Quality Visual Presentation

Posted on by
Reply

Ever sat in a meeting with slides and slides of presentation that showed nothing but densely packed text and confusing charts?  Most people have. It’s no wonder many don’t look forward to going into meetings when their first expectation is a poor presentation.

However, there was one man who could present and held the audience captivated.  He was Steve Jobs. During his keynote speeches, he managed to get the audience hanging on to his every word and anticipating that “one more thing” that would leave everyone in awe.  It helped that he had great products to present, but in addition, he used visuals as one of the most important tool of his presentation.  He used minimal words (and numbers) written using a giant font. He used graphical icons to represent the current topic. He used animation for impact. Very concise and to the point.

So why doesn’t everyone follow Steve’s presentation methods?  Perhaps it’s because of the old thinking: “More is good”. The more stuff written down, the more credible and complete it gets. Unfortunately, these days, people are busy and have a short attention span. They don’t want to be held up in a long winded presentation.

The best ways to present effective visuals:

  • Be simple
  • Use graphics, icons, and symbols to reinforce or communicate a concept
  • Use key words, not full sentences
  • Contain only one concept per slide or page
  • Contain only three to six ideas on each flip chart sheet
  • Use color where possible, but not excessively

Steve Jobs was known to obsess over design.  He was also obsessed with simplicity.  It showed in his quality presentations. One can learn a great deal from his obsessions. It would make sitting in presentations a much more pleasant experience.

Will Windows 8 Save the PC Business?

Posted on by
Reply

Windows_8_screenshotPredictions are in already: Windows 8 will be irrelevant. The clues seem to support the suspicion – the masses are already happy with Windows 7. Enterprise already made a substantial investment upgrading to Windows 7. Another migration in 2012 is just too soon.

But putting all that aside, the PC manufacturers need to support Windows 8 because it’s the platform that will finally bring integration of desktop PCs with Tablets1 – especially in an Enterprise environment.  There’s also a good list of new features that will ensure some to upgrade.  Plus, there are millions of new PCs and Laptops to sell, every year.

Windows 8 is still relevant and it will save the PC business.

  1. As demonstrated in Microsoft’s Build Conference 2011 [↩]

The PC is Evolving

Posted on by
Reply
Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrathin Laptop

Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrathin Laptop

Taking the headline from Time Business article, the PC industry is certainly in a different place now.  The PC, aka Microsoft based laptops and desktops, have always been the corporate standard for productivity machines. On the Enterprise level, corporate users demand Microsoft products (ie. Powerpoint) suites, VPN to access internal servers behind the firewall, Remote Desktop for Windows servers, and in some cases, multiple monitors for multitasking needs.

However, there’s been grumbling about the tablets taking over Enterprise issued PCs and Laptops – mainly due to juggernaut Apple’s iPad.  In response, there are now many more tablet offerings from RIM, Toshiba, ACER, or ASUS.  But such ventures do not always end up well. HP pulled the Touchpad after 6 weeks of production!1 That’s just the start – who knows who else will quit the quest to quell the iPad.

There’s a glimmer of hope to revitalize the PC business: the Ultra-thin laptops are coming.  Recently, Toshiba has just announced a good looking one called the Z830 coming this November.  Lenovo has an offering. Even ACER is in the mix.

Just in time too.  There’s a need the lightest portable laptop that will not break one’s back. It helps that it looks as cool as the Macbook Air.

One problem though: price.  It’s understandable why Apple charges way too much for the Macbooks – they’ve historically done this since the Apple II days2. But the PC should not cost as much. To be more competitive, there’s an expectation the PC Ultrathin laptops to be (much) cheaper than the Macbook Air, if they want to sell more of it. Kind of like the HP Touchpad fire sale.

So here’s hoping the evolution of the PC is towards something more useful, powerful, affordable, and highly portable.  There’s still life in the PC world.

  1. Like the old saying from Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca: “Lead, follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY!”  It’s easier to follow the leader. In HP’s case, they sure did got out of the way. [↩]
  2. 1980′s [↩]

Finding Team Success

Posted on by
Reply

Every companies have different departments.1 Every departments have different goals and operating procedures. But to a customer, they don’t see these different departments – they only see one company.  So, it’s very important everyone in the company work as a team.  Finding the key for team work success can be summarized in the following steps:

  1. Prepare to succeed.
  2. State your positive intent.
  3. Describe the issue fairly.
  4. Facilitate the discussion.
  5. Gain agreement on next steps.

It comes down to persistence and positive thinking.  Refrain from blaming each other. Do understand what others are going through. Focus on helping the customer.

Most of all, follow through on the agreed next steps.  Nothing is more rewarding than a happy (and returning) customer!

  1. Some companies aptly call departments as “divisions”. [↩]

Listing Memory Usage by Process

Posted on by
Reply

Solaris OS LogoA question asked to me often, “Which processes are using up too much memory?”  I generally use top to figure them out manually.  But there’s a better way to do it, using Solaris pmap command.  I can get a good estimate on the memory usage.  Brandon Hutchinson has a shell script that provides a nice output.  I modified it a little bit to include a column for process owner.

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/printf "%-6s %-9s %-13s %s\n" "PID" "Total" "User" "Command"
/usr/bin/printf "%-6s %-9s %-13s %s\n" "---" "-----" "----" "-------"
for PID in `/usr/bin/ps -ef  | /usr/bin/awk '$2 ~ /[0-9]+/ { print $2 }'`
do
   USER=`/usr/bin/ps -o user -p $PID | /usr/bin/tail -1`
   CMD=`/usr/bin/ps -o comm -p $PID | /usr/bin/tail -1`
   # Avoid "pmap: cannot examine 0: system process"-type errors
   # by redirecting STDERR to /dev/null
   TOTAL=`/usr/bin/pmap $PID 2>/dev/null | /usr/bin/tail -1 | \
   /usr/bin/awk '{ print $2 }'`
   [ -n "$TOTAL" ] && /usr/bin/printf "%-6s %-9s %-13s %s\n" "$PID" "$TOTAL" "$USER" "$CMD"
done | /usr/bin/sort -rn -k2

Note, this script needs to run as “root” for pmap to have permission to examine each process.

Output looks something like this:

PID    Total     User      Command
---    -----     ----      -------
694    25240K    root      /opt/RICHPse/bin/se.sparcv9.5.9
696    5208K     root      /usr/dt/bin/dtlogin
613    4992K     root      /opt/CA/BABcmagt/caagentd
326    4512K     smmsp      /usr/lib/sendmail
260    4440K     root      /usr/sbin/syslogd
269    2440K     root      /usr/sbin/cron
196    2360K     root      /usr/sbin/keyserv
193    2352K     root      /usr/sbin/rpcbind
103    2336K     root      /usr/lib/sysevent/syseventd
235    2224K     root      /usr/lib/nfs/lockd
206    2184K     root      /usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypbind

What’s Next in IT Jobs?

Posted on by
Reply

The year is ending and it’s time to re-evaluate one’s career and direction in the next five years.  Doing the nuts and bolts of systems administration may not be as relevant anymore.  An article in Computer World UK noted:

So what should today’s IT employee do to protect his or her career? “Look for the skills the company is going to need five years from now, not now, and start building them,” advises Forrester’s Schadler. “These include vendor contract management, integration with the cloud, analytics, rich lightweight Internet workforce applications, mobile applications — these are all skills for the next decade,” he says.

IT executives are considering cloud computing. That’s where the game is at.  It’s going to be a slow shift, but it will surely happen.  Better be prepared than sorry.

Problem Solving And Deciding On A Solution

Posted on by
Reply

Working in a team can be quite challenging. Deciding what to agree on for an outcome or goal is important for the success of a project. Some key actions to evaluate solutions and gain consensus on the decision to be implemented are:

  1. Describe the decision and how it will be made.
  2. Jointly establish decision-making guidelines.
  3. Jointly evaluate options against the guidelines.
  4. Gain agreement on the best alternative.

Keep it cool, civilized, and concise. Keep discussions on topic and on time. Most of all, communicate well!

How To Listen

Posted on by
Reply

Listening is an obvious skill everyone must have.  In business, it’s especially critical.  Companies must listen to their customers.  Supervisors must listen to their subordinates.  Peers must listen to each other.  The key is removing the emotions and focus on the following actions:

  1. Evaluate the need to listen.
  2. Manage internal and external noises.
  3. Demonstrate a curious and open mind.
  4. Manage the flow of conversation.

Effective listening is critical to sorting through and keeping up with the information needed to get results.

Samba and Windows 7

Posted on by
Reply

Windows 7 has upgraded security.  This will effectively cause trouble in making connections to legacy apps (ie. Windows XP supported).  One of them is Samba on Unix.

Fortunately, there’s a solution to this:

  1. Open Control Panel.
  2. Choose Administrative Tools.
  3. Click Local Security Policy.
  4. Under Local Policies and Security Options:
    1. Change Network security: LAN Manager Authentication Level to “Send LM & NTLM responses”
    2. Change Minimum Session Security for NTLM SSP to disable “Require 128-bit encryption” into “No Minimum Security”.

Illustrations below:

How To Build A Web App

Posted on by
Reply

ApprovedDeveloping a good web application is a tricky job.  Deploying one that gains people’s acceptance can be a big challenge.  The good ones that come into mind are Twitter, Pandora, and tumblr.

Is there a recipe for building a good web application?

I watched an excellent presentation by Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist who invested in several successful companies, that summarized the basic rules of building a great web app:

  1. Fast
  2. Instantly Useful
  3. Unique Style
  4. Less and simple
  5. Programmable (ie. APIs)
  6. Personal
  7. REST – REpresentational State Transfer (ie. Unique URL)
  8. SEO – Search Engine Optimization
  9. Clean Design
  10. Playful

These guidelines are definitely a good start for new companies.  They’re also useful for established companies who want to redefine their products.

Here’s the presentation by Fred Wilson on The 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps: