My Blackberry Buzzed for an Hour

I'm not actually exaggerating. Windows updates rolled through our network on Wednesday and hit one of a pair of our development servers. The second server, which had recently been spooled up and was just started to be configured had been unknowingly set in such a way that it was dependent upon the first system. Once that unit went off line due to the typical reboot required after most Windows updates, that second sever went crazy trying to find it. Email after email shot out of it as it retried and retried to contact the first unit. Over 6,000 emails later, the MIS team was able to catch it and silence the noise.

So what's the problem? Well information overload is clearly an issue. It's great to get one email when there's a problem or perhaps one every 5 minutes, but computers are capable of retrying operations so quickly that it becomes a nightmare to try to sort through that type of flow.

Secondly, a problem upstream, creates another one downstream. Our email server certainly isn't scaled to handle that level of traffic. We only have so much CPU and storage capacity on the system and other messages end up getting lost (in the worst case) or taking a back seat (in the very least) while the spasm of email continues.

What to do? Well, we can limit who gets the email. Formerly, it was an entire department. And that impacts fewer people on the notification, but still creates downstream problems for others. We can look to filter the information that gets sent through the development of triggers based on logged activity rather than application activity. This would be a significant architectural shift for our applications, but is probably something we're going to have to do in order to better deal with these issues on a long term basis. 

Life is pretty interesting sometimes.

The Tragedy of the Uninformed

I found myself in a meeting today answering questions to the group, not once, but twice - incorrectly. Now, you might say to yourself, "This guy is an egomaniac! Big deal, two wrong questions!" And you would have a point. However, I pride myself on knowing my areas of responsibility better than everyone else. Period. 

I don't do it just for the pride of knowing more than others. I do it because I believe that knowing more about the people, systems and processes around me results in me being able to make better decisions. Better knowledge, more facts and experience can only mean better results.

So I was embarrassed, though it was unlikely even a few others noticed. What to do? Allow myself to be corrected gracefully (I hope) and move on. Learn some humility at the same time and be sure to up my game next time around.

What's the point of all this? It's OK to be wrong. It's even more important that we conduct ourselves in a manner that allows people to be free to correct us. We're still all human and we're going to make some mistakes. Learn from it. Allow yourself to fail and LEARN from it. Even when it is a small thing. It will make you stronger. Just because you don't have the facts once or twice does not mean you need to become a part of the tragedy of the uninformed.

The Alien has landed - Part 3

The Alien has been powered up, quieted down and now it's time to put the Personalized in Personal Computer. First thing first, we're going to need to adjust the lights on this box. The massive amount of lighting it is just a bit strange. Luckily, the Alien Command Center allows you to shut down any of the various parts of the lighting. I turned off the sides right away and stuck with the blue for the Alien and front lighting. It's more subtle that way.

With that out of the way, it's all about the downloads. Windows Updates, iTunes, an anti-virus system, Open Office, Firefox, Spybot. The list is quite lengthy at for a modern computer. But they are everything a fellow needs to get his system in shape.

Those all downloaded and installed without issue. This is the first time I've experimented with a 64-bit OS in some time, but so far everything was working fine. Opening Firefox was unbelievably fast - Alien rendered pages faster than I've ever seen. More validation of a good blend of parts.

The next step was to add some more storage. I had only ordered a 500GB drive for the OS volume. That was going to be plenty. I had a couple of extra 1TB drives lying around so those were going into the system for file storage.

Power down. Open up the case.

I could have wept with joy. Every drive bay had a tool-less bay, similar to my HP MediaSmart server. Even better, each one of the 3 available bays was pre-cabled for both power and a SATA cable. I wasn't going to have to tear the machine apart to put some ugly cable runs in. Thank you Alienware! I slid in the 2 drives in about a minute each and was done. Next, I booted into the BIOS and configured them into a RAID-1 mirror. This was going to be my data volume so I wanted to make sure I had some redundancy in the system.

Since I had the system open, I thought to move my TV tuner card over as well. Not so fast. There was only one open PCI slot and that was taken by the Creative Labs X-Fi board. I guess if I want a tuner, I'm going to have to get an external unit. Oh well, I have plenty of USB slots.

The last thing is just to move the data over from my old PC and then this baby is ready for business. After that, I'll move one more 1TB drive into the Alien so I have room for plenty of game installs and I'll be done.

I am very happy with the maintainability of this machine. I have a few ideas moving forward, such as overclocking and perhaps adding memory. I'll be sure to update everyone here as to how that all goes. In the meantime, I'm going to go off and enjoy this fine machine.

Process Re-engineering

As part of my MBA program, I'm taking a class on Information Technology for Management. While this is a topic with which I have more than a passing familiarity, I am finding myself picking up a great deal of information as well as new ways of looking at old problems.

One of the assignments for the class was to read a well known business book by the title of Reengineering the Corporation.

The last edition is from 2003 so it was updated relatively recently. It includes discussion of how to approach the difficult problem of re-making processes at companies that have existed for a long time. It is a powerful book that is a must read for any manager who is struggling to bring change to their department and improve productivity. 

It is an easy read, is just over 200 pages and I cannot recommend it enough. Buy it now and take it with you on your next plane ride, it will be worth the 12 bucks. I promise.

It's the Training, Dummy

Are your users dumb? Or are you?

Software development firms love to believe that their products are "intuitive" and "easy to use." But, invariably, when those folks see how their products are used in the real world the are surprised how people are using them. They are shocked that some features are not being used. They are dumbfounded at the work flows that users have concocted. "There's an easier way!" they cry. But the users don't find it.

It has been an unwritten rule that the degree of complexity in a system dictates its ease of use. I challenge that statement. I believe that unplanned complexity creates systems that are hard to use because the design metaphor tends to change over time due to evolving requirements. These are the situations in which a clean start may be appropriate in order to make a more coherent system.

But, that's rarely possible on a regular basis. You can only rip out the foundation and start over so many times in a year or quarter. Instead, you need to be able to bring the tablets down to the people. We live in a time in which distance learning is becoming more and more effective. Products such as WebEx, GoToMeeting and Live Meeting are all ways that we can engage with customers that we couldn't before. That can save cost and allow you to reach more customers than we could before. But, is it effective?

There is a great deal of value in bringing people together in person, especially for training events.Trainers teach best when they can see the body language of their students. Students learn best when they aren't trying to take training classes in their offices with emails, phone calls and co-workers constantly interrupting them.

There's a time and a place for all the various training approaches. Webinars might be highly appropriate for your customer base or at least a segment of them. You probably will need to reach out in all sorts of ways: on-line help, on-line video training, appearances at industry events and conferences, in person group training, on demand training, etc. The important takeaway is to commit yourself and your company to ensuring that your customers have the opportunity to learn enough about your system to ensure that they can use it effectively. They will be much more likely to keep it.

So, next time your product isn't gaining share in the marketplace, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, "Is it the training?"

The Alien has landed - Part 2

In my last update, I had unboxed the new computer and was ready to power up. No time like the present. 

Fans!

The computer roared to life with a loud howl, and I mean ROARED - akin to a vacuum cleaner. This was not a good start! One of the peeves of my old computer was how loud it was and this thing sounded like a jet plane. Luckily, after about 15 seconds the roar stepped down to a wail and then the system settled down even further to a low murrmur. Whew! Just as I was getting ready to send it back, it redeemed itself.

Lights!

As it started loading Windows 7, the next thing that was evident were the glowing lights. Alienware's signature logo is the alien head and it was glowing a vibrant blue. The lower front fascia and both sides of the case emitted a similar blue glow. There was a lot of light coming off this thing and since it was visible from the living room, that was going to get annoying over time - especially since I leave my computers on 24/7.

Action!

The system booted pretty quickly. I had to agree to the typical license agreements and then was into Windows 7. Windows Updates were the first order of business. I updated all the open critical updates, downloaded the correct monitor drivers, etc. I had to marvel at just how fast programs launched, how quickly IE rendered the web pages and so on. Even at that early stage, I began to admire just how fast this computer is.

In Part 3, I'll talk about setting up the system, expansion and working a little bit more with the alien.

Weeding the Flower Bed

Over the weekend, awakened early by act of dogs, I found myself working through several household chores. After the recent heavy rains, I had to clear the gutters, scrub the entry way and then I found myself in the backyard. The recent precipitation had left the ground soft. Already filthy from the other activities, I decided to do some weeding. 

In our backyard, there are a couple of very large planters.The rain, cooler temperatures and decent sunshine had conspired to create a significant growth of weeds throughout the various planters. I figured I would have to pull almost everything out of them, leaving them essentially bare.

As I started clawing through the shaggy growth, I found that there was plenty of weeds to be pulled. However, I couldn't be indiscriminate with my destruction - there were plenty of flowers, growth and plants that were worthy of being saved. And, as the piles of weeds grew beside the planters, the beauty started to emerge. Delightful colors of white, yellow, pink and purple started to be able to stand proudly on their own - free of the overwhelming, overshadowing growth of the weeds.

It's funny how the mind works. As I worked through the physical, mindless labor, my mind was free to wander. And, it connected the flower and weeds to  the parallels that I see in the professional business environment. As management, we often complain about the slow progress of a project or wonder why morale isn't better. We wonder why we don't have more game changers, more super stars. Well, perhaps the flowers are just overwhelmed by weeds. 

Weeds flourish in harsh environments, flowers don't. So when you are frustrated by the progress of your team, you have to ask yourself, "are we providing the right environment?" That means, paying attention to behavior which dampens communication, enthusiasm and productivity. No one person, no matter how talented can be allowed to exhibit behavior that hurts the company. These types of things can appear subtlety or overtly, in little and in big ways. And it's hard sometimes to have an objective measure in which to gauge just how well we are doing on something that's entirely subjective. 

But at the end of the day, do you have a flower bed you can be proud of, or are you just looking past the weeds to see a glimmer of color, of hope? Absent the harsh, the ugly and the bitter, the bright colors and shapes have a chance to shine. Sometimes all you have to do is pull out the weeds and the flowers are there.

The Alien has landed - Part 1

As I wrote about previously, I made a notable decision a few weeks ago. I decided to buy a commercially available computer system rather than build my own as I have had in the past. This was driven primarily by the financial realization that I couldn't buy the parts as cheaply on my own as a manufacturer could.  And then of course, I still had to put it together. That's not a huge chore anymore, since I've done it enough times previous, but clearly the math didn't add up for the "roll your own" approach any longer.

I had chosen an Alienware Aurora system, which is the low end of Dell's high-end line that they acquired some years ago. This was primarily because I was able to get exactly the hardware I wanted, but also because I was eligible for an EPP price discount since my company has a purchasing relationship with Dell. That's a win-win as they say.

The system was expected to get here on February 18th, 2010. Dell under-promised and over-delivered - it was here on the 8th. So let's talk about the experience. First of all, the Aurora is supposed to be the "small" Alienware system, so I was a little shocked by the size and weight of the box that arrived. Colored in all black, when standing on end, it was in excess of 3 feet tall and had plenty of bulk in all directions. This was definitely a concern for me - I did not want nor need a giant machine.

I cracked open the box to find that it was merely an external shell to the system inside. There was ample crush space on every side and the large corner packing pieces were both effective and easy to remove. They were made out of plastic which meant no peanuts or flaky styro-foam to have to clean up. Thank you Alienware! I have enough to do without creating more of a mess in my life.

Once the inner box was removed, it was clear that the system was going to be more like the size I had expected. The smaller, system block slid out and was designed nicely as well. No need to cut open the box and lift the computer out of the top - just pop 4 plastic tabs and then lift the box top off, leaving the computer behind. This is similar to the way flat screen TVs are shipped. 

Once complete, the computer was sitting in the box tray on the floor, wrapped in an all black protective cover. Lifting the unit up wasn't too bad, though there is a significant amount of weight in the Alienware chassis. As I carried it over to the desk, there were no rattles or clanks so it seemed to have made it through shipping. Nonetheless, after sliding the cover off, I popped open the side panel to take a look inside.

Everything was neat and clean. The cables are all tucked away for good airflow. The CPU is configured with a water cooler so there was no large heat sink to worry about and over all it was a very cleanly laid out system. A nice bonus is that power and SATA interface cables were already pre-run to all 4 drive bays in the system even though I had only bought the machine with one hard drive.

So far, I was very pleased with the visual results, the build quality and the shipping. All of these had been done with care, in a quality manner and is setup for someone who is going to do things with and to their computer. It seems like a good fit so far. So let's power it up. (to be continued...)

A Remote for the Rest of Us

I have to tell you that I've been one of those multi-remote guys since I was about 10 and we had the TV, VHS and the Beta-max player all hooked up at once. It's saved a lot of pain with my various family members, roommates and even my lovely wife. The issue wasn't whether or not the super remote could control everything - it invariably could. The issue was that of usability.

"What buttons do you push?"

"Can you write something down on how to work the TV?"

"Can you change it over to the DVD for me?"

Even when the modern units started to incorporate macros where you could program multiple functions into a single button, the setup time took forever and it still wasn't easy to use without some training.

Until now. I had read a lot about the Logitech Harmony series of remotes and finally found one on sale and picked it up. I'm not kidding when I say this thing changed my life.

First of all, it's a USB device so it talks to your computer. Download and install the Harmony software and you are off and running. Tell the software the models of the equipment you have and it starts walking you through creating activities such as "Watch TV" or "Play XBox 360." I was using the new remote in 10 minutes and it was functioning correctly with all my gear. That may seem long but it is a HUGE improvement over having to find the codes to program each device, or even worse, have to teach the remote, button by button how to work your TV.

Pick up the remote and the color screen lights up (it has an accelerometer and knows when you are moving it). It is ready to go and you just choose your activities and it does all the work for you. Add a piece of equipment later and you just use the software to configure and update the remote. Even if it breaks you can re-download the settings to a new unit. Brilliant!

Ok, it does cost a bit of cash. I'm not going to lie. But the amount of time you'll save setting it up, and the joy you'll have over the easy and seamless control over your stuff, is well worth the price of admission.

Words Mean Nothing without Action

You'll often hear people talk about a person who has the "best of intentions" or a "heart of gold" or "says all the right things." What does all that really mean? At best, we are trying to give people the benefit of the doubt for  situations in which they haven't fared so well. At worst, we are avoiding conflict and hoping for the best.

One manager I worked for had a favorite phrase, "What we ignore, we encourage." Now, that's not to say that we should come down on people immediately, bereft of mercy or reason. But, let's be honest that sometimes we do just hope that it works out. And you can probably count on just how many times that's happened with no fingers! 

Instead, what we need to concentrate is not on perceived intent, but actual actions. Do people do what they say they will? Are the results acceptable or is it just the fruit of minimal effort? At the current state of human evolution, we cannot read minds. The only truth in life is that of action. What we say to one another means little if not backed up by consistent, real and powerful actions.

Capacity for Change

During one of my stints at a dot-com company back in 2000, one of the more experienced fellows in the office used to say, "The time to make up your mind about someone is never." What he clearly meant by that was that people have the capacity to change and you'll never know when people are able to make that change. 

I agree with him to a point, but I have found that most folks will only change to a limited extent. For better or worse, at a certain point our character and experience has formed us. I'm sure that happens to everyone at a different time in our lives. However, once that's been set we find ourselves victims to the forces of momentum rather than choice. We become comfortable and perhaps even complacent as we move through our personal and professional lives.

Change is typically at least a little uncomfortable. It's more uncomfortable for some of us, versus others. But, you have to ask yourself, do I want to grow? You cannot grow without a little discomfort, without challenge and being forced to adapt. This is true of almost everything in life.

I once heard a advanced driving instructor say that most cars are capable of at least 0.7 g's in a turn. That means you'd experience 70% of earth's gravity in a sideways force in a turn. But he also said that he would estimate that 90+% of all drivers would rather hit a tree that put their car into a maneuver that would result in .7 g's.

If that doesn't scare you, it should. We'd rather hit a virtually immovable object than subject ourselves to short term discomfort. If this anecdote doesn't make the rest of my point for you, I suggest you consult some sort of life coach. Immediately.

Good luck.