Commentary

Inveneo in American Way Magazine

Posted on by tarus

I’ve been traveling a lot lately, and while I was reading American Way magazine I came across this article “Road Warrior in Search of Internet Connections and Great Beer”.

Now I'm a bit of a road warrior who likes Internet connections and great beer, but alas it wasn't an article about me. It was about Bob Marsh, one of the founders of the non-profit Inveneo which is dedicated to bringing communications technologies to the developing world.

What caught my eye was:

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, humanitarian agencies needed instant Internet access where no infrastructure existed. Inveneo had the first Wi-Fi links up in six days.

What wasn’t mentioned is that OpenNMS was being used to monitor those links.

It felt really good to help them out, and we continue to support Inveneo’s efforts still, and it was cool to read more about them.

Lands' End Redux – Back from the Dead

Posted on by tarus

Okay, last week I was very upset with Lands’ End. They are in the process of implementing both a new ordering and a new production system, and this has resulted in long, frustrating delays in processing orders.

The worst part was that prior to this I’d had always had extremely good service from them – so much so that I just expected it. If they had just had average service, I probably would have been a little more tolerant, as strange as that may sound, but after waiting a month I was a little upset.

Anyway, I canceled a fairly large order and was looking for another provider when I got a voicemail from a Ms. Ferrone. She’s a Senior Manager with Lands’ End’s Customer Care Services, and apparently they have a group within the company that searches the Internet and social networks for comments about the company. One of them discovered my blog entry and brought it to her attention, which I think is pretty amazing since I don’t believe any of my three readers works for them, but she tracked me down and wanted to try to make things right. I was off in Oregon and really didn’t have time to talk, but on Monday she caught me in the office and we had a nice chat.

She apologized profusely for the delay and she felt confident that the new system would result in a better experience for everyone, but in the meantime they were going “old skool” and manually handling account issues like mine. She asked if I would reconsider my order and offered a nice discount for the inconvenience, and I found I couldn’t stay mad at them, especially considering the effort they took to get in touch with me (take heed American Airlines and Centurylink).

So I gave her my order number and as she was investigating it, she told me it had already shipped. In fact, it had shown up in the warehouse the day after I posted the rant on my blog. Now, I would have known this if I had gotten my usual “shipped” e-mail from Lands’ End, but I still felt a little bad about it. I offered to return some of the discount but she insisted that they wanted to compensate me for the trouble.

The whole conversation lasted nearly an hour (those who know me won’t see this as unusual) and she seemed nether rushed or in a hurry to end the call. It was a wonderful customer service experience and had definitely won me back as a customer.

I have said in the past that the measure of a company is how they react when things go wrong even more than getting everything right, because if you work with anyone long enough something will go wrong. By that scale, Lands’ End is tops.

The Apple Fanboys

Posted on by tarus

As the iPhone 5 announcement pushes AAPL over $700/share, it is obvious that Apple has another hit on its hands and will be adding even more to its coffers (one of my friends ordered three). As someone who is happily moving away from Apple, I pretty much could care less about the announcement, and I have to agree with Brian Prentice that the iPhone announcement was a little lame.

What is Apple ultimately offering with the iPhone 5? Speeds and feeds. New processor, larger screen, different connector, LTE support. thinner form factor. Don’t get me wrong – these things are important. And they constitute some fantastic engineering work to hang it all together. But is it fundamentally changing my experience with a smartphone? No, not really.

Despite distancing myself from Apple, I still follow some Apple-centric news sites like Cult of Mac. As with any large site, the quality of writing varies, but for the most part the Apple fanboy rants are kept to a minimum. For the most part.

Recently I saw this article complaining about a Samsung ad.

I own a Galaxy S3 so I was interested in how it compares to the new iPhone. I find the S3 to be incredibly light, so I was surprised to see the iPhone 5 is even lighter, but with that exception the S3 meets or exceeds the iPhone’s specifications.

Now the fanboy was ridiculing the rest of the ad for mentioning other features like “S-Beam” and “Picture in Picture”. Well, sorry to say, that’s what advertising is for – to increase consumer awareness – just like no one knew what Siri was until Apple told people. The sad fact is that the iPhone is a fashion accessory as much as a device (notice how case manufacturers now cut out a circle in the case so they can display the Apple logo?) and it will be hard for anyone to complete against that – until the fashion fades. I think that is the most telling thing about the iPhone 5 announcement – there’s nothing really new here. Unless Apple continues to innovate, the door is open.

And I’m with Brian when I think that Microsoft still has a shot at the market. I’ve seen some of their new tech, and the integration of Windows and Office across phones and tablets with centralized storage is huge. Apple is still having trouble getting into the corporation, and if Microsoft can deliver tools that let people work with Excel, Powerpoint and Word more efficiently, that will be more important than Angry Birds and Youtube.

Anyway, I do agree with the Cult of Mac guy that Samsung could have done a better job in their ad. Since I run CyanogenMod I don’t use any of their fancy software (seriously, Samsung, I can’t remove the Yellow Pages widget ’cause it is an important system file?) I would have focused the ad on the things that really differentiate the S3 from the iPhone: removable microSD storage, removable battery, NFC and the microUSB plug.

The thing I dislike most about Apple is that they really want that “walled garden” so that anything going onto or out of your device has to go through them. Removable storage would make it easier to circumvent that, but would erode their margins on memory. With 64GB microSD cards becoming common and 32GB cards being downright cheap, it would be difficult to charge an extra $200 for 64GB (versus the $55 I paid for a 64GB microSD card) if options were available. Plus, the removable storage is the best way for me to manage O/S upgrades and media on my phone, and I can’t see how I lived without it.

Also, don’t underestimate the value of a removable/replaceable battery. A lot of OpenNMS customers are financial institutions that severely limit network access. When I am on-site at one of those places, I rely heavily on my phone, and quite frequently my iPhone would run out of juice by the afternoon (and the iPhone 4 had good battery life). My only option was to plug it in. Not a big deal, but now I just swap in a spare battery and get on with my life.

One would think that Apple would be embracing new tech like NFC. With Square raising another $200 million, the interest in mobile payments is huge. Now granted, it may take an Apple to make NFC payments ubiquitous, but the lack of NFC in the last two iPhones means that there is a opportunity to pass them by.

And finally, while it may seem silly, I love the fact that the S3 charges off of a microUSB cable. It’s called a “standard” and it is one that every other device maker on the planet is moving toward (despite another Cult of Mac fanboy rant about Samsung cables in the past) and I can always find one – be it for my Kindle, my bluetooth headset or my digital camera.

While it has been a frustrating experience switching from an iPhone to Android, at the moment I could not see myself going back. The user experience is totally different and the culture is much more about creating than consuming.

I have a choice, and that is the best feature out there.

First World Problems

Posted on by tarus

Just a quick post to point out two things.

The first was that I found myself seeing a lot of press about the OS X FlashBack Trojan, and I immediately tried to test my iMac … before I remembered I was on Ubuntu.

I thought that was interesting, not only because Linux tends to be safer from such things but mainly due to the fact that I totally forgot I wasn’t on OS X.

I should also note that most sites are suggesting that the easiest way for people to detect the trojan is to download and execute some code off the Internet. (sigh)

The second thing is that David Bryne has started blogging again, and he has a cautionary tale about Amazon removing Kindle content without asking permission:

It seems that, once again, Amazon has removed purchased material from our devices. I suspect Apple had a hand in this as well. Apple has consistently sabotaged their competitors’ apps and software that allow you to sync other devices with their own. Then, all of the sudden, apps that once did X and Y suddenly don’t perform those functions anymore. In most cases those apps were free—so it is hard to complain too much. Although, some of the free apps contained magazines, books and other content, like Decoded, that I purchased and though they may not have been very good, I paid for them and they were mine to keep! They came to my house and ripped pages out of my book!

As much as I’d love to have some sort of e-reader, until they stop doing stuff like this I’ll vote with my wallet.

Inveneo Update

Posted on by tarus

As some of you may remember, we got involved with Inveneo when they were deployed to Haiti to help that country recover from a disastrous earthquake.

I was working a support ticket from Andris Bjornson and he sent along the following update, and I ask him if I could share it.

FYI – I’m currently in Nairobi, Kenya. Last week we installed a new 1U, -48VDC server in a local telecom provider’s Kenya datacenter. The server is running ONMS to monitor a number of projects we’re deploying in Kenya, the first of which is a project we rolled out this week in Dadaab on the Somali border. Dadaab has the dubious distinction of being the largest refugee camp in the world.

Through the network we helped deploy, NGOs delivering lifesaving aid in the camps will have much improved broadband connectivity options to improve logistical communications.

Today I trained the NOC on use of OpenNMS, and several of them commented on its ease of use. I’m looking forward to see our second major OpenNMS installation grow with the network.

Thanks for your continued support…I still am really hoping to get one of my engineers out your way for OpenNMS training. We’ll have to find some time between the numerous planned deployments.

Thanks!

Andris

Liberate

Posted on by tarus

I love my job for a number of reasons, but one is that for once in my life I often have the financial ability to help friends realize their dreams (as I’ve been able to realize a number of mine).

Today I am wearing my Severed Fifth “Liberate” T-shirt that I just received in the mail.

Jono Bacon plays in Severed Fifth, and we were more than happy to help him and the rest of the guys out when announced they were working on their first professionally recorded album, and this is the result. We also got a nice little “thank you” in the digipak, right behind the CD.

No matter what type of music you like, the album is worth checking out just to get to hear Jono sing in his spooky, evil angry voice. I like to listen to it whenever I feel my energy lag, such as right now, this afternoon, after the pizza I had for lunch.

I love what the digital revolution has done to empower artists like Jono (as well as Jonathan Coulton, Louis CK, and others). With digital distribution disrupting traditional business models in media, music and software, it’s always refreshing to see the level of professionalism available without expensive (and increasingly unnecessary) middlemen.

Plus, I guess that in the word’s of MC Frontalot:

♫ Severed Fifth is in the tee shirt business ♫

Ubuntu FTW

Posted on by tarus

Okay, I’m both tired and hoarse. I’m hoarse from teaching class all day, and I’m tired because I didn’t get to bed until 1am last night.

The last part was due to my inability to get Fedora to run on our classroom machines.

Usually, it is quite simple. I do a fresh install of Fedora, yum upgrade, add the repos for rpmfusion, install the drivers for the ATI cards and the Broadcom wireless interface and I’m good to go.

Starting at about 11am on Sunday, I downloaded Fedora 16 and installed it. This time it complained about the need of a 1-2 MB “BIOS” partition – something about how Fedora is handling GPT partitioned disks. Anyway, that didn’t seem to work since every time I tried to boot it ended up booting from the wrong partition (into Windows).

I decided to punt on Fedora 16 and went back to Fedora 15. That seemed to work okay, but after the couple of hours it took to install and upgrade, it turns out that the rpmfusion packages have, once again, not been updated to match the current kernel. It also seems impossible to set it up so that the correct kernel can be installed. As I mentioned above, usually the kmod packages “just work” so I was stuck trying the akmod packages which, in my experience, never work.

By now it’s time for supper, and when we got back I decided to try Ubuntu (I had five students showing up Monday morning and I needed something). I used to use Ubuntu years ago as the training distro, but Canonical made a questionable hiring decision and I ripped it out. That person flamed out pretty spectacularly, and since I’ve been using Ubuntu over the last nine months or so off and on I was curious as to how easy it would be to install.

Piece of pie. Easy as cake.

With the exception of having to add the “nomodeset” option to the initial kernel boot, it “just worked”, but it took us several hours to finish all six machines.

(sigh)

So, it’s another win for Ubuntu – my new default distro for training.

As far as the class goes, we have a great group. We have two people who are somewhat local coming up from Lumberton, NC. We also have one guy from Chicago who works for Sears (a commercial support customer) and two people all the way from Mellerud, Sweden – one of whom was a FIFA referee for five years. I keep threatening to hand out red cards.

It should be a fun week. Jeff is team teaching this with me, so I believe my voice will hold out.

I’m not sure if the class is rooting for that, however.

Chatham Park

Posted on by tarus

I really do enjoy where I live here in Chatham County, just outside of Pittsboro, North Carolina. It’s a beautiful and beautifully rural area, but it is also very close to the Research Triangle Park. I’m able to live on a farm where I can’t see my neighbors, but I am an easy ride away from several cool cities as well as the airport.

This came in handy last night.

Back in 2006 we got an order for a Greenlight project from Brigham Young University. I was the lucky one to take the call, since the on-site work was scheduled for their Hawaii campus and I got first shot at the trip. I had an amazing time and still have fond memories of both Hawaii and the customer.

It turns out that the main person I worked with there has taken a job with IBM and happened to be in town. We were able to get together for dinner, and we spent a couple of hours catching up.

This morning I got a note from another friend, someone I’ve known for over 20 years but haven’t seen in almost ten, and she’s coming to the area soon as well. She lives in Australia, so it’s not just a “stopping by” kind of trip.

Suddenly, it seems like this area is a hotbed for business travel.

One of the anchors of tech in the area is SAS Institute in Cary. It’s founder, Jim Goodnight, is also real estate developer through his Preston company. For the last ten years he has been buying up land in Chatham County – lots of land. No one was really sure what his plans were.

Many years ago in another life I did a two week OpenView install at SAS. It’s a really cool place to work. I even had lunch with Goodnight. Well, I was on the balcony upstairs in the dining room and he was downstairs, but it was lunch time and we were both eating in the same room, so it counts (grin).

Yesterday, David sent me a link to this video which details the impressive goals of “Chatham Park”.

CHATHAM PARK from Preston Dev on Vimeo.

I have mixed feelings about this. While I’d love for Google to come and snatch up 800 acres for a new campus, I’m certain that would bring huge changes to the area. Plus, we as a community can barely provide services for the people here now – there would need to be major upgrades to the infrastructure, especially water and water treatment. I get my water out of the ground, and it is amazingly clean and tasty, and I would hate for development to stress the aquifer (or any of the proposed fracking projects to gain momentum).

Finally, my understanding of the developments done by Preston in the past they’ve been very focused on housing, golf courses and shopping – not business. I definitely do not want Chatham to become another bedroom community for RTP, and the focus on location in the video seems to imply that housing will be a larger selling point than trying to land a large technology campus.

But I’ll withhold judgment until I see how it plays out. In this economy things will move slowly enough, but I do care what happens here – more so than any other place I’ve lived – so I am hoping for the best.

Taglines

Posted on by tarus

A couple of weeks ago I had breakfast with some venture capitalists. One of them was joking about how a lot of start-up companies tend to constantly change their marketing message to fit in with the fashions of the day while the underlying product is basically the same, and that sort of stuck in my head.

I decided it would be fun to track the taglines of a venture-backed commercial software company in the same space as OpenNMS. This is what I found:

  • 2006 Sep: Enterprise Monitoring (minus the cost and hassle)
  • 2006 Nov: Open Source Enterprise Monitoring
  • 2007 Jun: IT Monitoring & Management powered by Open Source
  • 2007 Jun: Open Source Network & Systems Monitoring
  • 2007 Jul: Open Source Network Monitoring and Systems Management
  • 2007 Aug: Open Source Network & Systems Monitoring
  • 2007 Sep: Open Source Application, Server and Network Management
  • 2008 Jul: Commercial Open Source Network, Systems and Application Monitoring
  • 2008 Oct: Commercial Open Source Application, Systems and Network Monitoring
  • 2009 Oct: Commercial Open Source Monitoring and Systems Management Software
  • 2010 Jan: Open Enterprise Management
  • 2011 Mar: The Cloud Management Company
  • 2012 Jan: Transforming IT Operations