My beloved Seattle Mariners were on TV tonight. Actually, they’re on TV every night since I spend for the right to watch them over the internet. But, I watched them on TV tonight. Generally I watch them on my computer. Not sure that’s important. (Okay, it’s not.)
The Mariners, like all MLB teams are playing a full season this year, 162 games. One hundred and sixty-two games seems like a lot. Basketball has a 72 game season. Pro football just expanded their season to 17 games.
So, 162 is a lot. It takes all summer to play it out. The world series will be in October and November. Football has the fall, but Summer belongs to baseball. At least it normally does. Last year was. . .different. This year we are back to normal.
We went to a wedding reception tonight. And we went to another one the night before. In both cases we knew the bride and her family. Our kids grew up together. Both the brides grew up on our street. One of them two houses over, the other one the next house.
The families, I’m sure coordinated the wedding receptions to make sure they didn’t conflict. Both parties were inviting the group of people.
We are very happy for the kids. And the idea of going to a reception, that weddings were happening, was again, normal.
We could use more normal. Here’s hoping the summer is more normal.
Oh, the Mariners won, keeping them 3 games above .500 and one game out of first place. That’s certainly not normal, but it’s the kind of not normal I’ll take.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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It sort of happened by accident. Well, not accident. No one accidentally installs multiple layers of security in their house. But, I’m sometimes surprised it got this extensive. My house is a house of locks.
You probably have a lock on your front door. Of course you do. You probably can lock your garage door. And you most likely have a lock on the door that goes from your garage to your house. So far, we are on the same page.
We’ve taken it a step further. Every bedroom in our house has a lock on the door. Yours probably do too. But, mine have keys.
Each one different. I have locked closets.
Again with keys. I have a locked storeroom.
And the storeroom off my storeroom has a lock.
I have a locking cupboard.
I have a locking mailbox.
I have a locking freezer.
I have a locking thermostat.
You might wonder how I keep track of all those keys. Well, I have a locking box to keep track of the keys.
I have two separate camera systems. A Ring system
backed up by a hardwired system.
I have two separate internet service providers.
I have more firewalls than I’m going to admit to on a public post.
I don’t think I’m paranoid. But, then, what paranoid person EVER thinks they are paranoid?
While raising our 13 children, we’ve at times had trouble kids in our home. We’ve dealt with kids who were abused who needed to to feel safe. They needed separate rooms. WE needed to prevent opportunities for people to be tempted, or to hurt themselves.
Over the years, the precautions made sense. And they worked. We kept our kids and others safe. But, our kids aren’t really kids anymore. There are three left at home. Two are 21 years old; a service missionary and a college sophomore. The other is a high school senior who will graduate and head out on a mission for the Mormon church shortly after graduation.
So, here I sit in my nine bedroom house, with cameras inside and out, locks outside and in. Even locks on mail, food and thermostat. I almost wish I were a prepper.
We remodeled the backyard last summer. This summer we planned to install a parking strip and finish a bathroom. I’m thinking it might be time to remodel some of our security features. As in, maybe we should lighten up just a bit.
Of course, I’m still not going to tell you how many firewalls I have.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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I’m responsible for over 2000 computers across 7 states. Oh, and three data centers, but they aren’t important to this story. I’m not actually responsible to fix the computers. But, when they break, either individually, or in large groups, I’m responsible for making sure they get fixed.
The outages that affect a lot of computers all at once are easy. An entire team gets on a conference bridge and stays on the bridge until the issue is fixed. We’ve spent as long as 48 hours on an outage bridge. Many have been as short as 30 minutes.
But, when an individual computer breaks, the process is different. The agent creates a ticket with the servicedesk and the ticket gets routed to a technician or an engineer to work on it.
We use a softphone. In other words, a phone that is an application on the computer. There are actually multiple applications that need to work together in order to allow the phone program to work. And like most software programs the manufactures issue updates regularly. But, with something as complex as a softphone, especially making it work with the client’s CSR program and in a virtual environment, updates have to be handled very carefully. It’s not like your Windows computer that updates in the middle of the night by itself.
We recently had to update a program called WXME from version 10.0.7 to 11.0.2. It was kind of a big deal and we had to figure out how to push the update out to all our work at home users at the same time. And we did it. . .mostly. There were a few that got missed.
Sure enough, the ones that didn’t get updated gave errors. . .sometimes. And sometimes they worked fine. But, eventually they broke. And when they broke the solution was to reinstall the WXME application.
And that was supposed to fix it. And it did. . .sometimes. See, when someone is working from home, our engineer can’t it directly. Instead, they have to remotely push the WXME software and make it install itself. And it typically works. . .sometimes.
If it doesn’t work we have to do the process again. If the agent is working in a brick and mortar building, we have more options. The engineer can work directly on the broken computer. We can also move the agent to a another computer.
Unfortunately we’ve been playing whack-a-mole with broken WXME files for weeks. (Probably months, but being the guy responsible for making sure stuff doesn’t break, I like the idea I’ve only been struggling with this for weeks rather than four times that long.)
And it’s really frustrating. Sure, it’s frustrating for me, but it’s even more frustrating for the agents who are not able to do their jobs. We’ve tried working through it. We’ve tried involving more people. We’ve tried several things.
Finally, we had a meeting about it today. We talked over the problem that we all knew existed. Of course, we knew it existed we’ve been battling it for months. (I mean weeks: Weeks!) And what we’ve been trying hasn’t really been working.
Rodney, 100% of the time when we get this error on the softphone it’s because of a bad version of WXME.
100%?
Every time.
I had a thought. Our computers are not unique. In other words, an agent can use any computer. They can move between computers without any issues. And if they can move between existing computers, they can use a brand new imaged computer. When we image a computer, we put a fresh version of everything on it, including WXME. It’s the “new” version.
Here’s an idea, what if instead of “fixing” the computers by reinstalling WXME, what if we just have the agent swap out their computer for a freshly imaged one?
It was a question so obvious that no one bothered to answer. I was even a little embarrassed that it was only after weeks (okay, maybe slightly longer) that I finally thought of it.
I was so stuck on making the way we’d always done it work, that I missed looking at a new way to do it.
We are now going to stop doing it the way we always did it.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I want to sell you something. That’s probably not a great opening line. I’ve never been very good in sales. I’ve typically been too direct.
I want you to buy DigitalFirst Leadership. You can get it from Amazon here. You can splurge for the hardcover at $24.95 or opt for the paperback, or even the Kindle edition at an economical $8.99. (That’s a very reasonable price, wouldn’t you agree?)
The book released today.
I’ve never asked y’all for anything before. (I don’t think so. If I have it was probably something really valuable or important.)
Here’s the sales blurb on DigitalFirst Leadership:
Today, your online reputation doesn’t follow you-you follow it. In an increasingly virtual world, your digital presence defines who you are even before your physical presence. For business leaders-whether you’re an executive, manager, consultant, or entrepreneur-this reality has created incredible opportunities, of which few leaders have taken advantage. There is no better way to do so than through social media tools and the under-appreciated power of LinkedIn.
DigitalFirst Leadership is full of real-life stories first-hand research, and countless conversations with business leaders from around the world. The principles and lessons will help you position yourself online to seize opportunities and respond to crises, all while increasing your online visibility and your organization’s bottom line.
It’s really good. It has 5 stars on Amazon. (Okay, there’s only 2 reviews, but I didn’t write either one. And since it hasn’t actually shipped until today, more reviews will pour in.)
I can tell you that the lessons are excellent. The principles are learned from years of experience. I should know. I was there for many of them. Not directly. It’s not my book. Instead it was written by my smarter, better looking, older brother Richard. (I’m the funny one, if you must know.)
So, if you want to help me help out a family member and get a really valuable and useful book, click on the link here. (It won’t be as funny as mine. Actually, my book was a technical book and not particularly funny at all, so that doesn’t work.)
I’ll be doing a review next week. (Of course I bought a copy. He’s my brother.) Amazon has them in stock.
Don’t Delay! Buy Today!
(Told you I wasn’t very good at sales.)
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’ve been in the revenge business so long, now that’s it over I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.
– Inigo Montoya
I felt great understanding for the vengeful Spaniard last week. I didn’t kill a six fingered man. (I don’t even know a six fingered man.) But, I did achieve this.
This is no ordinary list. In fact, it’s a quite extraordinary list. Monumental even. The list includes:
- + Weed killer lawn
- + Weed killer sidewalk
- + Sand sidewalk
- + Old sink
- + Ring DB / Garage
- + Change Garage Code
- + Miracle Grow garden
- + Jenny Trunk
- + Caulk cement
- X Fix Punching Bag
- + Buy Suburban oil filter
I can see some of the men in the audience nodding their heads in understanding. Yes, this is what you think it is. This the very rare Completed Honey Do List. You might find fault with the “X Fix Punching Bag” item. And “X” means cancelled, not completed. But, my son took his punching bag before I had a chance to fix it. So, even though it’s not marked with a plus sign indicating it’s complete, it’s also not a holdover that has to be done later.
I’d like to say I completed the list on a single Saturday, but it actually took a couple of days. I did complete the entire list within a week. My current Honey-Do list has filled up again. And, next Saturday I’m sure there will still be items left to carry over to the next week.
But, for one brief moment in time, I was done.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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You have one of THOSE?
My daughter came by to get her car worked on; oil change, body work and tire rotation. I had no idea she knew what an impact driver was. It’s one of my favorite tools. It was an extravagance, the driver, the spool and the compressor.
Why do you want your tires rotated?
The maintenance schedule says they should be rotated every six months, right?
My daughter has a nice car. Much nicer than mine. I own a 1996 Toyota Corolla. The body is rusted in spots. It has a big hole in the dash.
My daughter drives a 2014 Nissan Maxima. She bought it herself. She pays all the insurance herself. And she keeps it very clean.
Dad, this guy spilled juice all over the cup holder in the back seat. Well, he didn’t spill it, but he left it in the cup holder and then the cup broke and spilled all over.
I helped her clean out the cup holder. But, it made me think about my little girl. She’s my youngest daughter. She’s not much for working on cars. And yet, every 3000 miles she pestered me about “helping” to change her oil. She wants her tires rotated because it’s on the schedule. She complains if people mess up her car.
My daughter told me a story while “we” were working on her car. She said someone accused her of being a “daddy’s girl.” They assumed that her apartment, her nice car, even her two cats, were because her daddy provided it to her.
Did you tell them you’re an orphan? From India?
Daddy, they know I’m from India.
.
Well, then tell them you grew up with TWELVE brothers and sisters!
My point is that she’s worked hard for her success. And, of course, I’m really proud of her. Cars are my thing. Well, computers and writing. . .and cars. It’s gratifying to see her putting value in something I value.
Maybe she is a little bit of a daddy’s girl. After all, she was at my house getting free auto maintenance and repair.
Today, Daddy’s Garage was open late.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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This is NOT why I became an actor!
– Sir Ian McKellen on filming the Hobbit entirely with a green screen
When filming the original Star Wars (yes, I know it’s called Episode IV, but it wasn’t when I saw it in the theater back in 1977) George Lucas and crew spent hours setting up an elaborate set with models in order to film a few seconds of a rebel ship exploding. The entire movie was filmed the old fashioned way.
Today, computers are as much a part of movies as the actors and the music. All the interesting backgrounds in your favorite Marvel movie, or Lord of The Rings movies are all done via computer, after the acting is complete.
That’s what caused “Gandalf” to complain. The actors who played the dwarves in the film are average height, as is Sir Ian. To make the dwarves appear short and Gandalf to appear extra tall, McKellen had to do all his acting alone with a green screen and the dwarves were added later.
So, CGI, or computer-generated imagery, is the norm for movies today. But, what about movies that feature computers? They are much tougher to do.
It’s easy to pick movies that do a poor job of featuring computers and technology.
It’s easier to set a story 500 years in the future than it is to get it 50 years.
– Sir Arthur C Clarke
Too often movies that try to focus on technology end up aiming too low. Think of the Star Trek universe. When the original series was released September 8, 1966 it was way ahead of its time. The technology was mind boggling. It should be. It represented the year 2265.
Today? That technology isn’t so futuristic.
Here are just a few examples of the cool Star Trek tech that we ended up with courtesy of qz.com.
- Tablet computers
- Tricorders
- Flip communicators (and wearable badge communicators)
- Hyposprays
- Voice interface computers
- Transparent aluminum
- Bluetooth headsets
- Google Glass
- Portable memory
- GPS
- Automatic doors
- Big Screen displays
- Real-time universal translators
- Teleconferencing
- Diagnostic beds
Had Star Trek been a series interested in highlighting cool computers, it would have hopelessly been outdated. The fact that it’s not is because the series wasn’t about technology. Technology was used to tell us stories about human interactions. Star Trek addressed many social issues of the day. It managed to skirt the censors by making the racism about aliens. Literal aliens, not just people in the United States illegally.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek imagined it as “Wagon Train to the Stars.” In other words, timeless stories set somewhere else.
Stories have to be able individuals. It’s hard to make computers, real computers, very interesting. I once saw a report about a show where a network was going to broadcast a real hacker breaking into a real computer system.
I’m not sure it ever broadcast. Because, unlike the movies, hacking is boring. Finding an exploit involved typing the same command over and over while changing a single parameter.
I have 13 children. The last two are about to graduate from high school this year. Out of 13, only 1 has decided to follow me into IT/Computer Science.
Apparently he didn’t pay attention to Dad’s job as carefully as his siblings did growing up.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I would kick you out, but I don’t think you could make it on your own.
– My father to the 19 year old me
I moved out the next day. My father was both right and wrong. I wasn’t ready to be on my own. But, I’m not sure we ever are. I went to live with a friend of mine, Mark Whitaker. He’s my oldest friend in the world. We’ve known each other since we were in the 5th grade. We are now well into our fifth decade. My buddy only lived a few blocks from my girlfriend.
I rode busses a lot. I walked. I had a couple of jobs. I was supposed to be saving money for a mission. The good friend/girlfriend living situation didn’t last long. Eventually, a church leader stepped in and found me a place to live with church members, much to my parent’s consternation. I did managed to go off to the Missionary Training Center and serve a two year mission working with deaf people.
My girlfriend didn’t last through my mission. She might have waited if I’d asked her. Instead, I broke it off after a few weeks.
Was I ready?
No.
Did I go anyway?
Yes.
Did it work out?
Eventually.
My son is 18 and plans to attend a local college. He has a job at an auto parts store. No girlfriend. But also no drivers license. He has a bike, but I haven’t seen him even take a test ride. He has a few weeks of high school left.
Is he ready to be on his own?
No.
Is he going anyway?
Yes. (Our decision, not his.)
Will it work out?
Probably. Eventually.
Our children grow up and get to the point where they need to move out into the world. It’s change, and change is hard. I’m not sure who it’s hardest on, him or me.
The kids will be alright.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I try to keep this a politics-free zone. But, I was happy to see the verdict in Minneapolis today.
<h2>Guilty</h2>
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Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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The value of my house has tripled in the past few years.
I’m not happy about it.
I have a daughter who is building a new house. I have another daughter looking forward to buying her first house.
Our first house was $40,000. It was 1990. The house was in Spanish Fork, Utah. It was 1100 square feet. Since it was just my lively wife, me and our young daughter, that was plenty of room. I remember thinking as we signed page after page after page of documents that buying a $50,000 car would have taken less paperwork. And it’s not like they had to worry about someone driving off with the house.
When we left Utah and moved to Washington we bought a slightly bigger house. We had two kids and my brother-in-law and his family were staying with us. Not the first time we had family using our spare rooms.
Our house in Maple Valley, Washington cost $119,000. We, as we always do, made some improvements. We sold the house a few years later for $129,000.
We back to Utah after that. On a visit to Washington a few years later, we noticed our old house was again for sale. The price? $300,000.
We bought our current house in 2012. It was a different real estate market back then. Our house had an unfinished basement. As an incentive to purchase, the seller offered us $10,000 cash at closing to finish the basement. It’s how we ended up with 9 bedrooms in our 3800 square foot house.
My daughter who is building a house has been looking for a lot for some time. When they made an offer on the first lot, they offered $50,000 over the asking price. They barely beat out another couple who had offered tens of thousands over asking. The cost to bring utilities to the lot was $250,000, so they passed.
The second lot they again offered above asking price.
As they put their house on the market one offer came as as “$10,000 above the appraisal amount.” The current market is crazy.
Last year, developers built new houses one block from my house. The new ones were all custom homes that sold for $600,000 to $800,000. That’s three times what I paid for my house. This is great news for me, right?
Not really. My property taxes will go up. But, I could sell my house and triple my investment. That’s a good thing.
Well, not really. First off, I’d have to go buy a new house, like the one I own now.
Second, and most importantly, rising house values are only good if I want to sell. And I don’t ever intend to move.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved