Steven - Steven "MrXinu" Klassen

Browsing Posts published by Steven

Stay Hydrated

March 24, 2010 Steven 1 comment

Staying hydrated on the road is hard to do. Well, it’s hard to do without sucking down a bunch of tap water anyway.

You can always swing by the front desk and their little market and scoop up a bunch of bottles of water. What’s that cost? $3 per bottle if you’re lucky? What about the bottles that are already in your room? We’ve all made it to our room with 60 lbs of luggage and snatched up that bottle only to read the label while we’re chugging that says “please enjoy this water, but know that we’re going to charge you a babillion dollars when we realize it’s gone.”

Forget all that nonsense; I have a solution. Bring a water bottle with you. I always carry my Lifeline 40 oz Steel Bottle with me. It slips into my backpack and as long as I don’t try to go through security with liquid in it, I get no grief.

Okay, you have a water bottle. You’re still left with tap water, right? No ma’am. Head down to the gym. Every hotel that I’ve stayed in that at least had a hamster wheel also had a water bottle with those little paper cups. Fill ‘er up as often as you need to!

This works especially well on-site with a customer. When I walk into a new office I want to know two things: 1) where’s the water cooler, and 2) where’s the bathroom. After that it’s smooth sailing.

Road Warrior gym, hotel, hydration, lifeline, Road Warrior, steel, tap, tips, water, water bottle

Knowing is Half the Battle

March 21, 2010 Steven 1 comment

For every personal strength there exists a corresponding potential for weakness. ~ Me

It sounds defeatist, right? That was the only explanation I could come up with at the time. If I was being duped into doing things I didn’t want to do, then obviously it was because something I was doing right was being flipped on me.

I used to think…

That being sympathetic was the same thing as being a sucker. “Can I have $5 because I need [insert something here]?” Cha-ching, out comes the wallet. If they needed money, and you had it, you’d hand it over like a cash machine. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”? I think Shakespeare was on to something.

That if someone did me a favor I was indebted to them. It didn’t matter if it was something I needed or wanted; if they did something for me, then the next time they asked for something I was obligated to consider it, if not acquiesce entirely. This works out alright if it’s a friend, but not so much if it’s a used car salesman.

Unfiltered responses to stimuli are scary. If someone does X, you do Y. I don’t want to do Y simply because someone pushed a button. I like having at least some illusion of control over the things I do and the decisions I make.

So I looked for a book that would explain how persuasion works under the hood. Why do I react like some kind of automaton whenever a particular event fires? I found a lot of answers in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. From the book overview:

You’ll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.

Now I know…

What a salesman is doing when he shows me the top-of-the-line and then shows me the model I actually want. (larger-then-smaller principle)

What an Amway vendor is doing when they leave sample products for me to use “with no obligation to purchase.” (reciprocity)

To think twice about agreeing to something because of what it will mean the *next* time I’m asked for something similar. (commitment & consistency)

Knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe said so. I think he was right.

Uncategorized cialdini, duped, influence, persuasion, used car salesmen

Shortest Path

March 12, 2010 Steven 1 comment

I think of this xkcd.com cartoon every time I walk to work. I think I made a half dozen minor adjustments on my walk from the hotel to the customer in the last two weeks. The only way to improve at this point is to blend in some jaywalking.

Uncategorized none

Going Up?

March 10, 2010 Steven 5 comments

This morning I was walking to the elevator to go up one floor to the concierge lounge. I was a few paces behind a soldier heading the same direction.

“Going to the lounge?” he asked as he stepped through the door to the stairwell across from the elevators.

“Yes sir.”

“Then let’s go, it’s one flight up – you can do it,” he said with no particular inflection.

Up we went together and I was instantly thankful for every lunge, squat, and bit of cardio I’d done recently because getting winded in front of this man would have been mortifying. When we got to the lounge he swiped his card and held the door open for me.

As soon as I got settled I tweeted (yes, I said tweeted) about it. My buddy OHCowgirl replied a few minutes later:

I thought about it over breakfast and then during the walk to work. It’s interesting how our brain consults its virtual barometer to decide how we’re going to feel about something we’ve experienced. I’m constantly reminded of this quote from Tony Robbins – one of my favorite motivational speakers:

The quality of your life is the quality of your communication (with yourself and others).

What did I communicate to myself about the experience? Of course I focused on the “you can do it.” We all do this when we don’t have enough information to go with the words – we tack other phrases on to what we heard to try to them out – then we decide how we feel about it.

It could have been anything from “you can do it, fat ass” to “you can do it—today is going to ROCK.” The communication with myself was the only thing that helped me embrace the latter.

What could have been a real downer this morning turned into a nice boost. Today is going to be great.

Personal Growth army, breakfast, concierge, courtesy, elevator, hotel, marriott, motivation, ohcowgirl, self-talk, soldier, stairs, tony robbins, twitter

iPhone Essentials

March 9, 2010 Steven 1 comment

I had been planning to write about my favorite iPhone apps, but since my good friend Strong Sarah got an iTouch I moved it up in my list.

Reviews none

SolarWinds Certification

March 5, 2010 Steven No comments

Today I passed the SolarWinds Certified Professional exam.

The test was just how the Head Geek described it: mostly NMS configuration/planning with some SolarWinds-specific questions sprinkled throughout. Of course I won’t go into any specifics – I don’t want to ruin the surprise – but I will mention a few things that you really ought to study before you walk in.

Protocols and Ports

If you can use the protocol for network monitoring (or remote administration), you’d better know it well. ICMP, SNMP, SSH, WMI, and telnet. Memorize the ports, the protocols, the differences between the versions available, and think about how you troubleshoot losing access to any one of them.

Subnetting

Yes, you can manage an NMS without knowing how subnetting works. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it can be done. I didn’t have to break out the binary calculations this time, but if you aren’t familiar with some of the common netmasks, you’ll be grasping for straws in some places.

Basic Math

It sounds silly, but expect to be doing some multiplication and long division. There was no calculator to be had – not even the low tech kind you find in a day planner. So, I had to dig deep. After the dust settled, I came up with a number that matched one of the possible answers. I’m pretty confident I was in the right neck of the woods.

All in all it was a good test that worked equally well for general NMS know-how as it did with SolarWinds chops. I’d recommend taking it if you do any daily work with SolarWinds products and have a modicum of CCNA-flavored savvy.

SolarWinds acls, ccna, certification, cidr, cisco, firewalls, icmp, management, monitoring, nms, orion, ping, rules, snmp, SolarWinds, ssh, subnetting, telnet, wmi

I Was Cold Once

February 25, 2010 Steven 2 comments

It was a job in Philadelphia. I was so cold I was convinced that I was going to lose the feeling in the tip of my nose permanently. The temperature was 19 degrees.

Fast forward 10 months to this morning. The rental car dutifully reported that the temperature was 2 degrees. No problem, right? I have a big orange jacket and gloves. Surely I can get from the Sears parking lot across the street to the customer’s front door.

I had never been so cold in my life. By the halfway mark it felt like I was wading waist-deep in ice water. My ears were starting to go numb. I finally reached the building, fumbled with my visitor badge, and got through the door. The lady at the front desk gave me nothing but grief (playfully, of course).

“Are you serious? I usually don’t even bother to wear a jacket, just a light sweater. This is nothing,” she said.

So my mission after work was to head to the Mall of America and acquire one of those huge fur hats with the cozy ear flaps. I must have tried a dozen stores ranging from Columbia Sports Wear to Lids and came up with nothing. The sports stores had beanies with various team logos, but they weren’t what I wanted. Defeated, I had some dinner and went back to the hotel.

If it’s this cold again tomorrow morning I’m going to wrap my head like a heavyweight ninja. I have a scarf and I’m not afraid to use it. I don’t mind looking ridiculous if it means I get to keep my lips and other nearly frozen bits on my face.

Uncategorized beanie, cold, frozen, minnesota, philadelphia, scarf, st. paul

Getting Back

February 24, 2010 Steven 3 comments

You land, get to the hotel, and you’re starving. You grab the rental car keys and head back out. You use your handy iPhone to find a restaurant, navigate to it, and eat. You get ready to head back to the hotel and realize your phone’s battery is nearly dead.

At this point you have two choices: find the nearest Radio Shack, or try and memorize the directions and turn the phone off quickly so you can at least use it to call for help when you realize you’re completely lost.

Enter: Bushnell Backtrack

This device is brilliant. It runs on two AAA batteries and stores up to 3 locations using GPS technology. Before you leave the hotel, set the first location. Drive to dinner, and then use the Backtrack to navigate back to the hotel using a directional arrow and distance.

Do you really need turn by turn directions? Not usually. For me the biggest issue is getting turned around in an unfamiliar area. As long as I know which direction my hotel is in and how far away I can get back every time.

Why is it pink, you ask? I had some Christmas money I wanted to spend at Big 5 and it’s the only color they had at the time. Was I going to wait for a more manly color? Heck no. I figured that made it theft proof – or at least theft resistant. Right?

Features:

Store and locate up to three locations
High sensitivity SiRF Star III GPS receiver
Self calibrating digital compass
Weather resistant
Operates on 2 AAA Batteries (Not Included)
Compact size stores easily in your pocket or purse
Lanyard included for easy attachment

Reviews backtrack, bushnell, directions, gps, iphone, restaurant, travel

Road Warrior Apps

February 23, 2010 Steven No comments

In the last few years I’ve tried dozens of applications to make being on the road a little bit easier. Several were duds, but there have been a few that were so good I use them on every trip. These are the ones that made the short list. Go download them now.

Expensify

If you’re not using this application for your expenses you’re losing money. Too many receipts go missing when you’re trying to keep them long enough to get them scanned or mailed in. Using this website and iPhone app you can say goodbye to all that noise. Expensify can reproduce most* receipts under $75 dollars and lets you easily upload photos of any receipts over that amount for attaching to the line items on your expenses reports.

*Update: Make sure you check out the eReceipts FAQ.The exception is hotel receipts – not just the hotel stay but any purchases you make in a hotel with your credit card. Just charge everything to your room and then send the receipt for the entire stay to receipts@expensify.com so you can attach it to your report.

Tripit

Are you still trying to find that email with your confirmation for your hotel / car rental / flight? Set up a free account with Tripit and forward all your confirmations to plans@tripit.com. Now you have a clean itinerary you can pull up any time you need it using the handy Tripit iPhone app.

Flight Track Pro [via iTunes]

Now that all your confirmations are in Tripit, get yourself Flight Track Pro and link it up with your Tripit itineraries to automatically load up your flight details. No more getting off a plane and desperately trying to figure out a) where you are, b) where you’re going to have to go to catch your connection, and c) how much time you have to do it.

Page 6 of 6
Prev
1
...
3
4
5
6

Steven "MrXinu" Klassen