unitedway

  • William Fosterr, 1950–2022

    Yesterday I attended a remembrance service for William Fosterr, whom I got to know and appreciate during my days as the sole IT contractor (2004 — 2011) for the Mental Health Association of Tulsa, now known statewide as MHAOK. I got to know William initially as one of the Front Desk people at their old…

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  • Epiphany: The Marketer and the CIO Should Be Friends

    Remember the movie “Working Girl”? I’m remembering the scene where Melanie Griffith’s character Tess tells Trask her train of thought that led to putting two very different companies together. TESS: See this — this is from the Wall Street Journal, just your basic article about how you were trying to expand into broadcasting, right…okay, now…

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  • Lost Horizons of Tech

    Last week I was talking to someone about the sad realities of not having access to good backups. The example I talked about was the famous “NotPetya” attack on the worldwide shipping firm, Maersk. It’s fascinating reading (WIRED wrote a great story about it here)…the upshot was Maersk’s entire worldwide network was destroyed, necessitating a…

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  • All good things…

    June 10, 2019 Last week I severed my final tie to the Tulsa Area United Way, my wonderful employer for 8+ years. I maintain the highest respect for their mission and the great folks who work there, doing so much for our 5-county service area. My first volunteer activity for them was the very first…

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  • My Day at the Capitol: #oklahomateacherwalkout

    April 4, 2018 Today Karen, Miss P and I drove down to Oklahoma City, adding our voice to the thousands of educators who, for almost all of my daughter’s life, have that their salary buying power reduced by over 10%, and per-pupil funding reduced by near 20%.  Putting Oklahoma last in overall education funding. I’m…

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  • Thank God I Work for People, Not a Company

    “Man, the world ain’t supposed to work like this. I mean, maybe you don’t know that yet. I’m supposed to be able to do my job without having to ask you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to…

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  • Pining for PINE

    Every now and again, I have a technology-themed “Marcel Proust Moment”… In the first volume of Marcel Proust’s ‘Remembrance of Things Past,’ he dunks a cookie into his tea and immediately he’s transported back, into a reverie and remembrance of his life years before. That’s how I feel when I hear the latest news about Pine,…

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  • A Day of Caring. And Cinnamon Rolls…

    Tomorrow is the Tulsa Area United Way’s 26th Day of Caring:  a chance for more than 5,000 volunteers to fan out across the Tulsa area to work on approx. 350 community service projects. It’s kind of a big deal — Tulsa has one of the oldest and largest Days of Caring in the country, which…

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  • Volunteer Tech Opportunities in Tulsa

    OR:  “What’s a Community-minded techie to do?” Yesterday I had the opportunity to go meet with a roomful of new IT folk (developers mostly) at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma about the many ways they can contribute to the life of the community through tech service.  BCBSOK has been a great partner to us…

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