drunkenly took a $900 Uber ride, the continuing Sony hack debacle, whether or not apps are dying, the new advent of individual tv stations launching their own apps, and more. Then we dove in with Tom Nardone, President of Priveco and a number of other businesses.  Priveco (Prive like "private" and Co) specializes in allowing you to...well, here's how they describe what they do: PriveCo Inc. is the world's most private company. Our strict privacy policy allows you to shop at any of our web stores with the utmost privacy. Every aspect of your visit including the shopping, purchasing, delivery and after-sale experience is kept completely confidential. Our dedication to private service has caused PriveCo to become one of the Internet's most unusual and fastest growing companies.  Check them out at http://www.priveco.com/ In our third segment, we talked about one of his other companies - BulletSafe.  BulletSafe makes a great bulletproof vest at an unbelievable price. It offers NIJ Level IIIA protection for just $299. It's a great vest too, with a large coverage area, plate pockets for ballistic plates, 6 sizes to fit almost everyone, and high-quality materials. Bulletsafe bulletproof vests are the first great, affordable bulletproof vests. Check them out at http://www.bulletsafe.com/ They've also got a kickstarter running right now to help develop their line of bulletproof hats. Yes...hats. A very cool concept, and there's a whole bunch of science, math, and reasoning as to why this makes sense.  Go check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/CalmTom/the-bulletsafe-bulletproof-baseball-cap To wrap things up, we chatted with long-time member of our networking group, Ian Sterrett, about his take on our group, what conventions in the area he's looking forward to or has hit recently, and just some good general conversations.  He's a great guy, and we couldn't be happier to have him around tonight or at our events. That's all for this time, don't forget to tune in next week! PriveCo can be found at http://www.priveco.com/ BulletSafe can be found at http://www.bulletsafe.com/ Their kickstarter can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/CalmTom/the-bulletsafe-bulletproof-baseball-cap Ian can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ianformed As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/  The $900 Uber ride: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2015/01/05/ole-miss-fan-leaves-peach-bowl-and-racks-up-900-uber-tab-after-falling-asleep-photo/ ESPN without cable? http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/01/05/espn-goes-streaming-through-dishs-sling-tv-no-cable-required/ Another Bitcoin exchange hacked: http://www.techworm.net/2015/01/bitcoin-exchange-bitstamp-hacked-site-taken-offline.html Stop it with the Facebook privacy stuff.  Just...stop. http://www.snopes.com/computer/facebook/privacy.asp Netflix cracks down on VPN and proxy users: http://torrentfreak.

IT in the D, Episode 72 We closed out 2014 with a great episode.  A lot of rambling...as you'd probably expect given that it's the last show of the year...but still a great episode. Thanks to Eric and Jeremiah for joining us as we wandered and rambled through a number of topics, and thankfully kept ourselves from getting too terribly weird as we closed things out for the year... We talked about The Interview, and the continually breaking updates about the Sony hack.  We chatted about how in the hell it's possible that Instagram is worth $35 billion.  XBox and Playstation's networks getting knocked offline.  The Freep's gaffe with Harbaugh's photo and more. Amidst all of our rambling, we managed to get into some decent topics of conversation with Eric from ERSA Group - http://www.ersaweb.com/ - security, ethics in the IT industry, some major "oops" moments over the years and more.  We also managed to get Jeremiah from Daily Detroit - https://www.facebook.com/TheDailyDetroit - fired up about a couple of topics because, well, because it's fun when we do. And then we wrapped things up with a most sincere thank you and some reflections on the past year.  If you listen to nothing else, you should absolutely listen to that...because we mean it sincerely, thank you.  The full episode is down below this short clip... ERSA Group can be found at http://www.ersaweb.com/ Daily Detroit can be found at https://www.facebook.com/TheDailyDetroit As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/  The stories we discussed tonight...and some we didn't have time for: So...North Korea's NOT behind the Sony hack? http://gotnews.com/breaking-can-conclusively-confirm-north-korea-not-behind-sony-hack/ Facebook face a class action lawsuit: http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/25/facebook-class-action-privacy-lawsuit/ $44 billion in unused gift cards since 2008: http://nypost.com/2014/01/26/unused-gift-cards-total-44b-since-2008-study/ Instagram's value: https://gigaom.com/2014/12/23/instagram-could-be-one-of-the-best-deals-of-the-last-decade/ Restaurant eliminates tipping by increasing menu prices 20%: http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/23/luxury/no-tipping-policy/index.html Cord cutters are facing cable companies to adapt...but is it too late: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2014/12/28/cord-cutters-forcing-cable-companies-adapt/20987189/ http://time.com/3592239/top-10-tv-shows/ http://time.com/3582115/top-10-gadgets-2014/ http://time.com/3582114/top-10-apps/ http://time.com/3587943/things-that-broke-the-internet/ http://time.com/3591923/top-10-hashtags-that-started-a-conversation/

IT in the D, Episode 71 Our next to last show of the year, and we had a lot of fun with our guests tonight talking about the latest things that caught our eye and what they've got going on around the area.  Thanks to our guests Marjorie Knepp, Christina York, Sean Yalda, Seth Archambault and Billy Strawter for joining us... As always, our opening segment was a little bit of everything that's gotten our attention over the past week.  Conspiracy theories surrounding the Sony hack, North Korea getting knocked off the internet, NASA and the emailed wrench, the dust up with the owner of Detroit BBQ and social media, and all sorts of other fun. Next up, we dove in with the folks behind Magic Book, recent winners of Startup Weekend who are trying to do something definitely worthwhile.  MagicBook engages children with books by bringing stories to life via your smartphone or tablet. The idea is that a child can pick a book off their shelf, point a smartphone camera at it and when they do, something magical happens – the book comes alive! Animation, sound, and actual interaction with the characters can take place.  Give it a look at http://www.getmagicbook.co/ Then we shifted gears a little bit to talk about Lift57.  Their consulting services can help you with change management, operational planning, roadmap development, and a whole host of other services.  You can check it out at http://www.lift57.com/ In our last segment, we chatted with regular guest Billy Strawter of Social Coop Media to talk about...well, he couldn't actually talk about what he's got in the works right now, so we just had some fun general chatter with him about all sorts of things.  Catch his company at http://socialcoopmedia.com/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/  The stories we discussed tonight...and some we didn't have time for: Sony: Interesting theory swirling. Feb: Sony announces massive layoffs...including a number of SysAdmins: http://www.10news.com/news/sony-electronics-announces-layoffs-400-affected-in-san-diego-office-022614 Then: People are dumb, passwords aren't changed, access isn't revoked Now: Sony is hacked, apparently through the compromise of SysAdmin IDs Theory: Disgruntled, laid off employees sold access to the hackers, which worked because of lax security policies Also, N Korea loses internet access today Also, Anonymous says they'll just release The Interview for Sony: http://uproxx.com/movies/2014/12/anonymous-north-korea-plan-release-the-interview/ New beer called "Problem Solver" tells you when you're at your peak problem solving capability (.075 BAC) http://www.medicaldaily.com/beer-creativity-problem-solver-comes-scale-measure-when-youre-your-creative-peak-315154 Beyond firearms, of course, TSA officers encounter an extremely wide variety of other prohibited items at airport checkpoints, including machetes, hatchets, swords, giant scissors, brass knuckles, cannonballs, bear repellant and, this past October, an unloaded cannon: http://www.runwaygirlnetwork.com/2014/12/18/guns-cannons-swords-tsa-record-breaking-haul-2014/ Snowden's leaks seriously screwed up law enforcement in the UK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11300936/GCHQ-warns-serious-criminals-have-been-lost-in-wake-of-Edward-Snowden-leaks.html Before Google, there were librarians: http://www.npr.org/blogs/theprotojournalist/2014/12/20/371851621/before-google-who-...

IT in the D, Episode 70 Well, this was certainly an interesting night, both on the mic and off of it. Let's stick to the on the mic fun though - we had some great guests join us in-studio tonight, and we even made a new friend from down the hall from the studio thanks to doing a little wandering and being friendly with the locals.  We got into some controversial topics, we got updates on a growing local business, and we talked with an artist about her work and figured out more ways to blow money on things that we absolutely have to have... In our opening segment, we talked about our charity event this past Thursday night, we ranted and vented a bit about the Hopcat opening, and we even explained some of what we really think is racist that goes on these days that nobody even thinks about for some reason. For our second segment, we dove in with some repeat guests - Terry from Original Stix and Pat from the Osirius Group to talk about how things have been going with Original Stix since we last chatted with them back in early June. Short answer?  They're blowing up like mad, expanding like crazy, and opening up new lines of business...all with locally manufactured products and top-notch customer service. Use discount code itinthed on their website - http://originalstix.com/ over the next week to get free shipping. We continued our chat with them in the third segment, talking about the growth they're experiencing, and some of the extremely cool new products they have coming soon for those who might want something other than hockey sticks in something like this. During the break after our third segment, I went out and ran into a local artist a couple doors down.  Seemed pretty cool, we chatted, and hey, why not?  Come on in and play during the fourth segment.  Andrea (it's ahn-DRAY-uh) runs http://www.destinationliberation.com/ and has some extremely cool artwork in her studio...where she was hanging out watching Star Wars, so she's definitely "our" people and we'll be talking more with her in the future, I'm sure. Original Stix can be found at http://originalstix.com/ Osirius Group can be found at http://www.osiriuscustomproducts.com/ Destination Liberation can be found at http://www.destinationliberation.com/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 

IT in the D, Episode 69 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, it was the epoch of our serious charity fundraising, it was the epoch of foolish mocking, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us... Yeah, it was one of those nights... We kicked off with the stories about the Grumpy Cat owner pulling down $100 million, updates and information about our charity fundraiser at Falling Down Beer Company, and other items that had caught our eye throughout the week. Then the latest from Falling Down Beer Company, the hosts for our event on Thursday night where the charity fundraiser was taking place.  Our next segment with Daily Detroit and Social Media Coop Detroit got a little off the tracks as we started swapping stories from the "good old days" of the early internet boom.  We chatted with Kelley Jean about her music and upcoming appearances as a featured dancer, and then we wrapped up with the always infamous segment five where we tried to double back on some earlier topics with our guests, but that got interrupted by a message that triggered mockery and laughter. A fun time for sure, though I'm sure we'll be a little more focused and back on track for episode 70. Falling Down Beer Company can be found at https://www.facebook.com/fallingdownbeer Daily Detroit can be found at https://www.facebook.com/TheDailyDetroit Social Media Coop can be found at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-COOP-Media-Detroit/182415445133057 Kelley Jean (semi-NSFW) can be found at https://www.facebook.com/Motorcitydoll As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/     

IT in the D, Episode 68 You know what the best part of doing this show is? I mean, sure, there's the beer, the music, and the general laughter and fun that happens every week, but what's really cool about it all is being able to help get the word out about really cool stuff going on in the area, and that's exactly what tonight's show was all about... Guests: Hemingwrite: Adam Leek Woodward Throwbacks: Kyle Dubay and Bozenka Shepherd As per usual, our first segment was a round up of topics that had caught our eye over the past week, including the stupid Facebook privacy post making another round across your newsfeeds, the chaos that is Black Friday...especially in your inbox these days, and more. Our second segment was a dive into Hemingwrite, which is a very cool gadget about the hit the market for you writers out there.  The Hemingwrite is-a single purpose, distraction-free writing composition device. It combines the simplicity of a 90s era word processor with the modern tech we all require like cloud backups and integration into our favorite document editors like Google docs and Evernote.  It's seriously sweet, and we know a lot of people looking forward to having one.  Linux based and ready to open, listen in to hear more about this great little invention. Next up were Kyle and Bo from Woodward Throwbacks, and we've got to give them all of the credit in the world for making it to the studio tonight.  Not only are they in crunch production mode time, but their studio was broken into on Monday.  Their new generator...stolen.  Absolutely ridiculous for that to have happened, which makes it even more important for us all to get behind them and help fund their Kickstarter project out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/455720595/woodward-throwbacks-reclaimed-woodworking-detroit ...and not just because they make cool, kickass beer holders. But if you want to do it because they make kickass beer holders, that's totally cool as well. They do more than those though, so listen in and hear everything they have to offer, and then go check them out. In our last segment, we played a little catch up with the latest goings-on at Daily Detroit, doubled back on a few topics we missed earlier, and wrapped up the evening's festivities. Hemingwrite can be found at http://hemingwrite.com/ Woodward Throwbacks can be found at http://www.woodwardthrowbacks.com/ Daily Detroit can be found at http://www.dailydetroit.com/ Details about our December event can be found at http://www.itinthed.com/16091/december-2014-charity-event/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/  Uber's app is leaking a TON of info about you - call logs, all sorts of stuff: http://www.gizmag.com/uber-app-malware-android/34962/ Seriously, shut up about Facebook's privacy settings: http://www.snopes.com/computer/facebook/privacy.asp Google told to EXPAND right to be forgotten: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30212927 Internet of Things WILL be used to kill someone. Soon: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2852376/coming-soon-murder-by-internet.html Hackers gain access to CC numbers from 17 parking facilities, mostly in Chicago: http://www.securityweek.com/hackers-infiltrate-payment-systems-major-parking-garage-operator Cox (an ISP) is getting sued for not doing enough to combat music piracy: http://ar...

IT in the D, Episode 67. As the dust begins to settle from last week's fun and excitement, we had another great live broadcast. Three outstanding guests to help close out the Home and Home series with the Internet Advisor show, some good tunes, a lot of laughs, and just a fun time overall. Oh, and we even managed to sneak in some discussions about security, auditing, and the balance of those in the business world while Bob wasn't paying attention... Our first segment was all of the things you'd expect by now. We talked about my appearance on Flashpoint this past Sunday, our event at Stray Cat Lounge last Thursday, stories and snippets from around the web that caught our eye, and of course our upcoming event with a charity component to it on Thursday, December 11th that you should plan on being at. You can read all about that event here: http://www.itinthed.com/16091/december-2014-charity-event/ For our second segment, we dove in with Mike Brennan from MITechNews.com.  Mike's been covering the technology scene here in metro Detroit for quite some time, and he brings an amazing level of perspective and insight to the scene. Of particular note to you, our readers, you'll want to note that we've launched a "News" tab on our site that contains the latest information from Mike's writing as well as a quick-links version of the same in our right-rail throughout the site. You can check that out at http://www.itinthed.com/news/ In our third segment, we chatted with Ryan Walther about the trials and tribulations of playing in the worlds if IT audit, security and compliance.  Sure, it's the last thing that a lot of people want to think about, but it's a crucial component to the day to day operations of nearly any company these days.  Good conversation and some interesting topics in the mix for those of you interested in the field. Our final segment centered on Gary Baker from The Internet Advisor Show.  You may remember that we were back on their WJR show, and if you don't, you can listen to that here: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/it-in-the-d-on-the-internet-advisor-show-wjr-760am And even though Gary really made us realize how little we're actually doing (we kid...mostly...but seriously, they've done some cool things with their show), it was a pleasure having him on the air with us and talking through some of the things he's seen and done in his various roles and endeavors around the area. As always, the links for the topics we discussed...and those we didn't get to...are down below. You can find the Internet Advisor show at http://internetadvisor.net/ MITechNews.com is at, well, http://mitechnews.com/ The Flashpoint episode is here: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/politics/flashpoint/flashpoint-examining-new-detroit-thanksgiving-parade-plans/29889176 Details about our December event can be found at http://www.itinthed.com/16091/december-2014-charity-event/ As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/  Mega malware: http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/23/technology/security/regin-malware-symantec/index.html Hey Buffalo - know what happens after mega snow? Flooding. http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/24/us/winter-weather/index.html Google pulls "Ass Hunter" game from store: http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/24/news/companies/ass-hunter-gay-goo...

IT in the D, Episode 66. This episode was pretty much exactly what it needed to be. We were joined by two great guests talking about things they're doing around the area, ranging from an upcoming comic convention to zombie themed energy drinks and sodas to a new group getting off the ground helping people learn how to code and how to transition into a career in information technology...if that's what they really want to do. And, of course, there was the elephant in the room... Guests: Dennis L Barger, Jr: Wonderworld Comics, Detroit Fanfare and Deadworld premium zombie beverages Alan Languirand: Apprend In our opening segment, we talked about our talk last week over at the Detroit Regional Chamber with Social Media Club Detroit about How Not To Suck at LinkedIn, as well as our upcoming event this Thursday over at Stray Cat Lounge. As a reminder, details on all of our upcoming events can be found here on the site - http://www.itinthed.com/meet/, on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, or in our Meetup group - http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ Hope to see everyone on Thursday night! And then...well, then we didn't really get into our usual discussion of news and items that had caught our eye over the previous week, mostly because the only thing that caught our eye was the stick that got poked into it. So yes, we talked about the elephant in the room for the better part of the entire first segment.  No clue what we're talking about? No worries, just skip ahead to the second segment.  But if you do, yes, if you think you know what I meant, or what my intentions are, or how I think...particularly if you're basing that solely off of how someone else wrote...do yourself, and me, a favor and at least listen to the first segment.  I assure you it's worth the listen. In our second segment, we dove in with Alan Languirand, who's launched something pretty cool downtown.  Leveraging his own background as a designer by training who became a developer by necessity, he has been a teacher for both Grand Circus and our friends at Girl Develop It, and now he's striking out on his own in forming Apprend.  Apprend is a group for people passionate about software and technology education. You should join Apprend if you want to learn about technology as a student, want to teach others about tech in a classroom / workshop environment, or are a tech professional that wants to connect with other in a more casual and social setting.  Great conversation with Alan, and we expect good things from Apprend moving forward.  Find out more about Apprend, and register for their first scheduled class, out at http://apprend.org/ For our third segment, we talked with Dennis L Barger Jr, a guy with about as many irons in as many fires as us...if not more.  He owns and runs Wonderworld Comics, a comics and collectibles store in Taylor.  He's organizing Detroit Fanfare, a comic con taking place in February of 2015 that you're going to want to be at.  He's involved with Deadworld premium zombie beverages, and was at the premiere event that I was at this past Friday.  It also turns out that Dennis and I have some shared history from more than a decade ago, and we didn't even remember each other from a hilariously off the wall night that we dove into a little bit. Our final segment was the usual wrap up with our guests on points that we'd neglected to hit earlier, as well as just some closing thoughts. Oh, and the premiere of something new we're playing with..."Real Detroit Heroes".  Enjoy. We'll see you Thursday night, and listen live again next week for more fun. Again: Apprend can be found at http://apprend.org/

IT in the D, Episode 65. We managed to clean things up to the point where it's a pretty solid episode with a lot of great information in it, so give it a listen as we're joined by Billy Strawter of Social Coop Media and Kevin Krason of Biznet. And look, let's be right up front about what the live listeners already know - we had some serious technical difficulties throughout the broadcast and recording process this time around.  So, there are some jumps in conversation, some snippets that got missed here and there...but again, still a solid episode with a lot of good chats and solid information in here for you... Guests: Billy Strawter, Social Media Coop:  http://socialcoopmedia.com/ We’ll help map your projects journey from creation to completion, through creative ideas, research and client collaboration.  No detail is too small when it comes to connecting with your audience. We’ll help you develop a roadmap for success. You’ll have a partner to help you execute your campaign and provide measurable results. See what services we use to get there. Kevin Krason, Biznet:  http://biznetis.net/ Biznet's mission is to help growing companies use Internet technologies to prosper. We've spent the last 20 years perfecting our Internet expertise and adding only the best talent available. We specialize in Marketing Automation, Internet Marketing, Mobile and Web Development. As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/  Lucasfilm & Empire Brewing over "strikes bock" and copyright: http://io9.com/lucasfilm-is-suing-the-empire-brewing-company-over-its-1650315349 National Science Foundation spends over $919,000 in grants on tracking how memes spread: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1101743&HistoricalAwards=false Should the internet be classified as a utility? http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/10/7185933/fcc-should-reclassify-internet-as-utility-obama-says Guy in Tacoma, Washington uses "open records act" to request names, addresses, and all sorts of other personal information about strippers in the area: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-29946114 ReskillUSA says it takes only 3 months to go from beginner to coder capable of working on real projects: http://www.reskillusa.com/ Study finds no link between video games and violent behavior: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-11/ica-nlf102814.php Why Taylor Swift pulled her catalog from Spotify: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/04/taylor-swift-spotify-streaming-album-sales-snub Facebook's new feed controls: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/07/tech/facebook-news-feed-controls/index.html Home Depot hack nabs 53 million email addresses: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0IQ2L120141107?irpc=932 Will Verizon get sued over tracking users via persistent cookies? https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141105/11315029057/verizon-may-soon-get-to-enjoy-lawsuit-over-their-sneaky-use-perma-cookies.shtml MS Office bundling Dropbox, and free on iphone, ipad and android? http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/6/7163789/microsoft-office-free-for-ipad-iphone-android There's a site where you can peep in through more than 73,000 unsecured video cameras around the world: http://www.insecam.com/ Facebook makes users too dumb to know what's real and what's a scam: http://www.zdnet.com/users-cant-tell-facebook-from-a-scam-7000035440/