Creeva's World 2.0 » Environment

Things You Should Be Able To Answer When Contacting A Consultant

Creeva — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:37:59 +0000

Someone I know came to me the other day about a consulting project that may or may not happen. What essentially he wants done is an overhaul of IT infrastructure. They want more automation to their operation and they deal with physical goods. So from receiving to shipping, to everything in between they are looking to streamline. They want to do more with less, less equipment if possible, less people if possible, less stress if possible. In other words they want what every other company in the world wants.

Currently they have a software package that does some of this, but it doesn’t do everything they want it to be able to do. I don’t have implicit knowledge of the package, other then I’ve created firewall rules when I was consulting with Symantec to pass the traffic. So my first question is the scope of the project. The person I was talking to didn’t exactly no what I meant by that. They were more worried about the big picture ideal instead of what a consultant would need to work with. A vision of the end goal is great, but without specific tasks to get there it definitely puts an implementer at a disadvantage. He stated that we would have to do a sit down and discuss the issue and layout of the business process. This is a good step, but part of why I’m writing this is to help others know the answer they should have when going into something of this magnitude.

Easy, Hard and Correct

The first question is why do you want to do this? There are easy answers, there are hard answers, and there is correct answers to this question. Some of the easy answers include – I want everything to work together better, we want to build to the future, and I have to spend my budget before the end of the fiscal cycle and want to try out this product. Hard answers include we want something more manageable for our IT staff, we want it to run faster in our environment, we want something we can understand.

There are reasons that these are the easy answers and hard answers. The first and foremost thought is to remember to sit down with a consultant or someone who understands the technology thoroughly enough before ever sitting down with a salesperson. To sales people, these are all easy and correct answers. They will tell you your toast can be used to transport computer network traffic with the right purchase, they are there to get your money. It’s the one reason I can never be a salesperson. I like people using the correct solution, not necessarily the solution that I am selling. Even when I worked at Symantec, I knew Symantec products were not the best products for all customers. Some customers only changed products because they had money to spend and ended up worse off for it. Salespeople are tricky creatures that guard their bonuses like Disney guards it’s copyrights.

Easy answers are normally very vague, they tell a salesperson of consultant that you haven’t really though to much about the problem. You have a basic idea of what you want, but you don’t know any specifics. The problem with the easy answers is that they are also the most expensive answers – this allows those that are implementing something to sell you what they think is best, regardless of how it will fit into your business six months down the road when they are gone. You will have to make some decisions on your own, and this should not be listening to the best sales pitch from two competing vendors. The best sales pitch does not necessarily equate into the best product.

Why are the hard answers difficult? What that’s because everything is relative. Going back to my examples can show you this. We want something more manageable by our IT staff, well how trained is your IT staff? Do your employees know alternative operating systems? Does your staff only run Microsoft products? Is this faster for your environment? What about a year down the road and the nightmare efficient system breaks because of infrastructure changes you were forced to make? Everything comes down to you knowing your environment and your plans for the future. A consultant only gets a glimpse of time into your configuration and is not going to be the full time employee running this stuff. They won’t know how your future plans could be effected if you don’t tell them your future plans.

The correct answer? That include being as specific as possible. Let’s say this is to implement an Exchange Server migrating from a Lotus Notes architecture. Why would I want to do this? Lotus Notes has been long in the process of being a headache for us. The administrator that runs it is retiring in six months and we have other employees that could scale up quicker to learn Exchange then Lotus Notes. The collaborative features in exchange work in Outlook, which our company already loads on all the desktop since we have a full Microsoft Office License on all of the desktops. About 30% of our users already use outlook to retrieve their e-mail, even though they all have the Notes client installed on their desktops also. Being able to consolidate this would save us thousands a year since we would no longer need a support contract or license fees paid to IBM to support the old Lotus infrastructure. The more complete and specific the answer, the better the consultant can answer your questions.

Do You Listen To Alternatives?

Even in the Exchange scenario seems complete. How rigid are you to suggestions? What if the consultant offers up other alternatives such as a web based e-mail solution that would still allow Exchange to connect and retrieve e-mail? While a Linux/Apache approach may be cheaper, you could also implement it on top of IIS. Building with some other technologies you could gain all the collaborative powers of Exchange for thousands of dollars less. Those who didn’t want to use Outlook could use a browser. If you combine this with a secure remote access solution this would allow for a possible quicker and less bandwidth connection for telecommuters if that is where your company is going.

Knowing what your plans and how rigid they need to be help a consultant decide what avenues may be the best approach for you. While I offered up a free solution, another consultant may offer ways to augment your current Notes infrastructure to fit your needs. The best consultants will offer alternatives to your current line of thinking. You do not have to listen to them, you can stay focused, but hearing how open you are is important.

Timeline

A timeline is something you should have in mind sitting down with the consultant. He needs to know deadlines and what your expectations are. Does this need to be done in a week or a year? How are your current employees going to ramp up on the new solution? While a consultant may reset your timelines to something more realistic, knowing what type of time frame you are trying to achieve is important to the success of the project. It also tells the consultant if they are going ot need to bring in more outside help.

Breakdown of Tasks

Have you compartmentalized your tasks? The person that contacted me was looking for a complete end to end solution, is this what best? In a solution like that how are you going to handle the transition time? You don’t want to migrate the whole solution at the touch of a button, since any big architecture change can effect your business continuity. For some businesses any downtime at all is lost revenue. A consultant wants to make this impact as minimal as possible. Even when you do the best planning and compartmentalizing sometimes you will get stuck on a twenty-three hour conference call working through the issues of down time. When this happens I can tell you it’s not fun. That was also with a staged migration.

What segments of your business can be down for hours at a time? When you can answer that you can start staging your tasks. The tasks that can be down the longest generally should be the first ones migrated, since they should give you expectations for later tasks, and allow you to plan accordingly. Do not re-architect the design so the whole system (no matter how small) to be done in one night if there are multiple groups effected in the transition. Design the impact to be as small as possible. Yes, this may increase time – which in turn increases expense, but without proper planning it may cost you more in the long run.

Cost

The question that no likes asking or giving, what is your budget for this task. You can wait for the consultant to make a cost estimate pitch first if you like – but at some point in the conversation cost is going to come up. Do your homework ahead of time to see how much you expect it to cost and budget accordingly. What are you going to do if things go over budget? If your three quarters way through a project and haev no more money to finish it, how is that going to impact you?

In Closing

This may seem like a list of things that I want as a consultant. These are however fairly common truths on what a consultant needs to start a project properly instead of spinning their wheels. In the next week or so I’m going to follow this up with how to spot a good consultant versus a bad one.

LA Times Wikified Editorials Turned Out To Be a Bad Idea – Who Would Have Thought?

Creeva — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:27:19 +0000

Picture from here

A couple news sources are reporting today (here, here, and here) that the LA Times is suspending their program of using a wiki for editorials. Now in a controlled environment like Wikipedia where they have the volunteers to handle un-authorized edits, wiki’s can be a great thing. In the hands of exposing your edits to the audience of a major newspaper – I wouldn’t have gone that route.

What they were finding is that people would make their own slant on the editorials – such as changing the word abortion ot the word murder. They also were inundated with spam and porn ads. Sounds like they didn’t have the best idea on the onset of setting up a wiki or properly staffing what would be a high profile use of the technology. This is technology that is meant to be changed and updated. That ability alone has made some people suspect of Wikipedia. Newspapers are dying out in America – but this example shows why such high profile companies can not hand the keys to the car to just everyone asking. Citizen media has it’s place, but old media shouldn’t be attempting to tag it on without understanding hte consequences or the work involved in maintaining it.

I wonder if anyone got fired?

Money Isn’t Everything

Creeva — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:49:50 +0000

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Money isn’t everything. We treat it like is though. Some people can’t understand when I say I don’t necessarily want more though. I of course do want more money, but at the same time I don’t. What I truly want is more freedom, more time, and more enjoyment from what I do.

I’ve had a couple jobs that I enjoyed more then anything else. The first was working at a small PC shop. It was my first break into the IT industry, in which I’ve done well climbing the ladder. I interacted with people, I was a problem solver. I was one of hte go to people that could fix almost anything. I’m the type of guy that you throw problems at and I’ll swat them away like annoying insects. It was my forte, the only thing I was really lacking at the time was high end networking. I could make computers talk, but as I learned in my next favorite job I truly knew nothing.

The next job I can say now that I truly loved was working at Symantec’s enterprise firewall support call center. Like the small PC shop after a year or so I came into my own and had my own groove. After three years being on the team I had closed more tickets then anyone else in level one and level two support (I left being the team lead). I also held the record for the most calls handled in one day. The irony about having the most tickets closed is that 30-40% of the time I didn’t even open a ticket for the call. Our call center software was so slow that it took 5-7 minutes to actually open and write up a ticket. I made a deal with my managers (I’m sure some higher ups wouldn’t be happy) – that if I could handle the call in under five minutes and be almost positive that they wouldn’t be calling in on the same issue that I could just skip the ticket process. So for volume, by the time I left I handled far above and beyond what everyone else had ever handled. Symantec has since dicontinued the product, it lasted about another year and half after I migrated into consulting that it went kaput. I wonder if anyone caught up to me in the call record or number of handled cases before it was gone.

This isn’t about bragging rights, I’m sure it sounds like it though. What did both of these jobs have in common though? They were both hectic chicken running with it’s head cut off problem squashing affairs. I work best where I have a new issue every fifteen minutes or a nagging issue that would keep me up at night trying to solve. As you move up the ladder you loose that. You are working on long and engaging projects where the problem takes five minutes to engineer, yet in turn takes six months to implement. I’m still good at what I do, but it’s not exactly the best fit for my skill set. This in turn leads me into a spiral or more money versus more enjoyment.

Me and my Grandfather (Not a Recent Picture)

I had a conversation with my grandfather a few weeks ago, he told me how lucky it was that I had a job in today’s economy (I am), and that it would be difficult to move up in the area I lived. I started to explain to him that I could more then likely finding a better paying job, but it may not be as stable in the long term as my current one. I also said for the right job I would work for less then I currently do. Somehow in his mind that didn’t compute. In an abstraction of what he said, essentially he thought climbing the ladder should be what is important. I told him with the right job, I would take a 20% pay reduction. Granted that wasn’t my end goal, but for the right job in the right environment I would take my family down to the bare level where we could maintain everything. Why? I would be happier.

We are taught early that you need to learn so you can better then”random example”. So you can go to college and maintain that edge and not be a janitor. So you can get the huge house and be better then your neighbors. If you neighbor buys a Lexus you are taught that you should buy a BMW. It’s a mad dash to prove that your better then everyone else. To prove that capitalism runs the world. If we are not working to that we are either considered un-American, stupid, or lazy. Granted I am a bit lazy, but I can work. I was born July 4, 1976 so I don’t consider myself un-American (I’m a Constitutionalist). I’m not stupid either.

I think this mindset first hit my family when I wanted to go to college for music performance and creative writing. They always said I wouldn’t make any money with that. I was seventeen and brave enough to say that if I was happy I could be living on a street corner in a box as long I was writing and playing music. They never understood that. If I didn’t have my wife, and a love for electronics (I didn’t have that love back then), I could probably still do it. My life hasn’t greatly changed at the core in the last decade though when I was first with my wife. We live essentially the same way, we have a few nicer things, a house, a car payment – but our basic lives are still the same. I’d say the greatest difference is that we can not stand hamburger helper anymore. I still eat the occasional cheap ass boil it ramen, and she enjoys Kraft Macaroni and Cheese still.

Too many people in this world work for money. Money is needed to survive (I have a friend that would argue that), but at the same time it shouldn’t be your singular goal. When I was younger I had a certain goal financially I wanted to make, I did through different means. I’m not at that level right now (I have no stock options to sell anymore), but it didn’t make it me any happier. These days I write more, I play in two bands, I’m learning new instruments, and I have a baby that should arrive in the next couple months. I’m juggling the things that make me happy with work, what if I could be blissful with my job too? Some days I hate my job, most the time I’m just meh. If I could get the hair pulling problem solving hectic life going again it would be great (must be my undiagnosed ADD). If I could do it at the same pay level or better, that would be awesome.

I really need to get some more recent pictures of myself

A Month With Mom – Part 18 – My Mother Issues

Creeva — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:29:47 +0000

Day late…

If you haven’t caught on to this series yet I have mother issues. Because I have my mother issues I need to sit down and logically recognize what they actually do to me. Things my mother has made me.

Growing up I was extremely self conscious of everything, how I looked, who had what, etc… What has happened as an adult is that I just don’t care. I don’t care what you have. I want what I want for my own reasons. As I’m getting older I can care less what society thinks about me, so essentially I’ve become the polar opposite of my mother. Though Xie will tell me that isn’t always the case.

Because of growing up in my household I learned to thrive in chaos. This is great in some of things I do since I can make order out of chaos (well at the same time creating more chaos around the thing I made in order). Unfortunately for those around me this isn’t always a conducive environment for those that deal with me.

I get my anger from my father, and I’ve spent many years getting that in check and controlling. It’s something I have to deal with. I have learned however people like my mother are the ones that are most likely to set me off at a moments notice. This is why I didn’t marry a girl like dear old mom. My father after the divorce seems to have his anger issues in check, can we say common denominator?

I base(d) alot of what I know about relationships from my parents and their interaction. When things aren’t going well in my own relationships I’m completely oblivious since things aren’t explosive like my parent’s relationship was. While our child isn’t born yet we don’t know truly who the enabler and the disciplinarian will be. I’m pegged for the enabler, and that’s not necessary a good thing. If I get that from anyone it’s going to be my mother. I just need to make sure my son doesn’t become a spoiled brat.

Frustration at stupidity. The exasperation I get over comments that are idiotic, that comes completely from my mother. I have mentioned her belief that ninja humanoid turtles were possible. I used to do all of her proof reading for her college homework when I was in high school, and I was responsible for the rewrites. When I was about fourteen she said she was smarter then me. What she may have meant to said was wiser, though I don’t think that was the case, since if she was wiser or smarter she would have said the word wiser. Also for anyone wishing to defend her on that one, she still says she is smarter (Oprah must have told her she was). I have a standing offer to pay for an IQ test so we can settle this once and for all, if she is write (highly unlikely) I may just kill myself since it will be proof that intelligence means nothing. On a side note recently I was just talking about sitting for the Mensa exam. I don’t know if I’m Mensa smart, I may not be, but I’m confident enough to actually sit for the test.

The last thing is I get insane over little requests people ask of me. I better be in the right frame of mind because I can go ballistic if it’s something they can do for themselves. I’ll give you the story I use to describe this whenever I talk to someone about her. When I was in high school I told my mother I was going to be taking a bath (yes I’m a boy and I like baths get over it). She acknowledged me and said she was going ot cook dinner. At this point everything is fine and dandy. About 10 minutes later I’m in the middle of reading a book and my mother starts screamiming my name. Now this isn’t a your in trouble name scream, nor was it a where are you at name scream. What it sounded like was the “OMG THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE” scream. I threw on a towel and rush down the stairs.

Well the emergency? My mother needed a wash cloth to do dishes . Her answer about me being in the bath? “I forgot”. In ten minutes she forgot what she had been told and acknowledged (and I’m sure she heard the bath water run) and put all of that aside for her immediate need of a wash cloth. To make matters worse, she thought I was down in my room. Now our family was a plit level. The kitchen on the main floor, the bathroom on the second floor, and my bedroom on the lower floor. In theory give or take ten feet I would have had to expend the same amount of energy to come from my room or the bathroom to come to the kitchen. She would have expended half the energy (minus the energy to start yelling) to go down to the second floor and get it herself. It was absolute pure laziness. I pointed it out to her, and she didn’t care. She wasn’t old or invalid, she was healthy and approxiamately the same age as I am now. The worst part, I was dripping wet, freezing, and I still had to get the washcloth.

I was a sucker and should have said no, but I was a mama’s boy. That story though is an example of many many things that are quite similar. Because of her necessity or decorating the house for the holidays, I now loath decorating for the holidays/ I have never had a christmas tree in my house, that may change next year with the kid on the way. Compared to my mother’s house and her record breaking three christmas trees she did one year, my house will be quite sparse.

My mother likes to tell people how things are to be decorated and have everyone else do the work. After the divorce I became the man of the house. I learned to loath the holidays. When your mother is healthy you shouldn’t be fifteen and being Santa Claus setting up the tree late at night for your siblings, but yet I was. I love the holidays, I just hat emy mothers version of them. These days though i’m preferring Halloween over Christmas, black and gory for the win.

Ok I’m stopping now otherwise this will become the post that will never end.

Web Application Developers Can Learn A Bit From WordPress

Creeva — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:43:17 +0000

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Just the other day I wrote about cloud computing versus SaS terminology. A web application isn’t necessarily a cloud computing or SaS platform. It can be one or the other, it can be both, it can be neither. Now that, that is out of the way let’s move onto the meat.

I think that all web application developers would do well to look at WordPress and the product they offer as key points for their own designs. Obviously I use WordPress as a blog, I also use it as a CMS, a middleware application system, a database, a word processor and other uses. WordPress is extensible far beyond the original blog software it was designed to be.

The reason that WordPress is so transformative is the ability to use a fairly easy (well not for me but I suck at PHP and programming in general) API that the users can use to extend and transform the core product. This is done through the use of plugins. In theory the expandablity of WordPress would allow it to transform into any functional web application you can imagine. I’m not saying this should be done however. WordPress plugins a lot of times just add band-aids to a product to extend it further then the core company can imagine or support.

Think of your ticket support system. Most of these are moving to a web based interface. Easy to manage, no software to install on users computers, easily updated since you only have to update the core server – it’s a no brainer to move everything you can over to a web based centrally managed focus for a company.

Why can’t you extend it though?

Most of the web application companies MAY ALLOW YOU to go as far as put your company logo in the interface. Allowing you to brand a product to some extent is not the same as extending the product. I don’t want color changes. I don’t want a simple image swap. I want feature sets being implemented without waiting 18 months to have it done. If you have a robust CRM application, in this modern time wouldn’t you want a spot to add a LinkedIn Profile section? This would be as easy as allowing customers custom fields that they can rename on the back-end. What about adding an image? This would be a bit more difficult then a simple custom field, but still possible doable. How about however a full blow plugin that looks up the LinkedIn contact info.

This is all hypothetical, but let’s say this is how the plugin would work in generic CRM system.

1. User logged into the CRM would associate their own – or a corporation profile with Linkedin

2. User plugins in new contacts e-mail address

3. User is prompted with “Would You Like to Request Connection on Linkedin?”

4. If users states yes the plugin would go into a state of “Waiting for Remote User to Confirm”

5. At this point the user could add in all the information they normally would in the CRM database

6. Later the user would receive an confirmation (or decline) of linking up in LinkedIn

7. If the receive a confirmation they could then pull in the information to the CRM application.

8. Then the CRM application would have connections and how they relate to each other in their database, home pages, Resumes, etc. – all from a couple clicks.

That is a scenario that would appeal to sales personnel. Let’s look at something more urbane, a library look up system. A library lookup system is something very simple and single tasked. It works well and returns (normally) the following information:

Title
Author
Subject
Location
If it’s in or checked out
Sometimes a Summary
Sometimes an Image

Now let’s look at methods we can use to extend this functionality. The first thing I would make sure is there a public internet accessible site where either the general public, or the Library chooses just card members can access. Library users are normally people that live in the same town and there are a good number of them that know each others. What does that buy you? Word of mouth. What about a a secondary revenue stream outside of donations or overdue fines? How can you leverage more people to show up at your fund raising drives? I’m assuming these are question that library officials ask themselves. How can we turn that simple search to find a book into something more?

Let’s give the users an option to use the search page as a social platform. I would give the a users a choice of using the old style simple search functions, but also give them a chance to leverage the public you are serving to work with you instead of you working for them.

Let’s go over an imaginary social library platform.

1. User opens up a search window into the library database and enters a query.

2. User gets back the title, author, and subject – then a link that states more information (this is where a plugin would take over)

3. On the plugin page users could get back an image of they are searching. They also see where it is located, if it’s in or not, and more. What about a sidebar that allows them to purchase the book/movie/CD at Amazon? Reviews from other library patrons? A list of who checked out which book (make this opt-in only on a per title usage – don’t compromise a users privacy). A listing of library events where the author is signing books, giving a reading, or there is a book discussion covering these topics?

You just made something that is infinitely more “sticky” and let’s the users interact with your site on a much larger scale then previously. They are no longer browsing alone, but in a group, with people they know from town.

All of this is possible with a platform that allows plugins. I’m not asking for web application developers to support any plugins directly. If a plugin breaks or crashes the core site (shame on the user that puts an untested plugin in a production environment) – the web application developer should tell the user they will not support the product with any plugins running at all. It doesn’t mean the framework, APIs, and access shouldn’t be there.

I’m pleading with web application developers that allow the users to have self hosted servers to please build this extensiability into their products. I can hack around another platform and get these functions, but sometimes we just want to buy a program from a vendor with support. Currently your making us choose between function or support. It should not be that way. Opening up can only gain customer loyalty in the long run.

Competitive Training is Not an Excuse for Sending Kids to Public Schools

Creeva — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:18:18 +0000

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Yesterday I wandered into a forum that contains random population members from my ex-hometown. There was a thread about the teacher strike going on in town. I don’t really self promote by going and saying hey read my site here and there around the net, but I did leave a post in the thread stating:

I rarely post here – rarely read it also – but today boredom struck – I agree with the parent of this thread – ironically a few weeks ago I actually wrote on my blog on this subject here: http://creeva.com/2008/07/28/teachers-on-strike-in-my-hometown/

That aside – I’ll be very happen when teaching becomes a non-union position.

Though it was in general to a thread a user named Homersazdoh wrote this:

Where do you people get off thinking all the teachers are members of the peace corp.? They have every right to try and get more money just like everyone else. If you’re so concerned with the quality of teacher, then you want the best package to draw the best talent.

My next response was:

The problem is under a contract scenario with unions or large groups of employees you need to pander to the lowest common denominator – this means that better teachers are going to make less because the large number of average or below average teachers will bring them down.

But I’ve recently had siblings go through the vermilion school system (some still going, I graduated in ’94) – over time the quality has only gotten worse, the education is not as werll rounded due to block scheduling, more and more restrictions on individuality, and the lack of money being poured into the system that has nothing to do with teacher wages.

Oh well, I’ll drop out of this conversation, my child is probably going to be home schooled.

This is what I got from Scott:

Quote:

my child is probably going to be home schooled.

Awesome. Raise a social misfit that will have a complete inability to function in a competitive work environment. Good job.

You people in Vermilion are the cheapest most out of touch jerks ever. You dont want teachers to have good pay and then probably b1tch about the quality level of teaching. What a bunch of fools. What do you expect?

WAKE UP VERMILION! WHETHER IT IS ROADS OR EDUCATION, IF YOU WANT A QUALITY PRODUCT, THEN YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. CHEAPSKATES.

Now of course I wasn’t going to let that by, but I excused myself from the thread with this:

Be careful – my wife is home schooled – I’m a college fail out/drop out – yet I’m in an extremely competitive white collar career.

My child will always be challenged – the common misconctption that’s I’ve always fought for public schooling is socialization – I never found it competitive nor strived to be more competive – I’m a member of a few social and group organizations.

BUt believe what you want – and thank you for derailing the conversation any further – I apologize to everyone for my detour I helped on this thread – I’ll drop out.

BTW – I don’t care either way the teachers strike and union goes -I’m not a vermilion resident – I moved out in 2001 – I won’t move back but I have friends and family there – I’m friends wiht a couple teachers there, and I’m a member of vermilion community organizations.

Now why did I give you this? I figured I would give you some back story to what inspired this post. Xie and I have had many disagreements about public schools versus home schooling, she wasn’t always homeschooled so she has the advantage of first hand experience on both sides of the coin. She is also one of the most intelligent (and quiet) people I know. I had a good experience with public schools, she did not.

However with the random inspections, school uniforms, the crushing of individuality, and the loss of personal liberties that kids go through today to “make them better citizens” and to “keep them safe”, has made me think twice on sending my child to public schools. My argument in the past was the social aspect and the ability work with and meet people. The competiviness of school was never a selling point for me. Heck the overly competitive people were the ones that made my life hell in school and were the super jocks, the bullies that had something to prove, or the grade whores who thought straight A’s would give them the good life when they graduated.

I wasn’t a straight A student, nor did I try to be. When I was in elementary school I was on the honor role and merit role all the time, so what? My parents then changed schools on me and I then almost failed fifth grade. My wife says I don’t respond well to change and I’m better with routine. This is obvious when I went from good grades in a competitive private school moving to a sub par public school. I should have excelled from an academic perspective, but I didn’t. I was a fish out of water.

The same thing happened two years later when we moved to Vermilion. At one point my father stated the best thing he could at me to alleviate my stress and to ease his concern of his son failing a grade. He said that he would be fine if I was a C student. This was all I needed to alleviate the strain. I high school I only failed two classes, Spanish 1 and Algebra 2. I did maintain a C average throughout school. I was so much a C student that I graduated around 100th in a class of 250ish. This didn’t stop me from going anywhere. I managed to get into a good private college (which I then proceeded to fail out, but that was from lack of wanting to go to class).

Was I really a C student? Not really. I could have easily made honor roll, I just didn’t like homework. I scored in the top 10% in the nation on my ACTs and in the top 1% on my PRE-SATs, I’m sure this helped me to get in college. I just wanted to take the tests to prove I knew what I was talking about, the busy work held no interest for me. The only competition I really participated in school was who could hit the highest trumpet note.

Now I have a good job. There are articles kicking around the Internet about why going college is a waste of time and money these days. I don’t feel I’ve lost out on an education. Life is about learning and loving to learn. To build upon what you have learned already and never stop growing. Why would I put my child in the bad aspects of that, pointing out that my child would not be competitive because he may not go to public school is moronic. Also when I saw the college valedictorian delivering pizzas when I was making 35k a year 9 years ago made a big impact on me.

I think that traditional schooling leads to more socialization and more social activities then traditional schooling, however saying I need to send my kid to traditional schooling for him to remain competitive? That’s moronic.

Picture from here

Myspace’s Hottest App Teaches Slave Trade 101

Creeva — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:48:56 +0000

Image from here

A few weeks ago I started receive strange notifications on Myspace stating “Click Here To See How Much I’m Worth” and “RANDOMUSER just bought you – click here to see how much I think your worth”. I was puzzled. I was confused. I ignored it for a few weeks. Eventually I clicked and found the “Own Your Friends” application.

From the help information:

Welcome to Own Your Friends![click here to show help]

Using Own Your Friends, you can:

Buy and sell your friends as ‘pets’.

Make your ‘pets’ hug, punch, and poke each other!

Change your pets’ status messages to whatever you want!

Make Money by:

Being bought! You earn half the profit everytime you are bought. If you’re a hot commodity, you’ll be rich! ;-)

Having your pets bought. You earn half the profit when someone else buys one of your pets. Choose pets wisely and make money as an investor!

Logging in every 8 hours. You earn $1,000 for logging in, but only once every 8 hours.

Give a Human Gift to a Friend. Earn $1,250 by giving a friend one of your pets as a human gift. Just go to the ‘Buy Friends’ tab and choose a friend to give a gift to!

Hint: Use our new My Bargains feature. Find hot deals on cheap friends, then gift them away or sell them to profit!

The key feature is to buy people you know and sell them later for a profit. I play this game, I enjoy this game, and I don’t really plan on stopping, however……

One of my friends the other day was talking with me. I told him I owned him. He didn’t understand. He didn’t consent to play the game, nor was he even aware of it. I was able to purchase him and pull him into my world with out consent. I can also make him hug, poke, punch, etc. other people I know. All without his consent, and specifically he wants nothing to do with this and isn’t too happy about it.

I can even change his status message (within the application not on his actual profile) with this i can make him “say things” or express view points that he would never do in normal context if he was in control. Other friends of his could see him saying that he is going to go off ot India to eat a cow or that he just got a job at a college teaching molecular biology. Whether he was or wasn’t isn’t the fact, other less savy users may actually believe he is doing/saying this.

Now the initial knee jerk reaction is what does it matter it’s just a stupid game between stupid people. Well let’s put it in another perspective. Say you purchase Obama and give him a status that is against his own platform, or McCain. Say you own coca-cola’s profile and change the status to “I prefer pepsi”. Now this starts to harm brand image and the reflection on the public that reads this. It can cause irreparable harm to the right people with the wrong message.

This is why it really needs to turn into an opt in environment, or at least changes to something where you can block your user profile from being used in these sort of application that goes against brand management. It needs to be simple and it needs to be able to be done within two clicks. It should also default to being “do not use my profile for these applications”.

We can say this is the Web 2.0 world and brand management has changed greatly from where it was just a few years ago. I don’t believe in companies removing blog posts and I don’t believe in DMCA takedowns from stories that aren’t up to the approval of the companies. I do believe I own the lists of my friends, but I don’t believe I should be able to make changes to their status in any context nor do I believe I should be able to make them perform virtual actions without their consent.

That being said yes I enjoy the game and I’m going to keep playing, but i think it’s in a different context. I’m going to be targetting celebrities and brands in myspace to change the message to something unsuitable (but within Myspace’s TOS) to help raise awareness on this issue. Brand management is very important to companies and yet they have allowed these applications to yank quite a bit of control from them. I can make Pepsi my pet (slave) and have it pimp products for a competitor. If it’s right or wrong is for you to decide, but I’m sure Pepsi won’t be to happy about it.

Iron Key Product Review

Creeva — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:19:55 +0000

I received an Iron Key unit to see evaluate and see how it would integrate into our environment. I can say I was skeptical and didn’t think it would have amounted to much, encrypted flash drive that we’ve all seen from a dozen vendors. I was not too worried about if there was an actual encryption chip on the device as much as functionality. I had expected this device to perform as well as all the other devices in the same vein. I was however, pleasantly surprised.

While I can say that for the most part this will work identically to other devices you may use that support encryption, the one thing that allows this to stand out is how it acts for user privileged access. For a custom desktop setup we are working on it would not allow a user to have administrative access to the computer. The lack of administrative access caused the software that came with our standard Lexar thumbdrives to not be able to work in encrypted software vault mode. It code still do standard file encryption, but you wouldn’t be able to have an encrypted partition.

The Ironkey however worked just fine in this configuration. It was able to decompress the data and look at the data as it was a normal partition. Since this functionality is a must have it exceeded expectations.

Let’s take a look at the packaged software:

When you first insert the drive this is what you see. You can notice that it creates two drive letters (E and F on my computer). The first drive letter is unencrypted and only has the software unlocking program on it. If you click on the second partition Windows asks you to put a disk in the drive. So it’s not truly mounted nor readable.

After you run the software on the first partition, you can notice the second drive now states “IronKey Secure Files”. At this point the partition is unencrytped and ready to read.

This is the first screen you see when you put in the flash drive (and you have auto-run enabled). If you do not have auto-run enabled you can start this from the first partition. The interface is straight forward and unassuming, perfect for someone like me.

After two wrong passwords this is the error message that pops up. If the password is entered in ten times incorrectly the drive will be permenantly locked and the data will no longer be able to be retreived.

When you are successful with entering in your passphrase this is the interface the software presents. You have four options from this screen. The secure files option just brings up the encrypted partition, which is the same thing you can do by going to “My Computer”. The secure backup allows you to make back-ups of your encrypted partition. The settings option allows you to amek device changes. Finally the lock drive option re-encrypts the contents and logs you out of the software taking you back to the first screen.

The first screen of the secure backup utility prompts you for the location of your Ironkey you wish to backup (I’m assuming this is in case you are using multiple Ironkey’s at once). It also allows you choose the location to save teh backup to.

The second secure backup screen is as unassuming as the first. It allows you to browse to the back-up and restore it directly to your IronKey that you have plugged in.

I can say, when I open a settings screen I would have thought there would have been more options then this. The first preference on give you the option reformat the drive.

The lost and found screen allows you to display a simple message that pops up on the unecrypted login. If some soul find your drive they can then send it back to you. The real question is if they will burn through the ten password attempts before they do.

The last option is solely for changing the passphrase that you use to unlock your Ironkey stick. It is simple and precise.

If you need a device that allows full encryption and that is functional when you do not have administrative access to the computer it’s used on this is it. I will say I’m not too happy that they haven’t the OSX or Linux clients that they have been working on, but they state on their site that they will be forthcoming.

If your interested in picking one up from Amazon here are some links for you:

IronKey 1GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted Flash Drive

IronKey 2GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted Flash Drive

IronKey 4GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted Flash Drive

Trip To NASA’s Plum Brook Station Open House

Creeva — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:23:03 +0000

So yesterday 06/01/08 Xie ‘lanthia, Ghoulishcharm, and myself made it out to NASA’s Plumbrook Station facility.

Wikipedia has this information on Plumbrook:

The 6400-acre Plum Brook field station near Sandusky, Ohio is also part of Glenn. It specializes in very large-scale tests which would be hazardous within the confines of the main campus. The Spacecraft Propulsion Facility at Plum Brook Station (PBS) is the world’s only facility capable of testing full-scale upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated high-altitude conditions. The PBS Space Power Facility houses the world’s largest space environment simulation chamber. PBS also has cryogenic test facilities and a hypersonic wind tunnel.

We got a late start (my fault) and arrived right around 5 PM. The parking was supposed to be on the right hand side of RT 250, but in the first go around we didn’t see it. So we looped around and headed for the main gate following the available signs. Like when we went to the Glenn Research Open House, they weren’t allowing people in the main gate, but we weren’t the only ones that were lost (there was a pickup truck in front of us that seemed to be on the same mission). The security guard gave directions to the pickup, a police officer gave directions to us. It seemed we had 8 minutes before the final tour left for the day (and this being the last day we were SOL if we didn’t make it). We went back to RT 250 and continued down further then I turned around the first time, it was about a 1/2 mile further down the road.

The parking lot was an old field, we were in miata (yes I know three people in a miata (don’t ask)) and some of the ruts were quite deep, so I bottomed out the car a couple times. Now you would think that a facility that they had sunk billions (yes billions with a B) would have at least had a gravel parking area. We later found out we could have parked at the indoor water park down the road and taken a bus from there, however there was no indicators that this could have been accomplished.

We made it through security, in which they checked my camera bag and asked if we were US citizens, after that we made it onto the last bus of the day over to the information center. On the way we were given a history lesson on the Plumbrook property, which was a TNT manufacturing plant way back when. Here is Nasa’s history of Plumbrook:

NASA’s only nuclear test reactor was the Plum Brook Reactor Facility, which is affiliated with the NASA Glenn Research Center . The facility, located on land that is now Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, operated from 1962-1973; but the history of the land stretches back to the 19 th Century when War of 1812 veterans were given the property. The federal government seized 9000 acres of this farmland in 1941 to construct a sprawling Ordnance Works facility that operated throughout World War II.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics purchased the land in 1956 to build a test reactor, to support atomic aircraft studies being conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission. Although that concept was shelved before construction of the reactor was completed, President Kennedy breathed new life into the facility by supporting a national nuclear rocket program in May 1961, a month before the Plum Brook reactor was started up (also known as “taken critical”) for the first time.

During its operations, the 60-megawatt Plum Brook Reactor conducted over 70 experiments, most of which studied the effects of radiation on various materials. After the materials were irradiated in the reactor, they were transferred to the Hot Laboratory where they could be remotely examined, using manipulator arms that reached into a series of seven test cells.

The nation’s nuclear rocket program was cancelled during the post-Apollo budget cuts. The reactor was closed down in 1973 and was placed into a “safe dry storage” mode, during which it was monitored by NASA until initial decommissioning work began in 1998.

Since it was so late in the day the only building we could get into was the Space Power Facility, Wikipedia as this information on the Space Power Facility:

The Space Power Facility (SPF) is a vacuum chamber built by NASA in 1969. It stands 122 feet high and 100 feet in diameter, enclosing a bullet-shaped space. It is the world’s largest thermal vacuum chamber. It was originally commissioned for nuclear-electric power studies under vacuum conditions, but was later decommissioned. Recently, it was recommissioned for use in testing spacecraft propulsion systems. Recent uses include testing the airbag landing systems for the Mars Pathfinder and the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, under simulated Mars atmospheric conditions.

The SPF is located at Plum Brook Station, near Sandusky, Ohio. Plum Brook Station is part of the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

We got to walk through the building and through the vacuum chamber itself. You can look at the photos in my Flickr set.

All in all it was an enjaoyable and worthwhile trip, though I don’t think I would bother a second time.

Click hear to read more about experiments and information at Plumbrook.

The Kiosk Series – Part Four – Surferquest

Creeva — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:02:25 +0000

Going further into my reviews of kiosk systems we acquired the Surferquest system here at work. Unlike my piece on SteadyState I’m not going to have a bunch of screen shots to show you this time. However I will give you my analysis and what I’ve found out.

The Surferquest system is an off the shelf software with minimal customization. We ordered an evaluation unit and I was tasked to try it out. I can say for our needs as a company that requires centralized management and control of machines in our environment that the Surferquest system was not quite a correct fit for us.

In our environment we don’t normally place a machine on our network until it is fully tested and verified secure, but this product is pretty much useless until it has a network connection. I had to contact support and they gave me an unlock code that would allow me to make changes to installed software. The unlock code lasted only 24 hours, but they sent me a utility later on that would allow me generate unlock codes for myself.

Almost all of the customization that can be done is performed remotely by Surferquest. This means if there is a major application change that needs to be completed you need to contact them. Do you wish to customization your login screen? You must contact them or upload the images to their server. You can not perform these changes locally on the box or locally within your environment. Wish to change the active desktop they used? Same steps apply as changing the login screen.

Restrictions applied to the software:

Disable Windows Updates
Remove from Start Menu:
My Music
My Pictures
Favorites
Recent Documents
Frequently Used Programs
Recent Network Docs
Network Places
Help
Run
My Documents
Configure Programs
Disable Windows Keys
Lock Taskbar
Disable Control Panel
Disable Balloon Tips
Remove OEM Link
Disable Task Manager
Disable Registry
Disable Find Files with F3 in Explorer
Prevents Control Panel, Printers, and Network and Dial-up Connections from running, and removes the corresponding menu items.
Removes Shut Down from the Start menu and disables the Shut Down button in the Windows Security dialog box.
Disable System Restore
Clears Recent Documents on Exit
Disable access to Recent Network Documents
CTRL key disabled

As you can see, though they use a different product to achieve the same goal, it has similar technology to the Microsoft Steadystate product I reviewed in part 3.

You can put the software within you domain, but the software will still be phoning home to the Surferquest company. While I’m positive that there is nothing sensitive being pushed across, like any company that you would have do remote assistance make sure you trust them in case of any possible data leakage. The official answer is that it only sends out IP address information and the last time connected. You can view this information on the stat web page they provide you

If the drive in the unit should fail or there is a hardware issue in need of support, no software is supplied. You must receive new hardware from the vendor and return your old unit. They state that turn around time is usually 24 hours. Any remote management or patching must be performed by the vendor and is done via remote monitoring software that they have access to. The software is caused Netsupport and it sneaks out your firewall on port 22 – now all you admins that left it open for SSH can feel silly (actually that’s how the firewall support team snuck out the corporate firewall there and back to their home computers when I worked at Symantec on that team).

Quick Notes

Idle timeouts can be configured, but they default at 10 minutes.
They use the Deep Freeze product to maintain their disk image
When we received the unit PXE booting was enabled (and we didn’t have a BIOS password – they stated this was a mistake)
The unit we received had PowerDVD installed, ironically no DVD drive (another oversight they admit)
Unlock Steadystate there is no method for restricting USB drive usage

Box the unit shipped in

Front of the unit

Top of the unit

Rear of the unit

If you deploying this in your environment you need to make certain you can accept the security and loss of control you have over this unit compared to other machine in your environment. I see this fitting more in the public space kiosk scenarios suchs as libraries or hotels. Because they do lack the centralized control that you would normally deploy in corporate environments I say give this one a pass or at least look hard at what you are trying to accomplish. For the public space this is a great product, extremely low maintenance, the ability to monetize but charging a fee (customized through the stat page), and extremely well versed and fast techinical support. If you want to deploy an Internet Cafe in your area this is the product for you.

The Kiosk Series:

The Kiosk Series – Part One – Choices For Your Environment

The Kiosk Series – Part Two – Management Considerations For Your Environment

The Kiosk Series – Part Three – Microsoft SteadyState vs Group Policies

Sometimes Obsolete Operating Systems Aren’t Obvious

Creeva — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:38:55 +0000

Sometimes things aren’t obvious for being obsolete in the world of computers. If you a Windows user it’s compeltely obvious that you are using an older version of windows immediately when you start using it. Whether the signs are when you sit down and see Windows 98 striped across the start menu or the older version of Internet Explorer 5.0 that starts up, you catch these things and it is noticeable. The same thing also holds true for Linux, but this is more of aesthetic issues that become apparent, usually graphic issues that are sorted out on newer versions you catch on the older ones.

But what about OS X?

My sister has been having a problem with her ipod nano she got for christmas. Itunes wouldn’t recognize it, she would have to upgrade itunes. Fair enough. Well itunes won’t load on her Operating System, which was OS X 10.3.2. Ironically the latest version of Itunes works on windows 98 and will work with the Nano. 10.3.2 is newer then Windows 98, but yet still is forcing the upgrade on the OS X users. Normally I wouldn’t really have a problem with this, I’m also not a nuanced Mac user. I can’t however tell graphically an immediate difference (once the machine is booted) between my sisters 10.3.2 desktop and my 10.5.1 desktop on my Mac Air.

Do people just one day stop writing code that should graphically look the same from OSX desktop to the OSX desktop?

I’m just confused I guess. Mac is supposed to just work, then please just work.

I’m upgrading my sister’s computer to 10.4, then she should be able to the load the proper itunes and be able to sync her ipod. It’s just annoying. I’m not scared of other operating systems, I fixed a networking problem she had for months that my “computer genius” step-father had tried to correct but couldn’t do anything “because it’s a mac”. I knew there was a reason I don’t talk to that side of the family. Currently my “regular” computing devices include – XP Desktop for work, Mac Air Book 10.5 for work, Hardy Heron Laptop for myself, XP desktop for home games and movies, Windows 2k3 server for home. My micro OS’s include Maemo on my soon to be delivered n810 and Palm OS and my TX.

At work I’m a main person to say that Mac is not built for the enterprise, they have poorly designed business software when it comes to managing a mixed environment. Now the argument back is that Microsoft should make tools to manage Macs, I believe for acceptance in the full enterprise that needs to be reversed. Apple needs to roll over backwards fitting itself in, I mean I have an easier time working with Linux in an enterprise environment then Mac. The ironic thing is I never heard anyone ever say “Linux just works”.

For my stepfather that is scared of alternative Operating Systems, like the big scary Mac. It took my wife and I a total of 15 minutes in which she used her N810 tethered via bluetooth to her phone to google the questions I asked her. She fed me back the information after she filtered it and bang – working networking.

If your not willing to work out of your comfort zone and approach new things, you will never grow. This means no matter how you look on the outside and what your resume says about you, like sitting down at the 10.3.2 desktop and not noticing anything different, you still need to be upgraded or replaced. At this point you are no longer truly useful except for some obscure things and can not compete in modern thought.

The Kiosk Series – Part Three – Microsoft SteadyState vs Group Policies

Creeva — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:35:31 +0000

One of the programs that management wants us to look at for our kiosk implementation is Microsoft Steadystate which is Microsoft‘s all in one wizard create a kiosk solution.

I’m not entirely convinced on the scenario that there is things in which you can do with this, that active directory is not more suited for. So while we work through this document we’ll be exploring the options of SteadyState and comparing it to group policies that you can push down to a computer or user account from a central location.

This is the start page of Microsoft SteadyState from here there are 6 things you can do:

1. Set Computer Restrictions

2. Schedule Software Updates

3. Protect the Hard Disk

4. Add a New User

5. Export a User

6. Import a User

This is the “Set Computer Restrictions” page. This is broken down to different sections and show you how limiting the computer settings are in group polices that can be applied to this state. While there are still further windows computer policies you can apply to the machine especially if you wish to conform to your companies security plan, we’ll stick with Microsoft’s options for now.

Privacy Settings:

1. Do not display user names in the Log On to Windows dialog box

Group Policy equivalent:

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Do Not Display last user name in login screen

2. Prevent locked or roaming profiles that cannot be found on the computer from logging on

Group Policy Equivalent:

Disable interactive logon for all accounts except the approved accounts for use with the kiosk machine

Registry Equivalent:

“Computer Configuration\User Settings\Administrative Templates\System\User Profiles\Log users off when roaming profile fails”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\ProfileErrorAction]

3. Do not cache copies of locked or roaming profiles for users who have previously logged on to this computer -

Group Policy Equivalent:

Disable interactive logon for all accounts except the approved accounts for use with the kiosk machine

Registry Equivalent:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\DeleteRoamingCache]

Security Settings:

1. Remove the Administrator user name from the Welcome Screen

Group Policy Equivalent:

The XP Welcome screen is automatically changed to the classic logon screen after a computer is joined to a domain – no policy change is needed unless this has been adjusted.

Registry equivalent:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList\Administrator]

2. Remove the Shut Down and Turn Off options from the Log On to Windows and the Welcome Screen

Group Policy Equivalent:

User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar

Policy:Disable Logoff on the Start Menu
Description:Removes the "Logoff" button from the Start menu and prevents
users from adding the Logoff button to the Start menu.
Registry Value:"StartMenuLogoff"

Policy:Disable and remove the Turn Off Computer button
Description:Removes the "Turn Off Computer" button from the Start Menu and
prevents shutting down Windows using the standard shutdown user interface.
Registry Value:"NoClose"

3. Do not allow Windows to compute and store passwords using LAN Manager Hash values

Group Policy Equivalent:

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Network Security: Do not store LAN Manager hash value on next password change

4. Do not store user names or passwords used to log on to Windows Live ID or the domain

Group Policy Equivalent:

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Network access: Do not allow storage of credentials or .NET Passports for network Authentication

By disabling interactive logins for all users accept the kiosk user acount – this isn’t an issue

5. Prevent users from creating folders and files on the drive c:\

Security configured on the drive to give the kiosk only read access to information it needs should handle this.

6. Prevent users from opening Microsoft Office documents from within Internet Explorer

Registry Equivalents:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.Sheet.5\BrowserFlags]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.Sheet.8\BrowserFlags]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSProject.Project.8\BrowserFlags]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.Show.8\BrowserFlags]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Word.Document.6\BrowserFlags]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Word.Document.8\BrowserFlags]

7. Prevent write access to USB storage devices

Registry Equivalent:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect]

Other Settings:

1. Turn off the Welcome Screen

Group Policy Equivalent:

The XP Welcome screen is automatically changed to the classic logon screen after a computer is joined to a domain – no policy change is needed unless this has been adjusted.

If you notice the Microsoft does have some understanding of using machines with this configuration applied to them in a Domain environment since they provide the not “In a Domain managed environment the Domain Group Policy supersedes any settings made here.”

This is the Schedule Software updates screen. From you can configure the interval in which you update the Windows Operatings and auxillary programs. For updating windows a SteadyState computer supports Microsoft Update, Windows update or WindowServer Update Services.

The supported security program updates are limited the only programs that have native support are Computer Associates eTrust 7.0, McAfee VirusScan, and TrendMicro 7.0. You have the option of creating a custom script to handle any other program updates you may need. In a domain environment this can easily be handled by central update servers such as SMS and AV servers.

Windows disk protection allows the user to install any programs they want or download whatever they wish, but the hard drive will just wipe out the data. I can’t seem to find a registry or policy equivalent that allows this, so it seems that this is one main benefit of steady state.

The “Add a New User” screen only allows you to create local users which doesn’t really help you in a secure domain based enviroment. It will however check you domain’s password policy’s that you may have pushed down to the machine via group policy. If you do use this wizard to create accounts be aware that user policies from the domain can not be applied.

The first screen of User Settings is the “General” tab. Here we get into some more unique settings to the SteadyState product. While it has the function to prevent the user from making permanent changes the most interesting thing is the log off options, The ability to add a maximum amount of use time or an idle time is done by the use of two helper applications that are installed with SteadyState. Being able to always display the session countdown allows the user to see how much time they have left before the log off procedure is invoked. Restart computer after log off allows the Windows Disk Protection to kick in and reset the machine back to a clean state. While this is nice, the same option could be invoked by creating a log-off script.

The User Settings \ Windows Restrictions tab allows you to hide drives, set default restriction levels and takes the start menu restrictions straight out of the security policy. This is simple to replicate with a domain group policy.

Screen 2 of Windows Restrictions

Screen 3 of Windows Restrictions

Screen 4 of Windows Restrictions

Feature restrictions are more policies that have been taken straight out of the local security policy (domain policy manager).

Screen 2 of Feature Restrictions

Screen 3 of Feature Restrictions

Screen 4 of Feature Restrictions

While SteadyState allows you to block certain programs, locally installed antivirus can normally do this. Normally you wouldn’t want this in a kiosk environment. A better scenario is using group policies to allow only the programs you specify to run. Using the SteadyState scenario if someone ran a rogue application off their USB drive (if you’ve given them access) or renamed an EXE that was blocked that doesn’t need registry access, well I doubt that SteadyState could do anything to stop this.

Importing users is done via a normal windows save/open dialogue box. It loads files done with a supported *.ssu extenstion.

Exporting is done in a proprietary *.ssu file extension once again using the standard windows open / save dialogue box.

Can I recommend SteadyState?

For 90% of what it does I wouldn’t use SteadyState at all but would personally rely on centrally controlled and maintained group policies within a domain environement. What does shine though is the Windows Drive Protection and the helper utilities that handle logoff timers – though with the idle time out I would more likely just use a script I controlled which could be invoked by the screensaver kicking in.

I didn’t go through each of the group policies under the user restrictions since it’s almost verbatim down the list under the policy management. If you have any questions on a setting to restrict without using the SteadyState feel free to ask. The biggest disadvantage to SteadyState is the fact that it uses local accounts that can’t be managed remotely with ease. Being at a company where everything is done to avoid using local accounts I can say this is bad mojo.

I may use the the drive protection and timeout applications, we’ll see when this project is truly finished.

Reference Links:

Windows SteadyState Worldwide page

Windows SteadyState Readme File

Windows SteadyState Technical FAQ

Windows SteadyState Handbook

The Desktop Files: Shared Computing with Windows SteadyState

The Kiosk Series:

The Kiosk Series – Part One – Choices For Your Environment

The Kiosk Series – Part Two – Management Considerations For Your Environment

Twitter Updates for 2008-04-08

Creeva — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Update Community Band Concert Tonight: Tonight be performing in the the Ashland Community Band’.. http://tinyurl.com/5fxssk #
Update The Kiosk Series – Part Two – Management Considerations For Your Environment: Recently I̵.. http://tinyurl.com/4a4yyc #
Update The Kiosk Series – Part One – Choices For Your Environment: Recently I’ve been put fort.. http://tinyurl.com/3eratd #

The Kiosk Series – Part Two – Management Considerations For Your Environment

Creeva — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:15:26 +0000

Recently I’ve been put forth to design a kiosk solution for our internal environment. This is the second part of my kiosk series which is going to examine testing and deployment of such a system. To read the first section go to Part One – Choices For Your Environment.

Kiosk System Management Strategy

There are multiple issues involved with managing a “kiosk system”. We have to look at the problems we will face whether they are considered to be internal or external. From a security and management scope of this document we are going to assume they are located on the company guest network. If the machines are located within the internal network the current maintenance procedures will apply.

While this is still in the design period the final abilities of both the kiosk system and the where it falls have not been decided upon. Until another strategy is decided upon we are going to assume that these systems will be a member of the domain.

Hotfixing and Patching: Within the internal network we currently use a mixture of WSUS, SMS, and Antivirus servers to keep computers up to date. Something similar would have to be replicated either on the guest or DMZ network. If it is located on the DMZ network controls would have to be in place that the communication is pushed to the client for updates instead of the client pulling the information. If the information absolutely must be pulled, this will be addressed in the section below titled “Securing Connections”.

Break/Fix Issues: Next to the computer there will have to be a phone located so users can report any issues that a kiosk should have. Upon receiving the call and logging it, normal break/fix procedures would apply.

Remote Desktop: Going from the DMZ to the guest network we should be able to RDP into the kiosk unit.

Remote Monitoring: For the best security standpoint all of these units should include full auditing. The audit trail could be maintained locally with a remote server from the DMZ pulling in the logs via either a script or an off the shelf utility designed for pulling log files off of the machine.

Utilization Report: Similar to the Audit log we can get a utility that monitors the utilization with these units and pull them into the internal network. This can be done after tracking down a third party program that allows for utilization monitoring or by parsing the audit log and turning that into a utilization report.

Seat Type: A new seat type would have to be established to accommodate the additional costs incurred from the environment set up and maintenance of these units including but not limited the additional costs possibly incurred by having a phone nearby to inform the help desk of any issues.

Security Plan: A new security plan would have to be established since there will configuration settings that do not fit into the current security plans that the company has established. While these will fall under a site security plan, none of our existing would not be able to fit these systems under their configuration options.

Privacy Controls: Depending on the kiosk solution we go with – whether it be a login based solution where they have a full application suite or a web kiosk something must be done to maintain user privacy. After an inactivity time (amount to be specified later) which would either clear the process from memory or log the user out of the kiosk completely depending on which kiosk method we are using in a couple methods. One would be an off the shelf software product to this, at this point I would assume we would use all of their privacy and utilization reports. Another option would be to setup a script to kill the process or automatically log out the user and utilize the screensaver in the kiosk to run this functionality and monitor idle time.

Securing Connections: If the machines must pull information from the machines in the DMZ, then the best method would be to utilize IPSEC. This would limit the amount of ports needed and allow us to lockdown communication to only the specific server that the kiosk would need to talk to.

The Kiosk Series – Part One – Choices For Your Environment

Creeva — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:07:47 +0000

Recently I’ve been put forth to design a kiosk solution for our internal environment. This is the first part of my kiosk series which is going to examine testing and deployment of such a system.

Kiosk Options

When discussing kiosk system we need to discuss the scope, security issues, and functionality requirements that we must maintain to achieve a successful deployment. There are many types of kiosk systems that we can implement within the Company network. The solutions we are going to describe in this document are based on product literature that we have received after scope is finalized actual product testing will be done so we can verify that all the features work as described and will function within the deployed environment.

For the sake of categorization the following options were identified as possible for use within a kiosk environment. This list is not meant to be all encompassing but rather a list of desired features that we feel can be accomplished from the products we are looking at.

·   Internal Websites – company Designated
·   External Websites – Completely open from a kiosk standpoint
·   SSL VPN – For access to the internal network
·   Citrix – for terminal server capabilities
·   Printing – locally attached print
·   Sound – for hearing active embedded media
·   USB Mounting – for USB memory sticks
·   Run Apps Locally (Read Only) – from either the memory stick or kiosk directly
·   Run Apps Locally (Read / Write) – from either the memory stick or kiosk directly
·   Write to USB Memory Stick – from kiosk
·   Access to User Documents
·   No Login – completely is designed to start being used without login
·   Boiler Plate Website – standard start page
·   Full application list
·   Internal – Authentication
·   External – No Authentication
·   Browser Plug-ins – for enhanced compatibility
·   Restricted To Certain Web Sites – Company Designated

Kiosk mode systems come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and functions. To help narrow the design gap for our needs we have devised eight categories in which we can work around design structures for:

·   Full web only access kiosk on the company guest network
·   Limited web access on the company guest network with a locked down browser
·   Full web only access kiosk on the internal network
·   Limited web access on the internal network with a locked down browser
·   Limited seat with security controls on the company guest network
·   Limited seat with security controls on the internal network
·   Full seat with security controls on the company guest network
·   Full seat open use office solution – internal network
·   Full seat with security Controls open use office on the internal network

Each solution has its own benefits and concerns for deployment. We will be going over these one by one to analyze and work with company to implement the correct and desired solution. The analysis will include which functions identified above can be implemented, target placement, target users, benefits and disadvantages of each solutions, and possible security concerns.

Full web only access kiosk on the company guest network:

Description: This would be a fully open web kiosk with an address bar located at the top with the web browser being the only application available to the end user. All functions must be done within the browser.

Possible targeted functions:

·   Internal Websites – via SSL VPN
·   External Websites –
·   SSL VPN
·   Citrix – via SSL VPN
·   Printing – locally attached print
·   Sound – for hearing active embedded media
·   Access to My Docs – Via SSL VPN
·   No Login – completely is designed to start being used without login
·   Boiler Plate Website – standard start page
·   External – No Authentication
·   Browser Plug-ins – for enhanced compatibility

Target placement:

· Public areas where guests are most likely

Target users:

·   Visitors
·   Visiting Contractors
·   Local Contractors
·   Company Employees

Benefits:

· Allows users access to information at placement points
· User will not have access to the local computer beyond the web browser

Disadvantages:

· All functions must be performed must be performed within a browser
· Won’t be able to perform other application tasks

Security concerns:

· If a user leaves an authenticated session up there will be a time delay before the profile resets, risking possible exposure of private data or company data if the SSL VPN was used.
· Unsigned Active-X controls could cause issues and it would be recommended denying unsigned Active-X controls.

Limited web access on the company guest network with a locked down browser:

Description: This solution can be configured with or without an address bar allowing the option to restrict this to certain web sites. Active X would be disabled.

Possible targeted functions:

·   External Websites
·   Printing
·   Sound
·   No Login
·   Boiler Plate Website External – No Authentication
·   Restricted To Certain Web Sites

Target placement:

· Public areas where guests are most likely

Target users:

·   Visitors
·   Visiting Contractors
·   Local Contractors
·   Company Employees

Benefits:

·   Tighter Security Controls
·   Limited Risk Exposure
·   Option of controlling where the users can go via the browser

Disadvantages:

·   SSL VPN will not work if active-x controls are disabled
·   All functions must be performed must be performed within a browser
·   Won’t be able to perform other application tasks
·   With no SSL-VPN – no access to internal company data

Security concerns:

· If a user leaves an authenticated session up there will be a time delay before the profile resets, risking possible exposure of private data.

Full web only access kiosk on the internal network:

Description: While not recommended this is being offered as an option for choice. It has the same features as the Full web only access kiosk on the company guest network, but would require user authentication due to the network access it has.

Possible targeted functions:

·   Internal Websites
·   External Websites
·   Citrix
·   Printing
·   Sound
·   Access to My Docs
·   Boiler Plate Website
·   Internal
·   Browser Plug-ins

Target placement:

· Public sites within company buildings that are not commonly visited by the large amounts of visitors at once. This would be to limit the amount of time that authenticated data is available if a user walks away from the kiosk.
· Would not be recommended at location that the general public has access to

Target users:

· Local Contractors
· Company Employees

Benefits:

· Company employees would be able to access their Webmail from anywhere these are placed
· Company employees would be able to access a terminal server session from anywhere these are placed

Disadvantages:

· All functions must be performed must be performed within a browser
· Won’t be able to perform other application tasks

Security concerns:

· Possible information leakage due to open Webmail or terminal server session.
· Unsigned Active-X controls could cause issues and it would be recommended denying unsigned Active-X controls.

Limited web access on the internal network with a locked down browser:

Description: While not recommended this is being offered as an option for choice. It has the same features as the limited access kiosk on the company guest network, but would require user authentication due to the network access it has.

Possible targeted functions:

·   External Websites
·   Printing
·   Sound
·   No Login
·   Boiler Plate Website External – No Authentication
·   Restricted To Certain Web Sites

Target placement:

Target users:

· Local Contractors
· Company Employees

Benefits:

·   Company employees would be able to access their Webmail from anywhere these are placed
·   Company employees would be able to access a terminal server session from anywhere these are placed
·   Tighter Security Controls
·   Limited Risk Exposure
·   Option of controlling where the users can go via the browser

Disadvantages:

·   All functions must be performed must be performed within a browser
·   Won’t be able to perform other application tasks
·   Some sites won’t work due to Active-X being disabled

Security concerns:

· Possible information leakage due to open Webmail or terminal server session.

Limited seat with security controls on the company guest network:

Description: This would be a scenario where we would have an open standard windows desktop for the user to access. It would allow only certain applications to run but will give the user access to a portable memory stick for use.

Possible targeted functions:

·   Internal Websites – via SSL VPN
·   External Websites
·   SSL VPN
·   Citrix – via SSL VPN
·   Printing
·   Sound
·   Access to My Docs – Via SSL VPN
·   No Login
·   Boiler Plate Website
·   External
·   Browser Plug-ins
·   USB Mounting
·   Write to USB Memory Stick
·   No Login
·   Boiler Plate Website
·   Browser Plug-ins
·   Restricted To Certain Web Sites – company Designated

Target placement:

· Public open use office space

Target users:

·   Visiting Contractors
·   Local Contractors
·   Company Employees

Benefits:

·   Allows users access to information at placement points
·   Access to certain designated applications
·   Controlled environment

Disadvantages:

· Won’t be able to perform non designated application tasks

Security concerns:

·   Possible information leakage due to open Webmail or SSL VPN session.
·   Unsigned Active-X controls could cause issues and it would be recommended denying unsigned Active-X controls.
·   Possible application vulnerabilities could compromise the unit

Limited seat with security controls on the internal network:

Description: Same as the limited seat on the company guest network but designed for internal GRC employees. Smart card access would be recommended and roaming profiles blocked.

Possible targeted functions:

·   Internal Websites
·   External Websites
·   Citrix
·   Printing
·   Sound
·   Access to My Docs
·   Boiler Plate Website
·   Browser Plug-ins
·   USB Mounting
·   Write to USB Memory Stick
·   Boiler Plate Website
·   Internal – Authentication
·   Browser Plug-ins
·   Restricted To Certain Web Sites – company Designated

Target placement:

· Public open use office space

Target users:

· Local Contractors
· Company Employees

Benefits:

·   Allows users access to information at placement points
·   Access to certain designated applications
·   Controlled environment

Disadvantages:

· Won’t be able to perform non designated application tasks
· Large threat to data being exposed

Security concerns:

·   Unsigned Active-X controls could cause issues and it would be recommended denying unsigned Active-X controls.
·   Possible information leakage due to be on the open internal network
·   Large data exposure footprint
·   Possible application vulnerabilities could compromise the unit

Full seat with security controls on the company guest network:

Description: This option would give users to the same standard applications as their normal desktop. The hard drive would not be written to for data storage. Roaming profiles would be blocked. These seat would also have full security controls applied to it.

Possible targeted functions:

·   Internal Websites
·   External Websites
·   SSL VPN
·   Citrix
·   Printing
·   Sound
·   USB Mounting
·   Run Apps Locally (Read Only)
·   Run Apps Locally (Read / Write)
·   Write to USB Memory Stick
·   Access to My Docs
·   No Login – completely is designed to start being used without login
·   Boiler Plate Website
·   Full Application Suite
·   External – No Authentication
·   Browser Plug-ins
·   Restricted To Certain Web Sites – company Designated

Target placement:

· Public open use office space

Target users:

· Local Contractors
· company Employees

Benefits:

· Users are able to function as they would at their desks
· Allows users access to information at placement points

Disadvantages:

· No login requirements
· Possible data exposure

Security concerns:

· Unsigned Active-X controls could cause issues and it would be recommended denying unsigned Active-X controls.
· Possible information leakage due to open Webmail or SSL VPN session.

Full seat open use office solution on the internal network:

Description: Standard full seat for user to use on the internal network located at open access points for any user to access. Security settinga would be applied and user profile data removed upon log out. It is recommended to require smart card access to these units.

Possible targeted functions:

·   Internal Websites
·   External Websites
·   Citrix
·   Printing
·   Sound
·   USB Mounting
·   Run Apps Locally (Read Only)
·   Run Apps Locally (Read / Write)
·   Write to USB Memory Stick
·   Access to My Docs
·   Boiler Plate Website
·   Full Application Suite
·   Internal Authentication
·   Browser Plug-ins

Target placement:

· Public open use office space

Target users:

· Local Contractors
· Company Employees

Benefits:

· Users are able to function as they would at their desks
· Allows users access to information at placement points

Disadvantages:

· Requires smart card
· No access to local profiles

Security concerns:

· Possible information leakage due to open sessions.

Creeva.com Week in Review 02/15/08

Creeva — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:50:02 +0000

This week we’ve covered quite a few topics

Personal writing:

Holy Cross Posting Web Integration Life Caching Nirvana

Gnome Conduit – Oh How I Hate to Love You

coComment and Why It’s Important to Your Life Caching Needs

Slashdot – Not Really Ready For Data Portability

Bypassing Your Corporate Firewall Filtering or How to Torture The Firewall Admin

Feedwordpress – De-Duplication Possible?

Virtualizing Your Training Environment For Quick Restoration With VMware

The GFQ5 Story About Creeva

My Great Internet Data Clean-Up

Why Can’t We Get Past Race and Gender

Links:

Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/08/08

Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/09/08

Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/10/08

Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/12/08

Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/13/08

Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/14/08

Posts on other Web Services:

T witter Updates for 2008-02-08

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-09

All Consuming: Creeva 02/10/08

links f or 2008-02-11

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-10

coComments by Creeva

All Consuming: Creeva 02/11/08

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-11

coComments by Creeva 02/12/08

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-12

coComments by Creeva 02/13/08

Photos from Creeva 02/13/08

links for 2008-02-14

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-13

links for 2008-02-15

coComments by Creeva 02/14/08

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-14

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-15

The GFQ5 Story About Creeva

Creeva — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:01:59 +0000

To give the history on this – GF stood for Groovefest – this was an in game festival run by a play named Keltrien in the video game Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). The festival was on it’s fifth iteration and in celebration their was going to be this elaborate quest written by a player named Niix. I was featured as part of this and somewhere out there is a video with my avatar in it. This story was written by Niix as being in the quest creator. This is the part that did feature me or rather my character Creeva. If Niix has any issue with this please let me know and I am not taking credit nor robbing hte original creator of any copyright he owns over this work.

CHAPTER 1

NABOO – GRN – Diametric Parsecs (show #1138) –

ANNOUNCER: The following is a special presentation of GRN Broadcasting

[Title Sequence]

ANCHOR: Welcome to a very special Diametric Parsecs show. Tonight, we are extremely fortunate to have an interview with a ghost; a very famous ghost. Tonight, we sit down with the legendary Creeva Murkado for the first interview he has given since before his mysterious and much talk about disappearance. But, first, let’s take a look at some of this week’s other top stories…

[Headlines]

INT: Thanks, Halla. [To camera] Perhaps you haven’t heard his haunting kloo melodies. Perhaps you missed his meteoric rise to fame. Perhaps you don’t know the inherent weight of his poignant lyrics. Perhaps you’ve been on a deep space exploration mission. If any of those are true for you: welcome back to the core worlds, outrider. This is Creeva Murkado, as we have had the pleasure of knowing him then.

[Montage of musical appearance and stock footage]

INT: And this is Creeva Murkado as we know him now.

[Camera shows the musician sitting across from the interviewer]

INT: Thank you very much for coming, Maestro Murkado.

CM: Just Creeva will do.

INT: Well, Creeva, it’s safe to say we all wonder how you’ll top your last stir.

CM: [Chuckles]

INT: After becoming one of the most recognizable stars and most sought after musicians in the galaxy since Crying Dawn Singer, you achieved even more notoriety by suddenly vanishing from out scanners. And then, you return just as mysteriously as you disappeared. What’s next?

CM: I was thinking about a warm glass of milk.

INT: [Laughs] May not be as celebrated as your return.

CM: Won’t know until I try. The public interest is fickle and enigmatic.

INT: When you went missing, a thousand theories were put forth. Among them, you had been abducted by rebels, killed by pirates, had a nervous breakdown, suffered a drug overdose, committed suicide, were murdered by hutts … the list goes on. In fact, Ambassador Moyakashkaykrit even went so far as to claim a body had been found in Symphonia. What really happened? Where did you go? Billions of people want to know.

CM: Billions of people also want to know what’s in our neighbouring galaxies. I think that’s far more important than where one man went.

INT: Is that where you went: Across galaxies on a spiritual journey of inner and outer exploration? That is one of the theories put forth by some.

CM: Actually, I went to the corner market and got lost in the vegetables section.

INT: I’ll take that as a ‘no’.

CM: Feel free to take it however you like, my friend. I took it for two small bags of opplocs with some powdered icing for dipping.

INT: [Sighs] I can see you haven’t lost your talent for being cryptic. [To camera] When we come back, I’ll have more questions for Creeva Murkado, a musical genius and enigma.

[Cut to commercial]

[Excerpt from a recorded Creeva concert]

INT: Now, Maestro Murkado (Creeva), you won’t tell us where you went but can you tell us why you left the spotlight for so long, and so mysteriously?

CM: The Why of anything is almost always much more important than the Where of it.

INT: Precisely!

CM: Precisely.

[Awkward silence]

INT: Well, what I meant to ask was…

CM: …why did I leave?

INT: Yes!

CM: Yes.

INT: Yes?

CM: Yes.

INT: But, Yes to what?

CM: Yes; that’s why I left.

INT: What is why?

CM: Oh, What is rarely ever Why.

INT: Well, what is it that you’ve said is the reason for your disappearance?

CM: I didn’t; you did.

INT: Then could you elaborate on the reasoning? I’m afraid you’ve lost me.

CM: Elaborate more than simply Why?

INT: Well, yes!

CM: Well, no.

INT: Oh.

CM: [Chuckles] Isn’t the search for knowledge a wonderful thing? Let me confess; I’m playing a little here. The reason I left is ‘Why?’ Why me? Why now? Why this? Why not that? Life had become so secure that I had stopped doing the second most important thing in my life – questioning things. When you stop examining who you are and where you are and what you are doing, you are no longer grounded. You cannot always look to the future. You need to be aware of the present and mindful of the past. To quote a great writer: “The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between.”

INT: So you realized this and left for parts unknown?

CM: Not so much realized it as felt it. There is quite a difference between the two.

INT: Some would say the suddenness of your unannounced departure could be interpreted as, forgive me, selfish.

CM: [Laughs] There were more qualifiers in that sentence than the start of a pod-racing tournament. Don’t you mean that you would call it selfish?

INT: Well, erm, I wasn’t implying any assumption on my part. Only, um, your colleagues and friends had to scramble to address the responsibilities you left behind. Not to mention the storm of media inquiries and the billions of fans left wondering…

CM: My colleagues are my business, but they wouldn’t be my friends if I had ever thought them to worry about a little thing like this. And if I made billions of fans wonder at ‘why?’, if I made them stop simply regurgitating my words and my so-called wisdom, and made them actually think for themselves, then the good far outweighs the bad.

INT: What, then, prompted your return?

CM: The lure of the crowd.

INT: But you have neither recorded nor performed before any sizeable audience since your return.

CM: When you are alone for a time, the prerequisite for the term ‘crowd’ grows small.

INT: Well, when we come back, we’ll see what’s in the future for the always enigmatic Creeva Murkado.

[Cut to commercial]

[Excerpt from Creeva accepting an award]

INT: Welcome back! I’m [interviewer name] here with Maestro Creeva Murkado; musician, poet, philosopher. So, Creeva, now that you’ve returned to us, what are your plans? Will you return to the prominence of before?

CM: Maybe.

INT: Recording?

CM: Maybe.

INT: Touring?

CM Maybe.

INT: Writing?

CM: Maybe.

INT: Is there anything you’ve determined that you will be doing?

CM: See that’s the best part about life; you just never know what mysteries the universe holds for us around every corner. The one predictable aspect of the future is that it is inherently unpredictable.

INT: I suppose you’re not planning on telling us the answer, then?

CM: Why ruin the surprise? The getting there is half the fun. [Chuckles]

INT: You’ve long been friends with the wookiee Moyakoshkaykrit. Could you tell us what he thinks of the current political climate?

CM: Hmm, no.

INT: Has he not expressed those thoughts to you?

CM: Yes but, not to sound egotistical, this isn’t a show about him, it is about me. If you want that answer, I suggest you ask him yourself.

INT: Unfortunately, broadcast regulations forbid live broadcast of any wookiee, even one so famous as the Ambassador.

CM: You mean ‘especially one so famous’ as he.

INT: Er, I simply mean … you’re here and …

CM: I suggest you move on to the next question.

INT: Yes, actually we have to take a quick break but, before we do, here’s some footage of your last public concert.

[Excerpt from Creeva’s last concert]

[Cut to commercial]

[Excerpt of Creeva at a children’s hospital]

INT: And we’re back with Creeva. Since you won’t comment on your friend’s opinions, could you tell how you see the current political climate?

CM: There are no politics of significance.

INT: Well, of course, in the greater scheme of life, politics is merely an activity of society and not of nature. I do understand how, in that respect, there are no politics of significance.

CM: [Chuckles] Well, as Ithorian-friendly as that sounds, I actually meant that in our current society, there are no politics of significance. There is no senate. The ultimate rulership of the galaxy falls to one man. Unless he argues with himself, there is no political environment to speak of.

INT: COMPNOR would contend the His Imperial Excellency has long promised that if the people disapprove of his leadership, he will step down. And that he has never forced anyone to do anything that wasn’t for the good of the galaxy.

CM: And what would you expect him to say?

INT: That response has been met with nothing short of an overwhelming call for him to continue.

CM: Why don’t we take a poll…

INT: There have been polls taken

CM: …on Alderaan?

INT: Uh.

CM: Let’s ask the people of Alderaan what they think.

INT: Well, again, some would say that tragedy was a direct result of terrorists commandeering a mining facility and using to hold the entire galaxy hostage.

CM: Was it really?

INT: Official reports have confirmed it.

CM: And what would you expect them to say?

INT: We’ve all seen the spectacular and tragic footage of rebel snubfighters attacking and boarding the mining station just before they turned it on that weaponless planet and massacred billions of peaceful people. Such a thing would be impossible to cover up.

CM: Perhaps that’s why there is another side to the story. As a journalist, even on a mouthpiece show like this one, you must recognize that others are telling a completely different version of those events. And, if it’s true that the government project was called: Death Star, would that be just a little … odd?

INT: Those theories were put forth by criminals and lawless terrorists. None of it can be true. That many people cannot keep that big a secret for that long a time.

CM: How many people swore on their lives that they knew exactly what happened to me? How many people tried to get money from the media by enticing them with the truth about my disappearance? How many of those people are proven completely wrong by my sitting here and talking to you?

INT: Well…

CM: Ask yourself this: If you had attained complete control of this station for several decades, where everything that was produced and broadcast was done only with your approval and then, one day, a letter came in with a bunch of signatures that said, “Please step down,” would you? Would your first reaction be, “Hey, look they don’t want me anymore, I’ll just give all these years of being in command because they don’t like me anymore?” Do you really think that’s what you’d do?

INT: I suppose I wouldn’t.

CM: In all that time, I’ll bet you would have entrenched yourself with ‘job security’ assurances, allies, doctrine and procedure. You’d use your position to further solidify itself.

INT: Maybe.

CM: Well, you’re right. It’s not true for everybody, and perhaps not for you, but what if you took your worst adversary in this station, in this entire organization and put them in the exact same position? What if you took your worst enemy in the entire galaxy and put him in that chair? What do you think he would do to protect his position?

INT: Are you saying that Imperial Highness is your worst enemy?

CM: One: You’re deflecting the question, and I’ll allow it, for your sake. Two: The Emperor is not my worst enemy. I am.

INT: How so?

CM: Nobody else in this entire galaxy could have nor can hurt me as much as I can.

INT: Is this tied to your disappearance?

CM: Perhaps. Although my disappearance is more tied to a block of cheese than anything suggested by the press. Now, that producer of yours seems about ready to burst a vessel, so I think that’s our cue.

INT: [Chuckles] Well, thank you very much for coming by, Creeva. Cryptic as you are, it’s still an absolute delight!

CM: Thanks for the invitation, it was a pleasure being here.

INT: This is [interviewer] for Diametric Parsecs. Join us next week when we explore the relationship between a planet’s weather system and a child’s personality.

[Cut to credits]

Virtualizing Your Training Environment For Quick Restoration With VMware

Creeva — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:56:25 +0000

This was a persuasion piece I wrote for work on how to quicker deployments and restores in the training lab. It seems we had employees several times a week had hours of their time taken up by reloading PC’s in the training rooms or in the testing labs. I wrote up this piece which is unfortunately light on detail (if you have questions post them here I’ll answer) for management to look at what we could do to script this solution out. Because of work security requirements I did make some modification to the information listed here, I kept the changes to a minimum though. I actually will be doing a follow up ot this article which will contain the reload scripts and technical nitty gritty. My idea has been at least going so far as to be tested (I have VMware workstation on my work PC now).

Introduction

There are many good reasons for virtualizing your environment. The two major reasons for this undertaking for this are to save money on cost or to save time on deployment operations. Since most training labs will still require a computer for each student to learn on, our focus in moving to a virtualized architecture would be to save time for each setup and deployment.

Configuring the Images

The IT department will supply images for their current supported loads to the training the environment. This virtual image will be created by VMware Workstation. Since each machine has to be unique to the machine it is running and joined to the domain, the image will have to go through a one time Sysprep for the machine it is to be loaded on. From the standpoint of any technician maintaining this environment the initial setup of the virtual machine would be the same as setting up any other machine in the environment.

Each virtual machine though built from a standard base image must be unique to the machine it is installed on
Each virtual machine’s computer name will be the ComputerName+v+OS version so the name would be ComputernameVXP for a standard XP domain image. The tag number for the vista machine would be ComputernameVVIS for Vista. A similar naming convention will be used on each machine and for each operating system installed as virtual machine.

This deployment is starting with Windows based operating systems but can be expanded to support any operating system that is able to be virtualized.

Preparing the Host PC

The computer the virtual machine is installed on is considered the host machine. This terminology is used to reflect that it is hosting the virtual machine. This machine will be loaded with the standard supported operating system in the environment (Windows XP at the time of this writing) that is locked down. Via computer and group policy the only options the students should be able to perform within the host’s local PC environment is the ability to log off the host computer and to click the desktop icon to run the virtual machine.

In the root directory we will create some a new directory called c:\images underneath here there will be two directories, c:\images\run and c:\images\archive. In the run directory will be the current live image on the system, the backup and “clean” image will be stored in the archive directory. On each machine the c:\images directory will be shared allowing only access to domain administrators, helpdesk, and the teacher’s computer.

When these steps have been accomplished a technician will copy an image from the reference share created on the network and copy it to the c:\images\archive directory. The image MUST be set to be read-only. The technician will install VMware Player on the host machine. After VMware Player is installed associate the .vmdk image file in the reference directory with VMware player. Load up the image you want to adjust (the one you pulled down form the reference share and start it in VMware player.

The image will load up ready for patches and the overlay script. Deploying it uniquely to each machine in this state will ensure it will have the latest overlay and settings that are required at the time this is being deployed on the host machine. Follow the naming conventions for virtual machines and join the virtual machine to the domain.

When new virtual machines are being deployed inform the architecture team so they can be joined into the appropriate domain group for training computers. This goes for the host as well as the virtual machines. Since there needs to special policies applied to the host, this step is very important.

When this step has been completed configuration of the host machine should be complete. There will be no need to monitor normal day to day activity or reload of the machine since this will all be handled through the virtual machine.

Setting up the Teachers/Management Station

The teachers computer will have VMware player installed with the same images as the users. The host operating system however will not be locked down as far as the student’s host machines. On the teaching station the installation technician will create a c:\scripts directory which will include the maintenance scripts for the local training environment. While there will be reference scripts available on the same share the reference image can be pulled from, these scripts will have to be modified to include all the student machines in the local training area. For the scripts to complete successfully all the student computers that are going to be in use must be turned on.

The first script will copy the image the teacher wants to train in the environment from the c:\images\archive directory to the run directory. This is designed for easy maintenance and clean ups of the machines. Since the students will only be working on images in the run directory we can still have a backup that is “clean”. This script will also copy a shortcut to launch the machine onto the student computer’s local desktop. Optionally the script could copy this shortcut into the students “start-up” folder so the virtual machine is auto loaded when the student logs into their host computer.

The second script created will be the cleanup script. This script will go out to each client computer that was used and delete the image in the run directory and copy the new default image from the archive directory and place it in the run directory. This is to make sure that if the teacher doesn’t run the first script that the client PC’s have the default image available to them at startup. This script will not change the shortcuts on the user’s desktop.

If the trainer uses software that is outside of the scope of a normal load, images that utilize different software configurations can be saved. For the trainer to do this they can contact local IT support to have this completed. To create new images activate the script that puts a new machine in the run directory of the client computer. At this point the following steps must be taken:

Open up the image that is located on each clients run directory
Install the software that is special to this configuration
Shut down image and exit it out of VMware Player
Rename the image so it denotes what is special about it
Copy image to the archive directory
Contact IT support to modify the maintenance scripts

The original base image for the student host machine has been set to read-only this should help prevent the original base image form being accidentally overwritten.

Maintenance

On the last Friday of the month the base image of each machine must be refreshed. This is to limit the amount of time it takes to patch the image each time it is run after being reset. Here is what that entails:

Set the attribute of the base image so it’s no longer read-only
Open up the base image and let it startup
Login to the virtual machine
Open up the run option from the start menu and type “wuauclt /detectnow”
Wait a few minutes to make sure all the windows update patches are pulled down – it is recommended you start the next virtual machine before moving to the next step
At this point allow the virtual machine to reboot
Wait for the machine to reboot to makes sure it starts up without any errors.
Login to the virtual and makes sure it loads correctly
Shutdown the virtual machine.
Reset the base image to be read-only

Ashland Humane Society Customer Service Issues Part Tres

Creeva — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:23:14 +0000

For those want to read what caused it to get to this point:

Part 1

Part 2

I have sent the following to the Ashland Humane Society’s e-mail address. I’m not sure if this issue is done or not but to show there is no long term hard feelings on my side I gave them basic instructions on fine tuning their processes and getting into the digital age cheaply:

First and foremost to end our bickering – have Rascal Unit change the wording on their site to not imply that you can make appointments via e-mail – I don’t suggest you remove your email, but since you are responsible for the text meet the expectations set forth by it or set them accordingly.
That being said here are the approaches I would take – I’ll add the caveat that I will do it for a fee of $50.00 – but I should lay it out for you simply enough that your current IT person should be able it simply enough.

1. Purchase a domain since your previous domain expired you are either going to have purchase a new one or go for legal action over the old one – since your a small non-profit organization I am assuming that you are going to buy a new one and skip legal action I have links in this article I wrote about choosing a domain name to some of the cheapest ones online http://journeytogetpaid.com/2008/02/07/choosing-a-domain-name-can-be-heart-wretching/ you should be be able to get a new domain for 6.95 a year (first year included in that 50.00).   I would recommend ashlandhumane.org or ashlandhumane.net since these are both unregistered at this time.

2. Sign up for Google Apps for domains – http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/index.html – this will give you further strengthening of your brand. They do offer an edition for non-profits http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=46576&query=non+profit&topic=&type= what this allows you to do is a few things – the first is simple branding of your organization in the e-mails you send as all your emails can be (username)@ashlandhumane.net or whatever domain name you choose. There are further features though from this service.

* Free E-mail Branded for your organization

* Free Instant Messaging Branded for you organization (I don’t see you using this side of it)

* Free Document sharing – so you won’t have to email everyone when you update a form – they will be able to pull the latest down form the site

* Free Shared Calender – you could move appointments onto here so all of your members could know events and appointments from home the night before – you could even make a public calender that didn’t show details but would inform the internet public when you were overbooked

Once again this service is completely free – there is some settings to configure on your the settings for your DNS server/registrar you performed in step one. The Google Apps help has instructions on how to configure this.

3. Set up a web page – I would personally recommend a blog platform here is why.   You currently stated that you update the adoption sites with pictures and information for the pets that you have that need adoption. Use this information an host it on your own blog in conjunction with the adoption sites.   This allows people to go to your site and see the latest pets you have up for adoption.    I haven’t used your adoption sites but theoretically it should be a copy and paste from those sites to yours.    This would take a little training from your staff and a slight web site design (neither included in my 50.00 but I will configure the functionality for your web site whether you go static or blog style). If you go with a static page this is included the Google Apps listed in step 2. If you went with a blog platform I would choose either www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com to host your site at – both of these are once again completely free.

These three steps would essentially give you the power and tools that most major enterprise environments use that would be yours for the cost of 6.95 a year recurring. Your volunteers would be more mobile – they would be able to check their calenders and be able to be available when time demands it so you wouldn’t have extra volunteers when you didn’t need it, but could possibly have more when you did.   For the users that aren’t online you can still communicate with those the same way you do currently – for those that are this will save time compared to phone tree methods and even just doing bulk e-mails.    I would also recommend setting up a mailing list so volunteers and the public can subscribe and see the latest news about your organization in a weekly/monthly/quarterly fashion.    More information and communication with the public should lead to more adoptions.   Desktop calenders can be configured to sync with online calenders so users that have dial-up would be able to update the calender every time they managed to get online.

I may be persuaded to do the work to set this up for you at cost (domain fees and then anything else you may require that does take money) – but I won’t even broach that path until the wording on the Rascal Unit website is changed.   I would suggest the following wording:

Contact the Ashland Humane Society at 419 2814722 to make an appointment for this clinic date in this area. Inquiries can be made via e-mail at ashlandhumane@yahoo.com

A small change can go a long way to setting expectations. Maybe you never had an issue before the one is me over this service.   This doesn’t mean it won’t happen again, and why allow it to with small and 99% free changes that would allow you on the technologically front to compete with multinational companies.   Running a web site you can link users to partner adoption sites, rascal unit, etc.   Communication and awareness is the mantra in this day and ago.   While I may be one person it always starts with one.   While I could go almost as extreme as your personal surgery example you posted on my site and say slavery and voting rights for minorities and women weren’t changed until one person started the ball – I know that’s asinine.   What I will state is a more applicable modern example.   Recently in America there as been an increase awareness in organic foods.   Granted not all organic foods actually hold a benefit, but as more people are becoming aware of those that do customers are demanding it.   Now on your grocer’s shelves you are seeing more and more organic alternatives to the foods you’ve always purchased, more then likely the alternatives are made by the same manufacturer as your own stand by.   This change was not mandated but driven by market force. I’m sure it started by one guy saying this food sucks, I want this type and then telling friends.   Things like this snowball.

I’ll state that I can come across like an ass. I don’t deny this and though I’m not out for any malice, I’m only blunt and don’t mince words.   Whether you ever reply or comment on my blog please take my words to heart. The earlier you change and the faster you change the easier it is as time goes by and you don’t become completely entrenched. I understand that you care about the pets first.   If you aren’t working with the customers and giving them the most efficient ways of interacting with you you disenfranchise them.   If you don’t at the very least address complaints directly to the users ASAP – this has a direct reflection on you, timeliness in addressing complaints is one of the first steps of customer service.   Taking 12 days to acknowledge receiving it to the customer that is complaining is unacceptable.   Not taking blame for improperly setting expectations is also unacceptable customer service.   You may care about the pets but ANY poor customer service that can drive away possible money being spent at your location, donations, or especially adoptions is even a more disservice to the pets then anyone that could call, e-mail, or write you.

Customer service can be adjusted by modify your current processes.   Making the new processes the norm will mean after a short while you won’t understand why you thought they took so much longer that you refused to change sooner. I never said the receptionist was rude, I stated the e-mail issue was poor customer service. The way you have handled this and the time it has taken you has been poor customer for something so small.   Admitting that will be the first step to better customer service.   I know it’s hard to admit you were wrong. Maybe I should have been quiet, but maybe I’m not alone. Maybe others have had this exact same issue but haven’t spoken up to anyone.   How do you or I know that I’m the singular issue in this equation? I doubt if I hadn’t posted this on my blog that you would have ever responded.   If it hadn’t been ranked so high in google you would have never responded.   This in and of itself states you are aware of the power of technology and it’s effect.   While I may just be a vocal singular person, I’m speaking up for that possible other person, or handful or people, that may have had similar issues and complaints that haven’t expressed them so publicly.

I could have gotten a picket sign and marched on public property for hours until this was all changed and addressed. Ironically in the digital age that spending an hour writing e-mails to you and the effect in google have more of an impact on you then having an article about me picketing in front of your organization.   I’m aware of this and now so are you.   So also is the next person that may have a complaint about your organization. My post gives credence and a sense of community to any you disenfranchise.   If you don’t address your issues properly to some extent remember that I have given an easy forum for users to state what complaints they also may have with you. The silent complaints will not stay so silent in the future because of this.

Finally like I said, I’m blunt. I feel I’ve handled this properly and professionally especially since there is more of a public eye on companies and the issues people have with them. If it wouldn’t have been me it would have been the next guy.   Not only have I pointed out the issues, I’ve given you a low cost method of addressing where it only requires some learning and effort on your part. I also gave you the option of having the work done for an extremely low fee (find out how much it costs at the local computer store to do an hours worth of labor and realize it may take upwards to 3-4 to get you happy with the setup I laid out for you). I’ve also posted the whole process online, so as you modify your steps and the assurances I hear from you I will post those as well as your failings.   I have no reason to pursue a hatred vendetta, I will champion you as much as I denounce you. You run a great organization with what I am sure is great volunteers and people behind it.   However your customer service, your customer services processes, and your ability to address issues still all do suck.   Addressing these issues can raise the bar across the organization, you can be mediocre or you can be better.   The choice is yours.

Beer – Using the Environment Arguement to Promote Your Alcholism

Creeva — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:28:15 +0000

We were discussing our carbon footprint size over at the SWG Forums, and some had this comment on American consumptionism:

What i find funny is how much excessive packaging we produce.

think about beer…i like thinking about beer.

if you goto a liquor store, you have the option to buy 6 packs and 12 packs……….but also 18 packs, 20 packs…8 oz..12 oz..18 oz…24oz..

like we really need all those options. heres an idea…..if you want a 18 pack….buy a 12 pack and a 6 pack. we dont need all the extra machinery, materials, excessive labor to create 18 packs..20 packs..

and with less material cost to produce that product…..mabey the companies could pay thier employees better , and mabey even lower the cost of beer (WOOHOO).

mabey im just dumb thinking this way……..i dont know.

I was thinking on this and replied this back:

Theoretically a 12 Pack and 6 pack would use the same amount of packaging – actually 6 packs are less ecologically friends because the plastic has a longer bio-degradable time then cardboard and since it requires oil to make plastic much more harmful for the environment.

Going further – it takes less cardboard to create 1 24 pack versus 2 12 packs I believe (marginal but a small difference) even if I’m wrong with that it does take more energy to make the cardboard for 2 12 packs versus 1 24 pack – while at teh very least is just one cutting machine cutting one more piece – it’s still an enviromental impact if you figure in in the energy multiplied by the number of 12 packs produced.

Now since glass is more recyclable and comes from a renewable resources – glass bottles would be much more environmentally friendly and since it takes less energy to make a larger bottle then multiple smaller ones it is better to purchase 40 oz. bottles then 16 oz. bottles.

If you truely want to be enviromentally friendly you would purchase your beer only in a refillable keg – this way you are always re-using the packaging for your product (beer) and not worrying about glass, plastic, aluminum, or cardboard filling up the landfills. Similar to the people that carry canvas bags to the grocery store you would be doing your part to help save teh environment.

And that folks is how you show your wife, friends, and family that your doing your part by buying beer by the keg instead of buy the can. Ironically you will also save money this way also.

BTW – if you homebrew you would have to take into account the amount of energy it takes to drive to teh store and back transporting the same amount of beer that you are brewing since you’ll probably x2 x3 times the amount of energy that the large companies use since they make it in bulk enough that it would be a much smaller carbon impact for them to make the same amount of beer then you can at home.

Please send paypal tips for helping you win this argument to buy beer to creeva (at) gmail (dot) com

I made a second post to follow up the second part of what he had said:

BTW – Higher Wages for Employees or cheaper – choose one

Actually what am I saying – once a price rises to a certain level and htey expect a certain amount of profit the price never drops and if it did the government would raise the sin tax to compensate.

Companies on average are paying their employees less on average (accounting for inflation) then just 10-20 years ago – wages are not going to increase – they will rise in sectors – but pay rates across teh board will remain or drop – if the wage of the worker bothers you purchase from smaller companies that treat their employees better – me? I shop at wal-mart – so take that from my previous statement.

Beer is never again going to be any cheaper then it is today – and you will be able to say that the next day and the next day – as inflation goes up this constant will remain true – another reason I’ve given you to drink as much as you can today – also remember to be environmentally friendly and only drink form kegs.

More tips for justifying your alcoholism can be sent to the address in the previous post.

So I have now giving you the reader a reason to buy beer now and buy it by the keg. You can always say that you are trying to help the environment and saving money – a win win for you.