Remember the human

Help Desk 2.0

2010-03-05T03:31:55Z

This post is about Extensis and the great over-the-top service I received from someone there today. I'm making sure my Extensis representative Girish sees this post so that he can go personally thank that someone for providing great customer service in under 300 characters.

]]> Today I had a Help Desk 2.0 experience. Help Desk 2.0 is my name for providing support using non-traditional or unconventional means. While working on a scripting project this morning I went searching for examples of how to script Extensis Suitcase, the font management software we use at work.

Google results were practically nil with most every link parroting release notes about AppleScript support in Suitcase but nothing really providing details of the syntax I needed for my project. While I'm a fairly good AppleScripter, the Suitcase dictionary wasn't helping much. All I needed were some snippets to get me started.

Sure, I could E-mail Extensis technical support but that requires a login and then waiting for an answer. Don't get me wrong, I'll do this but I just wasn't in the mood today. When you're going gangbusters on something you don't really want to stop. Forums are a great option too, but everything I found when searching for "AppleScript" returned results for Portfolio, another Extensis product.

Remembering an experience with VMWare, I looked for an Extensis Twitter account. Sure enough: http://twitter.com/extensis. Reading the tweets I saw a lot of dialog rather than marketing.

I tweeted:

@Extensis I'm an experienced AppleScript scripter but would like to see example snippets for Suitcase. Do you have a reference?

Wait and see.

Doing more research on some other forums I found one post that made my jaw drop:

Apr. 2, 2009

MacInTouch Reader

It should be noted that the latest version of Suitcase Fusion 2 v13 has NO Applescript support.

The previously strong scripting support has been completely removed and there is no replacement scripting support.

Without reading any further I decided to simply install a demo of v2 and use the Script Editor to look at the AppleScript dictionary. Sure enough, it didn't have one. What the hell!?

Pissed off, I tweeted:

You're kidding me @Extensis! You removed all AppleScript support from Fusion v2!? WTF!?

All I could think was that my plans for automating some tasks that I have to perform on nearly 100 machines a few times per month are now down the drain. What a let down from a company that's always had a strong Mac presence for years!

Then during a meeting not more than 20 minutes later, I received an alert on my iPhone. I had a tweet from @Extensis:

@meck We provide scripting support for Suitcase Fusion's font management core: http://bit.ly/cRItRR

Really now? Really? I tapped the link and viewed the first couple of pages of a PDF document detailing how to script both Suitcase Fusion v2 and the Universal Type Server client. Another tweet exchange with @Extensis and I learned that the scripting method was changed to offer cross-platform scripting. That just made me smile. I was really glad to eat my words.

Here's what I like about offering support via Twitter.

I know a few folks, including myself sometimes, who offer support via Twitter. It's not a framework for extensive communication. You can't elaborate and you have to severely edit sometimes. Simple cordialities like "Hello", "I hope you can help me", "I'm really sorry to bother you" and "thank you in advance for your time" are snipped in favor of "just the facts, ma'am."

This in turn makes offering support easier instead of more difficult. Help Desks that monitor E-mail accounts or answer telephones must often wade through incomplete details and even emotions that their customers inject into their messages. 140-character messages are faster to read and digest and 140-character answers are long enough to include straight-forward answers or even URLs to detailed answers. And the "respond" button is simpler to use than wading for an address or phone number that may or may not be buried in the details.

Help Desk 2.0 could make the future of the Help Desk so much more efficient. Imagine having an incoming tweet system monitored by multiple staffers. They can literally browse every incoming tweet and if one of the staffers can answer the question, he can flag it for himself and answer it.

All of this could happen in less than five to 10 minutes and the result is that the customer gets near instant gratification. A Twitter account that is "registered" with the Help Desk 2.0 staff would be as effective as an E-mail address, which often serves as verification of identity for low security situations.

So, Girish, please pass along my thanks to whomever your @Exensis tweeter is. For such a quick response I have to think it's someone in support. Maybe someone on your Help Desk. Whomever it was that responded to me made my day, enough so to write all of this you've read. I'm so glad you're using your Twitter account for something more than marketing fluff.

Trust but verify! Hell, don't even trust.

2010-02-24T04:00:47Z

MacBU announced the official name for its next version of Office, Office for Mac 2011, at Macworld Expo just two weeks ago. Inevitably, the beta gets leaked, screenshots begin filling rumor sites and torrents let the general public get a sneak peek.

Releasing a major software suite like Office for Mac to the world is akin to a writer releasing his next major novel. Some critics will praise it. Others will hate it. It's exposed to the world and you can't take it back. The developers, testers, product managers and everyone else at MacBU must be sorely disappointed (but maybe somewhat flattered) when their 2-3 years of hard work gets leaked to the public before it's ready.

Well, I'm sorry to say that it's been leaked. Or has it?

]]> Office for Mac 2011 is due to officially ship around U.S. holiday season of this year, which means around the fourth quarter of 2010. That means it must be going into beta within the next few months.

If I were to believe the bit torrent sites, I'd say it's already in beta because I can now search Google for "torrent Office 2011" and see plenty of places where I can download it. What a shame! But not for MacBU.

Practically every link on the first page of this Google search leads me to a bogus download. How do I know? Because what's being advertised is so blatantly wrong!

Based on past history, Office for Mac comes in two or three flavors—currently Home & Student and Business Edition. So, when I see "Microsoft Office 2011 Enterprise Corporate Edition", I have to laugh. Whoever named this obviously works in the Department of Redundancy Department.

This same torrent seems to be prevalent on several warez sites and even includes some firsts for Office for Mac such as InfoPath 2011, Publisher 2011 and Groove 2011 to name just a few. Wow! Microsoft has been busy! I'm so disappointed, however, to see that Access 2011 wasn't included. Oh, wait, there it is.

Of course, you can tell this is typical Microsoft software because they don't even understand Macs. Boy, won't their Mac customers be surprised when they release Office 2011 as Windows executable!

I wish there were some way I could know for sure that what I'm downloading is legit or is a scam. Something like this message would be handy:

Maybe something like this message from Safari will just give me a little bit of a clue:

At this point, I could spout so many clichés: "Curiosity killed the cat" or "You get what you pay for". But I won't do that… or your money back… Guaranteed! What I will quote is a phrase from the American President Ronald Regan who said this about the Soviet Union: "Trust but verify!"

I'll go him one better: "Hell, don't even trust." Just wait for the real thing.

Geek fest: Week 1

2010-02-15T16:43:55Z

I'm writing this post while sitting on a plane headed to Portland, OR. In a little while I'll be meeting fellow MVP Diane Ross and former MVP Allen Watson. We're driving to Redmond for this year's MVP Summit at Microsoft.

Flying is a wonderful time for me to catch up, reflect and look into new things, which is what I'm doing now. Beneath the iPhone in my hand are two issues of iPhone Life magazine, which I discovered at the Macworld Expo last week. I'm enjoying reading it and considering asking if i can write for it as well.

Last week's Expo was my third to attend, but it was the first where I actually presented a session. Nadyne Richmond from Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit and I presented "Administering Macs with Exchange" as part of the MacIT conference where we covered Exchange tips as well as Entourage troubleshooting. We had no idea what to expect for attendance, but Nadyne did a quick head count—52 people. A sizable group for a topic so specific.

More of my time was spent answeing questions in the Microsoft booth about the new version of Office for Mac to be released later this year. Lots of folks wanted to know about Outlook replacing Entourage and I wish I had had this next week come first so I could've answered them better. Maybe this is for the better since all this talk will be under NDA anyway.

Several months back I heard a saying that "Facebook is for friends you've met and Twitter is for friends you've yet to meet." I believe that. I met face-to-face for the first time three folks I've known at least a year only online. Two are prominant bloggers/podcasters and the third was my publisher at MacTech magazine. To add a warm handshake to those relationships was really nice.

So what did I see at Macworld? My favorite area had to be the iPhone apps area where each 4x4 table accommodated four app vendors. I think the area had at least 20-25 tables. I saw several gems there including two apps for creating and editing Office documents. Just Word and Excel.

Finally, I've found an app for grocery shopping that includes a barcode scanner! It won't be available for a few weeks. The app is pending Apple's approval process now. Can't wait!

I now have an app to take a picture of business cards and convert them to electronic contacts, which is handy. However, if a person has an iPhone then I'm going to insist he download Bump to transfer contacts more easily.

I reget not attending either of the two big parties. My nerves from before the presentation really drained me. Surprisingly, once I was on stage I thought it went really well. One of the attendees stopped by the booth the next day and said something to the effect of, "I went into the session with low expectations but came out thinking it was once of the best sessions this year." Made my day.

So this week I get to see quite a few old friends at the MVP summit and see sooper sekrit stuff I can't share here. This is a good month for a geek like me.

Tags: MVP, Macworld

iPhone blogging with iBlogger

2010-02-06T20:11:33Z

I just downloaded iBlogger to see how easily I could post entries from my iPhone.

The interface isn't very intuitive but it's not difficult to figure out either. Setup was easy, but then again once you set up MoveableType a few times, connecting to it isn't very difficult.

This will take a little getting use to and some experimentation, but I already feel the price was probably worth the $10.00.

Posting a quick picture of Monty and Mitch snoozing on the couch. They were convenient and willing models for this test. I appreciate the app's feature to define photos as top, left or right. No control for anything else, though.

Stylizing text appears to be non-existent and that's a bummer. Looks like I'll have to manually add strong and emphasis tags by hand. Wow, that was painful! Would be great if iBlogger supported SmileOnMyMac's TextExpanderTouch app for expanding shortcuts!

Fingers are a little cramped now but I wasn't really expecting to type entire entries on the iPhone anyway. I'm hoping this will be useful for posting quick pictures and short entries.

Pushing the Publish button now.

New life for old laptops or just garbage disposal?

2010-01-31T03:08:03Z

I'm torn.

A few times I've been asked by the director at GDC to evaluate some equipment that an organization is supposedly donating for just the cost of inspection and shipping.

The more I receive these requests to evaluate these machines, the more I think this is a great big scam.

]]> Joel, the director, usually forwards messages like this to me and asks, "Bill, what do you think of these machines?"

From: [redacted]@verizon.net
Date: January 29, 2010 3:13:08 AM CST
To: [redacted]@deafconnection.org
Subject: Laptop computers from [redacted]

Good morning Joel ... the five laptops mentioned below are no longer available; however, last week we received 12 Dell LATITUDE 620 laptops that [redacted] Laptop Gurus worked on earlier this week. Initial indications are that most are in good working order, but we found a couple where head phones or an external speaker is required to hear the sounds properly. We have order additional memory, DVD / CD-RW combo drives, and 60 GB hard drives for them. My understanding is that the WIFI cards that were purchased for the previous laptops will work in these. In addition we will need to replace some of the batteries.

So when we get them setup, they will be running at 2.16 GHz, have 1 GB of RAM (which can be upgraded to 2 GB) have a 60 GB hard drive, DVD player / CD Writer, WIFI, good battery and AC Adapter with Windows XP installed. We are looking to get $245 a unit. Since many who have acquired laptops from us have asked for carrying cases, we recently found a supplier where we can purchased carrying cases for laptops. If this is of interest let me know, I believe the ones we are looking at will run around $25 a piece.

Accordingly, if you are interested, please let me know soon. I anticipate the laptops being ready by the end of next week.

[signature redacted]

These laptops are most likely from corporations that have either donated or disposed of old equipment. They're probably four to five years old already. We've received them in several states of "used" condition ranging from pretty scratched up to duct taped. They still have OEM Windows XP Home or Professional stickers on the bottom most of the time. Nothing I can really re-install if needed.

In my opinion, these machines may have up to a year of usefulness before they break down and get buried in someone's garage a few years before heading to a landfill.

Joel's explanation for donating these laptops is compelling. Simply put, the people receiving them can get some use out of them. He plans to hand them over to other NGOs for grant writing. Most grant distributors won't take grant proposals in writing but instead require everything to be in electronic form. "Even one month's use," he says, "is enough time to write a few needed proposals asking for money."

Another time, Joel asked me to evaluate a U.K. organization's offer to ship 50 desktop computers each with "a minimum of 256MB", a keyboard, mouse and CRT monitor to Kenya. By the time they included installing an operating system, like Windows XP or Linux along with applications like OpenOffice and shipping costs, the price per machine was about $180.00.

After careful consideration of the proposal, I replied to Joel with this at the end of a message:

My personal and very prejudiced opinion:

These are computers that no one is willing to buy. The cost to dispose of them as "charitable donations" is appealing because they become a tax deduction and this also passes along the cost and hassle of disposal to someone else.

What will happen to these machines when they fail? They will be thrown into a landfill and not properly recycled. The mercury, lead and other pollutants will seep into the soil and cause environmental problems later.

I see this organization and others like it as a front for cheap disposal of hazardous substances in foreign countries that will have no rebuke.

****************************************************************************
* A true charitable donation would be to get fewer machines that will last *
* longer and it would also include a commitment for removal and proper *
* disposal of an old non-working computer for every new computer placed. *
****************************************************************************

At minimum, if you are going to donate these 50 computers then locate 50 non-working systems and pay for their proper disposal (recycled, not a landfill). This is just as important as donating a computer.

That's been my recommendation since writing that response to Joel. For everyone one in, take one out—properly, with the environment in mind. I don't want to see any country become our dumping ground.

Friends, past and future

2010-01-29T03:30:26Z

Since caving into the Facebook fever and opening an account, I've seen the following aphorism (paraphrased) come true:

Facebook is for friends I've met; Twitter is for friends I've yet to meet.

Next week, I'm gathering together folks at work to have lunch with former co-workers, some of whom I've really only met once or twice. Amazingly, we've been very in touch on Facebook.

In a couple of weeks i travel to Macworld and hope to run into some of the folks that I've been following and who are following me on Twitter.

These are not friendships I could have maintained without the Internet and without social networking sites. Who says the Internet stifles social interaction?

Fat friggin' iMac plugs! or "Oh, snap!"

2010-01-20T04:32:37Z

In my cube is a refurbished 24-inch iMac that I'm preparing to use for testing. We don't have many iMacs in-house but we're slowing migrating to them from the Mac Pros, which are more than we need.

iMacs are stylish and sleek, but I was cursing Apple's "design" this morning until I discovered they solved my problem before I had one.

]]> Like any cube, the desktop is modular but not easily adjustable and my power outlets are underneath. Tiny little gaps between the desktop and the back padded wall are the only cable management I have. None of those handy holes in the top for all those cords!

When I tried snaking the iMac's power cord in that barely 1-inch gap, I couldn't believe that both ends were too friggin' fat to fit! The three-prong end isn't much bigger than most power cords but the other end has this ridiculously large collar that fits into the back of the iMac.

"Some design!"

That's not what I was really thinking.

After 15 minutes of looking for larger gaps and trying to squeeze the prong end through the biggest gap I could find, I had resigned myself that the cable was just gonna have to snake over the front of my desk to get to the power strip below.

Then for some reason, I just looked at the collar end of the cord and pressed it with my thumb. If ever the words "Oh, Snap!" were more appropriate!

The collar snapped off—easily. This end of the plug now fit very easily through that little 1-inch gap behind my desk.

Apple really did think of everything.

Some geeky things

2010-01-16T22:19:48Z

Some days are interesting not just because something special or unique happens but because of the little things.

]]> SSH tunneling

At work I tend to collect little snippets of code or wisdom about Mac OS X administration in a folder called "Mac OS X Research". The folder's not organized in any special manner but I just happen to remember that I've put something there for later.

Yesterday, I pulled out a print from a post to the MacEnterprise list that I thought was interesting at the time and wanted to try. One of my users was complaining that after moving (and moving to a different network segment) he was no longer able to print to his printers, even after setting them up again.

I suspected he had probably connected to the local Windows print queues like a few folks have done before. These print queues are not properly configured for Mac clients. Protocol forbids me from connecting to his computer without his allowance while logged in but I wanted to see if I was right.

I ran this little command from that MacEnterprise message in the Terminal (replacing "user@remoteHost" with my login credentials and the address of his computer):

ssh user@remoteHost -L 2000:127.0.0.1:631

This ssh tunneling command allowed me to view his CUPS control panel from my computer, even though it is accessible only to "localhost". While browsing his printer settings I was able to see "smb://" connections, which means, yes indeed, he was connecting to the local Windows print queues.

SSH tunneling

While perusing Twitter this morning I saw a reference by a tech blogger that I follow about Blippy, a social website whose premise is to show others what you are buying in real time. Order a NetFlix movie or charge something on your credit card and others can see what you bought and how much you paid.

I was curious about how it worked, so I signed up. The first thing you have to do is add accounts and this is where I stopped cold. For example, if I wanted to connect to my Wells Fargo debit card I had to provide my user name, which is my social security number, and my online password to allow Blippy to monitor my activity.

My reaction?

VirusBarrier X6

Intego has updated its VirusBarrier product from X5 to X6 and it now includes firewall, anti-phishing and anti-spyware support along with permission to install one license on two computers.

Since I believe Macs should be good network citizens, I run antivirus software and have it set to check daily for updates. I'm experimenting with the new features incorporated from their old NetBarrier product and we'll see how long I can stand being prompted to allow various applications access to the network (I've set the settings pretty high).

The only problem so far is that I renewed my virus definitions subscription back in October for two years. Even though I provided my X5 serial number for the upgrade, I'm only seeing one year of definitions support. Interested in seeing how Intego responds to my E-mail message about this issue.

Curlz MT walks into a bar and orders a drink...

2010-01-13T05:02:50Z

The bartender says, "Get out! We don't serve your type in here!"

I'm going to put this on a cover page for a meeting I've called at work to explain font licensing to developers and managers. Below that it will say:

This is the funniest thing you'll ever hear about fonts. It all goes downhill from here.

A Yowsa! moment

2010-01-12T04:16:08Z

As part of re-inventing Frankenstein at work, I have to determine the best way to take an existing Mac with two Mac OS X 10.4.x partitions and upgrade it to two Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 partitions. Remotely.

]]> Casper Imaging, part of JAMF Software's Casper Suite, doesn't seem to like installing Mac OS X 10.5 onto a partition while booted to Mac OS X 10.4.11. It's essentially calling Apple's Installer technology to install the new OS from a disk image of a Mac OS X 10.5 disk.

I finally got to test a new feature in Casper Admin for compiling a configuration (a group of items to install) into a monolithic disk image and then using Casper Imaging to lay that down on a partition using a block copy.

The compiled disk image for our Restore partition, which we boot into to image the main Macintosh HD, was about 3.6GB. Not big for a partition but still not like the old 200MB image I could install back in the Mac OS 9 days. The Yowsa! came when I went to install it. Not only was I able to install a Mac OS X 10.5 image while booted to 10.4.11 but the block copy was less than five minutes! Compared to "installing" the configuration, this was a savings of 50-80% in time.

My next test will be to copy this compiled configuration to a different distribution server and test from there. It will probably work, knowing JAMF. I found a "Compiled Configurations" folder with this disk image in the root of my local distribution point. This probably is the only thing that needs to be copied to other distribution points to make it work elsewhere.

Culinary tip for Cuisine at Home magazine

2010-01-10T05:09:38Z

One of my favorite magazines is Cuisine at Home, a bi-monthly cooking magazine with no advertising. Each issue may be thin in pages--usually about 40-50 pages--but it's packed with recipes and ideas that are easy to follow and teach me something new.

The first section in each issue is devoted to user-submitted tips. I E-mailed this one to them this evening. Maybe it'll get me 25 bucks!

]]> My kitchen has those awkward corner cabinets where half the space is deep and unreachable. I picked up six plastic tubs at a local container store and put all my jars, cans and bags into them. To retrieve anything requires pulling out just one tub (for frequently accessed items) or two tubs (for lesser used items). No space is wasted.

Restart

2010-01-09T23:33:40Z

I've avoided my blog too long. Time to restart. Quite a few new things and some old ones are in the works for the new year.

]]> We've been in our new house since August and we celebrated both Christmas and New Year's Eve with friends for the first time in years. Missy even stayed in our guest bedroom, which is semi-jokingly named after her since she's probably the only person who'll ever use it more than once a year. Was so glad to actually stay up 'til midnight for the new decade.

My cooking has finally taken flight in my new kitchen, so don't be surprised if a few recipes or cooking-related stuff appears here. It's become my passion more and more now that I have space, granite counter tops and a double-oven. For Christmas, Dean got me a Cuisinart Crock Pot and I'm inaugurating it today with Beef Stroganoff. Sounds great for a day that's been floating around 0°F.

In the something-that-scares-me category, I'm venturing late into the realm of Facebook. It's like Friendster, right? Why would anyone want to plaster his life in a place where everyone rolls his eyes at just the mention of the name? Amazing how I see a few very old faces on there. Not looking to reunite with anyone but my shingle's out there in case someone feels some strange compelling reason to say hello.

Macworld Expo 2010 is coming up in February and Microsoft has invited me again to participate in their booth. Possibly will be helping with a presentation in one of the IT tracks, but they seem to have forgotten they asked me. To be seen.

The week after Macworld is the MVP Summit in Redmond. This year I'm meeting Diane and Allen in Portland and we're going to all drive up to the event. Diane's never attended a summit and so I'm hoping she'll be able to keep up with her disabilities. We'll be the first outsiders to hear MacBU's plans for the next version of Mac Office. Maybe we'll get sneak peaks. I'm not allowed to tell.

Been busy putting together some laptops for Global Deaf Connection. Natalie held her first class today teaching computer literacy to deaf immigrants. Ugh, the machines are old donated pieces of equipment that are underpowered and take hours just to install the Windows operating system. I'm so glad that the current director Joel has purchased new iMacs and Macbook for their own work. He's in Tanzania for a month and I'll probably be visiting the office a little less until he returns. I E-mailed them both today to tell them how to start blogs on their new Mac Mini Server.

Re-inventing Frankenstein or "Engineering an old workflow with new tools"

2009-05-23T18:21:26Z

Our project manager included this in her kick-off meeting invitation a week ago:

If implementation is scheduled to occur on 12/31/09, then we have 163 business days to do "everything" from today, 5/12.

I support a Composition department that has a very complex workflow system. It's a combination of internal web servers for file storage and job-tracking, Macs running third-party applications, lots of custom-developed applications, lots of scripting and lots of managed preferences.

For the next several months, we'll be re-engineering this Frankenstein system that we developed for about $2 million four years ago and has generated over $100 million since then. The project's goal is to bring all software up-to-date so that we are poised to be able to transition to a different platform in a few years if management decides that's the best direction. My goal is to re-engineer what I put together four years ago, applying new technologies and knowledge that I've gained during that time.

Roll-out of the re-engineered system for about 90 Macs in two different countries (the U.S. and India) takes place over a weekend.

]]> Frankenstein mine

While I didn't develop the workflow for this department, I do have to support it.

Working files are stored on an internal web server that acts as a file server for our QuarkXPress documents, graphics files and customer-supplied files. The server also acts as a job tracking system, allowing users to check-in, check-out and version documents.

Jobs are downloaded to the Mac workstations, using some of our custom software, and worked by human beings for tasks that cannot be automated. However, when users are ready to print, proof, upload documents or create PDFs, they have about a dozen custom-developed tools and third-party XTensions/plug-ins that ensure accuracy and speed. Some of these tools have specific settings or preferences that may need to be tweaked a few times each month. That means I have to package these new settings and get them installed on every machine, often with less than a day's notice.

Most everything we produce for our customers must meet some sort of government filing guidelines, so accuracy has to be 100%. Because this is a high production environment with such stringent requirements, one slight change in procedure or one out-of-date preference can break something else and result in malformed data--translation: unhappy customer. An unhappy customer means an upset departmental manager and that means I have to fix problems fast. Better to do everything right the first time.

Looking back to see forward

Exactly four years ago, we had this exact same scenario.

The Composition engine was using QuarkXPress 4.0 on Mac OS 9 and we were managing Macs using FileWave. At the time FileWave was limited in the number of configurations we could manage and management was clunky. I had to remote control our server and drag updates or changes to different "folders" in FileWave. These updates would be copied in a trickle of bits to the workstations where they'd be installed and force the user to quit his applications or restart his computer to get the new updates.

Under Mac OS 9, fonts and preferences would get corrupted and make the Macs unusable for users on all three shifts. Building or rebuilding a machine literally took 24 hours because of the way the system was designed. I would curse under my breath when I'd sit in front of a workstation because my hands were tied by the FileWave software that was preventing me from doing simple maintenance such as deleting those corrupt preferences.

We moved from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X 10.3.9, QuarkXPress 4.0 to 6.5, various Adobe products to Creative Suite and, of course, updated all our XTensions, plug-ins and custom software. Six months later, we scheduled to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4. The goal for that project was to simply recreate the same workflow in an updated environment. Little functionality was added.

Our goal for this new project are similar, however, we've heard rumblings from management that they'd like to possibly switch in the future to a Windows-based solution using InDesign. If we were to attempt to do that today, we'd have to develop an entirely new system. None of what we use today--documents, fonts, software--is portable.

My recommendations were to approach this in five steps, never tackling more than one or two at a time:

Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 to simply maintain stability with software and hardware. Upgrade to QuarkXpress 8.0 too. This will buy us time for the managers to make their final decision about the direction we should proceed.
Convert our PostScript fonts to OpenType fonts throughout our QuarkXPress and supporting documents. This puts us in a position to use the same fonts on Windows and we'll clean up any licensing issues.
Use something like Markzware's QuarkXPress to InDesign converter to transition documents. This puts us in a position to move to InDesign on Windows later if desired.
Replace all remaining PowerPC hardware with Intel hardware during the next few years. This allows us to continue using our expensive Mac hardware to run Windows later.
Run InDesign with OpenType fonts on Windows on our existing Macs. This gives us the most bang for our hardware buck.

Tools assessment

My saving grace is that I get to choose how I support this department and its Frankenstein workflow system.

In January 2006, we transitioned these tools:

Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X
FileWave to Casper 3.0
Timbuktu to Apple Remote Desktop 2.0

I call the move to Mac OS X one of my "tools" because I can do things such as SSH into a machine while a user is working and I can lock down permissions on applications and fonts to prevent corruption issues.

In this next upgrade, I'll continue with using Casper 7.0 and Apple Remote Desktop 3.2. These are very scalable solutions that have well met our growth from just 50 Macs in the one department to nearly 90 Macs in two countries. I'm really looking forward to using Casper 7.0 because it will have new features that will let me replace many of my imaging scripts and preference files with MCX settings--all without having to have a Mac OS X Server machine.

For now, we'll stick with Mac OS X 10.5 even if the announcement for 10.6 unexpectedly includes support for PowerPC Macs. If it does then our hardware needs are already met and we'll be able to upgrade six months later, but if it doesn't then we need to replace lots of G5 Macs in the near- to long-term future. Our development efforts are now standardized on this OS version.

I'm anxious to begin posting how I'm able to use my new tools to do the same job more easily and much more efficiently. A simple one for starters: using launchd for Extensis Suitcase... next.

Embarrassed or 'I'm most definitely not a PC!'

2009-03-07T04:39:05Z

Microsoft's marketing group has again made a great blunder. As if the Seinfeld/Gates commercials weren't enough they apparently felt that their MVP program is up for grabs. Sadly, a lot of MVPs didn't disagree.

Apparently, someone at Microsoft decided to stage a mass "I'm a PC!" video opportunity during last week's MVP Summit in Redmond, and it is being spread to various media as our endorsement of them.

]]> I'm proud to be a member of Microsoft's MVP program. It's one of the greatest support achievements of any large company and has been a great opportunity for me as well. Basically, MVPs are recognized by Microsoft for their participation in various communities, helping others with Microsoft products. We participate in newsgroups, post on online forums, blog about products, write articles and more, all with the intention of helping other users. The majority of us is in computer or IT-related fields but not everyone.

My acceptance into the program was for helping folks connect Macs to Windows Server but that has since changed to helping them with Microsoft Entourage, Remote Desktop Connection for Mac or generally any kind of interoperability between Macs and Windows.

One of the covenants among MVPs has been our refusal to let folks think we are evangelists for Microsoft. Remember, we have been awarded for our help with others, not hired to help them. We do get a lot of perks for being MVPs but that doesn't stop us from telling anyone that Microsoft's products may have serious flaws or that their products may simply not be the best solution for his needs.

The video embarrasses me because in just a few seconds hundreds of MVPs are shown chanting the "I'm a PC!" slogan, which is the antithesis of Apple's Mac campaign. In one fell swoop hundreds of my MVP colleagues have basically allowed themselves to be seen taking sides in the supposed Apple/Microsoft product wars. Microsoft staged an opportunity to take advantage of the excitement of the moment and turn their entire MVP program into a gimmick.

In response to one fellow MVP who didn't see the problem with this I had the following to say:

In all the past several years of discussions I've read in these private newsgroups I can't count how many times I've read things like "MVPs are independent" and "MVPs are not evangelists". But I can't think of one instance, until yours now, where any of us has had a problem with that thinking.

The MVP program isn't about Windows, Windows Server, Exchange, SQL, Silverlight, Live, Internet Explorer, Office, XBox or any other product. It's about recognizing and rewarding those who help others with Microsoft products.

The fact that someone at Microsoft staged this "surprise" angers me. MVPs knew something was up beforehand but had no idea what. For the price of admission those attending the keynote were subject to participation in a marketing gimmick that doesn't fairly represent the program nor who we *all* are. For the excitement of the moment, in my opinion, MVPs forgot who they were.

For the record: I am most definitely not a PC!

Good-bye, Arfur or "Knowing when to let go"

2009-02-20T04:50:17Z

Writing is therapeutic for the writer, so I hope you'll indulge me.

We put Arfur to sleep early this morning. He was a really big kitty that at one time in his life weighed 24 pounds. That was several years ago and since then he had been on a stricter diet that regulated his weight, but he was always big-boned and big-personalitied.

After a month with painful urination and blood in his urine, Dean came home to find him in constant pain, which we suspect was caused by cancer. We met at the vet's office where we discussed using ultrasound to try and find the problem. X-rays and various tests had really revealed nothing and so we were hoping this might at least confirm our suspicions. The earliest, we could get an appointment was Saturday morning--three days away--and so our course of action was to try pain medications.

However, by late yesterday night Arfur wasn't moving and was literally howling every 20-30 minutes with pain. I've never heard an animal scream so loud and so mournful. Our hearts were breaking.

]]> We're fortunate to have a very good 24-hour emergency vet clinic within driving distance. One of our other cats, Monty, has been treated there and the quality of service has been great, although expensive. We took Arfur in around 2:00 a.m.

The vet weighed him and he was three pounds lighter than just a month ago. Just moving him caused him to howl in pain. She carried him to the back room for further examination and suggested an IV.

After a little while she returned with her prognosis and told us our options.

First, he was "critically ill". We had suspected that but needed to hear it. Second, he was very anemic. Possibly, he'd lost half his blood in his urine. Third, she suggested a specialist, possibly someone at the University of Minnesota.

Then, matter-of-factly, she started telling us our costs for an ultrasound, hospitalization for 24 hours or just until 8:00 a.m. until we could get him to our vet, costs for a blood transfusion and costs for specialized medical treatment. I appreciated her honesty and straight-forwardness. We'd all like to think money is no object but without any sort of pet insurance it had to figure into our decision.

However, what clinched our decision was this: less than a couple of years ago Arfur's sister from the same litter, Jen, quickly began losing weight. The vet couldn't determine a cause but in the meantime suggested a feeding tube because she wasn't eating. Those were a miserable couple of weeks of our lives. She was listless and apathetic and didn't move even to go to the litter box. She had ceased being herself even before the tube. We had to feed her four to five times per day, which meant coming home over lunch hours and late night feedings.

Her last day we went to give her her morning feeding and she was having difficulty breathing. She was slowly, exaggeratedly gasping. Dean, who had been with his best friend while her mother passed away just weeks before, said, "This is exactly what happened to Mary just before the end. Her organs were shutting down."

Jen's last month alive was no life. She was miserable and so were we. Her last days of existence were so very undignified. We didn't want this for Arfur.

I remember for Arfur and Jen that I said the same thing to the vet, each time choking on my words, "Can we just let him/her go?" For Jen and this morning for Arfur, just saying that was a feeling of immediate relief. The decision was made and relief was in sight.

The vet at the clinic seemed relieved too and reassured us that she thought this was a good decision. Then she immediately began telling us what to expect:

"The procedure is simply an overdose of pentobarbital injected directly into a vein. It's quick and painless and just like going to sleep. During the procedure, he may urinate as he loses bladder control. You may see him take a last breath, which is really a muscle reaction. By that time he's already passed away. You may also see twitching but this too occurs after the pet has passed away and is just a nerve reaction. Finally, animals don't close their eyes when they go."

This is almost exactly what we saw with Jen a year and a half ago. No twitching and no last gasp but the rest happened.

Dean and I both had our hands on Arfur, petting him, and I recall my lip quivering as tears were streaming down my face. The vet had the syringe in her pocket and when we gave the word she quickly injected the catheter that they had put in his paw for the IV. In seconds Arfur was still. He was out of his pain. We both leaned over and kissed him.

As strange as this may seem I didn't cry much longer after that. My emotions seem to be the result of seeing suffering and I feel it was as minimal as possible for Arfur. Also, after we let Jen go we began thinking of her every time we saw our other cats. We spent more time with them, let them sit in our laps more often and pushed them away less often when they became a little too needy. Arfur and I had a routine where he'd greet me at the door when I cam home and I'd give him a good couple minutes of kitty massages and belly rubs.

Hug your pets like there's no tomorrow. Both Jen and Arfur had dramatic turns in health in just a couple of days. I learned this from Jen and remembered it for Arfur. I'm so glad I did. Knowing that I had my special times with him made letting him go so much more easy and recognizing when to let him go made me feel he suffered as little as possible.