Sunday Night JibberJobber Transitions to Amazon Servers

Sunday Night JibberJobber Transitions to Amazon Servers Almost eleven years ago this year I got laid off just a few months later JibberJobber launched. At first we hosted on GoDaddys servers, but the site was just too slow and kept going down.  It was a mess that only lasted a few days.  I then arranged to host JibberJobber with a friend, who was a brilliant server admin from my last company.  That worked fine until he had a change in his career and wasnt doing hosting anymore.  Thats when we switched to another friend I met while networking and weve been in their server farm for years. Sunday night, though, we move to Amazons hosting services.  Why didnt we do this eleven years ago?  Because I didnt think Amazon was ready to host JibberJobber.  Too often there were articles about how Amazons cloud went down, and tens of thousands of websites went down with it.  I figured hosting in-house, with our own physical server, would give us more of the control that we needed.  We had already proven with GoDaddys package that JibberJobber was too complex for a general hosting solution. Obviously Amazon has matured a lot in the last eleven years. Big, huge websites host there, and I havent read about downtime for years. Thats not to say Im confident there wont be problems, but I think the problems that Amazon might have are a better risk than the issues that we currently have. Not necessarily with the company we are hosting with now, but just with owning our own server, and managing all that goes along with that. All this is to say that Sunday night JibberJobber will be down for about an hour (if all goes well), after which JibberJobber should look the same, but will be housed in a different place.  What does that mean for you? It should mean better security. For the last couple of years we have been hammered by bad guys who have been trying to take JibberJobber down. Sometimes they have been successful, and its been super frustrating to deal with. Attacking in the middle of the night, or on a three day weekend, was especially not fun, as it made us be more vigilant and reactive all the time.  Theres a special place in h e double hockey sticks for the people who do this.  We implemented the automated security we could, but there are still ways to get around that. My understanding is that Amazon hosting services provides some extra security that will help this fight. It should mean a faster JibberJobber experience. Or server isnt too shabby, but Amazon has some options that allow us to ramp up the hardware when things seem slow. Combine that with some some technical changes we are making with how we have things organized, at the server level, and we hope to see much less latency in the user experience. It will mean that our developers have more time for YOUR experience. Whether its improving a particular workflow (or process), or working on a particular slow or cumbersome experience, moving to this solution and bringing on a dedicated server admin will mean my development team doesnt have to spend time on server stuff, and can focus on development. More reliability, faster user experience, and better development all are good things.  In the back of my mind I keep hoping that this is the right solution.  Time will tell. More of the back story: this switch has been talked about for years and the last few months have been nonstop work to make it happen.  The amount of work, and the level of detail, to move from one hosting environment to another is crazy.  Lots of moving parts, lots of planning and coordinating and testing, and really, many points of failure.  Heres to a problem free transition! Sunday Night JibberJobber Transitions to Amazon Servers Almost eleven years ago this year I got laid off just a few months later JibberJobber launched. At first we hosted on GoDaddys servers, but the site was just too slow and kept going down.  It was a mess that only lasted a few days.  I then arranged to host JibberJobber with a friend, who was a brilliant server admin from my last company.  That worked fine until he had a change in his career and wasnt doing hosting anymore.  Thats when we switched to another friend I met while networking and weve been in their server farm for years. Sunday night, though, we move to Amazons hosting services.  Why didnt we do this eleven years ago?  Because I didnt think Amazon was ready to host JibberJobber.  Too often there were articles about how Amazons cloud went down, and tens of thousands of websites went down with it.  I figured hosting in-house, with our own physical server, would give us more of the control that we needed.  We had already proven with GoDaddys package that JibberJobber was too complex for a general hosting solution. Obviously Amazon has matured a lot in the last eleven years. Big, huge websites host there, and I havent read about downtime for years. Thats not to say Im confident there wont be problems, but I think the problems that Amazon might have are a better risk than the issues that we currently have. Not necessarily with the company we are hosting with now, but just with owning our own server, and managing all that goes along with that. All this is to say that Sunday night JibberJobber will be down for about an hour (if all goes well), after which JibberJobber should look the same, but will be housed in a different place.  What does that mean for you? It should mean better security. For the last couple of years we have been hammered by bad guys who have been trying to take JibberJobber down. Sometimes they have been successful, and its been super frustrating to deal with. Attacking in the middle of the night, or on a three day weekend, was especially not fun, as it made us be more vigilant and reactive all the time.  Theres a special place in h e double hockey sticks for the people who do this.  We implemented the automated security we could, but there are still ways to get around that. My understanding is that Amazon hosting services provides some extra security that will help this fight. It should mean a faster JibberJobber experience. Or server isnt too shabby, but Amazon has some options that allow us to ramp up the hardware when things seem slow. Combine that with some some technical changes we are making with how we have things organized, at the server level, and we hope to see much less latency in the user experience. It will mean that our developers have more time for YOUR experience. Whether its improving a particular workflow (or process), or working on a particular slow or cumbersome experience, moving to this solution and bringing on a dedicated server admin will mean my development team doesnt have to spend time on server stuff, and can focus on development. More reliability, faster user experience, and better development all are good things.  In the back of my mind I keep hoping that this is the right solution.  Time will tell. More of the back story: this switch has been talked about for years and the last few months have been nonstop work to make it happen.  The amount of work, and the level of detail, to move from one hosting environment to another is crazy.  Lots of moving parts, lots of planning and coordinating and testing, and really, many points of failure.  Heres to a problem free transition!

Why I Miss College

Why I Miss College This is a post dedicated to the nostalgic feeling I’ve been having about my college days. College is the time of your life for many of us who go through the traditional college experience. College is indeed a lot like high school with two exceptions and one of them can be overcome. The first exception is that you take harder classes, and this can be overcome if you decide to take easy classes or “easy” professors.  Like the true professor’s kid I am, I took classes because I wanted to “learn” so the exception of harder classes still applies to me. The second exception is that unlike in high school you can’t escape people “for the night.” In college, you live with everyone â€" your friends, enemies, and frenemies â€" which means you have to see all these people all the time. So, with hard classes and a less than perfect living situation for about four years, the “real world” tends to be a “welcoming” breath of fresh air. All that glitters however, is not gold. I guess I’m just longing for the feeling of familiarity I had during my college experience. Or maybe it’s the fact that Im still in the “it’s a rough life” phase of the post-graduation period. Whatever it is, I miss college and it’s not for the parties or that I miss living around a lot of friends (though I do miss them a lot). Here are my  three main reasons why I miss college: I’m really good at school! I don’t only like learning, I enjoy taking classes and engaging with the professor and students in an academic setting. In the real world, you learn differently because you have to. You learn on your job and you pick up street smarts (or at least you should). But given the lack of discipline many of us have, we are not forced to learn like we did in college so we don’t. Although I try to keep up with reading and learning new things, it’s just not the same. Do I miss homework, all-nighters and finals week? Well not really, but it was part of the package, and truth be told some of my best memories were the hustle and bustle of getting that assignment finally done…the night before. Oh, the good old days. I miss my professors and mentors  I will say that I am very lucky that I have Nicole, (the founder of this blog) around me constantly and I literally shudder to think what my life would be like if I had not met her. I miss the dean of the Business school who is the main reason why my school’s business school was as big as it was.   I just miss being around all the knowledgeable people all the time who always seemed to have the time to pass on that knowledge anytime, anywhere. I miss running into random people I know (and don’t know). Living in Chicago, you would think I’d be fed up with running into random people but it’s not the same thing like it was in college. When I was in school, I would see those random people on the weekends and then see them during the week and the contrast was just well, funny to say the least. It still amazes me how different many of us were over the weekend compared to the week. Different but still the sameand I loved it. I know what you’re thinking â€" somebody get this girl to grad school! And maybe that is in my future, maybe even my near future, but it won’t be the same. College was the time of my life. And even though I believe that somewhere in this dark post-grad period, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I think I’m still allowed to be nostalgic, am I not? What do you miss most about college? And what ingenious advice, if any, do you have for me to get over my post-grad blues? I’d like to know! Happy Thursday everyone! Probably going out for a drink tonight for a pretend thirsty Thursday â€" in memory of those good ol’ college days

What You Need To Consider When Buying Flooring For Your Home

What You Need To Consider When Buying Flooring For Your Home Your home is without a doubt the biggest single investment that you are going to make in your life. It should be something that you are proud of and designed in your very own image. That being said, you might be surprised to learn just how complicated it is to choose the right flooring option for your home. The whole process is far more complicated than just finding the best-looking materials. You have to consider moisture, durability, costs, and other factors. Whether you are remodeling or doing a new installation, it is extremely important to know what to look for in your new flooring. Be Wary Of Moisture  Moisture is something that you are going to have to deal with in every home. It doesn’t matter how well insulated or protected the home is. The natural weather conditions and the location of the home are just going to create moisture like conditions. Sure, some areas will be far worse than others, but moisture is going to be present everywhere. Moisture can be extremely hard on wood products, as it causes them to bow, warp, and rot. Bathrooms and basements are extremely prone to high moisture. So, when choosing flooring for these areas, you are probably best off to go with something that offers high to medium moisture resistance. These materials would include laminate, concrete, ceramic, porcelain tile, or vinyl. Always Shop With A Reputable Vendor  When it comes to choosing a vendor for your flooring you are going to have a variety of options. You can shop from a discount store or you can shop from a big box store if you are willing to pay a little more. Whatever the situation is, you want to make sure that you are shopping from a reputable vendor. Reputable vendors such as  Conklin Bros.  will offer a variety of flooring options and materials. Not only will you find affordable prices online, but also you can easily and quickly browse   online inventory to check out huge selections of tile, hardwood, vinyl, laminate, carpet, porcelain, and bamboo flooring. Consider Pets And Children  Do you have a home that is packed with kids and pets? Well, you do not need an expert to tell you that both pets and children can be extremely hard on floors. Not only do they carry in a lot of dirt and debris, but also there is always the possibility that they are going to accidents and spills. This might tae carpet out of the equation for you. Whatever the situation is, if children and pets are involved you are going to need a floor with superior wear resistance. There are a lot of flooring options available on the market that look wear resistant, but they aren’t In fact, some of the best site-finished solid hardwood can easily scratch, which is going to stand out like a sore thumb. Ceramic, porcelain, tile, plank vinyl, or laminate might be the superior flooring choices when it comes to dealing with kids and pets. DIY Installation?  Are you a fairly handy individual with the tools to complete a variety of home projects? Well, you might just have what it takes to complete your very own DIY flooring installation. This can save you a ton of money in the process and might enable you to purchase more fashionable flooring. That being said, there is some flooring installations that should only be done by the pros. Ceramic and tile installations are not quite as simple as one might think and could result in an even more costly endeavor. If you are planning on a DIY installation, you probably want to opt for laminate or plank vinyl flooring. These are two of the easiest type of flooring to install and the installation methods are pretty self-explanatory once you get started. Consider Maintenance  No one likes housework or expensive home maintenance projects. These tasks are not only time consuming, but they can be costly a well. Unfortunately, there are a variety of flooring options that will require more cleaning and maintenance than others. Take carpet for example, it is basically a big trap for dust and dirt, which means that it is going to require constant cleaning and vacuuming, On occasion you might even have to rent a carpet cleaner or bring in a professional to remove stains. Vinyl and laminate are probably the two easiest types of flooring to clean and maintain. Main Image Credit.

Harvard Business Review hides behind data about extreme jobs

Harvard Business Review hides behind data about extreme jobs This month the Harvard Business Review has an article titled Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek (subscription required). This article presents all the research to show that the destruction of the family comes faster in situations where both parents work long hours, but the authors, Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce, refuse to draw this conclusion. Instead they harp on what is now a baby-boomer fetish topic: Women getting equal treatment at work. The research shows that full-time jobs are increasingly extreme jobs (more than 60 hours a week). The authors point out that most people who have extreme jobs have chosen them, and they tend to be very exciting jobs. Other reports show that some people are so smitten with their extreme jobs that they brag about how stressed and overworked they are. (Thanks, Ben.) Hewlett and Luce write that the extreme-work model is wreaking havoc on private lives. However most of the reasons cited (e.g.kids watching too much TV and no one taking care of the house) would be alleviated if one parent were at home. So the extreme-work model is actaully fine, as long as women (its almost always women) are willing to drop out of the workforce to stay at home. And, in an article that enraged many of the readers of this blog, Lucy Kellaway writes in the Economist that yes, in fact women are more than willing to leave the office to take care of kids. Hewlett and Luce try to make an issue out of gender: Extreme workers are mostly men, women in extreme jobs are most likely to say they want to leave the job in a year, and the people who thrive in extreme jobs either do not have kids or have someone at home taking care of their kids. But who cares? There are plenty of jobs people can take if they dont want extreme jobs. Hewlett and Luce try to get us alarmed that the trend toward extreme jobs is increasing, but most people who are in extreme jobs are baby boomers, and Sharon Jayson, wirting in USA Today, shows that most young people dont want extreme jobs. And young people are adept at finding work that fits regardless of what companies are offering. I am tired of the baby boomers thinking all their research about themselves applies to everyone. I am also tired of every researcher jumping on the battle-cry-for-women bandwagon. Hewlett and Luce spend a lot of time writing about how moms cannot do extreme jobs. But who cares? If people who dont have kids want to work tons of hours, let them. If men want to marry stay-at-home moms to take care of their kids, let them. What is the big deal here? There is plenty of work in this world for people who dont want extreme jobs. There are plenty of men to marry who will do their part with the kids. The real problem here is that two parents with extreme jobs are neglecting their kids. What about that? Baby boomers have been doing it for decades, and its terrible for kids, and people need to start admitting that. For starters, Hewlett and Luce could come out and say this, since their research supports it. For example, the most scary part of the article is the snowball effect of working long hours while leaving kids at home: As household and families are starved for time, they become progressively less appealing and both men and women begin to avoid going homeFor many professionals home and work have reversed roles. Home is the source of stress and guilt, while work has become the haven in the heartless world the place where successful professionals get strokes, admiration and respect. The research also highlights one of my pet peeves in career news: Its extremely rare for parents to admit having problems with their children. I cringe every time I read an interview with a Successful Mom who works a 70 hour week and can miraculously balance her kids and husbands 70-hour week as well. All of this womens magazine BS is self-reported, and what mom or dad is going to stand up and say they are destroying the kids by working long hours? The only ones who pipe up, like Brenda Barnes, quit their job before they start talking. Heres what the Harvard Business Review article should have said: The long-standing practice of baby boomers to have dual-career families with no one home for the kids is bad for the kids, even if the parents are enjoying themselves. Fortunately, the post-boomer generations recognize the problem and plan to not repeat it.

Finding The Right One For You

Finding The Right One For YouWhen looking for Cincinnati resume writing services, you'll be aware that there are so many of them out there. How do you know which one to choose? Before you do anything else, you need to first decide what your resume is going to be about. There are so many different types of Cincinnati resumes and they're all meant to suit different job types.While you're thinking about what kind of resume you'll be submitting, you should first start by coming up with a list of a few Cincinnati specific keywords. Try to make these keywords as unique as possible. By doing this, it will give you the advantage of having different Cincinnati resume writing services to create content based on these keywords. By narrowing down your list of keywords, you'll also eliminate some of the more generic Cincinnati resumes that might appear on the internet.You should also think about what type of Cincinnati resume writing services you're looking for. With so many different types of Ci ncinnati resume writing services out there, it can be hard to know who to contact. Some Cincinnati resume writing services aren't even located in Cincinnati, meaning that you might have to travel to get their services.One thing you can try is taking a look at what types of Cincinnati resumes are available for you to use. This might sound a little silly, but if you're a Cincinnati native you could ask friends or family to help you. It might seem like a waste of time, but if you're short on time and have some friends nearby, it might be a good way to find a reputable Cincinnati resume writing service.Cincinnati resume writing services may offer a variety of services. If you want a full write up with a headshot and other necessary information, you can go to services that do this for a price. However, they may not provide you with enough details to fully customize your Cincinnati resume. It's best to ask questions to get more detailed answers.At times, you may want to have some of the c ontent on your Cincinnati resume written yourself. In some cases, this will require a bit of technical skill and you may want to contact a local writing company to help you out. They can provide you with detailed templates, especially if you don't already know how to write. With a little bit of practice, it won't be hard to create your own Cincinnati resume.For those of you who have some technical knowledge about Cincinnati, you can also submit your resume online to the Cincinnati city government. There are tons of online services out there that offer you this kind of service. Most of these will charge you a small fee, but you can still work with them to create your Cincinnati resume.Cincinnati resume writing services are everywhere, but you should still take the time to ask questions and learn about what they can do for you. They can make all the difference in the world when it comes to finding the right job for you.

What To Do If Youre Not Getting The Overtime You Deserve - CareerAlley

What To Do If Youre Not Getting The Overtime You Deserve - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Many employees dont realize that they are being underpaid when it comes to overtime pay. They simply assume that they are being compensated accordingly. However, WageAdvocates.com notes that year after year, countless workers learn that their employers are taking advantage of them and cheating them out of money that they rightfully earned. There are a number of ways that employers cut wages illegally. To help you better understand what to look for, check out some of the examples below. Areas Overtime Violations Can Occur Working On-Call Many individuals working in hospital settings have to remain on-call. Depending on what facility you work for, some even have on-call rooms where the employees can sleep, watch television, read or just chat. Most of the time, these employees have to stay onsite and arent allowed to leave. This restricts their freedom and is required in their line of work. As such, these individuals who are spending idle time at the hospital on-call should have that time counted as hours worked or overtime. As an employee, you should be aware that spending idle time at the hospital on-call should count toward the number of hours you worked. As long as you are on hospital grounds and waiting to work, you should be getting paid. Not Being Classified Correctly One of the most common wage violation rules occurs when employers dont classify their employees properly. While there are certain types of employees who are exempt from the overtime pay requirements set forth by The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), that doesnt apply to everyone. Even though some managers, administrators or professionals arent entitled to overtime pay, many are. In essence, many retail store managers have a right to receive overtime pay. To be exempt from overtime pay, you have to actually be managing and having a constructive impact on key decisions like hiring and firing. Even though you might have been given the title of manager, that isnt enough. Until you are working in a managerial capacity, your employer owes you overtime pay. If your employer says they dont have to pay you overtime because you are a manager, they better make sure you are doing typical managerial duties, such as hiring, supervising, firing, training and so on. Labeling Employees As Independent Contractors With more and more business owners contracting out some part of their operation, it is more important than ever that you classify your employees and independent contractors properly. Employees are entitled to receive overtime pay, whereas, an independent contractor isnt. An employee is dependent on the employers business for their income. An independent contractor is financially independent from any business they are working for at the time. These individuals are in business for themselves. If you are working for someone and depend on them to pay your monthly expenses every month, they are your employer. You are only an independent contractor if you work for yourself and have your own set of guidelines. When you are following the guidelines of an employer, you are their employee and should be compensated as such. Not Tracking Hours Properly Time clocks are often used in an attempt to track an employees hours. While an early clock-in or late clock-out doesnt often count toward your total working hours, it can if you are performing your normal duties of the day. Clocking in before or after your scheduled time isnt a big deal, as long as you arent doing any work for the company before your actual shift starts. If your employer is demanding that you set-up, close down or clean before or after you are clocked in for the day, you are being under-compensated for your work. Pay attention to your hours when you clock in or out. If the time clock is rounding your hours, you could be losing money. If your employer asks you to start working before you are on the clock, make sure you take a minute to clock in first. Otherwise, they are getting free labor from you and costing you your overtime pay. Gifts And Bonuses A non-discretionary bonus is given to employees who meet certain requirements. If the payment is above and beyond the typical base wage for the employee, the employer should be using it to determine their actual hourly wage. That is crucial in that the regular rate is what is used to calculate the employees overtime rate. Discretionary bonuses are a gift that comes out of the blue and isnt factored into your regular rate. If you expect to receive a Christmas bonus, that will often fall under the non-discretionary category, even if the employer didnt promise to give you one in the first place. This is why it is so important to determine what type of bonus you received. If you arent getting the overtime you deserve because of something or another not being done right, you need to consult an attorney who can help you get the money you deserve. There is no reason why you shouldnt be able to get the compensation you worked for in the first place. Dont allow your employer to take advantage of you in situations that result in you working overtime. Author Bio: Tim Becker Partner at Minneapolis Johnson // Becker PLLC, and lead sponsor of WageAdvocates.com. He is committed to providing clients effective, aggressive legal representation, and has prosecuted numerous individual FLSA violation claims. We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. Good luck in your search,Joey Google+ What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to find the opportunities that help you grow your best career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search

4 ways to achieve cross-departmental collaboration and teamwork

4 ways to achieve cross-departmental collaboration and teamwork 4 ways to achieve cross-departmental collaboration and teamwork From personalities that clash to deadlines that conflict, cross-departmental collaboration isn’t always easy. You might hear phrases like, “I just don’t get those people in marketing. Why is every request for financial data for their materials a last-minute rush?” Or someone might complain about why it takes IT so long to clear help-desk tickets. In any organization, communicating your needs to people in a different group can be like trying to converse in a language you don’t understand. Why does it have to be that way? Asked to weigh in on the top challenges facing accounting and finance staff when working with colleagues in other departments, chief financial officers polled by financial staffing firm Robert Half Finance Accounting identified four issues as most problematic: Learning to interact with a variety of personalities (39 percent) Managing stress in crisis situations (22 percent) Prioritizing conflicting deadlines (19 percent) Conveying financial information in non-financial terms (19 percent) Sure, it’s your department head’s job to make sure your team works well with people from all over the company, but there’s a lot you can do, too, as an individual. Luckily, there are many ways to improve cross-departmental interactions as an employee. 1. “Personality” speaking From natural-born leaders and mediators to nose-to-the-grindstone workers, diverse personalities abound in every business. And that means clashes can (and do) occur. An awareness of the different personality types in your firm, along with an understanding of what each distinct work style brings to the table, is a key to successful collaboration. Organizing and participating in companywide team-building activities can help you to learn to interact with your colleagues and find the positive strengths in all personalities, as can spending time together socially at business gatherings, lunch or after work. 2. Stress not Though workplace stress is found throughout a company, one department may not be able to relate to the unique pressures facing staff in another area of the business. That’s why, in working together, it’s important to try not only to understand, but also to empathize with the strain your colleagues feel in their jobs. And, in the same vein, not to be shy about expressing your own needs, either. When collaboration gets hairy and it’s necessary to cut some cross-departmental tension, humor can work wondersâ€" just be sure to choose inoffensive topics to joke about, and never single anyone out. 3. Open up Information sharing can go a long way toward making people in other departments aware of your deadlines. But some of them may sit on another floor or work in an entirely different building from you. Consider meeting regularly face to face, if possible, or via conference call. Incorporate such tools as instant messaging, the company intranet, and web applications that allow reports to be edited by multiple users to promote collaboration. You can also use these tools to get the word out about various employees’ needs during busy periods. 4. Talk the talk Chances are, you’re used to explaining work matters to folks in your own department in a particular manner, using vocabulary and jargon that may not be easy for staff in other areas of the business (and other lines of work) to decipher. No surprise, but the trick here is learning how to convey information in terms that co-workers outside of your department will be able to easily understand. Honing your soft skills can help with that, along with the use of visuals, such as pie charts and graphics, to get your point across clearly. At the times when working with employees in other departments becomes challenging, remember that others within the organization have ideas and talents to contribute as well. When everyone gets â€" and works â€" together, that’s cross-departmental collaboration at its finest.