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This is the main blog for Mike McBride Online, where you can keep track of everything I'm in to in one place.
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| Thursday, January 13, 2005
More MS anti-spyware stuff Reading a couple of things today about the anti-spyware app got me thinking more about the future of the product, and how a full release will go. There's two thoughts running right now for me, what I want, and what I'm afraid of. What I want is it to be free, and part of Windows Update. (see the Malicious Software Removal Tool released this week, for example.) I think that gets the highest level of distribution, and therefore security, as possible. What I'm afraid of, is that MS will charge for it, and make it a subscription service. This will guarantee the lowest level of distribution, and therefore security, possible aside from not having a tool at all! In today's LangaLetter Fred looks into the crystal ball and predicts this: "My guess is that the Antispyware software will be offered as a "carrot" to entice users of pirated copies into getting a legit version of their OS; and secondarily as a reward to those who have legit copies." Comparable to what MS did with Photo Story, correct? Ed Bott doesn't like that idea: The whole Genuine Windows program should be reserved for add-ons and fun stuff. Security updates should be available to anyone with as little hassle as possible." -And I would totally agree with that idea. However, my fear is leading me to contemplate this as a possible compromise position. It goes against the desire to get it to as many Windows users as possible with the least amount of hassle, but it keeps us out of the dreaded "paid subscription" model as well. I might even be persuaded to go along with this method of distribution if MS allowed OEM's to pre-install it. They are already pre-installing SP2, why not give them the ability to pre-install anti-spyware as a way to get it distributed, and yet still keeping their lame "genuine advantage" junk, since OEM should, by definition, be legal copies of Windows? (All legal issues about pre-installing and monopoly aside.) It'll be interesting to see where they come down with this when the beta expires this summer. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:12 AM | 0 comments | 
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Documentation Have gotten a few emails and comments about the need to document what I do. Seems like I'm not the only one out there being charged with this particular challenge this year. It'll be interesting to follow along with others as we all do this, so please, if you have ideas, stories, ongoing projects of your own, basically anything to add, drop me a line from time to time and I'll try and keep some sort of running commentary of my own discoveries along side every one else's. My favorite bit of feedback, though, came from Mark, who referenced his company requiring all of staff to make "Mack Truck Notes". The notes they'll refer to if you got hit by a Mack truck crossing the street. I might have to steal that... :) Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:34 AM | 0 comments |
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005
They're everywhere Last week Angela and I went out with to catch a show at ShadowBox Cabaret with a co-worker of hers. Her husband came along, who neither of us had ever met before. After some intros and chit-chat we discovered that he's not only a blogger, but he's working on putting together a podcast with his co-blogger. It's like the podcasters are taking over the place. :) Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:03 PM | 0 comments |
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Annual Review Yesterday was time for my annual review. One of the topics up for discussion was that this year the entire organization is going to be asked to come up with disaster recovery strategies. Now as far as our data goes, I've had a disaster recovery plan in place for a number of years, although it's mostly been undocumented, I know where everything is, know where it's backed up, and how to get it in an emergency. The other part of disaster recovery though, that my boss wants me to spend a lot of time on this year has to do with recovering from the loss of a staff member. Specifically, if I leave suddenly, for whatever reason, how are they going to know what needs to be done? I'm not exactly sure how to document what I do. I can document the normal things I do on a monthly basis, what reports need run at month end, how to do billing, how to setup new accounts, or get virus updates pushed out, but how do you document all the little quirks and abnormalities across the entire organization that I just "know" how to deal with. Things like knowing which users to keep an eye on for using up disk space, why Friday is a bad day to do any updates, where I keep the stuff that's been archived off of the main file server to increase free disk space on it, how to connect to that computer, what's been archived, where to find the help desk database, all the hardware documentation, the master list of email accounts, who to contact at various vendors when you need something specific from them, and on and on and on. I've been at this for more than 7 years, I know more about the infrastructure and environment of this office than I could possible write out. I know more than I think I know, ya' know? :) Like I said, I don't know how to document things, and end up with a finished product that comes close to what my boss described to me. She wants to be able to look at what I do and divide it into categories and decide on how to replace me based on what categories could be shifted to other existing staff, and what cannot. For example, do you hire someone who can handle the day to day desktop and server support and move the database admin stuff to someone else, knowing that finding someone with expertise on our specific database is next to impossible, or do you hire a DBA to be your data expert and outsource the desktop/network support, knowing that there are plenty of firms who can get that covered for you without having to hire a full time employee? Obviously, in order to do that, she needs to understand how much time I spend on each of those areas, and how much of my knowledge is replaceable from the outside. So I have to come up with a way to document that. I think, for right now I'm simply going to start listing what I do, as I do it, and once I've got a few days or weeks down on paper, see what looks like a sensible way to organize it. Sounds like a good use for OneNote, eh? On the other hand, perhaps it should worry me that my boss, and her boss, are spending so much time thinking about how to replace me? :) Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:10 AM | 0 comments |
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005
How Skype works I saw this post on Network World fusion about Skype and started following the links. It's pretty interesting reading, especially Mark O'Neill's post about using Skype behind a NAT firewall. I hadn't really thought about the P2P aspects of Skype and how being behind a firewall that doesn't allow incoming TCP or UDP connections could be making my connections less stable, and what I could do to maybe help that. I'll have to play around a bit with my home router to see if I can allow connections to my laptop when I'm using Skype. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:19 AM | 0 comments |
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Monday, January 10, 2005
Recycling I spent part of Saturday morning taking some of our old equipment to the local county solid waste authority's computer recycling drive. They do a couple of these a year, and it's a good way to get rid of monitors, printers and other hardware that simply doesn't work any more or doesn't serve a purpose for us. Usually, I load up at the office, drive up, and drop it off, no big deal. But this time there was quite a crowd. I spent about 30 minutes waiting in line to unload my stuff. I guess a whole lot of people got new PC's for Xmas, eh? :) Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:50 AM | 0 comments |
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Further research After downloading and installing the MS anti-spyware app, well it does work. Of course, being a somewhat careful surfer, the only place I notice it working is in the same areas that SP2 already took care of on XP, because the laptop I loaded it on is 2000. It asked me to shut down the Messenger service, and blocked Active X controls from being downloaded without me giving permission first. Those things are already part of SP2. There are other features that SP2 doesn't have, and the warnings are much more detailed than they are in SP2. (Assuming SP2 warns you and doesn't just make changes without telling you like it does by shutting down the Messenger Service. And yes, I noticed that one specifically because I use that service at work!) Overall, it's a nice effort and it will probably get better. On the other hand, it should only be a part of your whole security plan, not the only tool, and if you're running in a network environment, you probably want to check with your admin before making any configuration changes, like letting it shutdown the Messenger service. :) Now let's see how they market it, how many people wind up buying it if it winds up being a subscription, and how well MS does updates and defines spyware going forward. Like I said before, there's your real test to how effective it will be. Update: Serge has an interesting idea related to users who haven't installed SP2 on an XP machine: Maybe the app should suggest that they install any missing service packs too. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:38 AM | 0 comments |
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