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.