Overheard – How to speak Windows Server 2008 R2

With the first public beta release of Windows Server 2008 R2 comes a new version of Remote Desktop Servers (RDS), formerly known as Terminal Services. Douglas Brown, First Look at the Updated Remote Desktop Services Web Access Portal in Windows Server 2008 R2

Douglas Brown, over at DABCC, has put together an excellent chart for all of us who are trying to keep up with “what’s Microsoft calling it now?”

Overheard – Raw data now!

Raw data now! Raw data now! Raw data now! Tim Berners-Lee, getting the crowd to chant at the 2009 TED conference

Founder of the web Tim Berners-Lee spoke of the next grassroots communication movement he wants to start: linked data. Much in the way his development of the web stemmed out of the frustrations of brilliant people working in silos, he is frustrated that the data of the world is shut apart in offline databases.

Overheard – CIO as Chief Process Officer and Cheaper by the Dozen

A good rule of thumb—it’s not always doable—is try to implement new processes without technology, and afterward bring in technology to boost them rather than make them dependent on technology out of the box. Mike Hammer, as quoted in CIO as Chief Process Officer, Not Strategic Leader

I was sad to see that Mike Hammer passed away. I’d just been reading through Peter Hinssen‘s new book IT/Fusion and had looked up Mike again to see how he pictured the role of the CIO changing. Not surprisingly, he and Peter seem to be in agreement.  Because the CIO runs IT and IT crosses all the business silos, the CIO is in the perfect position to see the big picture and improve business processes.

Now mind you, my whole perspective for thinking about business processes comes from listening to my grandmother read me “Cheaper by the Dozen” when I was a little kid.  (I’m talking about the original book, which believe me, has nothing to do with the Steve Martin movie.)  In the book, the father was a time management expert.  He practiced his profession at home too. For instance, while his children brushed their teeth, they listened to how-to-speak-a-foreign-language records so they were learning something useful while they brushed.  (I loved that part.)

It wasn’t until I was in college that I learned the father (and author of the book) was Frank B. Gilbreth! Gilbreth was an expert in what became known as Time Motion Study and he practiced exactly what Mike Hammer preached.  He looked at a business process that needed improvement, proposed how it could be improved and THEN looked at technology could help.  The technology that Gilbreth chose back in the early 1900′s was the brand new motion picture camera.

I think I’m going to back and read more about Frank and Lillian Gilbreth.  I bet there will be some interesting analogies for how to improve business processes in this century by looking at how Gilbreth approached improving manual work processes back in the early 1900′s.

Overheard – FCC regulations for “Identity Theft Red Flags”

As institutions embrace automated services such as self-service password reset for purposes of reducing costs and boosting efficiency, these services are being targeted by attackers for the relative ease with which they can be used to gain access to registered accounts. Thomas Varghese, Addressing Red Flags compliance

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has instituted new regulations known as “Identity Theft Red Flags” that promise to mitigate the havoc posed by identity theft to financial institutions and their customers. Effective May 1, 2009, these new regulations require financial institutions and creditors with covered accounts to implement programs that detect, prevent, and mitigate instances of identity theft.

Under the rules, entities must develop a written program that identifies and detects the relevant warning signs – or “red flags” – of identity theft. The FTC has issued guidelines that identify 26 different red flags to assist in designing identity theft prevention programs. These red flags are not a checklist, rather examples that financial institutions and creditors can model as a reference.

Overheard – Improving iPhone reception in your house

AT&T may be working to improve its cellular network reception by building a femtocell, an in-home cell base station, directly into its fiber-optic U-Verse service’s modem. Glenn Fleishman, AT&T might insert femtocell into fiber modem

Don’t tell my husband, but I’m about to write something…err…negative about his beloved iPhone. You see, in the house, it’s a brick. A lovely, sleek brick, but it’s still a brick. If he wants to make a call when it’s minus 10 degrees, he either has to put on his coat and go out on the deck or use an AT&T calling card.

When he first realized the iPhone wasn’t an indoor phone, he wanted to pick up VoIP from our cable company, but really — how can you justify the cost of iPhone service AND VoIP when our local phone company only charges $7.98 a month for local service? I couldn’t.

Bless you AT&T. A femtocell for ALL our AT&T cell phones is just what we need.

Overheard – Avoiding common audit pitfalls

“Make no mistake — auditors will find fault with your systems, your processes, and the people who operate them. They’re auditors. It’s their job.” Kelly Jackson Higgins, Experts share tips on how to avoid the most common pitfalls in an audit

If you missed Kelly’s article when it first came out, take moment and read through it.  I bet you’ll learn something.

Key points I want to remember:

• Two of their most common reasons for failing an audit are poor documentation and poor training programs.
• It’s all about proving that data isn’t tampered with — from inside or out.

- Manage change in a consistent manner.
- Clearly define roles and permissions.
- Know who (and where) users are, what role they play and what permissions they have.
- Align physical security with IT security.
- Be ready to demonstrate how you monitor security.
- Be ready to demonstrate how you are able to detect and act on anomalies.
- Map security processes to business processes. A checklist isn’t enough.

Overheard – How a windshield becomes an attack vector

An enterprising group of criminals has been using a real-world scam in an effort to spread malware. The attacks reportedly began with a series of phony parking tickets issued in Grand Rapids, North Dakota. Individuals had the tickets placed under their windshields along with instructions to visit a website. Shaun Nichols, ‘Parking ticket’ scam brings malware infection

Of course, the website was a malware drop.  Lenny Zeltser (SANS Institute) explains how the scam worked. Later on, McAfee’s Avert Labs Blog identified the Trojan as Vundo.

Remember the good old days when phishing stayed on the Internet where it belonged?

Overheard – The power of ping

Ping is probably the simplest TCP/IP diagnostic utility ever created, but the information that it can provide you with is invaluable. Simply put, ping tells you whether or not your workstation can communicate with another machine. Brien M. Posey, Using ping command for troubleshooting Windows network connectivity

Overheard – Facebook finds a business model?

Facebook intends to capitalize on the wealth of information it has about its users by offering its 150 million-strong customer base to corporations as a market research tool. Richard Wray, Facebook aims to market its user data bank to businesses

Could it be that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has finally found a way to monetize social networking? If you believe Richard Wray, it just might be a GENIUS way to monetize the site.  That is, if members don’t cry “Privacy!” like they did with the site’s last attempt to make some money, Beacon.

The magic word is…polls.

Now mind you, polling at Facebook is nothing new. What’s new is the perfect storm that surrounds Facebook — the site’s expanding demographics,  demonstrated audience engagement — and a tanking economy where marketers have less money to throw at more traditional focus groups.

This might be exactly the right time for Facebook to push out self-service polls and make them them the basis for monetizing the site, much as Google figured out how to monetize search back in October of 2000 with self-service AdSense ads.

Overheard – Another GDrive sighting

It would appear Google has its own Loch Ness monster, with mysterious sightings suggesting the existence of Google GDrive, Google’s mythical online storage service. Sylvie Barak, Mythical Gdrive surfaces in Google code

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves when bogger Brian Ussery stumbled across a wee bit of code hidden away in a Google Pack software bundle for Windows users, which appeared to contain GDrive’s product category and description.

Atlanta blogger Brian Ussery spotted a reference to the mythical GDrive last week — and started a blogswarm. The description said:

GoogleGDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device – be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.

OMG — what if the rumors in 2009 — as compared to the same rumors in 2006, 2007 and 2008 turned out to be true?

Sigh…

I think the only interesting thing, when we finally get confirmation that indeed — the GDrive is ready and available — will be how much free storage Google grants you. Microsoft started out with five but now gives you 25 GB for free with SkyDrive. If Google tops that, THEN I’ll be impressed.