Hi Everyone

Its been a while since I added a post to the blog. I have been focusing on the new job and family. Some months are busier then others. The job is going well. I will post more about it later. The team I am working with are a great bunch of people.

I came across a few sites I want to share with you.

1. http://justin.tv - It is 4 guys who do live video blogging 24 x 7. It reminds me of the Truman show.
2. 101 shareware and freeware - It is a great list of anything you can think of. Browsers, email and most important security software. Go check it out

Remember to make good decisions!

Mike Wish

Back in the Family

It has been a crazy few months to say the least. I was recently asked to come back to the Dow Jones Family. An opening became available for a Technical Support Manager for the Wall Street Journal Online, Barrons, and Market Watch. It is a little different then what I was doing before for Dow Jones/Factiva. I am now apart of the Consumer Media Group of Dow Jones. The good news I was able to keep my date of hire, 401K, and health benefits. Since the move happened before my package ended it is treated as a job transfer from the Enterprise Media Group to the Consumer Media Group. The group handles second level Technical Support calls from Customer Service. It is very similar role to what I did as Director Global Technical Support at Factiva.

Thanks again to everyone for the support during the last few months. Many of you said that these things happen for a reason and the problem will work itself out. As you can see that is what exactly happen. I had the choice of going back to Dow Jones or accepting an offer at a Company in NY for more money. After discussing it with Jennifer I decided the best move would be to come back. After caculating NYC taxes, train fare, and most important time away from the family it just wasn't worth it.

Wish me luck in the new position! It is sure weird to be back in the Princeton Office.

Wall Street Journal Video Site

I recently read on beet.tv that the Wall Street Journal Online has made available videos from the Wall Street Journal Site. Here is a snippet from the article.
Dow Jones, the publishers of The Wall Street Journal, Marketwatch and Barron's, has provided the public with the ability to take the embedded code from video clips on the Wall Street Journal site. To view the videos, you don't need to subscribe to the WSJ. You can grab this code by simply pressing the "get code" button on the player. Below is a great interview with the founder of wikipedia and how wiki is growing into doing wiki type searches in Google, Yahoo etc..

Try Twitter

Hi!

I have been using Twitter and thought you may enjoy it. Twitter asks one simple question. What are you doing?

Click here to get started: TWITTER

Or, check out my Twitter profile:
Twitter Profile

Ciao!

I am not alone

It looks like I am not alone on the dilemma of purchasing a laptop with Vista this week. See my post below from yesterday.

Robin Raskin from Yahoo also asks a similar question. In her tech article she has narrowed down the choice between a Dell or an HP. Can you come up with a better choice? I am still searching.

Urgent Response needed

I am thinking about purchasing a laptop this week with Vista installed. I hate to buy anything that is version 1.0. What does everyone think? Should I buy this week? I found plenty of good deals.

I was going to buy something here from BestBuy.

I had a blast!

The birthday dinner last Saturday in Atlantic City was blast! I wanted to post about sooner, but my new boss at home is real tough. I get a lot of "honey do" lists from her. You know honey do this and honey do that. All 17 people showed up at the Knife and Fork inn. I was so impressed by the place. They even gave us our own room which I did not expect. I recommend the place highly. Ask for Ellen and she will take care of everything. Jennifer made a beatiful toast to me. It is something I will remember for ever. I couldnt ask for a better 40th birthday. Then afterwards most of went to the Hitlon to gamble. I went off with a few others to play in the poker tournament. I got knocked out shortly after the first break. Paul and Leslie who were also playing with me made it to the final table. Not bad considering the tournament had 53 players. Also a few of the ladies hit it very big on the slots. The amounts were $700, $800, and $1600. Jennifer and I didnt get home until 7 am. I cant believe we stayed out the whole night. All in all it was great night!

It was a great day!

Today was a great day! On January 19th 1967 Beverly L Wishnick gave birth to me. Her oldest son Michael. If you do the calculations that makes me the big 40 today. I really can't believe that I am 40. Jennifer and the girls made the day very special. Jenn and Jess picked out a special cake and I blew out the candles. It was real nice just to take it easy today and be with family.

Tommorrow I am heading down to Atlantic City. We have reservations at the Knife and Fork INN next to the Hilton Casino at 7pm. I never been to the place, but I heard it was very nice. There is 17 family and friends coming to dinner. It should be fun. Then afterwards it is over to the Hilton to play some poker.

Last I want to say a big thank you to the tremendous amount of emails I received after I was laid off from Dow Jones. The support that all of you gave me was overwhelming and very touching. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thank you to everyone who made a very difficult situation a whole lot better. As I said in my previous post --- The time I spent at Factiva was a wonderful experience. I learned so much from all the amazing people in the Company. I will always look back at my time with Factiva with very fond memories. Life is way to short to be angry or bitter. It is such a waste of energy. When I look into both my daughters eyes you really start to understand what is important in life. Careers or jobs will come and go, but your loved ones will get you through the most difficult times.

So wish me luck tomorrow at the Poker Tables. If you area in the please stop on bye.

Sad Day

Today I finally was voted off the Factiva/Dow Jones Island. You may recall in a few posts down below I briefly discussed that Dow Jones bought our Reuters half in Factiva. I also mentioned how excited I was to be 100% part of the Dow Jones Family. Well it turns out they were not as excited as I was. Today I was let go with about 60 - 100 other people. I can't say I was shocked. In every re org people are made redundant. And as good friend reminded me today that my position was made redundant not me. Also I have been through this many times with Factiva. I have learned all the signs. In the past I would know who unfortunately was being released and when. I was the one that would help pack up the desk and take back the PC equipment and anything else. I started to realize last week that this time around my chances were not good. The answers I was receiving to my questions about my role in the lay offs were extremely vague. I have become very good at knowing when people are trying to cover things up.
So I do leave with plenty of sadness. I loved my job. I love Factiva. Most important I love the people I worked with. I am so much a better person for working with the passionate talented people that surrounded me. Eight years ago I accepted the job at Factiva because the Technical Support Department was in ruins. They had a mass exodus in the department and 10 employees left for other jobs. I took the position because their was no place to go but up. I hired 10 new employees in two weeks time and had the department trained and ready to go live 4 weeks later.
Now I close one chapter and begin another. I am not sure what the future will hold, but I do know that the eight years I spent at Factiva was a wonderful experience and as I said above I am much better person because of it.

What Superhero are you?

I took this Superhero quiz. I was hoping to be Superman or Spiderman. Give it a try and see what Superhero you are? The world needs more heros!

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 85% Superman 85% Spider-Man 65% The Flash 65% Supergirl 65% Wonder Woman 60% Catwoman 55% Robin 50% Iron Man 50% Batman 40% Hulk 20%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Baby

I know this is childish humor, but since I have a baby the same age I find this hysterical.

My PB Wiki

I created my first Wiki at a site called Peanut Butter Wiki or PB Wiki.com.

A Wiki is public page that anyone can edit. As the Wiki says it is as easy to make as a peanut butter sandwich. It is very quick to do with some already made templates to use. The reason I did this is my 40th Birthday is approaching in January and I often get asked what would you like for a gift? To be honest I have everything that I ever wanted besides a few more dollars in my wallet. I have a wonderful family and great friends! So I used one of the Templates that Wiki offers and created a Birthday wish list Wiki. What I like about the page is it is open to the public. You can view the list, modify the page, and make comments.

Check out my Birthday wish list Wiki when you have a moment. It will contain any items that I can think of. Also feel free to make comments. It is always good to know that I am still loved!

my first tournament

I went to the TAJ Casino in Atlantic City last night to play in the midnight tournament. It was my first big tournament at a casino. The buy in was $50.00 - $38+12. They had a great turn out of 150 players. I am sorry to report I dont have good news. I was just happy I wasnt the first one to bust out of my table. These players were very good. You can tell they make a living from this. I was impressed with the tournament. It was run very professional for having 150 players. The tables and the seating is random when you register. I usually go to the Borgata to play. It is much nicer. The Poker room is very bright and clean. The TAJ needs plenty of work. It looks like a poker room that has been around for 20 years. I only went to the TAJ as it is hard to find a buy in for as low as $50 bucks.

Good news for my friend Jan who runs the site http://pokertourneyschedules.com/. They had signs and pamphlets all of over the TAJ Poker Room that said to check out the latest poker schedule go to http://pokertourneyschedules.com/. If you haven't done so already go check it out. It is a great site for Poker schedules at many of the Casinos across the country.

And yes Jann I wore my pokertourneyschedules tee shirt last night.

PC Tune Up

I read a great article on the Yahoo Technology Web site from Robin Raskin. Robin writes about the10 important things you should do to keep your PC updated and running at full speed. You can read the complete article here - A PC Tune-up. Here are the top 10 items from the article:

Step One: Install Windows Service Pack for protection against spam, viruses, and intruders.

Step Two: Set them up with Windows Automatic Updates: To do this, open My Computer and select System Properties. Click on the Automatic Update tab and select Automatic Updates.

Step Three: Verify that Windows firewall is on by clicking on the Control Panel, then Security Center and Firewall.

Step Four: Scan for disk errors. To do this, open My Computer and select the drive to be checked. On the File menu, click Properties. On the Tools tab, under Error-checking, click Check Now. Under Check disk options, select Scan.

Step Five: You can also run defrag (though it's not as critical), which puts files that have been chopped up into discontinuous locations on the hard disk back together into a single contiguous file. This will increase performance and reliability. You can find the Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button, then All Programs, selecting Accessories, then System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

Step 6: Uninstall unused applications by clicking on the Control Panel and selecting Add or Remove Programs. A list of programs and how often they've been used will pop up. Remove the ones they'll never use.

Step 7: Add anti-spyware utilities, such as Microsoft's Windows Defender (available as a free download until December 31).

Step 8: Add an overall Internet security package that includes virus and anti-spam protection such as AVG Anti-virus, which is free, or Norton Internet Security ($69). If they already use a program, make sure that the updates are current.

Step 9: Upgrade Internet Explorer to Version 7.0. This is controversial advice because some of you prefer Mozilla, but I would not put it on my parents' machine because it's still not the standard and they won't understand how to toggle between browsers.

Step 10: Create desktop icons for their most-often-used programs. Right-click the desktop (that's the opening Windows screen before you run any applications), select New, and then click Shortcut. Enter the location of the program. To add, click Browse to look for the file name and then click Next. Type the name that you want to appear under the icon, and then click Finish.

Great Eagles Win

I ususally don't blog about sports. America Football is different then European Football. However today the Eagles had an amazing win. They were huge under dogs going up the New Jersey Turnpike to play the Giants. They hung in the whole game and managed to pull out to win. Jeff Garcia is playing great! I hope they can keep it up. It makes the NFL more exciting when the team you root for is in playoff contention.

Resuts from the game - Eagles Win!

The deal is done

It is now official. Reuters has sold its stake of Factiva to Dow Jones. Factiva is now 100% A Dow Jones Company. I am very excited to be fully integrated into the Dow Jones Family. 2007 will be an exciting year! You can read more about the purchase here - Dow Jones takes over Factiva.

Thanks Jason!

Thanks Jason for the offer! My friend Jason who I work with at Factiva was very high on the waiting list at Sony to receive the Sony PlayStation 3. Jason is very smart man. When he received the PS3 in the mail he took his brand new unopened PS3 and placed it on ebay for the highest bidder.

If you are interested here it is to view. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160057854736&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:11

You can get it right now for the low low price of $1600.00

Tale of the tape

CNET has written an article that gives a round by round comparison to Microsoft IE 7 v. Mozilla Firefox 2. If you click through my archive you will see my views already on the two browsers. I am huge FireFox fan for reasons that range from security to simplicity of use. Now you can read what CNET says about the two browsers. The article is here CNET Browser Review.

Changes

I made some changes to the blog. First and most obvious is the Template. Second is I changed the about me section. Factiva is now owned by Dow Jones. It is no longer a joint venture between Dow Jones and Reuters. It will be official on Jan 1st. You can read more about by doing an internet search. Here is one of many articles --- Click Here

Also with this new template the Wishnick Family Photos are not appearing. I will look at that later.

Walmart group

I am not sure if this changes where you shop this holiday season? This is a blog about an organization against Walmart. The site is called Wakeup Wal-Mart. I think it is interesting what they stand for. I admire how they are looking out for the worker so Walmart does not take advantage of them. I do admit they have an uphill battle. Read the blog and decide for yourself.