Tag: Money

Telecommuting: Good or Bad?

While I am certain that in some cases allowing an employee to work from home would work, I believe that we may be taking it too far.

Recently I was doing business with my bank and had to be transferred to a specialist. “Due to the overwhelming response all agents are busy, please hang on.”

After about five minutes of being on hold the phone is finally answered. The girl that handled the call was somewhat disorganized and I know this as she ask me for the same information several times as she most likely was stalling while she got to the right screen or possibly off of Facebook.

Between the pauses I could hear a baby crying in the background. I am not sure that allowing people to work at home with many distractions is a good idea however; commercial offices are sold or rented by the square foot. The amount each department is charged is allocated by the square footage that they occupy. Electricity used is divided up the same way. I.e. if sales uses X square footage and accounting uses X and IT uses X that is all split up so the bean counters can accurately assess the cost for each department or cost center.

Many companies are trying to cut cost by having people share a desk, meaning that they work from home so many days, then the other person works from home. Personally I think this idea is really poor as your phone, keyboard and lets face it; every surface is a harbor for germs. The phone especially as it is close to your nose and mouth. In this day of bacteria and viruses that are mutating and becoming resistant to the antibiotics that we have, I don’t think it a good idea to provide yet another way to transfer them.

So what kinds of folks could work from home? I think people who are self starters. There are folks out there who look forward to Monday. I know this as I am one of them. While most can’t wait for Friday to roll around I am one that looks at the clock not to see how much more time that I must endure but, how little time I have left to complete what I wanted to get done that day.

That is a self starter. That person could work out of their car or where ever. My office was the airplane and airport for years.

I mention this as I doubt that the bank had an excessive surge of calls today and I doubt that the cable company does every time that I call etc. While some of this may be to understaffing I suspect some of this is people being distracted at a home office.

Customer service is part of your brand much like the poor customer service at HP is iconic of what not to do and has been immortalized in shows like Big Bang and of course the ever famous YouTube video where the Marine shoots his printer with an automatic weapon, as his HP support was so bad.

Whether your company is public or private you must protect your brand. Think carefully about where your employees do their job and what kinds of employees are able to work from home.

Think really hard about outsourcing your customer service to “Peggy!”

-Best to you and those that you care about!

Disaster Avoidance

Consulting as a Disaster Recovery Specialist, I often find things that need to be changed to avoid a disaster, much like a loose rug over a threshold or too many things plugged into one circuit; which would be an issue in your home. In the business world it comes down to security issues both IT related and physical, as well as simple things like a lack of fire extinguishers or the wrong type of fire retardant system in the computer room. I am trained to notice the smallest of details including things like cable management issues.

When Best Practice scenarios are not followed by sys-admins or networking guru’s, they too trigger red flags. There is an art to designing data centers. I have designed and built many over the last 30 years complete from the ground up; from air handling to power requirements to working with ADA compliance issues. I have designed cable management for many companies that include the MDF and IDF’s and working with building management to handle communication through multiple story buildings making sure that they pass fire code. You would be amazed at how many data centers that I walk into that are under wired, lack proper air handling and have a sprinkler head above the equipment! The cable management looks like Spiderman installed it, nothing is labeled, and there is absolutely not one shred of documentation. And the boss / owner is oblivious to the immanent disaster, as he thinks his guys are pretty good!

When business’s start up, often times they don’t contact the brightest and best to build it as they are on a tight budget. When I am called, their data center is generally a candidate for one of those web sites that post “what not to do.” The exercise of unraveling the Gordian knot comes into play before anything can be changed. Many times a family friend is called to assist or the business owner has a home network and thinks that a business network is no different.

When these knots are constructed; most if not always there is limited or no documentation and the original creator has long since abandoned ship as he undoubtedly realized the ice berg ahead was not too far off. To that end there are many land mines that have to be discovered and diffused. This practice is akin to changing the tires on a racecar, while it is going down the track, and part of that track is in no mans land! The catch 22 is that no business can afford down time but, if they don’t address the issues they will have un-planned down time! Un-planned is always much longer than planned, and always more expensive!

As an SME on this and many subjects regarding IT, I can offer many things to mitigate any issues and put them on a road to setting things right. Whether that is working with their current IT staff, or bringing in hired guns to knock it out quickly!

The business must be willing to want to change, and have Executive buy-in as well as buy-in from the local staff. The process can take weeks to months depending upon the situation; but after it is all said and done, procedures and processes are put into place to keep up with change.

Some policies addressed are Change Management, Incident analysis; complete with root cause analysis, documentation with the introduction of the concept of a living document. The run book, what is it and how does it work? Testing the Disaster Recovery plan and then implementing changes from things learned. Other topics include SAM (software asset management,) and of course hardware management including lifecycle, and the budget process.

All too often the CFO or CEO is told that IT needs X thousands of dollars for this, that, or the other thing; not because it is a new project but because something failed! With proper asset management this can be mitigated greatly and things can be budgeted for.

Much like any other audit, I don’t guarantee anything will be pleasant other than the knowledge that when it is done you will have the documentation you need, your network will be running at peak efficiency and it will be secure. Depending upon your growth and company needs, a design can be implemented to make sure your data network is robust enough to handle changes and or growth!

The last thing that I can address for you is personnel. As a manager of and director of IT for 2 decades I know people. I know who is right for a job and who is not. If that type of expertise is needed; look no further.

-Best

“Schools are a pipeline to prison.”

Those words were spoken by our not so illustrious AG, not so long ago. I don’t know where this man got his degree but, I firmly suspect it came out of a package with a little blue man with a dog by his side as the logo.

The problems in our society are not a mystery as to how they happened and the “fix” is really not that esoteric either. The simple facts are that there is no easy fix.

To repair the problem one first has to identify where the problems started and reverse the trend. Any pilot knows that when you get into trouble or off course or what have you the first thing is not some knee jerk response but, slow small course corrections.

It still boggles my mind that we are where we are at and the AG makes such a lame statement on national TV. The answer he says is to “give minorities a pass. Don’t correct them as harshly as you would someone who is not a minority.”

There are two basic problems. The breakdown of the family unit, (no dad around) and the schools have been neutered by those that feel that grading with red pens or reprimanding children or heaven forbid, spanking a child is just simply not done! You might damage their self esteem! The parents have gone as crazy by giving into their children’s empty threats of “give me my way or I will hurt myself, I will cut my self and then you will be sorry!” “Oh ok honey, here is your iPhone back and I have upped your data plan, please don’t hurt yourself.” Kids have taken “I will hold my breath” one step further to cutting or worse. If they do this parents, they need more help than you can give them with your parenting skills, seek help!

Consistent boundary setting is a lost concept today. “Explain to the “child” I really wish you wouldn’t do that because there will be consequences to your actions if you do but, that is your decision. I am keeping the phone for X weeks as I told you, because you did not do what you were supposed to….”

When you set their expectation that “if they do or don’t do” as the case may be the consequence will be X,Y,or Z than you must follow through each and every time.

The legal system is real good about setting boundaries for all of us in that if we speed, and get caught, we will get a ticket which cost us money, time and yes it could be embarrassing.

When I was in school if we did something that was even slightly egregious, it usually meant a visit to the dean, coach or principal which usually ended up with a few swats and depending upon the offence, may be followed up with after school detention.

If you check the charts of people in prison in this country today you will see that there is a direct correlation between that rise in prison population and this drive to neuter the teachers from disciplining your child! There are 2.2 million people in prison in the US, 75K from non-violent drug offenses. If you could do the math you would quickly see that we have made an industry out of housing inmates!

Let’s take that one step further, of the people that are currently on the government dole, how many of them could have benefited from a little “course correction” in school? There is such a thing as character, and I think that between missing dad’s or sperm donors; and the lack of programs for young people and quite frankly the “Stuff” that these teachers are forced to teach, you have the elements for the perfect storm of mediocrity and or “failure as a people.”

For instance, if we could re-direct some of that money currently going out to welfare or to house prisoners and put it towards the space program, we no doubt would have people living on MARS by now. Instead we have to waste our precious resources housing prisoners and paying people not to work.

How about educating those “Americans” that would like to learn, before worrying about educating illegal aliens? This is not a diatribe against Hispanics or others who come here to have a better life; it is however a statement that those that are here “legally” should have fist shot and not the other way around as we are currently doing in Texas and Mr. Christie is proposing doing!

The goal of school is to turn out taxpayers. School by definition is part of the process and tax payers invest in you, your children and so forth in hopes that you will be a productive citizen. While I doubt few get up in the morning and say, “today I want to be a better criminal,” there are probably some who do, and that is a real loss, not only for them but for all of society.

Give the schools the power to discipline all children equally. That means make the course correction in a way that will get through to that child. If the consequence is embarrassing and painful enough, the odds of the kid doing something to earn it again are much lower than if you simply throw them onto the street! You were right about one thing MR AG… We need to show these kids that “we do love them and care for them, and one way you do that is by not sparing the rod!”

The numbers don’t lie and I am aghast that no one has put it together and done something about it. So get out those red pens teachers! Not everyone wins a trophy and some need to see a big red “F” to get their attention. No child needs to be on the street or swept aside in some “program” that is indeed a pathway to prison. Make some course corrections before it gets that far. How about spending some of that money allocated for “prisons” on programs aimed at working with those families with “no dad at home.”

It is not rocket science MR Holder but, if we would take some steps now, just maybe we could get to teaching “rocket science” instead of “how to look innocent in a lineup.” What kids see at home today they will no doubt re-peat in their lives thus adding to the already growing prison populations, broken families and homes and “Detroits,” all over America! Stop the madness!

Happy 2014!

The case of the password vs insanity.

We have all heard that the definition of insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. This was not lost on me when recently my password on my home PC was no longer accepted.

Imagine logging in to your own PC, that no one else touches, and the password no longer works.

I cannot tell you how many times that I tried the password that I know that it is supposed to be, and then doubting my sanity, trying every other password that it might be “just in case I changed it” without remembering I did.

The only reason there was a smidgeon of a doubt is that recently Yahoo forced me to change my password. They would accept nothing less than a strong password which by the way is so strong that I have trouble typing it while looking at it, and there is not a chance of remembering it.

No longer are the days of the family pet or address or birthday acceptable as passwords. Imagine having to type a password like this T4^s#hg^9? every time you logged on to your computer!

While the home PC’s password was not quite this strong, there is more than room for error. This led to a rather frustrating afternoon as one might guess.

The trouble shooting process was difficult as Windows allows little room for error and certainly not much for diagnostics. My first guess was the keyboard had to be messing up in some way so I changed the batteries. When that did not bear fruit I hooked up a hard wired keyboard to the USB port and still nothing. “Incorrect login name or password.”

Google produced nothing relevant other than an ad for some company that sells some software to recover your password. Microsoft was no help. If I were in a decision making role at Microsoft I would make some sort of option on the login screen that would allow for one to make certain that their keyboard is typing the correct letter and that the caps is on or off. Wireless keyboards don’t have any LED on them to tell you about “num lock” or shift lock and , the screen was not giving me any hint of this either although it normally would.

Windows 7 offers a way to reset the password, but you have to plan for it first and oh yes, it requires the “A drive, a floppy.” This too needs to be re-thought as few computers today have a floppy drive.

Somewhere in the process of trying to boot into safe mode I get an error that says “keyboard failure.”

At this point I try the wired keyboard into several different USB ports with the same results. I then installed a usb card thinking that maybe that would work, nope same results.

I could do things in Bios but not in Windows. The thing that would have helped is a way to check the keyboard, in Bios. My guess is that Bios is not as picky about what it sees from the keyboard and since you are only using limited keyboard functions, curser movements, enter and tab, one would not have guessed that the USB was having issues.

I just happen to own another machine of identical configuration, so a swap of the hardrive to the other machine rendered a machine that worked with my password that worked all along.

I can only conclude that there is an issue with the USB controller on the motherboard.

I am considering clearing out the Bios on the old board and trying a re-install of the software just to see if that fixes it. There may also be some sort of update from Dell for that Bios.

For you hardware junkies out there, this is probably standard fare. While I could have purchased a new machine for the $$ wasted in time to diagnose this, I have a new found empathy towards those who just use the machine and have no clue how it works.

Can you imagine Joe Q User out there that really looks for the “any key” having an issue like this?

If I was frustrated (and I have been at this when DOS 1 was new,) I cannot even fathom what something like this would be like for others who have less experience than I.

I hope that this helps someone somewhere possibly saving some time and frustration as this type of bugaboo should not happen.

Best to you and those that you care about!

Disasters Big and Small

As a Disaster Recovery Specialist, I walk into many companies that are one step away from disaster. Some of them have been living on a wing and a prayer for a long time and are absolutely oblivious to the precipice on which they are perched.

One of the largest challenges one faces in this line of work are people. By that I mean more specifically egos. People are threatened by someone that “knows more than they do.”

Let me tell you a secret. This is a Jack Palance type secret, (from City Slickers) “This is the one thing” that will save your keister as well as change your attitude.

I worked for a man who owned this business that was very successful. I was a young guy fresh out of school and this guy saw something in me that I remember to this day. As time passed he took me under his wing and helped me knock some of the rough edges off of my “perception” of the world as it was. He took me out one day to JC Penny and had some sales clerk measure me for a suite and then he picked out a couple of them. We went to the shirts and he purchased a few of them right down to the shoes. While these were not super expensive, they were not cheap and his generosity never escaped me. The only thing that he did not replace were my shorts! Some might have taken offence to this but I am no creature of fad or style and while I would not qualify for a candidate on “what not to wear,” I did know that style was not my strong suite. “Knowing your limitations” is good advice, but not the secret.

Later he had me take over the service manager position in one of his branches which came with a company car and credit card. This was before the tax laws changed. He told me to use the car as I wished and if I took it on vacation to at least “pay for some of the gas myself.” He took me over to the office which was a good drive from the Dallas office. He regaled me with stories of advertisement and marketing. He told me the story of the sign with the waterfall on it by downtown Dallas. Back then it was a Pearl Beer sign. This man was pretty close to deaf. He was from Georgia and his accent was still very thick. It turns out that he was a tank commander in WWII. He told me that the secret to survival is to “surround yourself with smart people.” That not only applies to war, but business and oh yes, life in general. If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people smarter than yourself and learn to humble yourself. It is only by this step of humbling yourself will you realize the advantage of being around these people. I have never forgotten this and to this day I still practice this.

I offer this advice to all IT people in that “you are not the end all be all.” You cannot know it all even though you think that you do. We become focused on what interest us and then the rest of technology passes us by. Learn to control your ego for it is your enemy. No doubt you have heard the phrase “you are your own worst enemy.” Think of the truth of this statement and then marry it, own it and then change it. When someone starts talking to you about something which you think you know about and you feel that “anxiousness” start to well up inside, recognize this for what it is, you’re undoing. Squelch the feeling, take a deep breath and listen to what this person has to say. It may be worthy of hearing or it may be total crap. Before long this will be habit and you will have trained your ego to stand down.

One of the first steps in the DR process is an AUDIT. In order to prepare for a disaster one has to know what one has. This is done by an audit of the technology, how it is configured and of course managed. We look at policies and procedures and just really get into your business in a big way. The more you work with us the more you will get out of it. Conversely the more truculent or evasive that your staff is, the more it will cost. This is a “by the hour” service and time is money.

Audits are never fun but necessary, in that no one is perfect. Audits uncover the “dirt” so to speak and no one wants to acknowledge that they have dirt. Nobody wants to look bad so they are either un-helpful or become very defensive and blame the guy before them and so forth. No one in their right mind would welcome an IRS audit because of this. You know that you are playing by the rules but the rules are thousands of pages long. What if? Individuals should budget for an accountant for this reason. Companies should have more than one accountant “even if it is a small company” in that they can check one another. (another story for another blog)

While IT audits wont land you in front of a judge, it could have an effect on the bottom line in that deficiencies could be uncovered which could end up in with un-budgeted expenditures. Having an up to date DR and BC plan will not only prevent this but, will keep your IT department on their toes and up to date. A fresh set of eyes looking at how things are done contrasted against your business processes and needs, often bear fruit in that there may be a better way to do things. Personally I subscribe to “best practice” methodologies and policies.

Some companies don’t take IT seriously and look at it only as a necessary evil. An attitude which must be changed as IT is much more than a necessary Evil. IT is a resource which ties the entire company together. This department is the glue that binds most departments together as well as the interface between the customer and the company. In looking at the want ads occasionally one might notice ads for IT people with the following “PC Wizard” needed. Really? Does this person come from over the rainbow? The simple facts are that some HR people are totally bereft of any ability to interview for this position and the company as a whole does not take the department very seriously. I would liken this to the “audio visual club” at school. Know this all you who mock them, the nerds will inherit the earth. I digress..

If you really look at the way that your technical infrastructure touches every person in your company and your customers; your attitude on this matter might change.

During the process of a disaster recovery plan, this becomes very clear in that one of the pieces of this plan is a Business Impact analysis. It is during this process that the lights turn on in the CEO’s, or CFO’s head. I have heard the question posed to the CIO or CFO on many occasions “why hasn’t anyone told me this?” The simple facts are that the CEO’s job is to run the company, not the IT department. He or she depends upon the CIO to look out for the company on all things IT and a DR plan is simply one small part of it.

Simple programs like asset management and S.A.M. “software asset management” are not only not in play, but not even thought of. How can one budget for new stuff if one has no clue what one will need down the road? A complete Asset management program should be SOP in any company. This program accounts for hardware from the cradle to grave.

The same is true regarding software. Often time’s, companies pay way too much for software as it is installed by policy on computers with users who will never use it. Users may bring in their own software and install it, leaving a liability for the company to contend with should there be a software audit and it is done by the SBA.

While there are no good surprises in business there are certainly no good surprises after an event has been suffered by a company. A fire in the data center could take the entire company out of the marketplace for good.

Fire caused by poor cable management practices.

Human error accounts for a large percentage of the events which caused companies to fail. Doing a root cause analysis on failed companies who suffered a disaster you find that they did not value such a thing as “it will never happen to me.” You don’t have to suffer a Sandy or Katrina type event to bring your business to its knees. A simple mistake from some employee, working for a company without a business continuity or disaster recovery plan can ruin your day, if not your career.

It is at this time many companies wish that they had spent the money on such a plan. Too Late… If you fail to plan you plan to fail.

You can purchase insurance which will assist with the closing of the company but, that is not the way to go out of business, with a whimper, because you failed to plan.

Updated documentation of your infrastructure otherwise known as a “living document,” should also be SOP. IT folk absolutely do not like documentation, more specifically creating it. There are many schools of thought on this reason, but I suspect that laziness along with a “need” to have proprietary information so they are not expendable weighs somewhere in their decision. If the latter is your reason for not doing what is right for the company you need to re-examine your life.

If you are taking the paycheck you owe your employer the best that you can offer. If you managers feel like you have people in your department who are not expendable you need to address this post haste! One rule of preventing a disaster is avoiding single points of failure; and that means people as well.

Part of disaster recovery is averting disasters to begin with! Through solid best practices in policies and procedures, a large percentage of disasters can be negated.

One last topic on the subject that comes up from time to time. “Do I have a legal obligation to have a DR/BC plan?

The answer is not as clear cut as one would like. The interesting thing however from a legal perspective is that there is legal precedence whereby companies were held liable for failing to provide a more error tolerant system. They in fact were found to be negligent and case law purports to award large sums of cash to the plaintiff. These cases not only hold the owners of the company negligent but any and all officers of the company are liable. Think carefully about that promotion and VP title.

While companies are apathetic towards spending the money on such a plan, doing so is not only moral, it is strategic and most likely a legal obligation. As Billions of dollars are spent annually on technology to maintain a competitive edge “standards of care” and due diligence are required of all corporations both public and private. Not having such a plan violates the fiduciary standard of care.

-Best to you!

staylor@guard-protect.com

www.guard-protect.com

Dot Zero

After 30 odd years of being in the field of Information Technology; one might have guessed that I had picked up a thing or two.

When a project does not go as planned something called a root cause analysis needs to be performed. Basically why did the project fail? Was it poorly planned, poorly funded, poorly thought out, were the deliverable s too much or too little?

There are a host of things that should be considered before embarking on any project. One really needs to play the “what if” game. We are not striving for analysis to paralysis here but, we do need to know that everything is well thought out and a fallback plan is in place.

Is the project necessary?

What are the driving factors for the project?

What are the deliverables?

What will the TCO (total cost of ownership) be?

What is the (Return on investment), ROI?

How long to implement?

What impediments to business will the project cause, if any?

Are those impediments accounted for with workarounds?

What are the risk?

Are the milestones clearly defined and; expectations set with all members of the project?

Are the tasks clearly defined and assigned?

Is there a test plan to determine feasibility as well as to determine a baseline?

Is adequate documentation of the project occurring?

Are key players involved through a process like a change control committee?

Will training be necessary and if so; has that documentation been planned for and prepped?

If tweaking was necessary, what was it and why?

Did the project perform as expected, if not why not?

Did the project come in at or under budget? If not why not?

Some manager’s think that upgrading to the newest latest greatest is the thing to do and press on. I for one, have learned never be on the bleeding edge of technology. I always wait until a service pack has been released, especially if Microsoft is any part of the equation. Never load Rev.0 into a production environment, unless you really don’t like your job or company as you will most certainly have to explain why as it most likely will fail. As the sysadmin you really have to be able to tell your manager “no,” and back it up with sound logic and reasons. Some will ask for the .0 not realizing the inherent dangers that go along with that. You will be the one with the arrows in your back from the users, and the owners / manager and CEO. They wont see the software bugs as the issue, they most likely will blame you and or your staff, or anyone that had their hands in it.

The hallmark of a PM is to be able to communicate every aspect of the project with everyone involved. To be able to manage their resources in such a way as to not have any wasted dollars or time. The project should be on track and on budget at each and every milestone. Having a good Gantt chart, or at the very least a good plan of the project in excel will help to keep you from getting off track. There are no good surprises in business and hardly ever any good surprises with projects!

-Best to you and those that you care about.

The World Today

As a hiring manager for the best part of the 90’s and well into the 2000’s I could not help but notice a difference in the candidates that would walk through my door.

I would put on a suit and tie, make sure that my shoes were polished as well as the rest of the personal hygiene in check if I were interviewing. I was surprised by those who did not. If they did not respect me or the company enough to try and look respectable, what would they look like and or act like if I were to hire them. There is this whole etiquette thing involved in obtaining a job, and it starts with how you look. You only have one chance to make a first impression.

With Mom and Dad both having to work to make ends meet, generation “Y” was most likely raised by “Big Bird,” or an older brother or sister, or possibly some retired family member. The TV with hundreds of channels made a great baby sitter; and then there was the “game boy.” This generation is addicted to “screens.” While I appreciate “screens” as well, I also enjoy a good book, a walk in the park, watching the ocean, talking with friends and family on the front porch and going to a baseball game. There is nothing wrong with FaceBook or World of Warcraft, it is simply a matter of balance and not a way of life, or substitute thereof.

While negative attention is better than no attention, I suspect that many who pushed the envelope did so for attention. “Look Ma, I am doing drugs! Don’t you care enough to even slow down to talk to me?” From drugs they may turn to self-injury, or getting some sort of tattoo, or some of this wonderful body jewelry “through their nose.”

They in fact must have never heard the words “self effacement.” “I suspect that Hubris has taken the place Humility.”

We have shows on TV glorifying “INK.” We have celebrities who have more ink than skin. Our kid’s role models are broken people. When your kids look up to “broken people” where do you think that will lead them? Your kids should be looking up to you, not Madonna!

It is my opinion that many are drawn to “ink” and alike purely for the sake of attention. If they cannot get the good attention they need at home; mutilating ones body will certainly draw a crowd at school, the mall, and of course with siblings. And it most certainly will draw that negative attention from your guardians or other authoritarian figures…

There is another school of thought; these folks are insecure and again “ink,” mutilate, or act out audaciously, in an effort to get people to leave them alone as “they are bad.”

I also think that there is a subset that does it, purely to spite their family or friends and peers either at work or school or what have you. These are the folks that are so insecure that they are giving their-selves a rhinectomy. “I will show you, I will cut off my nose!” In the end they are only really hurting themselves currently and in the future as well as some of these things are really quite permanent!

Once these folks are disfigured, they drastically limit their options for employment and possibly a choice in friends and or spouse. If you present yourself for employment with visible body jewelry that is “out of the norm” there is a high probability that your “resume” will be trashed the second you hit the door.

I would guess that the same could be said for over the top tattoos. My thinking and I am certain most hiring managers thinking would be, if they make these types of decisions for themselves, what kinds of decisions are they going to make for me?

Unless your aspirations for employment are to work your way up to busboy, or maybe become a tattoo artist, I would strongly suggest keeping the ink under cover; at least from 8 to 5.

There is a group which I have not mentioned that may very well be so artistic that they want this “Art” on them to wear into perpetuity. The problem with that my pet, is simply this; as we age we loose collagen. Our young looking skin gets wrinkled and becomes thinner and pretty soon the artwork looks like a used painter’s pallet, instead of the masterpiece that you paid for. Think about it this way, do you own an outfit that you would wear everyday, day in day out for the rest of your life? I know of no clothing that I would want to wear everyday, and night; forever!

If you make bad decisions with permanent outcomes in your youth; those will have an effect on you as you mature. Some if these decisions lead to depression, and eventual suicide as they cannot live with what they have done, and the guilt overcomes them. Addictions often end in self destruction as they practice the addiction and then deal with the guilt for what they have done. To get rid of the guilt they do more of the addiction and spiral downward; until they either become outcast and wake up in the gutter or decide to end it all. Very few “see the light” and decide to choose not to do what they have been doing. Society tends to let these folks slip away which is probably normal programming.

If one were to follow the lives of the “rich and famous” they would quickly discern that with their lifestyle comes a price. When these people admit that they have been strung out on recreational chemistry, why are they not investigated criminally? Dealers are so bold that they don’t even try to keep their deals under cover. I was at the gas station the other day. In the next lane there were two people in a car, motor running taking up one of the spots to purchase gas. Before I finished a women pulled up behind them, got out and fussed at them for making here come “all the way over here.” They transacted their business and then both were soon gone their separate ways. I would imagine that the rich and famous get delivery, much like the Pizza guy delivers food and they don’t have to go to the gas station.

This culture is invasive to our way of life. Along with all of the other trappings that seem to come with this entitled generation, recreational chemistry seems to be one of the trimmings that not only effect the rich and famous, but the not so rich and famous.

All addictions are chemical. What many fail to realize is that all addictions are chemical in nature. When we smoke or drink, chemicals are released in the brain which we find appealing. Recreational chemistry is not only externally chemically induced but also causes a release of chemistry in the brain so in fact, one might get a double dose of “feel good” chemistry. I suspect that is why Cocaine is so addictive. Pornography can be a chemical addiction just like chocolate or food. If whatever you enjoy releases these chemicals, you can become addicted to it, and not know why or even know that you are. One of the most common addictions is adrenalin. We have rides at amusement parks which cause the release of this chemical as well as speeding or racing a friend, to even fighting in school. If we were to really study the kleptomaniac, we might learn that is a chemical addiction as well and we might treat the condition differently than simply locking them up. Other criminal endeavors like car jacking or what have you, may not only serve the purpose of obtaining money; but the perpetrator might very well enjoy the high from the release of adrenalin. I suspect that many of the “crimes” that people do today like flashing, or being a peeping tom, or simply being an exhibitionist, might very well be because of the release of some hormone or endorphin.

My guess would be that the BDSM community would also fall into this category.

Criminals are not the only people to enjoy this “high,” as I suspect firefighters, policemen, fighter pilots or even bull fighters might very well do this, because they are adrenalin junkies, and may not even know it. If you have ever listened to the police scanner when there is a chase going on or perhaps the firefighters when they are fighting a fire, you can hear it in their voice.

If I were to guess why middle school is so tough, it would be that this is typically when (puberty) hormones are released in abundance and young people experience this and really don’t know what to do with it. Male dominance may break out (and be manifested as fights) as young men try to establish their place as the “alpha” male. Young ladies also have their chemistry issues and those manifest mostly as sniping, spreading rumors and trying to become the “queen B.” We are not so different from the animal kingdom and those that think that we are simply are fooling themselves, as they don’t like the idea of being related to “animals.”

Pain can be an addiction. Endorphins are released with pain so cutting, burning or other forms of self-injury could not only be a cry for attention, but also feeding an addiction.

Extreme forms of chemical release are also practiced by some but, usually not for long as it kills them. One form is autoerotic asphyxiation. David Carradine was most certainly the victim of such an act. I say victim because he was under the delusion that he could do this safely. There is no safe way to strangle one-self. I cannot imagine what drove him to do this but I suspect like all drugs, it takes more and more to achieve the same “high.”

There is a saying among the pilot community that states, “There are old pilots and bold pilots, however; there are no old bold pilots.” I suspect the same could be said with some exceptions for the “addicted among us.” When a pilot gets into trouble such as flying into a cloud bank without the proper training, he is taught to get on the radio and confess what has happened, so air traffic control can assist him back to clear air. Without proper training there is this condition called spatial disorientation. Basically your eyes and senses do not believe the instruments, and more often than not the pilot will fly the plane right into the ground or “auger in.” If you are reading this, and you happen to be addicted, get help before you too, auger in. There are few people, if anyone that can handle an addiction without eventual self destruction. We witness this daily with our celebrities as well as their deaths from overdoses etc. There is no “winning” with addictions.

The other issue with Generation Y that puzzled me is “sagging,” tell me what the hell satisfaction one gets by wearing their jeans down to their crotch, walking around with one hand holding them up so they don’t fall down the rest of the way? We all know where the trend started and somehow adopted and glorified by the hip-hop crowd but really, you think that we want to see your underwear? I watched a young man run across the street to catch his bus. He tripped over his pants that were falling down the rest of the way and did a face plant in the middle of the road in front of the bus that he was running to catch. Either this kid was trying to prove that Darwin was correct or he was trying to prove how stupid it actually is to do that. Does this trend bespeak of letting your peers know how cool you are or the rest of the world know how stupid you are? Had the bus driver had a little slower reaction time, those sagging pants would have cost that person their life. He quite literally would have been thrown-under-the-bus.

Like “ink” I think that “sagging” is just one more way of young people expressing their objection or rebellion to the main-stream mores of the day. Instead of getting an education and working to change the system to make it better, it is much easier and simpler to call people’s attention to you underwear. The trouble here is that most people will not see past how lame you look, and that will be as far as it will go. And ladies, we really don’t want to see your “wale tail” either.. Underwear is just that, clothing that stays under other clothing. It can be audacious as you like, but keep it your secret, “really…”

Our youth is mesmerized by shows like American Idol. Millions of people watch that show. How many do you think imagine them-selves doing it, winning the top spot? We have become so egocentric as a people, that narcissism seems to be a way of life. “I made it through school, now where is my corner office and how much are you going to give me to sit here and look pretty?” Not really exaggerating too much here.

You can decide to be one of the leaders of tomorrow, or live in the shadows of society; it really is your choice. Many will blame their circumstances on where they are in life, but if they were truthful with themselves, they would know and admit that their lot in life in most cases is their own doing.

There are too many rags to riches stories all through history. Look up how they did it and see if you cannot apply some of their techniques. Or, you can learn how to stay warm by using discarded newspapers as insulation; it really is up to you. If you are reading this; you have at your fingertips all of the information that you could ever need to do anything that you want to do. Any subject that has ever been invented is here. Knowledge is power, and while that cliche may seem tired, trust me it is more salient today than ever before.

Figure out where your talents lie, or what you are passionate about and than search through history and see how others that did what you want to do, managed to do it.

I would not have “win the lottery” as my retirement plan, I also would not put all of my eggs in the rock star basket, or country star, or movie star. The odds are very much against you.

Before you spend your hard earned money on ink, or permanent jewelry, you may want to think about the future just a little bit. The hiring manager will most probably not be sympathetic to facial jewelry or ink. There are millions of folks looking for employment. If you and another are equally qualified but the other person has adorned him or herself with accouterments, most likely you will get the job. Is that fare? Nope, life is not fare, get used to it and live with it. The system is what it is, either work to modify it by legal and moral means, or adjust your way of life into the system. Rebelling against it by wearing your pants around your ankles, or getting every inch of skin inked or pierced is your problem; and society will pass you by.

-Best to you and those that you care about.

Viri-The Truth about Bugs

Any of you who have read any of my blogs know that I have a thing for “the truth.”

We live in a society today that regards the truth as an inconvenience. So here is the truth about anti-virus software from someone’s perspective that fought the very first virus in 1981, without the benefit of anti-virus software, on a 300 node network.

I cannot personally get into the mind of someone who creates these things. One wonders why someone would spend the time to create a piece of software that literally is destructive in nature, when the person who created it cannot watch the affected person anguish over his or her brand new PC running at the pace of a snail.

Normally, (I say normally like I know,) but it is my opinion that when someone does something malevolent, they want to witness the carnage; much like the people who killed and maimed so many in Boston. They hung around to watch the chaos, carnage and all of the injured people and then took some sort of “delight” in their handy work as expressed by their smirk.

When I think of someone who might create viruses, I picture some fat, anti-social kid with pimples, sitting around in his mother’s basement, in his underwear, trying to figure out some way to “show-em” that he is important, by creating a virus. I think that it is more than that however. While I do think that stereotype might fit some of them, I believe that it goes much deeper than that. (Don’t bully the nerds.. They are people too.)

Since a million or so viruses are written each year, you know that there must be millions of programmers writing them, or at least hundreds of thousands. Some claim that it is the Russian mafia. I was not aware that Russia had a mafia but I guess if we have one, so should they…

There is a practical use for viruses in that they have something called key loggers, that in fact will copy your keystrokes and when certain key words or phrases are caught, the passwords to you bank account and or credit card information are sent off to someone who compiles a list of such numbers, and sells them to the highest bidder.

Some viruses are written in such a way as to replicate when you try to delete them. Just when you think you have your system cleaned, the virus pops up again and does its thing.

Others are time bombs, sitting harmlessly on your machine waiting either for an event or date to activate.

There are far too many to write about but, you get the idea. The only way to be 100% protected from an infection is to never hook your machine to the internet and never put any software on it. Sounds impractical doesn’t it, well, it is!

There are many different anti-virus software packages out there, some cost big dollars, and some amazingly are free!

I plan on looking at this one soon…

First Truth -With anti-virus software, you usually get what you pay for, and if it is free, it is not worth what you paid for it!

While I will admit that free is better than nothing, it is only slightly better.

While no antivirus software is sacrosanct, some are much better than others. The trick is to find one that not only is layered in such a way to handle your basic anti-virus functions but, also takes care of your e-mail; as the largest percentage of infestations come in through e-mail; unless of course you are big into porn.

Ok, that was a challenge to find something that I could post..

Yes I know that the internet was made for porn…not really, but that is most probably the reason that the internet took off as it did. Porn is in fact a huge business with lots and lots of dollars spent on it… Another blog for another day.

I have removed viruses from computers that had each of the popular anti-virus software on them. That tells me that there is no silver bullet. How could there be as there are millions of viruses out there are more are created each and every day!

Currently, I am sold on Eset-Node32 www.eset.com Do I still see infected computers that have this, yes, but not near as many as some of the others.

The bottom line here is this; don’t skimp on anti-virus software. If you purchase it, and support the company, and others do as well, than they can afford to keep folks busy searching for new viruses and devising ways to defeat them, as well as improving the product.

Full disclosure, I have no vested interest in ESET. My opinions are my own and are derived from years and years of removing viruses. Tomorrow you may ask me which is the best and I may like Trend or Norton… Today and for the last few years it has been ESET. I often evaluate other brands, as I need to know for myself, so I can feel confident promoting one over the other.

Second Truth- When evaluating software, look for something that has a light footprint.

What do I mean by that? One of the reasons I dumped a trusted anti-virus package is that its footprint was so huge, that I could not use my PC. It actually was worse than having a virus, as the utilization was high and the memory it took to run was astounding! While the pc was kind of protected, it was unusable.

PC magazines and consumer reports are good places to look. I like to talk with the “nerds” at the computer store as they see even more of this than I do. By the way, when I say nerd, I say that with utmost appreciation for them, as I are one albeit and old one, or “seasoned.”

I actually have a favorite virus if you can believe that. Back in the early 80’s someone wrote the “pong” virus modeled after the video game “pong.” How this would work is you would be in WordPerfect just typing away on that miserable blue screen and all of the sudden out of nowhere a “pong ball” would appear. It would start traversing your 13 inch CGA monitor and as it came in contact with one of your characters in your document, the letter, would tumble down to the bottom of the screen. I give them an A for creativity but, as clever as it was, it still destroyed the document as it was un-recoverable.

Could not find a picture of the pong virus so … I like Homer..

Once we networked the PC’s even in the world of DOS, the virus found a home in that once in, it had access to hundreds of computers and servers. When Al Gore invented the internet, (can’t let that crap rest,) now we can infect millions of PC’s; world wide!

Be sensible where you go, don’t open attachments that you are not expecting, get a good anti-virus software and scan your machine every so often. There are many good tools on the market to help as well and that too is another blog for another day.

If your experience is different from mine or you have some experience to share… Comment!

-Best to you and those that you care about!

Electronic News

Many of you will not really have much knowledge of what I am going to talk about here as it relates to the electronic industry and your pocket book. By the time your done reading this, you will be enlightened somewhat.

Not too long ago some Chinese company produced something known to me and anyone who knows technology as a capacitor. These live in just about any electronic device that you might have.

The problem is that the formula for these was invented in Japan and it was liberated “Stolen” from the Japanese plant and sold to someone in China. Industrial espionage happens all of the time and there are many famous cases that I could site; The TV and Radio are two off the top of my head.

The problem with this formula is that they did not get all of it. They got the part for the dielectric, (the part that separates the internal plates from shorting) but they did not obtain the stabilizer for the dielectric; so after a few months to a few years the dielectric breaks down and fails. These capacitors were sold to many different manufacturers including Dell and LG to name two.

Other computer board manufacturers are also loaded with these defective capacitors. One of my LG monitors stopped working and for about $6 and change and about one hour worth of work, I replaced all of the capacitors on the power supply/ inverter board and, Viola; the monitor is as good as new. The most difficult part of the procedure was taking the monitor apart without damaging it.

Last night one of my desktop crapped out. The power supply went south. I happen to keep new power supplies on hand so I simply upgraded the power supply from 300 watts to 600 watts which also sports a larger cooling fan. It was a win win!

As the power supply houses some pretty cool parts for those of us who still build things, I took it apart and there it was, a capacitor that was bloated, standing out like a sore thumb. The fix probably would have cost me $.50 but as it was a 300 watt power supply I elected to scrap it. 300 watts is really too small, and of course much cheaper than a 600watt.

A few weeks ago I was working on a dell for a gentleman and the onboard video card was working terribly. There were lines in the picture and it was not syncing correctly. Examining the board around the GPU I noticed, you got it, puffy capacitors. I installed an inexpensive video card and turned off the internal one. Problem solved until some of the other capacitors in the box fail.

A friend of mine works for a City here in Texas and part of his job has him traveling to the Dump of all places. There in some building at the dump are flat screen TV’s microwaves and so forth that have been discarded. He picked up several flat screen TV’s that were discarded and for a few dollars repaired them. While he is the ultimate recycler, it is a shame that we do not repair things any more. One has to wonder if we are spending too much time with video games instead of tinkering. One night at dinner with some friends I was gob smacked to learn that one of the guys at the table had no idea how to change spark plugs. These are the type of people who call on people to do things for them. While it may make financial sense to do this I simply cannot pay someone to do something that I am perfectly capable of doing with a few exceptions.

This week being “earth week” I would encourage you to think about getting things repaired instead of trashing them when they break. Electronics are known in the industry as Ejunk. There are companies that specialize in recycling this type of thing but, they are becoming harder to come by. I suspect that the EPA makes this type of business a tough one to run, and not be out of compliance in some small way.

Most of us have no reason to know this but, the dumps all over the country are filling up. There is a dump not too far from me here in north Texas that at one time was low land covered in water; and is now reminding me of the foothills in NorthernCA.

A lot of this e-junk is shipped to third world countries where families hover over open fires, melting the solder with the fire, removing the parts off the circuit boards for the metals that they contain. Since it is an open fire, the board is blackened and the people doing this breath in those toxins along with their children who are helping. It does not even stop there as this residue litters the grounds, the water supply, the air, and what have you. We here in this country do not have a clue; we simply think that we do our part by most of the time, throwing that soda can in the blue bin. Once we toss stuff into the bin do we ever think about it?

I come from a time when there was not so much stuff trashed. I bought a broken TV at a garage sale for $5 as a kid; and learned how TV’s worked and for about $3.50 for a new high voltage rectifier tube, I had a nice looking portable TV at the age of 10. At 13 I wanted money to buy a new CB and antenna. Mowing lawns seemed like a good job. One could make $4 a yard…. Currently I pay $25 a week, and this is one thing that I will not give up. As I put my plan in the early 70’s together, I would first need a lawnmower as my dad was dead set about me not using the family lawn mower on others peoples yards. He was right to be concerned as I killed 3 lawnmowers on one person’s yard for $2. That is another story..

Again I went to garage sales and found a lawn mower that did not work. I pulled it through to make sure that there was compression and nothing bent, and bought it for $15. After a trip to the library checking out a book on small engines, I digested the book. Lawn mowers have points and a condenser under the flywheel and those are known to be problematic. I checked for spark and there was none. The local grocery store sold parts such as these and for a few $$ back in the day, so I now had my own lawn mower.

I purchased three lawnmowers all together in similar fashion along with an edger. Gas cost about a quarter to fill up my can and that would last me about a week. I created my fist direct marketing campaign at the age of 13 with three sheets of paper, two pieces of carbon paper and my best penmanship that I could muster.

I mow yards

Please call 242-XXXX

For an estimate, ask for Scott.

I wrote this until I filled up a sheet of paper and then cut them out much like Avery labels would look today. Armed with a shirt pocket full of “flyers” and some scotch tape I went door to door canvassing my entire neighborhood.

The interesting thing about all of this is that those types of campaigns have about a 2% return or hit rate. That was the figure 42 years ago and oddly enough, that is still the figure today! I still do direct marketing campaigns; just not to do yard work. J

I did this for several summers; it paid for my first car, and lots of photographic equipment, and oh yes a CB that quickly turned into Ham Radio equipment.

Where are those entrepreneurs today?

As you can tell, I still do this today. Not that I go buy things at garage sales to repair but, I do restore antique radios that I have purchased either online or from individuals. Some just make their way too me as friends know that I do it, and they are tired of storing it.

So when your flat screen TV dies if you know anyone with any technical prowess, have them search the web to see if someone has posted a fix. It may very have been me. Have them try it. The parts are available in the form of a kit from some people online for as little as $12.

There is a good feeling that comes from repairing something that otherwise would have been put into that growing mountain of pampers, kitchen waste, and of course defective electronic devices that needed about $6 to $10 in parts.

As a side note I did this with cars as well. At one time I had 13 cars which I bought for next to nothing as they were broken. I picked up parts from a junk yard that the owner had an old TV, which always needed fixing. I would fix them and sell them and I enjoyed the process. That was back before the computer was installed into the car which controls everything relying on sensors for information.

Like the lawnmower, back then you needed spark, gas, air and compression. Today you need an analyzer of some sort that can interrogate the onboard computer and find out what the failure is. Usually some sort of sensor that you did not know that you had.

-Best to you and those that you care about!

“Offer only good to new subscribers”

“Offer only good to new subscribers”

Customer loyalty used to be important to companies who offered subscriptions to whatever it was that they sold. This could be a magazine or cable TV.

How many times have you seen a cable TV ad offering the same service that you have for less money , “for new subscribers only?”

I had been with my cable TV provider for 16 years when I realized that by switching I could get faster internet, less expansive phones service with free long distance and oh yes, every premium channel offered for half the cost of what I was currently paying. This included offers that expired in 12 and 18 months but even after the promos expired, I would still be saving $100 or more.

There are other services like satellite radio. If you call up and use the magic word “cancel” you will you will transferred to “retention specialist” who has the flexibility to make you a better deal. Why don’t they offer you a better deal to begin with?

There are other subscription services that I pay for where special deals are offered to new customers, including books. Truthfully I would like the book offered but I am already a supporter / subscriber so, too bad. I would guess that if I were to call and cancel and then sign up again, I could get the book but that is rather disingenuous, not to mention a lot of trouble.

My power company on the other hand contacted me about the time my contract with them was to expire and offered me a better deal to re-sign up with them. Had I done nothing, it would have stayed with them by default so, if you want a good power company and cheaper electricity contact me via comment.

While I realize that “offer only good to new subscribers” has become the default way of doing business, I for one think that it “stinks on ice.”

-Best to you and those that you care about !