Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Software News

How do we protect network protocols?

What is the cornerstone of all DNS functions? Forward Lookup Zone
Which computer is the DNS server and has the most control? 1
Which option is used to view IP addresses that point to specific computers within a domain? Reverse Lookup Zones
From which tab in the DNS Properties window can DNS root servers and their IP addresses be viewed? Root Hints
Which command is used from the command prompt to view the DNS cache? Ipconfig /displaydns

5 reasons to ditch the Mac and return to PCs
Productivity gains, compatibility issues drive a CTO (and Mac fan) to switch to Windows at his company
By Robert Lemos
1. Productivity trumps religion
It's easy to fall in love with the aluminum cases used in Mac hardware and the slick interface design of the Mac OS X, Keanini said. Those are two reasons why more people are moving to Apple products: Apple announced that shipments of its personal computers grew by 44% in the first quarter of 2008, beating the 15% growth in PC shipments worldwide, according to market researcher IDC.

Yet, depending on how a company uses Macs, trying to integrate the computers into a company's workflow can kill productivity, Keanini said. The applications never quite match up, data has to be massaged to be useful, and the company has to design work-arounds for each issue, he said.
"My rule is to find the technology that makes your company most productive and be honest with yourself about it," he said. "Don't bring religion into it."
2. Work-arounds waste time
As soon as a company allows a different operating system onto workers' desks, employees have to start dealing with all the little problems that crop up. Calendar programs no longer sync with the rest of the company, and documents created in one office software suite have to be converted to another, usually Microsoft Office. If your company uses Microsoft Exchange, as Keanini's does, this adds another layer of problems.
"Everything is going to be a little bit different, and that little difference in everything eventually adds up," Keanini said.
One company engineer woke up Keanini the night before presentation slides were due for a conference, his voice cracking with stress, because his slides -- exported from Apple's Keynote presentation application to Microsoft PowerPoint -- looked nothing like they had on the Mac.
While such mistakes can be avoided, the effort required to keep the company's data working on two platforms eventually saps productivity gains, he said.
3. It's hard to abandon favorite tools
You may become quite attached to a Windows application or two and decide that Apple doesn't have a comparable equivalent. Apple is well known for creating user-friendly applications, but for Keanini, Microsoft has a lead with at least one program: One Note which he uses for personal information management.
The application, originally created for Microsoft's tablet PC platform, allows the user to bring all sorts of data into a single notebook format. Also, OneNote does not have a Save dialog box, Keanini said. Microsoft recognizes that if a user enters data into his computer, he is going to want to save it.
Keanini finds himself using OneNote as an organizational hub for his day.
"It integrates so well from Office," Keanini said. "I can send mail from it, I can do To-Dos from it. Bottom line, does it make me more productive? Yes."
4. The Hotel California factor
"The designers of Mac -- again, this is their priesthood -- are not thinking about letting their users go," Keanini said. "It's like Hotel California: They are not expecting you to leave."
Companies that move over to the Mac OS X should expect to spend a lot of time converting data if they decide to move back to Windows, Keanini said.
The CTO said that moving all his data back to the Windows platform took more than week. Among the problems: Contacts and appointments exported from the Mac's applications had to be cleaned up, he said. Also, there's no simple way to get e-mail out of the Apple Mail application, he said.
"Today, companies need to be thinking about interoperability," he said. "It's the users' data, not the vendor's data."
5. You may feel the heat, literally
Aluminum cases make MacBook Pro laptops, like the one Keanini chose, very sleek. But, Keanini said, the focus on design overlooked the fact that the computers throw off a lot of heat; so much so that he found he could not use the computer on his lap.
"The religion made me blind," he said. "I was bringing [the MacBook] on business but leaving it in the hotel room."
Moreover, the heat causes another problem, he said: The computers' lithium-ion batteries tend to have a shorter life span when they run hot. Having to replace the batteries on the laptops more often hit the IT budget bottom line, he said.
Now, the executive runs a Lenovo ThinkPad. "It's a monster, but it runs cool and it's very fast," Keanini said.

Many people enjoy Mac OS X systems because of their sleek look and programs such as Photoshop. For most of my computer history I have been using windows and have gotten vary use to it. The first time I used a Mac was in a graphic design class. It was a challenge even with simple things such as copy/paste because there is no right click on a Mac mouse. It took a while for me to get use to; when I compare my experiences with it and windows, I find myself liking windows better simply because I’m so use to it and know many of it functions. If any problems happen, I normally can get myself out of it. Many things that Keanini mentioned were true; it is very hard to switch from one OS to another, especially for a company. I think that if one is comfortable with one OS, they shouldn’t waste too much time switching to another unless they can bare the struggle.

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