Shockey Monkey 2.0 Demo Week

Posted: 1:43 am
April 15, 2008
Shockey Monkey
Comments Off on Shockey Monkey 2.0 Demo Week

In case you are not following the Shockey Monkey mailing list, this is the first demo week of Shockey Monkey 2.0. Travis is taking a 100 or so partners in small groups and showing off the feature set behind some of the core functionality. And while I will not push out Shockey Monkey 2.0 beta until Sunday, we are trying to get an idea of what raises question marks.

So let me be honest with you – I understand that you’d rather have it in your hands and provide feedback after you’ve had a chance to look around. It’s live up there, why can’t I have access to it, right? Truth of the matter is, because of the volume of people on Shockey Monkey, I have no idea where to start producing a relevant training video and which parts of the system are total common sense and which are just totally confusing! This is a hedging game of support, I am trying to find out what the top questions in my support portal will be on Monday so I can provide answers to them beforehand.

Call it pre-emptive technical support if you will 🙂

OT: It works. Thanks to those of you that have put up with the first day of demos, take it with a grain of salt. This is the first time we’re doing public demo of 2.0, this is the first time someone other than myself is explaining the product, this is the first time we’re using Adobe Acrobat Connect instead of Microsoft Livemeeting, this is the uncharted, undocumented territory and unlike the other stuff on the market that requires a University and a hack team and an advisor and a consultant and six other “gurus” to put the crap together, I will frankly feel like a failure as a programmer if it took you any more than a single 1 hour video to become a master of Shockey Monkey. So again, thank you for helping me fulfill my vision.

Who is your influencer, baby?

Posted: 1:34 am
April 15, 2008
IT Culture, Web 2.0
1 Comment

One of the nicest things about the MVP Summit, and one of the reasons I pay so much and urge so many of you to go to the big industry events, is that you can surround yourself with people who are far (far, far) wiser and more experienced than you. In a surrounding where you are not being weighted down by the idiots you have to deal with for a paycheck you can’t help but elevate your game and start seeing things in a whole new light.

One of the things I have been thinking about over the past few days has been the balancing of the equation that contains trust, influence, reputation, authority and credibility. Number of techmeme headlines had been swirling around my head for weeks as bloggers start to realize that they are not the center of the world.

But this is not about bloggers, it is an important lesson for everyone that brings themselves online, whether willingly through social networks or unwillingly through the better search engine indexing of public records.

You can’t hide. But you can try to understand how the information is consumed online.

The fundamental lie to the Web 2.0 world is that it is not based on knowledge and credentials, it is based on the size of your personal network. It’s not what you know, it’s how many people it appears know you. It’s all about the size, baby. Those with the size and apparent large roster of buddies use it to talk about those connections and project the appearance of equality with their subjects. And the pile grows. They refer back to how so-and-so did-something-something because of them. It infers influence. Jump on the bandwagon as often as possible, love everything everyone else loves. It will grow your network of people interested in the seemingly everything you are interested in. Talk about yourself and how you’ve previously talked about it. To the casual observer, it seems like you have some authority over the subject. Traffic begets traffic, pretty pictures illustrate credibility, authority, makes you feel like you can trust them because the herd does too.

Then you meet them and realize… my god, this person is complete and total charlatan that is obviously out of place.

The bottom line is, knowledge and credentials still matter. Not in the makebelief world of Web 2.0, but in the real world where you make your money, feed your family, grow as a human being and hopefully cause change that improves you and things around you.

My whole point is that you should not get discouraged from what you do just because you’re an apparent peon and you don’t have a billion contacts on Facebook. You should not abandon hope just because your events are packed with hundreds of people lined up to take your picture. The big picture is far larger than that.

Trust is something earned, not something percieved.
Everyone fact-checks, nobody will take things on blind faith. (Web 2.0 religion opportunity?
You have no influence over anyone. Don’t lie to yourself.

What makes you reputable, notable, perhaps even influential is NOT an internal quality that you posses. It is an external, subjective opinion of people who choose to follow you, who believe that you make sense and can be honest and human.

Web 2.0 is not so unlike the Real World 1.0, though it is easier to lie in, reality is all that actually matters/counts. Don’t get lost in the clouds. (sorry, sorry, I know, bad pun)

Can you shame someone into using Twitter?

Posted: 3:47 am
April 13, 2008
IT Culture
3 Comments

This is called taking one for the team as far as the community is concerned. She either asks for the password to start Twittering or drives up to Seattle for the Summit for the sole purpose of killing me. Either way, everyone stands to benefit:

https://twitter.com/susanbradley

Name susanbradley

Location Fesno, CA

Bio Fake Susan Bradley’s take on SBS and adult entertainment industry

Oh, Chris is twittering too.. Or is it tweeting?

Three Important Fixes for Windows Mobile 6

Posted: 2:49 pm
April 12, 2008
Mobility, Uncategorized
4 Comments

It is no longer a surprise that iPhone absolutely destroyed Windows Mobile in nearly all categories, or that Blackberry has reincarnated from their lawsuit to become the most demanded business communications solution around. It is far less surprising to those of us that actually use, or rather put up with, the dinosaur that is Windows Mobile 6. I recently got two of the latest Windows Mobile 6 phones from AT&T and just how pathetic they are for some of what I would consider the most basic of mobile functions. No messenger, no ability to customize start menus, no ability to even set a homepage. No, I am not joking. And yes, a year from now when Windows Mobile 6.1 becomes commonplace, Microsoft will claim innovation and huge leaps in the software usability (in stealing the Cardfile UI that has been provided by Samsung for over a year on i600).  So frustrating.

However, this week is the MVP Summit and I’m always asked about how this and that gets done on the WM device so here are top three tricks to WM6 Standard:

Changing the homepage

If you didn’t purchase your phone directly from the manufacturer or Expansys, it was likely riddled with garbage links your carrier has put in to make Pocket Internet Explorer even more useless. I always change my homepage to Google not just because the search is terrific, but because Google will make browsing on your PocketPC a little more tollerable. You know that Cached feature where they will show you the latest cached page even if the server is down? Well, Google for Windows Mobile has a way of stripping out extra content and presenting easilly readable text on the Windows Mobile device.

Problem: You cannot change your homepage on WM6.

Solution: First, download this registry editor. Navigate to “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs” and change the value of the home registry key to the URL you want your Pocket Internet Explorer to start with.

Customizing the start menu

If your carrier is anything like mine, useful WM6 applications are buried three levels deep while all the garbage you will never use is front page. If you attempt to delete it from the Start menu, you will receive a note that the file manager could not delete or move the files.

Problem: When you attempt to delete or move programs on the devices start menu your access is denied. Your phone is Application Locked.

Solution: First, you need to application unlock your WM6 device. You will need to download this software. Copy SDA_ApplicationUnlock.exe to your Windows Mobile phone and execute it. After the unlock you will be prompted to reboot your phone and will now be able to nuke carrier trash apps.

You also might want to snag Total Commander, which helps get to the areas the built in file explorer just does not seem to want to go into like \Windows\Start Menu

Messenger

Aside from the basic $3 phone functionality, the only useful thing on a Windows Mobile device is Pocket Outlook. Virtually every carrier has stripped Windows Mobile 6 of the Messenger application and they all try to push you through their broken IM implementations or sell you Goodlink (which is the exact opposite of the title, neither a link nor good).

Problem: Give me Windows Live Messenger!!!!

Solution: Thank you for reading Vladville, here you go.

The overall problem

Microsoft doesn’t now, nor does it appear in the forseeable future, have a way of getting a reliable Windows Mobile experience into the hands of the potential Windows Mobile users. I have been using Windows Mobile since WindowsCE 2.1 and Cassiopedia A20. In all this time, Windows Mobile 6 is by far, uncontested, worst release of Windows Mobile ever. Although technologically superior to WindowsCE 2.1, the carrier neutering of the phone and flood of junk applications, multiple device/app/system locks, lack of software upgrades (did you know your Windows Mobile device has a Windows Update application on it?) and obvious lack of innovation by all indications make Windows Mobile.. well, neither.

I hope that the links and tips provided here make your WM experience a little less painful and you can count on me to express the above sentiment which I have been getting from many of you at the Microsoft MVP Summit next week.

Karl’s Bookstore Burnout

Posted: 5:28 pm
April 11, 2008
Uncategorized
1 Comment

I mean Right NOW, we’re having a sale at SMBBooks.com and GreatLittleBook.com.

You have to start with this link:

I KNOW VLAD

If your purchase totals $25 or more, you will receive a $25 discount.

Right now.

All products.

Limited to the first 1,000 people who click on that link.

Everyone’s eligible. But you gotta start with that link.

Offer ends in seven hours.

Dear Customer, STFU and GFO

Posted: 9:03 am
April 10, 2008
Vladville
6 Comments

Sitting around this morning, watching television, and I cannot believe the outpour of anger at the airports over flights that were delayed to repair electrical systems that posed a threat to the passengers. Just what do people expect an airline to say?

Dear Passenger,

We know you have your choice of airlines and we thank you for choosing American Airlines. Unfortunately, you chose a flight on a plane that was grounded to conduct serious maintenance that will prevent it from burning up in a fireball 30,000 feet above ground.

However, as a courtesy we can book you on one of those flights but you have to sign this waiver that says you will not sue us if the 1.8% chance that you will die on our flight.

Yeah, thought so. Now go sit down and shut the fuck up because we’re not putting out pilots in danger because you have a hooker waiting for you in Las Vegas, mkay?

Now, I obviously missed a calling in PR but you get the message.

This country is, for the lack of a better word, fucked, because we have adults behaving like children and throwing fits when something does not go their way. When the gratification is not instant. When their own happiness is dependant on some hard work or sacrifice. We want it all, we want it now and we want it free.

The world of 24/7/365, profit crunch and infinite expectations needs a serious reality check because the safety is supposed to be the core of the promise, 24/7 only a benefit. Not the other way around.

We are selfish, consumed with ourselves and do not care to see the big picture because its just too ugly and we don’t have the time to be put down with that. We are more comfortable to accept lies and broken promises than to take one moment to understand that something is being done for our own good.

This was going to be a bad morning for me, until I saw the justice of the taser, applied to a grown man that was throwing a tamper tantrum in the middle of an airport. “Don’t tase me bro, I’ll behave like a grownu.. bbbbzzzzzzttttt.. aaaaahhh”

Go Gators! Bzzzt.

Heading to the MVP Summit (for all the wrong reasons)

Posted: 11:48 pm
April 9, 2008
Microsoft
4 Comments

mvpbadgeI do not talk about it often, but I have been given a prestigious Microsoft MVP awards twice now and everyone on that team has been just spectacular to me over the years. I got a lot of opportunities with the program that the money just can’t buy (no matter how much licensing you sell) and the MVP Summit is sort of the grand benefit of the whole program – the ability to network and deal with some of the best and brightest in this industry.

I originally danced away from going, really felt like it was better to just stay home and work on Shockey Monkey (Travis and Hank will be doing that now, you will be working with them next week if you are on the beta) how I really did not want to chance being out of town because of Katie being almost a month till giving birth.

And then today, barring anything unforseen, I will definitely be there. All thanks to AT&T. I got AT&T Tilt and Samsung BJ II. Tilt is so pathetic that aside from the device esthetics, its the usual Microsoft crapshoot unchanged since 03. Blackjack is slightly better, but still needing 20-30 tweaks to get to the working mode. And with all that, the behavior is still clunky, unreliable, error prone and so far behind Apple it’s not even funny. Forget about using this in business. Yes, it was fantastic in 04, 05, 06.. but now, not so much.

You see, my company makes a ton of money off Microsoft. We are currently mostly an infrastructure company, that is, we make money deploying, managing and scaling solutions powered by Microsoft creations.

But Microsoft 2008 is not what it was back in 1998 when we started this enterprise, it is not what it was in 2001-2003 when OWN put together ExchangeDefender, it is far from what it is now that solutions like Shockey Monkey and all our Web 2.0 projects are online.

Today, Microsoft is behind. Far, far, far behind. It seems to be losing on all fronts except the server. Even worse, it seems to be lacking any direction and is chasing the industry leaders and innovators with crippled and incomplete substitutes that are just not cutting it.

You will never lose giving your customers what they want. You will always lose trying to fight what the users are asking for, buying on their own and demanding. Users are no longer demanding Windows. Users are no longer demanding Windows Mobile. Users are no longer demanding Microsoft.

Next week, I will be at Microsoft trying to decide if Microsoft has any creative juices left, any direction to motivate me to drive my company closer to Microsoft after I come back from my paternity leave… because… and it kills me to say this because I love what Microsoft has done for us over the years.. at this point Microsoft has its eyes on Google and Yahoo, not on its base.

Exchange 2007 SP1 Limits

Posted: 5:21 pm
April 7, 2008
E12, Exchange
2 Comments

This one is for my buddy Seth who waited for months for the message limits to be lifted. For those of you interested, here is where they are changed in SP1:

Organization Configuration > Hub Transport > Global Settings > Transport Settings:

seth

Wham, bam, ticket closed.

To her majesty and her prisoners,

Posted: 9:08 am
April 7, 2008
Awesome, Gadgets, IT Business, IT Culture
1 Comment

pedge_2970_rack_overview3 We’ve got your green right here.

As some of you have figured out already, OWN has committed to scaling out our other product lines to EU and Australia. This commitment came out of the loyalty we have received from our partners in UK and Australia and we are bringing Shockey Monkey, LiveArchive, Exchange 2007, Offsite Backups and Sharepoint over the Atlantic and Pacific, starting May 1st, 2008.

It’s not easy, being green

kermit ExchangeDefender was our first and only global infrastructure project. We learned a lot in the process and with the desire to scale out the US-based services we wanted to do something that was wildly different from our strategy in United States. We are based in Texas, where everything is bigger, including the power. <sarcasm>If there was a global capital for tolerance, it would be Texas.</sarcasm> When we sat down to draw up the new global infrastructure, we wanted to change our 80lb, 3 AMP server habit and we started testing the green stuff. Surprisingly enough, there is quite a bit in the way of components that are green and still performance conscious.

Performance was our key concern. SuperMicro, Dell and other manufacturers provide greenish, power-effective, systems but they seriously lack on the horse power or space. But if you look a little harder, there are devices that are both sizeable and capable of performing well under the load.

wdfDesktop_GP_CS For example, Western Digital manufactures a SATA2 3 GB/s drive, 1 Tb in size, that consumes 40% less power. Because it draws less power, it heats the chasis less (less cooling needed in the HD slots) and is overall more cost efficient. It spins at 5,400 RPM which is your average laptop drive, but under load speeds up to 7,200 RPM which is average for the desktop. For low intensity storage, low priority inserts, etc, we were able to adjust some of our own (read: poorly written) code to work on it quite well.

pedge_r200_overview1

For their part, Dell also has a low power high performance solution in PowerEdge R200 for smaller nodes. It also has the PowerEdge 2900 III Energy Smart, about 2x the price of the regular model. For their part, SuperMicro brings forward a 1U server with a 260W power supply drawing less than 0.4 AMP at full blast. (if you don’t know me, this would be a great place to stop reading this post)

Texan by the grace of god..

So there you go, Own Web Now Corp has gone green. We felt that as guests in these nations we should start to be more respectful.

As for our beautiful home, crank that Dell: “Malaysian by birth, Texan by the grace of god”; We will continue to rack servers that weight more and consumer more power than a teenage girl because nobody wants to see that buffering text while waiting on pr0n to load. As vulgar as that may seem, it’s the truth, people pay for performance and convenience – and the market isn’t ready for the green.

Disaffected Feedback

Posted: 6:26 am
April 7, 2008
Microsoft
4 Comments

Blogging helps open up the company and its employees thoughts on the world around them, but sometimes the insight can hurt too. Take a look at this from Steve Clayton:

Peace. Why people spend so much time trying to find out what’s coming next is beyond me. Okay so people like to get the scoop but really does anyone care *that* much about a product that is quite a way off? I have access to a tonne of information inside Microsoft using our corporate intranet search but how many times have a I searched for details on Windows 7? Precisely zero. I just have better things to do. Doesn’t everyone else?

Let’s see… Popular opinion of Microsoft Vista is that it blows. Popular opinion of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is that.. oh wait, there isn’t one, because most people don’t even know it’s out. Office 2007 and it’s completely changed interface.. But what the heck do I know, I just sell this for a living and as of late we are selling more and more Blackberry and Apple.

At the time when Microsoft can’t put together an advertising and promotion strategy to save its life, is it a wise thing to try to downplay something that the consumers are actually EXCITED about? WHY do you think people are looking for what is AFTER VISTA? Why do you think they are DOWNGRADING to XP?

Note to Microsoft: Consumers are not excited about your products. Businesses are not excited about your products. The ONLY thing you have going on right now is inertia and Xbox, have you heard of advertising? Television perhaps, maybe between the billion Apple ads telling everyone that Vista blows?

Come on people!