Don's Blog: Musings, Rants, and How-To Guides on Things IT

How would you answer?

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:12:00 +0000

My older sister just called from her meeting with a group of other women from her church. They wanted an answer to what would seem to be a simple question: What is the cloud? Is it a physical thing? Bear in mind that my sister, by her own admission, doesn't really "get" computers. I answered that it is both a physical thing (servers, data centers, cables, routers, and so on) plus a virtual thing (applications and storage, for example). They wanted to know if it's something that floats in the air like a traditional cloud. I said no, not really. They wanted to know if things in the cloud are permanent. I said they can be. They wanted to know if those things could be destroyed. I said yes, but, thinking of Scott Thompson, I said "Don't count on it being destroyed." They wanted to know if the cloud itself could be destroyed. I said, "It's theoretically possible, but it (the Internet) was engineered back in the 60s to withstand nuclear war, so don't count on it."

How did I do? What would you say to a group of intelligent people who don't really understand computers and networks to answer questions like these?

How to Configure a DMZ on a Cisco ASA 5505

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:16:00 +0000

For anyone interested in Cisco ASA training, I've updated the procedures for configuring a DMZ on a Cisco ASA Security Appliance. The config file is here at www.soundtraining.net/dmzconfig and there's a new companion video on our video channel at www.soundtraining.net/videos. Here's the video:

There were some old configs in my book, The Accidental Administrator: Cisco ASA Security Appliance, so this simply updates them for current ASA software versions.

How to keep the training "evergreen"

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 05:22:00 +0000

One of the biggest challenges in training is moving the new ideas and concepts from sensory memory into short-term memory and, ultimately, into long-term memory. This process is also known as keeping it "evergreen".

It's not easy, but it can be done with effective followup techniques. Here are some ideas you can implement to get the most value from your training dollars and reinforce the ideas I've shared with your staff. Even if I haven't been fortunate enough to work directly with your staff, you can still make use of these tools to help develop yourself and your I.T. staff.

Review Key Points: Review at regular staff meetings. Hearing these ideas repeated by the boss reinforces your commitment to the process.
Show a Video: I have several videos available on my YouTube channel and you're welcome to show these videos at staff meetings. Most of them are fairly short, they're all "to-the-point" and can help reinforce concepts from previous training sessions. Here is my latest video on YouTube, an excerpt from a presentation I gave at the 2012 Cascadia IT Conference in Seattle titled "Why Customer Service is Important to IT" (More are coming, so stay tuned!)
Post a List: Post a bulleted list of objectives in break rooms and on employee bulletin boards. I've even seen some companies post such lists in restrooms. I'm working on preparing such a list in a poster form. I'll let you know as soon as it's ready.
Give a Test: I recently prepared a brief exam based on my book The Compassionate Geek: Mastering Customer Service for IT Professionals. I'll be glad to send you a copy, along with the answer key. Just drop me an email.

The point is to not allow the training to be a one-time event. Repetition helps move the information into long-term memory. Find ways to keep the key points in front of your staff and you'll help them remember it and implement it. Call or email if I can be of service.

Making the case for authenticity

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:22:00 +0000

In my customer service workshops and speeches, I often talk about the importance of being authentic, of being real. Here's a real-life story about Nick Sarillo, a Chicago-area pizza restauranteur saved his business with a very humble and equally authentic email to his customers. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120315/BLOGS06/120319853/suburban-chicago-restaurateurs-unusual-plea-to-customers-pays-dividends Even if you're not particularly interested in business, it's a short read with a simple message about being authentic in our dealings with our fellow humans. It's refreshing, especially considering that his bank and his PR team discouraged him from doing what, in his gut, he knew was the right thing to do.

Always be authentic.

Just signed publishing deals for two books!

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:53:00 +0000

I'm very excited right now. I have just signed two publishing deals with Fair Trade Digital Exchange, a new publisher of technical books created by three veterans of the technical publishing business. The two books are The Accidental Administrator: Fundamentals of Computer Networking and an update of The Compassionate Geek: Mastering Customer Service for I.T. Professionals. Both books should be out within the next four months. More details as they become available.

Customer Service: Choosing the Right Tool for the Job

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:28:00 +0000

My wife and I recently had a glass of wine with a woman who is a sys admin for a small company here in Seattle. I asked her what systems she supported and her reply was refreshing. She said, "Whatever my users need to do their jobs. For some, it's a Mac, for others it's Windows." Contrast that with my friend Jim who told me last night how his company's I.T. department dictates what tools will be used without understanding the business needs of the individual worker. I realize, of course, that in the enterprise, it can be difficult to support multiple platforms and practical considerations sometimes dictate a single platform for all (or most) users. After all, that's why both Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines standardize on the Boeing 737. Makes it easier to train cockpit crew and mechanics and you only need to stock parts for a single platform. Still, if our jobs in I.T. are about helping our users work more creatively, productively, and efficiently, doesn't it make sense to choose the right tool for the job instead of applying a universal solution to everyone?
Shouldn't we spend some time each week listening to our users to learn more about how they work and what their needs are? That way, we can craft technological solutions that will help them work more creatively, productively, and efficiently. If you're already doing this, please send me an email telling me your story. It just might end up in the next edition of The Compassionate Geek!

Cisco ASA: New video on configuring remote management options

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:45:00 +0000

Just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel on How to Configure Telnet, SSH, and ASDM Connections for Remote Management on the Cisco ASA. It's based on chapter four in my book The Accidental Administrator: Cisco ASA Security Appliance. Hope it's helpful.

4 Ways to Prevent Domain Name Hijacking

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Excellent article on the prevention of domain hijacking. The four tips are practical and, frankly, a lot of common sense. Of course, to quote George Harris, "If common sense was so common, no one would smoke." http://www.cio.com/article/699206/4_Ways_to_Prevent_Domain_Name_Hijacking_?page=1&taxonomyId=3089

New HUD (Head Up Display) is coming for Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:57:00 +0000

Yesterday, Mark Shuttleworth, the self-annointed Ubuntu benevolent dictator for life, unveiled a new user interface for Ubuntu called HUD, or Head Up Display. Whether it will be accepted or not is speculation, of course. It is innovative, especially in its integration of search within the CLI. Check out the video.

The two things that struck me most from watching the video were the CLI search capability and the search capability within applications. The search within applications seems similar to what we have now with Google desktop and Microsoft's desktop search, still it looks like it might be a little easier to use. Can't wait to check it out in April.

Video: The 4 Traits of the Customer Service Masters

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:49:00 +0000

Just posted a new video on the four traits of the customer service masters. Hope you like it!

Top 100 Android Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:46:00 +0000

Internet.com has just published a list of the top 100 Android apps. Lots of good suggestions, but not much that I don't already have. Here's PCMag's list of top Android apps. The ones I have on my home pages are Facebook, Defender, Drag Racing, Shoot Bubbles, Amazon Kindle, Solitaire Free Pack, Words with Friends, YouTube, Camera, Mobile Metronome, Hi-Q MP3 Recorder, Stopwatch, Google Goggles, Skype, Gallery, Documents to Go, Market, Amazon, Groupon, Calculator, Gmail, Calendar, Voicemail, SplashID, Clock, Speed Test, Dropbox, Google Maps, TripIt, and Navigation. I also have several links to websites I use regularly. No, I don't play Angry Birds! :)

Gratitude

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:21:00 +0000

This time of year, in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. As always, I'm thankful for the myriad opportunities that have been afforded me during my crazy life filled with diversity. I'm thankful for the opportunity to write, speak, and play music with strangers and friends around the world. I'm finally beginning to realize that I've led a charmed life and I give thanks for that. My friend Kevin and I put together a little video on gratitude which seems especially appropriate on this Thanksgiving Day 2011. Hope you like it!

Memory usage in Firefox vs. Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:46:00 +0000

Several months ago, I started using Chrome as my primary browser instead of Firefox. Firefox had been experiencing problems related to increasingly high memory usage the longer it was open. It had gotten so bad that my laptop with 4GB of RAM would become unusable until Firefox was shut down. I did some superficial research and discovered that lots of other people were having the same problems with Firefox, but not with Chrome. Since the main browser extensions I use (Blank Canvas and Firebug) are available for both Chrome and Firefox, I decided to switch. (Yes, I know that Firebug for Chrome is a "lite" version, but it's sufficient for my needs.) I kept Firefox on my computer for all the same reasons that you probably have multiple browsers on your computer. I recently was working on a website that worked better in Firefox than Chrome. I left both browsers open and running overnight. When I got to my office this morning, I decided to check memory usage and here's what I found: With four tabs open, Firefox was running a single process using a total of 137MB of memory. Check out the screen capture of Task Manager for Chrome with 10 tabs open:

I added up total memory usage for Chrome and it comes to approximately 765810KB over 21 processes. I realize, of course, that the screen cap of Task Manager represents a snapshot of memory usage at a particular point in time, but 21 processes for Chrome compared to one for Firefox? 137MB of memory usage for Firefox vs 765 for Chrome? Wow! By the way, the versions are 14.0.835.202 for Chrome and 7.0.1 for Firefox. Hmmm, it must require a lot of system resources for Chrome to keep phoning home to Google with all that data mining data. :) Looks like it's time to switch back to Firefox. Oh Firefox, do you still love me?

Handling tech-support calls--a structure combined with common sense

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:37:00 +0000

In my customer service classes for I.T. pros, we talk about following a five-step flow for handing user calls. It works like this:

Greeting: This is where you answer the phone professionally and succinctly. A good example might be, "Technical support. This is Don. May I help you?" A couple of bad examples could inlcude something terse, such as "Support." or "Help Desk." At the opposite end of the spectrum are those obnoxious, scripted greetings like, "Thank you for calling XYZ technical support. My goal is 100 percent customer satisfaction. This is Bill, MCTS, CCNA, A+, CSNY, CRIP. How may I provide you with outstanding service today?" Oh, please! Lose the cheesy script and get real! Be authentic! Answering the phone like that is disrespectful of your user's time and, frankly, it's disrespectful to yourself to have to wade through such crap. (If your company forces you to read some ridiculous script like this, make a copy of this blog post and pin it to the bulletin board where management might see it.)
Attentive listening: More accurately called "empathic listening", this is where you listen carefully to what the user is saying. Listen as though there will be a quiz at the end of the conversation. Don't plan your response or solution until the user is finished describing the problem.
Gaining agreement: In this phase, you repeat back to the user your understanding of the problem so the user can confirm that you understand it correctly.
Apologize, empathize, reassure: Apologize, if necessary, but don't do this frivolously and don't overdo it. Be authentic. If the problem is something caused by you or your department or a system for which you're responsible, an apology is in order. Otherwise, don't apologize. It comes off as shallow and insincere. You can certainly say you're sorry that the problem occured as a sign of empathy and/or sympathy. That makes sense and, in fact, is a great way of diffusing emotionally-charged situations with an upset user. You can use phrases such as, "I don't blame you for being upset. I'm sure I'd feel the same way if I were in your shoes." Do NOT say you understand how the user feels if you've never been in that situation and can't understand. (That's like a man telling a pregnant woman he understands how she feels. He doesn't and it's insulting to her intelligence to say something like that.) Remember, it's important to be authentic and sincere. Finally, reassure the user that you're going to take care of them and follow through to completion. You can say things like, "Based on what you've told me, I know how to take care of that." or "I've seen that problem before and was able to fix it quickly." I'll never forget a woman named Dixie at Sprint, who said, "Mr. Crawley, I'm gonna fix you up!"
Problem solve: The final phase of the flow is where you actually fix the user's issue.

It's important to note that phases one through four may go by pretty quickly or they may take some time, depending on the user and the nature of the call. As always, remember that everyone is unique with unique ways of dealing with the challenges that come up. Some people just want to get right to the problem, others want to talk for a moment. The non-technical aspect of our jobs as support providers is to develop a sensitivity to each user's unique set of needs and expectations.

This flow is based on one described in my book, The Compassionate Geek. I would also consider adding a sixth phase to the flow and that's the confirmation of solution phase. In this phase, we make certain that we have solved the user's problem by simply asking, "Have I solved your problem?" This ensures that we really have taken care of the reason for their call and eliminates any chance that we missed something.

An additional consideration is that, although the above flow is certainly valid, it's much too rigid for every case. That's why it's important to use good judgement in all situations. For example, the flow makes sense for a support session via telephone, but not for most support sessions via email. As with all interactions with end-users, remember to listen carefully and treat them with respect and dignity. When you do that, combined with a sense of empathy and compassion, you'll rarely go wrong.

Website improvements

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:29:00 +0000

I recently took over management of my website from a company that had been managing it for seven years. Recently, they had become very slow to respond to service requests and sloppy in their coding, so I made the decision to manage the site myself and either do development myself or contract it out when it was beyond my skillset. Following the change in management, here are a couple updates to the site that I hope you'll like:

We've changed the way passwords are reset. In the past, if you forgot your password, you could simply ask the site to email it to you. Obviously, that's terribly insecure on so many levels, so we've now implemented a new system in which the site, upon request, will generate a new random password for you and email it to you. You can then use it to log on to the site and change your password to whatever you want.
The second change is really just an improvement on something we've had for a long time. When you take one of our classes, you receive a certificate of completion at the end of the class. You can also download a certificate from the site by going to your user profile, choosing "My Classes", and printing a certificate. In the past, the site produced your certificate using Flash Paper and the formatting looked like crap. We've just updated it to produce your certificate as a PDF and the formatting looks much better (if I do say so myself).

We'll be making more changes to make the site more functional and secure, so stay tuned.
By the way, one of the big lessons I've learned from this experience is to never let the development company also host the site. The former development company had installed a number of proprietary, shared scripts that were stored above my site root and which were not accessible to me. It was just through sheer luck and perseverance that I was able to gain access to those scripts and move my site to my own server. I won't make that mistake again!

Spammy LinkedIn connection requests

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:46:00 +0000

I'm about to cancel my LinkedIn account because of the large number of spammy LinkedIn connection requests I've been receiving over the past week. I've been getting four or five a day from people I don't know, claiming to be C-level execs at companies I've never heard of. Grrr. The problem is exacerbated by the LinkedIn interface which makes you click several times before you can report such requests as spam. Judging from Richi Jennings blog at Computerworld, I'm not alone. LinkedIn: Wake up and take care of this before you lose you membership!

I can't believe I sat and watched this entire video, a la Rube Goldberg

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:29:00 +0000

Many of my students and friends have heard me talk about Rube Goldberg, the 20th century, Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist who drew complicated machines to perform simple tasks. I just watched this video by the band OK Go of such a device. It's "This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine Version" from their new album, "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky". (Actually, I'm not at all surprised I watched the entire video!)

Sometimes, I think we apply Rube Goldberg designs to our networks. The resulting complexity makes them maintenance and security nightmares.

I love teaching Linux and Cisco classes

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:08:00 +0000

I just finished teaching my Linux server class today here in Seattle. We had a small group, so I was able to customize the class on the fly to meet the students particular areas of interest. One of the things that I love about teaching is watching students go from frustration to a sense of accomplishment when the "light bulb comes on". For example, I've written a student hands-on exercise on NFS that not only teaches how to configure NFS, but also gives the students real world, hands-on experience in finding and understanding built-in scripts such as the service scripts on RedHat systems. (My class is based on CentOS, a RedHat-based distro.) It's fun to see students get excited about learning new things. That happened several times today and every time it happens, it's a real joy for me to watch. It also gives me more ideas of videos to create for our YouTube channel, so, like they say on TV, stay tuned. (I don't mean to gush...I'm just pretty excited about today's class. Can you tell?)

Moving my ColdFusion site to a new server

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:20:00 +0000

I've been swamped for the past few weeks moving soundtraining.net, which is a ColdFusion site, to a new server. I'd been with my previous provider for seven years. Over the last couple of years they started having problems delivering things as promised, so I decided to make a switch. I spent a lot of time looking around for the perfect provider. Among the criteria: Linux server (I'm not down on Windows, I just know Linux much better than Windows.), good support since I don't know CFML very well, full root access including both SSH and the ColdFusion administrator. I tried several, but ultimately settled on Vivio Technologies, thanks to a recommendation by Ryan Stiles at the Nebraska ColdFusion Users Group. Also, because I'm a small business person and expenses are an issue, I chose Railo instead of ColdFusion. So far, I've been very happy with all of my decisions. Railo has performed flawlessly (and it seems fast), Vivio was a great choice for hosting the site. Their VPSs are easy to set up and use and their support up to this point has been amazing. So far so good. Now, my CFML journey has begun.

Scavenging energy from the air with antennas printed by ink jet printers

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:59:00 +0000

I think one of the coolest aspects of technology is miniaturization. Great examples include modern portable music players of today such as iPods compared to portable record players of 50 years ago or modern smart phones compared to the original, bulky bag phones of 30 years ago. Now, researcher Manos Tentzeris at the Georgia Institute of Technology has created antennas printed by ink jet printers capable of harvesting ambient energy from the environment such as that produced by broadcast stations or wireless access points. Here's an interview with Tenzeris conducted for Smart Planet by Christina Hernandez.

New video: Cisco ASA site-to-site VPN configuration

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:41:00 +0000

I just uploaded a new video in which I demonstrate how to configure a site-to-site VPN between two Cisco ASA security appliances. The demo is based on software version 8.3(1) and uses IPSec, ISAKMP, tunnel-groups, Diffie-Hellman groups, and an access-list. The demo is based on my book "The Accidental Administrator: Cisco ASA Security Appliance (Step-by-Step Configuration Guide) and includes a link where you can download a free copy of the configs and the network diagram.

Let me know what you think.

26 terabits per second? Now, that's broadband!

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:22:00 +0000

German engineers, using a single laser beam and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), hit a data rate of 26 terabits per second over a distance of 50 km. One source commented that that's 700 DVDs per second. I haven't done the math, but regardless, that's fast. (Hmmm, let me go check my Comcast upload speed. I wonder how close it is.) Here's the article.

Check out my interview at ZDNet!

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:38:00 +0000

Thanks to blogger John Hazard for a great interview last week which is now available online. We talked about my new book The Compassionate Geek (co-written with Paul Senness) and the overall importance of people skills for technical people.

Ubuntu and the family con't

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:01:00 +0000

I'm not sure what came over me. I'm insanely busy right now, but I decided to go ahead and upgrade the family computer to Ubuntu 11.04. I think my curiosity about the Unity desktop got the best of me.

Anyway, I started the upgrade last night before going to bed. When I got up this morning, the computer was waiting for me to click through several prompts. After about another 30 minutes or so, it was done. After a reboot, I was rockin' with Ubuntu 11.04. I tried to enable rotating cubes and wobbly windows with Compiz and suddenly I lost the Unity bar and panel. Grrr. A quick Google search turned up this forum post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10734118#post10734118. Look for the post by mc4man for the solution.

How to beat a phishing attack

noreply@blogger.com (Don R. Crawley) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:03:00 +0000

Well, there really isn't any way to ensure your organization is completely protected against phishing attacks. As long as people are involved in the process, there will be times when people fail to be vigilant and one of the bad guys reels someone in. You and I are probably more aware of what to watch for in phishing attacks, yet I've certainly come frighteningly close to clicking on a questionable link.

I've been a fan of Michael Kassner for quite a while. He recently interviewed Roger Johnson, head of the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory. They talked about the recent phishing attack at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Hey, if a phishing attack can be successful there, it can happen to your organization. Check out the interview.