EasyStreet Blog

It’s time to knock wood. EasyStreet didn’t have an outage in 2009. And with all of our redundancies in place, we’re not likely to have one. (But I write this with 14 days left in the year — hence the “knock wood.”) This Data Center Knowledge roundup of major data center outages makes it clear it can happen to any organization — and for a variety of reasons. Even Michael Jackson “broke” the Interwebs. Enjoy!

People who don’t understand computers often see them as tools of voodoo, capable of magical — and sometimes cursed — behavior.  Longtime IT veteran Jaime Henriquez, who holds a doctorate in technology and culture, recently compiled a list of common computer “superstitions” for TechRepublic.com.

“These are the users who have memorized the formula for getting the computer to do what they want but have no clue how it works,” he explains. “As in magic, as long as you get the incantation exactly right, the result ‘just happens.’  The unforgiving nature of computer commands tends to feed this belief.”

For example, refusing to reboot is a major superstition. “Some users seem to regard a computer that’s up and running and doing what they want as a sort of miracle, achieved against all odds, and unlikely ever to be repeated — certainly not by them,” he writes. “Reboot? Not on your life!”

Another example is believing the computer has a personality. “This is the user who claims in all honesty, ‘The computer hates me,’ and will give you a long list of experiences supporting their conclusion,” Henriquez says.

Or believing the computer is all-knowing. “Things this user says betray the belief that behind all the hardware and software there is a single Giant Brain that sees all and knows all — or should,” he writes. “They’re surprised when things they’ve done don’t seem to ‘stick,’ as in ‘I changed my email address; why does it keep using my old one?’”

“Once on the path to magical thinking,” he continues, “some users give up trying to understand the computer as a tool to work with and instead treat it like some powerful but incomprehensible entity that must be negotiated with. For them, the computer works in mysterious ways, and superstitions begin to have more to do with what the computer is than how they use it.”

Are you in your mid-thirties, chubby and, well, depressed? Some recent research would say you must play video games. Lots of them.

Actually, countless gamers are fuming over a study of nearly 600 adults age 19 to 90 in the Seattle-Tacoma area that concluded the average gamer is 35, has a body mass index (BMI) pegging him or her as obese and tends to take more mental-health days than non-gamers.

Gamers predictably are questioning the cause-and-effect conclusions of the study, which was compiled by researchers from the federal Center for Disease Control, Emory University and Andrews University.

Dr. James Weaver III of the CDC says the findings “appear consistent with earlier research on adolescents that linked video game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status and mental health concerns.”

“Habitual use of video games as a coping response may provide a genesis for obsessive-compulsive video-game playing, if not video-game addiction,” he says.

Typical of the gamers’ response is a comment on Newsvine from one Heather Hull. “I know plenty of people in their 30s, overweight and depressed, and they don’t play video games,” she wrote. “I also know plenty of people who play and are thin, happy, and outgoing. Being a video gamer does not mean you are a slob, lazy, or stupid! Perpetuating a poor stereotype? For shame.”

The Seattle-Tacoma area was chosen for the study, researchers said, both because of its size as the 13th largest media market in the United States and because its Internet usage level is “the highest in the nation.”

They blogged so we’ll brag — the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has recognized EasyStreet for becoming the first and only “official” Bike Friendly Business in Beaverton. (We recently earned a bronze award from the League of American Bicyclists.)

To read the entire interview with EasyStreet’s VP of Customer Services, John Beaston, go to this post by Margaux at the BTA blog.

Yeah, sure, as an IT professional it’s a bunch of fun to complain about stupid users. But when IT folks make a mistake, it can be a whopper. You don’t even want to think about the thousands . . . no, the millions . . . of dollars you could cost your company. Or the post-disaster remedies that could include you-know-who’s job.

Trouble is, real IT damages don’t often arise from runaway arcs of electricity like in Doctor Frankenstein’s lab, but more often in plain old IT oversight or neglect. To bring the point home, here’s TechRepublic’s “Ten Dumb Things IT Pros Do That Can Mess Up Their Networks.”  (We’ve obviously abridged the list. You can get a PDF below.)

#1: Don’t have a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan.
Many backup strategies haven’t changed in decades. You set up a tape backup to copy certain important files at specified intervals and then forget about it. You don’t get around to assessing and updating that backup strategy–or even testing the tapes periodically to make sure your data really is getting backed up–until something forces you to do so (the tape system breaks or worse, you have a catastrophic data loss that forces you to actually use those backups).

#2: Ignore warning signs.
As with our physical health, it pays to heed early warning signs that something is wrong with the network and catch it before it becomes more serious.

#3: Never document changes.
When you make changes to the server’s configuration settings, it pays to take the time to document them. You’ll be glad you did if a physical disaster destroys the machine or the operating system fails and you have to start over from scratch.

#4: Don’t waste space on logging.
One way to save hard disk space is to forego enabling logging or set your log files to overwrite at a small file size threshold. The problem with that is that disk space is relatively cheap, but hours of pulling your hair out when you’re trying to troubleshoot a problem without logs to help you discover what happened can be costly, in terms of both money and frustration.

#5: Take your time about installing critical updates.
The “It’ll never happen to me” syndrome has been the downfall of many networks.

#6: Save time and money by putting off upgrades.
Upgrading your operating systems and mission-critical applications can be time consuming and expensive. But putting off upgrades for too long can cost you even more, especially in terms of security.

#7: Manage passwords sloppily.
Bad password policies and sloppy password management create a weak link that can allow attackers to invade your systems with little technical skill needed.

#8: Try to please all the people all of the time.
Network administration isn’t the job for someone who needs to be liked by everyone. You’ll often be setting down and enforcing rules that users don’t like.

#9: Don’t try to please any of the people any of the time.
Just as it’s important to stand your ground when the security or integrity of the network is at stake, it’s also important to listen to both management and your users, find out what they do need to do their jobs, and make it as easy for them as you can–within the parameters of your mission (a secure and reliable network).

#10: Make yourself indispensable by not training anyone else to do your job.
This is a common mistake throughout the business world, not just in IT. You think if you’re the only one who knows how the mail server is configured or where all the switches are, your job will be secure. The sad fact is: no one is indispensable.

For more detail on these ten dumb things, click here for the full article.