Wade Stankich

Well, we are deep in a financial down-turn and no one is immune. As I look back over the last decade and view all the twists and turns in my I.T. shop with different technologies and software…I have no regrets about embracing open source today.

When I first started at my present job we used DOS 6.1, Windows 3.11, Novell 4.11, Lotus, Oracle 7.34 and SPX/IPX protocol. For those of you who know what I just said…quit laughing. The rest of you are lucky to have missed all this stuff. Although, I do still like Oracle for a database. I just would have NEVER ran it on Novell with SPX/IPX packets bouncing aimlessly around my hub based network. But, that was what I inherited.

Mid-way, we transitioned to Windows NT 4.0 and 2000, TCP/IP, Office 97, Switches, Exchange Server, Oracle on Solaris and started dabbling in Apache web servers, not seriously though. This was an improvement, in that, I did not need to restart my Novell Oracle server everyday…but the Exchange Server took it’s place on a weekly basis. Praying that the datastore was not corrupted each time. Oh yea, and the innumerable pockets of corporate data created by Access97 was always fun, too.

Today, our entire core is either Linux or Unix. We run our email on load balanced linux servers running Egroupware. Oracle is still on Solaris SPARC machines. Our network file systems, domain controllers, authentication services, DNS, DHCP and all other related network service are run on Linux. Our only Windows machines are our Citrix farm and the few desktops we have left. This may seem silly, but we have server birthday parties based on the years they’ve been up since a cold or soft reboot. So far the record is 900+ days.

OK, so what does this all have to do with the financial down turn…try a nearly two-thirds cost ownership reduction over the same time period…enough said.

Let me tell you…one thing I’ve learned is that there is never a ‘bad’ economy, the money is just shifting hands. You need to position yourself to be in the flow of money between point A and point B (or better yet, be point ‘B’). People are dumping a ton of money into on-line advertising and marketing as a cheaper yet effective alternative to traditional advertising and marketing methods.

In my last post, I re-emerged with a side business designing sites and doing some on-line application programming with a few partners (no one from Astro…again for those that care…) .It is going great! Every month we are doubling our gross income, with almost no overhead. You can’t beat it.

We are also getting exposed to many new industries. I’ve been in manufacturing for over 11 years. Now, we are diving into lending, health and beauty, oil, jewelry…even cookies. I couldn’t pay for this kind of education so quickly.

Anyway, to see some of our progress go to…

http://www.mcw-inc.com or http://www.marketbeauty.net

Wade Stankich

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been up to some new things and it’s been crazy. Any, I’m back.

Here’s somethings that I’ve been working on with a few other associates (not anyone from Astro, for those who care). We dived into a bit of web site design. Mostly for the beauty industy, but we’v got a few things in the works for jewelry and cookies. I know this is a far cry from manufacutring, but it’s a skill that can be applied to any industry, and I won’t get slamed for ‘competative advantage’ issues. Someday I’ll explain…

 Check some of these sites out in the mean time….

www.stylingone.net

www.hairtique.com

www.cdrmiami.com

www.legalhair.net

 These are a few sites we’ve done recently…leave feedback one them if you wish. All constructive criticism accepted.

Thanks,

Wade

Software piracy and compliance issues are very important and can be costly. We need to stay vigilant and make sure our company legally owns the software products we have in house. If you don’t have an auditing procedure in place, you should think about one now. When you get the letter from the software police…it’s to late and it won’t matter if your company is actually guilty or innocent of copyright infringement. Your company will be adding an additional account to your company’s A/P and writing a check out to some legal entity, if you are not prepared.

To help with this ongoing project, there are some things to consider. First, it doesn’t really matter how many boxes, labels or license keys you can physically come up with in an audit. What really matters is having a document trail through your accounting department that lead to original paid invoices. Typically, I keep copies of the purchase order, the invoice, and the check that paid for it, and any additional information that would be useful in showing that I own the product. Then, associate that information to a device or user, depending on how the licensing agreement is structured. Additionally, if you are able to match the paid invoices to something like Microsoft’s licensing site…this is a plus. I have actually had the site eat a few licenses over the years, so your document trail is your only sure bet. Now, whether this trail is actually paper or digital, that is up to you…the point is to be able to come up with the documentation.

There are many software auditing products out there that you can install on your network…just Google it. For example, I use GASP and I can configure our software to audit the the devices on our network when a user logs into our Windows domain. When the login script runs, it searches the hard drive for a installed programs on an interval, such as a month. The results get stored on a share of your choosing. Then, using a report writer, your able to compile the results into a format that makes sense for your organization. This enables a person to compare what should be on the device with what actually is on it, and correct any discrepancies.

There are many different ways to design a good software auditing system. When designing one that’s right for your company, if the worst was to happen and a disgruntled employee decides to have some fun, most likely there will non technical lawyers arguing whether or not you own the licenses. It will all boil down to who has the most valid proof and who can argue the best…not necessarily if your actually holding a valid copy in your hand or not.

A situation like this can happen to the most ethical of companies. So, be prepared…

Wade Stankich
Information Technology Manager

We need to measure the flow of a liquid through a pipe at work. This seems easy enough on the surface. I’m thinking…just “click” off the liquid in some measurement as it goes by…right? Well, it could be…maybe. In reality, it turns out that it may not be all that simplistic. There are other things to consider. What kind of meter should you use? There are many. What exactly are you trying to measure? What’s the density or viscosity of the liquid? Are these variable during the process? Are you actually trying to ‘regulate’ flow or ‘meter’ flow or both?

During the consideration of this task of measuring the flow of a liquid, we would need to define ‘flow’. The straight-forward definition is… the flow of material past a given location. When we dig into it further and look at actual formulas for measuring flow, it starts getting more complex.

For instance, look at this formula for ‘Flow Rate’ (FRV). This is a volume per unit time or ‘volumetric’…

FRV = V x A, where A equals the cross-sectional area of the inlet pipe and V is the average velocity of the liquid being measured. Now consider this formula in practice. We have liquid flowing through a pipe that has 2 square meters of cross-sectional area, traveling at an average velocity of 2 meters per second. So, I have a flow rate of 4 cubic meters per second.

Next, look at this formula for ‘Flow Rate’ (FRM). But this time, we will deal with ‘mass per unit time’ or a ‘mass metric’…

FRM = FD x FRV, where FD is the fluid density and FRV is our volumetric product from the first example. So, if 4 cubic meters per second of fluid is flowing through a pipe, with a density of 2 kilograms per cubic meter, your FRM is 8 kilograms per second.

Do you want to measure flow in terms of a ‘mass’ or ‘volume’? It depends on your application. In some instances the process may have a limit on the ‘volume per unit time’ measurement it can accept. Some examples might be…filling a tank, painting widgets, etc. Other processes may have a limit on the ‘mass per unit time’ it can accept…like mixing chemicals or measuring chemicals for sale.

You can see that a person can purchase a meter that measures flow in terms of volume or mass. I found that you can even buy meters that ‘infer’ volume and mass using a similar formula to ~ ‘1/2 FD x V x V’. These meters are commonly referred to as ‘head flow meters’. But, further reading indicates that this ‘inference’ approach is problematic and can introduce errors when calculating ‘mass’ flow.

Careful consideration of what you really intend to measure about ‘flow’ should lead you in the right direction when purchasing a meter. Do you want to measure velocity, mass, volume or inferential values of each?

Wade Stankich
Information Technology Manager

Many companies and organizations are increasingly being faced with having to collect digital evidence in response to situations like fraud, child pornography, intellectual property theft, sexual harassment…etc. These are all examples of cyber-crimes that are happening inside, as well as outside corporate walls. This means system administrators are finding themselves having to be constantly educated on current legal issues and laws concerning the reporting and collection of evidence concerning cyber-crimes in their companies. Not only do system administrators need to preserve and collect digital evidence in these situations, but they also have to recover quickly from an incident to minimize losses.

System administrators can be caught in a potentially career damaging position. Take this scenario for instance…finding child pornography on a computer in your workplace. If you simply delete the material, this may be interpreted as being criminally negligent. If the system administrator were to alert authorities to the material before getting the support of his/her’s employer, the system administrator could find themselves fighting the company, with their own money, time and lawyer. Ultimately, this could lead to the loss of the system administrator’s job.

Even well intentioned attempts to investigate child porongraphy allegations, have left the system administrators being prosecuted for downloading and possessing this material themselves! In light of these potential hazards, companies should have clear policies and procedures that outline how to properly deal with these situations.

These procedures should inform system administrators how to handle and preserve digital evidence of this kind. The companies policies should formally state the company’s position regarding illegal digital material. Employ the help of technically competent attorneys to aid in forming your policies and continue to have them review the policies periodically to stay up to date with technological changes.

Wade Stankich
Information Technology Manager

Over the years, it seems that past traditional roles of the maintenance department and the information technology department of a manufacturing company are (or have been) changing. The lines are getting blurred. Those guys in the ’shop’ with the wrenches need to be just as versed in techno-jargon as ‘those geeks’ in the computer room. The I.T. guys also need to understand plant operations and maintenance concepts and the language that goes along with it, too. Why?…plant automation.

Most backplanes you see on the plant floor have a multitude of different modules plugged into them besides just the PLC. Today, usually a person will find an ethernet module plugged into them. For the I.T. department this is another network device on their network. Many times an electrical engineer deploying a new machine with an ethernet module gives no consideration to an IP address that fits with the companies current scheme. They may not give consideration to broadcasting issues that can potentially bring a network to it’s knees.

Conversely, a typical I.T. department doesn’t give enough attention to what basically amounts to another I.T. department within maintenance. Most of the machines maintenance deals with have processors and can be networked today. The engineers in maintenance are skilled at programming ladder logic, and once that task is complete…it simply goes out. I.T. should be working with this department to help them successfully roll out there machinery and take on the more global considerations of the company’s network.

This cooperation of two departments, that are so different on the surface, is sometimes easier said than done. It can be a huge cultural shift for some companies. This cultural divide usually is established from the beginning because of typical organizational structures and the resulting presumptions. What I mean is, that typically the maintenance department falls under Operations and the I.T. department falls under Finance. Foundationally, the wall of separation is “…I.T. is administrative, and Maintenance is production.” This may have worked 30 years ago, but it is no longer a valid structure that serves it’s company well, or to the fullest potential.

The Maintenance department and the I.T. department need to be solidly joined at some level. Neither, falling exclusively under Operations or Finance, but working somewhere in the middle for the global good of the company. It starts with communication. Project managers of both departments meeting once a week to review projects would be a good start. At some point along the way each will realize they both share the same copper wires.

Wade Stankich
Information Technology Manager

As a former developer that has developed windows applications, as well as n-tier web-based solutions of the LAMP variety…whenever a new application needs to be developed, I naturally gravitate towards the n-tier web-based scenario for a multitude of reasons. Nine times out of ten, we come up with a good web-based solution, but not this time. Here’s the scenario…I need to scan bar codes on metal drums filled with 25-50 gallons of liquid paint, in a storage facility that holds over seven hundred 50 gallon drums, in plant with hundreds of thousands of pounds of aluminum extrusions everywhere…and be wireless!

We started out with a class 1 div2 Symbol MC9090 scanner with Windows Mobile 5. We developed a web-based application that was written in PHP and ran in our middle tier. So far no problems. After using this scanner for a while, we noticed intermittent problems with connection. OK…no problem, we anticipated this, because the environment is the absolute worse for wireless. So, we amplified the signals and positioned the antennas in another arrangement to optimize coverage. We also trained the production personnel to do basic functions, like rebooting the scanner, if needed. This actually happened once or twice a day, so we were not happy with it.

Occasionally, for reasons we have not yet determined, the scanner would completely reset itself. OK…fine we’ll buy a second scanner just like it for backup, in case this occurred during the middle of the night. Here’ where the really annoying part comes in…unless you purchase all the scanners you’ll ever need at one time, no matter if you order the same model two months later, Microsoft is always tinkering with the OS. So, you can purchase 10 scanners over the course of a year, and potentially have 7 different backup and recovery strategies!

By this time, I’m looking for other solutions to simplify things. I was at an AutoZone store and while I was at the counter, I saw an MC9090 sitting in front of me. I thought surely they can’t have hundreds of these things and be experiencing the same problems…that would be a nightmare! So I picked it up and saw that they were running an SSH client on it. HMMM….

I went back to work and told my team what I observed and asked them what they thought about it and what would be the possible advantages to running an SSH client instead of a web application on the scanners. The result from that discussion was that the SSH client is much more tolerant and transparent when it came to signal lose…Bingo! Also, everything about the user’s perception of the interface was much more simple.

Additionally, because each scanner seemed to be a bit different than the next, in the original scenario we had to setup each one a little different in order to get the web application running again. Depending on what we wanted to do, we woud also have to run Opera, IE, or MiniMo because of coding differences that effected javascript. This was a huge headache. Now, all we have to do is reload the OS and the SSH client…done!

As always, I welcome any suggestions or ideas…otherwise, maybe this post can save someone else some time.

Wade Stankich
Information Technology Manager

As technology changes, we need to constantly re-evaluate our policies governing technology in our company. I recently had to review ours and thought that this may be a good subject to throw around for evaluation and collaborative ideas. One thing that I thought was interesting…over the last decade I had seen the policy morph from ‘Computer Usage Policy’ to ‘Electronic Communications Policy’. Thinking back on all the changes in technology over the years, this makes perfect sense…nearly all forms of communications today has a digital facet to it.

When I was deciding what the policy should address, I looked around at legal and internet resources and noticed a shift. The policies were not just merely outlining what a user could not do (leaving the assumption, anything not mentioned is fair game), but that the hardware and software are not there for the user…but it is there for the company. The priority is no longer what is good for the user first, and the company second, but the other way around. I think this is a good idea, because in the past the user base decided what the company was going to use to do business, and the users rights were held above the company. There has to be a balance. A user in sales is not going to know what software is best for the production floor to use.

So, in light of this observation, here are the sections listed in my first draft…

1. Scope of Policy. This section lists all areas and technology that the policy applies to.
2. Definitions. I took the time to define any terms I could not put into non technical words, so we are all on the same page.
3. Ownership of Information and Messages. Says that all info on company systems, whether sent, received or stored belongs to the company.
4. Business Use Only and Other Restrictions. This self explanatory. No playing solitary, no porn, gambling, etc.
5. No Presumption of Privacy - This is the best one…this takes care of the user coming into the company and assuming privacy in regards to #3

Here’s how it reads…

“Communications on the Company’s systems are not private and security cannot be guaranteed. Any passwords or user ID’s assigned by the Company are designed to protect the Company’s confidential information from outside third parties, not to provide employees with personal privacy in the messages. Employees should assume that any communications they send or receive on the Company’s system may be read or heard by someone other than the intended recipient. Highly confidential or sensitive information should not be sent through the Company’s system’s without prior authorization from the employee’s supervisor.”

6. Copyright Information. This section outlines your company’s intentions of not allowing copyright infringement laws to be violated and that your company soundly renounces such practices. This comes in handy if the software police show up, and you need proof that your company actively seeks to adhere to these laws and that there is a disciplinary action for anyone who breaks such laws.

7. Company’s Right to Monitor Messages. This is another interesting section. It basically says that even though we do not sit around reading every packet that runs the wire…we can and will, if need be.

Here’s how it reads…

“The Company reserves the right to monitor, access, retrieve, read and disclose to law enforcement officials or other third parties all messages created, sent, received, or stored on the Company’s systems without prior notice to the originators and recipients of such messages. Authorized personnel may monitor the electronic communications of employees to determine whether there have been any violations of law, breaches of confidentiality or security, communications harmful to the business interests of the Company, or any violations of this policy or any other Company policy.”

8. Viruses and Outside Sources. This section outlines the company’s policy on bringing in outside media and introducing it to the network.

9. Violations. This section outlines the disciplinary procedures for violating the policy.

After all that, signatures and dates….

I am interested in anyone else’s opinions or ideas, additions or omissions.

Wade Stankich
Information Technology Manager

I can’t count how may times I walked into Best Buy and seen that orange and black sign, and said to my self…”I will never hire one of these people”, or thought that if any of these employees really wanted to be an I.T. professional, that rose higher than their cubical, how crippled they might be with the label of “geek”.

Taking the stereotypical definition of “geek” and applying it to the “Geek Squad” or any other self proclaimed “geek”…a CEO would have to ask himself “Do I want this person responsible for melding my I.T. infrastructure with my business and interacting with my customers…or do I want a professional that knows technology?”

I would pick the later, myself…

Technology in business is more than building a PC for you neighbour, or showing a friend the latest Windows hacks, or knowing what memory chips work with what motherboard. A person has to be able to mix the right technology with the business that helps the company and it’s employees be more profitable, agile, informed (without info overload), efficient, etc. I.T. professionals need to learn the art of listening and communicating with all types of different personalities. This is something that is lost in the stereotypical definition of “geek”. In fact it is just the opposite. If you are a person in the technology field and you have trouble communicating and relating to the public at large, have extraordinary high IQ, and can recite every IRQ and it’s associated default I/O port on an ASUS motherboard…your probably a stereotypical geek and not much use in the business realm…unless the CFO needs a new memory card for his Black Berry.

Fortunately, communicating, listening, leadership, business concepts and other skills can be learned. A person can be very interested in technology and speak English at the same time. If your reading this and you are getting offended, take another look at your role in your company…you may be acting like a geek. If you want to take it to the next level, start concentrating on those “Soft Skills”.

In our I.T. department it is a widely known rule…”Don’t be a geek!”…

Wade Stankich
Information Technology Manager