Category Archives: Blatherings & Ramblings

Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet running at 100Mbps

In a funny turn of events we noticed one of the Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet points on our server (HP’s DL380 G8) was running at just 100Mbps. A closer look at the adapter settings showed no option for 1000Mbps / 1Gbps!!

Important to remember: All Broadcom chips have an “Auto” option that also includes 1000Mbps / 1Gbps – unlike the Intel NICs which say “Auto 1000Mbps” the Broadcom guys didn’t feel it necessary to mention ‘Gigabit’ except in the name of the NIC.

Swapping the network cable resolved this issue immediately. Next time when the office is painted, we need to remember to hide the good cables… else the dummies here use LAN cabling as a tie wire for the power cabling, and then smother the whole thing with a liberal coat of paint.

Happy May!

May day, MAY DAY! Yes it’s the first of May – and I’ve lost (sob, sniff) the whole of April. I was planning to post about my research, Doctor On Call, internet governance and a host of other things (including my needle phobia and 2 really cute chicks) but got tied up doing nothing.

Two cute chicks
Two cute chicks

I wonder, how did people look busy before computers… A mystery we’ll never solve.

ONWARD!

Training the trainers at NAB

So GiveIndia has this interesting policy of one grass-root NGO visit every quarter, which I feel has been of great value to me personally. The National Association for the Blind (NAB) is where I’ve visited most frequently.

NAB has a training programme for their blind students, where the visually impaired from all over India come to learn basic mobility and some vocational trades (like candle making, paper bag making, etc). Now I’ve been making soap and lip balm – and other homemade stuff – for a long time now, and NAB was very happy to invite me to train their trainers. I’ve visited twice before and covered basic soap making (bathing soap, and a detergent).

I had another visit to NAB on the 27th of Feb 2014, and this time our focus was Lip Balm making.

When I got in around 4 PM there was a kitchen utilization workshop just getting over, and the kitchen was cleared immediately thereafter. That’s Jyotsna madam (their head of vocational kitchen/utility training) you see there asking the students to leave. Notice the confidence in the blind students’ mobility – most of us would have had our arms flailing to make sure we don’t collide into something 🙂

We started with a review of what was done last time, just to ensure the trainers had the concept down pat. We looked over the soap made last time (pic attached) and listed out possible alternate oils / perfumes to use. They’ll be training students for soapmaking in the coming few months so should be interesting to see.

Then I listed out the ingredients and guidelines for making the lip balm, which the trainers recorded in their journals – they keep these A4 sized books in which they write all such non-food recipes.

We assembled the ingredients, the two cubes of beeswax you see there are my contribution to this bundle. And then started the process (melt, mix, pour). 20 minutes of waiting and it’s done!!

How do I know if a charger will work for me?

There are 3 key points you need to check before you start using that new charger. If any of these points mismatch, you could overheat the charger or laptop/mobile/battery or even blow the damn thing.

chargers

Refer to the image above for all of these points

1. INPUT Voltage – represented as “120 VAC” or “230V” or “220 Volts” – or any combination thereof. This MUST match with your mains voltage – if for example I try to use a 120V INPUT rated charger in India (where the mains voltage is 220V or 230V) I’m likely to blow the mains and have a very burned charger & laptop on my desk.

Often you’ll also have something like 60 Hz’ and/or a ‘6.5 W’ or ‘0.05 A’ or ‘5 mA’ – these are not very critical for our purpose today.

2. OUTPUT Voltage – represented as “6 VDC” or “6 V” (DC is assumed) or “6 Volts” (DC is assumed) – is the amount of power that’ll be pumped into the device itself. This must be a near-exact match with your earlier charger – so if I have a charger that used to supply 23 volts and a new one that is 22.5 volts – that’s probably acceptable, but the charger will heat up a bit more than usual.

The additional rating of ‘500mA’ or ‘0.5A’ here is extremely important – and must be close to the earlier rating. If I swap a 6VDC 500mA charger with a 6VDC 100mA charger – i.e. 1/5th the number of Amps – my device will charge at 1/5th the rate! Or otherwise if I double it and go for a 6VDC 1000mA charger – my battery may go kaput before I have a chance to react… So a risk either way. Though if the rating were closer, like 650mA and 500mA that could probably work without too much risk.

3. The little symbol you see above the Factory ID indicates the direction of electric current flow – this is absolutely critical, and must be exactly the same as the old charger. If in doubt, DON’T use the new charger. A change in this spec can result in the device burning immediately or could cause the battery or charger to explode.

 

You would not believe the number of times I’ve seen people use incompatible chargers and damage themselves or the device they were trying to charge. The best choice for a laptop or mobile charger is always an authentic distributor for the product line, and no one else.

Once you understand what degree of leeway you have for a particular device you may consider swapping chargers – so for example a Micro USB chargeable phone will likely power up pretty well if using another Micro USB charger – or via a data-cable plugged into a laptop (since it’s based on the same basic rating).

Be safe!

Top 3 Strategic objectives that are easy (IMHO) at any company

A. Increasing market share using technology (internet or other such means)

Market share is one of the things every company wants to build up. It’s not just ‘number of sales this month’ that matter, we’re talking “how much of the market comes to us regularly for xyz service/product?” – which is what can be addressed quite easily.

Most often the problem with making this happen is the lack of clarity, so people either wait for clarity (and lose the time advantage) or act in a rush and end up with a mess. It’s surprisingly simple to maintain balance here actually, and the best part is that anyone can do it. I’ve trained people who’re quite (to be blunt) tech-disabled and marketing-disabled – but given the right process, action steps and some hand holding they build up really well.

B. Delivering on-time customer satisfaction – UX, CS

What do customers want? Today that’s an easy question to answer. One request and you’ll have hundreds of customers flocking in to tell you what’s wrong with your system and how you can improve it. You don’t have to believe me on this – but the first step is simply “ask the customer”.

Sure it’s fun to hear of some magic quickfix for any customer related problems, but we know it’s never that easy. Some simple tricks to ensure your baby doesn’t get squished in the crowd of customers coming back for ‘feedback’:

1. Start early, start Beta. This was always very effective for me. Clients never whine too much when it’s a Beta because they know it’ll be under testing… And they’ll be extra grateful for the rates with the perception of “ooh a discount AND they’ll fix the bugs“.

2. Do regular updates and publicize them! Often smaller software package creators fail to publicize their updates and lose out on valuable marketshare. Even if a customer does not want a product upgrade (free or paid) if they know the service is good (timely and to-the-point) they will come back again, and again and again – and they’ll forward your messages to their friends who want the product.

3. Forget creative – make it work first. Some software sucks – though it looks nice, comes in a neat package, etc etc – but it does not do the job you bought it for! Same rule applies for services and your marketing literature/website/ads – if you over promise with a fancy design and over-styled preview, you’re less likely to be able to deliver later, which can become a customer service disaster. Wish all you want for a larger marketshare but be careful what you put out there.

C. Refining technology processes (inside tech – by creating/updating processes or replacing software)

One of the easiest for most techies to understand

1. Versioning systems keep updating – today’s special is GIT or SVN – tomorrow will have another good batch. Stay on track and ensure you make the best features available to your team.

2. Upgrades – software is always ‘new’ and has new features that could help your product/service be the best one out there. Subscribing to tech blogs is a big advantage as you always know what the new features are, and can plan how to roll them ‘in’ to your technology piece

3. Stability – Sure I know people say this is not ‘strategy’ – but sometimes it is. If your systems are anywhere near 3 years old its “old” (yes they do that every 3 years, for both IT and Tax purposes) you want to add ‘stability’ to your strategy list. Most companies will have something that needs to be prepped for strategic replacement, so keep your stuff ready to roll into the new system you’ll likely take in the next 3-6 months.

Delay if you must, but try to stick to schedule. Nobody wants a site outage before they switch to a new firewall/switch or a system failure because nobody realized the hard drive was 5 years old.

Employer Screening – a professional brand screening a corporate brand

No I’m not talking about how employers can screen you – I’m talking about the other angle.

So you’re applying for job and are terrified of the fact that you’re going to be screened then interviewed by a person who probably knows more about your work history than you can remember. Big deal!

Most people are under the impression that an ‘interview’ and ‘screening’ are a one way thing – that only Employers get to screen their future employees for jobs that are available. You have no idea how inaccurate this is! Everything as far as your career is concerned runs both ways.

You work with a company and help it earn more money – you get paid more
You bad mouth your company – recruiters see you as a bad choice and your options decrease
You transform your company into a great place to work, learn and earn – your job options suddenly go through the roof!

So everything runs both ways!! You do some good you get it right back, and so goes the ‘evil’. As the old saying goes… but I don’t need to repeat that.

Interviews

How do you “interview” a “company”?? Seriously if I invite a candidate in for an interview I know what to see, what to ask – and who to ask it to! Here’s my guidelines on how to “interview” the “company” you’re interviewing with:

1. See the company: Everything about how an organization’s office looks will tell you about how sound and healthy the company is. If it’s neat and clean; or poorly maintained, located in a crowded bustling suburb or a fancy downtown tower or maybe even a dilapidated building in the middle of nowhere – the place speaks volumes about what you’re signing up for!

2. What to ask: A great office need not be a great workplace and vice versa – what we want is a great workplace – so keeping that in mind there should be focus, positivity and happiness when you mention “office”. You may or may not find an appropriate question on these lines to ask your interviewer – so that’s clearly not the best source for this information.

3. Ask the company: Who better to answer the questions than your interviewer, right?

WRONG! There are people all around you – receptionists, office boys, maybe even janitors or delivery men – the people we foolishly think may be ‘low class’  can actually give us deep insight into the workings, ethics and future of the company.

Its simple: you walk into an office and find the receptionist lost and confused looking, the office boy annoyed and grumpy, and delivery men looking frustrated waiting at the door – even worse all three, you want to keep an eye open for more signs of negativity.

As Gandhi said – if you want to truly know a person’s heart, you can find that out from the way he treats his juniors – even more from the way he treats his servant.

Screening

Every employee’s background is looked into, and usually checked quite thoroughly for fraud or signs of poor work history. Depending on the post you’re applying for and the company you’re applying to, most stuff about you would be analyzed by either a professional investigator or as we see in India (ok not everyone does it – but some do) a police verification report.

Why then should a company’s history be a secret revealed only during induction? Naturally you expect to know what you’re getting yourself into, so get a move on and find out all you can! For this we need to revisit the social studies – History and Geography.

1. History of the company: When was it formed? By whom? Who of the original founders left or was ousted? How much did they earn in the first few years and when did they go public? Were they growing slower or faster or around the same pace? Did their first few CEOs or C-level employees quit within a year or is the current CEO the one who started the company?

This will tell you so much!! Whether the company was formed by people who had a long term strategy or whether it was a ‘get-rich-and-exit’ scheme for them, whether the environment was progressive or repressive – even about if they are as serious TODAY with their growth as they were back then. You can then decide if this is important to you, and if you will be able to make an impact here.

2. Geography of the company: Where did they start? Did they shift headquarters more than one a year? Are they still in the same neighbourhood thet started in? Have they moved across countries (eg. started in the US and then over time transferred operations entirely to India or vice-versa)? Did their current C-level people move across the country, or even more impressive across countries to join them? Are their most popular clients recognized in the same country or are their clients MNCs?

This again tells you how much you can grow! If the company has offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Dallas in the US, Walldorf in Germany, Dubai in the Middle East and India and Singapore in Asia – you can be rest assured there’s a lot to do and a lot to grow!

If the company started in India and launched their IPO just a few years back – but nearly tripled (or even more) their balance sheet numbers since then, then that’s really something – even more so if they were able to scale 10x. If they’ve bought multiple companies in countries with a higher currency value that’s a sign of sure greatness!

Every company has something to see, something to learn from and something that can help you grow. I’ve moved from IT Consultancy to Health care, Tourism to Non-profit and the one thing that’s remained in common – is ME. When I’ve applied for a job I’ve always walked into the interview knowing as much as I can about the company, so there’s nothing left to ask the interviewer. In fact they’re pleasantly surprised that I’ve researched so much about them – sometimes even slightly shocked – but never find me unprepared. After all when the linen was out of the closet I still found it interesting enough to go for the interview; and then they understand what I’m all about.

And as long as you’re focused on the future of your company (the one you’re working for; not the castle of dreams you may/may not create after you retire) – you will always grow, learn, innovate and CREATE!

Now go get that job, and make us all proud!

Funny thoughts when you browse through your old websites during the weekend

. 4GDWFN54K7KR .

With some free time on my hands, I’ve been looking through my old websites, old clients’ pages, just for fun and maybe out of curiosity to see where they are today.

Some things haven’t changed, but some have drastically! Some – while I made them – seemed just ‘normal’ – but now when I look through it makes me laugh.

Try as I might, I cannot seem to come up with why I wrote this line

“Once a disaster strikes, and half the world is engulfed in turmoil, WHAT DO YOU DO??? Normally, most humans would die of a panic attack before anything else. But YOU, our client, can sit back and relax – your systems, websites, email – everything you depend upon from us – is up and running!” (ref: http://vcio.in/Disaster%20Recovery.aspx)

The “panic attack” part really got to me. You know during those 4 years not a single one of my customers had a panic attack, let alone died of one – they didn’t always take hosting from us – other brand companies were on their list too. But I’ve never seen anyone have a panic attack no matter whether their website was down, hacked (because that service provider’s security was weak), or taken down (worst case) due to non-payment of dues.

Now I’d probably take a more conservative line and write a bit less on the site – but I’m just too lazy to take it down 🙂

Somehow, someday maybe I will start my consulting work again. And I’ll be inundated with work all weekend – oh joy.

Nah – my target is set and the focus is clear – a Brand CIO in a Fortune 500 Brand Organization in 2020. See you there.