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 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

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