Here Comes “Droid” for Verizon

I’m sure many of you have seen the prime time TV commercial for the upcoming Verizon Droid mobile device. The majority of you though have probably had no idea what the heck they were even advertising, much less what it does. As reported by CNet, the new Droid is nothing; but a relaunch of the existing Motorola Sholes mobile phone. The unit is a major upgrade to the cell phone that takes the existing T*Mobile Android phones called G1 and MyTouch; moving it to a more robust processor and memory level. So there’s the long and short of it– Droid is a cell phone/mobile device in the vein of the Black Berry Storm or Apple iPhone. I’m sure at this point you have two questions you’d like answered:

1. So what’ the big deal with the Droid compared to the iPhone?
2. What is an Android and how does it fit in with Droid?

Let’s first explain what Android is. Android is an operating system (software that runs a computer or OS for short) similar to Windows XP or Mac OS X. It lets the hardware (the Moto Sholes in this case) do things like make calls and connect with other devices. It also runs applications (or in cell phone lingo– apps) on the phone to make it more than just a mobile phone. The apps enable the phone to do things similar to computers or laptops like calculators, games, and office programs amongst other things. Android is free and built by Google. Its distribution model is similar to Linux in that it can be openly both added to and used without license fees.

This is different than the iPhone model, which uses open source (freely developed and freely available for use) components from its Mac OS X desktop OS; but relies on proprietary closed source applications to present those applications and run the hardware. The summary version is you can freely use and build off of Android, while with the iPhone Mobile OS X you need to pay license fees to do the same thing.

While iPhone does let anybody freely build apps and distribute them on their network they must be reviewed, as well as, approved by Apple to be offered to the general public. This allows things like the recent blocking of Google Voice’s VoIP service application from being available to the public at Apple or AT&T’s whim. AT&T and Apple claim this was to protect their network (Apple solely offers the iPhone on AT&T cellular service) from the saturation of phone calls that could freely occur on the network. Specifically they cited that the application would allow for a wholesale workaround of termination charges being paid to AT&T by local telephone companies for costly rural land line telephone calling areas. AT&T and Apple state this is the main reason for blocking the app. What it shakes down to is that having app approval allows Apple and AT&T to control what a user can or cannot install on their phone not to mention what they can or cannot do with the phone itself (including how they can or cannot call someone in this case).

The Android OS is different. Because it’s open source; anybody can build anything for it and release it through their own distribution channels including hacking up the underlying OS itself. The idea is Google plans to garner revenue from introducing hardware tuned for the core OS and to offer advertising within the browser through its Google Ads services that target users.

To get an idea on where Google is headed with this concept you merely have to glance over this Business Week interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.  To quote Schmidt on where mobile data usage is headed and how Google plans to reap revenue from Android (including the Droid handset itself):

What are the biggest challenges the mobile Web presents?
Let’s start with the fact that the phones are not fast, the networks are not as capable, the ad formats are not standardized. But on the other hand it’s very, very important to solve those problems because a phone is very personal. And so if we know a fair amount about a person, with their permission we can target a useful ad—you know, “It’s Eric. You had a hamburger yesterday, do you want pizza today? There’s a pizza store on the right.” That kind of ad is likely worth a lot of money to an advertiser because it will generate a sale.

In other words, you send a message to the person’s cell phone, saying: “Look, we know you had a burger yesterday. If you want pizza today, just go around the block”?
Right. It may sound creepy, but it might also be quite valuable. People could use advice as to what to eat and where the food is—and of course you can turn it off. So the important thing here is advertising that has value to the person is advertising that is a valuable business. That’s the business we’re in.

With that you can see that Android is not built for revenue generation within the OS itself, but the underlying applications and services Google plans to build into the OS as “must have” features to extend that OS into every day life. The hamburger scenario is just a smaller manifesto for a bigger plan that quickly builds with a little extrapolation on the overall vision and direction of Google expressed by Schmidt above.

Apple is reaping profits hand over fist on hardware and software from iPhone not the month to month service. By limiting the supply of iPhone to AT&T though the carrier can make up the service costs by shear volume. The idea is that the iPhone is so hot it will drive both customers and minutes of usage (on voice, video, or data including text SMS) through the roof. In short, with lack of true alternative you have to use the iPhone and because you have to use AT&T to get the iPhone you’re going to terminate information on their network. That means revenue for both parties.

Google and Verizon are using a different model. They plan to make the revenue off what Verizon does best, loading applications and services on top of the base service. Verizon does this by offering sheer service availability with top level saturation of signal. AT&T’s 3G (fastest speed network) is available in most metropolitan areas, but once you get into the suburban footprint that service quickly degrades hobbling the usefulness of mobile connectivity.

Verizon in comparison has near ubiquitous availability of 3G through the continental 48 states in the USA. The result is that the primary functions that people do on their mobile device work fast (web browsing, email, text SMS, and voice) and seamlessly site to site. This is where Droid comes in.

With a 600MHz CPU and 256MB of RAM, the Droid will reach the computing power of your average desktop in 1998 running Windows98. Granted you weren’t going to play DirectX 10 full screen video games, but you were able to play the likes of Doom and Hexen. More importantly you could multitask between two or three applications (check email, surf the web, and chat for example) with ease. This circa 1998 web experience is the exact target Verizon, Google, and Motorola are after. In short, with 80% 3G coverage and infrastructure scaled for broadband anywhere– they hope to make a huge dent in the mobile device market and finally bridge the gap towards Netbooks.

And this is where that second question comes in, Droid is trying to head off iPhone at the ultimate goal; which is to supplant Netbooks with true mobile in your pocket broadband connectivity to voice, video, and data. More appealing to Verizon is that it can leverage the same OS to deploy in home premise equipment as well (Verizon IP set tops and home phones particularly) so users can seamlessly move from phone to home TV using the same interface. That in turn will allow them to reach where their land line FiOS service traditionally cannot. All this with a platform OS not owned by Microsoft or Apple delivered to 80% of the population. The majority of that population that has some other TV or telephone land line service provider outside the traditional Verizon telephone footprint. All without the fees and regulatory requirements of other carriers to do so. It’s not about ubiquity of the hand set at this point. It’s about ubiquity of the service itself. Seamless service delivered from end to end. From home, to road, to work and back. All using one OS platform (Android) to pass that experience along during the trip. A trip not limited by wires, distance, or line of sight.

Now all they need is a media/content partner to provide them their video. Oh wait– Google owns YouTube… never mind. The announcement of YouTube partnering with the big content providers is only a hop, skip, and buffering message away. Then we play the waiting game. The rest is history.

Originally published on 10/19/09 at digitalflood.com.

CPE On The Cheap

I’m on a continuous quest to bring down costs for my clients and part of that involves keeping an ear to the ground for hardware trends that lend itself to reducing installation/maintenance costs of customer premise hardware. It’s as simple as crawling over our supply chain websites and seeing who is offering what. One of the best parts of technology is that what is cutting edge today is yesterday’s news tomorrow. The better part is that once bleeding edge hardware still offers robust performance and a lengthy life span for deployment well beyond year one of its life. We have a sawing in IT/IS, leading edge does not lend itself to industry best performance. In fact, sometimes giving vendors a chance to work out the kinks is your best bet. Typically within 1-2 years of product general availability (GA in geek talk) software matures and security holes are rooted out improving security, as well as, product performance (not to mention price).

Recently at work, we’ve come across a wonderful little router that seems to finally show some positive results for consumers resulting from the Linksys and Cisco merger some year or so back. You take Cisco’s leading edge IOS, VPN, and PIX firewall elements then mix them with Linksys’s low cost small form factor SMB routers. The result is the Cisco 870 series who is not done any justice on it’s own site.

My personal favorite variant is the 871 (who CDW has a great rundown on) which is perfect for Ethernet hand offs (100 Mb/s or less) to an SMB or remote office connecting back via VPN to a larger WAN/central office. The router comes with a built in DHCP server, can perform NAT, has a non-DPI firewall (right out of the ASA/PIX), supports VPN (server or client using IPSec or Cisco Easy VPN), and can be SNMP polled. The result is a beefy edge router for a small LAN connected via an Ethernet hand off (such a metro-Ethernet or xDSL and Cable). Add your favorite Layer 2 switch and you have yourself a decent LAN. There is also a WiFi capable variant and the router can act a WLAN central AP controller when coupled with Cisco APs. That’s good news for SMBs who want secure wireless access or for hospitality users who want to create a “hot spot” for their clients. The product scales well with memory, SSL VPN, and advanced IOS capabilities (if you really want to beef up the unit) when being deployed in a medium-large enterprise environment.

While I’m happy to see Cisco moving a bit down market with products I’m not happy about Linksys’s recent movement with its WRT54G2 revision. In order to drop the price of this residential grade router some twenty US dollars, Linksys/Cisco ditched the external antenna in favor for an internal one. Reach rate changes aside (Cisco claim performance is actually increased over the older WRT54G) the loss of external screw on antenna coaxial connectors means you cannot equip the unit with your own antenna. That type of switch out was a perennial favorite power upgrade for hackers everywhere. Specifically it worked wonders when you wanted a cheap wireless access point to hang off a wired Layer 2 SMB LAN.

The good news is Asus has filled the void with its WL-500gP v2 router. When equipped with 6dBi panel antennas we’ve seen full rate reach at over 300′ with clear line of site. 100′ in real world suburban deployments is possible. The units can be tied back to a hot spot controller of your choice or run via your favorite Linux compressed variant to deliver connectivity and full system control (DD-WRT being my personal favorite).

Not sure how to hook all this up? WVT can design and implement your LAN or WLAN. Drop by our contact page and drop us a line however you please. We’ll gladly setup one of the options above for your business and help with any of your communication needs including network design and upgrades.

Security comes at a price… free?

This weekend I spent some time fixing family and friends’ computers. This of course is a pretty typical event. For those of you who are handy with computers I’m sure your weekends are filled with much of the same and for those of you who are not– I’m sure yours is filled with the pains my acquaintances know all too well: downtime.

In a world where we rely on our computers at home and work to give us access to the Internet for vital tasks (i.e. bill payment, finance management, communication, and data storage) downtime is truly a costly item to deal with. Whether your personal or business computer, security is much more accessible than one may think. Better yet– aside from the time invested installing and maintaining these little gems of software (say an hour a week at the most if you’re obsessive about it like me) we’re talking no money here. When you’re humming along though and not wasting time trying to fix it– then you’ll see how much time a hour of prevention is worth compared to a few days of data recovery.

Software

Security software comes in two segments– prevention and recovery. In general, prevention applications run 24/7 in the background of your computer. A big issue is resource intensive security programs, but bloat does not equal protection. Therefore a true preventive security program will use minimal amounts of resources to provide maximum protection. A recovery program is one that let’s you recover or fix problem after an infection occurs. In general, no protective software is going to 100% cover every possible threat so you have to be prepared for the exception and ready to react in removal when it happens. Recovery programs need to be able to avoid being blocked by infections and work to secure holes while evading traps left by the malicious program. Let’s tackle common areas of security:

• Malware - Malware is any program that intentionally causes harm or attempts to exploit your machines for benefit. Commonly referred to as “spyware”, malware programs usually turn your machine into a spam, ad, or virus factory benefiting their maker in the process.
  • Proactive - Spybot Search & Destroy: Developed as a final college research project by its creator, Spybot has grown into a full security suite for the prevention and detection of spyware. Spybot runs actively in the background and can be programmed to perform scans on your system during off hours. The active shield is not resource intensive, but the scans are and that is why it is better to automate the scan for an overnight run while you sleep.
  • Reactive - Malware Bytes: Malware Bytes works well to remove 99.9% of malware infections. Even the worst infections are easily remove with one sweep and a reboot. We use this one routinely in our Tech Support Call Center to root out problems and get PCs back in working order ASAP.
• Virus - A virus is a computer program intentionally programmed to install without permission and cause harm to the underlying system it runs on. It also tends to try to spread itself and proactively replicate it’s infection using known exploits in specific operating systems or programs. Malware is annoying– viruses are disastrous.
  • Proactive - AVG Free: AVG Free is the same anti-virus program found in the AVG Internet and Security Suites, but because it doesn’t have all the extra programs in it the application is leaner and runs quicker. AVG Free is noticeably less resource intensive than other competing products and provides an excellent level of protection that is in general superior to what other pay products offer as a whole. The one downside is the product is known to have nag screens trying to get you to buy the pay version of the software, but those are far between during major upgrades and not overall intrusive in nature.
  • Reactive - SyncBack Free: SyncBack is an easy to use back up utility that allows you to sync your data between either a spare hard drive or to a remote site (via FTP over the Net). The trick here is to back up your data to a spare hard drive in your computer and if disaster happens you can simply either copy the data back over the primary hard drive from the swap or just wholesale yank out the “bad” primary and change over to the “good” spare. You can then safely format that “bad” hard drive in another PC and put it back in as a the spare at a later time. I have a good friend who has more than once averted virus disaster through back up and restore. Even if it’s not for virus protection, backing up your data is a good idea in case the primary drive did fail due to normal hardware deterioration.
• Registry Repair – CCleaner: CCleaner comes in handy after the post malware or virus removal to make sure your Windows Registry is back in proper working order. Malicious programs aren’t particularly neat when it comes to installation and obviously less particular about being removed. The result is that simply removing the virus can leave gaps in your registry and malformed links that will lead to system crashes. CCleaner addresses that cleaning out both temporary files and fixing registry errors.
• Prevention – There are several steps you should routinely take to prevent problems:

1. Install operating system updates weekly and make sure your system update notification feature is on to let you know when they come out.
2. Make sure you update your anti-virus program daily and malware prevention programs weekly.
3. Run daily off hour antivirus and malware removal scans during off hours.
4. Make sure to run CCleaner once a month after rebooting first to install all “hanging updates” that may be out there.

You should also consider switching to an alternative web browser like Firefox to insure you take advantage of AVG Free’s active toolbar and search protection. We’ll be doing a run down at a later date on Firefox add on’s you can install to further bolster protection. Also, backing up your data weekly is a good idea and a great “escape plan” if disaster does happen.

I hope you see that security does not have to be complex in nature or hard to pull off. Using the above applications will help do some primary hardening of your system and help to keep your PC running in good order long term.

The Free Software Round Up

We’ve talked about free office applications, free web based applications, and to round up our tour of free software I’d like to broaden the scope a bit. The following are some recommendations from other sites I trust when looking for applications to get the job done. From technical support, utilities, productivity software to beyond– there is no shortage of variety here. You’re sure to find a program that you would have otherwise paid for to help constrain costs and get the job done right the first time. Best of all– it’s all free.

• MaximumPC 32 Essential Apps – Thirty two of the best applications out there are brought to you by my favorite computer magazine. Check out “DropBox” on the list. I know several professionals who rely on it today to sync files on the cheap across multiple computers.
• ZDNet Reader’s Choice – Twenty five of the best lightweight free applications. Check out “7-Zip” if you’re looking for across the board support of compressed file formats (including Linux tar).
• Open Source Web Design – Need a web layout, but don’t want to plunk down big bucks for the design? Check out OSWD for some basic lay outs that can be spruced up to meet your needs.
• Aviary – Online graphic and layout design software that can be accessed using a standard web browser. Pull off neat effects and some top end layout tricks without spending hours reading about how to pull it off in Photoshop. Aviary is truly revolutionary and will change the way you make graphics.

As you can see from the last few blogs, there is a ton of free quality software out there to be had on the Net. I welcome your feedback. If there is an application that I missed that you feel deserves kudos please drop me a comment.

I hope you enjoyed our round up of free software and that I’ve got the creative juices flowing. Maybe you’ve even found an application or two that will help you constrain costs; which increasing productivity. Tune in for future blogs where we continue to keep you up to date on the latest free top rate software.

Check out WVT SoHo

A quick plug for my friends in our Marketing Department at WVT Communications– we just partnered a month or so back with Red Lake Media to offer Maniacal Marketing’s series of blogs on our SoHo site. WVT has sponsored a recent live event on social media and leveraging the Internet for marketing purposes at the Orange County Chamber of Commerce. These live events will continue along with online white papers on how you can use next generation technology to get your business message out to the world. You can check out some exclusive articles on our WVT SoHo portal from Maniacal Marketing’s marketing tips blogs. Be sure to check it out. Also be sure to look for upcoming events on our site. Registration is usually free for the first 50 or so attendees. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to get your message on the Net and how you can reach a whole new audience in an interactive manner.

Organize, revolutionize, and excel

We last left off with a brand spanking new LAMP server setup and configured, but without a purpose. The nice thing about the LAMP server is that it enables you to share information in so many ways. The concept of sharing knowledge has been fashionably labeled “knowledge management”. This sounds rather impressive, but the concept is rooted in the one lesson every child is supposed to take away from in Preschool: Sharing is caring. Why? Simply put, if you invest all your knowledge in one person you risk stranding that knowledge if, for whatever reason, that person is not available when it is most needed. The best example I can give is that you single home training to one tech on a specific router. There is no doubt (by the very laws of IT/IS) that the first day they are out sick that router will crash and you will have to have another tech work on it. If you had all that info and configuration work the first tech had on hand in notes you will at least have a fighting chance. If you have detailed documentation you’re even better off. The trick is consolidating and organizing that info into a place where anybody can get to it. This is what the following applications do the best. They take your knowledge and help you to virtualize it so it’s available 24/7 to the rest of the team. The results are instantaneous, never strand your knowledge again.

Do not limit knowledge virtualization to just your technical knowledge though. Consider it for project management as well. Again, you will be able to share your progress in real time, but even more important you will have all the info used for a specific project for back up reference and compliance auditing. Online project management will also foster better team collaboration and realtime progress tracking, as well as, ease of reporting. Once you try virtual project management I can gaurantee you will never want to go back to Microsoft Project or loose leaf paper.

Here are some of my favorite LAMP knowledge management applications (all of which are 100% free might I add):

• NetOffice DWINS – I live in NetOffice DWINS. There are several reasons. First, for simple outright project management there is no simpler program. Second, it works especially well for traditional, Scrum, and Agile project mangement styles; but you can adapt it to just about any phased or milestone based style. The format is loose and fosters customization of styles. I prefer the built-in six phase (concept, planning, development, testing, roll out, and maintenance) style. I will then define each task, build predecessors, and finally mark milestones. Neat things happen on there own from there in including automatic task assignment notification, automatic reporting, and GANT charts. Projects export right to CSV for formating into an Excel spreadsheet (or Open Office for that matter). I’ve used it for IT, IS, MIS, and product roll out. We’ve even adapted it for Sales tracking and development.
• SugarCRM – SugarCRM has been around for some time. Those familiar with SalesForce.com will instantly find an attraction to the application. It’s an excellent ACT! replacement. The application is tailored to Account Executive and Sales Lead/Funnel management. Business Managers will especially like the ability to segregate information between AEs insuring info doesn’t leak from one funnel to another. Reporting is strong including your standard who’s selling what type of reports. SugarCRM also has trouble ticket tracking and can be used for hand off to a technical assistance call center including bug tracking. This provides a cradle to grave type of account management that will lead to improvement in customer satisfaction, as well as, better collaboration on the Sales channel front.
• YashOffice – If you like SugarCRM and you like NetOffice DWINS you’ll really like YashOffice. Basically YashOffice is a module for SugarCRM that creates a NetOffice instance in the CRM. This expands your Sales Funnel and Account Management beyond simple TAC tickets allowing project management to seamlessly flow through your organization.
• Geeklog – Geeklog is one of the original blog/Wiki tools that has progressed throughout the years into complete portal . It’s a great way to collect information and documentation into one web site. The forums module introduces the ability to build sections that can house different areas of knowledge (i.e. one forum for MIS, one for IT, one for IS, etc…). Techs will especially like the simple post style and easy to configure setup. No other application does simple outright information publishing better. It works well for “hair ball” trouble tracking and system outage tracking. We’ve even used it for SOX compliance audit logs.
• MediaWiki – MediaWiki is more feature rich than Geeklog, but it’s also a bit harder to configure and a bit harder to use. MediaWiki is less about information collection and more about organization, as well as, collaboration of large amounts of info. MediaWiki works well for long term documentation such as Methods & Operating Procedure manuals or configuration documentation.

Looking over those links you probably realize you’re going to need an IT guru to help you setup the application on the server, but the good news is they are all built through the browser and that will make your IT guru happy (if that’s possible). Once you’re up and running though you’ll quickly realize the possibilities are only limited by the amount of time you spend learning the applications. I can tell you I’ve been working two plus years on these CRM platforms and everyday I find something new I can either do with them or a new technique to use them better. While knowledge management will make your life easier to recall; it is not a replacement to the diligence of discipline of progress tracking or continued practice of data entry. Like most worthwhile applications, the learning curve is easy enough to get you in the door and expansive enough that you can continue finding new value a year on from inception of the system.

This LAMP burns brightly

We last left off discussing how you can begin loading your desktop computers with free business applications to streamline your costs and augment your capabilities. It’s time to take things to the next level, but first…

WARNING: While The digitalflood Blog attempts to cater to individuals of all computer and technology experience, this particular entry requires some technical “expertise” such as installing operating systems and setting up servers. For the general public it’s a nice summary of options to consider, but make sure to consult your local computer nerd before putting these ideas into production! Now onto the blog…

To truly harness the capabilities of your office network, you must be able to make use of all that information on your computer. Even more important, you must make sure the information on your computer is able to get to the people who need it your most– your co-workers and subject matter experts. The only way to make that happen is to liberate your data from the hard drive and move it into the “cloud”. The “cloud” is a popular buzz term and in general the idea is to put that any where it will be available any time by any one who should have the right to access it. Generally this means putting the data on a secure web site, but for the majority of us who are interacting with a limited number of less than 200 employees this is over kill (not to mention expensive to pull off when you tally up the server costs, enviromentals, data connection, experts T&M, etc…).

Let’s proceed at baby steps instead and focus on the SMB segment. In order to get your info shared you’re going to need a server for your network. A server is nothing more than a computer setup specifically for a few specific ways to share information. Most servers share their info via web, email, or sometimes chat. They do this by installing dameons, which are applications that interact with client hosted applications (i.e. the httpd daemon responds to a web browser like the one you’re in right now and serves that browse info from the server… like the blog your reading right now).

The easiest server to configure and maintain is Microsoft’s line of Windows Server operating systems (OS). The latest is Server 2008. Key components include IIS, which is an application suite (a group of applications with similar purpose) that includes a web server, a DNS server, a domain server, a directory/authentification server, an email server, and a DHCP server. It’s basically an all in one server package to not only host information (as well as deliver it), but to control all the computers on your network as well. Now, this sounds all fine and dandy (which it is); but here is the catch– it is not cheap. Entry level (with basic functions and support for a few computers) is over $600 at the time of this writing and tiers up to well over $2,500 for a large enterprise (and completely featured) version of the OS. If you have less than five computers you can get in cheap at the $350 level with the Small Business Server 2008 package, but again– the rest of us (specifically the 5-50 employee small business and 50-200 medium business category) with limited resources and limited funding; we are going to have a hard time eating those costs.

This simple arguement has been the main source for many SMBs to migrate to Linux application servers instead. I’ll flat out give you the down shot about Linux– it’s a bit harder to configure than Windows and is differently configured than Windows (less point and click, more editing of files with a text editor). This small issue turns many would be Linux lovers away fearing the worst. Now the up shot, it’s not impossible to configure and use. Once you get used to it you might even like it better (I know I do) than Windows. Linux has better up time (less crashes), more development resources (millions of open source projects now active and ready for you to install), and a better reputation of addressing flaws thanks to that aforementioned large pool of programming resources. And if that wasn’t enough– it’s free to use no matter how big or small your business is.

Here’s the deal: You’re not going to call Microsoft tech support if you get into trouble. Why? Because you don’t want to deal with the hassle on your own. You’re going to turn to your local computer nerd and ask them to fix it instead. Just like if your car broke you’d turn to an auto mechanic if you know nothing about cars. How does this differ from Linux in trouble resolution? It doesn’t. Sooner or later something is going to break whether it’s Windows or Linux running the system. When it does you’re going to need a computer nerd (end of story). So why waste (if not strand) financial resources on up front back office software costs like licensing and inter-operatbility issues between OS versions (a huge issue when it comes to Server 2008 and Server 2003– specifically with active directory and file sharing) when you can reserve those funds for the troubles later by going with a free OS alternative? The case is clear– Linux saves money in deployment, saves money in production, and is no more complex for an expert to fix than Microsoft’s offering.

To pull off the tricks we’re planning in my upcoming blog (and to liberate your data to the “cloud”) you’re going to need a special type of Linux server called a LAMP server. LAMP is an acronym that stands for “Linux Apache MySQL and PHP”. These applications are the core programs needed to run your common web server. Linux is the OS. Apache is the web server. MySQL is the data base and authentification system. PHP is the programming langauge that enables interaction between the other three. Together they create a unified Internet capable data delivery server. LAMP servers usually also do other things as well and can be customized to include other applications at will. This includes Sendmail for email, BIND for DNS, and Radius for improved authentification to either MySQL or it’s competitor (which is also free) called PostGres databases. A good LAMP server package will include a web control panel such as the popular CPanel interface (which does cost money– not all Linux applications are free unfortunately).

A web based control panel will help ease the Windows to Linux transition. It unifies your application setup and simplifies how you maintain your server. This in general will help you adapt to Linux quicker and allow you to get done what you need done just like you would in Windows– with a point and click.

I have over the course of my 15 year technology and communication career had some 300 plus web hosting clients actively use Linux via a web based control panel. After some basic tutorials and two-three weeks of time to “learn the way around” every single one of them reported back as feeling comfortable. To this day, I’m not even sure the bulk majority of them even knew they were using Linux. They just knew they were pointing and clicking. To them it could have been Windows for all they cared. This speaks signifigantly to the value of having such an application on your LAMP server. It turns office workers into office heroes who act as system administrators for daily tasks like adding email accounts and changing passwords. The majority of clients I have dealt with have had average user experience and again– these clients have reported easy transition to Linux without issue. When they’ve had a real issue they turned to me and I fixed the issue usually in a few minutes.

If you are considering moving ahead with trying out my recommedation in upcoming blogs on software you will need a web server (LAMP or Windows) and I’d strongly recomend you reach out to your IT resource to find out if you can get a test server setup in your lab (or non-production network if you don’t have a lab) to try it out.

I’ve found that most clients found the Sun Microsystem developed Cobalt control panel and CentOS Linux variant the easiest to use day to day.  300 plus subscribers cannot be wrong. The latest version of this OS is called Blue Onyx. Blue Onyx can be found at:

http://www.blueonyx.it/

It includes a web based control panel and a slick installation that most computer nerds will find easy to pull off. You will literally be up and running within 2 hours and ready to go. Any computer made in the last five years will work well (you don’t need a state of art machine to pull this off). Be aware that whatever computer you install Blue Onyx on will have all the existing data wiped from the hard drive. In other words– don’t install Blue Onyx on the Windows PC you’re using right now. Install it on that clunker in the basement you’ve had in storage for two years and were going to use for spare parts.

You just need to download the latest CD image (called an ISO) from the Blue Onyx site to your PC. Burn the ISO using a CD burner application to a CD. Dont’ have a CD burning application? If you have Windows check out IsoBurn at http://isoburn.sourceforge.net/. It’s free and easy to use. Put the CD in the other computer you want to install Blue Onyx on and turn it on. Follow the menus through the install process.  Remember– you may need a Linux nerd to give you a hand, but once you’re up and running you’ll be ready to liberate your data.

Next time around we’ll be going through a run down of LAMP applications you can install and run for free that will change the way you do business. I can promise you that this willlead you towards managing your business better. For now though– let the Linux installation begin!

The Freebie Experience

It seems after a few months (read-  year) of bad news from the stock market we’re finally starting to see a  small turn around including continued gradual movements northward in both trading volume and closing average prices. Nevertheless, the cost cutting trend surges on as corporations big and small discover the benefits of running lean.

Maybe it’s the years of excess and complacency finally wearing itself away, but across the US you can see corporations publishing financial filings with key notes of “cost reduction” and “expense consolidation” with pride. Think what you will, but this trend seems here to stay for the time being. The truth is there are some really great (and not so amazing) ways to reduce reoccurring expenses. Over the course of the next few weeks we’ll be visiting ways you can think about cutting cost without cutting service because truly running efficient should not result at the cost of customer experience or create reduction of service offerings.

We’ll be looking into ideas small and large that can be implemented easily throughout an organization of any size. These ideas can be implemented by any member of a staff. We’ll focus on various portions of the business including operations, finance, buildings/facilities, and marketing. My hope is that with these ideas you’ll spur initiatives of your own and let us know how you take these strategies to the next level.

The first area we’ll focus on is one that is near and dear to my heart– free IT desktop programs that cut costs day one while offering the same functionality of user applications costing hundreds more. Think of it this way– for each license you don’t purchase you’re saving cash for other initiatives such as improving the infrastructure and operation support elements that most support the applications. In short, it’s money well saved.

• Open Office 3 – Developed by Sun Microsystems, Open Office is an open source free alternative to Microsoft’s Office XP Suite. It comes with a word processor, a spread sheet application, a math program, a presentation program, a drawing program, and a database program. The one thing Open Office misses is a true diagram program (i.e. Visio), but otherwise for your standard staff member the goods are all there including spell checking, multi-platform support, ability to write out to many formats (including native PDF output), and interoperability with MS Office. I use the program in my home office as do many of my colleagues. It’s great for students and professionals alike whether you’re home or at work.
• GanttProject – Microsoft Project is a great tool, but most Project Managers do not touch the true potential of what the program can do. For those of you who are rudimentary project planners or you’re not looking for true server side multi-user input (i.e. one person owns the update of the project plan) then GanttProject will work great for your team. Meant for the Project Manager dealing with projects of all sizes; GanttProject will help you plan, execute, and track a project through its life cycle. It too offers the ability to cross interface with MS applications including Project.
• FoxIt PDF Reader – I know Adobe PDF Reader is free, but my problem with their program is two fold. First, it’s notoriously slow. Second, it is the constant victim of exploits. For this reason, I’m a huge fan of Foxit’s PDF Reader. It’s fast, small, and not as targeted as its mainstream cousin.
• AVG Free 8.5 – Technically you cannot use Grisoft’s AVG Free Anti-virus for business deployments, but if you need a free, effective, and reliable anti-virus/anti-spyware application for your home PC (*ahem* home *cough* PC… *wink*) this is the one. AVG is robust and secure as one would expect from Germany’s number one malware protection company. Updates are timely (usually every day) and offer protection through “smart” ID methods that can even catch a virus the program does not have a definition for yet. AVG is the number one tool I install on a PC infected with a virus… usually one that already is running Symantec or McAfee, but was exploited any how.
• Firefox – Firefox is a free web browser that is secure, expandable, and fast. The multi-tab support has been copied by other web browsers, but no one can match the speed, stability, and over all configurable limits of Firefox.
• Thunderbird – When armed with the Lightning extension, Thunderbird replaces Outlook XP with ease. This email application includes mutli-account support, junk mail filtering (that works), calendar/reminder/task support, and a flexible contact address book.
• LogMeIn Himachi – Another program that is for “personal” use, Himachi is a VPN that needs zero configuration aside from being installed on the computers you wish to link. Himachi will change the way you work and liberate your ability to work from the cloud.
• Pidgin – Pidgin is an IM application that works with all the popular IM networks including Google, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo.  The ability to chat with co-workers in real time is both under estimated and under utilized. It will change the way you communicate internally and the speed which you do so.
• Google Earth – Need directions to a client’s business? Need to see where you can stay while on a business trip? Want to find a place to eat while out walking the sales beat? Google Earth is not only a mapping utility, but it can be used for finding businesses in an area or measure the distance between two nodes. Once you start playing with cartography (the art of mapping) you too will be hooked and it will change the way you literally look at the world.

Today we focused on common desktop applications. In the future we’ll be looking at more applications that are both free and useful for various tasks. This should, however, get you out the door for the time being and start making you think about what other “free” software alternatives exist. Stay tuned for more blogs on free software that is useful and offers real cost savings for every day tasks.

Oink, oink my good man…

I try to stay away from politics in this particular blog and focus on business instead, but one cannot help to take notice of the “swine flu” outbreak. The news is every where along with the warnings and the seemingly constant social reminders in the form of hand sanitizers or face masks. More  appropriately for this publication, is the scary ties to business that swine flu holds, but more on that in a bit.

First, a quick recap on swine flu. Swine flu (for those few of you who have not been bombarded by the hype of the situation) is a form of influenza called H1N1 by medical professionals and scientists. As the outbreak caps over 800 official cases today and slowly lunges towards a pandemic, there is some sense of panic. This is for good reason because this particular virus is a new hybrid virus formed by two variants of swine flu, one of avian flu, and one of human flu origins. In short, this is a virus we’ve never seen before. The result of virus breeding and Darwinism at its scariest. H1N1 refers to the underlying composition of proteins that somewhat uniquely identify both the manner in which the virus spreads and the core components of which it is formed.

While the rest of world’s population scatters themselves into self imposed quarantines resorting to social distancing and face masks to try to control something well beyond any one person’s own ability to control; I must pause the panic on a the note of a major component of the story that is being overlooked by many.

Wired early this week pointed out that doctors had scientifically isolated the genetic materials that directly link this swine flu to a previous outbreak that occured back in 1998 in the South US. This 1998 outbreak was limited in scope and quickly contained as it did not have the capability to spread pig to human (unlike H1N1). The root cause of the outbreak was at that time determined to be industrial agricultural pig compounds within the US and Mexico. Those corporate farming compounds used methods of animal production that are still in use today. Those methods center around high concentrations of stationary animals confined to stalls, forced fed, and in many instances poorly sanitized due to the scope and nature of the facilities’ capability to support such a large population of animals. In this instance, it was concluded the outbreak was caused by the pigs constant exposure to fecal matter and the overall sub-standard living conditions the pigs were confined within that literally became a Garden of Eden of sorts for the various viruses and bacteria that cause such outbreaks.

Now I’m not going down some liberal bleeding heart avenue here, but the parallel can be seen today where the first victim (aptly named “Patient Zero”) of H1N1 and every patient since then, have all had infections with trace genes that show this current virus is a direct descendant from the 1998 H3N2 swine influenza. That fact alone shows there is a real direct link between H3N2 and H1N1 that cannot be ignored. Notably, H3N2 also was capable of quick mutation and gene swapping with other strains of influenza in the host body’s blood stream. This remarkable capability stunned investigators at the time who expressed high concern that if left unattended this virus could reemerge within the decade even more mutated and less capable of isolation. Further H1N1 Patient Zero (a five year old boy) just happens to live down the road in a small Mexican village from several major pig farms owned by US corporations and operated in similar manners to the facilities described above.

The owners (Smithfield Foods Corporation) have denied any link and noted they have tested their flock, but regardless of whether the existing pigs have the flu or not one can only deduce how a mutated virus would make its way across an isolated region with no know previous H1N1 or H3N2 cases to the local populace via water, dirt, or just good old wind. Ultimately, that same local populace would spread it to the surrounding areas population who in turn would spread it to tourists and so forth.

Rolling Stone has an article on Smithfield Foods and how one they are one of the biggest polluters in the world. They describe how Smithfield runs their operations. Needless to say, you may not want to eat any ham or bacon before glancing over the article, but I do highly recommend it. The article is from December 2006 and again the warning signs are nothing short of shocking in retrospective.

Now I’m not saying every corporation is run like this or that we need to have some of wild witch hunt on industrial manufactures because I’ll also note that if we hadn’t driven these operations out of the US with excessive taxes that maybe we could have done a better job of regulating the  industry as whole.

What I am saying is that the world as a whole has to wake up and focus on how our daily activities impact those around us. While we may have not been able to prevent the flu (pigs will get the flu just like the rest of us) being more proactive on daily operations safety and awareness is nothing short of life saving. As an operations manager myself I’m at a loss to explain this, but I can only hope that going forward the meat production industry will try to address these concerns directly instead of pointing fingers and shrugging shoulders.

In a global nation there is no longer the ability to hide our garbage in somebody else’s backyard. Especially when that same backyard happens to also be one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world. That secret will quickly become one that is unable to be contained because after all– unlike Ops managers, viruses don’t take orders from CEOs and have a tendency to just do whatever the heck they want to.

Week in Review – 3/27-4/3/09

I figured I’d catch up for this week (3/27-4/3/09) on a few items that you may or may not have been following:

• Time Magazine published its Top 100 Influential People this week. Particularly interesting is the “Builders & Innovators” category being lead off by the Twitter Guys (Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey, and Evan Williams) with commentary by Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher, whose main claim to fame is some bad movies and marrying Demi Moore, recently reached a milestone on Twitter by beating CNN.com to one million followers. For those of you who don’t know what Twitter is, it’s a micro-blogging site similar to WordPress or Blogger. You’re limited to 140 characters and thus brevity is somewhat required. The idea is that you can in short updates let people who subscribe to your Twitter feed know what your up to and what’s on your mind. I personally don’t get the attraction around Twitter. My guess is that if you either have enough spare time while sitting around waiting to update your micro-blog via your cell or if you’re that bored that you want to see what other people are doing it may have some attraction. I’m otherwise at a complete loss as to why you’d even bother using it. I’m sure that is a certain sign that I’m too old and starting not to get it… or maybe I just don’t care what Kutcher is eating today– probably a little of both. I can tell you this much, it is becoming a hacker’s dream to crack into (see the latest break in here) and put words in some rather famous people’s virtual mouths.
• “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” came out this weekend to much fan fair. Mostly because experts were weighing in on how a leaked unfinished version of the film would effect viewership. The anti-piracy set jumped right into the fray saying that early version could deter viewers from going to the cinema even if they knew the final special effects and production work was not done in the pirated version. I think the real fear is if the plot itself stunk then why would anybody bother to show up even if the special effects were unbelievable? That of course was not the case in this particular release, but the MPAA and other anti-piracy groups were really trying to make a stand. Particularly it was important to further push the envelope in light of the $3.6 Million victory over Pirate Bay this week. What better timing could there be to let would be downloaders know that stealing would not be tolerated? Well, how about getting RapidShare to hand over its list of uploaders on top of it all? All-in-all it was a bad week to be a virtual pirate.
• Bandwidth caps took a major step back this week. First there was Time Warner Cable being forced to repeal its 40GB/month cap. Subscribers swamped TWC with complaints and for the time being the caps are off. TWC does plan to move ahead with reinstating caps after a “customer education program” is initiated to explain to subscribers why caps are important. On the other side of the spectrum is Cablevision who announced its new 101/15 Mb/s “ultra” tier of service. Included is a promise not to cap. The underlying argument is that as subscribers continue to migrate their multimedia viewing habits away from traditional medium and instead flock to the Internet for access to movies, TV, radio, and news that the cable divisions of providers will lose revenue. The easy way to make up loss for that is to charge for throughput on top of the traditional speed tiers. With record profits being cited by the big cable providers I’m not sure this is the case though. The sad truth is the big three (Comcast, TWC, and Cablevision) all own the majority of cable TV content. So even if they loose the subscriber on the cable side they will still have the eye balls on the stream. Ad revenue is ad revenue so in the end, except for small providers, I cannot personally see how they’re losing out. It seems like double dipping to me and just another angle for the big guys to milk every last dime from the subscriber.
• Microsoft made several big splashes this week that were notable. The first is the release of Internet Explorer 8 as a mandatory critical update. The second is Windows 7 hitting the MSDN as a release class (RC), which means it’s probably about six months or less away from final release. A little birdie cites a mid-October 2009 release (just in time for the holidays might I add) according to a leaked company email. The third and final was Office 2007 SP2 finally being released. The neat part of this is that the popular ODP open document format is now supported, as is export to PDF. That particularly is important as the open source competitor to Office (OpenOffice) supports those right out of the box today with much acclaim and it means that Microsoft is finally admitting this combo is a serious threat to their pay product. A minor side note announcement was that Windows 7 will support emulated Windows XP if you happen to have a legal extra copy of that OS lying around. This should address issues that Microsoft with slow adoption of both Vista and Server 2008. Even if it means that their Virtual PC may go the way of the dinosaur in lieu of built in emulation support, but let’s face facts– the 30%+ plus of revenue loss Microsoft saw year over year is enough to convince the top dogs its time to do just that. Lest it face mass migration to Linux or (*gasp*) Apple.

Thanks for reading and I hope you check back in soon as we’ll be updating regulary.