Space-Time and Digital Media

Einstein developed a model for space-time and it's truly fascinating to anyone with even a casual interest. Over the past few years the media industry has been making attempts to develop it's own space-time model for content. In this space alternatives like DVR's and OnDemand have been the staple, while other "Time Shifting" alternatives have been slow to gain market share. Many will argue, factors from the Digital Media conversion such as use rights, or bandwidth considerations have been the cause, while still others will look at cable companies and wireless providers as the cause. Regardless of where you stand, there exists a strong value in media delivered without regard to the time or schedule of a media consortium.

Take the current issues at NBC with Leno and Conan. There is a demographic that wants to watch there "Tonite Show" at a 11:35pm. Today NBC decides who you will see at that time and they sell advertising for that hour knowing what demographic will be watching. This is a model that was developed in the 50's and let's face it, a model that is seriously outdated. Much media content lives under similar antiquated models.

As our media market continues to grow, finding new models that deliver value to consumers, is an area where differentiation will lead to a market edge. Being someone who has been in the Technology Industry for the past 25 years, it seems logical that whatever solutions arise they will be technical in nature. Let us not forget though, where Apple Inc. changed the face of Music with the iPod, this wouldn't have been possible without concessions from content providers, so it won't be without cooperation.

However 2010 ends up, the current state will change, as no market can ignore new models with such potential and so many clamoring for their rebirth. Watch for them! Where today we live by a time based model there will come a day when this will be little more than an outdated method.

Cloud Impact on App Development (InfoWeek)

Cloud Ready For App Development In 2010

Posted on Tuesday Jan 5th at 1:45pm *(http://tinyurl.com/yey4ojr)*

The cloud is an emerging platform that can ease the strain on application development, analysts at Forrester Research conclude in a report published Monday, "The Top Five Changes For Application Development In 2010."

Analysts Mike Gualtieri, John Rymer and Jeffrey Hammond conclude that Amazon Web Services' (AWS) cloud, EC2, and other public clouds, such as Salesforce.com's Force.com, AT&T Synaptic Compute cloud, Rackspace Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, are offering mature operational environments that can be used to speed the development and launch of cloud applications.

"Various public cloud offerings are maturing rapidly, opening up more opportunities for developers to quickly build and delivery applications. You should start now." the authors concluded.

Salesforce.com is a leader in establishing its platform as a development environment and encouraging the creation of application to run alongside its standard customer relationship management applications. It offers a proprietary language, Apex, for the creation of business logic and the Visual Force graphical user interface building tool that invokes Adobe Flex components. Microsoft will soon offer Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0 to give Windows developers the option of building applications to run in Azure.

Force.com's senior director of platform product marketing, Ariel Kelman, said it takes one-fifth the time to develop an application using the database-centric Force.com platform and development tools versus standard enterprise development techniques. He says that conclusion is supported by a Salesforce.com-sponsored study by Nucleus Research.

In addition to Microsoft and Force.com, the analysts cited LongJump, Caspio, Boomi, and WorkXpress as supplying online tools for cloud application development.

"Cloud platforms offer big improvements in the cost and speed of deploying applications... Embrace cloud computing as an emerging platform," they wrote. The mature cloud platforms allow development teams to skip buying servers and storage and setting up networks to connect them. Rather, development can proceed more directly, based on use of the target cloud's APIs, which speeds the launch of the application in the cloud, they said.

By developing applications for the cloud, developers avoid the doggedly perplexing issue of being able to scale out the application at will. Applications can scale up just as fast as server instance subscriptions can be added, based on the cloud's subscription process. If the application runs on open source code, then no new license charges need to be incurred as the application is scaled out across more servers, the analysts observed.

Public clouds now offer choices for application deployment. The infrastructure as a service option, such as Amazon's EC2, offers developers maximum control over the application. Platform as a service providers, such as Force.com and Microsoft Azure, offer a more integrated development environment leading to faster deployment; and software as a service vendors, such as Oracle's E-Business suite, open source SugarCRM, or Salesforce.com's CRM application, offer ready-to-use, finished applications.

Furthermore, the analysts concluded, public cloud servers are good for running Web site applications, collaboration and social networking applications, email, information services and analysis applications dealing with large data sets. They are still less desirable for running core business production systems and transaction applications.

"The cloud is here to stay," the analysts concluded. "Start learning what cloud computing holds for your development organization. .. Formulate a strategy to put this new generation of platforms to work."

Five key elements of such a strategy are:

1. Make enterprise development more nimble and adaptable -- in other words, more like a startup. "Every line of code they write has to be linked to their ability to obtain revenue." So enterprise development teams should know at a deep level what it is the company is trying to do and how it relates to its customers.

2. Startups don't build up elaborate architectures. They use "just enough business-focused process and technical tools to get them to a solution as quickly as possible," they said. Likewise, startups need to respond quickly to changing conditions and competition. "You can't just set a course and stubbornly stick to it," they warn. In other words, find your inner startup, they advise, and put it to work.

3. Don't stick with the same development platform out of misguided loyalty. The Java and .Net languages and related technologies remain the favorites of developers, but the analysts said there has been "a significant uptick" in the use of lighter weight technologies, such as the Apache Tomcat Server, Adobe Flex, the Dojo Foundation's Ajax components, open source Drupal content management, Google Web Toolkit, and the open source Joomla portal management system.

In addition, other open source code is frequently used, including the Red Hat JBoss application server and middleware, the Ruby on Rails scripting language framework,the SpringSource Framework for producing Java applications (SpringSource is now part of VMware), and the Zend Framework for PHP development from Zend Technologies. A large retail chain recently deployed open source Geronimo, an Apache Java application server to 4,000 stores, saving itself charges for 4,000 software licenses.

4. The analysts urged developers to expand their definition of performance in 2010. Performance is affected by the overall platform quality, ease of use, ease of adoption, ease of making changes and availability of a broad community of support. Open source code alternatives are often not as rich in features as their commercial counterparts, "but they often measure up just as well in other dimensions of an expanded performance matrix," they wrote.

Furthermore, the report's authors urged developers to become "passionate" about the user experience they were delivering in their software. Best practices for user experience design need to be injected into the development process, they said.

5. Finally, the analysts urged the cultivation of developers with the right talents. Many offer fine technical skills but don't have much understanding of the business. When accelerating development in the cloud, knowledge of the business may prove as crucial as technical skill.

Cloud computing is part of the "new normal" of enterprise computing, which takes the lean and mean operation during recessionary times and continues it into the return to a healthier economy. Cloud development will help enterprises do more with less, and getting cloud skills right might make the difference between success and failure. "If your competition can build an app faster than you, then your business will be destined to be no more than a fast follower," they concluded.

Posted via web from robertzullo's posterous

Quote of the Week

Knowing what you want turns hope into a plan.

2009-2010

Happy Holidays all, ...........now don't shoot your eye out!

Posted via email from robertzullo's posterous

2009- 2010

Happy Holidays all, ...........now don't shoot your eye out!

Quote of the Week

"find the best in everything. Let it justify the bad and underscore the good."

ZuCom

Situational Leadership

Situational Leadership

I was reminded today of the importance of situational leadership. As a management consultant I often meet with trusted partners and clients who are experiencing some sort of organizational shift.  Whether or not it's an entity that has good development programs there is always a need to maintain situational leadership styles.

Many organizations invest in programs on this subject and almost any MBA program includes some form or review on the practice.  It's not a particularly difficult concept to understand and it's based on the work from Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt (1958, 1973) who put forth the notion that a leadership style should be born from the circumstance and therefore leaders should have a range of styles in their arsenal.

In the technology industry many leaders rise to management on the backs of technical skills, and some ascend very quickly (Gates, Wozniak, Jobs are great examples).  A good leadership development program can teach situational leadership and experience can mature these skills such that anyone can become a "4 Tool Leader"™.  

This is all great stuff to review and somewhat fundamental so what is new here?  What I was reminded of today was the maintenance that accompanies this skill set and the responsibility we are empowered with to use it appropriately.  To effectively utilize this practice you must employ a healthy introspective review of situations, styles and results.  I will go as far as to say that getting feedback from other leaders familiar with the organization is also another diligence that should accompany your review.  Some leaders feel threatened at the thought of considering any post analysis of their leadership.  Many will realize value in it and nearly all who engage in the practice will grow from the experience.

How do you maintain and grow your situational leadership?

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HP buying 3Com

HP buying a company that helped found the NET.

"By acquiring 3Com, we are accelerating the execution of our converged infrastructure strategy and bringing disruptive change to the networking industry,"

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE

HP executive VP Dave Donatelli

Tim Sanders - Cloud Computing

Cloud computing will eliminate discreet servers at companies like voice mail killed the answering machine.

-Tim Sanders (former Yahoo exec)

Zero-day flaw found in web encryption

Interesting article. The implications of this are potentially earth shaking for those dependent on based TLS authentication designs.

Is TLS in your basket? What are the reasons you've not gone down that road?

ARTICLE

-ZuCom

One Reason NOT to upgrade to 64bit Mode in Snow Leopard

VIRTUAL MACHINE SUPPORT!

After posting the roundup of issues with the release along with the hint on how to force 64bit mode a number of readers and colleagues noted that VM support was absent in the musing. After some post analysis it does appear that the Virtual Machine market in the 64bit host arena is very weak when it comes to this support.

Crossover Mac (the WINE port), has a number issues while VirtualBox, VMware Fusion, and Parallels may not even launch and this is not to mention the few others that are in the consumer market. Suggestion for now. If you need to run a consumer virtual machine on your Mac, then wait to force your copy of Snow Leopard to boot into 64Bit mode. Let it run in 32bit mode and you will be fine for now. Those who use these tools in the enterprise will find that the running VMware Fusion and Parallels does have support under the Snow Leopard Server version but this would not be something a consumer wants to tote around on a MacBookPro.

Stay tuned more to come

-ZuCom

Boot Snow Leopard into 64Bit Mode

The default mode for the new Snow Leopard install is 32bit mode.

Want to change that and upgrade to 64bit.

Simply change one line in the  /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist file and your Macintosh will boot into 64bit mode.  With most recent Mac's you'll see a significant performance improvement , of course the more memory you have the better and results may vary.  You can always switch back using this method

FROM THIS

________________

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple$

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

        <key>Kernel</key>

        <string>mach_kernel</string>

        <key>Kernel Flags</key>

        <string></string>

</dict>

</plist>

________________

TO THIS

________________

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>arch=x86_64</string>

</dict>

</plist>

________________

Any text editor should work or you can simply use PICO by typing the following in terminal along with your root password.  

sudo pico /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

-ZuCom

http://www.zucom.com

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Snow Leopard Roundup

Well it's been over a month now since Apple released "Snow Leopard" (version 10.6 of it's popular operating system OS X). From first reports, the upgrade seems to be a non-event for most. Two enterprise clients (those with at least 1000 upgrades) are reporting a 98% success rate on the upgrades while the power user community (the hardest group to win over) is reporting satisfaction ratings in line with past upgrades.

The roundup of popular issues and potential fixes:

BLUETOOTH

Several reports that Bluetooth devices fail after the upgrade. While ZuCom has not seen this in volume we can validate that deleting the devices and re-paring quickly solved the problem

NETWORK

In most cases we've seen no issues however some wireless network profiles needed the password (WEP Key, WPAx Password, etc.) re-entered

HOME FOLDERS

CNET has reported that "several" users have lost there home folders and even posted a detailed account of how to restore the home folders. While we've not seen this at all, the potential may exist, and especially in consumer environments where setup profiles can "drift" from the norm. Another reason to do a full backup before you do any upgrade.

GPG-Mail

The wildly popular open source GPGMail v1.2.0 plugin for OSX Mail.app does not work in Snow Leopard. This is something that was found in the later beta's and remain's a major problem in the Power User community. At issue is the use of an undocumented API in the mail bundle that is no-longer supported in the new v4 of Mail. A developer has posted an interim fix for the community which can be downloaded here. Simply unzip this file and copy it to the /Library/Mail/Bundles folder and re-start Mail and your back in business.

More updates will be posted as they come in. As usual Apple has made the upgrade process painless and smooth. Considering this upgrade is for most the first time they will migrate from a 32bit to 64bit platform it's been relatively quiet. This is a feat that many accomplished technology leaders expected to bring a litany of problems but has really been a non-event. Kudos to Bertrand Serlet and team for getting this one right. If you haven't made the jump yet, just back things up and pounce (pun), from all accounts it's another non-event with many benefits.

-ZuCom

Apple, the iPhone and Mobile, The Barbarians are at the gates.

It's hard to argue with the success that Apple has seen in it's mobile platform. Entering it's third year on the market the iPhone continues to to break new ground and is as popular as ever. Some pundits say that it's just savvy marketing coupled with great timing, others believe it's the leading edge of a revolution. As with most things when history looks back at this time it will undoubtedly fall somewhere in-between, but one thing is undeniable, .....with success come the barbarians.

In no particular order, there is Google developing a very similar looking phone called the Android and has accompanied it with an Application Store similar to the iTunes App-Store look and feel. Palm has come out with the PRE and claims to have a developer platform that rivals Apple and Google, not to mention the virtual plethora of others.

Outside of those beating down the hardware path there are software giants who are keen to get in on some of the spoils. Many of the corporate software giants have been forced to play by new rules in order to get past the proverbial "gates". Rules set by mobile carriers, platform SDK owners and hardware limitations, something these giants aren't used to dealing with. The revenue and market shift to mobile is palpable and thus a few of the big boys have found ways to capitulate. Still others have chosen to take matters into their own hands. This week Adobe announced that Flash CS5 would support the creation of native iPhone apps. As of this writing it's unclear if this is a defection or something that has been condoned, but suffice it to say that many foresee a day where tightly controlling the move to mobile won't be possible, and we may be seeing the first signs of that coming.

-Robert Zullo

ZuCom

Project Management Quote of the Week

"You can't be neutral on a moving train"

- Howard Zinn

(actually that's the name of his book).

Great test to tell if a project is moving of not.

The Changing Face of the Enterprise Desktop

The Changing Face of the Enterprise Desktop

Capital investments in enterprise desktop infrastructure are often a sizeable part of an IT department’s budget. Add in the cost of maintaining the hardware, OS, software stack, etc. and the total cost analysis would shock most. Technology leaders who are savvy enough to understand this, have already adopted alternatives that present a much smaller impact and address some evolving pressures in the industry.

Many shops have developed a strategy to address recurring desktop costs by involving a blend of thin client and virtualization. These solutions can present an enormous effect on a budget and overall support costs in a short amount of time. With products from WYSE and HP being very popular here in the US these solutions offer zero or minimal configuration, which can be done by unskilled labor, and within an enterprise network offer more than adequate performance standards. Because these clients don’t perform much in the way of processing or storage they have a very low cost, and offer some additional security benefits as a consequence. Many studies place the utilization of these types of systems at about 20-50% of a work forces’ desktop computing needs. In these environments a strong network management component is important for success, something you will see is a theme that is developing in the industry.

As data centers reduce in size and hosting applications on private or public Cloud solutions evolves it’s impact on the enterprise desktop has already seen a dramatic impact. While it’s rare there are studies where the elimination of a desktop product (thin client, thick client) was not only possible but also more efficient. A biotech research company eliminated desktop clients for it’s sales force, replacing what they carried into a sales call with an iPhone based solution utilizing Google Apps for it’s needs. While this is not typical it’s representative of what is possible and where the face of enterprise desktop will go. Application hosting is another article entirely, but the consumer success of Google Apps, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and those of the like are undeniable. Cellular based networks are maturing in the US making this a viable option in the enterprise desktop market and something to consider.

The change we have seen in the enterprise desktop space has been dramatic. Gone are the days were the only option was Wintel or Mac OS and a piece of hardware. As the economy tightens and applications migrate to a web based platform opportunities become more available, cost effective and efficient. Some day we may look back at the days of sitting in front of a computer as archaic and unnecessary. Where will your enterprise desktop roadmap take you?

Robert Zullo

Vice President, Technology Consulting

ZuCom

www.zucom.com

rzullo@zucom.com

518-496-2592

When Green became Chic!

When Green became Chic!

I received a call from a colleague today who manages a large data center in North Carolina. About a year ago we toured this facility and while impressive and modern it was far from what someone would call "GREEN". Over the past year they have undergone a major change in thinking and have undertaken a program to make all of their IT operations and functions GREEN aware. From easy items like solar panels to more difficult items like monitoring cooling and air flow the change has been palpable, not just in technology approach but also the the bottom line.

Of course there is the savings against utilities and general facilities costs but there is also government subsidies that can make the whole pill a little easier to swallow. In most states their are programs that can help take advantage of tax breaks or incentives for for embarking on a GREEN effort. In this case the correlation from the incentives to the return was immediate and for most enterprise data centers this has to be at least a fundamental consideration at this point even with energy costs leveling off.

Whilst this was a great example of industry (and government) making a change for the good, advising clients to GREEN outside the data center space is often a more challenging situation. Government subsidies are targeted at energy and not hardware per-say. Client based GREEN efforts have come of age, and they've done so without similar government subsidies. As most know client computing has been dramatically effected by the move to the Virtualization and Mobile platforms. While clients often see an immediate impact on budgets by a reduced cost for hardware the GREEN impact of not having to run additional hardware is often lost in the fray. Making hardware refresh decisions today often is an opportunity to explore the impact of GREEN on IT as well as the efficiencies of new technology.

No matter what size organization, there are options to let GREEN find it's way into your organizational thinking for IT. Virtualization, Alternative Energy, Mobilization, and even Cooperative Cloud Computing are just a few examples and efficiencies in this space are growing every day.

Robert Zullo
Vice President, Technology Consulting
ZuCom
www.zucom.com
rzullo@zucom.com
518-496-2592

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TKIP Based WPA Cracked

http://tinyurl.com/navjvp

Posted via email from robertzullo's posterous

Zig Ziglar

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.
	- Zig Ziglar

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PandoraBoy Code

http://code.google.com/p/pandoraboy/

 Nicely done Pandora App...

 -ZuCom

Posted via email from robertzullo's posterous

Observations on Hope and Optimism

Observations on Hope and Optimism

Optimism is the belief that things will get better
Hope is the belief that together we can make things better

Optimism is a passive virtue
Hope is an active virtue

It takes no courage to be an Optimist
but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope

VC and today's Leadership / Management Approaches

Where do the likes of Business Management icons Collins, Blanchard, Covey, fit when it comes to a startup? Startups are are dramatically influenced by venture capital investors after all. I suppose the very nature of the question makes it moot. Most leaders at successful startups rarely let VC concerns get in the way (right or wrong). With passion for what they do that transcends comprehension to most, these startup leaders could turn to these business management authors for advice but would it make sense? Most of the work in the business management field centers around companies who have a board of directors and more importantly.... share holders. VC's have investors, and as "share holders" they have much more influence it can have a dramatic impact on a leader.

Management Consultants with industry experience can help keep the wolves at bay what is your approach?

-Robert Zullo
Management Coach @ ZuCom

TOMTOM Application is Out!

Well the long awaited TOMTOM application is out. Not sure who they got to test this but it must have been out of the mainstream as ZuCom nary heard a word.

See the App in the AppStore at http://tinyurl.com/oyt8bq

Cool accessories at http://iphone.tomtom.com/

At $99.99 (strange price) it's a little steep even for iPhone owners. Reviews from ZuCom and SMMC are on the way.

-ZuCom

Publish iCal Calendars Privately w/MobileMe

Great article that explains how to use iDisk to share calendars privately. While this is not an enterprise solution like iCal Server it will work in a small office or consumer setting

LINK

http://www.osxfaq.com/tips/pohlmann/index.ws

ZuCom

Remove those pesky AutoComplete addresses in MacOS X Mail

Ever have someone send you an e-mail from an address they only use once in a while. Now when you type their name in you get a match with that address instead of the one that you have in your address book.

These addresses are known as AUTO-COMPLETE addresses. They exist in just about every mail client today and can be a blessing but also a horror if you get one in the way of one you use regularly.

Mac OS X Mail allows you how to remove them. Here's how

1) Create a new message in Mail
2) Type the problem e-mail address in the recipients pane
3) Once this e-mail has been addressed to the problem e-mail address click on it, you will receive a drop down menu
4) Chose Remove From Previous Recipients List

Done

Mac Tips Brought to you by ZuCom

Outsource your Social Media Marketing Campaign

ZuCom is proud to offer outsourced Social Media Marketing Services.

We'll Tweet for you!! List and update your Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, LinkedIN or ???. Why spend hours trying to improve and manage your online Social Market when we can do it for you.


Contact ZuCom today at http://www.zucom.com. Accepting new commercial and consumer clients.

ZuCom

ZuCom at SES

SES (Search Engine Strategies) is next week in San Jose. This conference has become the standard for anyone developing a strategy for doing business on the web. Google Analytics team is promising new API for the enterprise. ZuCom will be reporting details as they become public, offering new strategies for enterprise clients and marketing professionals.


ZuCom

Success and Dreams

Great little quip from MIC this month

Success is hard and often difficult to understand....

Paul Harvey says "you can tell your on the road to success, it's uphill all the way" So if your successful and you can't figure it out and your going WHEEE HOOOO (having a great old time), then your .....asleep, .. and when your wake up you'll have to go to the bathroom...

iPhone 3.0GS User Agent Detection - Updated

Something not present in the beta's was the user agent string change.

Looks like the new one is

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16

ZuCom staff will be developing and posting the update.

-ZuCom

Mike & Harry - A Journey Within a Dream

Mike and Harry
A Journey Within a Dream.



It’s 4am, and the flight to San Francisco leaves in an hour. As I walk through the Airport it dawns on me how recluse the travel experience has become. Stowed away in our world of mobile entertainment most travelers would do better to simply not experience most senses. Airport announcements and creative displays fade into the soundtrack that drives our lives.

Throughout my morning the sense of how many travelers are “tuned out” to their surroundings was palpable, so much so that it made one think of ways we should adapt for the experience. Should we create visual alerts for travelers, perhaps SMS subscriptions’ for alerts at the airport of your choice? The possibilities are endless.

We each have our reasons for escaping into this world while we travel. Whether it’s a relegation to the sweet sounds of our favorite tunes or the avoidance of casual conversation, the comfort is one many enjoy. Today my reason was a book. I had recently picked up “Put Your Dream To The Test” by John Maxwell. In this book John asks you 10 questions that drive you into an introspective look at your own dreams and your motivation to achieve those dreams. It’s truly a great book, and I completely recommend it to all.

Pretty soon I looked up and noticed that the monitor had my flight listed as "boarding". Whoa, I thought!! What would someone with a hearing impairment do? Must they stand in front of that monitor just waiting to see that announcement? It was one of those moments. I boarded the plane (now without my headphones on) and took my seat. Thankfully my preference for a window seat was fulfilled. As I walked down the aisle I noticed that there were two 70 something gentlemen in the outside seats. What luck I thought. As I approached my seat I reached into my bag and grabbed my iPhone and prepared for the 5 hour flight to SFO. Quite, reflection I thought. When I reached the seat the taller of the two introduced himself, “hello, my name is Mike and this is Harry”. Pretty soon we had struck up a conversation. Mike and Harry were WWII veterans, on their way home to their “beautiful brides”. They had stories of being in the Navy and Air Force that were just bubbling to get out. Mike and Harry were on their return trip from a doubles Bowling Tournament where they took 2nd place with a combined score of 227. They had a 3 hour bus ride home from SFO to where they lived and had to hurry to catch the BART because they needed to make that bus ride. The next day the pair were competing in a 5k run and as Mike put it "we need to be well rested". Now I’ve known folks this age who have done things I’d heard on this flight. It’s uncommon but not unheard of to find those of advanced age having partaken in life passions such as high diving (Mike) or even skeet (Harry). Even president Bush went skydiving at the age of 80. There was just something in there attitude that was captivating. Not only did I rebuke the temptation of my iPhone, I actively sought their story for the full 5 hours. See Mike and Harry were blind. Not “partially sighted” as Mike put it but..... blind.

As I listened to their stories the irony of the situation became apparent. Here I was intentionally traveling with out the sense of hearing and identifying with two gentlemen who were disabled themselves. By the way if you ever meet Mike and Harry don’t use the word “disabled”. Mike will tell you that it’s not something they appreciate. These two have been everywhere, and through their travels have undoubtedly touched many lives.

The experience itself is one to inspire even the staunchest traveler to tune in to the rhythms of life over the beat in the headphone. Not that there’s anything wrong with that :-) . Now Mike and Harry continued on to their destination and are undoubtedly living their dream, with or without consideration of their situation. I arrived in SFO to meet a colleague from Denmark. Upon sharing the experience with my colleague he quipped "...if your not careful you can become a passenger of your own life, watching it rather than living it". It was with this I knew my journey was truly complete.

It makes one think………….. have you reached your destination like Mike and Harry?

-RZullo

Alligators and Swamps

"when your up to your rear end in alligators, it's hard to remember your job is to drain the swamp"

--

iPhone OS 3.0 (beta 3) Support

Beta 3 is much better than 1 but wow does it have some quirks. Several are reporting poor battery response and even some loss of charging capability.

-ZuCom

WWDC SOLD OUT!

WWDC Sold out in just over a month. Apple I think it's time to spin this off into it's own entity...

-ZuCom

Maximum Impact Simulcast - Albany

ZuCom is proud to again sponsor the Maximum Impact Simulcast. This year Tony Blair and Jack Nicklaus are the featured guests. Information about the event can be found at http://www.albanyleadership.com.

We have been involved in these simulcasts for the past six years. The value from these events is unprecedented. Attendees get access to a premier collective of brilliant minds intent on communicating the art and science of whole leadership.


-ZuCom

Oracle Siebel CRM OnDemand - IPhone App

For the past 30 days or so ZuCom has evaluated the Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant iPhone Application. This application is FREE from the iTunes store but will require that you have access to an On Demand instance to connect.

Well designed, thought out, and priced just right, this application will be a requirement for anyone living in the Oracle application space. While we did find the application more useful than trying to use the web interface, we found that the smooth transmission of data can be an quirky on EDGE/3G networks. This comes into play when the application has to quit and may represent an area where Oracle (like many others) made design concessions due to the pull back of the original "Push" features. Thankfully Apple is offering this feature in the coming 3.0 iPhone OS and many of us will be eager to upgrade to these new capabilities for transmission of data.

Overall the recommendation is "thumbs up" on this application as any ability to connect back to the office from the road is a boon for productivity and convenience.


-ZuCom

iPhoneOS 3.0 - Edge vs 3G Support!!

First sign that you need to upgrade your hardware is when the company starts to treat you special.. Like the Edge vs 3G version of the iPhone OS. Turns out the MMS and Stereo BlueTooth features aren't supported in the EDGE version.

Time to upgrade?

Probably not yet, given the OS will not be public till June it's almost a sure bet that we'll see a new model then. Given Apple's history, and the fact that most of us early adopters will be out of our contract in June, it's liable to be a whopper of an upgrade.

-Z

Money and Success

Money will by you a bed, but not a good nights rest

-Zig Ziglar

Load Test Application (OSX) - ZuCom

ZuCom announces the release of Load Test Application (OS X). This utility is priceless for those in web development on OS X. The simple utility allows you to quickly load test a url. With options for # of loads and an optional delay setting it just works. Performance and load testing applications are plentiful in the *NIX environment but this simple GUI utility allows the user a quick easy "leave it in the doc" option for those who have the need.

-ZuCom

Fear...

"Courage isn't an absense of fear, .... Courage is what you do with fear.... doing something in spite of fear"


-Reggie Smith

Web Marketing in the 2009 Social Economy

Web Marketing in the 2009 Social Economy

I’ve recently had a number of business owners approach me seeking advice on how best to market their small business on the web. As the economy continues to drag many business owners are looking for cost effective alternatives to classic advertising and marketing avenues, many which have seemingly ceased to work.

Herein lies a comparison that has less to do with economic fortunes of a nation but may just represent the passing of the torch unto what I will call the “digital generation”. Nearly twenty years ago a number of colleagues and I embarked on a road trip from New York to Florida. For anyone who has made this trip and taken the I-95 corridor through the south you will undoubtedly remember billboards for the venerable Pedro, and his South of the Border destination. As you enter North Carolina you begin to see billboards whose ad copy is vague but yet bold. Before you know it there is a character named “Pedro” who has been added to the campaign and product placements begin to appear. Mile after mile these billboards cover the roadside, increasing in frequency until you’ve reached this attraction. Once you’ve passed the holy grail of the Carolinas you are reminded of the experience for about the next 50 miles as the billboards continue. They use all the characters and content that has built up to remind motorists that they can always turn around if they “missed Pedro”.

Lasting impressions like this are a commodity, and in today’s environment your opportunities to make an impression like this are limited, but not impossible. In a car on I-95, as in the story above, there is approximately a four-hour period where advertisers could have an almost uninterrupted access to a consumer. This is a dream situation for anyone wanting to market or advertise a product or business. As the Internet age has matured more and more people are online for longer periods of time. According to the 2007 PEW Internet Survey, 70% of Americans use the web for an average of 1.5 hours a day. This data confirms similar findings from Gartner and Forrester research as well. Add to this mobile browsing, which has exploded with the launch of the iPhone and 3G networks, and one can begin to see an opportunity not unlike the one Pedro enjoys.

Now this is not to suggest that someone surfing the web is as captive as someone stuck in a car on I-95. Certainly the marketing on the web presents a different challenge, as its “drivers” aren’t restricted to any specific road. This is where many business owners are beginning to ask questions. Most companies have a corporate website, some even purchase web ads, but very few are able to effectively drive results from these activities. This is where I say; you must use all the tools available to you to create online assets (or “roads”) that can work for you in a multitude of places. Using tools such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace are now becoming a necessity for businesses, because it’s where your consumers are spending their time. Creating assets in these systems to further your exposure can dramatically increase your visibility and make your other web marketing activities (e-mail lists, blogs, ads etc) much more effective.

Let’s face it, the web continues to add new “roads” for its drivers every day. The challenge in marketing on this medium is designing a campaign that crosses those roads your clients are on so they can be reminded about your digital destination.

-by Robert Zullo
rzullo@zucom.com
Follow on Twitter
www.zucom.com

Marc Andreessen on Charlie Rose

Marc Andreessen on Charlie Rose, good watch for any IT Leader. Charlie is still "Charlie" but still worthy of the introspective view.


http://tinyurl.com/c4zuue


ZuCom

Quote of the Week

"life is like a roll of toilet paper, the older you get the faster it goes" - JCM

Down the Road

The journey is often more about the path you choose than the destination you seek

--???

Patients and...

..learn to "Cockpot" things in life and business. Too many try to microwave things, and every time you zap something like that you end up with a "pop-tart" result..

-JCM

Definition of a leader

..a person who motivates people,
to work collaboratively
to accomplish great things

-U.S. News and World Reports

Malcom Gladwell - Outliers

Clearly a different intellectual perspective on success and it's foundations. Gladwell has done a fine job yet again.




"...IQ is of little help if you are faced with a formful of clever boys"

"...hard work is a prison sentence, only if it doesn't have meaning"

"...success is not a random act, it arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities"


-ZuCom

The Book to have on the iPhoneSDK

The fundamental prerequisite for anyone looking to develop iPhone applications. Whether you are new to Cocoa or just the iPhone SDK this book will quickly get you up and running. From concept to working code the author's approach is both easy to read and quick to understand. The code samples get you up and running applications in very little time and the step by step approach makes the learning process effortless.

Hands down this is the best fundamental primer on iPhone Development on the market today.

August Dirty Job by Rank

Truths are found in many places..

"opportunity is most often missed, because it usually shows up dressed in overalls, looking like work"

-Mike Rowe - Television Show Host, Eagle Scout

Parallels Virtualizes OS X (Server)

ZuCom has been provided with an advance copy of Parallels Server 3.0 for Mac. (you too can get it now that it's public. at www.parallels.com). With a little over a month in use we can report that the engineering of this solution is clearly of a new caliber. This product targets enterprise shops who need to get serious about virtualizing the Mac platform.

While this product only allows the virtualization of OS X Server (Leopard Server 10.3), it does so with a no-nonsense design and offers most tools you'll need to manage a large infrastructure of VM's. With P2V tools, Management Consoles and even remote management from command line, the only thing missing from this package is a system monitoring tool (something that Parallels engineers say is something they've had a number of requests for).

With all this one has to ask where you could go wrong? Truthfully we cannot. With a starting price just north of $1200.00 (it's un-confrirmed but we think that's per host machine) it's a heck of a lot cheaper than competitors from an entry point but still a little high for the small shop who's trying to manage costs (but even that point is arguable in most circumstances).

I must make one thing clear, this is not a desktop VM solution so if that's what your looking for look at their other products. The integrated desktop features you've seen with other Parallels and VMWare aren't what this product is about. This product is clearly intended to reduce server rack space in your data center and provide you with the tools to manage that infrastructure. Simply put it does that VERY well at a competitive cost.

Overall ZuCom recommends the product and will offer support to enterprise and small business clients looking to leverage this new technology.

-Robert Zullo

ZuCom

3g + GPS + Better Battery Life

Apple announced the iPhone 2.0 today. LINK TO KEYNOTE To top that when it launches (July 11th) it's going to start at $199 for the 8 gig model and $299 for the 16gb model.  WHOA..

What next?

Oh GPS and 3G.

What next?

To be honest, there wasn't a "one more thing" during this Keynote but from the crowd of industry leaders it didn't appear that it was really needed.

ZuCom is happy to announce that it will follow the launch and add consulting support for development of applications and enterprise integration as it continues to grow.

Stay tuned for more..

-ZuCom Division of Mobile iPhone Consulting

Leopard Sharing Snafu

Apple has dramatically changed the file sharing preferences pane in Leopard.  Much of what has changed is just in the GUI but for many who only use this layer some features are very new.   At issue is the Users window inside the preference pane (see pict below).  This area gives you the ability to set user permissions on a shared folder.  By default the Everyone group shows up in this list with read only access to the public folder of the user who is currently logged on.  Pretty standard and not anything new for most.  Apple has disabled the ability to remove the Everyone group from this pane by greying out the '-' option in the field.  While the exact mapping of the "Everyone group" to a standard Unix group like Wheel is not clear it would appear that Everyone is very important and really is something integral to the system function (post if you are aware what group it maps to).  Now comes the area where it gets tricky.  If you select the Everyone group and hit the DELETE key on your keyboard, you can remove the Everyone group from the share entirely.  Logic would follow that this would action should simply remove the permissions from that folder as it would in any POSIX system but the results of doing this actually have a much bigger impact.  The result of this action is the actual removal of this "Everyone" group from the root of the drive thus rendering the system unable to boot.  While several have reported this as a bug, and it may be, the behavior seems to be something that was missed in user acceptance testing more than a bug (save the fact that the root of the drive is involved).  

Several posts claim to have a fix, that will save the system.  Our testing was able to reproduce the problem consistently but recovery efforts, while successful, were not as consistent. 

In the end the message here is "DON'T REMOVE THE EVERYONE GROUP" from your shares here in Leopard's preferences pane.  CHMOD is still a great way to control access to folders and files in your system and one that gives you the control over the details group assignments more detailed fashion.

-ZuCom

Free iPhone Web Simulator

Don't own an iPhone?

Still want to see what your website design looks like on an iPhone?

Enter iPhoney a simulator for pixel accurate simulation of your site.  This simulator runs on your Mac and allows you to browse sites through it's iPhone interface.  Support for rotation, zooming, and multiple user agents makes the 1.2 version one of the best simulators we've seen.

ZuCom highly recommends the tool.  

It's FREE, solid and just works.

-ZuCom

Future of OS Computing

It's official Gartner has predicted that Microsofts' dominance in the OS market may not be on solid ground anymore. Without a doubt this "end of days" prediction is not new and Microsoft is certainly not immune from those types of critiques (albeit this is something new for them in the OS arena).

What we've seen for years is a gradual movement away from standard computer platforms to more of a mobile and device driven market. This move inherently means that Microsoft will be at a disadvantage because they do not dominate those spaces quite like they do in the others. Where this movement ends, only time will tell but, signs point to it not being with you behind a keyboard. Be that as it may, approaches to technology in general will have to change. If we are no longer dealing with standard computer based solutions then approaches to engineering, networking, development, and even business processes (like SOA, and BPEL) will have to be redesigned.

iPhone 3G + Enterprise Support = International Reach

With the announcement from Walt Mossberg that the next iPhone will be 3G the potential impact of this unique crossover entity might just be moving towards a Corporate International audience.

Arguments can be made that iPhone is already a corporate entity in the international market but as most non-US readers know, the limitation of not having 3G is a real concern on the international scene.

Let's face it 768k is only called "broadband" in the US. Most international markets reserve the term broadband for much higher data transfer rates. While Walt refers to content and marketing angles as his main points, the rub with enterprise I.T. managers becomes what to do if this 3G option is now part of the iPhone platform. While dismissing the iPhone is a hard thing to do even today, 3G support would really make this naysayers look more like pundits.

Walt references a 60 day timeline so time will tell, but should Apple decide to take that angle with the iPhone, it's clearly added another threat to the existing Mobile market.

Valuable Lesson for iPhone Wifi

Today at a wifi hotspot we were given the a Key to allow us on the network.  Mind you this was not an ordinary network, it was a network based on the shop owners brand new Time Capsule.  Clearly a nice choice!  After about the third time trying to enter the Key, the shop owner noticed I was having a problem and mentioned that others too has indeed been having a problem and I should try all CAPS.  

Sure enough that was it.  WPA/WPA2 on the iPhone are normally a no brainer but for the record if you are having issues connecting to a WIFI spot try the old ALL CAPS trick and you might just have saved yourself 10 minutes. 

-ZuCom

iPhone SDK (Updated)

Apple has updated it's latest release of the iPhone SDK.  With the fury at which the last release was downloaded this one is sure to be a hit.  While the details of the upgrade are still sketchy and it would appear that Apple is dedicated to the market it has found for mobile development platforms.  

As mentioned in the a recent article over on the iPhone Development Blog the reach that this product will give Apple into the enterprise could be big.  I would argue that with regular updates and what is seemingly a caring / nurturing attitude from Apple this could be a revolution in the making for the industry yet again.  

Many corporate I.T. departments will find development in this area will be hard to categorize and even tougher to fit in to a standard CMMI, Agile, RUP methodology.  Over the next few months ZuCom will evaluate the impact this has had in the industry and look to develop strategies that partners and clients can use to help better cope with this next wave of innovation.  

-ZuCom

ZuCom Upgrades SwitchtoHeadphones to version 1.1 (FULL LEOPARD SUPPORT)

Today Zucom has announced it's release of "Switch to Headphones v1.1". This application is now fully supported under Apple's OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and further improves performance with it's OS integration.

Developed originally under OS 10.2 this simple tool has found it's home in the professional audio studio all over the world since it was first released. In recent years it has become popular with the VOIP community who often use it with products like iChat and Skype. By adding support for Apple's Leopard operating system ZuCom preserves this app for years to come, and ensures it's longevity as a native Mac utility.



Softpedia

LinuxLinks

-ZuCom

Ideas

If you're not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them

Article Quoted

Paul Graham

Paul is dead on.. Don't go moving to Africa or try to apply this thinking in a Military service situation but he's still dead on. To date I've not seen a college level course on how to manage I.T. resources like the ones he describes in his article. Undoubtedly these approaches exist, some may even work on a large number of I.T. types, but the ones he's describing are visionary. Those types are not lead, managed, or dictated to, the best you can hope to do is partner with them.

Client Side iPhone / iPod Touch Browser Redirect

If layer 7 redirection from hardware based solutions isn't quite available in your enterprise, or perhaps the entire CSS3 standard hasn't completely made it into your long term memory yet there is a very easy way to redirect iPhone & iPod Touch users.

While several of our clients have experience varying levels of success, small to mid-sized solutions may benefit from a simple inline javascript redirect.

Example:

<script language=javascript>

<!--

if((navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i)))

{

location.replace("http://TYPE_YOUR_URL_HERE");

}

-->

</script>




Those who are better versed in conditional CSS, will find that the iPhone
and iPod Touch react very favorably to a CSS that is optimized to the
specifications referenced by Apple in the developer documentation on their
site (Apple Developer Connection Guides).


-Robert Zullo

iPhone - The triple threat

As many of you know last week saw the latest development release from Apple, in the iPhoneSDK. While we have been a stalwart supporter of the iPhone and it's capabilities, it wasn't till last week that we saw the development community come alive with enthusiasm.

Exceeding all expectations the initial reviews from ZuCom and the community have been overwhelmingly positive. With the unexpected announcement of enterprise level integration and support capabilities Apple added another threat to competitors which now clearly extends beyond the phone market. For the entrepreneurial developer who has struggled with getting offerings to market, Apple has also developed a sales and marketing strategy, with the App Store that truly make this announcement a triple threat.

It isn't often that we see such a complete offering, and given the let down from the WWDC07 announcement this is a welcome surprise.

We look forward to supporting our partners and development community in all their endeavors, helping mature the iPhone software market will undoubtedly be in all our plans from here on out.


-Robert Zullo
ZuCom Services

Even tough decisions have Choice

When it appears that a situation has left no choice, remember that choice in itself is...

...everybody has got a choice,
between right or wrong,
giving up or holding on...

-J. Mellencamp

What all successful projects have in common

The ability to:

..adapt, overcome, and improvise..

Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway

"...you can run me....you can starve me...., and you can kill me..., just don't bore me."

OS X Leopard Printer Sharing Tip

Out of the box requirements of an OS like Vista can present more confusing than helpful sharing options. While I would encourage all to explore those options, sometimes we just need a quick fix that works under almost all circumstances.

OS X users have always had the ability to use CUPS for printer sharing and Leopard has maintained that option. If you've upgraded to Leopard (or are on anything 10.3 or better) and you are behind a firewall why not just use CUPS.

How to share OS X printers through CUPS to Windows Clients.

On your MAC do the following

1) Enable Printer Sharing on your Mac
>System Preferences>Sharing
Check "Printer Sharing"
2) On the Firewall tab (still under Sharing)
Check "Printer Sharing" under the Allow window.
3) Browse to http://your mac ip:631/printers or http://127.0.0.1:631/printers
This will bring up the CUPS printer administration page
4) Scroll all the way down the page and choose ADD PRINTER
You may be asked to authenticate here
5)Setup a printer with no more than 8 characters (for older clients). Use RAW as the type of device and queue.

On your VISTA(PC) do the following

6) Open the Control Panel Printers & Add Printer
>Start>Control Panel>Printers
Click Add Printer
Click "Add a Network, Wireless or Bluetooth Printer
Click "The Printer I want isn't Listed"
Verify that the radio button "Select a Shared Printer by Name" is filled
In the "Select a Shared Printer by Name" field type the address of your shared printer, ex: http://your_mac_ip:631/printers/shared_printer_name.
Click Next & Finish (call it what you want etc).


I've used this sharing method for years, it's solid and supported by a very robust community, not only the MAC, but several other platforms.

-Z

Nobody

...your nobody till you've been downloaded ..... without permission

-???

History

History doesn't actually repeat itself, but it rhymes...

-Mark Twain

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

-Saint Augustine

Irish Proverb

"Don't let life just happen, carve it from your passions and dreams"

-Irish Proverb

Welcome to the Jungle

..You can taste the bright lights.... but you will never get there for free

???

Jobs Quote

Great things in business are never done by one person..... they're done by a team of people

Steve Jobs



Link to Video

Dilbert's Leadership Quote

LEADERSHIP is a flavor of evil. Obviously no one would need to lead you to do something you wanted to do anyway.

— Scott Adams, “Dilbert’s

Teaching, the thankless gift.

It's not often that the one imparting wisdom receives confirmation of the act. The real question is whether or not that confirmation is always necessary.

??

Endurance

There are very few * I can’t find a level of stomach for

-Robert T. Zullo

Giving & Getting

....You only get back what you give ... no more no less..


-??

Commitment

It's not about money sometimes, it's about commitment.
Commitment takes two, and trust.

-Joe Torre (2007)

Judgment

...I never let judgment impair my life

-PH

Uncertainty

Leadership is the reduction of uncertainty.

-??

Growth and Learning

Well educated people of today are adequately prepared for a future that doesn't exist.
It's only those who continue to learn that will be able to survive and thrive of the changing world of today.

Zig Ziglar

Cast your shadow with care

when one casts a shadow, be mindfull that it's not so big that others must travel very far to get out from under it..

Z

Baseball Parks - Americana at it's best

As an avid baseball fan, I often visit parks around the country. Whether it's Yankee Stadium in the Bronx or the Coliseum in Oakland the pleasure has always been mine to visit these parks and watch the good old american past time. Over the years it dawned on me that the attraction of these parks to me (and others) is that many of these ballparks deliver an experience that is becoming harder and harder find. No I'm not a classic relic that doesn't believe in progress. Yes the stadiums are new and today you can even pay for food with a credit card from your seat, but the values that sit behind all that haven't changed in most places.

Kids still get balls signed, foul balls are still a fan favorite, the 7th inning is still the 7th inning, and reason people go to these parks is still the same today as it was 100 years ago. Values Though the experience may vary from park to park, I encourage anyone searching for that definition to visit that bastion of americana that has decided to call itself ... the baseball park.

-Z

Myths, Truths and History

"Myths are the embodiment of truths which society has observed, but is often unable to communicate"

-ZuCom

Statues and Pigeons

"some days your the statue
and others your the pigeon "

Talent is Never Enough - John C. Maxwell

Talent is Never Enough - John C. Maxwell

The new book, as wonderful as his previous works, it is unfolds the wisdom of the ages in his patented style.

"....talent wants to jump into action, but preparation positions talent to be effective"

"the frustrating thing about preparation is that it usually takes much more time that the actual event one prepares for"

ZuCom

Leadership it requires: Action, Vision & Passion

Action without Vision makes us pessimistic.

Action without Compassion makes us legalistic.

Vision without Action makes us moralistic.

Vision without Compassion makes us idealistic.

Compassion without Action makes us unrealistic.

Compassion without Vision makes us fatalistic.

-John C. Maxwell

Character - Integrity and Honesty

You can’t spell integrity without the word grit which is defined as “a firmness of mind,” or “unyielding courage.” It takes a great deal of courage or grit to be true to self. In the end, though, it’s worth the effort because our legacies are going to be impacted greatly by our integrity or lack thereof.

-John C. Maxwell

WR54G SVEASOFT to LINKSYS

I like many in the early days of the wireless G spec, wanted to boost my coverage area, so I invested in bigger antenna and the famed SVEASOFT firmware (which for the record does a excellent job), Recently though I needed to flash my WRT54G v1.0 back to the original Linksys firmware.. Simple right, anybody with a TFTP client and a cable can do it. Well it ain't so. Seems that going to SVEASOFT is easy, but back isn't, and requires a harrowing (and warranty voiding) adventure. Once you've gone away from the stock Linksys firmware your required to manually put the device in standby mode in order to flash it with a different type of firmware. Not too hard one would think, but it involves shorting out a couple of pins on the ROM that holds the firmware (not something for the squimish). The detailed directions are in the links blelow and I must commend the authors for being so detailed. Even I was able to follow it enough to make it work. I'm happy to report that my WRT54G 1.0 is back in the Linksys saddle again and it was really a sinch.



http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/redhat/wrt54g_revival.html

http://nino.net/blogs/nino/archive/2005/06/09/744.aspx

What version WRT54G do I have?

I will add some detail to the information found in those links that is specific to v1.0 of the WRT54G.

1) The rom chip your looking for sits underneath the card that is in the slot inside the unit (tricky to find when 90% of it's covered up).

2) The markings that the postings elude to aren't on my version, so use the exposed side and count up from the triangle symbol you see in the picture to pins 15 & 16.

3) You must have your patch cord plugged into the WAN or INTERNET port. (duh for some but just thought I'd mention that)

Enjoy!!

-Z

Fix IE7 ToolBar location

After 10+ years of using IE, Microsoft has decided to move the Menu Bar down below the address bar. For old-timers (like me) this is just too much of a switch. So in the beta there was the ability to change the location by adding a key to the registry.

Keep in mind that there is no warranty on any of this information. This may damage your system. The information is provided "as is" with a implied hold harmless agreement to ZuCom and all related parties (now that we've got that out of the way)


Here's what worked for me..

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser]

"ITBar7Position"=dword:00000001



Or below is a link to that registry key
MOVE_IE7_TOOLBAR

-Z

SnowBall - One foot in front of the other

One foot in front of the other


If you want to change the reflection
you see in the mirror each morn
it's just your election 
to vote for a chance to be reformed

-WW

The Grain

"To avoid a confrontation, it's sometimes necessary to go along. Other times it's necessary to stick out and just play by your own rules."

William H. Moses

The Plan

luck isn't a plan, but without it a plan isn't much

-???

"Telecommunication Philosopher"

..recently I had the fortune to watch some unedited footage of the Apollo 11 coverage.  At the end of the tape there was a panel discussion with, (and I'm not kidding here):   

an editor of a newspaper
a telecommunications philosopher
and an amateur ecologist

Initially I was struck by the title "telecommunications philosopher".  A title I've never tried myself but from the shear name, one I may have been able to claim in the past.  As I listened to this 1969 broadcast I was struck at the amazing message that was being sent.  The panel focused on the ecological reasons for going to the moon.  As one would imagine the impact of automobiles on the environment was the center of the argument.  Juxtaposed against some 2006 ecological documentaries the message is shockingly similar.  Have we progressed so little in almost 40 years that we can do no more than predict the end of the automobile, and the end of nature as we know it?  Either this panel was 40 years ahead of thier time or our societies argument about the automobiles impact on the environment hasn't changed during that period.

And what is a telecommunications philosopher doing on that panel?  Was he invited to the wrong panel? After all this was 1969, DARPA was probably not really a household name.  Modem's were a bit crude at best and, let's face it the only cellular phone calls were coming from Apollo.  Then it struck me.  Tele Communications Philosopher was a Television Communications Philosopher.  So, although my interest was peaked by the mis-communication (couldn't help myself there) of what I thought was a primer on sending packets back and forth to the moon, I was reminded that our view of polution in 1969 may still be relavant today.  Much more relavant than the term "telecommunications philosopher".

-ZuCom

Consensus

"one primary key to leading is the ability to build a consensus"


...even bad leaders know that you can't lead without a support of others.


-ZuCom

Joe Clark

"disipline is not the enemy of enthusiam"

-Joe Clark

Control

Control is an illusion, mastered by fear, and held captive by risk

--ZuCom

True

"when they own the information.... they can bend it all they want"


John Mayer..

Words to live bye

"Never follow a leader who leads by proxy" ...???


Remember the 3 D's in leadership....

Do it,.....Delegate it,...or Ditch it... .......HSZ


-Z

Quote of the Week, Change the way you look at things

Change the way you look at things and the way you look at things change

???

Linksys BEFSR41 (any version) FTP issue

Recently my 5+ year old Linksys router stopped translating PASV commands for the FTP protocol. This showed up first by throwing errors during the LIST process and then just ended up refusing to translate any PASV commands. In the end the inconsistency finally resulted in no Active or Passive FTP traffic whatsoever, with all other features working just fine. Linksys's Routers are one of the few that can dynamically handle PASV commands and port shifting, without leaving open ports on a perm basis. It accomplishes this with an API translator that is prone to corruption. I've not found a way to fix the issue (that wouldn't have cost more in time than the cost of a new router). If your functioning FTP site suddenly stops translating PASV commands and starts throwing 226 and 500 errors and it's behind a Linksys BEFSR41 try removing it from the loop of possibilities. Just might save you some time.

Sure there can be a litany of other things that can cause the issue, last on most peoples list is the routers translation API, but it's really not that uncommon of a problem for these normally iron clad work horses.

Long live your BEFSR41, rip to the rest...


-Z

Know your seasoned customers

Know your customers, treat them like they want to be treated, build relationships by what you do not what you say you do..

All good statements, not often followed.

Take sports season ticket holders for example. Most teams put "guest service" representatives in the sections where they know they have season ticket holders. One might call these season ticket holders "seasoned customers", and the related guest service representatives "relationship managers". It really works well, the relationships that are created are amazing.

Enter the newbie, "unseasoned customer". What better advertisement for what a company (or Team) than for the newbie to witness that relationship unfold a few seats down. Never underestimate the collateral of a relationship, it may be your best advertising avenue ever....


-Z

WWDC 2006 Quote of the week

This has to be the quote of the week.... at least it's got my vote..


"are you a digital survivalist or a an old school analog hippie?"

-Z

Am I the only NON-RAZR owner?

Seems like everyone has a RAZR these days (at least in the airport where I am today). Can anyone tell me about the VZ (Verizon)Navigator Service and how it works with your model phone...

--What model??
--Battery life while using it??--How accurate is it??

Thanks