Recently, I needed an Apache server to test a web application that I’m working on. In times past, that would have been a painful process. First I would have had to pick and install a linux distribution. Then install Apache and MySQL.

Now, however, with the increased popularity of VMware, there are many freely available virtual appliances that can easily be downloaded from the Web. After a little searching I found a LAMP virtual appliance at virtualappliances.net. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, all of which are pre-installed and ready-to-go. The Linux distribution is Ubuntu Server (which happens to be my preferred distro these days).

Once you have the virtual appliance downloaded and decompressed, you will need to install the VMware Tools in order to get decent performance. This was the tricky part with this virtual appliance. Ubuntu Server isn’t one of the officially supported distributions for VMware. That’s fine, though, because the VMware Tools installer will compile the drivers automatically for the installed Linux kernel if you do a little prep work first.

First, you’ll need to install gcc and the other default build tools (like make). The Ubuntu (and Debian) package manager, apt, makes this really easy:

apt-get install build-essential

You’ll need to run this as root (which is the default login for this virtual appliance). This command goes out to the Ubuntu servers and downloads the default build tools that VMware will need to compile the drivers.

apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

This downloads the appropriate linux kernel headers that VMware will need for a successful compile. After those two simple steps are complete, you can follow the standard VMware Tools install process. After selecting Install VMware Tools from the Virtual Machine menu, the process looked like this:

Don’t get hung up on the VMware Tools version, it will probably be different on your system. On most systems you don’t have to create the /media/cdrom directory, but this virtual appliance didn’t include it. That’s it, you now have a working LAMP (no pun intended).

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As a customer, how do big companies communicate with you? Does that communication feel cold and impersonal?

Massive out-dialing campaigns and email blasts just don’t cut it anymore for corporate communication. One could argue that they have never been effective. But, for many years, there were no other options that scaled well for mass communication.

How can companies communicate with their customers on a more personal level today? Beyond in-person communication, which is still the most effective, in this Web 2.0 world, what mode of communication can actually improve customer retention and brand loyalty?

I’ve recently noticed big companies flocking to Twitter. Twitter is a Web 2.0, social conversation service. It is most effective as a micro-blogging tool where each post has to be summarized in 140 characters or less. So, each post is equal to one (hopefully complete) thought. It is especially effective at simulating water cooler conversations for distributed participants.

On Twitter, you find individuals that are of some interest to you (personally and/or professionally) and follow them. Their posts are then combined with all of the posts from the people you follow into a stream of conversations also known as your feed.

It’s a simple concept, really, but Twitter users don’t limit their posts to corporate jargon. Sure, you’ll find plenty of that. But often, Twitter users’ posts are more personal (in a good way of course). Because of this, you feel more connected to the people you follow than if you were simply reading their blog, listening to their podcast or getting email from them.

So, how should companies use Twitter to communicate to their customers? I see three main tactics that are being used today with varying effectiveness.

Just the Facts Ma’am

Some companies on Twitter use the medium in exactly the same way they use email. Their posts feel like they’ve been through 3 layers of marketing and 2 layers of legal (or maybe its the other way around). There is no personality behind the company, just the cold, hard facts.

Obviously, this isn’t the right approach to use on Twitter. My advice to companies doing this: go back to bulk email and snail-mail. You obviously don’t get social networking and collaboration.

Add the Personal Touch

A better use of Twitter is to put a personality behind the company name. Give ownership of the company’s Twitter feed to an individual or a small group and give them some freedom (this is where all of the corporate lawyers get nervous).

@coldfusion is a great example of this. @mikeysan is a Macintosh/iPhone developer that I follow. He had an issue with Adobe’s Cold Fusion and posted his opinion on Twitter:

@coldfusion responded with this:

You see what happened here? There is a real person behind @coldfusion and their sense of humor came out in the response. I personally found this very funny and it improved my brand awareness of Adobe’s Cold Fusion in the process. This level of intimacy with customers simply isn’t possible with email.

Represent

Another very effective way for companies to use Twitter is to allow individual representation. In other words, allow some (preferably high level) employees to represent the company in this public forum. The reason that high-level participants are preferred is due to name recognition. A John Chambers or Bill Gates are sure to attract a large group of followers. But it doesn’t have to be someone that high up the chain.

Padmasree Warrior is Cisco’s new Chief Technology Officer. She is also on Twitter. Her posts are sometimes personal and sometimes professional (just like many Twitter users). For example, last night, I know that Padmasree had a very long day and she was about to relax and watch the Olympics with a glass of wine:

On the other hand, I’ve actually had a conversation with her on Twitter about what the “next phase of the Internet” really means. You can click ont eh thumbnail image to read the whole conversation if you are interested.

Another note to companies: This is the most effective and appropriate use of Twitter. Customers feel a real connection to your company leaders and it will go a long way towards customer retention.

Here are a few companies that I know about on Twitter. I either follow them directly or I’ve seen them mentioned in conversations from users that I follow.

@comcastcares - Comcast
@Marvel - Marvel Comics
@coldfusion - Adobe Cold Fusion
@ciscoit - Cisco IT
@Cisco_UC - Cisco Unified Communications
@ev - Even Williams (a co-founder of Twitter)
@danyork - (Voxeo CTO Office)
@kevinrose - Founder of Digg
@appleinc - Apple, Inc.

What companies do you follow on Twitter? Are they using Twitter effectively?

There’s a lot of negative press around the iPhone 3G’s battery life. I don’t own a 3G yet, but I’ve carried my trusty 2G for over a year now. Yes, I was one of the Fan-Boys who payed $600 and waited in line for an 8-Gig iPhone. At least I got $100 back from Apple (it’s better than nothing).

There are plenty of battery saving tips published already. I’m not going to re-hash those here. I actually get more than a day out of my iPhone 2G with normal use. That’s as good as any smart phone I’ve ever owned.

I’m concerned about heavy-use days, however. With iPhone OS 2.0 and the App Store, there are a lot more heavy-use days.

So, I bought a mophie extended battery. I heard about the mophie on MacBreak Weekly. If you are a Mac owner and don’t listen to MBW, run, don’t walk to iTunes and subscribe immediately.

The mophie is an extended battery in the form of an iPhone case. It connects via the dock connector and charges the iPhone as if it were plugged into a wall power adapter.

The mophie adds some bulk to the iPhone. When connected, my iPhone feels similar in size to the old Treo 650 I used to carry around.

Actually, the Treo is thicker in some spots. I carried that phone for two years, so the iPhone with a mophie used occasionally is definitely worth the extra bulk.

One nice feature about the mophie is the cut-out design for the iPhone speaker and mic. It simulates what I often find myself doing with my hand. That is: making a cup shape around the speaker so that I can hear it better. With the mophie attached, the speaker volume is much better.

The price is a little steep at $100 and there isn’t an iPhone 3G version yet. According to the mophie web site, they will begin shipping the 3G version in late September. Given the decreased battery life with 3G and GPS, the mophie will probably be an essential accessory when I upgrade.

I’ve had it with my current hosting provider for mylenbusch.org. So, I’m in the process of changing to hostmonster.com. The move will take a few days. Thanks for your patience.

My loathing of the airline industry seems to increase every time the price of oil increases. Airlines continue to cancel flights, delay flights and overbook to extreme excess. Now, many routes that I like to take from my originating city, St. Louis, are being removed altogether. Ironically, I’m writing this on an MD-80 parked on the tarmac waiting for the ground stoppage in DFW to clear. This is getting ridiculous.

For our recent 10-year anniversary trip, I wanted to book our travel from St. Louis to Chicago by plane. It’s only a 5 1/2 drive, but the cost of parking in downtown Chicago added $30 - $40 per day to the already high cost of gas. Plus, I would end up driving and Melody would probably sleep and read.

Plane tickets with two weeks notice were in the $270 range (per person) even on discount carriers! Ouch. At that point I thought about the train. After pricing the trip from Chicago to St. Louis on Amtrak, I was pleasantly surprised. The round-trip tickets were $130 a piece. Nice! But, was this a “get what you pay for” situation?

I have never before traveled by train in the States. I guess there are a few exceptions to that statement if you count the monorail at Disney and the Baldknobber Train at Silver Dollar City. But seriously, it’s never occurred to me as a travel option before.

When I was in Europe, I had a different perspective altogether. Traveling via train was my first choice. My train excursions took me from Brussels to Amsterdam to Frankfurt and then to Munich. The Amsterdam to Frankfurt route was the high speed version. At one point were were moving along at 300 KPH (that’s about 185 MPH). To date, that is the fastest that I have ever traveled on the ground. Unfortunately, high speed trains require upgraded tracks. So not all routes in Europe offer this service.

According to Wikipedia, the only high-speed route in the United States is the Acela Express which services the Northeast Corridor. The Acela Express is operated by Amtrak.

There are a few efforts underway to get some high-speed tracks built in Texas and California. But, even if they are approved, they are years, if not decades away from offering service. If we could have accurately predicted the emerging energy crisis 20 years ago, work on track systems like Acela would have been a high priority item for voters. But America’s love-affair with their cars and the cheap price of gas slowed and in some cases stopped the track upgrade efforts around the country.

Disney vacationers from the Washington DC area have an interesting option. Amtrak offers an Auto Train between Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida (near Orlando). You actually park your car or van on the train and then ride in the passenger cars to Orlando. That way you don’t have to rent a car in Florida. I wish we had that option from St. Louis. Renting a van for a week at Disney costs $500 or more.

We boarded the train at the St. Louis station at 6:30AM. Our coach seats were quite comfortable. In fact, on the train back from Chicago, the coach seats were nicer than the typical First Class seats on my domestic American Airlines flights. They reclined well, there was plenty of leg room and the seats included a leg-rest.

The best part: my Verizon EVDO data card worked almost the whole way. And each seat had a “regular” power jack. So I was able to surf the web and watch movies without battery drain.

Amtrak offers sleeper cars for long trips. Our 6 hour trip to Chicago was enjoyable, but even in a sleeper car, I can’t imagine a 30+ hour ride. Many on board were booked for that or longer. So you probably won’t see me traveling to Dallas or San Francisco by Amtrak any time soon. But I will choose them again for short trips.

By now the storms have passed through DFW and we’re about to take off. Adding together the 1.5 hour flight, tarmac time and airport time, my trip to Dallas will take almost 5 hours. Maybe the train to Dallas is an option after all.

(Flickr: Aaronyx)

This is a chilling image. As a parent of three young boys it actually scares me. It scares me to think about the amount of time they spend in front of the TV. Television is our modern-day hypnotist. It is often a pacifier for parents too stressed to address a hyperactive child.

I’m not suggesting that families go radical and throw away their TVs. But most likely we could all cut our children’s TV-time at least in half. The long-term effects of being “plugged into the Matrix” are probably different for each child, but I doubt anyone would argue that a reduction in its use won’t have a positive impact on their development.

So here’s a place to start. NFLrush.com has a promotion on their site called NFL Play 60. The idea is to suggest outdoor activities that kids can do for 60 minutes a day. I think 60 minutes a day is a great starting point. I’ll bet the average is much lower than that.

I’m going to give it a try, and I hope you will too.

Nortel just launched their Voice Security Technology Blog.

The focus here will be on voice systems with an appropriate level of security to meet business needs and reducing risk to an acceptable level.

This charter, in many ways, dilutes the very reason for starting a voice security blog in the first place. What is an “acceptable level” of security for unified communications? This is defined differently by each customer’s security policies (or lack thereof). In fact, many customers feel that no security is an “acceptable level” and that the risk isn’t worth any cost.

The truth is, there will never be a “business need” for security until it impacts the business. This is the natural order of security in the enterprise and it is no different with voice and unified communications.

Interestingly, Nortel’s first real post on their Voice Security Technology Blog is about risk management, not voice security. Assessing risk is not new to enterprise companies. But, risk can come in many forms. “Business needs” often disregard the risk in the communications architecture over much more obvious competitive, market and economic risks. I argue that the traditional way to assess business risk (as recommended by Nortel on their blog) doesn’t apply to the speed of technology change today.

If you do not have the data on which to judge the impact of the vulnerability consider adopting a suitable risk management framework – and then you can manage your risk exposures appropriately.

So, while the risk management committee is meeting to determine the risk of a vulnerability in your enterprise network, hackers all around the world are running, not walking, to release into the wild the first tools that exploit that vulnerability. And in some cases the tools may exists before the exploit is announced. Is this really an effective way to address voice security? Isn’t it better to err on the side of caution instead of trust?

Customers today still believe that their data, their networks and their communications systems are not important to hackers. In all honesty, they are largely correct. However, they completely underestimate the modern hacker and script kiddie’s insatiable desire to conquer and brag.

Traditional voice vendors continue to ignore the white elephant in the corner of the room. They put too much trust in their signaling and media encryption and not enough emphasis good security design practices. Security experts agree that a multi-layered approach is the best method for designing a secure system. Never should you depend on a single point product in your infrastructure to keep your systems safe.

In network design, a single point of failure is bad design. In security, redundant appliances running the same code-base is also bad design if it’s the only protection between you and your business-critical systems.

Many would have you believe that all vulnerabilities have to be fixed now — when in reality their assessment through a risk management process will categorize them for a particular organization appropriately – and direct the needed level of response and risk mitigation.

Understanding risk is important, but why does it have to be a manual process driven by a committee and paperwork? Integrated security must evolve to mitigate vulnerabilities in realtime through software intelligence. A multi-layered security strategy can and will buy you time, but it doesn’t mitigate the need to fix the issue that needs mitigation. The more holes you leave in the dam will impact the structural integrity of the dam. And before you know it, you’ll have a flood on your hands.

Nortel seems to be working from the Microsoft playbook on security. Microsoft chose to ignore the security of their flagship operating system for many years. They finally addressed it with Windows Vista, but it was too-little-to-late. This didn’t work too well for Microsoft and it won’t work for Nortel. In the long run, this strategy will hurt the very customers Nortel is trying to support.

My first Nokia phone was the 6160. I remember sitting in a restaurant and the server looks at my Nokia and says, “That’s a cell phone?? It’s so small!”. The only other phone that ever got a response like that was my iPhone.

But Nokia has lost touch with the formula that made them such a success (quality and style). Here’s a letter that a good friend of mine recently wrote to Nokia Customer Care.

Dear Nokia customer care,

Please find attached a picture of my 6300. It just met it’s demise when it met my patio at full force after yet another reboot as I tried in vane to merely answer a call. That pretty well sums up what I think of Nokia’s new product line, their standard OS and Symbian. Oh and did I mention the “customer service”? (note the quotes)

I purchased a new shiny 6300 in Singapore almost a year ago to replace my aging 6230i and was initially impressed with it’s looks and features; I could even cope with the lousy battery life. However it soon started randomly rebooting during calls, when receiving SMS and almost without fail, every time I accessed the web. It would hum, vibrate (sometimes until the battery was removed) and always white screen, before returning to “normal”. Even yesterday after yet another firmware upgrade, it rebooted 4 times in a row as I tried to search for a word using google – imagine my friends amusement as their 4 year old Nokia’s, Sony’s etc still respond instantly, get decent battery life and never reboot when they are tired of having to actually do something useful.

So several months ago I took it to Nokia “customer care” in Chatswood (yes that’s in Australia) who kindly informed me that I needed to take it back to Singapore so Nokia could take a look at it there, as it did not have an international warranty. Excuse me but which century is this? Sure I’ll jump on a plane and fly to Singapore for what - A firmware upgrade? HELLO wake-up call, people travel around quite a lot these days. International business and travel require international warranties. These are offered by every company worth their salt these days and many that aren’t. Why not Nokia?

Which brings me onto my current phone, an E61i. On paper this phone sounds like a dream, in reality to use it is to know the true meaning of suffering. Symbian…. How long do you have to wait before hitting a key has any effect? I usually start mine up each am (I figured out early on that a reboot a day saves the lives of those unfortunate enough to be around when me or a colleague is experiencing Nokia rage – a very common site unfortunately), then I go for a cup of tea, come back and it may be just about ready to use. Navigating through the features is so slow and illogical that I have reverted back to my 6310i unless I absolutely need mobile mail.

So Nokia, here ends my relationship with you and your once fine products. I remember when your phones were instantaneous and way ahead of the competition. Now look…. Unfortunately it is time for me to accept defeat and join all my colleagues who ditched their E61i’s and brought iPhones. Long live Apple!

Incidentally I don’t expect a response to this but it would be nice to know someone is there and possibly even cares about why Nokia is so out of touch with once loyal customers and is driving them away. If you would like a chance to redeem yourselves and give me a working product, feel free to contact me at the above e-mail address.

The default overscan settings in Mac OS X did not work correctly for my Sony Wega HD TV (KD-34XBR970). Too much of the display was missing in overscan mode. When not using overscan, you could see the uneven edge of the display on each side, which was almost as annoying.

My friend Jason sent along this link that described how another guy got his Sony HDTV display to overscan properly with DisplayConfigX. I used DisplayConfigX back in the 10.3 and 10.4 days when I couldn’t get my Powerbook to display properly on some LCD projectors. I don’t seem to have that issue with Leopard (10.5) on my Macbook.

After literally hours of tweaking, I now have 8 pixels of overscan on each side. Here are my settings:

One tip that I found while troubleshooting: After reboot, the new DisplayConfigX configuration wouldn’t always take. Switching to a different resolution and then back to the DisplayConfigX setting seemed to work.

I’m sad today. A friend and co-worker of mine died last week in a boating accident.

Harpal Chohan was 48 years young. That didn’t seem young to me a few years ago, though. He was kind and warm hearted. The one thing I remember most about Harpal is that he always called me Mikey. In normal professional circles this might seem rude, but I didn’t mind. In fact, I was honored that he felt comfortable enough to call me by the informal name that only a few people use.

Harpal was extremely smart and always challenged me with tough questions. He was softspoken, but not quiet if that makes any sense. Our conversations may not have changed the world, but I always felt smarter afterwards.

I’ll surely miss him.

He often joined us at Michi Sushi when we were all out in San Jose for various projects. He missed the last couple of trips because he wanted to spend time with his family in the Bay Area. But here are some pictures from December, 2005.

After hearing this tragic news, my good friend, Doug Rufalo, succintly put things into perspective.

Like Harpal, my Dad died outside the States. He was an expatriate living in Vietnam with his wife, Huong. He died of a heart attack and I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to bring his wife and his ashes back. I guess I know a little how Harpal’s wife feels. But, loosing a spouse is different.

This is a tweet from TheBloggess on Twitter. I found it interesting that she was dealing with this at time same time as me. Seeing it acutally prompted me to write this post.

The last sentence was confusing to my wife. Her point is that your own death won’t be unexpected to you no matter how it comes. But the better point is when people close to us die it reminds us of our own mortality. And we have to deal with it whether we like it or not. When you are young, you feel like you’ll never die. To quote John Mayer:

I am invincible as long as I’m alive

But as we get older, the realization that life is fragile becomes more apparent. I wish I would have been able to hug my Dad before he was gone. I wish I could have said goodbye to Harpal. So, hug your families tight, it can all be gone in a second.