Best of the blogs: To some IT professionals, there are words that conjure images more fearful than a headless horseman cutting through a dense Sleepy Hollow fog. One such phrase: managing business change. Bob Lewis strikes back with a checklist for getting the conversation off on the right foot consisting of a half-dozen steps to ease IT minds. Columnists’ corner: Overflowing data storage is a common problem. And, usually, the solution is quite simple. Just not always. Take the case of our Off the Record author, for instance. After delayed decision making, his owner/CFO called in a firm we’ll refer to as ‘Dubious Network Consulting.’ “Dubious sent Joe — a ‘professional’ making ten times my salary. Joe was a nice guy, but I got the impression he was a bit out of his depth. I was about to leave for a one-week vacation, so I made him promise that he would not change anything until I got back and he could bring me an external backup that I could check to ensure our data was intact.” I’m sure you can guess where this one is headed, but I personally guarantee that it’s even worse than your imagination thinks it is. Server upgrade, no upside. Could this have been worse? Or, do you have a more horrific story? Talkback via the comments function below.The news beat: Microsoft releases guidelines for customer privacy, which some view as a response to prior criticism about the company’s efforts to collect and catalog personal data. IBM’s CFO, Mark Loughridge, says that Big Blue had a strong third quarter thanks in part to a balanced mix of software, hardware and services. Intel reports that its profits sunk 35 percent; and Yahoo’s revenue also fell short for the third quarter. Technology Industry