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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.