A Technical Manager's Perspective

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2

I installed Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 and I really like it. It certainly appears cleaned up and I have not run into a problem. I really like the TAB feature and the favorites and feeds buttons.

You can subscribe to a number of daily RSS feeds from blogs and sites, and then scan the latest news from each site quickly, by selecting the feed similar to selecting a Favorite.

Give it a try ....

RSS Feed

Having problems adding RSS feed.

More Podcast's

There is a lot going on at work which required my time and effort, and that kept me away from the keyboard for updates like this, however when time was scarce, I start multitasking and listening to podcasts in my car back and forth to work or while performing errands.

I did not have an opportunity to sync my ipod as frequently as would necessarily do, and started listing to a couple of podcast that subscribed to but had not listened to. I found these podcasts very helpful and very enjoyable. The first is another Business Management podcast called "Middle Management Lobotomy Podcast".

http://mmlpodcast.libsyn.com/

The second Podcast is more of a techie show for System Administrators called "The Best Damn Tech Show Period". They touch on many admin topics and the recent news that may imact admins. This podcast has a little bit of an edge to it, however there is a tremendous amount of great content here for system admins.

http://my.opera.com/bestdamntech/blog/

Keeping current with patches and versions

In the last two weeks we have had a number of issues that could have been elimiated by staying current with the latest MS patches and the latest Software versions. We manage hundreds of servers and use a utility to do so (not sms), however managing this process can be overwhelming. Multiple versions of MS Server (2000, 2003), multiple functions and different software installs on each, even with a standard build, however, once we start laying down applications we loose track of which version and MS patch is installed on each server.

Next take that 3 to 4 MS patches delivered a week and you can understand our management nightmare. We rely strickly on critical patches, however recently, a non-critical but recommended patch caused multiple problems when it was not applied to all of the appropriate servers.

Then you have Service Packs. We started applying Windows Server SP1 to selected servers and ran into a problem on two servers. Patch Management is becoming a Full Time Job.

More about me

I am a IT Manager at a Healthcare company in New England and would like to share idea's , experiences and helpful hints with others. Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.

Kevin

Kevin and I

This is my son Kevin and myself

Molly and Rocky

Molly and Rocky today

Our doggies as puppies. This

Our doggies as puppies. This is Rocky and Molly.

New Addiction

My new addiction is Podcasts. The Podcasts of today are the Radio and Magazine's of the 80's and 90's. 20 years ago, ambitious folks had to rely on magazines and trade shows to stay current in their respective industries. Today there is a tremendous amount of content available to listen to at your leisure, which will keep you informed of current events and changes within your industry.

If you have not looked at Podcasting, then I would recommend that you start investigate this new and easy technology.

Introduction

This is my first attempt at blogging. I have been working with Technology for almost 20 years and have been listening to a lot of Tech and Management Podcasts. My favorite is KenRadio which I have been listening to since 2000 when it was streamed.