The MADOFF AFFAIR

Tomado de: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/madoff/

Unraveling the story behind the world's first global Ponzi scheme...
How was he able to sustain it for so long?

Chapter 1
The '60s: When It All Began




Chapter 2
1992: First Brush with the SEC




Chapter 3
The '90s: Wider Worlds to Conquer




Chapter 4
Puzzlement, Suspicions




Chapter 5
2000-2008: Many Red Flags




Chapter 6
Final Days

copyright 1995-2010 WGBH educational foundation

Skype Scrambling To Fix Global 'Supernode' Outage

Tomado de: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=120001ZLHPMO
Autor: Jennifer LeClaire

A failure of "supernodes" that connect users took Skype down on Wednesday, and as of Thursday morning, millions of users around the world were still disconnected. Skype's Peter Parkes said about 30 percent of Skype users were back online. An analyst said the anger among Skype users shows the Internet phone service is now an enterprise player.
 
Skype went down suddenly Wednesday -- and still hasn't come back online for millions of users around the world. As of Thursday morning, about five million people are back online.

Peter Parkes, Skype's blogger-in-chief, said the ability of one Skype user to find another relies on what the company calls "supernodes." On Wednesday, he explained, a number of those supernodes failed due to a software issue. Skype has identified the issue and engineers are working to resolve the problem.

"Millions of you are already reporting that you can now sign in to Skype normally, and we estimate that there are already almost five million people online," Parkes said. "As a guide, this is around 30 percent of what we'd expect at this time of day -- and that number is increasing all the time. Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to predict on an individual level when you'll be able to sign in again, and we thank you for your patience in the meantime."

Skype Credits?

Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis, said it's interesting to watch the reaction -- not so much of Skype but of Skype's consumer and business users -- to the outage. As he sees it, more moderate expectations of availability driven by the consumerization of IT, coupled with the seemingly impervious nature of the Internet itself, have created a strange brew where customers anticipate outages like this yet still feel outraged when they occur.

"Certainly Skype is no longer a tiny, private startup playing the role of market disruptor," Shimmin said. "If anything, the angry shouting that has followed on the heels of this outage point to the fact that Skype is now an enterprise Relevant Products/Services player, and as such it must adhere to a higher standard of performance and, if not performance, then responsibility."

Shimmin pointed to vendors like Microsoft Relevant Products/Services that post financial credits to customer Relevant Products/Services accounts whenever they fail to meet a self-published service level agreement for services like BPOS/Office 365. Another interesting facet of this outage, he said, stems from Skype's description of the problem.

"The company indicated that the problem stemmed not from loss of connectivity, but rather from a loss of communication between users and Skype supernodes, which appear to be directory-service platforms, much like the Internet's domain naming system servers," Shimmin said. "It's too bad Skype's servers don't behave in the same, redundant manner as DNS servers, which are by and large responsible for the resiliency of the Internet itself."

Creating Mega-Supernodes

Skype explained that it isn't a network like a conventional phone or IM network. Instead, it relies on millions of individual connections between computers and phones to keep things up and running. That's where the supernodes come in. Under normal circumstances, Skype explained, there are a large number of supernodes available.

"Our engineers are creating new 'mega-supernodes' as fast as they can, which should gradually return things to normal," Skype said in an update. "This may take a few hours, and we sincerely apologize for the disruption to your conversations. Some features, like group video calling, may take longer to return to normal."

© Copyright 2000-2010 NewsFactor Network. All rights reserved

Colombian military's new weapon against rebels: Christmas trees

Tomado de: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/20/colombia.operation.christmas/
Autor: Mariano Castillo

This holiday season, the Colombian military is trying a unique angle to get guerrillas to lay down their arms: It is creating Christmas trees deep in the jungle in hopes the holiday spirit will tug the rebels back home.

The first tree of "Operation Christmas" was decorated in the jungle of southern Colombia, the military said.

Two units in two Blackhawk helicopters dropped in on a supply path that the guerrillas are known to use and picked a 25-meter (82-foot) tree to decorate with sparkling blue lights.

A commercial made by the military shows the soldiers, dressed in camouflage uniforms and face paint, wrapping 2,000 lights around the branches and trunk.

The tree was rigged with a motion sensor that will turn the lights on when someone walks by. A banner next to it says,

"If Christmas can come to the jungle, you too can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible."

Officials hope the gesture will be enough to lure rebels away from the jungle.

"For us, the most important month is December," Colombian military spokeswoman Marcela Duran said.

"Many make the final decision about demobilizing this month."

She says that traditionally, the holiday season sees a larger number of defections as rebels reflect on the positives and negatives of their situation. When they were recruited, many of the rebels did not know that it would mean being isolated from their families, she added.

The tactic is a shift from what has been an aggressive military campaign against the rebels this year.

In September, a military raid claimed the life of the No. 2 leader in a Marxist guerrilla group that has been at war with the Colombian government since the 1960s. Victor Julio Suarez Rojas, also known as Jorge Briceno Suarez and by the nom de guerre Mono Jojoy, was the military leader for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly called the FARC.

It was one of a number of military successes for the government this year.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister, was known for his tough line against the rebels, but he also has a softer side, an analyst said.

During his time as defense minister, the government began using billboards and radio advertisements in areas where the rebels operate at an unprecedented level, said Adam Isacson, senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Operation Christmas sounds a bit gimmicky, he said, but "rather than trying to kill all the rank-and-file guerrillas, it's better to try to convince them to leave."

FARC leaders tell their followers that they will be killed if they turn themselves in, but the advertisements and Christmas trees give another message, he said.

Despite the military successes this year, "the challenge is that their recruitment at the youngest levels is very easy," Isacson said.

The tree decorating is probably aimed at those young recruits.

In all, 10 jungle trees throughout the country will be decorated as part of Operation Christmas.

This year, 2,411 guerrillas have demobilized, including 140 during this holiday season, the military said.

In 2009, a total of 2,638 rebels laid down their arms.

© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Del mundo de los Nule

Tomado de: http://blogs.elespectador.com/delmundodelosnule/2010/12/23/del-mundo-de-los-nule/
Autor: delmundodelosnule
Les presento este nuevo wikiblog. ¿Existe tal cosa? No lo sé, pero es lo que mejor lo describe. No tengo cables diplomáticos secretos, pero sí han llegado a mis manos, y seguirán llegando, algunos del mundo del Grupo Nule, al que fui cercana. No puedo firmar con mi nombre real por obvias razones, pero lo importante no soy yo sino los documentos.

Algunos trataré de conectarlos, de explicar su contexto cuando lo conozca. Sobre otros dejaré preguntas por las cosas que vi. Los demás, la mayoría, estarán ahí para que entre todos descifremos su sentido y ayudemos a despejar ese oscuro mundo de la contratación que ha servido a unos pocos, ni siquiera sabemos qué tan pocos, para enriquecerse con el dinero que es de todos nosotros. Estaré atenta, entonces, a sus aportes.

Hoy, en este primer post del  “wikiblog”, publicaré dos archivos, que corresponden a los contratos de leasing que tenía activos el Grupo Nule. Muchos son vehículos y propiedades propios de empresas de ingeniería y construcción. Pero entremezclados se pueden encontrar Jaguares, Porsches y BMWs cuyos usuarios eran las cabezas del grupo o sus familiares, así como otras propiedades, por ejemplo un apartamento en leasing por $2.400.000.000= en el norte de Bogotá, también para uso particular. Aparecen también entre los usuarios de los vehículos de las compañías nombres sugerentes: ¿José Guerra es el mismo Joselito? ¿los vehículos Alejandro Char los utilizó hasta antes de asumir la Alcaldía? ¿Un periodista con vehículo a cargo de las empresas concesionarias del Estado?

Ahí les dejo este abrebocas. Tal vez las vacaciones nos mantengan alejados un tiempo, pero aquí les irán llegando documentos salidos “del mundo de los Nule”. Estén pendientes.

Vea los documentos en http://blogs.elespectador.com/delmundodelosnule/2010/12/23/del-mundo-de-los-nule/

Derechos de Autor ELESPECTADOR © 2006

La historia de una vendedora de chance que conmovió al país

Tomado de: http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/bogota/la-historia-de-una-vendedora-de-chance-que-conmovio-al-pais_8660274-4

 

Tiene cuatro hijos y gana menos del mínimo. Se enteró en radio que ganó un apartamento.

Una llamada le cambió el miércoles, a las 7:30 de la mañana, la vida a una mujer cabeza de hogar dedicada al oficio de vender chance: recibió la noticia de que se había ganado un apartamento, en un programa radial.

Al otro lado de la línea, el periodista Julio Sánchez le informó, en pleno noticiero de 'La W', que era la ganadora de un apartamento.

"Dios le multiplique don Julio", atinó a contestar Diana, de 30 años, quien se encontraba haciendo el desayuno.

Todo empezó el 23 de noviembre pasado cuando Yesid González, un contador público de 63 años, inscribió a la mujer en una campaña organizada por el Centro Comercial Palatino, la constructora Amarilo y 'La W', que buscaba a una familia de escasos recursos para regalarle un apartamento de 52 millones de pesos, ubicado en Quintas del Portal, una urbanización de Usme, en el sur de Bogotá.

Antes de mandar el correo electrónico con la historia de Diana, el hombre le pidió autorización, pero se encontró con una respuesta desesperanzadora: "No vaya a perder su tiempo. No me gano unos vasos me voy a ganar una casa".

Pese a esas palabras, Yesid mandó el correo. El hombre sabía de las dificultades de Diana. Sabía que nadie le quería arrendar un cuarto para vivir con Laura (15 años), Carol (13 años), Diego (6 años) y Paula (4 años). Sabía, que muchas veces se iban a la cama sin comer. Sabía, que Diana solo se ganaba 300.000 pesos mensuales y que por eso, en los días de descanso, vendía obleas. La noche del lunes, Yesid estaba triste porque los organizadores de la campaña le habían dicho que habían cancelado el evento.

"Le dije a los niños que había que esperar", narró el contador, emocionado. Ayer, Diana contaba las horas para trastearse a su nuevo hogar. Actualmente, ocupa una pequeña pieza del barrio Fontibón La Cabaña, que no tiene nada que ver con el apartamento de tres alcobas, dos baños, área social y parqueadero que recibirá hoy en la mañana. "Para que me dejaran vivir aquí tuvo que venir el papá de los niños. La dueña me decía que no le podía arrendar a una mujer sola y con tantos hijos".

El periodista Alberto Casas y las directivas de Palatino escogieron a Diana como la ganadora, después de conocer 1.557 dramas más.

'Yesid, un ángel en mi vida'

La amistad de Diana y Yesid empezó hace un año y medio. El contador la conoció porque compra regularmente el chance. Él le ayudaba a conseguir trabajos para lavar ropa ajena. Diana no dudó en calificar al señor como un ángel en su vida.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 CEET

Personal productivity is a cross between organizational skills and courage

Tomado de: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=2664
Autor: Toni Bowers
 
I read somewhere that 85 percent of the things you do account for only 15% of your results, and vice-versa. I think that’s a pretty important observation and one that is key to turning around any problems you have with personal productivity.

First off, ask yourself why you spend 85% of your time on things that only represent 15% of your results?
For one, we tend to tackle our smaller, less strenuous duties first. When it is a willful choosing to postpone duties we’re not entirely comfortable with, it’s called procrastination. Or fear. So part of increasing your personal productivity is to conquer those fears-dive in and hit the critical 15% first and get it over with.

I’m not a procrastinator, but not because I have some altruistic need to go out on a limb any time I’m asked. It’s because I can’t concentrate on small projects or duties if I have a larger, more complex one looming over me. I really can’t devote my attention to little things if my mind is preoccupied with details of a larger project. I will have to do it at some point, so why not now?

Think of it as like having a meal. Don’t eat dessert (in this case, the easier projects) unless you’ve finished the main entrée, even if the main entrée feels like punishment. (Yes, I’m talking to you liver and onions.)

So every day, make a list of what you have to do. Take a look at your list and ask yourself, “What’s the activity that I fear most?” and start your day with that activity. By training yourself to do your feared things first, you unconsciously urge yourself to tackle tougher tasks. And you’ll feel much better for it.

Another thing I do is reward myself. If I have a particularly onerous duty in my lap and I finish it, I treat myself to something like a new book or CD. I know that sounds kind of ridiculous — bribing yourself — but it works. And if you have multiple personality disorder, the treats will be a surprise!

Procrastination seems like an easy way out at the time, but it really builds up a lot of tension and guilt in your subconscious. As Nike used to say, Just do it.

---

Toni Bowers is the Head Blogs Editor of TechRepublic. She has been in the publishing industry for 20 years, with concentration in IT-related topics. She has edited newsletters, books, and web sites pertaining to software, IT career, and IT management issues.

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

FF.MM. le regalan a las Farc un árbol de Navidad

Tomado de: http://www.ejercito.mil.co/index.php?idcategoria=268914

EL ESPECTADOR.- Durante cuatro días dos comandos contraguerrilla apoyados por 200 hombres de la Fuerza de Despliegue Rápido FUDRA, llevaron la Navidad a las selvas de la Serranía de La Macarena, como regalo para los guerrilleros de las Farc.

Los militares se infiltraron en la selva y en uno de los más importantes corredores de abastecimiento de las Farc, seleccionaron un árbol de más de 25 metros de altura, lo adornaron con luces navideñas y le dejaron un mensaje a los guerrilleros para que en esta época de celebración decidan dejar las armas y busquen el camino a la desmovilización.

La operación planeada y ejecutada desde el Fuerte Militar de La Macarena, requirió de la utilización de dos helicópteros Black Hawk y 2.000 luces navideñas que se activan con un mecanismo especial que detecta el movimiento de las personas.

Con la denominada operación Navidad, el Ministerio de Defensa y las Fuerzas Militares, invitan a los guerrilleros a recuperar su libertad.

Gracias al éxito de la operación, el Comando General de las Fuerzas Militares ordenó multiplicar ésta iniciativa del Programa de Atención Humanitaria al Desmovilizado llamada "Desmovilícese en navidad todo es posible", con otros nueve árboles de navidad que se seleccionaron en diferentes regiones del país.

En lo corrido del año, 2.411 integrantes de los grupos armados ilegales se han acogido al Programa de Atención Humanitaria al Desmovilizado, de los cuales 126 pertenecientes a las Farc y 14 del Eln, lo han hecho en ésta época navideña.

 

El Espectador

Mercedes-Benz Biome: prototipo de inspiración natural

Tomado de: http://www.motor.com.co/revistamotor/15dediciembrede2010/mercedes-benz-biome-prototipo-de-inspiracion-natural_8587196-1

Este es un carro ultrafuturista y ecológico cuyas piezas estructurales se 'cultivarían', tendría un fluido que absorbe la energía del sol y se reutilizaría al final de su ciclo como abono.

En una mezcla de ciencia ficción y posibilidades técnicas, Mercedes Benz construyó un carro ultrafuturista y ecológico denominado Biome, que sería un modelo único cuyas piezas estructurales se 'cultivarían'. Tendría un fluido que recogería la energía del sol para su propulsión y se reutilizaría al final de su ciclo como abono.

Así, los diseñadores de Mercedes-Benz, con sede en Carlsbad, California, sorprendieron durante el concurso de diseño del Salón de Los Ángeles con una visión revolucionaria de su automóvil, el Biome. Este es un prototipo que se integra de manera perfecta con el medio ambiente, pues nace de un 'cultivo', utiliza energía solar, no contamina y, al contrario, emite oxígeno y puede ser reutilizado como abono al final de su vida útil. Así por lo menos, está planteado de manera teórica y de cumplirse sería uno de los avances más grandes que haya hecho marca alguna en materia ecológica.

Lo real de este vehículo es que cumplió con los objetivos del concurso de diseño que eran tener un diseño impactante, la posibilidad de llevar cuatro pasajeros en una configuración de 2+2, ser muy seguro y confortable dentro de su tamaño compacto y que su carrocería pesara menos de 454 kilogramos.

De esta forma, el Biome conjuga las líneas de auto deportivo futurista con unas medidas compactas pues de largo registra un poco más de 4 metros y de ancho 2.5, lo que le da una buena presencia en la vía. Inclina la balanza apenas hasta los 384 kilos y en su interior se pueden acomodar efectivamente 4 personas, pero en una distribución estilo 'rombo'. Esto quiere decir que la posición del conductor es central, siendo la primera silla del carro. Más atrás hay dos asientos ubicados a los lados y la última silla va también en el centro pero atrás.

Sin embargo, los detalles tecnológicos, teóricos por el momento, fueron los que más impacto causaron por la conjugación de ideas y presupuestos teóricos. Así, se supone que el Biome es la simbiosis perfecta entre el vehículo y la naturaleza pues nace a partir de semillas de un árbol especial que se cultivan en un vivero de la marca y que se han manipulado genéticamente para que entreguen una madera especial ultraligera con la que se fabricarían las piezas, cuyo nombre científico es Biofibra, y que tendría la cualidad de ser más resistente que el acero pero más ligera que el plástico o el metal.

Además, la manipulación genética también involucra la capacidad de este material y de un fluido que llevaría en su interior, para recoger y utilizar la energía solar. El BioNectar 4534 sería el líquido encargado de esta labor y estaría en las ruedas, el chasís y algunos elementos interiores del carro, pero su tarea no solo sería la de proveer la materia prima de la propulsión de este auto, que sería eléctrico, sino que no emitiría gases contaminantes pues generaría oxígeno a la atmósfera. Tal cual como si fuera una hoja.

Incluso, las semillas podrían llegar a modificarse a petición del cliente si requiere formas o tamaños diferentes tanto en el interior como en el exterior del vehículo a partir de la combinación de componentes que se darían en los dos emblemas de la marca, ya que en la estrella de atrás se modificaría el exterior y la de frontal influiría en los cambios dentro del habitáculo.

Al final de su vida útil, el Biome de Mercedes-Benz puede ser transformado en abono o utilizado como material de construcción.

Este proyecto, que por el momento está en el papel, puede llegar a ser posible en un futuro y por el momento se convierte en la más extrema de las propuestas ecológicas para un futuro sostenible.

Ecología total
La curiosa presentación de este modelo es que se hizo en el marco de un concurso que evaluaba el diseño, la seguridad y la ligereza de los automóviles. Mercedes fue más allá y presentó todo un proyecto de sostenibilidad, que incluso lo llevaría a tener sus propias plantaciones de semillas, árboles, centros de modificación de ADN y de reciclaje final para aplicarlos a toda la cadena que mueve su industria. Claro, en un futuro no muy cercano, porque por el momento lo único que toma el Biome de la idea de sus creadores son las fibras vegetales con las que se construyó gracias a las cuales obtuvo tan poco peso.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 CEET

10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT

Tomado de: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=546
Autor: Jason Hiner


If you are preparing for a career in IT or are new to IT, many of the “dirty little secrets” listed below may surprise you because we don’t usually talk about them out loud. If you are an IT veteran, you’ve probably encountered most of these issues and have a few of your own to add — and please, by all means, take a moment to add them to the discussion. Most of these secrets are aimed at network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals. This list is not aimed at developers and programmers — they have their own set of dirty little secrets — but some of these will apply to them as well.


You can also view this list as a slideshow.


10.) The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001-2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions (at least the ones that require only an associate’s or bachelor’s degree). And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society. However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9:00 PM because someone is working late, you hear, “That’s just part of the job.” If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get, “There’s no comp time for that since you’re on salary. That’s why we pay you the big bucks!”


9.) It will be your fault when users make silly errors
Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell, “What’s wrong with this thing?” or “This computer is NOT working!” or (my personal favorite), “What did you do to the computers?” In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard.


8.) You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes — and they don’t realize how simple the fix really was — you will become the hero of the moment and everyone’s favorite employee. But they will conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown — you will be enemy No. 1 at that moment. But if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you’ll soon return to hero status.


7.) Certifications won’t always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise
Headhunters and human resources departments love IT certifications. They make it easy to match up job candidates with job openings. They also make it easy for HR to screen candidates. You’ll hear a lot of veteran IT pros whine about techies who were hired based on certifications but who don’t have the experience to effectively do the job. They are often right. That has happened in plenty of places. But the fact is that certifications open up your career options. They show that you are organized and ambitious and have a desire to educate yourself and expand your skills. If you are an experienced IT pro and have certifications to match your experience, you will find yourself to be extremely marketable. Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, most of them are not a good indicator of how good you will be at the job.


6.) Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs
Your co-workers (in addition to your friends, family, and neighbors) will view you as their personal tech support department for their home PCs and home networks. They will e-mail you, call you, and/or stop by your office to talk about how to deal with the virus that took over their home PC or the wireless router that stopped working after the last power outage and to ask you how to put their photos and videos on the Web so their grandparents in Iowa can view them. Some of them might even ask you if they can bring their home PC to the office for you to fix it. The polite ones will offer to pay you, but some of them will just hope or expect you can help them for free. Helping these folks can be very rewarding, but you have to be careful about where to draw the line and know when to decline. For help, take a look at TechRepublic’s free download “Ten ways to decline a request for free tech support.”


5.) Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong
Working with IT consultants is an important part of the job and can be one of the more challenging things to manage. Consultants bring niche expertise to help you deploy specialized systems, and when everything works right, it’s a great partnership. But you have to be careful. When things go wrong, some consultants will try to push the blame off on you by arguing that their solution works great everywhere else so it must be a problem with the local IT infrastructure. Conversely, when a project is wildly successful, there are consultants who will try to take all of the credit and ignore the substantial work you did to customize and implement the solution for your company.


4.) You’ll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones
One of the most attractive things about working in IT is the idea that we’ll get to play with the latest cutting edge technologies. However, that’s not usually the case in most IT jobs. The truth is that IT professionals typically spend far more time maintaining, babysitting, and nursing established technologies than implementing new ones. Even IT consultants, who work with more of the latest and greatest technologies, still tend to work primarily with established, proven solutions rather than the real cutting edge stuff.


3.) Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies
A lot of companies could implement more cutting edge stuff than they do. There are plenty of times when upgrading or replacing software or infrastructure can potentially save money and/or increase productivity and profitability. However, it’s often the case that one of the largest roadblocks to migrating to new technologies is not budget constraints or management objections; it’s the veteran techies in the IT department. Once they have something up and running, they are reluctant to change it. This can be a good thing because their jobs depend on keeping the infrastructure stable, but they also use that as an excuse to not spend the time to learn new things or stretch themselves in new directions. They get lazy, complacent, and self-satisfied.


2.) Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business
Another subtle but blameworthy thing that some IT professionals do is select and implement technologies based on how well those technologies make the business dependent on the IT pros to run them, rather than which ones are truly best for the business itself. For example, IT pros might select a solution that requires specialized skills to maintain instead of a more turnkey solution. Or an IT manager might have more of a Linux/UNIX background and so chooses a Linux-based solution over a Windows solution, even though the Windows solution is a better business decision (or, vice versa, a Windows admin might bypass a Linux-based appliance, for example). There are often excuses and justifications given for this type of behavior, but most of them are disingenuous.


1.) IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up
All IT pros — even the very best — screw things up once in a while. This is a profession where a lot is at stake and the systems that are being managed are complex and often difficult to integrate. However, not all IT pros are good at admitting when they make a mistake. Many of them take advantage of the fact that business managers (and even some high-level technical managers) don’t have a good understanding of technology, and so the techies will use jargon to confuse them (and cover up the truth) when explaining why a problem or an outage occurred. For example, to tell a business manager why a financial application went down for three hours, the techie might say, “We had a blue screen of death on the SQL Server that runs that app. Damn Microsoft!” What the techie would fail to mention was that the BSOD was caused by a driver update he applied to the server without first testing it on a staging machine.


Jason Hiner is the Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and an award-winning journalist. He examines the latest trends and asks the big questions about the technology industry. You can also find him on Twitter, LinkedIn and at JasonHiner.com.


© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

Colombia: Cloud of Scandal Haunts Uribe's Legacy

Tomado de: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2035765,00.html
Autor: John Otis
When he stepped down in August after eight years as Colombia's President, Alvaro Uribe gave up the keys to the national palace, the private jet and the other perks of high office. But Uribe also surrendered his Teflon coating.

Uribe is hailed as a modern-day savior by many Colombians for orchestrating a military offensive that severely weakened Marxist rebels, making the country much safer and opening the door to an economic revival. Screwups — and there were many — were forgiven and forgotten. Had he not been banned by the Constitution from running in this year's presidential election, Uribe would likely have breezed to a third term. He bowed out with an 80% job approval rating.

But sans presidential sash and the aura it conveyed, Uribe has been scampering to defend himself and former aides amid accusations of skullduggery reminiscent of Watergate. Allegations include illegal payoffs, wiretapping and campaign-finance shenanigans. Several members of Uribe's inner circle could end up behind bars if convicted on charges based on the allegations. The former President further stained his image last month when he helped convince the Panamanian government to grant political asylum to his former intelligence chief, María del Pilar Hurtado, who was to be a key witness in the most serious scandal of the Uribe years.

During Uribe's second term, Hurtado briefly headed Colombia's version of the FBI, known as the DAS. In 2009, DAS agents were caught eavesdropping on opposition politicians, journalists, human-rights activists and, incredibly, Supreme Court justices. Uribe's greasing the skids for Hurtado's getaway prompted howls of protest. Jaime Arrubla, the president of Colombia's Supreme Court and one of the people spied upon, rightly noted that political asylum is supposed to protect "people facing political persecution, not the persecutors themselves."

Amid the prospect of indictments and trials, hard-line Uribistas in Bogotá are setting up a legal-defense foundation. "The idea is to raise money to pay the legal bills of former government officials, which will cost a lot," said Rodrigo Noguera, one of the organizers.

Uribe can't even escape controversy in Washington — he was met by street protesters on his first day of class at Georgetown University, where he is a distinguished scholar on the practice of global leadership.

First elected in 2002, Uribe quickly secured congressional approval of a Constitutional amendment that paved the way for him to win a second four-year term in 2006. But the support of fence-sitting lawmakers may have been obtained through offers of government jobs and other benefits. Two legislators were convicted of receiving payoffs, while two of Uribe's former ministers are now under investigation for bribery. One of them, former Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, recently sought — and was denied — political asylum in Costa Rica. Like former DAS director Hurtado, Pretelt de la Vega has denied any wrongdoing. But both sought political asylum claiming that they would not receive fair trials in Colombia.

Far more troubling is the DAS eavesdropping, a scandal that might have brought down a President less revered than Uribe. True, the intelligence agency was plagued by problems long before Uribe was sworn in. Last month, a former DAS chief was indicted for his alleged role in the 1989 assassination of front-running presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán. But under Uribe, the agency seemed firmly embedded on the dark side. In fact, Uribe's first handpicked DAS director currently faces criminal charges that he colluded with paramilitary death squads to murder union activists.

Besides monitoring Uribe's political opponents, the DAS targeted the Supreme Court. At the time, the court was investigating dozens of pro-Uribe lawmakers, including the former President's cousin, for their financial and political links to paramilitaries. Uribe apparently thought the court was out to get him and the ensuing surveillance campaign seemed designed to dig up dirt and discredit its magistrates. In one episode, a DAS agent convinced a cleaning lady to place a tiny tape recorder in the main court chambers, which allowed the DAS to monitor the judges as they discussed criminal accusations against Uribe's allies.

Speaking on Colombian radio last week, Uribe denied any wrongdoing and blamed the turmoil on unnamed "enemies" of his government. "No one can say that I ever gave any illegal orders," he added. Still, the DAS answers directly to the President, while former DAS agents have testified that the information on the Supreme Court was requested by and sent to the presidential palace.

Former officials under investigation include Bernardo Moreno, Uribe's loyal chief of staff, who noted that his dealings with the DAS "were always carried out with the knowledge of the President." In October, strong evidence of Moreno's involvement in the conspiracy prompted Colombia's Inspector General — an independent figure who monitors government malfeasance — to ban him from holding public office for 18 years.

According to an October 2009 cable sent by then U.S. ambassador William Brownfield and revealed by WikiLeaks, Colombia's National Police commander suspected that Moreno and another top Uribe aide, José Obdulio Gaviria, had ordered the illegal surveillance campaign. Brownfield noted that the police chief, General Oscar Naranjo, was speculating but called him the best-informed member of the Uribe government, and said his analysis "has a pretty good track record for success."

Uribe has also been knocked back on his heels by sensational revelations of corruption in government agencies under his command since 2002. For example, the government land-reform agency turned over properties meant for landless peasants to front men for drug lords and paramilitaries. Flower growers received millions in government credits, then donated large sums to the 2010 presidential campaign of Uribe's favored candidate. Then there's the National Narcotics Department, whose employees were caught doling out assets seized from drug traffickers to friends and colleagues. "It's a mess," said Juan Carlos Restrepo, the department's new director and designated cleanup man. "For some seized properties, there's no documentation. In other cases, you can find the documents, but there's no sign of the property."

Through it all, Uribe continues to enjoy wide popular support. He's even contemplating a run next year for mayor of Bogotá, the country's second most powerful political post. Yet, the dirty laundry now emerging raises serious questions about Uribe's performance in the top job. "These were Uribe's people, and he bears political responsibility for what happened," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. "His record is going to be sullied by these scandals." The downward reassessment has already begun. In a recent survey of 42 Colombian Presidents by the newsmagazine Semana, Uribe ranked a middling No. 20.

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It's good to be a PMP

It's good to be a PMP, originalmente cargada por Germán Largo Urrea.

after so much work, and so much reading, finally I passed the PMP exam