Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

ITIL explained in a way that is easier to explain to others...

"While not critical, some sites have found benefit from adopting a standard set of industry practices. Any new product that is implemented into an IT portfolio not only requires business process changes but also IT process changes. In the IT industry at the moment most software application vendors are realizing that implementing a product is not just simply configuration, there are some change management that needs to be performed with the IT group. Luckily the industry has started to adopt some sort of standard framework that helps define an IT "business" and the processes necessary to run that business. This framework is called the IT Infrastructure Library.

IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practice for IT Service Management. Used by many hundreds of organizations around the world, a whole ITIL philosophy has grown up around the guidance contained within the ITIL books and the supporting professional qualification scheme. ITIL consists of a series of books giving guidance on the provision of quality IT services, and on the accommodation and environmental facilities needed to support IT. ITIL has been developed in recognition of organizations' growing dependency on IT and embodies best practices for IT Service Management.

The ethos behind the development of ITIL is the recognition that organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on IT in order to satisfy their corporate aims and meet their business needs. This leads to an increased requirement for high quality IT services. ITIL provides the foundation for quality IT Service Management. The widespread adoption of the ITIL guidance has encouraged organizations worldwide, both commercial and non-proprietary, to develop supporting products as part of a shared "ITIL Philosophy". For more information about ITIL refer to http://www.itil.co.uk" -- Best Practices in IT Operations for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing/Enterprise Tax Management (p.19)

CNN: Uncontacted Tribes

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/30/brazil.tribes/index.html

I guess I never gave it much thought, but it's amazing to think there still exist people that have had absolutely no contact with the outside world, not understanding anything as to the advances of human society.

In one of the article pictures, you can barely make out some of the uncontacted tribesmen staring upward with such curiosity at the plan taking pictures of them below. Is this what the rest of us look like when unidentified flying objects are taking pictures of us? (hahaha... still not so sure I believe in UFO's... but articles like this make me think....)

NASA: Like any home anywhere, the importance of having a working bathroom is obvious.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/05/27/space.toilet.ap/index.html

It's a great time to be a New England sports fan...

New England Patriots? Some consider (including me) this team to be a dynasty of the past decade.

Boston Red Sox? Not one, but two (!!) championships in the last four years... after not having won one in eighty some-odd years.

Boston Celtics? We just bought ourselves some entertainment during this year's NBA playoff season. Let's just hope we can make it all the way.

(Boston Bruins? Not sure, since I don't watch hockey... so if you have a stat... feel free to comment.)

It's great to be entertained by New England sports all year 'round. I can't imagine living in Milwaukee or the like.... for sports anyway. (cost of living comparison though... that's another blog for another day)

Watching golf is not the same without Tiger Woods

While I certainly have an appreciation for all the professional golfers out there... I have to admit that I won't be watching any events until the U.S. Open. Why? Because that's when Tiger Woods will hopefully return.

Think he can come back from a two-month absence to win? I'd say he's got a (small) chance.

I'll try not to embarrass myself here...

So as you can see by my twitter updates and two blog entries (so far) in one day... I'm getting the hang of this. What is driving me nuts is adding a contact to GTalk such that I can integrate twitter with GTalk.

Setting up my phone on twitter... no problem. Trying to setup an IM client to talk with twitter... not so much.

First issue: the nicely created twitter link for GTalk to automatically add itself as a buddy to my account and also send a text with the appropriate pass code does not work (for me). However, in the process, I did do some research about xmpp and it's ability (attempt) for real-time communication with such applications as (what do you know?) instant messaging. Twitter asks (must have not just been me):Does not work? No problem, I have another option... the manual method.

Just go ahead and add twitter@twitter.com to GTalk account and send the passcode. Problem two: how do you add a new contact to GTalk without first inviting them, and have the other party (in this case, twitter) accept said invitation?

I'm not done messing around, and will most likely remove (edit) this post once I figure it out... so as to not embarrass myself when I figure it out... but at this point... I'm at a loss...

Update: It seems as though (in clear text) that "Pagination and IM are currently disabled. They'll be back." is displayed right on the main page of Twitter. However, with all that said... I wish signing up for IM/Twitter integration wasn't even an option... for mo-rons such as myself.

Let's try blogging again...

I've attempted blogging (if you really want to call it that...) once before in October '07. After a couple of posts and a few "congratulations on the new frontier" replies, I didn't really know what other type of information I wanted to post. I didn't want to reveal too much private information, and figured that any of my geeky thoughts (e.g., next car-decision, quest for the ultimate cellphone, etc.) would be of no use for others.

So instead of typing about a whole bunch of random topics, I did the next best thing... I gave up.

Here's my second attempt. You're going to get randomness (misspellings, run-on sentences, etc.) until I can figure out what I'd like to keep in my blog. I've also added twitter, just as another random new tool that I'd figure I'd try. Seems neat to now post text-message size updates on a website. I heard it saved a guy's life.

So hey... we'll see what happens...