Author: Stilgherrian

Posted on

There ain’t no shortcuts to professionally-managed IT

Prussia.Net logo

My business Prussia.Net always has clients who resist any long-term IT planning. While researching potential suppliers to handle our increasing workload, I stumbled across the best explanation I’ve ever seen for how the process should work.

Many SOHO and very small business seem to have no plan for their IT at all. Most, actually. They just call for help when something breaks, and only replace computers and other equipment when it’s completely dead. They complain that their computers are slow or unreliable, and yet resist spending anything on preventative maintenance or minor upgrades which could deliver substantial improvements.

Zern Liew and I have discussed the causes of this before. However the two key elements are, I think, a lack of understanding of IT issues and the perception that doing things professionally will be expensive.

Last year Australian IT services company First Focus‘s website presented a 3-phase model for developing professionally-managed IT. They removed it when they renovated the site, which I think was a mistake. But here it is anyway, thanks to The Wayback Machine…

Continue reading “There ain’t no shortcuts to professionally-managed IT”

Posted on

… as if you were being filmed

Photograph of note written on tissue paper

This note, scribbled on a piece of tissue paper, was found lying in the gutter outside a house where someone had obviously just moved out.

The text reads: “I wish you a fan-fucking-tastic life! Fuck hard as if you were being filmed! Your friend, Marek.”

Now this little piece of Found Art has been sitting in my files for at least a couple of years, so I wonder whether Marek’s friend has indeed had a fan-fucking-tastic life?

I also wonder why being filmed would make you more likely to “fuck hard” — and I’m assuming here that fucking “hard” is considered to be an improvement over any other kind of fucking. Personally, I suspect I’d find the presence of the camera to interfere with my confident enjoyment of the process and lead to performance anxiety — but maybe that’s just me.

And now, the fear sets in: what sorts of comments am I going to get on this post?

It’s been a while since I posted the first Found Art object. I’ll try to choose one from the files more regularly.

Posted on

Remember 20 megabyte hard drives?

Photograph of 3.5-inch floppy disc for Apple Macintosh HD20

I just found this while cleaning up the office: the start-up disc for Apple’s Hard Disk 20 from 1985.

This was the first hard drive for the then-new Macintosh. My beloved Fat Mac — “Fat” because it came with 512k RAM, not the original 128K — had two 800kB 400kB 3.5-inch floppies, one of which held the operating system

So this drive extended my data storage from under 1MB half a megabyte to a gargantuan 20MB. I was in heaven!

Later that year, a legal settlement from a traffic accident provided the funds for the other cool tool for geeks: the original Apple LaserWriter printer. I remember being extremely chuffed because it was on special: marked down from the list price of AUD$10k to a mere $7.7k

Yes, seven thousand dollars! In 1985 money!

This was the desktop publishing revolution!

Everyone — simple everyone — wanted to look at the glorious 300dpi print quality. And because I’d gotten hold of JustText, a code-based tool for professional typesetting, I could pass raw PostScript commands through to the printer and do complex layouts. TAFE offered me a job on the spot — which I declined.

It all seems so passé now…

This disc looks in pretty good condition. I wonder if it still works? Anyone got the hardware?

Posted on

Latham calls Swan “insipid”: a good tactic?

So former Labor leader Mark Latham reckons Treasurer Wayne Swan is insipid, insecure and a try-hard…

In a column in the Financial Review, Mr Latham says Mr Swan has had more than a decade to develop his speaking style, but he is still struggling.

He says his body language is cramped, his delivery too rapid — and all up, he tries too hard.

Claiming that Rudd won’t wait any longer for Swan to improve, Latham reckons Rudd’s likely to name Julia Gillard as Treasurer.

I was alerted to this story by Noel Kelly, who said “With friend[s] like Mark Latham… Should we make him the federal opposition leader?” But I actually think it’s a tactic which works in Chairman Rudd’s favour.

Latham floats the idea of tipping Swan to see how the numbers lie — both in the party room and in the commentariat. Rudd can then choose to agree with him and sack Swan, or just say that Latham’s a crank and support Swan, as the situation demands.