Last week, I got the opportunity for a change to be on the other side of the desk for a podcast interview. Juliann Grant from Telesian Technology asked me, and my quasi-competitor and friend Gary Mintchell of Automation World, to sit down with her and discuss how PR professionals should deal with issues and editors in the age of social media.

I think it was a great discussion. Gary and Juliann had lots to say, and, of course, so did I.

Wireless Ethernet: Ready for Industrial Prime Time

Sponsored by: National Instruments, Phoenix Contact & CONTROL

Content Type: Webcast on Wednesday March 3, 2010 at 2:00 pm ET

Wireless Ethernet: Ready for Industrial PrimetimeWireless can today lay claim to perhaps the fastest uptake of any “new” instrumentation technology in the industrial marketplace. Wireless Ethernet, broadly encompassing standard and proprietary variants of 802.11 and 802.15.4 wireless protocols, are being successfully deployed to solve a broad and growing range of industrial problems from process control to environmental monitoring.

Walt Boyes just posted this message: "Go visit www.us-cert.gov/control_systems" on Twitter. (If you're not following @waltboyes, why not? Seriously, Twitter isn't just about wasting time at work. But I digress.

Here's the point: This is what the link takes you to.

This blog has been fairly quiet since October 8th. That's because I decided that I needed some time off to get my head back together-- and to quit being sick too-- and try to deal with the hard reality that I've lost someone very special.

Handling the minutiae of somebody's estate is hard. But I have found out something very interesting. I now know why most men die before their wives do. It's so that their wives can handle all the paperwork!

Walt Boyes has been taking time away, but I guess it was too much to expect that he'd back away from the computer completely. This just popped up in my inbox as a Twitter link. (If you're not following Walt at @waltboyes, why aren't you?) Finding a flaw like this is one of those things that could just ruin your entire day.

First, I want to take this time to thank everyone who has sent condolences on my wife's death, and all those who contributed to the Corgi Fund and other Corgi charities in her name. I am humbled by this outpouring of caring and support. Thank you.

I've decided to take a couple of weeks off. I'm leaving the magazine in Nancy Bartels' capable hands, and the website in Katherine Bonfante's.

I'll be back in time to attend Automation Fair, and report from there.

Sigh!. There's been another one. This time the fire is in the Corpus Christi, Texas, Citgo refinery. Actually is the second one this weekend that I know about. There was a fire in a bio-diesel plant in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago on Saturday. 

Check out this post. Wurldtech is expanding its footprint into the power gen industry and the smart grid. 

Getting Walt to take a vacation is not an easy thing. But he's been good this time. Have hardly heard from him at all. I expect Mrs. Walt issued some fairly severe threats. So this morning when an email from him popped up in my mailbox with the brief note, "This is big" attached, I thought I'd better take notice.