Outsourcing Strategic Projects & Tech Acquisit
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Inside Wal-Mart IT
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· Score: 1
Actually, large, successful businesses may outsource some of their IT, even if their business depends largely on IT as a core competency. (Not that I'm suggesting that this would be true of my employer, or that it's necessarily a good idea.)
It happens all over the HVAC/BAS industry, sometimes in surprising ways and places. Large organizations frequently have so much entrenched organizational infrastructure, and such a huge reluctance to deprecate older systems in favor of "backward compatibility," the only way for them to innovate MAY be to outsource strategic products. This is one of the many reasons that smaller companies can gain a foothold with a given market.
In large companies that don't outsource, you'll frequently see them do the next best thing by acquiring small, nimble competitors. In some ways, such a strategy is even better than outsourcing, assuming that you can convince enough of the acquired employees to stick around after the fact.
My group deploys custom solutions to customers all over the US, and we're regularly amazed at the customers variances in security. At one extreme are gov't facilities you would expect to be tight, and they're loose. On the other are mundane organizations where things are very tight. Amazingly, some of the private sector companies are the tightest.
The article made a recommendation for a Security Czar (my term) to be in charge of physical security as well as info security. In my experience, physical and data security mirror each other within a given facility. Those who are sensitive to the exposure of their data are typically those with the tightest security measures for employees.
However, in an odd twist, very few companies consider the physical security of the data servers. In other words, they worry about firewalls, proxy servers, and up-to-date AV protection, but leave the servers in a location that's physically accessible to people WITHIN their organization that shouldn't have access to it.
Very, very rarely does someone manage this right. One of the few exceptions was a VA hospital. Not the tightest security, but it was consistently applied in the physical access to the servers, the access to the building in general, and the measures taken for electronic protection and isolation of critical systems.
I'm not suggesting that you not run AV software on the server. What I *am* suggesting is that a *nix-based server is far less likely to act as "typhoid Mary" and pass viruses along to the connected machines. In the scenario you proposed, the *nix server is simply acting as a transport mechanism for the virus (and possibly a target for file creation/deletion). It is not going to pick up the virus and actively replicate it.
In contrast, the infected W32 machine is far more likely to pass a virus on to other W32 machines (mapped drives or not) using the well-known mechanisms we've been discussing (DCOM, RPC backdoors, and so on). Comprehensive scanning of in-bound e-mail, active AV scanning on clients AND server-based scanning (to deal with the problems you've mentioned) are all necessary.
Tim
P.S. Keep in mind that AV software on a *nix server must also be scanning for W32-based code as well as *nix-based attacks. This may be stating the obvious, but it's true. Scanning for *nix-based viruses on a predominantly W32 network keeps the servers clean, but that's about it.
I don't know about YOUR network, but on ours, the W32-based viruses spread BECAUSE they run on a W32-based server (W32 bots, DCOM hacks, ActiveX controls, etc.). In contrast, my desktop W2K machine has never picked up viruses from any of our *nix boxes.
Sure, it's possible for an infected file to be sitting on a *nix box, waiting for the unsuspecting W32 client to pick it up, launch it, and so on. However, without a mechanism to put it on that box (as an attachment to an e-mail, or something similarly obvious and easy to block), the network is at much lower risk (in my experience) when the servers are all *nix boxes, at least at the outermost levels.
You can extract heat energy from the air (and get the inside air warmer than the outside air) when the air temp is above the mid-30's (if I remember correctly). It's not just a matter of exchanging the temp directly, but the heat energy that's transfered.
Consider the air conditioner, which cools the indoor air by moving the heat from inside to outside. It becomes less efficient as the outdoor air temp goes up, because it gets harder and harder to "sink" the energy into the outside air. A heat pump is simply working in reverse to heat the indoor air. Think of it as "cooling the outdoor air" by moving the heat from outside the house, and "sinking it" in the thermal mass of the indorr air.
While this would eliminate the HC-hydrocarbons (unburned gas) and CO-carbon monoxide, you would still have the NOx-nitrogen oxides, as these are a by-product of using air (nitrogen/oxygen) for combustion with the hydrogen.
There is less distributed plution, but the NOx component remains.
A better term than "geothermal" is "ground-sourced heat pump." It's still a heat pump (exchanger), but instead of trying to extract heat from the outside air (which it can do with less and less efficiency as the air temp drops), it extracts it from the ground, via pipes that are buried deep enough to satisfy a constant 55 deg F temp.
The common issues surround the coolant used in the pipes, having a large enough "lateral field" (similar in nature to what you need for a septic tank's field) based on the heating needs of the house, and the cost of laying the underground pipe.
Pleasantly enough, the same system works to cool the house in the summer, because it can typically dump the heat extracted from the indoor air into the ground (again, at 55 deg F) pretty effectively. As long as the ground isn't "heat saturated," it works well for air conditioning.
There are also measurable differences in the harmonics produced by solid state equipment vs tubes. Tubes tend to produce odd-order harmonics and transistors tend to produce even-order ones. As I recall, odd-order harmonics are more common in nature (resonances through vibration), and therefore sound more "natural" to most people. Even-order harmonics tend to sound more "harsh," supposedly because the human brain can't process them correctly.
Frequencies BELOW 50 Hz drop off? I may lose some lower midrange (75-150Hz), but I'm not aware of losing the ability to hear frequencies below 50 Hz with advancing age. At those frequencies, the sensation of sound is as much through the skeletal system, spine, and resonances in the skull as anything.
Do you have some research to point to? I'm interesting in this, having noticed (with much disdain) the hi freq loss that I've experienced over the years, but I'm still quite sensitive to sub-50 Hz sounds.
Thanks,
Tim
P.S. WRT FM sound quality, I would also be surprised if there weren't also some resonant effects from the transmitter itself. If you turn up the volume of the FM receiver and tap the iTrip, you can "hear" the tap as it vibrates one or more of the tuned circuits inside.
Subsequent attempts at a reinstall yield slightly different behavior. Now, the menus and command buttons are "live" (they press), but none of the dialog boxes appear.
This makes 8 times that I've gone through the uninstall/reinstall process. I'll stick with 0.9.2 for awhile longer. Maybe they'll be like MS and get it right at 3.0.
The only fix was to uninstall 1.0PR, and re-install 0.9.2.
My department builds small-volume custom software. Step 1 in creating the installer is to make sure we've uninstalled the previous version before we proceed. How hard is it to get that right?
That depends. I've been using 0.9.2 for some time now, and love it. I just uninstalled and installed 1.0PR FIVE TIMES! It still didn't work (locks up when the window shows, which is about 50% of the time). I uninstalled 1.0PR, reinstalled 0.9.2, and here I am.
Maybe by "Preview Release" they meant, "You can preview what the main window will look like." I'm waiting for the version that works as well as 0.9.2.
<exaggeration for the sake of comedy>Bradbury looking for information on Fahrenheit, intends on dialing "411" but dials "451" instead, writes the book, and the rest is history. </exaggeration for the sake of comedy>
<comedy explanation>I stated that he MISDIALED, which strongly suggests that he dialed something OTHER than "411." This seems pretty clear to me that I knew that he'd blown it.
At the risk of stating the obvious, I was playing along with the ignorance of the grandparent poster. Pushing his ignorance to a more obvious level for effect. <obscure "Spinal Tap" reference>Turning the volume of ignorance up to 11.</obscure "Spinal Tap" reference></comedy explanation>
Is it somehow surprising that someone with my nickname would "play the fool"???
I went on the offensive. I found about 8 copies of Visual SlickEdit and put them across the top of the most commonly abused cube wall. People stopped looking over to say "Hi," and suddenly, the empty cube across and down one space was suggested as an alternative location.
I think most people got the hint, but there are still a few hold-outs. I make them stand there now for at least 10 seconds, even if it means that I read and re-read the same e-mail message several times. If they start to interrupt, I hold up one hand to quiet them, and finish counting to 10.
This is a nice idea, but the current trends in workplace design frequently make it impractical. For instance, my employer (Fortune 100 Corporation) recently renovated our building so that all of the programmers, managers, and technical people (everyone) lost private offices and went to cubes (53" walls on two sides, 60" wall on one). Our GM said we would be "surprised by the increase in productivity." He's right. If there's ever an increase in productivity, I'll be surprised.
My desk is now at a crossroads in the office, with our IT Admin behind me, and another project manager to my left. The cube design is such that ANYONE can lean over the main cube wall and start up a conversation. It matters not if I'm reading a complex technical spec, talking on a conference call, or simply staring at some code--anyone and everyone will strike up a conversation (that is, pull a non-maskable interrupt) about various topics.
To make matters worse, I'm a social person, who hates to seem rude or unsociable. In this environment, my willingness to socialize is my worst enemy. I have considered making a "DO NOT DISTURB" sign and putting it on the top edge of the cube wall. However, I'm quite certain our GM will have a fit over that, since by doing so, I'll be stifling "teaming opportunities."
I'd love to be back in a polling mode, but the new motherboard design allows no prioritization of NMI's, so I'm stuck.
It's interesting to think of this as an opportunity for the "survival of the fittest" to apply. I have a co-worker who simply cannot focus without having several sensory inputs going on at once. By doing so, he can focus without distraction for long periods of time. He regularly works on 2-3 projects at once, and seems able to juggle an incredible number of simultaneous tasks. He's been diagnosed as ADHD.
Similarly, a good friend of mine (also diagnosed adult ADD/ADHD) who telecommutes by editing/publishing online comments keeps music blaring, and rarely has fewer than 10 windows open at a given time. She is constantly waiting for the computer (primarily the web server on the far side and/or her high-speed connection) to render results pages, and [Alt][Tab]s back and forth so fast it's almost impossible to keep up with what she's doing. If she's had caffiene... you'll get tired just watching her.
Perhaps we'll see people who have been labled "hyperactive" or "lacking focus" as the ones who will be magically productive in such environments. We may find that they're not distracted by such sensory overload--they may even be empowered by it.
If so, this will surely be a satisfying development for a large segment of the population that has traditionally been medicated toward being "normal." It may be that by allowing their brains to function the way they do without medication, they'll leave the rest of us in the technological dust.
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Actually, large, successful businesses may outsource some of their IT, even if their business depends largely on IT as a core competency. (Not that I'm suggesting that this would be true of my employer, or that it's necessarily a good idea.)
It happens all over the HVAC/BAS industry, sometimes in surprising ways and places. Large organizations frequently have so much entrenched organizational infrastructure, and such a huge reluctance to deprecate older systems in favor of "backward compatibility," the only way for them to innovate MAY be to outsource strategic products. This is one of the many reasons that smaller companies can gain a foothold with a given market.
In large companies that don't outsource, you'll frequently see them do the next best thing by acquiring small, nimble competitors. In some ways, such a strategy is even better than outsourcing, assuming that you can convince enough of the acquired employees to stick around after the fact.
Tim
My group deploys custom solutions to customers all over the US, and we're regularly amazed at the customers variances in security. At one extreme are gov't facilities you would expect to be tight, and they're loose. On the other are mundane organizations where things are very tight. Amazingly, some of the private sector companies are the tightest.
The article made a recommendation for a Security Czar (my term) to be in charge of physical security as well as info security. In my experience, physical and data security mirror each other within a given facility. Those who are sensitive to the exposure of their data are typically those with the tightest security measures for employees.
However, in an odd twist, very few companies consider the physical security of the data servers. In other words, they worry about firewalls, proxy servers, and up-to-date AV protection, but leave the servers in a location that's physically accessible to people WITHIN their organization that shouldn't have access to it.
Very, very rarely does someone manage this right. One of the few exceptions was a VA hospital. Not the tightest security, but it was consistently applied in the physical access to the servers, the access to the building in general, and the measures taken for electronic protection and isolation of critical systems.
Tim
I'm not suggesting that you not run AV software on the server. What I *am* suggesting is that a *nix-based server is far less likely to act as "typhoid Mary" and pass viruses along to the connected machines. In the scenario you proposed, the *nix server is simply acting as a transport mechanism for the virus (and possibly a target for file creation/deletion). It is not going to pick up the virus and actively replicate it.
In contrast, the infected W32 machine is far more likely to pass a virus on to other W32 machines (mapped drives or not) using the well-known mechanisms we've been discussing (DCOM, RPC backdoors, and so on). Comprehensive scanning of in-bound e-mail, active AV scanning on clients AND server-based scanning (to deal with the problems you've mentioned) are all necessary.
Tim
P.S. Keep in mind that AV software on a *nix server must also be scanning for W32-based code as well as *nix-based attacks. This may be stating the obvious, but it's true. Scanning for *nix-based viruses on a predominantly W32 network keeps the servers clean, but that's about it.
I don't know about YOUR network, but on ours, the W32-based viruses spread BECAUSE they run on a W32-based server (W32 bots, DCOM hacks, ActiveX controls, etc.). In contrast, my desktop W2K machine has never picked up viruses from any of our *nix boxes.
Sure, it's possible for an infected file to be sitting on a *nix box, waiting for the unsuspecting W32 client to pick it up, launch it, and so on. However, without a mechanism to put it on that box (as an attachment to an e-mail, or something similarly obvious and easy to block), the network is at much lower risk (in my experience) when the servers are all *nix boxes, at least at the outermost levels.
YMMV,
Tim
You can extract heat energy from the air (and get the inside air warmer than the outside air) when the air temp is above the mid-30's (if I remember correctly). It's not just a matter of exchanging the temp directly, but the heat energy that's transfered.
Consider the air conditioner, which cools the indoor air by moving the heat from inside to outside. It becomes less efficient as the outdoor air temp goes up, because it gets harder and harder to "sink" the energy into the outside air. A heat pump is simply working in reverse to heat the indoor air. Think of it as "cooling the outdoor air" by moving the heat from outside the house, and "sinking it" in the thermal mass of the indorr air.
Tim
While this would eliminate the HC-hydrocarbons (unburned gas) and CO-carbon monoxide, you would still have the NOx-nitrogen oxides, as these are a by-product of using air (nitrogen/oxygen) for combustion with the hydrogen.
There is less distributed plution, but the NOx component remains.
Tim
A better term than "geothermal" is "ground-sourced heat pump." It's still a heat pump (exchanger), but instead of trying to extract heat from the outside air (which it can do with less and less efficiency as the air temp drops), it extracts it from the ground, via pipes that are buried deep enough to satisfy a constant 55 deg F temp.
The common issues surround the coolant used in the pipes, having a large enough "lateral field" (similar in nature to what you need for a septic tank's field) based on the heating needs of the house, and the cost of laying the underground pipe.
Pleasantly enough, the same system works to cool the house in the summer, because it can typically dump the heat extracted from the indoor air into the ground (again, at 55 deg F) pretty effectively. As long as the ground isn't "heat saturated," it works well for air conditioning.
Tim
There are also measurable differences in the harmonics produced by solid state equipment vs tubes. Tubes tend to produce odd-order harmonics and transistors tend to produce even-order ones. As I recall, odd-order harmonics are more common in nature (resonances through vibration), and therefore sound more "natural" to most people. Even-order harmonics tend to sound more "harsh," supposedly because the human brain can't process them correctly.
Tim
Frequencies BELOW 50 Hz drop off? I may lose some lower midrange (75-150Hz), but I'm not aware of losing the ability to hear frequencies below 50 Hz with advancing age. At those frequencies, the sensation of sound is as much through the skeletal system, spine, and resonances in the skull as anything.
Do you have some research to point to? I'm interesting in this, having noticed (with much disdain) the hi freq loss that I've experienced over the years, but I'm still quite sensitive to sub-50 Hz sounds.
Thanks,
Tim
P.S. WRT FM sound quality, I would also be surprised if there weren't also some resonant effects from the transmitter itself. If you turn up the volume of the FM receiver and tap the iTrip, you can "hear" the tap as it vibrates one or more of the tuned circuits inside.
Subsequent attempts at a reinstall yield slightly different behavior. Now, the menus and command buttons are "live" (they press), but none of the dialog boxes appear.
This makes 8 times that I've gone through the uninstall/reinstall process. I'll stick with 0.9.2 for awhile longer. Maybe they'll be like MS and get it right at 3.0.
Tim
That was my first step. No change in behavior.
The only fix was to uninstall 1.0PR, and re-install 0.9.2.
My department builds small-volume custom software. Step 1 in creating the installer is to make sure we've uninstalled the previous version before we proceed. How hard is it to get that right?
Tim
That depends. I've been using 0.9.2 for some time now, and love it. I just uninstalled and installed 1.0PR FIVE TIMES! It still didn't work (locks up when the window shows, which is about 50% of the time). I uninstalled 1.0PR, reinstalled 0.9.2, and here I am.
Maybe by "Preview Release" they meant, "You can preview what the main window will look like." I'm waiting for the version that works as well as 0.9.2.
Tim
Are you suggesting that in an odd twist of fate, my comment was accidentally "+1 Informative"?
I had no intention of being educational.
Tim
Let's see...
<exaggeration for the sake of comedy>Bradbury looking for information on Fahrenheit, intends on dialing "411" but dials "451" instead, writes the book, and the rest is history. </exaggeration for the sake of comedy>
<comedy explanation>I stated that he MISDIALED, which strongly suggests that he dialed something OTHER than "411." This seems pretty clear to me that I knew that he'd blown it.
At the risk of stating the obvious, I was playing along with the ignorance of the grandparent poster. Pushing his ignorance to a more obvious level for effect. <obscure "Spinal Tap" reference>Turning the volume of ignorance up to 11.</obscure "Spinal Tap" reference></comedy explanation>
Is it somehow surprising that someone with my nickname would "play the fool"???
Tim
Bradbury apparently misdialed when getting calling for information on Fahrenheit...
Tim
I went on the offensive. I found about 8 copies of Visual SlickEdit and put them across the top of the most commonly abused cube wall. People stopped looking over to say "Hi," and suddenly, the empty cube across and down one space was suggested as an alternative location.
I think most people got the hint, but there are still a few hold-outs. I make them stand there now for at least 10 seconds, even if it means that I read and re-read the same e-mail message several times. If they start to interrupt, I hold up one hand to quiet them, and finish counting to 10.
I'm starting to enjoy this...
Tim
Perhaps he's used IIS before?
Tim
This is a nice idea, but the current trends in workplace design frequently make it impractical. For instance, my employer (Fortune 100 Corporation) recently renovated our building so that all of the programmers, managers, and technical people (everyone) lost private offices and went to cubes (53" walls on two sides, 60" wall on one). Our GM said we would be "surprised by the increase in productivity." He's right. If there's ever an increase in productivity, I'll be surprised.
My desk is now at a crossroads in the office, with our IT Admin behind me, and another project manager to my left. The cube design is such that ANYONE can lean over the main cube wall and start up a conversation. It matters not if I'm reading a complex technical spec, talking on a conference call, or simply staring at some code--anyone and everyone will strike up a conversation (that is, pull a non-maskable interrupt) about various topics.
To make matters worse, I'm a social person, who hates to seem rude or unsociable. In this environment, my willingness to socialize is my worst enemy. I have considered making a "DO NOT DISTURB" sign and putting it on the top edge of the cube wall. However, I'm quite certain our GM will have a fit over that, since by doing so, I'll be stifling "teaming opportunities."
I'd love to be back in a polling mode, but the new motherboard design allows no prioritization of NMI's, so I'm stuck.
Tim
It's interesting to think of this as an opportunity for the "survival of the fittest" to apply. I have a co-worker who simply cannot focus without having several sensory inputs going on at once. By doing so, he can focus without distraction for long periods of time. He regularly works on 2-3 projects at once, and seems able to juggle an incredible number of simultaneous tasks. He's been diagnosed as ADHD.
Similarly, a good friend of mine (also diagnosed adult ADD/ADHD) who telecommutes by editing/publishing online comments keeps music blaring, and rarely has fewer than 10 windows open at a given time. She is constantly waiting for the computer (primarily the web server on the far side and/or her high-speed connection) to render results pages, and [Alt][Tab]s back and forth so fast it's almost impossible to keep up with what she's doing. If she's had caffiene... you'll get tired just watching her.
Perhaps we'll see people who have been labled "hyperactive" or "lacking focus" as the ones who will be magically productive in such environments. We may find that they're not distracted by such sensory overload--they may even be empowered by it.
If so, this will surely be a satisfying development for a large segment of the population that has traditionally been medicated toward being "normal." It may be that by allowing their brains to function the way they do without medication, they'll leave the rest of us in the technological dust.
Tim
And 4 out of 5 doctors with boat payments recommend unnecessary surgery!
Tim
...I'd like to go for a walk, and please spell my name correctly.
Gran-a-telli
Tim
SPT? Andy Granetelli will be rolling in his grave over that one.
Tim
Tim
I didn't realize that the last item was commonly hijacked. Is this an issue in your neighborhood?
Tim
...more RC airplanes flying through our windows.
Tim