Understanding Social Networking

I’m thinking about doing a short webinar on social networking. From talking to people that have attended a conference session, chamber of commerce event or webinar on this topic I’m hearing that the audience left confused or unclear about why they should care about social networking for their business.

I do quite a bit of webinars (usually 3-4 a month), speak at some conferences (usually 2-3 a year) and I spend a lot of my day every day chatting with business owners that happen to my clients. In my other business I spend time helping other IT consultants get through sticky problems, or define the problem and connect them to a member of my staff and I promote both businesses heavily using social networking.

So I thought I would give a stab at explaining social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging and old fashion mailing lists) to you, if you are interested. It really is changing the way that business is done. But maybe more importantly it’s changing the way that your future employees expect to work and do business. The line between personal and professional has been completely blurred with the personal taking precedence. It may seem counter intuitive but social networking over the Internet is making business personal. And it may even be breaking down the networking of old that took place at club, the golf course and in the fraternity/sorority. The playing field seems to be leveling.

Let me know if you are interested and if I get a few responses, I’ll put it together.  Replies should be posted to the blog: http://smalltechnotes.blogspot.com

Security Hole in the News. Should you worry?

No, but you should be careful.

The combination of North Korean supporters attacking government websites and Microsoft announcing a security hole has made for a media frenzy. But don’t let the media confuse you, they aren’t related.

The issue with the security hole is that a clever web developer can create an infected website hosting a video. If you visit the website with the infected video, it will infect you.

The SANS security institute (of which I am a member) is keeping a running list of which websites are infected. None of the commonly accessed websites are infected. In fact looking over the entire list, I can’t find anything that could possibly effect any client of ours. Here’s a sample of the types of websites we’re talking about.

www.7iai.cn
www.jazzhigh.com
www.netcode.com
6ik76.8866.org
76ith.8866.org
qd334t.8866.org
u5hjt.8866.org
vpsvip.com
x16ake8.6600.org
www.huimzhe.cn
www.hostts.cn
ucqh.6600.org
qitamove.kmip.net
news.85580000.com
guama.9966.org
dx123.9966.org
ds355.8866.org

 

How do you get to these crazy websites? The usual way. You open a spam email and click on the link therein. We know that you are all smarter than that.

There is currently a work around that will protect you from this infection but it’s one of those cases where the cure is worse than the disease. If we implemented the work around you would not be able to use any moving image in your browser. Since most news sites use these and since many of you visit CNN, Yahoo, ClickOnDetroit and other popular sites frequently we’d be crippling you if we implemented the work around.

When Microsoft releases a patch for the browser we’ll be sure to push that out as the permanent fix. Meanwhile we’ll be watching the list of infected websites.

Palm Pre

While doing my morning reading, I came across this from a fellow geek blogger.

The Palm Pre implementation for Exchange ActiveSync mail is completely unsuited for enterprise companies. There is no support for remote wipe, enforcing password policies,etc. In fact, if you currently force the acceptance of these policies, you will not be able to download mail to your Pre without an exception.

We often get asked which phone to buy. For the most part we don’t have an opinion. Exceptions though have always been the Palm based phones. It’s very disappointing me to that even though they have finally adopted the windows platform that they have failed to implemented basic security.

These policies are implemented by default on your server. The purpose is to protect your contact list, files, pictures and your phone in general from being used by who ever might pick it up, in the event that you lose it or leave it behind somewhere. If your phone is gone permanently, we can remotely wipe everything off of it.

This isn’t to say that we can make this phone work, we can. But it won’t be safe and it will require some additional work on the server. With so many other choices, our recommendation would be to choose any other phone on the market.

Small Business Servers get a mention in USA Today

Nice to see SBS catch a little fame. So many small business overlook it either because they have never heard of it or they don’t realize that it is jammed packed with many more features than standard server.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/2009-06-26-servers-for-small-business_N.htm

At some point, sharing all this information — let's use the geek term "data" — became incredibly clumsy. That's when I first got a "server" and our own company network. And I recently upgraded my server to Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 to get greater stability, more security features, and the ability to have my tech guy handle more maintenance remotely.

Windows7 – 50% off pre-orders

Microsoft is offering a good deal on Windows 7. If you anticipate that you’ll want to upgrade some of your PC’s whether at home or in the office then you should take advantage of the discount.

Limited time offer, just launched today! As a way of saying thank you to our loyal Windows customers, we are excited to introduce a special time limited offer! We will offer people in select markets the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at a more than 50% discount. In the US, this will mean you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for USD $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for USD $99.99.

Let us know if you would like to pre-order Windows7. The offer is good through July 12th and Windows7 releases on October 22nd.

Office for Home

A couple of people recently asked me where to buy Microsoft Office for their home computer. My stock answer is always CostCo or BestBuy because they will consistently have the best price on any random day.

But I wanted to point out an special advertisement that I got today from Amazon. Amazon usually has very good prices on most everything as well. Here it is:

Microsoft Home and Student edition is licensed in a unique way. It is limited to those computers that you have in your home and don’t use for business. (a laptop you use at work and home is counted as a work computer) As a reward though, it is licensed to load on 3 computers. So if you have 3 computers at home you only need to purchase 1 copy. Amazon doesn’t tell you that little juicy tidbit.

So if you have 3 computers, that’s $28.33 per computer for Microsoft office. You get Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote in this package. Not too shabby.

IT Training for the Unemployed

This is an announcement because it seems like a good opportunity. So if you’re an unemployed IT person and need to update your learning to current versions, or want to become one then please read on. If you know someone that could use this information please forward it on to them. This money isn’t going to last long.

(thanks for Detroit.net LinkedIn group for sending me this information)

There is a state grant that may be available to those who qualify who are unemployed.

You can potentially receive up to $10,000 for re-training if you qualify. But you need to make contact immediately (within the next couple of days). You have to get on the grant list potentially by Friday (6/12) in order for them to receive their money by the end of the month. If they can't talk to me by Friday, I can still help them, but it may take a couple more weeks to get funding.

New Horizons provides short term IT training programs (classes usually are 5 days long)

We include all books, pretests, and exams *YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TAKE THE CLASSES BACK TO BACK. - take a bit of time to study*

* CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Admin - 2 classes - 5 days total
* CCNP - Cisco Certified Network Professional - 4 classes - 20 days total
* Certified Ethical Hacker - 1 class - 5 days total
* CISSP - 1 class - 5 days
* MCTS SQL - 2 classes - 10 days total
* MCTS Sharepoint - 2 classes - 5 days total
* PMP - 1 class - 5 days total
* MCSA - 7 classes - 22 days total
* A+ - 2 classes - 8 days total
* Network+ - 1 class - 5 days total
* ACA Web Design - various
New Horizons does other various IT certs too, but there are too many to list. We also do classes in Medical Billing and Coding.
If interested, you should contact Christy Rowe at: 734-853-2077 directly or crowe@nhmichigan.com
They do accept NWLB/WIA/JET/WIA Youth (No worker left behind funding) as well as TAA/TRA funding.)

Bing: The new search engine in town

Like they did in the browser arena (remember Netscape?) Microsoft has found itself playing catch up again. This time it’s in search engine. Fortunately for Microsoft they are good at this game. The new search engine is called Bing. (www.bing.com)

So what’s different about Bing? At the bottom of the page you’ll see a question of interest, today is Get To Know your Food Pyramid. You’ll also see a list of top 5 searches, right now it’s National Doughnut Day, Belmont Stakes Entries, Buchenwald and Nenue Fish. (What’s a Nenue Fish? Maybe I should click to find out.)

When you do a search at the top will the latest new items for that phrase. For example, when I clicked on Nenue Fish, I quickly saw from the new headlines that it’s a fish in Hawaii that choked up a gold watch on the beach. Below the news items are the regular links to websites containing the search phrase.

There are a couple of new features that I like.

1. Fly outs. When I put in the search term, bowling, I get the usual list of bowling websites like I would expect. But next to the links there’s a little hover point that when I pass my mouse over, I get a fly out with more about what’s on that website. Below I ran my mouse over the hover point for the first link and I get the fly out you see. This is a huge time saver for me. Instead of clicking on links and waiting for the page to load, checking out the website and then going back to my search when the first link I click didn’t have what I want, I can get more of the information I need to make a decision from the fly out and spend a lot less time going from site to site looking for what I really want. Here I’ve got a fuller description, phone number, email address and links to other pages on their website.

2. Automatic Local Search. Over to the left I have a button called Local. Bing remembers where I am so when I press local, I automatically get results for bowling in Royal Oak, MI without even having to type it in. Complete with map and one-click directions.

3. Travel. When I type travel from Detroit to Seattle, I get the following as my first search result.

It’s smart. I knows that I mean I want to fly from here to there. This gives me a quick glance at flight costs. I get the least costly flight and a 7 day trend. Click those links and I get more information. I can even book my flight from here.

4. Maps. I’ve been using Microsoft Live maps for some time. I like the way that they are laid out and the additional information that they provide. Right on my map, I get traffic and construction detours. But more importantly, I get tips for finding my way like “Sunoco on the right corner” and “if the get to Glenview you’ve gone too far”. When I’m going to a new area this really helps me stay on the path.

So give a Bing a try. It’s difficult to change but it might be worth your while.

Windows 7 Release Candidate

Microsoft sent me 8 copies of Windows 7 the other day. If you have a geeky side and would like to install Windows 7 on your computer to play around with before it comes out, let me know and I’ll get one of these over to you.

It should be noted that this is the release candidate and being pre-release there will be no in-place upgrade to the final product. You’ll have to wipe out and start over. So it’s for experimental purposes only.

Ted’s been our early adopter and he loves it. He’s been running it since beta 1 which is probably a year ago by now. Diana actually runs Windows Server 2008 on her laptop and Vista and Windows 7 in a virtual environment within it. Are they geeks or what? :) But hey, that’s how we learn…on our own systems not yours.

There is no official release date yet for Windows 7 but it is anticipated that it will be available for the holiday buying season.

Request for Assistance

We need you to help test a new extremely economical backup system. We are looking for volunteers. There is no risk and it will not disrupt you current backup. If you are interested please contact either Amy or your technician.

Harbor Computer Services has entered into a beta testing agreement with Symform. I had the pleasure of meeting the brains at Symform on my last trip to Seattle. They asked to meet with me and all I was able to give them was 30 minutes in the hotel lobby while I waited to catch my shuttle to my flight home. What I saw in those 30 minutes absolutely blew me away.

Symform has create a completely revolutionary means of economically storing your backup off-site over the Internet. They have developed a system that completely eliminates the expense, risk and slow recovery time. I believe that their backup system will not just introduce the market to a new backup method but that it will disrupt and rock the establishment.

In order to properly test this new backup method we need to have at least 10 of our clients use it. We do not have to change anything about your current backup system, so there is no risk. The current backup will remain unchanged and will continue to work.

The only investment required is a USB drive that can remain attached to the server at all times. If you already own one, then we can use it; if you don’t one would need to be purchased. This test will run until September and there will be no service fee.

If our testing succeeds, then the price we expect to be able to offer for unlimited off-site backup of your data is $30 per month per server and $6 per month per workstation. Until now, we’ve not been able to touch off-site backup for less than $3 per GB. If you have 100GB of data, that’s $300 a month. See why I think this is going to rock the establishment?

Since there is no risk I hope that many of you will choose to participate. Please let us know as soon as possible.

Free Backup Software for Home

You may recall that a few months ago, I announced that I was serving on the Elite Technology Team (ETT) with GFI Security, Inc. The ETT is a board of advisors to the CEO and management team at GFI. As part of that effort and through the on-going changes and improvement at GFI as it relates to small and medium business, they acquired a company that produced backup software. The first release of this product under GFI, is a free version for home use.  

To assist home PC users in these troubled economic times and to help them understand the importance of data backups, GFI Software today announced the release of a free version of its newly-developed backup and recovery software GFI Backup 2009 – Home Edition. Perfect for home users, GFI Backup 2009 will allow all PC users to safeguard their precious memories in the form of pictures, video, Office documents and any files on the computer.

There will be a future edition of this product for small businesses. In the mean time you can use this version for free at home.

Get it here: http://www.gfi.com/backup-hm/free-backup-software/

I recommend that you backup your home PC to a USB drive.

New Remote Support Connection

Harbor Computer Services has changed remote support products. We will now be using NTR Global. NTR Global provides the same support opportunities that the previous solution did, plus a few additional features on the management end.

We have also taken in some feedback from clients that the previous URL for support was difficult to type. Previously we used the website provided by the support software, this time we have integrated it into our own website and purchased a shorter URL for you.

The URL for our support page is now http://harborsupport.net This is where you will enter in the code that your technician provides to you to allow them into your computer. Upon entering the code, an installation of the remote client will occur. When the session ends, the remote client is automatically uninstalled from your computer. This secures your computer and prevents remote access without your permission.

When you visit the site you will notice that it is actually just another tab on our corporate website, http://www.harborcomputerservices.net

We hope that this integration will make it easier for you to use.

More Powerful Local Marketing

This crossed my inbox this morning and I thought it was very appropriate and good news for us Michigan businesses. It turns out that the #1 thing that creates loyal customers is not whether you are local or not but how easy it is for them to resolve problems with your product. And that feature gives you an 18% advantage. Of course this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be shopping local; we’ve got to support our neighbors but what it does mean is that you can expand out of your local region and be successful.

What's 18% More Powerful Than Location in Local Marketing?

Conventional wisdom dictates that local marketing isn't scalable because proximity is the primary advantage of local suppliers. In the small business community, this just isn't true. While location is important, ease of problem resolution is a much stronger driver of local selection.

In a recent Warrillow survey, we asked small business owners to make trade-off decisions between benefits of local suppliers across dimensions like convenience, relationship, and community. As a group, convenience factors were a strong driver of local affinity, and fixing problems easily topped the list of convenience benefits. In fact, problem resolution was roughly 20% more powerful than proximity in small business owners' assessment of local strengths.

It's easy to see how proximity can mask the stronger driver of easy problem resolution – the two are complimentary in the mind of a small business owner. Don't let your lack of local presence blind you from the core issues of accessibility and fast problem solving. Business owners didn't get into business to navigate your internal help desks; don't make them spend a second more in queue, in line, or in process than is absolutely necessary.

 
Once you've got your service function in order, talk about it! But be warned, “Great customer service” is neither believable nor specific enough to drive home your ability to quickly solve problems. Quoting issue resolution turnaround times, accessibility options, and specific staff qualifications are much more powerful than watered down service claims in the small business marketplace.

p.s. If you’d like to subscribe to Warrillow’s newsletter you can and it’s free. Go to www.warrillow.com I find their information interesting and useful.

Conflicker. Scramble, Panic and Spending; It’s Embarrassing

On April 1, the Conflicker worm was supposed to do something and the news media hyped it up. It didn’t do anything. It is now but that’s not making the news. Real tech stories rarely make the news; they’re too boring.

I have to say that I’m upset with the scramble, panic and spending that occurred. Many IT companies saw this as an opportunity to make their clients spend money. They used the media flamed panic to fatten their own pockets. It’s embarrassing.  IT departments in larger companies fanned the flames of panic too, by working over-time, unplugging computers and not allowing remote workers to work during the “crisis”. That’s embarrassing too.

Why? Because it means that they weren’t doing their jobs. Our job in IT is prevention. The patch for the security issue that Conflicker uses has been available for nearly a full year. Every IT person that panicked is an IT person that KNOWS they’ve been slacking and putting the network at risk. That’s unacceptable.

I’m going to ask you for a favor now. If you know of a company that got Conflicker, if you know of a company whose IT person sent them into a panic over Conflicker, please refer them to us. We could use a few new customers and those are businesses that could use an IT professional that respects their business enough to care for it every day.

Mainstream Support Ends

This month, we pass a significant milestone for the 2002-2003 era products. Microsoft offers mainstream support for its products for 5 years. At the end of 5 years, the support scales back; at the end of 10 years support scales back again to almost nothing. This is not unique to Microsoft all software vendors have similar programs and restrictions.

The products that have fallen over the cliff into extended support are:

• Exchange 2003 & Outlook 2003
• Server 2003 & SBS 2003
• Windows XP
• Office 2003

You are probably using some of these. What we have lost for support options are some of the free stuff.

Requests to change product design and features

Non-security hotfixes

Complimentary support (phone and online support options) included with your licenses, licensing program, and other no-charge support programs

 

What this means in lay person terms is that if a feature stops working, whether or not it is due to a security fix, there will not be a repair for it; it’s just broke. We can also no longer call and get free support for issues with these products that do have fixes available. Support calls to Microsoft for these products cost $250 per question before 6pm and $500 after 6pm week days.

Why do software companies do this? Because things change. When these programs were written they weren’t designed to work with the current hardware; it wasn’t designed to tolerate other current software; there weren’t the same security issues that there are today and of course because they released new products a couple of years ago and so all of their support, engineering and development staff is focused there. Over time they lose the brain trust necessary to keep the old things working and you just can’t train new people on old stuff.

We’re still well versed in the old stuff but our job gets a lot more difficult when we lose vendor support and this results in an increase is associated support costs.

DreamSpark for Students

Bill Gates was the keynote speaker at this years Government Leader Forum. It’s one of those public-private partnerships. In his address he announced a huge new initiative: DreamSpark.

DreamSpark will provide any student with free Microsoft development software. The offering includes everything from web site, to SQL, to Game Studio. Then it goes one step further and offers vouchers for the certification exams that go along with each product so the student can prove they know what they know.

Bill Gates has always complained that there aren’t enough skilled developers. And he’s always preferred to hire people that are creative, and not necessarily holding degrees in computer science. That’s because software and website development is part skill and part art. If you aren’t an artist you’ll never be a good developer. It takes vision and creativity.

Students can sign up themselves but it would be better if the school they are going to participated in the program too. Here’s where they sign up.

Looking to sign your school up for DreamSpark?
DreamSpark High School provides professional level development and design tools to students enrolled in an accredited, secondary educational institutions at no charge. Register now and give your students access to all the great software and training DreamSpark offers.

• Sign Your School Up Now

.

Internet Explorer 8 – Released quietly

Internet Explorer 8 was released without fanfare. It’s a nice improvement in the browser experience. I’ve been on the beta version for what seems like forever and I am enjoying the new features. In this release of IE8 there are both user and administrator improvements.

Why such a quiet release? Probably because IE8 requires more processing power and some of the new features are dependent on web designers to implement. Because of the processing power requirements we’ll only be recommending IE8 for newer computers. Anyone with a newer computer should update right away. You’ll notice faster browsing and more stable web apps.

Here’s a quick look at what’s new:

Tabbed browsing: IE7 introduced tabbed browsing where each new page opens in a tab rather than in a new IE window. IE8 improves upon this by separating each tab into an individual process on the back end. This means that a single web application can fail or hang and all of the other tabs will stay running. No need to restart IE8, just reconnect to that particular site. 

Web Slices: A web slice is new programming concept whereby a portion of a website is available as a slice. Slices appear on your toolbar and receive updates as the website is updated. This will keep you from having to visit a website to get the latest update.

Here you see that on my toolbar Weather at 48073 is bold. A webslice becomes bold to alert you that there is new content.

When I click on the webslice I get the latest information instantly without having to visit the website.

Web Accelerators: A web accelerator is a type of shortcut to something you might want to do in another application with the content of a webpage. In this example, I’m visiting the Ford Field website because I want to get directions. I find the address on their website, highlight it and normally I would then paste that into another webpage, like yahoo maps. Cut and paste has been how we’ve gotten information from one application to another forever but now we have accelerators. So when I highlight the address text a little blue arrow appears letting me know that there’s an accelerator that might help me. In this case I right click and instead of just Copy, I also have Map with Live Search. When I choose that option a map appears for the address that I’ve selected.

And More: There are also many, many, many additional security features built-in. One of the most talked about is called In-Private browsing. In-Private browsing scared Google into creating their own browser. In-Private browsing prevents websites from tracking any information about you. Currently websites query your browser for information like where you were before you came to their website, what your IP address is, what browser you are running, what you recently search for, etc. Google depends on this information to make it’s advertising valuable to buyers. In-Private browsing also prevents you from tracking any information about what your employees have used your computer for. So if you have a problem with an employee spending time on personal email, facebook, myspace, ebay, or pornography you would have no way to prove it because the browser will not record any of it, as it does now.

In-Private browsing is off by default but anyone using IE8 can easily turn it on. This is meant to protect you but it can also be used for ill. Before installing IE8 then we will be asking you, if you want to allow your employees access to In-Private browsing. If you don’t we can make it unavailable by using Group Policy from the server.

 

This is just a quick shot of why you might like IE8. I think it’s a nice upgrade and has new features that everyone will enjoy. It’s faster than previous browser too. But you need a computer that is no more than 2 years old to run it. Otherwise the new security enhancements and stability features will overwhelm your computer.

We have moved

We have a new mailing address.

The new address is:

Harbor Computer Services

29488 Woodward Ave #450

Royal Oak, MI 48073

 

Please make a note of it and direct all future deliveries to this address.

Amy named to the GFI Elite Technology Team

Amy Babinchak and 12 others have been named to the GFI Elite Technology Team. (www.gfi.com) The Elite Technology Team is an international advisory board put into place to advise GFI as it repositions, markets and develops its product for the SMB space.

I’m very excited about this opportunity. Harbor Computer Services always makes a BIG effort to develop relationships with the major software vendors that our clients use and depend on. We believe that having a deep relationship within those companies results in the production of better software for our clients. Our weekly meetings with the CEO and other top management have proven to me that this company really wants to understand and meet the needs of the small business market. We’re in our second month of ETT meetings and action is already being taken by the various departments to make the changes that we’ve suggested. 

Bravo to GFI for creating the ETT. They are embodying the best of what we know software can be. I’m honored to be a member.

Whose the safest of them all? Michigan

According to NCDC (National Climatic Data Center) Michigan is the top ranked State for weather safety. Now I don’t know which of you can use this fact in your marketing but someone should. In fact, I’m going to send a copy to the Governor. In 2007 Michigan was the lone State in the lowest disaster category, in 2008 we had some flooding and so we’ve moved up a level but even so we’re still the lowest ranked State in the union. That means we’re #1.

The fact of the matter is that over the last 20 years Michigan has suffered fewer disasters than any other State. Why is this important? Because it means we’re a safe place to store important things and from here you have the best chance at making sure important things get done on time and here you have the best chance at not losing a big investment from natural causes. So if what you do is important to someone, then Michigan is the place they want it done. Don’t forget to let your customers know that. Here they have the least chance in the whole Country of having that important work being disrupted. Work gets done on time and without disruption in Michigan.

We also have a great reliable underused telephony infrastructure (read fast and reliable internet and communications), a lot of engineers looking for jobs, plentiful office, warehouse and manufacturing space and excellent Universities. What does that add up to? Tech. High-Tech. They should be moving here in droves. Are they?

According to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation:

The study reveals that 79 percent of all students who graduate with a high-tech degree from Michigan universities choose to remain in Michigan as they begin their careers. These facts blast a hole through any anecdotal perceptions that our high-tech graduates are fleeing the state. One revealing statistic from the study is that 55 percent of out-of-state students who come to Michigan and graduate from high-tech programs at our universities choose to remain in the state as they begin their careers. Michigan is one of only 11 states that can claim this high of a retention rate.

• In early December, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams to Michigan State University in East Lansing. The particle accelerator is expected to bring 400 jobs and $1 billion in economic activity to our state. The $550 million project could become a focus of research for as many as 1,000 scientists worldwide. They'll examine the forces that bind atoms, discover new particles and their quirks and help explain the very nature of stars and the universe.
• The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor announced plans to buy the nearby, now-empty, 30-building Pfizer Inc. research campus for $108 million. If the deal is closed in June, as projected, it would create 2,000 jobs - many of them laboratory jobs in drug and medical research.
• …the development of a new $54 million movie production facility to be built in Pontiac as part of an ambitious and costly plan to build a film business amid the ashes of the auto industry. The studio -- to be built in a shuttered General Motors Corp. facility -- is expected to create about 3,600 new jobs, marking one of the most audacious attempts by a state to attract new industries by offering generous tax incentives.

For my part, I’m attempting to talk a couple of my friends that own data centers to build their next one in Michigan. Calfornia? Texas? Florida? I don’t think so, companies should want their data in Michigan. We got bright people to run them, ample facility space and we’re safe, safe, safe.

Windows Home Server…not just for houses

Last year Microsoft released a new product called Windows Home Server. We saw the potential immediately for this really cool new mini-server and offered it to solve some immediate problems for a few our smaller clients.

Here’s what Windows Home Server can do for businesses:

• Provide a place to store files
• Provide remote access to your work PC
• Centralize your data for backup
• Backup all of the PC’s and MACs
• Help keep everything up to date

That’s a lot of benefit for $600-$800. It has a hard limit of 10 users, no e-mail server, no fax server, no super secure firewall, no detailed security for files, no intranet, no webmail, no active directory, no group policies, no logon scripts…but if you are a company with fewer than 10 users in a business without any software that requires a server to run on, then this is the server you’ve been waiting for. What it does, it does really well and that’s all some folks need.

Hewlett Packard is making the best ones right now. This is a departure from our usual Dell recommendation, but we always go with the best, so HP it is. Home Server arrives pre-installed and there’s little customization that can be done. It’s an appliance type installation, like your xbox, playstation or cable box. It comes ready to roll. All we have to do is connect your PC’s to it, setup the backup, move the data and you’ve got a server.

This product really fills a gap that has existed for a long time. Previously the only solution we had to offer was Small Business Server, but even that was over kill for many 3 person firms. Now we have a better solution. A server that provides the services a small company needs.

p.s. we’ve begged Microsoft to change the name: first server, micro server, really small business server…anything but home server.

HCS Wins MS Partner Award

Today we were informed that Microsoft has chosen to recognize us for our outstanding growth in the last quarter of 2008. Everyone here pulled together to make that happen and it was certainly a lot of work.

Congratulations!! Harbor Computer Service is being recognized as the winner of the Heartland Area Partner VAR Open Growth Award. This award recognizes you for your strong contributions to Microsoft.

As an award winner you will receive an award with inscription of your partner organization name, and category of the award. 

To be honest what allowed this to happen was actually Microsoft themselves. They put forth some promotions like they always do. I talked to our TPAM (telephone partner account manager…telephone because she’s in the Dakotas somewhere so we never get to see her) and told her what we wanted to do. She set us up with Microsoft’s local marketing team and then we ran our plan with both of them helping us along the way. We had them help us build quotes, they ran a seminar for us, they answered our questions constantly and in general supported us all the way. They were great cheer leaders too.

We really appreciate their support of our little business. Thanks, Microsoft team.

The Dell Outlet

Shopping at outlet stores is an excellent way to save money and the Dell Outlet is no exception. You never know what’s going to be there, there are no custom builds and if you don’t buy it right now it’ll be gone in 15 minutes but you’ll save about 30% off of the purchase. If you know exactly what you’re looking for, it can work. Outlet shopping is only for those that don’t need our help. The time limit so tight that you need to be the self-service type.

Here’s how you use the Dell Outlet

1. Figure out exactly what you need before going to the outlet.
2. Visit www.dell.com/outlet
3. Search for the computer you need by model.
4. Select 1 other sub-category. I usually choose ram or processor speed.
5. Sort the list by what ever makes sense to you.
6. Click on the service tag number to view the specifications.
7. Add your finalists to your cart. This lets you reserve them for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes they’ll go back into the pool. You only have 15 minutes to make your purchase.

You get a full warranty with outlet items. In the outlet are several types of items: scratch and dent, returns, ordered but never paid, and off-lease. Ordered but never paid are the ones you’re looking for. Dell built the box, but the order fell through. No one has touched these and now they are on sale!

I received a extra discount code today that I want to share with you. First come, first served. I only have 1 for each category and it can only be used once. So if you are planning to make a purchase, e-mail me to see if the code is left for that item. (Some of you may have also received codes from Dell. If you did and you don’t plan on using it, please pass it along.)

The codes are for an additional 15% off: Studio Laptop, XPS Desktop, and Inspiron Mini.

Alert: Conflicker and AntiVirus2009

There are currently 2 nasty infections going around for which we have just implemented an additional security measure to protect you from.

Conflicker is a worm. A worm travels from computer to computer and infection occurs without intervention from the user. This worm takes advantage of machines that are  not patched or systems with weak firewalls. Another way infection can occur is via an infected laptop that has been out of the office, then brought back in. Or an infected USB stick, USB drive that was used outside of the office and brought back in. Defending against internal threats is extremely difficult.

AntiVirus2009 is a malware application. It requires user interaction to be installed on your computer. The user must choose to install it. AntiVirus2009 uses social engineering and computer illiteracy to trick people into agreeing to the installation. The trick is always the same. When you visit an infected website a box will appear claiming that your computer is infected and ask your permission to “clean it”. In fact, what happens is that the AntiVirus2009 application is installed and your computer becomes unusable shortly thereafter from the sheer volume of junk that it puts on your computer. The best defense against this one, is to never click on a pop-up. Call us, if you have a question or close the browser.

To add an additional layer of defense from these threats reaching you from the outside, we’ve enable Phish (pronounced fish) filtering in OpenDNS. OpenDNS is the service that is currently providing name resolution for you when you want to visit a webpage. Phish filtering will prevent access to websites that are known to be infected. If you find that you have been prevented from accessing a particular website, please let us know so can evaluate this success of this program.

Be careful out there.

“the cloud is broken”

To steal a phrase, “the cloud is broken”. Or rather it was broken yesterday…all day.

We’ve been users of Quickbooks Online edition since its release back in 2002, I think. When I called in a couple of days ago to add another company to our account, the rep said “wow, I think you were one of our very first customers”. Yes, probably. It’s my job to live on the bleeding edge so my clients don’t have to.

When our network goes down it does so in a blaze of glory. When our backups fail they do so in a spectacular manner. I always have some experiments running here, so we don’t have to experiment on our clients like some other firms do.

The adoption of “cloud computing” is something that we’ve been doing here for a very long time. Since 2002 in fact. We pioneered Quickbooks online services, off-site backup, hosted anti-spam services, Internet file and folder sharing, etc. But you’ll notice that we don’t recommend much of it. In specific individual cases, it works well. But there’s an evil side to letting someone else be in charge of your applications – the service provider.

Let’s look at a couple of examples: Yesterday Quickbooks Online was down all day. This was an annoyance for me and my company but it wasn’t critical. This is why having my accounting in the cloud works for me. But what would happen to you, if you couldn’t access your accounting application all day on February 2nd? This happened to be the last day that 1099’s could be filed. It was not a good day for procrastinators.

Another (nameless so I don’t get a cease and desist letter) hosted accounting provider decided last year, during tax season that THIS would be a good time for a major application upgrade. Makes sense to them I suppose because it has new features that they knew their customers wanted. It made NO sense to the customers who in the middle of tax season had to stop and learn how to do things in the new application.

A (nameless) insurance application provider thinks it’s a good idea to hold their customers hostage. Customer: “we need to get a copy of our data because we’ve decided to move to another application”. Hosted Application Provider: “I’m sorry we’re unable to give that to you at this time.” Translation <insert evil laugh>, we’ve got you and we’re not letting you go.

So let’s sum up. Using the cloud for applications instead of having them onsite means that sometimes your accounting application will disappear, it will be updated to the new version when it is least convenient for you and when you’re sick and tired of dealing with them, you’ll be unable to change providers.

Now I’m not saying that cloud computing is going to fail. Some providers will figure out how to provide great services, while protecting your data, giving you access to it at any time and putting you in control of scheduling but they haven’t yet. So for now, cloud computing only makes sense in special cases where the downsides are tolerated because of factors internal to your business processes.

Go Green!

Being an MSU grad I love to say that, especially if there are UoM people around. Even better if they are football fans. :) But this is a discussion about saving money. We’re going to have lots of these this year.

The kick off was in December when I let you know about the Free Quickbooks Pro 2009 offer. I know some of you took advantage of it and let me know that you did. I appreciate the feedback. That’s a $199 savings per user so we’re off to a good start in 2009!

Now let’s talk about electricity. I’m only going to talk about computer equipment but the discussion applies equally well to every power consuming thing in your office. If you leave them on, here’s what each item is costing you every year.

Let’s do some math and assume a 10 user company with LCD monitors for nice round numbers.

Cost when left on: $1629.30

Cost when unplugged: $135.80

Savings: $1493.50

Sounds difficult to unplug your computer and monitor, doesn’t it? But it’s not. Look under your desk. Odds are that your computer, monitor and everything else that is using power is plugged into a power strip. Turn off the power strip and you’ve turned off power to everything.

The bad news about Laser Printers is that they use 80-90% more power than InkJets do. So don’t forget to power off those printers too.

Some more food for thought

New Computers vs Old Computers

New computers are being manufactured to use less power. A new computer from Dell uses 70% less computer today than it did in 2000. When you purchase a new computer, you’ll not only gain in productivity but you’ll notice a quieter work environment and lower electricity bills.

Want to know more? There’s a nifty product out there called Kill-a-Watt. It’s simple. You plug it into the wall. You plug your equipment into it and it will display for you how much power that item is using. It’s only $29 and it provide a wealth of information and a cool tool to help communicate the message of conservation to your employees.

Thanks for being a Harbor Computer Services customer.

Blackberry Storm

Rarely do we come out and say, don't do this. But this case we need to make an exception. The exception is Blackberry. While they make a great Enterprise phone solution and a pretty darn good single phone solution, they really don't have a good small business solution. They have 3 options for small business and all of them have major draw backs.

I also want to draw particular attention to the Storm. This is the new touch screen Blackberry that is advertised on billboards all over town. It looks like an iPhone. It looks pretty cool, but the technology was released a bit early. I'm seeing pleas for help all over the newsgroups, articles and blog posts are full of issues and important missing features.

Screen doesn't lock when in a call

The not-so perfect Storm

From the newsgroups: Requires firmware upgrade to fix initial problems at release, unable to use e-mail signature, really poor battery life, keyboard difficult to get used to.

From local usergroup: Purchaser reported that he had to take it back 3 times to get one that worked. Once he did, he immediately sold it because he no longer trusted it.

I'm sure RIM will get those resolved eventually and make the Storm live up to its promise, but I haven't heard anything about making the Blackberry a great small business solution yet. There are better choices out there. Ask us which phones have the fewest issues and the lowest support costs. We see most of them.

Teaching at Baker College

I will be teaching a course a Baker College in Auburn Hills this winter in ISA. In addition to the prescribed curriculum I intend to bring real world experience into the classroom. So students will learn not just the what, but also why and when to apply a particular security solution. ISA is a very flexible product as such it can be used as a club or with finesse. :) I hope that the students will leave the classroom with a sense that not only is ISA a great firewall but it is a great business tool as well.

I'm really looking forward to helping bring qualified IT people into the area in the hope that they will be able to think "business" as they apply their IT solution. The market is currently flooded with bad IT people that either want to put every business into the same mold, have skills that are far out of date or have no head for business what so ever. In this little way, I hope to change that.

Looking Forward to 2009

I used to post positive news notes in the invoice cover letter. I got a lot of comments on those...all positive. In the darkest days it is nice to find the silver lining. Media loves to sensationalize and right now there's nothing they like to talk about more than the demise of manufacturing and the collapse of the American economy. You wouldn't know it from listening to the news but there are good things happening in Michigan. In fact we've even been named State of the Year! Where's the media coverage?

So in keeping with my tradition of looking on the bright side, I went out in search of good business news. If you need a pick me up, as you look to the new year, try these articles:

GM may be talking a lot about their electric vehicle but Ford's Fusion hybrid is ready for spring production and with second generation technology. Ford hybrid expected to get 41 city m.p.g. 

Electric Car Battery Production Coming to Michigan? New Tax Incentives Approved During Lame Duck Session Could Make it a Reality.

Start-up lightweight hybrid bus manufacturer, Fisher Coachworks, will invest $7 million in three Michigan-based manufacturing facilities and create more than 500 Michigan-based jobs.

S3 creates $10 million financing fund for film. The money can be used for a broad range of needs, such as renting film equipment. S3 supplies numerous production services and equipment to filmmakers. It has worked on a number of major films shot locally, such as Gran Torino, The Butterfly Effect 3, Whip It! and Youth in Revolt.

Global Wind Systems is getting a $32.3 million start in Michigan, a five-year investment that positions the wind turbine system manufacturer to be one of the state’s leading alternative energy manufacturers.

The company that is now Great Lakes Recycling completely reinvented itself a little more than two years ago. Since then the Roseville-based firm, which traces its roots all the way back to 1927, has added about 100 people to its payroll and taken on two new facilities.

Amy's note: Great Lakes Recycling holds a special place in my heart. Back in the mid-1970's I didn't have a paper route, I had a newspaper recycling route! I collected newspapers until there was enough to fill my mothers HUGE Cadillac trunk and then she would drive me up to Great Lakes in Roseville, from Harrison Twp. to cash them in. I'm really glad to see them still doing well.

Business Facilities, a corporate site-selection magazine, named Michigan the 2008 State of the Year for its development projects. The dovetailing of 10,000 new jobs and nearly $14 billion in corporate investment leads to a blowout victory for Michigan, our 2008 State of the Year.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Quickbooks Pro 2009 - Free Monday Only

To help small business owners grow and run their companies, Intuit will offer the Windows version of QuickBooks Pro 2009 for free* at all Staples stores on Monday, Dec. 22, for one day only.

Why? This effort originally started out as a small test, but Intuit decided to expand the offer. Intuit wants to help small businesses through tough economic times.

The Meaning of "Free"

It works like this:

• The regular price at Staples is $199.99.
• The customer will receive $40 in instant savings.
• The customer at the store will receive a $159.99 mail-in rebate form.
• When the customer mails in the rebate form they will receive, some weeks later, a rebate for $159.99.
• Once the customer obtains the rebate, their base costs are zero: $199.99 - $40.00 - $159.99 = $0.
• The buyer may still be responsible for sales tax at the time of purchase; sales tax is not free.

Here is a link to the promotional advertisement.

You can find the nearest Staples store at www.staples. com or buy on-line. I would recommend getting there early. There's bound to be a line.

Learn more about Quickbooks Pro 2009.

Client Data Review in QuickBooks 2009 saves you hours of drudgery by automating many aspects of clean-up chores. Learn more here.