Author: The Timedok

Technology, Have we gone too far?

There are days that I long for the twisted pair; you know the POTS line or (plain old telephone service.) Yes, the one that hooks up to the one phone, on the wall or in the hallway in that special little nook that was designed by the architect for it. I would even go back to the dial phone, as I think that it was not only a simpler time, but probably a more reliable form of communication. OK, maybe not, but since we were not on it all of the time we had no idea when it was not working. The phone after all was not for kids..

I don’t know how many of my friends had a dial phone but, if you did not, you missed out. Calling a radio station to be the 25^th caller was a real chore back in the day. If you won and I did once, it was a real conquest!

Speaking for me personally, I have at least 6 email addresses, the cell phone, the business phone, fax lines, house phone and of course SMS text messaging and even IM on FaceBook. I am also a ham radio operator and have half a dozen radios that can all be going at the same time, but most of the time not.

No, not me, but my station back then looked a lot like this!

It would seem that I should be able to be reached. Back in the day, I had a pager as well although, that thing was really nothing more than an electronic leash; for whoever had the number.

When I was a kid if I wanted to talk with a friend, I would go get on my bike and ride to their respective homes and ask the “parent who answered the door” is “fill in the blank” home and can they come out and play? Yes, a little like the Cleavers..

When I was a little more sophisticated, (8years old,) I used a Walkie Talkie to talk with my friends that lived within a half mile or so. That in a large part prompted me to get my ham radio license at a whopping 13 years old. With that; I have visited with thousands of folks all over the world, but that is another story for another day.

The Smart phone, which is why I am writing today, is a marvel of technology. It is the Swiss army knife of communication! With that device I can call anywhere in the world from just about anywhere. I can send text messages and pictures of whatever interest me. I can get them as well. I can send a video to someone or receive the same. With Facetime or Skype, I can live video chat with people too! I can watch movies or play games and yes, I can poke someone on facebook from the waiting room at the Dr.s office. The camera quality is such that if I had the mind to I could take a “quality picture of my dinner” and post it on facebook as we all want to see what you ate for dinner, right? Wink wink. The camera part is really quite true, it is a really decent camera for a phone!

There are some issues with this however; of which I wish to expound upon. First and foremost, SMS text messages (at least with my phone and service) are not guaranteed to make it. Back when e-mail was new, the common greeting on a phone call was “did you get my e-mail?” E-mail is not 100%, it never has been, and it never will be. E-mail is more reliable today as the servers are more persistent and the internet is more robust. It is still not guaranteed to get there.

Text communication whether SMS or e-mail or chat on some service can be dicey as you don’t get the facial queues that you do; well… in person. One can discern some queues in tone of voice when on the phone but, without emoticons and “LOL,” we might not know if the person was serious or kidding! That type if communication leaves lots of room for miss-communication.

We are in fact a world in transition regarding our communication. I have many “friends” on Facebook but, how many of them know me personally? How many of them know my favorite colour or type of food, or I theirs for that matter? So one has to ask, just how good of friends are we? Would they even want to be my friend in person?

When is the last time that you spoke with your neighbors? Do you know their names or anything about them? I have two new neighbors of which I have made a point to introduce myself to, welcome them etc but, I also made a point to know their dogs name, and introduce myself to him as well. You should have seen the owners face light up when I took the time to get to know his pooch! I am not bragging about myself; or chastising you, I mention this because I realize that most of us pull into the garage, and close the door behind us. We leave the same way and “in my case” I use a lawn service so I don’t even have the opportunity to meet while I am butchering my grass. “hence the lawn service, I ruined the yard when I cut it the first time.” It was tiff grass I think, and my mower was not made for it…. I think. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Don’t depend on text or e-mail as it is not super reliable. There are times my phone will go off in the middle of the night, with all sorts of text messages, from days ago! I keep it with me most of the time but I have to admit, it too feels a little bit like a leash at times.

You know the old story about the lost invitation to the party, it may really have gotten misplaced. If something seems out of character with the person that you know, trust your instinct and call. If the invitation to the party does not arrive, call. If you were not invited well, re-evaluate that friendship. If you sent them a text, they may not have responded because they did not get it!

Finally, turn off the computer, phone, and tablet and unless you are watching a movie with the family, turn off the TV too. Spend time with those that you love, as you never know when or if you might have the opportunity to do it again (if ever.) Life is too short to have regrets and when I see complete families out at expensive restaurants, all on some phone, or some device well….it makes me a little sad for them. What memories will the children have? What about mom and dad when the kids are gone?

To me eating out is an event. To some, who do it all the time it is simply eating. I can eat at home but there is the preparation and the cleanup. If I eat out I am “served!” There is not preparation and no cleanup and there is also the friendly exchange of conversation not only between whom I am eating with but, I also make a point to learn the servers’ name, and use it. While they are, “serving me;” I make certain that they know I appreciate them.

Life is about making memories. Good or bad, life is what it is. One day, not too many years ago I was taking my daughters friend to a college across town. After we left her college I picked up a bolt in one of my tires which left me and my daughter stranded on the side of the road in a less than great area of town. It was summer about 110 degrees on the side of the highway. It was about 300 after I got the car jacked up and about 500 when I discovered that the oil change service that rotated my tires had not put the tire lock key back in the glove box! We had no water, and now I was back out in the heat taking the jack back from under the car all the while having her call the auto service. You know *4357… Yeah that one.

After getting back in the car, the auto service had no information on me or the account and would not send a wrecker. Even after I told them that I would pay the wrecker just please send one! They refused to help because I was not a customer they were not obligated to lift a finger. The auto service was paid for through the cell phone carrier and it is insurance that you pay for monthly. We were a customer and the customer service girl just fat fingered it when she looked up the phone number, you know the 10 digit phone number that should have been on the screen in front of her!?

Very long story short, after witnessing drug deals, going through gas to keep the air on and doors locked and wondering if the car would overheat, and having to go to the bathroom, we finally got a wrecker right at 5 in the afternoon, rush hour traffic! We had been out since 9am without food or water or bathroom, on the side of a busy highway since about 10 am.

Even though that was not a great memory, it is a memory, and I did get to spend the entire day with my daughter with no computer to compete for my time with her. OF course in retrospect, I don’t think either of us was real great company…

Is a poke on Facebook, or a text to someone, more important that being with friends or family in person? I too am guilty but, I try to be aware of it and resist the temptation.

-Best to you and those that you care about!

Higgs Boson

One of my “friends” who reads my ramblings commented on my mention of the Higgs.

Truth be told, just about everything interests me to some degree. Particle physics fascinates me as with science, there is one truth. When you deal with people, ideas, philosophies and heaven forbid, politics; the truth seems to belong to whom can talk the longest or loudest or speak the most eloquently!

With Science and especially math, there is one truth. So it is no small wonder that back in the day when the “god particle” was conceived, that interested me.

Currently we have the standard model which puts the higgs as the “glue” that holds everything together. The folks at the LHC spent years proving that it existed only to find that its “weight” was neither light, nor heavy but right in the middle.

Why do I suddenly feel like Goldilocks?

If it had been 115 GeV that would point towards symmetry where as a heavy Higgs would suggest Multiverse. Multiverse really points towards chaos where symmetry would mean that physics here is the same everywhere. Because the Higgs is 126GeV that leads some to believe that it is not very stable. It neither proves symmetry or the multiverse theory so now those that do this for a living, get to create new models.

I lean towards the Multiverse theory personally, because we do have the second law of thermodynamics. Entropy is what it is, and I see no reason that it would not apply to particle physics as well.

Than again, all of this is above my pay grade.. 🙂

On a personal note we here in Texas spent a lot of money to start this project before “politicians” got involved. We spend our resources foolishly and we hold back humanity by giving them fish(instead of teaching them to fish). I realize that there is a large percentage of people who are far from caring about such things and only worry about things like making the rent, to getting their next fix. On top of wasting our resources on making an industry out of incarcerating people; we try to be the world’s police. We send resources all over the world and for what? Are we buying friendship or loyalty? These same people that we are sending our resources to cuss us, and yet we continue. I would make a lousy politician as my actions would be far more pragmatic, than political.

Truth be told, if those that cuss all Americans could know us, without looking through the lens of propaganda, they would find that we have more in common than not.

I mention this because the folks that make CERN what it is, are people from all over the world. There are folks that come from countries that are at war with each other; they see the bigger picture. CERN should be a model for the rest of the world. That model and project could have, and should have been here in Texas. A project like that in Americas back yard might have inspired many to do something with their education in the engineering field. One would think with NASA in our backyard would inspire American’s but this administration has cut funding. We are getting rockets from the Russians “which don’t seem to work too well.” We are hitching a ride to the space station via the Russians! The ESA put a Lander on a comet, not the USA or NASA!

We just celebrated the anniversary of Sputnik. October 4th 57 years ago the Russians successfully put a low earth orbit satellite in orbit. While this was a huge technological breakthrough for the time, this was a political move to try and find where the US would draw the line. Truth be told we too were trying to find out where the line would be drawn so brinkmanship once again was the play.

When adults get back into the White House, it is my sincere prayer that they prioritize things and put education high on the list. I would like to see our foreign policy restored with our friends and allies but, that is another blog for another day.

I am sure this is more than my friend hoped for regarding my thoughts on the Higgs Boson.

-Best

Comet, Space and You

Hats Off to the ESA folks!

So we landed a man made device, a probe if you will on a comet. The probe or “lander,” Philea was named after an Obelisk found in the Nile some years ago. The reports are that it bounced upon impact.

The comet traveling at over 41K miles per hour was a moving target to say the least.

The mission is to learn more about comet and the creation of the universe. The mission is already a huge success in that the ESA was able to launch a spacecraft, negotiate several gravity assist from different planets, the earth 3 times as the matter of fact and I think Jupiter just to get the thing going fast enough to reach the comet. Not only did they reach it, they had the day planned “November 12^th” as when they would land the probe.

Many of you have no idea how huge this is and why this is important. If this comet had been going to hit the earth; it would be a life-ender, period. Game Over…!

That is what it would look like if we could just set it on LA.

As a perpetual geek, I like this example better, who know a Borg Cube was that big?

We need to be pouring resources into these types of projects as one day we may very well need to deflect one of these bad boys and it would be nice to know that we can do it. The first step of course is; can we even get to one.

As a science fiction writer I often wonder why it has taken this long to try this sort of thing. Could it be that we are pissing away too many of our resources on those that refuse to work or those that want a war with anyone for anything?

You can’t really blame the technology, as the technology that landed man on the moon was less than what you have in your calculator, much less your smart phone.

Most of you have no idea where we are in this galaxy?

Let me shed some light on space travel for you. I won’t use math so, just read along.

As you sit there at your computer reading this, you are currently spinning around the outside of this globe at 1000 mph. The reason you have night and day is because the globe has a rotational velocity of 1,000 MPH or for my Non-American or metric friends that is a RV of .47 km/sec.

Now as you are rotating along blissfully unaware of it, you are also orbiting the sun at a whopping 67,000 MPH or 29.8km/sec!

Celestial mechanics fascinate me. It requires some out of the box thinking.

So let me throw in a few more fun facts for you.

Not only are you happily moving at 1000 mph as well 67,000 mph you are also moving in other ways.

Notice that fuzzy little blob of light at the bottom of the photo.

You see, the Milky Way is also in motion. We are located in one of the arms of the milky way that has a RV of 600,000 mph!

Our current position in our rotation of this arm of the milky last time was 225 million years ago. The last time we were here, Dinosaurs were just making the scene.

If that is not enough to expand your thinking, let me add one more fun fact for you.

Scientist calculate that one day, 4 billion years from now our nearest galaxy; Andromeda will be paying us a visit.. Through the Hubble we have seen other galaxies in some sort of dance as they re-establish themselves into a cohesive galaxy, so we know that it happens.

According to those who know, Andromeda is making an approach to the Milky Way at 110km/sec or roughly 247,000,000 mph. My thoughts on this are that Andromeda is not the only galaxy in motion here. My thoughts are that we too are in motion; which adds yet another movement to your “space motion.” For sake of argument lets assume that the speed that Andromeda is headed here is half its and half ours. That would mean on your Y axis you would be moving 123,500,000 MPH.

I think that would also tie up the loose ends about the red-shifting and blue-shifting expanding shrinking universe questions. Blue shifting, we are moving toward it, red away…That simple.

If you go back and look at the traditional picture of the solar system and instead of looking down on it imagine you are looking at the sun in the solar plane, the earth and all of the other “stuff” that is orbiting the sun is being dragged on the Y axis as well as the X axis. All of the orbits make perfect sense to me. The Y axis begs the question “why?”

What form of gravity is large enough to drag galaxies around? Are they being dragged or pushed?

There is also of course this whole space time thing that muddies the water. If time is relative, does our velocity through space in all of these different directions have anything to do with it? Time and Gravity are the enigmas, and I believe tied together in major ways.

So if my musings interests you, please let me know. If you pass along my thoughts please give me credit for them. Link this page or what have you. Science fiction “what I like to write,” interest me in that a lot of it turns into science fact.

-Best

Single Point of Failure

One of my recent clients was desiging their data center and during the process of doing so, the CEO had read one of my blogs and called me in to look things over.

It is sometimes awkward for me to go into someone else’s shop and poke around as the relationship between their staff and I, sometimes is seems tenuous, if not adversarial. Not on my part mind you; I am there to help. “I fix things,” that is what I do. I do ask a lot of “why questions.” which I think starts the ball rolling.

The resident staff however is the expert that their boss trusts, so they “the CEO” go along blissfully ignorant of their exposures because he or she “the CEO” is not an IT person. The resident IT people usually don’t encourage an outside person to come in “such as myself,” because of two reasons. I think first and foremost, it is an ego thing. They are the best at what they do and if you don’t believe them, just ask them. Secondly, they don’t want their boss to find out just how bad things are. Or possibly their staff has no clue just how tenuous the situation really is.

If you see any of this this in your data center or wiring closets , you need some help.

When I was working as a Manager, or Director of same, I always welcomed this kind of assistance and frequently brought it in as often times we get mired in the woods; and cannot see the forest for the trees. I know that this is oversimplified but as a manager, I always tried to hire people as smart, if not smarter than myself. As a manager, one gets tied up in the day to day business of the company, as well as the technology; and often times do not see what is in front of them, or, can even loos their objectivity.

If you decide to bring in someone like myself, your staff needs a heads up. They need to be told to make themselves available. They need to know that this person is there because you requested it, are paying for it, and expect them to work with this person as needed. This understanding up front, saves you money.

When planning a move to a new building; one can go in and design and install everything correctly the first time, much more cost effectively than going back in and re-do things later.

Notice the nice manner in how the cables are dressed and notice the Velcro cable ties on not “zip ties.”

Why not Zip Ties you asked?

Poor cable management and “zip ties” lead to this. This could cost you your entire company.

This is the charred remains of someone’s data center.

Having said that, during a data center design one of the things that is often overlooked are single points of failures (SPOF). When designing a data center, one builds redundancy into their infrastructure as to avoid a downtime, or a total shut down. Few people truly understand soft dollars; and how the loss of productivity effects the bottom line.

Most everyone knows of raid, redundant switches, vmware, the cloud, and this is about where it stops.

What about an alternate path to get data in and out of your building? What about an alternate path or source for power?

One of my clients, (a law firm) lost power due to construction in the street below. The UPS only held their servers up for 30 minutes or so and they had no UPS’s on workstations. Guess what, the courts do not care if you can or can’t get to your files, your problem, not theirs! If you cannot feasibly get power to your data center from an alternate location, you have a generator or a warm site.

In their case the power took several days to get back online. The elevators of course were not working so they had to physically remove and re-install their servers in another location trucking them down the emergency stairwell.

Failure to plan is planning to fail!

The same is true of your data lines. Generally one installs two trunks diametrically opposite of the other on either corners or sides of the building. If that is not feasible you look at RF links. Yes they are slower than fiber but slower is better than nothing.

Your individual needs will dictate your level of redundancy needed.

During the design of your data center, each and every risk must be defined and be part of the risk assessment. During a move, a site selection team must evaluate all sorts of factors regarding your data center before the lease is signed, or the building is purchased or even built, if you are going to go that way.

Data Centers large or small all should have the basic fundamentals covered. It is your company after all.

One of my clients had me travel around with their folks to look over prospective sites. They were a little edgy with their people that they had doing this so hiring me to go do this with them hedged their bet. When I arrived at the first location they were ready to sign the lease. They were not happy when I discovered that the ceiling was loaded with asbestos. The extra cost to get someone that was certified to run cable in such an environment was over the top, not to mention that it was in an earthquake prone part of California. There is a reason that the lease was “cheap.” On another site the cable plant had been added to as the previous tenant grew. They has spliced wires in the ceiling, which you just don’t do. Some of these had been spliced to cat 3 wires. I can well imagine what the data throughput looked like and the error rate that those persons suffered.

We start with the basics: power, voice/data, air handling. We look at the hardware required for all of this. We calculate the power requirements and the amount of air-conditioning needed. What about a redundant air conditioner? How about fire suppression? I like to install dust filtration systems, as this investment will extend the life of your equipment. How about remote monitoring of your data center. What about security both physical and well as data?

We look at risk factors, where is it geographically? What historic data can we find on that area regarding disasters? I also look at permit cost, union involvement cost etc. I work with the architect and GC to make certain that all of the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed.

In 35 years of doing this I have never had a “good surprise” and my goal is to keep the customer from having a bad one.

One thing that I recommend is a sensor that “sniffs for smoke.” This sensor triggers an emergency shut down of the UPS if smoke is detected. Why on earth would I want to do this?

“Where there is smoke there is fire.”

Maybe, maybe not however; this equipment runs 24X7 and 2/3 of that time is unattended. Generally, poor cable management which I see in more data centers than not, is the cause for smoke and fire. This sensor shutting the power off to the data center stops the fire in its tracks as it generally will start smoking before actually catching fire. This sensor hooks up to the big red button and serves as the emergency shut down if smoke is detected. It can also be wired to the building security systems and trigger a call to the fire department as well as sound alarms so people can get out of the building.

A lot of data centers use the cheapest fire suppression techniques out there “again designed by a neophyte.” So, a cable rubs raw, starts smoking, catches on fire and the suppression system is activated. Water… Water and electronics do not mix. You now have your entire data center ruined because your “people” were lazy and failed to properly dress the cables and you did not have a modern fire suppression system. The smoke sniffer is the next best thing. Stops the fire before the water starts.

The devil is in the details, and brother there are tons of details. As part of a DR; we cover as many as we can find. Once we think we have it, we hire an outside technical staff to re-create your data center in an offsite location, with your run-book, documentation and backups. We give them everything that we “think” they should need and then we sit back and take notes. You’re CIO and I watch, and take notes. We get them the answers that they need, note them, and then move on until it either works or fails. If it fails, we do a root cause analysis, take corrective action and try it again.

Yes, this is a shameless plug for Sungard.

DR plans generally do not work the first time. There are way too many details to catch them all but, as they do their thing and they hit a stopping point, we find the answer, make notes and then let them proceed until they get everything working as we expect it to be. Then we have a Skeleton crew come in and try to work. We make notes of everything that they run into, fix what we can through the rent a geeks, and press on.

Part of the process is to determine what an acceptable down time is and that can even be broken down into individual systems. “Payroll before sales?”

After that, we go back and alter the run book, provide more software or whatever was needed and then we get another team of rent geeks and do it again. Same process until we get it to such a point that the rent a geek can draw on their own knowledge to fill in any holes.

An inventory of the skill set necessary for the geeks is yet another bit on information to document.

Having a disaster recovery plan, like a data backup strategy; is only as good as your last successful test. Once you have a successful test, it is incumbent upon your people to devise a scheme to keep it updated. I do this through a process called change management.

Is this your disaster recovery plan?

We use rent a geeks as we must assume that your staff has all been part of the disaster. If we can make it work with technical people that you can hire from your VAR then, if there is a disaster and your staff was not involved in the disaster, your chances of a successful recovery are very high.

If you look at my other blogs regarding information technology, there is plenty of good advice out there. If you are in need of a DR plan or someone to assist your technical team get through a migration, a move or what have you; I have over 35 years of experience, and a valid passport. I speak English with a smattering of Geek.. 🙂

Yes, if these were real people and not actors, I could converse with them easily, I actually know what a Higgs-Bosson is

Artist idea of what it would look like.

If you are moving and need a data center designed in the new location that is probably one of the least expensive things that I do; assuming that your documentation is up to snuff. The size of your company and time frame will determine the scope of work (SOW,) and if I will need more than myself to accomplish the task. I work with some fine people here in the DFW area, and they too can travel. If you have a relation with a VAR already, I can work with them. I must admit that I will evaluate them on your behalf, as I do not believe in wasting your money or my time.

My character closely matches this guy although, I am easier going and my vernacular is well suited for all people, most of the time.

There is plenty of good advice here on my site, so feel free to peruse and glean what you may. I do reserve all rights to the information contained herein, so please do not copy or disseminate without permission. Thanks!

-Best

Security update 11/8/14

The following is an update to the title page on Security

To underscore the need for security and for a security officer, Russia “as in the government thereof,” has been working to place a virus or trojan in the utility networks of this country. Most probably this Trojan supplants a small piece of code that does something normal however it is waiting to be “Activated” when the time is right to something much more malevolent.

The government is being rather tight lipped about how the bug was discovered but, needless to say we have a big job on our hands to clean all of the systems of this bug.

Programmatically, a bit by bit comparison of each and every program and or file will need to happen to look for and isolate this bug.

Russia if it were so inclined could activate this “bug” which its intent would most certainly be to attack the power grid or other utility making them inoperable at a critical time.

There was show on TV with a similar scenario but here now we have the real deal.

Forensic computing allowed us to “see” that the infiltrations were coming from Russia during a typical 9 to 5 day over there; which implicates government workers. Hackers are not 9 to 5 folks but rather those who burn the midnight oil and are able to work when the phone is not ringing and the world around them is at rest.

Those of you who were not alive during the cold war, well this is it only it once more but, is taking place in cyber space.

This is why it is patriotic to have your computer and associated networks hardened against such attacks. This is also a real good reason to use anti-virus software that is not created or maintained by Russians, or any other world power that does not like Americans.

While I dislike the fact that this administration appears clueless on foreign affairs; and we are much worse off than just 6 years ago, the world is what it is.

Until this regime leaves office and adults take back the White House, you will need to take the necessary steps to secure your business networks as well as your home computers including your smart phones and other “smart” devices.

Remember the bug may be on your home computers waiting to be activated which could cause a DOS attack on some system somewhere. Make certain that you use a program that is better than Microsoft Essentials or anything that is free. Free anti-virus software is not worth what you pay for it!

If you have any questions regarding this please don’t hesitate to ask. If I don’t know the answer off the top of my head, most certainly others that read this blog will, or I will do my best get it for you.

-Best

Virus for Macs, iPhones and Tablets?

While it is not unheard of, they are rare. Today we learned that a virus has been unleashed to attack Apple products including Iphones, Ipads and of course anything running the MAC OS.

The Virus effects MAcs and Smartphones and I suspect was written for the Chinese as they have Jailbroken their phones and are downloading apps from other sources besides ITunes.

While one could speculate that such a virus that only affects those devices that are Jailbroken might be written to punish those that do this type of thing; or to discourage those who might want to do this, you would really have to be a conspiracy nut to think this way.

That would be like thinking that most viruses are written by the folks that make the antivirus programs. Totally nuts…. right…nuts… why would they do that?….Crazy talk….! Have you purchased antivirus software lately. $50 and up for one year! With millions of computers and millions more smartphones and tablets, those that write anti-virus software have a goldmine and a half!

To write viruses one must necessarily have intimate knowledge of the code that makes up the OS. Likewise, if one wants to foil and antivirus program, one would need intimate knowledge of that code.

While I have no doubt that groups like the Russian Mob who made more money on hacking and getting information from people’s computers then selling drugs might find this work easier, some of these hacks are just crazy.

Who does this kind of thing?

I have Trend Micro for my phone and iPad and I update the OS after a short period of time that the new release has been tested by those a little more eager than I, you can still not be too careful. While I would like apps on my phone that Apple will not host, I have not even thought about jailbreaking it.

If your secret family recipe for chocolate cake is on your phone, and you want it secure; you might want to look at Trend or some other anti virus software for your MAC products. It is more than simple recipes however; people store all sorts of information on there including banking, health, credit card info, passwords for your online accounts, text messages, e-mails; all of which is vulnerable.

If you want to talk conspiracy, what if the bad guy wanted to listen in on your conversations; could the microphone be turned on, or worse yet, the camera?

How often do you find your smartphone warm to the touch and the battery almost exhausted and you have done nothing to get it that way?

There was a case not too long ago where some school sent kids home with laptops. Someone was turning on the built in cameras remotely and watching them in their home, bedrooms etc. This was most probably and immature geek that lived in his mothers basement, or was it.

Folks, smart devices have tons of information including your coordinates down to a few feet! If Apple does not make this thing where I can pull the battery; I am seriously thinking about going away from Apple to another type of smart phone that will let me A) pull the battery if I want to make certain that the thing is dead and B) change the battery “easily” when it no longer holds a charge!

The same is true of the tablet devices. These toys are for my amusement, not for some “hacker” or twisted peeping tom to use for their entertainment or source of revenue.

-Best

Death with Dignity

Ever since Dr. Kevorkian assisted some who wished to end their lives rather than face the inevitable ending at the hands of some dreaded disease vs. taking control, I have been perplexed to say the least.

Today a young lady Brittany Maynard living with a horrible brain tumor ended her life. I am saddened by this and I grieve for her and her family. I don’t know them but I know of them and have followed this story.

It has been said that if you want to know someone, read their book. If they don’t have a book you can read their Facebook, blogs, and or other writings that they have shared. In many ways we know people better today because, many of us share by writing here on blogs or Facebook, or what have you.

I would have liked this person.

She was courageous in the face of death, fearless from what I could tell. I am certain that she had her weak moments and cried until the tears were gone but, she faced her killer, and took control. This is something that I would do; I recognize this and have total empathy for her.

I read some of the “post” by these “people” who hide behind anonymous names and are self-righteous. These people are trolls and have no courage. If you are going to comment, grow a pair and use your name! And by the way, if you cant say anything nice just don’t bother, who the hell died and made you king?

They talk about this person going to hell because she violated the 6^th commandment.

Properly translated; “that thou shall not commit murder.” Murder is killing someone with malice. That begs the question, can you murder yourself? I suppose if you hated yourself and planned it out, one could call it murder.

I do not believe that Brittany did that however. I do not think that she was a coward and I believe that her method of dealing with her illness was a choice made by a sane person who chose to end her life while she had the means to do it, rather than die in horrible pain and anguish and literally wither away.

Let’s visit this from a legal standpoint for just a minute.

Currently if you are dying of cancer or some other horrible disease and they put you into Hospice care, the method of dying is basically to deprive the body of all liquids and food for the amount of time it takes for the organs to shut down due to toxins in the body and the lack of sustenance. Yes, they say that they control the pain with drugs but since the person can no longer verbally communicate, in many cases, we really have no idea if we are controlling the pain or not. Since they are quite and unable to do anything we may be controlling our pain and “feelings” over what is best for them. We are acquiescing to some arbitrary law made up by politicians regarding taking ones life.

Nobody should be forced to stick a gun in ones mouth, or jump from a high point or in front of a bus to take control! We force their hand with stupid archaic laws! Brittany and her family were forced to move to Oregon!

So, death by starvation and deprivation of all fluids vs. taking some barbiturates’ that overwhelm the body’s ability to function. For you religious zealots out there who magically think that there is a difference, you are still committing suicide either way you go, one way you just suffer for a lot longer than the other.

I would point out that we treat our pets and prisoners on death row more humanly than we treat the terminally ill. Once your time on death row is up, you are put to sleep before paralytics are administered to stop the body from functioning. Do we love our pets more than we love each other?

So here is the conundrum and the slippery slope that, so many fear. At what point do you have to be at before you can request some doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of barbiturates?

Brittany wanted her death to matter. She wanted to be part of a “death with dignity law” passed in this country and in each and every state. I think that it is time to break free of these chains that hold us to puritan ideals of what is life and who has control over it! We need to start the narrative in each and every state. No, this is not about Sarah Palin’s “death panels” as the person to make the final decision, should be the patient. Not some group of doctors or politicians.

This is not hard!

Does the person have a terminal illness?

Don’t tell me that life is a terminal illness as I know it is terminal, but not an illness.

Can the pain and illness be managed to afford the person a quality of life?
Quality of life is subjective and should be left to the person to define.

If the answers are yes and no respectively, than the person in question should have the right to request to die with dignity when they are ready to do so.

How hard is that? Put the legal mambo jumbo to it, call it Brittany’s law, write it up, and make it happen!

To my fellow Christians out there, there is no sin that God cannot forgive. There is in fact no sin that a True Christian can do, that cannot be forgiven by God. We have no business putting ourselves in his place, and we certainly have no right to judge anyone and in fact are told not to.

With this in mind pray for the family of Brittany and her friends. Re-post this if you will, so others can see this and act as they see fit. Change.org might be a good first start..

-Best

Moving?

If you are a CEO, or owner of a company, you know that the logistics of moving are a nightmare!

I have moved data centers while keeping the existing company going. That is what got me interested in Disaster recovery. If you are going to provide business continuity during a disaster, providing the same for a move is a little simpler.

If you have a disaster recovery plan, this would be an excellent way to test it. If you don’t; may I suggest you create one before the move and then use the move as a way to test it?

The simple facts are that most CEO’s are oblivious as to the true state of their data infrastructure. It seems to work and beside the occasional glitch, business continues.

As a DR specialist I see things way too often that are far from “best practice” and usually so sub-par that the person in charge of the mess does everything they can do to get me out of there before their boss learns the tenuous situation that they have going on.

Rule of thumb.

You don’t have to understand too much of the technology to know if you are being snowed.

Go into the wiring closets and or data center and look at how things arranged.

Are the cables dressed as they should be or are they simply plugged in with no rhyme or reason?

Is everything in the computer room labeled?

Can your CIO or manager or sysadmin produce an up to date network map?

Can they produce your software licenses in case the SBA comes for a visit?

Can they produce an accurate inventory of all of the software in your company?

Can they show you the “run book.”

These are just real simple things that you can look for to get a feel for how prepared your company is to either move, or recover after a disaster.

Usually the turnover in such a company results in messes being piled on top of messes. Before the Gordian knot becomes truly inexorable; a review is necessary.

The review turns into an audit which inevitably makes those who are responsible anxious. My job is not to point fingers, but simply point out that which needs to change.

See my blog “attention Ceo CiO etc…”

Attention #CEO #CFO #President #CIO and #hr

There are many things in there to ask of your staff.

The point to this writing today is simple this. If you are pondering a move, using your disaster recovery plan as an outline for the move, has lots of advantages.

The main advantage is that you get to test it, and work on it. While it may not be complete it is a starting point.

We live in difficult times; not having a DR plan is like driving without insurance, risky. While driving without insurance could get you a ticket, or paying for the other guy out of your pocket, not having a DR plan could cost you the entire company.

Feel free to contact me if you need some help.

Staylor AT guard-protect.com

Yes, robots see e-mails and spam me so simply replace the AT with the @

-Best

They’re on TV, they know the right answer!

Not so fast… Liberal hacks have been spewing out verbiage (verbal garbage) for years, and people suck it up as the Gospel.

Why? You see them on the “silver screen” and they appear “all knowing!”

They are actors, which is what they do, they act! Do you think that the “actors in Big Bang really have a clue about particle physics? I am dubious that they could spell Higgs-Boson much less know one if it bit them in the ass! Please understand I have no ill feelings towards this group of actors. I have watched them through most of their careers and enjoy their talents. If I met them however; would I like them? Who knows?

Their entire claim to fame is that they can read a script, remember it long enough to regurgitate their lines and emote. I am certain that looks and who you know has a lot to do with it.

When liberal elites run things, it is almost never good for the “little people.” I would expand that to say the “elites” period.

Let’s take the tax code for example. Each and every election cycle we have people talk about changing it, making it simple. Makes for great talking points and for a great control of the narrative but in reality, it will never be simplified. It is thousands of pages of text which benefit the people with the gold, written by the people with the gold for the people with the gold! It is a way to legally extract money from you and give it to them or at least distribute it in ways that buys votes from the disenfranchised, aka those who refuse to work no matter what! There is a part of the population that vote, as their sole job, they vote for a living; and you pay them to do it.

Hey Hollywood, if your so damned bright how come California is bankrupt? How come every liberal idea of socialism and communism has never worked in history, ever! The only people that this ideology benefit is the 1% who look down from their ivory tower and say stupid shit like “let them eat cake” thinking cake is cheaper than bread!

If Guns are so damned evil, how come you guys have them? You want gun laws for the peasants, but not for you. The people know, and surely you must know; that laws are for the people who are not criminals! Passing gun legislation will only hurt law abiding citizens.

If you don’t like guns, don’t buy them! If I were president; I would push legislation that would have every “able” person in the country that was willing and able to take the proper course and get from the government free guns and ammo. Once every year or two they come in and re-fresh their proficiency and renew the certification. Don’t you know that crime would go down to nothing! We who make an industry out of locking people up would change that quickly. Would more people die in burglaries and other stupid criminal acts, Yes! Would the courts be busy at first, probably, why? Because people, (dumb people,) would test the system. There are stupid people out there that would have to see if grandpa or grandma would really shoot them. “Tap it three times grandma!”

The truth is that the typical response time for a 911 call is twenty minutes. Let me say that again, TWENTY MINUTES! Do you have any idea how fast a criminal can kill you and your entire family and be gone? Long before the first police car ever arrives on the scene.

By the time you hear the door kicked in, pick up the phone “instead of a gun,” that bad guy is already in your home looking for you, and or a family member. Now you can grab your shotgun and fire a warning shot like Mr. Biden suggested, or you can call 911 and try to stay alive while the cop finishes eating dinner, or writing up that guy that was going 5 miles over the speed limit, or investigating a domestic disturbance or; you can pick up your gun, that you know how to use and save the taxpayers some money, and your life!. The simple truth is that the cops will get there in time to write up the incident (most of the time.) What will they be writing up? If you have a gun that Matthew Mcconaughey and other liberal silver screen people (who have guns and body guards) think that you don’t need, or should not have, they hopefully will be writing up that there is either an injured or dead person that was attempting a break in, which needs to be dealt with.

When the people that you love from the silver screen come out and advocate for this or that or for some candidate remember that you have no idea who that person is, or what they are about. I loved Ed Asner. Did I really? Lou Grant, Mary Tyler Moore and even the bumbling news anchor Ted Baxter. Those are the people I loved, to watch.

Ed’s philosophy and activist rolls he has taken are diametrically opposite of mine in every way. This man believes that we took down the Twin Towers. When he talks in public do you see him as the lovable, intelligent all knowing news editor, Lou Grant?

Mr. Obama seems like a real nice person. I am certain that I could be friends with him but, as president I could not agree with his politics. With him, I learned and embraced the word “Feckless.” That is a terrible thing to have to admit and relate to a sitting president. I thought that Jimmy Carter would go down in history as the worst president ever, I think he got spared that title. I think President Obama’s ideology is flawed beyond repair. I do believe that he believes that what he is doing is good. This is the classic Ivory tower syndrome. Cake is not bread Mr. President. People need a hand up, not a hand out, Mr. President. With your approval rating so low, how about stop governing by the damned polls and just do the right thing. Stop leading from the rear! If you are lost; call me. I don’t have a red phone but I am certain that your guys can find my number. I am not a yes man and will tell you like it is! I am older than you; and I probably know more history than you do. I have run a company and I know how balance a budget, I do like it when you don’t have the teleprompter, when you talk and it is from you, and not half a dozen script writers.

Did I say script?

Yes, Script, only Mr. Obama does not memorize it, he simply reads it. His wife has aspirations of being on the silver screen too, as she has been in at least one show that I saw; Parks and Recs. She is pretty and has the right connections, so who knows.

I am unsure what drives people to want to be on the silver screen in the first place; I suspect narcissism but, psychology is not my main interest. This country is!

I dislike the process of politics. What kind of life is it where one begs for money and votes the entire time that they are in the public eye? No damned wonder nothing gets done in Washington, they are too busy setting things up for their next election!

Things need to change so these guys can actually get some work done.

I have some ideas that would fix it and guess what, they are from history and some are simply common sense which, we as a nation seem to be short of these days!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing! Scene 5 of Macbeth, if memory serves…

-Best

Vote!

This time of year is rife with ads on TV and Radio telling you how awful the other guy is.

Here is the truth about those ads; for the most part they are all lies. There may be a smidgen of truth in them but for the most part they are complete fabrications designed to either get you to vote for their person, or to become so disgusted with the “process” that you simply stay home.

It is an easy decision to stay home, no lines, not having to think about who is really the best, or care. Many will take that route and than bitch about the outcome. When it turns into a decision between the “lesser of two evils” they have done their job!

Someone released a plea from a former state representative to vote for their democratic candidate, or simply stay home. This is ludicrous, and anyone asking you not to vote should throw a “red flag;” telling you that they are spewing utter BS!

It is your civic duty to vote! Just like Jury Duty is a civic duty, so it voting. Not only is voting a civic duty, it is a privilege that many died for you to have.

When folks are desperate they run horrible ads slamming the other guy.

While I would really like to see a debate or political discussion, where each side offered solutions and not simply bad mouthed the other guy; I don’t think it will happen.

Why, because they are politicians and for the most part don’t really give a damned about your problems. They may tell you that they do, but they don’t. They may start out by caring about your problems but once they start selling their soul to get money for the election, they only keep their eye on the prize, power!

Politics is all about controlling the narrative. The Press Secretary Josh Earnest and others are spin doctors whose sole job is to control the narrative. The truth never enters into the equation, unless of course it serves the agenda at hand. These folks are professional liars. Sound Jaded? Not really, been around long enough to realize that this is what it is about. This is the “process,” that Obama said sometime “gets messy.”

Ron Klain is the new Ebola CZAR. One would think that he would be a medical guru! Nope, not at all. He knows nothing about medical things, he is a political strategist and is there to “control the narrative.” His sole job is to make sure that anyone from the white house or under this administration that talks about Ebola only says things that are approved “spun” by him, to fit an agenda. The agenda may be as benign as to control panic, or as malevolent to buck common sense and keep the flights coming and going from Ebola ravaged countries. Either way you can not believe anything that this administration says about this as it has proven time and time again that they don’t have your best interest at heart! The last argument made against stopping the flights was that stopping the flights might damage these third world economies, as they are fragile!

I don’t know how or if Ebola will fit into this 2014 vote but it might. Anyone that says we should not have commercial flights going to or from those places should be in the “vote for” category.

So, when you vote consider this, we have their record to look at, and that is what you should be thinking about when you step into the booth. Vote on their record, their character, and if they represent what you believe.

Obama should never have won. Had people not been so elated about voting in a Black Man they might have looked at his record better. The narrative of Obama was scrubbed, sealed and spun away! He was distanced from his former radical pastor who married them, his affiliation with Bill Ayers (the self proclaimed terrorist and his abysmal voting record of his short time in the senate, “present.” His school records were even sealed! Someone had been grooming him for this and it would really be nice to know who he really answers to as it is not the people. Who is the puppet master?

Move-ON.org is up to its tricks again using George Soros’s money to scare the undecided and independents to vote for liberal candidates.

The last 6 years is an example of liberal thinking; do you want more of that? While Obama is not on the ticket, all of his policies are!

There is no war on women, it is a complete fabrication. It is easy to sell because they appeal to what, emotions! Women and men think differently and most women that I know start a conversation with “I feel..,” well men start it with “logically…” I can manipulate women much easier than men, and the spin doctors know how to do this all too well! Of course this is not all women but the voting block as a whole is enough. Simply tell them that men want to control their ovaries and they will vote for the devil. If you watched the DNC when Ms Fluke got up and gave her contrived speech, the audience was comprised of mostly women who appeared hypnotized or somnambulistic. Some women voted for Obama because he is good looking…according to polls.

Before you write me and call me a sexist, or a misogynist, take a breath and read everything. I am most certainly non-of-those things! I have a huge respect for diversity, intelligence and anyone that thinks outside the box even just a little. I have studied too many of these topics and I know how this stuff works. Politicians spin the facts in such a way to manipulate everyone! Why else can you be anti Gay marriage in one location, and pro-gay marriage in another? Same person, same political affiliations just a different message for a different group. The more you know about yourself and the facts, the less easily you can be manipulated. The easiest and most simply way to manipulate you is through your emotions. Women are generally more emotional than men. If I tell you that there is a war on women and I make up some facts, a large percentage of women that read those facts will buy into them. Hopefully more of them might say Bullshit, and look a little harder. It is kind of like all of those things that people pass around via e-mail or Facebook that is complete Shit! When you send them the SNOPES link with the article I often wonder if I offend them. That is certainly not my intention but, my god folks, use your heads.

Just for the record, Snopes is run by a couple in California which may or may not be biased. Don’t stop your investigation with snopes.

Before Obama we were fine with racial relations, not great but we did not have polar bear hunting, and now we do. By the way, where the hell is Al Sharpton and Rev Jackson on this? They are all up in arms when a thug gets shot but; when innocent old white guys are beat up or killed because they are white, nothing! I would have a whole lot more respect for these two if they would denounce all violence! Before Obama the Ferguson debacle would not have had the focus of the world, would certainly not been talked about at the United Nations and we certainly would not have sent several White House representatives to a THUGS funeral. As the facts are trickling out we are learning more and more that the cop was justified. The local mob is calling for vigilantism. Sharpton and company stirred this pot; they need to stop it! If anything goes wrong and they do nothing to prevent it, I would hope that the folks wronged would get litigious in a hurry! We are a nation of laws, this is not the wild west!

“If you don’t want to get shot, don’t screw around with COPS!” I am not saying they are perfect but, for the most part you have to have something going for you to even want that job. All cops should have a body camera that is on when they are on the clock! I would like to see a bill written and passed to that effect. When cameras are on, people seem a little more civil.

No one will ever do anything with the Tax Code, because it is the government’s way of controlling the masses. It makes for great talking points and distractions from the real issues but if a candidate is talking about it, it is a distraction. The Tax Code consist of several thousand pages of code which force anyone making more than minimum wage to seek the advice of a tax service, or a CPA. “The Tax code is written for people of means, by people of means, and and by no means written for the masses, you and I.”

Minimum wage laws will be bandied about by the democrats to entice young voters to vote for the “liberal agenda” because young people have yet to have enough life experience to see that it is all smoke and mirrors, and that nobody should be depending upon starter jobs “minimum wage” for a living wage. If you are, you are doing something wrong.

Public Pensions will be of interest as many States who have pensions for their retirees that are very generous, will run out of funding and bankruptcy will most certainly follow. Will we bail them out on the tax payer dime? If democrats control things, probably!

Immigration needs to be looked at very carefully. Many states are experimenting with laws that allow undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school to receive in-state tuition to public schools on the tax payer dime. As far as natural born folks, you know Americans; you still have to pay as well as pay for theirs. This will be a topic of discussion / debate that will certainly pass, if your state turns blue. This thinking has also caused lawmakers to think about granting drivers licenses to undocumented people. WTF? I am surprised that we don’t take out advertising on their television stations telling them about how great it is over here, and how we love to pay for everything! Come on down, or up!

Nothing could be further from the truth! We are paying for education for them, and I am guessing that if they stay undocumented and we educate them then we have smarter slaves! More workers equal guess what, lower wages for everyone! Yeah, that is what you want right? Not only do you too get lower wages, you still have to pay for your college tuition. GO Blue!

47 million folks are living below the federal poverty line and one section of government wants to get them back to work and the other, wants to figure out creative ways to help them, financially. That is 47 million votes, paid for by tax payer dollars! Who says you cant buy an election?

People need a hand up, not a hand out! Democrats are hurting them and one day, when the printing press stops, there will be utter chaos in the streets as those that are sitting home watching cable TV, playing video games while you are out busting your butt working two part time jobs to make ends meet, run out of money. Stores will not take IOU’s and when the cable, electricity, and free phone stop working; it will end up being some sort of Racial thing where the fat white man is to blame. Of course we know that it is the food stamp president who is doing this but when the feces hits the rotating oscillator it will be someone else’s fault…Bush…yeah he takes the blame for everything!

This administration has built its key economic strategies around transportation and infrastructure but has kept its level of funding stagnant. States are looking at this as a possible state issue, dealing with it at that level. Look for bonds and or taxes to pay for this; as the feds have failed. Personally, I think that there will be more toll roads which amounts to hidden taxes into perpetuity! .

Drones will be part of the politics in the future as the laws around them will most certainly benefit the government and not the public. This is a topic for you the voter to watch carefully as your rights to privacy among other things, may be on the line. Make certain that you know how your candidate feels about this issue.

Abortion, the war on women, which is really a war on babies, should not be addressed at a federal level but each state should handle this. This is not a one size fits all solution but, the pendulum has swayed too far in the liberal direction and needs some correcting. Look for more scare tactics in the 2014 and 2016 elections. I look for this to be really blown out of proportion if Hillary runs. When topics appeal to your emotions you are being manipulated and politicians are expert manipulators! They actually have people who have degrees in how to manipulate you. Isn’t that nice?

Fracking is a topic which should be addressed at the ballot box. I am certain that the public is being kept in the dark regarding full disclosure, and the public is not sharing in the rewards, only in the possible hazards. If for instance there is an earth quake in an area of the world that has never had them, and houses are damaged the “frackers” will say, it was a coincidence and leave you to fix your house yourself; and by the way,” some states don’t sell earth quake insurance as they don’t have earth quakes. I would argue that the “frackers” should be on the hook for paying for earth quake insurance at the very least, or be on the hook for any damage caused by an earthquake in areas which are not prone to such events. Either way a bill should be drafted and language to this effect should be included before Fracking is allowed. In that same bill I would push for more transparency as we really don’t have a clue what they are pumping into the ground and if it will have an affect on drinking water. Again I would call for civilian over-site.

The border should be in this list as there are more issues with this than ever before. For some reason the government does not really want to close it as, more potential voters are crossing it every day! Never mind the fact that we have people from countries that mean us harm also crossing that same border. Never mind that if Ebola gets loose down south that they too will cross that border in droves; this is simply a common sense problem that no one wants to take care of! Democrats want the voters, and Republicans want the cheap labor, slaves! We need to wise-up and close the damned border! Maybe it is time for an independent to run.

Privacy is a concern to most voters so make certain that you are up on how your candidate feels about such things. Since the end of GW Bush and all of Obama’s reign, our privacy has been under assault. From porn scanners, to searches without warrants to phone taps as well as data mining. Technology is such that drones can peer into your open window and count your freckles from over a mile away! Satellite technology is also intrusive. Electronic surveillance is easier than ever before. Your movements tracked, your picture taken, your transactions tracked just because they can. We really need a technology expert who is on the side of the public. You are no doubt thinking that our government should be doing that, better stop voting for the progressives if you want a government that actually respects the constitution and ah, works for you, and not against you!

One outfit that I know of just released a hand held device that can see in the dark. This device also has thermal imaging as well as infrared, and can not only record what it sees, it has a super sensitive microphone so audio can be recorded as well. This device will end up in the hands of anyone with money to purchase it, and certainly into the hands of police. If used for “lawful” purposes, that is ok but, I must confess, listening to the police on the scanner, I am not ready to surrender my worries about these guys as they can get full of themselves fairly easily. You know this to be true as you see it every day, even if you don’t listen in on them via a scanner.

How many times a week during your commute, are you passed by a cop who is speeding, for no apparent reason? Many I suspect but, if you passed them, you would have a ticket to contend with. We really need to be careful who gets what technology and how it is used. Get a police scanner and learn what your servants are up to.

Just like we need term limits, we really need civilian over-site of the government, and local municipalities. Lets see some politician float that bill!

I am very much against voting party. These guys are all politicians and they switch the R and or the D to match their demographics. Progressives can wear either shirt, and that is who you don’t want to vote for. Vote for those who are for smaller government which protect the country, your rights, stand by the constitution, and create an atmosphere that is friendly to business. Before you “pull the lever,” make certain that their track record matches that.

I realize what I am asking. Put it this way, if the ballots were fill in the blank, less then one tenth of all ballots cast would be valid. By fill in the blank I mean that nobody was coaching you once you were inside the building, no signs or cheat sheets. Even if it were multiple guess, if you threw in two bogus names like Humphrey Bogart and Carry Grant would you care to guess who would get the most votes! Yep, dead guys! That my friends is why we are in the mess than we are in. That is APATHY! Apathy combined with ignorance is a really bad combination!

You have seen what voting the party gets; now we need to do it better.

-Best