On December 30, 2012, with no fanfare (once again), this blog – thehotiron.com – turned 6.

Where I got back into a small groove of blogging as of late, I am over a month late in acknowledging the anniversary of this venue. Like last year where I tried not to set unrealistic expectations, I will not set any again, and rather would like to take the opportunity to thank you, my loyal readers, who have given me the encouragement to keep writing and keep The Hot Iron going! Without you, I would be simply talking to myself.

So let’s see what THIS year has in store…

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Announcements • Blogging • Thrive • (2) Comments • Permalink

To all of my friends and readers in the US and abroad who celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving, a happy and peaceful and fulfilling holiday!

Thanks go to the Web site Keep Calm and Posters for the Thanksgiving poster. If you have seen these posters around and are wondering about their origin (as I was) here's a great article from Wikipedia about the original Keep Calm and Carry On poster, whose roots are ironically British.

2012 has turned out so far to be a very interesting year for me in many ways, and there's still a lot to happen in the next few weeks. I am thankful for my lovely bride, my 2 lovely princesses and all of my family, whether they are blood relatives or not. So even if you live someplace where there is no Thanksgiving, I hope you are thankful for all you have and the opportunity for more!

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni, Founder and President of Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC.

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Announcements • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

At Dunkirk Systems, LLC we have decided to shutdown our Facebook page. We have recently changed our photo and cover to the following image and will shut it down within the next week.

Why are we doing this? After much thought, many reasons surfaced which led to this decision. The following is what I posted on the page.

Hello:

Thank you for your “like” and support of Dunkirk Systems, LLC. We have decided to shutdown our Facebook page and will do so within the week. As someone who has expressed interest in us in the past, we wanted to let you know this and the reasoning behind it.

Like many businesses, when Facebook started allowing business pages we created one. And like many businesses we did not have a plan for this. As much as we have consulted our clients on social media, we followed the cliché of the cobbler’s kids having the worst shoes and did not put in place and execute a plan for managing the site. So there it sat.

As we are continuously rethinking our business, this page came to the forefront. As a B2B business, we are not reaching out to consumers. We have never received business through the page, and as we look forward we do not see this as a place to solicit business. We also do not have the continuous volume of original content that will allow Dunkirk to be omnipresent in the changing timeline structure of Facebook. And we would not be thorough without taking into consideration our general concern for privacy and security which are frequently coming to the surface within the Facebook walled-garden ecosystem.

There are other ways to keep up with Dunkirk and get in touch with us, including Twitter @dunkirk, our Web site at DunkirkSystems.com and my blog, TheHotIron.com. We of course welcome your thoughts and opinion on this, and as the page is going away feel free to comment on it on the accompanying blog post at TheHotIron.com.

Regards,
Mike Maddaloni
Founder and President, Dunkirk Systems, LLC

What do you think? Am I crazy, spot on, or do you even care? Your comments are very welcome.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni, Founder and President of Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC.

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Announcements • Business • Social Media • Strategize • (7) Comments • Permalink

On December 30, 2011, with no fanfare, this blog – thehotiron.com – turned 5.

As I write this it is almost 2 weeks later, and only fits with how the year was for the blog. Where I had high hopes in the beginning of the year 2011 was an interesting year to say the least. Where it had tremendous highs for me, it also presented many challenges that, in the end, affected the quality of The Hot Iron.

For 2012 I will not make such grandiose predictions so not to promise what I can’t deliver. I am taking a more grounded approach, going back to the “roots” of what The Hot Iron has been – tech, business and a few diversions – and using it as a medium to share my background and experience, as a way to let people learn more about me as I go forward in my career.

Will you join me? I hope it’s a fun ride!

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni, Founder and President of Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC.

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Announcements • Blogging • Strategize • (0) Comments • Permalink

Recently the folks at Dell sought out “trade secrets” from small and medium-sized businesses to ensure on-the-job reliability. This campaign coincided with the launch of their E series for their Latitude line, which the E6320 notebook I received from them is a member of.

Ask anyone and I always have some advice to give, so I shared this, one which always creates a win-win situation when in a busy airport terminal or one without enough power outlets. It was chosen for the new Dell Trade Secrets 2 – Reliability eBook which is available for free on SlideShare.

For those of you with your images turned off or using a screen reader, it reads:

When I fly, I always bring an extension cord with multiple outlets on the end. Most always, if there is an outlet, it is nowhere near where you can find a seat. And when you do find one, it is most always taken. This way, you can politely ask if you can plug in, have them tap off of you, and you still have an outlet or 2 to share with someone else!
Mike Maddaloni | thehotiron.com

Though I may get funny looks at first, people realize I am sincere, especially when I show there are open outlets on the end of the extension cord. Thus I believe the merits of it alone were why it was chosen and put on page 10, and not because I am using their notebook. And from what little bit I have written so far can back that up, but I digress.

The Dell Trade Secrets 2 – Reliability eBook showcases some great advice from some other great business experts, such as Barry Moltz and Carol Roth. Feel free to read the SlideShare presentation on their site or embedded below, and if you have a SlideShare account you can download a copy of this eBook.

Your comments are always welcome, and if you have some great reliability advice feel free to post it in the comments here or on the eBook’s page.

Editor's Note: This post was modified with the new code to present the embedded eBook.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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