My Thoughts

Email @ the White House Down All Day

Yikes.

Rackspace is a Fortune Top 50 Place to Work... Again!

We just found out today that we're being recognized as one of the best places to work in America by Fortune Magazine, again, for the second year in a row.  This is an awesome honor, although not a surprising one.  Rackspace is truly an incredible place to work.  And we're still hiring.  Check out our careers section and what our employees have to say about working here. 

One other cool thing to note: we were the second fastest growing company on this list. 

Why Spammers Spam

We now filter more than 50 million spam emails a day.  Hard to believe, I know.  Spam feels like it should be a thing of the past.  Who falls for this stuff anymore?  That is a question people constantly ask me.  Well, here is an incredible example. 

A Leamington man has fallen prey to international scam artists who strung him along for more than a year with the promise of millions in cash, but ultimately bilked him and his family of $150,000.

John Rempel said he quit his truck driving job, lost friends, borrowed money and crossed the globe in pursuit of a non-existent inheritance, after he was contacted by e-mail in what is known as a Nigerian 419 scam.

The bottom line is that spammers will continue to spam if they can make money from it.  A sad but true fact of life.

Working at Google

Here is a great article on why Google employees quit.  A lot of us tend to think that Google can do no wrong and is above the rules in just about every area of business.  But maybe that isn't the case.  It looks like they face some of the same struggles as everyone else.  Their stock is struggling, they're doing layoffs, they're shutting down projects, and employee disengagement seems to be on the rise, if you believe what you read.  I'm sure Google is an interesting place to work but you might want to do your research before head off to the promised land.

America's Powerful CEOs 40 And Under

Forbes just released America's Powerful CEOs 40 and Under which highlights 21 chief executives that run companies worth more than $500 million.  Congratulations to Lanham for making this list!

My Mamma and Obama

My mom works on the presidential transition team and got to meet the Obamas.  Check out the picture below with Michelle.  Cool stuff.

Plane Crash Today

I hope I never have to pose for a picture like this.  This is really incredible.

Famous College Roommates

Here's a cool article talking about famous college roommates.  Can you name all of the ones below?

Roanoke Times: Progression, Despite the Recession

The Roanoke Times has a great article this morning featuring companies in our region that are making big progress, despite the recession.  We're lucky enough to be a featured company, but regardless, this is an important article.  It seems that nearly every day I read the local paper its all about doom and gloom.  Layoffs, bankruptcies, companies disappearing overnight.  What a bummer.  We need to continue to highlight all of the good stuff going on, too.  There is a lot of it.  While it may not be as fun to talk about, its important.  Thanks to the Roanoke Times for taking notice.

Caption: Rex Card, shown with his dog Snickity, is a technical project manager for Mailtrust. The Blacksburg-based company provides email and business software.

Twitter Spam

Looks like Twitter is starting to catch its fair share of spam and phishing attacks.  In the last 24 hours I've seen two blog posts with these screen shots.