Podcast: Building a career out of LEGO bricks with Warren Elsmore

Warren Elsmore wrote a book! It’s called Brick City and Warren describes it as “a celebration of the worlds’ architecture, recreated solely using the celebrated toy of the century, LEGO bricks.”
In our podcast with him, we discussed:

  • Is this an instruction book or an idea book?
  • Who is the target audience?
  • What was the book writing process like?
  • How and when can people buy this book?
  • And many more LEGO-rich topics…

Brick City will be in bookstores in several different countries on May 6th, and it is already available for pre-order on Amazon – check Warren’s Brick City page for links. Warren’s website also has more information on his large scale models and his commission-based work.

Podcast trivia: Warren was briefly a Guinness World Record holder for “Largest LEGO Mosaic” from the 2012 LEGO Show, with a mosaic measuring at 143.9 square meters (1607 square feet).

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Podcast: Cloud Cost Management Made Easy with Cloudability

On this episode we interview Mat Ellis (@matellis), CEO of Cloudability and talk about how Cloudability can help companies manage their cloud spend.

We talk about:

  • How Mat got started with Cloudability
  • How much cloud spend they are currently managing
  • What types of things are moving to the cloud
  • What newbies to the cloud should look out for
  • How Cloudability helps manage cloud spend
  • The services that they offer and their associated costs
  • The future role of “The IT Department”
  • and much more…

We would like to thank Dr. Marky Roden of the PSC Group for standing in for Julian on this show.

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Podcast: Online Learning with Lynda.com

Today we interviewed Lynda.com author Jess Stratton. Jess has been a member of the IBM Collaboration Solutions Community for over decade. She has spoken at Lotusphere and other industry events. Jess now works for the online learning company Lynda.com where she helps author video training for Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office and other products and technologies.

Rather than listing out all of the super cool things Jess talks about we suggest that you just push play and start listening. Jess does recommend that you “Like” the Lynda.com Facebook Fan Page where you can find out about the latest tutorials and promotions.

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Podcast: Opting In – Ed Brill talks about his new book

Today we spoke with Ed Brill (http://edbrill.com), Director of Social Business and Collaboration Solutions at IBM, about his new book. It’s called Opting In: Lessons in Social Business from a Fortune 500 Product Manager, and it’s available both on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Opting-In-Lessons-Business-Fortune/dp/0133258939) and directly from IBM Press (http://www.ibmpressbooks.com/store/opting-in-lessons-in-social-business-from-a-fortune-9780133258936).

We discussed:

  • Why did you write this book?
  • Who is the audience?
  • What is the message of the book?
  • What has surprised you about the book?
  • What’s going on at IBM Connect related to the book?
  • And more…

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Podcast: The IBM 2012 Tech Trends Report

On this episode we interviewed IBM’s Paul Brunet, Vice President ISVs, startups and academic relations, IBM about the recent release of the IBM 2012 Tech Trends Report. During the interview we talked about:
Paul’s role at IBM

  • What exactly does the Tech Trends Report covers
  • What surprised Paul in the report
  • The growing skill gaps in technology
  • What IBM Is doing to help shrink the skills gap
  • Paul’s advice for developers and IT admins that are trying to keep up with all of the changes in IT
  • Social Business and Collaboration. Did the report uncover anything interesting in those areas?
  • and much more…

On the recording you will hear the show be identified as episode 172 when in actuality it’s really 173. The show runs for 28:08 minutes.

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Please pray for a truly special young lady and her family

From my friend and ICS community member Chris Byrne:

My 17 year old daughter Grace, a senior honors student in high school who is dual enrolled at the University of Georgia, was running with friends after school last Friday.  When crossing the street, she was struck by an SUV.  She is now in the intensive care unit of a local hospital being treated for severe brain trauma.  Grace is a multi-sport athlete at her school with varsity letters in Tennis and Cross Country, and was the MVP of the Junior Varsity Soccer Team.  She turned to tennis as a sport after breaking her foot too many times playing soccer.  She has also completed two half-marathons, the most recent in October (the picture of her is after that race).  The outpouring of love and concern for her from our community in Athens has been unbelievable because she has touched so many lives and made such a difference in her young life.

graceathhalf

Our family firmly believes in the power of prayer and are asking people to pray for our beloved daughter and her sister.  Specifically we are asking that people carry a walnut, which represents her head and when people see or touch the walnut to say a little prayer that her head be basked in a healing light.  Her friends have started a Twitter hashtag of #Walnuts4Grace

Must watch video for all XPages developers: What’s new in Domino Designer 9.0

Matt White has just released a free video that walks you through some of the new things you will find in IBM’s forthcoming Domino Designer on his XPages 101 site. Matt will be presenting at IBM’s Connect event and I highly recommend that you make time in your schedule to attend his sessions.