Anyone catch Ben Worthen’s article on the Wall Street Journal’s Business Technology Blog? The article, titled “Shocking New Survey: Employees Willfully Violate Security“, got me thinking about Information Technology & Security.
Now…I’m not a security person. I understand the technologies and the reasons for enacting security measures but I have no experience running IT security operations so please forgive my ignorance when I ask this question:
Why spend time and money attempting to secure the network and then not educate the end-users on why those security measures exist?
I’ve seen organizations spend millions of dollars on technology and then have the network taken down by a simple act.
For example, I’ve experienced the damage that a USB Flash drive containing a file with a worm/virus can cause. This USB flash drive was inserted into a computer and within 3 hours then entire network had been taken down. Of course, this virus/worm should have been caught by the virus scanning software on the user’s computer but for whatever reason it wasn’t and it gained access to the network. This simple act caused this organization’s entire network (covering 4 offices and more than 200 people) to be down for 3 days. The cost to repair this outage was astronomical.
The above situation is a difficult one to address with just technology. This organization had spent a lot of money to keep it from happening…but…it happened.
How much easier would it have been to educate that particular user on the danger of not scanning files for dangerous items like a virus or worm? I think it would have been much cheaper than the cost of repairing the entire IT infrastructure. Of course, no amount of education can overcome the mindset of “it won’t happen to me” but at least its worth a shot.
[tags] information technology, Technology, IT, security [/tags]
Anyone have any advice for some good books, websites, blogs, etc related to product management?
I’m learning more about Product Management as a field and would like to dig deeper into subject.
I’ve been using Thunderbird for about 3 months since moving from Gmail to Fusemail and have been fairly happy with it. There are a few quirks that I could do without and/or would like to see changed but I’m working with/around them.
The one thing that Thunderbird is missing ‘out of the box’ is a calendar. Thankfully, the Lightning add-on takes care of that (and does a great job of it). Lightning lets you connect to any iCal and Google Calendar (using the Google Calendar Provider addon) and gives you the ability to create events and tasks (I don’t believe the tasks are replicated to Google Calendar though).
Even better….the latest Lightning update brings this addon to a level that makes it much easier to use and much more attractive. The latest version (ver 0.7) has the following new/updated features:
- It is now much easier to switch between the mail and calendar parts of Thunderbird thanks to a user interface redesign
- Redesigned event/task dialog has been enabled to gather feedback from the community.
- It offers a much cleaner user interface and additional functionality including:
- Events/Tasks can be created in different timezones
- Attendees can be added from a local or corporate LDAP directory
- Free-Busy information is available for users of the Sun Java Calendar Server
- Integrated display of recurrence patterns, reminders and attendees
- Custom recurrences and reminders
- Clear separation between tasks and events
- The new event summary dialog lists all the details of tasks and events for calendar which are read-only
- The Today Pane gives a quick overview over your current tasks and upcoming events. The Today Pane can be enabled/disabled by a toolbar button
- Colliding events (events in the same time slot) are shrunk so that they fit into the display of a day. This no longer affects other events on the same day
- Localized releases of Lightning and Sunbird in Chinese (simplified), Georgian, Lithuanian, Portuguese (European), Spanish (Argentina) and Turkish
If you’re using Thunderbird, you should be using Lightning for your calendar and if using Lighting , definitely download this latest update. It’s much slicker and much easier to use.
NOTE: If you are using Lightning and make this update, make sure you reactivate your calendar. More info is in this thread.
[tags] Lightning, Thunderbird, Technology, Email Clients [/tags]
I thought I was fairly intelligent when it comes to technology, software and gadgets….until I met the world of photography. Wow. I feel like such a non-geek in this realm.
As you might have read, my wife started a photography business (Jordan Brown Photography) and while helping her learn more about the business and the technologies behind photography I realized I know very little about this particular field of technology.
For some reason, taking a good picture isn’t as easy as pushing a button…it requires a lot of work plus a good eye for capturing those special moments.
To all you photographers out there who’ve mastered this particular area of technology, my hat is off to you.
[tags] Photography, technology [/tags]
There are tons of websites, articles and blogs about how to build a relationship with your clients. Much has been written about fostering long term relationships and build client loyalty.
Bank of America - You need to go read those websites.
I’ve been a fairly loyal Bank of America customer for about 5 years now. I opened my first account in 2002 and have been slowly migrating all of my business to BOA over the last 5 years. I moved my business account, my savings account, my investments (including IRA’s and regular accounts), credit cards and personal loans. I even asked a car dealer to setup my car loan through them. I’d say I was pretty darned loyal. My wife has been too…she’s moved all of her accounts over to them too. We even talked about refinancing our home and using BOA for the mortgage.
Now its time to move to another bank. Why?
I’ve been slowly driven away by the small things. Extra fees. Higher interest rates regardless of how good our credit is. The inability to get a question answered on the phone. The inability to setup my US Airways debit card (which I’m paying $40 a year for) to get my miles posted to my USAir account.
The final push away from BOA happened this week.
BOA locked my debit card due to ’suspicious activity’. BOA sent me an email to tell me about the lock and gave me a ’special’ number to call (yet another good thing). I checked to make sure the number was really a BOA number (I’m always suspicious of emails like that) and called the number to remove the hold.
When I dialed the number, I realized it wasn’t a ’special number’ like they said…it was just another number to get into their automated system. After 5 minutes of trying to reach an attendant, I was told I would need to be transfered to their Fraud Department. After another 5 minutes on hold, I was speaking with a young man who had a strong accent and spoke way too fast for the line of work he was in. He started asking me security questions (how long have you had the account, etc) and many of the questions were ones that I had to think about…but because I didn’t answer immediately, he told me that I failed the question and would ask another one.
After about 6 questions he told me he couldn’t help me because I ‘failed the security questions’. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he told me none was available and that I’d have to go to a local BOA branch to get my card unlocked and he then hung up on me. He Hung Up!?
At this point, I’m fuming. I told my wife that I was ready to change banks. About the time of the 3 curse word that came out of my mouth, the phone rings. Its BOA’s automated system calling and asking me to confirm 3 recent charges. After confirming these charges, the system told me that my card was unlocked.
So…I spent 15 minutes on the phone trying to get the card unlocked and was told I failed the security questions and was hung up on. 2 minutes later I’m able to unlock my card via their automated system….something doesn’t seem right.
So long BOA….I may run into the same problems with other banks, but at least I won’t have to deal with rude Customer Service agents at BOA.
You want to know the really bad thing? I love walking into a BOA branch….people are friendly and more than willing to help. I just wish that mentality migrated to the rest of BOA.
[tags] Relationships, Customer Service, Bank of America [/tags]
This update is an easy one: I love Fusemail.
As I noted in my post titled “Moving from Gmail to Fusemail“, Gmail wasn’t quite cutting it for me and I decided to move to Fusemail for ~$7 a month.
I’m perfectly happy with Fusemail. The feature set is awesome….a few highlights are below.
- IMAP access lets me use Thunderbird on my desktop and laptop without having to worry about email storage (IMAP leaves everything on the server).
- Blackberry Access - Using Syncje for Blackberry, I can sync my contacts, calendar and tasks between my blackberry and Fusemail.
- iCal access for Calendar and tasks. I can use Thunderbird (or any other iCal compatible calendar) to keep my Fusemail calendar updated. I had been using Google Calendar for my calendar, but I hated having multiple logins (Fusemail for email, google calendar for calendar, etc) and it seems like the gcalsync program for my syncing my blackberry and google calendar was having difficulties at times…so I switched.
- LDAP - Fusemail provides LDAP access so I can use my contact folder from Fusemail within Thunderbird. This isn’t ideal, but it works. I’ve been trying to get SyncKolab to work…this would allow me to sync my Thunderbird address book with my IMAP server and keep multiple Thunderbird address book’s synchronized…but I haven’t got this program to work just yet
- Fusing of multiple email addresses - I never have to check my hotmail, yahoo mail or any other accounts…fusemail allows me to get the email from these accounts in one locations. Perfect!
- Hosting of email for domains - Instead of just fusing accounts, fusemail allows you to change your MX records in your DNS for your domain. This will send all email to fusemail for that domain…no more lost emails or checking other accounts.
As I mentioned…I love fusemail. If you have the same problems that I do, check them out at http://fusemail.com.
[tags] fusemail, Google, Gmail, Technology, Email [/tags]
So here I am….a consultant. I’ve been operating independently for a while now and have come to the following conclusions:
- The ‘problem’ is very rarely the problem.
- Consulting is an art, not a science. Of course, this applies to most careers, but I think some people lose sight of this. There are many people say ‘do x,y & z’ and you’ll be a successful consultant…this just isn’t true. There isn’t a secret formula to success in the consulting world (or any career for that matter)…the closest thing to a formula is ‘Do the best you can’.
- I like this work and would love to continue doing it….but….I’ve been considering a few full-time opportunities and would seriously consider taking one of these at the right organization.
- There are good clients…and bad clients. If you can, stay away from the bad ones. How do you know who the bad ones are? For me, my gut tells me whether a potential client its into my ‘good’ or ‘bad’ bucket.
- There are a considerable number of people in this world who think you must have experience from a ‘big name’ firm before they’ll hire you as a consultant. Without these ‘big names’ on your resume, many people automatically discount you, your skills and your experience.
That last one is rather disheartening to me…I am who I am and that’s all I can be (didn’t Popeye say that?) 
Received my first piece of hate mail this evening. Maybe hate is too strong of a word…maybe I should use ‘critical feedback’ mail.
In the email, the author called me ‘very pompose and very proud of what little you have accomplished’ (I assume they meant ‘pompous’ instead of ‘pompose’). I’d like to think that I’m not pompous but what do I know. Plus….everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I guess its flattering to have enough readers to actually get something like this. At least I’m getting feedback…or at least noticed on the web.
Its amazing to see what passion can do to a person….and an organization.
My wife Tracie and a business partner (Marcy) officially launched their photography business recently (and I couldn’t be prouder of them). The business, named Jordan Brown Photography (you can view their website @ http://jordanbrownphotography.com), and the pictures that they’ve taken have already started to bring in some business. Not a lot of money mind you…but a little bit.
Both partners still have their ‘day jobs’ and run the photography business in the evenings and on the weekends. Naturally, this has kept them both very busy….but it seems that even though extremely busy, Tracie is extremely happy (and I think Marcy is too). When we talk about the business and photography, I can tell Tracie has a passion for it and really loves taking pictures and learning more about all aspects of photography.
This past weekend, they had a photo shoot for a client on Saturday afternoon and she spent a good portion of the day on Sunday working with the photos in photoshop and working on their website. Not once did she complain that her day was being ‘wasted’ or that she wished she was doing something else. She was truly happy to be doing what she was doing.
I started thinking about the last time I saw passion like that in an organization and I had to think pretty hard to come up with an example.
I sometimes wonder what happens to those bright eyed young people who are passionate about life and their ’causes’ while in high school or college and then somehow, things change. The passion is lost…or at least fades…and those bright eyes dull a bit. I wonder if this dulling happens after leaving college and entering ‘the real world’? I’ve seen a lot of once passionate people enter an organization and very quickly turn into an automaton that ‘goes through the motions’ of corporate life where they do ‘just enough’ to get by.
Could it be that organizations don’t provide an outlet for a person’s passions? Or…could it be that organizations do so much to require uniformity that they snuff out any passion a person might have had for their job?
I have to wonder how many people in this world are lucky enough to be able to hold on to that passion and do what they truly love doing. Those folks that wake up every day and love to ‘go to work’ have really beat the odds.
How about you? Do you love your job? Do you love commuting ‘x’ hours a day to go to work? Do you work long hours because you love what you do or because you know that your boss expects you to?
If you aren’t passionate about your job, what would you do differently? Change jobs? Change organizations? Would your feelings toward your job change if you were allowed to make your own schedule, spend some of your ‘work life’ engaged in activities that you’re passionate about, work from home or just have a little fun at the office?
There are passionate people within many organizations and there are many organizations that embrace and try to maintain passionate employees but I don’t think this is the majority of people and organizations. There seems to be a movement these days within organizations to find ways to create ‘happiness at work’, but I fear that this is either a fad or that the majority of organizations will try to implement a ‘happiness process’ that will try to force happiness on their employees much like they try to force ‘teamwork’ on them through ‘team building exercise’.
Anyone know of any organizations who are going out of their way to help people remain passionate about their jobs/careers? I’d love to hear of some examples.
I’ve just realized that my migration to the http://ericbrown.com domain from http://ericbrownpm.com didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped. Apparently, email to me using the ericbrownpm.com domain has been getting rejected from the mail server for some reason (during the migration I moved servers too).
I think I’ve resolved the issues so any email to my old email address (pm@ericbrownpm.com) should now be working. I’ve you’ve been trying to reach me and haven’t been able to, try the new email address shown below:
[tags] Ericbrownpm.com, email problems [/tags]
