10 Questions: With Ralph Grabowski

The Questions - Ralph Grabowski

Introduction

It seems that for every industry that exists, certain people bubble up to the top with regards to being the trusted source of information for that industry.  For Information Technology, Finance, Engineering, Web Development, Database Systems, Information Security, Application Development, and so on.

When it comes to providing trusted, objective news and information relating to CAD, CAM, CAE, BIM and all other industry acronyms that pertain to design and fabrication/construction, one that usually comes to the top is Ralph Grabowski.  Ralph has been tirelessly digging and reporting on all things related to the world of software and hardware technology that enables designing and building things.  If you are curious how Russia is exploring CAD, Ralph is your guy.  How about in Asia? Europe?  What about mobile devices and data import/export reliability topics?  Ralph is your guy.

I chased Ralph down for a while, which isn't easy, as he is often traveling and working, to pick his mind on how things are going.

The Questions

Dave: As many "CAD news" outlets as there are today, you have still remained in the top of everyone's list as far as I can tell.  What do you feel is the biggest challenge you face when preparing each newsletter?

Ralph: Usually none, except when I have no main feature for the next issue of upFront.eZine. In this case, I will generate a story out of nothing, by thinking about some aspect of CAD that irritates or interests me, and then banging away at the keyboard.

I dislike the press release section, "Out of the Inbox," where I have to read dozens of press releases and in a few seconds figure out (a) what it is about and (b) whether it is worth writing up. I dislike it so much that as of next week I am dropping the section from upFront.eZine.

I write the newsletter in Notepad, spell check it in Atlantis (the word processor I use), and then convert it to HTML in Dreamweaver, Adobe's oddly-named Web editor. I use GroupMail to bulk send it to my 11,000 subscribers. It generally takes me 3-4  hours to produce the newsletter each Monday morning.

This is why I like my blog better, because in WorldCAD Access I can write as I feel like, and not to a weekly schedule. On the other hand, upFront.eZine makes significant revenues from advertising (WorldCAD Access barely does), and so I can't give up the weekly newsletter, as much as I would like to.


Dave: The "Cloud" trend seems to be gaining momentum lately, across nearly all technology markets.  What aspects of CAD/CAM/CAE do you think will be toughest for service providers to overcome in that regard?

Ralph: Customer trust, especially now with the revelations that the America NSA spy agency reads through all our stuff with the permission of cloud providers. But then I was saying this right from the beginning, that CAD vendors need to figure out the trust angle. An executive at Autodesk recommended that I should retire for writing such heresy; since then, I was proved wright.


Dave: How did you first get involved with "CAD" technology?

Ralph: My background is a transportation planning engineer. I got my B.A.Sc. degree at the University of British Columbia. In high school, I loved drafting class; my dad was a mechanical draftsman in the 1960s.

I first experienced CAD in hearing about it at the consulting engineering office I worked in at the time, probably around 1982. An Intergraph salesman was trying to sell the firm on getting a $100,000 CAD workstation or two. Around 1983, a local computer dealer brought in a Victor 9000 personal computer running AutoCAD, probably v1.0 or so. With a hard drive, it was going to cost $10,000. The firm eventually got AnvilCAD, bizarrely enough.

My first use of CAD was in 1985, a demo disk of AutoCAD v1.4, running on the Victor 9000 I had bought myself a few years earlier. By this point, I had been laid off by the consulting firm due to the recession, and so I was looking for other work. A small ad in the newspaper caught my eye: "Fast growing computer magazine needs a technical writer/editor." Since my teen years, I loved writing, and owning my own personal computer taught me programming and taking apart hardware. I applied, got the job, and was the first full time employee at CADalyst magazine.

Back then, nobody knew anything about desktop CAD, and so we all learned as we went along. I was technical editor and then senior editor at the magazine for five years. My appreciation to founder Lionel Johnston for letting me be free do my own thing at the mag, and take it in directions he never thought of.


Dave: How and when did you move from the CAD user world to the news and reporting world?

Ralph: Well, I never was a CAD user. I became a CAD user after I moved to the news and reporting world, after working as a professional engineer who did hand drafting.


Dave: Your reporting includes some of the widest range of vendors and technologies of any "CAD" related sources I know.  A lot of that seems closely tied to traveling and on-site interviews.  How would you describe that aspect of your work?

Ralph: I love traveling, especially to exotic destinations, defined as anything outside of North America. I did a lot of traveling while at CADalyst magazine, and this continued after I went freelance in 1991.

In those early years of business trips, I learned how to be thinking about the next question to ask, even as the executive was still answering the current one. Also, I type very fast, and so I can type almost as fast as people talk, especially on a good keyboard.


Dave: What airport(s) do you find most enjoyable to pass through and which airport(s) do you dread?  Also, what food(s) and drink(s) would make your perfect breakfast?

Ralph: Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is one of the best in the world, and is my home airport. Oddly, I love the United terminal of Chicago's O'Hare airport (ORD), maybe because I pass through there often, and I still recall how amazing it looked when it was new. I also like Denver airport (DEN). As you can see, I've got those airport codes memorized.

Worst is Frankfurt (FRA), no question about it. It is so screwed up. Usually, in most airports it takes about 10 minutes to get to a connection (5 minutes to get off the plane, 5 minutes to hike to the next gate.) The last time I went through FRA, I timed it: it took me 45 minutes, gate to gate, non-stop. So on trips to Europe I try to go through MUC or LHR.

Breakfast? I've heard of it. Don't tell my wife, but I love American breakfast: eggs, bacon, hash browns, orange juice.


Dave: Of all the engineering and design related technologies/products you've seen emerge over the years, which of them do you feel are (or were) most under-appreciated or under-utilized?

Ralph: CAD vendors are working in a mature market, meaning there aren't many new customers. So, they need to pitch new ideas, of which we in the CAD media get sick hearing, such as the "C" word in the mid-1990s (collaboration), and object-orientation, and of course now the cloud. Ugh. The most over-hyped technology today is 3D printing. Did you know fewer than 60,000 units will sell this year?

I find it fascinating that now in 2013, that it's not touch or 3D motion or 3D printing or cloud or social that users are pining for, but for better and easier 2D.


Dave: A lot of talk these days, related to technology and manufacturing, has been on "emerging markets" in various parts of the world.  Where do you think the next emerging markets will be in ten years?

Ralph: I think CAD vendors are too dependent on the possibilities of increasing revenues from new customers in emerging countries. We are seeing sales deflate, because these countries lack infrastructure. I asked a guy from Africa when Africa would get its act together; he figures it'll take another generation -- 30 or 40 years.


Dave: GIS, NC machining, Parametric Design, Virtual Reality, Holography, 3D Printing, BIM, Rapid Prototyping.  What next?

Ralph: The problem with making predictions is that we humans do it poorly: we take current events, and then project them in a straight line into the future. We can't know about the twists and turns that are ahead of us; after all, four years ago the iPad did not exist, and look at the twist it made to technological trends.

What I can predict fairly reliably is when a CAD vendor sets off in a certain course and expects to be successful. From history, even history as brief as CAD's, I can fairly guess at what will happen. I have stunned some CAD executives by asking them what they plan to do when their product or marketing scheme fails.

Dave: If you were asked to speak to an auditorium filled with teenagers who are looking to find their direction in the fields of engineering and design, what would you say to them?

Ralph: Being a contrarian, I would tell them to avoid engineering. There are so many other things to do in the world that are far more interesting. I've told my kids, now in their 20s, that the great thing about being alive today is that they an do whatever job they want; no slotting.

I don't get the obsession of some that more women "need" to be in STEM; let young women make up their own minds at what they prefer to work. Heh: none of my kids "get" math, so none of them will follow me into engineering or CAD.

Me, I just happened to fall into CAD; I could be writing about any other topic and enjoy it, too. I am first a writer, a whatever second. I enjoy learning how to write better; my appreciation to professor of English literature Stephen Dunning for spending the last decade teaching me how to write well.

But I do enjoy the way that the complexities of CAD and computers exercise my mind. (And to think your English teacher probably told you to never begin a sentence with 'but',)

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this installment of 10 Questions.  Post some feedback to let me know what you like or what I could improve upon?  I encourage you to explore the links below for more information about Ralph and his impressive contributions.

Links

upFront eZine
eBooks Library
WorldCAD Access blog
Gizmos Grabowski
More about Ralph

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10 Questions: with David Stein

David M. Stein

Introduction

Really? Is this necessary? If you read my stupidness, then you already know who I "am". If true, you'll probably close this and go back to reading Facebook.  If you don't, well, congratulations: you finally reached the end of the Internet.  My apologies.

Basic bio stuff:  I'm a semi-quasi-successful IT guy working in southeastern Virginia.  I've worked in the CAD/CAM world building weird applications for weird business processes, and moved on to "mainstream" IT stuff, dealing with Windows, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, a bunch of goofy

The Questions

Dave:  First off: what's with the "M" in your name? Do you feel like it adds distinction, like 'Booker T. Washington' or 'Alfred E. Neumann'?

Dave 2:  Alfred was cool. My first cat was named Alfred. Actually, I use my middle initial to differentiate my books on Amazon from another "David Stein", who sells books about Bondage and S/M stuff. No offense intended towards anyone who likes that stuff, but I got tired of being asked if that was me.  The stuff I write about is nowhere near as interesting as that, I'm sure.

Dave 1:  How would you describe what you do for a living?

Dave 2:  Lucky!

Dave 1:  Why?

Dave 2:  I say 'lucky' because I'm a developer by nature, working in roles as analyst/engineer/administrator, but using developer experiences to automate the shit out of anything I can. 

Dave 1:  Can you name some of your favorite musicians or bands?

Some of my favorite musicians would have to include Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and U2. But I like a wide range of music, from Miles Davis and Stanley Clark, to Bob Dylan, to Eminem, wherever he is now. That's all mostly due to having once been an aspiring musician. 

Dave 1:  Oh yeah? What instrument did you play? And what particular situation can you recall that was funny or interesting from that time?

Dave 2:  I played drums and percussion. I also took piano lessons, so I dabbled a bit.  Some rock, some pop, some traditional Jazz also. I sat in with a country band once also.

I suppose one of my favorite situations would probably have to be when we were playing 'Hot for Teacher' (Van Halen) in a crowded club one night. Our lead guitarist was coming out of the big solo, doing his scale climb, where the drums follow along, going from a 4/4 thing through a 2/3 or 3/4 segment, whatever... And one of my sticks slipped away and nailed him directly in the back of his head. The spotlight was on him too. Perfect hit.  Talk about playing the wrong note at the wrong time.  Sorry, Clint. No hard feelings dude.

Dave 1:  What drew you away from music and into technology and computers?

Dave 2:  It was the early 80's, and I needed a job. Mostly for gas and beer, at the time. So many priorities back then, you know?  Construction didn't pay enough, nor did dish-washing, lawn-care, retail sales, or painting, so I went into Drafting. After a year doing manual drafting, the whole CAD (computer-aided design) thing came along. At first it was mainframes and workstations, then PC's came along, and then Windows and networking. 

While doing the PC CAD thing, I fell in love with AutoCAD and AutoLISP. It was the first time I was exposed to being able to tweak something to do what I really wanted.  I tried that with my dog, but he wouldn't do anything I asked unless I tossed food at him.  AutoLISP led to years of programming, climbing around on Navy ships, more programming, drinking and traveling, and more programming. But also a lot of drinking. It was the early 80's after all. 

Dave 1:  What kinds of things did you do with AutoLISP and AutoCAD back then?

Dave 2:  Shipbuilding has its own unique drafting standards.  Everyone thinks they are drawn the same way as houses and building or machine parts.  But, it involves its own specific way of doing dimensions, callouts, views, notes, references, and materials lists.  Even the sheet border formats are unique.  It got really annoying having to constantly change everything manually, or copy and edit.  So I wrote some utilities and menus to do it the "shipbuilding way", and that led to a new career path for me.

Dave 1:  So... programming did it? How did you end up doing Windows, AD, SQL and SCCM?

Dave 2:  Hoo-boy! How much time do you have?

(Dave 1: I'm not going anywhere. I am you after all, so, uhhh...)

Ok. Well, you asked, so... (Takes a reeeeeally long inhale)... While working at a particularly large shipyard, I was both their AutoCAD operations, and customizing it all to fit shipbuilding needs. It was a lot of work, but it was fun.  One of the guys in the infrastructure team brought donuts in a lot, so I brought jokes and somehow we got along (and I got fatter too). His name was Brett. He was a really cool guy too. Rest his soul. 

Anyhow, he was rolling out SMS 2.0, which was really new at the time, and he asked if I wanted to work with him to knock out two of the biggest hurdles at the same time: a thousand seats of AutoCAD and a new deployment system. 

Long story short: he got me into thinking about expanding my programming and introduced me to thing like WMI, WBEM, SQL, DCOM, VBscript, and larger perspectives as well. 

Dave 1:  You said, his name "was" Brett.  What happened?  Where is he now?

Dave 2:  About six-feet underground.  Long, sad, depressing story for another time.

Dave 1:  How many questions is that now?

Dave 2:  You're asking me?  Or, ugh, you? I mean... never mind. Continue?

Dave 1: Describe your home life.

Dave 2: A hard-working, creative and loving wife, of 25 years. Three crazy daughters, a wacky son, two weird dogs, and a cat that rules the humans around her. Our kids are ages 14 up to 23. All still at home. Still on my cell plan too, which is why I'm always working and still broke. 

Dave 1:  Do you consider yourself to be a good dad?

Dave 2:  You'd have to ask them that question. 

Dave 1:  Ok, moving along. You said you're broke?  How's that? You have quite a few books on Amazon, a fairly decent blog, and a good job, no?

Dave 2:  Yeah, well. It's complicated. I don't make much on book sales actually.  Maybe I should mix in some kinky S&M crap with my computer topics to pump the sales up?  Who knows.

Dave 1:  What aspects of current technology and the tech industry still excite you?  Which of them do you feel have been a disappointment?

Dave 2:  Ooh! Good questions!

On the good: Open source is still relevant, even with billions being spent to silence it all. Social media. Proliferation of cellular coverage. Mobile devices.  Maturing API stacks.  Faster and cheaper hardware.

On the bad: Social media. The misguided strategies of the big players. Over-hyped rushing to the "cloud". Too many web tech standards. Too many colliding acronyms. 

Dave 1:  Wait a minute. You mention "social media" for both good and bad?

Dave 2: Yep. I did. Good for catching up with long-lost friends, schoolmates, teammates, neighbors, and family. Bad for stirring up drama though. 

Dave 1:  Sheesh. Tell me about it. 

Dave 2:  I just did. 

Dave 1:  Oh, yeah right.  What's with your dislike of the "cloud" trend?

Dave 2:  Same as anything else: Everyone runs to it without stopping to ask why.  It's great for some things, like Microsoft Excel is, but when businesses grab it like it's the cure-all for every problem, they run into problems.  Sometimes that "solution" creates more problems than it solves, and it can be difficult to turn around and "go back" as well.

Dave 1:  If you had absolute control of America long enough to pass a short list of irrevocable laws, what would they be?

Dave 2:  (laughs quietly for almost a full minute...) Ok...

1. Free, High-speed internet to every home, apartment, school and business. 

2. Free, high-speed rail service between every city with at least 400,000 citizens. 

3. Bumperstickers which aren't funny would be punishable by public beatings. 

4. Repeating any rumor, as if it's fact, without passing a cross-examination test to prove you read the actual source facts, would be punishable by slow, painful, death.  For instance, when people blabber on "for" or "against" the so-called "Obama-care" bill, or some spending bill, whatever, but none of them actually read the bill itself.  If you haven't RTFM (ok, RTFB), then STFU, or submit to being electrocuted in the crotch for two hours on live TV while being force-fed liquefied used kitty litter.

5. Everyone would be implanted with an internal electric shock collar and everyone else would get a free remote activator.  That could be pretty interesting indeed.

6. I'm still working on number 6.  Next question?

Dave 1:  So, does that mean you're "for" or "against" the HCRA or so-called "Obama-care" bill?

Dave 2:  Next question?

Dave 1:  Last one.  What would be your ideal epitaph?

Dave 2:   (rubs chin and smiles) "I almost made it!" My second choice would be what my brother suggested, which is "I should have cut the green wire."

Dave 1: Ok, folks. I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as, ummm, "we" did?  For more info, search Dave out on LinkedIn, 4sysops, MyITForum, and Amazon but watch out for that other David Stein. 

Until we meet again: Love. Peace. Namaste, and all that. 

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Knowing Which Seeds to Water

(Warning: I've had some coffee today)

In The Beginning

In 1990, at the age of 26, I worked as a drafter for a small Naval engineering firm in Virginia.  It was my third job in the field of naval design, and I was assigned to work in the Piping Systems Division with maybe two dozen others, in support of contracts for overhauling U.S. warships.  It was during this time that PC-based CAD entered the foray in the defense industry.  ThisCAD and ThatCAD were everywhere, but AutoCAD was the eventual, and clear winner.  Until then, everything with "CAD" in the name wasn't even considered unless it ran on UNIX-powered hardware.

While learning to use this new "AutoCAD" tool, I tripped over something and looked down to realize that inside this little product was a shiny gem called "AutoLISP".  A customization programming tool, built right into the product!  Having tinkered with CMD and Batch scripting for MS-DOS and Windows, I was addicted from that moment on to programming.  Mainly because it made it possible to draw and "create" visible objects on the screen, rather than a bunch of numbers and text.

After a few weeks, I built some menus, functions (or "routines", as they were often called then), and eventually wrapped them in dialog forms and prettier stuff.  After sharing them with my coworkers, I began to get feedback and ideas started coalescing like a tropical storm into a hurricane.  The momentum continued to build and within a few months I had a complete "design package" for automating much of the tasks involved with creating and validating engineering and design drawings for piping systems.

Auto-Something-or-other

Not long after that threshold was crossed, I spread out into HVAC systems, and eventually into the other primary system groups involved with nautical engineering: Structure, Outfitting, Machinery, Electrical and Electronics.  Then it was on to building the top of this strange pyramid:  Notes, References, Sheet Formats, Materials Lists, Tables, and so on.  In much the say a Lego kit ends up becoming a city with elevated monorails and skyscrapers around a kid's room, I ended up gluing in data files, database tables and views, symbol tables, icon files, drawing parts (block inserts, XREFs, etc.).  Building on top of what a predecessor from our New York office had started, it became an entirely new animal.

My boss was supportive, as was the Department Manager, and the Division Manager.  But once it cleared the cloud layer, things got less clear.  I never asked for a raise or a promotion, oddly enough. All I asked for was the approval to tap a few key "power users" in each department to form a "team" to help improve this automation tool even further and faster.  Silence.

In 1996, I was contacted by a much-larger company, a nearby shipyard, to take on a newly created role of "AutoCAD Systems Manager" for an entire Division.  That meant a lot of things at once for me:  Automating the deployment (installation), configuration, maintenance and licensing of AutoCAD and AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop to roughly 1,300 users.  There were other Divisions, but they were tied to UNIX products and rebuffed any consideration of anything that ran on a scruffy PC. This offer also meant I'd take over licensing administration (i.e. FLEXlm), and my prized role: Customization.  Oh yeah, it also meant a considerable pay increase and better benefits, but customization was what I had my eyes on the entire time.

Project: Mariner

Within a few months of that new job, I began building an entirely new suite-based, collection of design automation tools to run on AutoCAD and MDT for Piping, HVAC, Mechanical, Hull-Structure, Hull-Outfitting, Electrical, and Materials.  This new beast grew a beard and a deeper voice and eventually was named "Mariner".  A fitting name I thought.  I sure get wrapped around the axle when it comes to choosing a name for software projects, but that's for another story.

This process continued to grow and I was allowed to form an unofficial "team" to help maintain and improve it as well. Once again, I never asked for a raise or promotion, but things seemed to progress much more easily.

Sometime in late 1999, this shipyard began contracting in designers from local firms to handle the capacity of work going on.  The contractors were required to learn this new abstraction layer, so I embarked on developing a training guide, a training course and even was authorized to issue training certificates for completion of the training.  Seriously, they printed some 1400 books with color graphics and sturdy permanent binder edges.  Nifty stuff!

Project: ShipWorks

In early 2000, one of the contractors asked if they could license this "Mariner" product to use back in their offices.  The rationale at the time involved a lack of physical space at the shipyard to bring in any more contractors, while the workload continued to rise.  I approached the corporate overlords, their legal masters and the contracts department gurus and soon there was a "first-ever" licensing contract produced to allow their "partners" to use this product.  Until then, no other such vehicle had existed, or so I was told.  Then, I inquired about approaching Autodesk or some other (no defunct) software vendor, to help take it to the next logical level: external marketing.  There was interest from nearly all of the outside contracting firms, as well as several software vendors.  The company said: "NO.  We are not a software development company."

Growing tired of the lack of management support, I accepted an offer to work for a local Autodesk product reseller.  I submitted my two-weeks notice and packed my belongings to move on to yet another employer.  On my last Friday, I received a phone call from the contracting firm that had initially approached our company about licensing Mariner.  They heard I was leaving and they counter-offered and, me being stunned and shocked, I accepted it.  I went to that new employer and, again, started development on a totally new product, incorporating all of the lessons-learned from the Mariner project.  This animal grew into something called "ShipWorks".  Much to the chagrin of Autodesk, it was not ever intended to run on Solidworks, nor was it ever attempted.  Still, they were obviously not too happy about the "works" suffix.  Just an odd side note now, I think.

That leg of my journey into the software technology world is where I officially transitioned from a mostly-engineering environment into a mostly-IT environment.  I absorbed managing Windows Server, SMS and Configuration Manager, WSUS, RIS and WDS and a whole bunch of other weird things that I found interesting and helpful, and which helped cut costs and make for a better computing environment.

In this new role, I was given a team, management support, resources and things finally to be on a good track.  Then in 2007, the company was sold and split apart.  I ended up bouncing to a consulting firm, which lasted about three months, when the economy tanked, and I had to make ends meet doing side work for a few months before crawling on my knees back to the shipyard and beg for my job back.  They graciously accepted.

From here on, I haven't touched AutoCAD much at all.  Most of the work I've done since involves things like ASP or PHP, along with SQL Server, Oracle, Active Directory, SMS or Configuration Manager, Inventory systems, Service Request systems, and so on.  Basically, gluing things together horizontally with a big bucket of sticky web application goo.

Looking Back

Every one of the places I've worked at, I've built something custom to help them operate more efficiently and tried to make the users happy with the results.  In every case, my immediate supervisors were very supportive.  In every case, when it went above my immediate supervisors things got shaky and less reaffirming.  The support and reinforcement began to vaporize the higher I went.

The Takeaway

Over the past twenty-odd years, I've seen more potential wasted because someone decided a project was not worthy of basic consideration.  Not even giving it a second thought.  The results could have been astoundingly helpful for a lot of people and businesses.  Too quick to judge, was always the culprit to killing the dream before it could begin to take shape.  I'm writing this today because I still see this happen too often, in too many places.

If you have a lone developer, or a small team of developers, within your business, official or not, and they are actually producing useful things, support them.  Especially if they don't ask for monitory compensation, but they simply want to see that management cares and wants to help them push it further.  Maybe it's outside of your "core business" comfort zone.  Maybe you never considered your business to include this mysterious thing called "applications development".  Try making it work anyway.  You say you have "gut instincts" for business, well, use them.  You might be amazed what good can come from it.  I'm not suggesting you rubber-stamp every app-dev project without checking on it's merits.  Verify and validate them all.  But just don't reject them simply because they involve "application development".  That's an unforgivable crime of business.

Cheers.

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10 Questions: with Rod Trent

Rod Trent

Introduction

Most IT professionals who work within environments that involve Microsoft products, especially Windows Server and infrastructure-oriented products, keep a (very) short list of web sites on their the tip of their pointy heads for personal projects, or when the wheels come off of the wagon at work.  Among the short lists around this planet we call "Earth" there are probably three or four sites that are common to all of them, and one of those is most certainly MyITforum.

Not only was this one of the first Windows IT community-focused sites, it has consistently remained prominent and relevant ever since.  If you know the web site, then you know the name: Rod Trent.  Rod has a unique way of putting the "word out" on breaking news, trends and events in such a way as to make it feel personal, while not painting it over with a lot of spin or subjectivity.  This makes him a rarity in the IT news and knowledge-sharing world, as it maintains the trust of his followers, whether they tag along on the site itself, or Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+ (probably others I've overlooked as well).  In any case, I present you with 10 questions asked of Rod Trent - Enjoy!

The Questions

Dave: Over the past ten years in particular, it seems like so many IT related web sites have come and gone, yet MyITforum has not only remained, but has maintained it's role in the forefront of the minds of IT professionals.  What would you attribute that to?

Rod: Attributed solely to the community. Truly, people just want a place they can go to get good information to help them in their professional life. It feels good to go somewhere online where you know you can get an answer in a couple minutes instead of hanging on the phone with a vendor for a couple hours, only to hear them say they'll try to replicate the issue and get back to you. myITforum is just full of kind people who don't mind sharing expertise and knowledge.  Many web sites you go to, newbies will be turned off right away by those old-timers who would rather tell people to read the manual than give a helping hand.  myITforum is unique in that there are no stupid, or newbie, questions, and no matter how many times a question is asked, it will always get a useful answer.

A lot of it has to do with how myITforum started. myITforum filled a definite need and was extremely innovative, starting in 1998. We were just coming off the BBS days, and the web was sort of new. Community hadn't made its way to the Internet yet, so we were trailblazers somewhat. We had the luxury of coming on early, which meant we could screw up a bunch until we found the perfect recipe for community. Other web sites, are just that – sites. They aren't community. And, really I wish there was another word that could be used in place of "community" because everyone and their brother, mother, sister, and uncle try to apply it in scenarios where it doesn't fit.  Someone throws up a web site and immediately says "hey, here's our new community, come and join us!"  Community doesn't work that way. Community is built by the people who then decide where they want to congregate.

myITforum is unique in the fact that it was built offline – built by the people – and then an actual web site property was put in place afterward because the people wanted a central location to connect.

Dave: When did you first step into the world of computer technology?  What year?  How old were you and what was the scenario that pulled you in?

Rod: Wow... that's sort of hard to remember since it was so long ago, but I'll give it a shot. Actually, my first computer technology "career" was in computer sales, working for a local, multi-site, computer store. We sold directly to businesses. Yes, I was a salesman. Not a very good one, but it gave me the opportunity to hang around computers all day long. After that, I worked for a local computer rental business which taught me a lot about the computer innards since we built our own computers. And, then I finally progressed to managing a local service center after obtaining a bunch of hardware certifications from Epson, IBM, and HP and networking with Novell.

I had worked with computers prior to my "start", but I guess it all really started with that one sales job.  I was 24 and newly married when I took that job.

Dave: Looking back five years ago, putting yourself into the mindset you had then, what aspects of information technology do you see today that you wouldn't have expected then?

Rod: That's a tough one. I think the best way to answer this, is with a non-answer.  Technology has always excited me. I'm always the first person to latch onto new concepts, new gadgets, and new directions.  What has surprised me the most is actually the lack of technology we have today, or at least, the lack of concepts I expected to be available already.

I grew up a huge Star Trek fan and watching the cool science on the show, I fully expected that we'd have all of those things by now. We don't.  We have a few things that sort of look like what was proposed on the SciFi series, but really we're not even close.  I keep anticipating the next big thing and am a bit forlorn when it shows up and it's only half (or less) of what I imagined.

Dave: Looking ahead five or ten years from today, where do you think computer technology and information technology will go, just in general (specifics are always welcome too)?

Rod: I fully believe we are on the cusp of something monumental in the industry where computing becomes second nature to everyone. IT will become service providers, not engineers and problem solvers like they are today. IT Pros were never really intended for the functions they provide today, but our lack of computability heaped massive tasks on them. If you think about it, really IT Pros today are nothing more than glorified secretaries, except they handle technical bits and stay on call 24x7 instead of faxing and swabbing whiteout.

Computing will become much easier, so that anyone can perform any function they can think up – on any device. The backend will be provided much like a utility company serves sewage and electricity, complete with a monthly subscription fee.

IT Pros will need to evolve and adapt to technology concepts that are just now emerging.

Dave: You obviously get to see a lot of emerging trends and observe how they play out in the markets.  Of all the various fields of technology, which areas do you feel could use the most work when it comes to establishing true "standards"?

Rod: True standards. Is that even real?

From a standards standpoint, I guess what I am looking for is a way to interoperate across all devices. Computing is now about being completely mobile, being able to pick up any device anywhere, and have content and information synched so that my experience is the same everywhere. Each specific vendor has done a great job within their own ecosystem, but they rarely offer the same functionality outside their own ecosystem.  A true standard would mean that the experience would sync across any device no matter if it came from Microsoft, Apple, Google, or another vendor.

Dave: You currently describe yourself, professionally at least, as a "social media marketer".  Can you explain what that means, as if speaking to a crowd of non-technical senior citizens? :)

Rod: Social Media Marketer is a term that has come about through evolution. At its base, it's about community and understanding how to talk to people, which is one of my God-given strengths. But, everyone has to make money, so I've learned over time how to take my strengths and use them to provide marketing over social media.

Dave: What piece of swag from a past tech conference do you cherish most?

Rod: Whew...it's been a long, long, many years of conferences for me. I haven't attended a conference that I didn't either work at or have some part in since 1998. So, I've seen and owned a lot of SWAG. Just recently I went through my office drawers and finally threw out all the SWAG from the past years. If it was memorable, I'd photograph it but still toss it.  That was a lot of work.

There have been many conference bags I've kept and some I've carried for years, but, my favorite SWAG, probably, is my very first speaker shirt (which I still have – and can still wear!). It is from the 1999 SMS Users Conference (what MMS was called before Microsoft acquired the event). It's nothing special, just a standard collared knit shirt with the conference logo on it, but it marks my first public speaking gig.

Dave: Do you feel that the general perception of technological innovation coming from the United States will remain as such in the next decade?

Rod: I really don't see that changing, to tell you the truth. There's too many strong brands in the US still with Microsoft, Google, Apple, HP, and others. Lenovo seems to be the only bright spot outside of the US. Lenovo is innovating and have produced solid business despite the continued downturn in PC sales.

I'm really excited to see what comes from Dell now that they have voted to go private. Attending DellWorld the past couple years, I've heard some great vision stories, but that vision has been put on hold due to all the problems. I expect to see some great things come out of Round Rock, TX.

Dave: Are there any particular companies or technologies that you feel are woefully under-appreciated or undervalued today?

Rod: That's a tough question. In today's industry, there's a lot emerging technologies and solutions that could probably fit in the under-appreciated or undervalued categories. It's just too hard to tell right now how things will shake-out in the next 5 years. So, I can't name any specific company or technology, but really more of a vision of technology.

Someone needs to come the fore providing a centralized and consistent dashboard for managing Cloud data and services. There's a lot of Cloud providers out there, and no two are the same in functionality and price. In the near future, providers will have to start to specialize to compete with the likes of AWS and Windows Azure, providing a single service that's full-featured and affordable. As that happens, data will be spread out across the web and it'll be hard to determine which provider is actually servicing it, making it unmanageable.

Dave: If you could describe the perfect Sunday morning for you, what would it be?

Rod: Ahhh...Sunday morning. Getting up a couple hours earlier than everyone else in the house. Sitting down with a cup of coffee, my Windows tablet, and a good movie for noise.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  To explore more things Rod is doing, follow the links below.

Links

Some places you can always find me:

myITforum: http://www.myITforum.com
Windows IT Pro: http://windowsITPro.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rodtrent

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10 Questions: with Shaan Hurley

Shaan Hurley

Introduction

If you've used AutoCAD, or any flavor thereof, in the past ten years, you should have at least heard the name: Shaan Hurley.  Unless you just dabble with it, and don't really try to push it anywhere close to its limits.  If you've even leaned against it enough to make it squeak a bit, you should know his name.  If you went to any of the Autodesk University (AU) conferences in the past two decades (sorry, not trying to date anyone here) you HAVE to know his name.  If you attended them and don't recall his name, you're either braindead, or spent your entire week there in a bar.

Shaan is synonymous with AutoCAD customization.  I tried to summarize it with all sorts of words, but that's about the best and most succinct combination of terms I could muster.

At AU 1997 in Los Angeles, I ran into Shaan, in person, for the first time.  It was a weird situation, after several strangers (i.e. people I had never met or known beforehand) had approached each of us, separately, and made some comments to the effect that there was some animosity between us.  As far as I knew, there was none.  Mainly since I had never met Shaan before and my online conversations with him were very limited and technical in nature.  So, long story short: We saw each other from across a huuuuuuge expo floor area, and cautiously walked to a midway point.  The conversation, as I recall, went something like this:  "Um. Hi Shaan." "Um, Hi Dave".  "How are you?" "Good! How are you?" "Good!" followed by some chuckling and relief.

I've always respected Shaan, and what he's meant to the world of CAD/CAM software engineering and design.  As you'll see in the questions below, he's very much customer-focused; always thinking about the products from the user's point of view.  Without that, I can't imagine where the entire industry would be today, let alone Autodesk, or even "PC-based" CAD features.  Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this (I sure did)!

The Questions

Dave: When did you first put your hands on AutoCAD? What were you doing with it (project-wise)?

Shaan: It is a little blurry but I believe it was around 1989/90 and AutoCAD R10 or R11. I was using it to design a pressure vessel for a pharmaceutical company. It was pretty intimidating at first to draw the drawings so that the fabrication shop would not come back in the office and yell at me.

Dave: What was the first programming language you learned?

Shaan: Here we go into the way way way the hell back time machine, I learned to program using BASIC on a terminal writing a game back in high school. It was a surfing game and based on your choices it would generate your next moves in the surfing tournament or you were heckled for hitting the pier, hit the rocks, or got caught in a fisherman's line. The limit on the amount of programming, debugging and gameplay was limited to how much paper you had in the terminal. There was no monitor just a monster terminal comprised of a keyboard constructed of pig iron that consumed reams and reams of paper and for it computing it was connected to the schools mainframe. This was a long time ago, but after the punch card era of computing.

Dave: If you had to sum up what AutoLISP is (or was), as well as what it means (or meant) to you, personally, how would you describe it?

Shaan: I stumbled across AutoLISP in desperation after scripts were just not powerful enough to do what I wanted them to do. I am so glad I found and learned AutoLISP as it saved my day and sanity so many times. I remember looking at all the Hot Tip Harry code and figuring out how others were using it. Being able to automate my AutoCAD work saved me time and allowed me to focus on other things. An example was the layout of large tubesheets for heat exchangers with complicated tube pitches and patterns. It could take a few days manually to layout the tubesheet and of course change during design always happens and adds even more time. When I write a LISP routine to layout the tubesheets I took what was days and reduced it to less than a minute and a I had a detailed layout drawing.

Dave: Which airport is your favorite to pass through? Which airport makes you dread traveling through it?

Shaan: My favorite for sheer awe of the architecture is Shanghai's Pudong airport. Not only can you arrive on a MAGLEV train at high speed, but the architecture of the terminals main area is amazing and the super reflective floors makes it even more amazing (Flickr Link). As for my least favorite airport that is difficult these days as there are so many poor airports whether they be hard on the eyes as a throwback to the 1950's or have perfected the art of making travel painful and a truly broken process. I think one of my least favorite would be a tie between Chicago O'hare as I always seem to get delayed there or have to walk or run from the furthest two points in the entire airport in the shortest amount of time. Orlando's airport drives me crazy just due to the sheer number of crying kids with Mickey Mouse ears on their heads and having just spent a week of nothing but junk food and sugar.

Dave: If you hadn't gone into the world of architectural/engineering design and CAD, what do you think you would be doing for a living today?

Shaan: Don't laugh Dave, at first I wanted to be a marine biologist. Yes, be paid next to nothing and spend 10 years of my life on a desert island studying some obscure jellyfish or sea creature. Of course that was my dream job and instead I fell into growing my hair long and playing guitar bands then having to find a real job like so many others. I am not kidding, about 1 out of 5 CAD software related people I know said they started in a band. How do you think we always have Autodesk employee bands at AU? A bad injury caused my dreams of being a famous rock and roll star to fall flat into reality and I started working in the steel fabrication industry and eventually becoming a mechanical designer.

Dave: Where do see the CAD industry in ten years from now?

Shaan: I think the industry will still be there as engineers, architects, designers and such will still need a way to take what is in their minds eye and put it to a form where others can build it. What form CAD actually is may be a difficult prediction but I think remote software whether on the public or private cloud will most certainly be a part of it allowing more computational power to be scaled and managed instead of limited to each workstation on each desk. I do hope as a recovering designer that we find technology that allows us to make the process of getting the design ideas from your mind to a digital form such as a drawing or model much easier, and no I am not suggesting a USB port in the skull. In  my days of design work, I had the design all built out in my mind and had to remember all the CAD system commands and process in order to translate it to a drawing. I always wanted a way to limit or remove the worrying about the CAD process in design and just allow the design and ideas to flow. 

Dave: What is your favorite, or most relied-upon, freeware or open-source utility?

Shaan: There are so many I rely on, but perhaps FileZilla is near the top of my list currently working with so many files on remote servers at work but in my personal life the open-source fav is VLC.

Dave: Favorite continent to travel to?

Shaan: These are not continents but islands. I love South Island New Zealand, but it is tied with Japan for the many of the same reasons the people and the tranquility.

Dave: If you were given absolute control over any Fortune-500 company for a week, which would it be and what changes would you request?

Shaan: First order would be to make my one week extended to permanent, yes who wouldn't try that move as that is like given a wish and making the wish for unlimited wishes. Second would be to encourage employees to always consider the customer first and foremost and get to know them even the bean counters should know a company's customers and what your product or service means to them and their companies. If the customer needs are always considered and you keep close to them and have their trust, then success and profitability should follow as you will know what your customer’s needs are and what to make.

Dave:  Favorite breakfast food selection?

Shaan: Coffee.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I did.  I have to say that it made a four hour layover in Charlotte NC seem like fifteen minutes.

Links

Between the Lines (blog)
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
Flickr Photostream

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Exam 2013-0824 - Software Packaging, Repackaging and Deployment

The following exam consists of 5 questions pertaining to the field of "software repackaging and deployment" within a Microsoft Windows environment.  Each question may have one or more answers (multiple choice).  You have 15 minutes to complete it.  Good luck!

1. You've been assigned a request ticket to repackage and deploy a product to several computers within your network environment.  The ticket states that there are no binaries from which to build the package, and you must contact the vendor to continue.  You call the vendor and state your objectives.  The vendor replies that you cannot have a copy of their binaries because they don't trust anyone to handle them without pirating them, and that only they can perform installations for each computer.

Which of the following should be your first choice of action?

A. Reach through the phone and bitch-slap the representative with both hands.
B. Laugh hysterically and tell them to "never mind", because you already downloaded a copy from Pirate Bay.
C. Hang up. Close the ticket with a comment stating the vendor is on cheap drugs.
D. All the above.

2. You deployed a bootstrap package to execute a "per-user" installation of a product which was originally packaged as a "Click-Once" installer, onto a group of Windows 7 computers.  You are now told to remove that application and install a different application.  You discover that many of the target computers were shared among multiple users, who each launched the installer and have used it extensively.

Which should you do first?

A. Hire a hitman to kill the vendor.
B. Hire two hitmen and a hitwoman to kill the vendor.
C. Start smoking heavily.  If you already smoke, then smoke more heavily.
D. Look for a job outside of the IT world.

3. Your manager makes a comment during a staff meeting to the effect that "all MSI package installation deployments are the same, and simple as dirt!".  You should...

A. Remain motionless while thinking of your family, starving and crying at home around the bare dinner table, because you reacted properly and choked that person out, instead of ignoring it.
B. Ask the person, "so, when are you taking that job on by yourself?"
C. Yawn and continue working on your Fantasy Football roster from your mobile phone.
D. All of the above, in any order you desire.

4. A different manager insists that virtualization is the cure-all for deploying and managing client applications.

A. You raise your eyebrows.
B. You raise your eyebrows.
C. You raise your eyebrows again.
D. All of the above.

5. Which of the following command syntax examples will install the "fubar2014.msi" package, apply a transform named "tarfu.mst" during the installation, capture the log output into the user's "temp" data folder, do all of this silently, and keep your coffee warm throughout:

A. msiexec /i fubar2014.msi /qn TRANSFORMS=tarfu.mst /l* %temp%\fubar2014.log
B. msiexec /i fubar2014.msi /qb! TRANSFORMS=tarfu.mst /l* %appdata%\fubar.log
C. msiexec /install fubar2014 /quiet /norestart TRANSFORMS=tarfu.mst /lvao %appdata%\fubar.log
D. None of the above.


Be honest, did you scroll down here first and cheat?  Seriously? I hope not.  That would be even worse than failing it without cheating.


answers:

1. D
2. C
3. D
4. D
5. D

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Shameless Plug and Teaser

Selected portions from the "Introduction" and "Overview" from my forthcoming book.  Please, tell me if this sounds like something you'd be interested in buying?

Introduction

If you've read any of my previous ebooks, and somehow averted the urge to stab yourself in the eyes with a fork, you're probably familiar with my usual, droll, drab, way of describing things.  For this ebook however, I decided it was finally time to take off the gloves and do a few rounds in the ring with my blogging side.  My skatterbrainz.blogspot.com blogging side, to be more specific.  I've been a slave to that blog for quite a few years now, but in a good way actually.  It's provided me with a means to vent stress, confusion, anxiety, happiness, sadness, and everything else you might normally experience on a Saturday morning in a typical Sam's Club.

I am taking a bit of risk in adopting this approach however.  I really have no idea of what percentage of my blog readers also purchase my ebooks, and vice-versa.  I also don't know how many people have purchased, and read, my ebooks, and survived the trauma of that.

I'm a "regular" guy in most respects.  Not regular as it pertains to bowel habits, but regular in the sense that I rely upon a "day job" to have money to support my family (wife and four children, oh yeah, and two dogs and a cat).  I drive a very old car, and work a very nice job, but I buy a lottery ticket on occasion.

Overview

If your job (or hobby) involves installing software applications, components, even Windows or application configuration changes, on multiple computers over a network, you've almost certainly encountered some challenges along the way.  Even if the installation goes well, you may often face challenges with users trying to open or use the applications.  Maybe you're in the midst of trying to migrate computers to Windows 7 or Windows 8, and keep running into applications and that just don't seem to work properly.  Maybe you don't have enough budget to purchase new licenses of all the "problematic" applications you need to do a complete migration.

Feeling stuck?  Feeling frustrated? Confused? Angry?

Don't start drinking just yet.  Wait until you finish this book first.  Then you can go back to drinking all you can drink.  Just don't drink and drive.

If you follow "best practices" guidelines, you have probably configured your environment such that most users are not members of any groups which allow them local "administrator" access to their computer devices.  Whether that's keeping them out of the local "Administrators", or "Power Users" groups, or keeping them out of certain Active Directory domain groups, the goal is usually to mitigate potential security holes in your environment.  However, a frighteningly large number of software product vendors, and developers, seem to expect all of their customers to have unlimited powers over their computer devices when installing as well as using their software.

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10 Questions: with Chad Post

Chad Post

Introduction

(Dave here) Back in the Fall of 2007, I left a company after nearly eight years, as they were being sold-off and split apart in somewhat of a messy process.  I was then briefly employed by a small consulting firm in Norfolk, Virginia.  Our team consisted of myself: a Windows Server support engineer, Bill: a Cisco Network Engineer, Rob: an AD/Exchange Engineer, Jamie: our Project/Sales Manager, and a Desktop Support Technician named Chad Post.

The five of us were trying to grow business for our tiny office, and worked hard to satisfy our customers.  Each of us, for the most part, worked independently of the other, so we didn't really stay in touch as much as one might expect for a small office.  This was also when the U.S. economy began to contract, so everyone felt the stress and concerns equally.

In March of 2008, we were all called up to the home office, in Richmond (Virginia), to be fed, watered and spoken to about how "great" things were going.  The CEO walked up to each of us from the Norfolk office, offered words of encouragement and support, and promised to support our fledgling office "no matter what".  Within three weeks of that event, our office was shut-down and most of us were laid-off.  Only one of the engineers remained with the home office in Richmond, while the rest of us scattered to the four winds.

Four of us remained in our relative "comfort" zones of geography, but Chad chose a path most of the rest of us didn't anticipate: overseas IT contracting.  In the years since, I have tried to stay in touch with Chad and the others, because, as you get older, you also get somewhat more sentimental about staying in touch with people.

I felt it was a fantastic opportunity to interview Chad since he's probably doing the most unusual and relatively "extreme" type of work of anyone I've personally known.  I recently asked him if he would be willing to share his experiences and thoughts gained from his work abroad.


The Questions

Dave: How would you describe what you are currently doing for a living?

Chad: Right now, I’m basically an Active Directory paramedic. I’m out here in Afghanistan in case things go wrong, more or less. Should something break or fail, then I jump into action. Otherwise, it is a whole lot of checking on servers and reading tech articles.

Dave: You've been to some interesting places since leaving Virginia: Afghanistan, Kuwait, Cuba.  What other work locations have you been to, and what other places would you to go?  Any that you'd like to go back to?

Chad: I don’t tend to revisit places once I've worked there, unless the position offers a new spin on things. The few times I've revisited places, I've found that the novelty of being back wears thin quickly. Having said that, I would not mind revisiting Cuba… as a tourist on Guantanamo!

Dave: What's the most interesting or surprising thing (or event) you've experienced, either personally or professionally, while working abroad (OCONUS)?

Chad: I mean, you can’t go wrong with the surprise of your first insurgent attack. ;-)

Dave: If a young American IT worker approached you about working overseas, and asked you what they should pack in their luggage for a year-long opportunity in some remote place, such as Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay, what top (5) items would you recommend?

Chad: The secret of working with the military is that you can get most things delivered via USPS in 2-3 weeks. Having said that, I tend not to travel without a laptop, universal outlet converters, electronic copies of my documents, a spare set of clothing, and enough local currency to escape my intermediate stops should something go wrong.

Dave: What aspect of American culture do you feel is most misunderstood by other cultures?  What aspect of other cultures (those that you've experienced, at least), do you feel is most misunderstood by Americans?

Chad: Many citizens of Middle Eastern nations assume that American policy reflects the opinion of all Americans. Because they’re used to their governments controlling the dialogue, they assume the same is true of us. That’s why you have people protesting America over films instead of directing their ire at the producers of those films, for example.

On the flip side, Americans tend to view the Middle East as a land of burkas and angry men. That’s definitely true of some places, but when you’re in Bahrain or the UAE, you’re just as likely to see a hip Middle Eastern woman in skinny jeans and Prada sunglasses.

Dave: What types of IT-related skills seem to be in most demand (outside of America) these days?  Are they more in-common among various locations or are they more specific to industry or culture for each location?

Chad: On the contracting side, your big names certs are what will sell you. Microsoft, Cisco, the CISSP, and CompTIA are the most requested certifications. It bears noting that most jobs will require Security+, though.   Additionally, SharePoint, SCCM, and anything security will get you in the door.  More important is getting that security clearance, though!

Dave: Is it as "dangerous" as most Americans believe to do IT contracting work in places like Afghanistan, Qatar, UAE, or Kuwait?

Chad: See, those places are all different. You can’t compare a Kuwait or a Qatar with an Afghanistan. Afghanistan is clearly more dangerous, but the actual level of danger varies based on your location. Arguably, I am statistically safer here than I would be wandering around Norfolk at night. Bahrain and Kuwait are almost ridiculously safe at night. I was never worried walking around alone at one in the morning.

Dave: You've mentioned that there can often be enough "down-time" in remote locations to focus on education pursuits and obtaining certifications.  Since you've been working overseas, what goals have you achieved in that regard?  Which goals are still in your cross-hairs right now?

Chad: It can be indeed. In Iraq, I completed my MCSA, MCSE, MCITP: SA, EA (and both desktop certs,) ITILv3, and CCENT. I also managed to finish up a semester of college. In Bahrain, I had less time… that was more of a real job… but I still found time enough to finish my undergraduate degree. In addition to being on watch 10 hours a day, 7 days a week in Afghanistan, I've been attending Arizona State full time.
As far as what’s next? Well, law school is pending for 2014. I shall be leaving an IT expatriate spot open for the taking, come mid-2014.

Dave: Have you read any books that impressed you lately? What titles or authors?

Chad: I've read something like 87 books this year… but I recommend Sam Kean's Disappearing Spoon & Violinist’s Thumb.

Dave: What would make your "perfect" breakfast, as far as food and drink items are concerned?

Chad: I’m partial to savory crepes and a hot chocolate… that’s my Washington DC breakfast of choice.

Conclusion

There's not much I could add to what's been said above. That said, Chad exists on the internet in quite a few places. Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn.

Namaste.

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Horizontal or Vertical

Question:

Which of the following two directions provides the most beneficial results to a thriving business: integrating isolated systems and service "stacks" vertically, or horizontally?

Let's define this mumbo-jumbo first...

Vertical, in this process or technological context, usually refers to things which share some functional aspect.  Maybe they're related by business function (finance, hiring, manufacturing, etc.), or by ownership (division, department, etc.).

Horizontal, in this same context, usually refers to things which normally do not rub against each other during any "normal" operational context. For example, an HR employee database, and maybe the warehouse temperature monitoring and control system.

But what happens when you need to know how many things have passed in and out of the warehouse, which were in some way, any way, influenced by a particular division, department, group, budget code, or individual employee?  What about tapping the facilities systems to identify the impact of storing and shipping X items of product Y for employee Z?

What about identifying how much money was moved around related to a specific purchase order?  Sounds easy enough.  Let's say you find a particular P.O. and it ordered a truckload of XYZ100 contraptions.  The items had to be stored in special facilities with strict temperature and humidity controls.  They required special trucks to move them, and the people that handle them had to be certified to a very specific policy, usually resulting in higher hourly rates for their time.  So, now, I ask again: how much TOTAL money was moved around by this P.O.?

If you said "vertical", you might want to reconsider.

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Grocery Shopping and IT Projects?

Someone asked me recently what I thought about the subject of "why IT projects fail", or maybe it was "how can you tell if an IT project is going to fail" or something like that.  I paused for about 0.0000001 seconds and replied: "buying eggs before knowing what to cook."  I got the usual "what a dumbass" look, which I expected.

Let me explain.

Whenever you sit in on a IT project planning (or project status) meeting, and someone asks a question like "What are we doing?", that's when you should finish swallowing your gulp of cold shitty coffee and perk up.  This is the moment when you can tell if the PM (and probably the entire PMO organization in most cases), has a clue of what they're doing.

Response 1: "We are trying to make this widget do this function in accordance with the requirement."

Response 2: "We are trying to find a way to make X do Y, without exceeding Z costs or time."

Response 3: "Are you asking about the entire project goal, or just this one task?"

If the response is not #3, get up, walk (or wheel) to your desk, pack your shit and find another place of employment.  If that's not feasible, find the nearest bar and drink up.

Of all the IT projects I've rubbed-up against in the past 30 years (yes, I'm *that* old), those that failed, or ended up being much less than they promised, EVERY single one of them fell into the mindset of responses 1 or 2.  In other words, they become fixated on the trees, while the forest is being cut down and hauled away.  They remain oblivious and charge onward, to the next pay check.

I was trying to think of some concrete examples, without risking the embarrassment or anger of anyone implicated along the way, so I decided on this one, which happens to have been a real-world situation (in other words: it really happened):

Business Manager: "I want a kick-ass storage system to support our growing kick-ass company!"
IT Manager: "OK!  What's the budget for this?"
Business Manager: "Spec it out and I'll tell you if we can afford it."
IT Manager: (gives weird smirk, as if smelling someone's fart. Then leaves)

A week later:

IT Manager: "Here you go.  100,000 Petabytes and dedicated T-1 lines between every single SSD in the multiple-redundant cube interconnect fabric!"
Business Manager: "How much?"
IT Manager: "$40 bazillion dollars."
Business Manager: "Too much.  Make it work within $10,000."

Another week later:

IT Manager: "Here you go.  $9,999 solution which will do 100,000 Petabytes, but it will be slow and unreliable."
Business Manager: "Too crappy, make it quicker, but come down on the capacity if you need to."

Can you see where this is going? (or went?).

The problem here is that the "PROBLEM" itself was not clearly defined, so the "SOLUTION" cannot be clearly defined either.  You can't cut a key without knowing what lock it's made for.

Buying eggs before you know what you're going to cook for dinner.  Maybe you don't even need eggs.

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10 Questions: with Jerry Milana

Jerry Milana

Introduction

(Note: I apologize for the unusually long introduction, but it's not fluff, trust me)

If you have been among the lucky ones able to attend any of the annual Autodesk University conferences, over the past two decades, you're probably well aware of some names of people that speak on topics such as customizing AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Map 3D, or who push the envelope of products like 3DS Max or Mudbox.  You may have attended sessions on programming, or using advanced features, anything to help you get to a higher level of productivity at your job or hobby.

The presenters, like Autodesk's products, cover a wide range of industries.  From architectural and civil engineering (AEC), to scientific research, to car and motorcycle racing teams, to Hollywood studios, and everything in between.  Some of the names have been legendary, like Lynn Allen, Shaan Hurley, Dave Espinoza-Aguilar, Robert Green, Scott McFarlane, Owen Wengerd, Kean Walmsley, and many others.  In many sessions, you could find one legendary Autodesk employee, quietly sitting near the front, soaking up what the speaker was saying or demonstrating: Jerry Milana.  He would never consider himself legendary, however.

I thought it was kind of funny how later in the day, when he would be conducting his own session on Packaging and Deployment, or License Services and License Management, so many attendees would point and nod, making a comment about how they saw him sitting in the crowd at other sessions.

Between 1989 and 2004, I was often supporting anywhere from 500 to 2,000 computers which were primarily used for AutoCAD design work.  I really depended on either (A) what the vendor provided, or (B) custom scripting and packaging tools, in order to automate the chore of installing that many copies of a product, and the updates and patches, and the next version upgrades.

Of all those products, no vendor put as much work into making their products easy to prepare and deploy to large numbers of computers than Autodesk.  With each successive release, they have continued to improve the features and reliability of their deployment utilities, setting a standard for others to emulate.  Indeed, I have seen quite a few imitations from other vendors, inside and outside of the CAD-related world.  This is a good thing.  And we owe a lot of this to the vision, persistence and efforts of Jerry and his team.

If you think Jerry's insights are only "CAD-related", think again.  The issue of licensing, and license management, will impact nearly every software product in one way or another.

Jerry Milana - System Integration and Software Asset Management Consultant

The Questions

Dave:  Most people outside (and probably inside) of Autodesk know your name as it pertains to the world of deploying and administering Autodesk products on a network. Things like FLEXlm licensing, deployment packages, and so on. When did you first step foot into "that world" if you will and how did it come about?

Jerry:  I worked for a reseller. My specialty was mid-range and PC connectivity and cross platform networking. One day the owner handed me a box of AutoCAD 2.1 and asked me to take a look at it since I had a design background. I said it looked pretty good and soon found that I could use AutoCAD to get in the door of customers to then sell them integration services.

Dave:  What do you feel is the most misunderstood aspect, from the customer side of things, about "network licensing" of software products?

Jerry:  It’s so easy to get things just running customers often miss the finer and much more complex aspects of a licensing implementation. This results in underutilization of assets, exposure to compliance violation and reliability issues.

Dave:  Where do you see world of software licensing in five or ten years? Drastically different, or just incremental changes?

Jerry:  For cloud customers things are already drastically different and the software industry is driving more and more in that direction. As some offerings become exclusively cloud offerings we will see more changes. 

As much as the software industry would like it, I doubt everything will move to the cloud. Even here I think we will continue to see a move from perpetual to term based licensing which will drive changes in licensing. I think (and hope) that we will see hybrid solutions where applications and data are not in the cloud but licensing and associated software asset management is cloud based. 

Of course, there will be private cloud implementations which will drive changes in licensing business models and supporting technologies.

Dave:  I know that one of your passions is skiing and being in and around snow, particularly in beautiful places like Northern California and Colorado. Could you ever see a scenario where your two worlds could cross (software and skiing)?

Jerry:  Who knows, it wouldn't be the first time in my life that hobby and work merged. As it stands now I am a volunteer ski patroller doing both downhill (Alpine) and cross country (Nordic) patrol. It would not surprise me if I end up doing some consulting work for some of the larger resorts and their holding companies.

Dave:  According to your public profile, it would appear that you are either partially or fully retired from the world of software engineering and support services. Are you still involved with technology-related strategic initiatives at Autodesk or elsewhere?

Jerry:  Humm, I better work on my profile. I have been doing independent software asset management and assessment consulting since the beginning of the year. I do some work for Autodesk and for other customers. My business has grown by word of mouth. I am an ADN member and will be speaking at Autodesk University again this year.

Dave:  Do you still travel much? Are there places besides NorCal and Colorado you like to visit?

Jerry:  Yes I still travel a lot for business and pleasure. I enjoy returning to old favorites such as New York, Detroit, Rome, London, Perth, Auckland and Seoul where I have friends and always look forward to visiting new places. I really enjoyed skiing Whakapapa on the north island of New Zealand; it was all about being there on that volcanic hill.

Dave:  If a teenager approached you about choosing a future career path, either in the IT-related world, or something else entirely, what would you recommend to them?

Jerry:  I would tell them to pursue what they are good at and like to do. I have enjoyed my career in the software/IT industry but I see so many people forcing themselves to do this work and are bad at it. I feel we should all strive to be happy and add value to the world; our jobs and hobbies should support this goal.

Dave:  If you were somehow put in charge of Autodesk back in, say, 2005-2010 time frame, and given "absolute control" over all strategic decisions, would Autodesk look (a) about the same as it does today, (b) a little different, but not radically different, or (c) radically different than it looks today?

Jerry:  This one I respectfully decline to comment on.

Dave:  What would make your "perfect breakfast" selection as far as food and drink?

Jerry:  Fresh squeezed OJ and a few espressos.

Dave:  If you could recall anyone from history who has long-since passed on, and have five minutes of time to talk with them, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Jerry:  No brainer, it would be Professor Einstein. If we are talking 5 minutes relative to us at rest on a fixed point on the planet earth; I doubt we would be able to scratch the surface on the things I’d like to discuss. I would start with the validity of our understanding of the propagation of light.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this interview! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.  For more information and resources related to Jerry, please explore the links below.  Thank you!

LinkedIn Profile - Jerry Milana
AU 2004 Photo Album

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