David Drinnon posted an interesting quote about Mac users and the IT deparement:

PCs are owned by IT and users use them. Macs are owned by users and IT supports them.

That seems to be the attitude from Mac users in a lot of organizations. BUT, why is it like that? I think it primarily stems from the fact that IT departments have been really slow at accepting the Mac as a valuable tool that has it’s place in their environment.

I am a firm believer in picking the right tool for the job. We run Windows, Mac, and Linux, and each has their place in our environment. When it comes to Video Editing, Graphics, and Music, Macs are king. It’s our job to provide those users with and support the tools they need just like we would for any other user.

Not to mention the fact that I LOVE OUR MAC USERS! They are awesome people and great to work with!

As we become more and more mobile remote access becomes more and more important.  It’s easy for people who have church-issued laptops.  We have a Cisco IPSec VPN that works great.

But, what about users without laptops who need access to certain apps and services?   There’s several options available, but I’m not convinced any of them are great:

• Connect to VPN and install apps (Shelby, EMS, etc) on home computer.  Obviously, this is very difficult to support and can be slow.
• Connect to VPN and Remote Desktop to their own computer.  I have a couple of users who do this now and it works.  Maybe it’s the best way to handle it since once they’re in, the experience is the same as at the office.  It usually requires a phone call to walk the user through the RDP setup, but it’s not too bad to deal with
• Terminal Services gateway.  I have reservations about opening any MS product up to the internet.  I guess it could be hidden behind an ISA server with RADIUS authentication - we already do this for OWA access to exchange.  Combined with WIndows 2008 RemoteAPP, this could be a very good option, especially since it wouldn’t require a VPN client.  May be a security concern.
• VPN client + RemoteApps - would be easy for the user - I just need to give them a couple of RDP files.  What about accessing Word, Excel, etc?
• Cisco WebVPN - this is cool because it allows the user to log into a web interface and access CIFS file shares.  A bit of a pain to setup and manage though, and doesn’t really allow for the user to access apps.
• VPN client + terminal server - eliminates need to RDP to a workstation, but user may need apps not available on the terminal server.

At this point, I’m kind of leaning toward just allowing users to RDP into their own workstation over a VPN connection.  Anyone have any better ideas?

I’ll admit that I’ve never won the award for being the most patient person in the world. In fact, back in my teenage years, I had virtually none. It started to change back in 1998 (wow, make me feel old) when I prayed to accept Christ. Amazing how quickly a total transformation can happen. After working in ministry for over 2 years, I’ve grown even more (definitely need lots of patience and understanding in this line or work). All that to say this: I can proudly say that it takes a lot to get me to the point of being upset or mad, and even more for me to actually show that I’m mad.

Now, on to the story. We have a plastic card printer and software that’s used to print keytags for our children’s checkin. It needed to be moved from one computer to another - no big deal. Well, at least that’s what I thought. I get the software all installed on the new computer, enter the license key, etc. and it notifies me that this software is already activated and I would need to contact support to have the activation reset. So, I called the number provide and got an immediate answer.

I explain to the support rep that I’ve migrated to a new computer and need help activating. She asks for my license key and proceeds to say in a somewhat nasty tone “Looks like you tried to activate this several times.” I did click “OK” two or three times before I called, but didn’t consider that excessive. Then, she says, in the same tone “What is your hardware ID?” I had no idea what she was talking about, so I politely asked where I could find said hardware ID. I’m greeted with another not-so-nice response “On the machine you installed it on.” I still have no clue what she’s asking for or where to get it.

Before I ever even had a chance to explain to her I didn’t know what she’s asking for, she replies “We’ll just do an automatic activation.”  She does something on my end and asks me to try again. I do, and it activated successfully.  I assume we’re done and proceed to thank here.   Now, at this point, I’m slightly irritated, but no where near upset yet.

Little did I know we weren’t done yet. The rep proceeds scold me (in a very incriminating way) for the nasty deed I had apparently done by calling and asking for help: “Now I reset this for you today, but this will be the last time. Next time, you’ll have to buy a new copy.” Keeping my cool (although it was becoming difficult to do so at this point), I very nicely point out to here that the license agreement I’m looking at says that it can only be installed one computer and that I only had it installed on one computer. She comes back, the tone of her voice getting even nastier, “Yeah, but it can only be activated once.”

At this point, I’m getting more then a bit irritated. I very politely asked here to send me a copy of the license agreement stating that the product can’t be transfered to a new computer. She asks for my email address, which I gave here, and she says’s she’ll send it right over (same nasty tone) and then proceeds to hang up on me. Now, I had moved past the irritated stage.

I took a few minutes to cool off and called back and asked the operator for a supervisor. I spoke to a very nice guy who apologized and said he would send out a memo (I wonder if the memo actually got sent). He was great to talk to and seemed to actually be interested in the fact that I was a customer. Why can’t they have people like this answer the phone to begin with? I never did get that license agreement I was promised…

Fortunately, I was able to make it through the whole ordeal and keep cool about it. I guess things like this are put in our path as an exercise to help us grow in our faith. Gods word tells us over and over how to deal with people like this and these type situations: Ephesians 4:2, Colossians 3:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, and 2 Timothy 2:24 stand out to me. I’ll be the first to tell you though, dealing with difficult people can be, umm, difficult.

One thing that seems to always be an issue here is getting big files to outside vendors etc. Obviously, email is good for small files, but it never ceases to amaze me how many printing companies have email systems that can’t accept a 5MB file. Then there’s the bigger files that shouldn’t be emailed anyway.

The obvious solution is FTP. However, it requires client software and user training. The training it no big deal, but the software is - another app we have to roll out and support. Windows explorer can kind of do FTP, but it really doesn’t work very well. There’s also the issue of having to maintain passwords (which would have to be separate from internal AD passwords do to outside vendors needing access) or have anonymous FTP, which is not a good idea for obvious reasons.

Then there’s web-based drop boxes, but they have many of the same issues as FTP. There’s a need to not have access wide open, yet allow outside parties access. From the user perspective, it would be easier, since there’s no special software required - only a web browser is needed. Still, not ideal.

I guess what I’m looking for is something where the staff member can upload a file and enter an email address, and the recipient will receive an encrypted link to download the file. Basically, kind of like yousendit, but ideally it would be hosted locally. I’ve searched and searched and can’t seem to find an app to do this. I may just end up writing it myself if I can find the time. If anyone has any ideas on this, please let me know.

I’ve been in IT 8 years and don’t think I’ve seen this request before:

Mr. Potato Head - DLL file is in use and cannot be installed
Muppets Sorting and Ordering has no picture
Micky Mouse has script runtime error

Obviously, this is for our preschool area and is certainly a legitimate request for them. I thought it was funny though.