Christmas Lists

As most people do this time of year, we've been trying to get our Christmas shopping done for family and friends. In addition, we've also been struggling with how to respond to our family members' requests for our own Christmas wish list. That's always one of the hardest tasks we face each year - coming up with that list of things that others can get us for Christmas. The reason that's so tough is that by the time we decide what we want it's difficult to resist just buying it ourselves; perhaps we need more practice on delayed gratification! This is particularly true when it comes to technology-related items. As long-time techo-filiacs, we're particularly fond of gadgets and gizmos, usually managing to convince ourselves these are "really useful" items, even though it's often the technology itself that fascinates us.

Since we suspect many of you may also be trying to come up with a Christmas wish list, we thought we'd update you on some of our favorite gadgets. And we'd like to invite you to add your own favorites to our list. Hopefully you can help us create our new wish list for this year.

Last year about this time, we talked about a few of our favorite "toys," specifically, our dear friend, Tivo, which is still our number-one household gadget and is in constant use. Even when we're traveling and can't watch it (more on that later) Tivo is busily making sure we don't miss our favorite shows and it also helps us find new shows with its "Tivo Suggestions." Case in point, have you been watching Flashpoint?  It's one of our favorites since Tivo introduced it to us based on our watching patterns. 

Also on last year's list was our Wii and specifically Wii Fit, both of which we still heartily recommend. And we can now add to the list Wii Sports Resort, which is great fun!

Then there are the travel essentials that we don't leave home without. We've blogged before about our reliance on our GPS. This year, we've upgraded to a GPS that includes European as well as North American maps, in hopes that our opportunities to visit Europe may continue to increase. In the meantime, it's very helpful for the occasional trips to England to visit Jon's family.

We also have a very small wireless travel router that we connect in hotel rooms so that we can both share a wired Internet connection. Since we primarily travel together, this has become an essential piece of gear for us. In cases where the hotel charges for internet connections, we can often (although not always) share a single paid connection via the router. Even for occasions when we travel alone it's very useful to have the flexibility of working anywhere in the room and not be tied to the desk where the connection is. Currently we're using the Apple AirPort Express, but there are several good small travel routers out there and we've found them very helpful.

Of course we both carry cell phones, but nothing fancy. We may lust after iPhones and similar devices, but the fact that we need to use our phones cross-border without incurring massive roaming charges severely limits our options. Right now the compulsory data plans required for iPhones puts them completely out of reach no matter how useful they might be.  Even for us there are limits as to how much we'll spend to feed our technology addiction!

One more travel essential that may sound too trivial to be mentioned--we both carry small "extension cords." Susan's is only about five-inches long, but still has plugs for three devices on it. That thing is worth its weight in gold when traveling (e.g., in hotel rooms where the furniture is often situated such that you can't actually get the plug for your laptop or router into the outlet or when there is only one available socket for two laptops, a router and two cell-phone chargers). They also come in handy in an airport where electrical outlets are at a premium. Susan got hers at Radio Shack for $5.

A new item on this year's technology/travel gadget wish list is an eBook Reader. We're currently leaning toward the Sony, but even then, we're not sure yet whether the much more expensive touch version is worth the extra cost. That's an item that we'll be giving to each other this year, mostly because it's too expensive to put on the family's list, but also because we're still undecided about which one to buy. We've heard there are at least two or three new models that are due to become available in January, so we may delay our decision for a month or so in order to see if those look interesting, or if the announcements impact pricing on the existing readers on the market. Any thoughts on eBook Readers out there?

An item that Susan is lobbying for (Jon is still not convinced it's worth it) is a Slingbox. That would allow us to share the Tivo between the two TVs in the house and even allow us to watch Tivo while on the road. Admittedly, the idea of the two of us crouched around a laptop to watch Tivo is dubious. And the thought of carrying a Sling Catcher around in the suitcase doesn't appeal, not to mention the number of additional TSA searches it might occasion. Another item we've been considering is the Western Digital Media Player. We're still not sure how well that will fit into our technology lives, but it does seem cool.

So there you have it: some of our favorite technology gadgets, toys, and travel essentials. Help us add to our list by commenting on some of your favorites. Maybe we'll get that wish list created eventually that way!

Susan's Battle With the SiteX.com Web Site

As Jon can attest, I can let many things that stress him out just roll off my back. I'm happy enough to comply with all of the requests of theTSA agents in airports, even when the requests aren't consistent from airport to airport--something that bugs Jon no end. I'm a pretty easy-going person in most regards. But I do have my pet peeves and I hit one this past week--user-hostile Web sites!

I was trying to get to some information on a site--I'll call it SiteX.com--that required that I sign in with my registered user ID to gain access to specific pages. I've had bad experiences in the past with trying to sign on withSiteX .com and, mostly for that reason, I have not signed on to the site for over a year. But this time, I was specifically referenced to go to this particular page, so I figured I'd give it another shot. Bad decision, in retrospect.

Step #1--I tried signing in with the user ID and password I had written down a long time ago. First problem, SiteX.com didn't give me any indication that anything I entered was incorrect. It seemed to simply refresh the page. I had no idea whether I was now successfully signed in or not. When I tried to get to the specific page I was looking for and the non-public information was not there, I assumed my ID or password had been rejected.

Some sites that don't support Firefox, my preferred browser, have that kind of non-reaction to errors, so I gritted my teeth a bit and under protest, tried Internet Explorer. Same reaction--or lack thereof.

Step #2--I went back to my e-mail logs from when I last had problems with SiteX and found an email that explained that the source of my problem had been that I had two IDs on that site and the webmaster had deactivated one of them. That email gave me the ID name and password I should use. Ah, that must be the problem, I thought. So back toFirefox with the user ID and password from the email. Same non-reaction using both Firefox and IE. Keep in mind that after each of these sign-in attempts on each browser, I'm having to go to another page on SiteX .com and attempt to find the elusive bit of information because I have no way of knowing whether my sign in attempts were successful.

Step #3--Somewhere during the first two attempts, I noticed there were links on SiteX.com to use in  case you forgot either your password or your ID. So I set out to try to get my password sent to me–I was still under the impression that the ID I had been sent in the e-mail must be right but the password had expired perhaps. The same reaction came back fromSiteX.com-- it simply refreshed the page. Did it work? I checked my email for the password but I had received no e-mail from SiteX . Tried with IE and got the same non-reaction. I even tried the other user ID with both browsers. No e-mail was forthcoming. Of course after each attempt I had to twiddle my thumbs for five minutes since such sites rarely send their reminder e-mails instantaneously.

Step #4--I'm getting pretty steamed by now. TSA is one thing, recalcitrant Web sites are quite another! This time I ask for my ID to be sent to me. Hallelujah! At least a reaction to my request finally occurred. I had been expecting/hoping for something along the lines of a message like “Your request was received, check your e-mail.” That didn't happen, but the main panel of the Web page went blank--all I had were the headings, some navigation links and some ads. But at least it was a reaction, so I took that as its user-hostile way of informing me my request had finally worked.

I was right. Finally, I got an ID e-mailed to me. Susan.gantner28! That’s funny. I didn’t realize my name was so common that 28 Susan Gantner’s before me tried to register for this site. But be that as it may, at least it was progress. Now I could try again.

Step #5--Tried to sign in with that ID and the old password. I knew the chances were slim the old password would work with an ID that was 28 iterations later than my original one, but I can dream, can’t I? Same lack of any response, but I eventually figured out it apparently wasn’t working. No problem, there's a link to have my password sent to me.

Step # 6--Tried that in Firefox–ever hopeful to be able to use my browser of choice. I was told this time that I must enable cookies to use the site. I already had cookies enabled!

Back to IE–another blank screen after inputting my request. I never thought I’d be so relieved to have a Web page go blank on me, but I have now learned that that isSiteX .com’s way of saying “success.”  Sure enough a few minutes later an e-mail arrived with my newly reset password. At long last, I seem to be back at where I thought I had started out.

Step # 7--Ever the glutton for punishment, I went back to Firefox and signed in. Well, at least it reacted this time–I got another blank screen–well, not completely blank– the headings and navigation links and the ads on the side were active, but no content displayed in the main panel of the home page. Still nothing to confirm whether I had successfully signed in.

I tried IE and had almost the same reaction (main panel of the home page was blank) but this time I did have a message at the top of the screen: “Hi susan.gantner28”. At long last, I'm signed in. It has only taken an hour or so to get this far.

Now I go to the page to see the special information I signed in to see and it’s not blank! Wonderful! But it also doesn’t have any of the extra information on the page that I needed to get the task done that I started out the whole process to do.

So it was not only a waste of an hour's time, but my blood pressure has been growing with each attempt to get this done. Enough! I went downstairs to work out my frustrations with aWii Sports Resort swordfight game. I did really well at knocking my opponents off the platform into the water! (Message from Jon: I have never seen her in quite such a vicious mood--I'm just glad it was a bunch ofMiis she was beating up on and not me!)

Now, I must confess here that Jon was able to sign on successfully to SiteX.com and has been able to for some time (and I'll just use his ID and password next time I decide I want something from that site!) He did have a few issues with the site as well and has reported them to the company, but at least he could get signed in and get to the non-public pages with the information we needed.

Not only that, I can tell from looking at the public pages of SiteX.com that clearly many, many other people are also successful at signing on to the site. I know my case must be unusual and I can even admit that I may have done something myself that caused my ID to not work. But if I had just gotten reasonable feedback from the site so that in the first 10 minutes, at least, I knew for a fact that my ID was hosed, I wouldn't have wasted so much time and have gotten so frustrated that I no longer even want to sign on toSiteX.com.

Note to Webmasters everywhere, just a few points I wish site designers would keep in mind:

1. If you don't support Firefox, say so. I will be unhappy about it and I'll avoid your site if I can get what I need elsewhere, but I'll be far more angry if I have to find out for myself after wasting a lot of time.
2. If I do something wrong (key in the wrong user ID or password) please don't make me guess. Tell me what was wrong. I'd prefer a specific message telling me whether my password was just wrong or if my ID doesn't exist. But I have found that most Web sites don't seem capable (or willing) to be so specific, but most can and do at least clearly tell me "user ID or password incorrect, try again."
3. If I request to have my password emailed to me and you find that my ID is actually incorrect, say so. Either a message or even an e-mail that says "Sorry the ID you're using does not exist" would be far more welcome than no response, so that I keep waiting for several minutes for the e-mail that will never arrive.
   

Is that all too much to ask?

Simpler Times

Jon turns 60 this week--and he gratefully thanks in advance those few of you reading this who can't believe he can possibly be that old. Since one tends to reminisce at such times, we got to thinking about the "advances" that have taken place over the time we've been involved in IT, and in some cases to ponder the value of the technologies that now pervade our everyday lives.

Let's take as a starting point the fact that the very first real midrange computer system that Jon worked on had "massive" 1.6 Mb hard drives. Yes we do mean Mb. By the way, it was also limited to two twin drives so a total of 6.4Mb of disk storage was directly accessible at any one time. These days a cell phone with that little storage would be unthinkable--how could it possible be of any use to anyone with so little memory?** 

And yet, this ridiculously small system handled all of the accounting, payroll and inventory for a company employing some 400+ people who sold its products all over the country.

So, let's pick on cell phones for a moment or two since they seem symptomatic of the whole genre.  For instance, are we the only people who really don't feel they need their cell phone to contain a camera, MP3 player, fancy ring tones, silly games, Web browsers or e-mail!? Is civilization really being advanced by the fact that we can all be reached 24 hours a day seven days a week via multiple media?  We survived before we could do that. In fact we did quite nicely, thank you. Some of humankind's greatest achievements came about without the benefit of the cell phone--putting a man on the moon for example.  And let's not even mention things works of art like the Mona Lisa and Shakespearen plays!

Perhaps as teachers we tend to be more sensitive to the disruptive nature of cell phones (and don't even get us started on crackberries and iPhones!). We can't remember the last time we did a training class or conference session that wasn't disrupted by at least one cell phone going off. And of course there's always someone who feels the need to answer right away. If we're lucky they leave the room to do it, although not usually without starting the conversation before they are out of the door.

In the "good old days" if someone couldn't be reached instantly, we survived. Someone else stepped up to the plate and life continued. Or more commonly, the problem was recognized for the minor irritation it really was and was forgotten or shelved until later. Were we all so much less efficient because of that?  Or did we perhaps use our brains a bit more and accept more responsibility for what went on in our lives and workplaces?

Before we get any farther into "old-fart" territory, perhaps we should call a halt to this before it becomes a real tirade. But we would invite all of you to think more about the technology you use, and how important it really is in the greater scheme of things. 

Is a "rich UI" truly essential to the well being of your company? Do Facebook or LinkedIn really contribute to the overall wealth and happiness of the human race? Or are they just another way to waste time? Is there real ROI in these new technologies? Or are we simply following along like lemmings? (Yes, we do know that it's not really true they go leaping off cliffs, but you know what we mean.) We invite your comments and suggestions.

** In fact the actual computer itself only had (in IBM i terms) 24Kb and that had to contain the operating system as well as the executing user program. In fact, within that 24Kb, also ran a spooling system, so that programs didn't have to wait on the printer. When the drives were later upgraded to a pair of 40Mb units, and another 24Kb of memory added, the system also supported eight online data entry terminals and a couple of remote terminals for on-line inventory checks!  (For more of Jon's reminiscences of times gone by check out http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/idevelop/2007/09/of-80-column-pu.html.)

Get Lost!

When we were first approached about writing this blog we suggested that we call it "iTraveller's Tales." This was in part because we weren't sure we'd have enough to write about and because we spend so much time on the road we figured that there would always be travel stories to share if inspiration failed us. As things have turned out, that name would have been a bad choice because, unless our memory is failing us, this will actually be our first travel-related entry.

Recently we were in St Louis for a one-day seminar with the Gateway User Group. One of the organizers asked us if we had any trouble locating the venue. Almost without thinking we responded "No, we always use a GPS on these trips and it knew where to go." Our host then commented that they had been thinking about getting one and asked if they were they really worth it.

This got us thinking about exactly why we find the GPS so invaluable. Of course we're both tech geeks, so we've been using GPS systems for quite a long time now. Our first experiences were with the Hertz EverLost system. Actually the real name is NeverLost, but anyone who used it in the early days will instantly recognize the validity of the "EverLost" name! Once "Chatty Cathy" had nagged at you for the 20th time to "Please return to the highlighted route" when you were already on the road in question, you quickly learned the deficiencies of the system.

The first portable unit that we used was a plug-in that connected to a Palm Pilot. That one once got us into a lot of trouble, well actually to be technically correct it wasn't the GPS that did it. It was DeLorme's mapping software that caused the problem by categorizing a forest track in upper New York state as being a highway. By the time we discovered that it wasn't, we were well over 30 minutes into that section of the route and the idea of retracing our path wasn't appealing. After all how much farther could the cart track go before we hit paved road again? Turns out the answer to that question was about two hours! We did eventually come out the other side, but the 15 mph maximum we could manage while avoiding the pot holes and boulders slowed us down to the point that the overall journey while shorter in distance took nearly 90 minutes longer than it should have.

So why did we continue to use GPS systems after that experience? Simple--and this is the feature that Hertz recognized in naming their system (but GPS manufacturers seem to have missed in their advertising)--while you may have gone the wrong way, with a GPS, you always know where you are! 

There's significant comfort in that thought when in strange territory. Unless you're prepared to carry a huge selection of maps (and we do indeed have many of them in the basement) when you travel as we do, you're invariably forced to rely on mapping software in planning your journeys. We've used Google maps, DeLorme and Microsoft Streets and Trips, to name just three--and they all have their own quirks. Streets and Trips for example once left Susan (sans GPS) stranded in the middle of nowhere Colorado when an east/west highway that was clearly shown on the map ended some 20 miles short of the Northbound Interstate that it was supposed to connect to. Multiple cell phone calls with Jon studying the map on the computer at home, eventually got her back on the route, but it taught us a valuable lesson, it's hard to buy a map when you can't find a gas station! Everyone misses a turn from time to time. Perhaps a food, gasoline or bio break forces you to leave your planned route only to discover that not all off-ramps have corresponding on-ramps!

Since that time we have rarely travelled without a GPS of some flavor or other. These have ranged from units that connect to the serial port on a laptop (which subsequently occasioned the purchase of a car-friendly laptop power supply) to USB connected units. Our latest is a Tom Tom unit that we selected because it contains maps of Europe as well as North America. Just as an aside, if you need to travel in Europe, don't be fooled by the "you can buy additional maps" glibness of the GPS manufacturers. If you can buy additional maps for a North American unit, you'll find to your horror that they often cost as much as buying a whole new European GPS, which isn't a good deal. 

The other nice thing about the Tom Tom unit is that it is powerful enough to get a good signal even when not mounted on the dash. If you travel a lot in Minnesota and California as we do, this is important to you as it's illegal in those states to mount a portable unit on the windshield. Why those states feel that a driver who is lost and trying to read a map balanced on the steering wheel (you know who you are!) is any less dangerous than one who has a slightly obscured view of the road because of a GPS unit is a complete and utter mystery to us. Nevertheless it's something we needed to keep in mind and the new unit is great in that respect.

So, buy yourself a GPS--and go "get lost"--you'll find some of the most interesting places that way. And ladies, if your significant other is in the "wouldn't ask directions if his life depended on it" category (No, I'm not like that--JP) then you may just have found the perfect present in a personal GPS. Maybe because it's a gadget, but most men don't seem to have a problem taking driving instructions from a computer! Think of it as a small investment in marital peace.   

The One Laptop Per Child Organization

We have long been intrigued by the efforts of Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization. His goal is to get laptops into the hands of millions of children in developing countries. We aren't talking about the kind of laptops that we use--running Windows or OSX (on Jon's Mac). The specially designed laptops that are part of this program are called XO. They run a special version of Linux and use only open-source software.

What else is different about these laptops? A lot, as it turns out. For one thing, the OLPC program's original goal was to produce these laptops for $100 each. The idea was that hopefully at that cost level, enough "low-level philanthropists", like us, perhaps, might see their way to get these educational tools into the hands of millions of children around the world. While component pricing has the current cost per laptop at nearly double the $100 target price, it's still an amazingly low price.

The purpose of the laptops is not to develop computer skills in the children, but basic skills like reading and math that children in many other countries learn in schools. Special software has been written for theses systems to provide education to these children, many of whom live in countries that are only able to allocate around $20 per child per year on education, compared to the average of $7,500 per child in the U.S. In some cases, they may not even have a school to go to, but the software and networking capability of these laptops mean they can communicate and collaborate with others to increase their skills. It is hoped that these laptops will help alleviate the problems that inevitably arise from a lack of even basic education.

There are many other differences between the OLPC laptops and our own. For example; their laptops are designed to be used in countries where electricity isn't readily available. In fact, in the homes of many of the children who have them, the laptop is sometimes used as the only source of lighting in the house after sundown. Since the children generally can't plug their laptops in to charge them, except when at school, the laptops can be charged either with a hand crank, pull cord or solar energy. They also use significantly less power than our laptops so those charges last a long time.

Interestingly these laptops have more powerful wireless networking capabilities built into them than our ThinkPad or Mac. They're enabled out of the box to create their own peer-to-peer network with other XO laptops in the community. The systems are rugged and durable, with a rubberized keyboard so that liquids spilled onto them won't ruin the system. They have integrated carrying handles and the wireless antennae serve as covers to protect sensitive components from dirt when the laptops are being carried around.

The OLPC program currently has a very limited time special offer--only good through Nov. 26, 2007. It's "Give one, Get one"--for those of us who are fascinated enough with the laptops to want to see one for ourselves. Normally, you can't buy one of these systems for your own use (or for your children or grandchildren). But until Nov. 26, 2007, you can buy two laptops for $399. One will be shipped to you and the other will be donated to a child in a developing country.

Check out the One Laptop per Child program for yourself at www.laptop.org. As for us this Christmas, we’re buying a Wii, some PS2 games and many other technology-related toys and gadgets for ourselves and our family. But we're also buying an XO laptop for someone we don't know in a country we'll never visit. Because Christmas is about giving and, yes, because we're geeks! Won't you join us?

All Work and No Play ...

Have you hugged your kids/husband/wife/significant other? Told them you love them? If not, please stop reading this and do it right now. It doesn't matter if you can't do it in person, the phone or even an e-mail will do. No excuses that it will make them suspicious that "you're up to something" either. But if they do react that way, you can always point them to this blog entry!

Back again? Good. It's so easy to forget to do these simple things while working in this crazy industry that we call IT. Jobs like ours can so easily consume you to the point that you forget that you need to have a life as well as a career. 

We were reminded of this simple fact again recently when Jon's uncle died. Thankfully we had visited him in recent weeks, but our frantic travel schedule has meant that our visits have been pretty irregular in recent years. There’s always one more deadline to meet whether for articles, conference handouts or whatever. Always one more reason to forget that there's more to life than the things that we do to earn our living. In some ways being a husband and wife team helps in this regard--at least we get to spend plenty of time with each other. But it also feeds the "every hour is a working hour" syndrome since we have very little separation between our life and our work.

But we're determined to try even harder to remember that there's much more to life than IT. And, yes, there really are things that are even more important than the System i platform and RPG! We have four beautiful grandchildren, a sorely neglected garden, a recently discovered love of cycling and ... well you get the picture.

Sad though that it takes the death of a loved one to remind us how precious life is, and how relatively unimportant this thing called "work" is in the grand scheme of things.

Don't defer life. We only get one.

SOA: One Size Doesn't Fit All

Why is it that every time there’s a new trend in the IT world that so many in IT management seem to leap upon it regardless of whether it makes sense for their organizations? Is it just an excuse to avoid actually having to think? Perhaps it's simply a variation on the 1970s philosophy that “You can’t go wrong if you buy IBM” that says you can’t go wrong if you adopt the latest buzzword? After all, if it was written up in Business Week or Time or (insert your favorite here), it must be good, right? The fact that the companies who benefit the most from wholesale adoption of new technology are among the biggest advertisers in such publications seems to escape notice.

Many of us have seen the effects of this thinking in our own working lives. How many solid System i shops have you seen slide over to the “dark side” because some senior manager in the company was convinced that “X*” was the way of the future (* Insert your own value for “X” here – Un*x, SAP, SQL Server and Oracle would all be valid choices). Now count up the number of times that this venture has actually worked to the benefit of the company in question as much as it benefited the consultants/software vendors/hardware vendors involved in the process. Big difference in those numbers isn’t there!

We’ve never been big fans of picking an application-development approach by jumping on the “latest and greatest” bandwagon.  So when service-oriented architecture (SOA) appeared on the scene we initially took a “here we go again” approach. But we took a closer look and decided that perhaps, just perhaps, here was an approach that made sense. After all, much of its focus was on exploiting existing software resources, making small functional modules of code (i.e., services) accessible from diverse environments.

For a while we lived in this somewhat euphoric state, then we noticed a rather disturbing trend. SOA became a buzzword. Somewhere along the road to Nirvana, the terms SOA and Web services started to be used synonymously. Shortly, common sense, a rare enough commodity in the IT world, seemed to go out the window and customers began to embark on plans to convert everything, regardless of whether it made practical sense, to Web services. 

Web services are great in many circumstances. But why must every “service” in an application become a Web service, which is so often accompanied by the performance overhead of XML generation and parsing, often using Java and a Web application server environment? While straightforward program-to-program communication, or indeed SQL stored procedures, sockets connections and remote procedure calls, may not conform to a pure SOA definition, they usually perform significantly better and are often more efficient to produce and maintain. So especially for supplying application services within an enterprise, why should these be abandoned for the sake of slavish adherence to architectural purity?

An application architecture oriented around supplying reusable application services is a great way to go. Whether those services are implemented as Web services specifically or by using one of a number of other techniques would seem to be best determined by individual circumstances rather than by the latest buzzword in the magazines. One size doesn't fit all. If it can’t perform or is too cumbersome to produce and maintain, SOA will go the way of the Dodo, and another promising approach will simply become a historical footnote.

What about your shop? Do you have application services that are made available to nontraditional and/or non-System i applications? It’s a great way to give your code a new life. Just don’t allow yourself to be boxed in by the architectural purists’ view that if it’s not a Web service, it’s not a service-oriented architecture.