Category: communication

Nobody Wins

We live in a world today that is much more hostile than yesterday, “speaking figuratively.”

We have an economy that is literally based on a house of cards for a foundation. The Feds are printing $40B a month ($1.1trillion a year) saturating our economy, devaluing our currency with every dollar that they print. With oil based on the US dollar, is it any wonder why gas cost so much? The “booming economy” is most certainly the same today as the dot com fiasco of a few years ago, when Enron was in the news.

We are not the only country playing this game, others including China are as well.

The economy is based on fabrications and we might as well try and spend monopoly money as that is what your greenback may very well look like in the not too distant future.

Those who survive this will most likely be that small subset of humanity who “lives off the grid” as it were. The people who live in the inner cities and who depend on the government for their existence will be in trouble when this house of cards falls. The Farmers in this country and others may survive as they know how to live without going to the local grocery store every other day for something. They also see the inside of a restaurant far less than the folks in the inner city as they simply don’t enjoy the disposable income that others do. When the bible talks about the meek inheriting the earth, one can’t help but wonder if he is talking about the farmers.

On top of the shaky economy we have small countries with the keys to Nukes! There are no winners if someone drops a nuke. Our defenses have most certainly been hardened to sustain an EMP, and a retaliation of biblical proportions would most certainly follow.

This exchange would involve other nations who have nukes as they will have certainly picked a side. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” While I have full confidence in the American Military and their ability to intercept any missile headed this way; the following actions would have serious repercussions worldwide.

Any exchange of missiles with the US would not only devastate the offending country (s); I am certain it would also trigger an economic meltdown worldwide. Everyone looses. Never mind the radiation that would be released to poison every man women and child in the entire world, as well the animals and vegetation.

I can visualize that last man standing, holding the key to a spent nuke, standing next to the shell of building, scorched from fire, with dead creatures and plant life all around him, with radioactive ash falling from the sky, declaring victory; as the blisters from radiation sickness bubble up on his body. We are truly that foolish! Nobody Wins!

When E=MC2 was discovered, Einstein wrote an impassioned letter to the president urging him not to use the bomb. That letter and is German heritage earned him a one way ticket out of the program. Oppenhiemer and others took over, and of course the rest is history. A nuclear device of a relatively low efficiency was created and dropped on our enemy, twice. If those were of a low efficiency, can you imagine what is around today?

An alliance of the superpowers is critical to keeping the peace, and our current administration does not seem to embrace that. Foreign policy is critical at this stage of the “game.” America needs to sort out who its friends are relatively quickly, and form that alliance that was so strong under previous administrations.

In retrospect, what is important to you? Is having a lot of money in the bank important? Is having a lot of gold in some small vault in your house important? What about food, water and guns? Add whisky and cigarettes to the food and water and you may have something. Why? That may very well be the new currency, if this comes down badly. Keep a good supply of your personal medications on hand; several days if not weeks of fresh water, and having some gas stored somewhere may not be a bad idea either. If they are that stupid to launch nukes, it really doesn’t make much difference. There will be no survivors, other than the cockroach. Mutually assured destruction, either by nukes or the economy or both; is not a cheery outcome.

While it is my fervent prayer that no one is stupid enough to pull the trigger, North Korea continues to be very provocative in its talks with media and other news outlets. Today they gave the Brits till the 10^th to get out of their country. What will be the spark?

-Best to you and those that you care about!

Technology, the Good the Bad and the Ugly

As someone who makes a living either by designing systems or complete data centers or managing or servicing same, I probably am more in tune with technology than the normal folk. That is not bragging, it is simply stating facts.

The other day while I was in the super market, upon checking out there was two long lines, waiting to check out. Employees could be seen wandering by, looking at the lines and then continuing on their way. This was a major chain grocery store.

The longest line was for the automated kiosk. As there were long lines of folks with overflowing carts at the one “regular” cashier I opted for the kiosk.

While I could go on about how we are loosing touch with our customers using things like kiosk, and lets face it the internet; kiosk in a grocery store are a mistake. While waiting my turn to “check out” , there was one middle aged lady wondering around from kiosk to kiosk, as the red light on top of each one blinked on a few second apart. That is not fair to the customer and certainly a terrible job for the lady. I personally vote with my feet.

There are too many different items and some are not even in the system. When the normal cashier has to obtain help, “price check” what do they expect us to do? “They” don’t care. They are saving the salaries of 4 employees, while getting you to do their work.

Other technology which is problematic is automated machines that call you. It is bad enough to call a company and have to “listen closely to our menu as our menu items have changed.” Weaving my way through automated machines or IVR’s, when I need customer service, just adds gasoline to the fire; and I install this stuff!

Now we have a constant stream of calls on a daily basis from an automated outgoing IVR trying to sell us something or “hold on for an important message!” The only positive to this is; I don’t really feel so bad hanging up on a machine. The problem with hanging up is that it simply puts your number back into the queue and calls you another time.

Technology replaces people, workers. There is a glut of un-employed people in this country and there is a plethora of new technology taking their place. While no businessman starts a business because he wants to employ people; employees are a necessary “evil,” or are they?

Technology also strips away our rights as citizens to expect some modicum of privacy. From backscatter radiation machines at the airport removing your clothes, to the “no warrant needed” to be wire tapped by just about anyone that wants to.

Some graduating high school kids ask me what I thought they should major in. I pointed them towards the medical field as I don’t see a kiosk doing this. There are of course in the works ways to contact a doctor over “Skype” or other such network. There is no telling what part of the world the call will go and as far as privacy, who knows. How does a doctor from 3000 miles away palpate your abdomen?

Lastly, I want to touch briefly on Drones. I find it inconceivable that we can be watched in more places than ever before. Cameras at every street corner with facial biometric ability to track whoever “they” want to is a little spooky. Law enforcement with remote control drones that they can fly over any place that they deem of interest and “look” down as to the goings on, possibly in your back yard or through your window.

It is not just law enforcement that has these but private citizens have them as well. Currently they are a bit pricey but as the technology becomes more accessible, the prices will come down enough so eventually the pimple faced kid next door will have the ability to fly a camera outside your window, or over your pool.

There are cameras on these drones that have such a high rate of magnification, they can see into your open window from blocks away and tell how many freckles you have on your bottom. There are also FLIR “infrared” cameras that can see heat signatures so you are not even safe to skinny dip in the dark of night!

Google has already proven that you really have no right to expect privacy in your own back yard as the satellite views of neighborhoods and so forth have been littered with people nude sunbathing.

Military drones are equipped with technology that from 17,500 feet can tell what kind, and color of the clothes that you are wearing. The drones for “use over the US,” are to be equipped with technology to tell if you are armed or, electronic surveillance of your cell phone.

If one wanted to get “off the grid” as it were, one would have to live like a caveman with no technology what so ever. Maybe we should find the Sasquatch and find out how they do it.

We are an overly litigious society and perhaps this is one law suite that needs to be fought, if for no other reason than to shine the spot light on a situation that is quickly coming upon us and will get out of hand in no time. I happen to believe that you do have a right to privacy in your home, your back yard, and if you own a lot of land, there too. Law abiding citizens should not have to worry about this sort of thing. I also happen to believe that any branch of law enforcement should be required to obtain a warrant before any type of wire tap, or flying some sort of camera over or around your property. We live in a new age and Orwell may have just missed it by thirty years.

-Best to you and those that you care about.

We The People, Man or Sheep and God?

Pondering that phrase for just a moment, one has to ask; just who are these “we the people?”

In order to answer that simple question, one must first know the person in the mirror, who are you? What do you stand for “if anything?” Why do you stand for that? What do you believe and more importantly, why do you believe it?

Frequently I ask people who profess a belief in God, why do you believe that there is a god? (Hint: I just do, is not an answer.)

The issue at the heart of the matter is simply this, if you cannot articulate why you believe in what you believe in, you can be easily manipulated. In fact, if you are a religious person and your faith is not grounded on solid principles and facts, and your understanding of scripture vs what someone tells you; When you most need it, it may not be there. When something happens to shake it, it could very well be shaken! Know why you believe what you believe.

When I ask the simple question “why”, it pisses people off. Why is this person a perfect candidate for this office over that guy? Mostly their answer is curt and they cannot respond intelligently; because there is no intelligent answer. They have chosen a team whether it be red or blue and the rest of the reasons be damned! That line of thinking has us $16 Trillion in debt and climbing!

Since we the people are a competitive lot, we are being played by those who understand who you are, better than you do. They understand how to play to your emotions, instead of your logic. If they played to your logic, they would loose as that would make you think. They would prefer that you don’t think. (Just drink your beer and watch your sitcoms and of course your Football, leave running “ruining” the country to us!)

They win by playing to your emotions and they do that by pointing out all that is wrong with the world and convince “we the people”, that it is the other guys fault. Which of course is not true; truth be known, it is the fault of a flawed system, and an apathetic country that has a broken “give a damn.”

So here is your challenge; next time one of your friends tells you how great their guy is, ask them why do they think that. Avoid getting excited, avoid profanity and finger pointing. Calmly and rationally ask, “Why do you think that?” The odds are good that they will not know why, and dismiss you as a trouble maker or use the phrase “we should not discuss politics, women’s-lib or religion,” as those subjects are too volatile. Note that I used women’s lib, as that was the phrase back then in the day, when this phrase was crafted, the real issue should be abortion.

The reason I want you to ask why is this, if enough people ask why, a small percentage of those asked may actually “think.” If enough people “think,” this country would be a much better place, and I for one want to leave it better than I found it. Don’t you?

These topics should be debated in the open and frequently. If we as a people cannot have an open discourse on these topics, we are doomed as a people. Why, because we can be manipulated. If these topics are used to scare people, “manipulate through fear,” than the assholes win!” If we openly and honestly discuss these topics with logic, rather than emotion, it is like turning the light on in an otherwise darkened room to prove to your child that there really is no monster under the bed. If we understand the topics and deal with them then “they” loose power over us.

Gay marriage is another hot button to manipulate the masses, and race is another. Don’t buy in to the company line, it is crap! Most people don’t give a dam about gay or straight. Love is great wherever you find it. Just don’t do it in my living room! A straight couple would use discretion and so should you. And race, Holy crap that issue died in the 60’s. The only people screaming about race are the black activist and certain Hollywood self-appointed assholes! This country needs someone to heal it, not to further divide it, stop with the race bating! I would hazard a guess that the largest racists out there are the ones screaming the loudest! Tune those assholes out too! Do not give them power over you! They don’t disserve it.

Don’t let small minded people stir the pot or have power over you. The majority of American’s are not racist, and are in fact ok with the issues talked about. Are there a few who have issues, certainly, but they are their issues, not yours. Don’t marry their crap! Don’t buy into the left’s rhetoric to scare the masses; it is simply that, crap!

There truly is a war on babies not only in this country, but in the whole of the world. Some babies are killed because they happen to be “a girl.” Some are killed because they would be an inconvenience, and still yet others are killed because the person had unprotected sex and is a child herself and does not want mommy and daddy to know that their little girl did the nasty with Bobby down the street. News flash, your parents were kids once and most probably made similar mistakes. (Have you ever done the math as to how old you are vs. how long mommy and daddy have been married? Oh wait, they don’t teach math anymore.)

I digress, Mistakes are a human condition, killing your baby is a mistake that will haunt you. You will have to live with your actions, for convenience sake, for the rest of your days, which would be far worse than telling your parents that you made a booboo albeit a big one. The guilt will either consume you and drive you to seek therapy for ever,( which is not cheap) or you will rationalize your actions away, several times a day until you build a habit of rationalizing that, and other bad behaviors as “ok.” The hard thing to do is often the right thing. Besides, your parent’s look of disappointment will disappear when the grandchild is born. They would have to be monsters if there were any other reaction. Parents love (or should love) their children unconditionally. If we were “persona non grata” for screwing up as a child, than maybe CPS is a better option.

Instead of throwing millions of tax dollars at planned parenthood (a baby killing machine,) maybe we should invest in a CPS type related business that provide safe places for mommies who made a mistake, and who happen to have the misfortune of having monsters for parents.

It is time that we should discuss these topics; we should debate them on their merits. They should not be political fodder as they currently are; they should be something that each state deals with through their constituents and the democratic process.

The issue with this is that each of these topics are so emotionally charged! That is why they are perfect tools for manipulating you. We need to shine the light on them, one by one and remove the emotional element from it and see it for what it is. It is only than can common sense be applied.

As children, we are manipulated by our emotions by our parents, teachers and other authority figures. Guilt, fear and the promise of reward, will manipulate most people. “If you do that you will get spanked, if I do this I will get candy!” “If you don’t go to bed, Santa will know it and will not bring you presents!” If you speed you will get a ticket. If you drink and drive you will go to jail (which you should,) and if you sin, you will go to hell for all eternity! Really? Do they ever stop manipulating you? Once you understand how you are manipulated guess what, you take the control away from them. And how do they control you again….”right, through your emotions.”

BTW any Christian should know that we are saved through the Grace of God, Jesus died for your and my sins and knowing this and confessing this will most certainly save you from that toasty place dreamed up by Dante.

Some religions/churches manipulate you in this fashion. When the coffers are lean they preach this.. Malachi 3:8 – Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.. Then it becomes time to guilt you, or play to your compassion for the starving kids in the Congo, help pay for someone’s kid that wants to go on some mission trip to the UK, as there are evidently no Christians there. This fund or that fund is getting low, please pray about it, and see what “god” calls you to do.

Last time I prayed about it, I distinctly heard a voice telling me to get money up for a mission trip to Hawaii, as the surfers there evidently really need to hear the word… Yeah right….

“Free advice here; before you go to church, write the check for the basket. Then leave the checkbook at home.” If you are like most people, donations are a budgeted item, and we are charged to be good stewards of our money, that includes what we give to charity. Don’t be guilted into giving more than you can afford. People are human, and without realizing what they are doing, will manipulate you through any means to reach a desired outcome, even if it is into your pocket book, leaving you in a bind. If your preacher or church has a habit of doing this, find another church. The preacher man is no closer to God than you are. He is in fact no more perfect than you are. He has studied the bible more than you, perhaps, understand church doctrine better than you, “perhaps,” but his prayers do not get to God any faster than yours. He in fact has no direct line to his Holiness! He is simply a man and he puts his pants on one leg at a time just as you do. You can respect him as your spiritual leader, but do not worship him, and realize that he has flaws, warts and an ego. There are more than enough tools out there to understand scripture yourself, look for the truth for yourself! One question you may want to ask your preacher, rabbi or what have you is… , you guessed it “why?” Why did you become a preacher, etc….

Some will say that they were called, but I find that answer too easy. Something else happened in their life somewhere in the past that led them here, which is ok; it is just one more way that one should know themselves. If I am to trust this man with shepherding me spiritually; I really need to know that he knows himself. Once you know who you are, than and only than can you be honest with yourself; and others. Honesty and Truth are two valuable commodities that are far too scarce in this world.

One of my pet peeves is going into a sanctuary, trying to get into the right frame of mind and spy on the wall one of those large thermometers made out of paper, with $$ signs on it. We are this close to our goal…. I am reminded of Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers and I too, develop righteous anger, and I depart! The sanctuary is just that, a sanctuary from the trappings of this world, and should not be a place of worldly things…in this case money! Money is nothing more than a tool, and end to a means. If your church is about money well, you should probably find another church. The only way to change bad behavior is not to accept it, or acknowledge it. Vote with your feet!

The truth can be daunting; it may not be what you expected. One must not look for the truth already “knowing what the truth is” but understand that it could be something totally different than what you expect. Use the scientific method, build a hypothesis from what you know, and what others may tell you; and then seek to prove it. Whatever it turns out to be, embrace it and move on.

C.S. Lewis set out to prove that there was no god. Through the process, he found God and is now one of the heroes of the faith! I can’t say this enough, Seek the truth!

Know why you believe what you believe. Find the truth and embrace it, no matter what the truth is. Remember that the “truth has no agenda, people usually do.”

-Best to you and those that you care about!

Big Red Button or Time to Panic!

Nothing says “push me” like a big red button. One of the office supply stores even created a big red button that says “EASY” on it, to advertise how they can simplify your work life.

One of the data centers that I was responsible for had such a button. It was covered with a little plastic rectangular box that said “emergency shut off” on it.

I have been in many data centers during my career. There were several that had a big red button by the door with it sole purpose to release the magnetic latch on the door, to open it.

Like any other location, security in a data center is paramount. Not only are network security firewalls and such important but physical security as well. Only those who needed access to the data center, could access it with their security card. Not even the CEO had access as he did not need it. Their entrance was logged and in fact throughout the building one could forensically track any employee’s movements as this card was necessary to gain access to just about anywhere. With the technology available today, I could design such a better system, but that is beyond the scope of this document.

One day, a vendor was visiting with a proposed solution to a problem. Like any other vendor, if access to the data center is required, they are escorted at all times by one of, if not more of my staff or me. The data center was in the middle of a retrofit and redesign while keeping the company running in parallel. (This is much like changing the tires on a race car while it is moving down the track.) On their way out of the data center, just as quickly as anything, the sales guy in front reaches up to the left of the door pops the cover open and pushes the big red button! By the time that the sound of “NO” had left my lips, there was an eerie quite in the room.

The chain of events that this action triggered, were phenomenal. Lights went off, the air handling unit went off, the Battery back-ups clicked on and for the moment; it looked as though the carefully engineered back-up power supplies were working. I should mention that the look on this guys face was priceless, and I am just about certain that he had to change his shorts afterwards. It dawned on me that no one had tested this button, and nobody knew where all of the circuit breakers were; well almost no one. As I was the one that specified the power requirements for this data center and oversaw the installation of the new transformer, I knew where the main breaker was. Within moments I had most of the power back on however; there was one legacy system that was still not on main power.

In another closet in another part of the building were still more circuits for this room. I did not have a key to this and getting building maintenance involved was time consuming as they typically think like union employees; (don’t care if the place is on fire, when it is time for a break, they take it.) Before the UPS was totally drained for that system I had gained access to that closet and found one tripped breaker.

I had inherited a mess of a data center that was put together on a shoestring budget. Not because the company could not afford to do it right, their boss was cheap beyond reason. They had cut corners at every place they could, including splicing old type 3 wires to cat 5 wires and running 16mg token ring over it. They could not understand why 5250 and 3270 traffic would constantly be garbled and why connections to the server would be dropped frequently. When I say spliced, I literally mean wires twisted together and a wad of electrical tape stuffed in the wall and or ceiling. (Another story)

It did not take me long to get that circuit changed over and documented with everything else. I also got to check off the list “test emergency shut down.”

Moral of the story; if you have a big red button, find a time to test it. Secondly make certain that the button is labeled in big white letters on a red sign etc EMERGENCY SHUT OFF!

I am a stickler for documentation, which IT personnel are loath to do. A living document should exist within each and every company that explains the ins and outs of everything, so if need be, someone else can take over. It is part of the audit process for a disaster recovery plan and is one of the deliverable s.

-Best to you and all those that you care about!

Customer Service

Customer Service

Throughout my history as a business professional, one of the things that I have to offer consistently is superior customer service. Think about this; when someone calls me they are in a fix as something is broken. There are a myriad of emotions in play from anxiety to anger.

As the guy who is going to take care of all of their problems the first thing that I have to do is understand where they are coming from. Then listen to them and take notes. This helps me to remember the points of the discussion and if in front of the customer, it helps them to calm down as they see me doing something.

These are some of the things that I would make sure my technicians carried with them into the field.

I truly believe that we as a country are drifting away from giving a damn about clients. It is almost like we are the post office or the phone company; we are all that there is so we just don’t care about your problems. But wait! We are not all that there is. The phone company has competition as does the USPS. Granted e-mail, FedX and UPS, are not the end all of competition, but it is a start. Vonage and Magic Jack to name two, are good alternatives and much less expensive then the phone company, not to mention the cell phone.

Competition drives us to be good at what we do, and that includes customer service.

Exploring new shopping places as I like to do from time to time, I had occasion to shop at a place called Central Market. http://www.centralmarket.com The layout of the store was well thought out. There were people who came up from time to time to see if I needed any help and here is the biggie; they not only bagged my groceries but they carried them out to the car and put them into the car for me. When I tried to give the guy a tip, he refused it politely! While their prices are a little higher than that of Wal-Mart, or Kroger, the service was excellent and the choices were fresh and plentiful. With people offering help that cut down on my time in the store and time is money!

A lot of you are most likely not old enough to have ever purchased gasoline where it was pumped for you by a friendly attendant. While they were filling your car up, they would wash your windshield, check your oil, and other fluids and check the air in your tires. At the end of the transaction you might get “green stamps” or even a dish or other some such give-away as a token of their appreciation for doing business with them. While I too am not old enough for this to have happened to me; I do remember vividly this very transaction process with my parents. I also remember how nice they were and how they really seemed to appreciate the business.

In stark contrast today, if you do need anything other than what you can do outside at the pump, there is a strong likelihood that the person behind the counter will speak limited English and really wont give a damn if you like the product or not.

I was in a Kroger a few years ago when they first put in the self-checkout machine. I was appalled by this for several reasons. First, I want that little bit of customer service when I patronize a store. Secondly, those kiosks hardly ever work flawlessly and unless you are only buying a handful of items, they are a pain the rear. Lastly and this is the part that I really wanted to drive home, these things are taking jobs away. I remember that night vibrantly as not one checker was at his post. When I found someone he directed me to the self-checkout. I told him that either he checked me out or he could put all of the groceries in my cart back from where they came! Begrudgingly he went to his register and checked me out! What an idiot, a lazy star-studded blazing example of the entitled society that we have raised! Not only did he not want to do his job, he was trying his best for me to do his job and was incensed when I called him on his attitude.

I think we need to vote with our feet or in this case, with your pocket-book. I will happily pay a little more for a little extra service. I actually like to be told to have a nice day! Do you really feel appreciated when a machine says thank you on the screen?

The world in which we live changes daily; some of those changes are for the better; and some not so much. Society needs to dictate to the business world, what is acceptable and what is not. Like sheep we all too often simply roll with it. We forget however that we are the boss. I have to provide superior customer service to keep my customers coming back time after time. We the consumer should expect that and demand that from the different vendors that we frequent. You do that in a myriad of different ways but the best way; the way that they will listen to, is to spend your money where you get the best value for it, including customer service.

If there are places that you like to shop because of the customer service, send a message and I will post it. Consumers need a bill of rights, not only when they are flying but when they are spending their hard-earned money on anything from products, service or otherwise.

-Best to you and those that you care about.

Scam of The Day!

Scam of the day!

Every day someone somewhere tries to embezzle money from someone. If not some Nigerian trying to get your bank account number so they can give you free money, than someone somewhere through e-mail tries to get the unsuspecting, to click on a link that is not what they think it is.

Through the years I have received e-mails from all sorts of alleged government agencies telling me that I need to click here to resolve some complaint.

If you have a business like I do, and you have a website, you are more vulnerably because you are more visible.

As I have explained to people for years, the government would not contact you via e-mail. Still I get computers in here that have been infected by someone clicking before thinking.

Today I got a rather unique e-mail from PayPal or so it would seem.

Looking at the e-mail notification one thing pops out at me immediately in that, it is flagged urgent. PayPal does not flag things as urgent. The perpetrator of this hoax wants to get my attention. Secondly I have set up rules which automatically move certain e-mails from certain people. Upon receipt they are put into a specified folder arranged by who they are and where the e-mail is from. This was my second clue that something was amiss, as this was in my Inbox, not in the folder where it should be. So why didn’t the rule work, it was not from PayPal.

Looking at the e-mail itself, it looks fairly normal at first glance. Notice it says that I sent $149 dollars for a watch to someone on eBay and that the shipping address is somewhere in New York.

I do purchase things on eBay, as do a lot of people, and it would not be unlike me to buy a watch for a $149. Firstly, I did not buy a watch so now I am looking at this e-mail a little more closely and see that it is to be shipped to someone in New York!

Someone not paying too much attention to this would quickly see the link that offers you “dispute resolution” and then click upon it. That is the gotcha and most likely the intent of this ruse. They want you to click on the link. Hovering over the link you will quickly notice that it does not go to PayPal or eBay.

Looking at the link, I really have no idea where it would take me or what it would do to my computer, if anything. The trick here is not to be a victim of some nefarious person or people. It may very well be a link to some website that tries to sell you something and they are driving traffic to it by disreputable means. It could however be a link to some site which will infect your computer with some type of Trojan or malware or both.

One other trick that I will share with you is this. As well as having good anti-virus software running and updated at all times, have a user account set up that does not allow administrative privileges on your machine. Use that account for your normal daily computer use and only use the administrative account when adding or changing hardware and or software on your computer. The virus and or malware may very well be limited to whatever rights that the user that got it, has. If the user has no rights to modify the way a program behaves, the virus might be limited to those rights as well.

Remember that not all anti-virus software will protect you from all attempts to hijack your computer. Not all viruses are created equally. The more sophisticated the virus, the more intelligence or (computer smarts) on the part of the user is necessary.

-Best to you and those that you care about!

Did you really want that raise?

Did you really want that raise?

Whenever your company ends its fiscal year; a few months before that your boss’s boss will request budgetary needs for the next fiscal year. After your boss justifies and negotiates those needs he or she will receive some sort of dollars in the form of a budget to work with but, probably not what she was asking for. In that request will be money for salaries including raises and bonuses. Many times, the budget may include things like square footage that your department occupies with a cost per square footage. This even includes a share of the light bill, telephone, software and computer cost.

There is also something called the “burden.” Simply put your salary not only includes what you take home but what the company has to pay in taxes on your behalf, as well as insurance of different kinds, social security and yes the square footage of your cube or office.

I know one large company that has its workers telecommute a few days each week and two people share one desk when they are in the office. And by a desk I mean a very small cube. The proximity to one another is so close that a flatulent individual could take out half the team! In all seriousness, someone coming to work ill could easily affect the whole team.

Companies live or die by their Profit and loss statements or P&L. Where the government simply prints more money, ( I use the post office as an example currently $15.9 billion deficit) a real company has to sell its products and or services at a high enough profit to stay in business and to pay you the employee, keep the lights on, the rent paid and afford to pay for the supplies to continue to produce whatever it is that your company does.

Companies have a set range of what they will pay for whatever your title is. Once you start making too much (generally from longevity,) you pop up on the radar screen. While the scale is a sliding scale it does not slide as much as inflation. In the information technology industry the window actually went down over the last few years because of outsourcing “cheaper labor” and H1B workers who are brought in by the tens of thousands.

Lobbyist petition the government to allow more and more H1B workers into the country each year as their mantra is “that no one in the US can do the job.” That is not true and any visit to a job fair will wake up those who pettifog the H1B issue. There will be thousands of people waiting in line to submit their resume’s for a half dozen jobs. If the lobbyist were truthful they would say that there is no one in the country who is willing to go from a six figure salary to $30K per year. That is not even a true statement however as I have met many X programmers and IT types who are working at the hardware store and yes Wallmart for less than $10 an hour. As far as business is concerned, people are expendable.

The review is a tool.

This tool in the most esoteric of realities is a dialogue between you and your boss. The review is designed to point out areas that need improvement, areas where you are meeting expectations and areas of excellence. This is also the time that expectations are set for the next year. The review is written in such a way as to assign some subjective quantitative assignment to you, rating you as a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1to 5. If there is vertical growth potential or you are the Green Lantern or Wonder Women, than you may get a 4 or 5.

One of my bosses’s had a personal philosophy that there should be some 1’s or 2’s on everyone’s review as “no one is perfect!” That was the most abhorrent, vile, disgusting flagrant use of the review as a tool; to screw people out of a decent raise. To take a nit and make more out of it than it, for the sole purpose of lowering ones overall score is simply wrong! But, people do it.

Your survival at any company requires you to do whatever it takes to move up into that next pay grade. If you don’t or there is not a place to move up to, your time will be limited to how much you make and how valuable you are to that company at that pay range.

There is something called a KPA or Key Personnel Assessment. Some larger companies will hire outside firms to audit their payroll and personnel, make recommendation and then out of the blue announce a layoff of several hundred to several thousand employees. If you have been in your job for many years and have not moved up and are not Superman or Wonder Women; you should be dusting off your CV. If you are outside that range, your boss has to justify your existence to his boss who does not know you from Adam, or care. It is kind of like buying a shirt at Wall Mart vs. Dillard’s; same shirt, same brand same quality just half the price.

The only way that you want to be on any radar screen is, because you are a super hero!

His boss will take a more pragmatic approach to your employment. If he can replace you with a young college kid or someone from another country on an H1-B that can be hired at significant cost savings; you will need to find a new gig. At the end of the day it is about the bottom line, what you bring to the table every day vs. how cheaply you can be replaced.

We as humans take this personally. I don’t know how you could not take it personally especially with men. There is a difference between the sexes other than the obvious. Men identify who they are with what they do. If you are the type of person who will do what it takes to get the job done, sacrificing your personal life for the company, a lay off will affect you more than an hourly person who simply puts widget A on block B for 8 hours. I am not saying that they won’t be affected; it just will not be like the former example.

When you get your review and you know that you have busted your hump and your review is loaded with criticisms, get out your CV as you have reached that glass ceiling and are no longer a “good deal.”

I was once asked if I would take a lump sum bonus instead of a raise. That should have been a huge clue.

I used to have to re-write my reviews for my people often and make them worse than what they were as my boss wanted to use that money for other people and or things. My department was not valued as highly as the programmers. Foolishly, his logic was that programmers create and are therefore “creating a product.” The support staff is simply a necessary evil. Since their programs were not for sale; just part of the infrastructure they were of no more value than the people who network everything and keep it going.

The moral of this story is; if you get a 2% raise, simply thank them, turn around and leave their office showing as little emotion as possible and be thankful that you were not one of the people getting let go, or riffed.

At the same time, if you have been there for several years, shopping the job market would be a good idea. It is much easier to get a job if you are working. The simple facts are that you get the best deal when you negotiate up front; during the hiring process. Once after you are “one of the staff” you become just a cog in the machine. While I realize that this sounds a little de-humanizing; one should never expect to get the jollies at work. Few people really enjoy what they do for a living. If you wake up in the morning and spring out of bed and cant wait to get to work because you love what you do that much, you are in the minority. They exist and I know people like that however; the majority just goes through the motions. –Best to you and those that you care about!

Paper vs. Plastic

Paper vs. Plastic

No, not a blog about re-cycling, this is a one sided conversation…well observation really on who we are as a people.

At lunch today my normal routine is to flip out a credit card (plastic) but, I decided to use “real dollars” instead. When you hand over the plastic it does not really bother you that you just dumped $30 on lunch and another $6 on a tip. When you hand over cash however; the reality of what you are spending hits home a little faster.

Years ago I took my child to be entertained at a place called Dave and Busters. I still remember vividly how this resembled a small casino complete with the noises and sounds. If you have been you know what I am talking about. If you have not been, the place is an arcade/entertainment establishment geared to getting into your wallet in a big way.

When you go you “charge” one of their credit cards with one of your credit cards (or cash) and then give it to your child to go insert it into a machine and be entertained. The reward for the child is that the machine spits out reams of paper tickets that one redeems at the end of their day for small toys straight from China. The better you are at the game the more tickets you get. Yes, there are lights that blink and noises from the machine add to the excitement but the bottom line is that, Pavlov had nothing on these people.

Some children quickly accept the reward to play scenario and manage to use all of the “real money” on their card rather quickly in return for a fistful of tickets. A quick visit to the place where you exchange your tickets for toys somehow actually teaches the dimmest of children the rudimentary mechanics of math. I need this much for that and I have this much, how much more do I need? Since the real money on the card came from your wallet, not theirs, the concept of spending $100 on an item worth $1.50; simply does not compute. You may rationalize that they had a good time but, the model of using plastic for goods and or services works.

The moral of this story is this; give your credit card a break. Go by the ATM and put $$ in your wallet or purse. Only use those $$ for goods and or services. The paper that you hand to someone is a real good reality check for anyone, including me. The miles as rewards or the cash back as rewards will be better spent once you (and I) get acquainted with paper and coins once again. –Best to you and all those that you care about.

Which Anti Virus Software is the Best?

Selecting an anti virus software today is like trying to look at a watermelon in the store and telling how it is going to taste without opening it up. This is also the question that I get asked most frequently.

Not all software is the same and that holds true with the virus itself.

When I evaluate anti virus software I look for several things. Firstly what can I find in the way of reviews on the internet? Try to find independent reviews vs. going to their website.

Amazon frequently has reviews of products.

From a technical stand point I want to know what size footprint it has. When I say footprint I want to know how much of my available memory is it going to chew up and I want to know how much CPU is it going to use. There are several anti virus software’s out there that literally will stop you from using your machine while they scan, update etc. Ideally this type of software should run at a lower priority when you need the resources of your machine. To me there is nothing more frustrating than needing to check your e-mail and the anti virus software among other software takes over your machine for the first 30 minutes doing updates, scans and what have you.

Here is the biggie, will it catch everything?

Sadly there is no silver bullet. Some software makers have a lot of resources to pour into updates and research as well as the ability to quickly push out updates to their customers on an as needed basis. Software like Trend Micro has an easy way to upload suspicious files for them to analyze.

Another thing to look at with software is technical support. How much will you need, what do people say about their support and how much will it cost?

I have been in IT since before there were viruses. I fought the first virus which got out onto our network of several hundred employees through a shared file brought in by an employee on a floppy disk. I say that to set the stage for the different iterations of anti virus software out there. The first company on the scene was McAfee. PcTools was picked up by Symantic and over the last few years there have been many players enter into the game.

My personal favorite as of this moment is EsetNode32. That could change tomorrow as they may rest on their laurels or have a policy change of some sort which would affect the quality of their product. That is the same for all companies.

I see a lot of computers that have been infiltrated. While they all have some sort of protection, free software seems the most susceptible to attacks, MailWare and other forms of infections.

While free is better than none, I would certainly budget anti virus software into my computer needs.

TIP: Go to the store and purchase it in the box vs. getting it online. Do this even for the renewal. One can almost always find it on sale going to the office supply store or even Wal-Mart. Purchasing it online usually involves a third party which makes money off of the sale as well. You pay a price for convenience and it could be as much as 100% more than you would pay in the store. In the below URL’s you can gain quick access to the different brands that I am personally familiar with. Several ranking sites will rank these differently so do your research and roll the dice.

This blog in no way constitutes any type or warrantee or guarantee of usability or protection against the hackers either expressed or implied. While I have had good fortune with Eset, your mileage may vary and I will be held harmless, in the event that your results are not what mine have been.

What you do on the internet and who sends you e-mail may put your computer in less risk or more risk than me. There are independent labs out there that evaluate different software so you might search them out as well. The trick is make sure that they are independent and do not have any dog in the fight. The problem there however is obvious; if they don’t have a dog in the fight, why do the work and give it away? Do your own research. Consumer reports frequently look at this topic as well.

http://www.eset.com/us/

http://shop.trendmicro.com/brand/SB/?cm_mmc=Paid+Search:US-_-Consumer:Brand-_-Google:TrendMicroExact-_-KW=trend+micro&SQ=trend+micro

http://www.bitdefender.com

http://norton.symantec.com/norton/ps/3up_us_en_navnis360_sym_ent.html?om_sem_cid=hho_sem_sy:us:ggs:sy:e|kw0000006084|10257754940&country=US

http://promos.mcafee.com/offer.aspx?id=469920&affid=792&eid=covmcaggl89400000194617s&adid=17846076983&s_kwcid=TC|16933|mcafee||S|e|17846076983

http://usa.kaspersky.com/?domain=kaspersky.com

http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

http://www.avast.com/en-us/index

-Best and Happy Computing

Information Technology then and now

Information Technology then and now.

Having started in this industry when IBM Selectrics were the only game in town, I have seen many things come to pass. I have witnessed the end of Greg Shorthand to dictating equipment to word processors and finally executives typing out their own letters and e-mails.

Back not so long ago an executive would dictate a letter to a secretary who would go type it up and return it to his inbox for his approval. During this process he would change something and she would once again type it up and return it to his inbox. This process could take the entire day to generate one letter.

The dictation machine came about; and the secretary with Greg shorthand know how, turned into a secretarial pool where somewhere in a smoke-filled room several typists, typed letters and submitted them in similar fashion. The letter would be accompanied by the tape or in the early days a “dictabelt” or even a wax cylinder.

In the late 70s the word processor came about in the form of a typewriter that could save the keystrokes to a magnetic card. When the letter came back for revisions the card would be placed into the slot on this huge box that sat on the floor next to the typewriter and the typist would hit “play” and the typewriter would come to life regurgitating the keystrokes until she got to the part that needed to be changed.

It wasn’t too long after that the true word processor was born in that there was a green screen and one typed much like I am doing now. Editing was not near as simple as this, but it was a huge step up from the manual typewriter.

Before Bill Gates and Steve Job were household names, Xerox, IBM, and Burroughs, not to forget Unisys, Pitney Bows, and Wang, were the big boys.

No one expected that college kids in a garage with a rudimentary understanding of business would revolutionize the world with what we have today.

I met Steve Jobs while working for a company that had one of his creations for computers. The NEXT computer which was a UNIX based computer that had a GUI that was semi user-friendly. The cases to these computers for whatever reason were crafted from magnesium and shaped like a pizza box or a Borg Cube however; the wiring of them regarding the keyboard and mouse are very similar to what apple is today. Little did I appreciate at the time the man who started out his career as a techno-criminal by phone freaking, would be responsible for my Smartphone and my beloved iPad. For this alone I am eternally grateful.

As technology is an ever changing target the personnel also have to be malleable and willing to learn, grow and in some cases leave.

After I placed a pc on one secretaries desk and after she had been to training I walked by her one day to see her making a spreadsheet with a ruler and paper. The PC and Lotus and the secretary were not working well together.

Technology is one part of the equation when it comes to business. Finding and keeping the proper people is a challenge that can make any CEO’s head spin.

Through the years a niche market evolved from the early days of Novell. Novell was one of the leading networking companies long before Bill Gates came up with a server OS. I have worked with their products since ver 1.X.

Novell made a good name for itself early on. They came up with the idea to “certify” hardware for their product. The manufacturers of hardware would submit their hardware to Novell and pay them to evaluate their hardware and then put the “Novell stamp of approval” on it, which of course drove the price of their equipment up and made their equipment more in demand.

It wasn’t long after that, they came up with the idea of “certifying” people. This certification process begat a whole new industry across the entire technological spectrum; the training and testing and certifying of people.

The problems with this are many, and the industry is fraught with deception. Many people can take a test but cannot physically do the job. Technology is forever changing which requires ongoing certification classes or CEC. The cost is very high and the certification may be short-lived.

It did not take me long as I started making my way through the classes and certification process to figure out that this was simply a way for Novell and others to make yet more money. In fact today there are certifications for damned near anything and everything. The industry standard as a whole is some sort of certification.

While this may give a hiring manager some quantitative measuring stick to know if John Doe is who he wants to hire as a technologist; myself as a hiring manager, I can tell you that certifications were the last thing that I looked at. As I worked my way up from the lowly support person to Director Level, I could and can speak intelligently about technology and I can tell if someone is full of….well crap.

The classes and certifications are so expensive that very few people will invest their own money to get them. That means that some company paid for them. Again as technology changes the weight of their certification looses validity much like a new car looses value, once you drive it off the showroom floor or in the case of technology, the next day.

Years ago I interviewed for company for a project management position. I could talk about projects and milestones and task and deliverables all day long; without that certification this guy was not interested. My guess is that he had no idea what a project manager was and the certification was the thing that would do his job for him. Keep in mind that I had been doing this before there was a class and the PMP certification did not exists. I could in fact write a book on it. I was doing this before Microsoft ever thought of MS Project.

When I hired project managers I would ask them to tell me about a project that they had done and I would look for certain details. The certification was superfluous to me. Can they do the job? Can they tell me how they can tell the health of their project. Can they articulate themselves well, verbally as well as in writing? Do they work well with others?

Personnel can make or break a company. As a troubleshooter not only do I have to determine if the technology is the right fit for the business but, I often have to figure out if this person is the best fit for this position at that company. The problems are indicative of the industry. As the technology increases or evolves the personnel must change with it, and in fact embrace change because that is what this industry is, “change”. Information technology is a very fluid dynamic field. Unlike history or geology, computer science changes with the next program or hardware modification.

One of the issues that I see often is that the higher up the food chain, the more the person in that position does not fit. When one gets up into the management area where titles are involved, the duties and responsibilities seem blurred. When there is a failure, the high up individual always seems to have a way to have a subordinate fall on their sword rather than owning up to the fact the he or she is at fault and may need training, be repositioned within the organization or retire. I knew this as the “Peter Principle.” Simply stated, as one stays within a company long enough he or she is promoted to a place where they can no longer function, as their skill set or intelligence is lacking.

One way to flesh this out is to insist on a root cause analysis of the failure. Truthfully this should be done every time that there is a failure so future failures can be avoided. Obtaining clients is an uphill battle, loosing them over an unnecessary screw up is simply not acceptable.

Too seldom will one ever see a CIO take responsibility for his lack of knowledge or forethought as his own ego will not permit him or her admit that, they may be the problem.

Teaching people to own their mess ups is something that we have lost with this new generation of kids coming fresh out of college and expecting a corner office.

I have worked for many CIO’s that were more interested in the bottom line than their job. My guess is that their boss had incented them to save money so their actions were predicated on not what is best for the company necessarily but what do I have to do to meet my budget or come in under; so I get my bonus. This is often done at the expense of the company and or personnel. So in that light, I have decided to define what a CIO is. See how closely this matches how you define your CIO or if you are one, does this fit?

One of the CIO’s that I know about did not even have a computer at home and when PDA’s were making the scene and everyone had one, he still used a pocket notebook. This man was the very personification of Scrooge and had no business in that position, but like his boss they were both cheap to a fault and would look for ways to save a dime while costing the company thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Why, lost productivity is not quantifiable if they never recognized it in the first place. If on the other hand they had it and one removed it, than they would understand; much like cutting the internet off after they had incorporated it into their business model. This is a serious lack of vision.

So here is my definition of what a CIO is.

A Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for providing the leadership, management and strategic technological direction that will enable the company to achieve its business objectives in a competitive environment. The CIO drives technology enabled innovation to improve the company’s performance and competitive advantage. The CIO champions innovation initiatives through a demonstrated ability to creatively apply emerging technologies to mature business processes in order to improve business performance. The CIO must strengthen the company’s core enterprise technological capabilities and leverage the expertise of third party suppliers and partners. The CIO should work closely with customers, partners, colleagues and other stakeholders to identify and maximize innovative opportunities to use technology to improve business processes and optimize performance.

While having a keen understanding of the business, the CIO should be able to sell his or her ideas to the board of directors, CEO and CFO explaining what the ROI is as well as the TCO.

In short the CIO must be a well-informed technologist with a good understanding of the business model as well as others in that industry and must be plugged into what is current and emerging in the market place to know when and what to explore.

In 30 years of Information Technology I have known one such person. The rest were neither capable nor qualified to be where they were, they simply had good people around them or they were there because they knew someone. While there is something to be said for surrounding yourself with people smarter than you are, the sad truth is if they are doing your job, than they are not doing theirs.

We live in an ever evolving world where technology is involved. There is a term called LOAR. LOAR stands for Law of Accelerated Returns. Technology does not evolve linearly; in fact it evolves logarithmically meaning that it builds upon itself. In the early 80’s we had a CPU that ran at 4.7 MHz and now 33 short years later we have laptops with multiple core CPU’s running 3 or more Gigahertz or GHz! The technology in our smart phone is far superior to all of the technology that went to the moon in the 60’s! In a few years your computer or smart phone may guess what you want to look up or what you want to do and start the process before you tell it to. Advances in the next few years will be amazing and frightening at the same time; there is no going back. Much like Pandora, once the box is opened we deal with what comes out.

One of the things that I happen to be very good at is going into a company which is having some sort of issues and fixing it.

As a troubleshooter, I often have to go into a company and look at how they are doing business. What is their infrastructure like? Were best practice standards followed then and now? Is there a living document that defines all that is? Has someone like a programmer, been promoted into some management role when they have little or no management expertise? (That is a common one) What does your disaster recovery plan look like? When was it last tested?

This is a very small example of the things that I look for. When my deliverable (report) is examined by the principles of the company there is often to borrow a term from Bush II “shock and aw”.

Few CEO’s have any idea how tenuous a foundation that their data center is built on. Why, because they trust their CIO and ignorance is bliss. Even the most astute CIO should have his data center, processes and procedures, looked over by an outside entity that has no dog in the fight. An outside firm simply looks at what you are doing, how and why and balances that against best practice techniques. These things often turn up in disaster recovery exercises which turn out to be a lot of ad-hoc work. The company is better for it and it gives them some metric to measure their staff against.

While the word “Audit” dredges up some scary moments and thoughts the CEO should demand it!

The odds are good that the CEO and above consider information technology a necessary evil. While it is most likely a cost center, the principles of the company would be wise to understand that without it for three days, the company may very well cease to exist! The marriage of technology and business is here to stay. While the romanticized idea of a young pretty secretary taking short hand has some appeal, those days like the typewriter are gone. With the evolution of sexual harassment rules and the overly litigious nature of things today, this is probably not a bad thing. CEO’s should look at technology and those who maintain it as partners, because they are.

-Best