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