A Rackspace colleague of mine, Krisana Puccio, is opening a Spanish Immersion Preschool and Nursery, The Pineapple School, August 16th 2010. They were featured on Great Day SA this morning. Here’s the video:
To learn more about the Pineapple School, you can visit their website, follow them on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Growing up, my dad would take us to the San Antonio Public Library downtown or the “Big Enchilada” to check out books for school projects. I remember I use to run off to the magazine section and look at “Seventeen” magazines from the 70’s and admire the fashion then. We would roam the aisles and my dad would show us books he thought we should read.
Unfortunately, my visits to the library grew minimal as I moved on to college and now the workforce. Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of working with the San Antonio Public Library during their strategic planning process. Being involved with San Antonio Public Library planning committee brings back so many memories of how precious the library is. Times have changed of course and we have the Internet at our fingertips from our home and Starbucks for that “3rd place.” The library is so much more though. It’s a day trip to take your children, a meeting place for business groups or a resource for travelers coming through the city.
As part of their planning process, the San Antonio Public Library is looking to the local community to provide them feedback on their main website, mysapl.org, as it’s an important component of their marketing efforts. As a San Antonian, you can help the San Antonio Public Library by taking this short (less than 3 minutes) survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mysapl
Here’s a letter from Jean Brady, Chair for San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees, asking for your support:
One of the coolest things about working in my industry and doing what I do for the Rackspace Cloud is that I get to see all the innovative things people are doing on the Internet. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in America and since everyone needs a place to a host their website, I am fortunate enough to work with many of these passionate and talented people, including San Antonian, Magaly Chocano.
Back in August, I came across a TIME article titled “New Ways to Create iPhone Apps on the Cheap.” I had just purchased my iPhone so any iPhone app article interested me. The company was SwebApps. After reading through the article, I noticed that they were a San Antonio based startup. I was instantly proud that we had a tech start up right here in San Antonio. Then I thought, “I wonder where they are hosted?” Turns out they were a Rackspace Cloud customer. I invited Magaly, CEO and Founder of SwebApps, to the Rackspace Cloud office. What a treat! I had the opportunity to interview her and do a blog posting. Turns out, we knew many of the same people through various connections.
Just recently, she entered in our Super Bowl Contest and submitted an extremely cool video. Magaly is not only a successful businesswoman but a talented musician. The contest asked customers to submit a video on why they have the coolest business on the Rackspace Cloud and this is what we received from SwebApps:
There’s something about the Weston Centre in downtown San Antonio. Louis always waves to you as you enter the parking garage, Morris and H
ilton always greet you with your first name as you walk to the elevator and Bee from the café, Panache, always has a big smile on her face. It’s a warm and familiar place and doesn’t feel like your typical office building. In an upscale law office high rise, Rackers stand out like sore thumbs. In my 7 years of working for Rackspace / ServerBeach, my job has taken me back to the Weston Centre 3 times.
As a Racker, you learn to be a nomad. I started at Rackspace in the Broadway building for 3 months, moved to the Paragon building to work for ServerBeach for 6 months until we moved to join the rest of Rackspace at the Weston Centre. I remember literally rolling my desk chair with all my belongings down Pecan Street to the Weston Centre building. We worked at the Weston Centre until we outgrew the space. Rackspace moved headquarters while ServerBeach stayed at the Weston Centre. I left with Rackspace. After a year, I actually came back to the Weston Centre to work for ServerBeach again. ServerBeach finally outgrew the space and moved headquarters. After working for ServerBeach for 4 years, I returned to Rackspace but this time working for the Cloud Division. And guess where The Rackspace Cloud was living? That’s right, the Weston Centre.
Rackspace is moving headquarters to the refurbished Windsor Park Mall which we have renamed “The Castle.” The Rackspace Cloud’s last day at the Weston Centre is today. This time, I think my move away from the Weston Centre will be permanent. A Racker wrote this really kind email to The Rackspace Cloud staff with his thoughts on the move (I reposted to The Rackspace blog). I actually got teary eyed and that might be because I am an emotional person to begin with but nonetheless, it brought back memories. So what are my special memories from the Weston Centre?
1- This is the place where I met Jason, my husband. Sounds so cheesy but I do remember the first time meeting him.
2- I attended my first Rackspace holiday party at the Weston Centre. These were the days we’d always end up at Daven Port’s.
3- The days when you didn’t know what to eat and ended up at Lula’s
4- The fabulous Fiesta party the Weston Centre puts together for the River Parade
5- Panache bean and cheese tacos are the best!
6- Most recently, my long but fun walks to Starbucks with my marketing team
7- Morris & Hilton– The friendliest guys I have ever met. They are always laughing about something.
8- Rubbing shoulders with lawyers and feeling so under dressed.
9- Even though I never went to Bill Miller’s I feel like did go because every day at least 1 person picked up Bill Miller’s.
10- I can’t forget every weekend going out on the town and parking at the Weston Centre!
The Weston Centre is definitely a special place in San Antonio and will be missed!
The term “cloud computing” is becoming more mainstream (it’s on today’s Dilbert comic strip!). In the 90’s, it used to be that only IT professionals knew anything about building an infrastructure in a data-center, developing web applications and serving data over the web. For everyone else, the extent we knew about computers was to create word documents, spreadsheets, and maybe store photos. We always kept our data stored safely on our computer at home.
Today, more and more people are signing onto the Internet and utilizing platforms like Facebook or Twitter to communicate, Flickr to store photos, WordPress for online journals, eBay or Craigslist to sell items. With cheaper hardware, faster networks, tech-savvy entrepreneurs are building platforms where end users can easily upload their data to share with the world. Most importantly, these platforms are developed with simplicity so anyone can virtually use them. My grandmother, who didn’t grow up in a world with computers, very easily created herself a Facebook account. So every time you upload a photo to Flickr, send a message on Facebook, update your status on Twitter or write a post on your WordPress blog, do you wonder where it’s going? Many people don’t really know or care until their data is either gone or their information has been compromised.
When you hear the term cloud computing, this is the place where your data is going. If your data is important to you, it’s important that you know where your data is going. In some cases, it’s worth paying for a service to ensure your data is backed up and secure.
Here’s a link to a video (couldn’t embed) that CNN recently produced explaining cloud computing in it’s simplest terms. (I also encourage you to read the entire article):
