May 01

Businesses Going under?

A common trend these days is to pick businesses that are not going to be around in the next year, 5 years, etc.  Here are my pics for businesses that are gone for sure by this time next year.

 

  • Blockbuster video – already most of the stores in Northern Colorado are gone.  On-Demand and cheap DVD’s at your favorite store are taking over and they just keep hemorrhaging cash.

 

In the next 5 years:

  • Sears – if  they could pull something bold out of their hat to get out of this death spiral they’re in, they might have a chance (new store concept, etc.) but they just can’t seem to think right
  • Radio Shack – Too bad about this one, but they went from a place where I could find an archaic gizmo or gadget, to a place that tries to imitate Best Buy (another one on some people’s death clock), and does a lousy job of it because they’re smaller than Best Buy.  Just not workable.  If I were at the helm I’d cut down on the number of stores and play up my online offerings as best I can.  Hope for the best.

 

Companies on many death clocks but I think will make it:

  • Microsoft: Still has plenty of cash, and has anybody looked at the new Windows Mobile?  It’s pretty cool…now if it could only get on the Sprint Network…speaking of…
  • Sprint: When they catch up building their LTE networks, the customers will come back to their unlimited plans, they’re still a terrific value on the mobile world
  • Best Buy: Everyone thinks the world of dedicated electronics stores is going away, but when you’re the only Mass Electronics retail store in Northern Colorado, amongst other areas that’s got to mean something.  Best buy pretty much stands alone other than the Internet (and do you really want to pay shipping on that new 60 inch TV?) and Big Boxes like Wal-Mart (who have nowhere near the selection).

Apr 30

Toastmasters is finally starting to click in me

I think I mentioned somewhere in my blog that I joined Toastmasters at some point.  I’ve been functioning for some time now as VP of education and have given a few speeches now.  A recent speech of mine concerned “Cyber-Security, more than just your IT team.” On why end users need to be more vigilant about their security situation on the Internet.

Every speech has an evaluator for that speech.  Your evaluator could be just about anyone in your Toastmasters club.  My evaluator was relatively under-skilled with computers, when she got up on stage and gave me my evaluation she said to me “It just went *whoosh* over my head”.  Now I had made it a specific point to get my speech down to where the end users could understand, avoiding all technical jargon (I didn’t even use the term “phisher” I just left it at “attacker”.  This evaluator was my target audience!  I WANTED her to understand the importance of knowing right from wrong on the Internet, and yet I didn’t make it through.

I’m going to have to work with end users (in particular I’m pointing my evaluator to this post) and figure out just what I’m doing wrong here.  I have few ideas as to what I’m doing wrong.  Is it possible I’ve been in the IT world so long as to where the basic IT concepts just come naturally to me?  Never fear I shall try again….

Apr 29

The PC is declining, NOT dying

(I know, it’s been awhile since I last posted, sorry for anyone really watching my page)

 

Anyways people keep telling me the Desktop (and even laptop) is dead.  I’m going to sum this up in a few words why it’s got some time to go:

  1. Until a Tablet or a Console can give me an IDE I’d want to use to develop/build apps on, I’m developing on a desktop
  2. Performance, Desktops are usually the fastest machines out there, followed by their laptop brethren, if you need speed, there is only one way to go
  3. Familiarity, sorry I just got grandma trained on a desktop, I don’t want to have to teach her a new phone or tablet too…
  4. price per hertz, try this, take the number of megahertz/gigahertz your tablet claims, multiply by the number of cores, then divide by the price tag, then take the resulting number and do the same with your desktop, then compare.  Feel you’re being had in the Tablet world yet?  PC’s in performance terms offer far better bang for the dollar.  I take some exception to the smart phone world where the prices you’re paying are not the real prices, as most people inevitably take the Smart Phone subsidy from their provider in exchange for a 2 year contract.  So to level the playing field, make sure you look at the “unlocked” price for that phone, after all your desktop doesn’t obligate you to any 2 year contracts with anyone normally (I remember a few ISP’s offering subsidies for 2 year Internet service contracts awhile ago, but hasn’t been done in awhile).

And I’m sure you’ll find more reasons if you look.

Mar 31

Microsoft, I am Pissed

For the last 20 years you have provided Minesweeper with windows, and all is good.  Minesweeper is a fun easy game and we loved it.

Now, you’ve monetized it, shown advertising around the game and offered to let me spend money to remove the advertising with Windows 8 pro.  This is deplorable, screw you Microsoft.

You see, this has made the game unplayable for my daughter.  Who was starting to get good at Minesweeper, beating the beginner level at age 5 no less.  However when she cried to daddy for help with the computer, and I went over to see what was wrong, I found her with a browser window open to the local Honda dealer, she has the dealer contact form open with her first name entered in all the fields trying to figure out what is going on (She learned to type her name in the computer, but didn’t realize that nothing in that box was going to help her).  I peel back windows and trace it back to a Honda ad Minesweeper gave her that she accidentally clicked on.

This scares me Microsoft, I went through a lot of trouble to create a hassle free environment for her, using paid, ad-free software and you just screwed me on this, with one of the simplest games rendered inaccessible to her.  Unless I either cough up dough, or just uninstall Minesweeper.  Likely, disgusted at the whole issue, I’m uninstalling Minesweeper.  Granted I don’t know what she’ll click on next.  Will she next somehow manage to buy a Honda?  Or since you’ve judged her old enough to buy a car shall I expect to see online personals ads next?  Will I find her up on Zoosk or Match.com before her time?  The possibilities scare me to no end.

So Minesweeper is gone on my computer, may it rest in peace.

Mar 11

A long time ago I was a big gaming fan…

Way baaack when, before I had a kid (more or less was a kid myself), I loved gaming on a computer.  I still do to some extent.  In my high school days, SimCity 2000, DOOM 2 and Civilization II rocked!

Fast forward a bit to my College years with all night LAN tournaments playing StarCraft (the first), and Diablo II, Civilization III and SimCity III.  Life was awesome in gaming-land.  Out of College Civilization IV came out and it’s still on my computer…

However I don’t spend much money on games these days, why?  Because of this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FTE2VW/ref=s9_simh_gw_p63_d2_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=152D0XRJ0JKRN4KK1RDT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846

It’s something that has been creeping up in the gaming industry for sometime.  Obsessive control of the gaming experience.  To the point where I spend $60 and hope there are no connectivity issues to my servers when I want to play my games.  $60 spent to hope that in 10 years I can still play my game anymore (Don’t laugh, I still play DOOM 2 and SimCity 2000 on DOSBOX/Virtual machines every now and again, I’d like to say the same for SimCity 5 but I just don’t think that’ll happen).  Also I’d spend $60 to be told I’m going to have to spend $20 more for “upgrades” not just a new expansion but to put a subway system in my SimCity? Jeesh, talk about stuff you’d take for granted…

So what’s my gaming like nowadays?  On my Desktop now we have Civilization IV, and for my daughter a few games out of the Microsoft App Store like “Cut the Rope” and “Where’s my water”, at least those newer games were mere $5 investments, and they’re playable if I disconnect my PC from the Internet.  Also Minesweeper is still a classic favorite.

Congrats gaming world, you’ve turned me from a big gaming fan, to a small gaming fan.  If this keeps up I’ll become a non-gamer in no time flat…

In the meantime anyone up for a round of Civilization IV?

Mar 06

Long Time no See Everyone

Yeah I know, haven’t posted much.  Been busy transitioning to a new job, a few personal issues as well.  Been pretty busy.  Though I promise more new SharePoint and related articles in the coming time.  For now, just amuse yourself with my RSS feed to the right and be well!

Feb 01

I LOVE American Express!

So, after reviewing my expense account and noticing a few new entries hitting my “American Express corporate charges” that I don’t recall, I took a closer look.  Apparently Amex charged me $78 for a few late charges that I didn’t see before.  Upon closer examination I saw that indeed, I left a balance on my Amex card for 3 months and now they wanted their money….DOOH!

I took a closer look at the expense, realized that I’d have to classify it personal as well, meaning Sogeti wasn’t going to cover it.  Double DOOH!  So I decided to call Amex and beg and plead for forgiveness, here was my call in a nutshell:

 

Amex: How can I help you?

Me: Hi there, I owe x on my credit card, includes $78 worth of late charges on an expense that was an oversight on my part, can I beg you guys REALLY nicely to get rid of those and I’ll send a payment on these?

Amex: Absolutely, $78 in late charges are gone, and I’ll process your x payment for the remainder.  Have a good day!

Me: That’s it? No sparring over the charges or anything?

Amex: Nope, just one condition…

Me: Yes?

Amex: That you yell as loud as politely possible “I Love Amex”

Me: “I LOVE AMEX” *loud enough so the building lobby I’m in definitely hears it…*  heck I’ll put it on my blog and my favorite forums.. that was too easy.  I think I’ll get my personal card back to Amex again.

Amex: Glad to hear it!

 

And who says calling customer service has to be a nightmare?

Jan 04

Testing SharePoint

Lots of people just create a SharePoint site and run off, thinking nothing more of performance and reliability later.  Let’s just wait for the end users to complain, right? What’s this “testing” you speak of?

Well those of us who have Visual Studio 2010 (and know how to use it) can do so much more to ensure reliability for such little time and hassle (not a single line of code required unless you want to, promise!) in your SharePoint testing.  Lots of the tools are just SO simple to use, and could ensure that your site stays responsive with only a few clicks.  Just go into Visual Studio 2010, start-up a test project and look at the following:

Unit Tests: If you’re a .NET/SharePoint developer, you know what these are and why you should use them.  Mostly useless outside of developing your own apps, but if you’re creating applications nowadays and not creating a basic set of unit tests to provide some code coverage, you need to catch up…

Web Performance Tests: These record a set of URL’s you go to and test access times and error conditions as if you were surfing the page.  Can be a good “Canary” if you will for proper performance.  One hint:  in a load balanced environment, test each server individually as well as the load balanced URL, this can help you isolate problems on the individual servers or the load balancer itself.  Also I’ve found it a good idea to include Central Administration on my web performance tests to give me a good baseline during testing.

Load Tests: Take either one and see how it performs with many virtual users hammering on your site.  When set up properly it can give you average responsiveness and key performance metrics from the performance monitor as your site is being hit.  Outstanding stuff for your testing.

How hard is this?  On a vanilla SharePoint site I must have set all three tests up in Visual Studio in about 5 minutes.  Voila I know have basic knowledge of how my site will test under load.

 

Dec 13

Project Server Musings

Another product in the SharePoint realm I haven’t paid much attention to:  MS Project server.  After all who needs something to create yet another Gantt Chart right? Well…

From a geek working on a Project Server you get the following:

–Project Server has Instant status Reports, no need to submit something at the end of the week, if you’ve been punching in information the whole time, the team already knows what you’re doing.

–Project Server is Integrated with timecard too, this can function as a labor tracking solution

 

From an IT Pro:

–You get an environment in Project Server that works about as much as SharePoint does (after all it’s really a big SharePoint Service Application), so upgrade and deployment procedures are hardly news

 

Pretty simple really, give MS Project Server a look-see.  It can actually be worth it!

 

Dec 05

Deployment Strategies With SharePoint

A big question I get asked as a consultant “So how do we keep our SharePoint Development, Test, UAT and Production environments in sync, especially our SharePont Production and UAT as we really need to verify everything is working.”  This question again can be answered by good SharePoint governance, striking again! A few basic things I try to follow:

SharePoint does give you a host of tools to help you out.  One answer lies in Content Deployment paths.  Which are useful at publishing new features and promoting up.  It’s important to remember though that Content Deployment paths are one way however.  They don’t sync backwards and forwards.  They also don’t do anything about what lies outside of the Site Collecton (Features to be installed at the Web App Level, Server changes, GAC Deployed assemblies, amongst many others).  Though it’s a help.  You need to closely manage content deployment and have a sharp eye for setting things up.  Typically this is how a corporate SharePoint environment runs:

1) Various SharePoint developers, designers, authors, etc. setup their work on their own development servers. Have fun and play around on them.  Once a new feature they’ve built is now declared “code complete, needs testing” usually by passing all its unit tests, the person in charge of the new feature creates a content deployment job, and deploys to test.

2) Test is a “convergence” environment, where all developers gather from their development SharePoint environments and see how their features work with each other, and get an idea of how production is going to handle the new feature.  At this level, all unit tests must pass now to promote to test now and other tests such as load testing and full integration testing are done here.

3) So, the testing team likes this new feature now and they give it a green light to go further.  The next step from here is to double-check that production and UAT are in sync.  Often it’s a good practice to run a deployment path down from production to UAT before uploading the new code via content deployment path from test.  The idea here is to get the UAT environment looking exactly like the “to be” state of production, and continue testing there.

4) Once satisfied, off to production we go.  Of course you test on production as well, but if all goes well this should be a formality.

This works well at the SharePoint Site Collection level and below, but for features that exist at the farm, web application or whole server levels we need to think about how to manage these procedures.  Typically I always follow the procedure of 1) Develop, 2) Test, 3) Refresh UAT from Production 4) Test to UAT, 5) UAT from production in all I do.  The trick is to standardize the deployment.  To do this you have a few options:

1) SharePoint .WSP files are portable from environment to environment and can be deployed in a similar process as a content deployment path.  They can also deploy more things such as Farm and Web Application scoped features, Assemblies, etc.

2) If you need to install a third-party tool (SharePoint or otherwise), consider using an automated installer if at all possible.  At a minimum make sure the installation on each environment is throughly documented.

3) Manual Server Change on the SharePont servers?  Again documented…especially on production.  What is helpful at the production level is a “peer system” one person doing, and another person taking notes of what was done or attempted, then printing up the report.

Another good friend in ensuring consistency is the Virtual Machine snapshot feature.  I like to follow a best practice of taking a snapshot before any server change in production.  I’ve heard of some brave folk who go so far as refreshing UAT machines by copying in the production machines, renaming the machines and changing the IP Addresses to UAT names and addresses. The one trick here is SQL Server too, you would have to use aliases to make sure your server name isn’t pointing back to production databases when you copy back to UAT.  The first thing you would have to do after copying the machines over is changing the production aliases to UAT aliases pointing to the newly copied over UAT Server.

Anyways there are lots to think about in SharePoint deployment.  You likely could just write-up a whole book on the topic.  Good luck!

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