Memories of an old tech guy

I have been posting all my tech articles on Tech Republic these days. But I put so much work into this one that I wanted to enhance it with photos here on my own blog. This post was entitled, "Old tech guys are slowly fading away" on my Tech of all Trades blog.

I love visiting computer history sites and watching computer history shows. Why? When I visit these sites I gain a perspective on a part of my life that I did not have at the time I was passing through it. For example, when I first started programming in Applesoft on an Apple II computer, I thought it would be a great business language. Ha!

I know I am going to be dating myself when I bring this up, but humor an old tech guy for a few minutes . I remember when we used to sell software on cassette tapes. We put it in baggies and hung it on a peg board on the wall, right next to the the Commodore PET and the Apple II.

People would bring in the TRS-80 computers (we called them trash-80) and ask us to repair them because the local Radio Shack didn't service their own stuff . What year would you say this was? If you guessed 1978 you would be right. I'll bet that's before some of you were born.

When I got out of college I went to work as a programmer for some "old school" programming shops. I wrote in RPG II on an IBM System 3 and in COBOL on a Sperry Univac 90/30. That machine was a dinosaur even then. The hot new technology was writing in BASIC and Datashare on a DataPoint ARC network.

I used to love to visit COMDEX in those early years of the microcomputer. I was amazed to see all the technology that was coming out. With thousands of other geeks we ogled over the new Micromodem II for the Apple, which sold for about $300. Since I worked for an early computer store I got it for a lot less. My whole world changed.

I can't tell you how many hours I wasted "surfing the net" back in the late 70's and early 80's. No, the Web did not yet exist and most people had not heard of the Internet. We dialed up places like CompuServe and "The Source" or would just connect to TymNet or TelEnet to see whose network we could log on to. Was that hacking? Maybe.

Rather than bore you with my old tech guy memories, perhaps a short list of some of my favorite computer history sites might be helpful if you are interested in learning more about the history of the personal computer. But be careful, if you have any work to get done today, this trip down memory lane will seriously sidetrack you.

1. The Computer History Museum- The online home of the museum on Shoreline drive in Mountain View. Go to the Exhibits section. You can spend hours viewing the collection of marketing brochures. I especially love their time lines. They even have a great YouTube channel. Careful - I warned you this could be detracting from real work.

2. Apple Computers -Because a big part of my early career involved Apple II computers, I like to include Steven Weyhrich's site on Apple II History. You can find other sites like Apple-History.com, but it hasn't changed much lately. The Apple Museum is a better site and the Wikipedia article is great. Where is the "official" Apple history site?

3. Old-Computers.com - One of my favorites. There are nearly a thousand computers in their museum. Use the index on the left-hand sidebar. The articles in the history section are great, the forums are active and something unique that I haven't seen anywhere else - a major list of collectors from all over. Great if you have an old computer to buy or sell.

4. Computer Science Lab- John Kopplin put together a four part pictorial of computer history through the early 80's. Some of the photos are rare which I have not seen elsewhere. The accompanying descriptions could be taken from a college lecture on the history of computers. The lecture ends as the PC was getting started but is well worth a visit.

5. Computer Chronicles - Who can forget this great TV series from Stewart Cheifet? It aired from 1981 to 2002. Well, you may have never heard of it. You can watch many of the episodes online at the Internet archive. I highly recommend the episode Apple II forever, one of my favorites. More on the history of the show is on stquantum.

6. Old Computer Museum - Although you can find this site from the Old Computers club (#3 above), it is worth mentioning as one of the best organized and presented. This collection of Boris Serebrennikov is outstanding. If you have an old Lisa or even an Amiga (still a popular retro machine) he is interested in hearing from you.

7. The Computer Collector - This is a fairly complete list, useful to those who have old machines to buy, sell or trade. It is also an enormously wealthy site for computer history buffs. Many of those who buy and sell computers have great historical information about the computers they worked on. Lots of great personal history stories can be found here.

8. IBM PC Official History - It still amazes me how many people believe that the IBM PC was the first microcomputer. We used to laugh at those who thought our industry was "legitimized" when IBM finally made their entry in 1981, easily five years after Altair, IMSAI, Cromemco, Apple, Commodore, Radio Shack, Atari, Altos and Vector Graphic.

9. Personal Computer in TV commercials - The download squad has put together a collection of TV commercials for personal computers, some of them going back to the early 1980's. What a hoot! The early William Shatner piece has been removed but the original 1984 superbowl ad introducing the Macintosh is there as well as many others. Enjoy!

10. Old Computers.net- This list could go on and on - and it does if you Google it - but this one needs to be included in my top ten list of sites to visit. An extremely popular site, it is billed as the "Obsolete Technology Website" it includes great links not found on any of the above sites including the Intel museum. Thank you Steven Stengel.

I know I've missed your favorites. Add them in the comments. Also, be sure to check out the resources for "Dinosaur Sightings" on Tech Republic.

Trouble with Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook

Yes, I know we're a little behind. We have not yet migrated to Office 2007 or Exchange Server 2007. Even though we are a small business with only about 100 seats that's still a big financial commitment. Maybe we'll take the plunge next year. But for today, we are still running a very reliable Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP2. Other than needing to occasionally add storage space, it has been working just fine in our organization for the last three years. Management likes that and so do I.

One thing that management doesn't like is Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook 2003. I don't know why it's so much trouble for them. It works fine for me - always has. We may have a scenario that taxes the capabilities of Cached Exchange Mode to the max. In case you don't know, Cached Exchange Mode is simply Microsoft speak for Offline Folders - a local cache of what's in your mailbox on the Exchange Server. We only use it for employees in remote offices or home offices of execs.

Here is the scenario: Executive A is a high-volume, high-density email user in a far city. He easily sends and receives several hundred emails each day, most of them with large attachments of photos or PDFs with embedded photos. We're talking 5 to 10MB of attachments on many of his daily emails. I have never figured out why it has become so acceptable to send such large attachments. It just kind of evolved over the past few years.

Our industry happens to be aircraft sales but the same scenario could exist in Real Estate, automobiles, yachts or any business that needs to send lots of photos back and forth. The executive in question also uses multiple computers - one in the office and one in the home office, both on the East Coast of the U.S. Both his computers are configured to get his email from our Exchange Server on the West Coast of the U.S. using Outlook 2003 and Cached Exchange Mode.

The executive will work all day on the office computer, log off and then work all evening on the home office computer. The complaint is that it will sometimes take hours for synchronization of the offline folders to take place when first firing up one or the other to check his email. He reports that some emails are delayed by many hours while the cache is playing catch up. His mailbox size is over 7GB with over 32,000 individual email messages in multiple folders.

The far city does not have an Exchange Server. We only have the one on the West Coast. All email flows here and then out to the remote office. The remote office is connected via a VPN - a full T1 line here and a 3.1Mbs / 768Kbs DSL line there. The connection speed on the remote home office is a modest 1.5Mbs / 384Kbs DSL with no VPN. Most of the trouble seems to be when connected at the remote home office. Outlook is configured to get email via RPC over HTTP.

I know this reads like an MCSE exam question. Besides cutting his mailbox size down to a more manageable size, what would you recommend?

Update: I posted this same entry on my Tech Republic blog and received many good suggestions and recommendations there. That's why I post most of my stuff on Tech Republic these days. It has a much larger readership of tech guys like me.

How to protect your digital assets

I posted this on the website of Joel Dehlin, the CIO of the LDS Church in response to a question he asked about how we can protect our digital assets. His post was entitled, "You have the Right to Remain Visible."

Hi Joel,

Good post. In it you wrote, "I’m about as technical as the sole of an old shoe." Oh come on, Joel. You're saying that as the CIO of the church you don't have at least some technical ability in this area? I find that hard to believe. Unless working at Microsoft all those years numbed your technical savvy, that must have been written tongue in cheek.

Seriously, you raise a good point. So many are naive when it comes to protecting their personal home computers from the internet. I have had similar experiences in seeing many open computers when firing up my laptop at home or when travelling. It's just that people don't know about encryption.

What's worse is people who have only one computer in their home which is directly connected to the DSL or cable *without* the firewall turned on. They have no clue that their anti-virus expired months ago and that they have become compromised. They wonder why their computer is so slow. It's because it has become a 'zombie' and is sending out tons of spam under another's control.

I know because I see this all the time. As a computer professional I get calls from people in my ward struggling with this problem in particular. I do not charge for helping them out. I think of the Lord's admonition, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it onto me." It's kind of like an extension of home teaching service.

To answer your question about precautions, here is a short list:

1. Use a firewall. Either make sure the Microsoft firewall is enabled on your XP or Vista machine or use an external firewall. Most people who have a LinkSys wireless router have a firewall and don't know it. Just make sure it is turned on. It is usually on by default so if you haven't changed it, don't worry about it.

2. Clear your cache on a regular basis. It is a simple mater to push the button in Internet Explorer or Firefox but again, most people don't know how. It's just a matter of education. I find that the kids in the family know all about it because they don't want mom and dad to know what sites they have been visiting.

3. Keep your Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware solutions up to date. I know it is a mystery to so many home users but it shouldn't be. They get that new computer for Christmas but don't realize that that the Anti-virus software is a subscription based product that is only good for three months. I can always count on getting calls in April from people who learn this the hard way.

4. Make sure that you only use your credit card number online with secure sites. Today, almost all sites that take credit cards use some method of secure encryption. Never transact online business with companies that do not use encryption. If you see the little padlock in the corner of your browser when you are buying something online, then it is probably secure.

5. If you store lists of credit card numbers or other personal information on your computer in a spreadsheet, consider encrypting that particular spreadsheet. It's not hard to do but most people don't know how to do it. If you use a popular personal financial program like Quicken or MS Money, you can be sure that your financial information stored in the program is encrypted.

6. If you suspect that your Internet Service Provider is tracking the websites you visit, consider changing to another one that does not. In most American communities there are at least three choices for getting on the internet - cable, DSL and now fiber. There are usually a number of small local ISPs that compete with the cable company or phone company. Check it out.

There are more things you can do to protect your digital assets but these are the most common that any home computer user can do. I wish I knew more about how internet access and security (or the lack thereof) works in other countries but that's been my experience here in the United States.

Tim Malone, MCSE - Camarillo, CA - 3tcm.net

The computer doctor is in

I have noticed an interesting phenomenon among my co-workers. As the IT Manager, it is my job to maintain the servers, the computers and the network. I am responsible for security and for the continual availability of the data on our servers to all those who need it. I think I do a pretty good job of that. In fact, it's hard not to. Once technology is put into place and is tuned properly, it just runs and it just works. The secret is in choosing good and reliable technology.

So here's the phenomenon: I practice what is called MBWA - Management by Wandering Around. I learned it from a wise CFO I once worked for. It never ceases to amaze me the number of times I will meander by someone's desk and have them call out to me to get my attention. "Hey Tim," they almost shout, "What's up with Vista? We're having all kinds of trouble with it. Can you help us go back to XP?"

Now, get this. I have not yet implemented Vista in our offices. In fact, there is only one Vista computer in the entire enterprise. So I ask the employee on which computer he is having problems. "Oh, it's my daughter's new laptop that she got for Christmas." I've heard this complaint a lot lately. It seems that Microsoft has done a great job of selling Vista primarily in only one place - in the retail and mail order stores aimed squarely at the consumer.

"Sure, I would be happy to help you," I say. Under my breath I mutter, "Why didn't you ask my advice before you bought it?" It has been over a year since Microsoft rolled out Vista. I have written about it several times in previous posts but am still of the opinion that there is really no need for Vista. It doesn't offer much advantage over XP and in fact, requires an investment in beefier hardware that simply doesn't justify the cost. In other words, it's just not worth it.

This post isn't about Vista. That just happens to be the example I used. The point of this entry is the phenomenon where people seem to feel this innate tendency and need to complain about something when they see the IT Manager even though things are otherwise going extremely well. There's nothing wrong with this employee's work computer. Email is flowing, servers are serving, clients are talking, the Internet is there for anyone to use and abuse all day.

So why do they feel that they just have to share some technological deficiency in their life when I happen to come into the room? Are they just trying to make polite conversation? I can do without the complaints about Vista, but if it's not Vista then it will be about their home wireless network or about their printer at home that is no longer printing. In other words, I get dumped on a lot with stuff that has nothing to do with our computer equipment at work.

I guess I don't mind working on an employee's personal computer problems, as long as the boss knows about it and especially if it is the boss that has asked me to take care of it. But for the most part, it gets a little annoying to be asked every day about computer issues that have nothing to do with work. It's like I'm expected to provide free computer consulting to every co-worker as if it's part of my job description. I guess that's to be expected if you're the expert.

Sometimes the co-worker will listen to my advice and sometimes they won't. I almost always recommend a course of action that they need to take to remedy or further diagnose their problem. Once they ascertain that I'm putting the burden back on them, they quickly turn the conversation to something else. I guess they feel better that they have talked it over with their IT Manager. I sometimes feel like a psychiatrist to all the employees.

What do you think? Is it OK for co-workers to use the IT Manager as a resource for their personal computer problems?

Windows Vista Power Management

I've had a couple of new Vista users complain about the power management features of Windows Vista. It's not really a big deal to change. Like most complaints I get about Vista, it's just in a new and different location. Here is a graphic that summarizes it very succinctly. Click on the image for a larger view

VPNs and Remote Desktop from home to office

More and more employees are working from home these days. That means they use Remote Desktop and need a VPN. Oh there are other ways, but I'm not going to allow employees to use GoToMyPC.com or logmein.com on my network. Sorry, I'm responsible for security so I'll control that access myself, thank you very much.

I don't even like to use PCAnyWhere. I mean, why should you pay for something that is built-in to Windows - Remote Desktop? The thing that makes it all works is the VPN. A virtual private network is just a secure method of getting through the company firewall. It's not a big deal to setup a VPN and Remote Desktop. I've done it dozens of times.

That's why I was really frustrated when our HR manager could not get it set up following the standard instructions that have worked for every other employee that has needed it. Now I don't give remote access to just anybody. They have to have a job that requires it or just can't get enough of work so they take it home with them.

I must have spent four or five hours working on this issue over several months. We tried everything. Sometimes the VPN would connect but the majority of the time it wouldn't. We could never get Remote Desktop to work when the VPN said it was working. So I did something I rarely do - I offered to make an on-site visit to her home to get it working.

Of course the HR Manager was over-joyed. She had shared her frustration with her husband who happens to have his own business and his own computer guy. She suggested that the other computer guy meet us there. All we needed to have a full complement of tech guys was to invite a tech from AT&T to join us. It turns out we didn't need him.

The router was setup to get it's IP address using DHCP. That's not a problem - either DHCP or static works fine and has worked for lots of other employees. The only problem was the gateway it was getting - 192.168.0.1. I would have expected an outside address from the ISP. So we got into the SpeedStream modem at that address. Ah ha! It was running PPPoE.

I've noticed this on a few modems setup by SBC (now AT&T) here in Southern California. My first thought was to change the IP address of the modem to 192.168.1.1. The DHCP on the router was handing out addresses in that range so it only made sense to make the modem the first address in that subnet. We decided to try something else instead.

The modem can run PPPoE, pass-through PPPoE or can be put into a complete bridge mode. We used the second option because the WRT54G router can also be programmed for PPPoE. It worked! The funny thing is that the modem reports that it has no connectivity. I suppose that's because it's PPPoE circuitry has been bypassed. Whatever - it works.

Conclusion: Sometimes it just takes an on-site visit to make things work. I confess I've been spoiled over the past few years because I've been able to support all our remote locations via Remote Desktop without having to physically go there. I like that. Remote Desktop is the greatest single thing on Windows for an IT Manager with multiple locations to support.

Our first Vista implementation

We've finally bitten the bullet and are in the process of delivering a new computer with Vista Business instead of Windows XP installed. Yes, I know we're a little late in the game but not so late when you read what other companies are doing - most are still delaying.

Working with Vista is not at all difficult. The hardest part is figuring out where everything is. I like the interface. I don't like the endless 'are you sure you really want to do that' sort of questions. My opinion of the product has not changed - why do we really need it?

So why did we choose to go ahead with a new Vista workstation when everyone else in the company is still on XP? It was because the computer with the horsepower I wanted and needed for this individual was not available with XP. I think somebody is being sneaky about that.

Of course it is inevitable that we will make the switch. The boss doesn't like it. Sometimes I think he has no clue what an operating system is but then he doesn't need to know in order to run a multi-million dollar organization, does he? That's why he hired me.

So why didn't I just install XP over Vista? I tried. It threw up so many times that it became a waste of my time. I think it had something to do with the lack of drivers for some of the new features of the hardware we got. The old XP CD didn't seem to like PCI-E and SATA drives.

I suppose I could have figured it out eventually, but I would have spent hours and hours just nuking the drive, finding all the right drivers and reinstalling all the applications. I chose to make the investment of those hours in answering questions from the end-user on why Vista is different.

No, I still don't plan to do a wholesale migration of all the computers in the company to Vista. To do that we would have to replace three fourths of them with newer models. That will wait until next year when most of them are scheduled to be replaced. Yes, by next year I mean 2009.

So what do you think? Are we behind the ball on rolling out Vista or ahead of the curve?