Knapp I.T. » Not ITSM

Link Love: Jeremy’s updated “How to Buy a Laptop” guide

Jill Knapp — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:54:48 +0000

One of my best friends on the planet is the Group Policy guru, Jeremy Moskowitz. And every year he writes a “How to Buy a Laptop” guide for friends and family. Well guess what? He’s my friend, and you’re my friend, so you get to see it.

WHO LOVES YOU? I do. :)

So… If you’re a techie, you probably have friends and family asking you what kind of laptop they should buy. Laptop technology is changing all the time… do you want an iPad? A Netbook? A Google/ChromeOS laptop? An Android tablet? A full-on laptop? Let Jeremy Moskowitz guide you through the questions, answers, and options. He’s the MAN.

Here’s the link: Enjoy!

How to buy a laptop for the Regular Person (2014-2015 edition)

Another Terrific Link: Buying a new laptop in 2012

Jill Knapp — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:57:52 +0000

If you’re a techie, you probably have friends and family asking you what kind of laptop they should buy.

Laptop technology is changing all the time… do you want an iPad? A Netbook? A Google/ChromeOS laptop? An Android tablet? A full-on laptop?

Let Jeremy Moskowitz guide you through the questions, answers, and options.

(Yes, that’s two Mosko-links in a row. What can I say? He’s a smart, prolific guy.)

Here’s the link: Enjoy!

How to buy a laptop for 2012 (for the regular person)”>

Terrific Link: Backing up your data

Jill Knapp — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:49:33 +0000

My mentor, dear friend, and Group Policy Mastermind Jeremy Moskowitz has been writing a blog post every year that provides very practical information re: how to back up your data on your home PC.

Obviously your IT Department’s backup strategy is going to be very different than this, but these instructions are perfect for your non-techie friends and family, and also for tech-savvy folks like me who run their company out of their homes. The article is written for non-techies, though techies won’t find it condescending either. :)

Jeremy updates this post every year since backup options and technologies are changing all the time.

And as Jeremy suggests: Print out a copy, and hand it to your parents. This will save you some panicky phone calls one day, I promise.

I highly, highly recommend this article. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and all that.

So without further ado… here’s the link. Enjoy!

Backup Procedures for the normal (non-IT) person [Repost]

Never thought to use LinkedIn for that…

Jill Knapp — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:37:35 +0000

As I’m sure you already know, LinkedIn is a social networking service for the business world. It allows you to connect to current, past (and potentially future) business contacts, make recommendations of their work, and participate in groups/message boards that are related to business topics you care about. (I wrote that for my mom who reads this blog but probably doesn’t know about LinkedIn. Hi, Mom!)

Don’t ask me how I even discovered this, but Barack Obama has a LinkedIn profile. It looks legit(ish?), but for some reason it just seems absurd for this man to have a LinkedIn profile; as if to give the impression that anyone can connect with him or hire him for a consulting gig. Listed under “Experience” it says simply “President, United States of America.” Well crud, how the heck am I supposed to compete with that? :-)

The best part:

Gotta say, I use LinkedIn a lot, and using it to discover how many degrees of separation there are between me and Kevin Bacon never even occurred to me. (My number is three, whether I use Linked In or not.) It’s cracking me up this morning.

Since we’re on the topic: If you’d like to connect to me on Linked In, please do. I’d be grateful if you’d add a note with your connection request saying how we know (or why we should know) each other. I’ve taught thousands of students over the years, and I admit I’m not great at remembering every name/face.

Behind the scenes book stuff

Jill Knapp — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:14:30 +0000

We’re in the phase of the book-writing process where the editors are working their magic. My voicovers, PowerPoints, and written book portion have been long done and submitted, and now the whole thing is going through technical editing and assembly. Exciting stuff!

Everything has been going smoothly so far, except for one small snag: my book’s description on sites like Borders.com, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc. all say the wrong thing. Gaaaah! The good news is that we know why it happened: The publisher has a standard marketing blurb that all books in the Video Mentor series automatically get as a temporary placeholder… but mine never got updated with the real book synopsis, which I submitted last July.

Understandably, I am pretty freaked out about this because the standard marketing blurb incorrectly states that my book/DVD set contains hours of Flash animations, hands on labs, and simulations; alas, my book doesn’t contain these things– they were never part of the plan. My publisher’s standard marketing language is perfect for the typical tech-training type stuff that my publisher puts out, but ITIL isn’t technical training in a “click here, configure that” sense. My product contains 100% lecture and Powerpoint, and a ton of sample questions. No labs; no Flash animations; no business simulations. It’s just me being informative and charming. :-)

We chose not to include simulations and labs because this book/DVD set was never intended to be a full-blown V3 Foundation class; it’s simply designed to reinforce the exam syllabus/requirements for students who have already either taken a class or have chosen to go the self-study route. We wanted to create something to give students some extra confidence going into the exam so they could knock it out of the park.

My (irrational) fear is that the book/DVD synopsis won’t get changed in time, and people will buy the book/DVD set expecting Flash animations and labs and simulations… and when they don’t get what they were promised, they’re going to trash the book in their reviews. Do not want.

If people aren’t happy with my product because I did a crummy job, I totally own and accept that. But if people aren’t happy with my product because of an administrative error, I am going to be REALLY unhappy because I’ll have to, you know, find a new career.

Anyhoo, my publisher found the bug and they’ve set the wheels in motion to get it fixed. Now we’re waiting for various batch jobs to complete so the information trickles down to all of the various bookseller sites.

My editorial team is a great group of folks, and I know they’re doing their best to make it right, so that’s good news.

But still… it’s like watching a pot of water and waiting for it to boil.
I’m choosing to view it as an opportunity for me to practice compassion and patience. :-)

Hey look, I’m famous!

Jill Knapp — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:59:43 +0000

ABCNews.com ran a blurb about an April Fools Day joke I played on my cow-orkers when I was the Manager of Information Systems at East Valley Diagnostic Imaging in Arizona over a decade ago.

It was funnier in real life, trust me. :-)

Travel conundrum

Jill Knapp — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:18:39 +0000

On a recent flight on Southwest (where you get to sit anywhere you want on the plane) I had to make the decision between sitting next to the screeching baby or sitting next to the passenger with the lung-rattling cough of doom. Which would you choose?

I did an informal poll over at my personal blog, and my pals chose the screeching baby by a landslide.

My friend Lexi sums it up best:

A piercing screech is annoying but doesn’t leave one wondering about drug-resistant TB for the entire length of the flight…

If this type of poll interests you, consider lurking over at FlyerTalk, which is a forum for folks who fly a lot… like, a lot a lot. Makes me look like an amateur.