by Ron Daly

Much to the delight of my youngest daughter (and the disgust of my older daughters, who had to go to class regardless), it was snowing today in Northern Virginia.

Now, I know there are those of you who balk at what we, here in Northern Virginia, call "snow". In Buffalo, as I'm reminded by our Director of IT Amy Baldi, four-to-six inches of snow is the same as having no snow at all. But here? Pandemonium. Absolute chaos. Apparently, three flakes of snow is equal to two people going crazy in a car near you on the morning commute. So we have this sort of madness even with a little snow.

And I think about how much snow it will take to cancel school in a place like Alaska. Assuming there is an amount that matters there.

Which brings me to the Crisis Management Notification System, or CMNS. We've been using the CMNS for a lot of things - namely the big storms that hit Florida in August of 2008. But it's not just for big time crises like hurricanes. It could be used for folks like us, who see a little sprinkle of snow as a reason to shut down for a day. Or for bits of craziness like the Heartland break-in, which I read today has affected 80 million credit cards accounts. Yikes.

If you're having trouble with a little snow or a lot of credit cards, give us a shout. We can help.

I'm off to scrape a half-inch of snow off my car. Wish me luck.