Posts tagged IT
What is a Global Address List (GAL) and Why Is It Important to You
Nov 2nd
This week, I thought that I would try something new. I am going to focus on a single topic and produce a series on a single topic. This week’s topic will be on Enterprise Email services’ Global Address List function or GAL for short.
This is what “The GAL” looks like to all of you Microsoft Exchange Clients out there:
My plan for the week follows:
- Monday (today) – What is a GAL via an Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder.
- Tuesday – Why is this important to both Enterprise users and individual users.
- Wednesday – Why the concept applies to more than just Microsoft Exchange users.
- Thursday – What I wish was possible using today’s GAL services and what might be possible shortly. Basically a GAL wish list.
- Friday – I will reserve for topics yet to be named based upon the community’s feedback and comments!
As a reminder to new readers, The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself. It differs from sites such as Wikipedia because it includes opinions, forecasts, and detractions in addition to just facts.
So today, we focus on Global Address Lists (GAL), This is how Wikipedia defines the Global Address List:
The Global Address List (GAL) also known as Microsoft Exchange Global Address Book is a directory service within the Microsoft Exchange email system. The GAL contains information for all email users, distribution groups, and Exchange resources. Digital IDs certificates generated by Microsoft Exchange Server Advanced Security IIS or by Microsoft Exchange Key Management Server (KMS) are automatically published in the Global Address Book. Users of Microsoft Outlook can publish to GAL their externally generated PKI certificates that are used for secure e-mail.
Essentially, it provides a directory service for an entire Enterprise. If you use Microsoft Exchange at work, then the GAL is where you go to find the way to contact, collaborate, and interface with other users. You find their email addresses, Instant Messaging names, phone numbers, office addresses, mobile phone information, points of contact, etc. At least that is the idea, in practice, it can be a very frustrating tool for most users to employ successfully. When you now someone’s name, exactly how to spell it, and which department they work in, it will work like a champ. Unfortunately, it is next to useless, when you are trying to get in touch with “That guy from accounting with the black hair and glasses who does billing reviews for our West Texas division.” Making it go from what a bunch of programmers at Microsoft think is best to actually effective is what I would like to focus on this week.
Here are some of the best links on the subject that I found in my search of the web:
- Stanford University – Tips for Using the Global Address List (GAL)
- Microsoft – How to Update a Global Address List
- Microsoft – Managing Global Address Lists
- Google – Google Apps in place of Microsoft Outlook Global Address List
- Wikipedia – Global Address List
Obviously, if you are an Enterprise level Information Technology Professional, then Microsoft Exchange Server and its Global Address List directory functionality are key tools in your productivity set. I hope that this week’s discussions offer your value. Please come back tomorrow for more and feel free to comment, make recommendations, and provide feedback via my contact button above or comments below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 2, 2009 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Microsoft Outlook via Stanford.edu
Information Technology History Lesson: The Computer Keyboard
Oct 29th
I firmly believe that Information Technology Professionals should have a strong grasp of the history of their industry. I think that, unlike most professions, too little has been invested in maintaining that record of events. Today, I would like to pause to remember the most critical component of today’s effective Information Age: The Computer Keyboard!
As a primer, I highly recommend the Wikipedia site on this topic. It has wonderful photos, timelines, and descriptions of the incremental stages.
In computing, a keyboard is an input device, partially modeled after the typewriter keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. A keyboard typically has characters engraved or printed on the keys and each press of a key typically corresponds to a single written symbol. However, to produce some symbols requires pressing and holding several keys simultaneously or in sequence. While most keyboard keys produce letters, numbers or signs (characters), other keys or simultaneous key presses can produce actions or computer commands.
The most amazing factors influence the evolution of this key input device. Who cannot laugh at the story behind the creation of the first keyboard in 1873. I love the part about how the QWERTY Keyboard was actually laid out to SLOW typing speed. Everyone roots for the DVORAK Layout that continues to try to steal mindshare even today. The associated origins of touch typing are fun to read as well. If you are mechanically inclined the migration of various different key sensing technologies into and out of computer keyboards is also fascinating. Nearly every single electronic relay device has been resident in a computer keyboard at one point or another.
Other fantastic resources for this topic are:
- assortment.com: History of the Keyboard
- ideafinder.com: The QWERTY Keyboard
- life123.com:History of the Keyboard
Another fun thread to follow through the keyboard’s tale is the origin of each one of the special keys on the keyboard. Do you know where the ALT, CNTRL, APPLE, FUNCTION, WINDOWS, and SCROLL LOCK keys came from?
What is the future of keyboards? Will they go virtual? Will they be flexible? Will they be laser based? Wireless? If you even think of the past 20 years, you can see the high slope of progress on this critical computer peripheral. They have evolved a lot more than you might have realized.
We all live by typing today. Even though we mouse, can use voice, and have mutli-touch pads, the keyboard remains the number one input method for most people. Many people believe that keyboarding skills are actually the top skill that young people should learn in school today. The next time that you sit at your computer, take a second to appreciate the wonderful keyboard that you have and take the time to learn its history. Let’s all pause to thank its creator, Christopher Sholes.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for October 29, 2009 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: freedigitalphotos.net
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Internet Advertising Overload
Oct 27th
Posted by Scott Coughlin in Business of IT
1 comment
Trust me, as a website owner and blogger, I completely understand how advertising revenue is central to the survivability of your site. I run ads on my own site. I am completely sympathetic to fact that some media outlets enjoy a higher user acceptability factor for advertising than others… TV shows have between 19-22 min of ads per hour while books have none for example. However, when I woke up to CNN.com’s website refresh this weekend, I had to shake my head. I was suffering from an acute case of Internet Advertising Overload!
Here is a picture of what CNN.com looked like in February 2008. You can click on the thumbnails to see them blown up. Note that the main, “above the fold” ad is about 17% of the page and off to the lower right. It is tucked down, under the news stories, is set apart, and does not integrate into the color scheme.
Now, look at this weekend’s revamped layout. The big ad is now 33% of the page, on the top right, even with the breaking news story and story of the day. It is above the headline section now and color coordinated to make your eye follow into it. For a real eye-opener, consider what this site looked like on my 1024×560 resolution netbook…I only saw three things — with one being the advertisement.
Again, I am sympathetic to the need to pay the bills. I know that running a news site is expensive. What I am complaining about has more to do with integrity and meaning. CNN bills itself as the first name in the news business. They push to you constantly that, “This is CNN”, implying that their first concern is journalistic integrity and fairness. Well what this site redesign tells me is that the foxs are running the hen house here. There can be no doubt that generating advertising revenue on the web is really their first concern now. When you push your headlines to BELOW your ads, you have made not just a design or journalistic decision, you have declared your priorities and true motivations.
I don’t want a world of pay news sites on the web. I don’t want Google News to become the only decent impartial news outlet on the web. I know that free sites imply advertising revenue to run them. All, I am saying is that this has gone too far. If your site is about news, or chickens, or cars, then that subject had better get more real estate, priority, and emphasis than your ads, or else you page is really just about revenue generation… and there is a name for that: SPAM!
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for October 27, 2009 by Scott Coughlin
Image Credit: cnn.com