I've been following the story of Angus and Robertson's new supplier terms with interest after a client mentioned it to me a week or so ago. The terms are quite remarkable and it's not surprising to see the backlash against A&R.
The best response has been the reply written by Michael Rakusin, director of Sydney's Tower Books, sadly the only copy I've read is behind the Crikey subscriber wall so the link doesn't give the full detail.
The gem from Michael's letter is this line,
it would seem to me paramount to stop blaming suppliers for your misfortunes, trying ever harder to squeeze them to death, and actually focus on your core incompetencies in order to redress them.
Michael also makes the excellent point that trying to adopt department store and supermarket tactics to publishers might be a mistake for a bookseller given variety stores have a range of products while book stores only have one.
Personally I ceased to be amazed a long time ago at the sort of nonsense big business tries on, either as a customer or supplier. What I do find amazing is the 5% DAILY interest payment for late remittances. I hope that's not compounding as the Annual Percentage Rate maxed out my calculator.
What makes this letter priceless is the arrogance in it, particularly the closing line,
"If you would like to discuss this with me in more detail, I am delighted to confirm an appointment with you at .........for ten minutes at my office....."
Unbelievable.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Microsoft overtaking Apache web server
Netcraft are claiming Microsoft's Internet Information Server might overtake the dominant Apache web server software early next year.
I'm wondering if those numbers are boosted by all the Windows Small Business Server installations that have IIS enabled but aren't really used. These would still appear in the statistics, but visiting them would only get the default page up.
I don't Apache's going to be knocked off any time soon.
I'm wondering if those numbers are boosted by all the Windows Small Business Server installations that have IIS enabled but aren't really used. These would still appear in the statistics, but visiting them would only get the default page up.
I don't Apache's going to be knocked off any time soon.
Paul Kelly gets a sex change.
Strange times on the The Australian website last night. Paul Kelly seemed to have had a sex change.
Far from being a staid, serious middle aged fellow it turns out he's a regular chick who loves licking the tops of ice cream containers.
They say never judge a book by it's cover.
IceTV wins court case
IceTV, the Australian PVR guide company, has won the legal case bought against it by Channel Nine.
This is great news for Australian consumers and TV viewers.
I have to admit I was less than optimistic about IceTV's chances. In the past, Australian courts have tended to side with the incumbents in cases like this. The DtMS versus Telstra case where Telstra won their copyright claim on phone directories is the best example.
One thing to temper the good news is how accurate IceTV can be. Given the problems we find with Australian TV schedules, it's possible that an online schedule isn't much use anyway.
This is great news for Australian consumers and TV viewers.
I have to admit I was less than optimistic about IceTV's chances. In the past, Australian courts have tended to side with the incumbents in cases like this. The DtMS versus Telstra case where Telstra won their copyright claim on phone directories is the best example.
One thing to temper the good news is how accurate IceTV can be. Given the problems we find with Australian TV schedules, it's possible that an online schedule isn't much use anyway.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Chucking out customers
Steve, the boss at Eastwood Hi-Fi, makes a good point about turning away potentially troublesome customers in his August 6 post. I reckon it's good practice.
One of the joys of running a tech business is that many customers have either unrealistic expectations of the products or they have unrealistic beliefs in their abilities to use it.
The result for the tech (or the tech's boss) is many hours of stress and unchargable time and eventually returned products or disputed bills.
So when you sense a customer might be trouble, it's best to politely refer the customer elsewhere.
In a similar topic, Valerie Khoo in the Sydney Morning Herald's Enterprise blog asks "is the customer always right?"
The answer is an emphatic "NO!" Often customers have some very strange ideas that they are unwilling to ditch regardless of what advice you give them.
Once again, it's best to pass their custom on elsewhere.
I've been doing this a lot recently. I'm sick of spyware and I'm tired of computer setups with all manner of strangely setup applications.
I don't know if it's because I'm old and jaded or I've just become picky or because I'm just not hungry enough for the work, but I find I'm reluctant to do jobs that might have the slightest complication down the track.
I'd suggest any business owner really should have a line in the sand they draw with customers. While a disappointed customer might tell five or ten people about their experience, a bad customer might distract you from twenty good customers.
One of the joys of running a tech business is that many customers have either unrealistic expectations of the products or they have unrealistic beliefs in their abilities to use it.
The result for the tech (or the tech's boss) is many hours of stress and unchargable time and eventually returned products or disputed bills.
So when you sense a customer might be trouble, it's best to politely refer the customer elsewhere.
In a similar topic, Valerie Khoo in the Sydney Morning Herald's Enterprise blog asks "is the customer always right?"
The answer is an emphatic "NO!" Often customers have some very strange ideas that they are unwilling to ditch regardless of what advice you give them.
Once again, it's best to pass their custom on elsewhere.
I've been doing this a lot recently. I'm sick of spyware and I'm tired of computer setups with all manner of strangely setup applications.
I don't know if it's because I'm old and jaded or I've just become picky or because I'm just not hungry enough for the work, but I find I'm reluctant to do jobs that might have the slightest complication down the track.
I'd suggest any business owner really should have a line in the sand they draw with customers. While a disappointed customer might tell five or ten people about their experience, a bad customer might distract you from twenty good customers.
Monday, August 06, 2007
More finger pointing at nVidia
It seems a lot of people agree with Ed Bott's observation about nVidia graphics cards and Windows Vista. Another blogger, Ryan Wagner, notes that most of his Vista problems have been on problems with nVidia graphics.
NVidia have really spoiled their own nest with this. It's very difficult for any tech to recommend their products after this mess.
Another interesting observation on Ryan's site is how he's found Vista's slow file transfer speed improved with the latest patch from Microsoft.
We suggested a few fixes at ITQueries and this is a welcome patch. But I'm still not convinced that doubling the speed is acceptable. It is still way too slow.
NVidia have really spoiled their own nest with this. It's very difficult for any tech to recommend their products after this mess.
Another interesting observation on Ryan's site is how he's found Vista's slow file transfer speed improved with the latest patch from Microsoft.
We suggested a few fixes at ITQueries and this is a welcome patch. But I'm still not convinced that doubling the speed is acceptable. It is still way too slow.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Automated password hijacking
Brian Krebs' Security Watch blog describes a hacking tool for stealing user's passwords from webmail sites.
This again shows the risks of connecting to the net through unsecured or public wireless networks which I mentioned a few weeks back.
If you regularly use other people's networks, particularly wireless networks, you need to use secure socket layer protocols. That means using webmail sites that start with https and email servers that support SSL.
Brian's article notes that gmail has a secure version simply by typing https:// before the address rather than just using www.
I tried this with my Internet providers, Pacific Internet and Bigpond, and found they support these protocols on their logins.
Interestingly, Bigpond's webmail reverts to standard http:// once you've logged in. I'm not sure this is a good thing and that's going to need a little more research.
I'm going to get into the habit of using https for all my webmail accounts. Naturally, you should always make sure financial websites always use https before you logon.
Stealing passwords is a big and lucrative business for the bad guys. Using secure websites reduces your chances of being a victim.
This again shows the risks of connecting to the net through unsecured or public wireless networks which I mentioned a few weeks back.
If you regularly use other people's networks, particularly wireless networks, you need to use secure socket layer protocols. That means using webmail sites that start with https and email servers that support SSL.
Brian's article notes that gmail has a secure version simply by typing https:// before the address rather than just using www.
I tried this with my Internet providers, Pacific Internet and Bigpond, and found they support these protocols on their logins.
Interestingly, Bigpond's webmail reverts to standard http:// once you've logged in. I'm not sure this is a good thing and that's going to need a little more research.
I'm going to get into the habit of using https for all my webmail accounts. Naturally, you should always make sure financial websites always use https before you logon.
Stealing passwords is a big and lucrative business for the bad guys. Using secure websites reduces your chances of being a victim.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Printer cartridges
The news that the Cartridge World founders have sold 90% of their business for $60 million is great good news story for for an Australian IT company.
I have to admit I'm surprised at how well Cartridge World has done. I've always found customers to be sceptical of refilled and generic cartridges. However, given Cartridge World specialise in this field, it gives them a expertise advantage over the big chain stores, Australia Post and newsagents.
Mark Fletcher at the Australian Newsagents Blog mentioned yesterday how he's reducing shelf space for generic cartridges. I guess this shows how different markets buy through different channels. While someone who buys from the local newsagent wants the name brand, there is a big enough market to sustain a specialty refilling business.
Byran Stokes and Paul Wheeler deserve a real pat on the back for how well they've built this business. But I imagine a thirty million dollar payday will suit each of them just fine.
I have to admit I'm surprised at how well Cartridge World has done. I've always found customers to be sceptical of refilled and generic cartridges. However, given Cartridge World specialise in this field, it gives them a expertise advantage over the big chain stores, Australia Post and newsagents.
Mark Fletcher at the Australian Newsagents Blog mentioned yesterday how he's reducing shelf space for generic cartridges. I guess this shows how different markets buy through different channels. While someone who buys from the local newsagent wants the name brand, there is a big enough market to sustain a specialty refilling business.
Byran Stokes and Paul Wheeler deserve a real pat on the back for how well they've built this business. But I imagine a thirty million dollar payday will suit each of them just fine.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Bye bye Yellow!
After 12 years, I'm kissing goodbye to our Yellow Pages ad. For a service business a Yellow Pages ad is usually a good investment but I've decided to save 15k by skipping it this year. There's a number of reasons for this;
Lousy Service
A couple of days ago, our rep left a message "your deadline is approaching. Call me back because I'm too busy and won't get time to call you before the books close."
Great service I have to say, but given the way Sensis operate I can barely blame the poor girl.
I subscribe to the Sensis job alerts as I'm always hoping to find a corporate gig suited for a forty something nervous wreck who's been broken by customers.
I've noticed Sensis are constantly advertising for reps. It's not surprising they have to keep advertising given the job pays 58k if you make your targets. That is not good money for a barrel load of stress and a lot of hard work.
But that's a problem for the reps and their bosses. None of that would really matter if I were getting a good return. Sadly, the inquiries we get through the YP these days generally doesn't attract the right customers.
Customer types
In our line of work, the Yellow Pages attracts too many tyre kickers and too many panic merchants.
The panic merchants ignore strange noises and error messages until their computer blows up.
This usually happens at 3am the night before their tax return and their daughter's PHD thesis is due.
This of course wouldn't be so bad if the buggers wanted to pay for emergency service at 3am. But they'll either hang up when you tell them the price or never pay the bill.
Tyre kicking types might not ring at 3am, but they are a bigger waste of time.
A favourite trick of these folk is to make a booking then continue ringing around until they find someone cheaper. They then cancel your booking, often five minutes before the tech arrives.
Category Bloat
I've mentioned previously the Yellow Pages has too many categories. When you have to decide between seven different categories it becomes a gamble. Unless of course you want to spend 100k+ putting for a small ad in all seven.
Of course for some businesses, this is not a problem. Particularly if Sensis give you your ads for free.
The Yellow Pages is our competitor
Why give money to your competitor? Sensis bought their own IT support business, Invizage, a few years back.
Like The Trading Post it's gone nowhere since. But it still rankles me they decided to compete in my field. Even more so when their reps try to steal my customers during their advertising sales pitch.
I also bet Invizage get their quarter page display ads in twenty different categories for a good deal less than the millions of dollars it would cost me.
Price
The price is also a sticking point. It seems to jump every year and has always been my biggest single marketing cost. Although I don't begrudge that if it generates enough leads.
Clunky systems
For a company that claims to be at the forefront of Internet search and online services, their systems are a quaint throw back to the 1950s.
When you call them, you can't do anything until a rep spends some time with you. It seems their idea of selling is to make your head spin with different options.
The problem is small business owners simply don't have the time for this. If they made online ordering available. It would improve their service out of sight, be a cheaper channel and small business owners would jump at it.
They'd probably sell more too. I know plenty of business owners who would go mad optioning up their ads. They certainly do it when they order online with Dell.
Not only would they have lower costs, they'd have a higher sell through rate. They could also use their online service to push extras like Sensis Search and Invizage.
If they had a concept of service, they'd sell more, spend less and probably have fewer double handling and communication stuff ups.
I've always loved their idea of service. Visit their update your listing page. Not only do you have to call them, but the free and paid listing service hours and number are identical.
Good product differentiation there. I'm sure it's never occurred to their senior managers to give paying customers better support than the freebie customers.
It's a shame Yellow Pages can't do with a forty something victim of the IT wars. They might learn something.
But in the meantime, they'll have to do without my modest 15k for this year's ad.
Lousy Service
A couple of days ago, our rep left a message "your deadline is approaching. Call me back because I'm too busy and won't get time to call you before the books close."
Great service I have to say, but given the way Sensis operate I can barely blame the poor girl.
I subscribe to the Sensis job alerts as I'm always hoping to find a corporate gig suited for a forty something nervous wreck who's been broken by customers.
I've noticed Sensis are constantly advertising for reps. It's not surprising they have to keep advertising given the job pays 58k if you make your targets. That is not good money for a barrel load of stress and a lot of hard work.
But that's a problem for the reps and their bosses. None of that would really matter if I were getting a good return. Sadly, the inquiries we get through the YP these days generally doesn't attract the right customers.
Customer types
In our line of work, the Yellow Pages attracts too many tyre kickers and too many panic merchants.
The panic merchants ignore strange noises and error messages until their computer blows up.
This usually happens at 3am the night before their tax return and their daughter's PHD thesis is due.
This of course wouldn't be so bad if the buggers wanted to pay for emergency service at 3am. But they'll either hang up when you tell them the price or never pay the bill.
Tyre kicking types might not ring at 3am, but they are a bigger waste of time.
A favourite trick of these folk is to make a booking then continue ringing around until they find someone cheaper. They then cancel your booking, often five minutes before the tech arrives.
Category Bloat
I've mentioned previously the Yellow Pages has too many categories. When you have to decide between seven different categories it becomes a gamble. Unless of course you want to spend 100k+ putting for a small ad in all seven.
Of course for some businesses, this is not a problem. Particularly if Sensis give you your ads for free.
The Yellow Pages is our competitor
Why give money to your competitor? Sensis bought their own IT support business, Invizage, a few years back.
Like The Trading Post it's gone nowhere since. But it still rankles me they decided to compete in my field. Even more so when their reps try to steal my customers during their advertising sales pitch.
I also bet Invizage get their quarter page display ads in twenty different categories for a good deal less than the millions of dollars it would cost me.
Price
The price is also a sticking point. It seems to jump every year and has always been my biggest single marketing cost. Although I don't begrudge that if it generates enough leads.
Clunky systems
For a company that claims to be at the forefront of Internet search and online services, their systems are a quaint throw back to the 1950s.
When you call them, you can't do anything until a rep spends some time with you. It seems their idea of selling is to make your head spin with different options.
The problem is small business owners simply don't have the time for this. If they made online ordering available. It would improve their service out of sight, be a cheaper channel and small business owners would jump at it.
They'd probably sell more too. I know plenty of business owners who would go mad optioning up their ads. They certainly do it when they order online with Dell.
Not only would they have lower costs, they'd have a higher sell through rate. They could also use their online service to push extras like Sensis Search and Invizage.
If they had a concept of service, they'd sell more, spend less and probably have fewer double handling and communication stuff ups.
I've always loved their idea of service. Visit their update your listing page. Not only do you have to call them, but the free and paid listing service hours and number are identical.
Good product differentiation there. I'm sure it's never occurred to their senior managers to give paying customers better support than the freebie customers.
It's a shame Yellow Pages can't do with a forty something victim of the IT wars. They might learn something.
But in the meantime, they'll have to do without my modest 15k for this year's ad.
The most influential tech products of the last 25 years
IT Industry association CompTIA celebrated it's 25th anniversary with a survey of the ten most influential IT products of the last 25 years.
I'm wondering who voted for this. The list is bizarre.
My suspicion is whoever they asked confused popularity with influence. That can only explain Internet Explorer being more influential than Netscape Navigator.
Similarly voting Blackberry over Palm (or the Psion or Newton) and voting MS Word over WordPerfect seems odd to me.
The most bizarre thing about the list is they overlooked Microsoft Windows.
One of the things that always worries me about these surveys is we see the press release but we don't see the survey itself, particularly how it was done and who was asked. I'd love to see the raw data for this one.
I'm not sure CompTIA's done itself a favour with this. It's going to antagonise more people in the industry. I guess it will draw attention to them and maybe that's a good thing.
I'm wondering who voted for this. The list is bizarre.
My suspicion is whoever they asked confused popularity with influence. That can only explain Internet Explorer being more influential than Netscape Navigator.
Similarly voting Blackberry over Palm (or the Psion or Newton) and voting MS Word over WordPerfect seems odd to me.
The most bizarre thing about the list is they overlooked Microsoft Windows.
One of the things that always worries me about these surveys is we see the press release but we don't see the survey itself, particularly how it was done and who was asked. I'd love to see the raw data for this one.
I'm not sure CompTIA's done itself a favour with this. It's going to antagonise more people in the industry. I guess it will draw attention to them and maybe that's a good thing.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Microsoft Works to become free?
Are Microsoft responding to Google Apps with making MS Works free?
Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft will release the next version of Works for free and support it with advertising.
MS Works is a product I've always disliked. My main beef is that largely incompatible with MS Office with the exception of a period where Word was bundled into it, which they dropped two versions ago.
I'm not sure the last time I actually encountered amug customer who had paid for Works, usually it's thrown in as an extra by a vendor or salesman desperate to get it off their shelves.
However, one thing going for Works is that it is a far more powerful group of applications that Google apps.
Personally, if you don't want to buy MS Office, I'd go for Open Office or 602 Office over MS Works any time. But for free, it's certainly an alternative although it's probably less compatible with Office than OO.
The only thing I hope is they at least give the next version of Works the ability to save into MS Word, Excel and Access formats. If they did this, people might actually be prepared to buy it.
Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft will release the next version of Works for free and support it with advertising.
MS Works is a product I've always disliked. My main beef is that largely incompatible with MS Office with the exception of a period where Word was bundled into it, which they dropped two versions ago.
I'm not sure the last time I actually encountered a
However, one thing going for Works is that it is a far more powerful group of applications that Google apps.
Personally, if you don't want to buy MS Office, I'd go for Open Office or 602 Office over MS Works any time. But for free, it's certainly an alternative although it's probably less compatible with Office than OO.
The only thing I hope is they at least give the next version of Works the ability to save into MS Word, Excel and Access formats. If they did this, people might actually be prepared to buy it.
More Vista shame.
Following my rant about Hewlett Packard yesterday, I see Ed Bott gives a similar spray to nVidia today.
Ten pages of problems!?!
How on earth can a vendor release a product so buggy?
What's even more frustrating is one bug Ed discusses is at least six months old.
After twelve years of working in the consumer IT industry I shouldn't be surprised at how vendors treat their customers with contempt, but this surely is a low point.
The IT industry's failures with the roll out of Vista really make me wonder what the heck is going in the well paid boardrooms of these companies.
I wrote the Vista Hall of Shame on the PC Rescue website back in March. It seems I should have put nVidia towards the top.
It might be time to update that page.
Ten pages of problems!?!
How on earth can a vendor release a product so buggy?
What's even more frustrating is one bug Ed discusses is at least six months old.
After twelve years of working in the consumer IT industry I shouldn't be surprised at how vendors treat their customers with contempt, but this surely is a low point.
The IT industry's failures with the roll out of Vista really make me wonder what the heck is going in the well paid boardrooms of these companies.
I wrote the Vista Hall of Shame on the PC Rescue website back in March. It seems I should have put nVidia towards the top.
It might be time to update that page.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Keep it simple, stupid
I used to have respect for HP, when I was at uni their products stood for engineering quality and reliability. Twenty-five years later it's difficult to have any respect for a company that releases such bloated software.
A client yesterday asked me to set up an Officejet 7410, this is quite a good multifunction printer with wireless networking built in. The client couldn't get the printer to talk over his wireless network.
It only took a few minutes for me to get it right, but I work on this stuff all the time. The computer based options returned a "networking not supported function". I had to use the menu on the printer to setup the WPA security.
That in itself was a frustration, just to nark me more there was an irritating error in the HP Director software about an XML skin not being installed. This is just irrelevant fairy floss which I ignore but customers quite rightly worry about.
The fun really started when I went to set up the printer on another PC. The setup would go through three stages before returning a "the copy functions cannot be used" error.
Beauty.
All up it took me 45 minutes to install the printer. This is ludicrous for a simple, consumer product.
Some of the problem include their links not working on the support website, an estimated time of up to 35 minutes to install, a 240Mb download and installing the .Net framework.
Oh, and the thing requires a reboot every time the setup fails.
All this for a stupid bloody printer.
It only took a few minutes for me to get it right, but I work on this stuff all the time. The computer based options returned a "networking not supported function". I had to use the menu on the printer to setup the WPA security.
That in itself was a frustration, just to nark me more there was an irritating error in the HP Director software about an XML skin not being installed. This is just irrelevant fairy floss which I ignore but customers quite rightly worry about.
The fun really started when I went to set up the printer on another PC. The setup would go through three stages before returning a "the copy functions cannot be used" error.
Beauty.
All up it took me 45 minutes to install the printer. This is ludicrous for a simple, consumer product.
Some of the problem include their links not working on the support website, an estimated time of up to 35 minutes to install, a 240Mb download and installing the .Net framework.
Oh, and the thing requires a reboot every time the setup fails.
All this for a stupid bloody printer.
The key to reliable computing is to keep it simple. The failure of vendors to do this is the number one reason why consumers get upset and computers fail.
I've said before I'd like to see executives held responsible for their dodgy products. Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President of HP's Printing and Imaging group received three million dollars in options last year.
I'd like to see Vyomesh's bonuses tied to how long it takes his grandmother to setup one of his consumer products.
This is what I like about Apple; simplicity. Steve Jobs gets it, Vyomesh Joshi doesn't.Too many Geeks and Nerds
At a car park on Friday I noticed cars from SIX other support companies. That on it's own should show how crowded the IT support market currently is.
But I'm not cranky about the number of tech businesses fighting in the marketplace: It's about their names.
There's too many Geeks and Nerds: Geeks R Us, Geeks To The Rescue, Geeks On Call, Geeks Central, Geek Chick, Nerds Downunder, Corporate Nerds, Neighbourhood Nerds. I could go on and on and on with variations on this theme.
What these guys don't get is that the term "Geek" or "Nerd" is not a compliment. Some people get upset when they are called a nerd.
Quite rightly too. The term "nerd" or "geek" implies a sexually inadequate young man who gets off on fixing obscure computer problems. To the average person, this indicates your tech will fix your computer because they enjoy tinkering with computers, not because they want to get paid.
I'd suggest the computer tech industry is the only industry where the participants gleefully use a term that's an insult to them.
It's time to drop the "Nerd" and "Geek" names, they are lame and devalue your skills and services. Be proud of your talents and find a name that reflects what you do and the fact you do it well.
But I'm not cranky about the number of tech businesses fighting in the marketplace: It's about their names.
There's too many Geeks and Nerds: Geeks R Us, Geeks To The Rescue, Geeks On Call, Geeks Central, Geek Chick, Nerds Downunder, Corporate Nerds, Neighbourhood Nerds. I could go on and on and on with variations on this theme.
What these guys don't get is that the term "Geek" or "Nerd" is not a compliment. Some people get upset when they are called a nerd.
Quite rightly too. The term "nerd" or "geek" implies a sexually inadequate young man who gets off on fixing obscure computer problems. To the average person, this indicates your tech will fix your computer because they enjoy tinkering with computers, not because they want to get paid.
I'd suggest the computer tech industry is the only industry where the participants gleefully use a term that's an insult to them.
It's time to drop the "Nerd" and "Geek" names, they are lame and devalue your skills and services. Be proud of your talents and find a name that reflects what you do and the fact you do it well.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Don't let your kids use your computer
The US Congress' oversight committee held hearings on the security of Peer to Peer networking recently. This raised an issue that's bugged me for sometime about programs like Limewire.
Programs like Limewire automatically share parts of your "my documents" folder. For many people there's some pretty confidential information in there.
For business users this can have some pretty serious ramifications. The CNET article on this story has an example.
..the Department of Transportation experienced an incident in which an employee's daughter installed LimeWire on the home computer that her mother occasionally uses for telework--and misconfigured it in such a way that documents from the department and the National Archives were open to others using the network..
That's a pretty typical scenario for a home office or small business: The kids get on mum or dad's work computer and Very Bad Things Happen.
The moral here is to keep work and play computers separate. Make the kids buy their own computer and stick Limewire on it.
Programs like Limewire automatically share parts of your "my documents" folder. For many people there's some pretty confidential information in there.
For business users this can have some pretty serious ramifications. The CNET article on this story has an example.
..the Department of Transportation experienced an incident in which an employee's daughter installed LimeWire on the home computer that her mother occasionally uses for telework--and misconfigured it in such a way that documents from the department and the National Archives were open to others using the network..
That's a pretty typical scenario for a home office or small business: The kids get on mum or dad's work computer and Very Bad Things Happen.
The moral here is to keep work and play computers separate. Make the kids buy their own computer and stick Limewire on it.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Premium SMS scams
On the day the mobile phone industry celebrates the 15th birthday of the SMS, we find a premium rate SMS operator is fined $150,000 for spamming phone users.
This scam was an irritating little stunt where they'd call you and quickly hang up, leaving an "unanswered call" on your phone. When you returned the call you'd get a recorded message telling you that you'd won a prize and to call a premium rate phone number.
If you fell for this, you would then find that not only had you spent $15 to claim your prize, but also you'd subscribed to a pointless and expensive ringtone service.
DC Marketing is not alone in this sort of behaviour. In fact there are many operators who are far worse.
The attitude of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association is laughable. The chief executive, Chris Althaus, believes that 9,000 complaints in a six month period is simply because of new 3G services.
Exactly what 3G has to do with SMS scams is beyond me.
The ringtone and premium rate SMS industry has a serious problem. There's only so many morons who will spend hundreds of dollars a year on this garbage. By definition, those morons are easily parted from their money so competition for them is intense.
So the premium rate operators stoop to some pretty low stunts to trick people. One of the most common tricks is to offer a prize but bury deep in the small print that claiming it is agreeing to receiving two ring tones a week at five dollars a pop.
The worse ones just subscribe people who have never even rung the number. The first these people know of the scam is some charges on their bill.
Many victims of this found the response of Optus, Telstra and Vodafone was "discuss it with the spammer" despite the fact the victims often had no relationship with them and the scammers made it difficult, if not impossible, to talk to anyone.
The real disgrace here is the action was taken against one provider under the spam act. The real scammers should be feeling the heat of the ACCC, TIO and state police forces for the frauds that have been committed.
The phone companies should be copping some penalties too. They are complicit in this and profit very nicely from these scams.
Until the authorities start taking serious action, the premium rate SMS scams will continue.
Anyway, happy birthday to the SMS.
This scam was an irritating little stunt where they'd call you and quickly hang up, leaving an "unanswered call" on your phone. When you returned the call you'd get a recorded message telling you that you'd won a prize and to call a premium rate phone number.
If you fell for this, you would then find that not only had you spent $15 to claim your prize, but also you'd subscribed to a pointless and expensive ringtone service.
DC Marketing is not alone in this sort of behaviour. In fact there are many operators who are far worse.
The attitude of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association is laughable. The chief executive, Chris Althaus, believes that 9,000 complaints in a six month period is simply because of new 3G services.
Exactly what 3G has to do with SMS scams is beyond me.
The ringtone and premium rate SMS industry has a serious problem. There's only so many morons who will spend hundreds of dollars a year on this garbage. By definition, those morons are easily parted from their money so competition for them is intense.
So the premium rate operators stoop to some pretty low stunts to trick people. One of the most common tricks is to offer a prize but bury deep in the small print that claiming it is agreeing to receiving two ring tones a week at five dollars a pop.
The worse ones just subscribe people who have never even rung the number. The first these people know of the scam is some charges on their bill.
Many victims of this found the response of Optus, Telstra and Vodafone was "discuss it with the spammer" despite the fact the victims often had no relationship with them and the scammers made it difficult, if not impossible, to talk to anyone.
The real disgrace here is the action was taken against one provider under the spam act. The real scammers should be feeling the heat of the ACCC, TIO and state police forces for the frauds that have been committed.
The phone companies should be copping some penalties too. They are complicit in this and profit very nicely from these scams.
Until the authorities start taking serious action, the premium rate SMS scams will continue.
Anyway, happy birthday to the SMS.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Telstra offer a self install kit
Telstra have another crack at the small business market with a new offering.
AustralianIT reports that Telstra will be offering a small business network self install kit that includes a domain name, two managed Exchange mailboxes and a wireless router.
It certainly sounds like an interesting product. The small business market is seriously overlooked and this is the sort of product small business owners love.
I can see a few problems though; the cost of Telstra's plans, ongoing support and domain name problems.
Choosing domain names is going to be fun. A lot of small business owners don't understand the rules for choosing .com.au names and don't appreciate that most good dot com names are gone. I expect Telstra's support people will have some serious headaches with this.
The cost of Telstra's plans is another major drawback. Telstra are never cheap for Internet access and the proposed entry level plan of $55 for 500Mb of data is recipe for small business bankruptcy.
Ongoing support is the deal breaker here. Telstra's previous efforts in this field have left small business owners on hold and frustrated for many hours.
This product will take a lot of supporting and hand holding. To make it a success, they'll have to be sharp on both marketing and support.
Telstra's moves in the small business market are well worth watching. It looks like competition in this space is going to heat up and if Telstra can do it right, they'll be in the position to grab the best market share.
AustralianIT reports that Telstra will be offering a small business network self install kit that includes a domain name, two managed Exchange mailboxes and a wireless router.
It certainly sounds like an interesting product. The small business market is seriously overlooked and this is the sort of product small business owners love.
I can see a few problems though; the cost of Telstra's plans, ongoing support and domain name problems.
Choosing domain names is going to be fun. A lot of small business owners don't understand the rules for choosing .com.au names and don't appreciate that most good dot com names are gone. I expect Telstra's support people will have some serious headaches with this.
The cost of Telstra's plans is another major drawback. Telstra are never cheap for Internet access and the proposed entry level plan of $55 for 500Mb of data is recipe for small business bankruptcy.
Ongoing support is the deal breaker here. Telstra's previous efforts in this field have left small business owners on hold and frustrated for many hours.
This product will take a lot of supporting and hand holding. To make it a success, they'll have to be sharp on both marketing and support.
Telstra's moves in the small business market are well worth watching. It looks like competition in this space is going to heat up and if Telstra can do it right, they'll be in the position to grab the best market share.
You are not anonymous
The story that every single page of the latest Harry Potter book was photographed and posted to the web is fascinating on a number of levels.
First, who the heck has the time? This book has a lot of pages. Obviously some people at Scholastic have cushy jobs.
The more compelling point is the news that the poster didn't strip out their EXIF information before posting. This means the camera's maker and serial number are there for the world to see.
As the Electronic Frontiers Foundation points out, it's not just digital cameras that live your electronic fingerprints everywhere; mobile phones, printers and web browsers do a good job as well.
While it's not impossible to be anonymous it takes a lot of work. When I read some of the things people do on the net, I'm amazed they think they have some sort of anonymity.
First, who the heck has the time? This book has a lot of pages. Obviously some people at Scholastic have cushy jobs.
The more compelling point is the news that the poster didn't strip out their EXIF information before posting. This means the camera's maker and serial number are there for the world to see.
As the Electronic Frontiers Foundation points out, it's not just digital cameras that live your electronic fingerprints everywhere; mobile phones, printers and web browsers do a good job as well.
While it's not impossible to be anonymous it takes a lot of work. When I read some of the things people do on the net, I'm amazed they think they have some sort of anonymity.
Wireless USB is coming.
The news that Dell and Lenovo are releasing wireless USB equipped laptops will have those who hate cable clutter rejoicing.
Wireless USB is one of these technologies that's been promised for a long time but never seemed to arrive. With this announcement, it looks like USB devices without wires will be common by Christmas.
This is good news to a lot of computer users. Many people loathe the clutter that comes with a personal computer.
All these technologies have teething problems, so we'll probably see some frustrated people in the next few months. But as the prices drop and the technology is bedded down, we'll see more devices and more people buying them.
Wireless USB is one of these technologies that's been promised for a long time but never seemed to arrive. With this announcement, it looks like USB devices without wires will be common by Christmas.
This is good news to a lot of computer users. Many people loathe the clutter that comes with a personal computer.
All these technologies have teething problems, so we'll probably see some frustrated people in the next few months. But as the prices drop and the technology is bedded down, we'll see more devices and more people buying them.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Risks with wireless networks
George OU at ZD Net makes a point well worth considering about wireless hotspots.
"As ubiquitous and convenient as Wireless LAN Hotspots are, it is probably the single most dangerous technology to the mobile computer user"
He's right on the money. I've often wondered how many crooks have set up a honeypot of a free wireless access point to steal users data or passwords.
Another similar risk that's disturbed me for a while is how vulnerable many access points are. George illustrates this with the Wall of Sheep at the Defcon convention. For a competent but crooked tech it's easy to pick passwords up off a wireless network.
This is also a risk if you have unsecured wireless network, once someone is on it they can sniff out your usernames and passwords.
It's important to take care when you are using a wireless network. Like everything else on the internet; if you don't know them, don't trust them.
"As ubiquitous and convenient as Wireless LAN Hotspots are, it is probably the single most dangerous technology to the mobile computer user"
He's right on the money. I've often wondered how many crooks have set up a honeypot of a free wireless access point to steal users data or passwords.
Another similar risk that's disturbed me for a while is how vulnerable many access points are. George illustrates this with the Wall of Sheep at the Defcon convention. For a competent but crooked tech it's easy to pick passwords up off a wireless network.
This is also a risk if you have unsecured wireless network, once someone is on it they can sniff out your usernames and passwords.
It's important to take care when you are using a wireless network. Like everything else on the internet; if you don't know them, don't trust them.
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