Derek E. Silva

Working towards better.

Transportation On Patrol

I have a bone to pick with the “Transportation On Patrol” initiative that Aboutown entered into with London Police Services last year. I don’t know why I haven’t written about this until now, but I just saw an Aboutown taxi van with a sticker promoting the initiative across the top of the windshield, so it just reminded me of how misguided I feel this initiative is.

The ultimate irony of this program is that, when it comes to road safety, I feel taxi drivers are the biggest offenders. Everyday, during my commute across the city (the entire east-west length of the city), I see cab drivers violate several traffic laws:

  • Speed (sometimes more than 20km/h over the limit)
  • Run yellow lights
  • Run red lights (not everyday, thankfully)
  • Make illegal turns
  • Make rolling stops

If the program is only intended to get Aboutown drivers to report things like theft, arson, etc. then I suppose it’s a worthy initiative. I’m certainly not accusing them of doing anything but violating many road safety laws we’re all expected of adhering to. On the other hand, if LPS has the audacity to expect Aboutown drivers to report traffic law violations, then I would like to see one massive crackdown on cab drivers across all companies licensed to operate in London.

And, unfortunately, there is very little information currently easily accessible about the program. And I cannot think of one good reason as to why any cab driver would need to violate multiple traffic laws in one day. If anything, since they are so highly visible, they ought to be setting an example for the rest of us, gaining our trust, and inevitably our business.

Windows Server 2012 in your Small Business – Part 1

Windows Server 2012 was released just a few short weeks ago, and from what I’ve seen and read it is a significant improvement over the venerable Windows Server 2008 R2. While deploying Windows Server 2012 in a small business environment may seem like overkill, I have reason to believe it’s actually a very smart decision for a number of reasons. Those include:

  • A free hypervisor (Hyper-V)
  • Streamlined management tools
  • Increased flexibility
  • Better support for standards
  • Better remote worker support

And the list goes on. The balance of improvements done to the interface and the underlying code are almost 50/50, which will no doubt be a boon to any system administrator, especially those that administer multiple businesses or locations.

We’re going to start by covering Hyper-V, and how it can be used in a small business.

The easiest and most effective way to deploy Hyper-V would be to deploy the standalone Hyper-V Server 2012 onto a high-powered server. Hyper-V Server is not a full OS; it is solely the Hyper-V hypervisor deployed in a mode that does not require the full Windows Server running underneath it, meaning it is a bare-metal hypervisor. This has several advantages, but primarily it frees up a good deal of resources for the virtual machines (VMs) that are going to be deployed on the server.

Hyper-V itself has been improved with support for up to 160 logical processors and 2 TB of physical memory per host system, where VMs can be provisioned with up to 32 virtual processors and 1 TB of RAM. That’s a big step up for Hyper-V where it has traditionally trailed behind VMware’s ESXi hypervisor.

Hyper-V’s virtual switch in Windows Server 2012 has been enhanced with a great deal more flexibility. It can now be used for traffic shaping, protection against malicious/malware-infected VMs, and to make troubleshooting easier. The virtual switch also provides third parties developers with the necessary extensions and APIs so that they can add functionality into the virtual switch, negating the need for additional hardware.

My favourite part about Hyper-V Server 2012 is that it’s free. And you can put non-Windows VMs on it including Linux. So if you’re not a fan of IIS for hosting websites, or you just cannot part with that last FreeBSD server lying in the corner, have heart! You can move these machines to your Hyper-V Server as a VM and keep them running, without the added expense and infrastructure of having another physical box in the wiring closet/server room.

I’ll be covering off more aspects of how Windows Server 2012 can be used in a small business over the next little while. I hope you find this information useful.

Windows 8

The new ‘Modern UI’ for Windows 8. Image © 2012 Microsoft

 

I think Windows 8 is a compelling OS. Yes, it’s different. And what of it? So was BlackBerry’s OS, and Apple’s iOS, and Google’s Android. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad. And this solution is surely far better (for the vast majority of consumers) than some of the things attempted by vendors like Lenovo, who put Windows 7 on a laptop and switched you to Linux when you detached the screen from its base (I love that idea, but I’m sure it would’ve been jarring for most).

Window 8 is designed to be a mobile OS, with a very neat, “live” interface. I’m fairly certain I’ll be replacing my aging tower with a 23″ or maybe 27″ all-in-one PC soon. The key will be that the screen needs to be adjustable, so that I can bring it down to a usable height if I want to use touch for more than 10 seconds, and those devices already exist.

On the other hand, I would caution anyone thinking of buying the Microsoft Surface RT device that was just released last week. You cannot install your “legacy,” desktop-based applications on the Surface RT. You will, however, be able to do on the Surface Pro coming out in a few months.

However, if you’re looking at a convertible laptop for mobile use, as I am as well, there’s already a full compliment of devices available, with more being released soon. Seriously, give Windows 8 a shot. It’s Windows, so eventually developers will build more apps for the ‘Modern UI’ (a.k.a. tiled interface) due to sheer market share numbers, and don’t think for a second Microsoft will bring back the desktop as the default interface. To do that flies in the face of where the personal computing industry is headed, and, despite Microsoft Bob, Microsoft surely isn’t that stupid. :)

Dear Councillors, Stop Saying Silly Things

This can be seen as an open letter to all local Councillors, especially those in London since they get far more press for the shear fact that they are Councillors for the largest municipality in Middlesex County. It can also be seen as a call for anyone to simply open a book, read a few research papers, or generally obtain more knowledge before shooting your mouth off. I’ve been guilty of doing that in the past, but I’m also not so prideful that I’m not willing to back away from my comments and apologize when proven wrong.

Dear Councillors,

Stop saying silly things. I’m using “silly” here as a catch-all for all things stupid, overly boastful, demeaning, untruthful, and distasteful. I wish I didn’t feel the urge to write this, but I do. It seems to have gotten particularly bad since the most recent municipal election, but 2012 has proven to be a year just full of gaffs, and therefore plenty of fodder for local press.

Most recently, Councillor Denise Brown said something particularly silly. ”The library has cost jobs in this city. They have first-run movies and Rogers and Blockbuster have gone out of business,” Brown said.

Really, Ms. Brown? I’d like to see facts, figures, and research to back that up. I know it’s very pithy, and made for a good quote in this article, but that sentence makes you sound like a fool. If the library, any library, put Rogers Video and Blockbuster stores out of business, then surely Chapters/Indigo is shortly behind, right? In fact, by your logic, large book store chains should have gone out of business decades ago!

I don’t know if Ms. Brown really meant to say what she did, but if not, then clearly she needs to take the time old wisdom of, “Think before you speak.” I don’t care if there’s a journalist on the other end of the phone line.

And really, this leads us to the larger issue of who we, as constituents, elect. It’s not cute or quaint anymore to have people running our governments that don’t know squat about technology, or about other cultures, or without an iota of vision for how the city/province/country can and should be (even if you disagree with it).

But focusing locally once more, and on the issue at hand, Councillor Brown I have a small list of events/trends/companies that have actually led to the demise of Blockbuster and Rogers Video stores, including…

Piracy, over the Internet, which is fueled by high content acquisition costs. But there has also been a slew of alternative services like Netflix, not to mention the broadcasters putting their content online, making it available for all to see with or without a subscription to cable/satellite services.

In fact, if anyone has destroyed Rogers Video, it was Rogers itself. Rogers’ own video on demand (VOD) service has made it possible for anyone with digital cable to order movies, and also watch past TV episodes, without leaving the house. Perhaps Councillor Brown doesn’t have Rogers cable, and has also been living under a rock for the past five years (thereby avoiding Rogers’ ads), but VOD directly from Rogers has certainly contributed to the decline of its video rental stores in Ontario.

So there you have it. Please Councillors, stop saying silly things. Or at least do your best not to say silly things. Read the London Free Press, or Metro. Listen to CBC Radio One or AM980. Pay attention to what’s happening in the business and technology news, not to mention research on urban planning and sustainability, and I’m willing to bet you’ll sound like the smartest Councillor on council. Up your game for the sake of your city, if at least not for yourself.

E-Signature Solutions

I hate signing documents. Okay, hate is a strong word, but I certainly don’t enjoy it. It’s even more cumbersome when someone is trying to fax me a document that I’m supposed to sign and fax back to them. While facsimile technology certainly had its day, and was very useful for a time, it’s become quite outdated. So outdated that we’ve replaced larger printer-sized devices with online fax services available from lots of different companies.

One thing I mentioned there was signing a document. That’s also a process that I find is stuck in the stone age. I recently went in search of a good e-signature solution; something that would let me electronically sign a document, in a secure manner, and that would also negate the need to print it at all. Lucky me! I found it.

I compared several solutions: Adobe EchoSign, SignNow, and e-SignLive.

A few first impressions about each solution, for the sake of a bit of thoroughness:

  • Adobe EchoSign – Adobe actually acquired EchoSign some time last year. The EchoSign website talks a lot about viewing changes made by the other party in Microsoft Word, and how the other party can print, sign, and fax the document back to you. That’s the exact opposite of what I’m looking for.
  • SignNow – Better. Much better. Details are a little sparse on the website, and the business model is very unclear. I mean, free is nice for consumers and all, but as a business owner I need to know this company’s going to last for more than a year or two.
  • e-SignLive – Perfect! e-Sign Live has a business model, I don’t need special software, multi-document signing,  I can set multiple signers on a document, third-party authentication, and even the ability to integrate the documents into a website or online form. While Orpheum doesn’t need that know, I could certainly see it needing such a feature in the future.

Overall, e-SignLive takes it. Again, free is nice for consumers, but I’m running a business. I cannot risk legal documents in the hands of a company that may not exist tomorrow, nor do I want to be hampered by desktop software. Give me a flexible solution, an API for integration into my enterprise software, a signed and secured PDF, that also just happens to be trusted by the U.S. military… now you’ve got my vote.