“I did it all by myself!” Parents are gleeful hearing their young children exclaim those words with delight after mastering a new accomplishment. It proves the youngster has the drive and individual passion to propel him/her through life. Doing it yourself is great for personal growth, but it is not the key to success for business and organizational achievement for professionals.
...and checking it twice! You may wonder why it takes us time to get proposals for new machines and servers ready. The answer is in the details! We use detailed checklists for all services that we provide and for all current and future projects.
The book, The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, stresses how the OR uses checklists to ensure nothing gets left behind when they are operating on a patient.
Certified driving instructors have a plethora of rules and advice for proper use of a motor vehicle—including how to use your mirrors. They advocate checking your rearview mirror every 5‑8 seconds because what is behind you, can certainly affect your way forward.
Out of Sight…
In this issue:
The holiday season is a great time to organize your homes and offices and start the new year with a clean slate. What better way to do that than by giving the gift of a password manager—a program that allows users to store, generate and manage their passwords for all sorts of online services.
Some may remember Lost in Space, a TV show from the late 1960s. The Robinson family set off to colonize space, and suddenly were thrown off course, stranded in a perilous environment, light years from their desired destination. Luckily, “Robot” would alert the young Robinson boy to hazards by shouting “Danger Will Robinson!”
No one has a safety robot or even a map or GPS device to facilitate safe travels over the world wide web.
We have all heard the question: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, did it really happen?" That thought raises philosophical issues regarding our powers of observation and perception. When each of us are in our “me” centered world, we sometimes think that if we did not see or hear something, then it was not important, or worse that it did not happen.
Out of Sight…
In this issue:
Confession time! How many of you manage your computer and online passwords in any of the following ways:
Use the same/similar password for everything
Keep all your passwords written on a slip of paper
Change your password by incrementing the number by 1
Keep a spreadsheet with all your passwords on your desktop
We see it all the time and have heard every reason you can think of as to why it’s “fine”. The most common of which is “I don’t have any data a hacker would want”. Nothing could be further from the truth! Have you ever thought about what a hacker could do with just your email password? With just access to your email, a hacker only needs to click the “I forgot my password” button for any of your accounts and will instantly have the keys to the kingdom.
With the explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the list of things to hack has also exploded. If one takes a moment to consider the potential risks, it can be eye opening and downright scary—just in time for Halloween. Peruse the Internet a bit and you will find real hacking examples that include pacemakers, children’s teddy bears, baby monitors, vehicles, security cameras, and more.
