June 16th, 2010 by Al

Today marked a rare occurence, in which I need to address repressed issues. This allowed me to work from my home office. Once the issues were address, I turned my attention to my system, an iMac 27″ desktop. I’ve mentioned this before, but today I needed to update 2 critical applications.

I run VMWare Fusion, which allows me to load different operating systems. Version 3 promised to fix a few problems and increase performance. VMWare bundled McAfee SecurityCenter with it, which anyone knows, if you’re going to run Windows, you must have a reliable strategy for protecting this operating system and your critical files.

I paid for the upgrade and downloaded VMWare Fusion. The upgrade was flawless, then I proceeded to upgrade the VMWare Tools and moved on to McAfee. I went through the same ritual, but ended up frustrated. You first download an executable, then execute it, which connects to their server and begins the upgrade piece. It kept failing, citing a connection problem. It stated that if the connect was good, perhaps the server was unavailable and try back.

Heh.  Try back? You take my money and want me to try back later?

Okay, so I did give them the benefit of the doubt, and tried back. Much later.

When I did try it again, it gave me the same results, so decided to contact support. Their interface required me to install an application for chat and soon I was chatting with a nice fellow in India. He gave me some pointers and finally asked if he could remotely access my computer. I denied him at first but then relented. Soon, my mouse pointer went wild with windows closing and new ones appearing until the final box appeared. He then unchecked a box (proxy setting) then applied the setting, finally selecting okay. He then ran the subscription verification and the x was cleared. The SecurityCenter was now indicating my computer was protected once again.

Elapsed time: 9 minutes.

What a great experience! Time saved? Invaluable!

I feel silly, but I don’t care. You can’t save them all Hasselhoff!

Goes to show you, even experts can use the help at times, and it’s even better with outstanding people that care on the other line..

April 18th, 2010 by Al

I installed a new iPhone App for Wordpress blogs. Testing it’s functionality with this post.

The picture is one from the ferry doc at Bainbridge Island:

At Coleman dock in Seattle:

April 18th, 2010 by Al

I want to give an update of what’s been happening: Things are going well in the PDA department. A special call-out to Mindy Byers of “Mega-Mouth Mindy” who gave me incredible insight and opinion with her own experiences the iPhone. Many thanks Mindy. I appreciate your time and willingness to answer my questions.

The iPhone is working out better than expected. (That’s always good, right?) It’s simplified my personal data, solving communication problems by providing real-time access to both email and voice. In all actuality, it’s FUN! I’m using 2 productivity applications daily:

iTimeSheets,  which tracks many different yet recurring tasks I’m working on. The great part is, it emails the report in a CSV format, easily imported into Excel.

MileBug, which tracks mileage for IRS purposes, allowing me to toss the paper log book. This one allows setting presets for orgin and destination, business purposes and start/stop mileage. In all, it does it all. Plug in the IRS allowance and it calculates the total mileage and $ amount. The reports are emailed as well, in the same CSV formats.

The other standard applications  on iPhone are simplifying my organization and making my life so much easier, I can’t even begin to explain. Maybe it’s just my own personal preference, but my philosophy is, if it works for you, then it’s right.

I’m continuing updating my systems here at home, this is a must. Connecting to anyone’s corporate network is an exercise in personal responsibility. What I mean is, you must practice safe computing. You can be held liable for disruptions. Your Anti-virus software must be updated (which I just updated yearly subscription) and you must scan your drives, regularly.  All of them, including and especially your email as most viral payloads are delivered by attached documents.

Verify your security settings and make sure everything is ship-shape, because when you connect and accept, you are saying you’re good to go and will be held accountable for infecting their servers. As for mine, they are clean and I’m now set for remote work. Updated systems makes life easier don’t it?

The current project I’m on is just awesome. I enjoy the people I’m working with and the environment is more than I could have hoped for. It’s stretching my abilities and providing a great opportunity to grow and learn from professionals that love and are good at what they do.

Last Friday, in order to really become acclimated, I visited the co-location DataCenter where our corporate servers and network gear are hosted. Wow, talking about expansive! The sheer size of the place was impressive. It’s beyond imagination at how much data passes to and from this location and how much is stored there. Think about that the next time you IM, text, send an email or connect to a website it going through or stored somewhere, often many times over!

I’ve been dealing with server names on master sheet but seeing them, yields a whole new perspective that will help as the project moves along, which it is in full swing. Well, that’s my update, hope you leaned something and enjoyed it.

© Al Ardon IT Strategies Inc. 2010

April 11th, 2010 by Al

Awhile back I wrote about strategies for efficient computing and how they can be or include anything that simplifies the work flow process. By doing so, you enable yourself for a higher level of productivity and cut down on the amount of technical gadgets you carry about. Because my primary platform is Mac OSX, it made sense for me to consolidate my PDA/Phone/iPod into one device. That device is the Apple iPhone. I procured mine late last Thursday and it’s already helped me tremendously by eliminating my blackberry and iPod Touch.

© Al Ardon IT Strategies Inc. 2010

April 4th, 2010 by Al

As I mentioned in my last post, I was out taking some photographs of a bike I am putting on the market and this is it. These were taken with a Nikon D80 on manual exposure. See these and more examples of my photography at my photoblog: http://www.naturalcapturings.com

Subject: 2004 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic FLSTCI, Twin Cam 88B, 1450 cc’s

Arlen Ness Big Sucker, D&D Fatcat Exhaust, Metzeler ME 880 Tires, WildOne Big Chubby Handlebars

Memphis WindShield

April 4th, 2010 by Al

While out photographing my motorcycle, I heard this roaring sound overhead. As I peered overhead, I observed this huge 747 flying very low and being escorted by what must have been a recording aircraft. I managed to snap off a shot. It must have been bound for Boeing field on landing approach because the wheels were down.

Sorry for the overly gray sky, but it was moving so fast I didn’t have much time to capture it.

April 1st, 2010 by Al

I am pleased to announce that my company, Alfred G. Ardon Consulting Inc. will be beginning a new project in collaboration with Mobile Integration Inc./Puget Technical as Technical Lead for the Data Center Migration project at Starbucks in Seattle. An intensive study of server and application usage as well as impact to business operations will be conducted. I will lead the technical team in various aspects of hardware migration targeting minimal down time.

© Al Ardon IT Strategies Inc. 2010

March 2nd, 2010 by Al

Often people ask me, “How can work more efficiently with my computer?”

It’s a great question, but one that is uniquely answered by each individual. Efficiency is geared toward the person and what works best for them and can be highly subjective. I’ll just say, there is a certain flow to your work that must be considered.  A flow that represents your “Feng Shui” and should be carried through into your technical strategy.

How do you do it?

Well, for me, I began look at all the things that I work with on a daily basis. What Computer, Devices and Applications I use and how they integrate with the mobile part of my technical world. I also look at things from an enterprise perspective, one where I quickly learned that standard equipment and standard applications maintain an ease of support and makes sound fiscal sense.

For example:

Computers/Personal Data Assistant

• My Desktop choice (a 27” iMac) was made with the over technical strategy I wanted to employ in mind. It represents the anchor for my business and as such, becomes the homeport for all my correspondence and technical data.

• My Mobile Desktop choice (a 17” MacBook Pro) was made keeping in mind that I wanted seamless integration with my iMac. When I work in the field, it becomes a mobile office, effectively allowing me to dynamically create on-the-fly work that otherwise, would have to wait until I got home.

• My PDA choice (an iPod Touch/Blackberry Pearl) integrates well with either, and serves as a quick connect without deploying the MacBook. It’s drawback – a dependency on Wi-Fi. However, more and more places are offering guess wireless, but security must be accounted for and risk mitigated. I must consider at some point-for efficiency’s sake- to consolidate my 2 PDA devices into 1 and that would be obtaining the iPhone. The iPhone would provide my operation with seamless integration aligning itself with my Desktop and Mobile Desktop computing strategy.

All 3, iMac, MacBook Pro and iPod Touch create a synergy that works well for me and is easy to support and maintain.

Applications

Applications (Apps) are programs that run on computer which allows the user to accomplish some sort of work such as Email, Word or Excel. Applications are not so subjective. Market leaders are leaders for a reason and outside of technical holy wars, the prevailing Office Suite offered by Microsoft, is the winner hands-down because they allow you to maximize productivity. My computer choices however, placed me in a quandary. While Microsoft does offer Office for Mac, it’s clear where Redmond is placing the bulk of their efforts and it’s not there. However, in the world of applications, no man is an island and there are many ways to go.

What I will present next, is my own preference. I work with both Mac and Microsoft—and there is a real need for me to transcend those worldly boundaries as an IT Consultant. Also, being a frugal business owner, nothing is wasted so I use software licenses where I can.

Being a Techie, for me it’s no problem to work in both worlds.

To do this, I use a product called, “VMware Fusion,” an application that allows me to run other operating systems as virtual PC’s. An Operating System (OS) is a set of programs that allow the user to interface with the computer’s peripherals. I’ll say this for my purposes here, I run multiple OS environments for testing and evaluating newer versions of application software, including other OS’ such as Windows Server 2003, RedHat LINUX or Windows XP.
As I mentioned, certain software are better in their Microsoft porting. A port is an application developed to run on a particular OS. For me, I run XP in a Virtual Machine (VM) which is computer representing itself in a virtual way that simulates a real physical one, for the purpose of running Microsoft Office 2007 and Intuit QuickBooks 2009. Both applications are Microsoft ports and are far better than their Mac ported counterparts. These Apps affect my productivity, so having the ability to run them in a Virtual XP machine is extremely valuable to me. VMware Fusion also has a feature called, “Unity” which allows for the virtual machine to become transparent and appear to be part of the Mac OS. Applications appear as if they were installed natively on the Mac OS which works well for me.

Let’s quickly talk about Email. I was using Entourage which is part of the Office for Mac suite. It’s alright, but doesn’t integrate all that well for me with my PDA. Blackberry’s sync doesn’t work for me that well either, so I decided to change that part of my strategy. I’m now using the standard mail application with Mac OSX Snow Leopard, and utilizing the standard applications for Address book, Calendar and iTunes. It simplifies their synchronization and saves me time. It lacks all the bells and whistles, but we’re talking efficiency here. You experience fewer headaches, and systems are easier to operate and maintain.

There are a host of applications that came with my new iMac and I am finding new nuggets of gold that would otherwise remain hidden. I encourage you to explore the hidden gold within your computer and operating System as well.

In conclusion, your efficiency is dependent on your technology decisions. Computers, PDA’s and Applications should allow you to work as effortlessly as possible. These decisions are not base solely on the “cool” factor. Think the process through and go with the vendor that supports your existing technology invests the best.

If you keep it simple, you will be more efficient with less headaches.

© Al Ardon IT Strategies Inc. 2010

March 1st, 2010 by Al

I want to share a funny story.

Ever since I returned to consulting, there have been moments when I’ve really missed my old crew. The thing I miss the most, is working with my old buddy. We knew and worked with each other for over 10 years. Working with him, there was no such thing is ego, and we truly complemented one another. Especially with programming, If something could be scripted, I knew he’d be the one who could  do it. I could complement that by offering my input. All I’d have to do is feed him and idea, and off he’d go, hammering away until done. That’s the way it is with teams, especially us UNIX admins,  we really have to have a sense of laziness, in order to function efficiently. Repetitive tasks take up way too much time if you have to manually do them. But the true value has always been working with a great team, each bringing unique perspective to the project.

Our motto was always, “We postulate to automate…“

Not all working situations are like this, and I’ve worked with some possessing such deep insecurities, you didn’t let your guard down– not even a moment. But not these guys, they were a riot.

I remember this one time, I was in Northern California attending a course on the HP XP256 Storage Array. It was a grueling 5 day boot camp. Picture information being thrown at you, it’s like drinking from the fire nozzle. You get the picture. Early this one particular morning, I awoke, and logged in to check my email–keeping in touch. The team was in the process of installing a new HP9000 server for the Data Warehouse project and the guys were in the process of coming up with a name for it. So one of the wiseguys decide to take the lead on a practical joke by emailing me the new name, “pecker.”

I thought to myself, no-way. They wouldn’t, they’re not going with that name. In my mind, I could just hear it going over the company PA speaker, “Attention, Pecker is down!” or “Pecker is coming down for maintenance!” or “Great news! Pecker is up!“

Well you get my drift. I was tired, irritable and didn’t see it coming, those guys set me up. I ranted at them, “You better come up with something else or else!

I went back to finish up, caught the plane home and Monday morning when I got to the office, there they were with SEG’s just about to bust. I tell you, I learned all about humor that day!

Yeah, I miss those days. What a team.

Have fun, live large, laugh lots…

And guys, if you’re out there reading this, I still owe ya!

February 27th, 2010 by Al

Impact of Obsolete Business Systems

Obsolete Systems Impact Operations
Inefficiency in Business Computing impacts productivity and worker morale. The purpose of Efficient Business Computing is to maximize work flow and accomplish business objectives. Lack of fiscal provisioning stalls business growth, affects worker productivity and morale all of which impacts its ability to compete.
Business Systems Must Be Planned For
When a business starts up, they must take into account all the necessary tools and equipment needed for the successful operation of the business. These costs, as well as their maintenance and support, should be planned and accounted for in your annual budgeting cycle.
IT strategic planning is part of the business owner responsibility to its customers and shareholders.  IT strategic planning ensures the business is capable of booking, transacting customer requests and delivering its goods and services to those customers. Meeting and exceeding all performance expectations should be at the forefront of its strategic direction. Today, no business or service organization can afford not having an IT strategy.
Successful Planning Nets Huge Results
There is nothing better for a business owner that is partnered with an IT consultant who understands both the impact and potential gains coming from having a successful IT Strategy. IT Strategies featuring standardized systems are far easier to deploy and maintain verses a mixed bag of obsolete Non-Standard systems and operating systems.
Efficiency is utilizing Standard applications correct for the intended task and it is not based solely on user popularity. If that were the case, you’d be overspending, you’d have an unsupportable infrastructure, and enormous administration costs. Incorporating a strategy that is annually budgeted for is smart, both in terms of maintenance and upkeep, as well as administrative support and makes good fiscal sense maximizing ROI.
Running with it – Hire the best!
So, you’ve decided, you have a project in mind, what now? What I hear most is “there is no budget”, “money’s tight”, or “I can handle this part of it…” and a host of others–This is dangerous thinking, and puts your project, vision and goals at extreme risk! It is not cost effective to “kind of” hire someone.  The reason it does is because it introduces an element of failure at the start of project, which is due to the distrust that is apparent with this line of thought. If I know someone who can do the job better and faster than I can, I’ll hire them, its going to save me time and money in the long run. Trust! its key!
Your IT consultant should work with you, the business owner, to understand your desires and this takes immersion into the business process in order to truly understand it.  And finally, the IT consultant must be someone you can entrust with your entire vision. IT Strategic Project planning is not just going out and buying a bunch of gear,  installing it in a haphazard way, hoping it all works. It doesn’t work that way.  Like any other business process, it has a certain flow to it, and the pieces of the IT sub-systems must  complement each other.

For example, you don’t mix RAM manufactured by 2 different companies, you can’t mirror identically sized hard drives from different manufacturers, they won’t mirror, the internal specifications aren’t the same.

My Analysis
The people that work for you are your lifeline to your customer, so what affects their morale, will ultimately affect your customer. A person that is forced to work with slow, obsolete systems is not very productive and is impacting your bottom line. I’ve observed people who are over-taxed just trying to accomplish simple tasks like sharing a file or printing a document.
Current systems are easier to support and maintain which make the work easier, result in higher productivity and increase morale among your workers, all of which positively impacts the delivery of your goods and services to your customers.
After all, is this why you’re in business in the first place?

© Al Ardon IT Strategies Inc. 2010