More than Skin Deep

You may have noticed that the Feedwire website has a new look and feel. In addition to this facelift, we’ve received a bonelift. We switched from using Wordpress as a content management system and publishing platform, hosted by Media Temple, to an all-Squarespace site. Speed Boost While driven fundamentally by the desire to think less, we also got a nice speed boost on the new platform. If you will permit a bit of nerdery, our average homepage load time went from 0.842 seconds to 0.252 seconds. The attached graph shows how dramatic a change that is. How does this let us think less? We have fewer choices, we aren’t responsible for software upgrades, the platform is fully supported, monitored, and managed, and we have only one vendor with which to deal. So far, we are happy with the change.

In defense of Wordpress, we probably could have eked better performance out of it by either tuning our hosting environment or migrating to wordpress.com hosting, but Squarespace is more fun.

We’ve also started using Formstack to build new tools, both internally and for our clients. If you’re looking for a job and you think Feedwire might be a fit, or if you’re just curious to find out what a Feedwire-designed test is like, you can check out our online job application. If you’re pushing a lot of data around and need to estimate file transfer times, our file transfer speed calculator is free to the world. And if you need help, we’re ready to believe you.

If you think that your website might be a candidate for Squarespace or Wordpress.com hosting, or if you have some processes in your business that could benefit from Formstack forms, quit waiting and get in touch with us.

The Rockstars of Computer Consulting

Michael Devin, Rocking Out Michael Devin, Bassologist.

It should go without saying that we at Feedwire are the rockstars of computer consulting. Unfortunately sometimes it doesn't, so we're emailing to mention that yes, we at Feedwire are the rockstars of computer consulting.

If an employee were to seek employment elsewhere, it would have to be for nothing less than a gig as an actual rock star. There would have to be thousands of screaming fans, roadies, tour buses, groupies, and national attention. Anything less would be a step down.

Sure, it isn't likely, but it could happen, and in fact has happened, so we're in the market for a new employee. One of our team, Michael Devin, is taking a sabbatical to go on a national tour playing bass for Slash and Lynch Mob. Seriously.

We're looking for someone smart, motivated, nerdy, handsome, and an all around good fit for our team.  Musical skills are not required, but a plus.  If you know someone who fits the bill, let us know.

And in the meantime, please join us in congratulating Michael on his tour. We expect his time providing top-notch IT support services with Feedwire has prepared him for celebrity.

Feedwire at the Oscars

This is Feedwire's seventh year providing IT support to the Academy Awards. We can't say enough nice things about this show, our colleagues, and the other companies and vendors we get to work with. On the eve of Hollywood's biggest night, we'd like to send a special "Break a Leg!" out to Seligman Entertainment, Sequoia Productions, DuTEL, Joe Lewis Company, The Rockwell Group, Seat Advisor, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and all of the people who make this production possible and such a joy to support. Let's knock 'em dead.

No Acronym Thursday Today

This is a followup to No Acronym Thursday.

Today, struggling through my first Thursday sans acronyms, I've been thinking about communication. What does communication even mean? For our purposes, we'll call communication a means of transmitting an idea from one party to another via a message.

  1. Alice has an idea

  2. Alice encodes her idea into a message. Spoken words, email, handwritten notes, skywriting, songs, shrugs, poems, and tweets are examples of forms that messages can take.

  3. Alice transmits her message to Bob.

  4. Bob receives Alice's message.

  5. Bob decodes Alice's message.

  6. Bob now shares Alice's idea.


At their best, acronyms increase the efficiency of communication. They play a role in steps 2 and 5, encoding and decoding. Acronyms can help shorten messages so they may be transmitted more efficiently. Unfortunately they only work if Alice and Bob have sufficient common background and context.

If you truly believe that improved communication is an important ingredient in promoting harmony, understanding, peace, education, intelligence and love, which I do, give No-Acronym Thursday a try. It will make you more aware of what you're saying and of what others around you are trying to say. Join me in this exercise in semiotics. Together we might make the world slightly better, and we'll get to have fun trying.

Spread the word about spreading out words. #NoAcronymThursday

No Acronym Thursday

This idea is inspired by brother, Mikey. He's a military man. Communication in his industry is replete with jargon and acronyms. Observe the acronym decompression sequence for the PAC-3 missile:

PAC-3
PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3
(Phased Array Tracking RADAR Intercept on Target) Advanced Capability 3
(Phased Array Tracking (RAdio Detection And Ranging) Intercept on Target) Advanced Capability 3

Sure, it's easier to say PAC-3, but if both parties engaged in communication don't know the full expansion of the acronym, meaning is lost. Antonym homonyms are another potential source for miscommunication. Does "IRA" mean Irish Republican Army, or Individual Retirement Account? Contextual cues are usually enough, but not always. ATM Machine? PIN Number? People wouldn't be so sloppy and redundant if they thought about what those acronyms really mean.

What can we do about this potential for confusion and lost meaning? How can we safeguard true understanding and prevent incomplete transfer of information? No-Acronym Thursday.

One day per week, let's abolish the use of acronyms. IMAP becomes Internet Message Access Protocol, NAT becomes Network Address Translation, LASER becomes Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. If we care enough about these ideas to canonize them into our language, let's give them one day per week when they can be expressed in their full glory. One day per week, let's allow these memes to spread their wings.

No Acronym Thursday is now company policy at Feedwire. We welcome participants in this movement at other Information Technology firms and in other industries. Healthcare, finance, sports, education, you're all just as guilty as we are.

No Acronym Thursday Rules




  1. For the entire day of Thursday, every week, every participant in your organization will eliminate acronyms from human-to-human communication, regardless of medium or mode of communication. This applies to both spoken and written communication.

  2. Every infraction requires a $0.25 donation to your organization's No-Acronym Thursday pool. This can be used to finance any group activity - a bar tab, cupcakes, bowling, etc.

  3. If you're up for it, try to record infractions per participant per Thursday and generate a graph over time. Post the graph in a public space. This isn't required, but will be fun.

  4. Exceptions are allowed when a machine is the final recipient of the message, i.e. typing "http://..." into a browser, or saying "H-T-T-P colon slash slash" over the phone to someone typing into a browser.

  5. Exceptions are allowed in life-or-death cases. Hospitals, airports, police, military, etc. have established communication protocols that include the use of acronyms. We don't want to disrupt communication when lives are at stake.


Spread the word about spreading out words. #NoAcronymThursday

Feedwire's First Hat Trick

At this very moment Feedwire is, for the first time ever, servicing three cities simultaneously. Zach is in Miami, building the data network for the Superbowl XLIV Halftime Show. Chris is in San Francisco, helping Moderati migrate email from in-house Exchange to hosted Exchange. I'm here in LA, handling the rest of our customers while Zach and Chris are away.

This never could have happened without the help and support of our customers, staff, and friends. Your loyalty and appreciation has been amazing over the years. You continue to hire us, you recommend us to your friends, and you invite us into your businesses, homes, and lives. Thank you so much.

Damien

Blackberry Desktop for Mac: A Word of Warning

Blackberry Desktop for Mac has been available for about a month now. RIM has already released their first patch and the product seems to be stable. It provides a much better syncing experience than previous Blackberry software for Mac. Unfortunately, its default initial sync settings put your data at risk.

During your first sync, you will see the following dialog box:

BB Sync Dialog



Chances are, you do not want to make the default choice, "Replace device data." This choice will erase your Blackberry's contacts and calendars and replace it with the contacts and calendars stored on your computer. Most of us add phone numbers to our phones constantly, and many of us use the phone's calendar. Watch out for this potentially harmful default choice.

"Merge Data" is the choice most should make. This will combine the contacts, calendars, and tasks on your handheld and your computer.

Before you embark on a new syncing configuration, be sure to back up your handheld's databases and your computer's contacts, calendars, and tasks. If you need help doing this, feel free to reach out to us at Feedwire. In addition to wired sync, we can introduce you to wireless sync via Google or Blackberry Enterprise Server.

It Took Them Long Enough

Are you a Mac user? Are you a Blackberry user? RIM has just decided that they don't hate you anymore. They've announced BlackBerry Desktop for Mac, scheduled for release in September (hopefully they mean 2009.)

Third party syncing solutions have existed for quite some time for the mac, notably Pocket Mac (purchased by RIM) and The Missing Sync. Unfortunately they've behaved more like workarounds and hacks than solutions, causing almost as many problems as they solved. Here's RIM's official feature list:

  • Sync your iTunes® playlists, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks

  • Add/Remove applications

  • Update your device when new software becomes available

  • Backup and restore your device data with such features like automatically scheduled backups and optional encryption (security is #1 as always…)

  • Manage multiple devices


I'm most looking forward to backing up and upgrading BlackBerry software without having to resort to using a PC. This software, if RIM delivers what they've promised will make our customers' lives easier and enable us to work more quickly and efficiently for them. Combined with Apple's Mac OS 10.6 native exchange support, life is about to get much easier for our Blackberry Enterprise customers too. Here's to progress!

Ready to be an insider?

Click here to register yourself in our Friends of Feedwire customer appreciation program. It's totally free, from us to you.

Want to know more?


Next month, we are launching Friends of Feedwire and you are invited to join. What will follow? Good stuff. Free stuff. Invitations, coupons, discounts, advice, updates, photos, lessons. You have to enroll if you want the goodies, so click the link above, sign up, sit back, and wait for the fun to start.

Wondering who we are?


Damien, Zach, Chris, Michael and our little dog Destro. Best computer nerds for hire this side of the Mississippi. Photo linked here to jog your memory.

10 Reasons it Kicks Ass to Be the Computer Guy

I've noticed a growing sentiment among many IT professionals that their job is a thankless and stressful never-ending stream of problems.  I beg to differ...

01. I Get Paid to Be a Nerd


What beats being paid to do what you love?

02. Being a Hero


I used to dream of being a wizard/firefighter/superhero, but I’ve come to accept my own limitations.  Sometimes, just as I sit down, like magic, the problem disappears – I’m just that good.

03. The Babes


Every hot girl owns a computer.  Guess who gets to fix them?

04.  New & Exciting


The learning curve in the IT industry never plateaus.  Because the technology changes I have to learn each and everyday.  I read books, get new certifications, and keep up with tech blogs.

05. Business is Dependent on Technology


Computers are an integral part of virtually every business.  It satisfying to know that I'm repairing the world one computer at a time.

06. Being a Teacher


While not everyone wants to learn about computers, Feedwire has made it a priority to work transparently.  It's important for me to know that a client has a basic understanding of the work that I've done.  The teacher learns through teaching, the student through listening, and both are more knowledgeable when it's over.

07. The Clients


Not many people make it a habit of going to offices all over Los Angeles, but I'm one of the lucky ones.  Photographers, producers, directors, PAs, agents, set designers, writers, secretaries, executives, accountants, marketers, and the list goes on and on.  I meet new and incredible people wherever I work.  I care about the people I work for and I care about their businesses.  Each day I try to make their networks run a little smoother, and hopefully make their lives a little easier.

08. Problem Solving Satisfaction


The reason I love fixing computers is the same reason I love math.  After learning some basic tools, I'm presented with a complex problem and given a short time period to find a solution.  I enjoy it every step of the way: The learning, the work, and drinking beer to celebrate my success.

09. One hand washes the other


Cooperation benefits us all.  I've watched a few Italian mafia movies and while I don't want my life to be a crime ridden murdering chaos, I do like the idea of asking one another for favors.  I come from a very close knit group of family and friends and it's important to me to help the people that raised me and made the me person  I am today.

10. Free Food


Need I say more?

Billable Time

We bill by the hour. Sometimes we do not bill for all or part of our time spent working on a project or task. How do we decide? Mom.

If I would be embarrassed to explain a bill to my mom, I will not send it to my customer.

The Best Email Just Got Cheaper

Mailtrust Email Hosting. We have raved about Mailtrust before and host all of our personal and business domains on their servers. We love Mailtrust so much that we resell their service to our customers and even own stock in the company (RAX). Mailtrust slashed its retail prices this month to $1 / 10 GB Mailbox / Month. For our customers, that's $0.70 / Month. Why is it cheaper for our customers? Because we do not mark-up.

It is common practice for service providers and consultants to become resellers of other services or products. These services and products are marked-up to their clients and the consultants pocket the difference. We could do that, we'd make some money at it, but we choose not to. In fact, we believe this behavior borders on the unethical. We are paid for our time, expertise, and advice. If our advice includes recommending the purchase of a service or product from which we will gain financially, it is difficult for us to be unbiased. So we do not mark-up.

Why become a reseller if we do not make a profit at it? That is simple. We like to make our clients happy. We have noticed that paying less money for the same service or product tends to make our clients happy. This policy extends to all of our reseller and partner agreements, and even to the simple act of purchasing retail equipment for reimbursement. We do not mark-up. So smile, because Mailtrust email just got cheaper for everyone, and even cheaper for you if you're a Feedwire client.

Recycle your Computers and Electronics

You've probably got unused electronics in your life. You've probably also got too much stuff in your life. Chances are that the trouble of selling your old electronics outweigh the possible profits, or you're not sure about letting that hard drive out into the wild with your information still on it, or you've heard about heavy metals in electronics and you don't want to release them into the environment. Enter California Recycles.

"California Recycles was formed to assist people, non-profits, corporations and municipalities recycle their electronics with ease. They provide convenient, affordable and simple solutions that make it easy to recycle all electronics; de-clutter your environment and prevent the harmful elements contained in electronic waste from contaminating our environment." Bravo, California Recycles. They make it easier for business and individuals to recover wasted office space and improve our relationship with the environment at the same time.

If you've got electronic equipment that you'd like out of your life, Feedwire is happy to help you sort and identify which equipment is recycle-ready, and to verify that none of your business or company information will get into the wrong hands. We can even transport small equipment to the recycling center for you.

California Recycles is having a free equipment collecting event this week on Wednesday April 15 at Whole Foods Santa Monica from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. They have several collection events like this every month at different locations throughout Los Angeles, so check their website for the schedule.

Thanks to Ona for inviting us to this event.

Welcome Chris and Michael

Feedwire welcomes two new members to the team. Chris is our new field technician and Michael is our new office manager / apprentice. They both bring personality and buku mojo to the company, along with requisite technical skills. In honor of their musical background we took a band photo.

Feedwire Staff in its Natural Habitat

Feedwire is Hiring

Boutique IT consulting firm in its 10th year seeks computer nerd rockstars to participate in all aspects of business. Work includes field work (installation, troubleshooting, application support, networking), office work (filing, billing, writing, blogging), and business development (finding new clients, building and maintaining clients). Client base is entertainment industry heavy and includes sizes ranging from one computer to 100 computers. Academy Awards, Endemol, and Quincy Jones are typical clients. Must support Mac OS and Windows desktops and servers. Chops are more important than certificates. Job starts with part-time trial period, but the right person will land a full time job with opportunity for six-figure salary.

Send resume and salary history to [email protected]

iTunes Duplicates? Dupin to the Rescue.

First, a little background. I am a collector. It is just part of my personality - I like to collect and file and organize. I am not quite OCD, but I am certainly on the spectrum. Apple has recently changed their iTunes track quality and DRM policies by making iTunes Plus universal on the iTunes store. This means that every track will eventually be available in a higher quality, DRM-free format. To avoid screwing people who have already purchased music, and to avoid losing money themselves, they have offered to upgrade previously-purchased music for $0.30 per track. A chance to improve the quality of my collection? The OCD-spectrum part of my personality cannot resist.

There is, of course, a catch. iTunes is supposed to automatically replace the old track with the new update track. Unfortunately this process is imperfect and not every track is properly replaced. After an iTunes Plus upgrade, I have suddenly found myself with multiple copies of the same tracks, some in playlists, some not, some with ratings, some without. In short, my precious, meticulously-organized collection has been thrashed. This is an OCD nightmare.

iTunes includes a "Show Duplicates" feature, but there is no way to use this feature to place replacement songs in playlists or to update playcounts, ratings, or skip information. It is also time consuming to page through thousands of tracks and select which version is the keeper. Luckily, I am not the only one with this problem. A solution exists, and that solution is Dupin.

Dupin, written by Doug Adams (not the late author), is not an iTunes duplicate finder, it is an iTunes Duplicate manager. It not only finds duplicates, but it can merge playlist, playcount, and other metadata before purging the unwanted tracks from the iTunes library. This software is what the iTunes Show Duplicates feature should be. By using Dupin instead of iTunes built-in duplicate handling features I've saved at least 3 hours of tedious work, easily worth the $15 price tag. Thank you Doug Adams and Dupin.

Daily Candy

Good news! Damien of Feedwire (that's me!) has been nominated by a client and selected by the editors of Daily Candy as a top-eleven finalist in Daily Candy's Get with the Programmer "hot computer nerd" contest. If I win, both my long-time Big Brother compatriot Lindsay and I receive a laptop as a prize. Get your vote out!

Common Pitfalls

We see computer and technology problems every day. These are the greatest hits and they're in heavy rotation. Do us a favor -- avoid these common problems and give us more interesting problems to solve.

Backup


Backing up data is important. Hard drives are machines that break. When they do it can be very expensive if not impossible to recover the data they contain. Fortunately, it is possible and affordable to make exact copies of digital information. The question is not whether you can afford to back up, it's why you think you can afford not to.

Square Peg, Square Hole


Computers use different connectors for different purposed. Displays are connected via VGA or DVI, Keyboards and mice via PS/2 and USB, and copper ethernet networks are connected via RJ-45. Unfortunately IT is not a realm in which it is safe to adopt an “if the shoe fits, wear it,” or “if the connector fits, plug it” mentality. It's common for both ends of one wire to end up plugged into a switch or hub, which creates a loopback on the network and generates infinite traffic and breaking the network. It's also common for multiple routers to be connected to a network via their LAN ports, often with identical IP information, defeating the network's ability to properly route traffic to the internet. Improperly connected network hardware and cables is a big cause of network downtime and can be extremely difficult to track down.

Reset Button


Reset =/= Restart. Restarting or rebooting a network device is a common troubleshooting technique. Routers and switches and wireless access points are actually little computers. They sometimes crash too, especially less robust models. In that case, rebooting can be a quick and easy and effective fix. Resetting the device, however, reloads the factory default configuration, which is probably not appropriate for your network.

Email and Scope


Email is the first indicator. There are many problems with the same symptom that people notice before anything else. When email stops flowing, our phones start ringing. These problems can exist at any step along a long chain. The local computer, local network, network perimeter, ISP, and the mail server itself are all required for email to flow, and a hitch in any one of them can cause the same symptom. Some of these problems might require professional help to solve, some you might be able to handle yourself. To determine where the problem lies, or at least a likely candidate, run down this list:

  1. Does rebooting my computer solve this problem? If yes, it's probably something on my computer that's acting up.

  2. Can I print to a network printer or see file servers on my local network? If yes, the local network is probably healthy.

  3. Do I get a response from my router if I type its IP address into my browser? If yes, the perimeter is probably OK.

  4. Can I open web pages? If yes, the ISP is probably in good shape.

  5. Can I access my email via the webmail login? If yes, the mail server probably isn't broken.


Knowing the answers to these questions might not fix your problem, but it will certainly help us fix your problem.

Internet


Businesses are internet addicts. Financial information, email, research, data shared with customers, data shared with vendors, business web presence, instant messages and more all require a working internet connection. It's relatively inexpensive to upgrade your office to a dual-WAN configuration with automatic failover. Save yourself the worry and hassle of internet downtime in your office and make this small investment.

Preventative Medicine


One client insisted that their server's hard drive was being backed up. It turns out that it was not. Data was recovered, but at a cost of $2,400. Another ignored our recommendations for managed switches. Network downtime cost three-quarters of a day of productivity. Both of these problems could have been identified and mitigated in advance for much less money than the eventual cost of cleaning up after a disaster. Rebuilding the levee is cheaper than rebuilding the city.

A Blog to Call your Own

Both one of my friends and my mother asked me about blogging this weekend. This is a topic that's been beat to death on the internet, and this probably won't be the most thorough report on what it takes to get a blog started, but it should be among the most succinct.


  1. Visit wordpress.com/signup.

  2. Fill out the form.

  3. Start blogging.


That's it - that's all you need to get your feet wet. It's free to start, cheap to upgrade to custom features like control over ads and your own domain name, and easy to migrate to your own server should you decide you need added flexibility down the road. Jump in, the water's fine!

A Blog to Call your Own

Both one of my friends and my mother asked me about blogging this weekend. This is a topic that's been beat to death on the internet, and this probably won't be the most thorough report on what it takes to get a blog started, but it should be among the most succinct.

  1. Visit wordpress.com/signup.

  2. Fill out the form.

  3. Start blogging.


That's it - that's all you need to get your feet wet. It's free to start, cheap to upgrade to custom features like control over ads and your own domain name, and easy to migrate to your own server should you decide you need added flexibility down the road. Jump in, the water's fine!