My Slacktivism

I know it's sometimes hard to find time to do something important for someone else. We all have busy lives, and we can't always make the time. But luckily the good folks over at IBM have created some software to help the greater good and you literally have to do nothing ... NOTHING ... but let your computer work while you work.

The World Community Grid is this wickedly cool piece of software that I read about months back in Fast Company. After reading up on it a little more, I was hooked and have been running it ever since. The basic premise: You install this tiny piece of software onto your computer. As long as it is launched, whenever you are not working on your computer, it is working. 5 seconds here, a minute or two there. All the times it is using your computer to do calculations that aid researchers in doing complex research that aims to find cures to cancer, AIDS and others.

Trust me, this stuff does good work and it doesn't cost you anything nor does it destroy your computer or hinder all that excel spreadsheet work or Internet shopping you're otherwise normally doing. Take a moment and get involved, it's free, easy and can make a world of difference.

What I've Read: Assload of Fast Company

One of the best gifts my mother ever gave me was a couple of years ago when she got me a subscription to Fast Company. As a mover and shaker at GE, she thought the maagzine's blend of forward-thinking, business-minded, green innovation content was right up my alley. Boy was she ever right.

These days it's the only magazine I read cover to cover. I can't stop myself once I get going on it. But something happened last year. For some reason, I was in the midst of doing work and travel and whatnot, and right around Thanksgiving I forgot to read the current issue. And then the next came. And the next. Soon, like a broken record, a pile began forming on my shelf. Right before into the new digs, I decided that once I got done reading a couple books, I was hunkering down and blasting through those old issues.

Hell no I wasn't going to just pitch them and forget about them. Instead, starting in July, I was on a mission. I was getting through an issue every 2-3 days. I was on a roll. About two weeks ago I finally finished the August issue, and now I am all caught up. The best part is that I even found a good number of articles to pass along to my coworkers and bosses. So now I look even cooler because I am suggesting new ideas and stuff. That's me, the dedicated employee.