The thing the swiss may have missed is that the affluent professionals who currently have prestige swiss watches have just one left wrist. If smartwatches become sufficiently compelling and, well, smart looking then they may begin to displace traditional fine watches.
A head of IT doesn't necessarily have to run projects, let along write code. What they do have to do is understand the business and IT well enough engage senior managers and set a direction that moves the organisation forward and improves efficiency. Once the direction is set your head needs to have the soft skills to get people aligned with it.
The key skills are the ability to communicate (at every level), set a clear direction, motivate and develop people, build a strong organisation. Somewhere in that strong organisation there needs to be people who create processes (ITSM) and know how to run projects (programme office).
Among other things I'd be inclined to do is assess staff satisfaction in the IT department. Very broadly, if they are hate their jobs and their bosses it's extremely likely that they have poor leadership.
This is a bit different if the organisation is small (rather than medium), of course.
Tech can certainly help in the classroom, but the great thing about pens and white boards is that nobody can write faster than students an read. Plenty of academics can deliver really effective lecturers with almost no technology to assist.
It's outside the classroom when the tech helps. A well mediated online discussion helps consolidate learning, good online material fills in the gaps (do you really want to cover everything that will be examined in lectures?) A quiz can help students assess how strong their understanding is. Twitter can help stimulate students thinking between lectures. Best of all, tech provided a host of ways students can talk to their lecturers without trudging across campus and hoping they strike it lucky!
Fine someone else who is working frok home (preferably in the same organisation) and ask them what they got away with.
Talk someone in finance (especially if it's a large company.) They will know the rules and will help you prepare something that will make a good impression on your boss.
The latency can be poor when typing, but what do you expect? It's fine for uttering emergency incantations at a sick server, but I wouldn't want to use it for much else - slow, expensive, tiny screen.
Ah, sorry - misunderstood.
The laptops are not authenticated. Experience suggests that it's simply not possible to distributes key/certificates to 10,000 machines and prevent them from escaping, Authenticating users is much easier!
I think it works like this (I've seen it going, but didn't set it up myself:)
You link up all the access points to switches, which in turn pass packets up to the Contivity box. The Contivity box acts like a kind of bridge between the insecure wireless network and your secure LAN. You will also need a DHCP server on the wireless network.
It's best if you can get your switches NOT to pass packets between the access points so an intruder can't attempt to access your mobile laptops.
At the risk of getting flamed, I work for a company that sells ths kind of solution, and would be pleased to put you in touch with someone that can help if you want.
Don't rely on the 802.11x security features, just put a Contivity VPN box between your wireless infrastructure and your LAN.
This gives you bomb-proof security using proven technology, avoids key distribution problems and allows you to upgrade the wireless infrastructure with less effort.
This is a neat trick, but it might be *bad* for Linux.
The downside is that Microsoft continues to own the platform and users are *less* likely to want to move from booting Windows to booting Linux (because they don't need to.)
On the other hand, MS are terrified of people running Windows inside Linux (with VMware) as this provides a natural way to migrate from Windows (being used by at least 1 Fortune 500 in a big way.)
For me the bottom line is that I admire these guys achievement, but think this is a threat to Linux and Open Source.
What's the point without 64-bit OS and apps?
on
Athlon 64 3400+ Reviewed
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· Score: 3, Insightful
The main point of the Athlon 64 and Opteron is that they are 64-bit CPUs that can run 64-bit applications.
The fact that they can run 32-bit apps under a 32-bit OS at pretty much the same speed as a 32-bit CPU is surely a huge yawn (but great for backward compatability.)
Has anyone seen any comparative benchmarks under a 64-bit Linux system?
I *REALLY* pains me to say this, but Redhat are harder to do business with than Microsoft. I'd be tempted to go with Debian and get support from someone like Progeny. They can also help with transitions away from Redhat.
The underlying reasons for dumping RHL are sound, but the process has confused and discouraged enterprise customers.
A big company I know would have willingly paid for RHEL, but found RHL was free and had great application support, so they went for it (but struggled to understand Redhat's business model.) Now they have over 100's of machines deployed and Redhat suddenly pulls the plug with no migration path. Despite internal pressure to dump Redhat they are looking at RHEL, but the lawyers are terrified of "subscription" software (so how much is it next year, or in three years?) To make things worse, Redhat have the longest licence agreement I've ever seen for this kind of product. Oh, and the Redhat sales people are less than helpful.
A school is not a public space, schools have a right to know which pupils are present!
Tracking is done with active cooperation - you have to walk up to a screen and touch it.
We're used to swipe cards in workplaces - businesses have a reasonable requirement to know who is in their buildings and it's very useful in emergencies.
The big danger (which really concerns me) is that we'll use thing technology to track people without their knowledge or consent. This guy just wants to keep his kids safe and know who's turned up for school!
Microsoft won't like this for the same reason they don't like VMware - it provides a migration path away from Windows.
Most corporate (and individuals) who are interested in moving to Linux have key Windows-based applications that they want to hang on to - at least for a while. Systems like this which allow people to move away from their platform a a massive threat.
Interestingly, MS don't seem to mind customers running Linux under VMware under Windows, it's the other way round that bothers them. If you have a large business (not all of us do), just try telling them them you plan to do this and see how much free software they offer you:-)
I work for a Fortune 500 that wouldn't touch this. We run Linux, OpenBSD on 100's of machines. I don't suppose IBM, HP and many others would go for a Windows-only BIOS.
This in turn means that Dell et al will either
Offer a choice of BIOS (Windows or open) with all the support issues that entails.
Only ship the new BIOS if it support Linux and friends
I'll second this. We deployed an HP SAN in 2001 and I'm now trying to get funding to replace it with and EMC. It's been down several times and it's always some horrendously complicated SAN thing (like the switch can't logon to the array.) It's very hard to manage and even experienced UNIX guys can easily do something fatally wrong without realising.
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I guess that it's best to stick with Cisco then. Can't imagine that any of their kit would report back to CIA?!
The thing the swiss may have missed is that the affluent professionals who currently have prestige swiss watches have just one left wrist. If smartwatches become sufficiently compelling and, well, smart looking then they may begin to displace traditional fine watches.
A head of IT doesn't necessarily have to run projects, let along write code. What they do have to do is understand the business and IT well enough engage senior managers and set a direction that moves the organisation forward and improves efficiency. Once the direction is set your head needs to have the soft skills to get people aligned with it. The key skills are the ability to communicate (at every level), set a clear direction, motivate and develop people, build a strong organisation. Somewhere in that strong organisation there needs to be people who create processes (ITSM) and know how to run projects (programme office). Among other things I'd be inclined to do is assess staff satisfaction in the IT department. Very broadly, if they are hate their jobs and their bosses it's extremely likely that they have poor leadership. This is a bit different if the organisation is small (rather than medium), of course.
Tech can certainly help in the classroom, but the great thing about pens and white boards is that nobody can write faster than students an read. Plenty of academics can deliver really effective lecturers with almost no technology to assist. It's outside the classroom when the tech helps. A well mediated online discussion helps consolidate learning, good online material fills in the gaps (do you really want to cover everything that will be examined in lectures?) A quiz can help students assess how strong their understanding is. Twitter can help stimulate students thinking between lectures. Best of all, tech provided a host of ways students can talk to their lecturers without trudging across campus and hoping they strike it lucky!
The MBA will let you take the express route from being a hand-on techie into management (if that's what you want.)
Oh, and you don't need to go back to a technology company after the MBA.
Talk someone in finance (especially if it's a large company.) They will know the rules and will help you prepare something that will make a good impression on your boss.
The latency can be poor when typing, but what do you expect? It's fine for uttering emergency incantations at a sick server, but I wouldn't want to use it for much else - slow, expensive, tiny screen.
Ah, sorry - misunderstood. The laptops are not authenticated. Experience suggests that it's simply not possible to distributes key/certificates to 10,000 machines and prevent them from escaping, Authenticating users is much easier!
You link up all the access points to switches, which in turn pass packets up to the Contivity box. The Contivity box acts like a kind of bridge between the insecure wireless network and your secure LAN. You will also need a DHCP server on the wireless network.
It's best if you can get your switches NOT to pass packets between the access points so an intruder can't attempt to access your mobile laptops.
At the risk of getting flamed, I work for a company that sells ths kind of solution, and would be pleased to put you in touch with someone that can help if you want.
This gives you bomb-proof security using proven technology, avoids key distribution problems and allows you to upgrade the wireless infrastructure with less effort.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/products/01/contivit y/
If you're inexperienced, try to get everything from one vendor so that getting it all working together is their problem, not yours.
You could do worse than a http://www.nortelnetworks.com/products/01/passport /lan/.
The downside is that Microsoft continues to own the platform and users are *less* likely to want to move from booting Windows to booting Linux (because they don't need to.)
On the other hand, MS are terrified of people running Windows inside Linux (with VMware) as this provides a natural way to migrate from Windows (being used by at least 1 Fortune 500 in a big way.)
For me the bottom line is that I admire these guys achievement, but think this is a threat to Linux and Open Source.
The fact that they can run 32-bit apps under a 32-bit OS at pretty much the same speed as a 32-bit CPU is surely a huge yawn (but great for backward compatability.)
Has anyone seen any comparative benchmarks under a 64-bit Linux system?
The problem with Wine is that is sounds like "Whine" and will therefore be associated with the Microsoft brand. I can see a trademark dispute here...
I *REALLY* pains me to say this, but Redhat are harder to do business with than Microsoft. I'd be tempted to go with Debian and get support from someone like Progeny. They can also help with transitions away from Redhat.
A big company I know would have willingly paid for RHEL, but found RHL was free and had great application support, so they went for it (but struggled to understand Redhat's business model.) Now they have over 100's of machines deployed and Redhat suddenly pulls the plug with no migration path. Despite internal pressure to dump Redhat they are looking at RHEL, but the lawyers are terrified of "subscription" software (so how much is it next year, or in three years?) To make things worse, Redhat have the longest licence agreement I've ever seen for this kind of product. Oh, and the Redhat sales people are less than helpful.
We're used to swipe cards in workplaces - businesses have a reasonable requirement to know who is in their buildings and it's very useful in emergencies.
The big danger (which really concerns me) is that we'll use thing technology to track people without their knowledge or consent. This guy just wants to keep his kids safe and know who's turned up for school!
Most corporate (and individuals) who are interested in moving to Linux have key Windows-based applications that they want to hang on to - at least for a while. Systems like this which allow people to move away from their platform a a massive threat.
Interestingly, MS don't seem to mind customers running Linux under VMware under Windows, it's the other way round that bothers them. If you have a large business (not all of us do), just try telling them them you plan to do this and see how much free software they offer you :-)
This in turn means that Dell et al will either
If you have a rule like this, some employees will never be in before 0925 and the others will seeth with resentment.
I'll second this. We deployed an HP SAN in 2001 and I'm now trying to get funding to replace it with and EMC. It's been down several times and it's always some horrendously complicated SAN thing (like the switch can't logon to the array.) It's very hard to manage and even experienced UNIX guys can easily do something fatally wrong without realising.