strafeonline

I often have many RDP sessions open at the same time, connected to my client’s systems. I like to run them in full screen, and usually there is no problem. Until, you reboot a server, then realize you were in the wrong RDP session!

BGInfo (populates the desktop background with system information) can assist with helping to identify the server, however if you’ve seen one BGInfo you’ve seen them all.

I came across Terminals this morning while I was looking for plugins for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It lets you manage multiple RDP sessions, keep a list of hosts you regularly connect to (no more relying on most-recently-used lists or icons on the desktop), and comes with a swag of handy network tools all built in.

In a workplace that is all about becoming more efficient, Terminals is a huge improvement over the regular mstsc.exe experience.

Hit up here: http://www.codeplex.com/Terminals

I stumbled upon this project recently - www.fleetdynamics.com.au -  and have had some time speaking to the lead developer. It is essentially a GPS tracking system for vehicles, built by combining the Google Maps API, whizbang communications hardware, and some very cool .NET code. A great example of technology brought together to achieve something with real world value.

It’ll let you track your vehicles by polling the GPS grid every few seconds, then uploading the data to their servers via the mobile phone network. If you’ve got no mobile coverage, the unit queues the data until there is sufficient signal to transmit, and then uploads. It’ll cost you an initial $450 for a single unit, but that provides a years worth of tracking, and then it changes to a yearly subscription service of $90 every year thereafter.

There are comprehensive reports available too, such as travel outside of specific time frames, travel outside a specific radius, and travel over a certain speed, together with the usual plotting of routes, directions, altitudes, and speeds.

Check it out!

I have always been troubled by vendor certification. I find it really difficult to justify spending several thousands of dollars on learning a technology, only to have to sit a refresher course in a few years time, or have to sit a brand new course because the last course is now obsolete.

As I’m learning up on a whole suite of new technologies at the moment, like VMware’s offerings, and Symantec’s security and backup technologies, I find that most of the information I already know due to experience. Of all the free online presentation/quiz style “entry-level” certifications, I enjoyed VMware’s the most, but the next step up is costly.

Being an IT professional, I don’t have five days to set aside my regular duties and engage in a classroom style course, and being a small business owner in a slow economy, I don’t have the massive amounts of cash required to actually sit the courses anyway.

Even if the funding wasn’t an issue, justifying the expense is difficult, considering that it won’t be long until that course and information set has been superseded.

So, I have a few questions for the community:

• What are your experiences with vendor certification?
• Do you think the costs are justified in most cases?
• Which vendor gives the biggest bang-for-your-buck in their certification (think not only up front cost, but longevity of the product, possible returns for the business, etc)?
• What do you think of hardware certification?