Server repurposing comes to the channel

My latest tech files column for eWeek’s Strategic Partner edition talks about how the concept of server repurposing is extending virtualization and describes ways that VARs should take a closer look at this technology. The idea is to take the parts of a server such as its IP address, its disk storage, and its associated applications, and make them virtual so that they can run on any machine in a data center and aren’t tied to a particular piece of hardware. When an enterprise needs more processing power for particular applications, you can bring up a new server in a matter of minutes and have it satisfy this demand.

You can read the full version here.

Multiply by Pi

I have been doing some seminars on IT asset management for a client and as a result I have been talking to a lot of IT managers of some fairly large organizations. One of them mentioned to me his rule of π that I thought was worth sharing. As in the Greek letter that is a geometric constant of 3.14159. (I used to know more decimal places, and yes, I was one of those kinds of people back in high school.)

 

His rule is simple: anytime a consultant or an employee gives you an estimate of what something costs or how long it will take to complete, he multiples the estimate by π. Someone says a project will take two months, it really will take a bit longer than six. And so forth.

 

I got a good laugh out of his π rule, but then I got to thinking. Why are IT people so miserable at estimating costs and time to complete work? Maybe they are the worst group of people – certainly I have had general contractors who weren’t the best at this, but then I guess I should consider myself lucky that they were only a few days off schedule rather than by such a huge factor.

 

Sure, we’ve all read the mythical man-month and other works talking about how the more developers you add to a project, the longer it will take. But this isn’t just about that.

 

Maybe it is because IT people really want to serve their clients, and set themselves up for unreasonable expectations right off the bat by underestimating their work product. Or maybe it is because the work product is so ephemeral to begin with. I mean, it isn’t like a construction crew trying to rebuild a bridge or erect a new office building.

 

I guess I am overly sensitive to this because so much of my job revolves around hitting particular deadlines that are very definite. If I miss one, someone else along the editorial production process has to make up the slack, because the magazine has to be printed at a specific time or the article has to be posted online for a particular moment. I am proud to say that I hit all of my deadlines except for some unusual circumstances.

 

But when it comes to IT projects, a deadline is more a guideline than something hard and fast. The report isn’t done? Oh well, we can wait another week, not to worry. Or how about the opposite, when your boss gives you an artificially early deadline, you actually deliver the work on time, and then he tells you that he was really not counting on getting it today and will be too busy to review it until next week? Boy, does that make you feel like you really moved heaven and earth to get the work to him as agreed.

 

Sure, things are sometimes out of your control. People make mistakes, code has bugs, equipment takes longer than anticipated to configure, the dog ate my homework, etc. Some of the delay can be explained by developers who want to add “just one more feature” before they lock down the code for production purposes. Did anyone ask them to add the feature? Probably not, they just took it on their own initiative because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

When I taught high school computer networking, believe me I heard it all when a student was late with his homework. (And you should know, I didn’t let my students slide. A deadline is a deadline, after all. Most of them only made that mistake the first time, and then cooperated quite nicely afterwards.)

 

If we are going to move towards more realistic estimates, we need to do a better job of anticipating the problems with our projects, and also need to be able to communicate up and down the food chain when the first hint of delay or feature creep hits.

 

Think about the rule of π the next time someone asks you about when you will be done with something you are working on, and try to give it some thought before you commit.

How to become a security expert

My friend Fred Avolio (who has helped me host my Web Informant mailing list for several years), has put together a master class that will teach even the most experienced IT person the important fundamentals of network security. (And I say this even with him plugging my first book on Internet Messaging.) What I like about Fred is that he has tremendous wisdom and perspective, and shows the reader some old stuff that is still very much au courant. This post is well worth a deep dive.

Baseline Strominator column: Data center consolidation

I have to come clean: I am a data center geek.

I love visiting them, and talking to the people who design and run them. Maybe it was because I worked around mainframes at the beginning of my IT career. Maybe it is all that power coursing through all those wires, and those big, greasy generators. Or the thrill of getting access to the inner sanctum of IT after passing through various security checkpoints and ‘man traps.’

There is just something about a hyper-cooled raised floor that gets me excited. Okay, enough of that. But there are some interesting things happening in data centers, including companies that are trying to downsize them to save power and money.

My next column for Baseline is posted today, and talks about what Sun did to consolidate its data centers.

Beware of online scams

I have had the dubious expertise of selling a lot of stuff via Craigslist, both here in St. Louis and also in Los Angeles. Over the past couple of years, I have come across some interesting scam artists who are fairly easy to spot. But today’s email arrived with a new exploit.

Usually, we are selling furniture. My wife is an interior decorator, and we have been through a few decorating changes. Now, when you sell a bed or some other large piece, you are not going to get too many people from out of town who are interested, unless they are moving into town. So the first tip off that something is amiss is when someone from overseas responds to the ad and says that they will pay for it sight unseen, matching your price. This violates three principles right off the bat:

• People like to negotiate prices, no matter how good a deal you are giving them. Anyone who is paying your price is suspect right there.
• People want to kick the tires and make sure that your item exists. Doesn’t matter what it is, but especially for furniture, because no photo can do any piece justice.
• Craigslist is hyper-local. Someone from out of town is suspect.

The legit customer is also going to want to think about his impending purchase, even for a few hours. And they will also pay cash, if you ask. (And you should demand cash, just because checks are so easily forged. Remember Frank Abagnale?) The con men are going to try to send you some kind of check, and mention that right off the bat in their initial email.

So my wife and I have developed our own parsing filter for these email responses, to separate the real offers from the fakers. All well and good, until we began advertising our apartment for rent this week. Today’s email brought the following:

I am highly impressed with the information in the listing. I don’t have any question at the moment. I wanna go ahead in renting the place from you. I’ll be the only person in the property. I work as a Researcher for my company (GLOBAL LINK) and I am coming to the area to carry out some research. They will be responsible for the first month rent and security deposit. I wish to sign the lease agreement in person and will be signing a year lease as soon as i get to the States. I’ll be moving to the States on March the 30th and i want the lease to start same date because I will be moving into the property directly. Kindly get the ad off from all listing because am taking the property for sure.
In the main time, I will like to secure the property asap so that i can attend to other important things for my move to the Country.
In order to proceed with payment, I will need the following information so that we can continue from there.
(1) FULL NAME AS IT WILL BE ON CHECK,
(2) MAILING ADDRESS,
(3) CELL NUMBER AND ALTERNATIVE NUMBER.
Kindly get back to me with the above information and in case of any query, please contact me on my phone number 0044XXXXXXX. Await your response asap.

A few things struck me about this email. First, why is he so eager? Second, why would someone from the UK (based on his phone number) in a financial services firm, move to St. Louis? Granted, we are becoming a bigger banking center with Wachovia buying AG Edwards, but still. Third, why is he using kindly so much? There is nothing kind about this, it is a business transaction. Fourth, the ALL CAPS is another tip-off. Fifth, the email came from Yahoo.com, rather than a corporate email account. Finally, why ask to remove the ad from Craigslist? Something didn’t add up.

A quick check online found the managing director of GlobalLink.com in the UK, and about an hour later he was kindly replying with the fact that the gent didn’t exist in his office. So case closed. But I just wonder how many people are less suspicious, or who don’t check out their potential buyers, fall into his trap?

Craigslist is a great site, and we have sold lots of stuff over the years on it. And they do a fairly good job of warning you about the con artists. But this just shows you that the bad guys are getting smarter all the time, which means you have to, too.

Secrets of social media marketing

For the past year, Paul Gillin and I have produced a weekly series of podcasts called Tech PR War Stories. Paul is a great podcasting partner on several levels: First, he has that Radio Voice that I so sorely lack, with the deep bass undertones and the bright finish, the aural equivalent of drinking a fine wine.  Second, he has been around the tech publishing field as long as I have, and has lots of great insights. Third, even though we have both been in the same field for so long, we still know different people and it is fun to meld our influencers and audiences. Finally, Paul is great to work with and we have a lot of fun with the podcast. Not to mention that he and his wife do the real heavy lifting of the audio production. What began as a labor of love is now its own life force and a great body of work.

It is always good to have a podcasting partner, because let’s face it, some weeks you just don’t have anything interesting to say, and you can always play off on each other’s wit and wisdom.

Paul is writing his second book (some people never learn), and this time he is practicing what he preaches about being more open: he has posted the first three chapters on a wiki, so that readers can comment, augment his text, and see for themselves what he is doing, before he submits the ms. to the publisher next month. It is a great idea, and more importantly, a wonderful and essential read for anyone that is trying to take advantage of blogs, social networks, virtual worlds, and all this other stuff that is happening online these days.

Take a look at the drafts for the Secrets of Social Media Marketing (working title) here, and tell me you don’t come away learning something new. And of course, if you want to listen to Paul and I chatter on, do subscribe to our podcasts here. We are celebrating our on-year anniversary by doing the podcast together at the offices of Lois Paul and Partners on April 1, and inviting a few special guests, so stay tuned for that episode.

Joel Spolsky on the coming browser standards meltdown

One of my favorite bloggers is Joel Spolsky, who runs Fog Creek Software in New York City. His most recent post is about the coming browser standards meltdown. You see, Microsoft has a problem with IE 8, the next version of its browser. (Wait a minute! I barely got used to IE 7, and now they want me to upgrade again?) I loved his post for many reasons: first, because he is a funny guy and uses some great examples of what Martians would do if they had standards. Second, because he quotes one of the most wonderful people on the planet (and my co-author of my first book) Marshall Rose. And finally, because of stuff like the following:

And the web designers are discovering what the Jews of Mea Shearim have known for decades: just because you all agree to follow one book doesn’t ensure compatibility, because the laws are so complex and complicated and convoluted that it’s almost impossible to understand them all well enough to avoid traps and landmines, and you’re safer just asking for the fruit plate.

Do take a moment and head over to his site and read through his post.

The technology behind Springfield’s Lincoln Museum

I am one of those inveterate museum goers. Often on a business trip I will take some time to stop by a favorite gallery or seek out a new one. And so, when I had a chance to write an article for the New York Times about the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., I jumped at the chance.

Alas, the story was cut from the paper at the last minute, but I thought I would share with you some of my experiences. What was interesting about the place, which has been open for about three years, is how it combines Vegas glitz and geeky gadgets to bring the scholarship of Lincoln’s life and the Civil War years into a modern context.

I spent about three hours there on a day that was turning into one of those Midwestern snow squalls, and it was fun to tour the place with their IT manager and see how they built some of the attractions. They have a wide variety of tech in place, from the ordinary such as theatrical lighting to the unusual with very advanced digital holographic projectors. It is far cry from a dusty collection of artifacts in glass cases, and the museum designers have succeeded at bringing many parts of the Lincoln story quite literally to life.

There are dozens of video projectors used throughout the place, including playing key roles in two theaters that run short programs – one is about Lincoln’s life, the other talks about library research where a live actor lip-synchs to the script and is part of a very snazzy special effect. The contrast of old and new stagecraft is fascinating, particularly when the actor told me that the technique used in his show dates back to Lincoln’s time, when they used gas lamps instead of electric lights and fiber optics.

Underneath each seat in one theater are special Butt Kicker speakers that respond to the rifle fire and cannon blasts on the soundtrack, creating vibrations that make these scenes very realistic. What the designers told me is how computer-controlled video programming is being used as another theatrical lighting instrument, and is changing the way they work. All of the video is digitized and plays from terabytes of hard disk storage. All of the systems have sophisticated error-checking routines and emails the technical staff when something goes wrong.

One of the more interesting videos is a short four-minute film that shows a map of the US and the entire Civil War. You see the constantly shifting front line between North and South, the number of casualties, and the major battles taking place. It is a powerful reminder of how devastating that war was.

Another video-intensive exhibit is an interpretation of the 1860 election that was filmed in Tim Russert’s “Meet the Press” studios in Washington, D.C. The exhibit shows various TV monitors as if the visitor is in the studio’s control room, and the video clips and commercials are from the perspective of the four candidates running for office and their particular positions. This room alone uses three video servers and has 11 different TV monitors and runs under the control of a Windows NT PC. Yes, a version of Windows that isn’t even sold anymore is at the heart of this wonderful room. (Another PC runs DOS, too.)

The lighting and even temperature of the various rooms are all under computer control all in the goal of providing the best visitor experience. The computers take into account the existing ambient lighting based on time of day and sun position, and one room that shows the deathbed of one of Lincoln’s sons is several degrees cooler than the adjoining rooms, all to make it a bit more eerie.

Still, some artifacts are required to complement the technology. An antique stove that is part of an exhibit on what the White House kitchen of the 1860s looked like was purchased on eBay, and replicas of Lincoln’s famous documents such as the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address are in other rooms.  And as a reminder of the contrast between Lincoln’s legacy and his time in office, one room of the museum is devoted to a series of reproductions of political cartoons of the time, showing how unpopular Lincoln was during his presidency.

It is a great place, and well worth the visit if you ever have the chance. What I liked about the museum was how it combines the best of technology with ordinary museum practice to tell some great stories, and to teach people a little bit more about Honest Abe.

Baseline Strominator column: The benefits of applications streaming

et me ask you a simple question: How many versions of Microsoft Office do you currently have across your enterprise?

If your answer is more than one, or you don’t know, or your users are running three different word processors, then maybe it is time to think about streaming your applications from a central place and trying to regain control here.

The idea is simple to understand. Just as you stream a video or music file to your desktop from across the Internet without actually making a copy of it to your hard disk, the same happens with your applications.

You can read more here in my column for Baseline magazine today.

Free WiFi at Denver Airport: You get what you pay for

I have had several trips to Denver in the past year, mostly to visit my daughter in college. Last fall they turned on free WiFi at the airport, and while slow I thought it was a nice amenity, particularly as the airport is so far from any civilization that you usually have to allow plenty of time to get there.

Now the stories are out that they use a filter to block several Web sites, including those of Sports Illustrated and some tech blogging sites. (Irony alert: if you are actually reading this in DIA, you won’t be able to get to the above link, which goes to BoingBoing and is on the blocked list!) The reason for the block is to keep porn from the wandering eyes of kids.

The last time I was at DIA, the WiFi was pretty slow and virtually unusable, but my daughter has reported better results (I guess for Facebook and IM it is acceptable.)

Maybe in addition to a smoking section we need to have a porn-viewing section at airports. That would certainly motivate me to get to the airport early!  Come to think of it, why not have such sections on flights as well, once we start having WiFi access on the planes? I would sit there just to get away from the crying babies.