Why am I cynical about the NSW government promising free wireless broadband?
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Iemma_NSW_CBDs_will_get_free_Wi_Fi/0,130061791,339272442,00.htm
Advertising supported?
Decision in the second quarter of next year?
Hmmm, just after the March election. I guess by then we'll have all forgotten about this.
What's disappointing about stunts like this is that it shows the politicians know this stuff is important. But rather than put in place sensible policies that encourage the development, use and growth of new technologies, they just engage in pointless gesture and stupid promises.
They say we get the politicians we deserve. What did we do to deserve the current crop?
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Beating the MS Drum.
Who says Apple has all the fanbois?
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=684413783&eid=-4152
The simple fact is customers don't need Vista. Right now, there is little compelling reason for consumers to run out and buy Vista. Businesses have even fewer reasons.
Vista will be a success. But only because every new machine from mid year onwards will come with it preinstalled. The simple replacement cycle will make sure Vista sells.
The funny thing is the analyst, David Mitchell, actually admits this when saying why Office 2007 won't have the same take up rate: "You don't get the OEM drag effect. If you buy a new PC, you get a copy of Vista. You don't necessarily get a copy of Office."
The funny thing is that he's probably wrong there too.
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=684413783&eid=-4152
The simple fact is customers don't need Vista. Right now, there is little compelling reason for consumers to run out and buy Vista. Businesses have even fewer reasons.
Vista will be a success. But only because every new machine from mid year onwards will come with it preinstalled. The simple replacement cycle will make sure Vista sells.
The funny thing is the analyst, David Mitchell, actually admits this when saying why Office 2007 won't have the same take up rate: "You don't get the OEM drag effect. If you buy a new PC, you get a copy of Vista. You don't necessarily get a copy of Office."
The funny thing is that he's probably wrong there too.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Thinking before you send (again)
It's a shame Katrina Jorgensen lives in New Zealand. I'd like to hire her as my accounts payable manager. Unfortunately her all too direct email got her sacked by her own husband.
Again we see why it's important to think before you send. The line "Why don't you stay within your class level and buy something from payless plastics instead." is priceless but it really isn't something you'd like to see sent around the world. Again, don't send something you would like to see next to your photo on the six o'clock news, or the NZ Herald in this case.
A greater sin of the Great Marquee company is the use of sound on their website. Now that's a hanging offence. Incidentally, $NZ30,000 is a bloody cheap wedding so maybe Katrina does have a point.
Another offence is the shameless pinching of the story by the Sydney Daily Telegraph, right down to the photos. It's surprising the Tele couldn't find a story today given the circus that our state politicians are performing in.
The morals of this story are, spend more on weddings if you don't want to be insulted, don't read the Tele, don't imbed boring music in your website and never send an email you've written in anger.
Again we see why it's important to think before you send. The line "Why don't you stay within your class level and buy something from payless plastics instead." is priceless but it really isn't something you'd like to see sent around the world. Again, don't send something you would like to see next to your photo on the six o'clock news, or the NZ Herald in this case.
A greater sin of the Great Marquee company is the use of sound on their website. Now that's a hanging offence. Incidentally, $NZ30,000 is a bloody cheap wedding so maybe Katrina does have a point.
Another offence is the shameless pinching of the story by the Sydney Daily Telegraph, right down to the photos. It's surprising the Tele couldn't find a story today given the circus that our state politicians are performing in.
The morals of this story are, spend more on weddings if you don't want to be insulted, don't read the Tele, don't imbed boring music in your website and never send an email you've written in anger.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Vista won't need anti-virus?
Microsoft suggest Windows Vista won't need an antivirus. Who are they kidding?
Co-President of Microsoft, Jim Allchin, is reported to have claimed Vista won't need an anti-virus. His seven year old surfs the net all the time and using the parental controls feature, Jim doesn't have to worry about AV. If he believes that, he's kidding himself.
My kids surf the net all the time using an XP computer. It never gets viruses because they use Firefox and they run as restricted users. When they go to virus or spyware infected sites, the malware simple cannot run.
That's not to say the malware sites don't try. AVG constantly picks up trojan attempts in the cache file. But they simply don't get on the system.
Vista almost certainly will be more secure than XP, just as XP was more secure than 98 and ME. However XP could have been as secure as the Mac had Microsoft not decided to make all users Administrators by default. Make the users limited and the bulk of the problems go away, thankfully Vista appears to do this, although in practice it might be different.
We'll see how secure Vista is in the next few months. But right now it's sounding like we have a lot of complex kludges like parental controls and Address Space Layout Randomization. All these seem nice ideas, but they are just adding to the complexity of an already complex system.
The real solutions to Windows' security problems are for normal users not to have administrator rights and to deny access to the registry and system 32 folder. There is no reason why any program should have to write to either for normal usage. Until this is done, then Windows will continue to have problems.
It's a shame someone like Jim Allchin would make such a silly statement. Of course Vista will still need an anti-virus. I doubt even the stock brokers and analysts are fooled by this sort of talk.
Co-President of Microsoft, Jim Allchin, is reported to have claimed Vista won't need an anti-virus. His seven year old surfs the net all the time and using the parental controls feature, Jim doesn't have to worry about AV. If he believes that, he's kidding himself.
My kids surf the net all the time using an XP computer. It never gets viruses because they use Firefox and they run as restricted users. When they go to virus or spyware infected sites, the malware simple cannot run.
That's not to say the malware sites don't try. AVG constantly picks up trojan attempts in the cache file. But they simply don't get on the system.
Vista almost certainly will be more secure than XP, just as XP was more secure than 98 and ME. However XP could have been as secure as the Mac had Microsoft not decided to make all users Administrators by default. Make the users limited and the bulk of the problems go away, thankfully Vista appears to do this, although in practice it might be different.
We'll see how secure Vista is in the next few months. But right now it's sounding like we have a lot of complex kludges like parental controls and Address Space Layout Randomization. All these seem nice ideas, but they are just adding to the complexity of an already complex system.
The real solutions to Windows' security problems are for normal users not to have administrator rights and to deny access to the registry and system 32 folder. There is no reason why any program should have to write to either for normal usage. Until this is done, then Windows will continue to have problems.
It's a shame someone like Jim Allchin would make such a silly statement. Of course Vista will still need an anti-virus. I doubt even the stock brokers and analysts are fooled by this sort of talk.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Telstra's ADSL2 pricing
Telstra has finally released it's ADSL 2 service, but it continues to offer poor value compared to the competition.
ADSL 2 has been available from many ISPs for the last year and Telstra has been installing this equipment without making it available to customers. Now they have finally released their ADSL2 service. The shame is that it is lousy value.
Australian Personal Computer has a good comparison of the various ADSL2 offerings. Telstra doesn't compare well. To add insult to injury, APC also points out that Telstra has decided to use different equipment to most of the competition, which means more compatibility problems.
Once again, we see good reasons why consumers need to shop around. What's more, it's another example of why Telstra should be split into a wholesale and retail providers. Sadly, we won't see this under the current government or opposition.
ADSL 2 has been available from many ISPs for the last year and Telstra has been installing this equipment without making it available to customers. Now they have finally released their ADSL2 service. The shame is that it is lousy value.
Australian Personal Computer has a good comparison of the various ADSL2 offerings. Telstra doesn't compare well. To add insult to injury, APC also points out that Telstra has decided to use different equipment to most of the competition, which means more compatibility problems.
Once again, we see good reasons why consumers need to shop around. What's more, it's another example of why Telstra should be split into a wholesale and retail providers. Sadly, we won't see this under the current government or opposition.
The spam explosion
Spam is increasing again. Is it all worthwhile
The last couple of months have seen a massive increase in spam. We're increasingly being asked how to control it and we're having trouble with the answers. The problem is the spammers have become smarter.
A spam message traditionally had content along the lines of "get rich quick" or "grow your hair" and it was comparatively easy for spam checking programs to find most of these messages. The new breed just jumbles together commonly used words or phrases. This is why so much spam looks like gobblygook.
To get their message across the spammers have started putting their messages in an image file. So we have a picture of the spam message. The spam detector can't read the image.
The final nail in the spam checker is that they traditionally used blacklists of known spammers or compromised servers to check where the spam was coming from. A larger proportion of spam now comes from infected computers or unsecured wireless networks so blacklists are harder to maintain.
While the spam checkers are getting better, this is a curse we are going to have to put up with until we see fewer compromised computers and networks.
The last couple of months have seen a massive increase in spam. We're increasingly being asked how to control it and we're having trouble with the answers. The problem is the spammers have become smarter.
A spam message traditionally had content along the lines of "get rich quick" or "grow your hair" and it was comparatively easy for spam checking programs to find most of these messages. The new breed just jumbles together commonly used words or phrases. This is why so much spam looks like gobblygook.
To get their message across the spammers have started putting their messages in an image file. So we have a picture of the spam message. The spam detector can't read the image.
The final nail in the spam checker is that they traditionally used blacklists of known spammers or compromised servers to check where the spam was coming from. A larger proportion of spam now comes from infected computers or unsecured wireless networks so blacklists are harder to maintain.
While the spam checkers are getting better, this is a curse we are going to have to put up with until we see fewer compromised computers and networks.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
The porn case
What are the lessons from the Budlong porn case?
On the face of it, the NSW Industrial Relation Commission's ruling that being sacked for possessing porn is unreasonable is worrying. But like all these things a reading of the judgment reveals there's a lot more to the case. It appears NCR were inconsistent and made a number of mistakes.
The biggest mistake NCR made was inconsistency. Another staff member had been counseled for inappropriate email usage, she was sacked after continuing the behaviour. Budlong wasn't given counselling before being sacked.
A more striking problem for NCR was their Acceptable Usage Policy. The "air of automation" comment by the commission was my biggest worry, but it turns out the policy was FIFTY pages long. It clearly wasn't readable, the commission also hints that not all staff had signed it.
The third and, in my view, most dubious point against NCR was the lack of a firewall. While I'm surprised a company like this didn't have one, the commission took it as indicating the company didn't seriously enforce it's policies. It shows a business has to take positive steps to prevent this happenning.
This case has presented a few lessons for businesses and IT departments. While the specific case is only applicable to New South Wales, the lessons can be taken on board by most companies. Those lessons are.
1. Have a clear and concise policy on inappropriate usage.
2. Act decisively, fairly and consistently when it is breached.
3. Do not rely on an AUP, install filtering and monitoring equipment to stop these things coming into the network.
From a purely mercenary point of view, this is an excellent opportunity for IT businesses to push filtering and AUP policies.
On the face of it, the NSW Industrial Relation Commission's ruling that being sacked for possessing porn is unreasonable is worrying. But like all these things a reading of the judgment reveals there's a lot more to the case. It appears NCR were inconsistent and made a number of mistakes.
The biggest mistake NCR made was inconsistency. Another staff member had been counseled for inappropriate email usage, she was sacked after continuing the behaviour. Budlong wasn't given counselling before being sacked.
A more striking problem for NCR was their Acceptable Usage Policy. The "air of automation" comment by the commission was my biggest worry, but it turns out the policy was FIFTY pages long. It clearly wasn't readable, the commission also hints that not all staff had signed it.
The third and, in my view, most dubious point against NCR was the lack of a firewall. While I'm surprised a company like this didn't have one, the commission took it as indicating the company didn't seriously enforce it's policies. It shows a business has to take positive steps to prevent this happenning.
This case has presented a few lessons for businesses and IT departments. While the specific case is only applicable to New South Wales, the lessons can be taken on board by most companies. Those lessons are.
1. Have a clear and concise policy on inappropriate usage.
2. Act decisively, fairly and consistently when it is breached.
3. Do not rely on an AUP, install filtering and monitoring equipment to stop these things coming into the network.
From a purely mercenary point of view, this is an excellent opportunity for IT businesses to push filtering and AUP policies.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Office 2007 pricing.
MS have announced their office pricing. Will people bother?
The Office 2007 pricing has been released and it's a clear indicator of where Microsoft want to sell. The OEM and family markets are the focus. With an interesting offer for business customers.
The home edition doesn't include Outlook while the OEM edition does. This clearly fits into the strategy of selling Windows into the home and small business markets. Coupled with the OEM prices for Small Business Service it becomes a pretty compelling sell to small businesses.
MS need a hook for people to buy. Most users are happy with Office 97 and, with the exception of improvements to Outlook, there's little difference to most Office users.
The Office 2007 pricing has been released and it's a clear indicator of where Microsoft want to sell. The OEM and family markets are the focus. With an interesting offer for business customers.
The home edition doesn't include Outlook while the OEM edition does. This clearly fits into the strategy of selling Windows into the home and small business markets. Coupled with the OEM prices for Small Business Service it becomes a pretty compelling sell to small businesses.
MS need a hook for people to buy. Most users are happy with Office 97 and, with the exception of improvements to Outlook, there's little difference to most Office users.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Reseller motivations
Are resellers solely motivated by margins?
Webroot Software sees an opportunity pitching to resellers who find themselves cut out of vendor's renewal programs. Basically what they are saying is we can make more money out of their renewals than, say, the nothing we get from Norton or McAfee.
To me, this misunderstands why we recommend products. The money we can make is a factor, but a much more important factor is how good the product is. We don't want to foist crook products on our customers, they pay us for good advice.
We can make good margins on products like Norton AntiVirus, the reason we don't recommend it is because we see too many computers screwed up by this product, the money is irrelevant.
Webroot would be much better off making sure their software is well written and effective. Pricing their product slightly cheaper than Symantec's equivalent and giving us a decent margin will help. But the most important thing is to deliver software that works and doesn't mess up the customer's system.
Webroot Software sees an opportunity pitching to resellers who find themselves cut out of vendor's renewal programs. Basically what they are saying is we can make more money out of their renewals than, say, the nothing we get from Norton or McAfee.
To me, this misunderstands why we recommend products. The money we can make is a factor, but a much more important factor is how good the product is. We don't want to foist crook products on our customers, they pay us for good advice.
We can make good margins on products like Norton AntiVirus, the reason we don't recommend it is because we see too many computers screwed up by this product, the money is irrelevant.
Webroot would be much better off making sure their software is well written and effective. Pricing their product slightly cheaper than Symantec's equivalent and giving us a decent margin will help. But the most important thing is to deliver software that works and doesn't mess up the customer's system.
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