Here To Ask Why » Information Technology

An iPad to Bring Them All Together

Michael Cruse — Fri, 21 May 2010 04:34:20 +0000

The world has been buzzing since the release of Apple’s latest creation, the iPad. I scoffed and pitied them all for fueling Apple’s marketing machine. That is, until I started to take a closer look at the specification and potential uses of the device. I am a core Windows/Intel person. I have based my career on these company standards, so when I was considering an Apple iPad, it was a fundamental shift in my thinking.

To my very pleasant surprise, I did not burst in flames when I first entered an Apple store. However, many of the customers did “weird me out” a bit. The world is a wonderfully diverse place, so stop by an Apple store to see a single location that can have business people in suits, grandmothers, rockers, artists, and every other cultural subgroup possible in a single location.

While browsing through the store, and trying not to look like I was trapped in an enemy’s camp, I observed customers actually talking with other customers. Many of these people would not have said two words to each other outside of this setting. Typically, you do not see a person in a business suit often chatting to a punk rocker with green spiked hair. Nor do you often see an older senior citizen chatting with a fellow shopper that resembled the stereotypical gangster. The experience was interesting to say the least. These people were communicating with each other and seeming to be enjoying themselves in the process.

Can one technology bring people together? I think it can. The right device can bridge chasms and generations. Apple hit it out of the park with the iPad and this device will change rules. I am confident that both business and social interactions will change because of this device. I am certainly not an Apple fanboy. The iPad is not perfect or the end-all be-all device. New competitors will come into the market and drive all market players to further innovation. This will be good for consumers and technology. And who knows, maybe it allows a few more people to interact with each other as they never would have before.

I know the cross-generational and cross-cultural group interactions I witnessed were fleeting in the context of a single shopping trip, but changes to the way people think and interact has to start somewhere, so why not here and why not now?

(My wife was kind enough to pick me up an iPad. I will talk more about it in another post or two.)

Keeping Your Professional Skills Current…Or Else

Michael Cruse — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:52:25 +0000

My gosh there are a lot of people out of work right now and many of them are looking forward to taking your job right out from under you. Not a very pleasant thought when you take a moment to think about it. However, the reality is that many displaced workers are doing a better job getting their professional skills current than most people who are still employed. Community colleges and other institutions of higher learning are experiencing some of the highest levels of new entrance applications from returning students than ever before. This seems to be a double edge sword; while it benefits the returning students it can have negative consequences for others.

If you are a young professional fresh out of school and entering the work force, you have some stiff competition from displaced workers that have more business experience and who have also recently updated their professional skills. If you were lucky enough to have kept your job through the downturn, you have competition from displaced workers who will do your job for less money and took some of the unemployment downtime to update their professional skill sets. It is a tough world right now for both those currently seeking and those who have secured employment.

It is critical that we do not allow our skills to become out-of-date. Working professionals must continue their education throughout their adult life, even if that means taking a class a semester at a community college, attending vendor training, or setting up a “home lab” and buying a book or two. Professionals must stay competitive in the job market. In the IT world, there are hundreds of service companies regularly calling department heads and proselytizing the benefits of outsourcing various positions for considerably less money than they are paying internal employees.

As a professional, you must provide your boss some great reasons not to listen to these calls by keeping your skill set growing and delivering more value than an outsourced company can provide. This is advice that I have taken to heart, and to that end, I have returned to school. I want to be at the head of the pack so it is my responsibility to keep my professional skills in-line with the current job market demands. This is not the responsibility of my employer. Unfortunately too many people get sucked into thinking that their employer should be reasonable for keeping their skills current by providing training. This is a trap that should be avoided. My career, My responsibility.

Teaching the new media ways

Michael Cruse — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:44:08 +0000

When does education stifle or retard technical and usage innovation? I am not sure, but it is something that I have been thinking more about over the past several months. The United States has been a hotbed of technical innovation, and many people I speak have a growing concern that we are losing our edge. Have we become over confident and lost the burning desire to innovate or does a generation simply need to absorb the changes and prime society for another creativity and innovation burst?

I recently finished reading a book (Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning) that makes the case on why we need to educate people of how to use online social media tools in order for them to effectively participate in the modern online culture. The book is thought provoking especially when you understand the usage differences among various groups of young adults.

After reading the book, I started to agree that we should consider the formal education of students in the YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter services of the world. Then I started to get that nagging feeling that it may be a mistake. If by educating people in the “proper” use these tools, we place them in an artificial “box” that stifles their creativity. I know that my thoughts have been influenced by the educators that I have studied under, and while they did their best to remain neutral, they did impact how I use and see technology.

I understand that the opposite can be said as well. That without a base level of understanding people cannot effectively use technology or improvise new uses and enhancements. This is a very sad but real situation of the modern era. I have worked with many people over the years that know so little about computers or the Internet that they could not participate in an online community. They are effectively locked out of participation and completely bared from being able to contribute to an online innovation.

Where does this leave us, or me? Why, I am still pondering the issue of course. Personally, I have limited my instruction that I give my children on social media and online technologies so as not to influence their usage, one way or another. I am available as a resource should they have questions, but I have opted for a more “play with it” educational approach. I am aware of my own biases regarding an online culture and do not wish to taint their views. Still, I cannot allow them to go into the wilds of the Internet unprepared so neutrality or ignoring the online danger is not realistic either.

We need to find the minimally effective education level for social media and online technologies. Give the youth of the world an understanding of the basic functions and then get out of their way. The younger generations will lead the way with new innovations provided, we do not muck up their thinking with too many rules about what can or should be done with social media and other online technologies.

The future of tech is very exciting, and I cannot wait to see what the next twenty years will bring.

Is Your Company Getting the Computer Support That You Deserve?

Michael Cruse — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:32:58 +0000

By Jason Lydford

Its amazing just how many so called IT support companies are out there right now. It seems as though anyone with access to a computer at home can suddenly call themselves an IT expert.

Almost every day it seems, another one man band support company is set up offering its services, usually at a dramatically decreased price and amazingly, people buy from them! I really don’t understand how a business, one that may have taken years to get into a profitable situation and build up a good database of clients and customers would trust their livelihoods to a complete novice. All in the name of saving a few pennies. Let me assure you, if you are one of those client customers, that the phrase “you get what you pay for” isn’t just a phrase to make you spend more money. It’s a simple fact that if you pay for cheap support, you are going to get someone unqualified or new to the industry, and sooner or later you are going to end up with trouble.

Think about it as in your own business. The most senior and experienced people get paid more don’t they? The juniors, usually with little or no experience, get paid less. Why is that? Because they don’t know as much as those that are either qualified for have been “around the block” a few times. So let me ask you the question. Why are you leaving your precious data in the hands of these people?

If you have a disaster at work and you need to recover data or if you have a major security incident which requires immediate attention, do you really think that these guys are going to be able to help? Especially as quickly and diligently as you will need?

Every day there are calls from new client who have suffered these problems and want us to help them fix whatever the issue is and get them back up and running again with the least possible amount of fuss.

Even clients that have been with us for a while, still, even now get extremely excited when their internet doesn’t work, or their PC doesn’t start up, even though they KNOW that within minutes of a call to us they will be back up and running.

Imagine if we didn’t know what we were doing. How stuck would they be then?

Now, don’t get me wrong, we all started somewhere and I applaud those that get the bit between their teeth and give it a go, however, start small! Look at the home user market first. This is a place where you can hone your skills before tackling anything bigger. Get qualified and certified, show that you are serious about support corporate networks. Don’t learn on the job all of the time. Know your stuff before you break something.

IT support doesn’t need to be expensive; you can get all in contracts that will cover your entire networks for a small monthly fee. Certainly a lot less than you will have to pay if someone with no certification makes a mistake and you need it fixed.

Small Business Owners, do yourselves a favour and get serious about the IT support that your company needs. Look for a company that:

Is qualified and certified
Has multiple staff that can help you.
Has a long-standing reputation within the area.
Has worked with clients like you before.
Can supply testimonials.
Has a guarantee in place for all of the work that they do.

Jason Lydford MCP SBS MCNPS
Director | Computer Rescue Ltd
http://www.computerrescueltd.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Lydford

Getting why I don’t get it

Michael Cruse — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:31:32 +0000

Have you ever woken up one morning and thought you might be losing your edge? Then you begin to question your knowledge and experience in determining useful aspects of modern society. I get this way a bit when I struggle with problems for an extended period. Recently, I have been struggling with my understanding of the latest and greatest in social-media technologies. From a pure technical standpoint, I find many of the new technologies interesting and compelling to certain segments of the population. However, I just do not find them personally useful. Is this a sign of age or the simple fact that I just do not “get it”?

This has bothered me for some time now. Being in the Information Technology sector, I am “supposed” to understand modern Internet and social-media technologies and their usefulness…I should “get it.” Like I said, I do understand the basic premise and application of services like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, digg, StumbleUpon, etc., but I have never been sure that I “get it”. It is somewhat funny where the epiphanies of life happen. While slowly driving down Interstate 5 on way home from the office, I regularly contemplate many things. It finally hit me; I already have my voice.

My struggle for understanding of the usefulness of many of these social-media applications is predicated on the fact that I have already found my “Internet voice.” While this blog is certainly no screaming success, it is my Internet voice. For me, these other social-media applications become noise and clutter. This is why I have been struggling with the “get it” factor of social-media applications. When a person can say or write what they want, whenever they want, then additional applications that allow them to do essentially the same thing present minimal value.

This realization actually made me a little giddy and has reopened up the world of social-media applications to me. I no longer feel stress or pressure in trying to understand how I should be using these platforms in my life. I can rest easy knowing that it is fine for me to experiment and understand these applications for what they are without feeling as if I need to bring them into my regular usage zone.

I know this is a strange post from me, but heck it is my blog, and it was an important realization for me.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for Small Information Technology Departments

Michael Cruse — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:27:18 +0000

: Image Source: www.lumaxart.com

Individuals, departments, and companies must track their performance in order to have a baseline and comparator for improvement over time. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are the baseline of understanding needed to determine performance metrics and will keep individuals and groups on the competitive edge of performance.

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of KPIs for individuals and departments. After all, “if you do not have a good baseline and understanding of basic performance metrics, you will not know when you are slipping into mediocrity or worse.” I received several e-mails asking what KPIs I would track in a small IT department. Since I received several requests, I thought I would do a short post on the topic.

In a small IT department, you do not want to burden the team with a bunch of new tracking activities. These should add a minimal amount of time to daily activities and take only a few hours a month to document in a report format.

Individual and/or Team KPIs

Average Technical Support Tickets Closed Per Day by Month
Current Year Verses Prior Year
This graph should show the average number for technical support tickets your team closed each business day by month. I would graph current year and prior year. You will need consistent rules about what is entered as a support ticket. If you do not have a technical support ticket tracking system, you can look at one of the open source solutions or use Outlook task folder in a common Exchange mailbox, folder, or public folder.
Total Closed Support Tickets Verses Helpdesk Hours
Current Year Verses Prior Year
If you outsource this function then this graph will be very insightful and valuable when it comes time for annual contract renewal. I also use it to help me manage the support hours by making sure that we maintain productivity standards and not just adding billable hours.
New Support Tickets Created or Open Support Tickets
Current Year Verses Prior Year
I like to track open technical support tickets over time. This helps to see the general open workload over time. If I see this number heading north then I know it is time to add team members providing that my average close rates are holding steady or increasing slightly.
Average Time to Close a Technical Support Ticket per Month
Current Year Verses Prior Year
I simply want to know how long on average it takes us to close new technical support tickets. This goes to my service level commitments to the users we support. Are we getting the job done timely? We have to know.

Systems KPIs

System Up-time Percent
Rolling 12 months
We have identified our core systems and targeted a 99.5 percent up-time. Any time one of these core systems is off-line unexpectedly the amount of time is logged. At the end of the month, we simply divide the total number of failed hours by the total number of operational hours in the month to see how we did.
Production Storage
Rolling 24 months
The goal here is to help justify the purchase of additional storage when needed. Being able to show how storage demand has increased over time enables me to more easily acquire the new assets when the time comes. Obviously, we have policies around data storage and purging, but the reality is that is never enough to keep data from eventually exceeding current capacity.
Production Load
Rolling 12 months
Here I would want to track the total number of users utilizing the server environment and the average peak CPU load. As the user base increases and becomes more demanding on the infrastructure, you should see the peak load on the servers steadily increase or hold higher levels for longer periods. Having this type of graph over time showing the increased pressure on the core server environment allows for easier acquisition of capital equipment. Be very particular on what servers you choose to track for this KPI.
Bandwidth utilization
Rolling 12 months
In the small environment, I have never been able to get close to capacity of a modern Ethernet network. Therefore, I am really tracking just Internet bandwidth. I use a utility like MRTG to log and generate the charts based on the information it gathers from our router.

This is not a comprehensive list of all possible KPIs for a small IT department to track. These KPIs should give a good insight into the operational efficiencies of the department while not being administratively burdensome. I would have no problem taking these KPIs along with a decently written 1 to 2 page monthly report and send them off to the CFO or CEO for review. I would also be sure to review this information on a monthly basis with my team and even post the charts in a common IT work area.

What are some of the KPIs that you track for your team or as an individual?

Bound by the chains of legacy

Michael Cruse — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:15:29 +0000

Legacy systems are the bane of most IT organizations. They handcuff us to the past and burden of our staff and budgets. The only problem is that we cannot ever seem to let them go. Do IT organizations suffer from some strange variant of the empty nest syndrome?

Let us face it, Windows 2000 is very old in the computer world. I know many of you still have an old Windows NT box still hanging around. It is not easy to get historic systems out of the production environment. After all, if it is not broken then why fix it. However, the modernization of legacy systems must be done before it creates a serious burden on the organization.

The mainline hardware manufacturers are not making the drivers for the older operating systems. We all have older systems operating just fine and meeting the needs of our users, but what happens when the hardware dies? I know some friends have purchased spare servers from eBay to self insure against hardware failures. This is not a good long-term solution. A self-supporting hardware depot may work for another year or two, but companies need to develop real plans for the regular upgrade or replacement of legacy systems. I would encourage my IT brethren to take an inventory of their systems and look at how they would complete a full hardware replacement if required.

I helped a friend complete a review a few months back, and we were both surprised that he had a single system that was not upgradable to Windows 2003 and had a peculiar hardware requirement. He went to eBay to make sure that he had parts for the next year, and is now making the case to management for a replacement platform.

Hardware changes but legacy systems rarely do. Make sure your assets are not hanging out to dry when that old system will not turn on one morning, and you have no plan.

KPI’s – The Truth Is in the Numbers, Ignore Them at Your Own Peril

Michael Cruse — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:02:15 +0000

KPIs stands for “Key Performance Indicators” and are a mechanism by which individuals, departments and companies track their performance. If you do not have a good baseline and understanding of basic performance metrics, you will not know when you are slipping into mediocrity or worse. KPIs help keep everyone on track and moving towards goals.

Some people will excel and move up to higher levels of achievement and others will remain in entry-level positions their entire career. Many factors come into play when determining who will be successful and who will be mediocre or unsuccessful their entire lives. I, for one, have always desired the path of success. To that end, I use KPIs to track performance each month.

Good KPIs are not subjective but objective. They are very black and white and do not leave much in the way of wiggle room to debate their meaning. This is their power. As KPIs are tracked over time, the ability is gained to see how performance stacks up over prior months and years. Almost all of my KPIs I graph year-over-year. This allows me to compare performance over the last few months and the prior year. When I see something that is not within an expected range, I am able to look into it immediately and take action, including rewards for achievement, if needed.

In order to define good KPIs, I need a good understanding of the vision, mission, and goals of the company, department, or individual. Yes, I do believe that individuals need vision and mission statements and clearly defined goals to be successful.

Once I understand where the department or individual is coming from, and where they need to go, I can start working on KPI development. I follow a pretty basic and easy method for determining KPIs.

Brainstorm to capture everything that can be empirically measured. As with all brainstorming, do not evaluate the quality of feasibility of the suggestions at this point. You want a complete brain dump of everything that can possibly be measured.
Review the mission, vision, and goals. If working in a team, everyone needs to have a clear understanding of the mission, vision, and goals. If working on personal KPIs, also review job descriptions, annual reviews, and peer feedback.
Group and rank each of these possible KPIs by their relevance and ability to provide clarity on the mission, vision, and goals of the company, department, or individual.
Review the possible KPIs for feasibility of tracking. We may have some very good ideas for KPIs that are not realistic because the tracking mechanisms are too burdensome or simply unavailable. These KPIs go off on a separate list for possible future consideration or implementation of a tracking mechanism.
Add the tracking frequency for each of the possible KPIs: Again, this is a second way of looking at feasibility and clarity the KPI will provide. If the KPI has to be tracked in a way that is prohibitive to implement it should be moved to the second list.
Remove all possible KPIs that do not add value, provide clarity, or cannot be successfully tracked. If the list is still too long, I simply take the top X number of items per grouping.
Develop a work plan to capture the KPI data points based off the data capture frequency.
The first week of each month, compile all KPI information and generate Excel charts and summary tables. I review this information closely and look for any outliers. Anything that is above or below expectation is investigated and understood. While investigating unexpected improvements, always look and see if the source of improvement may be applicable to other areas.

As an example of KPIs for an IT department, they can track the total number of closed support tickets, initial response time, response time to close a ticket, recurrence rates, failure rates, up-time percentages, support hours, etc.

It is also very common to combine KPIs in your charts and tables. Using the above example, you could graph support hours and total number of closed tickets. When looking at this year-over-year, you should be able to see the effect of support hours on ticket closure rate. Furthermore, looking at these graphs, you can see if your team is closing support tickets at a faster or slower rate than prior periods.

Charting various KPIs are powerful tools when requesting additional resources or policy changes. This single activity alone has allowed it to influence policy and staffing decisions because I had the data to back up my requests.

I would challenge everyone to develop KPIs. Track them regularly and review the results monthly. After just a few months of tracking, you will be able to see patterns and start adjusting to further increase productivity and achievement of yourself, team, department, or company.

Computing under lock and key, the corporate computing life

Michael Cruse — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:10:14 +0000

We live in the age of corporate compliance, complex system support, lawsuits, social media, and numerous security vulnerabilities that necessitate corporate IT environments remain locked down. For many years, cries have come from the user base to “free our systems so we can work as we want to work.” And for years, IT departments have resisted those cries.

I have had this discussion with friends, colleagues, employees, clients, and countless others over the years, and my core belief has never changed. IT environments must stay reasonably locked down. It protects the employees and the company from the evils in the wild and from the good intentioned but uninformed masses. Common sense and reason must rule every IT decision, but employees must also understand that not every request is reasonable when taken into consideration for the entire company.

Slate ran an article on this topic, and I love this quote, “Here’s why: The restrictions infantilize workers—they foster resentment, reduce morale, lock people into inefficient routines, and, worst of all, they kill our incentives to work productively.” The author, Farhad Manjoo, was riled against the controlling forces of the IT department. He touches on a few of the arguments for the IT restrictions, but I do not believe he has a true understanding of the implications. He also seems to think that all employees are “power users” and employees have lower job satisfaction because they are not running FireFox. I do not think either belief holds any value.

I am not going to trying and the make the point that all unmonitored employees will run amok, that is an unrealistic generalization. However, I have had some experience with clients in a totally open IT environment, and it taught me that the lack of automated controls increases management’s supervision burden. In one of the worst cases, I was requested to put in a Web filter by the CEO of a company because he was concerned about the amount of time being wasted each day on the Internet. We ran a report after a week of monitoring and found that the average sales department employee was browsing the Internet for four hours a day. They were not browsing competitor sites or industry information but pursuing personal interests. Obviously, there was a big shakeup in the department and the worst offenders were ousted.

In that particular case, the company set sales expectations based off of past performance, industry trends, marketing efforts, etc. and the basic assumption that employees were motivated and on task. These employees were meeting sales expectations. However, just because they were meeting sales expectations, does that give them a license to waste half their day? If they were fully on task, could they have been beating their expectations by 50%? I have heard many times quoted that most industry groups estimate that employees waste on average 25% of their day on non-corporate Internet activities. For some companies in the software, Internet, and media business this makes sense but not for most other companies.

IT departments frequently hear in new software requests that the software is free. I am still amazed at the number of people who do not realize that software installed on their office computer may be licensed differently then when it is installed on their home computer. In an open IT environment the company would need to train all employees to read licensing agreements and know the difference licensing methodologies. What happens when the employee gets it wrong? Who pays the costs if the company is audited by the BSA and they find software license violations?

What about when employees have questions about one-off software applications? The IT department is “supposed” to know how to answer them. Is it even reasonable for the IT group to have that kind of collective knowledge about every application that can be downloaded from the Internet? Even if you doubled or tripled the IT budget, I am not sure the requirement could be met. In the end, IT would have to spend time and money researching how to use non-standard applications to support the user base. But the cry we hear is that the software is free so we should be able to use it. . .free software is not always free.

I was recently lamenting with a friend about a spat he got into over software compatibility. I honestly believe that many people think this is our way of blowing them off. A few years ago, we found particular printer software caused a conflict with our phone system software. When these two applications were loaded on the same computer, it corrupted the OS within a few days. At that time, we allowed employees to install printer software on their corporate laptops for use with while at home. About 25% of those employees had their computers reimaged multiple times. This amounted to a large loss in productivity and cost to the IT department. No one should expect the average employee to be aware of these issues, nor is it reasonable for a company to run continuous training sessions to keep everyone updated on these topics.

And of course, those crazy lawsuits keep popping up all the time. People find some of the strangest reasons to sue other people and their employers. One of the saving graces that companies use to defend themselves is “standard practice”. In any open IT environment, you do not have enforceable standard practices. I have seen some employees accuse their employers of singling them out for recreational web surfing, and not other employees, when confronted about their job performance. When employees are confronted about productivity issues, they tend to redirect the criticism into anything and everything else but themselves. It is sad, but the courts often agree with the employee in these cases if the company does not have policies and standard practices they follow.

I understand that some large corporations have rather open IT environments. When you peel back the onion a bit, you will find that the environment is not as open as most people believe. Filtering and active monitoring still take place and management will step in when needed.

I do think some of my IT brethren take it a bit far and lock down the environment to the point of reduced productivity. This issue is a trade-off between productivity and security. I am a cautious individual and lean towards security, but I am always open to suggestions from my user base. Viruses, spy ware, ad ware, and data mining are real threats and must be prevented. The vast majority of this “stuff” enters computers by the users own actions. Yes, IT must guard against these threats, and some freedom is part of that cost.

Some employees would “get” all the training IT would need to provide for a secure open IT environment to exist, but others would not and that would risk a data breach or worse. I could not justify it in my own mind much less sell it to management.

I do not always agree with employee suggestions, and I try to lay out exactly why I would not allow a particular application or process. Most people think this method is fair and reasonable. I want everyone to be as productive as possible but operate in an environment that is easily supported and that controls costs. I do not want the organization to face frivolous lawsuits or be compromised in any way. Simply put, I want a stable secure environment that is always available to meet the needs and challenges of everyone. This is why the IT environment must remain reasonably locked down for the foreseeable future.

OH &^%$, What Just Happened?!?

Michael Cruse — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:04:35 +0000

The morning was just humming along, and we were working quite diligently on our list of maintenance activities. We had scheduled eight hours of system downtime and were progressing with only a few bumps in the plan. It actually looked like we were going to finish our entire maintenance list and get out of the office a little early. Everyone was moving along with focus, so we could get back to enjoying our weekend. Then the computer gods looked down on us mortals and laughed.

Within a few moments, the gentle rumbling of “damn, what just happened” started to echo among the IT staff. It did not take very long to track down the problem as the core network switch was in an error state. This is a bit problematic as most of our network traffic flows through our core HP Procurve 5308xl switches. We are small shop with a relatively simple infrastructure. These HP Procurve switches have done exceedingly well for us over the years and have been absolutely bulletproof. That is, until now.

We had just completed a firmware upgrade on one of these devices with no problems, but now it was unresponsive. The console port told us to reapply the firmware or replace the chassis. This is not the type of device that you just go to Fry’s and pick up. This is the ‘Oh Crap’ moment that IT managers and staff dread.

We were fortunate, after an hour and half we had the firmware updated and the switch resumed normal operation. It was a tense hour and half while we waited for the firmware to load and then did our best to make the switch fail.

While we were waiting, I reviewed our networking fail over plan. I wrote this plan a while ago and thought that it was still accurate. Fortunately, the plan was still spot on with what should be done if the switch had failed the second update. Unfortunately, the assumptions of the plan were not so accurate. They referenced standby equipment that had been disposed of or decommissioned due to age.After a bit of scrambling, I had identified equipment that could be re-purposed, counted needed ports, identified the ports that needed certain classes of service, and felt comfortable we could be fully operational in a few hours. I cannot express my delight when we realized we would not have to implement our fail over plan.

It is important for any IT group to document their fail over plans and regularly review them to make sure that they can actually be implemented. One of the challenges in working in a small environment is you tend to feel like you are “all knowing and all seeing.” Unfortunately, there are too many moving parts, even in a small network, to remember everything. This is why fail over plans must be documented and reviewed at least semiannual. My fail over plan had not been reviewed in the last year, and that was my failure. Let me tell you that Sunday was a fun day as I dug out much of our documentation and started reading and reading.

Is Microsoft holding back netbook innovation?

Michael Cruse — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:01:46 +0000

Most people associate innovation with technology, so it is especially disappointing when a technology company becomes the barrier to innovation. In an attempt to protect the sales revenue of the Windows operating system, Microsoft is stifling the market potential of netbooks.

Jared Newman at CIO.com wrote a piece titled “Five Netbooks Microsoft has Crushed” and outlines some of the netbooks that are being discontinued because they are too good to qualify for the discounted Windows netbook price. If these devices are forced into notebook classification, they will no longer be able to compete on price against either netbooks or laptops.

The major appeal of a netbook is the size and price. I do not begrudge Microsoft for making a profit or maximizing it revenue opportunities, but the company was built on innovation. Frankly, it seems Microsoft is cracking down on that which made it great. In order for the OEM manufacturers to hit a competitive price-point, they have to curtail features in order to avoid higher operating system licensing costs. This practice does not encourage innovation, it smothers it.

Gregg Keizer at Computerworld.com has a piece talking about Microsoft’s position on netbook pricing. Simply put, Microsoft wants to move consumers to its more expensive versions of their operating system. The below quote is from Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, and was taken from a recent analyst meeting.

“We want people to be able to get the advantages of lightweight performance and be able to spend more money with us, with Intel, with HP, with Dell and with many, many others,”

Microsoft is missing the point on netbooks. Netbooks are not desktop or notebook computers; they are niche devices that are growing in popularity. I do not believe that netbooks are reducing the full priced operating system sales. The reduction in OS sales has a lot more to do with the economy and the marketing problems of Vista. Consumers know Windows 7 is right around the corner, so why buy Vista?

Netbooks are a new market with new potential customers.

Multi-computer owners own at least one desktop or laptop. As a group, their computers tend to stay relatively modern, and they purchase upgrades when needed. Netbooks appeal to this group because they do not want to lug the larger laptop when going to the coffee shop to get some work, or recreational surfing, done. Additionally, a desktop computer does not move around the home much so it limits its utility. The small size and aggressive price of a netbook are highly attractive to this group.

It is my understanding that the multi-computer purchasers are the predominate consumer of netbooks. I have yet to meet a first time computer owner who purchased a netbook. I have also never spoken to a netbook owner who replaced their only full featured computer with a netbook. However, I have met a couple of dozen netbook owners, and the netbooks were always the second or third computer.

Microsoft should be looking at netbooks as an opportunity for additional incremental OS sales. By embracing netbooks and encouraging the OEMs to build the best possible devices for the $199-$399 price-point, Microsoft could reap larger OS sales and further solidify its market dominance.

It is conceivable that Microsoft could be left in the dust if they allow other operating systems to move into the netbook space. Consumers will move to an alternative operating system from another big name, like Google, if it has innovative features and the right price-point. Google will encourage innovation and push the boundaries of what a netbook can do; Microsoft should lead this charge, not resist it.

Could it be the consumer that actually wins the office productivity software war?

Michael Cruse — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:09:38 +0000

Google has a new ad campaign that is directly taking on Microsoft’s baby, Office. Google has been doing very well head-to-head against Microsoft’s Internet service offerings; however, office productivity is one area where they may just be out of their league. This is a serious revenue source for Microsoft, and they will play for keeps.

Microsoft has recognized the threat of Google Apps and has started to move in its lumbering pace towards a confrontation. Look at the deployment options consumers will have in the next release of Microsoft Office. Office 2010 will have a web-based version similar to Google Apps, mobile device support, and a full-blown application for local installation. Microsoft has even announced that it would have an ad-supported consumer version of Office Web Applications, the web based Office application.

I have been using Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace for several months and it is a great service. It is web-based collaborative storage service that integrates very well with Microsoft Office. This foundation is a glimpse of the future Office Web Applications. Additionally, the Microsoft Web Applications will not have some of the document conversion issues that are encountered when working with Microsoft Office files in Google Apps.

Google Apps is a quality application suite, and I have written positively about my experience with the suite. I still use Google Apps to host my personal e-mail domain. Even though the applications are well designed and feature rich, they are not Microsoft Office or even Open Office. I am reading and hearing of more deployments of Google Apps in education and at municipal government level. This has the potential to save these institutions substantial amounts of money, but I am not sure how they are addressing the inherent security issues that come with Internet based data storage.

For me, I have to question Google’s focus. Google is moving forward on many different fronts and against large established competitors. Below is a list of a few Google products and the associated competitors. The more I think about it, it does seem like Google has a target in mind.

Offering	Function	Competitors
Android	Mobile Device OS	Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, RIM, etc.
Chrome	Web browser	Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera
Chrome OS	Operating System	Microsoft, Apple, Open Source
Apps	Office productivity	Microsoft, IBM, Open Source, Sun, etc.
Gmail	Email	Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, etc.
Search	Web, Enterprise, Desktop	Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.

Microsoft and Google know the value of business consumers, and they will fight long and hard for their dollars. Office productivity is a core technology suite with large budgets in most corporations. In Microsoft’s latest 10-K filing, they report the Microsoft Business Division annual revenue at $18,894,000,000. Microsoft Office systems generate over 90% of Microsoft Business Division revenue; this is serious business indeed.

No one will argue that Microsoft does not have the strongest brand and market penetration with Office. From a typical business professional point of view, and given that the access methods were similar, which would you choose Microsoft Office or Google Apps? I am betting that it would be Microsoft Office. To the majority of users, it is a known application interface and the file format is globally supported in the business community. Especially when you take into account that under the new Office 2010 business software licensing agreements that employees working from their non-primary computer, like from home, will have access to the non-ad supported web version at no additional cost. This is reminiscent of the good old days when the 80/20 software deployment rule was standard.

Both programs are going to get even better and the product offerings will only improve under stiffer competition. Microsoft should come out on top as long as they do not rest on their laurels. Ultimately, the consumer will have access to better applications no matter where they are located and at lower cost. Will this application access freedom be an IT headache? You bet it will, and I can see the arguments brewing now. In fact, I have already participated in a few.

Solved. . . The end of an iSCSI irritation

Michael Cruse — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:11:43 +0000

We had an issue with our SAN and a couple of Windows servers. When these servers were rebooted from a script, we would lose the network shares that were homed on the SAN volume. The volumes (drives) were mounted correctly; it was just the network shares that were gone. This was bugging the heck out of us for several weeks, and I am so pleased we finally have a solution. A few darn registry entries and a lot of back-and-forth effort was all it took…

A big “thank you” to Robb who worked diligently on the problem with Microsoft.

The Problem: The network shares were lost (disappeared) on volumes that were hosted on the SAN, but only when the host server (Windows 2003 in our case) was rebooted via a script. It happened every time when the server was rebooted from a script, but only rarely happen when the server rebooted via the console. So each time we rebooted the server from a script we would have to go back and recreate the network shares.

Our Solution: We made sure that we were using the latest version of the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator, and configured it correctly per the Microsoft documentation. We completed the steps in setting the iSCSI dependency and bound volumes (MS Knowledge Base: File shares on iSCSI devices may not be re-created when you restart the computer). The rest came from working with our friends at Microsoft Technical Support over several weeks.

Open Registry Editor

Disclaimer: This worked for us in our particular situation, and it should not be completed by anyone without an understanding of the impact of these changes. This may not help you in your situation, and it could even make your problem worse, so use this information as a discussion topic with your SAN vendor or Microsoft. It is highly recommended that you consult with your vendor and Microsoft before making changes to your registry. You should always backup up your entire server before making any modification - as well as making an extra local backup of your registry – just in case you OS is damaged or rendered inoperable. Remember Andy Grove’s book, Only the Paranoid Survive.

This is for Windows 2003 server and I have no idea if it applies to any other version or release of Windows.

Navigate to the following registry sub-keys and create the following DECIMAL values if not already present:

1) HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ISCSI\Discovery
VolumeRetryCount REG_DWORD 160
VolumeRetryTimer REG_DWORD 1100

2) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
MaxRequestHoldTime REG_DWORD 120

3) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk
TimeOutValue REG_DWORD 60

4) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
ServicesPipeTimeout REG_DWORD 60000

We rebooted via script and console several times and hoped for the best! It worked like a charm for us, and we have had zero issues with network shares disappearing after a manual or scripted reboot.

Best of luck to you, and if you find a different solution, please leave a comment with some information!

Testing CellSpin – A Mobile Blogging Platform

Michael Cruse — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:59:40 +0000

Update: When I got back to a computer and checked the post, I found that it looked fine. The application worked just as it stated. But I just had to fix some of the typos, wording errors, and add a link. My writing is bad enough without all the extra damage the little keyboard and my big thumbs were doing to the English language.

Note: This post is being created from my Blackberry Storm. Oh how I miss spellcheck right now.

I found an application on the Blackberry online store that says it is for “mobile blogging”. It is called CellSpin and it is free – you just got to love that price!

The download and setup was quick and easy. The application allows you to post pictures, video, and audio directly to your blog or other social sites.

Text editing is a challenge on a Blackberry Storm, as moving back and forth in text is just plain hard. I never thought I would say that I miss the scroll wheel. This is one feature of the Blackberry Curve that I miss so very much. The text navigation problems of a Storm will reduce my desire to write “on the run”. It is not a short fall in the application, but with the device. The lack of a spellcheck solution is a shortfall of the program. As you can see by now, I have a hard time spelling kat without a spellcheck program.

Is mobile blogging useful? Sure, for the right type of blog. CellSpin allows for postings to multiple sites, which I found impressive. I can see this being very popular for Facebook and Myspace users. They can snap some video or picture and post it in seconds with the appropriate commentary. That is a very cool feature.

But I must say that it has more limited application when you leave the social site arena, unless you are very good at writing on your mobile device. I am not, so I will have to give up on mobile blogging or get an fold-up keyboard for my Storm.

Microsoft and Apple Mixing It Up A Bit…About time.

Michael Cruse — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:56:55 +0000

Microsoft verses Apple in battle for consumers all mighty dollars…and it’s about time.

Extreme views attract extreme people, and dumb things get said and done. I live and work on the Microsoft side of the world, and I make no apologies for the support I give the company. I am not an Apple or Mac hater, just a realist. Microsoft is the dominate OS provider in business and will remain so for the many years to come. I need to work and support my family, and I want my skills to be in the area with the highest demand.

Now that I have clearly stated by bias, I have been disappointed with Microsoft’s marketing department for a long time. They seem to have gotten so over confident in their market position that they forgot how to compete for the hearts and minds of their consumers. This has been the problem with Microsoft for a long, long time. And it seems to me that it is a common failing in most companies that reach a market dominating position.

The recent “Laptop Hunter” ads, I believe, will prove to be one of the most effective marketing programs that Microsoft has engaged in to-date. Apple has the upscale, artistic, image locked in and I am not sure what could be done to change that consumer mindset. That being said, Microsoft is targeting the other 98% of people who make up the rest of the world, and cost is a key driver for most of them.

This is a bit refreshing from Microsoft. It goes directly to a key issue for most consumers – cost. The average laptop will work great for the average consumer. Is it the latest and greatest? No of course not, but then again, most people do not need cutting edge performance levels, not to mention the cost that exists at the bleeding edge. People need their computers to work at a reasonable performance levels to get the tasks they are working on done. More features or performance than that is hardly ever used.

Does Mac have a role? Absolutely, just not the dominate one. If I was interested in video production or other artistic endeavors, I would seriously look at a Mac. I do not have desires in that direction, and neither do my children at this point. I want my children to work on PCs because they need the skills that dominate in the real business world. If they change to more artistic endeavors, then we may change our position.

I saw the new Mac ad the other night and found it be a bit petulant. I find it amusing that Mac attempts to portray their computers as worry free. No viruses or crashes..really…never?? That is truly a bold statement. And what is wrong with the large choices in PCs anyway?

What is your take on the Mac ad?

Finding what can be found

Michael Cruse — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:50:18 +0000

Is all information cataloged at this point? How many major search providers are left and do they have all the information of the world cataloged? I have no clue, but another search engine is hitting the net. This one says they are different, but then again, so did Cuil.com. And needless to say, I was not overly impressed with Cuil.com offering.

Enter Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com)

Is it different from the rest? From what I can tell so far – Yes!

How is it to be used in relation to other search engines? Not a clue yet…

Update 1:

I have been doing some additional searches on Wolfram Alpha and I have found some interesting results. So far one of the best has been putting two stocks in as a search query and seeing the quick comparison. This is very cool.

This site will require some getting used to, as far as learning how to write great search statements, but do not let that be a deterrent. The examples sections is very helpful for getting started (http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/).

Wolfram Alpha is worth checking out, but it is not a replacement for your daily searches at Google or Yahoo at this time.

Update 2:

I am not the only one who likes it for investing…”Using Wolfram Alpha in researching investments“

How close are you to having everything online?

Michael Cruse — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:44:49 +0000

I sleep well at night knowing that virtually all of my personal information is stored online. Really, the only personal data that is not permanently stored online are my photo albums and my music collection. However, these files are backed up nightly to a remote online server (iDrive). I know that I can move the last of my data online without too much effort, but I really do not see a benefit.

I sleep better knowing that my documents are stored on some of the best storage arrays, operated by some the the best admins, located in good data-centers. If my house burns down, or is broken into, my data is safe and accessible.

It is critical that you practice very good password management and keep your computer clean from (x)ware. I do understand that these large companies can loose data as well or even shutdown the service all together. It is just a lot less likely they will suffer a loss verses an individual person. As a precaution, every other month, I change all of my passwords and download all my files that I then burn on to a couple of DVDs. I trust the platforms of Google and Microsoft more then I trust any single computer.

I have moved all of my “Office” type documents to Microsoft Office Live Workspace. I was using Google Docs for a while, but I did not like some of the minor formatting changes that happened to my historical Microsoft Office documents. I still strongly feel that Google Docs would make a good choice for a smaller start-up that had limited resources. That being said, I have found that Office Live Workspace is really suited to my personal and family needs. I use Microsoft Office extensively and it integrates perfectly with Office 2007. I can see many uses of Office Live Workplace in smaller companies that have investment in Microsoft Office, collaborative groups, or companies that have a field presense.

I have access to all of my documents no matter where I am or the computer that I am working on, obviously Internet access is required. I can use a web browser or access documents or right from the open menu in Office. I may not be able to edit some of the documents if I am on a computer that does not have Microsoft Office (or OpenOffice) installed, but I can certainly view them all. And really, this works just fine for most situations.

Microsoft recently increased the storage of Live Workplace to 5 GB, and this easily handles all of my personal documents. You create document workspaces, folders, and can share the workspaces with other people. Right now, my wife and I share a couple of workspaces that contain the common household documents. I have other workspaces for personal research, blog ideas, old work files from my consulting days, etc.

This is by far one of the most productive, FREE, services that Microsoft has released. If you take Office Live Workspace with Microsoft’s SkyDrive service, which includes 25GB of free storage, you can really start storing massive amounts of information online. Obviously you want to use some common sense about what you store online, but I have found it to be incredibly useful.

I am about simplifying my life, and my computing needs. This is just one person’s honest appreciation for quality services.

Is free software profitable in the long run?

Michael Cruse — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:10:39 +0000

Quicken reduced the cost of Quicken Online to free. This is great for consumers, but I have to ask myself why Intuit would make such a move. What does Intuit see that would cause them to move in this direction? Are some of the new online financial applications starting to take root and they see this as a move to fend off competition?

If you are giving your product away free, while incurring costs, how exactly is this great for your business long-term? The only thing I can think of, is that you use the consumer base as a breeding ground for future business or complementary product sales. This strategy seems risky to say the least. Consumers will move to free online applications over paid applications, and will then move amongst the various free applications at will. I do not believe in consumer online loyalty in the software space, as everything is just a click away.

Companies that move in this direction may be protecting their brand and customer base, but if the customer base does not generate revenue, are they really worth having? The idea of “making it up in volume” or “ad revenue” is a design for slowly going broke. Intuit is no Google in regards to PPC revenue sources.

I came across a review of Quicken Online and Mint.com on ARS. This is worth a read and made me think about if I am going to upgrade my local Quicken installation or move to a free online product.

“Online financial organization have just grown more robust as Mint.com and offline incumbent Quicken both introduced new features to their web-based products. Since Mint.com and Quicken Online have similar purposes and functionality in mind, we thought it was time to take a comparative look at how a company from the new social media realm stacks up against a desktop software giant when it comes to online money management.“

Both retail and business consumers are expecting more for less, and sooner or later this will bring the downfall of many smaller companies.

I have been a huge fan of VMWare. This company sold its Virtual Server software (called GSX at the time) for over a thousand dollars per license. Microsoft reduced its product to free, and VMware had to respond in kind. Now they have moved the ante up again with VMWare giving away one of their enterprise solutions.

I do not know if the model of giving software away free and making it up in service or complementary sales will survive. I feel this trend is terrible for the long-term health of the software industry. We may end up with Microsoft and a few other huge corporations, as the small developers will be priced out of existence. Venture capital will only last for so long before the small companies will have to find a way to make a profit or discontinue opperations.

Complex thinking on a simple problem, that had a simple solution

Michael Cruse — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:57:34 +0000

Frustrations abound in the world of IT, and to be successful in this industry you must have a high tolerance or a bit of love/hate for it.

My old manager loved to remind us that if you do not get frustrated while bug hunting or troubleshooting, you just weren’t thinking hard enough. At times I agree with him, and at times the hard thinking is the crux of the problem.

If the principles of “KISS” (Keep It Simple Stupid) are forgotten, it could cost you a Saturday or something much more important, like a bit of pride.

My not-so incredible powers of observation tell me that as we advance in our technical ability and years of experience, we like to make mountains out of mole hills. I do not know if it is ego or what, but we just cannot admit that we could possibly be hindered by minor “issues”, they must all be complex demons.

After we exhaust all of the complex and rare causes of problems, we will finally, albeit reluctantly, check for basic causes out of sheer desperation. As we go through the process, we silently pray that the basic possible causes do not prove to be the source, just for the sense of vindication. I am sorry, we work in IT and are just not that lucky.

My KISS reminder was this weekend.

Waves of emotions come over me as I confirmed that a two dollar piece of failed cable was the source of my grief. Anger, frustration, relief and irritation all washed over me at the “Ah Ha” moment. I spent an entire Saturday looking for a complex problem that did not exist, because I failed to look for simple causes.

The embarrassment I felt was magnified during my drive home by the simple fact that I would have admonished anyone on my team for not checking the basic causes of a problem before looking for elegant or complex sources. This is a bit of a humbling experience for me, and now a source of mirth for others.

   Crime:    Supreeme Ego
 Verdict:    Convicted by my own actions
Sentence:    One Saturday spent doing pointless research
Analysis:    Lesson reinforced: Keep It Simple Stupid

We live, we learn, and we move forward.

Can exceptional service come back and haunt you later?

Michael Cruse — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:17:06 +0000

Several years ago, I suffered a plague of my own creation. We had pampered the employee base with such great service, they had taken our exceptional service level as the new base, or minimum, level of support. Employee “requests” became “demands” and my staff was being pushed around. What started out as a grand plan had became a support nightmare.

I wanted to build the best IT support group the world had ever known; one they would write songs about. We implemented many changes with the intention of keeping the staff as functional as possible. We went out of our way, I mean way out of our way, to help people and accommodate their requests. I wanted the employees working, and not thinking about computers, that was IT’s job.

This worked very well for the first six to eight months. Everyone loved the changes and IT was hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but over time, people started to change. The change was slow, which made it hard to detect at the time.

The company employees stopped requesting and started demanding. Our scheduling flexibility was abused and our team was taken for granted. Almost all IT policies were broken beyond belief. When we could not comply to a demand, with an unrealistic time table, the complaints started to roll in with vigor. The employees had forgotten what it is like in most other companies, and taken our exceptional service, as the new minimum standard.

This had to change. I could see the pressure cracks and resentment building in my staff. I invested time and training in my staff, and I did not want to lose my team. They delivered for me, and I had to deliver for them.

Over the next six months, we changed the course of events. We wrote new IT policies that were based on exceptional service but had clearly defined user requirements. We followed them to the letter, and did not comply with employee requests if they did not hold up their end.

Shrill demands by employees were met with calm explanations of reality. And when push came to shove, I would make the requester of a new project get signed authorization from the manager of the project that was to get bumped because of requester’s new project. This took many difficult situations out of IT.

At times, I felt like my office was a revolving door of complaints, but I explained the situation to every single person who came to my door and I felt they understood our situation when they left.

We found the correct balance between exceptional service, employee pampering, and realistic expectations.

Every department must find this balance and it is hard keeping people’s expectations in check with reality, especially if you can exceed them frequently.

Lost and Found: Microsoft’s advertising campaign

Michael Cruse — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:57:07 +0000

I feel the same way, as several of my peers that I spoke with, in that we do not “get” the Microsoft and Seinfeld Vista advertising campaign. If consumers do not understand the ad campaign, then Microsoft has a real problem. I guess the overarching message was “get connected”, but I am not entirely sure how that tied back to Vista. And after spending millions of dollars, Microsoft realized the message was lost, and pulled the plug on the campaign.

I am not sure how the marketing team allowed the below ad to air as it seems a complete waste of air time. The ad strikes me as a desperate attempt to reach for “anything”, but came up grasping nothing but air, in the face of the very impactful Apple ad campaign.

“If a book about failures doesn’t sell, is it a success?” Perhaps not, but Microsoft hopes that a new $300 million ad campaign about the flailing Windows Vista will somehow turn it into a success with the help of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The campaign will be one of the largest in Microsoft’s history, and is expected to begin on September 4.

Did the Microsoft ad agency actually forget to talk, much less sing, the praises of Vista? I have a hard time calling this ad campaign anything other then a mistake and a waste of money. Vista is still on the rocks with consumers, both business and personal, and Microsoft can ill afford additional marketing blunders.

So whats next for Microsoft? A new ad campaign that will focus on people staying in touch, sharing ideas with each other, and a more direct response to Apple’s marketing machine. The idea of “sharing of ideas or information” have been successful campaigns in the past for both IBM and Cisco, and Microsoft hopes to capture the spirit of these past marketing successes.

So far, the first ad I have seen is a great improvement over the Seinfeld ads. Microsoft is taking a stand and looks like they will actually start to compete with Apple for the minds of consumers. This is long overdue as most of the problems with Vista seem to be marketing (user mindset), at this point, and not technical. The below ad is on the defensive, and almost, to the point of justifying “PC’s” right to exist in the market.

For the last few years, Microsoft has not taken an aggressive marketing position. With the market power of Microsoft, they should shift to a more aggressive stance with Apple and not allow Apple to lead the marketing conversation.

In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone. –Bill Gates

I think it is time for the Microsoft management, their board, and the marketing department to take Bill’s own words to heart before Microsoft gets trounced again. Windows and Microsoft’s market position is not set in stone and can be lost if not attended to properly.

What Sarah Palin, Yahoo, and common sense can teach the rest of us concerning web applications

Michael Cruse — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:10:18 +0000

On September 17th, it was reported that Sarah Palin’s personal Yahoo email account was hacked. This was not achieved by using some unknown software exploit or a compromised computer, but with a little effort and effective use of search engines.

IT departments have been battling working with staff to keep email under corporate control. Often employees want the increased ease and flexibility that the free email services like Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail provide, but these often come with a hidden price in terms of security and control.

The questions that most online accounts ask to authenticate the “account owner” are weak at best, and not that difficult for a motivated individual to find out the likely responses. This is how Sarah’s account was compromised. People are beginning to wake up and realize just how much of their personal information is on the Net.

I have been told more times then I care to remember that ‘no one would want to read my email’, which I always respond to with “oh really, you know that for certain?. It only takes one irritated customer or disgruntled employee to make a “motivated individual” who might just take action.” Most likely the information is already on the Internet, and it does not take long to dig it out.

A few years ago, I saw this happen to a colleague. His personal email account was hacked and his personal and some business email was faxed to him as proof. Needless to say, this was an unpleasant situation for him and his employer.

Lessons to be learned:

Take your account security seriously!
Choose questions and answers that are difficult or impossible to for anyone to answer. I do not use real answers for any account authentication questions. I pick any of the default questions and use a LONG and random answer. In case I should ever need to use these questions to authenticate my account, I print the questions and answers and store them in a locked cabinet.
Do not use free email services for work.
When your corporate account is being probed by a hacker it will most likely get lockout, and a valued member of the IT department will need to unlock it. This can act as a red flag that someone is poking around your account.
Never mix personal and business email.
As a general rule, business email is monitored by your employer, so you really do not want personal email mixed in that may put you in an uncomfortable position. Do not use your personal email to move files to and from the office. There are much better ways to do this, just ask your IT department.
Email is never gone, only archived.
Do not think just because you delete an email that it is gone forever. Most everything is backed up and can be retrieved with enough effort. Do not think that you can email from a free web-mail service and your identity is protected.

Additional Articles

Know your key competitive differences, sell them to your prospects, and a short story about what not to say on a sales call

Michael Cruse — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:41:17 +0000

I violated one of my first tips on improving productivity…I answered the phone. I was expecting a call from the caller’s area code, so I picked up the call…darn it…a sales call.

I sighed to myself, and told him he had 30 seconds to make his pitch. He was taken aback by this, but recovered quickly. He was another me-too computer hardware reseller. At the end of his one minute speech, and right before he started into his second minute, I interrupted.

I asked point blank, “What makes you any different than the three companies that I currently use to purchase my hardware?“

A long pause ensued, so I thought I would help him out a bit, “is it your pricing, shipping, technical expertise in pre-sales, partnerships…what?” The pause continued for a few more moments, and as if he came up with the perfect answer he said “ME, I care.“

Slightly annoyed with his response, I asked “Are you implying that my current vendors do not care about me?“

“Well, umm” he stammered.

“Sorry, but try again with a better pitch” I replied, and followed it up with a click of the phone.

If you are in sales, you must know what makes you better or different then your competitors. Especially in saturated markets, like computer hardware sales. If the best answer you can give to that question is “Me, I care”, you have a serious problem. You have to be able to convey your message in thirty seconds to one minute. Your prospect must understand the basics of what you do, and how you are better or different than your competitors.

I could spend all day, every day, talking with sales people that call and want my business. I think sales people forget just how many calls companies get each and every day from sales people.

Most sales people do not have an answer to that basic question of what makes them different than the last twenty resellers or providers of xyz product that just called. It is not a certifications, partnerships or other such nonsense, as everyone has those, but what makes YOUR company DIFFERENT than ALL the OTHER companies in your space?

Need software for your home office, or have school age children, and want to do it on the cheap?

Michael Cruse — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:54:04 +0000

If you are running a small business, have school age children, or are searching for similar tools that you use at the office, but want to avoid the cost, then I have a few suggestions.

I get asked this question all of the time. People want to know how they can use familiar office applications at home, but want to avoid paying for it, or their employer will not fork over the software license. I do not recommend stealing it (software piracy) under any circumstances, as the nice folks that write software deserve their payday.

The answer: Use Open Source or Freeware software and straightforward bargain hunting.

Productivity

OpenOffice.org
A replacement to Microsoft Office that will work with most Microsoft Office files. The file conversions are not always 100% accurate in the formatting, but I have yet to experience anything but minor formatting issues. OpenOffice is working on a new release, currently in beta, that looks to further increase compatibility with Microsoft Office and will add additional new features. If you need a full integrated productivity suite then this is an excellent choice.
Cost: Free

Google Docs
I have written several posts on Google Apps and have a post dedicated to Google Docs. The post is linked here. Google Docs is an excellent choice for new home offices and personal use. For high school and college students, Open Office would be a better choice as it has additional features and supports more complex formatting.
Cost: Free for individuals and small groups.

StarOffice
A cousin of Open Office. I have never used this application but I have read that it is commercialized version of Open Office and includes some phone support.
Cost: $69.95

Internet

Firefox
A powerful feature packed browser powered by Mozilla. This browser is gaining market share and is a great alternative to Internet Explorer.
Cost: Free

Internet Explorer
Default browser for every Microsoft XP and Vista installation. This browser has the lion share of the market.
Cost: Free

Chorme
This is Google’s new beta web browser. I have used this browser for three days and it is an acceptable browser that has promise. It is still beta so you can expect some glitches and a lack of add-on features. You will find more features and add-ons for Firefox, but Chrome is still worth a look.
Cost: Free

E-mail

Their are several major providers of free e-mail services. I prefer Google’s service but I have not heard of any real issues from any of the most popular providers.

Gmail

Yahoo

Hotmail

Antivirus

Avast! Antivirus Protection
This is my preferred personal antivirus product. I have been using this personally for the last few years. I have had great success with the product and have had no stability problems.
Cost: Free for personal home use; Professional edition is $39.95

AVG
This is a popular antivirus and I know many people who love this product. I have not heard of any stability issues with this product and from what my friends tell me, it does its job very well.
Cost: Free (basic version); Complete version $54.95

Trend Micro HouseCall
This is an after-the-fact web based virus scanner. This will not prevent a virus from getting on your computer but it can remove it once it is on your system. If I am working on a computer with a virus, I scan it once with the installed antivirus and then scan it with HouseCall to be 100% sure that it is clean.
Cost: Free

Media Players

This space has many (actually to many to list) free applications that are very good. Most developers have more feature packed versions for sale that are below $50, in addition to, their free versions. I use the free versions as I am not a media nut.

Audio
Media Jukebox
WinAmp

Multimedia
Video Lan – VLC Media Player
Windows Media Player
QuickTime

A few other applications and services that are very useful

Google Reader and iGoogle (Free)
Quicken for all your personal finance management ($49.99)
Exalead Desktop Search (Free)
PDF995 for printing a document to a PDF file (Free with ads or $9.95 to register and remove the ads)

Have a program that should be on the list? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts!

A study reports that 88% of IT staff would steal data if fired – Give me a break!

Michael Cruse — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:33:05 +0000

The ”study”, conducted by Cyber-Ark, surveyed 300 network administrators that were attending a security conference, a little ironic if you think about it, and found that 88% of network administrators admitted that they would steal highly confidential information if terminated.

According to Cyber-Ark’s homepage, “Cyber-Ark is the leader in securing and managing privileged identities and highly-sensitive information.” I have a hard time believing corporate funded and executed research studies. These types of “studies” are rarely conducted in a sufficiently controlled and properly sampled environment. The questions are often very leading so the results are predictable and very biased. These should be called what they are…marketing materials.

I do not take issue with all sponsered research. If this study, or any study, was conducted by a well regarded research firm, I would then consider the information credible.

A study conducted by security company Cyber-Ark indicates that a significant number of corporate IT personnel snoop sensitive data, and nearly 9 out of 10 would take company secrets and remote access credentials with them if they were fired. This could pose a serious security risk for many companies and expose them to industrial espionage and other dangers.

What is the net effect of these headlines? More distrust between staff and the IT department. IT needs to work with everyone, but if employees do not trust IT, then nothing good will be accomplished. This disinformation causes unneeded walls to be built inside businesses and keep departments from trusting one another.

If 88% of IT staff are untrustworthy, then IT would have massive governance problems, and I just do not see that occurring in the market. Data breaches do happen, too frequently, but nowhere to this level. IT should be monitored, just like any other department, and companies need to implement solid security plans that include segregation of duties and effective monitoring.

To the vendors of the world: Please stop pushing hype, that preys on the fears of people, as real research, just so you can sell your products.

A few more headlines:

Dependency on Internet Applications

Michael Cruse — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:43:00 +0000

Image you could not access any of your websites or web applications that you use daily basis. Scary, I know, but think about your day and how it would be impacted.

We all have a few web-based applications and websites that we use or visit everyday. When these frequently visited or accessed applications become unavailable, it becomes a source of irritation.

When it is your homepage, it jumps from irritation to frustration and then to anger.

My homepage is like my command center, or better yet, my digital “TV guide”. It has my all of my Google services like Notebooks, Bookmarks, RSS Reader, Stocks, and News in one simple and easy format for my accessing pleasure.

One or more of the gadgets on the page are broken. This causes the page to load, display an error, and jump to standard error page. This has caused me distress and I do not need distress in my life. It is like being told “See This…Well You Cannot Have It! Now, Go Away” every single time I open my web browser.

I have found ways to access all of the information that was on my homepage via alternative means but it is just the same. I miss my homepage.

I wanted to be sure that it was not just my computer so I have tried to access the page via three different computers running two different operating systems. No Luck! I do not want to blowout my iGoogle configuration and recreate it. That would be a pain just to figure out what I will not be permitted to use for the time being. I will have to do this if Google does not fix the problem soon. I used only Google created gadgets, so I hope they are working on it.

Such a small thing can just throw your whole darn day off…

Desktop Search Applications: Searching for the ultimate search

Michael Cruse — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:02:00 +0000

Lifehacker.com completed a reader roundup on the five best desktop search applications.

The readers voted Spoltlight (Mac only) as their favorite application. I have never seen this application as I am not a Macintosh person. I have used most of the Windows applications reviewed in the article but my preferred application was not even included in the write up.

Like most people, I spend time searching for old e-mails, attachments and documents even though I have my data organized. The default search tools that are included with Windows and Office are not very efficient and lack many features, so most people, including myself, end up looking for alternative search applications. I feel desktop search applications have been a huge gift from the IT gods to the cubical and office dwellers of the world. Rejoice one and all…Rejoice!

Currently, I have been using Exalead Desktop.
Unlike some other desktop search applications, Exalead Desktop does not slowdown my computer or Outlook. It has never crashed or caused a single glitch with document or e-mail access. It indexes local documents, network documents via mapped drive or UNC, e-mail and attachments. This application even indexes content in Exchange Public Folders and everything in Outlook (including e-mail, attachments, contacts, calendar, tasks, and journal entries).

The search results are very quick and the web interface is very easy to use as it has the familiar structure shared by most search engines. It has additional filtering options down the right side the screen to narrow your searches even more. I find the search accuracy to be very good using the common Google/Yahoo search query styles.

The price for the standard edition is free and has all the features that someone will use. The paid version is targeted to corporate environments with central deployments and policy management. If you are looking for a good desktop search application, then I would recommend that you take a look at Exalead Desktop.

(Note: I am not compensated in anyway by Exalead and they have not reviewed or authorized this posting.)

Reality of Hosted Applications

Michael Cruse — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:28:00 +0000

“Help! I cannot access my files!”

I hate when I hear this from my users, I mean, I REALLY Hate to hear this, but I am fortunate, as I have direct control of my environment, and I have a limited number of users. We are seeing a greater move to the SaaS, ASP, and Cloud models and that brings a new reality to the corporate Information Technology world.

Data and Applications are no longer under the complete control of the IT department. Vendors have greater control over data and applications than ever before.

In the context of a midsized corporation, I have been struggling with this idea for some time now. When you start outsourcing applications and data hosting to an outside vendor, you start relying on their infrastructure, systems and procedures greatly. Most people do not think about the pitfalls that can await them when they move to hosted platforms. Do not get me wrong, I believe in this model but the positives and negatives must be understood by management.

For those that have no idea what I am talking about, and who stuck it out this far, here is a bit of background.

The industry has been moving towards provider based models. This means vendors offer applications and data hosting services located on servers operated at the vendors’ data centers. The users usually access applications and data through a web page based front ends, but this does not have to the be the case.

Google Apps is a great example of a provider based model. Your documents and the applications are accessed via web browser, applications and data reside at Google’s data centers and everything is under Google’s control. There are so many applications, too many to list here, that operate under this model and all of these applications, and the associated data, are out of the direct control of the corporation’s IT department.

Some (definitely not all) of the “big” questions to ask before you move to a hosted solution:

How long can your company operate if the vendor has an outage?
Look at a recent occurrence of a Google Apps outage. How long can your company go without access to your data or application? The vendor has huge responsibility for application operability, data security and accessibility. Corporate IT cannot correct problems on the vendor’s side when they occur.
How long can your company operate if your Internet provider has an outage?
A few years back, a crane fell over and knocked out almost everything in our business park for over a week. With hosted solutions, no Internet access equals no data access. Do not discount the probability of an Internet outage. It does happen and must be taken into account.
How confidential is your data?
Data confidentiality varies greatly from industry to industry and this issue must be addressed by management. It is rare for data breaches to occur at the vendors’ side but it is not out of the realm of possibility. The accidental release of information is the most likely situation, and when it occurs, it is often caused by simple human error. Search engines have indexed, and made pubic, very confidential data in the past because of a mistake.
Are you able to “backup” your data in an easy manor?
The vendor is responsible for data backup from a DR point of view, but you never want to be held hostage by your data. You must receive or be able to make regular backups of your remote data. Otherwise, the vendor has too much leverage over your company.
How strong is your contract with the vendor…mater of fact, how strong is the vendor?
Do you have clear data ownership in your contract and a good exit provision? Be sure your vendor has financial penalties for operating at a less then X percent up time. Hold them accountable to their service level agreement.You must choose a vendor that has proper funding and is not holding on by the skin of their teeth. D&B reports, SEC filings (if a public company) and asking for a copy of their most recent audited financial statements are all prudent items to review in your selection process. Also, review the rights assignment clause in case either party is acquired.
Can you live if any feature of the application is changed or discontinued?
In a hosted model, many times, you do not have a choice when features are added, altered or removed. If you are locked into a specific function or feature of the application that can not replaced if lost, you must understand the risk you face and have a very strong relationship with the vendor.

These are only some of the issues that need to be thought about before moving into a hosted platform. I have never been affected when our hosted applications have had outages in the past, but that does not mean we never will. This is something that I can guarantee will happen at some point in the future.

We will get calls from the staff and be peppered in the halls with constant questions about when services will be restored. We give the best answer that we can, “I am sorry for the problems you are experiencing but the vendor has not given us an ETA, please know that we are regularly following up with them and will provide an update as soon as one is available”.

Google Notebook and Tasks

Michael Cruse — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Over the last couple of months, I have written a series of postings about my experience with Google Apps. I used Google Apps as a test to assess usability of the hosted office productivity applications and to look for opportunities where they may be deployed in a corporate setting. Over all this was a positive experience, and I thought the Google solution is viable for smaller companies that have limited resources and infrastructure. The more I have thought about the application suite, the more areas I can see where a potential deployment would make sense in a larger company, such as, supporting a field based sales force.

One area that has troubled me was the lack of task manager. In the Microsoft Outlook world, you would use “Outlook Tasks” but I found no direct coloration to a competing Google application. At first, I believed this was a major oversight on Google’s part, but now, I am not so sure.

I started to use the Google Calendar and Google Notebook applications to work as a task manager. This worked OK, kind of, but I never really got the hang of it. I found many web-based alternative products, but I really wanted to stay with Google for my test. I went back and started to search how others were tackling the problem.

This is a long way of saying, that I was not using the Google applications very effectively.

In one of my Internet journeys, I came across a very good article on Lifehacker.com by Gina Trapani about how to use Google Notebook as a task manager. Take a moment and read her article; It is well worth it.

I liked the method she outlined, and I have adopted it for the last two weeks. I found it required some adaptation on my part, but in reality what doesn’t? When used properly, the Google Notebook application is an effective task manager. You must have a planning system, or process, you follow regularly or any task management application you choose will fail.

I am a big fan of FraklinCovey’s methods of planning and organization and found that I could adapt Google Notebook to their planning process without a great degree of difficulty. When you get down to it, the Google Notebook application is very flexible and can be adapted in many different ways to fit your preferred task management method.

The links below are to my other posting about Google’s applications and services.

Update: The New Search Buzz: Cuil.com

Michael Cruse — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:17:00 +0000

I wanted to see if the disappointing results I experienced on “Newest Search Engine That is Bigger and Better Than Google”, http://www.cuil.com/, was a server load issue or just marketing hype. The exposure that Cuil received has been nothing short of an Internet wildfire that has made every marketing professional go green with envy…

I started my review of this site yesterday, and it can be found just a few postings down from this one (or you can click here, if you prefer).

The significant issues experienced yesterday with the Cuil search engine, like search results not being returned, was a load issue as the site was just crushed with traffic. Today is a different story, and the search results are being returned much faster. Even complex searches that I tested are now working.

I really like the automatic drop down suggestions as you type into the search box on Cuil. Yahoo added this feature a while ago, and it is convenient. The Cuil search results format is superior to both Google’s and Yahoo’s results page. This is one of the nicest search result pages I have ever seen and I really like the keyword associations it suggests. The lack of advertising on the site is refreshing, but I have no idea how long that will last. The company needs to make some money eventually…somehow.

The relevance of the Cuil search results still requires much more work and was not a result of server load. I searched for the same terms that I did yesterday and while all searches returned results the Google and Yahoo results were just more relevant.

Here is an example:
- Term: Sirius stock decline
- Cuil.com: 1 result – not relevant
- Google: 62,000+ results – top 3 listings most relevant
- Yahoo: 2 million+ results – 9th listing most relevant

At this time, Google and Yahoo have nothing to fear from Cuil. Users will have hard time finding information using this search engine. The search relevance is just not their yet. That does not mean that Google and Yahoo should dismiss this start-up. Cuil is on the right track and if they are not taken serious, Google may become the next Yahoo. The Cuil search algorithms need improvement but so did Google’s when it came out of the gate.

Cuil strikes me as company that has been influenced by the work of Apple. They spent time on the user interface and made the site inviting, elegant and easy to use. They should now be working on the improving the back-end workings of the search engine. They now have a huge amount of feedback with all the press in the last three days, heck, just from the blogging community alone they should have enough comments to make substantial improvements to the engine.

This company received massive exposure in the last 72 hours at essentially no cost, what a remarkable job the marketing staff of the company have done. Now is time for the engineers to step up to the plate and knock one out of the park and improve the search relevance.

The New Search Buzz: Cuil.com

Michael Cruse — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:58:00 +0000

A new search engine is making waves around the Internet, and it is called Cuil (www.cuil.com). The undercurrent seems to be setting Cuil up as the next big search engine. My first reaction was “come on, no one can beat Google“, but I then remembered that I was saying the same thing about Yahoo when Google arrived.

Cuil (pronounced “cool”) has been quoted as saying that their search engine is bigger and better than Google’s. A very big statement if you ask me. The company was founded by ex-Google employees so it should have some great ideas, as well as, valuable inside “industry” knowledge. Google is know for breeding the entrepreneurial spirit in their staff, and it is a major source of strength for the company, but at times, it can bite them in the ass…

Cuil’s most important claim, in my opinion, is their privacy policy. Cuil’s policy is not to track any personally identifiable information or record user search history. This is in a very stark contrast to Google’s practice and sounds like a shot over Google’s bow.

Privacy is a hot topic these days, and we want you to feel totally comfortable using our service, so our privacy policy is very simple: when you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information, period. We have no idea who sends queries: not by name, not by IP address, and not by cookies (more on this later). Your search history is your business, not ours.”

I really like the layout of the Cuil search results. The multi-column approach is much cleaner look with refined key word, or grouping, choices along the top and categories on side. I also like the embedded images with the snip of text from the target site. The lack of advertising is refreshing but I wounder just how long that will last. Note: The wider the display, the better the site looks.

I found that the Cuil site was slow and quirky. This is expected as they are experiencing a huge increase in traffic compared to their pre-buzz days.

I searched Cuil and Google with the same set of search terms, and as of right now, I am staying with Google.

I do not know if it is the maturity of the Google search algorithms or the fact that Google has been tracking my every search for the last couple of years, but Google’s search results were far more relevant.

I was very surprised to see the search term “Sirius merger” (without the quotes) brought up zero results on the Cuil search engine, but then again, maybe it is just a load issue. “Sirius +merger” reported to bring up 91 results but nothing ever displayed in the page except for the total number of results. Again, this may all be load issues. In contrast, Google and Yahoo brought dozens of listings for both search terms.

I think Cuil has potential but it looks like this may still be at an early Beta stage and not ready for prime time. This site is going on my favorites as I believe it could have a promising future.

Google should take note of Cuil. I think their user interface is superior to that of Google and Google should allow users to completely opt-out of all activity tracking if they so choose (note: Google will anonymize their logs, eventually). Cuil must work on site performance and search relevance. Just because you index more pages, does not mean you are the “better” search engine.

For your reference here are a few other articles about the Cuil.com.

What is the future of communication?

Michael Cruse — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:52:00 +0000

My rant from Yesterday made me think about the future of communications. Currently, we have e-mail, SMS and IM as the three dominate forms of non-spoken electronic communication. I poked around the Net and landed on a press release from Gartner about the mobile messaging market. The numbers blew me away. They estimate mobile messages will exceed 2 trillion messages in 2008. This is close to a 20% increase from 2007 levels.

I did not find estimates, from sources I trust, for 2007/2008 e-mail volume, but for 2006 the Radicati Group estimated that 183 billion messages were sent per day. That is over 66 trillion messages per year and I would bet that volume has gone up 20% per year.

E-mail is here to stay and IM/SMS is not going anywhere, however, I would expect that Mobile IM will overtake SMS at some point the future. More mobile devices are connected to the Net than ever before and that number will just increase with time. I do not think that SMS is doomed by any means, but Mobile IM has a lower cost for the consumer and will keep the “buddy list” in sync with the desktop computer, the transition by consumers is just logical.

What are the new technologies and devices that may change the rules of the game? I am no insider or futurist so I have no clue. I am eager to see what is cooking up in the R&D departments or the tech giants and tech garages of the world.

These are just my thoughts from the cheap seats on the online and mobile communication market.

IM will continue to grow and become more accepted for business level communications. Corporations are adopting IM which is demonstrated by the increased acquisition of internal hosting infrastructures so they are able to keep IM communications in compliance with laws, regulations and corporate policies.
“Twitter type” applications will grow and should become an accepted communication vehicle for both individuals and businesses. For instance, I can see managers’ monitoring remote staff by reviewing their twitter logs verses the traditional e-mail or phone call for status updates.
I am sorry to say that I believe blogging has peaked and it will take some sort of catalyst to move it to the next level. I have not read anything that reports blogging is declining but nor have I read anything that says that it is increasing. It certainly does not have the Buzz that it once had. I think that the MySpace and Facebooks of the world have really eaten into the “traditional” blogging space.
Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and others have changed the interactive web forum for good. More non-media or entrainment companies are creating corporate presences in this space in order to tap into the younger generation of consumers.
Push content will become more prevalent in corporate settings as more people continue to adopt the Blackberry model.
Discussion boards and Wiki’s have moved on to the corporate Intranet and corporate web sites. This level of interaction has never really been seen before with the faceless corporations of the world. The best you would get a couple of years ago was a poorly done FAQ.
Mobile phones will continue to evolve into two separate paths. One path will be the micro device that is trendy and has the “cool” factor while the other path will take you down a road that will try to replace your laptop in a casual way. We will not be giving up our laptops anytime soon but I am certainly less reliant on one as long as I have my Blackberry.

It is a fast paced market with real powerhouses behind it. These giants in the tech world will develop products as fast as us consumers can write purchase orders or whip out our credit cards. Ahh, such a great time to be alive!

Well enough of my mental musing for now, some real work is intruding on my evening and must get done soon.

Will Spam cause the fall of e-mail?

Michael Cruse — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:38:00 +0000

I was looking at our Spam filter stats, and it is awe-inspiring at how much junk we get each day. I genuinely believe we can blame the Spam problem on the creators of telemarketing and direct mail as I see these invasive techniques are the grandparents of the modern day spammer.

Will the increasing levels of Spam cause a decline in e-mail usage as people opt for other methods of communication that are less prone to Spam or will the evil spammers just invade any new medium that is developed? This is simple to answer, spammers follow the money.

We have been seeing an increase in e-mail Spam and Spam via SMS and IM for the last few years now. Is a new industry being born right before our eyes? Spam filtering for SMS and IM much like what we have for e-mail or am I behind the times and it is already being done?

The simple fact is spam works.

If you want 1,000 visitors, then send out one million spam messages to valid e-mail accounts and hope you get .001% response rate. In July of 2006 (I know a bit outdated but these are the most common messages I still receive), a New York Times article states the top three forms of spam are:

Porn – 5.6% click through rate
Drugs (you know…the special little pills) – 0.02% click through rate
Watches – 0.0075% click through rate

Even the markets can be manipulated by spammers. Spam Works: Evidence from Stock Touts and Corresponding Market Activity.

Spam will not go away until people stop clicking on links and buying products.

Spammers follow the money…if people do not spend money the spammers will go away, however, this will never happen. People do illogical things all the time, and this is one annoyance we will have to live with forever. Filters get better all the time but so do the spammers. It is a game they play, and the stakes are big business.

Companies cannot afford the loss of productivity or the potential lawsuits from offended employees when they view explicit Spam messages. In 2007, it was estimated by Nucleus Research Inc., that spam would cost $71 billion annually in lost employee productivity. Even the free e-mail providers, like MSN, Google and Yahoo, use spam filters to protect their networks and to entice subscribers to utilize their services. This concept is not lost on the traditional Internet Service Providers (ISP) as they offer consumers software bundles to help filter out junk e-mail.

I do not get it! In the age of identity theft and online fraud, what they heck is any human, with more then two brain cells, doing by clicking on an advertisement they received via an unsolicited e-mail? People are just feeding the problem.

By the way, if you are thinking about becoming a spammer…ah…I mean “utilize an online e-mail marketer to promote your product”, please read this recent article on CIO.com.

Google Reader Tips

Michael Cruse — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:42:00 +0000

I use Google Reader a ton. I have subscribed (added the various feeds) of all the website and blog that I read on a regular basis. This application has saved me a ton of time and since it it web based, I have no software to install and I can access it on any computer or my Blackberry. Oh Ya – It is Free! It is not the perfect news reader but it is one of the very best.

One of my, unfounded, gripes was a lack of keyboard shortcuts because clicking on the “Next item” button repeatedly to get it to move to the next article did not function as well as one might think. My real problem is that I am my own worst enemy. Ego really, because the keyboard shortcuts where not screaming at me, “Hi, Here I Am!”, I presumed there was none. I was wrong.

So, here is the list of keyboard shortcuts I found for Google Reader…who would have thought to check the help site…where is my head at times.

The main ones I now use are listed below.

Next or Previous item: j/k
Toggle share item: shift-s
Toggle star item: s
Display all shortcuts: ?

Gmail Vs. Outlook

Michael Cruse — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:33:00 +0000

I came across a good article on Lifehacker comparing Gmail and Outlook. If you are considering making the jump from Outlook to Gmail, you should take a few minutes and give it a read.

Outlook vs. Gmail—The Definitive Comparison

Over the last couple of months I have moved my personal e-mail to a Google Apps account (this allowed me to keep my custom domain e-mail address) from Outlook. Overall it has been a pleasant transition but not without a few speed bumps.

Updated: Talk about sending the wrong message about/to IT

Michael Cruse — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:18:00 +0000

I took some time to read the law in question. (Please see my last post for a link to the article and the law.) It looks, from my uneducated eye in matters of law, that this is an amendment to an employment or licensing code. I can see both sides of the argument (a little less on the side of the lawsuit to be honest) and reading the code is open to some interpretation.

So my take-aways from this exercise are:

I do not want to be a lawyer
Reading or writing anything in “legal speak” takes way to long and is generally confusing
It is not a California or national law so it was wasted time

Talk about sending the wrong message about/to IT

Michael Cruse — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:26:00 +0000

Two news article in Two days have made me ill…when does it all stop?

New Computer Repair Law Could Affect Both Company Owners and Consumers

A new Texas law requires every computer repair technician to obtain a private investigator’s license, according to a lawsuit filed in Austin. Violators can face a $4,000 fine and one year in jail, as well as a $10,000 civil penalty.”

This law is starting to get some added press attention and the few additional articles I have found seem to imply that this law may have a bigger impact then the fine Representative believes. This may be a case of a poorly written law that is over reaching in scope only due to wording (interpretation), and not intent. My concern comes more from the messaging it will send to, and about, IT professionals.

IT professionals must maintain a very high degree of trust. We have the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, and people must trust us with access to data before we can be effective in our job. A law like this will not increase the trust factor on either side. Employees who do not trust the IT staff to keep information confidential OR are certain that IT staff will not be snooping in their data will absolutely work to circumvent IT systems. This will happen and I have seen what happens when employees believe IT cannot be trusted. It is not a pleasant environment to work in or attempt to manage. It takes a long time for new IT leadership to rebuild trust once it is destroyed.

On the other side, will the “PI” (Private Investigator) title entice more snooping by IT? I believe, for some, it will. This would cause the employee fears to become reality and create an adversarial relationship that will only spiral downward.

I would support a background check for all IT professionals and is already done by most large corporations. I do not want someone with a criminal background or who has been dismissed for improper handling of confidential data to work for me. The reality is that most companies do not give out any information about past employees so you are often left to the applicants word or hiring a service to complete background checks. (Check references you say?, Oh Please – like you can trust any of them to be objective.) Just ask San Francisco what happens when you hire the wrong IT guy!

I hope this law gets struck down and written in a more targeted method. If you want the “PI” status for forensic IT professionals – that might be reasonable (might!). However, it is not reasonable for the local Best Buy or mom-n-pop computer shops’ employees to be so licensed.

This law makes no sense and will just put productive people that are providing a good service out of work. It will create a rift inside larger organizations between the IT group and the people they support. This is a loose-loose situation.

Do Not Piss the IT Guy Off!

Michael Cruse — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:04:00 +0000

The story below is disappointing but true. I do not think that most people have any clue exactly how much access the IT (Information Technology) group has to information and the absolute control they can exert over it. The more senior the person the more serious the threat.

IT Admin Locks Up San Francisco’s Network
By Jeremy Kirk
July 15, 2008 — IDG News Service —

A network administrator has locked up a multimillion dollar computer system for San Francisco that handles sensitive data and is refusing to give police the password, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.”

SOD (Segregation Of Duty) has been an issue for IT and finance groups for a long time and in small shops it is virtually impossible to implement. Wherever it is possible, it should be implemented to protect systems, information and people.

This guy has them by the short hairs and it sucks to be in their position. It could end up costing the fine tax payers a few million dollars to be absolutely sure the city has fished everything out of their systems. What a waste of time, effort and money. I have never understood the retaliation mentality.

I hope he get his just rewards in prison.

Google products – final thoughts, for now…

Michael Cruse — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:09:00 +0000

It has been a couple weeks since I have started my tests of the Google application suite. I really had a great time testing and playing with several of the applications that Google has to offer. The vast majority of applications I found to be well-developed, functional, and user friendly. A few applications are bit feature poor and are still at a “beta” level.

Google Apps:
Google Apps consist of an e-mail client, calendar, office productivity software, and a web hosting platform. Gmail is a solid e-mail platform but the idea of labels verses folders might give some people a pause. It does a very good job of spam filtering and the ability to use your own custom domain is a nice bonus. I had no problems getting push e-mail working on my Blackberry. The Calendar application was straightforward and easy to use. They should make the import instructions from Outlook more prominently displayed in the calendar settings. I also did not care for look of the e-mails that calendar requests send out (a style issue), but they are functional.

I found not having the calendar and e-mail client in a single integrated interface to be a bit cumbersome and a loss of overall productivity. I kept them open on separate tabs and Internet Explorer and while this was functional it is not ideal. Also, the lack of an individual and centralized task planning system is a major oversight for the application suite.

Google Docs will work well for organizations that are just starting out or do not have a tremendous amount of historical documents they wish to relocate. It will also work well for small companies that do not have complex document formatting in the majority of their work product. I can see a strong role for this application in field based sales staff.

This application, in my opinion, needs the most improvement by Google. It lacks a strong multi-document import function that preserves formatting of documents to a high degree. I also feel the file size restrictions are a bit low. However, with the additional of “Offline” application access you can see their development direction and who they have their ultimate sights on…

The Google Sites web hosting platform is a great, fun, bonus. Creating basic Internet and Extranet sites was an absolute snap. I could see this platform really being functional for the small and field-based companies in communicating with staff. I do not know if I would use his platform to develop a client facing web site. I am sure for specific applications it would function well, however, for corporate client facing websites a traditional development and hosting platform would be a better choice.

Additional products outside of the Google Apps environment:
You must maintain two Google accounts to utilize all of the Google services. For ease of use, I created them with the same user name and password. I understand Google has stated there are technical challenges with the unification of the user accounts, but I believe this is the direction they should be aggressively pursuing. A single unified Google account will improve the user experience and, by removing minor frustrations, increase user loyalty.

Blogger:
This is such a great and fun experiment for me. I’ve really enjoy blogging and I find the Blogger application to be delightful. It is basic and straightforward enough for a new user but allows advanced users to tweak the heck out of it. Blogger integrates with several of the other Google services including Google Docs. Google does have competition with WordPress and WordPress seems to be the more advanced product. I am sure the Google is responding by adding new features to blogger and will give WordPress a serious run for their money. (Update 10/6/08: I have moved my blog to a hosted WordPress platform. A hosted WordPress site, gives you greater flexability.)

Google Reader and iGoogle:
These two applications are the cornerstone of my Google experience. I use iGoogle as my home page and use Google Reader to monitor the RSS feeds of most websites and blogs that I review on a regular basis. With the addition of being able to access these applications from from my Blackberry, it has just ingrained in me that much more into the Google experience. The amount of widgets that you can add to iGoogle is truly impressive. To be honest, these two applications are what really sold me on Google. I find the Shared News function in Google Reader to be a fun and interesting insight into some of my friends’ thoughts.

Google Bookmarks and Notebook:
I access both of these applications from iGoogle. I have moved all of my Internet bookmarks from Internet Explorer to Google Bookmarks. This is a good productivity booster is you use multiple computers as it allows me to access my bookmarks no matter what computer happened to be on at the moment. At first, I had no idea what I would be using Google Notebook’s for, but when I shutdown my Exchange server, I had to relocate all of my Outlook Notes somewhere. Once I took the time to move my Outlook Notes, I began to see some of the power of the Google Notebook application. I started to clip articles and information from the Net, jot down thoughts and ideas, and generally use it as a spiral-bound notebook.

Google Analytics:
This was one of the biggest surprises for me. This analytics platform has really blown me away especially for the cost. If I was in this market space…I would be worried. I found the setup and integration of the tracking to be a snap and the reports to be very useful. The only challenge I had with the entire account, so far, has been the set up of filters to remove my own web activity on the blog. It did not take me long to locate information to set up the filters correctly but it was a little more difficult than I would anticipated.

This product is so good that I am seriously considering moving my corporate websites analytics to this product from our current provider. I consider this product to be one of the Google’s home runs.

Everything Else:
There are so many more products that I haven’t even touched on yet. I have not extensively used the Book Search, Finance Portfolio, Google Talk, Web History, Picasa, or Orkut. It is really amazing at the amount of applications Google has produced. I think many people still see Google as only a web search organization. That is so not the case. I still do not have a true appreciation for the width and depth of the Google application base. I understanding the development tools (Code) that Google offers and hosts are impressive.

I just pulled up the Google application service listing off their website and it truly is crazy just how many products they provide. I did not even know about Google Health, SketchUp, Translate or Patent Search. I have not even gone into Google Labs in quite some time to see what they are cooking up in there.

Closing thoughts:
Hosted applications and Application Service Providers are here to stay and I believe that it is the absolute way of the future. Sooner or later, we will all have to embrace this concept as it will probably be the dominant concept in software design within the next five years. This platform speeds development, improves the user experience, increases security, lowers support costs and should control software piracy all with one blow. Every company is looking to limit and control costs and for software developers, this is just a natural progression of that line of thinking.

These applications are in the 1.x phase of their existence and will improve greatly over the next couple of years. We are already starting to see glimpses of what the next generation of hosted software applications will look like and it is impressive.

The links below are to my other posting about Google’s applications and services.

Google Apps – Part 4 Docs

Michael Cruse — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:11:00 +0000

One of the benefits of looking at online document solutions, like Google Docs, is the shifting of responsibility of backup and archival to a third party. In my corporate life, I have yet to embrace the concept outsourced backup…call it ultimate paranoia. This, however, is off topic so back to Google Docs.

One of the first things I noticed with Google Docs was the lack of an easy way to upload multiple documents. The site directly supports uploading of individual files, but not multiple files. I eventually found an application that would assist in the uploading of multiple documents to the Google Docs website but its user interface needs improvement. Once I had some documents uploaded, it was easy to create and assign labels/folders to documents for effective organization. I then started to open a few of the documents.

The vast majority of documents I work with are MS Word and Excel. I was disappointed at the amount of formatting that was lost specifically in my Word documents. Documents that were very specifically formatted (spaced, fonts, etc.) essentially had to be reconstructed. I noticed only minor discrepancies in my Excel files. Overall, the majority of my Word documents were in acceptable condition. All of them required some sort of formatting adjustments.

I created a couple of new documents this week using the word processor and one using the spreadsheet application. I found for the average user these programs worked as advertised and would be functional for the majority of consumers and small-businesses. I do not see mid to large size businesses dropping Word anytime soon…I know I would not deploy this to my corporate user base anytime in the near future. However, I do see tremendous opportunity in the educational and SOHO arenas.

I found the prior versions feature available for all documents to be powerful and effective. I had incorrectly made a change to a word processing document and was able to roll back to the prior version within moments. I found the general performance of the application to be completely acceptable and I really liked the ability to output these documents as PDF files without having to purchase Acrobat or install any software on the local computer.

For me personally, I see Google Docs as an opportunity to more effectively manage information that I track in spreadsheets. It is very convenient to be able to access information from any computer that is attached to the Internet. It is also convenient for my wife to be able to access these common household spreadsheets on any computer she happens to be on. That is where I see my utilization of Google Docs ending.

The import routine makes too many changes to the formatting of my existing Word documents for this to become a reasonably effective replacement for Word. Google needs to develop a utility that better supports uploading of information to the Web application and preserves the accuracy of the document formatting. Google has the right concept and this is still a “beta” application. I would anticipate over the next year we will see more impressive features rolled out.

Deeper Thoughts:
The one application where I can see this might be effectively used is with a field-based sales and support staff. This would be a very intriguing beta project to roll out to a group of individuals. It could resolve issues regarding archiving of corporate documents on systems that are not attached to the network and at a dramatically lower costs than current solutions. Corporate may be able to push down documents to multiple user accounts or create shared libraries for field-based staff. One of my future testing projects will be to create a document structure for a virtual sales team and see if it could be effectively utilized. A field team that is not reliant upon Microsoft’s Office products would have a lower IT costs for software acquisition, maintenance and support.

Something to seriously think about…

The links below are to my other posting about Google’s applications and services.

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