Odds and Sods

Open source video security application:

http://www.zoneminder.com/ via VoIP Insider

Preston Loves Chrome. Larry, less so... not least because every time I attempt to read a .pdf file the Adobe browser hangs up. Oh, yeah, its a beta, and if it is like almost every other Google application, it will stay a beta for months if not years. Also, there are reports of odd licensing terms, however, according to PC-World that has been fixed. Meanwhile, the latest FireFox, version 3.0 seems to be fine...and I've stuck with Safari on the Mac.

Smashing Magazine has their desktop wallpapers out for September, both with and without a calendar.

How to demo your startup. Great hints for doing demo over the phone or using web-based demo tools.

The Windows XPe chat, has a number of items about the new version Windows Embedded.

Indirect Expenses: Calculations for Federal Grants

After reading the article from The Grantsmanship Center about calculating indirect rates, I started to drill down a bit further. This is a dense subject. I'm already on my third cup of coffee, and that is probably due to the fact that I don't have access to anything stronger to ease the pain. However, one way to learn something is to look for patterns and repetition. If you read something three times, and see it referenced by other documents, it starts to fit into some kind of ordered symmetry. So, here are some resources:

The Office of Management and Budget Circular A-122 appears to be the ur-text for all things indirect. The title of this missive is Cost Principals for Non-Profit Organizations and the summary is:

1. Purpose. This Circular establishes principles for determining costs of grants, contracts and other agreements with non-profit organizations. It does not apply to colleges and universities which are covered by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21, "Cost Principles for Educational Institutions"; State, local, and federally-recognized Indian tribal governments which are covered by OMB Circular A-87, "Cost Principles for State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments"; or hospitals. The principles are designed to provide that the Federal Government bear its fair share of costs except where restricted or prohibited by law. The principles do not attempt to prescribe the extent of cost sharing or matching on grants, contracts, or other agreements. However, such cost sharing or matching shall not be accomplished through arbitrary limitations on individual cost elements by Federal agencies. Provision for profit or other increment above cost is outside the scope of this Circular.

So, assuming you aren't a government, college or university, or hospital, it appears A-122 is for you if you are a 501c(3) non-profit. Here is a link to a PDF version of the document (accuracy and provenance unknown). For for-profit companies, such as SBIR companies the relevant discussion is in the Federal Aquisition Regulations, FAR Part 31 Contract Cost Principles and Procedures. Indirect is discussed in subpart .203 but only very generally.

Here is a Powerpoint presentation as a PDF that was from a training provided by HUD (Housing and Urban Development).

Here's a one-page explanation on calculating indirect rates with an example. This is from the Compassion Capital Fund, which appears to be an offshoot of a government initiative to support faith-based and community organizations. Lots of resources and links here.

Jim and Gail Greenwood have a brief discussion of indirect as related to SBIR proposals. This is one of a whole host of useful articles relating to their business in supporting and counseling aspiring SBIR grantees. As an aside, I recommend SBIR grantees attend any of Jim or Gail's frequent workshops. Be sure to read their material. They are a rare combination of highly knowledgeable consultants who can turn government mush such as FAR 32 Part 3.201 into reasonably understandable English. They will also review your grant proposals. I had them review my Phase II. They are also funny and eminently approachable speakers.

National Institutes of Health - Ruth Bishop's PowerPoint presentation

Health and Human Services - Example cost proposal by a non-profit. This appears to be quite useful. (or maybe I'm starting to get it?)

Applying for Federal Grants

We're into "tax season" here in the U.S. as the corporate tax deadline looms for March 15th, and personal taxes returns are due on April 15th. Although we spend lots of time and effort sending money to the Internal Revenue Service, it is always nice to recall that many other government agencies will give it back if you ask nicely, at the proper time, using their forms. Yes, this means grants.

Our own experience is primarily with the SBIR program. It turns out that 2.5% of all "extramural" procurement, that is, goods, services and research done under contract for a government agency must, by law, be provided to "small business". What constitutes a small business may be laughable when you consider that a small business can have a couple hundred employees, but my own case also applies; most of the time my little corporation has one full-time employee, with a lot of subcontractors. You provide credibility by working with others, and demonstrating your ability to fulfill the requirements of the grant. Often this means that you need to hook up with a Large Organization...say the local college or university, and use their expertise and facilities as part of the grant.

As my ink jet printer spits out another 60-page set of grant instructions, it occurs to me that there are several pre-requisites for success when chasing down these grants:

• You must be a company or corporation. For SBIR you must be a for-profit business; otherwise, you probably need to be a 501c(3) non-profit organization. Most of the grants listed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy are targeted at non-profits; health care, social service, or educational institutions. Grants to individuals are rare. (If you want to get government money as an individual, get a gig at a federal or state agency).
• You must have accounting competence, or the ability to find it. So, you need a CPA who is experienced with federal accounting, and a bookkeeper who can keep everything straight. If you are terrified of doing your own tax return, you'll need to find people who aren't. If you are familiar with TurboTax, then multiply it by ten, and that will give you an idea of the effort involved for a grant of significant size. (>$60,0000) both to do the application, and then the ongoing accounting and management.
• You need to be able to do a budget in a spreadsheet, use a word processor, and be able to create PDF files.
• You need to be able to work with other organizations (see above). Grant makers love collaboration and synergy. They recognize that it is unusual for a single person or organization to be expert in everything.

The gumint has been switching over from paper grant submissions to electronic submissions, and it continues to be quite a trip. A couple years ago, you filled out Word forms and sent them in as PDF files. Then they switched to online forms, which often requested longer narratives to be uploaded as PDFS. Now many of not all federal agencies participate in Grants.Gov, a central point for all federal grant applications. And, yet, working with NIH and NSF, I note that they each have their own interfaces and ways of doing things.

Your organization needs a DUNS number (from Dunn and Bradstreet), if you don't already have one. This is a prerequisite for registering in the CCR, the Central Contractor Registration Database. Registration in the CCR is a prerequisite for applying for federal grants. You'll also get lots of unsolicited phone calls from people who say they can "assist" you with working with the government. Ignore them, and find out if your local SBA office can help.

Tech Friday: Troubleshooting Windows Firewall

Tech Friday is the day when we get bogged down in technicalities.

Dynamic DNS Redux

Today I've been doing some further research on Dynamic DNS, and indeed I found out that Wednesday, I was actually playing with the Unix/Linux version of the the DynDNS updater. They have a more conventional Windows client available with a nice graphic interface. It still does the same thing as the earlier one does, and it can install as a Windows service.

Firewall Issues

The Windows XP SP2 firewall can be managed locally on the XP Workstation through the Control Panel applet, via the local Group Policy, or via a domain group policy. When running into problems with the firewall, often the first problem is to figure out just where the settings are coming from. Microsoft has provided a handy guide on troubleshooting the Windows firewall, using familiar tools like netstat and netsh. For example, the following command will display the firewall status, and show where the settings are coming from. Note the returned results in my case show that the workstation is controlled from the Domain under the Group Policy.

C:\netsh firewall show state

Firewall status:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Profile = Domain
Operational mode = Enable
Exception mode = Enable
Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
Notification mode = Enable
Group policy version = Windows Firewall
Remote admin mode = Disable

Ports currently open on all network interfaces:
Port Protocol Version Program
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1052 UDP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
26675 TCP IPv4 (null)
67 UDP IPv4 (null)
135 TCP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\inetinfo.exe
137 UDP IPv4 (null)
139 TCP IPv4 (null)
138 UDP IPv4 (null)
3389 TCP IPv4 (null)
38293 UDP IPv4 (null)
443 TCP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\inetinfo.exe
443 UDP IPv4 (null)
445 TCP IPv4 (null)
37674 UDP IPv4 (null)
37675 UDP IPv4 (null)
37674 TCP IPv4 (null)
2869 TCP IPv4 (null)
1900 UDP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
2967 UDP IPv4 (null)
990 TCP IPv4 F:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync\rapimgr.exe

Additional ports open on Local Area Connection:
Port Protocol Version
-------------------------------------------------------------------
427 UDP Any


C:\

The Microsoft network troubleshooting white paper describes several additional troubleshooting tactics and is recommended.

For a cookbook approach to the Windows command line, check out the Administrator's Pocket Consultant series title Microsoft Windows Command-Line by William R. Stanek.