2009-04-09 · 16:12

Now’s the time to invest in training

The media’s been flooded with news about various kinds of job training, including Microsoft’s Elevate America program and various state programs targeted at autoworkers, manufacturing workers, and so on. This makes sense, given that the economic mess we’re currently in means that there’s a lot of turmoil and uncertainty about jobs at all levels. Getting better training almost always makes sense, especially if that training helps increase your market value.

Greg Taylor, who runs the Microsoft Certified Master for Exchange program, just e-mailed me to say that he only has 2 open slots in the next MCM | Exchange course, starting May 4. We’ve had a lively debate about whether the MCM certification is actually valuable, in the sense that it’s worth what it costs. After seeing the back-and-forth between people like Tony Redmond (who owns H-P’s Microsoft consulting business), Gary Cooper, and Devin, the answer is clear: yes.

How is that possible? Simple. First, you get training that’s literally not available anywhere else. A couple of weeks ago, I was there when Tim McMichael was teaching CCR and SCR. In the back of the room were Scott Schnoll and Ross Smith IV. It would be difficult to conceive of a better group to teach the real-world intricacies of how CCR and SCR can be deployed.

More importantly, when H-P (or IBM, or Dell, or other large shops) go in to a customer, the customer already knows them. They’re not facing the problem of trying to convince a customer that a smaller, lesser-known shop can do a great job– and can justify its bill rates. On the other hand, for smaller consultancies, MCM | Exchange is a terrific way to immediately lock the competence flag to 1. As Microsoft continues to evangelize the program, this effect will grow. That’s why I’d jump into this rotation if I could… but I can’t. However, you, dear reader, can. It’s true that the training is about $13,000 (plus your living expenses). However, I believe strongly that for independents and smaller shops, you can sbsolutely recoup this value, and more. Check out the page, and if you’re interested in signing up, ping me directly and I’ll put you in touch with Greg.

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2009-04-02 · 13:47

BYU Radio on the go

The LDS Church’s annual General Conference is this weekend. So is our trip to Louisiana. What to do?

Normally we watch the conference broadcasts in the comfort of our living room. This is easy because Dish Network, DirecTV, and U-Verse all carry BYU TV, and we’ve found that in extremis connecting my laptop to the TV and watching their live Internet stream works fine too. None of these, however, will work well in the van as we drive south.

Enter ooTunes, an iPhone application that can stream live radio stations over the Internet. It supports Windows Media streams, which not coincidentally are the kind that BYU Radio uses. I tested it this morning and it works quite well, even over a cellular connection. So, problem solved: we’ll plug the iPhone in to the van’s input jacks, launch ooTunes, and listen to conference as we roll. (As a backup, I’ve already told the U-Verse box to record it, just in case– there’s too much good stuff in conference talks to miss them!)

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Filed under Spiritual Nourishment, Travel

2009-03-23 · 10:58

The Universe In a Mirror (Zimmerman)

The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It

As I was scanning this morning’s New York Times, I saw an obituary for Art Code. I’d never heard of him, but he was an instrumental player in the creation of the Hubble Space Telescope. That was only one of the many things I learned from reading Zimmerman’s excellent book on the genesis, development, deployment, and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Zimmerman has written a fascinating account of the early genesis of the whole idea of space-based telescopes; much of this early work was done by Lyman Spitzer, another scientist you probably haven’t heard of but who (IMHO) deserves wider recognition (and who was born in Toledo!)

Zimmerman clearly and engagingly chronicles the process by which we got the Hubble, including the (almost-incredible) bungles made by Perkin-Elmer in finishing the primary mirror, the drawn-out process of figuring out what the actual problem was, and the ingenious engineering solution (COSTAR) that fixed it. If anything, he provides too much detail of some of the bureaucratic wrangling. It’s easy to get lost in his description of the wrangling that took place between various factions at different NASA centers and the Space Telescope Science Institute. However, he does a splendid job of articulating how revolutionary the HST was as a scientific instrument, and how much knowledge astronomers in different specialties were able to learn from it.

If you have even a passing interest in Big Science, this is a great read; likewise if you’re an astronomy buff. Highly recommended.

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2009-03-16 · 14:17

Two continuous cluster replication white papers

Missy has been pretty busy lately. Apart from working incredibly hard on some very cool Exchange 14-related stuff, she recently completed two white papers. The first one examines the interplay between continuous cluster replication (CCR) and direct attached storage, in an attempt to answer the question of whether you have to use SANs for efficient and safe CCR deployment. The second examines the pros and cons of CCR versus single copy cluster (SCC) deployment. Both of them are worth reading if you’re interested in using CCR with Exchange.

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2009-03-13 · 16:30

Moving to Seattle

I can’t believe I’ve forgotten to blog about this, but apparently I did: we’re moving to Seattle.

When: it depends on when our house sells. It’s on the market now. We’ve had a few showings, with good feedback thus far. In fact, as I was writing this, we got notice of another showing tomorrow, and we have an open house on Sunday. Houses are selling better in Perrysburg and Sylvania than in the overall metro Toledo area, so we’ll have to see what happens. We might get a buyer tomorrow, or it might be in 2010. This uncertainty would normally be driving me CRAZY but it hasn’t been too bad (see below to find out why).

How: we don’t know yet. Ideally the house here would sell before the kids start school in the Seattle area (so, before about 1 September); that way we could move without the disruption inherent in a mid-year move. We’ll probably do the U-Pack thing again, at least for most of our furniture, then hire a real mover for anything fragile or valuable. That’s probably the best balance between cost, hassle, and breakage. As of right now we’re planning to drive cross-country to actually get there, but we’ll have to see what the weather’s like when we get ready to go. Matt and I want to hit the C.M. Russell museum’s bison exhibit on the way if at all possible, and according to Tim and Julie there are lots of other cool things to do en route.  

Why: this is a simple question, but with a complicated answer. We moved here in 2002 to be closer to my parents after my dad had an unexpected blood clot that hospitalized him; Tim being here was an unexpected bonus. We quickly grew to love Perrysburg. People here have a great sense of community, our local church ward is full of wonderful people, the schools are excellent, and it’s a vibrant place with excellent services.

Over the last 18 months or so, though, I’ve gradually developed the realization that it would be best for 3Sharp if I were in Redmond more often, even permanently. After Dad’s accident, Mom decided to move down to Louisiana, and with Tim gone too, much of the initial reason to live here was gone. Arlene and I started talking about the possibility of moving several months ago, but neither of us took it seriously– we agreed to put off a serious exploration until after New Year’s Day. So, we did, and all was well.

I thought about moving, and made some desultory (and, frankly, rather lazy) attempts to pray for guidance, but to no avail. Shortly after the first of the year, we had a Sunday School lesson that covered Doctrine and Covenants section 9. I was already generally familiar with the principle: the Lord expects us to do the legwork, examine alternatives and options, and make decisions using the brains He gave us. We can always seek confirmation of our decision, but that’s not the same as asking Him to tell you what to do. That was the missing ingredient.

So, I went back and started really thinking about it seriously. What were the pros? (Where to begin? Much less travel for me; great opportunities for growth for the whole family; proximity to the temple; beautiful scenery; new things to explore; a really diverse environment for the boys, a whole new part of the country to explore, more gluten-free foods…) What were the cons? (Housing costs, obviously, plus the upheaval of dragging everyone across the country, particularly for Arlene) On balance, I decided that the pros outweighed the cons, so I told Arlene what I’d been thinking about. She too had been giving the idea a more serious look. Once we started praying about it, it became clear that moving was the right thing for our family to do– but that it would happen when it happened, not necessarily on our schedule.

Where: somewhere on the east side of the metro area. Our office is in Redmond, so I’d like to be reasonably close to it. There are some great bargains in Snoqualmie and other nearby areas, but I don’t know if I’m ready to take on a 30+ minute commute each way after nearly 11 years of commuting from the breakfast room to my office down the hall. I’ll be in the office some days and working from home some days, so that will help make the transition easier. We’ve been making heavy use of Redfin to look for houses: partly because it’s effective, and partly because it’s fun to window-shop.

More news when there is news– now I have to go clean up my office before the showing tomorrow.

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2009-03-12 · 21:49

Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School (Broughton)

Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School

It’s hard for me to decide how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I appreciate its candor and clarity. Broughton spent years in the newspaper business, and he is an engaging writer with an excellent eye for scene-setting and description. His portraits of the characters in his Harvard Business School (HBS) class are sharply drawn, enough so that I felt I was there in the classroom with him at some points.

On the other hand, he essentially enrolled at HBS, going about $175,000 in debt, to see whether business school might afford him some other career opportunities. While most of his other classmates had clear goals (mostly involving the amassing of personal wealth, sadly but unsurprisingly), he seemed to be trying to decide what he wanted to do. In that respect, he was in HBS but not of it; to me that seems like quite a wasted opportunity.

Broughton makes some excellent points about the cultural impact of MBAs, writing that “MBAs determine the lives many of us will lead, the hours we work, the vacations we get, the culture we consume, the health care we receive, and the education provided to our children.” Through that critical lens, he examines what he learned at HBS and finds it somewhat wanting. He cites Andrew Carnegie as an example; Carnegie was perhaps one of the least ethical, even rapacious, businessmen ever to walk the earth, yet he is chiefly remembered for his many good works later in life. Broughton asks the fair question of whether having more Carnegies is on balance a good thing for the US, and by extension the world.

From the perspective of a small business owner, I certainly enjoyed the descriptions of the various HBS classes. Some clearly would be of use to me, while others wouldn’t. As an inducement to attend HBS (which it clearly isn’t intended to be), the book falls short. As a lucid description of the experience, and a thought-provoking reflection on the effects of the business culture driven in large part by HBS graduates and marketing, it succeeds quite well. Highly recommended.

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2009-03-10 · 09:18

Unified communication news roundup, March 09 edition

I’ve been collecting bits and pieces of information that were too short to make meaningful posts on their own– now I’ve mashed them together to make a semi-meaningful post.

First, OCS/LCS guru Joe Schurman has a new book out: Microsoft Voice and Unified Communications. As soon as I got Dustin Hannifin’s mail announcing it, I ordered it.

Second, I found that Microsoft has an extensive listing of products that have been certified as supported with OCS 2007 R2 under the Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program. There’s a lot of interesting stuff there (including the fact that I’m a revision behind on my 3300 firmware).

Third, OCS and Speech Server MVP Marshall Harrison launched a new site, GotUC.net. It’s a portal dedicated to the OCS development community. It’s still fairly new, so there isn’t much there, but I expect that to change over time– drop by and say hi.

I also need to write a summary of my MVP Summit experiences, but that will have to wait until later.

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2009-03-09 · 14:31

Two warranties: American Standard and Microsoft

About two years ago, I bought Arlene an American Standard Champion toilet for Valentine’s Day. Not too long after, I added another one in the hall bathroom downstairs. Over time, they both developed odd flushing behavior caused by the design of their flush system. It uses what they call a Flush Tower; it’s basically a concentric pair of cylinders where the flush lever lifts the inner cylinder, which in turn lifts the outer cylinder and dumps water through the trapway.

One toilet has decided to just make a loud “clunk” when you flush it. That’s caused by the inner cylinder dropping down prematurely instead of engaging and lifting the outer cylinder. The other one flushes, but the outer cylinder drops too soon, so it only releases about half as much water as it should.

I called American Standard’s customer service department and spoke to a very pleasant lady who agreed that the toilets were still under warranty (with a 10-year warranty I should hope so!) She told me that the Flush Tower had been redesigned and that they’d be happy to send me two new ones via FedEx. That’s the kind of customer service I like (though I’m not looking forward to pulling the tanks from both toilets to replace the towers).

In other, and completely unrelated, news, about six weeks ago. the living room Xbox 360 died with a RROD. I used the Xbox web site to get a repair case opened and sent it off; it came back about two weeks later. In the meantime, I moved the basement 360 to the living room, then we started remodeling the basement, then we went out of town… and so on. Bottom line: I plugged the newly repaired 360 in last night and it immediately failed again. Now I have to send it back, wait for them to fix it, and reinstall it. If only there were a cross-ship option. Or, if only the frigging things wouldn’t fail so often in the first place. There, I said it. Now I feel better.

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2009-03-06 · 00:51

On the Microsoft Certified Master program

Brent Ozar posted an interesting piece on the value of the MCM credential. He argues that the value in being an MCM comes primarily to people who already have the ability to act as a force multiplier, making the people around them more effective. That’s one of the reasons that I’m happy that Devin’s earned his MCM; he has great potential to use what he’s learned to provide a field effect that will really help our customers.

I’m going to be teaching the Exchange UM portion of the MCM Exchange class, starting either in March or May. I’ve decided to hold off on going through the whole program until we’ve finished our move to Seattle; it’ll be much easier without the added hassle of being away from home. I’m tempted to skip the Exchange 2007 MCM and wait for the Exchange 14 version (which, of course, is a ways off), and instead go for the MCM OCS certification. Jens’ description is very tantalizing.

BTW, the MCM team has a great blog. If you’re at all interested in the MCM program, you should check it out.

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2009-03-04 · 13:45

Dear Zipcar: first impressions matter

image943888651.jpgFirst impressions matter sooooo much. Here’s what I saw when I approached the car; obviously it’s been parked near Big Bird’s nest a little too long.

Other than that, it was a good experience. It was fun driving a hybrid, and the car location was perfect for what I needed. I will definitely use Zipcar again.
Update: not long after I posted this, I coincidentally got an e-mail from someone in the Zipcar Seattle office asking how my first Zipcar rental went. I sent her a link to this post, and within two hours I got an e-mail response telling me that she had dispatched someone to pick up the car and get it cleaned. With that kind of responsiveness I’ll absolutely use Zipcar in the future.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

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2009-03-03 · 13:12

New York Times surrenders to Marines

Well, not really. They did, however, overturn their longstanding style rule that says that “Marines” shouldn’t be capitalized. The Marine Corps Times has the whole story, drawn from the Times’ Philip Corbett’s blog entry here. Semper fi, Old Gray Lady!

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Filed under General Stuff, Smackdown!

2009-03-03 · 12:46

Outlook 2007 programming chapters online

Long-time Outlook MVP Sue Mosher (who is a really interesting person besides!) wrote Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming: Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
a year or two ago, and Microsoft just put three chapters online from it. If you’re doing Outlook development at all, this will probably be a valuable read. Sue points out that the chapter on working with item bodies has a lot of information that she’s never seen published anywhere else.

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2009-03-03 · 12:24

At the MVP Summit

I’m excited to be at this year’s MVP Summit. (In fact, I’m in an Exchange 14-themed session right now). The summit team has their own blog, and lots of other MVPs are blogging about it. I have a huge backlog of blog entries to write, but I won’t be blogging much about the specific sessions because they’re under NDA. Too bad, because there are some E14 features that totally rock my socks off.

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2009-02-24 · 10:12

My next vehicle: not a Chrysler

I’ve been a loyal Chrysler/Dodge owner since I bought my first new car back in 1990. In general, their cars (and especially their minivans) have fit my needs really well, and they’ve been reliable enough. However, in the last month, our 2005 Grand Caravan’s reliability has fallen off a cliff. To wit, here are the repairs it’s needed recently:

  • a new water pump
  • a new set of plugs and wires
  • a new shaft and seal for the power steering system
  • a new front blower motor, without which there’s no heat

That’s not including the things that should be fixed but are too much hassle, like the intermittent fault that sets off the alarm about a third of the time when you use the power liftgate. (Update: I forgot to include the oxygen sensor in the above list.)

So, sorry, Chrysler. Bankruptcy or not, the next time I buy a vehicle it won’t be one of yours. It will most likely be an American-made Honda. (Update: Missy suggests an American-made Nissan Quest– something I’ll definitely look into.)

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2009-02-09 · 11:48

Wayne Hale five years later

In January 2004, I posted a note about Wayne Hale, the NASA deputy program manager for shuttle operations. He was taking responsibility for the Columbia disaster. Five years later, he’s still stirring things up. Godspeed, Mr. Hale.   

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