It was 1988 or 1989 — can’t be sure exactly. That was the era when there were dozen of personal-computer manufacturers, and when it was vital to make the twice-annual pilgrimage to COMDEX. That’s where you’d not only find the hottest new computing hardware and software, but also no-expenses-spared booths and floor shows starring models, celebrities, magicians, dancers and athletes.

At one COMDEX of that long-ago epoch, I was speaking about cutting-edge laptop computers, and that gave me access to the speaker’s lounge. When I wandered in for a moment’s relaxation, I saw an enormous man wearing a leotard. The heavyweight wrestler King Kong Bundy, who at that time was the pitchman for HeadStart Computers, was sitting alone at one of the tables.

To make a long story short: I sat down next to the huge man, and we started talking. He had a very normal voice, and so if you didn’t look at the bald-headed giant, it was just like having any other conversation. We chatted about computers, and it turned out that he was fairly PC-literate; he was knowledgeable about the latest modems, monitors, processors, all sorts of COMDEX-related things. I recall thinking, this is a savvy businessman — not the stereotypical muscle-bound dumb guy.

During the remainder of the show, I passed by the HeadStart booth several times, and if King Kong Bundy was there, he’d wave or smile in my direction. What a nice guy.

Maybe I’m not sufficiently romantic, but there’s always been something strange to me about Valentine’s Day. From being forced to bring little Valentine’s cards for my classmates in elementary school (as a mandatory classroom activity), to being relentlessly bombarded by marketing messages from greeting card, flower and candy companies, something hasn’t been right.

Was it me? Was it only me?

I guess not. CNN contributor Roland Martin says it clearly with in his essay today, “Please don’t be my Valentine.” Here’s an excerpt:

First of all, Valentine’s Day is not built around a religious event like Christmas or Easter; nor does it have any special meaning to the nation such as Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

It is nothing more than a commercial holiday created by rabid retailers who needed a major shopping day between Christmas and Easter in order to give people a reason to spend money.

Now folks, I love my wife. She is truly an awesome woman who is smart, talented, fine, and, did I say fine? But do I really need a special day to show my affection for her?

He continues,

And Valentine’s Day really isn’t even a two-way street. Men are utterly irrelevant except to serve as pawns in this commercial game, emptying their wallets in order to satisfy their lovers or those around them. Oh yea, retailers know the con game.

I’m with you, Roland. Considering that I took my wife out on a dinner date last night, it’s clear that we don’t need a special day to show our affection. We try to make every day special. I think I’m plenty romantic.

We don’t need to support a retail-driven holiday that guilts men into buying specific products on a specific day in order to demonstrate their love for their special ladies.

Read Roland’s commentary. What do you think?

San Diego — At the SharePoint Best Practices conference here today, the keynote speaker provided the ultimate SharePoint resource: a list of 10 steps to success with SharePoint.

SharePoint Best Practices is produced by Mindsharp, which is a technology training and education company. This is their second SharePoint Best Practices conference; the debut event last year was in Washington, D.C.

The keynote speaker was Joel Oleson (pictured), who is a SharePoint Evangelist and Senior Product Manager at Quest Software. However, he’s probably best known for his tenure at Microsoft, where he architected Microsoft’s internal SharePoint deployment, and also served as product marketing manager for the launch of SharePoint Server 2007.

Here, without further ado, are Joel’s 10 steps to success with SharePoint. What’s in bold are his points; the descriptions are my summary of his comments.

1. Confront reality. Assess the situation, and determine where you are right now, with skills, resources, culture and plans.

2. Create a governance plan. You need a governance plan to define services, resolve ambiguity and mitigate conflict within the organization. The plan explains defines services by using people, process and policies.

3. Get an executive sponsor. Because a successful SharePoint implementation will necessarily affect organizational policies, processes and culture, it’s important to have genuine, sincere and consistent top-level support.

4. Create a dream team. You’re not going to have a successful SharePoint deployment if your team consists of a single guy who’s designated as the new SharePoint admin, and maybe a developer who’d rather be playing with AJAX.

5. Build services, not stuff. A SharePoint deployment requires software, data, metadata and other artifacts, duh, but that’s not the point of the deployment. Don’t forget: The reason you deploy SharePoint is because of the services it offers the organization.

6. Define clear policies and standards. Users across the organization want guidance about what they can do, what they can’t do, who does what, what’s appropriate, and so-on. Ambiguity and vagueness are bad.

7. Invest in scalable information architecture. When planning the deployment, understand where the scalability pain points are, so you can plan for them.

8. Don’t forget change and risk management. The SharePoint deployment you envision is not going to be exactly what happens. Be sure to plan carefully — but stay flexible and responsive to changing needs and changing realities.

9. Adoption is what counts. The job’s not done just because the software is running. If information workers aren’t using SharePoint, you’ve lost. If workers aren’t taking SharePoint farther than you expected, you’ve lost.

10. Keep It Simple Stupid. Make your SharePoint project a series of many easy wins. While it’s great to have big plans, use a phased approach that is realistic about what you can accomplish, and go from success to success to success.

For those of you who have been following my separate Mac & iPhone blog: As of today, Feb. 1, it’s taking a little vacation.

My blog had been provided courtesy of TechWeb’s bMighty small-business site since 2007. I’ve received a lot of fan mail, and know that there are many followers who like my matter-of-fact, non-fanboy commentary and analysis about Apple’s technologies and products. No Kool-Aid here!

Sadly, TechWeb notified me last week that due to budget cuts, they were discontinuing my blog.

I’m looking for a new sponsor for my Mac & iPhone blog, and will let you know when it’s found a new home.

Thank you for your support!