For Non-IT Folk
Words of Wisdom About Your Career & Life
This article is wise beyond the wisdom of the ages because it is precisely what I ‘take to the bank’ when I supposedly “waste my time” playing World of Warcraft. The two big ones are Strategy (long term planning/goals) and Tactics (specific, short-term, goal-oriented plans for achieving an essential piece of your strategy). B$
Is Microsoft Cool Again?
…the question should be, “Was Microsoft EVER cool?”.
However, even if it has never been what one would call, “cool”, it certainly is true that it is regenerating itself.
Too bad the coming recession will crush it and other tech companies.
Redditors find massive ‘Archer’ Easter egg
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Fascinating just doesn’t do this justice!
Role Reversal: The Band vs. Apple Watch
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In a lot of ways, I’m starting to draw the conclusion from their actions that Microsoft is acting more like Apple did in it’s heyday and Apple like Microsoft…as this article about Microsoft’s The Band points out.
I’m rooting for Microsoft…who used to be my arch-enemy and less for Apple, who appears to be lacking in the vision that used to emanate from it.
Keep an eye on Yahoo as well. Necessity to stay alive rears it’s entrepreneurial head. Down but not out.
Innovation comes from taking risks with capital, effort by a team of talented believers and evangelists and is sparked by the vision created by entrepreneurs. Does that describe today’s Apple? B$
Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 vs. Apples new MacBook, March 2015
I thought it was important to put a date in the title because technical comparisons have a very short half-life.
Since our shop appears to moving away from Dell laptops in favor of Microsoft Surface Pros, I thought it would be cool to say a couple of things and then point you to the article that compares it to it’s Apple equivalent.
I believe a lot of IT groups that are close to their customers (and recommend/purchase these items for their customers) really need these kinds of comparisons along with doing their own homework to form a clear understanding of the good, bad & ugly aspects of these consumer-level platforms. Then you can give your customers usable advice and perhaps avoid your own IT headaches when you have to support this stuff. <smile>
Although, in our shop, the tendency for our Mac users is to go to the ‘Air’ versions of Apple’s product line, the comparison I link to at the end of this rant is a still good comparison to make. Just keep in mind that this article doesn’t take into account OS differences; always a factor in enterprise-level computing.
So, some comments about the Surface Pro:
- Surface Pro’s 1 & 2 kinda sucked on features, usability and performance.
- Surface Pro 3’s features, usability and performance are outstanding.
- Imaging a Surface Pro 3 is a BITCH because it doesn’t like to boot to our MDT deployment share from USB Stick. That may be solved that using the Microsoft’s new Surface Pro drivers package. I’ll plug those puppies into MDT and see if it helps; then report my success/failure.
- I’m also sure that I haven’t researched this issue enough. I’ll bet there is a method to boot these puppies to MDT that we haven’t tried yet because of the task-time-compression that our IT shop is dealing with currently.
- In summary, the two biggest complaints on the Surface Pro:
- It’s a bitch to image (for now!)
- The thin keyboard (an extra purchase) has a “PC Jr” kind of feel to it. For those of you that aren’t 117 years old, another way of saying that is that it doesn’t provide enough bio-feedback on your fingers when you type. If you’ve ever tried to use the Win8.1 keyboard on a touch screen for speed touch typing, that’s the equivalent experience. I venture to guess that this complaint only comes from those who were trained on traditional keyboards, which give you a specific tactile feedback that you’ve hit the right key and that the “keystroke” was actually registered by the computer. I think the younger crowd have & will take to new input devices it quite easily, IMHO.
All that said, here’s the article on Tech Republic. Be careful: they’re data miners at Tech Republic. Just read it, close the page then clear any cookies they left you, lest they sign you up for tons of spam.
B$
Why is Internet Explorer security such a challenge?
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It also contains some great advice for the IT pro and the typical user as well. Don’t forget to click the links within the article if you don’t understand something. F’rinstance: I didn’t know what a ‘Zero-Day Exploit‘ was.
AlternativeTo – Social Software Recommendations
In researching apps on how to blend all of my cloud storage into one accessible glob, I came upon this little gem. Explore & Enjoy! B$
Lego Serenity
Those that know me know I’m a fan of the TV Series Firefly and of the subsequent movie: Serenity. I love the series because of the libertarian nature of the entire construct. It also has all of the elements that made Star Trek work:
- A ship that never fails the crew when they need it most.
- A clear leader…only this leader is a unique blend of an ex-military & libertarian…he brings together the best of both worlds and shuns the BS. I’d like to think that is a lot like myself.
- An engineer that can fix anything with bailing wire and chewing gum.
And other incredible elements that are very NOT Star Trek.
Here’s a feat of engineering…and make no mistake; this took some planning, skill, ingenuity and hard work. Brickfrenzy, you have my absolute admiration.
He built the spacecraft from Firefly; a Firefly-Class cargo vehicle called Serenity.
Website: ManualsLib
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From the same article as the previous post, I found this useful gem. I was blown away by the sheer volume of the manuals. Wow. B$
Technical Brian 