Been A While

Well it's been a while since I posted anything around here. Things have really been nuts. I have gone through some really difficult personal issues that I will keep to myself.

On the work front things are slowly starting to progress. I have been working hard on trying to tighten things up and am making headway. Our company has recently brought on an Operations Manager that seems to be really behind me and is helping to push my ideas and agenda. He has really opened my eyes as to how I need to deal with upper management. I think things are looking up.

On a related issue, I just finished listening to Kevin Devin's Tech Chat on Time Management. It was very informative. It is extremely helpful to hear the thoughts, trials and experiences of people in the same position as I am. I really think that using something like David Allen's GTD will go a long way towards helping me deal with the Overload that I feel on a daily basis. I was very intrigued by the idea of a Mind Like water and freeing up all those CPU cycles by letting a system take care of the details. I think that will help free me of a lot of stress. I think I see a good 'Me' project.

Not much to say lately

I have not had all that much inspiration to post lately. Things on a personal level have been very difficult over the past 2 weeks so I am just coming out of that.

On the work front things have the potential to get very interesting this week. I wish I could say more about that, but I can't. I hope to have answers this week and will post here when I can elaborate more.

Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta

As I am sure that you are all aware by now, Microsoft released the Beta of its Anti-Spyware software today.

After a quick test I think the software is a good start. The drawbacks that I have found so far is that the Beta version does not scan Cookies. In addition (from what I have seen on the net) I do not think that in the final release that it will scan Cookies from any browser except IE. This is a little disturbing. I think Microsoft needs to just come to grips that there are other Browsers (namely FireFox) out there and that if they are going to create a software product like this it should include those other browsers.

In addition, I truly hope that Microsoft realizes the importance of this software and decides NOT TO charge for it. Instead it should be a FREE download, with FREE updates just like Media Player. Having said that, I do not have a problem with Microsoft creating an Enterprise version and charging to it.

Organizational Structure

It is extremely important within an organization to have a defined structure of management and control. A very good Organizational Chart is imperative. In addition to this, I think it is important to have a very clearly defined set up priorities for projects.

These issues seriously complicate my life and my job. One day I will be working on a set of projects with a set of priorities and the next minute someone walks in and changes that. This change is rarely communicated to others within the organization and that is when the problems really start. It is very important that EVERYONE in the organization knows what the priority projects are and that if those priorities change EVERYONE needs to know the consequences.

Without a full understanding of this, EVERYTHING and EVERYONE within the organization suffers.

I would love to know how some of you handle these types of problems. How do you define priorities? How do you communicate that to others outside of your department? How do you get others to understand the consequences of changing this list? These all seem like such simple concepts and ideas, but in reality they are very difficult. At least in my experience.

Great way to End/Start the Year

Well, I am finally back in the real world. I have been on vacation since the 23rd. It was originally meant as means to spend time with my family, but it turned into and escape from ALL things technology. I think I checked my email once but other then that and a few work phone calls, I swore off computers.

Man was that nice. It was a great cleansing and re-charge. I was actually excited to come to work today. I highly recommend a break once in a while. I was getting close to a total burn out. Now I feel ready to tackle anything.

I have a lot on my plate over the next few weeks. We are in the process of replacing ALL of our printers/copiers in EVERY office. This totals about 30 machines that will be moved out and new ones moved in. Should be great fun.

I have some other interesting things in the works, like possibly a new position, but I will save that for another time.

Vacation Interupted

Well, I have the week off (with the exception of Wednesday) so I expected a relaxing Monday. Heck my wife and son were going out early so I thought I might actually get to sleep past 6:00 AM. Well what happens first thing this morning, cell phone rings. A user can get their email. THis is the same user that left me a message ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!!. Don't these people realize It is a HOLIDAY and that I AM ON VACATION!!!!.

Had it been an emergency I would have no problem being contacted, however this was USER ERROR. Yes my friend, our favorite, USER ERROR. She had the CAPS LOCK on so her password was not being accepted.

Why is it that users can't try to solve a simple problem on their own before calling IT? I understand that the meaning of my life is to just sit around and wait for someone to have a problem so that I can fix it, but can't a guy have a holiday?

Perhaps this is just a symptom of a larger problem. The whole Immediate Gratification thing. Instead of trying to work through a problem, let's just call someone to fix it. It really ticks me off sometimes.

Thanks for reading my rant.

w.Bloggar Test

This is a test of the w.Bloggar Service. This is only a test.

X-Mas came early!!!

That's right folks, Santa stopped by a few days early today. I got a package at work from Buy.com. I had no idea what it was since I had not ordered anything from Buy.com. So I open the box and what do I see?

A Bright, Shiny, New, 20 Gig, iPod.

I could not believe my eyes. But I still did not know who it came from. There was nothing in the box at all. So I call Buy.com and see what they can tell me. After a little begging I find out that it was from .....

My Little Brother.

Holy Crap!!! How Cool!!! I immediately get him on the phone to find out why he was being so generous. His answer, Because he had a good year! Damn Cool. Thanks Bro.

Now I am off to fill it up with music and podcasts. I will be giving Doppler a try and will let you know what I think. I have heard cool things about it.

Another Tech Chat

I participated in another Tech Chat on Saturday Night with Kevin Devin and Chuck Tomasi.

The topic was Managing Projects vs. Managing Fires. It eventually turned into a session almost totally about helping ME with my company issues. Both Chuck and Kevin provided several great ideas, some I have tried and need to continue to work on, and some that I had not thought of.

I was pleased with the assistance but a little uneasy that it became so focused on me.

This support is why I love blogs and podcast so much. It is such a good peer group. More on that in another post.

Have a listen to the tech chat and let me know what you think.

Disappointed

So, I am a little disappointed with Blogger. I LOVE the fact that I can manipulate the template myself, but I can not stand that I do not have any built in statistics (at least that I can find). That was really a nice feature of Spaces.

I know that there are other systems out there that will offer both but I really do not want to pay for this yet. I am nre to the whole blogging things and want to make sure that it sticks before I do the paid route.

I am contemplating going back to Spaces but will hold off for now.

Any suggestions on tracking stats within this site?

I don't think he will get the contract!

Today I get a call from a remote office that their internet connection is down. Now this is a small office where we rent space from another company. We use their infrastructure (phones, T1, etc). First I called that company and they reported no problems, but I could not get any traffic thru the VPN to that location. So I hop in the car and drive over.

I get there and check the firewall, a quick reboot of it and everything is back to normal ---- for a moment. Then it starts again. I take a close look at the logs on the firewall and see that X.X.X.76 is spewing out so much traffic that is choking the little SOHO router. I set of to find that IP. I check my 5 machines in that office and it is none of them. It must be someone at this company, but how? My network was totally segmented from theirs on a separate switch and server. I start asking around and no one has any ideas. I tracked the culprit to a specific IP AND a specific network drop on the patch panel. Normally just removing their connection would be fine, but I wanted to get answers. I finally find someone who seems to know what they are talking about and we set off to find the machine. But suddenly the traffic is gone, it just stopped. At just that moment we are passing by the conference room to see a meeting breaking up and a gentleman putting his laptop away.

Well to make an already long story short, it was him. He was a vendor that was giving a demonstration of some VoIP systems. Somehow the network drop in that conference room had been plugged into my switch and therefore my system.

Once I told this person, boy was he embarrassed. I felt a bit bad. Had I know he was a vendor I may not have said anything infront of the rest of the company big wigs.

I am guessing he will not be getting the contract.

New IPs

I am working on setting up some remote monitoring or devices on my network. I decided to go with Nagios. It is an Open source tool and will be running on a SUSE box that I have at a remote hosting facility. The software will monitor servers, routers, the firewall and email. It will notify me, via email to my phone, if there are any problems.

Well as part of the process I needed to get a complete block of 128 IP's. I had no problem getting them from the ISP. The problem come in when you are planning the conversion. I am trying to take my time to go over everything, but I have this great fear that something is going to get missed. The routers need to be reworked, the domains need to be re-pointed, the firewall needs to be reconfigured. It is interesting and fun, but at the same time it is nerve racking. If I miss one little item (for instance forget a domain or forget to re-NAT a protocol, things could get ugly.

I have a pretty comprehensive list and think it will go smooth, but you know how IT can be.

MSN Desktop Search Tool

The beta of the MSN Desktop Search tool was released today. It includes a toolbar for IE as well as the desktop search tool.

The IE tooldbar is very much like Google's. It has pop-up blocker, a form system, etc.. It is all tied to the MSN beta search site as well.

The Desktop search is pretty sweet. Its Fast, really fast. It also has some really neat features. My favorite so far is the shortcuts. You can create shortcuts within the tool that will launch programs, websites, pretty much anything you have on your machine. Just enter @,. For example, @blog,http://itkaos.blogspot.com. Now when you type blog and hit enter in the tool, it will launch your web browser and go directly to this site.

The demo video on Channel 9 has some great examples of how the tool can be used to make you more productive.

I have not noticed any slow down on my machine while using it (with the exception of the first few minutes when it created the initial index).

I am going to keep using it and will post any more comments or issues I come across.

New Blog

Well, it has only been a week but this is now my second blog.

I decided to move over here from MSN Spaces because there is a lot more that I can do with this site. The Spaces site is nice, but seems to be geared towards beginners. There was also several things on that site that I would never use so I just decided to change.

I am sure that if this sticks, this will not be the last change.

Tech Chat Part II

Well I am listening to the tech chat from Saturday as I type. My first impression, 'Do I really sound like that?' I suppose that is the normal reaction to the first time you listening to yourself in a manner like this.

Beyond that I think that the Chat was really great. I got a lot out of it. After hearing form the others I think that they did as well.

I need to get a lot more information from these guys about how they are using the batch files that they have developed. Seems like a great way to get things done. I am sure that I can find some ways to use these outside of SMS.

I am also working on some other ideas for future tech chats (as well as blog posts) that I think could be very helpful to others and could be interesting to talk about.

These type of things, as well as blogs, I think will turn out to be very helpful to me. I can make Peer contacts, learn a lot, vent some of my issues, and hopefully teach others something.

Tech Chat

Tonight (at around 9:00 PM EST) I will be participating in a tech chat with Kevin Devin, Mike McBride, and Eric Maynard. We will be talking about prepping systems, standardized machines, supporting dis-similar machines, etc.

If you would like to listen, go to http://www.kevindevin.com sometime next week.

Let me know what you think.

Being the parent of a 4 year old.

Having children is wonderful, most of the time. Yesterday was one of those days that was very difficult.

I had to work late and missed dinner. My son had been a real pain ALL day (including at school). When I finally did get home my son was in the bath. My wife and I were chatting in his playroom and cleaning some things up. I walk into the bathroom to check on him and what do I find. EVERY surface if the enitre bathroom is soaked. The floor, the walls, the door, the mirror, EVERYTHING!

Now this is not the first time. We have had episodes when he has splashed around and gotten the floor wet, but this went WAY past that. This was entirely on purpose. Entirely to test my wife and I.

Now I know that he is just being 4, but this is crazy. He is at that point where he just refuses to listen to anything. I really hope it is just a phase. But perhaps it is the Only Child syndrome.

Just had to vent.

FINALLY!!! No More NT!!!!

After years of deailing with this piece of Crap, tomorrow I will finally be getting rid of the last NT server that is in my company. This one last server will be taken off line and replaced with a new machine running 2K3. Man that will be nice.

My environment will now be Win 2K and 2K3 servers and 1 Red Hat box.

I took over this position about 1 1/2 years ago and have been struggling with the network layout ever since. With this final move I will be able to resolve some of the final issues that are out there. It is very nice to have a system that is almost ALL me. Its like another child. I know every inch of this system and have even more great plans for it.

I will keep you informed as we go.

Consultants, What a PAIN!!!!!

I work for a good sized real estate firm as their IT Manager. As I fondly tell new agents, I am responsible for everything that plugs into the wall, computers, phones, printers, electric staplers, etc. I have one person that reports to me. So 2 people to take care of a total of 500 people (not 500 machines).

Well as such I tend to rely on a consulting company to do some research, help out in a pinch and assist in some larger projects. A month or so ago they came to me with a new service that they wree providing, a CTO analysis and report. I thought, Great, this will help me find issues I am overlooking, give me some suggestions on taking care of some issues and give ma little ammunition with the higher ups.

Well after several hours of meetings, tours and the like I finally got the report. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP. It was just 10 pages of restatement of all the issues I told them about. There was nothing new in there, no legitimate recommendations, nothing!

I talked to them about it and it is being re-written to include more detail and recommendations, but I should not have had to go thru that.

Moral of the story, get a very clear understanding, AHEAD OF TIME, of exactly what is expected from both parties when using a consultant. I am sure that there are a lot of people that aready know this, I thought it was worth restating.