The slow process of fasting

Well, another year on the Jewish calendar has started and after the major hurdle of fasting for Yom Kippur, I am refreshed and ready for the upcoming Succot holiday. It is an acknowledged fact that ten days into the beginning of a new year (this year is 5769) the Day of Atonement looms large. After gorging ourselves on bushels of apples slathered in honey for a sweet year, we are admonished to stop eating and drinking for this one holy day. We also cannot bathe, wear leather soled shoes, or have sexual relations throughout the entire 10 Days of Awe (or 10 Days of Penitence) that make up the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I know. A lot of you are wondering what leather soles on shoe bottoms have to do with anything in particular. That's really an easy one to answer. Remember the Golden Calf? Yes, the one Moses's older brother Aaron forged out of gold while Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. Well, the sages say that to wear leather on our feet would remind Jews of how they strayed from the Almighty at a time when they should have been blindly obedient. So, no leather is the watchword, although technically just the shoe bottoms is all required. The rest of the laws of Shabbat (no writing, making fire, doing work, etc.) are also observed, but the major difference is that on the Sabbath we are required to eat. Yes, it's in the fine print of observance for the day, although some vegetarians are shocked to find that the specific reference is to eat meat. That's because eating meat at a meal is seen as a special event and the sages (there they are again) decided that the Sabbath deserved a special meal to set it apart from the regular week when we may or may not decide to eat meat. Yom Kippur is a major fast day. It begins at sundown and ends sundown plus about a half hour after sunset the following day. We cannot eat or drink anything. With the exception of necessary medications, we cannot pass anything between our lips except for prayer and greetings to friends and family at the synagogue or temple. The upshot of the Day of Atonement, though, is to focus less on ourselves, but to strengthen the relationship between ourselves and the Almighty by acknowledging the sins we have perpetrated against others or have occurred beyond our control over the past year. I must admit it is a good way to start the year off right with a clean slate. Those sages (again with the sages) instruct us that our names are inscribed in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah, but that our fate is sealed on Yom Kippur. Who will live, who will die, who will gain wealth, who will be poor, etc. is all inside that book. With the current state of the stock market and the worldwide financial crisis, I wish I could get a sneak peek into that book to recoup some of my recent "corrections" in the market. Then again, maybe not. Only joking, Lord.

The Needle and the Damage Lagged

Terry Soltzberg and the Space Needle's own Lunar Orbiter

Twice in as many months I have been to the Northwest and found myself traveling backwards against the natural progression of the time zones. I have done that only a few times before and can't say that I noticed any residual effects like I've experienced last month and at this juncture. I am fairly certain that I am in the throes of what travelers call jet lag. It is odd that the only cure to jet lag is its same cause: to wit, time. Of course the reason our inner clocks are so off kilter is due to changes in our inner clocks. According to experts, it takes a day for one hour of time zone change to be corrected. So, since I crossed over two hours, I should expect to take at least two days to fully recover. Only one problem. Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Wednesday, hardly enough time to prepare for fasting.  Guess I'll have to pray that I make it through the affliction.

Meanwhile, I wanted to publicly thank Clevleand's own Terry Soltzberg of Midwest Information Systems or Infosys, who was my companion during the recent SMB Nation conference in Seattle.  The last night we both flew out of Sea-Tac Airport together and took time to dine in the restaurant at the Seattle Space Needle before our respective flights.  It was a magnificent repast with the piece de resistance of a Lunar Orbiter, a chocolate sundae served atop a  dish holding a bed of dry ice that smokes up the table. It was wild and definitely worth the trip. Terry is seen with the timeless dessert above that has been served inside the Space Needle since it opened in 1962. Thank you, Terry, for all you did to make me feel at home in Seattle.

Worrying about the Windows way

Microsoft VP Cindy Bates with Erig Ligman, SMB Nation CEO Harry Brelsford and Arnie Mondloch

The question that many in the field of computing and small business support have to consider today is whether to hitch their stars to the Microsoft Windows wagon blindly and hold on with all their might or keep their eyes open and do much the same. Windows Small Business Server 2008 has so much potential for providers and for end users that to find another business solution with as much potential and promise as what it will offer businesses would be impractical. But change is always forthcoming and dealing with it is always stressful. The last day of the SMB Nation conference started with several Microsoft executives who presented opportunities for computer consultants and small and medium businesses alike. Frankly, the auditorium was full of very dedicated consultants and professionals who have more than a glimmer of worry about what these changes will portend for themselves and their business clients. Microsoft is cutting much of the financial incentives they have offered to their partners in the past, while now attempting to encourage end users to work directly with Microsoft "in the cloud." This is definitely making many IT professionals upset with the way Microsoft is attempting to skim off clients and business. At the same time many IT professionals and managed services providers are anxious to implement upgrades and work closely with their partners in providing cutting edge opportunities to their customers. In a very real sense it is becoming less necessary for computer consultants to know the needs of their clients' computers and more for them to become a trusted advisor to the business. Dealing with security, data backup and making businesses more productive is the great aim that everyone at SMB Nation has in view. But the bigger question is how to make their own businesses more profitable too without losing clients to Microsoft. Microsoft U.S. Partners Strategy, Marketing and Programs vice-president Cindy Bates and two members of her team, Eric Ligman and Arnie Mondloch, unveiled programs that will enrich many of the members in the audience and make many happy clients too. Partnering with Microsoft has great potential and the returns in investment can be incredible, we all learned today. But if Microsoft really values the IT professionals who have grown their clients into profitable end users, they might want to consider that we are a big reason for that. How we implement Microsoft's business solutions and how quickly they go out into the marketplace will determine whether it is advisable to worry about the future or to roll forward with it with a smile on our faces and profits on our books.

Meeting Clay Eals at SMB Nation event

Clay Eals, the author of Steve Goodman: Facing the Music is a longtime resident of Seattle and he was kind enough to show up this morning and meet with me to chat about his favorite musician. Goodman, the talented performer and composer who died in September of 1984, was the well-researched subject of Eals' 778 page volume published by ECW Press. He was kind enough to sign my book and talk about Goodman and what he has meant to him. He even wore his City of New Orleans Amtrak jacket in my honor.

Telephonation for a nascent telephony

Captain Harry Brelsford steering the Telephonation ship

So many of you may be wondering what is this strange thing called VoIP? It's pronounced VOYP and like orange and purple I have yet to find a rhyme for it in English. VoIP stands for "voice over IP" (as in Internet Protocol) and it is a technology in which the Internet is married to present phone technology to permit transmission of telephony over the Internet. It is an opportunity to add voice to the computing mix and has limitless possibilities for businesses who look to save on the cost of existing phone lines by replacing them with individual IP phones. These IP phones have been making great incursions into the marketplace and for small and medium businesses in the Enterprise looking to replace outdated systems VoIP is a prime consideration. Because of its many features like integrated voice and e-mails and the fact that most businesses now maintain "fat pipes to the cloud" (high speed Internet access), VoIP is fast becoming one of the greatest cost-saving measures to be implemented over a local area network. At SMB Nation, CEO Harry Brelsford just announced the launch of Telephonation. With Microsoft's Response Point coming on strong now, VoIP technology is becoming a viable option even for the small business owner who needs to put in a simple telephone system. Imagine saving on the cost of inside wiring and renting phone systems from typical vendors like AT&T or cable systems. No longer does a business owner have to pay a substantially higher cost for phones or deal with mediocre bandwidth utilization. It may surprise some to learn that the largest number of vendors appearing at SMB Nation this year are voice sponsors. VoIP solutions have been available for a number of years from vendors like Cisco, but business owners were not endeared to the high cost of licenses per seat that could send the cost well over $300 per phone. At that rate, AT&T and cable seemed reasonable. However, as more players have jumped into the telephony game, costs and licensing have come spiraling downward. It now makes sense to examine the IP phone as a cost-effective business solution. With SMB Nation CEO Harry Brelsford taking the wheel of the Telephonation ship, will VoIP steer into clear waters or is the channel already too crowded with other worthy vessels? Only time and a steady hand at the tiller will tell.

Experts SBS Diva Susan Bradley and the legendary Ofer Shimrat

Yesterday's general session with SBS Diva Susan Bradley and Ofer Shimrat on the "gotchas" associated with implementing Windows SBS 2008 was a perfect wedding of the best of practices for software (from Bradley) and for hardware (from Shimrat). Bradley's SBS Diva blog has been a font of extremely useful information, while Shimrat has long cultivated a reputation as a master of building well-designed hardware solutions. While the two of them offer very high levels of knowledge about SBS 2003 R2 (not shipping from Microsoft as of October 1), there were a number of questions about implementing SBS 2008 that gave these two experts much to consider. Bradley and Shimrat both pointed to huge memory utilization by the OS that required a minimum of 4GB of RAM to adequately allow the server to idle properly. Microsoft officials in fairly small numbers at this year's SMB Nation (as opposed to previous years when the event was held in Redmond) might well have cringed over many of the problems they both saw with the long awaited OS in addition to migration guru Jeff Middleton's alarming notes on migration paths and potential pitfalls in an earlier morning session. Then again, there was the quote from a Microsoft worker in the convention hall who said yesterday "I'm from Microsoft. I'm here to help." Makes me feel so warm and fuzzy.

Las Dos Amys

Amy Babinchak and Amy Luby at SMB Nation's Saturday lunch

Two of the important ladies attending SMB Nation are both named Amy. Amy Babinchak is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) who handles support services for IT professionals like me and others attending SMB Nation. She is considered an expert on firewall protection and has advocated very strongly for ISA Server under the Windows Small Business Server platforms. One of the interesting turns for IT professionals that has happened since the announcement of the release of Windows SBS Server 2008 has been the decision by Microsoft to no longer include ISA Server in its newest platform. That has translated into a number of hard decisions by IT consultants as to how to maintain ISA Server under a Windows SBS 2008 environment or whether to find a hardware device or software solution that might do the same job as ISA. Babinchak's talk titled "Decisions, Decisions, Decisions," dealt with many of these challenges for those IT professionals who protect networks from outside attacks or intrusions that might emanate from within. A remote operator who telecommutes from a home computer might not know that his or her son downloaded a malware last night while downloading a hip-hop. When he gets authentication to enter the workplace network, he has unwittingly allowed the malware to propagate on the network. Amy is one of those IT professionals who advises against such practices and she is paid well for her wise advice by her own clients who look to her for pearls of knowledge and best practices. Meanwhile, the IT industry has been going through a paradigm shift lately as a result of the managed services business model. Instead of the old business model of "break/fix," wherein a client notifies an IT professional that something is not working and that his or her services are needed, the managed services business model is proactive and robust. Amy Luby, the CEO of MSPSN (MSP Services Network) also caters to IT professionals who are looking to get a piece of a $42 billion industry. That's correct. $42 billion. Luby helps bring IT consultants the ability to manage their own businesses as well as to integrate them into managed services for their own clients. Being able to fix network problems remotely, back up data, prevent unwanted intrusions and report on this for clients is something that I am keenly interested in for my clients. Also, being able to better manage my own company resources is something that is also a high priority for me. So, the two Amys have quite a number of followers who respect what they do and say. It's fascinating that two lovely ladies can attract so many because of the charm of their business applications in addition to their pulchritude. 

SMB Nation in Seattle

Jeff Middleton prepares his presentation as SMB Nation CEO Harry Brelsford introduces him

The sixth annual SMB Nation conference presided over by business support guru Harry Brelsford started up this morning in Seattle, the major city closest to the elephant of the computing industry, Microsoft. Previous SMB Nation conferences have been held in Indianapolis and in nearby Redmond, the real location of Microsoft world headquarters. This event is a "must do" for many of the small and medium support network of computer administrators and network engineers who are looking to find out the best way to support their clients and get themselves more business in the process. The first keynote presentation was by David Brown of Intel, who focuses on the concerns of businesses and computer support administrators who are interested in finding the cheapest, most energy efficient and easiest to maintain products available. Intel's Core 2 products were discussed as well as innovative new solutions that promise better integration for professional offices and businesses in the marketplace. ONe of their products supports as many as 14 2.5 inch hot-swapable hard drives with up to six server blade components. It was quite impressive, especially as Intel designed it to work with existing software solutions that make it a workable solution practically out of the box. New Orleans's own Jeff Middleton had a talk on "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" of server migration under the just-released 2008 Microsoft SBS (Small Business Server). Suffice it to say that much of what existed before has gone away and many of the best methods used to deploy servers in the marketplace have been replaced by new methods or no longer exist. It's a muddled field right now, but if anyone can figure it out, Jeff Middleton, whose SBSmigration.com stages its own annual conference, will definitely do it. Meanwhile, a great number of other speakers are heading to the conference over the course of the next few days in overcast and moist Seattle.

The Death of Mortimer

When I was a kid, I was a voracious reader and I loved Walt Disney films. One of the earliest books I can recall was a small Disney volume named "Ben and Me," a preposterous tale about a church mouse named Amos, who was Benjamin Franklin's apprentice, replete with three-cornered hat and overcoat. In the 1953 film of the same title, the late Sterling Holloway played both the role of narrator and Amos. (Many will recall that Holloway's sweet voice was most notably used by Disney for the "Winnie the Pooh" movies.) As a young reader, I was very taken with the character of Amos, who, according to the tale, came up with the concepts of bifocals and the Franklin stove and proved that lightning and electricity were one and the same.  Amos did the work, but allowed Dr. Franklin to take credit for them. This was a very endearing mouse, who investigated corruption and reported it in the Pennsylvania Gazette for his master. Yes, mice were helpful, friendly creatures I reasoned as a lad. Years later, though, I read the true story about mice and their larger cousins. I learned about the Bubonic Plague and how these rodents and the fleas they bore killed off nearly half of the populace of Europe. I learned first hand about the numbers of mice and rats that frequented the finest eating establishments around the world, including many of them here in New Orleans. One of the lingering problems that Hurricane Katrina left in its wake was and still is abandoned properties. When humans no longer frequent an abode, mice or rats can move right in. That's apparently what happened in my nearly two-year absence following Katrina when I lived and worked in Cleveland. About a year ago I noticed that my front door had little shavings that seemed to be the work of a small creature and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw a small mouse run across my living room floor and into the front anteroom only to disappear under a floorboard. I was able to trap two of the little ones with sticky trays that hold them in place. I couldn't find it in me to kill them once I trapped them, so after I captured them, I placed them outside in the refuse bin. I'm sure they eventually died, but I couldn't deal with dispatching these cute little creatures. Then there was Mortimer. Mortimer was the name I had given to the bold rat that had been hanging out in my kitchen the last month or so, staring at me in the middle of the day or foraging for crumbs at night, scampering away through a hole underneath my dishwasher when the lights would go on. He seemed unfazed no matter how many epithets or brooms I hurled in his direction. He was bound and determined to stay and I was just as unswerving in my zeal to rid my home of him. I tried rat traps with peanut butter. Mortimer enjoyed the treat after unsetting the trap. Trays of poison would disappear, but Mortimer remained. I think he thrived on everything I could throw at him. All the while, I kept thinking of Amos and how smart he was and, of course, all those other friendly cartoon mice like Mickey, Minnie and Mighty. I didn't want to hurt Mortimer, but I sure didn't want him living in my house. Yesterday, as I was ready to leave the house, I noticed something on the sidewalk. My heart skipped a beat as i realized it was Mortimer! As near as I can figure it, he must have fallen off a wire that leads to the attic of my house from the street. Was it a misstep? Or was it an attack by my other uninvited house guests -- the pigeons? In any event I find I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, I'm glad he is gone and that my house is now rodent-free. Yet, on the other hand, I am somewhat sad that he has gone. Then again, Mortimer was no Amos.  Take a look for yourself: