Kindle Book Customers...

I wanted to say THANK YOU for your continued Support!  Seriously. I had kind of ignores the sales reports thinking the numbers had fallen to nothing by now, but I was surprised to see more activity lately. You have no idea how much I appreciate that and want to Thank you for your patronage.

Please post feedback on the books you've purchased? Be honest and straightforward? I would very much like to know what you like and don't like and what I can improve upon.

Respectfully,
Dave

The Reviews are Coming In!!!

I've already blabbered about my new book, "Grinding More Gears: Software Repackaging for World Domination", but while I await real reader reviews, I had to get some make-do reviews to hold things over until the holidays (okay, technically: holiday) are done.

"Oh my goodness.  Tragic.  Tragic, is the word.  I pray for this author and whomever reads this.... book... thing...what have you." - Mother Theresa

"Relatively speaking, of course, one could derive a postulate that would infer a certain intransigent preponderance that the verbiage was of some theorem that implicated a form of intelligence which could not be excluded or precluded, maybe not even occluded, but which certainly does not interject a notion of sensible intellect that a cognizant being could construe as knowledge." - Albert "Dr. Relative" Einstein

"What. The... ?..." - Aristotle

"Best book I ever read!" - Helen Keller

"What's a Kindle?" - George Washington

I'm truly flattered!  Thank you!

A Sample of Stupidity - For a Limited Time Only!

A few, non-contiguous pages from my forthcoming book on Software Repackaging.  I really would like your honest feedback on what you see so far, as well as suggestions on what you'd like included in the final version.

Adobe PDF file is available for download at the following URL...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-FpG7_P5WX6VklSa3g2U3M4a00/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you!  Dave

Shameless Plug and Teaser

Selected portions from the "Introduction" and "Overview" from my forthcoming book.  Please, tell me if this sounds like something you'd be interested in buying?

Introduction

If you've read any of my previous ebooks, and somehow averted the urge to stab yourself in the eyes with a fork, you're probably familiar with my usual, droll, drab, way of describing things.  For this ebook however, I decided it was finally time to take off the gloves and do a few rounds in the ring with my blogging side.  My skatterbrainz.blogspot.com blogging side, to be more specific.  I've been a slave to that blog for quite a few years now, but in a good way actually.  It's provided me with a means to vent stress, confusion, anxiety, happiness, sadness, and everything else you might normally experience on a Saturday morning in a typical Sam's Club.

I am taking a bit of risk in adopting this approach however.  I really have no idea of what percentage of my blog readers also purchase my ebooks, and vice-versa.  I also don't know how many people have purchased, and read, my ebooks, and survived the trauma of that.

I'm a "regular" guy in most respects.  Not regular as it pertains to bowel habits, but regular in the sense that I rely upon a "day job" to have money to support my family (wife and four children, oh yeah, and two dogs and a cat).  I drive a very old car, and work a very nice job, but I buy a lottery ticket on occasion.

Overview

If your job (or hobby) involves installing software applications, components, even Windows or application configuration changes, on multiple computers over a network, you've almost certainly encountered some challenges along the way.  Even if the installation goes well, you may often face challenges with users trying to open or use the applications.  Maybe you're in the midst of trying to migrate computers to Windows 7 or Windows 8, and keep running into applications and that just don't seem to work properly.  Maybe you don't have enough budget to purchase new licenses of all the "problematic" applications you need to do a complete migration.

Feeling stuck?  Feeling frustrated? Confused? Angry?

Don't start drinking just yet.  Wait until you finish this book first.  Then you can go back to drinking all you can drink.  Just don't drink and drive.

If you follow "best practices" guidelines, you have probably configured your environment such that most users are not members of any groups which allow them local "administrator" access to their computer devices.  Whether that's keeping them out of the local "Administrators", or "Power Users" groups, or keeping them out of certain Active Directory domain groups, the goal is usually to mitigate potential security holes in your environment.  However, a frighteningly large number of software product vendors, and developers, seem to expect all of their customers to have unlimited powers over their computer devices when installing as well as using their software.

10 Questions: With Johan Arwidmark

Note:  This is (hopefully) the kick-off segment to an ongoing series I want to do on interviewing some of the most influential geeks I've had the honor and luck of meeting or conversing with.  I hope you find these both entertaining and informative.  Thank you!

Introduction

If you work in a place where there are a lot of Windows-based computers, chances are you have an Systems Support Team, or maybe an IT Department, that supports them.  If that team is focused on efficiency, chances are they try to automate as many of the computer and software installations as possible.  If they are *really* focused, chances are they are using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), or System Center Configuration Manager "OSD" (operating system deployment) to handle the heavy-lifting. And, if they even know what those tools are, they know the name: Johan Arwidmark.

Johan Arwidmark is the Chief Technical Architect at Knowledge Factory, a consulting firm based in Sweden.  You can find his articles on Microsoft's Channel9, MyITForum, Deployment Research, TrueSec, and probably a dozen other sites. You can also find his daily happenings on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and several other social networking sites.  With his crazy schedule, it makes it hard for anyone else to claim "too busy" as a reason to not post a status once in a while.

While Johan was born and raised in Sweden, his name is known around the world as a trusted, valuable source of useful information for IT professionals.  A renown speaker, author and winner of nine (yes 9) Microsoft MVP awards, it is indeed difficult to search for information on things like MDT, OSD, USMT, WinPE, Config Mgr, or even "Windows Deployment", without seeing his name pop up in the results.  Often seen with his colleague, Mikael Nystrom, these two are great reasons enough to attend Microsoft's TechEd and MMS conferences every year, where they consistently pack the room.

I asked Johan if would be willing to do a ten-question "interview", and he agreed.  This alone is amazing for two main reasons: (1) I'm obviously *not* a famous magazine interviewer, and (2) Johan's schedule is insanely busy.  In any case, I am honored and happy to present this short interview for you to enjoy...


The Questions

Dave: When did you first try to customize or modify a computer? Can you recall what you tried to accomplish?

Johan:  I don't know if it really counts as customization, by I recall adjusting the 1530 tape drive head alignment  Next stop was probably soldering midi-contacts for my Amiga 500.

Dave: What does MDT mean to you from a personal aspect? How has it changed your life?

Johan: MDT drastically changed how I worked with windows deployment, before BDD/MDT I used to develop my own deployment solutions, and after BDD/MDT I have focused in customization rather than building from scratch.

Dave: Where do see MDT in five years?

Johan: Pretty much the same (I fear)…  In a dream scenario, MDT functions would replace OSD in WDS, and be part of core Windows.

Dave: In the course of your world travels, what trends do you see that might surprise most of us who only see our immediate surroundings? In other words: do you feel that IT professionals in the Middle East, or Spain, favor certain products or features than those living and working in Australia, Sweden, Canada, Japan or the US?

Johan: IT Pro’s work pretty much the same all over the world… I don’t see that much difference.

Dave: If you were given absolute control over Microsoft for one year, what changes would you like to insist upon?

Johan: Haha, first I would make MDT and Windows Setup into one single deployment solution, add some serious resources to the team, and remove all other setup solutions except OSD in ConfigMgr.

Dave: You mentioned that Phoenix is one of your favorite places to visit.  What things do you like most about that city and the surrounding area?

Johan: Phoenix? I don’t recall saying that...  My favorite spot right now is New York, for being a place where it appears the entire world has gathered.

(Dave's note: I must have missed my coffee on the question above.  I think I got crossed-up with someone else.  My apologies)

Dave: What's your favorite, or most critical, "freeware", or open-source software utility?

Johan: MDT, no doubt

Dave: Have you read any good books, or seen any particularly good movies this year? If so, which ones?

Johan: Plenty, I’m both a book and movie nerd. My latest favorites are the Game of Throne books and the “Now you see me” movie.

Dave: Which airport is the most pleasant to get through, and which one do you dread thinking about?

Johan: Copenhagen airport is like a second home to me, and always give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Charles De Gaulle is the probably worst airport, ever….

Dave: If you hadn't gone into the IT world at all, what do you think you would be doing for a living today?


Johan: Yee, that’s a hard one, I have been an IT guy since I was ten year old... I would probably have been a musician (I used to play electric guitar) or a writer of fantasy books.

Conclusion

If you enjoyed this brief interview, or you didn't, I still encourage you to visit the links below to explore more of the things Johan has influenced for the better.  Thank you!

Channel9
Deployment Research
MyITForum
TrueSec
Amazon Books
Vimeo Videos

Another Book Announcement and More!

I've just published another book!  Yes! I know exactly what you're thinking:  "What the...? Why do they let him keep doing this?!  Have they no mercy upon our eyeballs?!"

Well, in the interests of science, humanity, environment and the ever-pressing need to keep gasoline in the tank of my car, I've decided it was time to pull together as many of the mindless stories I could from my old-as-dirt years working in the world of IT.  That was a very long run-on sentence.  My high school English teachers are probably rolling over in their graves right now.

There's also quite a lot of blabber about how I got into the world of IT and how I swam through the sea of CAD into the ocean of Infrastructure Management and Software Development. It really is fascinating.  Not how I got into IT, but the fact that I could construct a sentence that almost sounded coherent.  Wow!

What's this New Book All About?

The new book is called "You're Only as Good as Your Last Mistake".  Sub-titled "25 Years of Boneheaded Reflection and Stupid IT Stories to Dull your Senses".  It's a blending of a little biographical nonsense, some seriously pretentious pontification, some articles adapted from my blog (this blog), and stories about things going bump in the electronic night. I suppose it could be called a BioTechieHumorFailDisasterFest.  Uhhh.  Yeah.

It's available on the Amazon Kindle store in every country where Amazon can sell books (US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Spain, Canada and Brazil, as far as I know).

Here's the GOOD NEWS!

• It's only $2.99 (USD) and whatever that translates to in other currency
• Don't have a Kindle?  No problem.  You can download a FREE Kindle Reader app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Mac OS, and ...
• You can read Kindle books online in almost any web browser using the Kindle Cloud Reader!
• If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can "borrow" eBooks, including all of my eBooks, for FREE!

What's the Catch?

• I only ask a small favor:  It's a BIG favor for me, and a small effort on your part, but I really would appreciate honest reviews of my books.  If you've purchased, or borrowed, any of my eBooks and actually read them (without pausing in the middle to stab yourself in the eyeballs with a fork), please go to the Amazon web site for the book(s) you've read and submit your opinion on them?
• You can start at my Author Profile page to make it easy.
• Thank you!

Sample: "Where it All Began: From Doritos to Digital Ships"

"Chronologically it's weird, because some of those jobs were in parallel with others.  For example, in that maze of titles I managed to fit in roughly five good years of rock and jazz band, but whatever. I also weaved in about ten years of artwork (painting, drawing, squishing clay stuff around, and so on) which never earned me more than "Hey man, that's cool!"  I remember responding a few times with "Cool enough to buy?", and the response to that being something like "Yeah! By somebody.", but somehow "somebody" could never be found. 

Sometime in early 1984, Mark, one of my brothers stoned friends, walked into our kitchen while I was maniacally inhaling a bowl of Fruit Loops (my favorite cereal at the time).He stopped at the doorway to exclaim "I got a job, dude!" to which we all replied with stunned silence.  I decided to inquire, saying something intelligent like "Oh yeah? What?"  

He explained that he was hired as a "Naval Designer" at a local Naval engineering firm, and went on to indulge us in this magically mysterious thing called "benefits", and something even more interesting, called a "salary". If I hadn't grown up in a Navy town (okay, a Navy "region"), I would have assumed a "Naval Engineer" designed belly-button replacements or something. 

Most of what Mark said was really fascinating, even though I could barely hear his muttering over my own cereal-chewing noise.  The best way to describe him is to think of someone who looks, sounds, and acts a lot like Jeff Spiccolli (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), only not as funny, has a mustache and wears glasses, coming in and telling you he was hired at an engineering firm.  You get the idea. 

Somewhere towards the end of my bowl of cereal Mark said something that perked my ears up.  I think it was something he mentioned about there being more positions needing to be filled, and that they paid pretty well. As it turned out, there were roughly twenty openings for "Drafting Apprentice" jobs, so I ran down and applied.  After a short interview ("Can you hold a pencil, boy? Alrighty! You is hired!"). 

I was finger-printed, scanned, questioned, photographed, probed and stamped with a badge and told to show up at 7:30 AM the following Monday.  That led to five or six years of my work as a Drafter/Designer in the U.S. Naval engineering field." 

Sample above (C)2013 David M. Stein, All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced or copied, transmitted, in whole or in part, for any purposes or derivative use, without explicit written consent of the author (me). And let's face it: If you're so desperate that you'd consider copying this literary fast food schlock, well, you may need some serious medication already.

The Next Book

I have given up on the book-topic survey, as far as relying on the votes as a means for determining which course to pursue. The votes are just too scattered, with no clear "winner". (I said "scattered".. heh heh. Ok, too easy an not clever enough).

(do e-ebooks require e-glasses too?)

Anyhow, I decided to go with the book sales numbers to point me in the direction to go. Based on two months of numbers (December 2012 - February 2013), the topics appear to fall in place as follows (from most to least popular):

1. Software packaging and deployment
2. Visual LISP Programming
3. AutoCAD Network Administration and Packaging/Deployment
4. IT Project Management

Shoving this through a secondary logic-filter (somewhat like processing beer through a Randall), hopefully this arrives at a clear direction.  Here goes...

1. The responses from my recent blog post about Software Packaging were unexpectedly good.
2. Visual LISP is a dying language, unfortunately.  It was fun while it reigned supreme, and more fun when I actually worked with it.
3. I'm caught  up on 2013 network deployments for Autodesk products
4. I pretty much covered what I wanted to in IT Project Management

So 1 + 1 = 1, errr, uhhh, what I mean is that I think I will follow up "Grinding Gears" with a newer/better-tasting/less-filling/no-wait-I-meant-MORE-filling version, focusing on Software Repackaging and Testing.  I think that makes sense.  If you strongly disagree, share your thoughts (and if you own a copy of any of my books, and you haven't posted a rating or feedback on Amazon yet, please do so?  I really depend on that to help me focus on what you want me to write about and what needs more work).

Survey Time: Choose Your Next Book Topic

Looking over the sales figures for the books I have posted on Amazon, it's difficult to determine what I should focus on going forward.  The best-selling book, by far, is The Visual LISP Developer's Bible, 2011 Edition.  The problem with this however, is that I haven't had the opportunity to work with Visual LISP since 2011.  My career path has taken me away from that type of work (AutoCAD customization), so I don't feel that I can do it justice anymore.  And besides, as I've said (or hinted at) many times before: Autodesk doesn't seem to demonstrate a strong desire to promote that language over the likes of ObjectARX and .NET.  I could be wrong.  I have been wrong before (I think).

So, I need a little help from you, if I may ask?  I'd like to know what you think I should focus on for my next, and future books.  Or let me know if I should find another hobby.

The power is in your hands.  Use it wisely...

Take the Survey here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SZLCWXY