Best manager I ever worked for knew what people were doing. She asked. Set deadlines with input. Didn't do meetings, took you to lunch (or breakfast) and chatted about the project(s) one on one.
Drive me to Fry's this afternoon? I need to pick up x y & z. Mileage plus a time out.
Chased away sales and marketing slime when there was a problem, sometimes took them away so we could fix things, rudely if required.
You've been really busy, take Friday afternoon off if you're all caught up.
This is our budget for repairs and misc. Everyone gets $Dollars to upgrade their worksstation. Do your shopping and I'll sign the PO.
Most commerical scanning engines allow a human to touch up the results, comparing the output against the originals. This is where your intern or entry level temp can be useful. Or you could just outsource the hole ting to summ one overseas.
The concepts of having a program execute in protected unchanging memory is a great new idea. I wonder why no one ever thought of this before. Thank you Microsoft for again defining innnovation to the marketing community.
Defining a way for SIPs to communicate with communicate between each other, what an incredible idea.
Reclaiming system resources, I new Microsoft would get around to that eventually.
Clearly your company lacks the skill set to submit an RFP outside of Ask Slashdot. You can temporarily hire an outside consultant to manage this process. Once the selection is made you'll need someone to manage the contract, then the product and vendor relationship and problem tracking . . . .
Dogbert Consulting Services
We secure your cash so you don't have to
All these other platforms that try to label either a "hot spare" spare system or load distribution as a cluster cheapen the label for the one operating system that got it right. Of course no one hears about it due to the buffoons that in management and dead product FUD.
For a reliable environment you want a reliable platform and you want enough platforms (clustered) so that dropping one site doesn't mean no service.
I know it can be a little aggravating if it's coming from the car next to you, but what exactly do have against rap music? Or are you comparing the antics of our present day musicians to the Crusader Knights?
here's no better way to kill a book than to make it available for anyone to read for free
Tell that to Jim Baen, David Weber, David Drake, Eric Flint and rest of the folks at Baen Book The Honor Harrington series is still printing hard covers. Besides the Free Library, these fools give away CDs with hardcovers, 6 at last count, containing the complete text of multiple novels. With no copy protection. Multiple formats. They're laughing all the way to bank. Besides staying in print and getting great PR, every particpant gets his name out there. When a new book comes out, it has an audience.
The first hit's free, take a dozen and share with your friends. But you'll be back for more, and you'll want the paper copies too. See how much shelf space Baen staked out in the science fiction section has at your local mega-bookstore-plex.
You still *chose* to take a job where you're being paid to annoy the fuck out of people. That still makes you an incosiderate asshole.
In my case that makes me a network manager.
I have quota of people to annoy or my manager thinks I'm skating. No you can't have that silly security hole. No I won't open the firewall for world FTP access, No your friend the vendor can't have VPN access to any of our networks. No I won't enable anonymous ftp access.
Keep an ascii text file available on a central location.
This can be as complicated or simple as you like. Diagram with ascii art or just a list of components. I prefer this to Visio. I keep mine on an internal web server with network config backups. Internal read only to the right people and I keep documentation updated.
My manager loves pretty pictures, I'll update the many colors on slow days when I don't feel like working, but I can lay out an ascii network diagram in minutes. A Visio diagram can take days to complete for a large site. Both live on the same web server, but guess which diagrams I use for troubleshooting and change control.
I used to think Bloated Goats was vile until we merged with a new corp-rat group that forced Exchange down on us. I repent for every curse and snide comment.
Lotus Notes understands commuting and laptop users who don't have "alway on" network (VPN or otherwise) connections. Outlook regularly wigs out if the server isn't there. Because of our size, the corp-rats run mutliple Exchange servers and we can't see free time if someone's on another Exchange server. Alledgedly we're a technology company.
Replication and backups on a MSFT product? Just kidding, hope you backed up your local file before trying to synch with server, we deleted all your mail during the last outage and if you synch your local copies get deleted too. . .
You have some good technical advice started, as well as some opinions so I won't go into the geek side.
What you do need to do is to prepare a list of issues, graded in order of system and network critical prioriy. Make up your own rating system 1 to 10 or A to F, and assign each item a rating, timeframe and resources required. This doesn't mean a quote for new equipment. For example, Linux or BSD firewall, internal, DMZ and external segments. Reconfigure IP addressing. Priority 2, need to repurpose a Pentium III and added NICs. This is a to do list that could span out 3 years or so. The budget cycle probably means you won't be able to just go out and buy what you need, although having this list will make it easier to jump on funds that come up for re-allocation. Don't try to do everything all at once. Set priorites and leave time for crisis control.
Go to town and prepare a power point or just write down your list, but sit down with who ever is "grading" your performance and work out what they think with your input. You need to have the job defined, do you make everybody happy and don't rock the boat or do you get the job done and set policy? Setting policy is best done by writing your draft and having it approved by someone in administration. Speaking of which you need to find out if any district and state guidelines apply. You could find addtional support and resources at the next level up.
Don't try to wing changes, if you're going to be effective you need backing. That means getting admin on board and having a defined role. If you don't get backing then you should set up a wireless access point and get a laptop for Slashdot and porn until things fall apart. If you're lucky you can point the finger at lack of administrative support and burn your boss. That's where documentation of issues comes in handy.
My manager says if I don't p*ss off at least one person each week he knows I'm skating. We're pretty relaxed but there are rules, including corporate guidlines that my little address space has to follow.
It sounds like the job is still very vague. This can be a curse or chance to write your own job description. Take advantage. Look at the pay scale descriptions and assign yourself the responsibilities to justify a raise and prompotion.
For a DoD standard there is a governing instruction. It may reference other instructions. You need to have a copy of that and read. Read it again. Then take time to study it before you read it.
Your contracting officer can point you in the right direction and provide access to The Instruction
Once you have an idea of what your requirements are, draft a Project Plan, Statement of Work, Compliance Notice, whatever you call it, it details how your group will meet the standards specified in The Instruction. Get internal input and review.
Now that you have something on paper, talk to your manager and have the contracting officer or security authority review your plan. They will tell you're unsafe to entrust classified material to. Then they will produce a checklist of potential violations you must clear. This is their job and what they live for, don't annoy these people, you want their input. Review this list and clear it.
You now have a plan which will satisfy The Instruction.
My point is that even with a Gold service contract your company staff will still wind up servicing the box and telephone troubleshooting to your vendor's script of the day. Better to have a local parts stock than to waste the time with a big company. If it's under service you get it swapped right there, if you need a new one, it's in stock and in hand. Your tech staff will wind dealing with the problem, why pay extra for scripted support?
At my last job we had 2 white box shops down the road. We picked the nice family run place and bought most everything there. We steered our customers to the same place and worked out standard configurations. Everyone is happy.
After being swallowed by Fortune 50 company we had to use standard corp-rat ordering and buy from the big name vendor. New equipment doesn't work, standard configurations aren't available from week to week. "Next day" support means a week or more to get working replacement part. Telephone troubleshooting takes longer than the walk down the block. Did I mention how frustrating telephone support scripts are?
As a general rule any of channel market-teers will ship failed systems, dodge service agreements and force you to support the systems with service agreements. With a Titanium support contract you'll have to play phone menu checklist with a an in country phone tree. Same day service means you can call us today. Next day shipping isn't.
For the general desk top including small office servers, find a local white box builder who can churn out systems. Specify motherboard and CPU. No the shop won't have 7x24 coverage, but then neither does Dell, HP or Gateway. If you can drive down the block and get a system serviced or swapped out you'll beat the hold time before your problem is addressed with any of the major vendors.
For a server class you need build enough redundancy into your equipment to have a box down and still provide services. Until you get into the major application white box is still the way to go.
You want NTP opened on the firewall. Do you have a business need for time or will just having your systems synch'd with each meet the requirements?
If you can get by with keeping the same time, set up a master/secondary time server and keep time with those.
If you need accurate time, you start with a formal request to the group that maintains the firewall. State your case, list the time source(s) you'll be using. Assuming that request is turned down, you provide the quotes for setting up in house time synchronization services. Remember you'll need at least 2 units for redundancy (you do have a legitmate business requirement right?). You don't want a single point of failure.
If it turns into a policy struggle, you need to be the reasonable one who's trying to meet a business requirement. Let your management know early what the issues and costs will be.
Never let your manager be surprised. Let him make the waves. That's why he's management and you get to play with the cool toys.
Not trolling, but genuinely curious as to what requires 100% up time?
The fabs that Intel and AMD use to make PC chips. When 10 minutes of downtime requires hours of restarting a running fab and costs millions, they buy a platform that will can be relied on.
Tolls Free calling. Ever not have the toll free number translated to the "real" phone number?
Ever made a cell phone call and not have the billing recorded while the billing system was being rebooted?
Just a few more examples that haven't been listed yet.
William Shattner provides the cover name, I've been told by several sources that there's at least 2 Ghost-writers behind Shattner's books.
Not that this is a bad thing if they're willing to take the check and pass credit on Big Name Actor. It's a business you know and the next Tek book is coming out, check out the William Shattner homepage for book store appearances.
That says it all. You can present your ideas for consideration, if you work for the type who's willing to accept the input without marking you as a rebelious sot who need to be taught a lesson. But after the discussion, either take the check and do the work or find another job. If you aren't willing to shut up and carry on with the company plan, you can be replaced by one of several Microsoft programs.
Not that I'm trying to slam you, I read html mail as text on my personal e-mail. But html mail at work is a requirement, and a one of the lesser standards that I'm willing whore out for a cut of the pie. If you can present your reasons in a calm business case style Powerpoint brain dump void of combativeness, you've got a better shot than shouting "HTML IS EVIL" to the PHB who probably just want pretty picture to go to customer.
Slashdot Mirror
Drive me to Fry's this afternoon? I need to pick up x y & z. Mileage plus a time out.
Chased away sales and marketing slime when there was a problem, sometimes took them away so we could fix things, rudely if required.
You've been really busy, take Friday afternoon off if you're all caught up.
This is our budget for repairs and misc. Everyone gets $Dollars to upgrade their worksstation. Do your shopping and I'll sign the PO.
Diana Wynne Jones Deep Secret]
Anything by C J Cherryh.
Most commerical scanning engines allow a human to touch up the results, comparing the output against the originals. This is where your intern or entry level temp can be useful. Or you could just outsource the hole ting to summ one overseas.
What will you bet that stiffer penalties only apply to you and me. Corp-Rat entities will never see the stiff end of the stick.
Defining a way for SIPs to communicate with communicate between each other, what an incredible idea.
Reclaiming system resources, I new Microsoft would get around to that eventually.
Dogbert Consulting Services
We secure your cash so you don't have to
For a reliable environment you want a reliable platform and you want enough platforms (clustered) so that dropping one site doesn't mean no service.
I know it can be a little aggravating if it's coming from the car next to you, but what exactly do have against rap music? Or are you comparing the antics of our present day musicians to the Crusader Knights?
Keep on Flying!
Congressmen are more likely to accept bribes for votes
RIAA employees are more likely to trample consumer rights
Tell that to Jim Baen, David Weber, David Drake, Eric Flint and rest of the folks at Baen Book The Honor Harrington series is still printing hard covers. Besides the Free Library, these fools give away CDs with hardcovers, 6 at last count, containing the complete text of multiple novels. With no copy protection. Multiple formats. They're laughing all the way to bank. Besides staying in print and getting great PR, every particpant gets his name out there. When a new book comes out, it has an audience.
The first hit's free, take a dozen and share with your friends. But you'll be back for more, and you'll want the paper copies too. See how much shelf space Baen staked out in the science fiction section has at your local mega-bookstore-plex.
In my case that makes me a network manager.
I have quota of people to annoy or my manager thinks I'm skating. No you can't have that silly security hole. No I won't open the firewall for world FTP access, No your friend the vendor can't have VPN access to any of our networks. No I won't enable anonymous ftp access.
This can be as complicated or simple as you like. Diagram with ascii art or just a list of components. I prefer this to Visio. I keep mine on an internal web server with network config backups. Internal read only to the right people and I keep documentation updated.
My manager loves pretty pictures, I'll update the many colors on slow days when I don't feel like working, but I can lay out an ascii network diagram in minutes. A Visio diagram can take days to complete for a large site. Both live on the same web server, but guess which diagrams I use for troubleshooting and change control.
The first launch application will be on the Nomad probe, targeted to collect sammples, sterilize and return to Earth for analysis.
Lotus Notes understands commuting and laptop users who don't have "alway on" network (VPN or otherwise) connections. Outlook regularly wigs out if the server isn't there. Because of our size, the corp-rats run mutliple Exchange servers and we can't see free time if someone's on another Exchange server. Alledgedly we're a technology company.
Replication and backups on a MSFT product? Just kidding, hope you backed up your local file before trying to synch with server, we deleted all your mail during the last outage and if you synch your local copies get deleted too. . .
I predict at least one Medal of Freedom for FEMA response from the Bush White House. After all, we have a president who can alter reality.
What you do need to do is to prepare a list of issues, graded in order of system and network critical prioriy. Make up your own rating system 1 to 10 or A to F, and assign each item a rating, timeframe and resources required. This doesn't mean a quote for new equipment. For example, Linux or BSD firewall, internal, DMZ and external segments. Reconfigure IP addressing. Priority 2, need to repurpose a Pentium III and added NICs. This is a to do list that could span out 3 years or so. The budget cycle probably means you won't be able to just go out and buy what you need, although having this list will make it easier to jump on funds that come up for re-allocation. Don't try to do everything all at once. Set priorites and leave time for crisis control.
Go to town and prepare a power point or just write down your list, but sit down with who ever is "grading" your performance and work out what they think with your input. You need to have the job defined, do you make everybody happy and don't rock the boat or do you get the job done and set policy? Setting policy is best done by writing your draft and having it approved by someone in administration. Speaking of which you need to find out if any district and state guidelines apply. You could find addtional support and resources at the next level up.
Don't try to wing changes, if you're going to be effective you need backing. That means getting admin on board and having a defined role. If you don't get backing then you should set up a wireless access point and get a laptop for Slashdot and porn until things fall apart. If you're lucky you can point the finger at lack of administrative support and burn your boss. That's where documentation of issues comes in handy.
My manager says if I don't p*ss off at least one person each week he knows I'm skating. We're pretty relaxed but there are rules, including corporate guidlines that my little address space has to follow.
It sounds like the job is still very vague. This can be a curse or chance to write your own job description. Take advantage. Look at the pay scale descriptions and assign yourself the responsibilities to justify a raise and prompotion.
For a DoD standard there is a governing instruction. It may reference other instructions. You need to have a copy of that and read. Read it again. Then take time to study it before you read it.
Your contracting officer can point you in the right direction and provide access to The Instruction
Once you have an idea of what your requirements are, draft a Project Plan, Statement of Work, Compliance Notice, whatever you call it, it details how your group will meet the standards specified in The Instruction. Get internal input and review.
Now that you have something on paper, talk to your manager and have the contracting officer or security authority review your plan. They will tell you're unsafe to entrust classified material to. Then they will produce a checklist of potential violations you must clear. This is their job and what they live for, don't annoy these people, you want their input. Review this list and clear it.
You now have a plan which will satisfy The Instruction.
At my last job we had 2 white box shops down the road. We picked the nice family run place and bought most everything there. We steered our customers to the same place and worked out standard configurations. Everyone is happy.
After being swallowed by Fortune 50 company we had to use standard corp-rat ordering and buy from the big name vendor. New equipment doesn't work, standard configurations aren't available from week to week. "Next day" support means a week or more to get working replacement part. Telephone troubleshooting takes longer than the walk down the block. Did I mention how frustrating telephone support scripts are?
For the general desk top including small office servers, find a local white box builder who can churn out systems. Specify motherboard and CPU. No the shop won't have 7x24 coverage, but then neither does Dell, HP or Gateway. If you can drive down the block and get a system serviced or swapped out you'll beat the hold time before your problem is addressed with any of the major vendors.
For a server class you need build enough redundancy into your equipment to have a box down and still provide services. Until you get into the major application white box is still the way to go.
If you can get by with keeping the same time, set up a master/secondary time server and keep time with those.
If you need accurate time, you start with a formal request to the group that maintains the firewall. State your case, list the time source(s) you'll be using. Assuming that request is turned down, you provide the quotes for setting up in house time synchronization services. Remember you'll need at least 2 units for redundancy (you do have a legitmate business requirement right?). You don't want a single point of failure.
If it turns into a policy struggle, you need to be the reasonable one who's trying to meet a business requirement. Let your management know early what the issues and costs will be.
Never let your manager be surprised. Let him make the waves. That's why he's management and you get to play with the cool toys.
The fabs that Intel and AMD use to make PC chips. When 10 minutes of downtime requires hours of restarting a running fab and costs millions, they buy a platform that will can be relied on.
Tolls Free calling. Ever not have the toll free number translated to the "real" phone number?
Ever made a cell phone call and not have the billing recorded while the billing system was being rebooted?
Just a few more examples that haven't been listed yet.
Not that this is a bad thing if they're willing to take the check and pass credit on Big Name Actor. It's a business you know and the next Tek book is coming out, check out the William Shattner homepage for book store appearances.
Let me set your mind at rest, this in fact a distinct odor.
That says it all. You can present your ideas for consideration, if you work for the type who's willing to accept the input without marking you as a rebelious sot who need to be taught a lesson. But after the discussion, either take the check and do the work or find another job. If you aren't willing to shut up and carry on with the company plan, you can be replaced by one of several Microsoft programs.
Not that I'm trying to slam you, I read html mail as text on my personal e-mail. But html mail at work is a requirement, and a one of the lesser standards that I'm willing whore out for a cut of the pie. If you can present your reasons in a calm business case style Powerpoint brain dump void of combativeness, you've got a better shot than shouting "HTML IS EVIL" to the PHB who probably just want pretty picture to go to customer.