New for 2009 – Simple Motivation

Posted on January 4th, 2009

As I searched for ways to motivate myself this year to do better in all sorts of activities (reading books, health awareness, blogging, new ideas, etc) I came up with a very simple slogan:

“1 plus anything = IMPROVEMENT”

When I disected the slogan, it made absolutely perfect sense.  Generally, the hardest thing to do is “getting started”.  For people trying to go on a diet, starting a workout program or any other self improvement activity, it is the simple task of starting and being consistent that causes most people issues.  Then it is being consistent.  Once no results or minimal results are recieved, then there is the tendency to start over or quit.

By simply understanding that doing your targeted activity once eacy day (or at your specified interval), you will always improve.  To take it a bit further, what I have decided to do is to alywas have something to do “once” per day everyday.  I may read a chapter of a book every other day and workout the days in between.  Then I may cook a new dish, every third day, etc.  What this does is build a consistency for “doing” something new.

Simple motivation techniques, or simple techniques in general, are ways to help improve livelihood.  I will be updating this blog, or Twitter references, with updates on how well this motivational technique is doing.

Turnkey Linux Appliances

Posted on December 5th, 2008

After visiting FreshMeat.net today, I stumbled across Turnkey Linux.  From their website, Turnkey Linux is an opensource project that aims to develop high quality softare applicances that are easy to use, easy to deploy, and free.

They offer a wide variety of packages/appliances from PostgreSQL database appliances to Joomla Appliances.    All of the appliances are based on ubuntu 8.04 LTS.  You can also use the ISO images and run them under VMWare or other solutions or install as a standalone package.

I have installed the PostegreSQL package on a test server and I must say that the installation was painless and extremely simple.  The server is up and running in my test environment and is accessible (with a few tweaks of the firewall) to other servers on my network.  It comes with an easy to use Webmin web based interface.

If you are interested in testing various products on a Linux platform and want a stable system to utilize, give Turnkey Linux a shot!

Joining Twitter!

Posted on November 30th, 2008

Today, after very little debate, I just signed up and registered for a Twitter account. You can find me at http://www.twitter.com/stlyz3 . While my company, Mega Input Data Services, Inc., already has a Twitter Account, it personally took me some time to do so for myself. I didnt want to do so until I knew for sure that I would have the time to devote to it.

As my business life moves moreso into “executive”/philanthropic dealings, I find myself with more time to devote to such tasks.

For those of you who may not know, Twitter is a web service that answers the very simple question of “what are you doing”.

Password Protection

Posted on October 21st, 2008

Ever wanted to know how easily your password can be cracked?  With fraud on the rise, the need to keep strong passwords on your valuable accounts is imperative.  VIsit this website to see how strong your password combination is.

Effective Powerpoint Presentations

Posted on May 25th, 2008

Throughout my college, including MBA, and professional career, I have come across a great deal of PowerPoint presentations. For those who may not know, or use them, Microsoft PowerPoint is the standard for providing presentations to an audience.  In most business settings, if not using Flash Based Presentations, presenters utilize PowerPoint to help them deliver a message to their audience.

However, during these presentations, there are common mistakes that individuals make when presenting to an audience.  I have identified some of them below:

  1. Too much wording on the page – It is a known fact that humans can read faster than one could speak.  Thus, in a presentation, many people make the mistake of putting what their entire message for that slide on the page.  By the time you have completed reading your text on the slide, your audience has started thinking about dinner plans and the reports they have to do for tomorrow.
  2. Using Different Types of Transitions – PowerPoint includes over 40 transitions.  Many people utilize all of them.  After a while, they become distracting to the audience.  In some cases, I have been told that the audience begins to guess which transition is coming next and not caring about your message.
  3. Too many slides – Many people, especially executives, like you to stick to the point.  Many people make their PowerPoint Presentations as long as book reports.  Once again, longer is not better.

Ways to make your presentations better:

  1. Think about what you want to say and convey it using bullet points.
  2. Decide on one transition and stick with it.
  3. Add subtle humor.
  4. Keep your slides to under 15 total.

Preparing for the Worst – A Disaster Recovery Plan

Posted on April 18th, 2008

Very early this morning, as I lay awake in bed, I felt a tremble for about one minute. During this time, it felt as if someone was hitting the outer wall of my house. Considering large vehicles come down my street, I didnt think anything of it for the first 20 seconds, but after that, i figured that this couldnt be a dream I was having. Then suddenly, it all stopped.

Arriving at a customers location a few hours later, I got the news of a 5.2 scaled earthquake that hit the midwest. After the initial shock set in, and thinking the world was coming to an end, I went about my day as usual. Around 11am today, for about 40 seconds, there were some aftershocks experienced. After this experience, I thought about my data. As the manager of a massive amount of data, including (but not limited to) source code, software applications, employee information, documents, etc, it would be a tremendous loss for me on a personal level, business level, and for our customers, a nightmare!!

However, it was a comfort to know that we have a disaster recovery plan in place. Since I started Mega Input Data Services, Inc. back in 2001, my second order of business was to establish a well thoughtout, disaster recovery plan. The plan included items such as

  1. Locating Servers in various parts of the country
  2. Performing Regular Backups
  3. Establishing “Hot Spots” in each region of the country so that we could re-establish business communications quickly
  4. Using a Hosted Phone system
  5. and many other items.

There are some steps that you can utilize to ensure that your data kept safe in the case of a disaster, whether natural or otherwise. I will publish this information in a detailed article shortly, but for more information, until then, please visit Mega Input Data Services, Inc.

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