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Backing Up Is Moving Forward
IBM Rumored to be Planning Unprecedented Offshoring Switch for 2007
Don't Plan a Vacation in Nigeria
Monday, May 14, 2007
Netgear FVS124G and Vonage
A few weeks ago I reported that I had purchased a new firewall, a Netgear FVS124G. I was enthusiastic about it at first but, like most technology, the teething problems showed up rather quickly. Between then and now I've been dealing with technology at a level that I no longer enjoy. But it does appear that, with the help of people at the Vonage Forum, the Netgear Support Forum, and Netgear tech support I have managed to get most things working correctly. [More...]Friday, May 11, 2007
Backing Up Is Moving Forward
I downloaded a fresh copy of Acronis TrueImage Home 9.0 today and installed it on my ThinkPad. I'll be imaging the ThinkPad hard drive to an external drive tonight. Over the next week I'll be embarking on building a couple of computers. I used to enjoy doing that, but not anymore. I'm only doing it because I want to rebuild my two primary workstations - the one that went up in flames 3 years ago, and its replacement which cratered due to a dead drive controller on the mother board last summer.Both have really nice cases, top-quality power supplies, and nice peripherals that still do what I need, so I didn't want to just toss that stuff. Besides, my luck with branded PCs is no better. They go up in flames for me, too. I'm just death on computers, for reasons that completely escape me.
These two will be clones - identical motherboards, CPU chips, DIMMs, and system hard drives. That way when the first one dies I can just swap right over to the next and keep on working. In the meantime, the backup unit will serve as a file server and A/V workstation.
I really hope these are the last two computers I ever have to build. Maybe I'll switch to Macintosh when the time comes to buy another one.
Terry Frazier at 4:39 PM
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
IBM Rumored to be Planning Unprecedented Offshoring Switch for 2007
I worked for IBM from 1995 to 1998. During that time I met some great people and had the privilege of working on more than one world-class project. As part of the benefits package I was allowed to buy IBM stock at a discount, and I did so. A few years ago I sold the stock off, as it had stagnated for a while and my general fondness for the company had dwindled. I still have friends there, many of them working for IBM Global Services. Now Robert Cringely reports that Big Blue is planning to axe more than 100,000 people from IGS, moving all the work offshore:
I, Cringely:The Pulpit - Lean and Mean
[...]
The IBM project I am writing about is called LEAN and the first manifestation of LEAN was this week's 1,300 layoffs at Global Services, which generated almost no press. Thirteen hundred layoffs from a company with more than 350,000 workers is nothing, so the yawning press reaction is not unexpected. But this week's "job action," as they refer to it inside IBM management, was as much as anything a rehearsal for what I understand are another 100,000+ layoffs to follow, each dribbled out until some reporter (that would be me) notices the growing trend, then dumped en masse when the jig is up, but no later than the end of this year.[...]
This cannot be good. As Cringely notes, offshoring of this scale creates massive communication and support problems - at least if the customer is in the US. My experience with BellSouth's lame, dysfunctional, globalized tech support has been a disaster. Dell, same story. In fact, if you have ever had a good experience with offshore tech support I'd like to hear about it. But more importantly, if Cringely is right IBM management is going to axe 100,000 jobs knowing full well that it may cripple the company. I don't care if the stock price rockets upward for some brief period. I'm glad I no longer have any financial stake in Big Blue.
Terry Frazier at 10:17 PM
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Don't Plan a Vacation in Nigeria
Not that you would, but don't make travel plans for Nigeria any time soon. Via Jeff Vail at Energy Intelligence
Nigeria Escalation
Energy Intelligence Note: 9 May, 2007
The situation in Nigeria is escalating--as expected, geologically-driven declines in oil production are spawning geopolitically-driven increases in disruptions from "above-ground factors." The recent attacks on major oil pipelines in Nigeria cut all oil flow to AGIP's Brass Export Terminal, taking a further 200,000 barrels per day off the market. On top of that, take a look at the latest unclassified figures on kidnappings in Nigeria, courtesy of the CIA:
2006:
Total Hostages (Unresolved): 66 (0)
American Hostages (Unresolved): 0 (0)
2007:
Total Hostages (Unresolved): 106 (17)
Amercan Hostages (Unresolved): 17 (5)
And 2007 is only half over! That represents a rougly 200% year-on-year increase in total hostages, and a huge leap in the "value" of these hostages, as reflected by the sudden shift toward higher-skill and western workers, as shown by the sudden prevalence of American hostages.
Terry Frazier at 9:15 PM
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