Frank Owen

TechFieldDay San Jose 2010, we will be there!

October 26th, 2010 at 9:31 PM No Comments Frank Owen

I am honored to be chosen for one of the Delegates for TechFieldDay, San Jose 2010 presented by GestaltIT. If you have not heard of these events it is very similar to the HP Tech Day’s that are put on throughout the year and that we have been involved with.

The TechFieldDay coordinators get a group of sponsors together (Past sponsors have been companies like F5, Data Robotics, Cisco, HP… the list goes on and on) that pay for bloggers to come out to a city for 2 non stop days of “engagement, education, hands-on experience, and feedback”.

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Is imitation always a form of flattery?

October 25th, 2010 at 9:52 PM No Comments Frank Owen

I have seen many different viruses pose to be a security suite on a users machine, requesting them to put in their credit card info and preventing them from surfing the Internet until they do. This practice is not new, but I think this is the first time I have seen a virus mimic a current security software to instate some credibility into their scam.

At the Windows Team Blog Eric Foster is reporting about a trojan that takes a page from these other well known scams and puts it’s own twist on it. It actually mimics Microsoft’s free AV Solution, Microsoft Security Essentials except it prompts the user to install other security software and requests a credit card number.

Has Microsoft reached general acceptance of their security suite, enough for malware writers to start exploiting the name and the design? Should companies like McAfee be worried? I think so.

Google Apps: Just a good thought?

October 25th, 2010 at 9:24 PM 1 Comment Frank Owen

Modifying a phrase that @johnobeto uses “They Who Must Be Obeyed” at my company (Upper Management) is always looking for ways to cut how much we spend on IT services. This can be a nuisance but every once in a while it opens the door to allow me to look for new companies that can provide more functionality while lowering the cost. A few months ago I was tasked with looking into new email providers to move our email into the cloud.

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Lenovo A70z ThinkCentre Review

July 1st, 2010 at 7:14 PM 3 Comments Frank Owen

When I think business class laptops, I think Lenovo Thinkpad followed by HP’s Elitebook. When I think business class desktop’s I think of HP followed by Dell. Lenovo is looking to change that.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z touts it’s ease to upgrade as well as a low price point. The A70z ThinkCentre design is just what I have come to expect from Lenovo. Sturdy, simple and well designed even when it comes down to the packaging.

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Dude, I hope you didn’t get a Dell

July 1st, 2010 at 2:03 AM No Comments Frank Owen

Until the last few years I was a big Dell supporter. I recommended Dell to the majority of my business clients as well as anyone looking for a home machine. At the time I had no problems with the brand and they were usually one of the low price leaders in their class. I had clients buy Servers, Monitors and Desktops without blinking an eye.

I have noticed over the years the same customers I gave my recommendation to were complaining about increased problems but I just shrugged it off. I then was given 30 machines from around 1999 – 2001 to build a temporary training class with, half HP, Half Dell. I had problems with almost each one of the Dell’s. Everything from not posting to the heat sink clip being broken. The HP’s also had a couple of issues but not near as many as the Dell’s.

I thought at the time it might have been a coincidence, until my company decided to buy 500 off lease Dell GX260’s for a fresh build out. I was horrified, not because they were Dell’s but because they were old and ratty. We made due with what we were given and put them out to production and have seen nothing but issues. Everything from BIOS batteries going out to smoke coming out of the power supply. We have between 4 – 6 of these off lease Dell’s go bad every month and at least 2 of them have “caught fire” from the power supply.

Now I hear that Dell knowingly covered up that they sold faulty motherboards? Not just one or two, but 11.8 million! How can I recommend for anyone to get a Dell product when they try to sweep this under the rug? How am I to know that they didn’t cover up a faulty power supply design in the GX260’s that we have so many issues with and they just haven’t been caught yet?

If you are looking for a new build out of any type I would steer clear of Dell, I know I will be for quite some time.

The Calm Before the Storm – HP Tech Forum 2010

June 21st, 2010 at 11:36 AM 1 Comment Frank Owen

I am on the ground in Las Vegas at the HP Tech Forum 2010 at the Mandalay Bay. This event will show HP and their partners newest technolgoy and how they plan on making the “Converged Infastrucure” that we have been hearing about fall in line.

I will be attending keynotes, hands on sessions as well as trolling the floor and talking to the many HP Partners that will be presenting at the expo. I will be tweeting about anything I hear and see that I find interesting and snapping shots and uploading them to Flickr as the day goes by.

If you have anything you would like to see or if you want to get answers about specific technology from HP Execs let me know!

Disclaimer: HP has provided my flight and accomidations for this event. However they have no control over the content I produce. My opinions, tweets and blog posts are my own.

I finally left Windows Mobile, for Android

June 1st, 2010 at 10:26 AM 1 Comment Frank Owen

For the majority of my adult life I have owned and adored Windows Mobile phones. I remember the first one I saw was from HTC dubbed the Blue Angel. At the time this device seemed way to large and bulky to carry in your pocket on a daily basis so I passed. Soon after, I started to hear about the MPx200 and loved the specs and size. As soon as they became available in my local AT&T Wireless store (which turned into Cingular, and is now back to AT&T) I picked one up and I didn’t look back…. until last week.

I received my previous Windows Mobile device, the Touch Pro 2, last October. Overall it has been a good device and it lasted me over 6 months without a major problem. An impressive feat considering most devices only last 3 months without my need to seek out a replacement. I was getting bored with the Touch Pro 2 and Windows Mobile and so I got the choice of a HTC Snap (oh heck no), a HTC Hero or a Samsung Moment. I didn’t particularly like the design of the Moment so I went with the Hero.

I love some of the new features of the new Android device, like Visual Voicemail, push email on multiple types of email accounts and merging contacts/calendars from multiple sources. All of these items are things I wish Windows Mobile offered but never could find a way to do it.

After using the Hero for a week I am beginning to think the Moment might have been a better choice. Sense UI seems to cause some problems on the underpowered Hero processor and the on screen keyboard has been hard to get used to. Some of the features I am surprised that are missing are features enterprises would look for, like enforced security options as well as remote wipe and remote lock. I know these are available as third party apps but without these features built into a centralized console security conscious businesses will continue to shy away from the Android platform.

If Google wants to continue to pull business away from the Google Apps platform I think they need to figure out how to include these advance security features into Android as well as Google Apps.

Interop Las Vegas: 1st Day on the Ground

April 27th, 2010 at 9:50 PM 6 Comments Frank Owen

I just got back to my hotel room after a first full 12 hour day of Interop goodness. I started out the day at the 1st Keynote session with HP talking about their converged infastructure (something we have heard a lot of recently) moving on to Avaya talking about how they are handling all aspects of communications and then Cisco talking about Borderless Networking.

I attended a number of sessions throughout the day talking about Virtualization and Outsourcing security as well as a walk through the expo floor. You can see some of the pictures as well as the tweets here. Tomorrow I have appointments with Avocent, HP and a few other companies to talk about their current technology as well as where they feel the overall direction of the industry is going. I will be tweeting live from the floor and posting a overview on TechVirtuoso of day 2 at Interop.

Interop Las Vegas 2010 is here!

April 22nd, 2010 at 11:05 PM 1 Comment Frank Owen

I am traveling to Las Vegas for Interop 2010 April 26th – April 29th. Interop is a global business technology event that combines in-depth educational programs, workshops, real-world demonstrations and live technology implementations. Interop is focused towards business technology professionals or anyone who deals with business technology.

While at Interop I will be posting about everything I see as well as tweeting about everything I see from the keynotes to the expo floor and the conference tracks. I have scheduled some time with companies like Avocent and DisplayLink to discuss their upcoming products. If you would like us to check anything out while we are there just send me a message or post a comment. For those of you heading to Interop you shoud checkout the Spiceworks contest. I am sure you will get some attention if you are one of the winners!

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