The reformat kiss-off

One of the things that really gets me cranky is the "reformat your computer" solution to software problems. A question we have on our IT queries website is from a gentleman who has been told he should reformat his computer to reinstall Pinnacle.

What a load of rubbish! The thing with this blind "reformat your computer" advice is that it's the IT equivalent of a doctor telling you to "take two asprins and call me in the morning".

The difference is the two asprins are relatively harmless while a reformat can result in hours of work, frustration and lost data.

Put simply, reformats are the last resort and usually are only necessary for fixing major spyware infections.

In this case, it's the classic example of an incompetent computer tech fobbing someone off with some nonsense.

A competent computer tech should be able to resolve this problem with a few hours work. The problem though is clients often don't want to pay for that work.

Which is probably why so many incompetent techs survive and even prosper; they may not be good but they are cheap.

The dangers of upgrading your website

It's always risky updating your website as you never know what will break. I changed the layout of my IT Queries site a week back and promptly messed up the ads and Google Analytics.

So it's with sympathy I note the problems on the Newsagent's blog, particularly with posting comments and linking to posts.

This is why the PC Rescue site looks so bloody awful. I designed it in 1999 (if design is the right word) and I'm loathe to change it because of the risk of breaking it.

I know the site would work a lot better in a blog format, but the thought of getting the design right, the inevitable teething problems and the time and effort importing the old posts into the new system gives me a headache.

Still, editing posts in Notepad gives me a headache too, so I'm working on it.

Getting your store right

One thing I noticed when I went to Myers to look at the Eee PC was the difference between the PC and Apple departments.

The PC sections were dingy and unimaginative while the Mac areas were lively and well lit.

More importantly the Apple staff were bright, cheery and helpful while the PC staff gave the impression they'd rather be in working in the menswear section.

It can't be understated how important presentable, friendly and knowledgeable customer service is in the consumer sector. As we constantly see in the newsagent blog, service is important for small purchases such a magazines, but it's even more important for big ticket items like computers.

Another strike against the Eee PC was the Chatswood Myer store keeps theirs under glass; there's no opportunity to play with it or see how well it works.

It's another reason why I think Asus made a mistake choosing Myer. If they were serious, they should have insisted on properly trained staff, separate areas and distinct branding. Just like Apple do.

Ten reasons why are Macs hot right now

One thing that's jumped out at me over the Christmas break is how hot the Apple Mac currently is.

I noticed this first hand when I popped into Myer to have a look at the EeePC, there was a reasonable number of people looking at the Asus device, but the real crowds were in the Apple section. The PC section was very quiet indeed.

The experience of Peter Kafka at Silicon Alley Insider over Christmas indicates this was a world wide phenomenon.

Added to this Amazon claim the Mac was their hottest selling computer up to Christmas.

It's interesting how the Mac's regaining ground. The question is why and how. I suspect there's a number of reasons.

1. The iPod and iPhone: These devices have exposed millions of users to Mac products who simply wouldn't have bothered otherwise.
2. Reduced prices: The switch to Intel chips has reduced the price of systems. While they are still pricier than similarly specced PCs, the price difference isn't the issue it once was.
   
3. Viruses and spyware: People are sick of this garbage. Families don't want their kids infesting machines with offensive and damaging malware.
4. The failure of Vista: Microsoft have bungled the roll out of Vista. It's a major turn off for consumers but the alternative in the Windows world is the malware prone XP.
5. Boot camp: The ability to start into Windows gives switchers an exit. If they aren't happy with the Mac OS, they can always go back without having wasted a couple of thousand dollars.
   
6. Increased use of web applications: One of the big objections to the Mac was being unable to run Windows based applications. With the rise of web based apps, this argument loses ground.
   
7. Ease of use: The difference between Windows and the Mac has reduced over the years, particularly since the improved GUI of Windows 95, but the Mac still has the edge. Put simply, most things work on the Mac.
8. Good design: Apple's designs look and work better.
9. Good engineering: This is reflected in points seven and eight. The Mac is better put together than most PCs, this means things work better.
10. Better marketing: I hated the Mac versus PC ads and still do, despite the odd triumph (the bloated PC skit). But the marketing is more than the ads; the packaging looks good, the stores look good and the resellers look better.
    

All up, Apple are just offering a far better experience for both consumers and power users. All of that said, their market share is still a fraction of that held by Windows.

Personally, I doubt they will ever overtake Windows in the PC market place. However this is not such a bad thing.

The big risk in computing is getting stuck in the commodity end of the market. Dell made that mistake as did HP, Packard-Bell and Gateway. It ends up eroding your margins and trashing your reputation.

Apple haven't gone there and it doesn't look like they will.

This means better margins for Apple and better computers for the customers who are prepared to pay a few bucks more.

It's a pretty good story for Apple. No wonder their shares are up.

Artificial shortages

Like many others, I swallowed the line that the Eee PC was completely sold out.

Apparently not. The Sydney CBD Myer store had a sign announcing a limit of four per customer.

So supplies can't be too short if there's only four per customer.

Making an artificial shortage of stock is one of Steve Job's old tricks. By restricting supply, it only makes the product more desired. This also worked for Cabbage Tree Dolls.

Looking at my fellow gawkers, it seemed to me most of the interest for the Eee PC was with techie and tinkering types. The mums and dads seemed more interested in the Apple section.

I still reckon Linux was a mistake for Asus.

Computer Christmas present problems

A Merry Christmas from the Cranky Tech.

One thing that gets all techs cranky are phone calls from upset computer users on Christmas day.

So we've put our tips on how to avoid Christmas Day tech disasters on our PC Rescue website.

Happy holidays.

Waiting for service packs

I'm currently working on getting the PC Rescue newsletter out, one of the things I'm mentioning is how home users shouldn't play with beta software.

One of the things I can't believe is it's been over three years since the last service pack for XP was released.

IT won't support the iPhone?

I've just read the Forrester Research findings in this week's Fortune magazine on why IT departments won't support the iPhone.

All the reasons are good, but it misses the point about modern IT.

IT departments don't dictate what users use, users decide. Fake Steve Jobs makes this point very well.

While all the points made in the Forrester paper are true. I'd suggest that these limitations need to be flagged to those who insist on using iPhones and other devices, but they won't be able to stop these being used.

IT can't stop staff using the iPhone. It's going to happen, so deal with it.

Skype chat spam evolves

I previously mentioned my scam chats from Skype. These seem to be getting more sophisticated as Jeremy Wagstaff in the Loose Wire Blog found in his chat with sexy Veronica.

Skype don't seem to be too concerned about this. They darned well should be. Nothing will kill a service's reputation quicker than than spammers and scammers infesting it.

I'm wondering if Jeremy's chat was related to this project. I imagine having a real live crook posing as Veronica is a quite labour intensive for our scammer friends.

Are Dell services doomed?

Forbes magazine describes how Dell is going to reinvent itself. Central to the idea of the resurgence is services. Now I have a problem with this on two fronts.

The first is channel conflict. Dell's move into services directly cuts into the business of resellers and integrators. Given the channel is key to growing their sales into the SMB sector, they will have a serious problem getting the local IT guys on board.

More importantly though, is this idea they know how to provide services. My overwhelming experience with big businesses in the IT and Comms sectors is they are genuinely clueless when trying to run a service business.

Dell's recent track record in customer service shows this. In fact, I would go as far as to say the decline in service levels is the number one reason for Dell's fall in market share over the last five years.

This isn't to say Dell can't succeed in this area, it just means that Dell have to invest in the infrastructure, staff and training so they can offer a compelling and useful product.

To do this, they have to have decent margins on the product. If they sell cheap, the product will fail. This is why most service offerings from big corporations are rarely successful.

Margins are at the core of Dell's problems. They made the decision to chase the bottom of the market and now they are paying for it in declining margins, declining customer satisfaction and declining long term prospects.

All of this said, I love the idea of a suicide chip. Blowing laptops up remotely sounds like fun. Although given Dell's experience with exploding batteries, one would think they've had enough of self destructing laptops.

Data loss is no joke

Angus Kidman thinks data loss is a big joke. Angus once nearly lost data when he poured booze on his laptop. He thinks thats funny.

Angus, the joke is on you. As a professional tech writer you should know better.

For computer techs, dealing with data losses are the most stressful moments of their job. In my small business talks I describe data protection as the most distressing subject of the talk.

Data loss is no joke if you've lost your business records or family photos. For the poor old computer tech, the customer's pours all their stresses onto you.

It's a traumatic, stressful time for all. Protect your data. That way, Angus Kidman won't laugh at you.

ABC Now

Before tomorrow's show, I've had a play with ABC Now. It's a useful little tool for bringing together all the ABC media streams.

You can download files and podcasts the old way.

It's important to choose the right media player. Personally I prefer Real Player, but it can be a pain with all the pop ups and advertising.

It's easy to change preferences later as the options settings are nice and clean

It worked nicely on my middle of the road test machine.

One warning is that if you are like me you may have a habit of clicking on the heart which adds the item to your favourites list rather than opening it.

It's good to have a TV guide to ABC and ABC2, one improvement there would be to put the details of the programs.

On the radio tab, quite a bit of local programming is missing. One notable exception is Tony Delroy's podcasts.

We also see a lot variations between the stations and programs. For instance, Sydney 702 has nowhere near the variety that Melbourne 774.

A future improvement may be to cross index content between the local ABC stations. For instance, the 774 finance segment would probably be as interesting to listeners of Perth 720.

The predictable criticism is going to be the lack of Mac and Linux support. The Mac version is on its way and the Linux version will be here as soon as possible.

Linux is proving a bit harder, as Nicola the manager of ABC Interactive says,

So Linux dudes, mess with Nicola's developers at your own risk.

All up, it's a fast nicely presented and simple tool that brings together a lot of the favourite streams of ABC tragics.

Driving away customers

I've previously mentioned how I stopped going to my local newsagents because of lousy service.

Recently I started going back to the nearest one (the one that refused me a credit account) simply because it's a nice Saturday morning walk up to the shops and the adjoining bakery does a nice cherry Danish to munch on the way home.

Normally I'd pay cash for two papers and wander off but this morning I splurged on a magazine as well. The total was $12 and being low on cash I handed over my credit card.

"Sorry, minimum $15"

Luckily I had enough cash left over for my Danish or I'd have been a very cranky tech.

Now as an a regular reader of the Newsagent Blog, I accept newsagents operate on tight margins and minimum charges are fair given the fixed costs of accepting EFTPOS and credit cards, but $15 is too high a limit.

From now on, I buy my papers from the supermarket or the servo around the corner.

Incidentally, on the way home I passed a cafe that has a CASH ONLY, NO EFTPOS OR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED sign out the front.

I've been there and it's been a pain if you haven't the cash, I can imagine some people have been deeply embarrassed by this.

This cafe's been around for a few years so there's obviously nothing like a delay with the bank to be causing this and the cost of accepting cards is actually cheaper than the problems you have dealing with large amounts of cash.

So the only reason I can think of why this cafe only accepts cash is because the owners aren't declaring their full income to the tax office.

Now I don't particularly care what they do with their tax affairs, but as a customer I shouldn't be stuffed around as a consequence.

Businesses need to remember that customer convenience is everything. The harder you make it for a customer to buy from you, the less likely it is that they will.

While I'll probably go to the cafe again, the newsagent won't be seeing me.

Eee PC: Why Linux is a bad idea

The Asus Eee PC is an interesting beast. A cheap, lightweight and robust laptop is the sort of device the market is crying out for and it's not surprising it sold out across Australia.

While the device is fascinating and it opens up some interesting markets that previously wouldn't have considered PCs, there's a few problems with the product.

Bundling the unit with Linux is a terrible idea if you are going to sell the product into the home market. To make it worse, Asus' channel partner is Myer. The fatal mistake is to fixate on price when selling to the consumer.

The worst possible place to be in the IT industry is at the low price of the consumer market. Not only are the margins horrible but the customers are disloyal and demand high levels of support.

Dell have learned this to their cost and it appears Asus are prepared to make the same mistakes.

Giving Myer exclusive rights to the machine also fudges the issue. Myer are not a low cost channel, so that's going erode Asus' margin even further. Worse for the customer, Myer and Asus is that Myer is not renown for the high tech geeks it employs.

I hope the Myer stores have plenty of stock of Xandros compatible hardware and software and the phone number of a good Linux tech handy.

Which brings me to the choice of operating system.

Going with Linux may have kept the unit price down. It's is probably an excellent choice for the hardware configuration, as opposed to lumbering the device up with Vista. But the fact is the bottom end of the market demands Windows compatibility.

I'd hate to be on the Asus support lines when little old ladies start trying to connect their twelve year old HP laserjets to these system or a cheap Lexmark printer they picked up for $50 at Officeworks.

It gets worse when you throw kids into the mix.

In fact Elissa Baxter of the Sydney Morning Herald should be reported for child abuse for this comment.

if you're thinking of buying a laptop for your school child, this one could be it.

Sure Elissa, if you want your child to be struggling with a Linux based machine in a school full of Windows or Mac users.

If you want her humiliated by the school system administrator's snide remarks when he can't figure out how to connect her to the Intranet.

If you want to see hours of his work wasted when it turns out Open Office's Impress is incompatible with the school's Powerpoint or Keynote.

The idea of packing a kid off to school with laptop running Xandros fills me with horror.

This is not to say Linux is a bad idea, it's a very good idea in the right market.

But school kids and home users looking for a cheapie PC are the wrong market. As a result, we're going to hear people whingeing about the lack of compatibility and how they couldn't download iTunes. In the end, Asus will give this up as a bad, unprofitable idea.

The risk for the Linux community is that Acer's experience will give rise to the myth that the channel can't make money from Linux machines. Worse, consumer will associate Linux with cheap systems that don't work very well.

In my view that's a real shame as the Eee PC and Xandros are both good products.

Choosing a version of office and OEM software

Over the weekend I've updated our choosing a computer page. I've added the pros and cons of OEM software.

In reviewing the different versions of MS Office page, I also realised I'd missed the added option of academic versions.

This only illustrates my earlier rant about just how confusing the whole Microsoft Office Product range is.

Is MS Publisher dying

Following my rant about the versions of MS Office, I'm completing my write up for the PC Rescue website.

While researching it, one of the things I stumbled on was the Publisher blog at the MSDN website.

It hasn't been updated since September 2006. So I think we can safely say the poor beast probably won't make it into the next version of Office.

One of the things that killed Publisher was the failure of MS to ever get a reader out for it. Couple that with the fact it was never bundled with anything less than the premium editions and it made it impossible for most people to read .pub files.

These days, the layout features in Word make Publisher irrelevant for most home and small business users. For the business that do need functions more advanced than that, Microsoft have completely conceded the field to Adobe.

Goodbye Publisher. I'd like to say we'll miss you, but I don't think most of us will notice.

C-change?

I'm a bit baffled at the term c-change in Stan Beer's article on Apple's share of the computer market but he makes some good points about whether Apple's market share is actually higher than the statistics suggest.

Web views aren't a bad measure, although they can very between sites. PC Rescue has a surprisingly low 2% visits from Apple users, while this blog has 12%. So we have to be cautious with statistics for individual sites.

It's somewhat unfair to criticise the shipping statistics from IDC and Gartner as these are the key measure on how much money the vendors make. Apple's 2007 annual report shows Mac sales made up $10bn of their $24bn sales. Peripherals, software and services made up 2.7bn.

So sales do matter for the company and analysts are right to focus on that.

But Stan is right about the Mac's longevity. In our comparison between Macs and Windows systems on the PC Rescue website we made exactly that point. The fact there is a vibrant resale market for Macs changes the cost of ownership dramatically in Apple's favour.

Given green IT is going to be such an issue in the next couple of years, we can also expect the longevity of the Mac to become a factor in people's purchase decisions. The fact a Mac is less likely to end up in landfill after five years is a serious point in their favour.

Greenpeace doesn't take take that into account in their Guide to Greener Electronics. It might be worthwhile considering this in future as re-use is even more environmentally friendly than recycling.

Stan's main point is more people switching to Macs (I'm assuming C-change means "computer" change) and I've certainly found this true with the number of people asking me about it. I wouldn't say though it is a huge proportion of users, more are concerned about whether they should get XP or Vista.

While Stan's right that the shipping numbers probably don't tell us the full story, it's still hard to see how the current uptake of the Mac is "opening the floodgates of an exodus from Windows in the consumer space".

It's good news for Apple, but I wouldn't be giving the last rites to Windows for some time yet.

More MS Office confusion

I've previously ranted about Microsoft's confusing the market with too many versions of Office and Windows but today I stumbled on another problem; Office 2007's Home and Student edition doesn't come with Microsoft Outlook.

Thankfully, I hadn't sold it or recommended it to the fellow I was discussing this with, but he made a very good point that at a time when are looking at alternatives like Gmail and Yahoo! or even ditching email altogether, it makes no sense to be discouraging customers to go elsewhere.

To add insult to injury, installing the Home and Student edition over trial edition that's been bundled with a system leaves Outlook on. When the user opens it, they are prompted for an installation key. Naturally the Home and Student key doesn't work.

I wonder how many phone calls Microsoft get on this topic, my guess is the support costs and ill-will generated dwarf the money MS make from customers upgrading to the full Office versions.

I'll be adding the different flavours of Microsoft Office to the PC Rescue website this week. The buying a computer page will be revised to include choosing the right version of Office as well.

Gartner ITxpo

I've spent the last week at the Sydney Gartner ITxpo which was a very useful, if exhausting week.

Despite being critical of Gartner surveys in the past, I found a lot of the analyst's comments to be very interesting and thought provoking.

Two of the themes that really stood out to me were education and Green IT: where the IT industry has to come to grips with the issues of global warming, sustainability and higher energy costs.

The education statistics cited for Australia were absolutely stunning. We are in trouble on all levels and this is going to be the number one challenge for the incoming Labor government.

I'll be going over my notes from Gartner this week and I'll be posting here and on the Austechblog website.

Linux at home

Stan Beer's column on using Linux at home raises some interesting points, but I'm still not convinced that Linux is right for most homes.

One of the compelling reasons for ditching Windows at home is security. There's no doubt about it, kids are the best way to get your computer infected with malware.

The stupid thing is Windows can be locked down, it's a simple matter of setting up the kids (and any music or porn obsessed adult) with a Limited User profile.

There's no doubt about it though; for the vast majority of users Linux and Mac systems are more secure simply because users don't have root access.

The problem for households going to Linux is compatibility. The very people you want to protect are those who are going to need Windows features for school and/or work. Stan touches on this when mentioning Intuit (an outfit guaranteed to get this tech cranky).

Another problem with Linux is that it's the OS of choice for tinkerers. Another of Stan's columns touched on this when he discussed moving from Ubuntu. He decided other Linux versions weren't as user friendly.

The comments were surprising polite, but still argued with Stan's view.

This is the big problem for Linux. It's supporters can't accept the majority of computer users don't care about the operating system or customising it.

It's like cars; a few people enjoy tweaking them and hotting them up but for most car owners it's a tool to get you and your family around in.

Personally I think Linux is great, particularly if you want to understand how computers work.

But for home users, I'd tell 'em to get a Mac before trying to get their heads around Linux.

Choosing your markets

Further to my Aus Tech Blog post on the TIO annual report, Dan Warne picks up on Dodo's problems with the TIO.

While Dodo hasn't covered itself in glory with it's "free" Internet plans and support that does leave a lot to be desired, I do have a little sympathy for them.

Dodo has chosen to chase the cheapest customers. This is a mistake for anyone in the tech services sector.

The simple fact is if you choose to chase the sort of customers who buy your services based on your being the cheapest, or the fact your ads feature bikini clad babes, then you are getting yourself a nasty pile of headaches.

At the bottom of the retail technology market lies a big, seething mass of demanding, whingeing customers that want gold plated, Rolls Royce standard service for the price of a Hyundai, if they want to pay at all.

Even if they do get what they want, they will still whine and take up your time.

The trick to succeeding in selling technology is to avoid these customers like the plague. Let the bloke up the road have them. Even Bigpond have sussed this out.

It's not just an ISP or IT thing either. Steve Neil's HiFi Gossip diary the October 19 entry describes how he's learned this lesson through selling some cheaper sound equipment.

My advice to Dodo is stop selling to the bottom end of the market. Increase your prices and use some of that extra money to improve service levels.

You'll have fewer customers, but they'll be happier and you'll make more money from them.

Say no to door to door Internet salespeople!

We've starting hearing stories from customers who've been duped into Internet contracts by door to door salespeople. The common theme is the salesdroid has made ridiculous and impossible claims about the service.

In some cases the client's been on a much better older plan and has found the new plan doesn't give them the same data limits as the old plan. When they try to go back, they are told "tough luck".

We recommend all consumers avoid signing up to commitments like Internet plans through door to door sales.

I personally did some work for a company that was doing this with mobile phones some years ago. These folk would hire a bunch of backpackers, bus them out to one of Sydney's more remote Western suburbs and unleash them on the locals.

This worked well for the backpackers; they would sign up children, invalids and even the family dog. They would get the commission and by the time the complaints started arriving they would be sitting on a beach in Thailand.

For the company it looked good too at first, they'd get fat cheques from the big telco every couple of weeks. But when the complaints started coming in, they found those cheques stopped arriving. Eventually they went bust.

The biggest loser in that saga was the telco. They had to deal with hundred of complaints, it tarnished their brand name and they lost money when the selling company went broke.

All of this is predictable when you use commission driven subcontractors and don't supervise them closely. I don't understand why big companies do this as it ends up costing them money and damages their brand.

The fact one of Australia's biggest telcos is doing this again just shows these people don't learn.

Morons and shysters: Apple virus hype and tripe

I suppose it was predictable that the revelation of a virus aimed at OSX would start the choruses of that Macs are now as vulnerable to malware as Windows users.

This "security through obsurity" argument is absolute tripe. The simple fact is that if the Mac OS was easy to exploit, it would be. A 1, 2 or 5% share of the computing world is still a lot of computers.

Should you encounter any "security expert" who says something like ""I don't care what operating system I use. The issues are the same but unfortunately people do not agree" tell them to get back to emptying your rubbish bins, because that's all they are qualified to do.

That rant over, there is no doubt a lot of Mac users are cavalier about security. I've come across a number who think they are immune from phishing scams because they use a Mac.

It's clear too that some Mac users will be fooled into being infected. The simple fact though is that the majority of Mac users don't have root access and that one fact makes it difficult for malware to spread.

A Mac virus was inevitable and it is a risk to mac users. But it will not create the problems we've seen with Windows viruses. So let's cut the hype and BS.

Making rebates work for you

I last mentioned rebates over a year ago. I notice this week that a lot of advertising for cheap computers, with offers of "cashbacks" for anything up to $250 per computer.

I hate rebate schemes; they stink of excessive red tape and you can't shake the feeling the whole business case for these schemes is that a large proportion of customers will fail to claim their cashback.

For the customer trying to claim the rebate, this involves a lot of filling in forms, attaching the correct paperwork and doing all of this before the the cut off period.

Even if you do all of this, there's a still a risk your form might end up unopened on a rubbish tip anyway.

We recommend you don't base your purchase decisions on cashback and rebate schemes. Treat these as a bonus.

If you do buy something that offers a rebate, by all means go for it. Follow the points below to make sure you'll get your cheque.

1. Read the instructions and conditions carefully while still in the store. Make sure the shop has given you all the details. Many promotions require the invoice to be machine printed, not handwritten.
2. Deal with the rebate immediately. Don't pin the form to your fridge and leave it there. If possible, fill out the form while you are still in the store. Ask the salesperson to make copies of the documents before you agree to buy.
   
3. Confirm the cashback applies to the model you have bought. Often the scheme applies only to certain models.
   
4. Make sure you are eligible for the cashback. There are often rules that exclude businesses or multiple purchases.
   
5. Make sure you follow the conditions exactly. If the form requires you to fill it out in black pen, make sure you do.
6. Make sure all your details are correct and all required fields are filled in.
   
7. Attach all the required documents. Send copies unless the conditions state you must send originals.
   
8. Make copies of everything.
9. Consider sending by registered mail with delivery confirmation. For a rebate worth $250, the five dollar investment is money well spent.
10. If you haven't received your rebate after a reasonable amount of time, call them. Note that these cashback schemes often have processing times of up to 90 days. We think 30 is long enough.
11. Do not hesitate to complain to your state department of fair trading or the ACCC if you think your claim is not being properly processed.
    

Generally though, we'd recommend steering clear of rebate schemes, they are a pain and they shouldn't be encouraged.

Rogue software

Further to my post about Epson software last week, we now found Logitech software is causing many of the problems with the Leopard Mac OS.

Like Epson, Logitech debase good hardware with poorly written, cumbersome and intrusive software. More than a few times I've had to recommend posters give up trying to use an excellent piece of Logitech equipment simply because the software is screwing with their computer.

Hardware manufacturers have to understand that having the best hardware in the world is wasted if you bundle it with substandard software.

Upping the commission

A client of mine asked me about a laptop the other day. I gave them some recommendations on specs and brands, specifically Toshiba, Lenovo and the mid-priced Dells.

Today they visited their local computer superstore. Afterwards they emailed me with the specifications of a Sony Vaio.

Their reason for Sony?

"I am told that the Toshiba one is twice as big and has half the firepower....."

Am I cynical to think Sony has commissions twice as big and twice the incentives?

Weekend show and osx

We have the Weekend show summary up on the website. We didn't get to cover safe shopping online, but we did have a chat about Leopard and covered a good range of questions.

Epson printer blues

Mike Arrington at Telecrunch has an entertaining article on how Epson's new website sucks. He sums it up, "The last time I bought one of your printers the software screwed it up so badly I had to reformat the hard drive just to get it to work again. Since then, I’ve stuck with HP’s.

Fire the consultants, stop trying to be a conversational marketer and just get back to the basics."

He's quite right, Epson's printer software has been dreadful since the days of Windows 3.1 and it hasn't got better. In fact, they persisted with the horrid Epson Printer Manager well into the Windows 98 days.

The sad thing is the printers themselves aren't bad units, it's just that you have to install a pile of rubbish on your computer to make the things work.

If Epson were to get back to the basics, then they should ditch the software writers.

Confusing wirelesses

One of the common questions I get from customers and on the radio shows are from people who are confused about the different types of wireless technologies.

On the last Nightlife spot Tony fell for this and yesterday's Gadget Guy newsletter does as well. It surprises me with Gadget Guy as this stuff is Peter Blasina's bread and butter.

Here's the basic differences;

Wireless Internet is a way of connecting to the Internet by using the mobile phone network or other wire free technologies. All of these have built in security that makes it almost impossible to evesdrop.

Wireless Networks are a way of sharing files, printers and Internet connections in your home or office. These have major problems with security as many systems come without the basic security set up and most people don't understand how to do it.

There's a bit more to it and I'm posting it as our problem of the week on our website tonight.

User responsibility

One of the reasons we re-write PCs for Dummies for Australian users is the risk of people trying to get around the standard, US based settings. A story in the SMH tech section has a good example of this.

What does bug me with this story is the underlying assumption is that the software company, Microsoft, the laptop manufacturer, Toshiba, or the retailer, Domayne, were responsible for this.

In this case, it's the user that screwed up. They chose the wrong country settings and were stuck with the wrong keyboard layout. Perhaps they should have thought before setting the country location to UK, Uzbekistan or Uruguay.

I'm often less than sympathetic to MS in this blog, but in this case why shouldn't they charge for their time? This isn't anything to do with them.

That said, it's pretty sad that neither Toshiba nor Domayne could figure out what the problem was. Perhaps their techs need a copy of PCs for Dummies.

Vista activation debacle

It's always good to see an Aussie website at the top of Techmeme however of the topic of today's Australian Personal Computer article on changing drivers triggering Windows locking him out of his own computer is not something to celebrate.

While James Brennan's story of updating drivers prompting Windows to lock him out of his system is disturbing, the comments are even more worrying.

Readers have stories of changing USB drives, disabling services and using the encryption functions all triggering the Windows activation process.

For a computer tech, this causes serious problems. If the tech does something innocent and sets off this process, it's the tech who is going to be held accountable.

It also boggles my mind how much this costs Microsoft in support calls. On top of the damage to their reputation, the cost of answer the calls and fixing the problems must be horrendous.

The whole idea of Windows activation is flawed. The fact it's been registered once should be enough. If the customer adds external drives, updates software or even swaps out motherboards, it should be of no business to Microsoft.

Part of the problem MS have with Vista is they allowed DRM and anti piracy measures to take too much of a front seat. They need to stop obsessing about their customers being thieves.

Once they focus on what is the core reason why we buy software, then perhaps we'll avoid future debacles like what we see with Windows Vista.

Bigpond's lousy value

Choice magazine's Internet satisfaction survey gave a big whack to Australia's Internet industry.

While the headline shows the dissatisfaction with Bigpond, Optus also gets a whack about it's slow and incompetent support which is fair enough as well.

It's interesting how Choice claims cost is the biggest factor. One thing I've criticised Choice for is it's unrealistic conclusions in IT related matters. This is another case in point.

Providers of cheap services have to skimp somewhere to make a buck, customers have to understand that a cheap provider cannot provide services of a premium provider and still stay in business. The writers at Choice don't seem to understand this.

That said, the SMH quote from the Bigpond spokesman is a laugh, "the provider was not trying to compete on price and was offering a premium service."

The joke here is Bigpond doesn't provide a provide a premium service, they charge a premium price for a cheap and somewhat poor service.

My favourite tech editor, David Richards of Smarthouse News provides a few more laughs on this.

David has in the past been a big critic of Choice but in recent times Bigpond has been receiving his ire. So it's quite funny to see David approvingly quoting Choice in a article headlining "Telstra BigPond Sucks And That's Offical."

Yes that is a typo in the headline. It's another reason why I enjoy Smarthouse News editorials so much.

2Clix appoints administrators

Stan Beer at IT Wire reports software company 2Clix, notorious for suing the Whirlpool website, has gone under.

It's sad to hear of any company folding. As a business owner myself I appreciate just how hard it is to keep a business running, particularly in the technology sector.

But you can't help but think the management bought negative karma down upon themselves with their legal stunt. What's worse, Stan Beer or myself probably wouldn't have noticed their problems had they not served writs.

The big problem for 2Clix customers is what happens to their data. Given the application locks the data away, 2Clix users are at the mercy of the administrators and any buyers of the package.

This is another reason why we urge business not to go near software that locks data away. Make sure any system you buy has an open backup utility and has an export to CSV function.

Your data is your businesses' greatest asset. You need to protect it.

Commission Junction doesn't want me

Like Darren Rowse at Problogger, I'm finding Google Adsense isn't quite doing the job for the IT Queries website.

The problem is Google does its job too well. The content of the site means the Google Ads are largely for dodgy spyware checkers and registry cleaners.

Funny enough, some of them being ones I rant about on this site.

I want to sign up with commission junction, but they make it impossible as the CAPTCHA is missing from the signup page.

This isn't the first time I've had to struggle with online advertising companies. They seem to go out of their way to make it difficult to create an account.

One would think that these companies, being the engine of Web 2.0 they claim to be, would have their systems right.

Sadly it appears not.

It's a shame really because I'd like to try out Commission Junction as they seem to have some high quality advertisers.

Playing with my mind

I'm working on the keyboard chapter of the Australian PC for Dummies this morning.

While working on it, I start finding the keyboard doesn't respond to every keystroke which means I'm dropping letters. To say this is really, really frustrating is an understatement.

So I start my keyboard troubleshooting.

1. Do a couple of reboots, same problem

2. Redetect the keyboard. Same problem

3. Change batteries, mutter about cheapo no name batteries. Same Problem.

There must be a hardware problem with the keyboard, which is hardly surprising seeing my track record in smashing the things.

Then I notice my web browser is working fine. So too does Notepad and a new Word document.

In fact everything works but the chapter I'm working on.

So, it's the document. I spend some time messing around and find by turning off and on the track changes, spelling and grammar checkers all comes good.

A lesson there and something for the ITQueries website.

Answering the phone

I'm back on deck after a week away and ploughing through the zillion emails, subscriptions and blog entries that I've missed.

One post that caught my eye was an entry in the Sydney Morning Herald Enterprise Blog about "being too honest in your business", Valerie Khoo encountered an e-commerce site that outright stated they won't answer their phones.

I can understand this. Coming back from holidays I dreaded my message bank. Eight calls had me paralysed for two days.

Those eight calls sitting in my unanswered message queue were more intimidating than several hundred emails.

The worst part is technology brings out the worst in people. A normally calm, patient, rational person often becomes a rampaging, demanding fool when faced with anything related to computers. So I'm firmly on the side of the "Internet Ferals".

I don't think it's going to help their business though, Valerie went elsewhere for her purchase and the comments on her post are less than impressed with the business not having a contact number.

I tend to agree that not having a landline is the kiss of death for an online business. I wouldn't shop at one that didn't and I certainly wouldn't recommend it others.

The lesson for any technology based businesses is that customers, as painful as they can be to deal with, are the reason for the business' existence.

Without 'em, you don't have a business.

Get the phone, hire someone patient with a nice phone manner and get the systems to allow them to find and fix problems.

Or just don't bother going into business.

Blithering morons

It's 1.24am and I'm driving up the coast with a car full of kids later this morning. So I'm in a particularly cranky mood right now.

That is just the frame of mind to be in when confronted with garbage like this.

In Googling this wonderful product that detects malware on Macs, I stumbled on the Download.com review. This is what the reviewer has to say about Scan and Repair Utilities 2007,

The Description Box tempts you with information about each problem. However, the only information we found listed for every problem was: "This threat is currently being researched for better identification.

You can't repair a single problem. If you want to find out how well this program works in the repair department, you must register. Further, using Live Update crashed the program for our testers."

So what did this guy rate a program that does absolutely nothing?

Three out of five.

Let's get this right, the program does nothing and crashes when you try to update it, yet you still give it a 60% approval rating?

What a blithering moron, I bet he struggles with the concept of phishing.

Oh no! My Mac has a Windows Trojan!

In doing some further research on the Skype spam I thought I'd run the online test on my Mac.

Sure enough, it operates exactly the same way in Safari as it does on a Windows Box.

According to this wonderful piece of software, my iMac is infected with the following malware.

• Backdoor:Win32/NT Root
• Backdoor: Win32/Sivuxa
• Trojan.Caijing

Funny enough, that's exactly what my Windows machine has according to this marvellous utility.

Darn it! I knew I should have never put my precious Mac on the network with those horrid, low class Windows boxes. Now it's caught their horrible disease.

The scary thing with this is some people will shell out the 19.95 this rubbish asks for to clean their Macs.

Skype malware, Onlinealert and ScanAlert

One of my computers has Skype Chat turned on. This afternoon I received a message from Security Center ® (Offline) Skype™ Chat (yes those registration marks are what was there) warning me that WINDOWS REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ATTENTION.

The warning directs the reader to "download the patch" from a website calling itself Onlinealert.

Normally I'd disregard this but this is my test machine that I know is clean so I thought I'd visit the Onlinealert page.

Sure enough, this site runs a fake scan from an organisation called ScanAlert that gives a bunch of fake malware detections.

I don't know how much ScanAlert charge for their wares, but given the false results I personally wouldn't be trusting them too much to keep my computer hacker safe.

Incidentally, the Onlinealert domain is registered to someone in Moscow calling themselves Sergei Machorin.

I'm sure if Sergei really exists, he'll make a few bucks from people who've been fooled into this little scam.

It will be interesting to see what Skype have to say about this.

Ten years doing the radio

I was going through my old files today and found the fax that started my ABC Radio spots.

I didn't realise it, but sometime last month I passed the ten years mark of doing the Weekend show.

I feel old.

The Australian Technology Blog

A new blog is born to join the other seven million created every day.

I've set up the Australian Technology Blog to discuss technology issues and how they affect Australians, both individuals and businesses.

This blog will continue as my outlet for non-technology issues and generally venting my spleen.

I hope you can visit both.

The Lonely Planet sale

In my days of backpacking through the mid and late 80s, Lonely Planet books were by far the most reliable guidebooks to Asia and the more out of the way locations. Since the arrival of the Internet, their Thorn Tree forums have been invaluable when trying to find information on obscure destinations.

So it's heartening to hear the founders, Peter and Maureen Wheeler, have sold 40% of their stake to BBC for a reported $100 million.

I heard Maureen Wheeler on ABC Radio this morning and she said the reason for selling was because they found making money out of the websites too hard compared to making money publishing books.

That's an interesting perspective we can all dwell on. If it's too hard for content rich websites like Lonely Planet, how are humble blogs like this going to survive?

Incidentally, their announcement on the Lonely Planet website is absolutely terrific. A great example of how businesses can use the web.

I suspect they are being a bit too modest about their abilities to deal with the so-called new media.

On the bleeding edge

I had to chuckle reading the Australian IT profile of Gus Kollar, the chief of IT during the Sydney APEC conference.

The older operating system didn't trouble Kollar too much, but the apprehension in his voice was evident when Vista was mentioned.

"We were so courageous to dive deep into Vista," he says.

"Surprisingly, there weren't too many issues."

Phew! I'd hate the software to confuse President George. He might think he's in another country or at another conference.

The Telstra and government war continues

Telstra's clumsy attempt to buy into the Federal election campaign has prompted a predictably fierce response from the minister.

Helen Coonan is quite right, in her own words; "It could have stepped up to the plate. It could have been a leader in rolling out broadband".

Telstra could have been the world leader. Instead Telstra spent ten years doing everything it could to protect its revenues and stymie Australian Internet growth.

What really gets me cranky is throughout this entire period, the current Federal government either fully owned or had a controlling interest in Telstra. They could have fixed all of this in one board meeting.

Instead they sat on their backsides and ignored the urgings of the IT industry, farmers, small business and even Bill Gates. The only thing they did was to fully sell off Telstra at the first opportunity.

Now the Feds find themselves fighting an organisation with a near monopoly that's maximising profits by running down infrastructure and strangling competition.

Rather than blaming Telstra for this situation, Senator Coonan needs to look no further than her boss and the dills he appointed as her predecessors.

Regardless of who is the next communications minister and of what party they are from, the next three years are going to be a very interesting and difficult time for them.

At least we'll be able to say that one minister will be working hard for their money.

Marketing genius

While browsing the web I stumbled on the promo for the Bob Dylan compilation due out next week. The create your own message feature is pure marketing genius.

Thanks to the Bookchase Blog for putting me onto this. The promo certainly worked for me, I'll be buying the album.

XP gets a lifeline while Vista struggles

Finally Microsoft have faced the reality that Vista is not popular with the market and have announced Windows XP will be available beyond the planned January 30, 2008 cut off date.

I've ranted enough about Vista's problems enough on this blog but the main reason why Vista has failed is that the benefits of moving up to Vista do not, for most people, outweigh the negatives.

In my view, the core problem is that Vista is Windows XP with a tutu. That tutu is the User Access Control feature. It gets in the way of what people are doing.

This is a problem of Microsoft's own making. To keep users, and their own software developers, happy they allowed the mess that was the Windows 9x security model to extend into XP.

The stupid thing is the Windows NT family, which includes Vista and XP, always had superior security to earlier versions of Windows but Microsoft decided to ignore it .

I suspect this was because their own software, especially Office XP and 2000, didn't run properly in Limited User profiles.

Being stuck with running most users as Administrators they decided on putting on the UAC tutu and that's made Vista as attractive as pig with lipstick.

There's a lot of things about this debacle that amazes me; how it took the world's biggest software company five years to come out with a substandard product, how the rest of the IT world completely bungled getting their products compatible and why Apple haven't doubled their market share because of this fumbling.

While Microsoft deserve most of the scorn in this schemozzle, the rest of the IT industry should hang their collective heads in shame as well.

When Adwords get things wrong

Today's question on our IT Queries site was about registry cleaners. My reply was less than enthusiastic about these products as most of them are snake oil and there's perfectly good free tools to do the job.

Given my negative reply I had to laugh at what Adwords had inserted at the top of the question.



I know it's possible to exclude certain adwords appearing on your page but I'm not sure I can be bothered blocking them all and I know for every one I block there'll be five others to take their place.

I'll just rely on readers to properly read the article.

They do read, don't they?

The little picture

Nick Gruen writes in his Rough Type blog about the fat guy who can't get his web 2.0 software to work. Salesforce decided to upgrade their software and now it won't synch with Outlook.

I'm not a fan of Nick's blog. I'm more a little picture person than a big picture guy, I'm more interested in the small guy's application of new technology. Like my post yesterday of how a three person office uses Google Maps.

In fact, I'm such a small picture guy not seeing the wood for the trees is not my problem, I'm fighting my way through the underbrush.

So it's interesting to see Nick stoop to my level for a change. And he's absolutely right, the Software-as-a-Service guys need to consider the little stuff as much as the big stuff.

Where I disagree is that synching with Outlook is not little; it's a major problem. Breaking Outlook synchronisation is ridiculous.

I'll bet plenty of corporate IT admins have been sweating while the Chief Executive whatever screams at them about this very issue. Whether Salesforce like it or not, Outlook is the established leader in the PIM field and they have to deal with it.

The danger with letting technology people run an operation is they see the technology as being an end in itself. This is why Linux doesn't get traction in the mass market and why software developers tell small business to ditch Outlook.

In the real world IT is a means to improve productivity: The computers; Internet; Web 2.0 apps and everything else is there to help ordinary people do stuff. When the computer gets in the way of doing things then the computer has to go.

As the fat guy says in his blog,

"...Oh, and I’ll be going back to the open-source free crap for making cool pie-charts out of an SQL database (which my dog could probably write) for the quarterly investor reports. Maybe even Google docs. Maybe even nothing more than a yellow legal pad and some markers."

There's the message for everyone in the IT industry; whether you are a high falutin', macbook toting, Web 2.0 big picture guy or just the mom and pop corner computer store. If your products aren't delivering what the customers want, they will go elsewhere.

Using web applications

One of the fascinating things with the rise of web 2.0 applications is how they are changing business practices. Pretty well every week I see a few new and unexpected ways people are adapting the new tools to their work.

Yesterday I visited a hazardous goods consultant. Most of his business involves inspecting warehouses and factories and advising on how they can meet standards and reduce risks.

Before taking an assignment he uses the satellite view of Google Maps to check out the premises. He's found this helps him pick up features he might have missed when visiting onsite or reviewing plans, it also saves him a lot of time in preparing proposals, quotes and reports.

One of the important aspects is that he can now check out potential clients in places that he wouldn't have considered two or three years ago. While I was there he was checking out a warehouse and factory complex in Perth to see if the job was worth his while.

This is the exciting thing about the new generation of web based applications, they are allowing smaller businesses to reach into markets they couldn't have considered a few years back.

How to kill a web 2.0 product

How do you kill a web based service? Sign an exclusivity deal which locks most users out of your service, that's how.

MySpace signing an exclusivity deal with Optus and blocking Australian who are with other carriers from accessing the mobile service pretty well kills that app dead here.

Mind you, given the average age of an Australian MySpace user is rapidly approaching 12 and that many pre-paid mobile plans don't include data, I doubt MySpace Mobile is generate much interest.

I can understand they have to make as much as they can before the revenue stream completely dries up.

Locked software

Mark Fletcher's Australian Newsagents Blog has two stories of newsagents locked out of point of sale software.

From the posts, I assume this is due to licensing disputes between the store and the software vendor. This is absolutely disgraceful behaviour by the vendor as it cripples the business.

Sadly, this sort of thing is not unusual with proprietary database programs. The data is firmly locked away and difficult to get at unless the victim stumps up a large and improbably amount of money.

I would recommend to anyone considering buying such a program to have a close look at the backup and data export features in the program. All programs should have a local backup function and the ability to export the databases into a generic format like a Comma Separated Values text file.

That way, should you find a dispute looming then you can at least export your business data into a format that other programs can read.

For my money, locking customers out of their own data is shameful behaviour. Sadly this lack of respect for the consumer all too common in the IT industry and is another reason why we are getting a reputation somewhere between real estate agents and used car dealers.

Too many Vista versions

When I first heard of there would be five different versions of Vista I thought it would be a support nightmare. Well I was right on that but now I'm finding it messes me up in other ways.

I'm midway through adapting Dan Gookin's latest "PCs for Dummies" for the Australian market. One of the things that's really, really irritating me is the version differences.

Take for instance the chapter on video making, Dan spends two pages on Windows Movie Maker. The final line reads "this isn't available in all versions of Windows Vista".

This proviso is having to go at least once into every chapter. It's a joke.

I've blogged on this being way too confusing for customers before. To make it harder, most of the entry level PCs, the CHUMPS as Adrian Kingsley-Hughes calls them, come with Vista Home Basic. This means they don't get much of the features Microsoft tout and that we spend much of the book discussing.

There was plenty of confusion between XP Home and Professional. Users were caught out because they bought the wrong type, usually office users buying Home and finding they couldn't connect to the office domain. With Vista it's far, far worse.

Apple are exactly right on this, this is needlessly confusing the market. It also screws up the channel as it increases inventory costs and returns.

To say Vista is not Microsoft's finest hour is an understatement.

Shipping bare PCs

According to CNet The Globalization Institute, a European think tank, has recommended the EU require all PCs to be sold without preloaded operating systems.

I can't see that happening. A bare bones computer is a nightmare, it would send support costs soaring as buyers spend hours installing the operating system and system drivers. Customers want computers to work as soon as they plug them in.

Such a move in the EU would be a boom for the IT support industry. If this came in, I might consider moving to somewhere nice in Europe for a few years to take advantage of this.

Demolishing the silo

The SMH discusses the exodus of companies to the suburbs from the cities. To say I'm sceptical about this is an understatement, moving offices away from transport hubs to car dependent suburbs strikes me as a big step backwards. Even more so given the steady rises in oil prices.

But along with the usual management justifications for the bean counters bright ideas the SMH article claims a new one; moving from a high rise office to a "campus" will destroy "siloing".

It's funny they mention siloing in an article about Optus. The worst case of Siloing I came across was when I was trying to connect a client to the Optus Exchange server.

I just needed the password to connect, so we rang the Optus support desk. No dice, she was using a Dell and the only people on that day were Mac support techs. She's have to call back two days later when the PC guy was in.

We got the password by ringing back a few minutes later and pretending she was on a Mac.

If the bean counters think spending millions on moving to the suburbs and losing half their staff is the way to defeat that sort of mentality, then I wish them the best.

Another Google threat to Sensis

I've previously blogged about the threat Google is to the Yellow and White Pages monopolies Sensis currently holds. Thanks to Techmeme and Search Engine Land, I found Google411.

While this is currently a US-based experiment you can't help but think this is another threat to Sensis' dominance.

If Google launch this in Australia and take a chunk of the directory assistance market it pretty well leaves Sensis with only the printed directory business as a monopoly. Sensis have shown they struggle when forced to compete in a market.

There's no doubt the printed Yellow and White Pages directories are going to be very profitable for a long time to come, but these are declining businesses with high distribution costs.

When I was a Telstra shareholder, I was a firm advocate of them selling Sensis. I'm wondering now if they've left it too late.

Vista drives the switch to Macs

It certainly appears switching to the Mac has become the flavour of the month. We covered it on the last ABC Sydney radio spot, now Jason Fry of the Wall Street Journal has his story of considering switching which is backed up by Mark Cuban's experience.

The message from Mark and Jason's readers is clear, Vista is driving customers away from Microsoft. The only thing restricting Apple's growth is their retail strategy as the New York Time described earlier this week.

We've certainly had a number of clients looking at changing but so far few have done so. Those that have seem to be happy with one or two exceptions.

There's no doubt though that Microsoft has really dropped the ball on Vista. Not enough to threaten their position in the market, but even one of the world's biggest companies can't afford many more mistakes like this.

Missing sales opportunities

I visited a client on Friday who had bought a new printer. One of the irritations of buying printers is how manufacturers skimp on a couple of dollars by not supplying USB cables which are essential to set up the machine.

This should be a great selling opportunity for the sales person to make more profit on the sale, given the fat margins shops make on cables. Yet nearly half the new printers I see are sold without a cable.

For the manufacturer, this is false economy as they almost certainly receive support calls from upset customers who can't figure out how to plug the printer in. This probably wipes out any savings from not throwing a cable into the box.

The local shop is even more at risk as those customers who can't set it up may well return the printer. That wipes out the profit on the next five printers.

Another niggle is the failure of shops to sell paper to go with the printer. Again this is another good opportunity. My client had no paper in her house.

The client suggested they could throw the cable and paper in for free as a goodwill gesture. Unfortunately too much of the retail IT industry operates on margins too fine to allow that. Also many customers are wholly price driven so goodwill gestures are usually wasted.

I charged for the cable, but gave some paper as a goodwill gesture. I'm still baffled why the shops don't do this.

Betraying customer's trust

Roses Only is a business I've admired. The company's founder, James Stevens, has built up a great online business from scratch. So I'm dismayed and disappointed with how they've handled the news their database has been hacked.

Putting aside the question of why Roses Only were saving credit card details, the handling of this is disgraceful as we have no information on what has happened and who is affected.

The first place concerned customers are going to go to is the website. There is absolutely nothing about the problem anywhere on the site.

But the front page of the website proclaims "To ensure the security and privacy for all our customers. Roses Only does not store any credit card data in its system".

Well, according to the media, that's not true. "Hackers" have stolen credit card details from the database.

So you'd think clarifying this issue would be important for Roses Only. Apparently not, because apart from a press release issued by their PR agency they have nothing to say about this.

Communicating through a PR company to the media is not good enough. There needs to be, at the very least, something on the front page of the website explaining the problem.

I think what irritates me the most with this is the PR agency's line that you should contact your bank.

This is not the customer's problem. This is Roses Only's problem. It's up to Roses Only to contact customers, not let them wait for a pile of fraudulent credit card transaction to appear on their statement.

While the customer might not be responsible for those transactions, reporting and undoing them will be an expensive and time consuming hassle. Some people will have had legitimate transactions declined while others will have incurred penalty charges and some will miss the illegitimate entries.

Online commerce relies on trust by both the merchant and the consumer. Both sides of an online transaction are trusting the other side will do the right thing.

In my view Roses Only has breached that trust. It's a shame such an innovative organisation has dropped the ball so badly.

Switching to Open Office

Smart Company tech blogger, Brendan Lewis, has a post about switching one of his businesses to Open Office. He has a number of useful tips for anyone else contemplating this switch.

We offered this to clients a few years back and it was a disaster.

The biggest problem for businesses switching is user resistance. Office staff like having the Big Blue "W" or "X" to click on. We also have to keep in mind that many office workers have invested many years experience in getting to understand the foibles and menu commands in Office.

Transitioning costs are the financial killer. Brendan mentions this but I think understates it somewhat. Basically all your macros and templates are either going to have to be imported or recreated. The cost of doing that on its own outweighs the licensing costs of Office.

Another problem with Open Office is that many programs, such as Quicken, ACT! and MYOB, integrate with MS Office but don't with OO. This creates headaches for users and support.

The ultimate killer is compatibility. Brendan makes the point that you have to have one machine still running MS Office so you can make sure outgoing documents have all their features and formatting.

I found this problem personally early this week. I tried running a presentation I'd created in Powerpoint 2003 on my laptop running Open Office. It worked but it looked pretty ordinary and I couldn't have used it.

Of course, none of these problems are faults with Open Office. It's a fine suite of programs that's unbeatable at the price. I'd really recommend it if you are after a full featured office suite and you aren't fussed about sending documents to other users.

If you are a business though I just couldn't recommend it unless you are the type that like living on the bleeding edge with all the pain that goes with that.

Trusting the IT industry

The overwhelming impression I got from yesterday's small business IT seminar it was the tech industry doesn't have the trust of small business; too often they've been burned by bad techs, bad software and bad hardware.

One lady told how she gets salespeople to write a personal guarantee before she buys anything, for big ticket items she sometimes gets three signatures on her piece of paper.

That's a pretty depressing state of affairs that our industry is in this and it's difficult to see how this is going to change.

Given our governments have a hands off policy on industry regulation, I can't see a mandatory licensing system being introduced as I suggested in my last post. So that means anyone who "knows something about computers" can hang out their shingle and claim to be a computer tech, web designer or programmer.

But just to blame the techs for this situation would be very unfair, the bigger players have allowed this situation to develop.

We really need software and hardware vendors to take responsibility for their products they release, we need them to take quality control seriously and to stop using paying customers as their crash test dummies.

Along with getting vendors to understand their moral and legal obligations, we need to get computer stores to understand their responsibilities. The bigger ones they are, the more it seems they try to wriggle around the law.

This "stuff the customer" mindset seems to run deep in the industry. I'm not sure if it's going to take governments to step in or the courts, but sooner or later someone is going to say "enough is enough".

Technician qualifications

I had my first Top 10 IT Solutions for Small Business at Parramatta yesterday.

Given it was the first presentation I've done on the topic it went well, apart from the boring Powerpoint presentation.

During the Q&A one thing became very clear, a lot of small business owners are very frustrated with finding competent, reliable and trustworthy techs.

There's a lot of reasons for this, the main one is most computer techs are "technicians suffering a entrepreneurial spasm" as the E-myth writer Micheal Gerber puts it. When they find how tough this business can be their service, and possibly sanity, quickly suffers.

One area I think we have to look at is the licensing of computer techs. Just as motor mechanics, hair dressers and plumbers need to show they have a base level of skills, so to should computer technicians.

The base level should be the Certificate IV in IT Support. I'd like to see it coupled with a formal trainee or apprenticeship.

This won't get rid of all the dills and shonks, after all there are still some crook mechanics and plumbers out there, it will at least give some level of confidence among consumers and employers that a tech does have a base level of skills.

2Clix sues Whirlpool

The accounting software company 2Clix is suing Whirlpool, the Australian broadband forum, for malicious falsehood (the corporate equivalent of libel) over a couple of threads in the forum.

I'm sure the management of 2Clix have some very good legal advice that such an action will be successful, but from a business point of view this is a disaster.

Doing this draws more attention to the problems, real or otherwise, in their product.

I have a lot of sympathy for software developers writing product for the consumer market, a single Microsoft patch can bring their product crashing down. For accounting programs like 2Clix they are also at the mercy of whatever brain damaged ideas come out of the tax office or government.

There are almost 200,000 registered members of Whirlpool and probably that number again who read it without signing up. The vast majority of those had no idea what 2Clix was or that it had any problems until today.

If 2Clix really has suffered $150,000 in damages from a couple of obscure threads on Whirlpool, the mind boggles at what the damages they are going to suffer when the industry press will pick up on this story later today and the mainstream media run with it over the next few days.

Small Business IT mistake 10: No disaster recovery

I've left disaster recovery for last because it frightens and depresses me. Almost every business I see has some flaw in how they protect their business data.

Most businesses don't understand that computer hardware is cheap and easy to replace; it's the data stored on the system that is valuable. For most businesses, losing all their data would be the end of the enterprise.

Backing up data is the most fundamental part of a disaster recovery plan. But that’s not the whole picture with disaster recovery.

The aim of a disaster recovery plan is to get your computer systems back on line as quickly as possible should a disaster strike. That disaster could be a fire, a break in, a flood or even the building collapsing.

So it's more than just the data; you need something to save the data onto, you need somewhere to store the data, you need something to read the data. You need to be able to access everything quickly should the worst happen.

It's probably a good idea to keep at least part of that locked cabinet full of software and folders we discussed earlier at home rather than the office.

Until the rise of cheap external hard drives, most business data backups were done onto tape. Tapes were comparatively cheap, stored a lot of data and were portable.

The only problem was they failed as often as not, the mental scars of my own encounters with this are why this subject fills with me with dread.

The disaster recovery plan has to include rotating the backups. If you rely on one drive or tape, your whole system will fail if that drive or tape fails. Ideally you'd have twenty of the things working on daily weekly and monthly schedules that mean your data is saved for a year at a time.

Most businesses though balk at this cost and that's understandable. A compromise is often two or three backup devices where one is plugged into the computer while the others are taken home by the boss or the secretary.

This means you'll lose a weeks work should the building burn down. For most small businesses this is a reasonable trade off between costs. For some though, the cost of re-creating a week's work is prohibitive so the cost of a few more $200 external drives is worthwhile.

Disaster recovery is an absolutely key area for small business IT. The smaller your business is, the more your data and intellectual property is important to you.

It's critical you discuss a disaster recovery plan with your IT consultant and make sure you have a working one in place.

Small Business IT mistake 9: No training

I never ceased to be amazed at how we don’t train staff on how to use computers. As business owners we wouldn't dream of not training staff to use a forklift or lathe, let alone give a company car to an employee without a driver’s license.

Yet almost no staff get training in using computers.

I remember clearly the first day I faced a personal computer. I was sat down in front a computer on it and told to get on with it. It took me half an hour to turn the thing on, it was nearly a week before I got anything productive done.

People are wonderfully inventive and curious beasts. Most folk will eventually figure out how to do something by trial and error. The problem is this leads to bad and inefficient habits in the office.

Couple this with the self taught office guru and you have a problem like I described earlier; those bad habits start getting very expensive.

Training's surprisingly easy to find. There are the local newspaper and Yellow Pages, but many computer trainers there share the problem with the local computer tech that anyone can claim to be one.

Far better in my experience are the local community colleges or the corporate training companies. Corporate training is expensive and sometimes their instructors leave something to be desired but the courses are usually well structured. The local community college is cheaper but it usually requires staff to attend out of hours.

There is a question about offsite versus onsite training. Onsite training is cheaper and uses the equipment that the staff work on every day. In my view, offsite training is best for staff as it gets them away from distractions.

While offsite training adds to the cost of computers and staff, it's money well spent for businesses of all sizes as it improves the productivity and morale of staff immensely.

From the businesses owner’s point of view training increases the return on their IT investment dramatically.

Small Business IT mistake 8: Get more from the Internet

When businesses get online they have little more than an email address. Sadly this is how it remains for many businesses. That's a shame because the net has a huge range of benefits for the small business.

Nearly fifteen years ago the New Yorker had a cartoon saying on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog.

For a smaller business, the Internet gives you the opportunity to project yourself as a much bigger organisation and allows you to reach a much bigger audience and markets.

The absolute must do for every business is to get a business domain registered. This is cheap and makes your business look professional. Using the email address supplied by your ISP screams cheap, cheap, cheap.

The next step is to organise hosting a website. Good hosting services cost between ten and fifty dollars a month depending upon the features such as multiple email addresses, mailing list services and all manner of tools to help you add features to your online presence.

To setup that online presence you need to start with a website. You can do it yourself but there are plenty of good website designers that can put together an attractive and functional website for a few hundred dollars.

The Internet doesn't just stop with websites. Other applications include hosted software services where you pay a monthly fee to use a software program, this can save a lot of money in capital costs and allows you and your staff to do their work while at home or on the road.

Accessing your information remotely is probably one of the biggest attractions of the Internet for small business. With the fixed IP addresses we discussed in the last post you can log into your office while anywhere in the world. This is a serious productivity gain for the small business owner.

The Internet has huge opportunities for the small business owner and I'm only just scratching the surface of what can be done. Once again, it's worthwhile consulting a professional who can look at your business needs to see what the net can do for you.


The next step is to organise hosting a website. Good hosting services cost between ten and fifty dollars a month depending upon the features such as multiple email addresses, mailing list services and all manner of tools to help you add features to your online presence.

To setup that online presence you need to start with a website. You can do it yourself but there are plenty of good website designers that can put together an attractive and functional website for a few hundred dollars.

The Internet doesn't just stop with websites. Other applications include hosted software services where you pay a monthly fee to use a software program, this can save a lot of money in capital costs and allows you and your staff to do their work while at home or on the road.

Accessing your information remotely is probably one of the biggest attractions of the Internet for small business. With the fixed IP addresses we discussed in the last chapter you can log into your office while anywhere in the world. This is a serious productivity gain for the small business owner.

The Internet has huge opportunities for the small business owner and I'm only just scratching the surface of what can be done. Once again, it's worthwhile consulting a professional who can look at your business needs to see what the net can do for you.

Small business IT mistake 7: Choosing the wrong Internet plan

It's not surprising many people get their Internet plans wrong. The range of plans and options are massive and deliberately confusing. Researching ISP deals leaves even the most switched on tech with a headache.

The simplest advice for small business owners is to invest in a proper, business grade Internet plan. This cuts out the noise of the consumer plans.

The vast majority of Internet plans are designed for home users. Like IT equipment, this means they are pitched at a price, which in Australia is around $30 a month for an entry level plan.

That price means you won't get a lot of features that businesses need; a fixed IP address, multiple email accounts, reliable service and a support line that doesn't hang up when you tell them you have a router and server.

You should work with your IT consultant to find a business Internet provider. It's also worthwhile exploring references from other businesses. As with other IT fields, word of mouth is always a good way to find suppliers.

Some services will include website hosting and other features. I prefer to have websites hosted by specialist hosting companies as my experience is ISPs don't do it particularly well. But many small businesses prefer the simplicity of one point of contact and one bill.

A decent small business ISP plan is going to cost between $60 and $100 a month. This is money well spent for reliable service and the additional features and support small businesses need.


You should work with your IT consultant to find a business Internet provider. It's also worthwhile exploring references from other businesses. Word of mouth is always a good way to find suppliers.

Some services will include website hosting and other features. I prefer to have websites hosted by specialist hosting companies as my experience is ISPs don't do it particularly well. But many small businesses prefer the simplicity of one point of contact and one bill.

A decent small business ISP plan is going to cost between $60 and $100 a month. This is money well spent for reliable service and the additional features and support small businesses need.