MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convetion, Exhibition)

‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry…’ Thus the paraphrase goes of the words of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. These words ring very true to me this morning. You see, my software company has leased a server for almost three years now, at a hefty monthly fee. This server has hosted a number of websites for various clients and has really been a great, if somewhat expensive, asset. Finally, however, I decided that it was time to bring this in-house, as they say. So, I got some office space, a phone line, and a business-class DSL line that would provide more than enough bandwidth to serve what I needed. I then converted a powerhouse PC into a web server to host some web sites owned by my company, Centrant LLC. For web hosting clients that need more than what DSL service can provide, and for purposes of redundancy, I have a number of partnerships that allow me to provide the service level that is required.

All the bases were covered.

All set with my arsenal of cost saving new toys, I was almost ready to make the switch from my leased server to the new one sitting in the corner of my new office. I had spent hours installing software and configuring the server. It was almost ready. Already locked down tight so hackers would have a very tough time trying to break in, all that was left was to install anti-virus and anti-spam software to protect those who would use the server for email. The result of around 40 hours of work was at hand, and I would finally be able to stop paying those outrageous monthly bills for a server located half a country away.

Now, I know better than to leave any piece of electronic equipment unprotected. Believe me, I’ve learned that mistake the hard way. A few times. So, I made sure that all the equipment was under the constant watch of a quality surge protector. The server itself, since it is so valuable, was even removed again from other equipment so that an intermediary device would have to first succumb before the server was hit by a surge of electricity. Not bad planning, huh? Pretty slick, right? I thought so too. And, well, it was good planning. And it was pretty slick. But remember the words of the old Scottish sage. ‘The best laid plans…’
Over the weekend, Saturday night to be exact, we were hit by a very forceful storm. Lightning and thunder came crashing in and seemed determined to destroy as much as possible before moving on. And destroy they did. As I came into the office on Sunday afternoon to do some work, I noticed that the network router was dead. Then I noticed that the phone was dead. Then the server that I had spent so much time installing and configuring and losing sleep to get ready was, you guessed it, fried.
Does this stop me from moving the server? Nope. It only means that it will take a little longer to get it going, and it will take a little more money to replace some things. I’ll have to pay for that leased server one more month maybe, and this time I will make sure that there are redundant surge protections in place. Did I lose any data? Again, nope. I’ve learned to make backups often. Did any site go down as a result of this? Nope. Everything is working great as far as my clients are concerned– remember that there are partnerships in place that I can utilize to protect against any loss of service.

It was a big personal let down, however. I put a tremendous amount of work into something and now have to start over. But, it was neither the first nor the last time that I’ve had to start over, and this time I’ll do it faster and better.

What’s the point of telling you all this? Where’s the ‘Tech Tip’, you might wonder. The tip for this week is that, even when you do everything right, sometimes things just go wrong. Every phone line and Internet connection in the entire building that houses my new office space was dealt a lethal blow. A direct hit can wreak havoc on any computer system. You know, now that I think of it, this applies to life in general, not just computers. Hmm, interesting.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for future articles, please email me at mike@mikebryant.com.

Mike Bryant has worked as a professional software developer for over ten years. A born entrepreneur, he currently owns Centrant, LLC, a software consulting firm specializing in custom software for small businesses. He currently resides in Jackson, Kentucky with his wife, two kids, and five computers. For more information, please visit MikeBryant.com.

Who are these people anyway? They viciously harass you and call you bad names. They embarrass you beyond belief by leaving detailed messages with your neighbors and at your workplace. In extreme cases, they have been known to stalk you!

Debt collection agencies are hired by your creditors to do their dirty work. If they get you to pay, the debt collector usually gets a percentage of what you owe, plus added fees. Some debt collection agencies buy your debt from the creditor for a low fee and attempt to collect double and sometimes triple what you owe on your original debt by attaching high penalties, interest and other processing fees.

Basically, debt collectors make a living trying to scare and intimidate you into paying your bills. They don’t care that your finances are in limbo because you have recently divorced or that your employer informed you in the eleventh hour that you were being laid-off. All debt collectors care about is that they will get a slice of the pieif you pay.

Debt collectors convince themselves that you are a deadbeat, sitting on a stack of cash and refusing to pay. By painting a negative mental picture of you in their mind, they feel justified harassing you into paying a delinquent bill. Most debt collectors are just downright mean, nasty, heartless individuals who make a living scaring “the pants off” of people who are simply broke and trying to survive.

One lady reported that after she vehemently tried to explain to an unrelenting debt collector that she was recently divorced, underemployed and didn’t have the money to pay the $12,000 credit card bill her ex-husband left her, the debt collector replied, “Look, fat lady, it’s obvious that you could stand to skip a few meals. Just send me your food bill for one week to wipe out this debt!” The lady was horrifiednot so much by his remarks because she was accustomed to the debt collector being rude to her on the phonebut by his comment regarding her size. How did he know she was overweight? Had he been stalking her?

Debt collectors use many tactics to research you, especially if you owe a large debt. Remember, their livelihood depends on how many people they can get to pay overdue billsthe bigger the debt, the bigger their payoff.

Despite what debt collectors believe, most people are not faced with buying a ticket to Tahiti versus paying their credit card bill. People who are broke find themselves faced with real-life problems like putting food on the table versus paying a credit card bill!

Keep in mind that debt collectors are no different than you are. As the saying goes, “they put their pants on one leg at a time.” They cannot physically harm you and the mental abuse they throw at you can be easily avoided (visit www.brokemansurvivalguide.com)

A.M. Harris is he author of The Broke Man’s Survival Guide: 50 Clever Strategies to Use When You Are Unemployed, Underpaid or Just Dead Broke and Can’t Pay Your Bills. Visit http://www.brokemansurvivalguide.com for more information.

The Israeli people complain about the weak leadership of their impotent elected officials and disorganized military. The pseudo-democratic government of Lebanon cannot govern its own country because its weak leaders exist at the discretion of Iran’s militant proxy, Hezbollah. Iraq’s weak democratically elected officials are helplessly drowning in the blood of an internal religious war that is anything but democratic. In defining the war in Iraq, an unconvincing American Administration, its diplomats and generals, continue to dance (weakly) around the same two words, civil and war. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of civil war is: “A war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country.” Shall we dance?

Gone is the heroic, gutsy military leadership of George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthurBTW all great dancers. Gone are the brilliant statesmen and their backseat advisors like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. I think I’ve been around too long to interest a generation that has never heard of Marshall Georgy Zhukov, the brutal but talented military commander of the Red Army who liberated the Soviet Union from the Nazi onslaught and captured Berlin; too long to expect anyone reading this commentary to know the name of Averell Harriman, former Governor of New York and close personal friend of Prescott Bush, grandfather of President George W. Bush. Between his many covert and overt affairs, the glamorous Ambassador Harriman managed to serve as advisor to American presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson.

History doesn’t interest you? Many Americans of this generation express the same view. This is one of the reasons we are today where we are today. But since you’ve read this far I am going to give you a little more of your history, because if you continue to disregard it, you do your country and its fallen heroes a great disservice. The aforementioned people were larger than life icons of their times. These are times when Americans are not well liked abroad. History shows us this too will change. Listed below are the names of some American diplomats you never heard of, but who are no less the courageous peacemakers, trailblazers and humanitarians you should know and be proud of.

Hiram Bingham IV
Charles E. Bohlen
Philip C. Habib
Robert D. Murphy
Clifton R. Wharton, Sr.
Frances E. Willis

One of the above was the nation’s first black Foreign Service Officer, another the first female ambassador and another risked his life to save thousands of innocents from death. A little Google will tell you a lot about them. They are all career Foreign Service Officers, patriots not appointed by any Administration. You will find their faces on six newly commemorated U.S. postage stamps. Be proud of them and your American heritage.

“Simplicity-Courage-Humor-Soul”

Like so many developments that we take for common on our computers the humble mouse had its origins in the innovative work done for more than two decades at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The PARC mouse had two rollers for horizontal and vertical motion and a single button. The deucedly boxy shape was favored by many of developers at PARC and remarkably has persisted through many mouse (or mice) incarnations.

Firstly the Microsoft mouse design has had major impacts in the mice industry. Microsoft mice always had ergonomic design. The first Microsoft mouse had a broad teardrop shape with two buttons. The original green buttoned model had a steel ball that spawned an industry in foam mouse pads. The next iteration had larger buttons, a larger body, and a rubber coated ball.

When Microsoft decided that the mouse needed to be redesigned, it turned to the venerable firm Matrix Design of San Francisco. Microsoft routinely used and uses third parties to design and software develop many of the items and software that we take for granted today that Microsoft devoted alone . Mike Nuttal, one of Matrix Designs founders was intrigued by Microsoft’s project: reshaping the exterior without altering the internal mechanism.

Matrix did change one internal element: the position of the mouse ball. “Almost the first thing we tried was to move the ball forward”, Nuttal remarked later. In the old design the ball sat forward under the palm. A computer mouse user has a natural tendency to put their weight on the palms of their hands and thus on the ball. By moving the mouse ball forward the result was much greater accuracy of the mouse.

“We knew the buttons had to be larger “Nuttal as well said “We tried several button sizes and in the process of designing we ended up incorporating the buttons into the body of the mouse.” Another change was in the relative size of the buttons. It was felt that the left buttons should be larger than the right. The results were more than favorable especially with left handed users. By making the left button larger finger position no longer was a major factor therefore the index finger could curve form lower left to upper right ( vice versa in lefties ) . This is the position the index finger naturally favors. In addition the previous rubber-dome switches were replaced with micro switches that had a short travel depression and better tactile feedback.

It was not long before the firm Logitech responded to Microsoft’s mice innovations.
Logitech’s first mouse was truly one of the first examples of the upcoming international efforts in product development and design. A Swiss based Professor: Professor Niklaus Wirth spent a year on sabbatical at Xerox PARC in 1970 and returned to Europe to test mouse designs, working closely with Inria, a French design center for office automation products. In the end their final design was a round mouse with front mounted buttons.
Product development and testing ensued over the position of the buttons, and the front position won over the top.

However, Logitech soon found that the buttons on the front made the mouse jump backward slightly when clicked. The design was abandoned in favor of a wedge shape, which was followed by the rectangular shape that we today.

What is interesting about all of this is the effect of outside products on an item that we take for granted today – the humble mouse which so functional that we seldom give it second thought.

The rounded heel that fits so well in the palm of your hand, the large buttons, and the smooth edges all have roots in the most universal of electrical / electronic products.
Mr. Nuttal and Matrix Design’s area in great expertise was in the design and development of telephones.

Max Rubin
Ag Chemist Linux as well as vintage computing
badgerlinux@yahoo.com
www.vintagecomputermanuals.com
www.badgerlinux.net