TR Out Loud - November 7, 2008

Sonja Thompson: Welcome back, everyone. It's been a crazy, suspenseful week here in the United States, with the Presidential elections and all the political debates that come with them. We've had quite a bit of this even on TechRepublic, which you'll see as I recap the top discussions and members of the week.

 

I'm Sonja Thompson, a senior editor for TechRepublic, and this is TROLOV -- or TR Out Loud on Video -- for November 7th, 2008.

 

Just when you thought you were completely saturated with politics -- sorry folks, that's the subject of three of the top five discussions of the week. Ready or not... FLIP!

 

I'm here in the office of Jason Hiner, TechRepublic's Editor in Chief, and it looks like you're responsible for two of the top five discussions of the week. Both of them were about the election, which explains why they were so hot.

 

Jason Hiner:Yep. Definitely.

 

Sonja Thompson: So, one was simply a poll, with the title "Who will you vote for in the 2008 U.S. presidential election?"  Well, your other post that made the top five discussions of the week was called, "McCain vs. Obama: Who would be better for tech?" And I think you received a little heat for this one, didn't you, Jason?

 

Jason Hiner: Yeah, so anytime you talk politics, you're going to get partisan, rancor, and really just a lot of the silliness that goes with it. And so what I was hoping is, I knew we'd get some of that, that we could sort through that and really talk about some of the tech issues. There's a lot of things that are on the table, and I wanted to bring them up and have people give their opinion on them and hopefully bring some intelligent stuff up that I hadn't thought of and that others hadn't either.

 

Sonja Thompson: Well, one thing that I noticed is that you kept reiterating throughout the discussion thread, that the post was about the technology policies of the U.S. government and how its next leader could affect those policies.

 

Jason Hiner: Yes.

 

But people are just very passionate about politics, so you must have known that you were going to get a few attacks in there.

 

Jason Hiner: Undoubtedly. You know, on both sides. The liberals called me a raging conservative, and the conservatives called me a hopefully liberal. So, you know you're going to get that. But, I tried to be as even-handed as I could, and I really wanted to bring it back to the issues, because it is important and I wanted to give people an idea -- you know, all of us who work in the tech industry should know what the issues are, where the candidates stand, and the potential for what's going to happen in the future.

 

Sonja Thompson: Right, and now that the election is over, it's going to be really interesting to see how these technology policies will pan out.

 

Jason Hiner: Yes. You know, one of the things Obama said that he's going to do is appoint a CTO for the United States, which will be a first, and he wants to make it a cabinet-level position. So, look for an upcoming piece on who the potential CTO's could be.

 

Sonja Thompson: Check back with the Tech Sanity Check!

 

Jason Hiner: That's right.

 

Sonja Thompson: Alright, thanks, Jason.

 

Jason Hiner: You got it.

 

Sonja Thompson: The third most popular discussion of the week was also about the election, but it was written by John M. McKee in the IT Leadership blog. "Avoid this. It's the key reason McCain lost the election." Quite a few people were upset -- understandably, because he posted this before the election even took place.

 

Fortunately, John had this one right, and he didn't have to retract his original post. All flames aside, there are two words that stand out in this post for me -- consistency and priorities, which John says Obama has embodied and are critical tools for any leader's success.

 

Well, it's been a while since I visited Toni Bowers, TechRepublic's Head Blogs Editor. So, how the heck have you been, Toni?

 

Toni Bowers: Good. I took a couple days off. You know - mental health days.

 

Sonja Thompson: Yep. Those are definitely necessary.

 

Toni Bowers: Yes.

 

Sonja Thompson: Well, two of your posts made the top five discussions of the week, and neither one is about the election -- can you believe it?

 

Toni Bowers: I can't believe it. I know. I can't even believe they didn't turn it around to be about the election.

 

Sonja Thompson: I know! So, the first one is called, "Are salaried employees entitled to overtime pay?" So, was there a consensus in the discussion about this, Toni?

 

Toni Bowers: Not really. It was a really great discussion back and forth, but a lot of people debated federal law vs. company policy, and a lot of people differed on how you would calculate overtime for a salaried employee. But it was pretty interesting.

 

Sonja Thompson: Well, alright. Your second post that made the top five is called "The worst excuses for missing work." Did you see some doozies in the discussion thread?

 

Toni Bowers: Yeah. My favorite was the woman who lived near an exotic animal farm and she hit a water buffalo on the way to work.

 

Sonja Thompson: Oh my gosh.

 

Toni Bowers: Call in on that one.

 

Sonja Thompson: Well, I want you to know that TR member Lizze_B sent in a couple pictures of her car after a collision with a deer at 50+ mph. So, she said that it happened on the 29th, which was the same day that you published this post, so it's all your fault!

 

Toni Bowers: Oh, gosh! I'll have to check my insurance policy on that -- see if I'm exempt from that.

 

Sonja Thompson: Well, thanks, Toni. Keep up the great work.

 

Toni Bowers: Thank you. Bye.

 

Sonja Thompson: Let's switch away from the discussions and focus on the members who were burning it up on the Boards. Here are the TR members who received the most votes -- I mean, the most thumbs up this past week in the Questions forum.

 

#5: larry

Two people tied for 4th place: Old Mycroft and CaptBilly1Eye

#3: TheChas

#2: OH Smeg

And #1: Jacky Howe

 

After combining the number of posts in the Questions and Discussions, here are the five most active members in the past seven days:

 

#5: Palmetto

#4: boxfiddler

#3: Jacky Howe

#2: Old Mycroft

And #1: jdclyde

 

TR's moderator, Tammy, is back in full swing for her weekly rant. Not only did she recover from strep throat, but she also bought a new Web cam ... all the better to see her with, my dear.

 

Tammy Cavadias: Alright, on to our spam. Are you addicted to anything? We got treatment for you. Here you go -- addiction treatment, just for you. And those of you out there requesting, we see this a lot, Yahoo passwords -- don't come here and do it. Look at the wrath of our forum members! They're not happy about it. Nope, don't come in here and do that. Nope, nope, nope, nope. And I don't know, but I'm tired of seeing this. How many times is Wii going to tell the 10-year-old she's fat? Keep picking on the same 10-year-old -- keep telling her she's fat ... over and over and over. And for you SAP professionals out there -- want to move to the Philippines? Got a job for you! And that concludes this week, because the rest of it is full of elections.

 

Sonja Thompson: Now, this is the part of the show where I get to display all the goodies that the TR community sent in over the past week. For example, here's a little slideshow of CG IT's trip to Novia Scotia.

 

I know you all have been patiently waiting to see Lizzie_B's '92 Saturn after it played tag with a deer at 50+ mph. Ouch!

 

BFilmFan sent in a few photos of honeybees that showed up at his house and took over his hummingbird feeders. Did you tell them to buzz off?

 

Last week's Question of the Week, sent in by w2ktechman was "What percentage of new questions get answered?" AND "What is the average time it takes for a question to receive its first answer?" A couple people sent in their guesses, but I'd like to keep this question open for one more week. Be sure to e-mail your guess to trol@cnet.com.

 

The TR Pet of the Week is BabyGirl, sent in by TR member Betageek52. He says that Babygirl has an opinion on how he helps folks over the phone and the Web.

 

Many thanks to CG IT, Lizzie_B, BFilmFan, and Betageek52 for participating in this week's TROLOV. I'd also like to send a belated happy birthday wish to 1bn0, to tell wthimmes that I'm glad he survived his online Contract Officer Technical Representative Training last week, and to give a shout out -- as well as a thanks -- to jamesski for the e-mail. Now, if I've mentioned your name on today's show, sent me an e-mail with your mailing address and swag item of choice -- and that's just how easy that is.

See? All you have to do is send me something -- a comment, question, video, photo ... and speaking of photos -- where are all of your Halloween costumes, people? Don't tell me that jdclyde and yours truly are the only people on TR who like to dress up.

 

Now that the ice is broken, start sending those e-mails to trol@cnet.com. You can also leave a voice message on our toll free number -- (866) 414-CNET, that's (866) 414-2638. OR you can leave a message on our Skype voice mail option, and our Skype ID is tr.out.loud. I'm Sonja Thompson, and this is TR Out Loud.