March 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
I had a chance to meet up with the owner of Train Signal, Scott Skinger, this week. Train Signal provides training courses for server-side applications like Exchange, Windows management, etc. Though they don't do databases from what I've seen, so we're going to have to put some pressure on them.
Anyway, the reason I'm blogging on this is because I was reasonable pleased to see the types of courses they have and the depth they cover. I'm always looking for new training and I'm really only becoming interested in that which covers more than just the basics. And from what I've read, Train Signal should fit nicely.
Their biggest draw for me though is their price. They're priced so that ordinary techs can afford the courses themselves and don't have to rely on their company to pay for it. Some of the other training vendors cost over $1,000 per course and while the training is really above average, it's really hard to talk your boss into paying that much for DVD training, and impossible to afford it yourself. So I like vendors who offer materials that are priced to own. And these courses being scenario-based, they walk you through each task and explain things along the way. I'm really getting tired of combing through books as my only source of information. Sometimes, I'd really like to just have an expert sit down and explain something to me.
I'll be doing a review of the course material here pretty soon so stay tuned. I'll probably post it on my personal review site, www.ITBookworm.com, but I may also post it here. I'll at least link to it from here, how's that?
I caught up with Scott and he gave me a short interview. Here's how it went.
1. How long have you been making courseware?
Train Signal was started in 2002, so this is our sixth year in business.
2. What prompted you to start doing this?
Before starting Train Signal, I was an instructor at several different schools. I was very disappointed with the instruction found in Microsoft Press books and also the school’s general curriculum. It was very theoretical and the students weren’t learning as much as I thought they should. I decided to use the books/curriculum as a guideline and add more hands-on exercises to the instruction.
I would bring in a lot of my own equipment, create labs, write scenarios and do a lot of troubleshooting to ensure that they were really learning networking and not just how to pass a test. The students really liked it and I could see a big difference in their knowledge and confidence. After doing this enough times I decided to create lab books and sell these on the Internet. Originally, the videos that I created were meant to supplement the lab books. However, I tend to be long-winded and detailed and I realized that the videos were even more valuable than the lab books.
3. How many employees do you have, and are you an actual company who does this fulltime, or a group of techies doing it in their spare time?
I founded Train Signal by myself in 2002. I really had no idea what I was doing and no formal business plan. We have grown every year since and we currently have 15 full-time employees and about 15 independent contractors working with us.
4. How do you choose the courses you teach?
We listen to our customers first and foremost. We also pay attention to the industry and what is hot. We really don’t go far outside our niche, Computer Networking professionals, so it is easier to focus in on the hottest courses.
5. How do you qualify and choose instructors?
I was the original instructor and I am very picky about the quality of the material and ensuring that we under promise and over deliver. I no longer teach but I am still involved in the process of choosing instructors. We are VERY picky and only choose instructors who are “great instructors” first and technically sound second. We are regimented in the procedures we follow (email to the instructor, information given, etc.) and we gauge responses to determine a good fit. Once we fell like we have a potential good fit, we require a practice teach video. I pay close attention to everything looking for clues about the instructor’s overall performance. We have been very fortunate with our instructors and we currently have 7 very solid instructors.
6. What do you think makes your training different from the others?
Our products are scenario-based and taught in a way to give the student as close to a “real world” experience as possible. Our primary focus in on making sure the student knows as much as possible on the subject matter and not just enough to pass a certification test.
I also think that we honestly care more than other training companies. It sounds silly but I have made it very known to all of our instructors that our mission is to create the “Best Computer Training on the Planet”. We put a lot of time and effort into making sure each course contains everything that it should.
7. Are there any exciting courses we can look forward to soon?
I am really excited about our Server 2008 line. We will release our first product in early May and we will be releasing about 12 more Server 2008 products over the next year.
We are also trying something new that I am pretty pumped up about, an Advanced Exchange Server 2007 line. Basically, we will be releasing a whole series of courses to supplement our main Exchange 2007 release. Our Exchange 2007 course is 20 hours long and is very comprehensive but it is impossible to cover everything. Our Advanced line of Exchange Server courses will cover specific topics in more depth. We will be releasing courses like Powershell in Exchange 2007, Exchange Anti-Spam/Virus, Exchange Backup & Disaster Recovery, Unified Messaging and a few others. Our Powershell course is schedule for June.
8. Do you or have you considered offering your courses online... what was the outcome?
This is really a hot topic for us right now. I personally like physical products and we will continue to sell physical products. However, the trend is definitely towards online training, so this is something that we will start to offer in 2008.
9. Is there anything else you want people to know about your training or anything related to it?
We put time and effort into every release to make sure that it is a “Train Signal” quality course. We will provide you with a high quality product that represents an exceptional value AND we guarantee it. We offer a 90 Day, Unconditional Money Back Guarantee on ALL of our courses, because we flat out believe in our product. No other training company even comes close to matching our guarantee. Although, we do have people who scam us (watch the course or copy the course and return it), I love offering this guarantee because I have so much faith in our product.
Also, we are here for our customers. If you have a question, give us a call and we will help you out. You will be talking to a live person on the phone from the very beginning and we won’t let you off the phone until you are happy!
OK, well I guess that's all I've got on Train Signal for now. I'll have more when I get the material and find out if they're really as good as they say they are. But from the little I've seen, it's encouraging.
Posted by Sean McCown on March 25, 2008 08:05 AM
December 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Review: HP and Cingular connect on iPAQ hw6920
For many years HP's iPAQ line offered stiff competition to Palm's line of PDAs. However, as Treos, BlackBerry handhelds, and a flood of other converged smartphones hit, HP didn't stay at the forefront of this technology. The new iPAQ hw6920 and hw6925 (currently offered exclusively by Cingular Wireless) get HP back into the game -- though it's not an MVP. Nevertheless, enterprises should consider these Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PCs because their built-in cellular phone is surrounded with quad-band GSM wireless data networking, corporate e-mail solutions, and enterprise manageability.
The hw6925 model I evaluated (the 6920 is the same, except it lacks a 1.3 megapixel camera) features a 3-inch (240 x 240 pixel resolution) TFT color screen, making it a tad wider compared to a Palm Treo 700w or BlackBerry Pearl. Like the BlackBerry and Palm Treo 680, the hw6925 doesn't have a stubby antenna so the rounded design fits comfortably in your hand. Measured against Motorola's Q or Cingular's 3125 (developed by HTC), the hw6925 is about 33 percent deeper -- and at 6.3 ounces, it's one of the heaviest handhelds out there. Yet I think the larger size and weight is a fair compromise to accommodate the additional radios plus a bigger, replaceable battery; one charge lasted about 7 days in standby (with GPS and Wi-Fi turned off) and gave me almost 4 hours of talk time.
Connectivity is clearly important to business users, and this unit generally delivers on its Mobile Messenger title -- with GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi, GPS, infrared, and Bluetooth wireless connections. Most of my testing was on Cingular's EDGE data network in Eastern Pennsylvania. My test hw6925 delivered the best voice quality of all the cellular phones I've used. Digital signal quality was consistently very good, with expected speed (about 100 – 150 kbps), which proved very acceptable for retrieving my e-mail and remote access to mobile-enabled enterprise applications. One disappointment: HP didn't include HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) which is the evolution of GSM/EDGE technology; Cingular's 3G network is one of the first to use HSDPA.
For e-mail, HP supports several push technologies. I connected to a corporate Microsoft Exchange 2003 server (over EDGE and Wi-Fi) and accessed my messages with Window Mobile's built-in Outlook application. Other options include Good Technologies (now part of Motorola) GoodLink for connecting to Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino servers. Cingular's Xpress Mail service ($4.99 per month) let me easily configure and use my Comcast POP e-mail account.
The built-in QWERTY keyboard worked well for composing messages. I also liked HP's 5-way navigation button located right above the keyboard because it let me quickly navigate menus and make selections without touching the screen.
GPS is a useful tool for business travelers and the hw6920 series' built-in high-sensitivity GPS receiver gives you several options. I tested the optional TeleNav GPS Navigator service ($5.99 to $9.99 a month), and I found that it quickly acquired a GPS signal and continuously updated the map display. As alternatives, HP bundles Microsoft Pocket Streets, or you can purchase HP Navigation Maps software ($129.00). The built-in photo software let me attach GPS coordinates to pictures, which would be important feature for insurance investigators or field service employees.
The standard parts of Windows Mobile 5.0 are what you'd get with other PPC products, including mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft hasn't changed these applications in a while, though they ran quickly on the hw6920 series' 416 MHz Intel PXA270 processor. Further, these devices ship with Microsoft Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0.
As I've experienced with other manufacturers' Windows Mobile 5.0 handhelds, I did have to reset the hw6925 a couple of times during my testing when it locked up. While HP representatives wouldn't comment on any upgrade for this device, they have indicated some other iPAQs may have a firmware upgrade to what's likely a Service Pack 2 for Windows Mobile 5.0 (code-named Crossbow). I'd certainly encourage the company to consider this for the hw6920 series in the hope of better stability.
Enterprises should also look at the overall security and manageability of a mobile solution – areas that HP addresses with several optional services. For example, HP ProtectTools for Windows Mobile lets administrators remotely wipe devices if they're lost or stolen and enforce corporate polices, such as strong passwords. (Admittedly, enterprises running Exchange may already have access to many of these features since mobility security is standard with Exchange Server 2003 SP2).
HP iPAQ hw6920 series Mobile Messenger
Availability: Now
Pricing: Starts at $359.99 with two-year Cingular Wireless contract and qualifying voice and data plan.
Verdict: While the iPAQ hw6920 series Mobile Messenger has a few blemishes, and various HP and Cingular services can get pricey, it still represents a sound enterprise mobile solution. The hardware isn't a svelte as you'll find, but its quality construction and multiple connectivity features should meet requirements of many organizations. And don't ignore HP's optional mobile services, including security and manageability. The most glaring omission is a HSDPA radio.
Posted by Mike Heck on December 20, 2006 10:31 AM
October 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Review: SnipSnap 1.0's a bliki for the budget-conscious biz
In enterprise settings, wiki and blog software is often used to document projects, form a departmental community, or perhaps keep everyone across the enterprise informed and engaged. The SnipSnap project blends wiki functionality together with blogging tools to form a "bliki" that can easily address these enterprise requirements.
SnipSnap, free and licensed under GNU-GPL, is a Java-based solution that can easily be deployed in a matter of minutes. I was able to quickly deploy the SnipSnap Web archive (WAR) file using the Apache Tomcat Web container. Its user- and role-based features work well as do its blogging and wiki functions.
Sites seeking a wiki, blogging, or bliki solution should consider SnipSnap a work in progress. Its developers have a roadmap, but some features, such as categorization, are only partially implemented. Moreover, SnipSnap text editing is rudimentary when compared to other solutions, such as Confluence.
Like other solutions, SnipSnap offers the capability to attach documents. Therefore, you might use SnipSnap to organize your content, since it includes a linking feature, and actually house the detailed content in organized attachments, such as PDF files. In this way, users could create content in an editing tool of their choice.
Most blogging and wiki solutions offer a content change notification feature – usually via e-mail. In the case of SnipSnap, notifications of content changes are provided via instant messaging and this works well. However, I'd like to have the ability to receive a daily digest of SnipSnap content changes added as a feature in the future.
SnipSnap includes many of the same useful tools that are on par with its rivals. For example, a calendar function is included as an aid for locating content. Moreover, the SnipSnap search function is on par with rivals and it provides a fast way to find related content – referred to as "snips" in SnipSnap-speak. If you are evaluating wiki or blog solutions, SnipSnap is worth test-driving.
Bottom Line
SnipSnap 1.0
Platforms: Any Java-capable (tested on Windows 2000/XP, Linux, MacOS X 10.2, Solaris 9)
Cost: Free under GNU-GPL
Bottom Line: SnipSnap combines blogging and wiki functions to form a "bliki." Most sites will find it useful for departmental-level documentation projects and the like though it could be more broadly applied. While SnipSnap provides core collaboration and editing capabilities, it is not as feature-rich as some other wiki and blogging solutions. Still, SnipSnap does provide an easy way to organize content at a budget-minded price: free.
Posted by Maggie Biggs on October 16, 2006 06:14 PM
