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We hold these truths…

Tsudohnimh — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:40:46 +0000

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government," The Declaration of Independence, July 4th 1776

These words are the birthright of the United States of America. Although they were declared 233 years ago they ring truer than ever. What better time to consider these words than Independence Day.

We hold these truths… Truth is unchangeable and undeniable. It can be repressed, outlawed, banned, and forced into hiding but it can never be extinguished.

Self evident… Truth stands alone, it needs no corroboration. Truth is self revealing.

Created Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator… The source of all truth is almighty God. It is only when we recognize that we are all God’s treasured creation that we truly grasp the value of every individual and their right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Life… Every person is a divine creation. From the moment of conception an individual deserves the right to exist as God created them

Liberty… Freedom to live one’s life as they see fit while not infringing on another’s liberty.

Pursuit of Happiness… The right to dream and the right to pursue that dream.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed… Government exists only to preserve these rights and its power is always subject to the people’s permission and consent.

whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,… When Government becomes an oppressive or intrusive institution it is the right and even the duty of the people to rise up and take the necessary steps to throw off the shackles of unjust or infringing rule.

So as you celebrate Independence Day take a moment and read the very words that we so often take for granted. May God grant mercy and guidance to our government and to ourselves.

I’ll close with the words of the last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

KnowtheNetwork.com is your resource to learn about emerging technologies, social media, productivity tech tips, software reviews, and tons of links to free guides and free software. We want to make your life better through stable secure technology. I'm all about building community so please interact with me on Twitter and Friendfeed.

FriendFeed Groups – the Fast Track to Content & Community

Tsudohnimh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Want to hear a secret? How would you like a major shortcut to finding information that you are interested in as well as connecting with others that might like to subscribe to within Friendfeed?

Welcome to Friendfeed Groups.

Groups in their simplest form are a feed generated by contributions from multiple users. “Think of it as a mini FriendFeed for a particular subject or group of people. Everyone in the group can share stuff with each other and leave comments that others in the group can see.” (see FriendFeed’s Help Page on Groups).

Groups are commonly formed around a particular topic or common interest so they are a great place for you to begin discovering within FriendFeed. To get started visit the Find Groups page and you’ll find a list of popular groups as well as a search box. Try searching for whatever interests you. Here are a few groups you might consider

All Things Google – Google news, apps, features, and Easter eggs. Everything related to Google (the company and its products)
Apps – Share news, reviews, questions & updates about your favorite desktop, phone & web apps.
The Bloggers Discussions – all about blogging
Funny Pics and Videos
iPhone – Got an iPhone? Join, discuss, and share the latest tips, tricks, and news.
Twitter – Great room to discover apps, discuss features, and catch related news

You can also create your own groups (these used to be called rooms so you will hear both terms, they mean the same thing). Click the “Create a Group” link in the top right hand corner of the FriendFeed Groups page. Groups can be Private (only the people you invite can view and post), Standard (you post, anyone can comment), or Public (anyone can post or comment). Give your group a name, choose the type, and presto you are now a group admin.

Groups are really flexible so beyond topical rooms here are a couple of ideas to get you thinking:

Created a Branded Group – Create a group for your website or organization. Then import your RSS feed, Twitter feed, and then share items manually as well. It’s a great way to communicate to a target community
Created a Vanity/Brand Monitoring Group – Create a group that helps you monitor your brand or name across the internet. Import a Twitter Search RSS feed, setup a Backtype account with an alert and import the alert RSS, setup a Google Alert and import the RSS feed. Voila now you have a single container to monitor mentions across the internet.
Create a Room for Live Blogging – Are you covering a live event or conference? Rooms work better than multiple blog posts or even Twitter. Create a Group for the Event and then you can embed the Group directly to your blog. This is probably the best live blogging solution I’ve seen and it allows people to interact real time.
Create a room to accompany your broadcast, podcast, or LiveStream – Create a room so viewers/listeners can ask questions and leave comments. Great for real time interaction as well as comments and info when you are off-air. (Credit Leo Laporte with popularizing this method. Go to live.twit.tv and you’ll find a link to his TWiT Conversations Room)
Create a “I’m Going to Blog this later” Room – If you are a blogger this is a MUST. Create a private room and when you find something that you are going to write about simply share it to your private room. It works better than bookmarks because you can add images and personal notes as comments. If you collaborate with others this is even more essential because it allows you to discuss upcoming posts and submit ideas and editing remarks.

Finally, Groups are a great way to find people. When you find a room start subscribing to people who shared interesting content and if you want to find more just click the “# subscribers” link in the top right hand corner.

Groups really take FriendFeed to the next level so get involved by joining and creating your own Groups.

Managing the Friendfeed Stream

Tsudohnimh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

In my attempt to introduce Friendfeed and provide some tips for becoming a power user this tip may be the most crucial to maximizing and enjoying your Friendfeed Stream.

Group your friends into Lists

Friendfeed improves drastically as your community grows but you’ll soon find having over 400 people in your Home feed just isn’t manageable. The content and conversations stream so quickly that they become overwhelming and your signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is decreasing.

One of the best methods for maintaining the value and SNR of Friendfeed is to liberally use Friendfeed Lists. Lists let you organize the people you subscribe to into manageable streams. There are probably as many methods for creating lists as there are users but to demonstrate their worth I’ll share how I use lists to manage my feed.

Front Page (High Signal) – These users share content that I consistently find to be valuable and interesting. This list also includes my very close friends. Our relationship adds value to their content. Examples include: Louis Gray, Steven Hodson, Ken Stewart, Hutch Carpenter
Alpha (High Signal, High Traffic) – These are people whom I consider their content valuable but due to the large amount of traffic or activity they generate I must segment them into a single list so they don’t drown the rest of my community Examples include: Robert Scoble, Duncan Riley, Leo Laporte
Bravo (Mid Signal) – These users are also people I find interesting but their content doesn’t always interest me. Often includes very popular community members but their stream is more personality than content. Great place to find fun conversations
Local – These are local social media users. This room helps me to build relationships with people in my local social media/blogging scene. Their geographic location and real world connection adds interest to their content.
Home (default)– Everyone else. I like having a somewhat full Home Room (sounds like 5th grade) because it stays active and I can always expect something different.

You can create lists to match any goal imaginable. To create or edit lists click the “Browse/edit friends” link in the sidebar to edit multiple users or you can hover over any username and click edit.

In short, Lists are great, use them. For another great take on using lists check out “Did You Make the List? How I Use Lists to Organize My Life-Stream” by Ken Stewart of Changeforge.com

Presenting Friendfeed (Video)

Tsudohnimh — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:31:35 +0000

As promised here is the video from my talk last night. You can follow along by viewing the slidedeck here.

Presenting Friendfeed from Rob McBryde on Vimeo.

I would like to say a big Thank you to my friend Rob Mcbryde. We had some technical difficulties with projects and such and Rob came through in a pinch. Thanks to him I can share my talk with you. If you want to say Thanks please subscribe to Rob Mcbryde on Friendfeed and @ROBMcbryde on Twitter.

Enjoy!

Presenting Friendfeed – The Why and How of the world’s most powerful social network.

Tsudohnimh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:01:06 +0000

It’s no secret that I love Friendfeed so naturally I’ve become a bit of a Friendfeed evangelist. Friendfeed is powerful tool but its value is not always readily apparent to new users and the stream of information can be a bit overwhelming to someone uninformed about how to manage Friendfeed. Therefore, I’ve always wanted to create a resource that showcases the features and tools that make Friendfeed such a compelling network.

The catalyst to finally creating this guide to Friendfeed was a gracious opportunity to give a presentation about Friendfeed to a local peer group of web professionals. I could not be more grateful to Refresh Central Arkansas for extending an invitation to speak to some people much brighter than I about a service that I really enjoy. So allow me to welcome you to the centerpiece presentation.

Friendfeed.com – community, content, & conversation

Instead of trying to summarize or reproduce all the information that I’ve collected from other Friendfeed fans I decided the best way was to simply link to these articles. This is the most complete collection of tutorials, guides, videos, and conversations that I’ve ever assembled concerning how and why you should be using Friendfeed, and what better way than to embed them via this Friendfeed post.

I’m just getting started so please stay tuned for more in depth posts on Friendfeed Lists, Friendfeed Groups, and using Friendfeed in unexpected ways.

Thanks for reading.

Friendfeed – Google Juice and Stream Management

Tsudohnimh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:30:00 +0000

In my Friendfeed presentation I used 2 demonstration videos and I thought I would post them here to make them easier to find.

The first is how using Friendfeed increases your visibility within Google search results

Increase your Google Juice with Friendfeed from tsudohnimh on Vimeo.

The second is how to use the “hide” function to manage your Friendfeed stream

Using Hide to improve your Friendfeed Stream from tsudohnimh on Vimeo.

I joined Friendfeed, now what? -UPDATED

Tsudohnimh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:00:00 +0000

(This week you’ll see several articles concerning Friendfeed.com. I’m giving a presentation about Friendfeed this Tuesday (around 6:05P CST, watch Twitter for live broadcast links). In addition to the actual presentation I hope to use these posts to provide a comprehensive look at the usage and benefits of this excellent social network.)

You took the plunge and signed up for a Friendfeed account. Welcome. But now you’re thinking, um ok… now what?

Here is a quick start guide to Friendfeed to ease your immigration into this new world.

Find Yourself

It is vital to take a few moments to fill out your profile and import your services into Friendfeed. This not only initializes your personal stream but by adding a picture and a short description or bio you will greatly increase the likelihood that people will follow you back. Just click the “settings” link under you username on the homepage (top right-hand side bar). After you add a picture and short bio go ahead an import your content. (Blog, Twitter, Facebook, whatever, Friendfeed supports 58 services and custom RSS so import however much you want to share). Once your user profile is filled out and your content is imported it’s time to build your Friendfeed community.

Find your Friends

Since social networks only work when you connect with other people the next order of business is to begin building your friend list. Friendfeed provides a simple process for finding your existing friends from Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail. The Find your friends page should be your first stop. Follow the simple instructions to import friends from any or all the services.

**PowerUser Tip: Import your friends into a couple of separate lists, (Twitter, Facebook, List1, etc…). This is especially critical if you have a large number of contacts. Most likely you’ll sort these friends into logical lists later but if you import all your friends into the default Home feed it will quickly get crowded. (We will cover lists in depth in a later post, just take my word for now.)

The Find your Friends page also suggests some popular users that you may want to follow and the recommendations are actually quite good fair. However, it’s wise to sort some of these users into a separate list so their content doesn’t overwhelm your stream.

Another great place to find people comes courtesy of a fine chap named Louis Gray. He has a monthly feature called “10 People to Follow on Friendfeed” where he recommends different people you should consider following. He gives a short bio of the Friendfeeder, a few of their interests, and a link to their Friendfeed profile. His recommendations are top notch and I look for this post every month. Check out his past recommendations here

Find some Groups

Friendfeed Groups (used to be called Rooms so you’ll find these terms used interchangeably) are a great way to find people and topics of interest to you. Start by visiting the Find public groups page where you can search for topics and see some of the popular groups. You’ll find groups centered around everything from parenting to Wordpress. Just click the group name to see the public page.

Here are a couple of tips for evaluating a group:

Check out the number of subscribers in the top right hand corner. This will give you an idea of the popularity of the group.
Mouse over the icons underneath the group description and see what sites or types of content are automatically posted to the group.
Scroll through the group page and look for signs of life. Look for the date/timestamp of posted content as well as user participation. You want to ensure the group is still active and that it isn’t a dumping ground for someone’s personal agenda.

To subscribe to the group just click the blue link that says “Subscribe to Groupname”. Friendfeed will then give you an additional option to import the group content into your feed. Again, its a good idea to consider segmenting this group into a list other than your Homefeed, you can create a list specifically for this group or you can create a list that you can use for all your groups. (Yes I know I sound like a broken record on using lists for management of your stream but it’s an invaluable tool to managing Friendfeed)

You can also use groups to discover some more people, just click the subscribers link to see other members of the group. This is an easy way to find people with similar interests.

Interact

This should be obvious but Friendfeed doesn’t reward lurking it is all about participation. Jump in and -

Start commenting and liking different posts
Keep track of your conversations via the “My Discussions” link in the sidebar
Subscribe to people that leave insightful or witty comments

Soon you’ll be making friends and enjoying the most interesting and vibrant community on the internet. I hope this helps ease your entry into Friendfeed and don’t forget to follow me, friendfeed.com/tsudohnimh. Thanks for reading.

**UPDATE**

This page sparked a lively discussion on the Friendfeed suggested friends list. Many of the comments highlight the fact that some of these Friendfeed users are popular only due to their Twitter followers and they don’t really add value to Friendfeed. I agree so I wanted to update the post to include a Louis Gray suggestion to check out FFholic’s list of most active users.

Twitter Links you might have missed

Tsudohnimh — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:55:50 +0000

I’m catching up on the backlog of interesting items that I intended to share so here is a quick collection of the better Twitter content I’ve found over the past month.

Twitter and Business

10 Twitter Practices for Brands by Mashable – Seldom do I find such lists to be useful but this is a notable exception. This is an excellent set of recommendations for organizations looking to use Twitter. Follow their advice.

The 10 ways Twitter will permanently change American Business by 247wallst – Great ideas for enhancing business via Twitter

Twitter Guides

How to use Twitter and not be a Douchebag by Adam Darowski – File this under posts I wish I’d written myself. His recommendations should be taken as the 10 Commandments of Twitter.

An Executive Guide to Social Media by Business Week – Twitter usage theory and practice using real world examples and some of the better thinkers concerning Social Media.

The Journalist’s Guide to Twitter by Mashable – Really unique tips for Journalists

Twitter Tools

30 Twitter Tools for Managing Followers by PelFusion – This is the most comprehensive list I’ve seen yet. The standouts from his recommendations are Refollow.com and DoesFollow.com

The truth is that it’s impossible to blog everything that I find interesting so if you want more try subscribing to my Friendfeed and for the lighter side of the internet check out my bulletin blog Flash Traffic. Thanks for reading.

7 things you should do to every switch

Tsudohnimh — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:56:16 +0000

So often I see organizations purchase a new switch and throw it into production without any configuration. This is poor management and terribly insecure. Therefore I’m going to offer my quick guide to 7 things you should do to every switch.

This is by no means a complete guide to security or best practices this is the bare minimum. The commands will vary depending on your switch model (these commands are specific to HP Procurve switches) so download the manual for your switch and it will walk you through the correct commands. This guide is also for business class switches, not for the unmanaged kind off the shelf at the local box store. Do yourself a favor and get a real switch.

Finally this guide is for command line only (CLI = command line interface), web management takes too long and often doesn’t provide all the commands needed. CLI is easy so don’t be afraid. Connect to the switch with the serial cable that came with the switch (if a serial cable isn’t provided you didn’t get a business class switch). Download and run Teraterm, select serial and the correct COM port. (If you don’t know the COM port just try them all and hit enter a couple of times until some text comes up in the windows. The prompt should look like switchtype#). One final note all commands begin with “config t” which starts the configuration context and end with “wr mem”” which saves the config.

On to the list.

Change the Hostname

Giving your switches good hostnames makes them easier to identify and document.

The Commands:

config t
hostname switchID_model_location *
wr mem

Command Notes:
* Use whatever hostname you like but if you have multiple switches use the same naming scheme on all switches and remember that networks change so don’t name this switch “Sw3_marketing” because it might be the sales dept next year. Narrow naming schemes lead to out dated documentation. I use a format like Sw1_5412zl_1FL

Enable HTTPS web management

HTTP sends all information in cleartext and you don’t want everyone to see your config and login information. Enabling HTTPS is a easy step to securing your installation.

The Commands:

crypto key generate cert 1024
*
web-management ssl 443 **
no web-management plaintext
wr mem

Command Notes:
* The switch will ask for some organization information and for the certificate validity end date. Choose an end date well into the future. I normally add 10 years.
** Port 443 is the default for HTTPS if you want to change this you will have to enter https://x.x.x.x:port# in your address bar to access the web management interace.

Enable SSH for CLI management

Telnet is transmitted in plaintext and you are sending your usernames and passwords across the wire without any security. Most telnet clients (Teraterm and puTTY are my preferred clients) all support SSH.

The Commands:

crypto key generate cert 1024
crypto host-cert generate self-signed
*
no ip plaintext **
wr mem

Command Notes:
*The switch will ask for some organization information and for the certificate validity end date. Choose an end date well into the future. I normally add 10 years.
**This command disables telnet so if you are telnetting across the network your session will end. Use the console or enable SSH and then close telnet, open SSH to the switch and complete the last two commands.

Set Username and Passwords

Everyone knows what the default username and passwords are so you MUST change them to have any chance at security. It’s fine to make all the switches use the same credentials, standardization is your friend.

The Commands:
password operator user-name (read username)
*
password manager user-name (admin username)
*
wr mem

Command Notes:
* at this point the switch will ask you to enter the password twice, type carefully and DOCUMENT!

Set a static IP

Most switches have DHCP enabled by default and few will require an IP to function but if you want to manage and monitor your switches it’s best to assign static IP addresses.

The Commands:

config t
vlan 1 *
ip address x.x.x.x y.y.y.y **
wr mem

Command Notes:
* This is the default VLAN on most switches. If you are using multiple VLANs or management VLANs then I hope you already understand IP addressing and routing.
* x.x.x.x is the IP y.y.y.y is the subnet usually the long form 255.255.255.0 or CIDR notation /24 is accepted

Save a copy of the config

This will be a great addition to your network documentation and can’t alleviate troubleshooting time in the future.

The Commands:

wr mem
copy running-config tftp x.x.x.x filename.txt * **

Command Notes:
* x.x.x.x is the IP address of the TFTP server
** It’s a good idea to name the filename the same are you hostname (e.g. Sw1_5412zl_1FL_config1.txt)

Upgrade Firmware

The latest firmware is essential to stability and performance. Download Solarwinds TFTP server and the latest version of firmware. Make sure to read the notes to ensure you don’t have to do an intermediate upgrade. For example if you switch is running version 7 and the latest in version 11 you might have to load version 8 before upgrading to 11. READ! Once you have the firmware and copy the .swi file into your tftp root directory (C:\TFTP-Root by default)

The Commands:

copy tftp flash x.x.x.x filename.swi secondary *
sh flash **
boot system flash secondary ***
confirm boot

Command Notes:
* x.x.x.x is the IP address of your TFTP server
** sh flash shows you

Preorder Windows 7 today for $99

Tsudohnimh — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:27:26 +0000

I recently raved about my experience with Windows 7 and today I’m thrilled to announce you can preorder your copy from Amazon for only $99. The upgrade version will require you to have at least some version of Windows XP or Vista but often Microsoft has been lenient on this prerequisite.

The only disappointing news is Microsoft’s upgrade announcement. We were all hoping that Microsoft would provide a free upgrade to all Vista users but today’s announcement clarified this will only apply to purchases of Vista between June 26, 2009 and Jan. 31, 2010. Microsoft is hoping to prevent a freefall in Vista sales but with the current version of Vista Business priced at $234 why not preorder Win7. Save the money and the hassle.

Windows 7 is the best OS Microsoft has ever produced and you can’t beat this price. Take advantage and preorder your copy of Windows 7 today.

I married a geek and lived to tell about it. #lifewithageek

Tsudohnimh — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:32:02 +0000

We geeks are a special lot. 1 part scientist, 1 part artist, 1 part insanity, mix in 2 helpings of passion and geeks get pretty interesting. We can do some pretty strange things that some people just don’t understand. Thankfully most of us have found someone just crazy enough to love us anyways. Here’s the story of how #Lifewithageek was born.

Last week at the LRTweetup I found myself in hysterics listening to a couple of ladies (@kerrijack & @victoria_powell) trade stories about their geek husbands’ antics. I was considering which of my exploits my wife would contribute and then I had an epiphany, everyone has these stories. Here was an untapped gold mine of stories from geek spouses the world over. For example:

Have you every left the house for just a couple of days and come back to find new TV service, DVRs, surround sound, and a media server? –Reason given- I got a deal

Did you ask your spouse to build a deck and they proceeded to diagram it in Visio and then built a 3D model in Google Sketchup?

Did you ever ask your spouse to fix a toilet seat and came back to a bathroom stripped to the studs?

Is it completely normal to have 3x the number of computers than people in a home?

Have you ever had to remove a new house from consideration due to the lack of broadband internet?

What story will you tell? What strangeness and hilarity has ensued by being married (significant other qualifies) to a geek? We want to hear your story.

Share your story via Twitter (just add the hashtag #lifewithageek)
Share your story by leaving a comment below
Share your story on Friendfeed by joining the “Life with a Geek” room

We can’t wait to hear from you. Let the laughing begin.

3 great Firefox tweaks for Twitter

Tsudohnimh — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:00:00 +0000

I just wanted to share 3 quick tips for any Twitterer that uses Firefox. I try to shortcut tasks that I perform often and since I’m avid Twitter user I’m frequently visiting twitter profiles or searching twitter for a trend or keyword. Here’s how I made these tasks more efficient using Firefox bookmarks.

Visiting a Twitter profile.

Old Way: Copy the @username, paste to address bar, delete the “@” symbol, add “http://twitter/” to the beginning, hit enter.

New Way: Create a new bookmark and in the location field type “http://twitter.com/%s” minus the quotes, set “@” as the keyword and save the bookmark. Now you can simply type “@ username” in your address bar to visits the webpage of any twitter user. (Yes there is a space required between the @ and username, I haven’t found a work around for that but you’ll find this method much easier)

Searching Twitter

Old Way: Visit http://search.twitter.com, enter keyword, hit enter

New Way: Create a new bookmark and in the location field type “http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%s” minus the quotes, set “searchtwitter” or “twittersearch” (something easy for you to remember) as the keyword. Now you can type searchtwitter followed by your search term in the address bar. (e.g. searchtwitter Iran)

Getting Hashtag Information

Old Way: Visit http://search.twitter.com, enter #hashtag, hit enter. Results show a lot of tweets but probably doesn’t reveal the context of the #hashtag.

New Way: We will incorporate a wonderful site called WTHashtag.com. This site does a great job of discovering and defining hashtags (or more accurately letting registered users define hashtags). Create a new bookmark and in the location field type “http://wthashtag.com/%S” minus the quotes, set “#” as the keyword. Now you can type # followed by your search term in the address bar. (e.g. # LRTweetup, again space required)

Let me take a moment and explain why I use WTHashtag. For any defined hashtag it offers a long explanation, a 140 character summary that you can summon via @wthashtag, a embed live stream of the tag, external links, stats, and top contributors. Check out these examples.

#LRTweetup, #RefreshCA, #IranElection

Bonus Bookmark Goodness

Here are some other very useful bookmark shortcuts

Search Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=%s
Search Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%s
Search Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=%s
Thesaurus (Reference.com): http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/%s
Define (Merriam Webster): http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%s

I’m always looking for better ways of doing something so I’d like to know What quick searches do you use? What other tasks can we shortcut using Firefox? Comment below or reply to @tsudo on Twitter.

I hope these tricks make your browsing a bit better and a bit more efficient. Thanks for reading.

Windows 7 – Welcome to Wow!

Tsudohnimh — Sat, 30 May 2009 06:18:55 +0000

It’s been a very long time since I was amazed by a Windows operating system but it is no understatement that Windows 7 is truly an surprising leap forward for Microsoft. I’ve been using Vista for almost a year now and while I didn’t loathe the OS from day one I was never really taken by it. At best Vista contained some nifty features but I never got over the feeling that it was sluggish and offered little reason to upgrade. We’ve all been skeptical about Windows 7 due to its expedited release schedule and Vista’s underwhelming experience but I’m glad to report that today my skepticism has turned to optimism.

Today I loaded Windows 7 RC on one of my primary laptops. I’d tested the beta version a few months ago in a virtual machine just to see it but you don’t get the “feel” of an operating system until you fully install it as the primary OS, and believe me Win7 feels good. Let’s hit the high points.

Aero Snap – Many times minor GUI (graphical user interface) changes can make a big difference and this change’s effect is huge. Drag the title bar of an active window to the left or right of the screen and it will auto resize to the side-by-side position (full size vertical, 1/2 size of your horizontal screen), drag the title bar back toward the center and it will resize to its previous position. Additionally, you can drag the bar to the top of the screen and it will maximize the window. Lastly, you can click->hold->and shake the title bar of any active window to minimize all other windows, give it another shake to return them. These small tweaks are a true time savers and productivity aides.

The Dockbar – Quick Launch shortcuts and taskbar tray icons have both been smartly rolled into a single wonderful dockbar (see image below). You can pin shortcuts to the dockbar and once they are opened they are simply highlighted by a glossy square, multiple instances are represented by cascading squares. This saves a massive amount of dockbar real estate for minimized windows’ icons which behave in the same manner except for the fact they disappear once the app is closed. The dockbar also provides excellent thumbnail previews of open applications and if you have multiple tabs open in Internet Explorer it will show multiple previews. (Here’s hoping Mozilla can do the same with the next release of Firefox). Sure the Mac users are feeling smug that we “windoze” folks are excited about a dockbar, just ignore them and enjoy this excellent addition.

Libraries – Folders like My Documents & My Pictures are no longer tied or mapped to a specific folder. They are now libraries that can contain multiple folders. (The cheering you hear is thousands of Window’s admins that deal with My Docs redirection and mapped drives.) The end result is a smarter My Documents that can contain group folders, network shares, and local doc folders.

Transparent Windows – This cool little feature enhances the “show desktop” icon of days of old. A small semi transparent rectangle exists and the far right of the dockbar, click it once and it will minimize all your windows but if you just mouse over the box it will make all your windows transparent so that you can see your desktop without minimizing everything. Move your mouse off the box and everything pops back. Quite nifty.

Speed – Windows 7 is fast. I won’t bore you with specs and benchmarking but I’m running the 64bit edition and it screams.

Driver Support – This isn’t a feature per se but it is worth noting that Win7 detected every single piece of hardware on my laptop. I didn’t have to load a single device driver. I’ve been loading Windows boxes for over a decade and it’s been a long time since that has happened.

There are a ton of other features like better UAC, home network groups, security enhancements blah blah blah… those are great but the above changes should be enough to cause anyone to seriously consider Windows 7. Here’s the standard disclaimer, Windows 7 is still a release candidate and not meant for production systems. (It is worth noting that it is running every piece of software that I had running in XP/Vista just dandy including all my networking and security apps).

In short Windows 7 is a breath of fresh air that offers compelling reasons to upgrade your operating system. Microsoft got this one right. Win7, welcome to Wow!

Today is Memorial Day

Tsudohnimh — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:07:57 +0000

May 25, 2009. Today is Memorial Day.

Today is the day that we commemorate and remember the sacrifices of those that gave their lives in service and defense of this country. They chose to stand in the line of fire so that we might have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is only because of their sacrifice that we continue to be the home of the brave, the land of the free, the United States of America.

So today, Say the Pledge of Allegiance. Tell your kids what liberty means. Ask God to protect those currently serving in our Military and to comfort those families that have lost a loved one in service to our country. Today, remember that Freedom is not free and say Thank you to veteran.

Thank you to all of you who have served your country with honor and courage. I owe you debt that I cannot repay. I will always stand for the principles that you fought to protect and I will never take for granted the rights that you have allowed me to enjoy. God Bless You and Thank You.

All gave some. Some gave All.

May God Bless America.

Why Twitter will Outlast Facebook.

Tsudohnimh — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Social Networks come and go faster then you can spell Orkut. They get hyped, gain popularity and then we all jump to the "next thing". Call it the cool kid mentality of "everyone’s on Facebook". It’s amazing how quickly the sands shift. Two years ago all you heard about was Myspace but it’s become a wasteland with a remnant holdouts and band pages. It quickly became a parody of itself and the public was poised to jump.

These days all the buzz has been focused on Facebook and most recently Twitter. Which causes me to wonder, Which service will I be using in 3 years?

I think the answer is Twitter. Here’s the why…

The Antisocial Social Network

Facebook is very much a walled garden. It is a self contained ecosystem that doesn’t connect into other areas of its users’ online lives.

Back in the spring of 2007 Facebook announced the creation of apps and last month expanded their API, but to what end? 90% of Facebook apps are some idiotic quiz, insipid top 5 lists, or the contemptible “send flair/gift/bumper stickers” to friends. The vast majority are trivial and foolish.

Where are the real apps?

Let’s take a few examples. Blog/RSS integration to Facebook is rudimentary. There is no integration for things like Flickr or Picasa and the Twitter app is useless. Why can’t I have a Twitter Facebook App that advertises my tweets and profile WITHOUT spamming my Facebook friends who don’t want all my Twitter updates? A simple tabbed page on the profile would accomplish this but somehow this hasn’t happened. You can’t even find your Facebook friends on Twitter with any search or sync tool. That’s ridiculous.

The list of failures goes on and on. Brightkite, Friendfeed, Diigo, Tumblr, Linked In ….etc. The app is either non existent or completely broken.

The Plays Well With Others Network

In contrast Twitter is the exact opposite of a walled garden. It’s much like an everyone into the pool network. One of the best features of Twitter is how well it connects almost every online aspect of your life. Twitter has become the de facto clearing house of your online life.

Twitter enables you to publish your blog posts, Brightkite updates, Diigo/Delicious bookmarks, Tumblr posts, Friendfeed Conversations, and with RSS it can incorporate almost any other web service you can imagine.

It’s worth noting that most of these features are not a function of Twitter itself but the instead are included in the 3rd party app or via some Twitter web tool (Twitpic, Twitterfeed, etc). However, this is a direct result of Twitters platform, popularity, and API. Twitter encouraged the development and the world exploded with Tie-Ins to twitter. So much so that you can even get your plant to twitter when it needs water or you can have your cat door tweet when the cat goes out. (It’s late, I’m lazy, use Google to find them).

The Final Word

I won’t declare Facebook dead in the water because the expanded API may be an indication that they are trying to adapt but I think it will require an intentional effort on Facebook’s part, not to mention some much needed profile/update layout redesign.

And who is to say that Twitter won’t try to build some walls some day in the future. I doubt it but you never know, see their latest replies fiasco.

In the end Social Media networks must understand that the power of people connecting and sharing information is directly tied to the ability to plug that information into their service. Facebook has yet to realize this and Twitter has capitalized on it.

This is the primary reason that I think you and I will still be on Twitter in 2012. What do you think? Find me on Twitter as @tsudo.

New Tools – Download Them All, JavaRa, & more

Tsudohnimh — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:56:16 +0000

The most powerful resource of this site has long been my ultimate list of tools, applications, and Firefox plug-ins. I’ve recently added some excellent apps that I wanted to highlight.

JavaRa – This is a wonderfully small and simple utility that does 1 thing, it detects and uninstalls old versions of Java. I’ve long complained that Sun doesn’t see fit to include this option into their update process so even when you install the latest secure version you are still left with the vulnerable version. JavaRa doesn’t require installation and it produces a log file of its actions. So anytime you update Java you should make JavaRa the next step. Link added to the Misc tools category.

Flash Uninstaller – This little known tool from Adobe solves the same problem for Adobe’s Flash product. If your browser detects that there is an update for Adobe Flash you should uninstall it with this utility prior to updating. Link added to the Misc tools category.

Download Them All – This wonderful Firefox extension is a download manager and accelerator all-in-one. Unlike other similar plug-ins it doesn’t require some third-party download accelerator to work. It significantly increases download speeds and offers filters to save certain file types to specific folders. It’s a must have! Link added to the Firefox Extensions category.

Bit.ly Preview – The URL shortening service of Bit.ly has created a wonderful Firefox extension that previews the link and content for almost any shortened URL. It reduces the worry of shortened URLs leading you to a malicious website and is just too handy not to install. If you use Twitter.com this is a must have. Link added to the Firefox Extensions category.

Microsoft Log Parser – A powerful and versatile tool for searching any text based logs. This tool is excellent when trying to identify patterns or problems in any log file. Combine with Log Parser Lizard. Link added to the Misc tools category.

Log Parser Lizard – Lizard provides an excellent GUI front end to Microsoft Log Parser. It is much better at managing queries and exports. Link added to the Misc tools category.

Display Fusion – This is the best multi-display manager I’ve found. It will stretch wallpaper with advanced aspect/ratio options, set different wallpapers on different desktops, and includes great window snap to features. The killer feature (beyond wallpapers) is the ability to drag a maximized window from one monitor to the other. If you have 2+ monitors this is an app worth having. Link added to the Misc tools category.

Twitter’s Killer Feature

Tsudohnimh — Sat, 09 May 2009 04:57:41 +0000

Despite the attention that Twitter has garnered of late many netizens have yet to find a compelling reason to become part of the Twitter community. Many users have yet to find the killer feature of Twitter that will cause the proverbial light bulb to go off.

I was in the office today and ended up having a conversation about Twitter. I work with very intelligent engineers (geeks) but I’m the sole advocate of social media. The conversation begin with the ultimate Twitter question, “What is Twitter?” As I began to explain the nature of a broadcast communication network complete with @replies and #hashtags I was met with mild interest. After a few more follow up questions the general consensus leaned toward an ambivalent “that’s cool” but without anyone finding a reason to participate. Until… I revealed Twitter’s killer feature.

Allow me to ask the same question that I asked in the previous post, “What do you do when you don’t know something?” You Google it right? We naturally turn to the mighty indexer of the web and usually find our answers in its offered results. BUT, what if the information you are looking for has only been available for 10 minutes? Alas you have found Google’s blind spot. A search engine can only produce results after it has indexed a webpage and that takes time. What you need is the ability to look for information in a close to real time.

Welcome to Twitter’s Killer Feature, “Real-Time” Search.

If you are looking for information concerning a very recent or ongoing event you need to tap into a data stream that allows you to step closer to real time reporting and Twitter provides the precise ability. Whether you are gathering info on a talk at SXSW or watching news about a plane crash in the Hudson River Search.Twitter.com is the only place turn. Sure there are a myriad of news sites that report breaking news but any Twitter user will tell you that they are informed about earthquakes, plane crashes, and conference happenings long before mainstream media picks up the story. (Long is obviously relative, it may be 20 minutes to a couple of hours lead time but it is still significant). Twitter transports you to the edge of real time as you watch other users add content and context in relation to whatever event you are watching.

As I began to tell my colleagues about trending topics and searching ability I discover that they are having their Aha! moment. They found the feature that draws them to an interactive Twitter community.

So whether you are watching breaking news, looking for the release of the latest software version, or virtually attending a conference Twitter’s real time search is a wealth of information that the rest of the world won’t see for another half hour. So Turn on, tune in, and watch the events of the world as they happen.

Addendum: There are seem really great websites and tools that significantly enhance this search ability. I’d recommend checking out TweetGrid.com and Monitter.com. Both websites offer the ability to perform multiple real-time searches. Tweetgrid is a bit easier to follow but Monitter allows you to filter based on location. If you prefer applications give Tweetdeck a spin. You can add a search column by clicking the magnifying glass. Don’t forget that you can also get RSS feeds based on twitter searches from search.twitter.com.

Happy Tweeting (find me on Twitter @tsudo)

Accelerate your Community – The Power of Social Media

Tsudohnimh — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:27:01 +0000

Social media is all the rage these days. Twitter is a buzz word and media sensation and Facebook has become the de facto method for keeping track of your friends lives. Despite it’s popularity its easy to miss the revolutionary power of social media. Socialization technologies are changing the very fabric of how we connect and stay informed. Many people fail to realize why they should be participating in social media and this is my attempt to explain what you would be missing by sitting on the sidelines.

The power of the network

I love networks. I’m infinitely fascinated by how information is transmitted and shared. I can still recall the watershed event that sparked my passion for networking.

In the mid-1990’s I connected to the internet via a 56k local dialup ISP. One afternoon I prepared to be transported into the World Wide Web via the familiar beeps and hums of the modem but found that I couldn’t connect to the internet. After several failed attempts I simply stared at the screen wondering, what do I do now?

It was at this very moment that I had my epiphany. I’m sitting behind a personal computer, one of the greatest inventions in the history of man but without the internet it was essentially useless. The computer was not what mattered to me, it was the network.

Fast forward to modern day and consider what it feels like if your internet is down. For many of us it feels like part of your brain has gone on strike. One of my recent associates compared it to coming home to a house without electricity and another chimed in that, "No, its worse" . It is an astonishing realization to become conscious of the power of being connected to an infinite resource like the internet.

The introduction of social networks

For almost 2 decades humans have been fascinated with the internet but it was essentially a static resource of information. You could research anything but it was mostly a spectator sport. We simply consumed content. Then around the turn of the century a new phenomenon known as blogging began to spread like wildfire. Suddenly, you were invited to create your own content. This ushered the average user into the producer role and gave power to the individual voice.

The latest incarnation of the internet occurred within the past few years with the emergence of Social Networks. Sites like MySpace and Facebook not only invited you to create content but to share your content with friends. This was a new and fascinating way to interact with your friends and be involved with their lives in a more granular manner. The online community was born.

These initial social networks have been joined by a myriad of other online communities that are redefining interactions and community completely. To best understand the anatomy of social networks or social media I find it useful to categorize social networks in 1 of 3 categories:

Real Life Community, Extended – These social networks are primarily connecting people that already have a "in real life" (IRL) relationship or connection and provides increased interaction. (Examples: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn)
Created Online Community – These networks are usually built around common interests, conversations, and shared content. The community is primarily online only with very few users being connected IRL. (Examples: Friendfeed, Digg)
Hybrid – Although most social networks have the potential to be a hybrid, because the makeup of the community is controlled by the user, certain social networks trend toward a hybrid of a digital community and with IRL connections. (Example: Twitter, Brightkite, Dodgeball)

So we understand their beginning and their audience but…

What is the significance of Social Media/Networks?

The significance of social media can be quantified in 3 ways: Content, Conversations, & Connections.

What do you do if you don’t know "something" and want of find out more?

The natural human response is to ask a question. Or phrased another way, We Google it.

But what if you could ask 5 informed people? What if you could ask 100? Now consider that if one of them doesn’t know the answer they in turn could ask another 100 people. The chances of finding the right information quicker is increased exponentially.

This is even more evident when asking a subjective question. Being a recent purchaser of a Wii I asked, "Which Wii games do people consider to be must-haves?". By only using social media I was able to generate a discussion with hundreds of people. I didn’t need a single "authoritative website" and it didn’t require a single Google search. I queried the best content filtering engine on the planet. People!

In addition to discovering answers (i.e. content) the question sparked fantastic conversations. These discussions proved to be as valuable as the content themselves. They provided detail, nuance, and experience that is lacking when I’m provided with content alone.

Social media provides an arena where content becomes the catalyst for informed discussion. For thousands of years these conversations were limited to face-to-face interactions and were constrained by time and geography. Social technology has enabled a worldwide discussion that can be continued for indefinitely. A poor comparison would be to imagine you are standing in a room of the smartest people you know, you can share anything and ask anything and you can return at any time. Call it crowd sourcing, hive mind, call it whatever…. it is one of the most powerful harnessing of human intelligence ever created.

Lastly, social media enables connections. It can enhance connections with people you already know and it can develop connections with people you may never meet in person.

Allow me to demonstrate through my own experience. Through my use of social media I now converse with this region’s most influential talk show host, the state’s best political commentator/observer, the best information security minds on the planet, and hundreds more intelligent and interesting people. Social media has provided me with a method of tapping into an enormous digital community as well as radically extending my "real life" connections. I am now involved in my friend’s lives in a way that few could have even imagined 10 years ago. It’s helped me discover local people and organizations that I might never had the ability to find on my own.

Social Media has taken my ability to find content, have conversations, and connect with people and put them all into hyper drive. It is truly amazing.

You’re Invited

So, if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines allow me to personally invite into my online community. You are intelligent and interesting and I’d love to learn from you and get to know you. Join up, get a twitter account and/or a Friendfeed account and let the conversation begin. I can’t wait to hear from you.

Twitter: @tsudo

Friendfeed: Tsudohnimh

New and Notable

Tsudohnimh — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:50:00 +0000

Comodo BackUp – Comodo, the company that makes one of my favorite antivirus programs and PC firewall, has released a new FREE backup utility called Comodo BackUp. I haven’t tested this program personally but their site states that it supports backups to network folders, DVD, CD-RW, and FTP. It looks promising and Comodo has a great track record. Definitely an app to check out if you are looking for a backup solution.

The Wilhelm Scream – This is an interesting story of a distinctive scream sound effect that has been used in many movies since 1951. You have to be a bit of a movie buff to appreciate this trivia but I found it interesting and wanted to share. Check out the history and hear the scream at Hollywood Lost and Found.

Custom Mouse Cursors – If you like desktop customization you might have discovered that there aren’t many decent custom cursor sets on the internet. There is a plethora of dinosaurs and spongebob cursors but if you are looking for something a bit more developed you’ll have to dig a bit further. Instantfundas has a great post that lists 21 cursor sets for Windows. You’ll find some really good options. I settled on the Entis set.

DataLossdb.org – For the infosec crowd this site is a gold mine of information. “DataLossDB is a research project aimed at documenting known and reported data loss incidents world-wide”. Email newsletters or RSS feeds will provide an interesting look at how data is compromised.

Introducing the Coolest Screensaver Ever – PolarClock

Tsudohnimh — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:21:32 +0000

Seldom do screensavers warrant a blog post but this one is different. PolarClock is simply the most elegant screensaver I’ve ever encountered. I was introduced to PolarClock by a Wired Magazine article and it now runs on all of my computers.

At its core PolarClock is a functional clock but what really sets this screensaver apart is its superb design. It displays the month, date, day, hour, min, and second in animated, color-changing, concentric circles.

PolarClock is available for PC, Mac, and the iPhone. If you are looking for a clever and polished screensaver look no further than PolarClock.

Prevent your Twitter stream from becoming a flood

Tsudohnimh — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:04:09 +0000

Loic Le Meur, a high profile geek and founder of Seesmic, took drastic action yesterday and unfollowed 23,000 twitter users via an unfollow script. He simply became overwhelmed with the spam, robots, and noise so he decided to unfollow everyone and reboot his twitter stream. His newly imposed criteria for following a twitter user is now, “I need to be able to explain in a few sentences how I know you or why I am following you otherwise I won’t add you.”

As any social media enthusiast would imagine this has created a firestorm. Loic has spent the time since his “twitter bankruptcy” explaining his actions to those he unfollowed and Robert Scoble followed up by starting a hotly debated thread on Friendfeed.

Before I continue let me add a couple of disclaimers.

Social media usage is a personal decision and Loic shouldn’t have to defend anything action he takes.
Participation in social media is an intensely personal activity and it is different for everyone.
I have no idea the time and energy it takes what is like to maintain the levels of interaction that internet celebs like Loic and Scoble manage. I can only speak about my experience.

The problem is simply defined, more quantity will ultimately lead to less quality.

How do you navigate an information stream so that it doesn’t become an overwhelming flood?

I often hear this sentiment expressed by Twitter users who only follow 100-200 people (40% of which are truly active) and see that I follow 1500+ twitter users. They wonder how I have meaningful interactions and discover new content in such a busy environment. How do I maintain the signal of quality content and cancel the noise?

I don’t have a concise answer but I feel compelled to share a few of my tips.

I have never automatically followed those who follow me on twitter. I’d guess that my followback ratio is close to 70% but I think turning off autofollow is an important way to prevent noisemakers or low value twitterers from cluttering your stream. I often decide not to followback based on the following criteria:
- The user is new and hasn’t proved that they are going to be an active member of my community.
- The user only promotes their own content and never engages other users in conversations.
- The user is an obvious marketer/spammer.
I use groups in Tweetdeck. This is such an obvious solution but so few twitter users utilize this tool. Sure I follow 1770 users but only 50 or 60 make it into my A-list group. These are the twitter users who I place a high value on their content and seek to engage. The list grows and shrinks frequently to maintain a manageable amount of updates.
I use lists in Friendfeed. I realize that this is not a twitter function but I apply the same logic. I place users in lists so that I can prioritize my content stream and reduce the noise. For example, I don’t have Scoble in my Tweetdeck A-list because his amount of content overwhelms the list. I have a special list in Friendfeed where he is grouped with other high traffic users so that I can step into the list and see what is going on without them drowning out any other voices. For more information on creating Friendfeed lists see the Changeforge.com article, “Did You Make the List? How I Use Lists to Organize My Life-Stream“
I use Twitter search RSS feeds to track topics and hashtags of interest or live events so I can interact with users that aren’t in my personal stream.
Most Importantly I treat my information stream as a stream. When I want to get wet I hop in and enjoy the water and then I’m done. You have to drop the “email mentality” of thinking there is something you missed or you must catch up. Don’t worry about what happened 3 days ago on Twitter. It is a “right now” technology. Jump in, take a swim, log out.

I don’t blame @Loic for dumping all of his followers but I have too many excellent people in my twitter stream to consider such an action. I much prefer to use tools and applications to create sub-groups within the social media masses. Give it a try and I think it will enhance your enjoyment of any social media.

Do you have other tips? How do you manage your information stream?

Hard Drive Recovery made easy with TestDisk

Tsudohnimh — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:23:00 +0000

An IT professional is often only as good as the tools at their disposal. Occasionally I discover a new tool that I know will become an indispensable addition to my overall toolkit and such is the case with my latest find.

Introducing TestDisk.

Hard drives are troublesome devices. They fail, they corrupt, and are categorically grumpy.

Recently a friend of mine brought me a computer that had a corrupted MBR (Master Boot Record) and the entire hard disk was unusable. I used a USB hard drive adapter kit to attach the hard drive to another system only to find that Windows Explorer detected the hard drive as unformatted. Any attempt to access the drive was met with a prompt to format the drive. Years worth of financial data and personal pictures would have been lost by confirming the format procedure. I needed a way to attempt to recover the partition information so I could retrieve the data.

After some searching a forum post led me to TestDisk. TestDisk is a multi-Operating System hard drive recovery utility. It supports DOS, Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems and works with FAT, ext2/ext3, and NTFS file structures. It is a master of all. It is specifically designed to “recover lost partitions and make non-booting disks bootable again.”

Initially I was skeptical, it isn’t often that a tool works as advertised but it was worth a shot. I downloaded the Windows version (which doesn’t even require install) and pointed it to the USB attached IDE hard drive. I instructed TestDisk to attempt detection of the partition and its initial attempt was fruitless. However, it immediately asked if I wanted to perform a deeper scan. (The initial scan looks at sectors whereas the in depth scan inspects cylinders.) After a few minutes it detected the primary partition. I then followed the prompts to recover the partition and immediately I was able to access the hard drive and backup my friends data.

After making a backup of the data I placed the hard drive back into the original computer and booted to a Windows OS CD. I chose to boot into recovery mode and ran the FIXBOOT and FIXMBR commands. Windows detected a valid backup of the MBR and replace the corrupted MBR. Voila, a bootable hard drive.

TestDisk is a dream of a utility. To begin with it is free and open source (licensed via GPL). TestDisk excels in leading a user through its intuitive command line menu system. You can use this utility without ever needing the documentation. If you do view the documentation you will find detailed step-by-step guides, screenshots, and excellent OS notation. Finally, it simply works. It’s difficult to believe such a program can deliver on such broad promises but it has made a believer out of me.

So the next time you need to be someone’s IT hero fire up TestDisk and bring that troublesome hard drive back under submission.

To the TestDisk Team I want to say a heartfelt Thank you. You took the time to develop and excellent tool and released it to the world. You helped save my friend’s memories and I know that I’ll be calling on your utility again.

TestDisk has been added to my tools page under HardDrive utilities.

Life in IT

Tsudohnimh — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:30:37 +0000

Welcome to the world of an IT admin, thanks to @banditb17

What’s your favorite story of life in IT?

Let Me Google that for You

Tsudohnimh — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:19:58 +0000

I enjoy helping people I really do but sometimes….

Do you ever get questions that make you wonder if the asker has every heard of Google? Ever been tempted to answer an inane email inquiry with the Google results page?

If so allow me to make you day by introducing, Let Me Google That For You. (LMGTFY)

LMGTFY allows you to create an example search and forward the humorous result. Just take a look at this example search for "enabling remote desktop".

So enjoy Let Me Google That For You, be snarky, be sarcastic and think of it as a teaching moment.

Email – You’re Doing it Wrong

Tsudohnimh — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:16:15 +0000

It’s not hip. It’s not Web 2.0 but email is still the primary method of communication of almost every internet user worldwide. Yet after popular use for over a decade it’s stunning how many users still can’t grasp how to properly use and manage email.

Just so we are clear I’m not talking about web based email accounts like Yahoo and Google. This article concerns your corporate email account. To be more precise many of the issues I deal with in this piece are unique to Microsoft Outlook because it is the dominant client email application in the Microsoft world in which I operate. Regardless of the backend system (POP3/IMAP/Exchange) these tips will help you reassess the purpose and practice of email.

Email is a communication medium. This is such an obvious statement that it seems silly to state it. However, the sad truth is that most email users have forgotten the primary purpose of email and tried to extend its functions to the point of being inefficient, ineffective, and unusable.

The Problem

Let’s begin with an story. I contact my friend Bob and ask him for some information about a client and a upcoming meeting. Bob then proceeds to dial into his voicemail and sort through 208 messages in order to retrieve the pertinent information.

That’s lunacy you say. Who would use voicemail as a warehouse for that information? It’s inefficient, not very reliable, and voicemail just wasn’t meant to be used that way. Correct. Voicemail was meant to be a communication medium not a database. Bob’s use of voicemail in this manner is indisputably insane, yet we commonly accept these same practices when applied to email.

Email is such an efficient communication technology that users have outsourced many database type functions to their email client.

Allow me to provide some common examples of this abuse.
1) The user that has 1346 emails in their inbox because they can’t bear not being able to find an email or bothered with sorting them into folders.
2) The user that cannot empty 1874 sent items because they may need to be referenced at some unspecified future date.
3) The user that manages 3 archived PST files because you never know what information you might need from 7 years ago.

You might agree that these examples show an inefficient use of email but you don’t see any issue worth solving yet. Allow me to elaborate.

All three practices are going to contribute to very poor Outlook performance and likely corruption of the user’s PST file. PST files can be nasty. The larger they become the more likely they are to corrupt (1Gb is dangerous trust me) and they are so unstable that Microsoft will tell you that the simple transferring of a PST file over a network can corrupt the file.

The conundrum is that the practice of using email as a database contributes to the very problem a user is trying to solve. Namely the user is trying to maintain all of this information for future use by using a method that can cause the entire file to become unusable! (Not to mention that 90% of the time these PST’s are located on the local hard drive and we all know hard drives never fail.)

Before you start with the “but there are legitimate needs to backup email argument”, I agree. If your organization has a business cause to archive email or is under a legal or compliance obligation then you should absolutely backup your email but only by doing so at the organization level, not the user level. Backup your Exchange database or subscribe to a 3rd party email archiving service. If email archiving is an essential then spend the money and do it right. If it is NOT essential then don’t use faulty half measures.

The Fix

The most frustrating part of this entire scenario is that this problem is so easy to fix. You simply need a system for managing the information and your email.

Start with the 3 folder method.

Your email client should only contain 3 folders. Action, Hold, Archive.

Action – Everytime you have a receive an email decide whether you can respond in under 1 minute. If you can, then respond immediately. If you cannot then file it into the Action folder to be processed ASAP.
Hold – If the email concerns an active situation but you are awaiting response or more information then file it into the Hold folder.
Archive – If you need to keep it, file the message into Archive.
*Working Projects – I have extended the original formula to include folders for Working projects that are not ready for archiving because I need to track the ongoing communication.

In addition try using the following rules to make your email more productive. (via Michael Hyatt)

Empty your Inbox Everyday.
Don’t get bogged down, keep moving – Do,Defer,Delegate.
Use email rules to help presort incoming mail.

To replace the other functions that were once assigned to your email I recommend a combination of the following.

Vigorously maintain your Contacts/Address Book
Vigorously maintain your Calendar
Always save attachments to the appropriate folder and delete the original email. You can always include any pertinent information in an accompanying text file.
Use Evernote (personal fav) or OneNote to manage any quick reference information that you might need.
Use Project Management software or a client database application to maintain tasks, info, etc…

Managing your email takes discipline but the reward of having a organized system is greatly improved productivity and a safeguard against a catastrophic loss. Email is a communication medium and you should use the right tool for the right job.