I did. I'm leaving Sprint for greener pastures when my contract is up next March - maybe sooner. All because they're in neck-deep with the iPhone. They based Windows Phone interest on a brick of a slider phone and wonder why the common folk didn't buy it.
Very true. I think that comes with any big decision like that though. I was thinking more of a relative that was "diagnosed" with high functioning autism when he was in his teens (scare quotes because I believe HFA isn't an actual diagnosis). If I were a parent, I'd likely handle it much like I would religion or what my kid wanted to do with his/her life. I'd try to steer these things as best I could until they were old/mature enough to (somewhat) understand the gravity of these things and think about them a bit more independently.
I can't help but get annoyed with web apps. People hail them due to the convenience of not having a fat client, and they are until you try to run them in the same pane of glass as that ridiculously expensive piece of software written for IE6, 7 or 8. The advantage of a fat client is that it can keep all of its dependencies separate from the other applications, whereas you can't easily mingle browser versions. It's very easy for a hipster web developer to shout out "upgrade your old-ass browser!" What they fail to realize is IT has to support those old-ass browsers because their predecessors insisted on using proprietary code that doesn't play nicely with modern browsers, then the bean counters (both vendor and client) made sure the code doesn't get updated. I'd love to give end-users a modern browser, as I enjoy using one myself. The problem arises in supporting multiple browsers. Believe it or not, there are still people that would be confused as to which browser they need for their time card system, data entry application X, etc. To further complicate matters, IT departments not only need an easily deployable browser, but one that has ADMs so we don't have to make some futile attempt to deploy settings for compatibility, certs, etc. with strange kludgey methods. Long term support is nice too, as long as it doesn't get as long in the tooth as IE6. I am aware of things like Chrome Frame, Chrome for Businesses, and Front Motion Firefox Community Edition, but I've never attempted deployment.
To close my rant, I beg the following people:
Vendors: Stop trying to sell us old-ass code that doesn't follow best practices. I realize the conversation is about web apps, but for a comparative example, I should not have to disable UAC and give admin rights for your application to work. If I do, you're doing it wrong or you're just plain lazy.
Business Decision Makers: Please seek IT's advice when you buy software. We don't want to be a roadblock; we just want to make sure your software's compatible in the same environment as the software you guys bought without consulting us that now still requires IE6. We like shiny new things! That's why we're in IT! We want you to have shiny new things, too! We just want to help you ensure you'll continue being able to have shiny new things.
Web (or really all) Developers: Please see the above; this is what we have to work with. Do everything you can to make sure that code you're writing isn't going to be left to stagnate in the hands of bean counters.
Google: I used to love you, but... It's not going to work out. It's not you, it's me... me not liking you. Please take your things and leave.:'(
I believe artor3 broke down some issues with your $1500 figure, but I personally would be willing to pay more for an American-made smartphone of equal quality to one built in China (the People's Republic of, that is - Taiwan isn't as bad).
While also creating more American jobs than the domestic production... I'm not sure on GM, but I'm fairly certain Ford makes a ton of passenger cars in Mexico and only makes light trucks in the good ol' US of A. Luckily for people who like having jobs, trucks make up a good chunk of Ford/GM sales.
If I chose to patronize a restaurant's competitor solely on the basis of using crappy software on their website, which may or may not have been developed by an outside company, I would question my priorities.
But you can't have that hour and a half to do those things. Much like a pilot, you'll be expected to watch over the car. Unlike an airline pilot, you won't have as much time to react to a problem - you'll have mere milliseconds, thanks to obstacles being so much closer.
There are plenty MDM solutions out there. I am quite happy with AirWatch (Gartner Magic Quadrant 2012), though I was impressed with Good Technologies. AirWatch was cheaper, but was not sandboxed. Most Android devices will also require the Touchdown client ($15-20 per license) for the deployment of email profiles unless you're only supporting devices with OEM MDM extensions. You'll find a lot of MDM solutions require Touchdown, which definitely has quirks end-users will notice.
Biggest things:
Make sure you find the product that fits your budget (naturally)
Take your corporate culture into mind when looking at a solution. Are they going to be totally baffled when their email disappears because their PIN doesn't meet requirements?
Do plenty of testing with actual devices.
If you need device-level encryption, target 3.0 devices.
Be wary of products that feel kludgy. Some vendors have tacked 3LM pieces onto their existing iOS management.
There are definitely things you can do to bring a team together and promote a better culture, I feel there's a certain organic quality that has to be present to make a truly good working culture. It comes down to the team members inherent qualities and their own definitions of what makes a "good" culture. Luckily, your team is quite small, so you should be able to do this with relative ease. Make sure the business is in order, then sort the rest amongst yourselves... preferably over beers.
This is very true. Be that as it may, some of it comes down to implementation. IT/Facilities needs to prepare the meeting room in such away to reduce user frustration and need the multitude of options to ensure they have the flexibility to support whatever comes their way. I believe there is a shortage in products suited "plug and play" style environments, or at the very least lack of research in the purchase process. It's all about having the right tool for the job.
The windshield wiper sounds like a cost cutting measure from General Motors. My Mazdas (and many Fords, naturally) have all had the wiper controls on the right stick and lighting on the left.
Well, that's great. Like we didn't already have enough trouble with our economy. It's going to be a hard sell keeping business in the US when all of the Milky Way and possibly humanity is doomed in 4 billion years. What does President Obama intend to do about this?
You'll definitely want to investigate an MDM solution to help manage this deployment from a device/user management, security and incident response perspective. Having said that, I know Samsung (Samsung SAFE), Motorola, 3LM (middleware) and HTC (HTC Pro - not the same as HTC * Pro devices) all have proprietary MDM frameworks added onto Android in specific phones. These will let you control things like encryption a bit better than Android out of the box. I can't answer to encrypted text messages or phone calls though. Without coming off as a shill, I'd recommend investigating solutions from Good Technologies, AirWatch, and MaaS360. Those products meet different needs, but they all do what they do very well.
Regardless of preference, I've found that the framework Apple has lain for MDM is miles ahead of anything Android related. Right now, OEMs are trying to fill the niche Google should be addressing by providing proprietary MDM frameworks. The one huge gripe I have with Apple from a management/deployment point of view is their stance on things like business iTunes accounts, purchasing, etc. I'm sorry, but VPP is not an answer. When employees leave, the company doesn't get those licenses back. It's just a glorified gift card. There's also that whole issue with their terms of service for an Apple account stating that it must be for personal use only, yet they require an Apple ID for MDM certs.
Every time I watch that movie, I criticize myself for thinking that humanity is heading that direction. 'Oh, that's just arrogance or short-sightedness on your part,' I'll think. In spite of this, I always return to this notion that Idiocracy is not terribly far from my vision of the future, but with more masculinity and far less clinical than I imagine the future will be. I wanted to mod you funny instead of insightful - I wanted to.
Waiting for it to reboot? I'm still running spinning disk on a Phenom II X4 system and it takes maybe two minutes at most to get to the desktop and finish login processes (Kaspersky is a different story). Turn it on and take a poop or something. Watching that Windows flag just makes you perceive it taking longer. Now, I'll go ahead and leave my work laptop with full disk encryption out of this. *That* is painful.
It has been some years since I have toyed with it, but you may wish to investigate ClearOS. It seemed to meet all your requirements, though whether they want something on-prem or hosted will make a difference, I'm sure. But to go along with some of these other commenters - if the users prefer Microsoft, it may be worth the money.
I thought all third party apps were restricted from running in desktop mode in WinRT. In fact, I believe that every application has to use approved APIs and such... WinRT is supposed to be a walled garden, not unlike that found in iOS.
I thought that's what they marketed the mobile Precision line for (with optional 1920x1080 IPS display). With the exception of having a 16:9 instead of 16:10 display, it looks perfect on paper. I'm sure they could make an extremely thin version for web developers...
They already have to certify medical devices that are essentially Windows boxes with medical software. Often times, these vendors get quite snippy if you ask about security software on said devices. These boxes will never be updated in all likelihood. During the course of certification, security definitely needs to be considered.
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I did. I'm leaving Sprint for greener pastures when my contract is up next March - maybe sooner. All because they're in neck-deep with the iPhone. They based Windows Phone interest on a brick of a slider phone and wonder why the common folk didn't buy it.
Very true. I think that comes with any big decision like that though. I was thinking more of a relative that was "diagnosed" with high functioning autism when he was in his teens (scare quotes because I believe HFA isn't an actual diagnosis). If I were a parent, I'd likely handle it much like I would religion or what my kid wanted to do with his/her life. I'd try to steer these things as best I could until they were old/mature enough to (somewhat) understand the gravity of these things and think about them a bit more independently.
To close my rant, I beg the following people:
I would say that would be entirely up to the person in question to define "improved."
I read an interesting article a few months ago on Forbes regarding some signs of Apple being a bubble. Some of them seem somewhat anecdotal, but it was an interesting read. http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2012/04/23/five-signs-that-apple-is-a-bubble/3/
I believe artor3 broke down some issues with your $1500 figure, but I personally would be willing to pay more for an American-made smartphone of equal quality to one built in China (the People's Republic of, that is - Taiwan isn't as bad).
While also creating more American jobs than the domestic production... I'm not sure on GM, but I'm fairly certain Ford makes a ton of passenger cars in Mexico and only makes light trucks in the good ol' US of A. Luckily for people who like having jobs, trucks make up a good chunk of Ford/GM sales.
Oh ho! It's sad because it is/was true.
If I chose to patronize a restaurant's competitor solely on the basis of using crappy software on their website, which may or may not have been developed by an outside company, I would question my priorities.
But you can't have that hour and a half to do those things. Much like a pilot, you'll be expected to watch over the car. Unlike an airline pilot, you won't have as much time to react to a problem - you'll have mere milliseconds, thanks to obstacles being so much closer.
There are plenty MDM solutions out there. I am quite happy with AirWatch (Gartner Magic Quadrant 2012), though I was impressed with Good Technologies. AirWatch was cheaper, but was not sandboxed. Most Android devices will also require the Touchdown client ($15-20 per license) for the deployment of email profiles unless you're only supporting devices with OEM MDM extensions. You'll find a lot of MDM solutions require Touchdown, which definitely has quirks end-users will notice. Biggest things: Make sure you find the product that fits your budget (naturally) Take your corporate culture into mind when looking at a solution. Are they going to be totally baffled when their email disappears because their PIN doesn't meet requirements? Do plenty of testing with actual devices. If you need device-level encryption, target 3.0 devices. Be wary of products that feel kludgy. Some vendors have tacked 3LM pieces onto their existing iOS management.
There are definitely things you can do to bring a team together and promote a better culture, I feel there's a certain organic quality that has to be present to make a truly good working culture. It comes down to the team members inherent qualities and their own definitions of what makes a "good" culture. Luckily, your team is quite small, so you should be able to do this with relative ease. Make sure the business is in order, then sort the rest amongst yourselves... preferably over beers.
Hey, I live on Drug Dealer Drive! I can't believe that neighborhood has gone so far downhill...
This is very true. Be that as it may, some of it comes down to implementation. IT/Facilities needs to prepare the meeting room in such away to reduce user frustration and need the multitude of options to ensure they have the flexibility to support whatever comes their way. I believe there is a shortage in products suited "plug and play" style environments, or at the very least lack of research in the purchase process. It's all about having the right tool for the job.
The windshield wiper sounds like a cost cutting measure from General Motors. My Mazdas (and many Fords, naturally) have all had the wiper controls on the right stick and lighting on the left.
Well, that's great. Like we didn't already have enough trouble with our economy. It's going to be a hard sell keeping business in the US when all of the Milky Way and possibly humanity is doomed in 4 billion years. What does President Obama intend to do about this?
You'll definitely want to investigate an MDM solution to help manage this deployment from a device/user management, security and incident response perspective. Having said that, I know Samsung (Samsung SAFE), Motorola, 3LM (middleware) and HTC (HTC Pro - not the same as HTC * Pro devices) all have proprietary MDM frameworks added onto Android in specific phones. These will let you control things like encryption a bit better than Android out of the box. I can't answer to encrypted text messages or phone calls though. Without coming off as a shill, I'd recommend investigating solutions from Good Technologies, AirWatch, and MaaS360. Those products meet different needs, but they all do what they do very well.
Regardless of preference, I've found that the framework Apple has lain for MDM is miles ahead of anything Android related. Right now, OEMs are trying to fill the niche Google should be addressing by providing proprietary MDM frameworks. The one huge gripe I have with Apple from a management/deployment point of view is their stance on things like business iTunes accounts, purchasing, etc. I'm sorry, but VPP is not an answer. When employees leave, the company doesn't get those licenses back. It's just a glorified gift card. There's also that whole issue with their terms of service for an Apple account stating that it must be for personal use only, yet they require an Apple ID for MDM certs.
Every time I watch that movie, I criticize myself for thinking that humanity is heading that direction. 'Oh, that's just arrogance or short-sightedness on your part,' I'll think. In spite of this, I always return to this notion that Idiocracy is not terribly far from my vision of the future, but with more masculinity and far less clinical than I imagine the future will be. I wanted to mod you funny instead of insightful - I wanted to.
Waiting for it to reboot? I'm still running spinning disk on a Phenom II X4 system and it takes maybe two minutes at most to get to the desktop and finish login processes (Kaspersky is a different story). Turn it on and take a poop or something. Watching that Windows flag just makes you perceive it taking longer. Now, I'll go ahead and leave my work laptop with full disk encryption out of this. *That* is painful.
It has been some years since I have toyed with it, but you may wish to investigate ClearOS. It seemed to meet all your requirements, though whether they want something on-prem or hosted will make a difference, I'm sure. But to go along with some of these other commenters - if the users prefer Microsoft, it may be worth the money.
I thought all third party apps were restricted from running in desktop mode in WinRT. In fact, I believe that every application has to use approved APIs and such... WinRT is supposed to be a walled garden, not unlike that found in iOS.
Frankly, I'm stereotyping.
I thought that's what they marketed the mobile Precision line for (with optional 1920x1080 IPS display). With the exception of having a 16:9 instead of 16:10 display, it looks perfect on paper. I'm sure they could make an extremely thin version for web developers...
They already have to certify medical devices that are essentially Windows boxes with medical software. Often times, these vendors get quite snippy if you ask about security software on said devices. These boxes will never be updated in all likelihood. During the course of certification, security definitely needs to be considered.