Mr. Aggarwal

We have all been touched or hurt by the emotions we envision someone else has gone through. At what point, if any, is this taken too far?

When do other people’s joys and sorrows begin to affect you to the point where you are being “too empathetic”? What kind of person is prone to being/becoming “too empathetic”? Do you even believe there is such a thing?

I think there very well could be such a thing, and in a society where we feel that people are becoming less sociable, I tend to believe we will end up with some level of social “climate control” issues…where people cannot form the proper balance with many important social constructs, including empathy. I am concerned that people will begin to go to the extremes of feeling either too little empathy (I believe that everyone feels at least some small amount of empathy) or too much empathy. I believe there will be empathy balancing techniques that will be devised and training courses for the “social climate control” crisis we are already facing or will soon face in our technology-driven, impersonal world.

What are your thoughts? I know many people must be seeing this as it unfolds in front of all of our eyes. Maybe we can get to this and improve people’s quality of life in the current and future generations faster than we can find ways to solve the ozone issues or viable alternative fuel sources.

I am just at a complete loss as to why I can’t sort emails in Outlook by the sender’s domain name. As much as I use searching and search folders, as well as color-coded rules, I use sorting once I get to a point where I have a reasonable number of results to look at. And I am simply fed up after 7+ years of using Outlook everyday that I have never been able to sort by the sender’s domain name. I have even gone through the trouble of writing my own formula to display the sender’s domain, but I can’t sort by my own formula field…

So, I want to know 2 things:

1. Is there anyone else that finds this to be as annoying as me (and/or would find this feature to be incredibly useful)?
2. Does anyone know of a way to make this happen (yes, I will even pay money for code, instructions, or even to have an add-in built)?

I happen to think there is simply no better email client on the market, but this one little feature request has eluded me for years.

When your troops are continuously being shot at and injured, you have two choices: fight like crazy or get them all out. - Ashok Aggarwal

Having been a consultant for may years, I have travelled quite a bit around the world, which has given me the opportunity to eat at some fantastic restaurants and experience some unique cuisines. I have to say, Hawai’i, by far, has the best food in the world (according my tastes).

The mixture of Polynesian, Japanese, and other East Asian flavors is superb. And the freshness of the food makes the consistency of quality unmatched.

“What should I spend my time doing?”  We ask ourselves this question everyday as we plan and schedule.  Certainly, we even ask this of ourselves every nanosecond within our subconscious.  However, my interest is not with routine matters.

I am interested in this question, the answers, and the thought processes which drive those answers at the macro-level: the level that drives one’s life in general.  Many people do ask this question at this level, but not nearly enough spend appropriate time thinking about it or actually answering the question.  Further, very few people take actions to get closer to making the answers a reality.

I believe this is a question that anyone who is looking to continually improve their career — and life in general – should explore.  Naturally, the answer depends on many variables.  One of those variables is time, and thus it should be re-asked on a fairly regular basis. 

Although answers will vary, I believe the thought process that leads to the answer is something worth discussing, and perhaps even recommending for those who find themselves lost from time-to-time (that “lostness” includes all of us as we find ourselves in new territory constantly throughout life — know-it-alls need not argue this point, since you can’t tell me you have already been as old as you will be tomorrow).

I don’t have time to play a full game of psychologist, so for now, I would like to open the forum with just reiterating my suggestion that each person take time to:

1. Ask yourself “What should I spend my time doing?” for life in general
2. Document the thought process (variables) that lead to your answers
3. Answer the question (make plans)
4. Execute on the answer/plans; if you find a gap with your current situation, start taking steps to make positive changes
5. Break your life down into smaller chunks and repeat 1-4 until you get as detailed as desired/needed

At some point, we may get to a point where people sharing their approach to answering — for that, #2 may one of the most valuable, while also being the least private/intrusive to share.

If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? - Scott Adams

I hate to say it, but Skype sucks.  Any current user knows that they have had issues for the past two days…not just connections dropping every 10 hours, which would be a major issue, but NO connection available for two full days!!

The reason I hate saying Skype sucks is because the idea, the implementation, the marketing, and the user adoption has been great until Wednesday, August 16, 2007.  The question is “Can all of that outweigh the horrible experience over the past two days?”  The answer is “No.”  Why?  Because a service that is so widespread and is actually used to accomplish mission-critical business functions should NEVER go down.  Granted, most users do not pay a penny to Skype, they make/have plenty of money.  And they’ll be the first to admit that a mistake like this is unacceptable to themselves, their users, and their stakeholders.

However, and this is a big HOWEVER, I believe Skype is better in the end for having this happen to them.  This wasn’t an internal/corporate issue that made some heads roll and was pushed under the carpet.  This will likely never be forgotten by the organization or its users/customers.  Therefore, I believe Skype will plan for technology risk mitigation more/better than any other vendor offering similar services going forward.

This touches on an incredibly important issue I am particularly concerned/vocal about: large scale, technology risk mitigation.  Skype going down is one thing, but think about the other organizations/entities/applications/etc. out there that likely have worse code (yes, Skype said it was an issue in the software) than Skype.  In fact, if you can’t wrap your arms around that, just think about how talented the Skype developers were/are compared to some of the people in IT that you may know who work at large organizations (public and private) throughout the World.  I know these things happen every day, and I’m very interested in hearing more about exactly what happened with Skype, but I hope the widespread nature of this can send a wake-up call to some of organizations out there who have even more far-reaching, mission-critical objectives than Skype.

If they don’t get it soon, don’t worry, I’ll get on the ball and make sure it becomes a priority for the places I care about (i.e. utilities companies, government, etc.).

Your experiences are only as good as your memory. - Ashok Aggarwal

You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. - Max Beerbohm

I have just found out that Sprint has changed my phone number without me asking for it!?  I could no longer make outgoing calls from one of my phones, so naturally, I called Sprint.  I also jumped into my online account to see if something had been shut off.  I realized that one of the phone numbers had actually changed.  This is a number I have had for OVER 5 YEARS at Sprint.  I was completely amazed that they did not have a real explanation nor were they readily willing to give me a credit for the trouble.  Moreover, the phone number is now “gone” and I can’t have it back.  Chances are that someone else now has it!????????

I normally don’t use my blog as a place to complain about a vendor’s service, but this one seems so blatant and strange that I could not resist.  I have to wonder if this has happened to anyone else, ever, with any phone provider.  I am still in shock!

Information is everywhere online.  Actually, it is more online, and less in other places.  It is no surprise to my readers that information is readily available online.  But sometimes, it takes a moment of reflection to realize how unavailable it is becoming elsewhere.  Yes, this can be good for consumers, but there are some additional risks we take on as we leave the world of information, and even physical goods, to the virtual world we now live in.

I don’t remember the last time I even went to a music store to buy a CD.  Do those stores still exist?  If they do, 1) who goes there and 2) do they make any money?  I don’t buy a whole lot of music as it is — I use Yahoo Music to listen to just about anything I want whenever I want to by paying a monthly subscription price.  The yearly cost comes out to what I used to pay for ~2 CDs at the store (and I never had to take the time to get into a gas-guzzling car or sit in back-to-back traffic).  But, my specific music-listening-and-spending habits are not exactly the focus.  The interesting part here is how the idea of physically buying music or even knowing of a good local place to get it, is lost upon me (in a VERY short amount of time).

Of course, this is the case for more than just music, a commodity that many consider a luxury (yes, I know many that believe it is a necessity).  It happens to be the case for more and more of our world.  I certainly haven’t purchased an encyclopedia in my adult life.  But I am reminded of the “not so old, old days” when I visit my parents’ house and sneeze as I walk by their dusty bookshelf full of many expensive volumes.  I can imagine “wasting” my precious time finding a topic of choice alphabetically through a thick book, and if I only need some specific information on that topic (which is 99% of the time)…I am getting nauseous thinking about sifting through, and God-forbid, actually reading the extra information presented.  Of course, the same goes for phonebooks (I throw mine away as soon as it is dropped on my doorstep) and any other information-delivery-mechanism other than the Internet.

So, music and information have been monopolized by the Internet.  So what?  I guess my concern is what else will be.  I started shopping for groceries online.  Granted, there is a still a local store that I pick those orders up from, but who’s to say that won’t be the case some day.  What happens when our reliance on the Internet becomes so powerful that we are not able to function as a reasonably self-sufficient society without it?  Is that, perhaps, already the case?  Even computers themselves are typically purchased online.

Technology and the Internet’s prevalence are bound to continue with advancements and continual adoption.  One question that needs to continue to be asked is, are we doing enough to prevent attacks on our overall infrastructure and mitigating any potential risks that would keep our society from operating?  I am not talking about going after naive, underage hackers, but real threats that can cripple our infrastructure for an extended period of time (okay, some underage hackers may need to be considered — by the way, please, stay away from me, my SSN, credit card numbers, my business, my blog, and my life in general — um, I like you guys).  We are not just talking about academia and business anymore; this isn’t “IT security”, this is preventing destruction of a society that happens to rely heavily on technology at this point.  Businesses, government, and individuals/families rely on the technology of the Internet to provide many of our necessities today.

Note: For now, I am keeping this blog posts as is, but I realize while writing it that this post probably covers two topics that both deserve their own discussion: 1) information/goods moving out of our hometowns and into our virtual online world and 2) our society’s reliance on technology and how much we are doing to protect it.

We have seen it done.  People re-invent the wheel all the time.  Of course, in business, this is called innovation, and sometimes, it is fantastic.  Take Google for example.  They just created a search engine.  This wasn’t a new idea.  Their approach, however, was slightly different from its predecessors.

But re-inventing the wheel, innovation, etc. are not the business trend of the new millennium.  The new trend is to NOT reinvent the wheel.  Take Yahoo for example.  After seeing Google’s huge success in their simplified search engine, with minimalist design, they simply ripped off the search results page.  In a time where information is easily accessible, so are ideas and market research.

You may live in a city where a Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant is next to a Cheesecake Factory restaurant.  I used to think these companies belonged to the same parent company, but a few years ago, I learned that was not the case.  The way it works?  Cheescake Factory spends $$$ on market research and determines if a place is a good fit for its customer-base.  They then proceed with opening a restaurant.  Maggiano’s finds out where Cheesecake is opening up and opens a restaurant next door since, apparently, they have determined that they succeed where Cheesecake Factory succeeds.  Who is more innovative: Cheesecake Factory.  Who is spending less money to accomplish potentially similar results: Maggiano’s.  Note: I am not an authority on this theory and just basing this on personal observations and random conversations with people over the years — I have spent time in multiple cities where these two restaurants are right next to each other.

The point here is that Maggiano’s approach to business is the new trend.  Okay, it’s not “new”, but its prevalence seems to be growing these days.  Not just for brick and mortar companies, but perhaps even more so for technology companies.  Almost all of us know of some web site that has ripped off a design, content, and/or idea from another web site.  In some cases, companies rip off complete web-based business ideas off of something else they have seen online.  Heck, even M&S Consulting had its front page content plagiarized word-for-word by another business.  This business was not a direct competitor and was across the country!  (I am not naming them here as they removed the content immediately upon request).

Of course, the above example crossed the line of legality when not reinventing the wheel, but the examples are endless.  I’m sure you have a couple that come to mind as well.  Post your examples as I’m sure we would all like to hear about them.

I have been zipping and unzipping for a long, long time.  I used to use WinZIP for a long time, but switched over to an open source package called 7-zip a few years ago.  I thought I would reach out to the market again to see if anything better had come about, and I must say that I am impressed with 7-zip’s staying power as an open source package.  It continues to add support for different files types and performs very well.  This tool is exemplary at how an open source application can very well take over commercial products and basically keep any from really entering or re-entering the market.

If you are still paying for zipping (for personal or commercial use) or your organization is paying to license compression/decompression software for its many users, it’s time for you to take a look at 7-zip.  And send them a donation if it saves you time/money.  It will help ensure you will continue to pay next to nothing for this crucial computing need in our world of disk-hungry information/media.

It seems people still have a notion that “dedicated T’s are the pinnacle of data telecom service.  Why buy a dedicated T1, T3, etc. when alternative technologies are reaching/surpassing their performance for a fraction of the cost?

Note 1: Cable/DSL speeds are listed at somewhat of a maximum of what people are seeing today.

Note 2: Upload speeds for businesses that are hosting technology can be an important consideration, and Cable/DSL providers typically limit the uploads speeds significantly.  Verizon’s FIOS, on the other hand, starts with 2,000 kb/s and goes up to 5,000 kb/s for upload — still quite a bit faster than a T1.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson