Michael - Michael J. Thom

Poorly Organized Thoughts on Guns and Society

Michael — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 02:49:53 +0000

So I’ve been fairly quiet on social media latelyâ€¦ well actually, not just lately — always. I am indeed a consumer of social media and not much of a publisher, you could say.

But also it’s in part because rarely does a social media post about any controversial issue accomplish anything other than further deepening the reader’s existing inclinations. And most often, it spurs division among people who might have a reasonable conversation in person, but who happily resort to extremes and straw man arguments with the anonymity or at least separation afforded them by interacting via a web browser or an app.

However, even if for mere catharsis, I’ve felt compelled to commit a few [Editor’s note: gazillion] words to page. Feel free to agree or disagree with me, and to comment below or not comment. If you want to grab a beer and talk through this stuff, I’d love that. But I’m not likely to engage online with anything other than genuine, factual discrepancies.

With all those disclaimers said, I want to discuss some things that have been in my mind lately. As you’ve probably guessed, it’s mostly related to the murder of students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, on Valentine’s Day.

The Rhetoric.

From both sides. Is Everytownâ€s â€œ18th school shooting in the U.S. in 2018â€ statistic misleading? Yes. But does it matter? No. Spending one’s proverbial breath writing an entire post about why itâ€s wrong and trust me things arenâ€t that bad is MISSINGÂ THE POINT. To explain away a statistic like that is to belittle the school shootings that really do fit that label, whether it’s actually 15, or 10, or 5. If that number is greater than zero, it’s too many.

And while reasonable people can disagree on how to reduce (or eliminate!?) this statistic, it doesn’t help anyone achieve anything to continue debating points that don’t matter. The number of school shootings isn’t the point here. Neither is whether an AR-15 is correctly labeled as an “assault rifle” or not. Can it kill many people faster, easier, and more effectively than a handgun, knife, or slappers (a little nod to Goldeneye on N64 there as an attempt at levity…)? Why yes, it can. No matter what label you give it. (More below on that…)

The increasing amount of white noise is making genuine conversations impossible to have. Everything becomes a personal attack, or a straw man argument, or otherwise fails to connect people in a two-sided conversation where both parties are willing to hear the other’s standpoint and consider it. This is very not good.

The Constitution.

Iâ€m not going to have a constitutional scholarship discussion here; thatâ€s largely because I am not a constitutional scholar. But also, I donâ€t think it matters.

First, letâ€s assume the Founders did imagine a future with smaller, more easily used guns that everyone could and probably would own. Second, letâ€s maybe even spot them the idea that being able to resist ones tyrannical government was something worth protecting (after all, they had some very recent experience with this!).

But the game has changed. The civilian guns have changed. What the government (via its modern military) is capable of (if we assume they actually would want to turn that might on its citizens) is vastly different than 250ish years ago, as well as vastly more powerful than that of the citizenry. Itâ€s a whole different ball game.

So. The situation has changed. Even if we stick to a â€œBiblical inerrancyâ€ perspective (whoops wait wrong conversation, I meant Constitutional Originalist), thereâ€s nothing to prevent us from changing it. Itâ€s been done 17 times before, since the Bill of Rights was introduced with the first 10. Since that time, an amendment has been ratified on average about once every 13 years. The last was in 1992. Whether or not a change to the Constitution would be required, it’s time we do something regarding reasonable gun legislation, and hanging onto the 2nd Amendment just because it’s in the Constitution is useless.

In fact, Thomas Jefferson himself acknowledged the potential for humans to progress in their thinking, becoming more enlightened with new truths and opinions:

But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

– Letter to Samuel Kercheval, June 12, 1816

The Guns.

Okay, I love guns especially the ar-15 pistols from Palmetto Armory. Or maybe in truth, I used to. That’s changing in me. But the physical things are quite cool. They’re interesting technology. They are super fun to shoot. The challenge of getting better at target practice and other techniques is exhilarating. And, if I’m being honest, they make you feel powerful. They make you feel important, and capable. I’m not so sure those last ones are good things, but I can say from firsthand experience they have this effect.

And in theory I still like the idea of protecting oneself and one’s family from bad actors, particularly in one’s own home. However, when I think of “reasonable gun control” I think of things such as how easy it is to acquire a gun in most states, certainly here in Indiana. It is literally easier to buy a gun than get a driver’s license or register a car, or to apply for a loan with most institutions, or adopt a rabbit. And while you might argue that owning a gun is the only item on that list that’s protected by the Constitution (see above for whether or not I think that actually matters to the discussion), there are plenty of rights, such as freedom of speech, that, while protected, are also limited in many reasonable ways. Gun ownership simply has to be one of these things. “But it’s already limited! Background checks! Etc.!” you say. And I say, 17 people died in a high school this week. I GUESS IT’S NOT LIMITED ENOUGH.

Also, the AR-15. Ah, what a nice piece of kit. Many have rails on all four sides of the barrel. Space to mount red-dot sights, laser scopes, lights, bayonets, and all kinds of other toys. Magazine capacities of 15, 30, and more. Collapsible stocks. Slings. And so forth. I don’t own one, but there was a time that I wanted to, but just couldn’t afford it. They are tons of fun!

But they also aren’t a “personal protection” weapon. You can’t carry one and conceal it. Without special ammo they’re horrible at over-penetration (i.e. shooting through WAY more than you would want to, endangering the people around you even if you think you’re just shooting the bad guy). Further, while not as big as using a shotgun to defend your home, they’re much bigger to wield in (likely) close quarters.

A quick note about whether it counts as an “automatic” weapon. An automatic weapon just means a gun that reloads itself. The term automatic encompasses both “full-auto” (as in pull the trigger once, hold it down, and get lots of rounds fired), as well as “semi-automatic” (which is one shot per trigger squeeze). Both sides of this argument misuse the term: the Left uses it to make the AR-15 sound more exciting than it is, and the Right to make it sound like automatic weapons are already illegal for citizens to purchase. Nope, only full-auto.

Anyway, what the AR-15 does do super well, and better than any handgun, is make a newbie much more likely to hit his targets. And that’s why they are so much more lethal when used in a mass shooting scenario than handguns, or knives, or baseball batsâ€¦ Yes, you can kill with anything. But you can kill easier and faster with a gun, especially a long gun that’s literally designed to help the military kill with more precision.

I’m not okay with that. Especially when those targeted have so often been among the most vulnerable in our society. Are you okay with that?

The Other Factors.

Many on the Right say it’s not guns, it’s bad people. Or it’s mental illness. Or it’s a lack of follow-through by local and federal law enforcement to act on tips. These are all valid, and some are true in many of the most notable shootings. I don’t want to invalidate efforts to improve mental health awareness and remove societal stigmas that may be keeping people from getting help. Or organizations who are trying to reach out to at-risk youth. Or cities who are making actual strides in improving poverty and equality for those outside of the privilege I (and probably most of you, my readers) enjoy.

But. All these shootings have one, obvious thing in common — a gun. Nearly always legally-acquired. So don’t tell me “criminals will still get a gun” — most of these people got their guns through typical, legal means. Making this process more difficult — or perhaps, completely impossible for the types of guns we’ve been talking about — would absolutely make a dent in the frequency and extent to which mass murders occur in the U.S.

This problem is uniquely American. I’m not enough of a social scientist to even begin writing about the social norms that have developed in the US that might be also contributing to these behaviors. But it is undeniable that more guns equals more gun deaths, both homicide and suicide. As one who considers myself pro-life, this bothers me. I want people to live not just before and through childbirth, but for as long as possible.

Why is the US so screwed up, and what can we do about it? I don’t have final, clear, easy-to-implement answers. Clearly, nobody does. But I know we must do something, and I am more than willing to put aside any remaining personal affinity for guns if it means even the slightest chance that one fewer kid will die while at school.

Postscript.

Sorry I rambled so much. This really was mostly a dump of my brain. I didn’t even say everything I wanted to, because I tried to keep at least a little structure to this. So forgive my writing style. And frankly, I’m impressed if anyone actually reads this at all, especially this far down the page. So uh, digital-high-five! And know that I still love you, dear reader, even if I pissed you off at any point — or all the points — above. Just my thoughts! Reasonable people can disagree with much of what I wrote, and I like to think you and I are reasonable people.

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Indiana SB 101 – The “Religious Freedom” Bill

Michael — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 01:32:32 +0000

Oh, Indiana. Le sigh.

So here’s the thing.

I’ll start by addressing the aspects of this (overall terrible) bill that do make sense to me (don’t worry, there are very few).

I do not want the government to tell me how to conduct my private business. That is indeed a basic tenant of a free market, free speech, and a free people. For the government to essentially force its private citizens and private businesses to conduct themselves a certain way is not okay with me.

However, it is SO NOT OKAY to say “oh, please, by all means — discriminate away!” In effect, that is what this bill is saying and ensuring that all Hoosiers can (and should!) do.

We simply need no legislation on this topic.

Individuals who want to do business at a given company are already free to do so, or not. And businesses are already free to do business with a given individual, or not. That is our collective perogative in a free society.

Neither side needs to be coerced into action it otherwise would not have taken.

(Point of clarification: The unstated phrase in all these sentences is “by the government.” I would, in fact, like to coerce my fellow Christians to stop judging and discriminating. I just don’t want myÂ government to do it, because it crosses so many lines, even if well-intentioned.)

The flip side of this law is bad too, so don’t hear me wishing it was written 180Â° the other way around. I don’t — just as I have the right to walk out of any establishment I no longer want to patronize, I should also have the right to end a business relationship with anyone, anytime, for any (or no) reason (barring contractual obligations, of course).

Therefore this bill basically continues to solidify institutional discrimination. Oh and gives “religion” a bad name. A well-deserved one of late, if you ask me.

Ugh.

Addendum. This is particularly frustrating for the maybe-just-right-of-center among us (or the libertarian-leaning, if you will). This, just like the gay marriage issue, is so unfairly polarizing that it’s hard to take a position on. You’re damned if you do (support it) and damned if you don’t. I don’t support the bill, but it’s not because of “gay rights” — it’s because I don’t want the government having the power to tell me what I can and cannot do.

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Windows 8

Michael — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:51:40 +0000

Editor’s note: This was originally written in August 2013… but for some reason was never posted. I’m posting it now, despite it being slightly out of date. Oh well!

I’ve used Windows 7 since its pre-beta. I used Windows 8 on a Surface Pro tablet. Now I run Windows 8.1 (beta) on my primary work laptop. And yet I’m writing this on a MacBook Pro, my personal computer. So I get around, as operating systems go, and I am in no way married to one platform. The count at home right now is actually: 3 Android devices, 2 Mac OS computers, and 1 Windows PC. If you count my work laptop then that’s 2 Windows machines.

All that to say, as an operating system, I love Windows 8. Well, 8.1. Though on principle I don’t love that Microsoft kow-towed to all the complaints about Windows 8 not having a Start button on the taskbar or letting you boot straight to the desktop, I do feel like it’s the OS Windows 8 should have been. Windows 7 was awesome right out of the box, the first version. But Windows 8… not so much.

Will Windows 8 Save the Windows Platform or Kill It?

Look, anyone who asks this question has missed the truth about Windows’s place in the world of computing. One single version — almost regardless of how great or how terrible it is — is not capable of singlehandedly derailing the whole ecosystem. Users may complain, businesses may hold off on upgrading (I’m looking at you, Vista), and the “state of computing” may not be furthered, but then they’ll fix it (or just move on to another version altogether), and those businesses will then go ahead and upgrade and move on. We saw this with Windows ME, and then Windows XP got everyone basically back with the program (though some of course stuck with 2000). Windows Vista was definitely a “skip” version, but then Windows 7 came along and has proven to be a venerable option.

So will Windows 8 continue the good-bad-good-bad pattern of late? I truly believe the answer is no, but not because it’s an overwhelmingly needed upgrade.

Look, the basic functionality, even many of the kernel-level choices, aren’t terribly different from Windows 7. For the majority of users — business and personal alike — there is no single bit of functionality (or security, or speed, etc.) that makes Windows 8 an upgrade worth forking over the cash to do right now. As long as the hardware you’re using is still in good shape, just keep on truckin’ with Windows 7. But if you’re looking to replace, upgrade, or add hardware, then by all means, make the move to Windows 8. Especially with the changes put forth in 8.1, there’s absolutely no reason not to get 8.1 pre-installed on your next machine.

The fact is, it *is* faster, it *is* a bit prettier, and it *is* more flexible. As much as people will complain about the interface-formerly-known-as Metro UI, the way that it combines with the desktop environment is actually pretty innovative and flexible, and once there is a good selection of worthwhile Metro apps available, it’ll be a decent piece of the OS. Some will never use it, and that’s fine. It’s not hurting anything if you just never use it.

Looking Ahead

Going forward Microsoft really needs to think long and hard about what the strategy is going to be. I do believe that this hybrid world of having both a tablet and a “classic” Windows environment isn’t sustainable, as it is inherently a compromise. Apple has been heading down that road, but the previews of Mac OS X Mavericks are pleasantly devoid of hardly any additional iOS-sourced ideas and UI elements. I think they’ve realized that while some technologies can be shared, as long as I have a keyboard on my desk with a screen separate, it simply isn’t the same thing as a handheld device with one shared input *and* output device, the screen. I hope this trend continues, and the two worlds remain clearly separate.

Windows, meanwhile, will persist for the forseeable future. Even if today they simply stopped making the “desktop” UI, what we know and love as Windows, we would not have a mass exodus of Windows users to Mac OS. Windows is here to stay, and it’s still the most flexible, supported, and powerful business platform out there.

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Google Glass – A Brief Review

Michael — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 16:45:43 +0000

Google Glass Explorer. Glasshole. Michael.

Call me whatever you’d like, but I just got done living with Google Glass for about three weeks, and I have a few thoughts to share. (Why only three weeks? That mess is $1500… so I just played with it while still within the window to return it, and I have now sent it back for a refund.)

Overall impression: WOW. The UI, the UX, just the overall usability of it is actually pretty stunning. They’ve really spent a lot of time refining the experience of wearing and using Glass, and it shows. We’ve all seen the videos online that show how it’s supposed to work, but when you put it on and find that itÂ actually works as well as the videos show, that’s something.

Coolest feature today: Translate This. Really the only augmented reality app so far, the Translate app takes whatever you’re looking at, translates it, andÂ replaces it on-screen with the new text, in a font and color that closely match the original. It’s a bit sluggish and finicky, but it’s so impressive when it works. And yes, I saidÂ replaces — it’s not a subtitle, it completely deletes the original word from the live-view image and replaces it with the translated word. Too cool.

Weirdest feature today: Winking to take a picture. I mean, neat… but seriously? #creeperalert

What it looks like to wear Glass at Starbucks

Social impact: Let’s get one thing straight — people still look at you like you’re a weirdo when you go anywhere in public wearing Glass. I would expect nothing less. Will this reaction decrease over time? I believe so. I made it my goal while wearing it to educate people and help them understand 1) no, I’m not always recording or taking a picture of you, 2) the screen’s not even on most of the time, and 3) if I walk into a wall please just point me in the right direction.

(I didn’t actually walk into any walls… but at one point at work I was walking toward a closed door, doing something on Glass, when I realized I had stopped walking altogether, right in front of the door, to finish what I was doing before opening the door. Yep, I was the guy standing 8 inches in front of a closed door, seemingly just staring at it, unsure of what to do next.)

A quick video shot through Glass while on a run.

The future.Â Spending time with Glass really made me believe in the future even more than I do already. It’s coming, and it’ll be augmented with wearable devices of one sort of another. Maybe it’s Glass or a derivative, maybe it’s an iWatch, maybe it’s an implant (this can’t come soon enough!). But there were definitely times that the accessibility to information and the immediacy with which I was notified about (and could respond to) emails and texts were so handy, especially while multi-tasking (driving, walking while carrying things, etc.).

I’ll close with the requisite image of me wearing Glass. Feel free to save it for blackmail as needed.

You’re welcome

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Interop 2013 – Wrap-Up

Michael — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 15:15:45 +0000

Back in May I was fortunate to get to attend the Interop Las Vegas IT conference. I’ve already discussed my trip as a whole and the Principles of Effective IT Management workshop in the previous two posts. I wanted to take one more post to describe briefly the rest of the conference.

Wednesday, Thursday, and the first half of Friday comprised the main part of the conference. Wednesday and Thursday each began with keynotes, and then the rest of the time was filled with breakout sessions and time in the expo hall.

The breakout sessions were a definite mixed bag. Some of the ones I attended were frankly fairly boring and generic — nothing I couldn’t have stepped up with about a day’s notice and presented myself, and I’m an expert in almost no relevant areas. But others were in fact quite interesting and well-presented.

Frank Andrus, CTO of Bradford Networks, had a very good session entitled “Breaking Through the FUD: 10 Steps to Secure BYOD.” He actually presented some interesting technical solutions to common BYOD issues, which made it unique from some of the BYOD sessions which seemed to basically just say “BYOD is coming if it isn’t here already, and it’s going to be a challenge!” (No kidding.) Furthermore, he spent a while reinforcing what was, to this IT pro, the key takeaway of the session: “BYOD is NOT about the devices, it’s about the human behavior change” (such as the common desire to be always connected).

The keynotes were pretty cool. While not the “keynotes” that the public generally thinks of (Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, and so forth), we had representatives from HP, Cisco, and PayPal and the FIDO Alliance (which is super fascinating, by the way). There were no product announcements or any other headline-generating presentations, but lots of good information. Much of the content seemed to revolve around the theme of SDN — Software Defined Networking. I’m still unsure whether it was intentional to have that as a recurring theme or not.

Finally, we had the expo hall. This was a pretty cool experience. While I can imagine CES (or Comdex!) is a considerably larger show (albeit obviously consumer-oriented), the show floor was in fact quite large. Most vendors had very impressive-looking displays. But even more than that, I was glad to find that most of them were staffed by very intelligent people who knew their products but more importantly the industry as a whole.

The icing on the top of the expo hall cake, though, was the InteropNet. As a listener of Fr. Robert Ballecer’s This Week in Enterprise Tech (TWiET) on the TWiT Network, I knew to expect this. The backbone, the NOC, of the entire Interop show is run out of a space located right on the show floor — the InteropNet. It is intended to be a show-and-tell NOC, where they have many screens of real-time metrics turned so passers-by can check them out. They also do narrated tours throughout each day. I may not be a network engineer per se, but I am hugely fascinated and interested in the architecture and engineering that goes into putting together a network of this sort — particularly since it has to be mobile and set up (and torn down!) so quickly.

Overall, the Interop show was well worth the money. (Okay, easy for me to say, since my employer paid for it. But seriously, I came back with so many ideas that it really was valuable.) It was also a lot of fun. While I didn’t arrive knowing anyone, and didn’t even walk out of there with more than a couple new solid contacts, everyone was friendly and willing to chat. The networking is something I will take even more advantage of in the future.

I recommend this show to any IT pro — whether Help Desk technician or manager or C-level — who has the time and budget to make it happen!

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Interop – Principles of Effective IT Management

Michael — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 12:45:54 +0000

This post is part 2 in a 3-part series. Check out the first post if you haven’t yet.

I want to review a workshop I attended at Interop Las Vegas in May called Principles of Effective IT Management. It would be tough to recap all my notes from the 2-day workshop in blog posts, simply because they’re so exhaustive. I would however like to highlight a few of the key takeaways, at least from the perspective of my experience and current situation.

We Are a Value-Add, Not a Cost Center

One of the main precepts that came up again and again was that of providing value to the business. “We are definitely not a cost, we are a value,” Tom Randall kept reminding us. Most businesses have a tendency to treat IT as a cost (both as viewed by Accounting but even just as a general feeling), and it’s completely in opposition to the way we should function. But beyond simply convincing the rest of the business to see us “properly,” it also affects the way we treat ourselves. If we just consider everything as a cost, we’ll be driven in decisions and approaches by the simple dollar amount — the bottom line — more than we should. When we think of ourselves as providing value — regardless of the dollar amount — the way in which we spend those dollars becomes considerably more impactful.

He also had this wonderful nugget to share, regarding the trend towards consumerization of IT and so much hardware: “It was a lot easier when what we did was effing magic.” So true.

Stewardship Reports

Tom mentioned one concept that, while it almost seems obvious, was new to me. He recommended sending what he termed “Stewardship Reports.” These reports should probably be weekly, and they would contain simple metrics on what the IT department has been up to lately. Include volume of work, time spent on tickets, and benefits to the users. This is not so much about dollars spent or dollars saved, but about letting your users know what you’ve been up to! Far too many users — either ignorantly or cynically — don’t have an accurate concept of the work that goes on in IT — until their workstation is broken, of course — and this is a friendly mechanism to help them understand.

As an IT department of one at my current job (as well as my last), this isn’t something I’ve implemented yet, but I’d like to consider it for the future. I’d love to hear if you’ve implemented something similar (or your company’s IT department does something like this). How do you like it?

SLAs

We spent quite a lot of time discussing SLAs — Service Level Agreements. While to some this is a very familiar concept, I’ve been noticing more and more how many contracts are lacking SLAs. When you’re a vendor and have a service problem, you become quite grateful that your clients didn’t think to make you include an SLA in your MSA (Master Services Agreement)… this has crossed my mind a couple times in the past couple weeks for a couple real-life experiences at work. I’m not going to go any deeper into those though.

But from the IT department perspective, including SLAs in your contracts with vendors is so absolutely critical. At a very high level, SLAs “guarantee” a certain level of service (uptime, speed, I/O, etc.) from that provider. But in reality, the provider should be trying to provide this level of service anyway… what the SLA provides in essence is a way to receive monetary compensation from the vendor should they fail to meet the agreement. While money can’t always truly compensate for downtime, lost business, and unhappy customers, it can certainly help. And it can motivate the vendor to perform.

There’s another way to consider SLAs. As an IT department providing service to the business — whether that’s standing up a server, building an application, or even just responding to Help Desk tickets — having an SLA in writing within your own company can go a long way to ensuring not only a level of service from your IT staff, but also accountability. Plus, this helps encourage buy-in from the business, ownership of the project, and a greater trust that the project will be taken seriously.

This post only covers a very small portion of the topics covered in the 16 hours of the workshop. As you can see, there were many great ideas and plenty of great conversation about them.

Finally, I want to leave you — without comment — this list from the very end of the workshop. It’s something I try to review frequently as I consider my own professional growth.

Tom Randall’s Top 10 Requirements of a CIO

Leadership
Expertise in aligning & leveraging technology
Business savvy
Relationship skills
Management skills
Communication skills
Ability to create & manage change
Knowledge of or experience in specific industry
International or global experience
Ability to hire, develop, retain high-quality IT pros

On to part 3 in the series…

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Interop Las Vegas

Michael — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 18:28:28 +0000

During the last six months of my time at Slingshot SEO, I was fortunate enough to get approved for my first work trip. And catch this — it was to Las Vegas!

Interop is the world’s largest independent IT conference (put on by UBM Tech), and they have a few different venues each year. The Vegas conference is the primary show, and it is attended by tons of IT pros, CIO/CTOs, and other interested parties.

First, I’ll just be honest — I love traveling by air. I love the airport experience, I love being in the air, and I love getting to stay at a cool hotel. Specifically, I got to stay at the Mandalay Bay resort on the South end of The Strip. For more on the venue and my time as a tourist, check out an upcoming post over at my video and photo site.

The conference has a few different options for attendee passes, including expo-only, main conference passes (Wednesday-Friday), and “All Access” passes, which adds all-day workshops on Monday and Tuesday. I had the latter.

Though there were many one-day workshops to choose from on Monday and Tuesday (and a few half-day ‘shops as well), I chose one of the most popular sessions, the only two-day workshop offered: Principles of Effective IT Management.

Principles of Effective IT Management

This workshop has been taught by the same fellow for something like 15 or 20 years in a row now, but it is not stale. For one, many of the overarching management concepts don’t change considerably with new technologies. But also, where appropriate, he definitely has updated his presentation (for example, “cloud computing” wasn’t a common concept in the ’90s, but it sure is now). His name is Tom Randall, and he is currently a VP of British Telecom Americas. He mentioned that when he retires (soon), he hopes to turn this presentation into a book, since there’s such a dearth of good IT management books out there. This is a book I would read!

The audience was made up of a variety of guys (literally — not many women in the room, unfortunately) of different ages and from different sized companies representing many different sectors. Amusingly, there was only one other 20-something in the group (and Tom made sure to entertainingly point out our youth on several occasions). The guy’s name was Ted, and it was good to get to know somebody else in a surprisingly similar situation to me.

(Sidebar: The Shoppes at Mandalay Bay has a terrific Irish pub called RÃ RÃ¡; check it out if you’re out there and like Irish food or Irish beer or Irish music or Irish people.)

Anyway, I took notes furiously. I’m an Evernote guy, so it’s tough say “I wrote X number of pages” — but printed, my notes would come out to something like 19 pages. And that’s even with knowing the deck would be available after the conference, so I didn’t have to record the content of each slide in my notes.

Just so much good stuff.

Though Tom’s perspective and background is mostly in the large enterprise (in some cases even running an IT department of over 1000 people!), nearly all of the concepts and ideas still apply to the small and medium business world that I’ve so far been a part of. Some were good reminders, some were familiar concepts, and some were fantastic new ideas. New to me anyway.

I will discuss some of my main takeaways in a follow-up post to this one. This post has gone on long enough already. Suffice it to say the conference cost would have been well worth it even if I only came for the Monday-Tuesday workshop with Tom Randall.

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The Only Constant is Change

Michael — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 20:18:15 +0000

Yikes.

Two years.

That’s way too long to go between posts. Accept my apologies?

Thanks.

Two years ago I was just coming up on one year at Slingshot SEO. In January 2012, I moved into a new role at Slingshot — IT Operations Administrator. I am hugely grateful to Don Kane (then CEO/COO) and the rest of Slingshot for taking a chance on me and entrusting to me all our computer and network systems. Under the guidance of Deanna Mettler (then VP of Finance), I grew so much in the year and a half that followed. I matured as a person, as a professional, and as an IT administrator.

So much so that an industry contact reached out to me in early 2013, and long story short, I was fortunate enough to find a great match in a company that was looking to begin a new role — Director, Information Services. Apparently the positive feelings were mutual, because they hired me and I began work at DK Pierce and Associates in June. There are many amazing people and great friends I miss from Slingshot SEO (ahem, DigitalRelevance), but this new chapter of my life has been terrific so far.

DK Pierce and Associates is a healthcare reimbursement consulting firm based out of Zionsville. Currently with 19 employees, DKP was started by Denise Pierce nearly 15 years ago to help clients navigate the complexities of the current healthcare environment, particularly working with pharma companies as they go about bringing new drugs to market. It is an incredibly bright team of mostly women (seriously — 16 of the 19 employees are women, and DKP is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise). One thing that makes us unique is that about half of our workforce — the Away Team — work remotely from all along the East Coast. The rest of us work in the Zionsville office.

Well, most of the time. We’re currently renovating and expanding our office — we own the whole building! — which is exciting to be sure. But it means that none of the Home Team is working in the office; we’re working, more literally, fromÂ home for the summer. I really shouldn’t complain about not having to shower for work, but in all honestly I’m ready to be back in an office with people around during the day. I get so stir crazy!

I intend to highlight some more details of my new role in future blog posts. My intention is to make this blog a personal blog, yes, but also to begin discussing IT industry topics and my perspective on them. We’ll see how that goes.

For now, I’m just so blessed to be where I am professional as well as personally. Cheers to a great 2013 so far!

The post The Only Constant is Change first appeared on Michael J. Thom.

K6MJT is On the Air!

Michael — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:15:32 +0000

Ham radio. Amateur radio. I have seen no recent survey but I would imagine that few people my generation even know what amateur radio is. At best, maybe “isn’t that something grandpa used to do?” Or, “yeah is that like CB radios?” These are a couple of responses I’ve gotten from friends… in addition to several blank stares: “What’s that?”

To me, amateur radio is in fact a bit about the nostalgia. Do I fancy myself a tweaker? Yes, of course. However, I don’t imagine I’ll be building antennae and radios in my (nonexistent) “shack” anytime soon. It is true, though, that I have always found physics, wiring, electricity, radios, microphones, sound waves, and like all very fascinating.

Grandpa with my sister and me, July 1991

In truth though, I have joined the likes of the great Gordon West (WB6NOA) due largely to my family, specifically my late Grandpa Thom (WA6BLC). He was a ham for many, many years, and (among other activities of course) he used to communicate around Seal Beach, CA, with my Uncle Dan (WB6DYN). My dad is a ham (KB6FWM), and my mother even had her license for a while (though it’s now lapsed). Though I can’t say it was hugeÂ in my upbringing, it always existed, and I always thought it was so cool. Plus, GrandpaÂ did it.

In the late ’90s I got some of the Gordon West literature and studied some (and practiced my Morse Code, as that was still a requirement back then!), but for some reason never got around to actually taking the test. I suspect marching band and general high school busyness is largely to blame for that.

When my Grandpa passed in 2005, for some reason that I truly can’t explain, I determined that I wouldÂ pass my ham test. Even if I never did much with it, I wanted to honor my Grandpa by doing so.

It may have taken an additional five years for me to get around to actually doing it, but I have, and I know my Grandpa would be proud of me. My uncle was also a big help in getting back “into” ham radio, so I definitely want to thank him a bunch too. Plus, he’s kept my dad and me supplied with radios and batteries

Does amateur radio service a daily purpose? For many, it sure does. The community they have built among hams is really cool. While I have not really dived in and joined that at this point, it’s neat to know that the community does exist. And in times of emergency, I have the license as well as know-how to be able to assist.

Say hi if you see me on the road!

Since rediscovering my desire to get my license, I’ve been mildly surprised by just how many hams there actually are all around me. While I don’t operate daily, I’m looking forward to meeting many more in person and on the air.

Initially licensed as KC9UQE (what a mouthful!), I knew (regardless of what random call I was assigned) that I wanted to apply for my vanity right away. My family runs the Bay Area Radio Fraternity – Beach Area Group ham radio club in Seal Beach, and the club has/had a handful of signs used at times by my Grandpa, by my uncle, and by others. K6MJT was one of these that was used by my Grandpa — he and I both share the initials of MJT, so, to me, this was perfect for me. I get to carry on one of his signs, but it’s also specifically meaningful to me (having my initials in it). Also, it has the region code of “6” in it, paying homage to the fact that I was born in California and that’s still “home” for the Thom family, despite the fact that I was living in Indiana when I was licensed. I even went so far as to get the vanity plate for my car, I was so proud of the new call sign!

I will also add that the main reason I specifically had ham radio brought back to my attention was by none other than Leo Laporte… I’ve been a big fan and follower of his shows for years (dating back to the Ziff-Davis TechTV days), and when he started a new show on his network with Bob Heil called Ham Nation, I was hooked. I knew I needed to get serious about my studying again and finish what I started so many years ago. Though as any ham will you tell, you never truly finish.

The post K6MJT is On the Air! first appeared on Michael J. Thom.

Microdiscectomy

Michael — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:14:43 +0000

Well, the day finally came. On Monday, October 3, I had microdiscectomy surgery to attempt to repair a 3+ year old herniated disc and associated pain.

The disc between L5-S1 is degenerated, and you can see the herniation out the back side clearly.

The injury happened when I was laying floor tile at the Christian Campus House in July 2008. I was working by myself, lifting improperly, and working quickly to get the whole job done in a matter of just a couple days. I learned a lot about laying ceramic tile (and for the most part the job turned out really well), but I also learned a lot about how to lift properly.

After this initial injury, I let a couple months go by without doing anything about it. I finally told my mom (who works at a Sports Medicine office in Indy that also has a Muncie office), and I got in to see the doc in the Muncie office. He prescribed a muscle relaxant, and I headed off to some physical therapy (also in Muncie) to try to straighten out my badly torqued torso.

Several weeks went by, and my pain had been improving. I also saw my chiropractor a few times, and he helped get things in better alignment. But then our wedding was upon us, and I stopped all treatments at this point… and for the ensuing year and a half.

Finally, at the beginning of 2011, I decided it was time to truly find out what had happened and get it taken care of, no matter what that meant. I started with my family doc, who then sent me on to get an MRI (one slice of which you can see at the top of the post). That MRI determined that I in fact had a herniated (and degenerated) disc. We started with an epidural steroid injection and chased that with more PT. This combo was great: the pain was significantly reduced and I began to get a bit stronger in my trunk/core.

However, the shot began wearing off (and I admittedly began tapering off on doing my home exercises), and the pain began to return. And it was arguably the worst it had been yet. I started going to the chiropractor again, but when he saw the MRI, even he basically agreed that surgery looked quite likely.

After several more weeks of chiropractic treatments, I felt like I had done my dueÂ diligenceÂ (an MRI, an epidural, two lengthy rounds of PT, two rounds of chiropractic work) and could now truly pursue surgery. I set up a consult with the Indiana Spine Group (with whom I had consulted previously and through whom I had received the epidural), and we got surgery on the calendar.

The morning of the surgery came, and I had of course been fasting since midnight the night before (really it had been more like 9pm). We got up early and arrived at the hospital around 7:30am (for a 9:30 surgery time). I got registered and processed, and they took me back to get changed into my lovely hospital gown/slippers/cap and start my IV. That was the only point where I surprised myself and had trouble… as they began the IV, they struggled. A lot. Turns out the skin on the back of my hand is pretty thick, and they were using a new needle that apparently they all hate (“You have no idea when you’re in the vein!” they commiserated to one another). I don’t have a problem with needles per se, in fact, I like to look down and see what it’s like normally, but after they had stabbed away a few times they asked me “You feeling okay?” I said, “Yeah, I’m good, well, I’m a little light-headed, no wait I’m a lot light-headed.” They backed the needle out, laid me back, and got a cool rag on my forehead, and then I started feeling better. Never actually passed out. It was so weird. After giving it a break, they then found an old-style needle and hit up the vein in the inside of my elbow, and had no trouble at all.

From then on, everything was great. Hurry up and wait for the anesthesiologist… he seemed like a cool guy, and he helped explain the exact progression that would follow (wheel me to OR, he’d add something to the IV, I’d be out, then they’d move and flip me, perform surgery, bring me back to recovery, then I’d start waking up). Sounded good to me!

Recovery has been interesting. Mostly it’s been just fine. Tuesday (the day after surgery) was pretty rough. A lotÂ of pain, a lot more than I expected. After talking to the nurses, we found out we could add ibuprofen in the off-hours between oxycodone doses. That definitely helped to bring the swelling and stiffness/tightness down a lot and continues to do so.

The nerve that was being pinched off by the herniation was described post-op by Dr. Kraemer as “very angry.” So we’ll see just how quickly it gets restored to normal function. As it stands right now, I doÂ still have some nerve-related pain down the leg, just as before the surgery. Long-term it likely will be much improved, possibly even 100%. But for now, I’ll just be happy with some improvement. Getting the surgery-related pain tackled is the first hurdle, and we’re well on our way.

I think it’s overall been a good experience. I’ll know better in a week or two. There definitely are temporary limitations on what I can do, lift, etc., but even those will go away eventually. If you have any comments or questions feel free to drop ’em here! I certainly didn’t cover every aspect for brevity’s sake, but I would love to talk about it!

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