Send us a text While everyone else was distracted by that *other* logo controversy, Darrick and I kept our eye on the ball and noticed the real logo threat (hint: total global domination). And in the main segment, we take it to the Zero Trust fundamentalists who think that means making life hard for the employees of our company that we know, love, and trust (yeah, I said it). So, we play a game where we Zero Trust Darrick's garage so see how well that would work...
Send us a text The plant or the factory is its own domain, with domain experts like Plant Engineers who use their version of tech to keep machines and the plant humming. I.T. doesn't typically manage plant technologies needed to run machines. The I.T. department understands business systems like the ERP, among others, and knows the value of getting the plant to send data directly into the business systems, potentially automating thousands of transactions. But often there is a bar...
Send us a text Sure, you may think you know Natalie Lemke, CEO and busy dealmaker at RUX Software, but do you really? Do you know jr. high competitive reader Natalie? Or Science Olympiad letter jacket winning Natalie? Celine Dion fan? Subway Sandwich Artist? Bed, Bath, and Beyond hustler and Calphalon fan girl? Natalie joined me on an 𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 edition of 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗜.𝗧. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱, where I sit down with successful people and look back on how they got to...
Send us a text In the banter segment, we rank character-driven insurance commercials (spoiler: We disagree on the Gecko vs. Flo.) In the #badIT segment, we whine about why some companies are so greasy when we try to unsubscribe. "Are you SURE you want to unsubscribe????" It's amazing how long a company can go these days before their first internal I.T. hire. In The Big Idea segment, we share thoughts about which I.T. role (help desk? ERP analyst? IT Director?) a company should hire first.&n...
Send us a text Origin Story - a new episode format for The Last I.T. Podcast in the World. I welcome Ben Cole from ERP Connect Consulting to hear how he got to this point in his career. But first, I give him the Podcast Guest-ionnaire, where he admits he's a "Yes" on pineapple on pizza, has never broken a bone, and his first car was from Grandma (but still pretty cool). And we talk about the choices, the twists, the turns, and the helpful people that got him to where he i...
Send us a text The Last I.T. Podcast In The World goes for a swim in the deep end of the pool. We start in the kiddie pool with our floaties in the banter segment where we settle, once and for all, who should press dial when a text thread starts with "You available for a call?" We then ramp things up a bit when we dissect a cyber incident where two local governments made ALL the mistakes. Finally, Darrick helps me struggle through the myth of hiring "only the most qualified (or best) can...
Send us a text There's a true art to #greatIT and we discuss the images and prose that make for great IT artisans. In the banter segment, I ask my co-host why his people insist in backing into parking spaces. And we both had some recent AI wins that we discuss, and there's a twist on the #badIT segment - a #badITGuy that embezzled from his employer. Special appearances by Duke Nukem, Picasso, and The Phantom Dog
Send us a text More anticipated than Severance Season 2, it's Part 2 of our Remote Work Panel on The Last I.T. Podcast In The World. Kennie, Tonya, and Mark are back with Darrick and me to discuss #RemoteWorkLife: - How often do you need to get together with your team in the same location? - Two important words - Affinity and Trust - Missing those positive collisions at the coffee machine - The ongoing work/life balance challenge, and the pros of workday flexibility - Our pretend...
Send us a text Wow! A power-packed panel of 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 join 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗜.𝗧. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱. Tonya Bricco-Meske, Kennie Nybo Pontoppidan, and Mark Rhodes join Darrick Johnson and me to discuss the pros, the cons, the advantages, and challenges of the remote work lived experience. This is Part 1 of 2 episodes with these Smart People. In this one, we also banter about our first cars. Fun! Thoughtful! Mildly provocative!
Send us a text World famous wannabe astronaut Mark Rhodes drops by The Last I.T. Podcast in The World to talk about Change Management and why it is crucial to tech project success. We ponder what it is and why so many projects still don't embrace it and use it. And I have Mark rank astronaut movies and convince him (for reals) that Die Hard is definitely an astronaut movie. All over amber beverages at our local ale house. All were had by a good time!
Send us a text Shadow IT is when a company allows other departments to view I.T. as optional. More of a suggestion. And allows them to undertake software projects or purchases, or even external IT resources with no, or very low engagement with I.T. leadership. The result? Increased costs, increased security and data loss risks, fractured architecture, duplicate solutions, manual data entry. And creating a culture of organizational disrespect. We ask ourselves, "Imagi...
Send us a text It's a special holiday episode of The Last I.T. Podcast In The World, where Darrick and I go through our IT Nice and Naughty list (mostly naughty). And: - I give my review of Silo season 2, where IT still rules the cylindrical dystopian future! - I ask Darrick the existential question: Which is better, Copy and Paste or the Thumbs Up emoji reply? - We design a much-needed app for the healthcare industry. But we can't decide what color the button should be. And we...
Send us a text David, avowed technologist, draws the line at tech in kitchen faucets and has opinions about recent trends in sinks. We also wonder what's going on with the tech at fast food drive-thrus that they never seem to know the total till you pull up to the first window. And strangers tell David their passwords for no apparent reason. Spoiler - it's 'password'.
Send us a text In this Snyder Cut edition of The Last I.T. Podcast In The World, I welcome Brian Vos whose job might just be cooler than yours (and yours is pretty darn cool). Self-driving cars - pfft. Think bigger - Brian discusses how close we are to seeing autonomous big rigs rolling down a highway near you soon. We discuss what's driving the demand for autonomous freight vehicles and learn what "Class 8" and "Level 4" mean. As well as the lengths Brian's company and his team...
Send us a text Is the Worker's Paradise Over? An Aussie CEO says 5 days in the office isn't enough - he'd like to (practically) duct tape employees to their chairs. A former boss bans laughter. JP Morgan grows a heart and caps hours at 80 a week (no cap) for SOME employees. And David screams "PUBLIC WIFI IS SAFE" into the void, but also to a WSJ journalist who's still spreading old wives' tales (no offense to Old Wives).
Send us a text Nobody asked what we think about good vs. bad e-mail address name conventions, but did that stop us from sharing our opinions? No, it did not. Do we also have opinions about how some people use their cameras on video calls? Yes, we do. Then we talk about how AI adds prompts to posts on the Socials that are just silly. And we learn new words!
Send us a text We discuss three stories ripped from today's headlines that cover the forces of evil conspiring to ruin remote work for all of us including North Korea, The Evil HR Lady, Mouse Jigglers and yes, Wells Fargo. And we agree that Mouse Jigglers would be a good name for a band.
Send us a text We welcome a panel of IT deep thinkers to discuss the attributes that make for great IT staff. Darrick and David are joined by Tejal Patel and Keven Pennock to share our experiences with what the very best IT staff we've ever worked with have in common. And in the final segment, we have fun trimming our list down to our Final Five. Along the way we put Eeyore and Tigger in a blender, discuss Conscientious Laziness, what Sticky Bombs can teach us, and drop some fanc...
Send us a text What makes a coffee shop perfect for remote work? We have a rating system. And we add a little bathroom talk in the banter segment. In The Big Idea segment, we discuss a very important IT concept called Technical Debt. It's bad, like a car that burns oil so badly you have to add oil while you drive (true story).
Send us a text Hoo boy, the Return to Office wars have just gotten silly. And dark. Dell just announced they're going to start discriminating against their own employees who work not-near a Dell office. That's right, remote workers are no longer eligible for promotions at Dell. So, we play the game "what if we replaced 'remote workers' with another group of people?" How would that sound? Spoiler alert - it sounds pretty awful.