I noticed a Google ad on a webpage the other day referring to a free IT review of small business networks. In principle, a free consultation is a good way for a service provider to get their foot in the door for customers. Sadly in the IT industry this is rarely the case.
The main reason is most prospective customers don't value the service. You can present them with a beautifully bound and presented report and it will, at best, be filed. It's highly unlikely the report will ever be read, let alone acted upon.
In the rare occasion it does get acted on, most companies will put the job out to competitive tender. Your free audit and the recommendations become the specifications and because other IT companies don't have the overhead of giving out free audits they'll be cheaper.
Word of mouth is the best marketing tool in the IT industry. The best way to grow your business is to provide quality service to the customers who value those services. Giving away your services, like system audits, for free is only attracting the customers who don't value what you can do for them.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Dumping on the competion
Criticising your competitors is always a risky proposition. The SMH Enterprise Blog discusses an example of this.
Valerie Khoo's experience with a real estate agent is pretty typical of what we see in the IT industry. The first agent did the right thing referring her to a competitor that could help. The competitor could resist dumping on the guy who referred her.
This sort of behaviour is unprofessional and most customers hate it. When I look at another technician's work I generally don't comment on the quality of the work unless they've done something seriously wrong.
Sadly, a lot of computer techs don't see it that way. They can't wait to big note themselves on how good they are and how bad the previous guy was. All this confirms in the client's mind is that we are all cowboys.
It's always best to be positive with a client. Even when recommending one product over another, I find it better to focus on the positives of the preferred product rather than the negatives of the the others.
There's karma in this too. Its too easy in the IT industry to be negative given the behaviour of many of the participants. By being positive, you feel better and so does your customer.
The simple rule is don't be negative: Don't dump on your competitors.
Valerie Khoo's experience with a real estate agent is pretty typical of what we see in the IT industry. The first agent did the right thing referring her to a competitor that could help. The competitor could resist dumping on the guy who referred her.
This sort of behaviour is unprofessional and most customers hate it. When I look at another technician's work I generally don't comment on the quality of the work unless they've done something seriously wrong.
Sadly, a lot of computer techs don't see it that way. They can't wait to big note themselves on how good they are and how bad the previous guy was. All this confirms in the client's mind is that we are all cowboys.
It's always best to be positive with a client. Even when recommending one product over another, I find it better to focus on the positives of the preferred product rather than the negatives of the the others.
There's karma in this too. Its too easy in the IT industry to be negative given the behaviour of many of the participants. By being positive, you feel better and so does your customer.
The simple rule is don't be negative: Don't dump on your competitors.
ZD Net interviews Kimmo Alkio the new CEO of Finnish security company, F-Secure, about the mechanics of online threats.
A very obvious point is malware writing is one of the few opportunities for a smart young programmer in the developing world. That's one of the reasons for the explosion in malware, phishing and spam. The Internet allows these opportunities from anywhere.
Where I would disagree with Kimmo is that mobile phone viruses and spyware are the stage now that PCs were at in the late 1980s.
In the late 1980s we were seeing the first viruses and they were spread by floppy disks with the odd ones lurking on message boards. The problem was there and the mass adoption of the Internet just took it to another level.
On the other hand, there's no reported mass outbreaks of mobile phone viruses which we would be seeing if there was a problem.
I suspect this is partly because mobile phones are used differently. People don't expect, or use, the functionality of a PC in a mobile and the telcos are reluctant to let their customers use such functionality because it allows the customer to break free of the Telco's content controls.
Kimmo makes a couple of other very good points: ISPs need to take more responsibility for protecting their customers and we need a .bank domain.
A .bank domain could be setup that only legitimate banks can sign up to. Having a reasonably secure domain means Internet banking because more secure.
On the other hand, were governments to make ISPs more responsible for security, we'd see a marked drop in spam, phishing viruses and compromised machines. I'd suggest making ISPs partly responsible for damages caused by compromised machines or swindlers on their network if the ISP can't show they've taken reasonable steps to close down errant account holders.
There's a few challenging ideas there that can be used to reduce Internet based crime.
A very obvious point is malware writing is one of the few opportunities for a smart young programmer in the developing world. That's one of the reasons for the explosion in malware, phishing and spam. The Internet allows these opportunities from anywhere.
Where I would disagree with Kimmo is that mobile phone viruses and spyware are the stage now that PCs were at in the late 1980s.
In the late 1980s we were seeing the first viruses and they were spread by floppy disks with the odd ones lurking on message boards. The problem was there and the mass adoption of the Internet just took it to another level.
On the other hand, there's no reported mass outbreaks of mobile phone viruses which we would be seeing if there was a problem.
I suspect this is partly because mobile phones are used differently. People don't expect, or use, the functionality of a PC in a mobile and the telcos are reluctant to let their customers use such functionality because it allows the customer to break free of the Telco's content controls.
Kimmo makes a couple of other very good points: ISPs need to take more responsibility for protecting their customers and we need a .bank domain.
A .bank domain could be setup that only legitimate banks can sign up to. Having a reasonably secure domain means Internet banking because more secure.
On the other hand, were governments to make ISPs more responsible for security, we'd see a marked drop in spam, phishing viruses and compromised machines. I'd suggest making ISPs partly responsible for damages caused by compromised machines or swindlers on their network if the ISP can't show they've taken reasonable steps to close down errant account holders.
There's a few challenging ideas there that can be used to reduce Internet based crime.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Selling technology
The New York Times asks why Apple can sell computers from retail stores while other companies like Sony, Dell and Gateway can't.
Apple stores do well because they are destinations. People will travel to see an Apple store either for cool new technology or to get help from the Genius Bar.
The Genius Bar is an important aspect to this, this enhances the brand and can only be done if your margins are high enough to afford to pay for the Geniuses.
Which is an interesting contrast to Dell's deal with Walmart. Once again, Dell have decided to follow the cheap route. That's fine, but it further locks Dell into the bottom end of the IT market.
The stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap model doesn't work for IT products: Computers are not baked beans.
To survive in the IT industry you need to establish relationships with your customers. But relationships cost time and money, which you can't do if you are selling cheap boxes to the bottom of the market. Apple can, and are, doing this while Dell can't afford it and Sony doesn't understand how to do it.
Apple stores do well because they are destinations. People will travel to see an Apple store either for cool new technology or to get help from the Genius Bar.
The Genius Bar is an important aspect to this, this enhances the brand and can only be done if your margins are high enough to afford to pay for the Geniuses.
Which is an interesting contrast to Dell's deal with Walmart. Once again, Dell have decided to follow the cheap route. That's fine, but it further locks Dell into the bottom end of the IT market.
The stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap model doesn't work for IT products: Computers are not baked beans.
To survive in the IT industry you need to establish relationships with your customers. But relationships cost time and money, which you can't do if you are selling cheap boxes to the bottom of the market. Apple can, and are, doing this while Dell can't afford it and Sony doesn't understand how to do it.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Protecting children online: Get their computers out of the bedroom
The story of the Tweed Heads magistrate breaking down and weeping is touching and tragic and it illustrates why all parents need to supervise their kid's web usage.
This particular pervert took advantage of kids as young as nine, meeting them through chat rooms and exploiting through webcams. In this particular case, a teenage girl was manipulated into sexually abusing her younger brother in front of her webcam.
Jeff Linden, the magistrate who heard this Australian case, calls for more internet filtering. I'm not sure this will avoid such horrific cases. Perverts like the perpetrator of this crime will find a way to exploit kids wherever they congregate, be it on MySpace or the local playground.
In my view, parents need to supervise Internet usage. The Internet is like a big city and there are parts of any city where most adults would feel safe visting, let alone children. No parent would allow their children to wander around big cities unsupervised.
Yet this is what many do with the Internet. Not only do a lot of parents allow the kids to use the computers in their own room, but they also allow them to use equipment like webcams.
It's bad enough letting kids have TVs in their rooms and allowing the unmitigated, brain numbing trash into their bedrooms. But the Internet invites far more trouble.
Forget filtering. Supervise your kids.
On a slightly different topic, it's clear there's a chilling effect on Australian reporting by not mentioning the name of the perpetrators of these acts. The reason's clear: Australian judges have shown they will abandon trials and even cite reporters for contempt if they name anyone who might face such charges .
This chilling effect worked with me, I deliberately re-wrote this post to remove names and links to non-Australian articles. I'd hate to see one of these online predators getting away because their lawyers can claim a blog like this is responsible for them not being able to get a fair trial.
This particular pervert took advantage of kids as young as nine, meeting them through chat rooms and exploiting through webcams. In this particular case, a teenage girl was manipulated into sexually abusing her younger brother in front of her webcam.
Jeff Linden, the magistrate who heard this Australian case, calls for more internet filtering. I'm not sure this will avoid such horrific cases. Perverts like the perpetrator of this crime will find a way to exploit kids wherever they congregate, be it on MySpace or the local playground.
In my view, parents need to supervise Internet usage. The Internet is like a big city and there are parts of any city where most adults would feel safe visting, let alone children. No parent would allow their children to wander around big cities unsupervised.
Yet this is what many do with the Internet. Not only do a lot of parents allow the kids to use the computers in their own room, but they also allow them to use equipment like webcams.
It's bad enough letting kids have TVs in their rooms and allowing the unmitigated, brain numbing trash into their bedrooms. But the Internet invites far more trouble.
Forget filtering. Supervise your kids.
On a slightly different topic, it's clear there's a chilling effect on Australian reporting by not mentioning the name of the perpetrators of these acts. The reason's clear: Australian judges have shown they will abandon trials and even cite reporters for contempt if they name anyone who might face such charges .
This chilling effect worked with me, I deliberately re-wrote this post to remove names and links to non-Australian articles. I'd hate to see one of these online predators getting away because their lawyers can claim a blog like this is responsible for them not being able to get a fair trial.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Symantec update screws China
Why am I not surprised a Norton update screws up a few million Chinese PCs?
The undermining of the cheap laptop
I previously noted Microsoft's undermining of the OLPC per child. Now John Negroponte has criticised Intel for the same thing.
It's a shame these people can't work together. Getting this project out would be one of the greatest long term achievements for the computer industry. It would probably result in more computers being sold as well.
It's a shame these people can't work together. Getting this project out would be one of the greatest long term achievements for the computer industry. It would probably result in more computers being sold as well.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Dell's woes continue
The New York Attorney General is suing Dell for not delivering on it's customer service. This is not surprising as Dell have really soiled their reputation in the last few years.
Dell's spokesman claims these complaints are from a "a small fraction of Dell's consumer transactions in New York". A read of their 161 comments to date on the ABC story indicate otherwise.
The big problem for Dell is they've chased the bottom of the market. The consequences were inevitable: To maintain margins they had to lowered levels of service and the cheap prices attract the toughest customers.
Computers are a difficult, complex product at the best of time. As I pointed out in a previous post, selling technology is not like selling baked beans. Pile and high and sell 'em cheap only works if you can fob off aggrieved customers when the technology fails or is beyond them.
For retailers, this has been quite easy. They job fob the customer off to the manufacturer. Dell's cutting the middle man means they have nowhere to fob the customer off to.
The problem for the channel and direct seller like Dell is the bottom of the market is populated with demanding customers with tight budgets. These people want to buy a Hyundai but they want Lexus level support.
There's no way around this if price is your only selling point. The key is not to go to the bottom of the market. Stay in the mid to high range where you'll sell far fewer computers but you'll keep your margins and reputation.
This is largely the strategy of Apple. Although they do lapse sometimes.
For myself, I don't know why Dell chose this path, my suspicion is that the stock market and renumeration agreements were rewarding unit sales numbers, so the bosses didn't care as long as more boxes were sold. Now they are suffering for chasing the bottom of the market, just as Packard Bell did.
I suspect it's too late for Dell to overcome the "cheap but dodgy" label. It might be time for Dell to split their range, keep the Dell brand for the cheapies and rebadge their high level computers and support. Just as Toyota did with Lexus.
The sad thing is the Japanese worked hard to associate their brands with quality. They took a generation to shed the "cheap but dodgy" label. Dell have done the opposite and trashed a good name.
Dell's spokesman claims these complaints are from a "a small fraction of Dell's consumer transactions in New York". A read of their 161 comments to date on the ABC story indicate otherwise.
The big problem for Dell is they've chased the bottom of the market. The consequences were inevitable: To maintain margins they had to lowered levels of service and the cheap prices attract the toughest customers.
Computers are a difficult, complex product at the best of time. As I pointed out in a previous post, selling technology is not like selling baked beans. Pile and high and sell 'em cheap only works if you can fob off aggrieved customers when the technology fails or is beyond them.
For retailers, this has been quite easy. They job fob the customer off to the manufacturer. Dell's cutting the middle man means they have nowhere to fob the customer off to.
The problem for the channel and direct seller like Dell is the bottom of the market is populated with demanding customers with tight budgets. These people want to buy a Hyundai but they want Lexus level support.
There's no way around this if price is your only selling point. The key is not to go to the bottom of the market. Stay in the mid to high range where you'll sell far fewer computers but you'll keep your margins and reputation.
This is largely the strategy of Apple. Although they do lapse sometimes.
For myself, I don't know why Dell chose this path, my suspicion is that the stock market and renumeration agreements were rewarding unit sales numbers, so the bosses didn't care as long as more boxes were sold. Now they are suffering for chasing the bottom of the market, just as Packard Bell did.
I suspect it's too late for Dell to overcome the "cheap but dodgy" label. It might be time for Dell to split their range, keep the Dell brand for the cheapies and rebadge their high level computers and support. Just as Toyota did with Lexus.
The sad thing is the Japanese worked hard to associate their brands with quality. They took a generation to shed the "cheap but dodgy" label. Dell have done the opposite and trashed a good name.
Microsoft Update failing
We've been seeing a lot of problems with the automatic Microsoft Updates program and now it's hit our systems. My computer is hanging with the update processes hogging up to 80% of resources.
Having tried everything suggested by Microsoft, the only solution appears to be to disable the Microsoft Update and go back to the Windows Update. That means running Office updates manually.
I haven't tried to update Office manually for some while, so I wasn't surprised to find the site changed. The irritating thing is the site prompts you to the Windows Update page. Problems with that are why I'm doing this manually.
Luckily, there's a tiny link below to the Office update page where we can update Office and only office.
But, Microsoft being Microsoft we have to validate Office before we can download.
Is it just me that's sick of having to validate my Microsoft products every second time I visit their websites.
Perhaps if Microsoft spent more time testing their products and updates and less time worrying about validating their products, we might get fewer of these problems.
Having tried everything suggested by Microsoft, the only solution appears to be to disable the Microsoft Update and go back to the Windows Update. That means running Office updates manually.
I haven't tried to update Office manually for some while, so I wasn't surprised to find the site changed. The irritating thing is the site prompts you to the Windows Update page. Problems with that are why I'm doing this manually.
Luckily, there's a tiny link below to the Office update page where we can update Office and only office.
But, Microsoft being Microsoft we have to validate Office before we can download.
Is it just me that's sick of having to validate my Microsoft products every second time I visit their websites.
Perhaps if Microsoft spent more time testing their products and updates and less time worrying about validating their products, we might get fewer of these problems.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Get your web servers right
I've just spent ten minutes filling in a feedback survey for a major corporation. The aim of the survey is to measure how reliable customers find the company's website.
It crashed with an SQL error when I pressed submit.
I'm amazed at how large organisations have trouble like this. The ticketing woes of Cricket Australia come to mind. There's many other examples.
I don't know how much these companies spend on websites, but they need to insist these services can deal with peak demands.
There's little point in having a pretty website when it crashes at critical times.
It crashed with an SQL error when I pressed submit.
I'm amazed at how large organisations have trouble like this. The ticketing woes of Cricket Australia come to mind. There's many other examples.
I don't know how much these companies spend on websites, but they need to insist these services can deal with peak demands.
There's little point in having a pretty website when it crashes at critical times.
The perils of being a tech
It's dangerous admitting you know something about computers at parties as you'll often find yourself being asked to have a look at the host's dodgy system and you spend the time in PC Hell.
Jeremy Allison describes just such an evening in his ZDNet blog. He foolishly agreed to help setup a relative's laptop and found himself in a hole.
The big problem with IT support is that something simple can turn very bad very quickly and often from an angle you didn't expect.
Jeremy's experience is a good example as the trial edition of MS Office 2007 which bought him undone.
The solution involved re-downloading the Microsoft Office trial. He's lucky he's not in Australia as his relatives might have been on an uncapped 200Mb plan and that download would have cost half the price of the Office 2007 home edition.
Jeremy doesn't say how long this debacle took him to resolve, but my guess is he wasted many hours with the problem.
This illustrates why tech support is hard and why merely "knowing something about computers" does not qualify you to become a tech.
It also shows why do it yourself support is a recipe for frustration and a great deal of lost time. Small businesses that go the DIY path often waste a lot of their own time and end up with a substandard system.
On another aspect, I hadn't closely looked at the trial MS Office products and didn't realise copy and paste was disabled along with the "save as" function.
This is dangerous stuff for the typical computer user. It basically traps customers into buying the new product. We'll be recommending avoiding the trial edition once we confirm this.
Jeremy Allison describes just such an evening in his ZDNet blog. He foolishly agreed to help setup a relative's laptop and found himself in a hole.
The big problem with IT support is that something simple can turn very bad very quickly and often from an angle you didn't expect.
Jeremy's experience is a good example as the trial edition of MS Office 2007 which bought him undone.
The solution involved re-downloading the Microsoft Office trial. He's lucky he's not in Australia as his relatives might have been on an uncapped 200Mb plan and that download would have cost half the price of the Office 2007 home edition.
Jeremy doesn't say how long this debacle took him to resolve, but my guess is he wasted many hours with the problem.
This illustrates why tech support is hard and why merely "knowing something about computers" does not qualify you to become a tech.
It also shows why do it yourself support is a recipe for frustration and a great deal of lost time. Small businesses that go the DIY path often waste a lot of their own time and end up with a substandard system.
On another aspect, I hadn't closely looked at the trial MS Office products and didn't realise copy and paste was disabled along with the "save as" function.
This is dangerous stuff for the typical computer user. It basically traps customers into buying the new product. We'll be recommending avoiding the trial edition once we confirm this.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Collapsing home automation markets
The news that US electronics retail Tweeter is on the verge of bankrupcy is not surprising given the state of the computer and home automation industries.
The problem for retailers is the market is largely driven by price. The large chains and big brands have discounted themselves into a corner. The only way to make a profit is to move in bulk.
While this business model is good if you are selling baked beans, technology doesn't quite work that way. It's labour intensive and has much higher overheads than a loaf of bread or carton of milk. This model only survives in the technology retail sectors while customers are in a buying frenzy.
What I suspect's happened in the US industry is the downturn in the housing market has cooled the buying frenzy. In Australia, the housing market hasn't declined to the point that it's affecting consumer buying, but it might soon.
The slim margins have already affected specialist retailers. Hi-Fi shops are closing up and I've previously discussed computer shops closing. The box movers have pretty well won the technology retailing war with only the premium, top end shops surviving.
In the consumer entertainment sector, Smarthouse News speculates on how this might affect the Australian industry. In the local sector, the bulk movers have pretty well put the specialists out of business
The problem now for the low margin brigade is maintaining their turnover. If we are seeing a slowdown in consumer spending then these guys will be caught in a pincer movement of declining margins and declining volumes.
The problem for retailers is the market is largely driven by price. The large chains and big brands have discounted themselves into a corner. The only way to make a profit is to move in bulk.
While this business model is good if you are selling baked beans, technology doesn't quite work that way. It's labour intensive and has much higher overheads than a loaf of bread or carton of milk. This model only survives in the technology retail sectors while customers are in a buying frenzy.
What I suspect's happened in the US industry is the downturn in the housing market has cooled the buying frenzy. In Australia, the housing market hasn't declined to the point that it's affecting consumer buying, but it might soon.
The slim margins have already affected specialist retailers. Hi-Fi shops are closing up and I've previously discussed computer shops closing. The box movers have pretty well won the technology retailing war with only the premium, top end shops surviving.
In the consumer entertainment sector, Smarthouse News speculates on how this might affect the Australian industry. In the local sector, the bulk movers have pretty well put the specialists out of business
The problem now for the low margin brigade is maintaining their turnover. If we are seeing a slowdown in consumer spending then these guys will be caught in a pincer movement of declining margins and declining volumes.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Mac security and myths
The news Mac Internet use has doubled in the US has been greeted with all sorts of comment.
In my view, this is because it's dawning on consumers just how vulnerable Windows users are to malware. Consumers want reliable computing and don't want their banking details going to a Moscow crime ring. Apple Mac offer that security.
But it's interesting to see the myths continue. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in ZDNet offers the old chestnut that, that Macs have only avoided the malware deluge because they have a smaller market share.
With all due respect to Adrian, that's nonsense. The Mac is more secure simple because the system is better protected from the actions of users and the websites they visit.
The problem is that most Windows users run as administrators, which means they have full control over the operating system. The equivalent on the Mac is a root user. I have no doubt if you ran as the root user for a month on a Mac you'd be hopeless compromised as well.
The fact is Macs and Linux systems are currently more secure and more reliable than Windows machines. With increasing publicity of the risks of compromised computers, consumers and business want equipment that is secure and reliable.
One thing that does concern me about the Apple zealots is another group of myths along the lines that "Apple's don't crash, are bug free and don't lose data."
That's silly. All computers have bugs and crash. Sometime in your computing life you will lose data and it doesn't matter what operating system you use. That's why you need to back up and take basic security and data protection seriously.
Computers are tools to do a job. If the job you want your computer to do involves security then right now a Mac may well be the proper tool for the job.
In my view, this is because it's dawning on consumers just how vulnerable Windows users are to malware. Consumers want reliable computing and don't want their banking details going to a Moscow crime ring. Apple Mac offer that security.
But it's interesting to see the myths continue. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in ZDNet offers the old chestnut that, that Macs have only avoided the malware deluge because they have a smaller market share.
With all due respect to Adrian, that's nonsense. The Mac is more secure simple because the system is better protected from the actions of users and the websites they visit.
The problem is that most Windows users run as administrators, which means they have full control over the operating system. The equivalent on the Mac is a root user. I have no doubt if you ran as the root user for a month on a Mac you'd be hopeless compromised as well.
The fact is Macs and Linux systems are currently more secure and more reliable than Windows machines. With increasing publicity of the risks of compromised computers, consumers and business want equipment that is secure and reliable.
One thing that does concern me about the Apple zealots is another group of myths along the lines that "Apple's don't crash, are bug free and don't lose data."
That's silly. All computers have bugs and crash. Sometime in your computing life you will lose data and it doesn't matter what operating system you use. That's why you need to back up and take basic security and data protection seriously.
Computers are tools to do a job. If the job you want your computer to do involves security then right now a Mac may well be the proper tool for the job.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
How bad are the Microsoft search tools?
Microsoft just doesn't get how to run search engines
While researching a listener's problem this morning, I went looking for instructions on using the System Restore tool. As I was already in the Microsoft Knowledge Base so I thought I'd search there. Typing in "how to use System Restore" returned over 200 results, with not one of them vaguely useful.
Narrowing the search down to Windows XP only still returned another 200+ with none of the first two pages being any use at all.
Despairing I turned to Google. The first result on the search string "how to use System Restore" returned the very page I was looking for.
I've always found it quicker to use Google or Yahoo! to find information on the Microsoft web site. It seems, despite the developments with Windows Live, Micorsoft still have a long way to go.
While researching a listener's problem this morning, I went looking for instructions on using the System Restore tool. As I was already in the Microsoft Knowledge Base so I thought I'd search there. Typing in "how to use System Restore" returned over 200 results, with not one of them vaguely useful.
Narrowing the search down to Windows XP only still returned another 200+ with none of the first two pages being any use at all.
Despairing I turned to Google. The first result on the search string "how to use System Restore" returned the very page I was looking for.
I've always found it quicker to use Google or Yahoo! to find information on the Microsoft web site. It seems, despite the developments with Windows Live, Micorsoft still have a long way to go.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
The spyware threat grows
One of the scariest videos I've watched in a long time is Mark Russinovich's presentation on advanced malware cleaning.
It's a long, technical presentation but the content chilled the blood of this computer tech.
Mark described how clever the malware writers are and how difficult it's going to be to detect and remove the next generation of spyware.
With the current generation of tools, we find it difficult to clean up many machines within three hours. I tell my techs that if you can't clean it in the first hour, wipe the system. That usually means the client is going to see a $600 bill.
For many clients, they'd be better off buying a new system.
The lesson for home and office users is to make sure your staff and kids are restricted users. While it might mean some programs won't work, it's a small price to pay for keeping your system clean.
For techs, it means we've got to develop better tools to protect our clients and clean out infections. Russinovich makes a good point that we're going to rely more on live CDs like BartPE or Knoppix to clear infected systems as the malware is going be too deeply embedded in the system to remove any other way.
Personally, I'm considering running away and joining a call centre. This stuff is going to be very hard, frustrating work.
It's a long, technical presentation but the content chilled the blood of this computer tech.
Mark described how clever the malware writers are and how difficult it's going to be to detect and remove the next generation of spyware.
With the current generation of tools, we find it difficult to clean up many machines within three hours. I tell my techs that if you can't clean it in the first hour, wipe the system. That usually means the client is going to see a $600 bill.
For many clients, they'd be better off buying a new system.
The lesson for home and office users is to make sure your staff and kids are restricted users. While it might mean some programs won't work, it's a small price to pay for keeping your system clean.
For techs, it means we've got to develop better tools to protect our clients and clean out infections. Russinovich makes a good point that we're going to rely more on live CDs like BartPE or Knoppix to clear infected systems as the malware is going be too deeply embedded in the system to remove any other way.
Personally, I'm considering running away and joining a call centre. This stuff is going to be very hard, frustrating work.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Vista compatible firewall
It's amazing what you find in your junk mail box.
While checking mine I stumbled on the latest version of Scot's newsletter which my ever vigilant spam checker had taken offense to.
The newsletter looks at firewalls and links to an excellent firewall review at Matousec.
I've needed an update to our firewall recommendations since Symantec took over Sygate and stopped development on SPF. While it's still available, it's not supported or compatible with Vista.
Looking over the review, it appeared the PC Tools free Firewall is exactly what I needed to recommend as a replacement to Sygate.
I've been slack with PC Tools as they are a real Australian success story. Unfortunately, there's not a great deal of them so we should be encouraging them.
We'll be experimenting with this ourselves over the next few weeks but so far, so good.
While checking mine I stumbled on the latest version of Scot's newsletter which my ever vigilant spam checker had taken offense to.
The newsletter looks at firewalls and links to an excellent firewall review at Matousec.
I've needed an update to our firewall recommendations since Symantec took over Sygate and stopped development on SPF. While it's still available, it's not supported or compatible with Vista.
Looking over the review, it appeared the PC Tools free Firewall is exactly what I needed to recommend as a replacement to Sygate.
I've been slack with PC Tools as they are a real Australian success story. Unfortunately, there's not a great deal of them so we should be encouraging them.
We'll be experimenting with this ourselves over the next few weeks but so far, so good.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Doing it on the cheap
I don't spend a lot of time but I stumbled on this offer the other day.
$80 to fix any PC problem?!? (since dropped to $50).
I feel sorry for kids like Billy. They really don't know what they are getting into. The $50 rate is only going to attract the cheapest, nastiest customers with the most difficult problems.
Maybe I should hire Billy, he seems an enterprising type.
$80 to fix any PC problem?!? (since dropped to $50).
I feel sorry for kids like Billy. They really don't know what they are getting into. The $50 rate is only going to attract the cheapest, nastiest customers with the most difficult problems.
Maybe I should hire Billy, he seems an enterprising type.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Why businesses aren't happy with Workchoices
This month's MYOB survey shows many small businesses are not happy with the Federal government.
The most worrying statistic for the Liberal government is the fact that 30% are less likely to hire as a result of Workchoices.
What the Libs don't understand is we small business owners hate complexity. We're simple beasts that just don't have the time, money or resources to deal with paperwork.
For instance, Australian IT reports an IT hire agency has set up an Australian Workplace Agreement for it's contractors.
This is fine when you have 2,000 contractors, but when you are local business employing half a dozen people, an AWA is an expensive and time consuming process.
The silly thing is the old unfair dismissal rules that scared many businesses off employing people were more straightforward, if somewhat formulaic. Making the system more complex doesn't help the problem.
A good example of the complexity is the new requirement that businesses have to keep a log of overtime. Failure to do so incurs fines of up to 5,500 per employee. I know businesses that are looking at introducing bundy clocks for white collar staff.
Another way complexity works against small business are the fines for not getting BAS forms in time. I don't know any business that hasn't copped at least one $55 penalty in the last year.
It's a shame business groups don't stand up to the Federal government. If anything, they do the opposite as the Australian reported yesterday. It's quite clear many of the groups who pretend to represent small businesses are too close to the Liberal party.
The fact is this Liberal government has been no friend of small business. They have dramatically increased our paperwork and the penalties for not completing that paperwork. I suspect they do quite nicely out of the fines and charges we get levied.
With an election looming and a viable alternative on offer, it's time small business owners starting rattling the cages of their local MPs.
The most worrying statistic for the Liberal government is the fact that 30% are less likely to hire as a result of Workchoices.
What the Libs don't understand is we small business owners hate complexity. We're simple beasts that just don't have the time, money or resources to deal with paperwork.
For instance, Australian IT reports an IT hire agency has set up an Australian Workplace Agreement for it's contractors.
This is fine when you have 2,000 contractors, but when you are local business employing half a dozen people, an AWA is an expensive and time consuming process.
The silly thing is the old unfair dismissal rules that scared many businesses off employing people were more straightforward, if somewhat formulaic. Making the system more complex doesn't help the problem.
A good example of the complexity is the new requirement that businesses have to keep a log of overtime. Failure to do so incurs fines of up to 5,500 per employee. I know businesses that are looking at introducing bundy clocks for white collar staff.
Another way complexity works against small business are the fines for not getting BAS forms in time. I don't know any business that hasn't copped at least one $55 penalty in the last year.
It's a shame business groups don't stand up to the Federal government. If anything, they do the opposite as the Australian reported yesterday. It's quite clear many of the groups who pretend to represent small businesses are too close to the Liberal party.
The fact is this Liberal government has been no friend of small business. They have dramatically increased our paperwork and the penalties for not completing that paperwork. I suspect they do quite nicely out of the fines and charges we get levied.
With an election looming and a viable alternative on offer, it's time small business owners starting rattling the cages of their local MPs.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Is "Digital Smog" the new technology threat
The Independent coins the phrase "digital smog" in an article about the potential risks of wireless networks.
I'm surprised it's taken so long for these concerns to arise. Given the fears about mobile phones and power transmission lines, it was inevitable someone was going to finger wireless LANs.
The jury's going to be out many years, if not generations, to see if there are real risks from these networks. My guess is if there is, the dangers are dwarfed by the radiation put out from mobile phone networks or CRT monitors and TV sets.
I think an inquiry is a good idea. It's important we are aware of the risks of all the technology we use. I just hope any such enquiry looks at real science and doesn't just jump on any hysterical bandwagon.
I'm surprised it's taken so long for these concerns to arise. Given the fears about mobile phones and power transmission lines, it was inevitable someone was going to finger wireless LANs.
The jury's going to be out many years, if not generations, to see if there are real risks from these networks. My guess is if there is, the dangers are dwarfed by the radiation put out from mobile phone networks or CRT monitors and TV sets.
I think an inquiry is a good idea. It's important we are aware of the risks of all the technology we use. I just hope any such enquiry looks at real science and doesn't just jump on any hysterical bandwagon.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Dell to sell a phone?
Are Dell planning to release their own iPhone?
According to Digitimes, Dell's laptop supplier are developing a phone/PDA for Dell.
Are they crazy? They recently dropped the Axim handheld because they didn't know how to sell or support it. Now they want to enter an already crowded mobile phone market.
Like Apple, they're going to find some very established incumbents when they enter the market.
Personally, I think Nokia, Motorola and the other established phone makers are going to eat Apple and Dell alive.
According to Digitimes, Dell's laptop supplier are developing a phone/PDA for Dell.
Are they crazy? They recently dropped the Axim handheld because they didn't know how to sell or support it. Now they want to enter an already crowded mobile phone market.
Like Apple, they're going to find some very established incumbents when they enter the market.
Personally, I think Nokia, Motorola and the other established phone makers are going to eat Apple and Dell alive.
Looking a gift horse in the mouth
Am I the only one disturbed by Microsoft's idea to sell $3 software to emerging markets?
It appears this product requires a government to sign up with Microsoft which locks that government into MS products. That's one concern.
A bigger concern though is how this affects projects like the One Laptop per Child project. The whole idea of the OLPC is to bring cheap, reliable computing to the third world.
Microsoft's idea seems to go against that, instead it locks those people into expensive, complex Windows systems.
It's a real shame Bill Gates can't work with the existing projects, a bigger shame is that Microsoft can't resist trying to tie governments into commercial deals when offering assistance.
It appears this product requires a government to sign up with Microsoft which locks that government into MS products. That's one concern.
A bigger concern though is how this affects projects like the One Laptop per Child project. The whole idea of the OLPC is to bring cheap, reliable computing to the third world.
Microsoft's idea seems to go against that, instead it locks those people into expensive, complex Windows systems.
It's a real shame Bill Gates can't work with the existing projects, a bigger shame is that Microsoft can't resist trying to tie governments into commercial deals when offering assistance.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Fatboy PCs need slimming down
I'm not a fan of "I'm an Apple and I'm a PC" ads but the latest ad, linked to by Gizmodo is spot on the money. Apple are so right on this.
"Programs that don't do very much unless you buy the whole thing or are just plain useless really slow me down".
This is so true. One of the first things we do when setting up a new PC is to remove the toolbars, trialware and all manner of tripe brand name Windows systems come with.
Ed Bott blogged that the stories of Vista being slow aren't based on fact. On his test system, he only found Vista to be 16% slower.
This is probably true, but it overlooks the problem of this bloatware infesting systems.
I setup a new Vista Toshiba laptop last week that took ages to load: This was all due to bundled software and fiddly installation routines.
Punters don't want to wait half an hour for a new computer to boot. Out of the box, a new system should be lightening fast: The customer should go "wow!" when they turn the thing on for the first time.
Micheal Dell might get paid $50 for every computer he sells with craplets on, but it's coming at a cost to his reputation.
I'll leave the last word to Gizmodo and Brian Lam who wrote the original post.
A message to those PR people, engineers, product managers, VPs and CEOs at Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo, and our other favorite PC makers: Don't let the people in charge of putting these demos on your machines ruin your computers. Please, fight back, for our sake, and for the sake of your reputations.
"Programs that don't do very much unless you buy the whole thing or are just plain useless really slow me down".
This is so true. One of the first things we do when setting up a new PC is to remove the toolbars, trialware and all manner of tripe brand name Windows systems come with.
Ed Bott blogged that the stories of Vista being slow aren't based on fact. On his test system, he only found Vista to be 16% slower.
This is probably true, but it overlooks the problem of this bloatware infesting systems.
I setup a new Vista Toshiba laptop last week that took ages to load: This was all due to bundled software and fiddly installation routines.
Punters don't want to wait half an hour for a new computer to boot. Out of the box, a new system should be lightening fast: The customer should go "wow!" when they turn the thing on for the first time.
Micheal Dell might get paid $50 for every computer he sells with craplets on, but it's coming at a cost to his reputation.
I'll leave the last word to Gizmodo and Brian Lam who wrote the original post.
A message to those PR people, engineers, product managers, VPs and CEOs at Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo, and our other favorite PC makers: Don't let the people in charge of putting these demos on your machines ruin your computers. Please, fight back, for our sake, and for the sake of your reputations.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Windows XP to go the way of the dodo
Australian Personal Computer reports that Windows XP won't be available to customers after the year's end.
I'm not sure it's going to matter. It's so hard to find an XP machine in the shops now, most people are getting Vista whether they want it or not.
One thing this will do is drive the sale of Windows XP boxes late in the year. So I guess that's good news for the channel and retailers. Assuming they can get stock.
I did a Vista set up yesterday. One thing that concerns me about it is how slow the system is. Even with a gig of RAM it ran like treacle.
I'd recommend going with Vista if I could find a clear, identifiable advantage in the new system. Right now, I can't. So if you can, get an XP box.
I'm not sure it's going to matter. It's so hard to find an XP machine in the shops now, most people are getting Vista whether they want it or not.
One thing this will do is drive the sale of Windows XP boxes late in the year. So I guess that's good news for the channel and retailers. Assuming they can get stock.
I did a Vista set up yesterday. One thing that concerns me about it is how slow the system is. Even with a gig of RAM it ran like treacle.
I'd recommend going with Vista if I could find a clear, identifiable advantage in the new system. Right now, I can't. So if you can, get an XP box.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
What will Grisoft's free rootkit find?
Grisoft's AVG anti-virus has been high on our recommended list for a long time and their new rootkit detector will join the list.
It's going to be interesting what we see when customers start using it. Our suspicion is that rootkits are far more widely distributed than many people think.
My view is the bad guys have been winning the malware war for some time. I've noticed a lot of spyware infections seem to have been getting more subtle recently. I'm sure this is not a good thing.
We'll be recommending this to all our customers in our newsletter this month.
It's going to be interesting what we see when customers start using it. Our suspicion is that rootkits are far more widely distributed than many people think.
My view is the bad guys have been winning the malware war for some time. I've noticed a lot of spyware infections seem to have been getting more subtle recently. I'm sure this is not a good thing.
We'll be recommending this to all our customers in our newsletter this month.
Choosing the wrong Internet plan
The story of Andrew Boughton, a Rose Bay businessman who got a thousand dollar bill for his $30 a month Internet service, is not surprising to any of us who regularly deal with Internet users.
The simple fact is subscribers to these plans are giving a blank cheque to their Internet provider.
In my view, these low limit, high excess use fee plans are immoral: They are designed to separate the least informed consumers from their money.
A relative of mine was told by her school that she needed a broadband connection to do her homework. We'll put aside the fact this is a state high school in a disadvantage area for a future post. Her family's first thought was one of these plans.
Luckily they were put straight very quickly on these plans and signed up with another provider that offers capped plans: Once they go over the monthly limit, the connection is slowed.
These plans are the only ones families and businesses on a budget should consider. Anything else is a recipe for disaster.
Another interesting point in this story is Bigpond reimbursed his account. We see this a lot with Telstra: If you push them, they'll refund your money.
I suspect they know these "cheap" plans are unfair.
The simple fact is subscribers to these plans are giving a blank cheque to their Internet provider.
In my view, these low limit, high excess use fee plans are immoral: They are designed to separate the least informed consumers from their money.
A relative of mine was told by her school that she needed a broadband connection to do her homework. We'll put aside the fact this is a state high school in a disadvantage area for a future post. Her family's first thought was one of these plans.
Luckily they were put straight very quickly on these plans and signed up with another provider that offers capped plans: Once they go over the monthly limit, the connection is slowed.
These plans are the only ones families and businesses on a budget should consider. Anything else is a recipe for disaster.
Another interesting point in this story is Bigpond reimbursed his account. We see this a lot with Telstra: If you push them, they'll refund your money.
I suspect they know these "cheap" plans are unfair.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Dell ditch the Axim
According to The Mobility Site, Dell are to bury their Axim handheld devices. We had many bad experiences with these and aren't sad to see them go.
The big problem was the early models shipped to the Australian market came with the wrong version of Windows Mobile (or CE as it then was). Some of our clients spent many hours bashing their heads against the wall trying to explain to a polite lady in India that her screen was totally different to hers.
Those early problems seem to put Dell off because they seemed to stop marketing them here.
It seems to me this is symptomatic of Dell's problems. The Axim should be a profitable, high margin line. Instead, they continue to focus on the bottom of the market and ever narrowing margins.
The sad thing for Dell is these Windows Mobile devices are coming of age. They may be jumping off the ship just as it starts to float.
The big problem was the early models shipped to the Australian market came with the wrong version of Windows Mobile (or CE as it then was). Some of our clients spent many hours bashing their heads against the wall trying to explain to a polite lady in India that her screen was totally different to hers.
Those early problems seem to put Dell off because they seemed to stop marketing them here.
It seems to me this is symptomatic of Dell's problems. The Axim should be a profitable, high margin line. Instead, they continue to focus on the bottom of the market and ever narrowing margins.
The sad thing for Dell is these Windows Mobile devices are coming of age. They may be jumping off the ship just as it starts to float.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Microsoft Volume Licensing
I don't know if I'm a slow learner, but I still can't get my head around Microsoft's Open Licencing program.
Why do these guys have to make it so complex?
Why do these guys have to make it so complex?
Monday, April 02, 2007
Doing business on eBay
The Sydney Morning Herald's small business blog discusses using eBay to source business supplies. I have to say this idea is flawed to say the least. The time involved, delivery and risk doesn't really make ebay worthwhile as a feasible source.
As ever, the comments are amusing. I really enjoy those boasting about their eBay businesses. These folk don't get it.
Valerie's assistant bought on eBay because the price was ridiculously cheap. That's the typical reason people buy on eBay.
If you want to get stuck in a business with stupid, if any, margins then eBay's the place for you.
I'm beginning to wonder about the wisdom of this small business blog. Valerie Khoo doesn't seem to understand the biggest problem for her and all other small business owners is time. There simply aren't enough hours in the day.
Small business owners can't afford to waste this precious asset on surfing Google for computer advice or lurking on eBay trying to scoop up "bargains".
One of the thing experienced small business owners like me have learned is it's critical to find good suppliers. We simply don't have time to tune our own cars or prepare our own accounts and even if we did have the time, we wouldn't do a good job because we don't know what we are doing.
Valerie should stick to what she and her staff do best. That's what earns her money and keeps her staff in a job.
As ever, the comments are amusing. I really enjoy those boasting about their eBay businesses. These folk don't get it.
Valerie's assistant bought on eBay because the price was ridiculously cheap. That's the typical reason people buy on eBay.
If you want to get stuck in a business with stupid, if any, margins then eBay's the place for you.
I'm beginning to wonder about the wisdom of this small business blog. Valerie Khoo doesn't seem to understand the biggest problem for her and all other small business owners is time. There simply aren't enough hours in the day.
Small business owners can't afford to waste this precious asset on surfing Google for computer advice or lurking on eBay trying to scoop up "bargains".
One of the thing experienced small business owners like me have learned is it's critical to find good suppliers. We simply don't have time to tune our own cars or prepare our own accounts and even if we did have the time, we wouldn't do a good job because we don't know what we are doing.
Valerie should stick to what she and her staff do best. That's what earns her money and keeps her staff in a job.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Sometimes you wonder why you bother
A long standing client rang yesterday with a crisis. Her and her husband had a drunken fight which he lost. In revenge he password protected all the profiles on the computer, the following morning he'd forgot the passwords and now their daughter was in trouble at school for not doing her computer based homework.
Reluctantly I dragged myself out there. I got there at 8.30pm, keep in mind I started at 5am and had been with clients solidly from 10am. To say I was tired and irritated was an understatement.
While I'm there, hubby comes home. The lady of the house mentions how good it is of me to show up to fix his drunken stuff up. His response?
Oh, he enjoys this stuff of stuff.
Excuse me? I enjoy 17 hour days fixing your drunken stuff ups? Yeah right.
Sometimes you've gotta wonder why you bother.
I should have sent her to the local PC shop. They'd have probably reformatted the thing because they can't be bothered figuring out Peter Nordahl's excellent NT password recovery tool (can't wait to try it on Vista). The problem is they are all closing.
I noticed this again in Neutral Bay on my way to the late night Indian take away, the computer shop a few doors up has suddenly shut up shop.
Once there were dozens of computer shops on the North Shore, now it's lucky if the larger suburbs can support one. Neutral Bay still has two, but one seems to be constantly hanging on by it's fingernails.
I guess they're finding simply 17 hour days of sheer computer enjoyment isn't too rewarding.
Reluctantly I dragged myself out there. I got there at 8.30pm, keep in mind I started at 5am and had been with clients solidly from 10am. To say I was tired and irritated was an understatement.
While I'm there, hubby comes home. The lady of the house mentions how good it is of me to show up to fix his drunken stuff up. His response?
Oh, he enjoys this stuff of stuff.
Excuse me? I enjoy 17 hour days fixing your drunken stuff ups? Yeah right.
Sometimes you've gotta wonder why you bother.
I should have sent her to the local PC shop. They'd have probably reformatted the thing because they can't be bothered figuring out Peter Nordahl's excellent NT password recovery tool (can't wait to try it on Vista). The problem is they are all closing.
I noticed this again in Neutral Bay on my way to the late night Indian take away, the computer shop a few doors up has suddenly shut up shop.
Once there were dozens of computer shops on the North Shore, now it's lucky if the larger suburbs can support one. Neutral Bay still has two, but one seems to be constantly hanging on by it's fingernails.
I guess they're finding simply 17 hour days of sheer computer enjoyment isn't too rewarding.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Stupid wireless security advice
George Ou repeats his comments about dumb wireless security advice. Unfortunately I have to disagree, much of this advice isn't stupid. It's just needs to be taken in context.
While he's right that WPA-PSK is the most fundamental part of securing your network, not everybody uses strong passwords. What's more, many old units don't support WPA or turn off encryption to get a performance boost. It doesn't help that many wireless routers don't come with WPA enabled.
MAC Filtering
We tend to do this because it does add another layer of security. If the customer turns off encryption (and the buggers do) they are still protected from the next door neighbour. I would agree that administering a large network with MAC filtering would be a pain, but most of our customers only have a handful of wireless devices.
SSID hiding
I'll agree with George here, SSID hiding is pointless as most wireless software will still show the network, albeit without a name. To make matters worse, many devices won't work properly without the SSID. We find Netgear equipment loathes hidden SSIDs.
LEAP authentication
I don't know much about LEAP, we've never had to deal with this. So I'll have to defer to George's superior knowledge.
Disable DHCP
Like MAC filtering, this would be a pain if you had a large network. In smaller networks, it's a pain if you have laptop users moving to different locations. Generally we recommend restricting DHCP ranges and reserving IP the addresses within that range to specific machines.
Antenna placement
This one we don't often do because usually we're just thankful we can get a signal and we're loathe to play with the bugger. Restricting leakage makes sense to me though. Why put out more signal than you need?
George misses a number of points. Firstly, the biggest problem with wireless networks is casual hitchhikers. All of these aspects stop them.
He also assumes WPA is near impossible to crack, while this might be so it's still possible for a determined hacker or intruder to find the password using other means. What's worse is disaffected employees or disposed laptops might still have the keys saved.
His example of the doorman is instructive of George's view: Sure, a doorman ticking off names won't stop a Frank Abagnale, Kevin Mitnick or George Ou getting in, but it will stop 99% of the potential gatecrashers. What's more, ticking off lists might alert management to the presence of gatecrahsers.
What we have to accept is that wireless networks are not as secure as wired networks. Wireless networks are convenient but that convenience comes at a cost.
While he's right that WPA-PSK is the most fundamental part of securing your network, not everybody uses strong passwords. What's more, many old units don't support WPA or turn off encryption to get a performance boost. It doesn't help that many wireless routers don't come with WPA enabled.
MAC Filtering
We tend to do this because it does add another layer of security. If the customer turns off encryption (and the buggers do) they are still protected from the next door neighbour. I would agree that administering a large network with MAC filtering would be a pain, but most of our customers only have a handful of wireless devices.
SSID hiding
I'll agree with George here, SSID hiding is pointless as most wireless software will still show the network, albeit without a name. To make matters worse, many devices won't work properly without the SSID. We find Netgear equipment loathes hidden SSIDs.
LEAP authentication
I don't know much about LEAP, we've never had to deal with this. So I'll have to defer to George's superior knowledge.
Disable DHCP
Like MAC filtering, this would be a pain if you had a large network. In smaller networks, it's a pain if you have laptop users moving to different locations. Generally we recommend restricting DHCP ranges and reserving IP the addresses within that range to specific machines.
Antenna placement
This one we don't often do because usually we're just thankful we can get a signal and we're loathe to play with the bugger. Restricting leakage makes sense to me though. Why put out more signal than you need?
George misses a number of points. Firstly, the biggest problem with wireless networks is casual hitchhikers. All of these aspects stop them.
He also assumes WPA is near impossible to crack, while this might be so it's still possible for a determined hacker or intruder to find the password using other means. What's worse is disaffected employees or disposed laptops might still have the keys saved.
His example of the doorman is instructive of George's view: Sure, a doorman ticking off names won't stop a Frank Abagnale, Kevin Mitnick or George Ou getting in, but it will stop 99% of the potential gatecrashers. What's more, ticking off lists might alert management to the presence of gatecrahsers.
What we have to accept is that wireless networks are not as secure as wired networks. Wireless networks are convenient but that convenience comes at a cost.
Windows Genuine Activation: It's back!
Microsoft didn't release any security patches this month, but it appears they did update their Windows Genuine Advantage Notification tool.
A few months back we explained to our newsletter subscribers how to disable the tool. This thing is a buggy pain which further shows how Microsoft are losing the plot in their quest to capture every dollar. We don't like it and it causes our customers grief.
So imagine my delight when the thing starts appearing again. Apparently Microsoft upgraded it this month so the previous instruction of "don't ask me again" is now redundant.
To add insult to injury, the thing appears to dob you into Redmond if you choose not to install it.
I really don't understand their mentality. When you start assuming all your customers are thieves, it's time to quit and grow mangoes or something.
A few months back we explained to our newsletter subscribers how to disable the tool. This thing is a buggy pain which further shows how Microsoft are losing the plot in their quest to capture every dollar. We don't like it and it causes our customers grief.
So imagine my delight when the thing starts appearing again. Apparently Microsoft upgraded it this month so the previous instruction of "don't ask me again" is now redundant.
To add insult to injury, the thing appears to dob you into Redmond if you choose not to install it.
I really don't understand their mentality. When you start assuming all your customers are thieves, it's time to quit and grow mangoes or something.
Microsoft further confuse their market
Not content with five different versions of Vista, Microsoft further muddy the waters with Office 2007.
We set up a computer for a client last week. All new machines from our suppliers come preinstalled with a 60 day trial version of Office 2007. It's just a matter of paying for, and registering a licence key.
Or so it appears.
If you choose to buy the Home and Student Edition, however. IT'S A DIFFERENT BLOODY PRE-INSTALL!!!!!!!!!
So, we have to tell our supplier which version of Office the client is going to want to install.
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of preinstalling the thing in the first place?
I'm also uneasy about not getting media for OEM stuff. Microsoft's "buy a backup disk" policy is cumbersome, time consuming and expensive for Microsoft.
It's another example of big IT vendors being penny wise and pound foolish. They might save a few bucks in stopping people re-using OEM disks, but their increased support costs and the generally irritation is going cost them far more.
In fact, I'm so irritated by it, I'm recommending people try Open Office or the Google apps.
We set up a computer for a client last week. All new machines from our suppliers come preinstalled with a 60 day trial version of Office 2007. It's just a matter of paying for, and registering a licence key.
Or so it appears.
If you choose to buy the Home and Student Edition, however. IT'S A DIFFERENT BLOODY PRE-INSTALL!!!!!!!!!
So, we have to tell our supplier which version of Office the client is going to want to install.
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of preinstalling the thing in the first place?
I'm also uneasy about not getting media for OEM stuff. Microsoft's "buy a backup disk" policy is cumbersome, time consuming and expensive for Microsoft.
It's another example of big IT vendors being penny wise and pound foolish. They might save a few bucks in stopping people re-using OEM disks, but their increased support costs and the generally irritation is going cost them far more.
In fact, I'm so irritated by it, I'm recommending people try Open Office or the Google apps.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Symantec renewal blues
One of the great assets Symantec has is it's band of loyal customers: No matter how buggy, bloated or overpriced their product, these trusting folk keep coming back.
But they seem to be getting their renewal process badly wrong. We get two or three calls a week from customers who couldn't update their subscriptions because of bugs in Symantec's processes.
Yesterday, I got a phone call from a nice lady who's been using Norton Anti Virus for ten years (it was good back then) she found she couldn't activate the renewal she paid for.
So she tried to contact them. The support web site shows the waiting time for live chat and email responses. At the time she tried to start a live chat session it claimed a 30 minute wait and she was 84th in the queue.
90 minutes later she was still 84th in the queue.
It boggles my mind how these businesses are trashing their good name. Symantec is still the market leader in the home desktop security market. Yet they seem determined to fritter this asset away.
Instead of taking over more businesses or getting into silly fights with Microsoft, they need to focus on getting their core products and customer service right. The goodwill they have is being tested. Sooner or later, even their most loyal customers will give up on them.
But they seem to be getting their renewal process badly wrong. We get two or three calls a week from customers who couldn't update their subscriptions because of bugs in Symantec's processes.
Yesterday, I got a phone call from a nice lady who's been using Norton Anti Virus for ten years (it was good back then) she found she couldn't activate the renewal she paid for.
So she tried to contact them. The support web site shows the waiting time for live chat and email responses. At the time she tried to start a live chat session it claimed a 30 minute wait and she was 84th in the queue.
90 minutes later she was still 84th in the queue.
It boggles my mind how these businesses are trashing their good name. Symantec is still the market leader in the home desktop security market. Yet they seem determined to fritter this asset away.
Instead of taking over more businesses or getting into silly fights with Microsoft, they need to focus on getting their core products and customer service right. The goodwill they have is being tested. Sooner or later, even their most loyal customers will give up on them.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Computer shoppers don't trust salespeople
According to consumer electronics magazine, Twice, the web is the main source for consumer research. With 25% of consumers using it, beating out word-of-mouth by a mere 2%. The reasoning is interesting.
"Consumers named a number of factors to back up their pre-purchase research process, including their belief that the Web is convenient, available 24/7, includes a broad spectrum of opinions, doesn’t “use pressure tactics,” is unbiased and is free"
"Unbiased"? You have to be kidding me! Many websites, particularly those of some of the bigger IT and consumer magazines, are outrageously biased or downright inaccurate.
It would be interesting to drill down deeper into this. I use web reviews, but I pay more attention to the reader's comments as I do the review. I find if there's a trend in the comments then that trend is worth investigating further.
The weighting consumers give their sources would be worth investigating too. While I'm sure a customer might spend 12 hours researching a purchase on the web, a twenty minute chat with a knowledgeable neighbour or relative will trump the web every time.
I wouldn't write off the "high pressure" salesman at the local computer superstore either. That 19% is low. I despair for the number of times I've told someone to buy a Linksys router or Toshiba desktop only to find the local Dick Smith or Harvey Norman store has talked them into buying a Dlink router or Packard-Bell desktop.
"Consumers named a number of factors to back up their pre-purchase research process, including their belief that the Web is convenient, available 24/7, includes a broad spectrum of opinions, doesn’t “use pressure tactics,” is unbiased and is free"
"Unbiased"? You have to be kidding me! Many websites, particularly those of some of the bigger IT and consumer magazines, are outrageously biased or downright inaccurate.
It would be interesting to drill down deeper into this. I use web reviews, but I pay more attention to the reader's comments as I do the review. I find if there's a trend in the comments then that trend is worth investigating further.
The weighting consumers give their sources would be worth investigating too. While I'm sure a customer might spend 12 hours researching a purchase on the web, a twenty minute chat with a knowledgeable neighbour or relative will trump the web every time.
I wouldn't write off the "high pressure" salesman at the local computer superstore either. That 19% is low. I despair for the number of times I've told someone to buy a Linksys router or Toshiba desktop only to find the local Dick Smith or Harvey Norman store has talked them into buying a Dlink router or Packard-Bell desktop.
Vista sales rely on new PCs
When I read that Windows Vista has sold at twice the rate of XP, I smelt a rat and made a mental note to find out the comparable computer sales figures. Luckily, Ars Technica saved me the work in their "Vista's twofold sales boost" article. To quote,
"In early 2002, ten million new PCs were sold each month, along with 8.5 million copies of Windows XP. If the numbers hold, the first quarter of 2007 will see at least 21 million new PCs sold per month with Microsoft's announced 20 million copies of Windows Vista.
If anything, Vista should sell even more as it's clear Microsoft are starving the channel of systems preloaded with Windows XP. For most people it's Vista or nothing. Although one of my techs was told by Dell they've made more systems available with XP as customers are going elsewhere because they don't want Vista.
"In early 2002, ten million new PCs were sold each month, along with 8.5 million copies of Windows XP. If the numbers hold, the first quarter of 2007 will see at least 21 million new PCs sold per month with Microsoft's announced 20 million copies of Windows Vista.
If anything, Vista should sell even more as it's clear Microsoft are starving the channel of systems preloaded with Windows XP. For most people it's Vista or nothing. Although one of my techs was told by Dell they've made more systems available with XP as customers are going elsewhere because they don't want Vista.
The downside of the Internet
People need to remember what the Internet is really about
The blogosphere is awash this morning that blogger Kathy Sierra has locked herself away because of threats against her in someone else's blog. Uber-blogger Robert Scoble feels physically sick and has gone on strike for a week. Half the rest of the world's blogs rise up in sympathy.
My favourite is the Licence to Roam blog. To quote, "insecure, small mindedness, misogynistic behaviour". That pretty well describes half the Internet.
Guys, get a grip. This-is-the-Internet. The Internet is the greatest medium for insecure, inadequate dweebs to get attention.
And that's what all this is about. Inadequate little creeps saying stuff to shock others, just like some attention deprived twelve year old. In fact, half of those posts probably were by twelve year olds.
Sadly, Ms Sierra's reaction and the mass indignation of the worthy bloggers only encourages these individuals.
The simple fact is the Internet is full of dopes like this. It's why I avoid usenet and web forums. Life is just to short.
I'd suggest Kathy you get on your plane and go to that meeting. The chances of any of these carrying out their threats or fantasies is minimal, their moms or wives won't let them out the house for a start. If you're going let these idiots ruin your life, then it might be best to avoid the Internet.
The blogosphere is awash this morning that blogger Kathy Sierra has locked herself away because of threats against her in someone else's blog. Uber-blogger Robert Scoble feels physically sick and has gone on strike for a week. Half the rest of the world's blogs rise up in sympathy.
My favourite is the Licence to Roam blog. To quote, "insecure, small mindedness, misogynistic behaviour". That pretty well describes half the Internet.
Guys, get a grip. This-is-the-Internet. The Internet is the greatest medium for insecure, inadequate dweebs to get attention.
And that's what all this is about. Inadequate little creeps saying stuff to shock others, just like some attention deprived twelve year old. In fact, half of those posts probably were by twelve year olds.
Sadly, Ms Sierra's reaction and the mass indignation of the worthy bloggers only encourages these individuals.
The simple fact is the Internet is full of dopes like this. It's why I avoid usenet and web forums. Life is just to short.
I'd suggest Kathy you get on your plane and go to that meeting. The chances of any of these carrying out their threats or fantasies is minimal, their moms or wives won't let them out the house for a start. If you're going let these idiots ruin your life, then it might be best to avoid the Internet.
Wireless broadband booms?
"Net users are flocking to wireless broadband" gushes Lia Timson in today's Sydney Morning Herald. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, wireless broadband use grew 400% in 18 months.
The figures deserve a closer look. The overall market grew 11% in that period to a total of 6.65 million subscribers, of that 186,000 were wireless. That's actually 2.8%, not the 5% reported in the SMH report and the ABS media release the article is based upon.
The figures need to be further taken with a grain of salt by a number of market factors that were happening over that 18 months. The biggest wireless broadband providers, iBurst and Unwired were marketing heavily in that period. In regional areas, local providers such as Wirefree and Cirrus Communications were using wireless in areas where ADSL isn't feasible.
Looking at our customer base, 3% is about right. Despite the hype, wireless broadband isn't for everyone. ADSL and cable are far cheaper and more reliable alternatives.
Wireless broadband does have a role to play. For people moving around and those in difficult to reach areas it's the most feasible option. I can see this niche being up to 15% of the market over time as more service companies, sales people, taxis, couriers and the like start using it.
It's just a shame the SMH and press release writers at the ABS have to hype up the figures. The growth is impressive, but it's started off a low base. I pity investors who get into these ventures without understand the figures or the market.
The figures deserve a closer look. The overall market grew 11% in that period to a total of 6.65 million subscribers, of that 186,000 were wireless. That's actually 2.8%, not the 5% reported in the SMH report and the ABS media release the article is based upon.
The figures need to be further taken with a grain of salt by a number of market factors that were happening over that 18 months. The biggest wireless broadband providers, iBurst and Unwired were marketing heavily in that period. In regional areas, local providers such as Wirefree and Cirrus Communications were using wireless in areas where ADSL isn't feasible.
Looking at our customer base, 3% is about right. Despite the hype, wireless broadband isn't for everyone. ADSL and cable are far cheaper and more reliable alternatives.
Wireless broadband does have a role to play. For people moving around and those in difficult to reach areas it's the most feasible option. I can see this niche being up to 15% of the market over time as more service companies, sales people, taxis, couriers and the like start using it.
It's just a shame the SMH and press release writers at the ABS have to hype up the figures. The growth is impressive, but it's started off a low base. I pity investors who get into these ventures without understand the figures or the market.
Monday, March 26, 2007
The curse of the middleman
I'm a regular reader of Mark Fletcher's Newsagent Blog and Jackson Wells Morris' Corporate Engagement Blog. While neither have much in common with my business or each other, their commentary and general business lessons make both worth reading. So I was delighted when I found one referring to the other on Saturday.
I should declare an interest on the subject. For many years I was a paperboy delivering the Melbourne Age and Sun on my bike. In cranky middle age I stopped dealing with both my local Sydney newsagents because of their incompetence and dodgy billing practices.
All of these subjects are related. The problem for newsagents is they are middlemen. And the modern big business mantra of relentlessly shaving costs means they are the meat in a very thin, stingy and mean sandwich.
In my case, my old newsagent lost my business when they started charging a 5% credit card payment fee. This in itself not a problem if you've been warned, but trying to sneak it past you in the bill, refusing to discuss it and lying about the cost of credit cards (guys, you're not the only people who have a merchant agreement). They decided that $5.00 surcharge was more important than a $100 a month account that had been with them for eleven years.
So I tried to take my business to the nearest newsagent, while closer they aren't quite as convenient as the old place. We hadn't bought anything through them since we dropped our newspaper deliveries because of regularly late and often incomplete deliveries. They refused to set up an account and left me feeling embarrassed and humiliated.
Mark has complained about the margins for newspaper deliveries, phone cards recharges and the lousy treatment at the hands of the magazine distributors. Here in New South Wales, we see the government slashing fees for public transport tickets and big business cutting distribution costs by using newsagents as fee-free alternatives.
The common denominator in all of these issues are that margins, fees and commissions are determined by large organisations. When these outfits find themselves under pressure to cut costs or increase profits, the easiest course is to cut the payments to their middlemen. That's the newsagents in these cases.
Increasingly I'm avoiding newsagents. The main reason is I find service indifferent and the queues of people buying things like lottery tickets, phone recharges and lord knows what else silly so I tend to buy my newspapers and magazines from service stations and supermarkets. Funny enough, the queues of people buying stuff that should be sold by the local newsagent or K-Mart is the reason I avoid Australia Post as well.
As Mark correctly points out, the changes to the newspaper industry mean great challenges to the local newsagent. The problem for most newsagents is they are trapped in low yield, low turnover, high overhead industry segments. In turn, this means their service will decline.
Until they start standing up to the magazine distributors, newsagent publishers, phone companies and brain damaged governments they're going to continue being ripped off. The stupid thing is if newsagents are allowed to decline, governments and big business will find their most economical distribution network gone.
I guess though I'm being old fashioned. Expecting long term thinking from the big end of town is like expecting to be able to buy stamps quickly and easily at your local post office.
I should declare an interest on the subject. For many years I was a paperboy delivering the Melbourne Age and Sun on my bike. In cranky middle age I stopped dealing with both my local Sydney newsagents because of their incompetence and dodgy billing practices.
All of these subjects are related. The problem for newsagents is they are middlemen. And the modern big business mantra of relentlessly shaving costs means they are the meat in a very thin, stingy and mean sandwich.
In my case, my old newsagent lost my business when they started charging a 5% credit card payment fee. This in itself not a problem if you've been warned, but trying to sneak it past you in the bill, refusing to discuss it and lying about the cost of credit cards (guys, you're not the only people who have a merchant agreement). They decided that $5.00 surcharge was more important than a $100 a month account that had been with them for eleven years.
So I tried to take my business to the nearest newsagent, while closer they aren't quite as convenient as the old place. We hadn't bought anything through them since we dropped our newspaper deliveries because of regularly late and often incomplete deliveries. They refused to set up an account and left me feeling embarrassed and humiliated.
Mark has complained about the margins for newspaper deliveries, phone cards recharges and the lousy treatment at the hands of the magazine distributors. Here in New South Wales, we see the government slashing fees for public transport tickets and big business cutting distribution costs by using newsagents as fee-free alternatives.
The common denominator in all of these issues are that margins, fees and commissions are determined by large organisations. When these outfits find themselves under pressure to cut costs or increase profits, the easiest course is to cut the payments to their middlemen. That's the newsagents in these cases.
Increasingly I'm avoiding newsagents. The main reason is I find service indifferent and the queues of people buying things like lottery tickets, phone recharges and lord knows what else silly so I tend to buy my newspapers and magazines from service stations and supermarkets. Funny enough, the queues of people buying stuff that should be sold by the local newsagent or K-Mart is the reason I avoid Australia Post as well.
As Mark correctly points out, the changes to the newspaper industry mean great challenges to the local newsagent. The problem for most newsagents is they are trapped in low yield, low turnover, high overhead industry segments. In turn, this means their service will decline.
Until they start standing up to the magazine distributors, newsagent publishers, phone companies and brain damaged governments they're going to continue being ripped off. The stupid thing is if newsagents are allowed to decline, governments and big business will find their most economical distribution network gone.
I guess though I'm being old fashioned. Expecting long term thinking from the big end of town is like expecting to be able to buy stamps quickly and easily at your local post office.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Vista is most reliable version of Windows?
While writing the previous post I was listening to the Microsoft Channel Nine interview with Mark Russinovich, the founder of Wininternals who is now employed by Microsoft since they took over his company and incredibly useful website.
What struck me during the interview was the insistence of the interviewer that Vista is Microsoft's most secure operating system yet. In the first half of the interview he must have repeated it a dozen times.
To emphasise how secure Vista is, Mark did a good job of trashing the "non-existent" security in Windows 95 and 98. It's probably best to keep quiet about the mess Microsoft created by not following the rest of the industry and giving normal users limited restricted accounts in Windows 2000 and XP.
It's funny how they keep insisting how secure Vista is. I guess if you keep repeating it, it will make it even more secure.
What struck me during the interview was the insistence of the interviewer that Vista is Microsoft's most secure operating system yet. In the first half of the interview he must have repeated it a dozen times.
To emphasise how secure Vista is, Mark did a good job of trashing the "non-existent" security in Windows 95 and 98. It's probably best to keep quiet about the mess Microsoft created by not following the rest of the industry and giving normal users limited restricted accounts in Windows 2000 and XP.
It's funny how they keep insisting how secure Vista is. I guess if you keep repeating it, it will make it even more secure.
Malicious Skype trojans
A friend of ours has been warning of the risks of SPIT, SPam over Internet Telephony, for a couple of years now so seeing the news of the latest Skype trojan doing the rounds caught my attention.
The interesting things about this little nasty uses the Skype contact list to spread. Which means our initial advice to restricting Skype chats to contacts won't do too much. It comes back to running the system as a limited user with an up to date virus checker.
Of course, not clicking on anything that says "click here" is a good idea too.
The interesting things about this little nasty uses the Skype contact list to spread. Which means our initial advice to restricting Skype chats to contacts won't do too much. It comes back to running the system as a limited user with an up to date virus checker.
Of course, not clicking on anything that says "click here" is a good idea too.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Is IT an "extravagent indulgence"
I stumbled on the Age's Enterprise blog over the weekend. What a depressing read this post was.
Quite simply, the idea that getting IT support is an "extravagent indulgence" is silly. It's like saying your rent or car maintenance is an optional extra. It's not, it's a real business cost.
One of the biggest mistakes small business makes is to keep their IT in house. It ends up soaking hours of the owners valuable time. In the worst case it costs ten of thousands in lost time.
The worst case we've ever seen is a network where all the computers had to be rebooted every time someone wanted to print. A typical print job would involve the user warning everyone they were about to print, the other five staff would save their work and troop out for a smoke.
Once the print job had finished, the user would reboot his computer and wander out to have a smoke with the others.
Every print job was costing the business a man hour of work. Over a year we estimated it was costing the business over $30,000.
Small business owners have to understand that IT is essential to most businesses. The cost involved are a natural cost of doing business. Not factoring for these costs is like not factoring for insurance.
Quite simply, the idea that getting IT support is an "extravagent indulgence" is silly. It's like saying your rent or car maintenance is an optional extra. It's not, it's a real business cost.
One of the biggest mistakes small business makes is to keep their IT in house. It ends up soaking hours of the owners valuable time. In the worst case it costs ten of thousands in lost time.
The worst case we've ever seen is a network where all the computers had to be rebooted every time someone wanted to print. A typical print job would involve the user warning everyone they were about to print, the other five staff would save their work and troop out for a smoke.
Once the print job had finished, the user would reboot his computer and wander out to have a smoke with the others.
Every print job was costing the business a man hour of work. Over a year we estimated it was costing the business over $30,000.
Small business owners have to understand that IT is essential to most businesses. The cost involved are a natural cost of doing business. Not factoring for these costs is like not factoring for insurance.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Another burning laptop
Matt from Melbourne woke up to his housemate screaming. His Macbook was on fire. Luckily he was able to put it out.
Luckily for him, and us, he took photos and posted them on a discussion forum.
It's sad that we have so little trust of big IT companies that it's necessary to post first and then ring the company. But that lack of trust has been well earned.
It's going to be interesting to see how Apple deal with this. According to Matt, his laptop wasn't on the Mac recall list and is still under warranty. It looks like we might have another battery recall approaching.
Luckily for him, and us, he took photos and posted them on a discussion forum.
It's sad that we have so little trust of big IT companies that it's necessary to post first and then ring the company. But that lack of trust has been well earned.
It's going to be interesting to see how Apple deal with this. According to Matt, his laptop wasn't on the Mac recall list and is still under warranty. It looks like we might have another battery recall approaching.
Monday, March 12, 2007
OneCare is bad news
Those of us in the industry with long memories stroked our beards sagely when Microsoft announced OneCare, we remember how well previous attempts by Microsoft performed.
So it wasn't surprising when the news came out that OneCare eats email files. It appears that the program correctly identifies infected attachments within an Outlook pst or an Outlook Express mbx file, finds it can't repair it and so deletes the whole file.
I'm glad we haven't encountered this. It sends a cold chill of horror through my blood just thinking about the cranky, distressed customers.
The silly thing is OneCare isn't particularly good at identifying viruses. It's another reason why Microsoft should stick to making their core products more secure rather than messing around with products like Defender and OneCare.
So it wasn't surprising when the news came out that OneCare eats email files. It appears that the program correctly identifies infected attachments within an Outlook pst or an Outlook Express mbx file, finds it can't repair it and so deletes the whole file.
I'm glad we haven't encountered this. It sends a cold chill of horror through my blood just thinking about the cranky, distressed customers.
The silly thing is OneCare isn't particularly good at identifying viruses. It's another reason why Microsoft should stick to making their core products more secure rather than messing around with products like Defender and OneCare.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Refreshing scepticism
I was pretty cranky when reading some of the reviews for the new Norton 360 product. Norton have been the by-word for bad software over the last five years. So I was less than impressed reading sycophantic press reviews and dopey user comments about the new product.
The new Norton is going to have to be a far slimmer product than anything they've recently put out to convince me. The Norton Anti-Virus 2007 certainly isn't.
It's good to see I'm not alone in this. ZD Net Australia shares my view. While all technology vendor's claims should be treated with suspicion, Symantec's press releases are least reliable source.
The new Norton is going to have to be a far slimmer product than anything they've recently put out to convince me. The Norton Anti-Virus 2007 certainly isn't.
It's good to see I'm not alone in this. ZD Net Australia shares my view. While all technology vendor's claims should be treated with suspicion, Symantec's press releases are least reliable source.
Fat kids in England
According to the Kimbofo blog, fat kids are the current UK tabloid fad.
Now feeding your kids twenty chocolate bars a day might be child abuse, but I'd suggest letting a Sun reporter near your children is far more damaging to their well being.
While these parents are negligent. I'm not sure naming and shaming them and holding their kids up for ridicule is actually productive. But let's not let the interests of the kids get in the way of a good tabloid story.
Now feeding your kids twenty chocolate bars a day might be child abuse, but I'd suggest letting a Sun reporter near your children is far more damaging to their well being.
While these parents are negligent. I'm not sure naming and shaming them and holding their kids up for ridicule is actually productive. But let's not let the interests of the kids get in the way of a good tabloid story.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Vista Activation problems
It's a shame Microsoft persist with the intrusive and buggy Windows Genuine Activation program. It seems to go from bad to worse. The latest problems with Vista show this is going to be a pain for those affected.
At least Microsoft have acknowledged the problem in their knowledge base. But the real concern is that a game can cause this problem. Isn't Vista supposed to stop things accessing critical system files?
The real disappointment is that Microsoft insist on treating their customers like thieves: A critical system file changes? Well, you must be try to hack our software.
The only comforting thought about this is it will tie up a few millions of Microsoft's money in supporting users who want to reactivate.
At least Microsoft have acknowledged the problem in their knowledge base. But the real concern is that a game can cause this problem. Isn't Vista supposed to stop things accessing critical system files?
The real disappointment is that Microsoft insist on treating their customers like thieves: A critical system file changes? Well, you must be try to hack our software.
The only comforting thought about this is it will tie up a few millions of Microsoft's money in supporting users who want to reactivate.
More Vista hall of shame
Australian Personal Computer adds to the Vista hall of shame with it's list of mobile phones that don't support Vista, which is pretty well every single brand with the exception of iMate and Palm.
It really is a joke.
It really is a joke.
Wasting taxes on technology
The state government is accused of wasting $100 million on a defective email program for NSW school students. It's a shame politicians have to waste scarce funds on gimmicks like this. There's a thousand other things this money could have been spent on in our state schools.
Computers and the Internet are useful educational tools. But they are not substitutes for good teachers or well resourced schools. It's far more important for kids to be taught to read and write rather than just learning powerpoint and how to rip stuff off Wikipedia.
The real problem is that parents and voters are easily impressed by this stuff. Politicians know it wins them votes and school administrators know it allows them to get away with higher fees. We all need to question these people more on what exactly they intend to achieve with technology.
Computers and the Internet are useful educational tools. But they are not substitutes for good teachers or well resourced schools. It's far more important for kids to be taught to read and write rather than just learning powerpoint and how to rip stuff off Wikipedia.
The real problem is that parents and voters are easily impressed by this stuff. Politicians know it wins them votes and school administrators know it allows them to get away with higher fees. We all need to question these people more on what exactly they intend to achieve with technology.
It's the Active X stupid!
The US CERT advisory that common support tools have security problems is barely a surprise. Anything that uses ActiveX is a risk to the computer. It's no surprise that much of the malware that causes us so much grief uses it to infect victims.
While thinking that Firefox, Opera and other browser users are totally immune from bugs is a mistake, Internet Explorer's inbuilt support for ActiveX makes it by far the biggest and easiest target.
Why support companies have to use ActiveX based programs is beyond me. Given the known problems and prevalence of spyware you'd think they would avoid them. Instead they seem to rely on them.
The biggest joke is Symantec, where their Norton products are ActiveX dependent. When a Norton machine is infected with ActiveX based spyware, Norton crashes which in turn crashes the computer. To add insult to injury, the damaged system won't even let you uninstall Norton properly because, surprise, it requires ActiveX.
It's really time for ActiveX to get the flick, it's buggy, slow and vendor specific. Programmers and website designers who use it are lazy and letting down their users.
While thinking that Firefox, Opera and other browser users are totally immune from bugs is a mistake, Internet Explorer's inbuilt support for ActiveX makes it by far the biggest and easiest target.
Why support companies have to use ActiveX based programs is beyond me. Given the known problems and prevalence of spyware you'd think they would avoid them. Instead they seem to rely on them.
The biggest joke is Symantec, where their Norton products are ActiveX dependent. When a Norton machine is infected with ActiveX based spyware, Norton crashes which in turn crashes the computer. To add insult to injury, the damaged system won't even let you uninstall Norton properly because, surprise, it requires ActiveX.
It's really time for ActiveX to get the flick, it's buggy, slow and vendor specific. Programmers and website designers who use it are lazy and letting down their users.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Why you shouldn't inherit office computers
I've spent the last three weeks struggling with a neighbour's dead computer, what started as a simple dead hard drive has turned into a nightmare as the thing was supplied by the neighbour's ex-employer.
This means everything is based upon it being on a corporate network: Windows Updates, anti-virus, security, admin passwords and installation folders. It's turned a six hour pain in the backside into dedicated trench warfare. And I still can't get the #$%^ing Microsoft Office source location fixed.
We've always recommended not buying second hand computers. But corporate computers are even worse. It's a shame customers don't listen to us before buying these things.
This means everything is based upon it being on a corporate network: Windows Updates, anti-virus, security, admin passwords and installation folders. It's turned a six hour pain in the backside into dedicated trench warfare. And I still can't get the #$%^ing Microsoft Office source location fixed.
We've always recommended not buying second hand computers. But corporate computers are even worse. It's a shame customers don't listen to us before buying these things.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Big business and Vista
A neighbour had to buy a copy of XP to repair a computer that came without a disk. Almost every large IT outlet claims "Microsoft don't sell XP anymore". This wasn't one shop, this is a number of places, all big outlets.
He eventually got one, but was told "you were lucky, Microsoft don't sell this anymore."
What's going on here? Tech Pac seem to have plenty of copies in stock and Microsoft have made no formal announcement. Where is this line coming from?
He eventually got one, but was told "you were lucky, Microsoft don't sell this anymore."
What's going on here? Tech Pac seem to have plenty of copies in stock and Microsoft have made no formal announcement. Where is this line coming from?
Monday, February 26, 2007
Microsoft's list of Vista compatible apps
Information Week reports on Microsoft's list of software that's achieved the "Certified for Vista" or "Works with Vista" logo. In picking that all current Microsoft products qualify, they miss the point that many of their older products miss out.
This is going to be one of the biggest barriers for many users adopting Vista. Along with the cost of a new system, they will be looking at spending another $300 on a new version of Office. That's a big reason for holding back.
This is going to be one of the biggest barriers for many users adopting Vista. Along with the cost of a new system, they will be looking at spending another $300 on a new version of Office. That's a big reason for holding back.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Alexander Ponosov acquitted, but the Julie Amero gets sillier
The Russian teacher accused of software piracy is acquitted. Which is a victory for common sense. Even the Vladimir Putin described the case as utter nonsense.
The man himself announced he was off to drink champagne. Having faced a penalty of up to five years in a Russian prison, that would be the least I would do.
Things have come to a pretty low state of affairs when the Russian legal system is showing the US an example of common sense and justice. Because the Julie Amero case just gets more stupid.
PC World claims to have an email from a juror on the case where the juror says she was convicted because ""she made no effort to hide or stop the porno, not just because she loaded the porno onto the machine. Going to the history pages it was obvious that the paged were clicked on they were not the result of pop-ups."
If this is the case, that the jury felt she didn't do enough to stop the kids looking, where does this leave the school principal, the teacher who normally used that computer and the administrators of the network. These people knew the machine was compromised and did nothing to protect the students either. Surely the brave protectors of Connecticut justice should now prosecute them for the same crime.
Even more disturbing is the comment, "If a 40 year old school teacher does not have the sense to turn off or is not smart enough to figure it out, would you or any other person wanting her teaching your child or grandchild?"
So they even convicted her for being dumb and ignorant of computers. Where does that leave the jury, defense, judge, prosecution and the "expert" police prosecution witness? If stupidity is a crime, these people are looking at life.
I really hope this email to PC World is a hoax. If this really was the reasoning of the jury, then the case is an even bigger debacle. This is truly starting to look like a witch hunt.
The man himself announced he was off to drink champagne. Having faced a penalty of up to five years in a Russian prison, that would be the least I would do.
Things have come to a pretty low state of affairs when the Russian legal system is showing the US an example of common sense and justice. Because the Julie Amero case just gets more stupid.
PC World claims to have an email from a juror on the case where the juror says she was convicted because ""she made no effort to hide or stop the porno, not just because she loaded the porno onto the machine. Going to the history pages it was obvious that the paged were clicked on they were not the result of pop-ups."
If this is the case, that the jury felt she didn't do enough to stop the kids looking, where does this leave the school principal, the teacher who normally used that computer and the administrators of the network. These people knew the machine was compromised and did nothing to protect the students either. Surely the brave protectors of Connecticut justice should now prosecute them for the same crime.
Even more disturbing is the comment, "If a 40 year old school teacher does not have the sense to turn off or is not smart enough to figure it out, would you or any other person wanting her teaching your child or grandchild?"
So they even convicted her for being dumb and ignorant of computers. Where does that leave the jury, defense, judge, prosecution and the "expert" police prosecution witness? If stupidity is a crime, these people are looking at life.
I really hope this email to PC World is a hoax. If this really was the reasoning of the jury, then the case is an even bigger debacle. This is truly starting to look like a witch hunt.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Apple join the ranks of the shamed
In checking my facts for the previous post, I stumbled on this gem.
No Mac product has been updated for Vista compatibility?
None, nada, zilch, zip?!?
According to their web page, updated on February 2, 2007 not one product is Vista compatible.
I know flogging vapourware to the ranks of adoring kool-aid drinkers is fun, but Steve, how about getting your minions to do some work making their products fit for purpose?
No Mac product has been updated for Vista compatibility?
None, nada, zilch, zip?!?
According to their web page, updated on February 2, 2007 not one product is Vista compatible.
I know flogging vapourware to the ranks of adoring kool-aid drinkers is fun, but Steve, how about getting your minions to do some work making their products fit for purpose?
Apple reseller blues
Local Apple reseller Total Recall Solutions has gone to the wall. This is a great shame as Adam ran the best Mac shop in the district. In my experience most of the Apple resellers around Sydney give service that ranges from mediocre to abysmal.
In fact, using the word "service" in the same sentence as "Apple reseller" makes me uneasy.
With the looming opening of the Sydney Apple Store many of these guys are going to find their business models under a lot of pressure. Ben Morgan, the proprietor of Sydney's biggest single Mac shop, has been less than enthusiastic about Apple's plans. Australia's biggest Apple reseller, Next Byte, is a bit more relaxed.
Next Byte will take a hit from the Apple Stores in their four Melbourne and Sydney city stores, but having stores all over Australia will cushion the overall blow. Academy's a bit more vulnerable, but their Eastern suburbs location makes them far more attractive to the cashed up locals who loathe travelling into town. I'd say both are probably pretty safe, unlike smaller stores.
The real question though, is who would be an Apple reseller? Charles Wright in his sadly defunct Melbourne Age column asked this question nearly five years ago. If anything matters have got worse since then for Apple resellers with declining margins, your main supplier opening stores to compete with you and not even being able to use the Apple name.
It's a tough industry flogging computer hardware. Apple certainly don't make it easier for their people.
In fact, using the word "service" in the same sentence as "Apple reseller" makes me uneasy.
With the looming opening of the Sydney Apple Store many of these guys are going to find their business models under a lot of pressure. Ben Morgan, the proprietor of Sydney's biggest single Mac shop, has been less than enthusiastic about Apple's plans. Australia's biggest Apple reseller, Next Byte, is a bit more relaxed.
Next Byte will take a hit from the Apple Stores in their four Melbourne and Sydney city stores, but having stores all over Australia will cushion the overall blow. Academy's a bit more vulnerable, but their Eastern suburbs location makes them far more attractive to the cashed up locals who loathe travelling into town. I'd say both are probably pretty safe, unlike smaller stores.
The real question though, is who would be an Apple reseller? Charles Wright in his sadly defunct Melbourne Age column asked this question nearly five years ago. If anything matters have got worse since then for Apple resellers with declining margins, your main supplier opening stores to compete with you and not even being able to use the Apple name.
It's a tough industry flogging computer hardware. Apple certainly don't make it easier for their people.
Monday, February 12, 2007
More disgraceful Vista support
More outlets are picking up on the disgraceful state of Vista support.
Smarthouse discover Logitech have no intention of supporting their equipment. They also mention Abode, Creative and nVidia. A good point is how empty this talk of "convergence" with home hi-fi is when the stuff doesn't work.
Over at Eastwood Hi-Fi, they've found that not only Yamaha have problems, but the Panasonic website won't even work for Vista users. I find Steve Niell's naivete about the professionalism and planning of the IT and electronic industries rather touching. He should try dealing with ISPs.
Australian Personal Computer has a rundown on ISPs and their hardware vendors. Taking the cake are the country's two biggest Telcos: Bigpond won't connect Vista users while Optus take the cake with the comment they "already supported six operating systems but "only recently learned that Vista brings with it some elements that require us to change our systems."
Truly breathtaking. You'd think Vista suddenly appeared out of the ether and onto computers. The contempt vendors and ISPs have for their customers is disgraceful.
Smarthouse discover Logitech have no intention of supporting their equipment. They also mention Abode, Creative and nVidia. A good point is how empty this talk of "convergence" with home hi-fi is when the stuff doesn't work.
Over at Eastwood Hi-Fi, they've found that not only Yamaha have problems, but the Panasonic website won't even work for Vista users. I find Steve Niell's naivete about the professionalism and planning of the IT and electronic industries rather touching. He should try dealing with ISPs.
Australian Personal Computer has a rundown on ISPs and their hardware vendors. Taking the cake are the country's two biggest Telcos: Bigpond won't connect Vista users while Optus take the cake with the comment they "already supported six operating systems but "only recently learned that Vista brings with it some elements that require us to change our systems."
Truly breathtaking. You'd think Vista suddenly appeared out of the ether and onto computers. The contempt vendors and ISPs have for their customers is disgraceful.
Mark Curban doesn't understand spam
As a subscriber to Crikey's newsletter I enjoy their daily links to blogs that have caught their reader's attention so I visited Mark Curban's comment on Donald Trump sending him spam.
Ummm Mark, that spam is as likely to have come from your granny as it was from Donald Trump. See my previous post on compromised computers.
Ummm Mark, that spam is as likely to have come from your granny as it was from Donald Trump. See my previous post on compromised computers.
Home PCs attack the Internet
Last week's attack on the Internet root servers is being blamed on botnets of zombie computers. And why not, the number of computers being compromised by spyware is horrendous. We see a half a dozen each week.
Convergence is a buzz word in the IT industry. The worrying thing about the malware epidemic is how the bad guys are converging: Spammers, phishers , spyware, phishers and virus writers are all coming together and sharing tactics and compromised machines.
The spam epidemic is a good example. One of the best protections from spam were the black lists of compromised servers and open relays. The problem now is that we have hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of compromised home PCs.
Unsecured wireless networks are also to blame. One client of ours was getting regularly disconnected for abusing their service. It turned out their wireless router (not setup by us) had no security and someone was using it to send spam.
The lesson, as the EETimes article linked above says, is that all computer users have a responsibility to secure their computers. If they don't, they may be responsible for spam, phishing scams and attacks on the Internet DNS servers.
Convergence is a buzz word in the IT industry. The worrying thing about the malware epidemic is how the bad guys are converging: Spammers, phishers , spyware, phishers and virus writers are all coming together and sharing tactics and compromised machines.
The spam epidemic is a good example. One of the best protections from spam were the black lists of compromised servers and open relays. The problem now is that we have hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of compromised home PCs.
Unsecured wireless networks are also to blame. One client of ours was getting regularly disconnected for abusing their service. It turned out their wireless router (not setup by us) had no security and someone was using it to send spam.
The lesson, as the EETimes article linked above says, is that all computer users have a responsibility to secure their computers. If they don't, they may be responsible for spam, phishing scams and attacks on the Internet DNS servers.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
When the rivers of gold stop flowing
"Rivers of gold" was the term to describe the profitable classified advertising businesses of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age. There's been another river of gold in the Sensis monopoly of directory advertising. If anything, the Yellow Pages has been far more profitable for Sensis/Telstra than the classified have been for Fairfax.
The launch of Google Maps Australia is direct threat to both these rivers of gold. By linking into the News Limited classified system, it threatens Fairfax's advantages. For Sensis/Yellow Pages, their monopoly is threatened by a viable alternative directory.
Google certainly does the job better than Yellow pages. I searched "Computer Repairs" and "Neutral Bay", Our business came up first and there was only one paid ad above us, all the other listings were in the immediate area. The map was clear and concise.
The same search on Yellow Pages Online didn't take us directly to the listings. We first went to a category page. Multiple categories for the one business type is another Yellow pages tactic to get more money out of us.
Once we were in the correct category there were SEVENTEEN premium ads ahead of us. To add insult to injury, almost all the listings ahead of are the "may not be located in the area" type. Many of them are on the other side of Sydney, which makes specifying a suburb stupid and pointless.
On those results, it's difficult to see why a small IT shop would bother with anything more than the basic Yellow Pages listing. Given the price of a single Yellow Pages category listing, let alone four or five, is prohibitive and you'll always be outgunned by bigger advertisers it's barely worth it. Even more discouraging is the fact Yellow Pages own one of your competitors.
The biggest threat to Sensis though is that Google have tied up with News Limited's True Local service. Being able to combine online listings with local and metropolitan newspaper advertising is a pretty formidable selling proposition. If News and Google don't get greedy then Sensis has a serious problem.
It's ironic that the Australian Google Maps appears the same week Fred Hilmer released his tale of being the Fairfax CEO. The tie up between Google and News illustrates how badly Fred got it wrong with separating the Australian Cityseach from the Fairfax newspapers. Had Fred got it right, Google might have been partnering with a dominant Fairfax.
Fairfax and Sensis should be very worried about the Google Maps-News Limited partnership. This really has the potential to divert much of the "rivers of gold" away from the established players. It's going to be interesting to see how Fairfax and Sensis respond.
The launch of Google Maps Australia is direct threat to both these rivers of gold. By linking into the News Limited classified system, it threatens Fairfax's advantages. For Sensis/Yellow Pages, their monopoly is threatened by a viable alternative directory.
Google certainly does the job better than Yellow pages. I searched "Computer Repairs" and "Neutral Bay", Our business came up first and there was only one paid ad above us, all the other listings were in the immediate area. The map was clear and concise.
The same search on Yellow Pages Online didn't take us directly to the listings. We first went to a category page. Multiple categories for the one business type is another Yellow pages tactic to get more money out of us.
Once we were in the correct category there were SEVENTEEN premium ads ahead of us. To add insult to injury, almost all the listings ahead of are the "may not be located in the area" type. Many of them are on the other side of Sydney, which makes specifying a suburb stupid and pointless.
On those results, it's difficult to see why a small IT shop would bother with anything more than the basic Yellow Pages listing. Given the price of a single Yellow Pages category listing, let alone four or five, is prohibitive and you'll always be outgunned by bigger advertisers it's barely worth it. Even more discouraging is the fact Yellow Pages own one of your competitors.
The biggest threat to Sensis though is that Google have tied up with News Limited's True Local service. Being able to combine online listings with local and metropolitan newspaper advertising is a pretty formidable selling proposition. If News and Google don't get greedy then Sensis has a serious problem.
It's ironic that the Australian Google Maps appears the same week Fred Hilmer released his tale of being the Fairfax CEO. The tie up between Google and News illustrates how badly Fred got it wrong with separating the Australian Cityseach from the Fairfax newspapers. Had Fred got it right, Google might have been partnering with a dominant Fairfax.
Fairfax and Sensis should be very worried about the Google Maps-News Limited partnership. This really has the potential to divert much of the "rivers of gold" away from the established players. It's going to be interesting to see how Fairfax and Sensis respond.
Who'd be a teacher?
I'm not wholly convinced about the use of computers in class rooms. I don't believe any computer is a substitute for a competent teacher. As a taxpayer and someone who supports these evil things for a living, I'm not even convinced it's a good investment of my tax dollars.
Now teachers might agree. First we had the Julie Amero case where a Connecticut school temporary is facing 40 years in jail for a spyware infected computer. Now we have the Alexander Ponosov case where a Russian school teacher is facing a spell in Siberia for buying computers with pirated software.
The injustices in both of these cases is breathtaking. In the Ponosov case, the spectacle of provincial school teacher being used an example so Russia can prove it's worthy of joining the WTO is a digrace. I'd like to know what happened to the people who sold him the computers.
Julie Amero's predicament is also disgraceful. The real villains in this are the local school board who allowed filters to expire and accepted pop-up ads on classrooms computers as being normal. It really seems the charges were only a butt-covering exercise by these incompetents.
Incompetent is the best description of the prosecution's "expert" witness, Detective Mark Lounsbury who claimed Amero musts have "physically clicked" on pornographic links. The frightening thing is Detective Lounsbury recieved training from the FBI in basic network intrusion and advanced network intrusion in Unix. He admit even admits he's not an expert and relies on Computer Cop software.
It surprises me that more schools and businesses haven't fallen foul of the law because of malware infested PCs. Given it's considered sexual harrassment to have a girly calendar on an office wall, hard core porn on a computer desktop must beyond the pale. Every office and school should have proper filtering and spyware protection and policies to deal with the unexpected.
Now teachers might agree. First we had the Julie Amero case where a Connecticut school temporary is facing 40 years in jail for a spyware infected computer. Now we have the Alexander Ponosov case where a Russian school teacher is facing a spell in Siberia for buying computers with pirated software.
The injustices in both of these cases is breathtaking. In the Ponosov case, the spectacle of provincial school teacher being used an example so Russia can prove it's worthy of joining the WTO is a digrace. I'd like to know what happened to the people who sold him the computers.
Julie Amero's predicament is also disgraceful. The real villains in this are the local school board who allowed filters to expire and accepted pop-up ads on classrooms computers as being normal. It really seems the charges were only a butt-covering exercise by these incompetents.
Incompetent is the best description of the prosecution's "expert" witness, Detective Mark Lounsbury who claimed Amero musts have "physically clicked" on pornographic links. The frightening thing is Detective Lounsbury recieved training from the FBI in basic network intrusion and advanced network intrusion in Unix. He admit even admits he's not an expert and relies on Computer Cop software.
It surprises me that more schools and businesses haven't fallen foul of the law because of malware infested PCs. Given it's considered sexual harrassment to have a girly calendar on an office wall, hard core porn on a computer desktop must beyond the pale. Every office and school should have proper filtering and spyware protection and policies to deal with the unexpected.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Busted by Youtube
The SMH reports three train vandals were caught because of the clips they uploaded to youtube. Talk about stupid.
DJ's McLibel moment
The David Jones department store chain were furious when the Australia Institute cited their advertisements as examples of "corporate paedophilia". So they've decided to sue. I can't help but think this is a big mistake for DJs.
The first thing to come to mind is the parallel with the McLibel case. While DJs isn't as big as Maccas and the Australia Institute as small as a pair of penniless activists, it's still very much a David and Goliath fight. We have a tendency to side with small guy.
Another parallel to the McLibel case is the case will give the original report far more circulation than it would have otherwise had. If DJs had left it alone, it would be forgotten by now. As it is, there's currently 32 current hits in Google News and there will more as the story circulates.
To really tick those of us who have some sympathy for free speech, David Jones has decided to use the Trade Practices Act. Misusing the TPA has been tried before; The Australian Wool Industry is having trouble to using it against PETA at the moment. It strikes me, and I'm sure a lot others, as an abuse of a law designed to protect consumers.
In my view the worst mistake is the risk that the definition of "corporate paedophila" might be tested in court. While DJs might well be innocent of this, there's a lot of marketers who aren't. As a parent I'm often disturbed by marketing aimed at pubescent kids.
The topic raised is important and deserves debate. Many marketers are at the least pushing the bounds of good taste and the sexualisation of children is an issue that worries many of us. It would be terribly wrong if that debate was chilled by a case like this.
AT every turn, it appears this decision to sue is a "what were you thinking" moment. While DJs might prevail in court, they've dealt themselves a lose-lose hand. All they can hope for is the Australia institute quietly withdraws the article and settles.
The first thing to come to mind is the parallel with the McLibel case. While DJs isn't as big as Maccas and the Australia Institute as small as a pair of penniless activists, it's still very much a David and Goliath fight. We have a tendency to side with small guy.
Another parallel to the McLibel case is the case will give the original report far more circulation than it would have otherwise had. If DJs had left it alone, it would be forgotten by now. As it is, there's currently 32 current hits in Google News and there will more as the story circulates.
To really tick those of us who have some sympathy for free speech, David Jones has decided to use the Trade Practices Act. Misusing the TPA has been tried before; The Australian Wool Industry is having trouble to using it against PETA at the moment. It strikes me, and I'm sure a lot others, as an abuse of a law designed to protect consumers.
In my view the worst mistake is the risk that the definition of "corporate paedophila" might be tested in court. While DJs might well be innocent of this, there's a lot of marketers who aren't. As a parent I'm often disturbed by marketing aimed at pubescent kids.
The topic raised is important and deserves debate. Many marketers are at the least pushing the bounds of good taste and the sexualisation of children is an issue that worries many of us. It would be terribly wrong if that debate was chilled by a case like this.
AT every turn, it appears this decision to sue is a "what were you thinking" moment. While DJs might prevail in court, they've dealt themselves a lose-lose hand. All they can hope for is the Australia institute quietly withdraws the article and settles.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Telcom NZ trials Vista
When I first saw the Australian ZDNet headline TCNZ adopts Vista, I thought "oh no, they've lost the plot again".
But when I read the article it makes complete sense. Putting Vista on 500 desktops, about 7% of their fleet, allows their IT and consulting arms to get practical experience in running Vista. It certainly gives their service division an advantage over their competitors.
Another article in ZDNet though should worry TCNZ; AAPT continues to lose customers. The investment in AAPT has to be one of Telecom NZ's great failures. The fact they are considering taking over Powertel only shows they haven't learned many lessons.
As someone who's had to deal with AAPT on a business level, I'm amazed anyone's still with them. Their account management and record keeping has been terrible. The only thing going for them has been the reliability of the old Connect network.
It baffles me how telco executives get the Internet so wrong. We all think the two industries should be complimentary, but the TCNZ debacle and the poor management of Bigpond and Optus' Internet services show just how wrong they can get it. We sold our TCNZ shares years ago, TCNZ should consider selling off a few shares of their own.
But when I read the article it makes complete sense. Putting Vista on 500 desktops, about 7% of their fleet, allows their IT and consulting arms to get practical experience in running Vista. It certainly gives their service division an advantage over their competitors.
Another article in ZDNet though should worry TCNZ; AAPT continues to lose customers. The investment in AAPT has to be one of Telecom NZ's great failures. The fact they are considering taking over Powertel only shows they haven't learned many lessons.
As someone who's had to deal with AAPT on a business level, I'm amazed anyone's still with them. Their account management and record keeping has been terrible. The only thing going for them has been the reliability of the old Connect network.
It baffles me how telco executives get the Internet so wrong. We all think the two industries should be complimentary, but the TCNZ debacle and the poor management of Bigpond and Optus' Internet services show just how wrong they can get it. We sold our TCNZ shares years ago, TCNZ should consider selling off a few shares of their own.
iTunes doesn't run on Vista
Another reason for not upgrading to Vista. iTunes doesn't work. This joins a long list of vendors who aren't quite there yet.
While we expected quite a few difficulties with Vista, you have to wonder what these vendors have been doing for the last five years. It beggars belief so many have aren't Vista ready.
I've been very critical of Microsoft and their failure to introduce Limited Users as the default in Windows XP. But the scale of compatibility problems shows why they didn't. Is it really that hard to design programs that can run in Windows restricted profiles?
While we expected quite a few difficulties with Vista, you have to wonder what these vendors have been doing for the last five years. It beggars belief so many have aren't Vista ready.
I've been very critical of Microsoft and their failure to introduce Limited Users as the default in Windows XP. But the scale of compatibility problems shows why they didn't. Is it really that hard to design programs that can run in Windows restricted profiles?
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Vendor disgrace
Windows Vista's now out, yet some vendors still don't have drivers available.
To say this is a disgrace is an understatement. The final version has been around for months. We've been playing with betas for years.
You have to ask what these lazy idiots have been doing for the last two years.
Any mainstream vendor that isn't Vista ready has lost the plot.
To say this is a disgrace is an understatement. The final version has been around for months. We've been playing with betas for years.
You have to ask what these lazy idiots have been doing for the last two years.
Any mainstream vendor that isn't Vista ready has lost the plot.
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