Monitors Work Process and Other Stuff

[billbenson]

I have 3 PC's including one laptop I just bought but haven't used yet. I have 2 different monitors and a 42 inch LED TV I use for both a monitor and a TV and two high end desktop PC's.

I like big monitors. I don't like wide screen monitors because you get less on the page before the break. The monitors are a 24 in wide screen and a 28 in non wide screen. I started using the TV as a monitor when I thought the wide screen one failed. It turned out to be a loose connection on a cable. My computers and cables are all buried for a clean look, but it makes repairs a pain.

I was at my partners home / office last week. He's 60 and like me we have both been career sales people. It was slow, but I got to watch his sales style. Our phone pitch and product knowledge is similar. He has two laptops on his desk. He uses one for research when a customer calls and the other for email and quotes.

He does a couple of things differently than I do which I thought were good ideas or methodologies. One thing I do, which I think is the best for me is I try to have an email quote to my customer before we hang up. It makes for mistakes at times and a little sloppier quote. It does make sales because they have the quote and I'm still on the phone with them. I've written software that allows me to make a quote in 2 minutes or so as long as the product is in my database.

What my partner does is write down in a notepad the info for the quote and then do the quote. It could be an order as well. I've tried this, but my handwriting is so bad that I can't even read it and I'm a very slow writer. My partner also does the quote or order after hanging up the phone. This gives him the opportunity to answer another call that could be an order while in my case I'm on the phone and wouldn't know if another call was coming in that could be an order.

Both are style things and have pro's and cons. If I have someone on the phone, I want to close them. My partner wants to politely get the person off the phone so he doesn't miss a call that could be an order. I don't think there is a right or wrong to this. We can get calls on top of each other or it can be slow. Goes in spurts.

I will now have three computers. The laptop (a go fast gaming machine) will be my main computer as it's portable. One I will use with a notepad like program always open for when a customer calls. That will keep me from having to change screens while talking to a customer. I imagine a dual monitor system may be a better way of doing this, but it also gives me a backup of notes on a second computer. Over the years, I have found that by typing into a notepad type of file everything, dating things, and putting keywords in entries has been invaluable. I don't use notepad, but a similar .txt program. If someone calls with an obsolete part number or some other question, I can do a quick search and find if I have any info on it. The .txt file now has 33k lines in it BTW.

Back to monitors. My TV / monitor cost $600 ish and for me has the best resolution. My 28 in monitor isn't made anymore and similar units are several thousand. I think I'm going to just always keep my .txt file open on one PC. I can always email it or PM to copy and paste to my main computer.

Were all in different industries, so it will vary, but what does everybody else do for monitors and business methodology?

FYI - Actually a bored, ain't about to go out shopping post :)

[Brian Altenhofel]

I typically have 4 going (three tied to my desktop, plus my laptop screen). I'm about to add a 5th to act as a monitoring kiosk, just not sure where to hang it and if I want to run it off the laptop or hook up a super cheap PC.

On the monitor I have directly in front of me, I have whatever I am working on. If I'm writing code, my IDE is there. If I'm doing something in a browser, the browser is there. It has the widest vertical viewing angle, so it looks pretty much the same standing up (how I normally work) or sitting down (which I do when reading long articles or documentation or watching videos).

The one to the left has stuff that is secondary to what is on the primary screen. If writing code, it often has a browser window open for the site that I am working on and searching for documentation. It also has windows for viewing log entries as well as managing the database.

The one to the right is also lower than eye level. It houses IRC, Skype, Slack, Hipchat, and any other messaging that I need. I monitor dozens of IRC channels (though I'm only active in a few) and have notifications triggered on keywords related to the types of projects that I like or areas of expertise where I like to lend free advice.

Above the monitor to the right, I have my laptop on a stand. For the most part, it acts as overflow. When I don't have overflow, it acts as a monitoring kiosk with a browser rotating through various dashboards I have for monitoring hosting infrastructure and clients' sites.

To keep things simple (and to avoid the "oops, wrong keyboard" errors), I use Synergy (http://synergy-project.org/) to share my keyboard (Northgate Omni Key Ultra) and trackball across both computers. It also allows copy and paste between machines which is EXTREMELY handy.

Almost all of my work is saved to Github, Dropbox, or another cloud service, so I don't have to worry about needing a file that was on the other machine. I don't worry about a machine dying and losing an important file because that file was already in multiple places. When I have borked a machine, it was a matter of saying "meh" and letting Puppet automatically install all of the applications that I previously had - up and running ~90 minutes later (could've been faster with a better Internet connection). Re-enter credentials for cloud services, and all my important files are back.

When people do call (or have me call) for an estimate, I take their information down and notes from the conversation. I try to keep the call to 15-20 minutes if scheduled and under 10 if unscheduled. If that day's workload is light, I'll work on the estimate as soon as I get off the phone, but more often I'll wait until the end of the day. Sometimes, they'll ask for a wide ballpark on the phone, and those result in either a balk or an immediate start without a formal estimate (seems to be no in-between).

[Harold Mansfield]

I run 3 20" Acer monitors (probably cost under $600 for all 3) on my desktop that I control with one wireless keyboard and one trackball. My workstation is a short desk with a second level, so the monitors are probably 2-3 feet from my face which makes them plenty big enough.

I typically have Outlook open on the right all day long so I can respond to emails quickly from 5 different email accounts.
The middle monitor is my main work area and where I'll run any video conferencing or Go To Meetings.
The left monitor is generally for referencing, search, iTunes, watching quick videos, or when I need to work on multiple areas or documents at one time.

At any given time during the day I'll drag stuff around where and when needed depending on what I'm doing.

All calls from the phone number on my websites and other web listings and profiles ring both the land line and mobile phone. Both of which I answer from a single Bluetooth headset which I usually have on all day.
I usually make my outgoing calls from my mobile from my virtual number. Again, if they call that number back, both phones ring from 9-5 and caller ID pops up on my middle monitor. I have various preset messages and voicemails set for business calls depending on the time of the call.

I also have Pushbullet installed so I can easily transfer things from my mobile to either computer (or vice versa) or other devices in the house, as well as send text messages and any other alerts that I have set like injury reports from my Fantasy Football teams will pop up. Unfortunately I have to still physically touch the phone to make calls unless it's a return call, in a text message, or I use voice commands.

All my files are backed up on a Cloud service ( in case my whole house burns down while I'm gone), an external Hard Drive, and a Laptop which also has additional memory and is connected to a 55" HDTV in the living room. Some days I'll work from the couch (with a Harmony Keyboard/Remote and wireless mouse), but it's hard to get used to working on one monitor no matter how big it is.

As far as "taking orders", I have all of my services, variations and customizations input into Quickbooks and I'm always adding to it, so if I need to send a proposal I can bang it out pretty quickly once I know the deliverables.

Support calls have set prices and I usually send an invoice to them while they are on the phone.

I run my social media accounts with Hootsuite so I can quickly post/share to multiple accounts at once from any device, or schedule future posts. Big time saver.

I very rarely write anything down anymore. I'm usually putting it in a file as it's happening or am adding it to an existing file. I've learned to get things open very quickly when the phone rings. Notepad is my best friend. I use it all day to take notes, and write things down when I can't get a file open fast enough and at the end of the day I'll put everything where it needs to go and close the file down.
I definitely type faster than I write now, but don't tell my Mom that. When she made me take typing classes in Jr. High School I thought it was for girls who wanted to be secretaries.

Other than that I have the usual peripherals...power back up, routers, printers, speakers, and a small TV under my monitors in case I need to check out some breaking news or sports while working.

That's pretty much how I have things set up. It's all very easy to use, not very complicated to set up, and not very expensive compared to 5 years ago.

Basically I kept fine tuning my work station until every possible scenario was a mouse click or 2 away and so that if Ninjas broke in and I had to make a run for it I could grab my phone and either one of the hard drives or my laptop and still be in business the next day.

[billbenson]

Probably a better setup than I'm thinking about Harold. The things I don't like is you are using only one PC if I understand you correctly. I originally went to two PC's for hot standby. Remember I live in what they claim is the lightning capital of the world. I tend to doubt that, but we get a lot of lightning. Lightning and power hits for that matter can take electronics out or have a derogatory effect meaning a lightning strike in July can cause a mother board failure in January.

Having worked on my partners laptops last week and small monitors in the past, I do like the big monitors. That's a personal preference thing, not an efficiency thing though.

I like the fact that using the one machine with the three monitors, you can move data or copy and paste from one screen to another. With the three monitors I would have outlook open in one, a text editor open in another, and my quote / order program open in the third. Pretty much the same as you. We are just in different industries and using different operating systems. Instead of Quickbooks I use a custom program I wrote that is combined with my website db. It allows me to do custom reports I need, but I spent a lot of time over the years writing it. Again, pro's and cons. It does allow me to automate things a little more though.

I do like the way you have set thing up for productivity though. And you probably don't get the quantity of emails or calls I get which is nice. I once counted and I was on 40 phone calls in a day, both incoming and outgoing.That was a pretty busy day though. Since I do a consultive sell, some of my calls can be quite long as well.

One other thought in this conversation is either mirroring or using an external HD on the PC's for data. That way you can always download files to the backup computer and you are up and running with no data loss.

Of course you could always go to server setups etc.

[Harold Mansfield]

One other thought in this conversation is either mirroring or using an external HD on the PC's for data. That way you can always download files to the backup computer and you are up and running with no data loss.

Of course you could always go to server setups etc.

Between the 2 back up hard drives, my desktop is backed up 4 different places, one of which is off site. If my computer crashes ( which I've never had a crash before) my laptop is ready to rock and roll as a complete replacement at any time.

If Ninjas come and I have unass quickly, both external drives are 2T and are mirror of my desktop. I could grab any either of them and connect to a new computer and have all of my files.
The worse case scenario is either both computers crashing on the same day, or a fire while I'm gone and everything burns. In either case I have the Cloud back up to restore everything on a new computer.

So technically it is 2 computers and 3 back ups (all connected to back up power/surge protectors). If I need more than that the world is likely ending, the internet is down and it won't make much difference.

[billbenson]

Ya, I knew you had multiple devices. For the absolutely critical stuff I do daily hard drive backups and everything is on my website for the work stuff. That includes stuff that you would use Quickbooks for.

I could loose some personal stuff, actually most of it like photos and music in the fire scenario.

There was a girl on a different web design forum that had 5 external drives. She drove to a bank safety deposit box every day and flopped out the newest for the oldest. I really don't want to drive to the bank every day... Of course if I have a hurricane come through it would probably take out my house and the bank :)

But I do have a lot of data on my hard drive I wouldn't want to loose. I have had more than one hard drive crash in my life as well. I almost never turn my computers off so they are always spinning. It's the personal stuff that takes up the most space. Home videos for example. Videos of my dad before he died that are irreplaceable as well as videos I create every week. It's not really practical to use an off site service for that because it gets expensive if you have a lot of data. Off site services are great for the work stuff although its all on my web host and the server is in a different state so I don't use it.

[Harold Mansfield]

Going to a safe deposit box every day? That's crazy, but I could see why that would be necessary a few years back before offsite cloud storage was a thing.

The WD My Passport is a nifty little portable drive. It's under $100 for the 2T version and it's smaller than my phone. You could easily use one of those just to back up your personal files on auto. I always keep personal stuff like that on an external drive. I actually have some stuff on an Android tablet because if it's lost or stolen I can find it via GPS, disable it or wipe it clean from a remote location.

And I have a pretty good XX Large Sentry safe that takes 3 people to move (2 with a heavy duty dolly) to keep stuff in. No way anyone is getting it down the stairs quickly, and if they try and drop it it's going to kill whoever is in it's path on the way down, or at least break a foot. I also can't imagine it burning up unless it was dropped into the gates of hell forever.

I love tech, but I still like having my own storage. I have cloud storage, but to be honest I don't completely trust it as my only backup. But then again it took me a while to trust digital music files over having CD's.

Paranoia has some benefits.

[billbenson]

I like the safe idea. And I don't trust cloud storage either. I would never put passwords on the cloud.

How do you deal with saving passwords? I keep them in a protected file or in a text file or excel sheet that doesn't have the user name or password near each other. I also am starting to use secure password generators for user names for important stuff.

I don't do that for things like this forum. I don't put private stuff here so an easy password is fine.

[Harold Mansfield]

Part of it is that I don't completely understand it, and have no control over the security of my information. All I know is what they say, but I have no way of verifying it.
Also, what happens if I somehow lose internet? Is there a place that I can drive to and walk in with a thumb drive and say "Gimme my stuff"?
What happens if I close my account? Where does my information go, and how can I be really sure it went there?

You can't create a script to hack a safe from Russia. You have to physically come to my location, stage a break in, carry it out and go old school to break the combination AND pick the lock. That's a lot of trouble considering I'm not holding Government secrets, or storing millions in silver.

Sure, a lot of info is already online and anything can be hacked. But if my bank is hacked I get my money back from the FDIC, eventually.
If anything else goes down, like complete failure of the internet and power grids, none of it will matter because even with paperwork no one can verify anything without computers so none of us will be getting our money out of the bank anyway.


How do you deal with saving passwords? I keep them in a protected file or in a text file or excel sheet that doesn't have the user name or password near each other. I also am starting to use secure password generators for user names for important stuff.

I don't do that for things like this forum. I don't put private stuff here so an easy password is fine.

It's all in my head. If anyone was that motivated to get them they'd have to take me to a CIA black site and water board me.
Every year I make master thumb drives with all my access codes and passwords and send them to a couple of real people for safe keeping in case I get hit by a bus or something.

I was just thinking how crazy I sound. Like I watch way too many movies. But I'm just kind of old school on how much I trust storing things online or on any device that can be accessed via the internet. I guess I'm the modern day equivalent of old timers in the 30's on, who would rather put money under a mattress than to trust the banks again. I trust what I can put in my pocket or lock in a safe. Even if you steal my mobile devices, you'd better break the password before I get to another computer (any computer) because I'm wiping them clean.

I can't imagine anything I have is worth the effort, but I like knowing I have at least some control and if you plan on stealing from me you're going to have to put in some real effort.

[Brian Altenhofel]

I like the safe idea. And I don't trust cloud storage either. I would never put passwords on the cloud.

How do you deal with saving passwords? I keep them in a protected file or in a text file or excel sheet that doesn't have the user name or password near each other. I also am starting to use secure password generators for user names for important stuff.

I don't do that for things like this forum. I don't put private stuff here so an easy password is fine.

All of my passwords are generated and stored using an offline password manager. The password files are encrypted twice before being stored in the cloud.

All of my devices run full disk encryption. That's another reason I don't worry about losing a device - unless someone has some insane resources and an axe to grind, the data on those devices is stored in such a way to be useless to them. When I connect to a client's VPN, it's almost always done with a fully-encrypted virtual machine. I store the virtual machines on an encrypted external hard drive so that I can attach it to the device that I need.

I'm not paranoid, I just believe in multiple layers of security.

[billbenson]

All of my passwords are generated and stored using an offline password manager. The password files are encrypted twice before being stored in the cloud.

All of my devices run full disk encryption. That's another reason I don't worry about losing a device - unless someone has some insane resources and an axe to grind, the data on those devices is stored in such a way to be useless to them. When I connect to a client's VPN, it's almost always done with a fully-encrypted virtual machine. I store the virtual machines on an encrypted external hard drive so that I can attach it to the device that I need.

I'm not paranoid, I just believe in multiple layers of security.

Wo!! I actually never thought about the encryption thing. Although a bank acount v.s. an email for this forum are still very different things. I use long passwords and as I said sometimes use password generators for the username as well.

I like Harold’s idea of keeping it on a memory stick.

A question: Some virus's track key strokes which could be typing in passwords. If you have a file and copy and paste passwords from that file, are you protected to a degree?

[Harold Mansfield]

I run scans looking for keyloggers all of the time. I'm no expert. I can never be completely sure that what I'm doing is 100% secure. I mean is anyone absolutely sure that their computers are 100% clean? That their mail, email or calls have never been intercepted, and so on?

I don't propose to stop a professional, but if I can make it hard on the average kid or tweaker trying to steal identities from a distance it's worth it.

I've seen too many people lose or have their phones or laptops stolen with no security on them, and loaded with all of their information. Since most people have little to no personal security, I just want to make my stuff too much trouble to spend time on for the average small time thief. Other people are much easier targets.

[billbenson]

Ya, and neither of us are big targets as long as we don't store cc numbers.

[Brian Altenhofel]

A question: Some virus's track key strokes which could be typing in passwords. If you have a file and copy and paste passwords from that file, are you protected to a degree?

Most keyloggers will pick up copy/paste anyway, as well as mouse interaction (such as highlighting text on one machine that you are wanting to manually type on another). None of my bank accounts' online access portals are really worth anything - account numbers are redacted, transfers are only allowed between accounts within the same bank, adding a bank account to the online access portal requires interacting at the bank with a teller - so I don't worry too much (small town bank).

I run Linux and do daily scans for malware.

One of the big issues online is man-in-the-middle. For example, this site doesn't use SSL. If you access via a Starbucks and someone there is running a sniffer, they can get your username and the MD5 hash that is sent to vBulletin and use that to login as you from anywhere without actually knowing your password. Pretty much if it is remotely important to you, make sure the connection is an SSL connection. If it is extremely important, test it with Qualys SSL Server Test (https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/index.html) to make sure they are running a current and well-configured version of SSL. You still never know if their private key has been compromised, but hopefully if they are reputable then that scenario is highly unlikely.

[billbenson]

Brian, dumb this down for me. How do you do your daily Linux malware scans, what distribution do you use, do you use an antivius program etc.I use Suse because I had a good resourse on a different forum for help. That forum has since died. I went to Linux as much of a Windows protest as anything. I'm accustomed to it and don't feel like going back to Win or Apple.

Do you have any good novice Linux forum's or resources you recommend?

I just do emails in Thunderbird, basic php programming, and sales.

Any recommendations?

[Brian Altenhofel]

The Linux distro I run is Debian (currently Debian Wheezy). The three tools that I run each day are rkhunter, chkrootkit, and ClamAV.

I'm not sure of any good novice resources - I've been using Linux as my primary OS for over 16 years. When I do have to Google for something, I usually check the results from the Ubuntu or Arch forums first (both of those distros are Debian-based).

[billbenson]

For my new laptop I'm going to try Ubuntu and I'll leave the others Suse. The new release of Suse is far better than the older versions. I've been using Linux for at least 5 years, but I really haven't dug into it. The books and resources for beginners are far more limited than for Win or Apple which hurts the learning curve.

[Harold Mansfield]

Ya, and neither of us are big targets as long as we don't store cc numbers.
True. I have absolutely nothing that anyone wants. I don't even get full contact info from many of my clients. Only what is publicly available. I never ask for anyone's personal contact info and I don't take personal notes of their lives like spouses name and so on like so many CRM's let you do.

[billbenson]

@Harold, when you do development work, do you always do it on the customers domain? If you do it locally you can protect yourself from having the customer not pay you because he can't do a download. On the other hand, during your development, you are going to need to need to show your customer the ongoing development. You could do the development on your own domain and transfer the site later, but then you could have dup content issues. How can you truely protect yourself from not getting paid for work performed?

I just find this stuff interesting because of my college security job.

[Harold Mansfield]

@Harold, when you do development work, do you always do it on the customers domain? If you do it locally you can protect yourself from having the customer not pay you because he can't do a download. On the other hand, during your development, you are going to need to need to show your customer the ongoing development. You could do the development on your own domain and transfer the site later, but then you could have dup content issues. How can you truely protect yourself from not getting paid for work performed?

I just find this stuff interesting because of my college security job.


Support work is usually on a live site, so I'm getting the access info from them. Sometimes they'll create a special log in just for me, but most times they're giving me their admin log ins.

For new customers: Support is generally paid up front either as packages, or by the hour.
For existing customers that have a good history I can create any number of flexible payment options, but usually I get paid when it's done.

For new websites I'm usually the one creating everything from the ground up, so I'm the only one with Admin access until everything is paid in full.

About 50% of new website work is through a service partner who is the go between. I get paid no matter what.

The only time I build on a development area is when it's a new website build and there's an existing site that needs to stay live until it's done. Otherwise I just throw up a splash screen and build behind the scenes. Building on my own domain is waste of time and just adds more work for me. Also, if I build on my domain instead of theirs on their hosting, it's much easier for them to walk away and stick me with it if things go bad for some reason.

I usually always have an out, or a way to keep control just in case I need leverage, but it is rarely necessary.
Most people are honest and just need help and want the work done at a fair price.

Over the years I've learned to screen the idiots out pretty well, but every now and then one slips through.

[billbenson]

Ya, that seems like you are pretty well protected. Everybody gets screwed over here and there. that's life.

I did know someone who took an order from Nigeria under two stolen credit cards for $60k once. But that had fraud written all over it. I couldn't stand the guy, so I wasn't to depressed over it.

[Harold Mansfield]

Ya, that seems like you are pretty well protected. Everybody gets screwed over here and there. that's life.

I did know someone who took an order from Nigeria under two stolen credit cards for $60k once. But that had fraud written all over it. I couldn't stand the guy, so I wasn't to depressed over it.

I get some out of country calls every now and then. UK, Spain, Canada, Australia, France, Iceland, Jamaica ...never any problems. Logging into a C-Panel where everything is Dutch or French is an experience. Thank God for the icons.

I just did a job from Guyana just before Christmas. That was new.

There are some countries that I won't take work from...actually most countries except for Western Europe, US and Canada. Too risky and no protection at all.

[billbenson]

I have actually done some good deals with suspect countries like Nigeria and Malaysia. It just better be a good deal because the pain in the butt factor goes way up. Did a good sized credit card deal to Belize one time. But it was a Shell Oil credit card. A lot of this is just common sense. But a lot of it is having been there and done that as well.

Scariest one I ever had was to a reseller. It was a big order and their customer canceled. Our product was returned 4 months later rusted and not resealable. It took me 6 months after that to get paid. But they did pay. A late payment doesn't mean a thief. Doesn't mean you want to do business with them again, but I feel most people are honest and may have have their own boss breathing down their neck. Even the dickheads. I just try not to deal with them because it's not worth the aggravation.

[HooktoWin]

Here's the setup I use.


Desktop. If I need to use processor hungry software (e.g. Photoshop, InDesign, Dragon) I run it from here. I use it from writing when I focus or privacy.
Netbook. I use this for the vast majority of my writing. I also use it for some light coding / creative work.
Servers. I use one server to serve, save, store all of my files from all of the other computers. I use the other servers as automated workhorses, running automated software, managing downloads, etc.


I use a KVM switch and/or remote desktop to remote into various workstations whether I'm at home or on the road. One 22 inch monitor with my desktop and another for the servers.

Nothing too complicated.