Talking Out Loud with ASB

Continuing My Quest for More LinkedIn Improvements

2009-06-28T16:30:14Z

It’s been almost 16 months since my last LinkedIn Feature Request post , and thankfully, the folks at LinkedIn have not been sitting idly by. No, they still haven’t brought back the Personal Plus membership (or a reasonable $5-10/month alternative) to bridge the gap between the free service and the $20+/month offerings. And I am still awaiting – with bated breath – for a customized structure of tiered contacts that would allow us to group people in up to, say, 5 categories. Plaxo...(read more)

Key Principles for Maximizing IT Value

2009-06-14T23:31:19Z

I just came across the following article while checking through my LinkedIn group discussions: Some IT Leadership Principles for CEO's & Business Leaders It is definitely a worthy read, and requires very little commentary. These simply stated principles encompass a wealth of information which organizations would do well to consider and apply. The only point I would like to add to this excellent list is as follows: If your IT function does not go beyond mere order-taking, it's...(read more)

An Excellent Birthday Surprise

2009-06-01T04:19:15Z

May 2009 has been a rather eventful month for me. Lots of activities and responsibilities at work, home and church. For the most part, everything has gone very well. On the 24th, I celebrated my birthday, and the day began with a conference call for a data/application migration that was in progress. Yes, that’s the best way to spend one’s birthday on a holiday weekend. Such is the profession I have chosen. :) As it turned out, my darling wife had been planning a surprise...(read more)

Don’t Let The Pressure Get To You

2009-05-14T03:01:13Z

Good people sometimes do really dumb things, and nothing brings out more stupidity than stress. The reason behind the stress almost doesn’t matter. Whether it’s a tight deadline, a personal crisis, the global economic situation, or a seven-game NBA series , stress causes issues, and has a tendency to bring out the worst in people. As an example, check out the comments made by Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic , after the Magic blew a 14-point lead in the 4th quarter of their game with...(read more)

Online File Storage and Collaboration Tools

2009-05-10T18:41:41Z

Two of my favorite tools for online storage and collaboration are DropBox and Box.net . Because each product offers features that the other lacks, and because they appear to be attacking the challenges of collaboration different perspectives, I make use of both products, albeit to achieve slightly different objectives. Due to the desktop client component of DropBox , it is my hands down favorite tool for synchronizing my data (particularly scripts and documents) across multiple...(read more)

The beat goes on…

2009-05-06T01:06:47Z

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending an Angelbeat conference in NYC. One of the best products I saw while I was there was from Persystent Technologies . This application allows you to maintain the configuration of a desktop or laptop system and restore it to a pre-ordained state – even if the OS itself gets corrupted. Over the next few days, I’ll put together some summaries of the sessions. There were great presentations by Google, Microsoft, DataDomain and others. Overall,...(read more)

The Business of Information Technology

2009-04-06T04:20:21Z

There is an excellent discussion taking place on the LinkedIn group for CIO magazine under the heading of: Some thoughts on IT-Business Alignment from the Chase Zander IT Director Forum (as influenced by CIO Forum members) So far, there are over 35 responses, and many of them are really good. A couple of them got me to thinking about where the complaints concerning “IT Alignment” (or lack thereof) tend to originate. It seems to me that the vast majority of times that I hear about a lack of...(read more)

Short Takes for April 2009

2009-04-03T01:45:00Z

It’s only the second of April, and already I’m dealing with chaos. And not the kind I expected, either. We’ve all been waiting for Conflicker to do something this month , but so far, nothing has occurred. This is not a bad thing, mind you, as long as we realize that we need to be equally vigilant about all subsequent threats. Chances are, though, that the general public will think that it was all pointless and get hit by the next big one. On the other hand, today, I experienced...(read more)

We’re Back In The Worm Zone

2009-03-30T16:34:41Z

The Conficker worm continues to make headlines , not only because it has been so elusive over the past 5 or so months, but because it is configured to do something special on April 1, 2009. For a disturbingly large number of individuals and organizations, it could prove to be a not-so-happy day. You can read up on the anticipated April 1 activity of Conficker at the following URLs. The post from The IT Security Attaché breaks it down for those not necessarily versed in the jargon of information...(read more)

Job Hunting in the 21st Century

2009-03-29T14:13:56Z

In 2009, there is no time to complain about how tight and unfair the job market is, or how hard it is to get a resume in the door. There is no more room for complaining about unqualified people using their personal or family connections to get into job opportunities. These are all surmountable issues. In the past few weeks, I’ve read a number of articles and postings on various social networks that decry the fact that the job hunting process is largely a political one. I would argue...(read more)

Get Even More Space With DropBox

2009-03-13T19:26:34Z

I’ve been using DropBox since last summer , and I wrote about how useful after just a few months of use. Well, another 6 months have passed, and it has become even more indispensible for me. I’ve recently started using the collaboration feature of DropBox , and it looks like my usage of this service is only going to increase, given the excellent value it provides. Keeping files in sync has never been so much fun. (I also make use of Beyond Compare as part of my file/folder synchronization...(read more)

The Compliance Trap

2009-03-12T20:47:00Z

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Almost exactly two years ago, I posted an article about the general organizational obsession with regulatory (or industry) compliance, at the expense of proper information security . Just today, I read an article on the CIOzone that asks: Does PCI Compliance Work? The point being made in this article is a very valid one, and one that bears repeating: The PCI DSS standard is merely a *baseline* that can help organizations identify...(read more)

Our New Video Project

2009-02-23T04:08:36Z

Yesterday, my wife embarked on a bold new experiment: She’s going to be hosting a monthly vegetarian cooking class called “ Taste and See ” which we will record to video and making available online. The first episode was filmed at our church last night, and it went rather well. Granted, the video for the first episode is cheesy (yeah, that’s my fault) , and we had some audio interference, but the two chefs handled themselves well, and the food was awesome!! In just under an...(read more)

Effective IT Leadership

2009-02-16T04:06:35Z

This month, I’ve been reading some really good articles and books on IT Leadership and Project Management, including several books by Bob Lewis , author of Keep the Joint Running . If you consider yourself an IT Leader, you could do much, much worse than to purchase one or more of the books you find on his website, and then apply some of the concepts. I highly recommend them for the following reasons: They’re insightful, yet extremely practical They’re an easy read: serious, but not dry Each book...(read more)

Yes, Security Is Still Important in 2009

2009-02-13T15:25:45Z

Quite frankly, it’s even more important than it has been in the past. This morning, I was reading some articles on information security, including news about the Conficker worm . You know, we haven’t had a really good worm in 3 or 4 years, so it seems that people have forgotten about how dangerous those things can be, and how much damage they can cause is a very short period of time. So far, over 10 million (say it now, 10 meeeellion) systems have been affected. ...(read more)