Nine Mistakes That Turn Your Corporate Intranet into a Ghost

You want an intranet that helps staff collaborate and share information. But, advises Martin Amm, there are several process errors that can keep your intranet from success.

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20 Things You Can Do In 20 Minutes to Be More Successful

You look at your to-do list and everything seems hard and insanely long-term. Create a five-year strategic plan. Map out the skills your IT organization will need over the next 36 months. Sign that seven-year outsourcing deal.

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How to Lock Up Laptop Security

Haven't encrypted your laptop fleet yet? There's no excuse for that choice anymore. Check out today's smart strategies for improving laptop security—before the next machine disappears and puts your company's reputation and your job at risk.

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Six Quick Projects for IT Career Advancement

Want to move ahead? These simple tips will help you maximize your ROI on everything from management to hiring practices to job changes and more.

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Favorite Tech Purchase This Year [so far]

I've read many reviews about this particular scanner and have been hoping prices would come down but after getting crowded in my temporary living accommodations with too many documents, I broke down and bought one (I'm still cheap, I waited until a sizable rebate came around). It's the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510. It's a document feeder scanner that automatically turns your papers into PDF files on your computer. It's small (footprint about the size of a sheet of legal paper), fast, reliable, and the included software is quite good. It even comes with Adobe Acrobat Professional v. 8. It handles up to 50 pages of documents at a time in its feeder and you can even instruct it to do optical character recognition (OCR) on the scanned items and it will turn it into searchable text.



I've been able to take all the torn magazine pages, bills and statements, and any other loose bit of paper and turn them all into PDFs. I would like for the OCR software to be a little faster but I'm otherwise totally satisfied with the ScanSnap. If you're looking for an easy way to go paperless (or really, to get rid of papers), this is the most efficient way for a home user or even a single station small or medium-sized business. Be sure to shop around for the best price and look for rebates--they are frequently out there so with judicious shopping and a rebate you can save well over $100 off the $499 retail price.

Before the ScanSnap I was using a Canon MF870 ink jet printer/fax/scanner (with document feeder) but as a printer, it's too expensive to operate (ink costs, you know), slow on the scanning and jams frequently, and it's HUGE. So, I'll use the ScanSnap and a small 1000 series HP laser printer and I'm good!

Giving Up The Power

Bad leaders use control to get results. Good leaders get people to work for them. Great leaders get people to work for a cause that is greater than any of them -- and then for one another in service of that cause.

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Six free BlackBerry downloads you don't want to miss

Free applications help users get the most out of their BlackBerrys

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Interview Questions

I came across an article recently in CIO.com with some good interview questions, I thought I'd share them here:

• How does this position fit into you major life goals?
• Please tell me about your biggest failure and please don't share with me one of those failures that is really a success. If a candidate hasn't failed (botched project, whatever) and learned, then they probably aren't right for the position I am hiring for.
• What three things do you require from me to be successful?
• Give me an example of when you have told your boss, to their face, that they are about to make a stupid decision.

Windows Mobile v. Zune OS

I posted a thought about Microsoft using the Zune team to build a mobile phone OS several months ago and it looks like the first step of it might be on the horizion according to an InfoWorld article.

Jumbo mortgages: The best deals (at Fortune)

Jumbo mortgages: The best deals (at Fortune): "Rates on big mortgages are unusually high. Here are some tips for bringing down the cost of borrowing to buy that expensive house."

(Via Clippings.)

Recession-Proof Your Career

Recession–Proof Your Career
By Barbara Safani

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the unemployment rate rose 13.2% from December 2006 to December 2007. Historically, a year–to–year difference of 13% or more has led to a recession. While these statistics don’t offer proof that a recession is underway, now is certainly a good time to look at your job, company, and industry and think through strategies for recession–proofing your career. Here are a few steps to take as you look towards the year ahead.

Analyze Your Industry
Is your industry growing or shrinking? Have certain job functions been eliminated, automated, outsourced, or off–shored? Could you easily do every aspect of your job from home – in your pajamas? If your industry is shrinking, what skills do you have that are transferable to another, more robust industry?

Review Your Skills
Have you diversified your skills over the past 5 years? What competencies do you possess that your colleagues do not? If you had to look for a new job tomorrow, would there be something lacking in your skill set that would raise a red flag with employers? Do you volunteer for new projects that require you to stretch and render you a little less replaceable?

Be Visible
Do people in your industry or profession know about you? Can they find out more about you by visiting TheLadders.com, Linked In, Zoom Info, Ziggs or just plain Googling you? Is your online presence distinct or are you one of thousands of “John Does”?

Share Information
When was the last time you offered career advice to a friend or colleague? Would friends and colleagues support you in seeking career advice?

Always Have a Resume Ready
If the perfect opportunity presented itself tomorrow, would you be able to quickly shoot your resume off to the decision maker or would you be scrambling around to create a half–baked, cut and paste document? Would you feel confident that your resume adequately represents your accomplishments and the value you can bring to an employer?

Answer these questions and identify areas where you can take action. You’ll strengthen your career to withstand whatever the economy has in store.

Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, has over ten years of experience in career management, recruiting, executive coaching, and organizational development. She is a triple certified resume writer and frequent contributor to numerous career–related publications.

Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs

Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs
By Carmine Gallo

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off Macworld 2008, he once again raised the bar for presenters everywhere. While most deliver information, Jobs inspires the audience. After analyzing his latest presentation, I’ve extracted the 10 most motivating elements to incite listeners.

1. Set the tone. “There is something in the air today,” Jobs projected to the crowd to open the Macworld conference. By doing so, he set the tone for his presentation and hinted at the key product announcement–the ultrathin MacBook Air laptop. While every presentation needs an angle, it doesn’t have to be unveiled right away. Last year, Jobs waited until the 20–minute mark. When the time was right, he noted, “Today Apple reinvents the phone.” Once you identify your angle, make sure to weave it throughout your presentation.

2. Demonstrate enthusiasm. It’s impossible to deny Jobs’ passion for computer design. Next time you’re crafting or delivering a presentation, think about infusing it with your personality. Most speakers get into presentation mode and feel as though they have to strip the talk of any character. Remember, your audience wants to be wowed, not put to sleep. The audience will follow your lead. So set an enthusiastic example.

3. Provide an outline. Jobs set expectations by noting, “There are four things I want to talk about today. So let’s get started…” Verbally opening and closing each of the four sections helped to make clear transitions between talking points. For example, after revealing several new iPhone features, he said, “That [the iPhone] was the second thing I wanted to talk about today. Number three is about iTunes.” Make lists and provide your audience with guideposts along the way.

4. Make numbers meaningful. When Jobs announced that Apple had sold 4 million iPhones to date, he provided context for the figure. “That’s 20,000 iPhones every day, on average,” Jobs explained, “What does that mean to the overall market?” Numbers don’t mean much unless they are placed in perspective. Connect the dots for your listeners.

5. Try for an unforgettable moment. This is the moment in your presentation that everyone will be talking about. Every Steve Jobs presentation builds up to one big scene. In this year’s Macworld keynote, it was the announcement of MacBook Air. To demonstrate just how thin it is, Jobs said it would fit in an envelope. Jobs drew cheers by opening a manila interoffice envelope and holding the laptop for everyone to see. What is the one memorable moment of your presentation? Identify it ahead of time and build up to it.

6. Create visual slides. While most speakers fill their slides with data, text, and charts, great presenters do the opposite. There is very little text on a Steve Jobs slide. Most of the slides present one idea for the audience to walk away with. This is further supported by see–and–say syncing. For example, when outlining, “The first thing I want to talk to you about today,” was accompanied by a slide with the numeral I. When he discussed a specific product like the iPhone, the audience saw a slide with an image of the product. Inspiring presenters are short on bullet points and big on graphics.

7. Give ’em a show. A Jobs presentation has ebbs and flows, themes and transitions. Including video clips, demonstrations, and guests creates the feeling that the presentation is more of a show than a lecture. Enhance your presentations by incorporating multimedia, product demonstrations, or giving others the chance to say a few words.

8. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Despite your best preparation, something might go wrong as it did during the Apple CEO’s keynote. Upon attempting to show a few photographs from a live Web site, the screen went black. Jobs smiled and said, “Well, I guess Flickr isn’t serving up the photos today.” By moving forward and recapping the new features he just introduced, it was no big deal. Don’t sweat minor mishaps. Have fun.

9. Sell the benefit. While most presenters promote product features, Jobs sells benefits. When introducing iTunes movie rentals, Jobs said, “We’ve never offered a rental model in music because people want to own their music. You listen to your favorite song thousands of times in your life. But most of us watch movies once, maybe a few times. And renting is a great way to do it. It’s less expensive, doesn’t take up space on our hard drive…” Your listeners are always asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” Answer the question. Don’t make them guess. Clearly state the benefit of every service, feature, or product.

10. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Steve Jobs cannot pull off an intricate presentation with video clips, demonstrations, and outside speakers without hours of rehearsal. Jobs rehearses the entire presentation aloud for many hours. You can see he rehearsed the Macworld presentation because his words were often perfectly synchronized with the images and text on the slides. A Steve Jobs presentation looks effortless because it is well–rehearsed.

Use this 10–part framework to wow your audiences. Many observers claim Steve Jobs has charisma. True. But he works at it. Nothing in his presentations is taken for granted. He studies the art of telling a story to inspire his audience. You must do the same to electrify your listeners.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. His book, Fire Them Up!, contains insights from top business leaders who inspire through the language of motivation.

Are IE add-ins as good as those for Firefox?

This article says there's no need to be jealous of Firefox's plug-ins, because you can get cool add-ins for IE that do everything from blocking annoying ads to grabbing videos. Are there any other good add-ins out there for IE that match Firefox's?

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Cool Movie Lookup Site

On a completely non-work or technical subject, I came across a cool site that lists details about where various movies were filmed. I was inspired to look into it due to discovering that the classic American Graffiti was filmed in our town Petaluma.

There's a section where you can lookup states/countries and see what's been filmed where. It's not totally comprehensive but it covers a lot of the bigger films.

More on Thin Client Computing (TCC)

So I'm looking at setting up a new business for a client, and they're extremely interested in the thin client model--they have remote offices around the western US with different businesses in each one but they want to start running the same applications centrally to eliminate duplication in entry of financial and HR journals. They want to be on the same mail system, remote access, etc.

One of the things that Microsoft has added with Server 2008 is support for multiple monitors. This particular client has most workstations with dual monitors so this is a huge plus. I'm finding that more of the thin-client hardware manufacturers are adding dual-monitor support as well. For now, this client will likely use current desktop PCs as the client but when those die we'll probably put terminals in.

I also came across a really neat miniature hardware device for a client, check out Chip PC's Jack PC. It's a wall/desk mountable terminal with POE so you just bring your monitor, keyboard, and mouse. It's slick! They even have a version with dual monitor support!

Roadmap to a Winning Resume

By Dean Tracy

As a recruiter, I have seen thousands of resumes from very qualified and capable candidates across the globe. They have come from nearly every industry and market segment and have represented administrative professionals as well as corporate executives.

While I review each resume, my role is to carefully read between the lines and try to get a sense of who the candidate is and how they are wired. In doing this, I’m associating their skills against my client’s needs. My intent is to determine if the candidate capabilities will drive a degree of success in a particular capacity.

On the other hand, it’s been stated that a typical hiring manager or recruiter will only look at your resume for approximately 10 to 15 seconds! In this brief period of time, that hiring manager or recruiter will decide on how to proceed with your resume. Their decision to file your resume or push it forward in the process will hinge on three attributes – identity, uniqueness and value to the company. These three elements are essential to developing and delivering a winning resume.

Identity – Build Your Brand

This is the only opportunity that you have to make a first impression. The top–third portion of your resume must clearly represent you and your professional identity. The next hiring manager to read your resume must be able to immediately tie you to a department or open position within their company.

The format, conciseness, and clarity of your resume will also reflect many of your professional traits and will demonstrate how well you will fit into the company and its culture. Your resume must be easy to read, captivating, grammatically perfect, and free of spelling errors. It needs to have a sense of continuity, be detailed but not boring, be content rich but not busy, and most of all, it must be organized.

Your resume should not be overstuffed with keywords just for the sake of keywords. If you effectively manage your professional network, then your resume should never see scanning software on the first pass in penetrating your target company. Don’t worry about capitalizing on the hits when a company does a system driven search. Instead, focus on developing your resume as a piece of marketing collateral with you as the product. Remember that everything you send out is a direct reflection of your professional traits.

Uniqueness – Differentiate Yourself

Write an effective yet brief profile of your background and experience, not an objective stating the obvious. For example, every candidate wants to “utilize their skills to engage with a winning company in driving revenue and increasing profits.” This is not unique and does not set you apart from anyone.

In writing a profile, you will briefly encapsulate your background while highlighting your capabilities and accomplishments. This is a great place to capture their attention while demonstrating your overall strengths and value to the company.

Value – Quantify Results

For every position in the workforce, there is always an impact on revenue, profits and productivity. You must author your resume to represent your accomplishments for every task. As you reflect on your roles and responsibilities, think in terms of numbers, and don’t be afraid to toot your own horn! Your next employer is looking for people with confidence and leadership qualities that will drive their company to new heights. You can do it!

If you take the initiative to embrace these three simple elements in defining your background, you will recognize greater results in your search efforts and it will become easy for you to open new doors of opportunity towards landing the job of your dreams!

Dean Tracy is a Professional Recruiter, Public Speaker and Career Coach based in Northern California with an emphasis on Placing and Coaching IT Professionals at a National Level. He also serves on the Leadership Team for Job Connections, which is recognized as one of Northern California’s largest and most reputable Professional Networking Groups.

It's here: Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 is a radical revision to the core code base that makes up the Windows Server product.

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Office 2008 (Mac) is now on MVLS

For the corporate/enterprise customers who are on a Microsoft agreement, I just noticed that Office 2008 for the Mac is now available for download!  I didn't notice any flavors, just 'Office 2008' so I suspect the Special Media Edition is not part of that.  I do have my personal copy on order as a part of the deal they ran in the last quarter of 2007.

I post while I await the download.  I didn't notice any license keys so hopefully it's embedded in the installation like it was for Office 2004.  I beta tested Office 2008 a couple of months ago and it was pretty buggy so I'll definitely be backing up my 'Microsoft User Data' folder before installing since the 2008 installation needs to 'upgrade' the Entourage database.

Thin Client Computing

A recent article in CIO magazine got me thinking about this subject.  This is a subject that seems to resurface that, honestly, from a technology management position, somewhat baffles me....

By thin client computing (I may refer to it as TCC), I'm referring to the main computing and desktop image being hosted on a server and users have something slightly more elaborate than a terminal that connects over the network to the server and is the primary interaction point for the user.  Documents are typically accessed over the network and in some instances can be accessed via removable media connected to the client terminal.

There are countless applications for thin client desktop computing, particularly where the applications are known and standardized, don't require local peripherals necessarily, and they can be deployed in quantities.  The notion first started gaining momentum around the dot com time in the late 1990s but the growth was stalled by the rapidly dropping prices in desktop PCs.  It wasn't long before the prices of the full-blown PCs were close to the price of the terminal devices.  From an immediate cost perspective, it seemed like the PCs were a much better value.  Of course, that doesn't consider the support and maintenance costs or life expectancy of the equipment either.

Another factor that I've seldom seen argued in favor of thin client computing is that of the convenience.  If I want to access my system/desktop, I can access it from any computer or terminal on the network or from home (assuming remote access is enabled) and I have the exact same desktop everywhere I go.  Icons are in the same place, the mail profile is always the same, everything!  It is what I consider utility computing.

There are drawbacks and other considerations when it comes to running thin-client computing.  Even in this day and age, many software vendors have software that can't deal with more than one instance of their application running simultaneously and several don't have licensing models for thin client computing.  Some software requires tuning of permissions because it may need root-level write access to a directory to run.  Hardware considerations include the decision to allow remote printing and reverse mapping of hard drives and/or local storage devices (such as portable hard drives or USB thumb drives).  These are decisions that should involve the customer but these are decisions that should be made for a full desktop computer as well.

There are times when it's not the right model too, such as when you need big horsepower to run big applications.  For instance, Adobe Acrobat is fine on a terminal server, however Photoshop probably isn't in an enterprise environment.  If users are seldom on the network and do lots of offline work, it's probably not the right thing.

When I worked for a university, I met with considerable apprehension for several months when discussing bringing one up.  We had some equipment available so I put one up myself as a proof-of-concept.  I made sure the core applications (Office, Acrobat, Firefox, etc.) were ready and working correctly and the appropriate port was opened up on the firewall (more on that later).  I put it up, shared the connection information with a few people and let them start using it.  Within a week or two I started getting requests for others to have access and soon after more software.  After running with the base system for a few months we saw that it was rapidly becoming the favored way to connect remotely (as opposed to using OWA for mail and transporting files).  In just a few months with nothing more than word of mouth we had over 50 users accessing the server on a regular basis so we proceeded as a formal project with a heavy-duty server.  Some departments ran all of their applications through the terminal server and their desktop PCs were nothing more than devices for playing CDs.

One of the other neat but often overlooked features of running Microsoft's Terminal Services is the fact that the default nature is to encrypt the login information.  Through a couple of group policy settings in Active Directory you can adjust it to require all data be encrypted as well, which is what we did.  So by simply opening the one port (default is 3389) for TCP/UDP traffic you can fairly safely deploy it to the world and anyone with a Mac, Windows, or Linux computer can get to it with an RDP client.  In running Microsoft's Terminal Services at a public university with over 30 MB WAN connectivity, we never suffered any worms, malicious attacks, etc. on this system.  Users loved it because they could get to all their network files (which also taught them to save things to their network drives instead of local drives) from any location with network connectivity.  We found that its performance on a slow connection, even dial-up, was better than using Exchange's OWA interface!

I've also deployed TCC in a couple of mid-sized organizations where they were reluctant to upgrade PCs (though just the service I'd performed over the years on fixing old computers would likely have bought several new computers).  With TCC, you eliminate any reliance on the local computer.

So, getting back to the introduction, why the reluctance by even technology people to deploy TCC?  Maybe it's outside their comfort level or perhaps there is an inherit fear for job security--I'm not sure.  For a resource-limited organization or one where identical desktops and remote access are desirable, it's hard to beat.  I can see practical application in public facing labs and terminals, administrative computing, and, if for no other purpose, secure remote access.

Send Huge Files to Your Friends with Pando

Cool new service for large file exchange.... too bad there's not a nice open source suite for doing this!

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Managing Change

Managing Change: Three Phases of an IT Organization Transformation

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10 Free Network Utilities

Great little freebees... Not enterprise but useful!

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Recent Events

So this week had me in Portland, OR. I had an interview with an organization in the area and made a nice visit of the area with my family. Granted, it rained most of the time (I hear it does that here a lot), but it was great to check it out.

Turns out that they had 60+ qualified applicants and that was initially cut to 16 which was further cut to live committee interviews.  I got the call back after the first day to go to the second and final interview with the COO and that seemed to go well.

5 year MBA Reunion

It was a little over 5 years ago that I completed my MBA along with my 20 classmates in San Francisco State University's inaugural 'accelerated' MBA program. It was a new program, led by Dr. Joe Messina, a friendly but clearly thoughtful and intelligent guy. I applied to the program in mid-2000 while I worked for bebe Stores. I was accepted that Fall and classes began early January 2001. The program was an all-day Saturday cohort style; meaning all students would be in the same courses together at the same time. We had two classes per mini-semester, each nearly 4 hours long. It was a pretty intense way of learning but it was the most logical means of getting all the requisite coursework in a condensed timeframe. We lost a few people along the way, I believe we started with 29 individuals but it went faster than I expected. I learned a lot from the program, made some good friends, and would do it over again.

A couple of months ago I got the e-mail inviting us for a 5 year reunion at the new downtown SFSU space at 835 Market Street. It's a really nice facility with a lot of history. One of my favorite professors, Dr. John Dopp, is now the head of the entire Business Graduate School for SFSU. I really like John and congratulate him on this role. It's a huge amount of work but it has to be rewarding. While there were some fundamental concepts on which John and I didn't see eye to eye, I think we had a mutual respect and understanding of one another's position.

I believe there were 8 of the 21 graduates of the first cohort who showed up and it was really neat to see everyone. Many people are with their same employers though most in different roles. Some people are married and have kids now, or more kids, and everyone looked and seemed well.

Web 2.0 cage match: Microsoft vs. Yahoo

The potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo will put the two companies' Web apps in internal conflict. In some cases, a Microsoft ap

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