Building IT

Anything can be communicated via the Internet.  It readily connects everyone to emails, web, television, and voice.  It is where mobile computing’s future lies. The mobile industry seems to be shifting focus to Everything-Over-IP.

Traditionally, a mobile phone is used to communicate voice conversations.   The question now is who needs mobile voice?  Texting has becoming a popular way of doing things in Asia and Europe.  North America is catching up.  Then there’s the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, where Internet connection is required for status updates.  It’s becoming more than just a 1-to-1 communication.  It’s a broadcast of information.

To make Internet capable mobile devices, first the portable technologies have to converge.  Laptops have to be small enough for maximum portability.  Cell phones must be powerful enough to run like computers.  There are plenty of companies like Apple, Toshiba, Dell, and Nokia who are trying to close that gap.

It’s no surprise Apple announced the iPad.  They’re touting it as a reading device, but people know it can be much more.  Its main communication devices are WiFi and 3G.  No voice capability.  However, Apple has also recently allowed VoIP over the 3G network, so apps like Fring or Skype can provide voice calling.  Similarly, AT&T now allows Slingbox, TV anywhere, to go over 3G network to iPhone users (eventually the iPad).  So Apple’s strategy is definitely IP based communication.  Other companies will (or have already) follow suit.

This may sound familiar.  In 1998, there was much hype for Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) in the Telecom industry.  Huge investments were made to lay down fiber optics infrastructure for faster data transfers.  It took a while for that investment to bear fruit, and it looks like the consumers are finally starting to see the benefits.

Interestingly enough, wireless Internet connectivity it not widely available.  But that’s changing, thanks to innovation in wireless technology, such as WiMax or LTE.  It will reach the rural areas where Internet access is scarce.  Also, the price needs to go down in order to make it economically feasible.  Maybe the government should step in?

The direction is to get everyone connected.  Mobile Internet can finally become an integral part of the way people do business and go about their personal lives.  It’s the future of communication – on everyone’s hand.

Customers are very fickle when checking out a company’s web site.  Unless they’re desperate, a person browsing a site tend to go quickly from one page to another.  Their attention span is short.  Their time is valuable.  They don’t want to spend too much time waiting for a web page to load.

Companies have spent a substantial amount of money to improve page loading times.  Improvements include upgrading internet connectivity, buying faster computers, reducing web applications RAM usage footprint, or investing on a content delivery network.

What other important reasons to improve web performance?

• Increase in traffic due to natural business growth, or advertising campaigns.
• Snappy response times are required when using the latest web browser tools, such as AJAX.
• Google is planning to rank web pages by their load times.
• Increase use of videos using embedded Flash, and future HTML5.

There is a cheaper way to improve web site performance: Optimize Content.  It means reducing the use of heavy graphics, Flash files, or client side Javascripts.  It also means reducing HTML and CSS file sizes.  It may seem contradictory, but ultimately, content dictates page loading times and can improve the web browsing experience.

Intel is an innovator.  They’re the best CPU maker in the world.  Their marketing ads are usually forgettable.  However, the latest Intel ads are actually quite good.  Here are some of my favorites:

Rock Star:

Parties:

Team Players:

Co-workers:

Perks:

Jokes:

A lot can be learned from a hacker (albeit a convicted hacker).  Here are some of his thoughts on OS and web application security:

Securing a system:

W3CSchools has stats for IE6 usage at about 15%, as of May 2009.  IE6 in Enterprise environment is still being used,

It’s steadily dropping because of the wide acceptance of Firefox, and Corporations are proactively upgrading to IE7 or IE8.   This number will change dramatically when Enterprise favors Windows 7 as the new standard for productivity machines.

Some websites have already taken steps to prevent IE6 from loading their site.  I can only applaud their efforts.

IE6 Denial Image

As IT personnel, it’s my job to help business-driven projects.  My support tasks generally take priority over my long term IT projects.  There are techniques to manage the priorities of these projects, and get them done.  Here are some ways to do it:

1. Say When:
   1. Clarify how much time is needed.
   2. Determine if it can be handled now.   If not, make it known to others.
   3. If it can wait, then suggest an agreeable time.
2. Learn More:
   1. Do quick impact analysis.
   2. Work with the requester for the results and standards required.
   3. Ask for additional learning material.
3. Ask for help:
   1. Determine how the support requests fits into the bigger picture.
   2. Agree on roles and responsibilities from the people involved.
   3. Focus on required resources.
   4. Understand the task required.
   5. Get a completion date.  If not clear, then suggest times for status updates.

In every step, it helps to listen carefully, be polite, and be sensitive to the needs of others.

Contrary to popular opinions, IT is not entirely a lonesome job.  It gets easier to handle when I have the help of my colleagues.

Business may have unending projects.  It helps tremendously if I can prioritize them, according to the time and resources at my disposal.  Knowing what, when, and who are the keys to success.   The how will be answered eventually.  Asking why is counter-productive.

Google is leading the way in “Green IT” initiative when they started, in 2005, making their massive data center infrastructure as efficient as possible.  Their approach is definitely radical and unorthodox.  First using 12V batteries for each machine.  Then, using AAA shipping containers to house the numerous servers.  Google is an engineering company so obvioiusly they’re obsessed with making tiny improvements in every little corner of the data center.  It’s awesome.

Google did patent the setup, so it won’t take long before other data centers converts to it.  It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Intro video:

Google summit videos:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

More info on Google’s Blog.

One of the most common Webmaster task is to use mod_rewrite Apache module.  It’s a flexible and efficient way to redirect URLs.  It is useful to redirect non-functional URLs, moving domain names or renaming directories.

Below is a list of some of the frequently used mod_rewrites.

Note the [R=301] entries for 301 Permanent Redirect directive on the rules.  It’s a popular use to preserve SEO rankings of an older site that has been moved to a new one.

Simple redirect:

RewriteRule ^/sub/dir/home.html$ /sub/dir2/page.html [R=301,L]

Redirect http://domain.com to http://www.domain.com.  This is especially useful for an SSL certificate that’s already registered to www.domain.com name.  Note, the rule captures the query string and redirects with it:

RewriteCond     %{HTTP_HOST}    ^domain.com$      [NC]
RewriteRule     ^(.*)$          http://www.domain.com$1      [R=301,L]

To capture more than one variables in the query string, use the following.

RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$  /sub/program.jsp?arg1=$1&arg2=$2&arg3=$3 [L]

For redirects based on the URL’s query string, use QUERY_STRING to capture it for comparison.  Note the destination URL may use spaces if enclosed in quotes.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=2234$
RewriteRule ^/sub/dir/product.html$ “/sub/dir3/description.html?prodid=vac pro” [L,R=301]

Redirects can also be conditional.  For example, redirect everything except with a certain keyword.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/sub/dir/important.html$
RewriteRule ^/sub/dir/.*$ /main/dir/home.html [L,R=301]

With the above rule, it’s possible the original URL may have a query string.  To get rid of it, just add “?” to the end of target RewriteRule. For example:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/sub/dir/important.html$
RewriteRule ^/sub/dir/.*$ /main/dir/home.html? [L,R=301]

There are more examples out there.  Writing a comprehensive mod_rewrite guide is a full time job, so this list will continue to grow.  Here are some other useful references:

• Apache HTTPD mod_rewrite Practical Solutions
• The Art of Web – System: mod_rewrite examples
• A beginner’s guide to mod_rewrite (with examples)
• Use mod rewrite for SEO purposes

Photo Credit: Luke Seeley

Having a custom “page not found”, or 404 page, is an important modification for any website.  It’s used to enhance the user experience by presenting an easy to understand message.

Setting up a user friendly error page is simple enough using Apache web server.  Just modify the line in httpd.conf and point it to a static HTML document:

ErrorDocument 404 /the404_page.html

With JBOSS (or Tomcat-like Java container) application server, it’s slightly trickier.  It has to be handled per web application basis.  The change is done on the web.xml file, with these entries:

<web-app>

<error-page>
<error-code>404</error-code>
<location>/the404_page.html</location>
</error-page>

</web-app>

For the root directory, modify the web.xml in the ./deploy/jboss-web.deployer/ROOT.war/WEB-INF directory.

Testing this setup in Firefox and Opera, the custom 404 page will automatically show up properly.

However, with Internet Explorer, a “The Webpage Cannot Be Found” message comes up instead.  This is a feature of IE to show Microsoft’s version of a “friendlier error message”.  In this case, we want to disable it, so the custom 404 page will show up.  It can be done via Internet Options -> Advanced tab :

Update: Microsoft Help & Support site states if the 404 error page is greater than 512 bytes, then IE will not show the friendly message.  So the page size must be a bigger one, not just a simple one liner.

Now that the applications are setup to serve up custom error page, here are some examples of beautiful 404 page designs to improve the user experience.

Throughout my years of doing tech support, I learned a few things about doing the job, without driving myself (or the customer) crazy.  Here are a few action plans:

1. Always stay calm.
2. Be helpful to customers.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, customers are nicer when they are given options to solve their problems.
3. Document the issues in an electronic log (such as customer service knowledge base) that are search-able, for future reference.
   
4. Stay up-to-date with the company’s products.
5. Stay current with technology advances and industry standards.
6. Get along with the other tech support peers.  Hang out with them, share your stories, and vent some frustration with each other.  Group therapy is good therapy. Most importantly, laugh it up together.
7. Don’t stay at Level 1 tech support too long.  Make it a goal to move up, and handle more challenging questions to keep the job more interesting.

Finally, keep a sense of humor.   At the end of the day, it’s only a job, and life goes on.