My New Book is Out! The AutoCAD 2015 Network Administrator's Bible

"The AutoCAD 2015 Network Administrator's Bible" covers everything from new features and requirements, to building Network Deployment Shares, to deploying with Scripts, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013, and System Center Configuration Manager 2012. 

There are also tips for working with VMware Workstation as a test environment,  handling .NET dependencies on Windows 7 and Windows 8, and slip-streaming updates and service packs during deployments.

I hope you like it. Please post feedback on the Amazon site to share your thoughts after checking it out? I'd really like to hear from you.

Cheers!

How to Tell Real IT Pros from the Fakes

This post is aimed at folks that don't work in an office with an IT staff.  Maybe you're at home (working or otherwise) and need some help with your computer, printer, smartphone, Internet or wireless network, and you are concerned about how to find someone you can really trust to help. It's a big, scary world out there, and it's getting tougher to find people you can trust.  Fear not!  Here are some basic tips for separating the real from the fakes.

Tip 1 - Find Them First

Real IT pros don't want to help.  That's right.  Younger, over-eager, inexperienced IT folks are usually quick to take on new challenges.  Older, seasoned pros however are over that crap.  They've been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the antibiotics too.  They're tired of the crap they deal with all day, every day.  Would a carpenter want to come home from work to build another cabinet at home every day?  I rest my case. So, if anyone jumps up to offer to help you with computer issues without hesitation: don't trust them.  A real IT pro will only be persuaded by compensation offerings (see tip 3).

Tip 2 - Attacking the Problem

This one is tricky.  If you already have something and it just needs fixing, that's one thing.  If you don't have it yet, and are looking for help deciding what to buy, that's another.

If you have issues with an existing contraption, the person helping should ask "when did it start happening?", and then continue from there.  If you're looking for help buying something new, they should ask "what is it that you are trying to do, exactly?"

Tip 3 - Compensation

If they insist on money (cash), counteroffer with pizza, beer or power tools.  Real IT pros will work for almost anything they can use to fix their own non-IT problems back home.  Food is usually very high on their list.  If they don't seem impressed with an offer of good food, they're fake.

Tip 4 - Self-Esteem

If you ask "how well do you know networking?" or "are you really good with servers?", and the other person answers with "I'm an expert at..." or "absolutely!", walk away fast!  I real IT pro will never admit to having knowledge about anything unless it's during a job interview.  Any other time, they will deny any and all knowledge about anything containing the letters "i" and "t" in close proximity.

There you have it.  Four easy tips you can remember that will help you identify, and bribe a good IT professional to help you solve your IT problems.

Good luck!

It's Time for 5 Stupid IT Questions

You got IT questions? I got stupid answers.  Pull up a chair, sit down, and destroy your precious little mind reading my stupid ramblings for a bit.  What else do you have to do?  Silly Earthling.

(Note:  This is going to be an ongoing series, I think.  It depends on feedback from folks like you)

Question 1 - "In VMware Workstation and VMware Player, it has an option to preallocate the virtual hard drives.  What does this do and why should I consider it?"

Answer: It carves out physical storage space (on whatever drive/disk/volume you have it pointed at) to store the disk .VMDK file before using it the first time.  Like most things in life, there's a trade-off...

On the good side, preallocating space avoids the need to incrementally allocate more space as needed.  The incremental growth usually happens while the VM guest is running, causing some delays and pauses at times.

On the bad side, preallocating space takes up designated storage space which may not be fully-used on the inside (guest VM referencing).  For example, if you specify a 60 GB disk, it will grab 60 (plus a little chump-change space for overhead) right away.  In the end, you may only end up filling 40 GB within the guest machine, leaving 20 (or thereabouts) unused but still occupied on the physical disk.

If space isn't a concern, preallocate it to squeeze a little more performance from your virtual toyland.

Question 2 - "If I want to roll out a new Group Policy ADMX template during production hours, what negative impact would that have?"

Answer: "Would" or "Could"?  The answer depends on several factors.  But starting at step 1:  deploying an ADMX template into an AD environment involves updating the SYSVOL on the first domain controller.  From there it replicates (because domain controllers like to replicate, as nasty as that sounds).

The factors that come into play after step 1 are like a Rubik's cube.  Site link configurations, replication schedules, the size of the ADMX files, the WAN links, the network configuration, the KCC mess in the background, the amount of drugs your engineers consume, the prevailing winds, the high tide, the... whatever.  Hopefully you get the idea.  I would recommend that (after you've tested them in a separate environment of course) that you deploy them during off-peak hours.  If that isn't possible, blame it on the last person to have quit.

Question 3 - "Will shifting my SCCM environment over to a user-demand, Application Catalog scheme fix all my problems with overseeing software deployments?"

Answer:  It depends.  In general, the answer is "no", it won't fix "all" of those "problems".  Can it lessen your workload?  At best: usually.  At worst:  it will replace one set of problems with another.

Will it eliminate some problems on the whole?  Sometimes.

It depends on how diverse your applications are and how diverse the target platforms are in your SCCM site.  If you support 4,000 products, but they are well-defined in terms of assigning one product+version for each business role, then you will be better off.  If you have a lot of alternatives for the same role/purpose, start drinking and get your Liver in good shape.

The surprise "gotchas" I've seen, or heard about, with handing over the role of installing applications to end users via a catalog shopping-cart concept, have been basically from two general areas.  Each of which breaks down into two more areas:

1. Setting up the catalog
2. Cleaning up messes

The first area (setting up the catalog), involves not only building the catalog, but assigning roles and permissions, but that's the easy part.  Then comes the spaghetti-like enigma of validating product licensing and usage terms, as well as planning out the potential conflicts.  Those are the nasty things like "Product A and Product B cannot exist on the same client or they break things." or "Product A only works with .NET 4.0 while Product B only works with .NET 4.5" and so on.

The second area (cleaning up messes) involves hand-holding users that mistakenly install things and run into problems with them.  Even if you teach them how to remove those mistakes, there are going to be the breaks that require rolling up your sleeves and taking time away from other work.

The secondary issues are delegation reliability, and platform resiliency.  Big words.  I like big words.

The former (delegation) involves how well your delegated staff hold up with handling rights and assignments, as well as tech support issues that arise.  The latter (resiliency) involves how mature your environment is with regards to platform standards and methods for repairing breaks in the assembly line.  How many versions of Windows you support, how many device types, models, vendors, component versions (JRE, .NET).  Good stuff for beer talk.

Question 4 - "Is it more important to have a college degree or a certification when entering the IT field?"

Answer:  My kids' friends and their friends hit me with this question a lot.  Usually after some introductory phrase like "Excuse me, old man?  Can I axe yuze a question about getting a computer job?".

From an entry perspective (first-time job seeker), it depends on what kind of IT job you're aiming for.  If you're looking for a fairly low to intermediate job, such as anything from Tier1/desktop support, to even Systems Admin or Systems Engineer, it helps to have a degree, but it really helps to have a lot of (current/recent/relevant) certifications.

Many entry level IT jobs only require A+, Network+ and Security+ certifications, unless you start getting into VMware or Cisco type stuff (and so on).  Even then, having a Microsoft MCSA/MCSE will help a lot.

If the job your aiming for is "senior research scientist" or "database architect", well, start filling out those college enrollment applications.  It won't hurt to have your CCNA or MCSE/MCwhatever, but most high-level, expert type fields within IT expect more educational background.  And don't forget those Analysts and Project Managers, who may need a mix of schooling and certs like PMP, ITIL, etc.  Just poke around the job postings online and you'll see what I mean. (Not that I've been looking of course, cough-cough.  That's just what I've been told).

Question 5 - "What is the toughest part of getting technology to work well?"

Answer:   People.  It's just human nature to try to pound nails using a wrench.

(Thank you for reading!  Stay tuned for more IT stupidity coming soon...)

Asset Inventory 101 - Myths and Realities

This post is the result of trying to explain IT inventory to multiple people, multiple times, and them still not "getting it".  Rather than wear myself out, which I will probably still do anyway, I plan on pointing them here to read my thoughts on it, and I can then go back to babbling incoherently to myself.  I promised to post a "tech-oriented" article soon, but this is borderline, so nanny-nanny-boo-boo, I'm counting it as tech-oriented.

If you ask me about Inventory, I will ask if you read this article.  If you say "no", I will tell you to read this article and walk away, probably while laughing.  If you say "yes", I will say "go back and read it again", and laugh even louder.

What is Inventory?

Definition...

(noun):  A complete list of the things in a place".

(verb):  the act or process of making a complete list of the things that are in a place : the act or process of making an inventory". - Merriam-Webster's Dictionary

Go back and read that again.  Got it memorized? Okay, let's look at the noun side...

Inventory Science 101

What is "inventory" really?  Basically, it's supposed to be about tracking and reporting what you own, or what you have, and where it's located.  But there's usually a lot more to it than that.  Who's using it.  What it's used for.  Who bought it.  Who pays for it.  How it is configured.  What it's related to, or associated with.

There's also the Manufacturer. Model. Part Number.  Serial Number.  Contract number(s). Department/Division/Sector/Group/Team/Project names and numbers. And let's not forget the abstracts like category, type, family, class, species, and all that.

The goal of inventory, and inventory tracking efforts is, or should be, to confirm existence, disposition and ownership of assets.  The real goal being a financial implication of course.  What do you own?  Where is it?  Who is using it?  What is it used for?  Who's paying for it?  When does it "expire"?

The most common method for gathering and tracking inventory is what is commonly referred to as "input-output differential".  Capture what comes in (purchase order, or birth certificate), what goes out (inventory record audit, or death certificate) and finding the gaps.  The gaps are where the fun really begins.

What happened to it?  Lost? Stolen?  Transgender operation?  Was it really the property of the organization, or was it loaned to them for temporary use?  Was it a demo from a vendor?  The list goes on and on.

Just as a Census tries to verify you're still among the living, breathing creatures, who are paying taxes and adding to landfills... so are the aims of products like Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, Solarwinds, Tivoli, Kaseya, LabTech, and (cough-cough) several products I've developed in the past as well.

So, in addition to what came in the door, and what is known to have departed, there is now a third status of "what's it doing now?"  Things that can be poked at to verify where and what an asset is, include Active Directory, network monitoring systems, PING, and so on.  An "Asset Manager" job title can often involve a lot of legwork.

What Constitutes "Things" and "Places"?

If we use YOU as a metaphor, then a human being is an inventory asset or item.  The place would be (or could be), your home address.  It could also be your employer's address, or your car (VIN or license plate).

Now, think of all the "things" that pertain to labeling YOU as an entity.  Your birth certificate.  Driver's license.  Voter registration.  Tax bills.  Credit cards.  Bank accounts.  On and on.

Do any of those things GUARANTEE your existence?  No.  Do they confirm you are still among the "living" (I'll leave that for you to decide on the definition)?  No.  They are simply artifacts that help SUPPORT the assertion that you exist.

Metaphorically Speaking:  Computers

Now that we've strolled off into metaphor-land, let's bring it back to the meat-and-potatoes: Computer assets.  Desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, appliances, routers, hubs, switches, printers, power supplies, storage units, MODEM's, peripherals of all kinds, you name it.

What is the birth date of a computer?  The date it was purchased?  The vendor warranty start date?  The OS installation date?  The technician-installation date?  If you base it on the OS install date, and you reinstall the operating system, what happens to the birth date then?  Does it fall back to something else?

If you purchase it, and it takes a while to get from the warehouse, to the workbench, to the truck, to the technician to being delivered and setup, which event date are you picking as the "start" or "birth" date of that asset?  Have you consulted your Finance folks about this?  Your attorneys?  You should.

When you record the purchase and deployment of this asset, what then?  Do you track it during the rest of its life?  Do you track the retirement and disposal of it too?  Some places do.  Some don't.  Some are required by law to track some, or all of this.  Which are you required to track?

Just because you "Can", does that mean you "Should"?

If you are an IT person working for someone else (i.e. not self-employed), and you haven't sat down (or consulted with) someone in a legal and/or financial role in your organization, I strongly recommend you do so before embarking on any effort to track and report inventory of any kind.  I cannot stress that enough.

Even if you are self-employed, talk to an accountant or legal advisor about whether you need to track thigns, and what to track.

Some questions to ask:

• What are the tax implications?  
• What are the support contract and cost implications?  
• What are the regulatory compliance implications?  
• What are the IT support implications?  

Did you notice I put IT last in the list?

From my experiences, most businesses track more than they need to, and ignore things they shouldn't ignore as well.

Ah, Yes:  Software

Just when the folks feel good about their grasp of tangible hardware inventory, we open the gates and let the starving lions and alligators into the arena:  software licensing.

Definition:  Software = "the programs that run on a computer and perform certain functions" - Merriam-Webster's Dictionary

What does that mean?  What is a program?  Is that Microsoft Word?  Is that the Snipping Tool or Narrator feature?  Is that .NET Framework 4.5?  Is that Java Runtime?  Is that a DLL or COM file?  Is it a locally stored App-V or ThinApp reference?  Is that a shortcut to a MED-V or remote VDI resource (desktop or application)?  Is that a URL to a web application?  What is it?

What does that mean?

If you query a computer for what software it has installed, where do you begin?  Does it all exist in the Control "Add or Remove Programs" list?  Usually.  But not always.  How about crawling through that icky Registry?  More stuff, sure, but is it easy to parse and understand?  Hmm.  How about crawling the good old file system and parsing through EVERY SINGLE FILE that is known to have an executable capability?

The answer is yes.

Configuration Manager, and products similar to it, often dissect a computer from many angles.

This includes files, folders, the Registry, and my personal favorite: WMI.  Slithering through the various CIM repository stacks can yield all sorts of juicy bits of data about hardware and software.

But... Is this really what you're after?

So you have a product installed.  Now what?  Does that constitute a 'license'?  What is a license?  What kind of license is it?  Per-machine?  Per-user?  Per-CPU?  Per-network?  Per-domain or site?  Per-company?  Open Source?  What?  And what about FlexLM type licensing, where the node doesn't matter as much as the total, concurrent usage limit?

If you have the option to use floating/network licensing for groups of similar products, I always recommend that option if you can afford it.

Software Licensing Audits

If you've ever witnessed a license audit from an external investigation, it's not fun.  They tend to come in one of two flavors:  Vendor and BSA.  If the vendor audits you, that's good.  They want to keep your business, so they will try to negotiate terms to help avoid losing your business, if possible.  If the BSA, or another third-party entity, comes knocking, swallow whatever pills you have left and take a deep breath.  It may very well be an unpleasant experience, as they are paid by levied penalties and have no need to retain your business.

So, while you can get sloppy about hardware inventory, I would not recommend you take the same light-hearted approach to software inventory.  I've seen "settlements" applied that nearly ended a business due to the costs, but thankfully, in none of those situations was I aware or implicated of the neglect prior to the doors getting kicked down.  Don't be one of those businesses.

Okay, so that covers a bit of hardware and software.

Simple as multivariate Calculus and molecular bonding, and clear as mud.

Are you starting to drink yet?  You will.

Summary

If anyone says there is, or should be, "one inventory source" to answer all of these questions, they are brain damaged or stupid.  The desire is noble.  The reality is clear: a singular source of "authoritative" inventory data is impossible.  It has to be derived and reconciled from multiple angles.

Think about that every time you're walking through CostCo, Sam's Club or BJ's and you see a clerk scanning shelves to do "spot check inventory".  If there was one system to track and verify all of it, that wouldn't be required.

Every time I sit in a meeting where some vendor comes in to pitch some magical product to report all of their inventory without any outside help, I look at my shoes, smile and think about my next alcoholic beverage, saying to myself "here we go again..."

The IT Cross-Training Myth (That Never Dies)

I'm overdue for some deep technical stuff, but for now I need to express my pseudo-philosophical side a bit first.  I promise to post some geeky stuff soon, but in the meantime, drink some wine and ponder my stupidificationary tales of peculariarty...

(deeeeeeep inhale...... exhale.... and fart.)  let's start.

We've all heard "SMB" (small-to-medium sized business).  Then there's MLB.  That's medium-to-large sized business, not Major League Baseball.  Depending upon who's rule book you follow, that's anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 computers/user accounts at the bottom end, up to whatever.  In those types of "enterprise" environments, the IT staffing environment is often well-organized (on paper), and there are distinct structural lines of communication and command.  In most; not all, but let's keep moving.

Depending upon the budget situation, which tends to follow economic cycles and industry lines, the staffing may or may not be aligned to what (a) IS being done, and/or (b) NEEDS to be done.  When it's out of wack, it tends to go in one of two broad directions:

• Too much staff, which is like a hammer looking for nails to pound, or,
• Too few staff, where most of the real "worker-bees" are struggling to handle multiple distinct roles, let alone putting out daily fires.  

Regardless of which type of environment exists, there's often that tired, old, edict that gets spewed out from the suit gang like tropical storms spew from the western coast of Africa to become hurricanes:  "Cross-Training".

Not the kind that Nike sells.  I'm talking about the kind where you get pulled into a room and given a nice, puffy, soft, sweet-smelling speech about how everyone is going to magically learn what the other folks in their department/division/sector/team/workgroup/squad/platoon are doing.  Not just "learn" what they do, but HOW they do it, to the level (supposedly) where anyone (read: ANYONE) of the other IT staff could "fill-in" to address a crisis situation.  By the way, this speech usually comes with a fresh side order of seasoned fries and a request to start documenting all the stuff that you do every day (aside from slacking off).

I've been working in IT for about 35 years.  I have NEVER seen this plan work.  Never.  I've never even heard of it working.  I've poked my head into quite a few different, diverse organizations from private sector to government, from small to large, from education and medical, to municipal and industrial.  Nobody I have ever spoken with, emailed, IM'd or grunted at in a McDonald's serving line, has ever even heard of someone's cousin who lived next door to a friend who knew a lawncare person that grew up with the Uncle of the neighbor who drove the bus to the elementary school of the kid who heard about another kid that knew of someone who married the best friend of another friend who took violin lessons from a lady that heard of this EVER working as intended.

Never.

I have no doubt it's been tried with passion and desire; tried with extreme effort and intent.  I'm not saying the folks involved haven't given it their best shot either.  The problem is that the model itself is inorganic and doomed to failure.

A bee doesn't learn how to be a butterfly.  A dog doesn't learn how to be fish.  Sure, a dog can swim and a bee and fly from flower to flower.  Neither qualifies as filling the other's role however.  I'm sure some of you are laughing, scoffing, hrmph-ing and puffing too.  "This Dave guy doesn't know shit."  That may be true.  I do know about shit though.  In fact, I stepped in some today while throwing the ball with my son, but that's for another story.

The goal is often lost in this effort: To gain efficiencies from avoiding staff bloat, while mitigating dependence on individual staff skills and experience (read: holding the employer hostage). But when you shuffle a bloated staff, or distract an overwhelmed staff, it's like a quarterback throwing the ball out into the parking lot.

Here's the fundamental problem with the IT cross-training model:

In scenario (A) where there are too many staff for the jobs at hand, there's no gain because the staffing is still inefficient, and now even more inefficient because they'll never retain the results unless they make a permanent transfer.  Cost is being flushed down the financial toilet already.  All that this new approach does is swirl the turds the opposite direction (remember that stuff about north/south of the equator?).

Also, in scenario (B), which is much more common, by the way, the problem is rather obvious:  In order to take time to learn another role, you have to give up at least one (usually several) other roles; resulting in performance and quality lags. Each hour they're away from job number 1, the issues pile up, and the digging-out effort is geometrically scaled, at best.

Also, if the person really wanted to learn about job number 2, they would have already put in some effort or a transfer request to indicate as such.  Did anyone bother to correlate that with the cross-training mapping list?  I doubt it.

Let's say you are one of those in an under-staffed IT shop, and your official duties include AD accounts management, password resets, group maintenance, and the usual admin toiletries.  Meanwhile, your real daily tasks include WSUS, GPO's, dealing with server issues, networking issues, firewall issues, backup issues, patching, patching and more patching, the ever-exciting application conflict and prerequisite horrors, tracking licenses, tracking inventory and don't forget...... DO-CU-MEN-TA-SHUN.  Which nobody has time for (unless you work in scenario A of course).

Ah, the smell of documentation.  That whole "operationalize" stuff.  It smells like, like.... like.... victory.  Oh wait, that's the stuff I stepped in earlier.  Never mind.

So, now you're told to drop all that you normally do for a day to go sit beside the foul-smelling person who handles the firewall and web filtering stuff, and learn about what they do all day.  Or maybe it's the storage folks, or the InfoSec folks, or the application developers (they have great coffee you know), or the tier 1 desktop support shop (the best place anyone could dream of, right?).  You've ignored your normal stuff for a whole day.  Nice.

Then you come "back" to your old, coffee-stained, scratched and dented desk, with that same Dilbert calendar page pinned on the cube wall, and you've got two days of backlogged problems to work through. Your desk phone message light is also blinking.  You may want to check that.

Meanwhile, all that stuff you took notes about (you did take notes, right?) is gradually fading from your brain.  After another day of yet more small tasks and a few bigger ones, some sports chatting, a couple of meetings and phone calls, it all starts to slip further and fuuuurrrrtheerrrrr away.  By the next Monday, you're right back into your regular routine.

In short time, you can barely spell the job title of the other person you sat beside and the note pad is stained with coffee rings and covered in more papers.  Net gain?  Zero.

Sure, there's potential.  It's not quantifiable by any means though.  I've yet to find one analyst who can show me a concrete example where this concept has played out to anyone's measurable gain.  The only gains I've ever seen are perceptual (it sure feels good to ignore the usual pains for a day or two, and management gets to say they've "executed" another process improvement plan.  they love that "execute" word don't they?).

It's a nice, easy to sell, easy to grasp idea.  But like peace in the Middle East, it just never seems to happen.  I mean, come on: How hard can it be for two people to sit and talk through their differences and just get along?  Hmmmm?  After all, the stakes are so much higher, it has to be more likely to work itself out than dealing with your silly little IT staffing challenges.  Right?

Every time I sit through another meeting where this topic is raised, it reminds me of how my parents used to look at the "latest teen sensation" and moan and roll their eyes.  Then I hit 40, and then 50 and realized what they were seeing.  It's the same old thing, wrapped in newer terminology and a prettier PowerPoint slide deck.  It's not a pig.  It's a pig with lipstick this time!!  Yeah!

Experts Guide to Home and Small Business Wi-Fi

Thinking of buying a shiny, new, extra-double-spiffy new Wi-Fi router at Costco, Sam's Club or Best Buy?  Maybe online?  But maybe you're not really comfortable setting it up yourself?  NO problem.  I'm from IT and I'm here to help.

1. Before you buy a new Wi-Fi router, be sure to try the standard IMNDSICUT process.  That's short for "If my neighbor doesn't secure it, I can use it".  It goes like this:
1. Turn on your mobile device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.)
2. Click the link to search for active Wi-Fi networks.
3. Look for the ones that do NOT have padlock symbol.
4. Try connecting to each one until you get one that works.
5. (tip: Be sure to check for any applicable local, state and/or federal laws that might cause you some concern before doing this.  If you get in trouble, you read this on someone else's blog and my name is Bob)
2. Next, if the above process doesn't pan out and you're a small business, rent space near a Starbucks, McDonald's, or any other retail or fast food chain outlet that offers free wi-fi.
3. Next, if that doesn't pan out, run an ad on Craig's List for a room mate that is good at setting up Wi-Fi networks and also (this is important, pay attention) has a new wi-fi router.
4. If all of the above options fail, you need to buy a new router.

You're all set!  Good luck - and happy wi-fi-ing!

:)

IT Catastrophes: Triage and Compression with Fries and Coke

Triage (noun)
(b) the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care

Compression ()

The state of being compressed (re: reduced in size or volume, as by pressure)

(source: Merriam-Webster online dictionary)

This is another one of my silly-brained IT monologues about subjects which are rarely discussed.

What I'm talking about is a loose comparison and contrast with these two words as they relate to medical and technology fields.  It is however a very real subject (or subjects) for those of us who occasionally deal with critical outages, especially those which involve things like:

• Highly-Available Hosting Services (think: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.)
• Mission Critical Systems (think: Defense, Lifesaving, etc.)
• Service Level Agreements (the dreaded SLA's)

It's kind of funny how most businesses feel their operations are "mission critical" or "highly-available", when they're being subjective.  From an objective view however, it's not always as "critical" when things go "down" for a few minutes; even a few hours.

By the way: Compression, as it pertains to this article relates to the compression of time in which you have to operate in.  The time between a failure and sufficient restoration of services.

When dealing with a system outage in a truly "critical" environment, the first steps are pretty much the same as what an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) would have to consider:

1. What exactly is not working?
2. How serious is the impact?
3. What is known about what led to this outage?
4. How long has it been down?
5. How much time is left?

You were probably thinking of the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How sequence.  I kind of tripped you up with two What's and three How's.  (Technically, #4 could be a "when", and #2 could be a "who" or "where", but whatever).  Let's move along.

With regards to a human, the general rule of thumb is 4-6 minutes, total.  That's about how long the brain go without Oxygen and still recover.  Compression CPR is usually the first course of action to sustain blood flow; keeping the remaining oxygen-rich blood reserves moving through the brain.  Enough pseudo-medical blabbering.  The main point is that there is a "first-course of action" to resort to in most cases.

What aspects are shared between a medical outage and an IT system outage?

• There are measurable limits to assessing what can be saved and how
• There are identifiable considerations with regards to impact on various courses of action
• Techniques can be developed and stored for more efficient use when needed
• Steps can be taken to identify probable risks and applying risk mitigation

With regards to a system-wide outage, the general rule of thumb is not so clear-cut as the 4-6 minute rule.  It truly varies by what the systems does and who (or what) it supports.  Consider the two following scenarios:

Scenario 1

The interplanetary Asteroid tracking system you maintain is monitoring a projectile traveling at an extremely high velocity towards planet Earth.  The system "goes down" during a window of time in which it would be able to assess a specific degree of variation of its trajectory.  The possible margin of error from the last known projected path could have it hit the Earth, or miss it by a few hundred miles.  The sooner the system is back on line, the sooner a more precise forecast can be derived.

Every hour the system is offline, the margin of error could potentially be re-factored (and reduced) by a considerable amount, possibly ruling out a direct hit.  The best estimate of a direct impact places the date and time somewhere around one year from right now.  Your advisers state that it would require at least six months to prepare and launch an interceptor vehicle in time to deflect or divert the projectile away from a direct Earth impact.

Scenario 2

Your order-tracking system for MySuckyShoes.com is down and customers are unable to place orders for new sucky shoes.  Your financial manager estimates that during this particular period of the year, using past projections, combined with figures collected up until the outage, every hour the system is offline, you are losing $500,000 of potential sales revenue.  The system has reportedly been offline for two hours.  So far, that's $1 million bucks.

Which of these scenarios is more critical? 

Answer: It depends

What are the takeaways from each scenario?

• How long do you have to restore operations before things get really bad?
• Having the time window defined, what options can you consider to diagnose and restore services?
• How prepared are you with regards to the outage at hand?
• What resources are at your disposal, for how long, and how soon?

In the first scenario, you have roughly six months to get things going.  Odds would be generally good to assume you can restore services sooner than that, but what if the outage was caused by an Earthquake that decimated your entire main data center?  Ouch.

In the second scenario, the margin would depend on the objective scale of revenue your business could withstand losing.  If you're Google, a million dollar outage might be bad, but not catastrophic.  If you're a much smaller business, it could wipe you out entirely.

What's really most important (besides the questions about what systems are down, why, when and how) is knowing what the "limits" are.  Remember the 4-6 minutes rule?  SLAs are obviously important, but an SLA is like a life insurance policy; not like a record of discussion between the EMT in the ambulance with the attending physician back at the hospital ER.  One is prescriptive and didactic.  The other is matter-of-fact, holy shit, no time to f*** around.

QUESTION:  When was the last time you or your organization sat down and clearly defined what losses it can absorb and where the line exists whereby you would have to consider filing for bankruptcy?

Is your IT infrastructure REALLY critical to the business, or just really important?  In other words: could your business continue to operate at ANY level without the system in operation?

Forget all the confidence you have in your DR capabilities for just a minute.  Imagine if ALL of your incredibly awesome risk avoidance preparation were to fail.  How long could you last as a business?  At what point would you lose your job?  At what point would your department, division or unit fail?  At what point would the organization fail?  Or do you think it's fail-proof?

Walking the Walk

Quick post before I unplug and go comatose for the evening:  Tomorrow, when you get to work (or if you're in a different time zone and it's daylight right now) try this on:

1. Write down all of the key functions your IT group performs.  AD accounts, software deployment, patching, server provisioning, backups, storage management, cloud integration, etc. whatever.  List them out.
2. Identify the role(s) which relate to each of them:  Account Managers, App Packagers, App Deployers, Server Managers, Cloud Administrators, etc. whatever.
3. Assign actual names to those roles.
4. Compare that mapping with reality.  Grade yourself on a 100 point scale by checking off how many roles/people are actually assigned accordingly with what you are already doing today.

Let me know your score, what scale your environment is (small, medium, ginormous, etc.) and which country you're based out of.  Just curious how we all rate ourselves.

G-night!

Why PowerShell is a Big Deal (In my own feeble words)

If you've followed my blog for a while (my apologies, of course) you're probably wondering just what the **** I'm aiming for.  That's a fair question, because, to be honest: I really don't know.  It's a venting machine for me, I suppose.

For a long time I ranted on about Autodesk products and AutoCAD customization, then it turned into Autodesk product installation and licensing management, and networks, and then I had an unplanned career change dropped on me from nowhere. I had to make a shift into the "mainstream" IT world and learn Microsoft tools and things entirely different than I was accustomed to. Since then, my professional and personal life has been a blender, tossed into a woodchipper and fed into a meat grinder.  Messy, yes.  A disaster?  That depends on how you define the word.  Blah blah blah, yes, I'm aiming for a point here somewhere, please be patient?  Your call is important to us...

I started playing with program code back in 1986, while working as a drafter in the Marine Engineering field.  That's fancy terminology for designing things that go on ships.  In my case: U.S. Navy ships.  Big. Heavy. Gray.  Smelling like oil. And usually parked in some rather unappealing locations in the worst kinds of weather.  We would go aboard, sketch up stuff, go back to our hotel, eat and drink (okay, mostly drink) and then return to the office and formalize a set of design drawings to accomplish a "retrofit" of something.  A "retrofit" is basically replacing something to improve some aspect of the ship (performance, capability, living conditions, etc.)

After CAD took hold among the DoD world, it took much longer for the mainframe and workstation era to pass and open the door to the PC world, than it did in other industries (i.e. AEC).  It wasn't until around 1987 that the Naval Shipyards would even "allow" the use of AutoCAD for any official drawing contracts.  At first it was only allowed for title sheets, materials lists and anything "non detail design".  Eventually, they gave in and began replacing all the old DEC, Sun and IBM crap with shiny new IBM-PC boxes and much cheaper software.  In all, it saved them enough on budget to buy a small country (they probably did just that).

I got my first taste of "real" programming in 1987 from reading a book on AutoCAD R10 and learning AutoLISP and a little ADS later on. AutoLISP was it.  Even while going to college for my IS degree, and soaking up C/C++, and all that, I couldn't ignore the flexibility and dynamic personality of LISP.  At the time, it was like trying to remain focused on a mail delivery truck while I kept my eyes on the '67 Camaro SS parked on the side.  Not much competition in my mind.  But alas, marketing won and LISP began a slow decline from the 1990's into the mid 2000's.  Microsoft's unstoppable licensing machine eventually mowed down the momentum behind anything besides Visual-This and That.  I can't pick at the technological appeal either, so I'm just whining I suppose.

Soon after the mid 1980's I picked up BAT and KiXtart on the PC side, and Bash/Korn and Perl on the UNIX side (mostly at school).  Then I ran into the database world and began mashing AutoLISP with AutoCAD CAO and ObjectDBX, which dropped me into a rat hole called Visual Basic.  It was fun and lasted me through the mid 1990's very nicely.

Long story short:  I gradually became jaded by every new programming language coming out.  It seemed like yet another attempt to get the junkies hooked on a newer drug and keep the marketing departments employed.  Tech conferences kept shoving one new language or toolset after another and spending tons on spiffy ads and graphics.

I thought PowerShell was just that.

I was dead wrong.

For years, my colleagues would roll their eyes at me, when I'd start pontificating about "Microsoft should __", following my third cup of coffee.  As if anyone in Redmond gives a shit about some annoying guy named Dave out in the redneck state of Virginia.  My usual rants involved the lack of cohesion and consistency among the various command tools.  Things like NETSTAT, NET this-or-that, IPCONFIG, NTDSUTIL, DSGET/whatever, DIR, and then CMD and BAT scripting weirdness.  I kept saying "they need to clean this shit up!" and then I would fade off into a muffled blubbering of incoherent words and slurping coffee (cold and stale, usually).

Even after I jumped on the Monad open preview bandwagon, I didn't get it.

I read articles and still didn't get it.

I bought books and still didn't get it.

I went to Microsoft TechEd 2011 and 2012 and didn't get it. (I did get a few t-shirts though)

Then I read a few blog posts by Jeffrey Hick, Jeffrey Snover, and Don Jones and a few others.  And then after studying for some MCITP/MCSA exams, it hit me like a train:  THIS is what I was begging for.  Granted: It hasn't reached the goal line yet, but damn if it hasn't made it a long way down the field.  In fact, from my poking and inspecting, I would dare to say it's in the Red Zone and there's still plenty of time on the clock. (sorry to all non-Football fans, I feel you - but I couldn't think of a better analogy this late at night).

I've been dragging ASP, BATch, VBscript and COM around like a two-year old child with a dead pet on the other end of a worn leash.  Thinking it was still alive and wanting to go play outside.  Now I know what that smell was.

I'm in.  My focus from here on out will be to deprecate my use of anything besides PowerShell and ASP.NET.  If your eyes are rolling in pity right now, I apologize.  I'm really late to the party, so I have a lot of drinking to catch up on.

Namaste.

Stupidity for Sale: Just in time for Christmas!

My next Book is about to be unleashed on the delicate eyeballs (and earballs, for those are visually challenged?).  A year in the making.  Countless lives lost (not mind, at least not yet anyway).  Wars have begun and been ended.  Eons and ice ages have come and gone.  Meanwhile, one lone clueless idiot remained steadfast and diligent, okay, hungry and broke too, but steadfast sounds better, and a work of wonderful wonderfulness was born.

It's kind of like squeezing out a technological nugget of knowledge into a big round ceramic bowl of learning, spiraling down into the minds of yearning minds, eager to absorb it all and wipe up the remains with total abandon.  Uhhhh..  Wait a minute.  That didn't come out right.  No wait. That didn't sound right either.  Oh never mind.

In a word: This. Is. Quite. Possibly. The. Stupidest. Book (okay, eBook). You. Will. Ever. Read.
But it's worth it.  Trust me.   Your mind will forever be changed.

What do I blabber about this time?  MSIEXEC. WUSA. PKGMGR. VBscript. BAT/CMD. PowerShell. WMI. Active Directory. Exit Codes.  Event logs. WEVTUTIL.  EVENTCREATE. SCHTASKS.  And an army of other nerdgasmic acronymical command names that are sure to impress that MBA CTO with the PHD in PMP. But most importantly, I finally had to attach the NSFW helmet and do battle with the concept of "crapware" and why we repackage things at all.

Seriously.  I decided it was time to test the boundaries in a way Frank Zappa did when he asked that prolific question: "Does humor belong in music?".  Okay. Does humor belong in IT?  I think so.  Every Monday morning staff meeting proves it.  I hope you enjoy it.

Stay tuned.  Go here for more of my stuff.

I really need to stop drinking coffee at night.

What is a Software License?

Is it what you've purchased? (aka.  What the purchasing department tracks via a Purchase Order)

Is it what you've installed? (aka. What your inventory software detected)

Is it what's being used? (aka. What your license manager or reporting tools are showing)

Is it a document that defines what, how many, and where you "should" have installed the product? (aka. An SLA or license key file)

Is it a definition of what you are allowed to do with the product?  (aka. A license agreement document)

Is it a bundle of products, or a single product?

Is it a standalone license, or a "floating" networked, pool of licenses?

Is it just an idea, or is it a tangible entity?

Can you hold it in your hands, or does it only exist as an arrangement of electrons?

10 Questions: With Ralph Grabowski

The Questions - Ralph Grabowski

Introduction

It seems that for every industry that exists, certain people bubble up to the top with regards to being the trusted source of information for that industry.  For Information Technology, Finance, Engineering, Web Development, Database Systems, Information Security, Application Development, and so on.

When it comes to providing trusted, objective news and information relating to CAD, CAM, CAE, BIM and all other industry acronyms that pertain to design and fabrication/construction, one that usually comes to the top is Ralph Grabowski.  Ralph has been tirelessly digging and reporting on all things related to the world of software and hardware technology that enables designing and building things.  If you are curious how Russia is exploring CAD, Ralph is your guy.  How about in Asia? Europe?  What about mobile devices and data import/export reliability topics?  Ralph is your guy.

I chased Ralph down for a while, which isn't easy, as he is often traveling and working, to pick his mind on how things are going.

The Questions

Dave: As many "CAD news" outlets as there are today, you have still remained in the top of everyone's list as far as I can tell.  What do you feel is the biggest challenge you face when preparing each newsletter?

Ralph: Usually none, except when I have no main feature for the next issue of upFront.eZine. In this case, I will generate a story out of nothing, by thinking about some aspect of CAD that irritates or interests me, and then banging away at the keyboard.

I dislike the press release section, "Out of the Inbox," where I have to read dozens of press releases and in a few seconds figure out (a) what it is about and (b) whether it is worth writing up. I dislike it so much that as of next week I am dropping the section from upFront.eZine.

I write the newsletter in Notepad, spell check it in Atlantis (the word processor I use), and then convert it to HTML in Dreamweaver, Adobe's oddly-named Web editor. I use GroupMail to bulk send it to my 11,000 subscribers. It generally takes me 3-4  hours to produce the newsletter each Monday morning.

This is why I like my blog better, because in WorldCAD Access I can write as I feel like, and not to a weekly schedule. On the other hand, upFront.eZine makes significant revenues from advertising (WorldCAD Access barely does), and so I can't give up the weekly newsletter, as much as I would like to.


Dave: The "Cloud" trend seems to be gaining momentum lately, across nearly all technology markets.  What aspects of CAD/CAM/CAE do you think will be toughest for service providers to overcome in that regard?

Ralph: Customer trust, especially now with the revelations that the America NSA spy agency reads through all our stuff with the permission of cloud providers. But then I was saying this right from the beginning, that CAD vendors need to figure out the trust angle. An executive at Autodesk recommended that I should retire for writing such heresy; since then, I was proved wright.


Dave: How did you first get involved with "CAD" technology?

Ralph: My background is a transportation planning engineer. I got my B.A.Sc. degree at the University of British Columbia. In high school, I loved drafting class; my dad was a mechanical draftsman in the 1960s.

I first experienced CAD in hearing about it at the consulting engineering office I worked in at the time, probably around 1982. An Intergraph salesman was trying to sell the firm on getting a $100,000 CAD workstation or two. Around 1983, a local computer dealer brought in a Victor 9000 personal computer running AutoCAD, probably v1.0 or so. With a hard drive, it was going to cost $10,000. The firm eventually got AnvilCAD, bizarrely enough.

My first use of CAD was in 1985, a demo disk of AutoCAD v1.4, running on the Victor 9000 I had bought myself a few years earlier. By this point, I had been laid off by the consulting firm due to the recession, and so I was looking for other work. A small ad in the newspaper caught my eye: "Fast growing computer magazine needs a technical writer/editor." Since my teen years, I loved writing, and owning my own personal computer taught me programming and taking apart hardware. I applied, got the job, and was the first full time employee at CADalyst magazine.

Back then, nobody knew anything about desktop CAD, and so we all learned as we went along. I was technical editor and then senior editor at the magazine for five years. My appreciation to founder Lionel Johnston for letting me be free do my own thing at the mag, and take it in directions he never thought of.


Dave: How and when did you move from the CAD user world to the news and reporting world?

Ralph: Well, I never was a CAD user. I became a CAD user after I moved to the news and reporting world, after working as a professional engineer who did hand drafting.


Dave: Your reporting includes some of the widest range of vendors and technologies of any "CAD" related sources I know.  A lot of that seems closely tied to traveling and on-site interviews.  How would you describe that aspect of your work?

Ralph: I love traveling, especially to exotic destinations, defined as anything outside of North America. I did a lot of traveling while at CADalyst magazine, and this continued after I went freelance in 1991.

In those early years of business trips, I learned how to be thinking about the next question to ask, even as the executive was still answering the current one. Also, I type very fast, and so I can type almost as fast as people talk, especially on a good keyboard.


Dave: What airport(s) do you find most enjoyable to pass through and which airport(s) do you dread?  Also, what food(s) and drink(s) would make your perfect breakfast?

Ralph: Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is one of the best in the world, and is my home airport. Oddly, I love the United terminal of Chicago's O'Hare airport (ORD), maybe because I pass through there often, and I still recall how amazing it looked when it was new. I also like Denver airport (DEN). As you can see, I've got those airport codes memorized.

Worst is Frankfurt (FRA), no question about it. It is so screwed up. Usually, in most airports it takes about 10 minutes to get to a connection (5 minutes to get off the plane, 5 minutes to hike to the next gate.) The last time I went through FRA, I timed it: it took me 45 minutes, gate to gate, non-stop. So on trips to Europe I try to go through MUC or LHR.

Breakfast? I've heard of it. Don't tell my wife, but I love American breakfast: eggs, bacon, hash browns, orange juice.


Dave: Of all the engineering and design related technologies/products you've seen emerge over the years, which of them do you feel are (or were) most under-appreciated or under-utilized?

Ralph: CAD vendors are working in a mature market, meaning there aren't many new customers. So, they need to pitch new ideas, of which we in the CAD media get sick hearing, such as the "C" word in the mid-1990s (collaboration), and object-orientation, and of course now the cloud. Ugh. The most over-hyped technology today is 3D printing. Did you know fewer than 60,000 units will sell this year?

I find it fascinating that now in 2013, that it's not touch or 3D motion or 3D printing or cloud or social that users are pining for, but for better and easier 2D.


Dave: A lot of talk these days, related to technology and manufacturing, has been on "emerging markets" in various parts of the world.  Where do you think the next emerging markets will be in ten years?

Ralph: I think CAD vendors are too dependent on the possibilities of increasing revenues from new customers in emerging countries. We are seeing sales deflate, because these countries lack infrastructure. I asked a guy from Africa when Africa would get its act together; he figures it'll take another generation -- 30 or 40 years.


Dave: GIS, NC machining, Parametric Design, Virtual Reality, Holography, 3D Printing, BIM, Rapid Prototyping.  What next?

Ralph: The problem with making predictions is that we humans do it poorly: we take current events, and then project them in a straight line into the future. We can't know about the twists and turns that are ahead of us; after all, four years ago the iPad did not exist, and look at the twist it made to technological trends.

What I can predict fairly reliably is when a CAD vendor sets off in a certain course and expects to be successful. From history, even history as brief as CAD's, I can fairly guess at what will happen. I have stunned some CAD executives by asking them what they plan to do when their product or marketing scheme fails.

Dave: If you were asked to speak to an auditorium filled with teenagers who are looking to find their direction in the fields of engineering and design, what would you say to them?

Ralph: Being a contrarian, I would tell them to avoid engineering. There are so many other things to do in the world that are far more interesting. I've told my kids, now in their 20s, that the great thing about being alive today is that they an do whatever job they want; no slotting.

I don't get the obsession of some that more women "need" to be in STEM; let young women make up their own minds at what they prefer to work. Heh: none of my kids "get" math, so none of them will follow me into engineering or CAD.

Me, I just happened to fall into CAD; I could be writing about any other topic and enjoy it, too. I am first a writer, a whatever second. I enjoy learning how to write better; my appreciation to professor of English literature Stephen Dunning for spending the last decade teaching me how to write well.

But I do enjoy the way that the complexities of CAD and computers exercise my mind. (And to think your English teacher probably told you to never begin a sentence with 'but',)

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this installment of 10 Questions.  Post some feedback to let me know what you like or what I could improve upon?  I encourage you to explore the links below for more information about Ralph and his impressive contributions.

Links

upFront eZine
eBooks Library
WorldCAD Access blog
Gizmos Grabowski
More about Ralph

10 Questions: with David Stein

David M. Stein

Introduction

Really? Is this necessary? If you read my stupidness, then you already know who I "am". If true, you'll probably close this and go back to reading Facebook.  If you don't, well, congratulations: you finally reached the end of the Internet.  My apologies.

Basic bio stuff:  I'm a semi-quasi-successful IT guy working in southeastern Virginia.  I've worked in the CAD/CAM world building weird applications for weird business processes, and moved on to "mainstream" IT stuff, dealing with Windows, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, a bunch of goofy

The Questions

Dave:  First off: what's with the "M" in your name? Do you feel like it adds distinction, like 'Booker T. Washington' or 'Alfred E. Neumann'?

Dave 2:  Alfred was cool. My first cat was named Alfred. Actually, I use my middle initial to differentiate my books on Amazon from another "David Stein", who sells books about Bondage and S/M stuff. No offense intended towards anyone who likes that stuff, but I got tired of being asked if that was me.  The stuff I write about is nowhere near as interesting as that, I'm sure.

Dave 1:  How would you describe what you do for a living?

Dave 2:  Lucky!

Dave 1:  Why?

Dave 2:  I say 'lucky' because I'm a developer by nature, working in roles as analyst/engineer/administrator, but using developer experiences to automate the shit out of anything I can. 

Dave 1:  Can you name some of your favorite musicians or bands?

Some of my favorite musicians would have to include Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and U2. But I like a wide range of music, from Miles Davis and Stanley Clark, to Bob Dylan, to Eminem, wherever he is now. That's all mostly due to having once been an aspiring musician. 

Dave 1:  Oh yeah? What instrument did you play? And what particular situation can you recall that was funny or interesting from that time?

Dave 2:  I played drums and percussion. I also took piano lessons, so I dabbled a bit.  Some rock, some pop, some traditional Jazz also. I sat in with a country band once also.

I suppose one of my favorite situations would probably have to be when we were playing 'Hot for Teacher' (Van Halen) in a crowded club one night. Our lead guitarist was coming out of the big solo, doing his scale climb, where the drums follow along, going from a 4/4 thing through a 2/3 or 3/4 segment, whatever... And one of my sticks slipped away and nailed him directly in the back of his head. The spotlight was on him too. Perfect hit.  Talk about playing the wrong note at the wrong time.  Sorry, Clint. No hard feelings dude.

Dave 1:  What drew you away from music and into technology and computers?

Dave 2:  It was the early 80's, and I needed a job. Mostly for gas and beer, at the time. So many priorities back then, you know?  Construction didn't pay enough, nor did dish-washing, lawn-care, retail sales, or painting, so I went into Drafting. After a year doing manual drafting, the whole CAD (computer-aided design) thing came along. At first it was mainframes and workstations, then PC's came along, and then Windows and networking. 

While doing the PC CAD thing, I fell in love with AutoCAD and AutoLISP. It was the first time I was exposed to being able to tweak something to do what I really wanted.  I tried that with my dog, but he wouldn't do anything I asked unless I tossed food at him.  AutoLISP led to years of programming, climbing around on Navy ships, more programming, drinking and traveling, and more programming. But also a lot of drinking. It was the early 80's after all. 

Dave 1:  What kinds of things did you do with AutoLISP and AutoCAD back then?

Dave 2:  Shipbuilding has its own unique drafting standards.  Everyone thinks they are drawn the same way as houses and building or machine parts.  But, it involves its own specific way of doing dimensions, callouts, views, notes, references, and materials lists.  Even the sheet border formats are unique.  It got really annoying having to constantly change everything manually, or copy and edit.  So I wrote some utilities and menus to do it the "shipbuilding way", and that led to a new career path for me.

Dave 1:  So... programming did it? How did you end up doing Windows, AD, SQL and SCCM?

Dave 2:  Hoo-boy! How much time do you have?

(Dave 1: I'm not going anywhere. I am you after all, so, uhhh...)

Ok. Well, you asked, so... (Takes a reeeeeally long inhale)... While working at a particularly large shipyard, I was both their AutoCAD operations, and customizing it all to fit shipbuilding needs. It was a lot of work, but it was fun.  One of the guys in the infrastructure team brought donuts in a lot, so I brought jokes and somehow we got along (and I got fatter too). His name was Brett. He was a really cool guy too. Rest his soul. 

Anyhow, he was rolling out SMS 2.0, which was really new at the time, and he asked if I wanted to work with him to knock out two of the biggest hurdles at the same time: a thousand seats of AutoCAD and a new deployment system. 

Long story short: he got me into thinking about expanding my programming and introduced me to thing like WMI, WBEM, SQL, DCOM, VBscript, and larger perspectives as well. 

Dave 1:  You said, his name "was" Brett.  What happened?  Where is he now?

Dave 2:  About six-feet underground.  Long, sad, depressing story for another time.

Dave 1:  How many questions is that now?

Dave 2:  You're asking me?  Or, ugh, you? I mean... never mind. Continue?

Dave 1: Describe your home life.

Dave 2: A hard-working, creative and loving wife, of 25 years. Three crazy daughters, a wacky son, two weird dogs, and a cat that rules the humans around her. Our kids are ages 14 up to 23. All still at home. Still on my cell plan too, which is why I'm always working and still broke. 

Dave 1:  Do you consider yourself to be a good dad?

Dave 2:  You'd have to ask them that question. 

Dave 1:  Ok, moving along. You said you're broke?  How's that? You have quite a few books on Amazon, a fairly decent blog, and a good job, no?

Dave 2:  Yeah, well. It's complicated. I don't make much on book sales actually.  Maybe I should mix in some kinky S&M crap with my computer topics to pump the sales up?  Who knows.

Dave 1:  What aspects of current technology and the tech industry still excite you?  Which of them do you feel have been a disappointment?

Dave 2:  Ooh! Good questions!

On the good: Open source is still relevant, even with billions being spent to silence it all. Social media. Proliferation of cellular coverage. Mobile devices.  Maturing API stacks.  Faster and cheaper hardware.

On the bad: Social media. The misguided strategies of the big players. Over-hyped rushing to the "cloud". Too many web tech standards. Too many colliding acronyms. 

Dave 1:  Wait a minute. You mention "social media" for both good and bad?

Dave 2: Yep. I did. Good for catching up with long-lost friends, schoolmates, teammates, neighbors, and family. Bad for stirring up drama though. 

Dave 1:  Sheesh. Tell me about it. 

Dave 2:  I just did. 

Dave 1:  Oh, yeah right.  What's with your dislike of the "cloud" trend?

Dave 2:  Same as anything else: Everyone runs to it without stopping to ask why.  It's great for some things, like Microsoft Excel is, but when businesses grab it like it's the cure-all for every problem, they run into problems.  Sometimes that "solution" creates more problems than it solves, and it can be difficult to turn around and "go back" as well.

Dave 1:  If you had absolute control of America long enough to pass a short list of irrevocable laws, what would they be?

Dave 2:  (laughs quietly for almost a full minute...) Ok...

1. Free, High-speed internet to every home, apartment, school and business. 

2. Free, high-speed rail service between every city with at least 400,000 citizens. 

3. Bumperstickers which aren't funny would be punishable by public beatings. 

4. Repeating any rumor, as if it's fact, without passing a cross-examination test to prove you read the actual source facts, would be punishable by slow, painful, death.  For instance, when people blabber on "for" or "against" the so-called "Obama-care" bill, or some spending bill, whatever, but none of them actually read the bill itself.  If you haven't RTFM (ok, RTFB), then STFU, or submit to being electrocuted in the crotch for two hours on live TV while being force-fed liquefied used kitty litter.

5. Everyone would be implanted with an internal electric shock collar and everyone else would get a free remote activator.  That could be pretty interesting indeed.

6. I'm still working on number 6.  Next question?

Dave 1:  So, does that mean you're "for" or "against" the HCRA or so-called "Obama-care" bill?

Dave 2:  Next question?

Dave 1:  Last one.  What would be your ideal epitaph?

Dave 2:   (rubs chin and smiles) "I almost made it!" My second choice would be what my brother suggested, which is "I should have cut the green wire."

Dave 1: Ok, folks. I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as, ummm, "we" did?  For more info, search Dave out on LinkedIn, 4sysops, MyITForum, and Amazon but watch out for that other David Stein. 

Until we meet again: Love. Peace. Namaste, and all that. 

10 Questions: with Rod Trent

Rod Trent

Introduction

Most IT professionals who work within environments that involve Microsoft products, especially Windows Server and infrastructure-oriented products, keep a (very) short list of web sites on their the tip of their pointy heads for personal projects, or when the wheels come off of the wagon at work.  Among the short lists around this planet we call "Earth" there are probably three or four sites that are common to all of them, and one of those is most certainly MyITforum.

Not only was this one of the first Windows IT community-focused sites, it has consistently remained prominent and relevant ever since.  If you know the web site, then you know the name: Rod Trent.  Rod has a unique way of putting the "word out" on breaking news, trends and events in such a way as to make it feel personal, while not painting it over with a lot of spin or subjectivity.  This makes him a rarity in the IT news and knowledge-sharing world, as it maintains the trust of his followers, whether they tag along on the site itself, or Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+ (probably others I've overlooked as well).  In any case, I present you with 10 questions asked of Rod Trent - Enjoy!

The Questions

Dave: Over the past ten years in particular, it seems like so many IT related web sites have come and gone, yet MyITforum has not only remained, but has maintained it's role in the forefront of the minds of IT professionals.  What would you attribute that to?

Rod: Attributed solely to the community. Truly, people just want a place they can go to get good information to help them in their professional life. It feels good to go somewhere online where you know you can get an answer in a couple minutes instead of hanging on the phone with a vendor for a couple hours, only to hear them say they'll try to replicate the issue and get back to you. myITforum is just full of kind people who don't mind sharing expertise and knowledge.  Many web sites you go to, newbies will be turned off right away by those old-timers who would rather tell people to read the manual than give a helping hand.  myITforum is unique in that there are no stupid, or newbie, questions, and no matter how many times a question is asked, it will always get a useful answer.

A lot of it has to do with how myITforum started. myITforum filled a definite need and was extremely innovative, starting in 1998. We were just coming off the BBS days, and the web was sort of new. Community hadn't made its way to the Internet yet, so we were trailblazers somewhat. We had the luxury of coming on early, which meant we could screw up a bunch until we found the perfect recipe for community. Other web sites, are just that – sites. They aren't community. And, really I wish there was another word that could be used in place of "community" because everyone and their brother, mother, sister, and uncle try to apply it in scenarios where it doesn't fit.  Someone throws up a web site and immediately says "hey, here's our new community, come and join us!"  Community doesn't work that way. Community is built by the people who then decide where they want to congregate.

myITforum is unique in the fact that it was built offline – built by the people – and then an actual web site property was put in place afterward because the people wanted a central location to connect.

Dave: When did you first step into the world of computer technology?  What year?  How old were you and what was the scenario that pulled you in?

Rod: Wow... that's sort of hard to remember since it was so long ago, but I'll give it a shot. Actually, my first computer technology "career" was in computer sales, working for a local, multi-site, computer store. We sold directly to businesses. Yes, I was a salesman. Not a very good one, but it gave me the opportunity to hang around computers all day long. After that, I worked for a local computer rental business which taught me a lot about the computer innards since we built our own computers. And, then I finally progressed to managing a local service center after obtaining a bunch of hardware certifications from Epson, IBM, and HP and networking with Novell.

I had worked with computers prior to my "start", but I guess it all really started with that one sales job.  I was 24 and newly married when I took that job.

Dave: Looking back five years ago, putting yourself into the mindset you had then, what aspects of information technology do you see today that you wouldn't have expected then?

Rod: That's a tough one. I think the best way to answer this, is with a non-answer.  Technology has always excited me. I'm always the first person to latch onto new concepts, new gadgets, and new directions.  What has surprised me the most is actually the lack of technology we have today, or at least, the lack of concepts I expected to be available already.

I grew up a huge Star Trek fan and watching the cool science on the show, I fully expected that we'd have all of those things by now. We don't.  We have a few things that sort of look like what was proposed on the SciFi series, but really we're not even close.  I keep anticipating the next big thing and am a bit forlorn when it shows up and it's only half (or less) of what I imagined.

Dave: Looking ahead five or ten years from today, where do you think computer technology and information technology will go, just in general (specifics are always welcome too)?

Rod: I fully believe we are on the cusp of something monumental in the industry where computing becomes second nature to everyone. IT will become service providers, not engineers and problem solvers like they are today. IT Pros were never really intended for the functions they provide today, but our lack of computability heaped massive tasks on them. If you think about it, really IT Pros today are nothing more than glorified secretaries, except they handle technical bits and stay on call 24x7 instead of faxing and swabbing whiteout.

Computing will become much easier, so that anyone can perform any function they can think up – on any device. The backend will be provided much like a utility company serves sewage and electricity, complete with a monthly subscription fee.

IT Pros will need to evolve and adapt to technology concepts that are just now emerging.

Dave: You obviously get to see a lot of emerging trends and observe how they play out in the markets.  Of all the various fields of technology, which areas do you feel could use the most work when it comes to establishing true "standards"?

Rod: True standards. Is that even real?

From a standards standpoint, I guess what I am looking for is a way to interoperate across all devices. Computing is now about being completely mobile, being able to pick up any device anywhere, and have content and information synched so that my experience is the same everywhere. Each specific vendor has done a great job within their own ecosystem, but they rarely offer the same functionality outside their own ecosystem.  A true standard would mean that the experience would sync across any device no matter if it came from Microsoft, Apple, Google, or another vendor.

Dave: You currently describe yourself, professionally at least, as a "social media marketer".  Can you explain what that means, as if speaking to a crowd of non-technical senior citizens? :)

Rod: Social Media Marketer is a term that has come about through evolution. At its base, it's about community and understanding how to talk to people, which is one of my God-given strengths. But, everyone has to make money, so I've learned over time how to take my strengths and use them to provide marketing over social media.

Dave: What piece of swag from a past tech conference do you cherish most?

Rod: Whew...it's been a long, long, many years of conferences for me. I haven't attended a conference that I didn't either work at or have some part in since 1998. So, I've seen and owned a lot of SWAG. Just recently I went through my office drawers and finally threw out all the SWAG from the past years. If it was memorable, I'd photograph it but still toss it.  That was a lot of work.

There have been many conference bags I've kept and some I've carried for years, but, my favorite SWAG, probably, is my very first speaker shirt (which I still have – and can still wear!). It is from the 1999 SMS Users Conference (what MMS was called before Microsoft acquired the event). It's nothing special, just a standard collared knit shirt with the conference logo on it, but it marks my first public speaking gig.

Dave: Do you feel that the general perception of technological innovation coming from the United States will remain as such in the next decade?

Rod: I really don't see that changing, to tell you the truth. There's too many strong brands in the US still with Microsoft, Google, Apple, HP, and others. Lenovo seems to be the only bright spot outside of the US. Lenovo is innovating and have produced solid business despite the continued downturn in PC sales.

I'm really excited to see what comes from Dell now that they have voted to go private. Attending DellWorld the past couple years, I've heard some great vision stories, but that vision has been put on hold due to all the problems. I expect to see some great things come out of Round Rock, TX.

Dave: Are there any particular companies or technologies that you feel are woefully under-appreciated or undervalued today?

Rod: That's a tough question. In today's industry, there's a lot emerging technologies and solutions that could probably fit in the under-appreciated or undervalued categories. It's just too hard to tell right now how things will shake-out in the next 5 years. So, I can't name any specific company or technology, but really more of a vision of technology.

Someone needs to come the fore providing a centralized and consistent dashboard for managing Cloud data and services. There's a lot of Cloud providers out there, and no two are the same in functionality and price. In the near future, providers will have to start to specialize to compete with the likes of AWS and Windows Azure, providing a single service that's full-featured and affordable. As that happens, data will be spread out across the web and it'll be hard to determine which provider is actually servicing it, making it unmanageable.

Dave: If you could describe the perfect Sunday morning for you, what would it be?

Rod: Ahhh...Sunday morning. Getting up a couple hours earlier than everyone else in the house. Sitting down with a cup of coffee, my Windows tablet, and a good movie for noise.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  To explore more things Rod is doing, follow the links below.

Links

Some places you can always find me:

myITforum: http://www.myITforum.com
Windows IT Pro: http://windowsITPro.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rodtrent