The browser service of a Microsoft Windows computer in a WORKGROUP can cause a failed logon attempts in the Security Log in Event Viewer. Fortunately this is easy to test.
Test:
1.) Disable the Browser Service on the computer where the failed logon attempt originates from.
2.) Reboot that computer and log on.
3.) Watch the logs on the computer with the failed logon attempts in the security log of event viewer.
Test Results:
1.) If there are no failed logon attempts then the failed attempt is a harmless browser service sweep of the local subnet.
2.) If there are further attempts suspect malicious software and continue to search for the cause.
MS Browser Service Can Cause Failed Logon Attempts
Open Office - The Open-Source Free Office Application Suite
While I provide IT consulting services to large enterprises with tens of thousands of users on a daily basis, it is important to remember that as an IT consultant, I am a small business owner as well. As a business owner, you try to reduce expenses as much as possible so that you profit more from the work that you do. One of the ways to significantly cut costs in your business is to not purchase needless software.
Office application suites are a staple to any business. We use word processors to create documents that we send to clients. We use spread sheets to hold various forms of alpha-numeric data in a human readable format. We use presentation software to create visual representations of our business offerings for various audiences. We use drawing/diagramming software to make flow charts, organizational charts, infrastructure diagrams etc. Each of these applications perform a key function for a business, and grouped together, they are known as an office suite.
Open Office is one such suite which packages all of the above mentioned applications along with a mathematical application and database application. The fact that Open Office is open-source is of paramount importance to the software industry, but the fact that it is free is of more importance to businesses. The applications allow you do to the same things you do in costly application suites like Microsoft Office, but with no cost involved. The user interface is very similar to what you would see in other commercial applications, and there's even additional built in functionality like exporting a document in PDF format on-the-fly. Open Office is available for many operating systems like Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac.
Open Office is quite a nice suite of applications that will allow you to do business as usual without paying the high costs of commercial software. In addition, you are supporting the community that creates this free software when you report bugs or request features and enhancements. I urge you to head on over to http://www.openoffice.org and check it out for yourself. You can download the software (for free of course) and start using it right away. If you like it, please tell your friends, family and business associates about it. Helping the open-source market grow is a great way to boost competition in the market and force the overall software market to lower prices to reasonable levels for consumers.
LeftHand Networks Virtual SAN Appliance for VMware ESX
One of the questions coming up in IT department meetings around the world has to do with business continuity. For those who are not familiar with the term, business continuity is defined as the ability to continue doing business despite some disaster. As example would be a company having two remote data centers; one in California and another in say New York. If an earthquake were to strike in California and send everything west of the rockies into the ocean, could the business still function with what's left in New York?
Traditionally, this kind of business continuity has been very expensive due to maintaining dual sets of equipment and other resources in two geographically different locations. Aside from the cost of replication of hardware, the bandwidth to maintain full data replication between sites is also very expensive. Usually this is accomplished using two SAN arrays at each end with array based replication. The data is written to both SANs at once, allowing business to transfer to another data center if need be. Note that there is a lot more to this process than just array based replication but I'm just trying to draw a picture for you.
With virtual infrastructure hosted on VMware servers, this process becomes a little easier and cheaper because you can have a virtual infrastructure in place at your remote location and an array that mirrors your main one. This is an excellent solution but it still adds the cost and complexity of maintaining two SANs and the respective replication between the two.
LeftHand Networks has come up with an intuitive solution for businesses wanting to have good business continuity coverage at a fraction of the cost. In a nutshell, what they have done is taken the (often surplus) internal storage on physical VMware ESX servers and chained the storage space into virtual iSCSI SANs. This means that when you cluster two or more VMware ESX servers together, you can pool their on board storage into a virtual SAN and stripe data across all the servers. This gives you the ability to fail over virtual machines AND storage in the event of a failure. What a novel idea! If you are slightly tech-y and want to look into it in more detail, head on over to LeftHand Networks home page and search for Virtual SAN Appliance for VMware ESX.
Becoming a Software Developer - Preparing for a career in Information Technology
The other day, I received an email from one of my blog readers asking what he should do in college to become a software developer. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that there isn't much information out there as far as career guidance. The problem with careers in the Information Technology (IT) field is that the field changes so frequently, that colleges and universities rarely have time to react with curriculum updates. Furthermore, the fundamentals of computer science may help in some select career paths like low level software development, but will often not touch areas such as systems administration or network engineering. With that said, I'll delve into the software development sphere with some advice for class selection and/or self-learning topics.
Software Development can be further divided into several sub-categories like device driver development, operating system development, application development, web development, and more. Each type of development has it's preferred programming languages and styles, and each language has it's own benefits and disadvantages. Most colleges and universities will offer programming courses that focus on structured programming (like ANSI C) and object oriented programming (OOP) (like C++, Java & C#). These languages are good for anything from low level programming (like device drivers) all the way up to enterprise applications. The new trend in development, however, is web development, and scripting languages are currently the leaders in this field.
For a long time, computer hardware was very expensive and not all that powerful. This forced software developers to focus on writing extremely efficient applications in languages like C to run as fast as possible. Today, computer hardware is very cheap and very powerful by all standards. Because of this, code doesn't have to be as efficient to run as fast as it did on older machines. Higher level scripting languages like Ruby, Python, PHP or even ASP.NET allow much faster development for web platforms but sacrifice in efficiency and execution speed because they are scripting languages and not compiled like C or C++. Powerful web frameworks like Rails (for Ruby) and Django (for Python) make the development process even faster while removing much of the tedious repetitive pieces out of traditional web development. The current generation of Web 2.0 sites are taking advantage of these scripting languages and frameworks to deploy web applications faster and allow for easier scalability. The popular Yahoo! owned photo sharing site Flikr was written and deployed through Ruby on Rails.
So here comes the advice. Seek out colleges and universities that offer programs catering to the type of software development you want to get into. For web developers, look for programs that teach Ruby, Python, PHP or ASP.net. Try to take classes that introduce you to object oriented programming. If you can't find a program that teaches web development, it is ok to take a traditional object oriented programming class like C++ or Java to get an understanding of OOP and then get some books on Ruby on Rails or Python to learn those languages on your own. Any software developer will tell you that the best way to learn to code in a new language is to see others' code, understand it and try to use it within your own code. Many new programming books for web development languages like Ruby and Python are using the 'learn by example' method of presentation. They often start with a sample project and then have you build it in phases as you learn the different parts of the language. At the end of the book, you should have a functioning application and a good sense of how the language works. That's about the best advice I can think of for future web developers. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
The 21st Century CEO
Do you know that guy you always see walking around with blue jeans, sneakers, a button-up or pull over shirt, a backpack and iPod connected headphones in his ears? Perhaps the look reminds you of the typical college student in their early twenties. Perhaps the look reminds you of your neighbor's kids? Perhaps the look reminds you of the numerous young adults working common jobs all over the United States and the world. You're probably right and yet so wrong at the same time.
I'd like to introduce you to the official uniform of the 21st century CEO. We're not talking the CEO of a traditional stuff-suit company, but rather the CEO of a new Silicon Valley startup or a web-based startup period. This is also the typical look of the CEO of a new clothing company, snowboard company, surfboard company, media company, etc. With very low barriers to entry, many twenty-somethings are now entering the online business sector en masse. Often, it only takes a computer, an internet connection and a web hosting service to get these new CEOs on their way to becoming .com millionaires. What's so special about these new entrepreneurs?
It is well known that as time goes by, the amount of information that a person has access to grows exponentially. The amount of material taught in schools increases with every passing year. These new entrepreneurs have access to far more information, and often have far more education than the last generation of entrepreneurs and business people. Furthermore, the new pool of entrepreneurs is far more diverse and skilled than the last generation. Most of them realize that it takes way too much coal to power the massive air conditioning systems needed to keep the older CEOs comfortable in their ten thousand dollar Italian suits. They realize that having a ten thousand square foot home with just two people in it is nearly a criminally negligent waste of space, energy and raw materials. They realize that true understanding comes from interacting with all kinds of people. They also realize that they are interdependent on their cohorts across the globe.
I look to the future with pride as the new leaders of America form new businesses and gradually takes over the older ones. As this happens, a shift of epic proportions within the business world will happen, and the sagging inefficient business models of old will be replaced with new ones, or collapse all together. A smarter, more skilled, more diverse, more confident and better informed CEO will take the place of the suits we are all to familiar with today. Don't be surprised when you walk into the boardroom in the future and see your new CEO wearing jeans, sneakers and a casual shirt whilst listening to an iPod. All the while, note that while you and the rest of the group may be sweating profusely in your designer suits and other boring attire, your new CEO is sitting cool and comfortable in the outfit of the 21st century CEO.
My advice to you: Understand Computers, Internet Technology, Business and Entertainment. You won't want to be around if you don't.
Microsoft offers $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo Inc.
In a move that I predict will become the greatest acquisition in business history, Microsoft has made an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion dollars to Yahoo Inc. I can't even begin to describe the enormity or depth of this proposed acquisition. The obvious attempt to stand toe to toe with Google on Google's own terf is but a small part of the larger picture. The fact that Yahoo's stock price has tumbled prompting investors to seek just about any way out only aids Microsoft in this endeavor. The sly move of waiting until the very day former Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel had resigned, and having the offer letter already addressed to Semel's successor hints at Microsoft having some kind of internal presence at Yahoo. In my opinion, this acquisition is inevitable barring any DOJ interference. Looking at recent DOJ antitrust investigations and subsequent rulings, I don't see this as a problem for Redmond. I am already looking down the road to fully understand the implications this will have on the tech industry, and I'm sure it will make huge waves. Be ready for a tech rally real soon as the coffers of giants start to open up this year.
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