Shiny New Thing to Review: Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home

Logitech Harmony remote control devices are regarded worldwide as the ne plus ultra in that space.

Which, undoubtedly, paints a target on the devices.

Whatever dethrones them would instantly be recognized as a winner, and take sales, market share, and profits, from Logitech.

It sure the specter of that keeps the wonks at Logitech up all night, and they strive to improve the devices.

Logitech even has a touch-screen device in the Harmony series called the Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home.

I have it here at The Ponderosa*.

The Harmony Ultimate Home now controls more than entertainment units: lights, locks, thermostats, and home control platforms are now in its repertoire.

I will download the iOS app, and go from there.

*Watch Bonanza

Product Page
Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home

Shiny New Thing to review: The Logitech ConferenceCam Connect

Logitech produces some of the finest multi-OS, and multi-platform webcams and web conferencing devices.

I know it from experience: the Logitech ConferenceCam CC3000e and the ConferenceCam BCC950 have been reviewed here, to great success.

In fact, I use the BCC950 Daily, and have units in my offices in Lagos and Los Angeles. We have also placed a good number of ConferenceCam CC3000e units at client locations, the last being an impulse buy from an overnight Amazon.com order.

Oh yes, the Logitech ConferenceCam CC3000e won the SmallBizWindows Collaboration Product of the Year 2015 award.

I like companies that do not rest on their laurels.

Even with their splendid lead in this space, Logitech has continued to improve their offerings.

The ConferenceCam Connect is their latest product.

It is a portable, single-unit video conferencing device compatible with every solution, and with every major operating system.

I have thought up quite a few use cases to try it out with.

Product Pages

• Logitech ConferenceCam Connect
• Logitech ConferenceCam BCC950
• Logitech ConferenceCam CC3000e

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Shiny New Thing to review: HP ZBook 15 G2 Mobile Workstation

Sometimes, you cannot lug a workstation around.

However, you need the power.

For that, there’s the HP ZBook line of mobile workstations.

An immediate need has me being in possession of the G2 version of this instead of waiting for the even more awesome (spec-wise) G3 version.

This baby is loaded with RAM and SSDs.

It now has to perform against the other mobile devices here.

Product Page
HP ZBook 15

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Shiny New Thing to Review: HP z440 Workstation

Even since Edelman’s Amy R. introduced me to HP’s workstations, I have been a fan of the devices.

Superbly engineered, HP workstations are completely without peer in every usage scenario when extremely powerful desktop (and mobile) computers are needed.

I currently use the HP z640 workstation as my daily unit here at my NWOH offices.

This Shiny New Thing is the HP Z440 workstation.

It is very well kitted out, with 32GB of RAM, dual 256 GB SSDs, a 1 TB spinning disk and NVIDIA Quadro graphics.

I’m looking forward to beating this device against my max-spec HP Z640.

Hehehehe

Product Page
HP Z440 Workstation

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Shiny New Thing to review: Logitech K380 Multi-device Keyboard

These days, we all have multiple devices.

For old fogeys like me, it increasingly becomes a step out of our comfort zones to use those itsy-bitsy touch keyboards.

Logitech has what could be the answer: the Logitech K380 Multi-Device Keyboard.

It is good across Windows, iOS, OS X, Apple TV, and Google’s Oss.

I would love to see if it works with both Xbox One/360, and the Amazon Fire Stick/TV.

I will keep you informed.

Product Page
Logitech K380 Multi-Device Keyboard

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Shiny New Thing to review: Dell XPS 15

About a year ago, I initiated my testing of the delectable Dell XPS 13 laptop.

As reviewed here, the XPS 13 is the class of the entire 13” laptop space, trampling very roughshod over the carcass of the former leader in that size category, the Apple Macbook.

Well, Dell decided not to rest on those laurels.

They have upsized the ante for Christmas 2015!

In my possession is the new Dell XPS 15 with that oh-so beautiful screen, and equipped with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD. An Intel Core i7 rounds out this package.

Ahhhhh! Sweeeet!

Let’s do this!

Product Page
Dell XPS 15

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The Logitech MX Master Review

The photograph on the box first clued me in: this isn’t any regular mouse.

The Logitech MX Master is built to be used hard.

So we did.

What is it?
The MX Master is the latest iteration of Logitech’s (or is it just plain ‘Logi’?) MX line of range-topping mice.

It is intended for the gamer, the enthusiast, the Excel maestro, everybody.

Everyone that can afford $85 (Amazon.com) for this product, that is.

It is both Bluetooth, RF, and can be used in a wired configuration with the included USB cable if desired.

It has a built-in rechargeable battery, that uses said USB cable for charging.

The device came with the Logitech Unifying Receiver, their RF dongle. More on this later.

First impressions do matter, and the MX Master takes the lead by looking futuristic.

The Logitech MX Master
In fact, my initial thought, upon looking at the image on the box, was that it looked like an Al’kesh*. However, after opening it, and even now, I can see that it is basically a Tel’tak*.

It feels right.

In fact, the flared bottom part of the mouse can be used as a thumb rest, for those days when you overwork those fingers.

One unique – to me – feature is the horizontal scroll wheel, which is in addition to the traditional vertical scroll wheel. It has backwards, and forwards buttons.

It is switch-selectable for three Bluetooth devices. It has programmable buttons

The MX Master in use
I connected one of the MX Master devices to an HP Sprout via Bluetooth, and the second via its Unifying Receiver (RF dongle) to an HP Z640 Workstation. Both connections were a snap.

While I do not game to any significant level on PCs, and despite owning a homebuilt gaming PC, I am a very heavy PC user.

This, the Logitech MX Master, is a very good mouse.

It is easily the best mouse I have ever used, beating out my former top mouse, the Microsoft Laser Mouse.

It is very comfortable, snaps to it. It is ultra responsive, and for a business user like myself, rather invaluable.

Conclusions

The Logitech MX Master was designed to be a winner.

And it shows. For initial looks, to ease of use, to comfort, to value.

It is a pleasure to use.

As a result, we are bestowing the SmallBizWindows Superstar Award on it.

Finally
I received a couple of them thanks to Krista S. (FinnPartners) and my good friend, and Social Media Maven, Ann F. (Logitech) to use. Ann is singlehandedly responsible for convincing me to try, and now use, and recommend Logitech HID products. Microsoft’s loss, by the way.

Don’t be jealous: I use several devices simultaneously at The Ponderosa, and a commonality of HID parts is a requirement.

Product Page
Logitech MX Master

*Watch Stargate.

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Make Wi-Fi Sense a little, you know, less senseless

The promise of this feature, present since Windows 8x and Windows Phone 8x, and now an integral part of Microsoft’s client operating systems is great: with one call to enter your home or business router’s login credentials, you are now forever automagically logged into that router(s) from any device from which you are signed in via your Microsoft Account.

That ease of use, and better than that, the utilization of Microsoft’s global Azure infrastructure as your virtual [router] key-management repository is smart, and forward-thing.

The problem, as it often is, is in the implementation. And, scope expansion, of course.

Second issue first. For the Windows 10 era, Microsoft expanded the scope of the functionality of Wi-Fi Sense to include auto-logins of your friends whenever they come within the range of your routers.

How is this possible?
Well, as I understand it, Microsoft reaches into your account and that of your friend to determine if you are truly ‘friends’. Upon seeing that you both have each other’s contact information, you are deemed friends, and a router connection is created for the ‘friend’.

To Microsoft’s credit, the friend cannot see the password to your router. It is obfuscated.

The Implementation

Again to Microsoft’s credit, it is seamless, almost invisible.

Virtually no user interaction is needed.

Therein lies the problem!

There is no option to selectively allow friends, or to vet them before they are allowed network access.

There isn’t an option to enforce security or malware policies upon the ‘friend’.

There isn’t an option to quarantine the ‘friend’ in a DMZ until security policies have been enforced, or active or potential vulns have been remediated if the friend’s system didn’t pass security muster.

You are NOT informed that someone new has jumped on your network. Granted, the friend cannot easily navigate the devices on the network because of restrictions placed on this kind of access. However, feel confident to know that legions of hackers are probably picking apart this process in order to derive unfettered access channels.

You cannot select which network(s) to include in Wi-Fi sense. It’s all, or nothing.

You cannot remove your network from Wi-Fi sense. It becomes Lazarus. You can delete it from your current device or devices. However, be rest assured that whenever you update your device, all of your current and previous networks reappear, forever attached to your Microsoft account.

You cannot remove them. Even if the devices are no longer active.

You cannot delete them from your account. Even if the devices are no longer active. From all networks previously used by you.

All networks.

Whether temporary or permanent.

Meanwhile, Wi-Fi sense is turned on by default. You have to opt out.

Incredulously, someone at Microsoft thinks this is a customer benefit!

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Why I won’t be using the Bing iOS app anymore

On Thursday, my #1 Son – chronologically, as instituted by Charlie Chan.. – asked me why the Bing iOS app was asking for a lot.

Since I had recommended Bing to him, I decided to do the same: sign into Bing using my Microsoft Account.

Saying I was floored by the level of access the Bing app requires, is an understatement of the highest order.

I have attached a screenshot of the requirements in the image, and tried to understand it below.

Why, for the love of John, does Bing require this?

Sign me in automatically

Signing in with my Microsoft Account will auto-sign me into the app.

No problem here. This, I do not mind doing.

Access my email addresses

Bing will see all email addresses in my profile.

“…all the email addresses in my profile.”

Just what, is the usefulness of this. I have allowed access to my account. Shouldn’t that be enough?

View my profile info and contact list

Bing will be able to see my profile info, including my name, gender, display photo, contacts, and friends.

This is where it starts getting creepy. It needs to be able to see my contacts, gender, and friends.

Why?

Access and edit my OneDrive photos and documents

Bing will be able to access, change, and add or delete my photos and documents on OneDrive.

Access and edit my stored photos and documents. Why is this? Delete my photos and documents too?

Access my info anytime

Bing will be able to see and update my info, even when I am NOT using the app.

“…able to see and update my info, even when I am NOT using the app.”

Seriously, what the funk?

Why does it need to update my info when I am NOT using the app. Why? A spurious update from where, exactly?

View photos and documents on OneDrive

Bing will be able to see my files and those shared with me on OneDrive.

The madness continues: in order to use Bing with my Microsoft Account, it needs access to all my data stored on OneDrive? Really?

Work with its own folder in OneDrive

Bing will be able to open and edit files in the Apps/Bing folder.

Well, whatever. Actually, no. This allows Bing to possibly store and execute plugins, including 3^rd-party plugins on my OneDrive?

This entire thing is pure BS.

It becomes even more invidious when you realize that the Bing app is supposed to be a basic search app.

A search app, for goodness sakes!

That’s all.

If it has greater aspirations, those goals aren’t conveyed or explicitly divulged to the user.

This is completely infra dig, and quite uncharacteristic of the Microsoft I have interacted with for the past couple of decades.

This, is ridiculous.

I will not be using the Bing iOS any further.

I have deleted it from my iOS devices, and of those in my household. I have also banished it from all iOS devices used by my family.

Today, Microsoft released their Cortana app for iOS.

I will download, and use it.

If you need me to spell out the reason why, ping me.

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The Vtech Breach: Protecting your kids from tchotchkes

Is it worth it?

That’s the first question I ask myself every time after I or my Wifey acquire a toy or whatnot for any of our kids that require the input of several pieces of PIIs in order to either activate it, or use their online component.

100% of the time, I use a completely bogus series of info, and I NEVER use any product that requires a credit card.

Nothing they offer – NOTHING – is worth registering for. I have already paid for the toy/tchotchke. Go away.

Wifey, on the other hand, sets the kids’ joy before potential ID theft. To her credit, she tends to use one-time prepaid cards, or a PayPal account set up just for that.

I will assume here that my siblings and my immediate family do heed the warnings I have thrown out over the years.

I remember vigorously shaking my head, and screaming “Nyet! Nyet!” quite loudly at the suggestion that we connect one of My Princess’s Barbie Dolls to the Internet not too long ago.

This past week/weekend, a breach on the networks of a toy manufacturer exposing several million children to identity theft landed with the force of a high-yield thermonuclear device!

I had barely begun to bask in the glow of my “I told you so!” declarations when this fiasco hit.

I’ll take a double bow right about now.

The Vtech Breach
According to reports, the personal information of more than 6 million kids was stolen from Vtech. Most of them from the Kidizoom smartwatch or the VTech InnoTab tablets.

How, you might ask, could this happen?

Well, purchasers of Vtech’s Android tablets, smartwatches, and cameras were prompter, and in most cases, offered dangling carrots of updates, games, books and other content if they gave their kid’s names, social security numbers, addresses and birth dates.

All that info for what? A mere piffle?

I wasn’t aware that milking children’s information could be lucrative to criminals.

In fact, according to Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer with Trend Micro, children offer credit slates to fraudsters that can be exploited for years without the victim’s knowledge. As a result, a child’s name, birth date, email address and Social Security number are worth $30 to $40 on some underground markets, more than the $20 value of most adult profiles.

That’s not all.

A report from CMU showed that a 2011 research study determined that more than 10 percent of a sample of stolen children’s social security numbers had some sort of fraudulent activity associated with them, a proportion 51 times higher than adults’.

Protect your kids, folks!

Is it worth it?

Heck, NO!

More on this here.

In married life, there are very few instances where one can be 100% right.

This is one of them.

The problem now is navigating this pleasurable situation with She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed without earning residual punishment points carried over.

Any assistance would be greatly, and respectfully appreciated.

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Shiny New Thing: Spanning Backup for Office 365

What keeps IT drones, and by proxy, their human overlords, awake all night?

If you said backups, goto the head of the table.

Backups.

We take them for granted.

Until we need them.

Then, it’s “Oh shift!”

One of the easiest cloud services to use is Microsoft Office 365.

I’m serious: it is that easy. In fact, even lower animals could use it.

With that ease of use, comes the dreaded feeling that one may not have secured enough backups.

I tend to make sure that I back up to three places: locally, the small SAN appliance in the basement, and to our cloud repository.

Which makes keeping all versions in sync quite some work.

In rides Spanning Backup for Office 365
If it works as advertised, Spanning Backup for Office 365 will let me sleep the portion of the night devoted to worries about Ofice 365 backups away.

According to briefing I had about Spanning Backup a few weeks ago:

Spanning Backup provides daily, automated backup and accurate restore, ensuring that your Office 365 data is protected, available, and recoverable, no matter what….

…as all your Mail and Calendar data is automatically backed up and protected every day. If data is lost because of user mistakes, malicious behavior, or sync errors, you’ll be able to quickly restore that data so your employees can stay productive.

Now, you see why I am looking forward to this!

We shall be testing it on an O365 unit containing just under 25 users, and spanning – no pun J – three continents.

This should be fun.

Thanks to Gina B. for my intro to this product.

Spanning, an EMC company, is located here.

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Trying Lookeen Desktop Search

Desktop search in Windows has been that one thing that continually annoys me.

It is ineffective, and basically, never works well.

Leastways, it never works well enough for me.

Don’t get me started about the Indexing Service….

…which kept on rebuilding the index anytime I started Microsoft Office Outlook up.

At which time search results couldn’t be presented.

I took email repositories of the list, just so I could locate a few files.

Meanwhile, I was under the impression that with Cortana, Windows 10 would gain new smarts, and perform magic.

It does not.

My primary problem with Cortana on the desktop is that it is so focused on bringing you all the dung on the Internet that it does not do a good job of delivering relevant search of your local device.

Jarringly, there isn’t a way to forcibly limit all searches to the local device or LAN only.

That makes it rather useless to me: I’ll ask for an Internet-wide search when I need it. Thank you.

That said though, I find I still need a decent search product for my email.

I will be trying Lookeen, from the eponymous company these next several weeks.

I will circle back with my experiences, first in a preview a few days away, and a detailed review shortly thereafter.

Thanks to Eric E. of Lookeen for bringing this product to my consciousness.

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The Windows 10 Era Begins at Logikworx

The days since the public release of Windows 10 have gone by quickly.

Without a doubt, this is the best consumer release of Windows ever.

It just works

Windows 10 is immediately familiar
Everything you do win Windows is where you expect it to be. Start and full screen Metro apps no longer dominate the screen.

Your Windows desktop applications are now first-class citizens once more.

They just work.

That same ideal extends to a very high percentage of device drivers. Most pre-Windows 10 printers and peripheral device drivers should work for you as they did for us.

Windows 10 is immediately new
Windows 10’s new flat UI, which I absolutely loath, by the way, is no doubt new. Supposedly, the flatness conveys modernity.

Start is now customizable. It is more useful, and despite a few design choices I disagree with, it conveys more information than ever. There is now a user choice to almost never see it.

Microsoft Edge is the new default browser in Windows 10. I am using it daily to see what the deal is. I’m not a fan. Yet.

We dogfood it
During the beta, and as with all Windows client betas, 100 percent of Logikworx staff were required to run Windows 10 on their primary systems.

Since it RTM’d, that requirement shifted to all PCs. (We are not crazy: we maintained either VMs or bare-metal instances for those quirky clients.)

Shifting gears
The relatively smooth gestational period for Windows 10 allowed us to identify the clients most ready for this OS upgrade, and determine the viability of their hardware for it.

We have concluded that task for all clients which we manage.

Today, we shift into the next phase: transitioning our managed client companies to Windows 10.

What we have done over the past several months, was delay new hardware purchases at our client firms, where possible, due to hardware enhancements slated to be introduced into Windows 10.

We have validated our management software suite for this operating system, and the four test companies that served as guinea pigs have not experienced any STOP events.

Now, it is time for business.

I shall continue to blog on issues we encounter. Because the successes will be too numerous to blog about.

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Symphony launches two new products

I am in New York for the unveiling of two new products from Symphony, a secure compliant communications service firm.

Symphony exited stealth in July when they started talking publicly about their eponymous product.

I have been using Symphony for a while now, and even with my limited use, it seems to be the way collaborations products should be, and points out to a way I believe collab workflows are headed.

I will be tweeting from there, and the event hashtag is #SymphonyLaunch

John Obeto is CEO of Blackfriars Capital
© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Apple's Self-Financing of iPhone 6s sales. 1st Lesson Learned

One of the topics I constantly talk (harp?) about is what I have termed The Complacency of The Dominant Incumbency.

No greater example of this exists than Microsoft’s Windows Mobile – the original, current, and hopefully, the future – mobile operating system.

Microsoft went from #1 in the smartphone space to zero, to, now, irrelevant.

Believe me, cautionary tomes will be written about this someday.

Especially if Microsoft doesn’t right the ship, and improve the fortunes of Windows Phone.

Last week, Apple Computer Inc, not only delivered the new iPhone 6s-series of phones, they also delivered what most are classing as a definitive blow in deprecating the rôle of mobile telcos in American cellular telecommunications.

While that is true, what hasn’t been touched on, is the scary portend for Apple that made them take the route of self-financing iPhone.

One thing Apple has been over the past decade, and acceleratingly – I invented the word – so, since the creation of iPhones.

However, this has been dependent of the largesse, if you will, of the mobile telcos.

They have largely underwritten Apple growth by financing the sales of iPhones while Apple has reaped both the financial, goodwill, and branding.

Not to talk about the incredible rise in AAPL, the stock.

Mobile telcos, on the other hand, have been rather mediocre.

Know your enemy. History is littered by those who didn’t heed these words. E.g., Montezuma.

Then came T-Mobile, and John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile.

Earlier this year, he started what has now become the SOP for the major US mobile telcos: the decoupling of [smartphone] hardware from the services the telcos provide.

At the time, it was quite obvious that the new trend had the potential to not just dampen Apple’s iPhone sales, but also to turn their trajectory into retrograde.

I tell you, I am impressed with Apple’s response.

Money is good. Lots of money, even better.

Knowing correctly that a great percentage of their business is from repeat sheeple, with most of the rest coming from folks completely fed up with those crappy Android devices and operating system, Apple’s creation of the iPhone financing scheme is, in a word, brilliant.

I bow down respectfully.

It builds on the bedrock that Apple has slowly been establishing to independence from any mobile telco.

Firstly, Apple took the authority for iPhone OS upgrades from the mobile telcos, and placed it squarely in the hands of the users.

Secondly, it basically took the telcos out of the –locked-to-a-specific-telco network business when the iPhone 6 was announced. You could walk into any Apple store, purchase a phone, and be rest assured that it would work with whatever telco you chose.

This was huge.

I availed myself of this when I bought iPhone for my family last Christmas. The ability to switch to any carrier I like was the icing on the cake that sold me on the deal. I was no longer beholden to any carrier’s whims.

I think the carriers themselves saw this.

Coming back…

Apple did something here that Microsoft, when it was the dominant incumbency in this space DIDN’T do: they are using their enormous financial pockets and brand goodwill to change the dynamics of the smartphone sales race, thereby assuring their company of life, and perhaps, more growth, in this industry going forward.

This step, a systematic dismantling of the power of their most power partners – overlords, actually – is a step many firms never either plan for, execute if planned for, or even if so, execute as brilliantly as Apple has.

This is a better use of Apple’s approximately $200 in cash and cash equivalents, as it almost assures the longevity of the primacy of the company, something that returning those funds to Wall Street would not do!

In Part II of this, I will delve into Microsoft, and smartphones.

John Obeto is CEO of Blackfriars Capital
© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The SmallBizWindows HP EliteBook Folio 1020 G1 Review

Small. Sleek. Powerful. Feature-packed.

Mix in a 9-hour battery*, and a very bright, and beautiful 2560 x 1440 touchscreen display.

Connectivity options are a-plenty, with dual USB 3.0 slots, a microSD slot, and an HDMI port.

NFC is also built into the 1020, as is a fingerprint reader.

That’s the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 G1.

Using the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 G1

The very lightweight EliteBook 1020 has been my faithful computing companion over the past several months.

Despite the diminutive size, it is well built, machined out of aluminum, and feels very sturdy and capable; a feeling that has turned out to be true.

It slots easily into a briefcase or backpack, not taking up more space than a college-ruled 2-subject [paper] notebook.

The laptop came with an install of Windows 8.1 and a license for Office 365 Home.

Office 365 was already installed on the 1020, needing only for a product key to be attached and activated in order to be properly licensed. Since I do have an Office 365 account already, I attached that locally, installed the other software components of what constitutes the Logikworx Business Desktop, and off I went.

It’s A Great Business Laptop

This device is solid.

As someone who travels frequently, I – and folks of my ilk – need devices that are durable and reliable.

In over six months of use, the 1020 has not failed me. Not even once.

The battery life on this device is superb.

With a full charge, I am able to work until I fall asleep on overseas flights. The included power supply recharges the battery quite quickly, and does so speedily as well even while the device is in use.

The Intel Core M processor allows the 1020 to operate with speedy dispatch, a necessity when high energy applications such as a largish Excel spreadsheet is running.

Despite the failure of Windows 8.1, it is a fine OS.

What is does quite well, is deliver a very optimized version of Windows that works like a gem. Once you get to the desktop, that is!

PowerPoint presentations are easy. Sway? No problem.

It’s A Great Consumer Laptop

“all work and no play….and all that

Most of uuse our laptops dually for both business and personal purposes.

For me, personally means that I get to watch movies on a very bright, clear screen.

Transcoding movies is also possible; just make sure you are connected to the mains for it is a very CPU, and power hungry process.

Even for the ‘lighter side’ of work, the 1020 is a gem. Music, video, photos, everything works. As expected.

Do specs Matter

Without a doubt, they do.

As a business device, the features most desired are size, weight, and battery life.

The EliteBook 1020 has all of those.

The bright, ultra-high definition touchscreen reduces the potential for eyestrains as well.

Having a touchscreen means that your investment in this delectable device is protected, especially now with the delivery of Microsoft Windows 10*.

Conclusions

A little background.

For seeming eons, especially since Apple reacquired it’s corporate mojo back, PC OEMs have let that firm dictate design, and device direction.

No longer.

With the EliteBook 1040 last year, and moving exponentially from there to the new EliteBook 1020, HP completely changed the game.

No longer are MacBooks the class of this space.

Indeed, in the 13” laptop sector, MacBooks have been surpassed by a PC ntrant there, and in the sub-13” space, MacBooks are thoroughly outclassed by this, the EliteBook 1020 Folio G1.

With over 6 months using a shipping retail 1020, and with my experience with it going back six months before that, I can tell you this: I am impressed with it.

Plus, I beat it up. This EliteBook 1020 has gotten more transatlantic mileage on it that most do in their lifetimes. I have carried it in a protective case or without. No problems.

This device is compact, powerful, and priced right.

It is forward-looking, and contains technologies that even the supposed standards bearer in the laptop space cannot match.

If you are in the market for a laptop in the 12-inch space, you cannot do better than the 1020.

Resultantly, the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 G1 has been declared a SmallBizWindows Absolute Best Award winner.

*9 hours is optimistic. The best I have gotten is just under 7 hours constantly, and just a little bit over that when I’m most afraid of losing power.

**Our next blog post on this device with be our upgrading, and use of it, with Windows 10. Stay tuned.

   

© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Data, Big Data, and Data Field Day 1

Data.

Big Data.

Heck, it’s all the same thing.

Data Field Day One
The advent of the Internet of Things or IoT, is going to exponentially expand the number of datapoints from which telemetry is returned.

And it isn’t going to get any easier.

People, this growth will be relentless, and the data deluge is just about to start.

What seems to be lost in the hoopla is some simple fact: without analysis, dissection, and visualization of that data, it is largely a useless dump of data.

So far, at the Gestalt IT Tech Field Day series and at the in-house HP Storage Days, we have seen how hardware companies plan to tackle the storage of data

Thankfully, several companies are stepping, and technologies have been invented that are bringing innovation to this issue.

Two weeks ago, I was at Data Field Day One where a select group of companies showed us their attempts to solve data issues.

NOTE: two of the companies that presented at Data Field Day 1 were focused on the software of Big Data, which was my mission to seek out. The other two, HGST and SanDisk FlashSoft, were seemingly more focused on the hardware, despite their software bent. For this article, I will focus on Cloudera and Hedvig.

I intend to spend more time on yet another recap of the Tech Field Day video presentations on HGST and SanDisk to see if I missed their métier.

Many ways to skin a cat

Seriously though, data needs a lot of flexibility and attendant hybridization is analysis and processing.

Why?

Well, data tends to live where it is born.

Huh?

Cloudera

Nice explanation by Cloudera co-founder and CTO Mike Olson: there is data that is born is the data center: sales transaction, and data that’s born in the cloud, such as returned information from the ginormous numbers of connected sensors globally. Consequently, it makes sense to analyze that data where it is, rather than getting into the business of moving huge amounts back and forth from cloud storage repositories into datacenter storage.

And Mike should know. His company Cloudera, which is a pure-play big data firm located in Palo Alto, happens to be the 1,000 lb. gorilla in Big Data.

Valued at about $5 billion minimum due to a recent 15%, $750 million investment in it by mighty Intel, Cloudera is harnessing the best of open source and proprietary IP built upon open source foundations to deliver products that help users make sense of the flood of data hitting them, thereby monetizing their data.

Cloudera, as mentioned above, is largely agnostic in the use of whatever open source tech it needs to deliver that database and data analysis functionality, with names like Hadoop, Pig, and some other hipstery names flowing smoothly of the tongues at DFD1.

They even have a UI for Hadoop!

Oh yes, and most importantly, the use and retention of proprietary IP allows Cloudera to deliver a business plan that is real-worldly, and has a profitability horizon. That, I like, and approve of!

This, is what grownups do.

Cloudera has, I believe, the only PCI-DSS certificated secure compliance data store. Their flagship product is used by some of the biggest names in the financial and healthcare services fields, such as FINRA.

“I like to look at all my data”
Commonly said by a lot of people.

Actually, you don’t.

If a typical ERP database contains 15,000 tables, and if the average healthcare EMR system contains 245,000 columns, trust me, you don’t want to “look at all your data”!

For that, Cloudera added Explain.IO to their stable.

Cloudera Explain.io creates an Enterprise Data Hub that determines business intent by data mining the queries against a businesses’ data store, not the actual data.

Hedvig

Hedvig was another company that caught my eye.

Hedvig is a software-defined storage startup that lives in a VM.

From the demo, it is powerful, fast, and get this: the first enterprise startup to actually deliver a product that targets both x86 and ARM CPUs, though, according to Hedvig, most of their sales are for x86, which is a pattern that is currently the norm.

Hedvig’s platform is elastic, is cloud-agnostic, and works fine with commodity servers. Scaling to petabytes, it provides enterprise block, file, and object storage.

I may have misunderstood, but I believe Hedvig is currently VMware-only.

Once they arrive on Hyper-v, I will try to play around with it.

The Data Field Day 1 homepage is here. It has links to the event, videos, and all content generated subsequent to it. It also has links to both delegate and company bios.

• Cloudera is here.
• Hedvig is here.

The #DFD1 site also has links to upcoming Tech Field Day events, which are livestreamed to everyone in this star system. For free.

John Obeto is CEO of Blackfriars Capital
© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

Follow @johnobeto

Verizon VCE customer testimonial: Brandon Mawhorter, Digital Edge Learning, Inc..

This post, Part III of my series on Verizon Enterprise’s Virtual Communications Express, I spoke with Brandon Mawhorter of Digital Edge Learning, Inc. of Redlands, California.

In business since 2007, Digital Edge Learning is a VAR for educational learning hardware for teachers and classrooms. They deal with schools, school districts, and of course, teachers. They also provide training tools for educators as well.

I asked Brandon questions centered on the following:

Rationale
Digital Edge Learning started looking at VOIP when a decision was made in 2013 to reengineer the company from a centralized single location business to a distributed operation. They were looking for a solution that had all that, with easy manageability and expandability thrown in.

Selection decision
DEL had used a PBX-type system from ShoreTel previously, but were ambivalent about it to the point where they didn’t want t deal with PBXs any longer, with memories of having to reboot the PBX box lingering.

Verizon VCE was selected because it had the desired features: was expandable, and allowed for remote configuration.

Orchestration
Brandon was the lead in the selection of Verizon VCE for Digital Edge Learning, and he after placing his order with Verizon Enterprise.

Phones were selected, and because of the nature of their business, an analog face-to-VOIP box was sent in to Digital Edge Learning as well.

It took a ‘short time’ to get the phones ported over, and Digital Edge Learning was in business, with Verizon VCE, I’m told.

Usage
For Digital Edge Learning, their use of Verizon VCE has been an eye-opener in the realm of versatility.

According to Brandon, VCE allows him and other Digital Edge Learning staffers to be ready for work wherever they may be.

He has set up ‘hunt groups’ that allow staffers to dynamically assist each other in retrieving calls, and helps DEL to extend their offices to any physical location staffers with their Polycom phones and a broadband connection are.

Summary
By all indications, Digital Edge Learning is pleased with this solution.

What sets VCE apart is the fact that everything about the service completely resides in the cloud: sales, hardware store, orchestration, implementation, management, pre- and post-sale configuration, and support. Apart from the vagaries possibly introduces into their environment by their broadband ISP, that is.

Digital Edge Learning is able to dynamically configure and re-configure systems according to need, the staff can back each other up seamlessly, and the service is always on wherever the are and want it to be, a statement that gives me a vision of their staff on a beach somewhere sippin’ on Mai Tai’s while a very long Ethernet cable connects them to their rooms.

In fact, Brandon is able to be productive anywhere just by plugging his Polycom handset in.

That sort of versatility is rather unbeatable.

I asked a final question: “Would you recommend Verizon VCE to other businesses?”

“Without a doubt, whatsoever. It has been very good for us”, said Brandon Mawhorter, Digital Edge Learning Systems.

I want to thank Brandon for taking the time.

More information on Verizon Virtual Communications Express can be found here.

This blog post came out of conversations sponsored by Verizon.

John Obeto, this blog, or any entity owned controlled or affiliated with John Obeto has received any compensation of any kind for this series on Verizon VCE.

John Obeto is CEO of Blackfriars Capital
© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

Follow @johnobeto

I will be at Data Field Day 1

When sharks stop swimming, they die.

For humans, the same is true, only with us, it concerns learning: if you stop learning, you die.

Well, maybe not literally, but intellectually. Once you are intellectually dead, you cease to become human.

So as to preserve my pea brain from that fate, I try to keep learning.

One of the learning resources I am privileged to be invited to oftentimes are the Gestalt IT Tech Field Day series, this time, the inaugural Data Field Day, to be held in San Francisco, California.

Storage here. Storage there. Storage everywhere!
We all know about the explosion in the amount of storage we have immediate access to.

I still remember owning a Timex-Sinclair with 2K of RAM. Or my first hard drive for my IBM PC. 20 megs seemed like infinity.

Today, Office 365 gifts you with 1 terabyte of storage per user just for signing up!

All that data
We have mountains of data.

I can assure you, that is nothing compared to the deluge of data that is about to hit us from all the datapoints coming online as the Internet of Things or #IoT, takes hold.

That conversation between your teaspoon and your kettle with your refrigerator as moderator and your trash compactor as interlocutor is going to deliver lots of data.

What are we going to do with all that data?

Saving it is worse than useless if we do not i) make sense of it, ii) make it actionable, and iii) use the data to improve both the product and the outcomes of the intelligence built into the device, and finally iv) use that data to derive predictions for future events and/or products.

When I learned through the grapevine that Tech Field Day might be holding a Data event, I immediately wanted to be part of it.

Why?

Because of the learning thing I alluded to earlier.

I have found Tech Field Day events to be insightful, the presenters knowledgeable, and resultantly, the knowledge gleaned from those events are immediately actionable, as feedback from not only my readership, but I, myself, can attest to.

Gestalt IT Data Field Day 1
Tomorrow morning, I am off to the cultural heart of Silly Valley, ‘Frisco*, for Data Field Day 1.

The following three companies, listed in alphabetical order, will be presenting:

• Cloudera Which aims to provide the speed, scale, and centralized management needed to create enterprise hubs
• Hedvig They have a distributed storage platform that utilized commodity hardware to provide elastic block, file, and object storage.
• SanDisk Their FlashSoft software reduces I/O latencies in Microsoft Windows Server and other server environments by enabling server-side SSDs.

As usual, the delegates are subject matter gurus, and I look forward to being part of the dialog.

This will be fun!

* It’s a SoCal thing: I cannot bring myself to call it my it’s proper name, San ‘Frisco. Especially since in SoCal, we know it really tweaks their noses!

John Obeto is CEO of Blackfriars Capital
© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

Follow @johnobeto

Verizon VCE customer testimonial: Josh Finkle, DHI Services

This post, Part II of my series on Verizon Enterprise’s Virtual Communications Express, I spoke with Joshua Finkle of Deaf & Hard of Hearing Interpretation Services.

Company Background
Founded in 1996, DHIS helps facilitate interaction between two or more individuals on-site or remotely by interpreting their conversation with the help of certified interpreters in American Sign Language, foreign sign languages, Communications Access Real-time Translation (CART) and in spoken and/or signed English.

My interview of him was centered around the following:

Rationale
Josh’s primary reasons for thinking of moving a VOIP system was cost.

His prior phone system consisted of a total of four lines, of which one was a fax line. His broadband service was brought in through a DSL line.

He decided to reduce his costs, and also expand the telephony services he could consume.

Selection decision
As we all know, only voice-over-IP, commonly known as VOIP, can deliver based on those parameters.

Consequently, he started researching and auditioning available VOIP providers, and when the dust cleared, Verizon VCE was the winner. Verizon’s VCE was selected partly because his local PSTN was Verizon there in New York City.

He then discontinued his DSL line, and went with cable broadband.

Orchestration
One of the really cool things about Verizon VCE is the fact that orchestration is completely virtual.

Customers are interviewed over the phone by a Verizon salesdrone, and the pertinent information: number of users, type of device, service, and features desired are collected.

In conjunction with that information, a Verizon tool called Examinet is used to query and test the speeds and reliability of the broadband service the customer possesses in order to determine if that broadband connection is able to deliver the features, service, and reliability that VCE requires in order to deliver the VOIP connections the customer needs.

For Josh, this was a snap.

He answered the questions, had his broadband queried, and sent his business information over to Verizon for the initialization of the [phone numbers] porting process. In the interim, he participated in a webinar on the entire process.

His telephone devices arrived, and over a selected weekend, the entire process was implemented satisfactorily for him.

Summary
Right now, Josh has all the lines he needs, and with that, he know he has the option to grow his telephony service on a completely ad hoc basis.

What I really wanted to know, and I am sure you all do as well, is what is/was his satisfaction level with Verizon VCE at each step of his journey, and where is it today.

According to Josh, he “really likes his Verizon VCE setup.”

It has been a very cost-efficient implementation, and he has had no problems with the service. He is able to make configurational changes to his telephony network just by logging in to his VCE account, and letting his mouse and keyboard run across the page. His selections or changes are applied immediately, an aspect I know he must surely find gratifying.

He does, however, worry about his cable broadband service going down, an issue he cannot blame on Verizon VCE.

To my final question, “Would you recommend Verizon Virtual Communications Express to anyone, everyone?”, his answer was simply, “Of course.”

More information on Verizon Virtual Communications Express can be found here.

This blog post came out of conversations sponsored by Verizon.

Neither John Obeto, this blog, or any entity owned controlled or affiliated with John Obeto has received any compensation of any kind for this series on Verizon VCE.

John Obeto is CEO of Blackfriars Capital
© 2002 – 2015, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

Follow @johnobeto