Celebrate!

Ok, well it is almost time to celebrate. End of the semester is just two days away. It will be nice to have a couple of weeks off before the summer semester starts. Actually got a quick beach getaway planned in there. But most importantly, time to reflect a little bit about this semester. It was my first semester of graduate school, and it seemed to just fly by. But overall, I think it went very well. I was able to meet some great people as part of the group projects, and I certainly learned a new thing or two. The discussions were engaging and got to see a couple of different points of view from the other students.

Going into the class, I knew where my expertise was. I had a very strong networking background with some PC troubleshooting type work. I fancy myself as a bit of a scripter, but definitely not a full fledged programmer. It was good to read about the different standards and the different ways of approaching a programming project.

The current events portion of the class was also fun. Many of the articles I found, or other students had found, made its way into my normal everyday conversations. After reading the article about about a middle schooler running the school network, I think I'm glad that I got out of that field and into another part of Information Technology.

But the semester is over, so good luck to the other students finishing their degrees. And good luck to Les with his next incoming class.

The Fun of Social Networking

So all of these social networking sites are tons of fun: Myspace, Facebook, Plaxo, Ning and on and on. Yup, they're fun. That's about it. They're not useful, in a business sense. At least not yet. Some of these are starting to pop up as a useful business tool, but I don't think it has happened yet. The first one that creates something that can be used for businesses, will really be onto something. It would almost be a phonebook of potential customers and partners. For instance, you could see that a current business associate has a relationship with someone who has a skill that your company requires.

These sites aren't at this point yet, but I'm thinking they will be someday. Where that sort of thing can be as mainstream as using the phonebook or even using google, as a more modern-day reference.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is kind of the dirty word in Information Technology (IT). At my last job, I have been around when there was some outsourcing talk. The whole situation was kind of funny, actually. Everyone was hollering and screaming that they didn't want it, because they thought they were going to lose their job. The best part was, they were just hiring the contractors to do the "dirty" work: installing new PC's and removing the old ones. This was the same work that no one else wanted to do. The contractors did come in for a little bit, and no one else lost their jobs.

Outsourcing isn't as bad as people think. A lot of times outsourcing winds up opening new jobs and opportunities. And a lot of times it gets rid of jobs that people don't want to do.

I have also been on the flip side, though. When I have to call technical support from a company that has outsourced their work. There can definitely be some communication "problems" that can make it difficult. I guess you win some, you lose some.

Ooops! This part of the class has kind of fallen by the wayside for me. Been doing all of the other assignments, and haven't posted here. I think this is the perfect week to get back into the habit. I kind of laugh when MIS/ITEC classes start talking about SDLC and programming approaches. From my experiences, there is a real division in the workforce about how this is implemented. There are the project manager/supervisor types that "invade" MIS, and want everything to be super structured and make everything look pretty. Then there are the hardcore programmers who just want to be left alone so they can code for 16 hours a day.

While I definitely fall into the latter group, I try to keep everyone happy. The organization is necessary, but I have seen times where project managers drag down things. The real problem is the project managers don't know enough about the technical aspect, and the technical people don't know enough about the "project management" side. So you kind of get stonewalled in a meeting trying to explain the gritty details to each other. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

There have been many times where I've seen the project manager report and just said "Huh?" It is really frustrating from my standpoint when the project manager offers little in the way of organization; that coupled with we have to spend every meeting minute trying to explain what the "tech" people are talking about.

One, two, three...Collaborate!

The past several years I have used several on-line tools to collaborate with other individuals, for both school and work. Some have seemed more valuable then others. For instance, I am a big fan of Wikipedia.org. The website is an extremely interesting read. Lots of good information and opinions out there. Often, I can use it as a starting point to get some general information and then start on research.

During the interview process for my present job I was asked if I had ever used a wiki. At the time, I wasn't sure how a wiki would play out in the work place. As I outlined in my posting, I have seen how it is used and it has some mixed results. One of the biggest shortcomings of a wiki is a lack of uniform organization, and that is prevalent in this environment.

In addition, I'm a huge fan of the WebEx style "meeting" environments. At a previous job, I was a network administrator so there was a lot of SSH sessions with multiple devices. All of the configurations were done through a command line interface. WebEx was huge when we had problems. We could set up a meeting and they could see the exact output from our devices real time. They could relay any commands they wanted us to try. Previously, this would have to be done in an e-mail communication, which is much more time consuming.

Here ERP, ERP, ERP

ERP's are the one system I am kind of down about. Every book I've read for school, all hypes them up like they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. They show how they can come up with sales figures, do projections, and this and that. All that sounds just dandy!

However, there is always a difference between book implementations and reality. I have seen this with many different systems, like networks for example. Books will talk about how things are done this way and that way, but when it comes to the real world...it is different. The books almost act like sales people. They tout different items up, but when it comes to implementation time it is hard to get a phone call returned.

So the thing that gets me about ERP's is I have never got to see them actually in action. I'm curious how these work for some of the big organizations like IBM and so on. Going even further, how could it actually help a small business. Maybe one of these years I'll make my way up to a management position, and be afforded the opportunity to see them in action.

Identity Theft

Identity theft is kind of a funny thing; a few years ago no one cared about it and now it is all the rage. My dad had a small brush it a year or two ago; he was one of the lucky ones though. He got a call out of the middle of nowhere from his bank, saying his credit card was "compromised". The bank said they'd cancel that account (credit card number), and they would issue him a new card immediately. To this day, he doesn't know how/where the card was compromised. He is assuming that it was from some place on-line, but he doesn't know.

I had an odd brush with identity theft also. About 4-5 years ago I got a call one night. THe person on the other end says something about a credit card I applied for. Right away she is trying to get my SSN to "verify" it. All I did was ask a second question of "What credit card company are you from?" and the girl got all mad and hung up on me. It just showed up with a random 800 number on the caller ID. I still have no idea if it was a legitimate call from a credit card company, with the girl on the other end just having a bad day. Or it may have been someone phishing.

But identity theft has become big industry. THose who steal the identities are making big money. On the other side, companies are making big money "protecting" you. There are companies like LifeLock who are charging customers a monthly fee (I believe 10-20 dollars) to provide services that people can do for themselves. It mostly revolves around setting up flags on your accounts with the credit companies. This can all be done for free, they just go through the process of organizing it for you. My wife is signed up with a service that sends her credit report every couple months. It is a big industry.

Tidbits on Security

I've run across a few interesting scenarios when it comes to security in a corporate environment. My previous was extremely conscious about security, as far as end users were concerned. Very few people had administrative rights to their computer, let alone other computers in the domain. The security group was very involved. There was a host of web sites that were blocked, such as hotmail, aol mail and that sort of thing. They were really strict with that sort of thing.

Currently, my job is much more relaxed to this sort of thing. They allow people to check their home based e-mail accounts and the sort. They let people surf the web. it is a completely different culture, and as an end user is sort of relaxing. It is nice to know that I don't feel like "big brother" is constantly watching.

Now there are some other differences between the two places, that may be worth noting. My old job had probably around 1,000 entry level jobs in call centers and the like. Now, I work with mostly "professionals", and not nearly as many entry level folks. I think this speaks to the amount of trust that is put in the end users. Currently, it is easier to trust the people working there. There isn't 10 people getting fired from the call center every other day.

This all really boils down to informing users. Users that can be trusted, need to be kept informed. Security is an enterprise wide policy, not just the jobs of a handful of specialists.

Secure your computer! Turn it off!

There is the running joke that I've heard at a few conferences. It basically outlines that the only way to completely secure a computer is to turn it off. Unfortunately, that is basically true. However, a lot of time and effort goes into making systems as secure as possible. Security isn't about keeping things from happening, but it is about reducing the probability that something happens. This week, we started to touch on items relating to security. Any time you make data available over the web, there are security concerns to contend with. This goes even further as you make more and more information available, especially items like credit cards and social security numbers.

Lucky for me, I've been shopping and sharing information on-line for over 10 years. I haven't gotten busted by any identity seeking thieves yet. At least now, more people are aware of it. A couple of years ago my dad's bank called him because his credit card was compromised. They were very proactive about the whole thing, which is reassuring from a consumer standpoint. We still have to be careful going forward, as more and more of our lives get onto the Internet. It isn't just about credit card numbers and social security numbers any more.

People have to be careful what they post about themselves on-line. This is part of being "secure". At my work, we had our Internet do a quick scan on facebook/myspace/etc. for anyone coming in for interviews. This was mostly for laughs, but it could cause havoc for some people.

It's all about Networking!

I love networking! In the world of IT, it has to be my favorite topic/subject. I finally completed my CCNA two summers ago. As a continuation, I began studying for my CCNP. The change of jobs put that on hold for a little bit. The only part I was never too crazy about was making cables. Having to make a couple hundred patch cables for a move was never fun.

Networks are the core of all infrastructures; providing the medium that allows communication between devices. Going into the future, it will allow us to expand. There is equipment out there that is extremely mobile. However, this equipment doesn't become worth anything until it is "networked". By today's definition, that means a connection to the internet. As the speed of cell phone networks increase, the number of web services that are pushed to cell phones is increasing, and thus increasing mobility.

One Down, A Bunch More To Go

Thank you professor for the kind words and your information on 529 plans. Well at 40k a year, I think it is at least safe to say that she is going to a good school. The best of luck to her. The 529 plans is definitely something I have to look into. There are a few different options right now out there, so my wife and I have to sit down one day and take a look at them.

As for class...Whew! One week down, and a bunch more to go. The first week wasn't too bad. It was actually a little bit easier to get acclimated to UMUC's web interface then I thought. Even the getting used to homework again, wasn't so bad. It was actually kind of a fun first week.

My secondary education had a huge gap in the middle. Immediately following high school I completed two years and then took a 10 year hiatus. During that time I gained a lot of experience and knowledge in the field of Information Technology. Now that I'm taking IT classes, it is easy to relate with items from the classroom to real world experiences. For those who don't have much experience, I think the current event articles help bridge the gap. There really is a big difference between classroom and on the job learning.

Early on in my studies (for the Network+ exam I believe), I remember learning about the OSI model. I had that thing memorized forwards, backwards, sideways and every way possible. It was part of the Information Technology gospel! I thought all IT professionals breathed this stuff 24/7. Then after stepping into the real world, I realized it was a little bit different. It is very much a fundamental knowledge of everything else that goes on. That made me realize that is what school basically is. It is a foundation on what to build upon; it isn't what exactly happens out there.

The other thing that I found particularly interesting was how the first week got me to compare my past two jobs. As I mentioned, I recently took a new position. My new job is much closer to home (10 miles vs. 80 miles), so I never compared the two much; I was just happy to have the new shorter commute job. The idea of structures made me realize how different the two organizations were, especially in the Information Technology departments. My new job is so much more of open and decentralized structure, while the old job was much more formal. I've been able to sit back and see the benefits of each type of structure.

Rude Awakening

My name is Tom Stewart and this past week has been a little bit of a wake up call. I completed my Bachelor's in Information Technology in August of 2007. For two years leading up to that point, I was taking 15-20 credits a semester, while also working 40-45 hours a week. From August until now I've been class free, and have really enjoyed my free time. Although maybe it wasn't that much free time, because my daughter was born September 13th 2007; which leads me to my favorite picture.

Either way, this past week has been a wake up call to get myself back in the "school spirit". This is my first semester at UMUC and the layout of their online classes. After flipping through a few of the pages, I think i have the hang of it. I am in pursuit of my Masters in Information Technology, but I have not chosen a discipline yet. In addition, I'm hoping to folllow it up with a MBA as part of UMUC's dual degree program. Originally, I was leaning towards the Telecommunications specialization, but a recent change of jobs has changed my mind. The Information Assurance path seems to be the way to go.

The past two years I spent as a Network Administrator, which was a position I loved. This past October, however, I moved over to a new role as an Application Support Specialist. It has been a great transition with a great company, plus the commute to work is now 80 miles shorter so that is always good.

Now there are a few hobbies that I have, when I get some spare time. I still love playing video games, and have a pretty good selection for my Xbox 360. Currently, I am looking forward to getting to play Call of Duty 4 and Assassin's Creed. Also, I've been eyeing up the Playstation 3, but not sure I'm ready to jump on it yet. I also play several online MUD's including Medievia and World of Warcraft. Also, I'm a huge sports fan and love the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles. The University of Maryland basketball and football teams are also on my radar.

Well this post pretty much marks the beginning of the semester. Good luck to everyone!