It's difficult to think about or concentrate on anything other than today's horrific shooting tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
I just watched President Obama tearfully try to share his thoughts and sentiments for the victims and their families on behalf of the American people, and once again we shake our heads at such massive and senseless violence.
I used to live in Westchester County, and worked in Somers, a stone's throw from Newtown up I-84, and to imagine such horror in as lovely a rural Connecticut town as that... well, it reminds us how precious life really is.
For those of you out there with children, I'm sure you'll be hugging them that much harder and closer this evening, thankful for their well being and safety.
For those in Connecticut who were directly or even indirectly impacted by the shooting, I can only say to you that the majority of the American people share the sentiment and compassion of our president.
In the time of a holiday season, we should have the opportunity to be joyous and celebratory as we prepare to travel and be with our respective families, and instead, this.
I can only say for myself, I'll be much more appreciative of the time I get to spend with my own family for the holidays, and in the meantime, offer my condolences, thoughts, and prayers for our friends in Connecticut.
Right now, I would imagine they need all the love and support they can get.
Norman Rockwell is pretty literal -- he's from right around there.
My boyfriend's sister and niece are both schoolteachers in Connecticut and we spent a few anxious moments that Friday morning trying to figure out *which* town in Connecticut was getting its schools shot up.
It will be interesting, she said, dragging this back to IT, to see what sort of effect this has on things like homeschooling and other ways to teach kids that don't concentrate them into such a big vulnerable population.
Great thoughts, Todd. And, Jennifer, I can tell you it is the same. I do not live there but my niece and her young family do. In fact, their home is 2 miles from Sandy Hook.
What I am observing is that the townspeople are there for one another. They are supporting each other with love and comfort as a town. I think Newtown is showing us the dignity and caring that represents the best of America. The evil represented by this horrendous act can happen anywhere. The people are blessed with a special community.
I hope they can resume their quality of life and be restored. My prayers are with them.
Turning on the television to news coverage of something this atrocious.. it's truly heartbreaking. They were all just babies who still had so much to see and experience in this world.
It's a sad, sad day for humanity. It's also unfortunate that Newtown has become a media circus with reporters contacting families of the victims (even on Twitter!) for interviews.
This is such a tragedy. I grew up in Newtown. Everything you are hearing about the closeness of the people, the Norman Rockwell quality of its structures, the inherent goodness of it -- is true. Because of my wonderful memories, I moved my own family to a nearby town, to give them a similar experience. I was fortunate to grow up in Newtown. Yesterday, social media was lit up, and was full of comments from people like me: People who grew up in this wonderful place, who have a pit in their stomachs, aching for the babies and adults murdered by a madman. I am heartbroken, and can only imagine the intense grief and disbelief of the families impacted by this horror. The town and its people are strong, and they will recover, but they will be scarred.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
You only need take one quick glance around the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit at the Gaylord Opryland facility here in Nashville to recognize how busy the Smarter Commerce customer reference team has been these past few months in anticipation of the event.
In this morning's general session here at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Nashville, our emcee Jay Baer said what I've been thinking for the past several days: We're in a giant terrarium.
Ushering in a new era of cognitive computing systems, IBM announced today the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor, a technology breakthrough that allows brands to crunch big data in record time to transform the way they engage clients in key functions such as customer service, marketing, and sales.
ITRC found that more than 600 security breaches took place in 2012. Flaws were found in some of the nation's most respected companies: Apple, Citibank, and Wells Fargo. So, it seems the bad guys are doing better than the men in the white hats.
Sean Smith, a US Foreign Service IT manager, gave his life in service of his country and the world. His life and death are a humbling example for all of us who work in IT.
Blackhole 1.2.3, the latest version of the most popular black-market exploit kit, apparently has already been used by Brazilian fraudsters to try to perpetrate a scam. The new kit, released at the end of March, can bypass sandboxes in Java, and the Brazilians used it to try to convince accountants they were about to lose licenses.
US counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who came to prominence with his prescient warnings before the 9/11 attacks, tells Smithsonian Magazine the US was responsible for the Stuxnet supersmart worm that attacked parts of nuclear reactors in Iran – and in the process, has given away one of the world's most sophisticated cyberweapons.
Is China a threat because it censors US sites, or could it be that the country might have an economic formula that will out-innovate us on the Internet that we invented?
A recent scandal involving a school's use of remotely activated Webcams to locate lost or stolen laptops may portend, not only legal action against the school, but also a loss of trust in video that is critical to developing video collaboration over the Internet.
Data mining of social networks means people might face unforeseen consequences as a result of their seemingly innocuous personal choices and associations.
The US loses about $20 billion a year on pirated software, movies, and music. But public policy can help stem the tide of digital theft. For example, France has recently passed a 'three strikes and you’re out' law, whereby if after two warning letters an individual continues to download pirated software then his Internet access will be cut off. US policy makers should consider adopting similar policies.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
Email This
