Video: Stokefire’s Tate Linden at Ignite DC #4

Mentioned previously, Lantern Three sponsored Ignite DC #4 on June 16th, 2010. Virginia, John, and George, joined hundreds of attendees to watch 16 speakers tell their story in 5 minutes, each supported by 20 slides.

Before we had a name, Lantern Three retained the services of Stokefire to develop our brand. Here is a video Tate Linden’s presentation, including a shameless plug for us:

Overall, we found the Ignite session to be entertaining, informative, and a great tool for networking. Some thoughts from participants:

George: I had never attended an Ignite event before, though had heard of them and had wanted to. I really enjoyed the diversity of the topics, even though I felt that some of them were reaching a bit too far to garner a reaction. Some were truly thought provoking and educational, and I seriously enjoyed that. The quick pace and the variety of material kept the audience engaged and active.

Also interesting to see how Twitter was by far the ubiquitous medium for contact and more information, even more so than email or traditional web sites. Easy to setup and follow/add, I suppose. I found myself quick-adding new twitter folks during the event and that made follow-up and further research very simple after the show.

John: Like George, this was my first Ignite event. The format was completely foreign to me, and I surprised that every presentation stuck to “5 minutes / 20 slides” format, and only 1 or 2 were not exceptional. It was easy to keep an open mind for five minutes, and surprising after each presentation to see what resonated. In addition to Tate’s talk:

I was impressed with how organized Ignite was, how thoughtful the speakers were, and how engaged the audience was. It was an outstanding opportunity to learn and network, and I look forward to Ignite DC #5.

Author: John Eisenschmidt

Topic(s): Partners

Published: July 13, 2010 16:23




Critique: A Second Look at the Apple iPad 3G

In a prior post, I took a first look at the iPad 3G. I don’t usually leave town without my Macbook Pro, but this past weekend I traveled to Boston with only my iPad 3G.

Performance

To test the performance of AT&T’s 3G network, I used XTreme Labs Speedtest Application. With wifi turned off and both devices running on battery, I tested the iPad, stopped, then tested the iPhone. Not terribly scientific, but hopefully ensured that one device did not lag because the tower was being bursted by traffic from the other device.

iPhone 3GS

  • 32GB
  • iPhone OS 4.0 beta 3
  • Baseband 05.13.04

Screen shot of iPhone 3GS Speedtest

(Screen shot of iPhone 3GS Speedtest)

iPad 3GS

  • 16GB
  • iPhone OS 3.2
  • Baseband 06.15.00

Screen shot of iPad Speedtest

(Screen shot of iPad Speedtest)

Findings

The iPhone 3GS had a faster download speed (1670kbs vs 1352 kbs); the iPad’s latency was higher (273ms vs 166ms). Any number of factors could have caused these variations between these two data points. In general, I will say that the performance of the iPad 3G seems very comparable to that of the iPhone 3GS, if not faster.

Data Plan Cost

I activated the $30/month unlimited data plan from AT&T on May 4th, and have used the 3G as often as I was away from any wifi access; as of May 13th I have only used 88MB. My sense is: even if I was in a hotel for 3-5 days and did not want to pay for wifi there, 250MB would still be sufficient. With that said, using Google maps on the street or in the car is amazing; I continue to be amazed at the usability and performance of Street View on the iPad using 3G.

Usability

I briefly touched on the usability aspects of the iPad in my prior post. Over the past 10 days, I have shifted as much daily work as possible to the iPad to answer the question, what does it NOT do well? Thus far, it is a very short list.

Browser-based Applications

The touch screen keyboard the iPad provides is not as fast as a physical keyboard, but it is pretty close. It is significantly faster than hunting and pecking on the iPhone or iPod Touch. I was able to touch type long emails fairly precisely.

Google Docs

There has been some criticism on the Internet about the lack of productivity applications for the iPad, and the incongruence between Apple’s own iLife desktop applications and those for the iPad. My acquaintances, who have used the iLife apps for iPad, have spoken pretty positively.

The mobile GMail interface on the iPhone has, for some time, supported easy viewing of MS Office attachments. Now that Google Docs is 100% HTML5, it is fast becoming a mobile productivity solution. When you venture off the supported path, you are warned:

That said, the interface shows you your folders and document types stored in the Google cloud:

Documents support all the features/formatting of a Microsoft Word document:

Spreadsheets are just that:

Currently, Spreadsheets have limited support for editing:

Presentations is a suitable replacement for PowerPoint:

Technical writers and those who create a lot of content in Word/Excel/PowerPoint may not find it a suitable replacement, but for those who primarily view these file types, you will feel quite at home.

Flash

Much has been said elsewhere about the lack of Flash on the iPhone and iPad, and what the impact may be. After reviewing their site statistics, some companies are shifting from Flash to HTML5. This debate will continue for some time, and while I do visit sites that use Flash, lack of iPad support for it has not affected me.

Media

Streaming video is where the iPad really shines. My experience is that the Netflix app gives the same viewing experience as: a DVD, computer, PS3, XBox360, Wii, and Sony Bravia TV.

Since I would not have Internet access during my flight, I needed media stored on the iPad to watch. I could have purchased or rented a video from the iTunes store, but a free application for the Mac called Handbrake gave me another option: extract a DVD I already own to h.264 video (with Dolby audio) and upload that to the iPad. The result?



DVD quality video, and (in my opinion) the perfect size to watch on a plane (the screen is larger than those built in to the A319 and A320). Sitting in coach, there is always a chance of cracking your laptop screen if the person in front of you reclines unexpectedly; I had no such worry with the iPad, which rested nicely on the tray table.

Assessment

The iPad 3G was a worthwhile purchase, both for personal and business use. With the expectation that it is not a complete replacement for a laptop or desktop computer, the iPad provides a greater-than 80% solution for my computing needs, in a fun-to-watch 10″ form factor, and whose battery lasts more than 8 hours. Though I do not intend to use the 3G often, I am grateful that I purchased the option, and have access to the Internet anytime and anywhere.

Author: John Eisenschmidt

Topic(s): Critique

Published: May 14, 2010 17:44




Critique: Apple iPad 3G

Is a 3G iPad worth $130 more? My math says yes: the alternative (for those times wifi is out of reach) is  a Verizon or Sprint MiFi, which is $260 without a contract and Internet usage is more per month.

I pre-ordered an iPad 3G on April 12. It arrived on Friday April 30 in a nondescript box that did not advertise the 3G unit inside.

When I connected the iPad to my Macbook Pro, iTunes asked if I wanted to setup a new iPad or restore an iPhone backup. I chose to setup a new iPad (uncertain if my beta testing of iPhone OS 4.0 might cause an issue).

(Above: my iPhone 3GS, MacBook Pro, and iPad 3G)

The first time you visit Settings -> Cellular Data you are prompted to setup a data plan with AT&T:

The new Mail app is a huge improvement over the iPhone:

But, to be honest, the HTML5 interface for GMail is incredible:

I can’t believe I’m saying this about the McPaper, but the USA Today app is the first viable model I’ve seen for newspapers in the future:

The Map app for the iPad is spectacular — everything the iPhone has and more:

I found the iPad faster and more versatile than I had anticipated. The touch screen keyboard is large enough for fingers and almost as fast as a keyboard. Though slightly more cumbersome on the iPad, Google Docs and Confluence were very usable. The only use case I can think of against the iPad is authoring so much content (in Word or on a wiki) that a real keyboard and mouse would make that process much faster.

Computerworld recently asked if, thanks to the iPad, could one leave the laptop home? Their opinion was no, but mine is a firm probably; I will test that sense next weekend by leaving my laptop at home while I visit Boston.

Author: John Eisenschmidt

Topic(s): Critique

Published: May 2, 2010 23:12




NCI Renews Technical Project Management Contract

For Immediate Release

Lantern Three Logo

Second-Option-Year Funding Subcontract to Provide Project Management Services for caBIG®

Fairfax, VA – March 31, 2010 – Lantern Three announced today that its subcontract to provide Technical Project Management Services has been renewed. SAIC-Frederick, Inc., under the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Prime Contract, has awarded 5AM Solutions, Inc. a second option year for Technical Project Management Services supporting the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology’s (CBIIT) caBIG® program. In turn, 5AM has awarded Lantern Three a second-tier subcontract to continue providing project management services for the caGrid project, a key component of the CBIIT caBIG® program. The mission of caBIG® is to develop a collaborative information network that accelerates the discovery of new approaches for the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer, ultimately improving patient outcomes*[i].

“Our partnership with 5AM Solutions has given Lantern Three the opportunity to apply our expertise in project management within the caBIG® program.” said John Eisenschmidt, Lantern Three Managing Partner. “caGrid is an open-source, biomedical informatics platform that facilitates collaborative scientific research in an open, federated, and secure manner; and Lanter Three is pleased to assist in the development of such an important health IT project.”

About Lantern Three, LLC

Lantern Three is a consultancy that provides pragmatic solutions at the intersection of business and information technology. Our practice of seasoned professionals has proven successes with program and project management, design and implementation of large enterprise systems, business process re-engineering, business intelligence, design and implementation of disaster recovery solutions, staff development, leadership coaching, and strategic planning. Lantern Three has been certified by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a Small, Woman, and Minority (SWaM) business. John Eisenschmidt, a Managing Partner at Lantern Three, has provided Project and Program Management services to caBIG® through 5AM Solutions since November 2007. http://www.lanternthree.com

###

Media Contact:
Virginia Flores
561-289-4608
vf@lanternthree.com

http://www.lanternthree.com

[i] This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. HHSN261200800001E. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Author: John Eisenschmidt

Topic(s): Press Release

Published: March 31, 2010 14:19




Minimalist X window managers – xmonad on Apple OS X Snow Leopard (10.6)

This post will outline the steps you can use to build xmonad cleanly on a Snow Leopard system.

This is a follow-up post to our prior post on minimalist X window managers on OS X which addressed xmonad and ratpoison on OS X Leopard.

The rationale and benefits of a simple and clean X11 window manager on OS X are outlined clearly in that post.

Thanks to baconpiggypiggy for testing and sharing test patches for making this work on Snow Leopard, in the interest of more efficient desktops everywhere.

It was previously possible by bootstrapping binaries from previous OS X builds, various source patches, etc., but it is quite exciting to have it available for simple and easy setup. These steps should work whether you are booting into 32-bit or 64-bit mode.

The steps are as follows:

1. Be running a relatively vanilla Snow Leopard installation.

2. Run the “Optional Installs” installer from the Snow Leopard media. Under “Applications”, find “X11″ and install it on your system.

3. Install Xcode from the Snow Leopard media.

4. Run Software Update to address any Xcode updates.

5. Download and run through the installer for the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) (latest is version 6.12.1 as of posting).

6. Launch Terminal.app and run this script to install the Haskell X11 library

cd /tmp
umask 022
curl -O http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/X11/1.5.0.0/X11-1.5.0.0.tar.gz
tar xfz X11-1.5.0.0.tar.gz
cd X11-1.5.0.0
runhaskell Setup.hs configure
runhaskell Setup.hs build
sudo runhaskell Setup.hs install

7. Run this script to install the Haskell MTL library:

cd /tmp
umask 022
curl -O http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/mtl/1.1.0.2/mtl-1.1.0.2.tar.gz
tar xfz mtl-1.1.0.2.tar.gz
cd mtl-1.1.0.2
runhaskell Setup.hs configure
runhaskell Setup.hs build
sudo runhaskell Setup.hs install

8. Run this script to install xmonad:

cd /tmp
umask 022
curl -O http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/xmonad/0.9.1/xmonad-0.9.1.tar.gz
tar xfz xmonad-0.9.1.tar.gz
cd xmonad-0.9.1
runhaskell Setup.lhs configure
runhaskell Setup.lhs build
sudo runhaskell Setup.lhs install

9. Launch X11, and set a few settings in preferences. On the “Input” tab, ensure that only the following two options are checked: “Emulate three-button mouse”, and “Enable key equivalents under X11″. Close X11.

10. Pull down awesome X11 fonts from proggyclean.

11. Save them in ~/Desktop/fonts/ or a directory of your choice. Gunzip the PCF files.

11. Run mkfontdir in the directory to create a fonts dir file.

12. Copy over the stock xinitrc: cp /usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

13. In ~/.xinitrc, comment out the if/for loop that runs the stuff in /usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/ twm, clock, and the xterms.

14. Append to ~/.xinitc:

/usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/10-fontdir.sh
xset fp+ ~/Desktop/fonts
xset fp rehash
cd
quartz-wm --only-proxy &
/usr/local/bin/xmonad &
xterm

15. Create ~/.Xmodmap with the following contents:

clear Mod1
clear Mod2
keycode 63 = Mode_switch
keycode 66 = Meta_L
add Mod1 = Meta_L
add Mod2 = Mode_switch

16. Create ~/.Xdefaults with the following contents (adjust the font name if you selected a font other than ProggyTiny with slashed zero):

XTerm*font: -*-proggytinysz-medium-*-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
XTerm*reverseVideo: on
*VT100*reverseVideo: on

17. Launch X11. Enjoy!

A couple of notes:

  • Cut and pasting:
    • within X11 only, you can highlight text and it will be placed on the clipboard
    • to put it on the clipboard for aqua apps, hit command-c as usual with aqua apps
    • to paste within X11 (from either X11 or aqua), just use option-click or middle-click
  • window and virtual desktop layout:
    • ctrl-n – new xterm
    • option-1 through option-9 will take you through different workspaces in xmonad, which are independent of OS X “spaces”
    • option-. and option-, will rotate and redo tiling of windows

This setup and tmux are a winning combination for maximum OS X command line efficiency.

Author: George Lewis

Topic(s): How to,Technical

Published: March 5, 2010 00:32




Critique: Apple Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server

Critiques are not meant to be product reviews, but to reflect on a real-world implementation on the product or service, and may provide reference to more detailed product literature and reviews.
Apple.com product image of Mac mini with Snow Leopard

Background

Though I renounced a desktop computer more than 5 years ago, I have — for one reason or another — had a server in my home since 1999. The services it provided have expanded and contracted over the years, but the need for a dedicated machine persists even today. Over the years, as vendors like Sun, Dell, Compaq/HP, and Apple have introduced entry-level servers, I have examined each one for suitability to my needs: high availability, sufficient horse power, low power consumption, and small form factor.

I have paid close attention to the Mac mini since its introduction in 2005. While the early machines might have made suitable servers (there is, in fact, a company dedicated to Mac mini hosting), they suffered from short-fallings:

  • only one Ethernet Port (true in current model, but a requirement I’ve since dropped)
  • supported a maximum of 2GB of RAM (Internet lore claimed that (2) 2GB modules could be added, at great cost, and the Mini would recognize 3.3GB)
  • room for only one 2.5″ laptop hard drive — which severely limited amount of storage available

My intent with early versions of the Mac mini was to continue runing theOpenBSD operating system. As a point of fact, I purchase an earlier version of the mini in 2008, attempted to install OpenBSD, but ran into firmware issues and returned it (to American Express; protection plan — story for another day).

With the introduction of the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server on October 20, 2009, Apple was offering a tiny machine with:

  • a 2.53ghz Core2Duo Processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • (2) 500GB laptop drives, in lieu of a CD drive (which I only use every 18 months, when I have a problem)
  • a 45W power supply
  • Snow Leopard Server OS, normally $499

for under $1,000. I reflected on how close a match this was to my decade-old wish list for a home server, and purchased mine on November 3, 2009.

Acquisition

Readers who have purchased servers from Compaq, Dell, HP, or Sun understand where there is going. When Sun first introduced the V880, we purchased two identical machines that arrived in pieces over the next six weeks. When we finally had everything, and put it together, key features were not working as advertised. Several calls to Sun tech supported landed us the engineer who designed Daktari’s firmware, who quickly resolved our issues.

I have other stories, I’m sure you have a few.

Just a few days after Apple released the mini server, I walked into my local Apple store and asked if it was in stock (expecting it to be a special order item). Spencer — the sales emo — walked into the back room, and brought out with my new server in a box smaller than a loaf of bread. He scanned it, swiped my credit card, and emailed me my receipt.

Implementation

You don’t expect the implementation to go that smooth, did you?

I will leave a product review to the usual suspects; instead, I will  focus here on the best and worst issues I ran into getting my new mini server up and running (where the mini becomes a complete replacement for my existing PC server).

Drive Mirroring

The mini server comes with (2) 500GB hard drives, and I did not plan to store much data on it. I wanted to use the software RAID-1 built into Mac OS to mirror the two drives. The mini server ships with a single partition on the first drive, and nothing on the second drive.

It would be nice if, through Disk Utility, you could simply tell the OS that you want it to soft-mirror the first disk to the second, but you cannot. You need to erase both drives in Disk Utility, then create a RAID-1 set, add both drives to it, reinstall the OS, and configure it. I discovered this after I went through the setup wizard and installed all the updates.

The next obstaclet: the mini Server includes a DVD copy of Snow Leopard Server, but it has no DVD drive. There is an application called Remote Install Mac OS X that ships in the Utilities folder; I tried using that to serve the install DVD off my Macbook Pro, but the mini would not detect it. In the end. I created a disk image (GUID Partition Type so its bootable) on a 16GB USB thumb drive, and used Disk Utility to copy everything from the install DVD to the thumb drive.

Screen shot of Disk Utility

Finally, I created a RAID-1 set, installed the OS, update, and move forward (interesting note: Snow Leopard Server is the first Apple software I’ve encountered that requires a license key).

DNS

I have always hosted DNS entries for my domains using BIND on Linux or OpenBSD. The Server Admin application included with Snow Leopard Server includes a graphical front-end to DNS. I had several issues migrating my DNS zone files from BIND to the GUI (I scoured for documentation; Apple should consider a new KB). My biggest problem was getting the SPF records for my domains in the proper place in the GUI (the comments field under the A record for the domain).
Screen shot of DNS SPF records

Power Consumption

The PC server that the mini replaced had a 450W power supply, including (3) 7200 RPM ESATA hard drives. It used a lot of power.

In contrast: the mini, Airport Extreme, and 8 port gigabit switch draw less than 20W of power (I’ve seen the display go as low as 11W). This means my new 1300W UPS can power this infrastructure for about 4 hours while on battery.

Picture of Uninterruptible Power Supply

The Energy Saver control panel automatically detects the attached UPS, which reports to the OS whether it’s using line power or battery, and what percentage of battery is remaining. I was able to configure Snow Leopard Server to run on battery until it drops below 10%, and to turn back on automatically when line power is restored. This means the system will stay up for hours, which should limit any outage to only the longest Dominion Power failure.

Energy Saver Control Panel

Screen Sharing over ssh

My goal was to run the mini headless (despite the monitor shown in the picture). Leopard and Snow Leopard include screen sharing (based on VNC), which is part of the Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) offering. It took a bit of Googling and questioning of friends and coworkers to locate the free ARD client included with the OS (in: /System/Library/CoreServices/Screen\ Sharing.app).

I use SSH Keychain to tunnel HTTP and Instant Message traffic through my home Internet connection over ssh. I was able to add a local port configuration to tunnel any screen sharing traffic over ssh. It is surprisingly responsive away from my home network, and has proven useful now on several occasions.

Assessment

Despite the issues mentioned, I was able to migrate 100% of the services I ran on my OpenBSD PC server to the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server. The new setup consumes far less space and power, responds faster, and supports things that my old configuration did not (like hosting Merlin2 Project Schedules). Apple does not pretend that this is an XServe, yet it packs an impressive punch — in a small footprint — at a very reasonable price.

This is the small server I have wanted for 10 years. Time to update my wish list.

Picture of Mac mini in its native environment

References

Author: John Eisenschmidt

Topic(s): Critique

Published: February 22, 2010 00:33




Oracle on ZFS

Oracle on SPARC is a very common sight.  Most people who run SPARC run Solaris.  Sun Microsystem’s (now Oracle’s) SPARC and Solaris make for a well performing and stable platform for their Database Management System (DBMS).  Solaris 10, which has been out five years now, has brought into being many great features.  ZFS has been out for quite a while (not the initial release, however), and has also had tremendous growth in features, stability, and performance.  For years, I’ve resisted putting Oracle on ZFS.  The main reason is that ZFS is new.  Storage, above all, must be 100% correct.  ZFS is designed with this in mind, but despite the best efforts of the ZFS team, things do go wrong and recovery tools are not generally available.  Storage folks are a very conservative lot and “bleeding edge” makes many of us nervous.  The close-second reason is the Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC) being stuck on.  The ability to bypass the ARC on a file system basis was introduced in Update 8 of Solaris 10.  The third reason is that ZFS is a Copy-On-Write file system.  That means every time a block is written, a new one is allocated and then linked in with the previous block becoming unlinked.  ZFS does this to ensure your write makes it to disk and that the file system metadata is always intact.  Fair enough, but I imagined a database fragmenting badly and quickly.  Knowing all of this, I decided it was time to put Oracle on ZFS (I’ll discuss the fragmentation in a minute) because it could help greatly in the problem I needed to solve.

The problem is this:  The organization uses an Oracle standby from the production database to create a reporting datamart.  They did this by stopping the standby, exporting custom tables from the reporting database, copying the standby database to the reporting database directories (over 300GB copied), modifying the reporting copy to be a reporting database, loading the tables back and starting standby again.  Wow.  The DBAs have their reasons for the database portion of it, but copying 300GB of data means that the SAN behind it (and the server!) has to move 600GB of data.  Oh, this was happening every night and took hours.

ZFS supports persistent snapshots and clones (writable snapshots).  As an added benefit, it also has privilege delegation.  With the ARC bypass firmly in place (along with block size changes), I was able to work with a DBA to put the standby database on a ZFS volume.  Instead of the four hour copy, an almost instant snapshot and clone is made.  The whole process (extraction of tables from reporting, snap, clone, transform, and load) now runs in less than 30 minutes and the DBAs have complete control over the process.

This setup has been in place now for several months bearing full load from users.  So far so good.  The SAN isn’t moving a mass amount of data every night, less storage is allocated, since two full copies are no longer needed and the system is using the CPU cycles to process other datamart activities.  If fragmentation becomes a problem, we can make a copy of the database, one file at a time.  After all, this is the way the organization used to do it.  Again, so far, no complaints have been made about the new setup.

ZFS is still evolving.  Features like de-duplication are coming.  I am hoping that block pointer rewrite becomes reality.  I’m sure many Solaris users will be happy to make the switch from the more traditional setup of Veritas Volume Manager and VxFS/UFS (aside from Oracle ASM, that is)..myself included.

Author: Barry Freese

Topic(s): Review

Published: February 2, 2010 07:50




Managing Projects with Merlin2 for MacOS

Background

We start with two sad realities:

  1. I am the only person I know that has been to training for Microsoft Project.
  2. MS Project creates a project schedule, not a plan. A sequenced WBS that can be viewed as a network diagram or a GANTT Chart is not a project plan.

Seven years after completing my training, and four years into my PMP, I have yet to encounter another project schedule that calculates dates correctly, levels resources, or shows what is on the critical path. Who actually uses that baseline thingy anyway?

Senior management in every organization I’ve worked demands a project plan schedule, but does not know how to read it. The lack of visibility leads to a desire for control, at which point MS Project Server or Sharepoint enter the discussion. With the caveat that I have not implemented the most recent versions of Project and SharePoint, every prior attempt was an expensive failure to meet user requirements.

Since 2005, my daily-driver has been a Macbook Pro, but I have maintained a Windows VM to run MS Project. The two development teams I manage went Mac 1+ years ago, and we have discussed using a Mac Project Management tool since then. This past October, I switched cold turkey to Merlin2 and challenged myself to run an entire project with correctly built schedules that can calculate dates and dependencies. What follows is not a feature-by-feature comparison, but my experience developing and managing schedules using Merlin2.

Look and Feel

Merlin2 looks like a typical Cocoa application, and is able to import non-XML MS Project files. For my current project, one schedule was imported from Project 2003, the other built from scratch. Both share a resource sheet, and one imports the other for viewing and task dependencies. While the subject matter is familiar to me, it was less than hour before I realized how much easier it was to get around. Simple layout changes like the Activities/Net Plan/Resources/Utilization tabs at the top made navigation quicker. Within days, I had abandoned MS Project and have not looked back.

Cost

In a word: cheap.

I have purchased MS Project and SharePoint licenses enough ways to know that now two transactions are the same, so I will leave the price comparison to the reader. Merlin2 has very straightforward pricing on their website that breaks down like this:

Project Author 1 $210.00
Web Sharing 10 $140.00
iPhone Sharing 1 $65.00
Server + 10 Web/iPhone Sharing 10 $995.00

Deployment

Authors of project schedules each need their own project author license, which is no different that Microsoft. A single web sharing license allows 10 simultaneous users to connect to a project you are sharing over the web (using your project author license on your project author machine) and view/edit your schedule. The iPhone Sharing license on same machine allows 1 user to connect using the free iPhone application and view/edit your schedule.

A distinction I see in Merlin2 that I do not see in MS Project is the deployment model. Small workgroups can deploy with little overhead (far less than a separate SharePoint deployment), and an Enterprise can leverage a slightly beefed-up version of the Workgroup deployment to scale up.

Workgroup

My test deployment includes (2) Project Author licenses, Web Sharing (10 users), and iPhone Sharing (1 user). An instance of Merlin2 runs on my Mac Mini server, sharing two project schedules (one has a dependency to the other). Configuration Management of the schedules is controlled through subversion (the same repository our code lives in). When I make changes to the schedule on my local machine, I check them in to subversion, the remote checkout on the server is updated, and the schedule reloaded. Likewise, if a change is made Web Sharing, the schedule is saved and checked in to subversion.

Enterprise

Deployments with 10+ users should consider the fourth pricing option above. The Server license for Merlin2 still requires a Project Author license to share, and includes 10 Web and iPhone Sharing license (save $5). The benefit is that the Server license publishes projects as a preference pane to Merlin on Mac OS X.

Collaboration

Web Sharing

The challenge in writing this blog post is how similar the Web Sharing looks to the Merlin2 thick client. The Web Client has all the key features of the thick client (Activities/Net Plan/Resources/Utilization) without any bloat. The response time across the Internet adds less than 1 second per click.

iPhone Application

The makers of Merlin2 have also built an iPhone Application to interact with your project schedule. I am not as likely to make changes to my schedules through the iPhone App (though it is pretty quick and not too cumbersome). The real benefit is that it’s a real-time executive dashboard that senior management can read and understand.

Merlin2 iPhone Screen Shots

When viewing a Task List, turn the iPhone to view the GANTT Chart:

+1 Accelerometer

Summary

Merlin2 is a straightforward and cost-effective way to manage complex programs with federated teams whose deliverables have cross-project dependencies. With the caveats that I did not receive any compensation from the makers of Merlin2, nor have we yet completed the project that started this, I can assure you I will not be returning to Microsoft Project anytime soon.

Author: John Eisenschmidt

Topic(s): Project Management

Published: January 22, 2010 19:05




Data Governance: A Strategic Imperative

This is the first in a series of posts about Data Governance.

The implementation of a data governance program is of primary importance to most organizations today, and yet the majority of companies that try to implement even a simple infrastructure are doomed to fail. Without the ability to describe data in real financial terms, support at the management level is usually lacking. With no well-defined infrastructure, some data issues get resolved and some slip through the cracks and the data governance objectives are not reached.

Part of the problem is how people define data governance within an organization. They could be talking about “organizational bodies, rules, decision rights, accountabilities, or monitoring, controls, and other enforcement methods” (Data Governance Institute, 2004 – 2008). Lack of senior-level sponsorship, cultural barriers within an organization, incomplete data definitions and classifications, and the misconception that islands of information are more easily controlled then an integrated data framework all add to “over 90% of data governance projects failing in their initial implementations” (Smalltree, 2006).

Data Governance programs can differ significantly, depending on their focus (Compliance, Data Integration, Master Data Management). Regardless of the “flavor” of governance, however, every program will have essentially the same three-part mission: “to make/collect/align rules, to resolve issues, and to monitor/enforce compliance while providing ongoing support to Data Stakeholders” (Data Governance Institute, 2004 – 2008).

The next post will examine the effects of poor data on the decision making capability of an organization.

Author: Virginia Flores

Topic(s): Governance

Published: December 11, 2009 17:32




Not-so Customer Service

What’s wrong with this email Verizon sent me today?

from: Do_Not_Reply@verizon.com
date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 10:08 PM
subject: VEC Inactivate User 90-days Warning Notification
mailed-by: verizon.com

Dear John Eisenschmidt,
We noticed you have not logged on to the Verizon Enterprise Center in 90 days.
Did you know that this portal provides joint access to your accounts from Verizon Business and/or Verizon Wireless? And that you can streamline business processes while having 24×7 access to your Verizon accounts?
If you would like training to help maximize the benefits of the Verizon Enterprise Center, you may select to attend a virtual classroom training session at no cost, or review the support materials on the site. Go to the Support Tab on the site to learn more and enroll.
After 120 days without logging in to the VEC you will be required to authenticate using your user ID/password combination and provide the answer to your secret question. After 13 months of inactivity, your user ID and any application entitlements will be permanently deactivated.
Sincerely,
Verizon Enterprise Center Product Marketing.

Where to start?

  1. I don’t have the URL for the aforementioned website
  2. I don’t know my user name or password for this website
  3. I can’t reply to this email
  4. I’m not given any instructions on whom to email or call to rectify this situation

At least they were honest that Product Marketing wrote it. I suppose my mistake was expecting them to be helpful.

Author: John Eisenschmidt

Topic(s): Critique

Published: November 17, 2009 13:51




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