Sunday, February 19, 2012
I recently read an article by tech writer Mike Elgan in which he describes in very broad, long-term language how the Macintosh computer is nearing its end. What Elgan describes in his article is actually part of a larger picture in the realm of technology that I thought is worth describing. That larger picture is the eventual demise of general-purpose computing, and I believe it’s something that nearly everyone should be concerned about.
I’ll try to explain what I mean. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Technology, Personal Technology Comments Off
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Here’s a recent quote from a recent New York Times article:
“We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on,” said one former Apple executive who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. “Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”
The entire article is worth a read. It and similar reports have been creating quite a stir in the media and social networks, with people offering all kinds of commentary on the subject.
Some folks have made the argument that Apple moving their manufacturing away from the company in China who is the offender– a very large company named Foxconn– is not a viable option. The argument goes that the reason Apple is in the current manufacturing agreement is because it doesn’t want to have its prices go up for the consumer. Sometimes a comparison to another device maker in terms of price, and other times the argument is that it would cost the company too much to move. In both cases, the assumption is that the loss of profits would be passed on to the consumer as a higher sticker price.
This is pure, unadulterated baloney. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Management, Business Technology, Rant Comments Off
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Try to imagine a world where automobiles didn’t exist. That’s an almost impossible proposition, but for the sake of argument try anyway. Now, imagine tomorrow some plucky inventors create the world’s first automobile, get the investment to mass-produce it, and begin selling it all over the world. While on this imaginary track, try to imagine a year, two years, or ten years from now, where automobiles start becoming ubiquitous. At this point in your hypothetical universe, imagine the government and certain auto manufacturers working together to ban the use of automobiles altogether unless they’re produced, sold, and maintained by a small, specific group of car-makers. Imagine the government and the group of auto-makers using the fact that bank robbers and burglars use automobiles as their rationale for the ban.
If you can get through that thought experiment to its end, then you now have a pretty good approximation of what the SOPA and PIPA bills currently in the U.S. House and Senate (respectively) are all about. Continue reading »
Posted in Rant 2 Comments
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The American Bar Association recently released a formal opinion on the ethics of employees communicating with personal legal counsel via email. This formal opinion has repercussions that business owners as well as lawyers should be informed about. All of you employees out there should read along as well, since it’s your communications using company email that are the topic of the ABA opinion. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Management, Business Technology Comments Off
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
There are a lot of products out there designed to give you dashboard-like control over swarms of servers, much of them are rather expensive. If you’re a large company with boundless cap-ex you’re probably courting salespeople from the various offerings.
If you’re a small company, or a medium sized one, that hasn’t realized your tech is now going to drive much of your business (even if you didn’t think you were a tech company before) it could be daunting to realize that apparently overnight you have a nest of several hundred linux/unix hosts running your business. It also means that one loyal shell jockey you hired years ago is probably now going to be overwhelmed at this development.
Have no fear, citizen, you needn’t reinvent the wheel. The organic growth from small or medium sized IT infrastructure to unwieldy farm of servers at multiple data centers is a problem faced by many before you. Some of them have gotten it right, some of them have made mistakes and there’s much to be learned from both. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Management, Business Technology Comments Off
Monday, August 15, 2011
I’ve worked for companies that have favored Dell branded computer workstations. I’ve worked for companies that have favored HP branded computers. I’ve even worked for companies that have used custom-assembled computers. In all of these different environments, one thing has tended to remain pretty constant to me.
Despite the vast marketing and effort put into selling these machines, they all tend to be about the same. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Management, Business Technology Comments Off
Friday, August 5, 2011
Running a business costs money. There’s no way to avoid that. Brand new businesses sometimes have less initial overhead, while others have a large up-front investment. How much money it costs to run a business depends on several things– what the business does, how many customers and employees it has, materials, and what I plan on discussing here: IT costs. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Management, Business Technology Comments Off
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Follow any modern productivity model these days and you’re going to find a core theme underlying it is organization. A clean and organized workspace means a more orderly (and productive) workflow. What typically gets the least attention when an office tries to organize the office are the technology resources. Desktop systems, servers, and now mobile devices can do so much and store so much data today that it’s easy to forget that doing all those things and storing that data takes resources, and the more resources being used the more precious time is being taken up waiting for those resources. A clean desk is helpful when working, but a cluttered desktop screen costs time finding the programs or files that are needed. A business that has been saving files electronically for years will find itself in a virtual maze of directory trees when trying to find that document for a client. Much of the hard work put into creating an orderly workspace gets a monkey wrench thrown in it if the technology being used isn’t just as orderly. My suggestion to an office looking to optimize its productivity is to start with two main things: hard copy storage and technology resources.
For hard copy, the best option is to have a savvy office or operations manager who can dictate what to keep at the ready and what to place in long-term storage. In this post I’m going to focus on the technology. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Management 1 Comment
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Most businesses that operate with company-supplied computer workstations and other electronic communications tools have policies in place to protect the employer and employees in cases where litigation might come. This protection applies whether the litigation were to come up from inside or outside the business. While this post isn’t meant to be taken as direct legal advice, it is meant to point out the legal considerations a business should have regarding e-mail, company cell phones, and company pagers. Continue reading »
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Sunday, July 10, 2011
If anyone has kept up with internet security news in recent months they’ve probably heard of an internet group called Lulzec, and the hacking exploits they wreaked throughout the internet. They targeted business and government servers with what seemed like little effort and lots of reckless abandon. The lesson I’m referring to is poignant and alarming: much of the internet is horribly insecure and mismanaged, particularly business websites and servers. Continue reading »
Posted in Business Management, Business Technology 1 Comment