August 2020 - Talixa Tech Blog

August 30, 2020August 30, 2020

Backups Are Not Optional

Recently, I visited a customer site for what seemed like a simple request – to update their Windows computer. However, in the end, the machine had to be reformatted. The customer was very worried that they would lose critical data on their system. That didn’t happen, but I was concerned that the customer wasn’t performing backups on what he considered to be critical operational data.

Today, failure to backup important data is not excusable. With the advent of cloud services as well as cheap data storage, customers have countless options for ensuring their data is always available. Regardless of the operating system or situation, everyone should be performing regular backups of critical information.

Backup Options

For Mac users, Apple’s Time Machine is the way to go. The gold standard for computer backups, Time Machine automatically backups up your entire system whenever a configured hard drive is connected to the computer. Not only is it easy to configure and implement, backups couldn’t be easier. During setup of a new Mac computer, simply plug in the Time Machine drive and the OS will take care of moving everything to a new system. It could not possibly be easier. Additionally, Apple’s iCloud drive is an incredibly cheap cloud-based backup option. The free iCloud storage allows up to 5 gigs while paid solutions start at only .99 cents per month.

Unfortunately, Windows users don’t have anything as nice as Time Machine. However, Microsoft’s OneDrive allows free storage of 5 gigs (like iCloud) and up to 1 TB for only $6.99 per month. With automatic syncing to the cloud, OneDrive can quickly – and easily – protect mission critical data.

In addition to the above, countless other options exist. Google Drive, a service similar to OneDrive or iCloud, allows 15 gigs of free storage. For developers, both BitBucket and GitHub provide off-site storage of source code. For your cell phone, Google Photos can backup every selfie you take so you never have to worry about losing the pictures on your phone.

Conclusion

In the end, it doesn’t really matter what service you use or how you do your backups. What matters is that you’re doing them. For me, as a business owner, the loss of my business data would be catastrophic. So, I have implemented various backups to preserve critical files. If my computer blows up today, I’ve got nothing to fear – I’ll be back up and running tomorrow.

If you are concerned about what would happen to your business in the event of a computer crash or catastrophic event, contact someone in your IT department. If you don’t have an IT department feel free to contact Talixa Software for assistance.

August 23, 2020August 23, 2020

Tech Tip: Google Alerts

Google is responsible for innumerable software tools and applications. Chrome, Android, the Pixel, GoogleFi, and Gmail are just a few. But there’s a particularly useful tool that few people seem to know much about – Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is a service where Google will email you with new results for a desired search string. This has a few particularly useful applications for business and security.

First, entering your name as well as any common variations (Tom vs Thomas) can be useful for identity monitoring. Every time something comes up with your name, you’ll be notified. Quoted in the paper? Named in a lawsuit? Listed as next of kin in an obituary? If your name is associated with new content, you’ll be notified.

Second, entering your company name is great way to keep track of anybody mentioning your business. Even better, enter the names of your competitors so that you can keep track of any news releases associated with them as well! Of course, you can also use Google Alerts to get new information on your favorite musician, actor, or any other subject of interest to you.

While not as exciting (or as well known) as many of Google’s products, Google Alerts is an excellent tool to keep track of your digital footprint, keep up to date on your competitors, or stay abreast of the things that matter most to you.

August 16, 2020August 16, 2020

Remote Work? It’s Not All Good.

During the last few months, we’ve seen a huge shift by companies to encourage remote work. Indeed, for many organizations, this is they only option they have if they wish to stay in business. Many workers are very pleased with this, and some have even blasted companies who say they’ll end their remote plans when the coronavirus passes. However, as a business owner, I have a variety of issues with remote work.

Lack of Accountability

One of the biggest difficulties with remote work is the lack of accountability. Online, you’ll see all the people who support remote work argue that if you don’t trust someone, why are they working for you? But how can I possibly ever grow to trust someone I don’t have any interaction with? If the person works a remote-only job, and was hired remotely, I have no way to ever know the individual’s work ethic, whether he consistently shows up on time, or whether he plays games at the office all day. I’ve seen many people play Facebook games in their cubicles, I can only imagine what they would do if they were at home!

Difficulty in Mentoring

I currently have several interns (or, as I hear they’re called now, externs) working for me remotely. They need to complete an internship to finish the degree, and I offered to let them work for me. Unfortunately, I can’t watch what they do or easily mentor them. I don’t know when they’re stuck, and I have no way to really tell if they’re having difficulties or if they’re simply unproductive. I feel sorry for anyone working as an extern now, as I do not believe it’s possible to provide the same level of mentorship that’s possible when a team member is onsite.

Inability to Develop Social Connections

While many people may prefer to ignore it, social connections in the workplace are important. Developing relationships with a diverse pool of team members provides an employee the ability to learn from other team members, to share in the success and hardships of a project, and to engage in team-building that grows ever important as someone desires to climb the corporate ladder. Individuals who never work at the office will have a very difficult time developing the skills necessary to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Decreased Visibility

When it comes time to promote someone, do you chose the worker you’ve never met, or the individual who you see showing up early and staying late every day? The remote worker may put in just as many hours, but it will never been seen by management. Likewise, when it comes time to downsize, are you going to fire your friend or the worker three states away?

Minimized Importance of Client Interaction

Developing custom software for clients, I place a great deal of importance on relationships with my customers. I like to visit them whenever possible, see how things are going, and even socialize a bit. I view my customers as more than a source of revenue, but as the people who enable me to have a business. As such, I place a great deal of value on relationship building. With remote workers, the option for real meaningful client interaction is gone.

Why Not Outsource Everything?

If you disagree with all of the above, and you really think that remote-only is the future, then why not outsource everything to India, the Ukraine, or Latin America? If there truly is no value to being onsite, then there’s no value to me paying an American developer when I can outsource the work at a substantially reduced rate. By arguing that all jobs should be remote, you’re actually arguing that you’re way too expensive for the benefit you provide.

Conclusion

While I think remote work can be a great thing, I reject the notion that it is superior to working onsite. I look forward to returning to a normal business world where I can interact with my customers, meet for a burger with a new lead, and mentor my team in person. The remote-only world of today isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

August 9, 2020December 5, 2021

The NVIDIA Jetson Nano

During the last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to play around with the NVIDIA Jetson Nano. As an artificial intelligence enthusiast, I was very eager to see what the Jetson Nano could do, and I was not disappointed.

The Jetson Nano is a small AI computer, about the size of a Raspberry Pi. Just like the Pi, the Nano runs Linux and contains a 40-pin header for interfacing with other components. With 4 USB ports, ethernet, and HDMI, it’s a self-contained computer. What separates the Nano from the Pi, however, is the NVIDIA GPU. With 128 cores, the GPU is capable of performing floating point operations substantially faster than a typical machine. It’s those very floating point calculations that are the bulk of AI processing applications.

Taking the Nano for a spin, I downloaded their OS image and installed on an SD card. Visiting NVIDIA’s website, I found that they offered a free online course to learn the basics. Through their course, I was able to create simple AI to perform real-time image classification. Unlike a typical Haar filter generation, the Nano was able to create a classifier in minutes. And, even more exciting, the PyTorch framework they demonstrate contains pre-trained networks that allow for far fewer images than a typical Haar filter requires. Additional NVIDIA courses include video processing using C++, medical image processing, and countless other AI tasks.

What makes the Nano so exciting is just how fast it works. Having developed AI models in the past, I’m accustomed to lots of waiting. However, the Jetson Nano functions like a mini AI supercomputer. For beginners, this means you can easily generate your neural network model quickly and perform validation tests with substantially less effort than traditional computer architectures.

I highly recommend the Jetson Nano for anyone wanting to learn more about artificial intelligence or wishing to experiment with potential consumer or industrial applications with computer vision.