Being the de facto computer support person for most of my family and friends, I am always on the lookout for tools that will make it easier. I especially look for low cost and no cost tools.
UltraVNC is a great free software tool that allows you to remotely control a computer. Unlike other VNC flavors, it offers an encrypted data channel in its freeware version. Other VNC variants make you pay for encryption.
UltraVNC also has a tool called UltraVNC SC (SingleClick) that allows you to create a single executable file that you can give to a remote user. When the user runs the program, it connects up to your computer, where you have the VNCviewer running in listen mode, and initiates a remote control session with you as the host. Since the remote user initiates the contact, the traffic passes easily through most firewalls - usually, it takes some setup to get server (or listening) programs to work well with firewalls.
I created an UltraVNC SC program to connect to my home router (which I set up on a free dynamic DNS service) and now my in-laws can double-click this program and allow me to work on their computer from afar. It's even workable over dialup (on one side).
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
Desktop engineering, again
Let's look at the definition I proposed for desktop engineering a little more closely:
Desktop engineering is the set of activities that strive to create a broadly used baseline desktop environment that is consistent and verified.
Broadly used baseline - Though there are some situations where you want to engineer for special cases or "one-offs," in general, it isn't cost effective to engineer something that you are only going to do one time. Also, since one of the goals is consistency, you want to focus on what is similar across the enterprise, not on what is different amongst pockets of users. Therefore, the primary focus of desktop engineering is to engineer for the entire enterprise, or a significant portion of it. If you believe in (or, perhaps, misuse) the 80-20 rule, then you want to engineer the environment that 80% of the people use all the time, and leave as one-offs the other 20%.
Different companies use different measures of when and when not to engineer a desktop component. Some might say that they will engineer a component if x number of users use it. Others will do a cost/benefit analysis, balancing how much time an engineered environment saves in terms of user and support technician time versus the money it requires to create that environment.
I said above that "in general" that you wanted to engineer the common components. When might you want to engineer the unique items? Desktop engineering makes sense for unique items when the benefit is great enough, such as avoiding a desktop visit by a technician or allowing for greater security. For example, if your users run with limited user rights so that they cannot install applications, and you have a system that allows these applications to be installed remotely (like SMS), you will need to engineer every application that users need installed if you never want to have technicians visit a desktop to install an application. Some companies will do this, even if only one user uses the application.
Desktop engineering is the set of activities that strive to create a broadly used baseline desktop environment that is consistent and verified.
Broadly used baseline - Though there are some situations where you want to engineer for special cases or "one-offs," in general, it isn't cost effective to engineer something that you are only going to do one time. Also, since one of the goals is consistency, you want to focus on what is similar across the enterprise, not on what is different amongst pockets of users. Therefore, the primary focus of desktop engineering is to engineer for the entire enterprise, or a significant portion of it. If you believe in (or, perhaps, misuse) the 80-20 rule, then you want to engineer the environment that 80% of the people use all the time, and leave as one-offs the other 20%.
Different companies use different measures of when and when not to engineer a desktop component. Some might say that they will engineer a component if x number of users use it. Others will do a cost/benefit analysis, balancing how much time an engineered environment saves in terms of user and support technician time versus the money it requires to create that environment.
I said above that "in general" that you wanted to engineer the common components. When might you want to engineer the unique items? Desktop engineering makes sense for unique items when the benefit is great enough, such as avoiding a desktop visit by a technician or allowing for greater security. For example, if your users run with limited user rights so that they cannot install applications, and you have a system that allows these applications to be installed remotely (like SMS), you will need to engineer every application that users need installed if you never want to have technicians visit a desktop to install an application. Some companies will do this, even if only one user uses the application.
What is desktop engineering?
Desktop engineering - which happens to be my day job until I start getting mega-thousands of hits a day on this blog ;-) - is the act of engineering the desktop (duh).
No seriously, what it means is to give as much thought to planning and building the desktop environment as you might to, say, the server environment or the network. By desktop, I mean the computers and peripherals that end users actually touch, like Dell Latitudes with Windows XP, and HP printers down the hall.
Why would you want to do this? Think about a small business. First, the owner and sole employee might buy one computer. Maybe he goes out to Dell and buys their cheapest underpowered machine (not such a good deal, until you add memory to it) because they have onsite support (a pretty good deal). Then he hires a few employees, and they all need computers. Maybe he still buys from Dell, but now they are different models and have different bundled software. Now he hires some more employees, and TigerDirect has good deals on refurbished eMachines this week. The owner hasn't ever used Dell's support, so he's thinking to save a few bucks and gets the eMachines. The eMachines have even more differences than the second round of Dells.
Who supports all of this? If a hard drive crashes and you have to rebuild it, what software is it licensed to have? How do you rebuild it? If the machine of a critical worker is down, can she move to another machine and be productive? What if Specialized Software #1 works on the eMachines and not the Dells - how do you figure out why that is?
This kind of inconsistency might be tolerable in a small business of 20-50 employees. But what if you have thousands or tens of thousands of employees? In this case, it makes business sense to spend the effort to reduce the complexity of the desktop environment. Preventing the kind of mess described above is the justification for desktop engineering.
Desktop engineering is the set of activities that strive to create a broadly used baseline desktop environment that is consistent and verified.
In a later post I'll explain this definition a little more.
No seriously, what it means is to give as much thought to planning and building the desktop environment as you might to, say, the server environment or the network. By desktop, I mean the computers and peripherals that end users actually touch, like Dell Latitudes with Windows XP, and HP printers down the hall.
Why would you want to do this? Think about a small business. First, the owner and sole employee might buy one computer. Maybe he goes out to Dell and buys their cheapest underpowered machine (not such a good deal, until you add memory to it) because they have onsite support (a pretty good deal). Then he hires a few employees, and they all need computers. Maybe he still buys from Dell, but now they are different models and have different bundled software. Now he hires some more employees, and TigerDirect has good deals on refurbished eMachines this week. The owner hasn't ever used Dell's support, so he's thinking to save a few bucks and gets the eMachines. The eMachines have even more differences than the second round of Dells.
Who supports all of this? If a hard drive crashes and you have to rebuild it, what software is it licensed to have? How do you rebuild it? If the machine of a critical worker is down, can she move to another machine and be productive? What if Specialized Software #1 works on the eMachines and not the Dells - how do you figure out why that is?
This kind of inconsistency might be tolerable in a small business of 20-50 employees. But what if you have thousands or tens of thousands of employees? In this case, it makes business sense to spend the effort to reduce the complexity of the desktop environment. Preventing the kind of mess described above is the justification for desktop engineering.
Desktop engineering is the set of activities that strive to create a broadly used baseline desktop environment that is consistent and verified.
In a later post I'll explain this definition a little more.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Farecast in public (sort of) beta
TechCrunch:Use Farecast To Find Flight Deals: "Seattle-based Farecast, now in private beta, is an airfare pricing comparision tool that also uses a predictive algorithm to recommend when you buy your ticket."
In other words, it determines the best time to buy based on price. Verry cool stuff - though I can't use it because it's in beta and there is apparently a waiting list.
Link to Farecast.
In other words, it determines the best time to buy based on price. Verry cool stuff - though I can't use it because it's in beta and there is apparently a waiting list.
Link to Farecast.
IE7+
Microsoft is calling Internet Explorer 7 on Vista "IE7+" to distinguish it from the IE7 that will be available for Windows XP. The Plus version will have some additional features - "Protected Mode, parental controls, and improved network diagnostics."
I'm no huge fan of IE, though I have yet to review IE7. I'm glad that it will be available for Windows XP, though. Link
I'm no huge fan of IE, though I have yet to review IE7. I'm glad that it will be available for Windows XP, though. Link
Friday, May 26, 2006
First Post
Initially, this is going to be for my own benefit. It will mostly be about technology. We'll see where it goes from there.
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