Ethernet – TheTimeDok

I find myself between contracts on occasion. If there were something, that is a good match for my skills and talents, I would love the opportunity to speak with them or you about it.

As a seasoned professional, I bring many things to the table.

If I had a nickel for every time someone would ask me, “I got this C:\> on my screen, what do I do now?” Family is the worst, you cant charge them!

I started working with computers when DOS was in its infancy; nobody knew who Bill Gates was and Wang, IBM and Xerox were the major players with Atari, Tandy and the Commodore PET was in vogue for the affluent home user.

DysanRemovableDiskPack.agr.jpg — Early hard drive which had to be in a really cool room. The media was removable, the heads would stay inside the machine.

Steve Jobs had just stopped being a criminal with his phone freaking hardware, but still was a nobody, while building the first apple in his garage.

GU.SteveJobs.9.3.15.jpg — Alex Gibney’s newest documentary, “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine,” chronicles the famed Apple founder. Courtesy photo

BBS’s or Bulletin Boards hanging off a POTS line at 300baud were the standard. 1200 baud was certainly not common as some were still using acoustical modems.

Al Gore had not invented the internet yet…

Truthfully I think he had something to do with legislation allowing the public access to it. Somehow it got conflated with him as the inventor.

Main Frames were what most companies used complete with water-cooling.

Networks went from different coaxial types for the physical layer. Arc net was the least expensive, Ethernet was still in the works, and Token ring, IBM’s idea was the standard; but few could afford it.

Starting on the ground floor of this industry, leaving a rather successful career in electronics was a valuable experience for me.

Witnessing the demise of the typewriter, dictation equipment, Gregg Shorthand and the secretarial pool replaced with high-powered laptops and smartphones has been quite the thing to see.

Yes, I actually worked on these…Mylar belts were the media.

The cost of one business letter in the 70’s was well over $100 in 1970’s dollars. Today a quick e-mail re-defined the way we communicate. In today’s 2016 dollar, that is $627.38…

If you do not believe me about the price of a business letter, ask me about it. I was there.

The first virus I fought was before there was anti-virus software. The cleverest virus I fought was the “pong” virus. Modeled after the Pong game, one would be working in some program and a ball resembling the ball in pong would appear. As it struck a character, the character would fall to the bottom of the screen. This of course was destroying your document but at least you had some entertainment while it did it.

Moving from the XT Based 8086 systems in the late 70’s up to the recent, has been a nice ride and I have enjoyed being part of that evolution. As hardware hits the brick walls of physics and bigger better faster slows down, software must carry the advancements forward until such a time that chip manufacturers figure out how to get more speed and throughput maximizing everything from RAM to video and disc performance. Embracing advancements while constantly positioning the company strategically ahead of the curve, but not on the bleeding edge is my long-standing history.

Once included in your world, seamlessly; I will become part of that world knowing your business and how technology fits.

Every part works in concert to fulfill its intended purpose. Employees must necessarily “fit.”

While focusing more on business applications vs wiz bang hardware, I specialize in providing an ROI to the people who have to pay for it. Is this technology necessary? How will it help? Will it prepare me to transition in the future?

Spending much of my life with technology, I have run a business now for the last 10 years providing ad-hoc IT services, while performing disaster recovery services.

My specialties include, but are not are limited to:

Over 30 years hands-on IT projects.
Over 15 years in Management.
Data Center design and installation
Power
Placement
Controls
HVAC
Fire retardant
ADA compliance
Security design and audits
Physical security design
Disaster Recovery
Best Practice
Business Acumen
Compliance issues with SOX or other regulations, as the need requires.
Visionary and forward “out of the box” thinker.
Troubleshooter

From the desktop to the cloud, I have it covered.

Some of the typical calls I receive while on site.

The internet is slow.
The server crashes.
We think we might have a virus.
This computer cant “see” the printer.
I don’t know what we have?
I thought we paid for that software?
Somehow this computer got hacked.
Cant get on the Internet..

If these sound familiar the underlying causes may surprise you.

Through best practice, a complete inventory of your hardware and software it usually does not take long to figure out why?

Lack of documentation is generally the common denominator.

From a startup that just needs things set up right the first time, to a company that let some family member set it up, and now needs help, I am your person. No sugar coating…

This letter is meant for those of you who see my profile on Linked in and wonder if I am available. Drop me a note, I might be!

Unlike others who will blow smoke, I will not. If you are seeking a trip to the moon with funding for the carnival, I will tell you. If I cannot help you, I will not waste your time. I know many people in the industry, I might simply refer you.

As someone who has written many job descriptions, hired and let go more than I care to think about, I am a tried and tested realist. I find options for you, and then you decide.

-Best

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!

TheTimeDok

Dear #CEO #Recruiter #LinkedIn

Big Red Button or Time to Panic!