It even allowed us to leave the office on holidays and enjoy a festive green screen at home. (you are old too if you got that one) That was fine, but it was complicated and not a tool that went much beyond programmers and system administrators.

Remote access used to mean connecting and working on one computer, probably with a slow terminal session. Today, high speed communications allow file sharing, remote system control, remote printing, shared sessions, virtual meetings, and a host of other services.

With today’s communication technology, remote access is now a practical, even necessary, tool for most people and organizations. It has become so pervasive or invasive that we have radically changed the way we work, play and do business. It’s not just for techies any more.

In our business we now work with more people remotely than we do in person. We have completed entire projects without meeting people face to face. We have met other customers, but we may not see them again in person, literally for years.

Just in our firm alone, we regularly use the following technologies to work with non-technical customers: (Cisco VPN, GotoAssist, GotoMeeting, OpenVPN, Remote Desktop, Skype, VNC, Zoom and VOIP phones)

That is a large mix of tools, but we are a technology company that deals with a lot of companies with specific requirements. Most companies can still benefit from a smaller mix of services. Using even a limited set of remote work tools allows companies to

• provide flex time for employees (work when needed)
• reduce real estate costs (people work off site)
• reach customers beyond their immediate area
• leverage technology provided by other firms
• connect remote locations like one group
• provide remote customer support

Adopting the correct tool set can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. There are viable options for any sized organization even with a modest budget.

Employing simple services like GotoMeeting, GotoMyPC, and a VOIP phone solution can even make a small company a lot more effective.

A larger organization with more staff may find it cheaper and want to use a VPN instead. We have employed OpenVPN, which has a very reasonable price, with great success.

Some organizations may find that tailored remote/cloud based tools enhance their business. These may not replace a current mix of business solutions, but they may help to eliminate manual processes in spreadsheets. With remote access to tailored ‘helper’ applications, a company can be more consistent, and even offsite staff can be granted access to consistent tools.

Spend some time considering your business process. Remote capabilities may give you some of the tools to expand your business and reduce the cost of running it.

At ICAL, we not only produce environments and solutions that leverage remote technologies, we run our business on them. We couldn’t exist without them.

If you decide that your business might benefit from the addition of remote work capabilities, we can help. call us.

Happy Computing!

With the Dot Com bubble burst in 2000, we started approaching brick and mortar companies that could use web technology to enhance their business.

ICAL developed its first customer web application in 2001. That year we developed a document image retrieval system for First American Title Insurance. This system began a series of projects that let agents get their own information and order policies directly, online. Previously, company staff had to send document copies via courier or fax to their attorney agents.

This led to 12 years of service and improvements to the company’s agency business systems. It was transferred to another portion of the company in 2012 and re-written, but the basic system design and functionality continues to this day.

2004 marked the first time that ICAL hosted applications for customers in our data center. We began hosting an accounting solution for a Central American customer. We built a series of servers in our data center to host a Platinum Accounting system for renewable energy developers operating in Guatemala and Costa Rica.

That same year, we developed a web application for CHI Energy, another energy client. This was a web based production reporting system. It tracked energy production and outages for renewable plants in the United States and Canada.

CHI Energy was later purchased by Enel Energy. We continued to support and maintain this application for the next 11 years until it was retired in 2015.

ICAL has gone on to develop and host many ‘cloudy web applications’ since then. Today, we regularly develop web applications and hybrid desktop programs that rely on web services both in our data center and elsewhere.

If you have a need for a distributed, web, desktop or hybrid application contact us today.

Happy Computing!

The fix for most of us is to simply upgrade or change browsers. Many people or organizations that operate Microsoft Windows based computers have them configured to automatically update. For them this won’t be a problem. These computers are likely already updated to a later browser version.

Unfortunately, many companies maintain older web applications that only work correctly on older versions of Internet Explorer. If you find yourself or your company in this situation, you need to be aware.

In order to protect the integrity of your company’s network you need to consider doing one of the following:

• Limit Workstation Access to other areas on the web
• Re-configure your workstations to sandbox the browser
• Update your application to use a later browser version
• Enforce a policy of only using the outdated browser for your dependent application

Ultimately, only updating or re-writing your application will fix the problem. The other solutions will extend the usability of your current solution, but as you purchase new equipment it won’t have access to the older browser versions.

Check here for a list of Microsoft Internet Explorer life cycles on distinct operating platforms.

This can be very disruptive to business, but it can be managed so that the impact is minimized.

If you need help that is what ICAL does. We can help. Contact Us

As always, Happy Computing!

We developed a set of tools that listen for those signals just like a doctor might listen to your heart.

The ‘Heartbeat Monitor’ can be configured to take several different actions when a monitored program fails to signal or signal correctly. Specifically, the monitor can:

• log an event
• allow several failures before acting
• notify ICAL staff by text or email
• restart a program that has failed
• do nothing

There are both commercial and open source tools that do similar things, but they are more focused on data center management, not application monitoring. Most provide a lot of abilities we don’t need, and each lacked a few features that make it easier to watch our monitored applications.

The monitor program and the tools that were needed for each program to talk to it were developed over a year. We began of defining a simple protocol in 2014. In June of 2015, we started testing the process on some of our existing hosted applications.

For ICAL, this means we can can maintain more applications with less resources. For customers, we can keep our costs lower while providing better service. We don’t have to pay people to check things 24 hours a day. We do have programs that can.

If you have business application needs Contact Us.

Happy Computing!

Web site operators purposely try to keep you on their sites longer to get more advertising revenue. Conversely, the web can be so haphazard that you tend to stumble onto places that you really hadn’t planned on visiting. The problem gets compounded by the fear that you might not be able to find something again.

This often leads to mixing work and play. There is nothing wrong with playing on the web, but often you have to get something done. There are a few things that can help.

• Go online with intent to play or work.
• Indulge your curiosity
• Develop ‘goto’ sources
• Watch the clock

Go online with intent
Pick a mindset and to try not to violate it. It is very easy to get distracted when you are searching for something. You may start looking for something work related when, suddenly, an incredible article on sailing pops up. Oh, look, a great new concept snow machine.

Surprisingly, this even reverses itself. You can be searching for something fun to watch on TV that evening when a link to some new work tool pops up in a search. Suddenly, an hour has passed because you read everything there is to know about the new theory on non-relational database structures. You just earned yourself a cool evening at home.

When this happens save the link to bookmarks or a text file so that you can go back to it later.

Indulge your curiosity
Make time to go back and look at all the interesting things you bookmarked. These little indulgences often lead to new ideas for work and play. This also makes it easier to avoid the temptation to read the next terribly interesting thing you find. You haven’t lost the opportunity; you just deferred it.

Develop goto resources
Many items on the web are questionable. Often you have to double check anything you plan to rely on as truth. Over time, you find reliable sources for different topics.

You may rely on wikipedia.org for science and history; trust imdb.com for entertainment; and snopes.com to identify urban myths. Keep a list of these resources, mentally, digitally or on paper. This will reduce the time you need to vet the resources you find

Watch the clock
Time seems to evaporate when you work online. Between the distractions and seemingly endless resources, hours pass very quickly. Plan to finish your tasks within a time frame. Go home for supper when you are supposed to! If you are attentive, and if you are lucky, you might just keep your real world friends and family.

overview  –  what is the web  –  search criteria  –  protecting yourself  –  plan your time

The Connected Lifestyle

The age old things you were taught in the non-digital world still apply here. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If something doesn’t seem logical or correct, it probably isn’t. Think about everything you might do, before you do it!

Things no one should fall for

• Microsoft is really contacting you for your credit card number
• The Foreign Minister of Ghana knows you, a plumber in New Jersey
• Mark Zuckerberg wants to give you a billion dollars in Facebook shares
• The IRS even sent you an email. Never mind that it came from Russia.
• A 19 year old hottie is dying to meet you, a fat, 50 year old programmer in Boston

If your mom would tell you, “don’t be stupid,” maybe you shouldn’t do that. Just like anything else in life, if it sounds incredulous it probably is.

Conversely, there are real threats that you can avoid with a little diligence. Always be suspicious. If something doesn’t feel right, check it out. Look for things that don’t seem right.

Real considerations

• Avoid purchases that do NOT use a secured site (look for https addresses)
• Don’t answer website inquiries or emails that want financial information.
• Don’t offer any personal information to anyone that shouldn’t need it
• Use two factor checking. Verify by phone as well the web or email
• Search to see if anyone else has had a problem with a site, vendor or product
• Close your browser or turn off the computer when any link tries to force you to click on it
• Consider paying for online purchases through PayPal to add another level of protection
• Open a separate bank account to link with online payment services like Paypal.
• Never install any software on your computer without checking it out.
• Avoid using debit cards online
• Always keep current, anti-virus software on your computer
• Unless you know what you are doing, if your computer is compromised, shut it down and get help.

There is no guarantee that you won’t be compromised, but a little forethought will save you 99% of the time.

overview  –  what is the web  –  search criteria  –  protecting yourself  –  plan your time

The Connected Lifestyle

Finding things with search engines presents two basic problems. Either you can’t find anything relevant or you find too many references. There are many guides that provide specific examples on how to use individual search engines. A search on Google or Bing for, “tips for searching the web” will return many pages that explain ways to refine your searching.

Most search engines support a large set of tools for refining your search results. The exact set of search options are specific to each search engine, but there is a basic set of functionality that is implemented on most search engines:

• Punctuation & capitalization are ignored
• Word order affects results (house red does not equal red house)
• Quoted phases usually mean literal (including capitalization and punctuation)
• Many have advanced search options like date filters
• Most use Soundex (if you spell it wrong, the server will compensate)
• Most support basic filters like
  • quoted phrases “hello Bob”
  • + (include) +arthur must have the text “arthur” in the results
  • – (exclude) -arthur must NOT have the text “arthur” in the results
  • site:[DomainName] site:ical.com search only on ical.com

There are also some simple organizational methods which can help you to find what you want more easily. They are non-technical and unrelated to any filtering you may do with specific search engines.

• Search for related items (look for hints in the results to search another way)
• Search blog sites for discussions about the topic you are seeking
• Search for specifics like a part number
• Try paraphrasing what you are seeking in multiple ways
• Use multiple search engines
• Rely on search engine soundex results to find proper spellings and resubmit your search
• Change the order of the words in your search request
• Use multiple searches using phrases and keyword list options
• Keep your search results in multiple browser tabs so you can reference previous attempts
• Preserve notes and effective results in a text file or word processing document
• Use bookmarks to preserve places you want to return to
• Organize your bookmarks so you can locate them again
• Learn how to read your browser’s history to recall lost links

overview  –  what is the web  –  search criteria  –  protecting yourself  –  plan your time

The Connected Lifestyle

Your ‘client’ (PC, MAC, cellphone, tablet, etc.) asks a ‘server’ computer for information, If it can, the server returns it. The reality is more complex, but logically, it is the same whether you are querying your bank, Google, Bing, Amazon, the IRS or even your favorite porn site.

The web has many parts, but there are 3 basic components everyone needs to understand:

• Client devices
• Search Engines (indexing servers)
• Content Servers

Client Devices
A client is a hardware device with web browser software installed. It gives you a way to interact with the web. There are web browsers available for most devices you use like: Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. There are others that are specific to particular platforms like Safari for Apple or Edge for Windows 10.

The browser is your primary link to the web, and you need to understand the specifics of any browser that you choose to use. They are generally similar, but each has its own place to enter address information, unique ways to customize it, and specific ways to display multiple results.

Search Engines
Search engines are specialized servers that provide maps to information scattered around the web. In a sense, they are like all other servers except that they provide links to the things you ultimately want to use.

When you search for something on the web that request is usually directed to a search engine. Search engines typically return a list of possible places to go on the web that relate to your search. Examples of search engines include google.com, yahoo.com and bing.com.

Content Servers
Content servers are the destinations that provide the information that people ultimately seek. These web servers are the collection of all computers that store the information we use. They include computers that store your bank account and credit information, news sites, streaming sites like NetFlix and YouTube, Amazon, Ebay, Facebook, Twitter, and every other content you can imagine.

overview  –  what is the web  –  search criteria  –  protecting yourself  –  plan your time

The Connected Lifestyle

Younger people grew up using it to find what they want. Some of us remember foraging through paper stacks at the library and are just thrilled to search for answers at will instead.

Nothing was worse than tearing through the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature only to find that the nearest answer was at a library halfway around the world.

Most of us use online resources daily, but many don’t really understand how they work or how to use them effectively. If you listen to mainstream cynics, the web is a dark scarey place that will reach out and bite you if you pet it wrong.

You can get hurt by using the web naively, but the reality is more like a big mess of things that have piled up. They need to be searched and sifted to find the useful bits. It’s like a big flea market of treasures and trash, information and services that all need to be examined for their useful value.

Shopping a flea market or searching the library require skills to succeed, so too the web. You need to know how to find things, value them and not be ripped off in the process. There is no mysticism.

The basic skill set to effectively use the web is pretty simple, but like household budgets and balancing the checkbook, no one seems to teach us. There are only about (4) basic things we all need to know:

• A ‘basic’ understanding of the web
• How to define and refine search criteria
• How to protect yourself
• Plan to get things done

overview  –  what is the web  –  search criteria  –  protecting yourself  –  plan your time

The Connected Lifestyle

We now have immediate access to more information than anyone ever has. Not only can we seek answers, they seek us. There is a device at every turn demanding our attention. It is so overwhelming that there are days when I just want to throw everything out and go live in the woods.

Poor Gutenberg had no idea of the beast he unchained. With the convergence of media and technology we have entered a world none of us ever imagined. Even George Orwell didn’t envision the complexities we have unleashed.

As a member of the technology industry and for helping to create this bastard child, you are welcome, and I apologize. Like it or not, this cyber beast is our reality. It is a great gift if we learn to harness it, or it is the scourge of all time if we fail to use it wisely.

I am intimate with technology. I dip below the surface daily, writing software, implementing network protocols and installing hardware solutions. This is my introduction to The Connected Lifestyle. It is a thread of subjects, at lease my attempt, to help address some of the problems that I helped create.

The topics I cover are based on my personal experiences and interests. Except when written as part of a series, each can be read in any order. They are written so that most people can understand the terminology. I cover a wide array of topics that range from the simple to the highly technical. My overall goal is to offer a few ideas to help people navigate the craziness that is being connected 24 by 7.

If you have any suggestions, comments or requests please contact me via Facebook or email.

Happy Computing!

Arthur Couture