iPadding your expenses….

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Now that the initial hype has died down, and we’re in the waiting period between the announcement and release….the iPad is the next big thing coming down the pike for Apple. Will it REALLY be the next big thing, or will it be another mis-step for Apple, ala the Newton or AppleTV?

Apple iPad

Is this REALLY the next big thing?

Just like when the iPod was released…there were lots of MP3 players out there – I had a Rio that I loved…and most of the players were much cheaper…but what Apple did was make the content king – 99 cents a song, $10 an album, import your own CD’s, etc. I eventually broke down and bought my first of at least 5 iPods, and have a huge music and podcast library. I have essentially stopped listening to terrestrial radio, and use my iPod as my almost exclusive source of music/education/entertainment. I even download my favorite NPR programs like CarTalk, Wait Wait, Don’t Tell mMe, and Whaddya Know?

When Apple brought out the iPhone, they were stepping into a very crowded marketspace, and needed to do something unusual to make themselves stand out….which they did with a vengance. Again, they delivered the phone, but the twist was the applications. The App Store has over 130,000 applications (with over THREE BILLION downloads)ranging from news feeds like the New York Times to great games, a level, and even a public restroom locator. The phone itself is cool, but it’s what you can do with it that makes the difference.

The iPad (despite its unfortunate name, which was parodied back in 2006 on MadTV) shows significant promise. At first glance, it looks like a giant iPhone. Apple should have included a Bluetooth headset and included the phone hardware, but despite it being a potential future upgrade, it would be awfully hard to fit in your pocket. It is a somewhat confusing marketspace – is it an eReader like the Nook, Kindle or Sony Reader? Is it a tablet computer? Is it something new? That’s an obstacle for Apple to overcome. They’ve already taken two steps to overcome those potential objections….first is acquisition price. The rumored price was $999, with a discounted price for a wireless contract….but Apple cut that in half at $499 for the basic Wi-Fi model…ranging up to $830 for a full-blown, maxed out 64GB model with Wi-Fi and 3G access.  Next, they set the monthly access at $30 unlimited (same as the iPhone data plan) but again, as little as half as much as other 3G providers.  To put ‘one more thing’ on top of it, they threw in Wi-Fi access at all AT&T hotspots…which cost them nothing, but makes it even more attractive.

So, we’re all waiting for the official launch in late March (for the Wi-Fi device. 3G will be released in April). The lines may be long….or they may not. I’m going to wait and see….but I’ll probably be in after the first upgrade release…..

Do it Right, and Do it Once.

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In an earlier post, I talked about getting my ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) certification, and why that mattered.  ITIL is not an end in itself, although I’ve talked with some folks who treat it as such. At the other end of the spectrum, IT support staff that have succeeded by hands-on, seat-of-the-pants learning may feel that ITIL is a barrier to actually getting things done.

There’s a stereotype out there that the British are too focused on process to get anything done, and that Americans are so focused on action that they ignore process….There’s a reason for stereotypes – that’s because to some extent, they’re true. But, if you look a level deeper to see what’s useful about the stereotype, you’ll find that they can be helpful, too.

First, the process part. Back in the ’80s, the British began to catalog IT processes to attempt to bring some level of standardization….but once the number of volumes topped 30…someone figured out that they might want to make it a bit more accessible, so that people actually used the tools….so from that effort, ITIL was born. It consists of 5 major processes:

  • Service Strategy
  • Service Design
  • Service Transition
  • Service Operation
  • Continual Service Improvement

I won’t go into a full-blown explanation of each process – but I want to point out that the key benefit of using ITIL as a standard is just that….it’s a standard. If you do something lots of times, you’re going to get better and faster at it….and if you’re doing the RIGHT things over and over, you’ll be even further ahead.

Now for the action part……the 4th and 5th processes in ITIL are Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement. If you have a properly focused strategy, a good design, and you’ve got a good handle on moving services into production, Service Operation is where the rubber meets the road…..and also where you can go ‘off-roading’…..I’ve managed lots of IT staff that were good with a screwdriver, friendly with customers, didn’t rattle easily….but also got in over their heads because they loved the thrill of chasing the problem. Some problems, however, shouldn’t be ‘fixed.’  If a customer was derailed because of a flaky computer, spending several hours trying to fix the problem doesn’t help the person get back in business…..a better choice would have been to swap out the hardware to get them back to productivity. That’s where these staff can benefit from ITIL – standardizing the service processes and using best practices will make things more uniform, easier to manage, and lower in cost.

Like any tool or process, they’re only as good as how much they’re used or followed. I’d rather have a technician escalate an incident if they can’t solve it within normal limits, than have them doggedly pursue the problem for hours (or even days!). Persistence is an admirable trait, but there comes a point where it’s more expensive to solve a problem than it is to bypass it altogether.  Likewise, I value accuracy over speed. The old saying is that there’s never enough time to do it right, but always time to do it over…..that may be true, but each time you ‘do it over’, your credibility takes a hit.  I’d much rather be right than fast. That’ll lower cost in the long run.

Do it right, and do it once.

The Windows Phone?

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There’s no doubt that the iPhone is the one to beat in the smart phone market. Sure, the Blackberry has a huge presence, the Palm Pre are making a dent, but even though the Blackberry may lead in total numbers, the iPhone’s growth is impressive. Now…..here comes Microsoft. In October, they plan to release their first phones running Windows 6.5 Mobile. They also plan to offer these phones on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, which may give them a leg up against Apple’s AT&T only offering, however, there have been rumblings about Apple ending their AT&T-exclusive deal within a year (that may be part of tomorrow’s announcement, but we’ll see).

So where does Microsoft fit in in all of this? Clearly, with Apple’s and RIM’s successes, Microsoft knows that there’s a real market out there – but will they learn from past efforts like Windows CE, or (gasp!) the Zune….In any case, hopefully more competition will make the market offerings even stronger.

What does Apple have up their sleeve?

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News came out today that Apple is planning a media event for next Wednesday, September 9th. Rumors are rampant that something is up, but they’re all over the map…..

One centers around the invitation sent to journalists that features a iPod-ish woman in silhouette with the tagline “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.” Would that be for some tie-in with the release of The Beatles “Rock Band”, set for release the same day? The Apple (records) catalog has been a long-awaited event for Beatles fans with iPods…. but one curiosity is the slogan….which is a Rolling Stones title. Hmmm…

Second up is the ongoing rumors about either a new line of iPods (again!), or the legendary tablet/giant iPod computer. The iPhone 3GS is still new, so I’m doubtful about that one, but I’d love to see the tablet……

The other (hopefully true) rumor is that we’ll see the return of Steve Jobs to the stage for Apple. He won’t be running Apple forever, but it would be good to see him in the spotlight again…..

The 5 rules for solving any problem.

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Way back when I was doing hands-on PC hardware support, I learned to watch other people fix PC issues, and found several truisms that translate pretty well to other situations. I’ve found that if you follow these five rules, you can do a pretty good job of getting by.

1. Believe everyone.
What they’re telling you is the absolute truth…..from their point of view. It doesn’t matter that they’re dead wrong, or that they’re looking at symptoms, not causes, or that it may not have been ‘working fine until you touched it’…. They’re telling the truth. They can’t see it any other way, and if you go about trying to prove them wrong, you’ll end up with an unsolved problem, AND an angry customer. Believe everything they say, because their perception is your reality.

2. Trust no one.
Wait….doesn’t this fly right in the face of rule #1? Yes it does…but it’s essential for finding the REAL cause of the problem. You’ve got to be discreet about doing so, but you need to challenge all the information that the person is giving you – because it may be wrong, incomplete, or just plain not relevant…..but then again, it might give you a clue about how to solve the issue. So, listen and believe, but only so far. As Reagan used to say, Trust, but Verify.

3. Draw a picture before you start.
Have you ever been working on a computer, car or household repair, only to find yourself saying…”now, what did I just do?” You need to know the baseline of any situation before you start, just in case you need to go back to the beginning. If you don’t, you may find yourself chasing new problems that you’ve introduced – and it’s helpful to know what things looked like before you showed up.

4. Change one thing at a time.
This goes hand in hand with #3. You never want to introduce new problems in to a situation, especially one that isn’t working. Problems are difficult enough to solve without causing new ones…..and it’s highly likely that you’ll get the blame for the original problem by the time you’re done, if you cause new ones. Changing one thing at a time is a good way to make sure that you aren’t making the situation worse. Think long and hard before going down a second path – sometimes, it’s best to go back to the beginning so that you know you’re only changing one thing, not several.

5. Know when to say when.
When you’re knee deep in trying to fix something, it’s difficult for many to give up on trying to solve it. Nobody likes to say that they can’t fix something, especially after they’ve been asked, but some times, it’s the best action you can take. If it’s clearly beyond your capability to solve, don’t be afraid to say so, and get the right help to fix the problem. Some times, it’s cheaper, faster and better to seek professional help. Around the house, it’s rumored that I can fix anything, but the reality is that sometimes, I fix it with a check. There are people who are better AND faster than I am at fixing some problems, and at that point, it’s best to call them in.

If you follow these five rules, you’ll find it easier to solve problems, or at least less frustrating to deal with them. It’s fun and rewarding to solve a problem that has stumped others, but sometimes its best to use a little less pride, and a little more process.

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Complete the Tweet….

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While Metro has had it share of woes lately, especially with the recent crash, they’ve been trying to improve service by providing better information on train delays and station issues…..and in March, they decided to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. Sounds good, right? Earlier, Metro had placed message boards on station platforms with arriving train information, which most riders viewed as a welcome change. They had also implemented an e-mail service to alert riders to system issues. With over 50,000 subscribers, it’s been pretty successful. So, Twitter should be no big deal, right?

Well, the planners over @ WMATA forgot one important thing….Twitter’s 140 character limit. So, messages that worked just fine on the station displays and in e-mail messages got truncated and cryptic, with messages like: “No Line: Disruption at U Street-Cardozo. Due to a power outage, all of the station’s escalators and elevators are out of service. Sh..” What comes after that? Were they going to give more information, telling riders to be quiet, or uttering an expletive about a power outage during a busy rush hour? Some of the other messages come off as:


“No Line: Disruption at Fort Totten. Beginning this evening at 9:30 pm, Red line trains will not operate between Brookland, Fort Totten, a..”

“No Line: Disruption at Fort Totten. Every evening during the month of August, Red Line trains will share one track starting at 10 p.m. be..”

“No Line: Disruption at Minnesota Ave in both directions. Due to police activity, the Minnesota Avenue entrance is closed. Customers may u..“

What were they going to say next? Is there important information that riders will miss just because of the 140-character limit? There is fairly straightforward remedy, which is to change the message format to work in all broadcast formats – and sticking with the Twitter limitation seems to be the way to go, but for some reason, this wasn’t thought out before implementation. DC Metro riders being a resourceful lot, they’ve taken to filling in the blanks. Unsuck DC Metro has come up with a contest to have riders fill in the missing space with what they think the message says after it gets truncated. Here are some great examples:

Truncated message: “No Line: Due to mechanical difficulties, all the station’s entrance escalators are out of service. The street elevator is operational. Shut“

Answers:

“…up. We know it makes no sense.”

“…your brain off- it will make dealing with Metro a heck of a lot easier if you try not to think rationally.”

“…your door and stay inside. You aren’t going anywhere today.”

And my favorite…

“….your piehole and do as you are told or hoses will be applied.”

So, riders will find a way to make some useful humor while trying to get home. Metro’s heart is in the right place – They’re sincerely trying to do a better job of getting more information into the hands of their customers, which is always a good thing. They’ve just got a little (forseeable) obstacle they’ve got to work around to make all their alert services work well for the users. While this made for a funny and unintended consequence, I think that Metro will soon find a way to correct it. 33 years after they opened, they’re still one of the best ways to get around a crowded city. They just have to make a small change to get it right.

Windows (lucky) 7?

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Windows 7

The early news is that it may help redeem Microsoft from their experience with Vista. Yeah, it looks slick, but almost everyone I know prefers XP. Why? Because XP doesn’t beat you over the head every 10 minutes about what operating system you’re using. It (after several Service Packs) seems to just run, and run reasonably well. The Apple folks got it right with OSX, and made the shortcomings of Vista even more obvious.

So, nearly three years down the road, Microsoft is ready for the Next Big Thing. One sign that they’ve learned from their experience is the long ramp-up to Windows 7. It’s been available to TechNet users for some time, and Microsoft has been (fairly) generous in getting the Release Candidate out there. Granted, in March of 2010 it will start shutting down every two hours, eventually coming to a halt, but that gives users a good chance to get familiar with the OS before shelling out the bucks for a new OS, or upgrading hardware to get the OS with a new system.

If you want the OS, but you aren’t a TechNet subscriber, don’t want to buy a new machine, and missed the 8/20 deadline, there are some other ways to get it on the cheap. With all of the use that Windows 7 will get before its official launch date, hopefully it will be a stable OS from the start with no major issues….and a definite improvement over Vista. Sometimes bigger isn’t better.

Deep-Six IE 6?

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Is it time to give IE 6 the boot?

Is it time to give IE 6 the boot?

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has an interesting position. Way back when, Netscape was giving IE a real run for leadership of the browser world. Well, things didn’t work out so well for Netscape, and IE was declared the unofficial champion of the browser wars. Things seemed to be smooth sailing for Microsoft dominance of the Windows browser world….but nothing lasts forever.

Firefox has given Microsoft the best reason to stay competitive, with features in Firefox playing leapfrog with new features in each new release from Redmond. Other players have jumped in too, with varying degrees of success, including Opera and Google’s Chrome browser. Don’t forget Apple, who keep updating Safari with new features, and even a Windows version.

Microsoft is keeping pace with these challenges, and is continually releasing new browser software that addresses competitive features or fixes earlier issues, with the net effect that all major browsers provide a fairly rich and secure (if managed properly) browsing experience.

But this isn’t about IE8, Chrome, Safari or Firefox…..it’s about IE6, which just won’t die. Having been released in 2001, it’s absolutely ancient as far as browsers go. In 2001, Windows XP had just been released (we weren’t even @ Service pack 1!), and Office was just at version 10.0 (XP/2002).

If it’s so old, why is it still in use? Despite some broad assumptions about home users being up to date…it’s not them. It’s the corporate user. IT departments all across the globe are STILL using IE6. Why? Standards. Things move more slowly in Corporate IT than they do at home, and IE6 has developed a certain level of familiarity and stability for corporate users. Upgrading is traumatic at best, and corporate departments are loath to introduce any new elements in their environment, lest they upset the natural order of things.

That being said, developers are in a quandry – do the develop for IE6 compatibility, or do they take advantage of the features that are available in later versions of IE (as well as all the other browsers? Some in the industry think they have an answer – kill off IE6.

Microsoft has stood behind IE6, despite having tried to kill it off in the past. Why do they stick supporiting it? One word – customers. While features and novelty are very useful in the consumer world, the corporate IT world is one that functions on stability first, features second.

Why do that? Because change is traumatic at best – you only get so many chances to affect change with your customers, so corporate clients tend to stay in place with software and hardware versions until forced to change.

Me? I personally thing that 8 years in one browser is too risky to justify keeping it in place. That doesn’t mean that you have to upgrade to the latest and greatest…but I don’t think you should be more than 1-2 updates behind the current version…and that you should build upgrade strategy into your plan. As they say in GI Joe, “Knowing is half the battle”…so, know why and what business reasons will make you want to upgrade, and plan for it. Don’t just stay in place because you haven’t changed in a long time.

Twitterpated…..

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When Twitter first came on the scene, there was a bit of buzz around it, but I (like a lot of others), questioned it’s usefulness. I mean, do you really need to know EVERYTHING somebody is doing? How much useful information can you cram into 140 characters? Well, evidently, this type of short-burst message service DOES have a use, and more so than you might think. Like my previous entry about the Peek mobile e-mail device, technology doesn’t have to be fancy and slick to be useful.

I was convinced that Twitter has a use, when I saw the news reports about the Iran elections. It’s tough to say whether there’s election fraud taking place, but when 25% of the ballots are mission, the government fires on civilian protesters, and shuts down Internet access and traditional text messaging, you can bet that they don’t want the world looking all that closely at what’s going on. BUT……ABC News reports that Twitter is still working, and that not only are Iranian citizens using it to let the world know what’s going on, but that Twitter execs also postponed a maintenance window to allow news traffic to continue to flow from Iran. That’s amazing. Who would have thought that the ability to send and receive 140-character messages had a bigger use than keeping celebrity followers entertained? Forget following Oprah and Ashton Kutcher….this is a world-changing event, compressed into one-line news bursts.

The Iran elections weren’t the first major (real) news story to get out via Twitter – there have already been others….US Airways 1549′s landing in the Hudson, , the Australian brushfires and the anti-communist protests in Moldova were all broadcast using Twitter.

No wonder newspaper subscriptions are declining – news has never been so immediate and democratic – now, everyone is a reporter. Is there the possibility of fraud and abuse? Sure – however, one thing the Internet has shown, is that even if incorrect information gets out there, you can’t stop the truth from coming out.

….now, if we can only get Twitter going in North Korea….

I'm certifiable…..

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In the IT world, the landscape changes so quickly, and there is (still) an air of mystery about the job to non-IT types. So, how do you distinguish one candidate from another? One way is through certification. If a technology is widely used, (or even if it isn’t), you can bet that there’s a certification that’s attached to it. Back in the day, I was a CNA (Certified Netware Administrator), and had a MCSA (Microsoft Certified System Administrator) certification…..but, as my job requirements changed, and technology changed, it eventually didn’t make sense to keep those.

Netware has been in the glue factory for a decade, and there are so many MCSE’s out there (and even more pumped out via all sorts of boot-camp classes), the value of having those certifications has definitely dropped – since they are no longer a reliable indicator of actual performance on the job. Every IT hiring manager I know has run across ‘paper’ MCSE’s – people who have the certification, but not necessarily the experience and aptitude to perform well in the real-world environment.

That being said, since I’m currently in transition, I felt that it would be a good time to go after some certifications that will help me be more attractive for the right permanent position. In the DC area, there are many positions that require a particular certification, so I thought I would start studying for at least 1 or 2 of them. The ITIL V3 Foundation exam was the obvious first target (mainly because it was the smallest amount of material to learn). I bought a book, did lots of on-line questions, and passed easily. So, now tha tI have that certification, I’m looking to get my PMP and CISSP certifications. Since I have an MBA, and the ITIL cert, having one or both of those will hopefully make my credentials stand out from the crowd – or at least get me past the initial screening that is just looking to toss those who don’t have the certs.

I know that the job of a hiring manager is daunting – I’ve done it long enough to know that a resume and/or a set of  letters behind a name doesn’t necessarily make that person a better candidate for a job, but in the absence of any other indicator, it at least shows that they can go after a goal and achieve it. The CISSP exam is 6 hours long – and you can’t just go to a boot camp and pass the exam – you’ve really got to know the material. Same goes for the PMP – it requires 35 hours of education before being allowed to sit for the exam…..so none of these happen overnight.

That being said, having the certifications is only one piece of the puzzle. You’ve got to have either direct or translatable experience in the target job field, and find some way to get to the top of the pile. That’s because only 10-15% of jobs come from posted listings. Most still come from personal contacts and introductions. So, even with all the qualifications, you’ve got to know someone who knows someone.  The good news is that you likely do – if you’re not on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Twitter, take advantage of social media to get your name out there. Respond to blog and group postings, or even start your own blog. Find ways to make your qualifications stand out from the crowd.

I’m still getting my certifications – one down and two (difficult ones) to go…..but you can bet that I’m going to be just as active working my network. In the end, it doesn’t matter which technique lands you the job – it only matters that you are successful.