Refurb Radio

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Episode #6

Mainframe assembler programmer Kristine Harper of Neon Enterprise Software joins the Refurb Radio hosts to discuss the next generation of mainframe programmers. Harper is the project manager of SHARE’s zNextGen project and is helping lead the initiative to get young people interested in mainframe programming.

Show Notes:

0:00-3:25 Marty recaps ASCDI.
3:25-7:35 How Kristine first became interested in the mainframe.
7:35-9:00 Kristine addresses the issue of respect being a young, female mainframe programmer amongst the more common Baby Boomers.
11:30-13:45 Kristine gives a brief overview of the mainframe and its uses, and explains what types of people and businesses utilize it.
13:45-14:30 Marty asks Kristine about the recent surge in mainframe business - IBM is working to reduce the cost, and companies are seeing the benefit.
14:40-17:45 Brief history of zNextGen : how it originated and the current state of the project.
17:45-20:00 IBM launched its Academic Initiative Program in response to the scarce opportunities for mainframe education; the program is a global movement to increase mainframe education in colleges and universities.
21:10-25:00 Discussion on the future of mainframe education and zNextGen.

Relevant Links:
Kristine Harper’s Newbie Blog
SHARE
zNextGen at SHARE (for a brief overview and more information on becoming a member)

Hosts: Lindsi Gish and Marty Brown of Vibrant Technologies
Producer: Lindsi Gish

EPISODE #5

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An excellent show this week with the leadership of UNEDA (United Network Equipment Dealer’s Association) which represents hundreds of companies who resell networking hardware such as Cisco, Juniper, Adtran, Nortel, Marconi and more. We discussed Cisco’s PR attack on the secondary market (those who sell used and refurbished hardware) as well as UNEDA’s battle against counterfeit equipment leaking into the market.

Guests from UNEDA:

• Mike Sheldon, President of UNEDA, CEO and President of Network Hardware Resale
• John Stafford, Vice President of UNEDA, Director of Wholesale Services, Network Liquidators
• Conrad Vickroy, UNEDA Ethics Chair, Vice President of Duane Whitlow & Company

Show Notes:
1:45 Intros of UNEDA Guests
4:00 UNEDA’s background and purpose
7:30 UNEDA membership
9:00 UNEDA meeting info
12:00 Favorite Interop Moments
15:00 Cisco’s PR attack on the Secondary market
18:30 Comparison to Sun Microsystems
20:00 Recertification Reform (UNEDA’s plea to Cisco)
26:15 IBM’s model for residual value
27:20 Countefeit Cisco concerns

Relevant Links:
Cisco set to fight aftermarket sellers (NWW)
UNEDA responds to Cisco (Cisco Subnet)
Fake Network Gear (NWW)
Refurbished Cisco Terminology Guide (Cisco Subnet)

Hosts: Corey Donovan and Bill Keefe of Vibrant Technologies
Producer: Lindsi Gish, also of Vibrant

Note: Corey, Lindsi and Bill (among others from Vibrant) will all be at the UNEDA events and also at our booth on the Interop show floor. Be sure to look for the “vibrant” orange shoes and say hello!

We brought the camera with for our week 5 podcast with UNEDA (to be posted soon).

My “Vibrant” Orange Adidas arrived so I naturally gave them a trial run in the studio. I’ll be sporting these at the Interop conference and UNEDA meetings in a couple of weeks, too.

All of the Vibrant staff attending (Corey, Bill, Kevin and Lindsi) will have some variety of stylish orange on their toes so that people can pick us out of the crowd…

Bill Keefe (pictured below) doesn’t have his orange shoes yet, but they’re on their way. They’re (almost) as nice as my Adidas. Nonetheless, he was excited to be my co-host for week 5 and was a natural on the microphone.

Lindsi Gish, our producer, managed the technical side on her own this week as the studio manager was out of town. Murphy’s law prevailed and technical issues arose, but Lindsi did a great job fixing everything and we only started 10 minutes late. The guests were very patient while Lindsi was troubleshooting the setup. Nice save Lindsi!

EPISODE 4

Vibrant Technicians Erick “Hudson” Jensen and Jason “Guitar Hero” Henriksen are in studio to discuss how you become a hardware technician in the secondary IT hardware market (among other things).

1-9:00 Minutes: Path to Teching
Jason and Erick discuss their paths to becoming techs and how others have become techs in the industry.

10-14:00 Minutes: Day in the Life
Describing the typical day of one of Vibrant’s hardware technicians.

14-18:00 Minutes: Sins of Sales Reps
Things sales reps can do to mess up a technician’s day.

19-24:00 Minutes: Teching for Sales reps
What things a sales rep can do before handing an issue off to a technician

24-30:00 Minutes: Servers at the Movies
Erick discusses his blog post he wrote for Vibrant on computer servers in the movies.

Links:
http://www.vibrant.com/blog/troubleshooting-a-server-for-sales-reps-and-other-non-techies/
http://www.vibrant.com/blog/servers-in-the-movies-our-top-ten/
http://www.vibrant.com/blog/ten-servers-that-changed-the-world/

EPISODE 3

(Audio unavailable)

Guests Joe Marion and Erin Crumbley of the ASCDI join Refurb Radio to discuss the upcoming broker conference in Las Vegas, NV. The ASCDI (Association of Service and Computer Dealers International) is the primary trade organization for the secondary IT hardware industry. We touch on previous and upcoming meetings too, including the first-time announcement of a November ‘07 Hong Kong conference!

Show notes:
0-3 Minutes: Intro
- Announcement that Marty Brown has been promoted to Vice President of Sales at Vibrant.

3-10 Minutes: Guests and Background
- Joe Marion, President of the ASCDI
- Erin Crumbley, Convention Chair, IBM pSeries and xSeries portfolio manager for CIT Vendor Finance and Equipment Leasing

11-20 Minutes: ASCDI Session Highlights
- There is a discounted rate for new members.
- Over 350 people already registered for Vegas, a new record with more signups to come
- 80 already registered for Rome European Conference
- Announced the 2nd Annual Asian ASCDI Meeting in Hong Kong!

20:30-29:30 Minutes: ASCDI Social Functions and upcoming conferences
- Ghost Bar Cocktail Party, Poker Tourney and more

Thanks to Joe and Erin for making this podcast informational and entertaining!

Hopefully we’ll see a lot of old friends and new faces in Las Vegas in less than two weeks from now!

Links:
ASCDI Upcoming Meetings, agendas
Published Articles by Joe Marion, ASCDI President
CIT Leasing

Hosts: Marty Brown and Corey Donovan, Vibrant Technologies
Producer: Lindsi Gish, also of Vibrant Technologies
Guests: Joe Marion, Erin Crumbley

Episode 2

(Audio Unavailable)

RefurbRadio welcomes Brad Reese to the podcast. We were honored to have Brad as our program’s first guest to discuss his history in the industry and current topics in the refurbished Cisco marketplace. Brad has been writing an excellent blog over at Network World’s Cisco Subnet Community with great frequency and quality that has stirred up diverse online conversations. Brad also runs the resource website BradReese.com, where the goal is to “advance the careers of over 600,000 certified Cisco Professionals.”

Show Notes:

0-10 Minutes: Intro and Brad Reese’s Background
- Brad discusses his journey from Interlink Communication Systems to Alliance Datacom to working with Reggie Grant.

10-20 Minutes: BradReese.com
- Brad discusses his namesake site and its service and scope.

21-27.5 Minutes: Blogging at NetworkWorld.com
- Brad discusses Network World’s Cisco Subnet and his blog there. Brad is posting there about the people behind the scenes in the Cisco World and he sees it as sort of the “People Magazine of the Cisco World.”

27.5 - 36 Minutes: Cisco Topics at NWW.com
- We discuss the Used Cisco Buyer’s Guide, Chisco, Counterfeit Cisco and Cisco’s attack on the secondary market.

Brad was an awesome guest and we hope to have him on again in the future.

More Resources:
Network World’s Cisco Subnet: http://www.networkworld.com/subnets/cisco/”>
Vibrant Technologies Blog: http://www.vibrant.com/blog
Brad Reese’s Blog at NWW: http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=bradreese

Hosts: Corey Donovan and Marty Brown of Vibrant Technologies
Producer: Lindsi Gish of Vibrant Technologies
Guest: Brad Reese of BradReese.com

In my conversations with Brad Reese on this week’s podcast, we talked about an article I wrote for NetworkWorld’s Cisco Subnet, the Used Cisco Buyer’s Guide, which was meant to be written for Vibrant Technologies as a service to end-users. I believe this material is also important information for used Cisco resellers and dealers to keep us all on the same page when communicating in the marketplace.

Another useful guide not only for end-users, but also those who sell used Cisco for fun and profit is the Refurbished Cisco Terminology Guide. This article breaks down all of the terms used, abused and mis-used in the refurbished Cisco hardware space.

Of course, these posts are just the beginning of the conversation, as the dialogue continues in the comments within each post.

EPISODE 1 

Refurb Radio’s first podcast is in the can.

Each week we’ll provide show notes on what was discussed with links to more information.

A) ASCDI Las Vegas

Marty and I discussed the upcoming ASCDI meeting for roughly the first 10 minutes of the show. We glossed over some of the interesting sessions and some of the social events

B) Used IT Hardware Terminology

We reviewed the various terms thrown around for used IT hardware including…
- Used, Refurbished, Remanufactured, Remarketed, Off-Lease, secondary market

And other terms related to the server, storage and Cisco markets, but often mis-used:
- Gray Market, Black Market, Counterfeit, Chisco, etc…

C) Wacko Circuit City Lay-off

In an amazingly daft move, Circuit City lays off their best sales reps to save money

Guests: No Guest this week

Additional Resources / Blog Posts::
——————————–
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/12844 (Network World)
http://www.vibrant.com/blog/used-router-7ways/ (Vibrant Technologies)
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13186 (Network World)

Podcast Link (Right Click to download)

As a firm believer that industries become stronger when there are open communications, I’ve started this podcast to bring together resellers, brokers, dealers and industry insiders to discuss topics and events in our marketplace.

The Refurb Radio podcast will be distributed weekly.  You can subscribe via RSS or just visit the site regularly to check for the latest show. Each show will have shownotes included with the audio at the bottom of the post.

If you’re interested in being a guest on the show, please contact me and its as simple as calling into an 800 line.  If you’ve never done a podcast, don’t worry, its just really a conversation.  We hope to have a wide variety of topics and people to discuss them with.  The recording is done each Thursday at 1PM with the podcast released by Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

Hosts:
Corey Donovan - Vibrant Technologies
Marty Brown - Vibrant Technologies

Producer:
Lindsi Gish - also with Vibrant

Special thanks go out to Ben Higginbotham of TechnologyEvangelist.com for providing the studio time, equipment and insight to put this podcast together.  Ben is a podcasting, video and new media guru!