Justin Germino Ramblings

You hear so many people talking about how texting each other in your own house is a bane against open communication and common courtesy, but parents of children are finding that being able to text each other messages in front of their children can help them make decisions, show affection, schedule “love time” and more without having to “spell out” words or develop their own “sign language” communication.

This is useful for parents who want to get a message to each other without prying ears from listening in and is actually a clever use of the technology. I have used this to ask my wife if she wanted to take the kids to a movie after dinner, where if my son would have overheard he would have pleaded audibly to both of us for hours and been upset and vocal about it had we decided not to go.

Of course this can go into the deeper issue of “sexting” but I wonder how many parents are using cell phones for this purpose? I don’t even have a camera on my blackberry, and just am not a part of that scene. (Does that make me a buzz kill or square?)

So makes you think what your parents are doing with that Free iPhone 4 they may have won while you aren’t paying attention.

How many other parents out there have leveraged texting or social media to have conversations with each other in their own house?

-Justin Germino

The final day of CA World 2010 and my plane is about to depart for Phoenix, Arizona in the next hour or so.  This trip held me in sin city for about 6 days and I am looking forward to seeing my six and three year old sons who I missed enormously while traveling.

Many parents enjoy getting “breaks” away from the kids and I myself can usually enjoy a day or two without them, but five to seven days feels long and I really miss the interaction. My boys have changed my life in so many ways, and I know they are growing up so fast that it seems each week away is time I won’t be able to recover.

Meanwhile, CA World 2010 was productive, the networking was valuable as usual. Meeting with the CA developers and specialists for the products I worked with was also well worth the trip. James Cameron gave a fantastic speech that was inspiring, and he is truly a visionary and an inspiration of mine. I put him right up there with Sir Richard Branson as one of the top people who inspire me.

Maroon 5 gave an awesome show on Tuesday night for the CA attendee’s out at the Mandalay Beach, there must have been at least 4000 people there crammed up against the edge of the pool and the sand to watch Maroon 5 perform live.

I have about 600 emails to catch up on from work, and my blogging has been just on maintenance mode, was happy to see my AdSense earnings reach $35 for the month and earning while I took a break from blogging for a week.

I plan on going back to blogging with a vengeance on the weekend and am setting the following goals for this weekend.

• Write 10 blog posts (across my 3 blogs)
• Visit 30 other blogs, read articles and leave valuable comment
• Write 1 guest post
• Update and respond to my social networking profiles (SocialSpark, LinkedIn, FaceBook…etc which are all in wait mode)

I plan on doing this across Saturday and Sunday (probably at night when the family is in bed).

-Justin Germino

The following is a sponsored post commissioned by CrossTrainers.co.uk. I was compensated to share my thoughts and opinions about cross trainers and all thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.

One thing I like about cross trainers is that you can work out your entire body with less impact to your ankle and knee joints and in less time than traditional running or treadmills.

I have owned a few different type of elliptical machines over the years and have enjoyed the machines that give you resistance to your arms as well as your legs. Machines that allow you to tune the resistance as you get stronger or if you want to do a higher impact workout so that you can burn more calories if you have less time to work out and exercise.

You can also find cross trainers for a variety of budgets including a decent selection that cost under $120 dollars and that still get the job done and help you increase your heart rate, tone your leg and arm muscles and build your stamina and endurance.

When looking for an elliptical or cross trainer you want to check up and read reviews on the products though, because you can find that some of the lesser expensive models will wear down at the moving parts faster than the higher end models. I had this problem with one of my ellipticals which started squeaking and then friction between one of the legs eventually wore out the side of the machine for my left leg.

I particularly like machines that keep track of your heart rate and set customizable “workout routines” where they can simulate a workout that starts light and easy, but gradually increases in tension and then eases out as the workout ends. These features are found in the mid range and high range machines, but are well worth the extra features.

I do like mixing working out with gaming, and am waiting for ellipticals to have integrated games where as you work out you run and gain score, or have some ability to integrate a game while using the device. I have seen similar “games” integrated with rowing machines and stationary bikes, and would like to see the same thing in cross trainers.

What is your favorite exercise equipment that you use most often?

-Justin Germino

I will be speaking in one hour at CA World about CA SiteMinder and leveraging it to combine company IT Infrastructures in Mergers and Acquisitions. This will be my 2nd public speaking at CA World in Las Vegas, and I don’t typically do public speaking through I give presentations on conference calls and live meeting all the time.

I still have anxiety about public speaking big time, I just don’t like the idea of standing in front of a group of people with all eyes focused on you. It is something I continue to develop more comfort with as it is a skill and talent that people should have if they are in management or in fields where they need to give presentations and speeches.

Wish me luck and hope I don’t have a tongue twisting accident, or speak too fast. Being from New York my biggest problem is speaking too fast and people having a hard time keeping up, I have to remember to pace how quickly I talk.

Due to being a very hyperactive person by nature, I tend to move my arms and hands a lot when presenting as kind of a visual aid to keep me on track. I hope I present my information clearly and engage the audience without boring them.

I know many of my readers would be bored just reading what my presentation is about!

-Justin Germino

Its kind of cool that CA booked Maroon 5 to play at the CA Event tonight at the Mandalay Bay Beach, it is one of the reasons I purchased a companion badge for my wife so that she can attend the CA World events. We both enjoyed seeing James Cameron speak last night as the Keynote speaker.

The vendor booths rock, and I received a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 for sitting in on a Sharepoint 2010 presentation at the Microsoft booth at the exhibition center. I love getting free software, that is part of the geek in me.

I was able to meet with several vendors and companies and had several business meetings already in the web security and software areas. I just wish I didn’t have a cold, more sore throat has been killing me for about four days and I have to speak on Wednesday with a sore throat and stuffed up nose. I have only one day left to recover.

-Justin Germino

CA World 2010 officially kicks off today at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas and I am attending in person on behalf of my company. I will be speaking about CA SiteMinder software on Wednesday morning but in the meantime I am looking forward to attending as many conference sessions, exhibitor booths and schedule some time with the Computer Associates software developers and engineers so I can provide feedback and guidance on what needs to be improved and added to their products.

I do enjoy attending trade shows and particularly ones that pertain to hardware, software and the technologies that I work with. Though I still have anxiety about public speaking, I am not nearly as terrified as I was nearly two years ago where I puked for hours before I actually gave my presentation. CA World is was held at The Venetian resort the last two times, but was changed to Mandalay Bay this year (which is one of the hotels I have not yet stayed at in Las Vegas).

I am wondering how many other people I recognize in the industry will be in attendance and if I will run into anybody I know. Meanwhile, I still have my internet connection and will be keeping up on my work emails at night from the hotel room so I don’t fall to far behind on my tasks and projects for when I return on Thursday afternoon.

PS. James Cameron the director of Avatar will be the keynote speaker tonight and I am looking forward to his presentation.

-Justin Germino

Basically two years ago I saw other technology blogs and wanted to set out and do the same thing  (review products, software, freeware) and get paid for it + earn from advertisers and AdSense and two years later it still takes lots of work and I only bring in between $200 and $300 per month from my 3 blogs on average.

You can learn from my mistakes and get a faster track to where you can monetize your blog, but you should do the following.

Don’t start a blog on blogspot, wordpress.com, today.com or any other free web hosting site.  Many advertisers and companies don’t consider a free blogging platform serious and you limit your advertiser potential.  The very big and popular bloggers who started out on those web hosting platforms are already grandfathered in but it is 2x as hard for a new blogger to reach success on a free hosting platform.  It costs about $5 per month to get a dedicated self hosted wordpress site, but it will be far more costly to start on blogger and convert your blog over later.

Once you start a blog, do at least 20 posts (schedule them 2 per day for the first 10 – 20 days).  Do minor posts like freeware reviews, site reviews of other technology blogs, talk about articles/products on newegg, extremetech, pcmag….etc

Build a Twitter, StumbleUpon, and other Social Media accounts.

Read some of articles on DragonBlogger.com about how to start up a new blog and make money blogging.

http://www.dragonblogger.com/dragon-bloggers-tips-starting-blog-blog/

http://www.dragonblogger.com/dragon-bloggers-tips-starting-blog-blog-part-2-setting-goals/

http://www.dragonblogger.com/tips-beginning-bloggers-damien-riley/

http://www.dragonblogger.com/make-money-online/

This is a very competitive business and you should start it right if you want to get in, or you will only earn peanuts and do lots of writing for very little monetary reward.

I am working on my eBook which will be for sale in the upcoming months, I will also be giving away a free “excerpt” of my ebook to users who subscribe to my Dragon Blogger Mailing List, subscribe now and you will be the first to know about new offers, contests, freebies and have access to some of my exclusive content you won’t find on my blogs.

-Justin Germino

One thing that parents do not do enough of these days is to teach their children manners. Being polite and respectful is nearly lost these days and it is refreshing to see little ones and pre-teens using some manners once in a while. An example that we instill this in our children was how my six year old will hold the door open for strangers coming in and out of restaurants or grocery stores. He does it without being asked, and he also thanks people for holding the door for him.

It is in his nature to be very appreciate, he also says excuse me when he burbs and sneezes and is saying please about 80% of the time when he asks for something. Parents are the ultimate role models for their children and they lead by example. If you are polite to people your kids will pick it up and model after you, so remember to use please and thank you, whether you are being served at a restaurant or just working with someone in your day to day.

We all could use a little more etiquette and have our manners polished a little, lets start by trying to become better role models for our children and make the next generation more polite and respectful than the current one appears to be.

-Justin Germino

This afternoon I will be flying into Las Vegas and staying at the Mandalay Bay hotel for the next week where CA World 2010 will be held. I will be attending the preconference education classes this weekend and speaking at CA World 2010 next week. My presentation “Security & M&A: How to Leverage CA SiteMinder When Merging Large Existing Web Infrastructures” is targeted toward CA SiteMinder engineers and focuses on how to merge organization infrastructures into one consolidated SiteMinder infrastructure. I will be speaking on Wednesday at 9am of next week.

For my day job I have been living and breathing CA SiteMinder for the past seven years and have worked with just about every possible component of the product.  I am still nervous about speaking just because I am not very comfortable in public places or giving speeches in person, but not nearly as anxious as I was for my first ever presentation at CA World back in 2008.

-Justin Germino

My son loves strategy games and at six years old I thought introducing him to one of my favorite board games from my own childhood would be a good idea.  With that I purchased the Risk board game (classic edition) which comes with wood carved units and an old style map.  I was hoping to find the board game version with the Roman numeral units that I had as a kid, but couldn’t find that particular style at Target, Walmart, Kmart or GameDaze so I settled on the recreation of the 1950’s style Risk game.

My wife joined my son and I as we started dividing territories and placing units over the map.  It was my wife’s first time playing and in almost no time at all she captured all of South America, my son meanwhile was spreading his armies rapidly and at first had more territories than either of us.  Pretty soon, I managed to acquire Australia but by this time my wife had swooped in and taken Africa.  My wife continued to dominate until she wiped out my armies in Europe and my wife was gaining 18-21 army units per turn to my son’s four and my five.

Needless to say that my wife’s first time playing the game she completely dominated and wiped out both my son and I as we frantically attempted to hold back her blue armies.

It was fun, though it takes quite a bit of time to play (nearly 2 hours for one game) and my three year old was just about bored to tears watching us play.

Pretty soon, I will be introducing my son to Stratego, a game where my wife stopped playing with me a long time ago.

-Justin Germino