Saturday, October 28, 2006

What the hell is it with lawyers?

You'd think lawyers would be the people most aware of the risks of sending dodgy emails to all and sundry, yet once again we have a story of lawyers passing on a silly email to all their mates.

The lesson, once again, is if you don't want to see the text next to your picture on the six o'clock news, then don't write it.

But I continue to wonder why I hear so many stories about lawyers and dumb Internet usage. Over the years I've heard stories of sexual harassment, dissing clients and all manner of inappropriate behaviour. Is it because they believe they are untouchable?

Monday, October 23, 2006

Bigpond drop the word "unlimited"

Quietly in the last few weeks, Bigpond have renamed their "Unlimited" plan to "Liberty".

This label was always misleading. The plans were never unlimited. Once you reached the limit, you were capped to slower speeds.

While misusing the word "unlimited" is typical IT industry behaviour, it's preferable to the alternative, a massive excess use charge. The 200, 400 and 500Mb plans are designed to hit customers with excess bills. The 200Mb plan would end up costing the typical family over $70 a month.

It worries me when I hear schools bullying families to get on to the net. Too many of those families will sign up with Bigpond and opt for the cheapest possible plan. Throw a couple of kids surfing for free music on that machine and a 29.95 plan could easily become a $29,950 plan.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

XP Service Pack 3 delayed

It appears the next Windows XP service pack will not be released until 2008. This means it will be almost four years between service packs two and three. This is not acceptable.

Already a new machine with SP2 requires over sixty updates to get up to date, it boggles my mind how many we'll need by 2008.

Not good enough.

Friday, October 20, 2006

HP overtakes Dell

Gartner and IDC are reporting HP has regained the lead over Dell in worldwide PC shipments this quarter.

The frightening thing for Dell is the fall in US market share: IDC report 6.7% and Gartner 7%. A fall like that is a serious matter.

The problem for Dell is that they are now firmly stuck in the low margin, cheapo market. It's going to take a lot of work for them to break out of that niche. If they don't, though, they are doomed.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Apple defenders come out

When Choice named iPods as among the ten shonkiest products of the year, I expected the fanboys to come out snarling. In the next few days we'll see the usual sqwarking and attacks on everyone concerned. I certainly didn't expect Smarthouse News to be questioning Choice's integrity, however.

While I agree the Australian Consumers Association can be hysterical at times, and I disagree with their view that computers should be as reliable as toasters and fridges, their comments about Apple's disgraceful iPod return policy are quite right.

What I find interesting in the Smarthouse article is the quote from Harvey Norman's Rutland Smith: "The claims by Choice surprise me as we have no problems with iPod returns and we sell thousands"

It's amazing that there are two Rutley Smiths working at Harvey Norman. A month earlier another Rutley Smith told Australian Personal Computer,

Harvey Norman had repeatedly asked Apple to change its iPod return process which instructs customers to return faulty iPods directly to Apple by post.

“We’ve instructed our stores to resolve problems in accordance with the Trade Practices Act and handle stock problems with Apple at a later date. But so far we’ve found Apple to be particularly uncooperative.”

So it seems we have two Rutley Smiths at Harvey Norman. One thinks Apple are terrific and one seems to have a similar attitude to Choice Magazine. What a strange world we live in.

iPod wins shonky award

Choice Magazine has nominated Apple's iPod for their Shonky awards.

Apple's iPod has won a Shonky, the Australian Consumers Association award for "unsafe, unethical, dishonest or plain hilarious products". The main point against the iPod is Apple's disgraceful, and possibly illegal, return policy.

Then again, what more can we expect from a company that blames Microsoft when it ships a product with a virus?

I also love how Apple link their advisory to two of the buggiest antivirus products on the market.

It's way beyond time that the ACCC and various state consumer protection authorities start doing their jobs and prosecute a few vendors for breaching the Trade Practices Act and various state laws.

Perhaps if they did, these outfits would stop treating users, customers and resellers with contempt and start shipping products that did what they promised.

Techs pushing Vista

Are techs mad to be pushing Vista right now?

I received a competitors newsletter yesterday which was mainly an exercise in pushing Windows Vista. It's not something I would do.

Vista will eventually take over from XP, however we'll see a lot of teeth gnashing as the early adopters work they way through the many incompatibilities and bugs that we'll find. It's a brave tech that would tell their customers to upgrade three months after the release, let alone three months before. We're advising to wait until this time next year.

The notable thing about this company is they have a "no fix-no fee" policy. I suspect this advice might become very expensive in the new year.

Germany proposes a computer tax

In countries like Germany and the UK where televisions require a license it was inevitable that applying these taxes to computers would be proposed.

I'm surprised the record companies and movie studios haven't suggested a similar levy to compensate for the billions they claim to lose to piracy.

What this really illustrates is how flawed comparisons between computers and household appliance are. A TV can only do one thing: Watch TV (although the picture can come from a VCR or satellite dish). Computers on the other hand can do untold number of things.

This is why I get cranky at the Consumer Association's constant assertion that computers should be as reliable as toasters. I don't see too many viruses written for toasters or teenagers trying to share raisin toast in return for muffins. I also don't see too many home based businesses using a domestic toaster to run a cafe.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Cutting down peer-to-peer

Extel's decision to slow peer-to-peer traffic is hardly surprising.

Given that probably thirty percent of household computers we see currently have P2P software on their computers, and most of them have sharing enabled, the amount of data being pushed around by these programs is huge. The costs to ISPs must be massive.

The importance of the Internet to so many businesses and households means priortising other traffic is fair enough. Also, the market for ISPs like Exetel is largely price driven they just can't afford these sort of costs.

Users have to decide if they want cheap or capacity. They can't have both. Mind you, if some of the complaints are true, then I would be a cranky customer too.

It's industry practice to allow customers to terminate a contract without penalty if terms are changed during the term. The talcum Industry Ombudsman has a checklist for dealing with customer complaints.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

McAfee complains about Vista

McAfee has joined Symantec to complain about Vista's security and lack of access to kernal.

What a laugh. Both of these products would work better WITHOUT access. All too often we see machines dragged down by them.

These programs shouldn't be allowed access to key operating files. Nothing should. The main reason for XP's diabolic security problems is the ease programs can write to the registry and system folders.