Airport Wifi – closer to home
Salt Lake City International Airport has WiFi access – powered by Sprint.
It kinda sucks right now – it needs Internet Explorer to sign in. Firefox just barfs.
Microsoft Windows Vista – part 2
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A short while ago I wrote about Windows Vista and some of the implications it has for organisations.
Since then there have been several developments. At the start of May 2006 the analyst firm Gartner mooted that Vista will ship en masse in the second quarter of 2007
A research note released this week from Gartner Inc. predicts that Microsoft Corp. will miss its target to ship Windows Vista on PCs by January 2007. According to Gartner, Vista won’t be broadly available to customers until the second quarter of 2007
The report document is here; there is a fee for the original.
There has also been a lot of commentary from many bloggers – from Robert Scoble to MiniMicrosoft – and a lot more.
All of this commentary – from analysts, press and bloggers – is having an impact with CIOs and their teams. I am seeing a lot more customers planning to refresh to Windows XP SP2 during 2006 and stay on that new platform for ‘a while’. The general impression is that Vista is still a ‘moving target’ – not helpful for planning purposes.
Written at: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I promised in my last post on Windows Vista that I would comment on on large area of any desktop refresh – application refresh and validation.
In the last six or seven years we have seen several phases of this process – moving from DOS to Windows 3.1; moving from 16 bit Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 or NT4; and moving from NT4 to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Each of these desktop OS changes introduces a fresh round of application testing.
Here is the typical process – one that is being followed my most organisations.
- Select a new standard desktop OS
- Most customers are at Windows XP professional or are rapidly re-standardising on this platform.
- I have recently seen a wave of ‘third generation’ Windows XP refresh projects – for deployment in 2006 and to be in place until 2008-2010
- Usually a combination of SYSPREP, ZENworks Imaging and ENGL tools are used to create a universal image.
- We see more usage of tools such as ZENworks Asset Management helping here
- Most organisations have ‘hundreds’ or ‘thousands’ of applications
- Aquisition and expansion historically means that applications are duplicated
- Lax standards and non-centralised, departmental purchasing also leads to multiple solutions being in place
- Consolidation can lead to license savings and more financial muscle in negotiating a better deal
- Many IT organisations are now squarely focussed on packaging applications as Microsoft Installer (MSI) packages
- ZENworks includes the Macrovision Installshield Admin Studio – this is really helpful – and can move NAL snapshots (AOT/AXT) to MSI packages
The next post will cover the re-packaging and test phase of this process – one of the largest areas of time expenditure – but also one of the most vital. I’ll talk about how good process and procedures will really make this successful.
Notice how nothing so far has been ZENworks specific? Everything here is really for any customer deploying XP and refreshing their standard desktop. My final post will be to tie this all together with ZENworks glue and magic – and show how we can make it very, very efficient and cost effective.
As always – I’m looking for your feedback and updates – comments welcome.
Written at: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Land Rover faults
The Land Rover is in the garage with “Low Coolant” and “Suspension Failure” messages.
I’m sitting at the dealership – free wireless – and working.
Land Rover of American Fork have great customer service; I just drove up this morning – and both parts causing the fault are being replaced – the coolant bottle and sensor and the suspension airpump. All under warranty, with no appointment and no hassle.
More bloggers
My good friend Peter is now blogging. He’s one of the last people I thought I’d see join this trend.
TSA and shoes
Some have called the TSA “Americas Gestapo”.
The shoe removal policy is certainly one area where they seem unaccountable, uncoordinated and when questioned undeniably rude.
Here is the word from the TSA – full policy here.
TSA Shoe Screening Policy
You are not required to remove your shoes before you enter the walk-through metal detector.
HOWEVER, TSA screeners may encourage you to remove them before entering the metal detector as many types of footwear will require additional screening even if the metal detector DOES NOT alarm.
Screeners will encourage you to remove the following footwear that is likely to require additional screening:
* Boots
* Platform shoes (including platform flip-flops)
* Footwear with a thick sole or heel (including athletic shoes)
* Footwear containing metal (including many dress shoes)
I travel with similar shoes on every trip – Doc Martens with almost zero metal in them. The heel and sole are less than one inch in height.
My experience is that there is no rhyme or reason on removing shoes. It seems that screening shoes is purely down to the whim of the individual TSA agent.
Just in the last month I have seen that it’s 50/50 whether shoe removal is required. My shoes have never been screened in Europe or Canada.
When you question the policy you get selected for ‘random screening’. That’s not random; that’s intimidation so that you always comply.
When I ask the TSA duty administrator for guidance on the shoe policy I get referred to the above information; this is patently being ignored. Most frequent travellers I talk to are getting screened and ‘invited’ to remove their shoes.
When I pressed further on this policy – I was told that although ‘shoe removal is not required, and that TSA agents cannot ask you to remove shoes’ – when you are ‘invited to remove shoes’ this clearly is an instruction. When invited and you decline you always get a full security search – 15 minutes of wasted time.
There are many, many frequent fliers questioning this mindless policy. Even as far back as 2003 this was noted as being inconsistent.
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