TechRepublic Tech Conference

But I'm sitting here with a Ferrari Acer laptop, enjoying meeting and greeting everyone. :)

not only are we not there... we're also apparently the dregs.
But it's ok, we knew it already, it's funny coz it's true.

i'm here, with the rest of the coference "early adopters." You might know we would all be sitting here, online and logged in, typing on our various laptops, netbooks, phones and iPads.

I'm not a "real geek" then, because even if I was there, I'd not have a laptop!! :p

Buying 4 computers for the family did not leave room for a laptop for the IT Mom. :(

I'm sorry that I can't be there. I was looking forward to meeting everyone in person, then doing some sight seeing. Well, there's always next year (hopefully)

I'm gonna go pout in the server room now {sniffles} :_|

That we won't make it again this year..

Both years, this event has fallen over weekends where other plans had already been made. :(

Next year..I'm really hoping that next year is different.

I hope y'all have a great time!

I understand now.

I want the video after the bar's been open for a few hours.

I too am bummed I can't make it this year. I was planning on it, but then the band got asked to play two outdoor festivals this weekend. They are the last few shows we can play for a while due to the drummer being out of state for a number of months, otherwise I would have blown the shows off.
Hope y'all have a great time together. Stay away from those geese though. :D

were actually meeting and greeting without the need for geek toys. ;)

Guess I'm not a real geek, after all, darnit! :_|

Then we went to lunch.

Yes, I'm aware that I'm using a nasty 4-letter word -- but that is life :)

Hope you all are enjoying and behaving yourselves, maybe next year will be the year I can make it.

I guess I'm not a geek as the last thing I would want to bring to a social event is a laptop or netbook.

Us po' folk who couldn't attend could stand to see some pictures, especially after the bar opens.

Now remember to sat sober till you get all of the video posted. ;)

Wish I was there instead of sitting Herr waiting for a call up. It's boring! :0

OH did I mention that I wasn't allowed to have a NB with me while I'm waiting to be called? Pity that no one mentioned that when they summoned me to appear here. Someone here thinks that I might cause the other wittinesses to change their stories. :_|

(I even got a mate of mine who's a Judge in this court to vouch for my character and he suggested that a time of Withdrawal may be good for my soul. BASTARD! X-(

Col

Get it together, people; I'm having to catch all the spammers by myself!

How's everybody doing on the banks of the Ohio this morning? Hotel kick anyone out yet?

Have a Great Time everyone.

Col

So Jason is giving us the lay of the land here. The topic is supposed to be "The Changing Face of IT".

We live in a world of change. At a high level, this is a discussion of new challenges and trends in the world of IT.

Tech Republic is in the unique position of being able to advise senior level people in a variety of roles to understand how the "worker bees" in IT perceive IT and their roles.

Trends to watch-

Consumerization of IT- According to Gartner, the old model of IT is moving. As the workforce changes, ownership of the enterprise platform is moving from the IT department and moving to the enterprise worker. We all have had individuals who want to do what they want to do and on the equipment and tools they want to do it on. Because this is in the name of productivity, IT must adapt and change. Or does it? And how?

Borderless network- Old networks are changing as workers reach outside the enterprise. How does the IT department manage security in an environment where end users reach beyond the security of the interior network? How do we re-think security in this world?

Clouds in the data center- CIOs see cloud computing as a real direction. How does computing in the cloud impact IT and how do we support this? What about the private cloud? Is the private cloud just virtualization with a different name? What does that mean to the IT professional?

Outsourcing, the good, the bad, the ugly- Is outsourcing just a new way to approach resource management? Does it make sense for the enterprise to "own" their own IT or their own data centers? Is it better to let IBM have the "reins" of YOUR data center? What do you tell leadership when they want to move away from the in-house model?

Mobilization- How do we manage that? Should IT own this or should we allow the individual to choose their own devices and we just manage? Or does the IT department define this? Knowledge workers want to be able to work on the go. So do people in a variety of other roles. How do we decide what tools work best and how do we advise the people "in the trenches" on devices that will best meet the need? Is the desktop device dead?

We're going to discuss these topics. In the room, we will get around 15 minutes. You can take all the time you want...

How does the enterprise manage the social media policy? What are the points that should be considered?

The enterprise needs to protect it's interests. That includes trade secrets, insider information, etc.

By putting this in writing, the enterprise can remove ambiguity and clearly communicate standards and practices to the end users.

While we are good with the idea because we are familiar with Internet use policies. But social media is a slightly different animal. The end user could ignore the Internet policy by simply going home and using their own computer. Social media is a different animal.

What tools can help the enterprise to monitor employees? Are those tools mature enough to meet the needs?

Are disclaimers effective? Why or why not?

Is the statement "On the internet, no one knows you are a dog" true? Does the fact that you are a dog change the way people think of your owner? To what extent?

How do you enforce your policy when your employee goes home? What do you do when your employee is disgruntled and takes your corporate name in vain?

There is enough here to discuss for a very long time. What are your thoughts?

Edit: Typo

Here's the link:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23TRLive

You can see what people are posting about the event on Twitter, and then come back here and discuss it, of course. :-)

"Your picture is ugly"

This was a real email received by Toni some years back.

Blogging is as simple as starting a discussion and hitting "enter". Frankly, that is a lot of power in the hands of the individual.

Toni shares with us some of the email (anonymously, of course) that she has received as a blogger on Tech Republic over the years.

Blogging FOR TechRepublic is a joy. I know this as I have done it. But doing so constantly reminds you that there are opinions everywhere and everyone has one.

The question to you all is, "What do YOU think is an effective blog? What words of advice would you give to the bloggers on TR? How can we improve the quality of our posts?"

Did the core dump STOP error out as well? :0

First one I've looked at in months, and it reminded me why it will be months before I look at another one. Same stuff, different day. One has to come back here (or go somewhere other than Twitter) to have a coherent discussion of the material anyway.

You basically have to search before you pick a hashtag. I had another organization that had to change their tag because it was already being used by a couple other organizations.

Many places just don't worry about it and if it is being used by more than one, they just leave it up to the users to sort out which ones are which.

"What exactly does 'single malt' mean, what are the alternatives, and what makes one better than the other?", asked someone who thinks most distilled spirits don't taste very good at all.

A high grade tapwater is good, depends on where you are of course. I'd say none of that bottled stuff, it's poison on so many levels. Taste comes to the fore at around 20-30% alcohol, so 50-50 or 60-40... 40-60 for cask.

But if it's, say, a cask-strength thirty year lagavulin... I'd probably take that one undiluted sip, just for the thunderbolt effect. Sure it fries the tastebuds, but if it's a small one they'll recover quite well by the time the thunder stops rolling.

Yes you do. Or at least you *should*

But worth it.

On the other end of the scale, among the blended I find that the very modest, and modestly priced Cutty Sark is every bit as good as the whorey Glendfiddich (at least it was when I was still on the market seven years ago). It's better, in fact.

EDIT: I guess I'll put this here so as to not make too many replies to the same couple of posts, that makes me seem fanatic, I've been told. :p
In my days of studying biochemistry, there was this student bar association. Ran a membership-based basement bar right next to the university. They were an ambitious bunch, and they called in a beer-delivery truck driver to lecture on fine whiskies, he was a connoisseur you see. They called this course "Whiskey A". I attended, and here's the gist (one of them at least):
It's a well known fact, that the irish invented whisky. It was a triple distilled affair, the germinated malt dried and roasted in a coal-fired kiln.
The scots, having gotten wind of this secret through a loose-tongued monk, immediately started to think - "how can we make this stuff without spending so much money on it?".
So, first of all, they put their stills next to sources of water. Clean water, incidentally.
Secondly, they figured they'd save on coal, by adding peat. Presto, peaty scots whiskey taste.
Third, they thought, with advanced logistic understanding, mind. And, they looked at the maturation.
Looked hard, and figured "Why are we storing water?". No answer. Then, they stopped the distilling at 60% + angel's share... instead of continuing until 42 + angel's share. And - on account of that, the nastier by-tastes of late-stage distillation were left out.
They then add water during tapping/bottling, the cask contains a whiskey-concentrate.
You can buy bottles of that stuff, it's powerful. Of course, it burns the mouth too much for the taste to be fully experienced, but at least you can dilute it to your preference.

So, the bottom line is, that I learned something about rationalization. It should be like with those scots, trying their damndest to cut costs, and ending up heightening their product quality (no offence to the irish, pleasedontkillme).
If costs go down, and quality too, then it's just sloppifying.

In rationalization, you should expect a quality increase.
It was an eye-opener.

Hows eveyone doing?? Having fun??
Wish I was there .. :(

A mix of different distilleries' single malts is called a vatted malt.
Vatted malts do not contain grain liquor [grain [i]whiskey[/i] my ass. I've tasted it raw... it's not whiskey].
If it's blended then it has added grain liquor.

All scots whiskies have added water (unless it's a cask strength bottling).

EDIT: Aaaand cripe... I checked around, and apparently some dumbass has invented the term "blended malt" for vatted malt. May he/she/they burn in hell.

dang geese..

i'm there in spirit Tig ...

love and hugs to everyone :)

You need more fiber if your core dump is that serious.

It's 10 PM Thursday night and I'm heading out to drive to Louisville... wish I could have made day 1, but I will be there for day 2!

Scott

Balvenie 17 SherryOak. Do you think we're beginners?

They do get better than that, but the price goes up exponentially. There was a 25-year-old available, but at $625, that Macallen was out of our price range.

HAL 9000 is [b]Nice[/b] I read it on the Internet. :0

Col

IT consumerization has been something that we have seen but tried to ignore for years. It is believed that we no longer have the luxury of doing this.

"Consumer IT will affect every enterprise. Attempts by enterprise to deny this are doomed to failure, just as previous attempts to deny Wi-Fi, "smart" mobile phones, the Internet, and even the PC itself failed".
- Gartner-

Consumerization refers to devices that appeared in the consumer driven market that moved into the business space and vice versa.

Consumerization has been driven by equipment manufacturers who perceive the consumer as a revenue stream, the Internet and its ability to meet multiple needs for the average individual, and the Millenials- people born after 1980 who have never been without technology.

Consumers are the largest consumers of technology. According to Paul Ortellini, President and CEO of Intel, the primary focus of the manufacturer is this group.

Millenials bring a new attitude to the IT table. They have grown up with technology so they are more inclined to look to the technology solution to accomplish tasks. The Millenial is less inclined to respect barriers to the use of technology including corporate policies around IT.

Risks in consumerization include security, loss of control, regulatory and legal issues, increased support costs, loss of productivity, and loss of user dissatisfaction. It becomes necessary to strategize to counter these risks.

Consider how consumerization impacts your workplace and how you, the IT professional manage the risks while providing a flexible enough environment to maintain both productivity and user satisfaction.

Here are my live photos from the event (via a Flickr). We'll be publishing a larger gallery next week with a lot more photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonhiner/sets/72157624399975570/

To the tune of "Who Are You" by The Who...

Deb is a former law enforcement officer, police academy instructor, Criminal Justice instructor and more.

Cybercrime is a way to differentiate illegal activity that is committed using a computer network or the Internet.

The computer might be a tool of the crime, a target of the crime, or used incidentally as a part of the crime.

"Behavior reflects personality" - John Douglas, FBI profiler.

Motivation can be emotional, "just fun", monetary profit, sexual impulse, political motivation, and psychiatric illness.

Means are the ability to access the tools used in the commission of a crime.

Opportunity is the ability to actually be present to commit the offense. These are the three necessary points to actually be considered a suspect for a criminal charge.

23% of malicious activity originates in the US. Not so good.

Technologies that cybercriminals use include broadband, wireless, web 2.0, online banking, e-commerce, social networking, mobile computing, standardization, and the cloud. Obviously, we aren't going to stop using these tools... but neither will they.

Fighting cybercrime requires appropriate and enforceable laws, law enforcement that understands technology, victims and witnesses that are willing to report, a court system that is able to appropriately weigh the evidence presented, and a corrections system that understands the difference between a hacker, a white collar criminal, and the so-called average criminal and rehabilitates appropriately.

IT and law enforcement need to align in order to fight cybercrime. This requires that we consider the things that might keep us from working together.

The tools we have available to us are basic. Monitor and document activity on your network. Report the crime when it is detected. Know the law or get to someone who does. Understand jurisdictional issues or get to someone who does. Finally, educate, educate, educate.

Prevention and awareness are strong tools to fight cybercrime. Choose to get involved and educate others.

I think I remember someone posting that personal remark. I also recall you didn't write the entry under discussion, that the blog entry in question was actually written by someone else on one of the blogs you host. Finally, I remember several members giving that poster his well-earned ration.

There's a link on the front door to the live stream. Check it out!