Zach Bolinger

Links for people in the IT industry

Columns:

IS Survivor by Bob Lewis - Bob always has great insight into the aspect of IT work that most techies neglect: Office Politics. He also talks about strategy and organizational skills.

Executive Tech by Brian Livingston - Brian is co-author of one of the best newsletters for techies I've ever seen - Windows Secrets.

Enterprise Ethics by Carlton Vogt - Over the course of the last year, Carlton has gotten a little too political for my tastes. Though I rarely agree with him, he is one of the most intelligent people I disagree with and he forces me to rethink many of my positions. When he separates ethics from politics, I agree with him nearly 100% of the time.

Notes from the Field by Robert X. Cringely - this is a great column for getting little tidbits of techie gossip. Rarely will you plan your work around something Cringe reveals, but it's great water cooler discussion material if you work with other professional/techies.

Miss Manners by Judith Martin (registration required) - Admit it, if you are in IT, your career could probably benefit from some etiquette coaching.

Dilbert by Scott Adams - Like I even need to tell you to go see Dilbert. Just marvel at the accuracy and ask yourself if Scott is one of your coworkers writing comics at night about the place where you work.

Windows Support/Technical Resources:

Microsoft Knowledgebase - Sometimes we forget the obvious. Go straight to the source and see what the solution to your problem might be. I recommend this as the first step in troubleshooting when you are given an error message. Type the error message in word for word, check for typos, then choose the "Exact Phrase" option and search. If you are not getting an error message, just unexpected output, the Microsoft knowledgebase is painful to use. Their techs rarely use the same words you would to describe a problem.

WinFind at Brian's Buzz - The same Brian who writes my favorite newsletter also created an application that searches through the most reliable sources of help with Windows. This is especially useful because these third party suppliers of information are not nearly as concerned with making Microsoft look good. Quickly and easily search through all their databases with one efficient search engine.

My own help section - These are a few help documents I put together to address the most frequent issues people ask me about outside of work. They address problems like spam, spyware, and file sizes on scanned pictures.