Will Green Hurt Poor People?

We in America are spoilt! Period. Spoilt, rotten, that includes "moi". Even our government is spoilt. We spend our days debating and analyzing. Lobbying and pontificating, while the rest of the world runs past. Maybe the government should go green and eradicate the toxic politicians that sit day after day draining our resources. A blogger, and I will call no name has posted a huge article about green hurting poor people. Being raised poor, and I mean really poor, not the poor but eating meat everyday poor, with a car in the garage type of poor. No, I mean carrying the daily supply of water poor. No refrigerator poor. Walking to school poor. Milking the cow poor. Chasing that chicken for Sunday lunch poor. So back to Mr.Socially Concious probably Ivy League grad world educator. He theorizes that going green will hurt poor people. I got some "educmackashion" for him. Green will not succeed without inviting in poor people. I'll tell you about my upbringing. I am sure you will agree it was the ultimate green and today I truly miss that luxurious poverty. The notion that green will hurt poor people is a sentiment aimed and propogating the strangle hold that big business has on the world resource pool.




My grand mother was, though unkowing to her, a green lifer. I must admit not through choice but through economic need. Funny thing is, I vividly remember how beautiful my childhood was. We had chickens in the yard, no lawn mower, well, we had no lawn...LOL, a bicycle that my uncles rode to work, a backyard garden, no electricity, she made her own soap and starch from cassava, we collected rain water. I still try to remember the name of the vine that we used to brush our teeth in the morning. Way better than Colgate. My grandma passed with a full mouth of teeth.



The only time my grandmother rode a vehicle was when she had to grudgingly head into the city. Her cooking was done on a small kerosene ( not healthy I eventually found out) stove, though she favored the three rock approach in her humble backyard. Her constant singing while doing laundry on a half barrel with a scrub board (locally made) that the villagers referred to as a "jooking" board still resonates in my head. Most of the soap was made by the older heads until later on we started to see laundry detergent. The broom was made of coconut straws. BTW...the coconut tree provided altogether about 30 household products, from brooms to oil, to perfumes.



I present these little scenarios because, Mr. Just turned Green, your question should not be whether going green will hurt poor people, it should be whether affluent people could survive in a green world. Would you trade your toilet for a latrine? or your sauna for a bucket and barrel with a "dipper". Would you eat beef only on special occasions? Would you compost in your backyard? Or would the smell be offensive to you? Would you willingly give up your plastic grocery bags for a basket handwoven from the coconut straw? Are you aware that there are still natives in the Amazon who live the ultimate green life but academians are eager to bring "civilization" to them.You see "Sir", green is not a fad, a fashion, a yuppie thrill. It is a way of life for most of the world citizens. My grandma taught us "cut the cane, and plant it back". I am in no way suggesting that we all revert to a world of restrictions. No sir. I love advancements, capitalism is great, but I detest the notion that being green is something that has been "discovered" by the well to do. I detest that being green, or claiming to be green automatically elevates one above the rest of society.



Sustainability is a big word. My grandma might not have been able to spell it, but she practiced it everyday. We recycled and reused, refused and rethought. We looked at the earth as our supermarket, you paid with work. Our tools were cutlasses, hoes, shovels, all handmade. Most, if not all our medicines were backyrad concoctions and damn, they worked.



Going green would definitely help the miners in West Virginia. It will help the poor farmers in Indonesia, and the native people of the Amazon. The very first step would be kicking out the "money or nothing" corporations who have no respect for families. Yes that's going green. Giving farming back to the farmers and rewarding them for their work. Not huge monocrops spewing toxic produce every two weeks. Not paying farmers not to produce so as to strangle the economy with these huge emporiums like Walmart, Associates, Home Depot and Key Foods.



Going green means investigating the pharmaceutical companies and their cohorts who choose to medicate the shit out of our children. When all that is needed is positve, forceful, God fearing parenting. Going green means making it illegal for politicians to put at risk, the very existence of our young men and women for their selfish, ungodly acts of war, based on lies and innuendo. Politicians strengthening and rewarding petrotyrants, and sabotaging innovative efforts to bring sustainable clean energy to scale. Yes sir, Corporate Social Responsibility includes the government.



Yes sir! So if you are ready to go green, bring it on. It was a marvellous life until the world lost its connection to the earth. Poor folks have always lived green. From Japan to Jamaica, Ireland to Indonesia, America to Antigua, Tripoli to Trinidad. We have lived green and enjoyed it.

The Word On The Wire Is..Aerohive Training.

        I am excited to report to you guys some great news coming out of Aerohive Networks. They are offering, IMHO, a superb training program. For those who did not catch the buzz, Aerohive Networks is the innovative new WLAN company that is creating quite a stir in the wi-fi world. They have heated up debate and discussion with their Cooperative Control Access Points. Some may ask, so what's new? Get this, they have introduced a WLAN technology that eliminates controllers. Remember those super  expensive bottlenecks? Yep! They have introduced a technology providing access points that share information, these are creatively called HiveAPs. These APs provide all the benefits of a controller-based WLAN solution. There is so much to say about their products. Go see for yourself why I'm enthused.

I am freaking out! A Cisco 2125 WLAN controller goes for between 4-5 grand. Dude, a catalyst 3750G integrated is about $13k, ouch! I'm sure Cisco is pleased with these"rogues". What about 3COM who has one coming in at $7k. It's getting hot in here! All those small companies that are cash strapped, your day has come.

Aerohive's decision to offer this training is an opportunity to get in with a great company and I'm scraping my jeans pocket trying to find some dollars to register. Think about this, if you got your CWNA and CWSP, it's the perfect upgrade. I think I am slightly qualified to spot a WLAN resume boost having taught both CWNA and CWSP for a few years.You can visit the website, I don't have any information on costs but I do know that Devin Akin former CTO at CWNP.com is a player with Aerohive so that tells me there is some serious brain power over there.

P.S. I'm being asked if I work for Aerohive. Answer is no. I've been blogging about Symbol for years and never worked for them. I just have a nose for quality.

WLANs Power Positioning

      So Meru Networks is going public? Yeah, I got the tweet last night. Good idea? Bad idea? IMO, I think Meru has studied its books, has thoroughly investigated the competition and has made this call based on survival. When I had just started my wi-fi studies and teaching, the number of vendors out there was minimal. Through those years I've witnessed complete disappearances, I've seen acquisitions and I am today still seeing a cornucopia of startups. Aruba Networks went the same route and initially priced its shares at $11. Though they have stuggled, I expect that 2010 will be a successful year for Aruba. Meru, from what I've read has had some inner issues like keeping their brain power inhouse. It is also stated that they have not had the requirement of three quarters of consistent profit.
    The ruckusroom.net has gone through Meru like LeBron going through the Nets. I read their take on this decision and shivered. Talk about power positioning. I love it! John W. Holt stated "If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks, and that means you're not going anywhere. The key is to make the mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more chances to learn and win".

    I do not claim to be an accountant or mathematician, but from what I'm getting from Ruckus' blog, Meru is in some trouble. I do believe that Meru will be fine providing they address some of the issues with their "big Mac/virtual cell" technology. I had questioned this theory and voiced my concerns at a CWNT workshop in Atlanta. Meru networks is going to benefit from the changes in WLAN (802.11n). Let's face it, the company reports $31.8 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2009. They also reported a net loss of $9.43 million, that in a year that basically sucked, financially. Though I am a strong advocate of Aerohive, I believe there is great potential in Meru products. We are in the time of cut throat competition, mergers and acquisitions. Meru networks should be Okay. I sure do hope they don't go the Novell route. Remember, Novell's OS is superb but they couldn't sell water in a rave party.
                                                                                                     Keith Charles
                                                                                                     Emerging Technology Consultant
                                                                                                      Futurenets Consulting Inc.

Social Networking Will Create Havoc.

      In the beginning was the user, not extremely computer savvy, but knowledgeabe enough to sign in, and perform job functions. Those were the days when there was unintended security, security through ignorance, maybe. Interconnectivity was not compulsory. Dumb terminals and mainframes afforded centralized security. Networkers viewed the computer at work as just a big, boring tool. They couldn't wait to get away from these robotic beasts. Discussions about computers were painful, echoing the agony of working with them. I don't lament for the return of this almost mesozoic period but in my own twisted way I think we will silently wish that we could somehow revert to that period but without the rampant ignorance. We will just have to keep wishing.
     The world of networking is headed for an eruption that unfortunately will impact our everyday lives if not our very existence. Some may quickly label me a dispenser of doom or even a "fearmonger". I assure you I'm not. The reality is that we have created an environment that has handed so much power to the masses, those deserving and those who are not, that it is only logical that at some time we will have to revisit that ease of hand. Functionality is the order of the day, manufacturers are boastful about the kaleidoscope of networking
"can do's" on their products. Applications are being created on a daily basis. These applications, I opine, blurs the line between sanity and well...........you figure. I can't yet understand how someone can be entranced by yoville and farmville. I look at a friend and she is enraptured by these apps.
      Social networking is gonna be booming in 2010. It is stealthily approaching enterprise networks. at this point I will repeat what I have written in at least six articles. Lack of user training is gonna whup our behinds. There are still organizations that trivialize user awareness. Companies spend thousands of dollars on security devices, but has a minimalist mindset when the issue of user training is raised. The user of today is not far removed from the user of yesteryear. The only difference is they are, in many cases, not aware of the power at their disposal. It's like being able to load agun, shoot it but never seeing what happens on the other end.
Users Tweet, exchange stuff on Facebook and MySpace,they build their own lenses on Squidoo, create their own blogs, wikis and just about anything imaginable. The power of these untrained users can be unleashed on the cyber world with one download or mouse click.
     We have already seen compromises that were linked to some form of social networking. Let's face it, if a user is not aware of the personal security ramifications of posting information on these networks, can this user be trusted to use good judgement on an enterprise network? I read with contempt the posts of one person I know who relates everything about the network on which she works, ironically it is a public transportation company. I also suspect that posts are made while on the company's network. Are we to believe this individual will recognise a phishing attack? A non-tiring chatterbox like this is the premier target for a social engineering attack.
     Then there is the advent of false Twitter profiles being used to spread malware. OMG! Enterprise networks will be better served to address the need for user training, security policies that are enforced, acceptable use policies that are understood, yes, we need to harden our most intelligent line of defense, the user. If we continue to backshelf training, a hard lesson will have to be learnt. Network will suffer from downtime, availability will be longed for, integrity will be suspect and doors would be added after the house was broken into. The line between corporate networking and social networking cannot be blurred. We cannot put gasoline and a lighter in the hands of an uneducated child and hope there is no fire.

2010......Year Of The "Fi"

Although it has been a relatively rough year for IT professionals, improvements in the field of networking technology show a promising new year for wired networks in general and wireless networks in particlular. For some strange reason, I detected a lull in chatter about wifi. This may have been due to the fractured economy resulting in enterprise networks backing away from spending. There have been many posts predicting the IT environment for the big one-zero. I tend to take these predictions with a grain of salt based on past accuracy. I vividly recall the following:



Fiber Optics to bring thousands of jobs to Gotham. Still waiting.


ATM networks boosting IT hiring. Where?


"We feel that Vista will be the last major release of an OS........we'll see more incremental udates coming along". Sort of.


Truth is, there have been little "on the money" predictions in years. I have noticed that 90% of these predictions focused mainly on the big fish. It's like the NCAA and the NBA, no one pays attention to Gonzaga basketball, West Virginia appears to be from another country. In the NBA, who cares about the Bucks, New orleans or Oklahoma. Everyone focuses on the big fish. The world of networking is no different, big name, big budget, big focus. I am happy to see this is changing. What a welcomed change! Monopolies often lead to tyranny. A sense of entitlement fostered by well crafted advertisement blitzes, buy outs and flexing of intellectual muscle. I think of the New York Yankees, very soon they would have to compete against themselves if they continue buying up all the competition. Look at American basketball, so dominant, so fearsome that it fell asleep. Giants should not sleep.


Today in IT the little guys are shaking things up, bringing a breath of fresh air to a long stagnated, captured industry. Today we have the Dirk Nowitski's of networking. Companies like Aerohive, Ruckus, Meru, Arubanetworks, non conventional, but boy they got game. It takes a lot of gonads to break away from the norm, from what is expected and accepted. Going against the grain, if you will. Dirk does it! play him like a typical 7 footer and he will hang some 3's on ya! These companies have captured my attention with vision, creativity and simplification.When I first read about a controller-less WLAN my first reaction was, "what the hell?" Then I started investigating this "blasphemy". Low and behold it proved to be logically sound, seriously tested and validated.


Holy smokes! This is gonna shake up some folks, I pondered. What are these guys doing? Airtime fairness, cooperative control, mobile routing protocols, an access point that almost lives? Truth is, the more you read and understand, the more valid these concepts are. Allow me some artisitic wiggle room but I am all for it. These companies have brought a revolution to WLANs. I particularly love their battle cry, SIMPLI-FI. I think it is long overdue, not only for the money saving positives offered to businesses large and small, but also for the user friendliness that will prove valuable to IT staff. Honestly I don't want to be a genius with sophisticated configurations and a target when something goes wrong. If I can simply get things working, let's rock.


Education is going through puberty, the time when authority is questioned. Yes there will be mistakes along the way but the result may be wonderful. Twitter has uncovered a truth long ignored but silently accepted truth. We are in a time of brevity, give me the facts. If it can be said in 140 characters, hold the excess. Likewise with WLANs. If it can be fully robust, manageable, cheap, and gets the job done, "twitterize" it. From a learning point of view,, it opens the door to creativity. I have already found myself questioning some of the IEEE recommendations. Not that they are incorrect, but I have been bitten by the "simplifi-bug". I believe it is healthy for technological progress to afford us the right to present an alternative to the status quo. being an instructor for far too long, I can't wait to run a class where the theme is "simpli-fi".

Just Zoning

If I could I would........


Make all education  free.


Put an accountability clause on entertainers and mass media.


Pull  all world leaders together and have them live an ordinary life for three years.


Double the salaries of teachers, cops and firefighters


Make it legal to pray in schools.


Take sex out of advertising.


Set up special programs for single mothers.


Implement mandatory maternal leave with one year of full salary.


Make absentee fathers accountable.


Make prayer fashionable.


Make the minimum wage $15.00.


Give more grants to farmers.


Create incentives to revive the moms and pops businesses.


Develop more student exchange programs.


Provide a home , insurance and medical benefits for veterans of foreign wars.


Remove dependency on foreign oil.


Make our education system the best in the world.


Invite God back into the hearts of man.

Bring back candidate Obama.

Give a stimulus package to every American citizen (jobs)

Increase school hours.

Stop destruction of natural resources.

Make the Inuit and Nenet people an endangered specie.

Make child abuse a "punishable by death" offence.



JUST WISHING!

Resolved!

I got the issue resolved but had to change the template. Be very careful where you download free templates.