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.
Monday, March 26, 2007
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.
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