Month: March 2007

Big Brother Live is Watching Me

Up to where?I’ve always found it fascinating zooming around Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth looking at the amazing detail on famous land-marks. It was also interesting to look at the slightly blurry, but relatively old images of my own house. The privacy issues never really occurred to me, until today.

Today Microsoft Virtual Earth has had a whole load of new images and the pictures of my house are no longer blurry or that old. In the old images my garden was still a patch of grass making it at least 5 years old. The new picture shows my garden with all of the landscaping and the trampoline which was present to the kids (honest) 18 months ago.

It all feels a bit too close to home now. It’s especially disconcerting to think that someone can look at the front, the back and the sides.

The picture below shows the construction of a set of houses near us into which some friends have just moved. That makes the images a few months old, max.

I didn’t dare show the images of my house, far too embarrassing. 

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Get Ahead: Start with a Small Organisation

Jimmy and Grandad take a trip to LondonObservation of the day: People who start their working career in small organisations go further than people who start at the bottom of large organisations. People who start their career in growing small organisations go the furthest.

I’ve observed this phenomena a number of times, some of it within the Organisation where I work, some external.

There are a number of people within my own organisation who were outsourced into the organisation from a smaller organisation, or a small part of a large organisation. These people thrive in the new large organisation in a way that people from existing large organisations do not.

I’ve also noticed large organisations buy small organisations. Within a few years the senior management of the large organisation is dominated by people from the small organisation.

I’ve wondered for some time why this should be? I have come to some conclusions around experience.

The first conclusion is that it’s the breadth of experience that matters, not the depth of experience. People in small organisations need to be able to cover a number of roles, they can’t be a specialist in a small part of the operation. This breadth allows people from small organisation to understand the whole. In large organisations this holistic view immediately places them at an advantage over someone with a more narrow view.

The second conclusion is that it’s breadth of experience, not scale of experience that matters. Within a small organisation you get to understand a lot about many things but on a smaller scale. It would appear that scaling that experience up is easier than broadening the experience.

The next conclusion is that people from small organisations have far less respect for hierarchy than people brought up in larger organisations. If you have been in an Organisation where you know the Chairman and the Cleaner you realise that the difference between these people is very small. You’re also less likely to have a “not worthy” attitude when working with people more senior than you, something that they are likely to respect.

My advice to anyone thinking of starting out in a new career – start in a small organisation, it will work out much better in the long run.

My own experience is that I initially worked as a System Administrator for email systems before they were mainstream. This was in a large organisation, but a very small part of a large organisation. That experience put me in front of very senior people as well as shop-floor people trying to get the job done. This was in the days when we used to give people training courses on how to use a mouse. I was one of only 4 people who did what I did, it was a small organisation within the large organisation. During that time IT and email in particular exploded, businesses also became reliant upon IT. There are things that I haven’t done since those days which inform my understanding of customer today, some things haven’t changed that much. My broad experience within the small organisation still feeds my experience today, it was invaluable.

I have no scientific evidence to say these things, only personal experience. I suspect someone has done a study on it somewhere but I don’t have the time to go and find one right now. Even if I did go and find a study it wouldn’t be a fully fledged research of the area, it would be just me looking across the Internet trying to find someone to back up my own opinion. For now, though, personal observation will suffice.

PST Files + File Server = Dead File Server

Time to set off!!!I’ve had this discussion a few times recently myself. Storing a PST file on a file server is NOT a good idea.

Microsoft don’t really do anything to indicate to the end user that this might not be a good idea, but they certainly have made it known in the technical community for a long time. For some reason people haven’t picked up on this fact.

The Enterprise Platforms Windows Server Performance Team decided it was time to revisit it too.

At least once a week, someone on the Performance team will get a customer call concerning hangs or resource depletion on their file server.  The file server in question is used for user home folder storage and users are accessing Outlook Personal Storage (.pst) files stored on the server from their client.  The issue will manifest as either a server hang, or PagedPool depletion (Event ID 2020).  Oftentimes the issue will occur first thing in the morning – when users are logging on and launching Outlook.  In especially severe cases, the issue occurs several times daily.  Sometimes the server will hang for a few minutes and then continue operating for a few minutes – and then hang again.  Rinse & repeat.  The users are frustrated because of slow access to their data, the server administrators are frustrated because they are tasked with fixing the problem, and upper management is frustrated because everyone else is frustrated.

They have a load more technical information which explains why it isn’t a good idea.

In short, don’t do it.

The challenge I have for Microsoft, though, is this. Can you help System Administrators out here please? There is nothing in the Outlook UI to tell the end user that it’s a bad idea. Once they have been created there are no tools to help you move the PST somewhere else while maintaining an end-user’s access to the data. You don’t provide any tools to protect the server (by providing blocking of .pst files for instance). The policies for Outlook only allow you to stop people creating PST files altogether, but you might still want them to have PST’s just not on the file server.

Having a policy with no tools to support it is a bit lame. Remember people think that the machines are in control, if the machine doesn’t stop them, then it’s OK.

 

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A Very Sad Day for Blogging

Today is a very sad day for blogging.

This type of behaviour is just not acceptable in any society.

I’m not going to say any more.

(If you can stomach the full story it’s here, but it’s quite gruesome).

The Machines are Taking Over: Humans Abdicate Responsibility

Jimmy and Grandad take a trip to LondonWe are a lazy race!

It’s actually one of our strengths, it causes us to seek ways of doing things that require less effort next time. We have a wonderful word for it, efficiency.

Laziness is also one of our greatest curses.

If I wanted to invade the earth, I wouldn’t come with an army, I’d come with truck loads of free stuff that appears to make our life “easier”. Each “labour saving” device would be constructed to help us in some area of life where we felt that there was labour to be saved. In doing so it would encourage us to abdicate all responsibility over to the machine. Within a very short period of time we would have learnt to rely upon the machines totally. Once we were completely reliant upon the machines we could be made to do absolutely anything to get the machines back.

Let me give you some examples.

When I am driving my car there are occasional times when I need to travel in reverse. Most of the time, 99% of the time, I am travelling in the forwards direction, but travelling backwards is tricky, it requires some effort. I can’t just sit in my seat looking forward I need to expend some effort to turn my body around so that I can see where I am going. This effort of turning around is something that I perceive as having a lot of labour saving efficiency associated with it. What I need is a machine to help me, I need reversing sensors. Now I have the sensors I don’t need to turn around the sensors tell me when I am approaching things, great! Initially I tell myself that these sensors are just there for extra safety, but soon I have abdicated all responsibility over to the machine, the machine has got me.

Then one day I get into my wife’s car, where the machines haven’t managed to infiltrate. I sit there and put the car into reverse. I completely miss the fact that the machine hasn’t beeped at me to tell me that all is well. I press on the accelerator and set off. The car is moving backward. I still glance in the mirrors waiting for the machine to tell me all is well, but it doesn’t. I continue travelling until…

You’d love me to say that I dented Sue’s car wouldn’t you. What actually happened was that I notice a wall appearing in the mirror rather fast and stopped, phew.

Keeping on the driving theme.

I noticed one of those ever increasing “Satnav leads driver into…” stories. This one was a particularly fine example of the human ability to abdicate responsibility over to the machines:

The 28-year-old woman – apparently on her way to a Christening on 3 March – ignored signposts indicating the track was unsuitable for motor vehicles and gamely ploughed into the watercourse. Unfortunately, the river was “swollen after heavy rain in recent floods” and quickly overcame the Merc, “gushing through the car” and sweeping it 200 metres downstream “bouncing from one river bank to the other, as the woman frantically tried to smash the windows with her feet”.

That’s right she “ignored signposts indicating the track was unsuitable for motor vehicles”. It wasn’t her problem, the machine was in control.

Today the BBC is highlighting a campaign by Get Safe Online. The main purpose of this campaign is to get people to think about the things that they are handing over to the machine, encouraging people to take a survey “Just how safe are you?”. The survey isn’t focussing on whether Windows is more secure than Linux, it’s focussing on the human elements of security. All credit to them for raising it as an issue, but the problem that they have to overcome is that people have handing over responsibility for online security to the machines. The machines are in control.

I was listening to the radio this morning and one of the campaign spokesmen came on. He was asked a question that went something like this:

Interviewer: “One of the things you are highlighting is e-mail phishing. We’ve known about e-mail phishing for years now, surely it’s not still a problem?”

Spokesman: “£XX million gets defrauded from people every year via phishing. It’s still a very profitable fraud” (I can’t remember the actual number).

The machines are in control – “If the e-mail says it came from the bank, then it must have come from the bank”.

“The phone is ringing, I must answer it” – the machines are in control.

“My e-mail reminder has just pinged, I must read it” – the machines are in control.

“My blog reader has just told me I have new posts to read, I must read posts” – the machines are in control.

“The washing machine has just finished, I must empty it” – the machines are in control.

“Who’s that pinging me on IM, I must respond” – the machines are in control.

It’s time to turn them off. We are still in control, we need to take the control back before it’s too late. See that big button on the front that you rarely use, it’s the “Off Button”. Press it to find your freedom. Or even worse, ignore it, ignore the machine. Lets see how they respond to that.

 

Laptops finally overtake desktops – perhaps

Jimmy and Grandad take a trip to LondonIDC is predicting that:

“Portable PCs will represent more than 50% of all Client PCs worldwide in 2011”

It’s difficult to deduce from the report, but I assume that most of this transition will be driven by consumers rather than corporate purchasers. While enterprises are becoming more mobile, everyone I know is buying a portable device for their home. A portable device and a wireless LAN at home gives far more flexible access to the Internet which is the primary reason people seem to have a PC. The exception to this are the high-end gamers who still need a desktop for the graphics performance.

I’m sure I’ve heard these predictions before, though, and I’m not sure they are true this time either.

 

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Palm Takeover: Mobile Computing Consolidation Continues

Grandad has a relax on a bridge over the A590The news of yesterday seems to be that Palm is in takeover talks with a number of people including Nokia. Motorola is also looking on to see if a strategic bid, to keep Nokia out, is worthwhile.

This announcement follows on from a long list of consolidation purchases made by Nokia, Motorola and to a lesser extent Microsoft in the mobile arena. Consolidation is always a sign that a market is maturing and moving into the mainstream. So if you are struggling to keep up, here are some of the purchases:

  • Symbol goes to Motorola giving the a huge breadth of industrial strength mobile devices.
  • Good Technologies go to Motorola giving them reliable e-mail connectivity.
  • IntelliSync goes to Nokia giving them reliable e-mail connectivity.
  • Palm goes to…
  • RIM Blackberry continues to grow…

So what is driving this consolidation?

Is it because Nokia and Motorola are afraid of the rise of RIM? I don’t think so.

Is it because they Nokia and Motorola see an existing market that they want a portion of? No. It’s because the market is growing and broadening. And the growth in the market is being driven by two forces – network performance and device performance.

Network performance and availability is driving down the cost of data networks so that the always connected dream is becoming more of a reality.

Device performance and capacity has reached the point where the devices can actually do something useful.

This means that we are only just seeing the beginning of the explosion of connected mobile devices.

Count Your Blessings #101 – The Other 100

England v ItalyWhen I started out on the series of “Count Your Blessings” I wasn’t sure how far I would get, so it was nice to get to 100.

I thought I would use the opportunity to find out which posts get accessed the most. It’s not a very scientific number, because it’s only based on one way that people access the posts. It looks like the top 10 over the last few months are these ones:

I’d love to know different this list would have been if I’d had the numbers from the start – unfortunately I don’t.

I’ve had all sorts of feedback on the series; I’d like to say thank you for that. It’s nice to know someone is reading.

Cisco take on WebEx

Jimmy inspects a cave (Rabbit Hole)The big news of the day seems to be that Cisco is to purchase WebEx. There is a good deal of commentary already available (here, here, here) most of which focuses on the Cisco and Microsoft relationship.

Does this change the relationship between Cisco and Microsoft, I doubt it. The motivations are different. Microsoft is interested in web conferencing to sell Windows software, Cisco is interested in web conferencing to sell network equipment. Neither of them see these capabilities as core to who they are. If I were a WebEx employee I would be worried about that.

You could say that this is Cisco broadening its portfolio into services, but it’s not going to do that at the expense of it’s core business – network equipment. Cisco’s relationship with Microsoft also helps them to sell network equipment so they aren’t going to jeopardise that either.

The interesting thing for me is what this does to Cisco’s MeetingPlace software and all of the TelePresence work they have been doing. There are some significant technology overlaps here, though probably not too many market overlaps. Bringing these markets and capabilities into the existing WebEx customer base would make for a very compelling suite of capabilities.

 

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Count Your Blessings #100 – Portable Music

Another fine sunsetAs a young teenager I earned some much needed money doing a paper-round. It meant getting up early in the morning and dashing around a set of houses on my bike. One of the first things I did with the money that I had earned was to buy a mobile cassette player. I can’t remember what make the first one was, but I can remember what it wasn’t. I wanted a proper Sony Walkman, but I couldn’t afford a proper Walkman, I had to settle for something more affordable.

(For anyone out there who is younger than 20, the original Sony Walkman had nothing to do with phones or MP3 players, it played cassettes. If you don’t know what a cassette is then I’m sorry, it’s not my problem that your education has been so incomplete.)

Every morning (except Sunday, because that was someone elses problem) I would get up, reach for the portable cassette player, select a fresh tape from the pile in my room, stick the headphones on and set off. It wasn’t the safest thing to do, but the music on those tapes made a tough job enjoyable. One day I would be joining U2 at the live Under a Blood Red Sky concert. The next day I would be taken to the strange world of Talking Heads. On another day it would be OMD. Listening to the music took me to another place where my fingers weren’t frozen to the handlebars, or where the rain wasn’t seeping down my back.

I probably spent a disproportionate amount of my paper-round money on batteries keeping the portable cassette player and bike lights running.

There were a number of portable cassette players that joined me on that journey. Each of them would eventually buckle under the strain. The first one was probably the size of 3 or 4 cassettes, eventually I worked myself to a tiny player (JVC I think), that was bright red and only just the size of a cassette box. I thought it was tiny.

As the years passed I changed my job. My brother got a job as a Chef in a Hotel near Scarborough. I could earn more working in the kitchens at weekends and holidays than I could on the paper-round. Scarborough was a 40 minute train journey from home so I would travel up, work, stay over work and then travel back. The train journeyed through some fabulous countryside, but the travelling was made even more enjoyable by the accompaniment of Bob Dylan and Depeche Mode.

I never had a portable CD player. Not sure why, I think that portable CD players became the accessory of choice during the time Sue and I spent every waking hour together, so there was no need.

Then I learnt to drive and a new type of portable music came into my life. Having money meant that I could experiment with all sorts of music, it was at this time that I discovered Bruce Cockburn whose songs still speak volumes to me.

My portable music is now on my phone, 2GB of it. I can’t imaging how many cassettes I would have to carry around to have access to that much music. I’ve started appreciating my portable music again. Most mornings I try to go to the gym or take a walk for exercise, I take my music along with me. There are times in the gym that I would stop and give it up, but the music keeps me going. I’m currently listening to all sorts of music, the newest is probably Delirious?.

Music plays such a huge part in my life, it fires my imagination, it takes me to other places, it lifts me up, it spurs me on, it calms me down. Being able to take it with me is such a blessing.

Count Your Blessings #99 – Lonely Places

Borrowdale Boxing DayWhen I take a walk in a morning I am very blessed by having loads of different routes available. I have come to know how many people I can expect to meet on each of the routes. Sometimes I choose a route where I know I am likely to meet a few people walking dogs who will give me a hearty smile and a “good morning”. At other times I deliberately choose a different route knowing that I will be the only one there. My favourite lonely walk is actually down the drive of a nearby hall, although you’d expect to see people, I have never seen anyone down there early in a morning.

Sometimes I feel like I need to recharge my batteries in a way that only lonely places can. I suppose it’s a bit like a mini wilderness time.

There is something very special about these lonely places, they seem to open up a different type of intimacy with God that just can’t be experienced in crowded places. I have felt an intimacy with God in very crowded places, but the lonely places bring something that is more personal.

Jesus had times in lonely places too:

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16

If it was good enough for him – then it’s certainly good enough for me.

£17 billion wasted on unnecessary meetings

Mossy dry stone wallsWe waste £17 billion on unnecessary meetings according to a survey carried out for Polycom.

The thing you need to notice is that this survey is talking about face-to-face meetings. The premise here is that these face-to-face meeting would be more valuable if they were done over the phone, or some form of teleconferencing (because it was done for a video conferencing company).

I’ve written before about the different advantages and disadvantages with teleconferencing. I’m sure that there are a lot of unnecessary face-to-face meetings, but I don’t think that the real answer to this issue is to move the meetings from one medium to another. Far more value could be derived by meetings being well prepared and having a proper purpose.

The other major issue is that many people aren’t actually ‘present’ at most of the meetings I attend whether they are face-to-face or on the phone. People have so many interruptions that they allow to cut into their meetings that the meetings themselves have a significantly reduced value.

Moving from face-to-face meetings to teleconference or video conference meetings may save some CO2, but it isn’t going to make us any more productive, if anything it will make us less productive.

Matthew Stibbe has an interesting insight:

“I’m still wrestling with how I can change my working practices to become more efficient and focus more on productive work and less on meetings. I think the answer lies in making my communications outside meetings more effective.”

I am, of course, being a complete hypocrite here because I’m typing this while listening to someone presenting something on the phone .

 

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