Windows XP: It Was a Good Long Life

Windows XP arrived on the scene in 2002. 12 years is an unheard of life span for a supported operating system but its time has come to an end and the malware writers are really, really excited. They are excited about the opportunity presented by having an in production operating system that never gets another security update. A noticeable lull has occurred in new attacks and new security discoveries in Windows XP. The thought is that they are being held back until after the OS is no longer supported so that there will never be a fix for the issue. The same thing happened with Windows 98. Studies showed that after Windows 98 was out of support that is took about 12 minutes of Internet access before the machine was infected. We can expect the same thing to happen with XP.

Here’s what we need to do:

• Replace any XP computers with new ones
• Those that cannot be replaced must not have access to the Internet at all

Among our clients we see very few XP computers left. Those that are left fall mainly into the category of machine controllers or thin clients.  Thin clients can continue to be used because they are locked down from change and don’t directly access the Internet themselves. This makes them more resilient to changes over time and we can just keep those in place. For machine controllers we need to lock them down so that they have no Internet activity at all on them. This means no email, no internet and only the very limited function that they must do in order to run the machine that they are connected to. Any other functions must be moved off to another more modern operating system.

This won’t eliminate the possibility of infection but it will greatly lessen the chance. Infections today are mostly network aware which means that if they can get a foothold on your network the next thing they will do is look for additional computers to infect. They may even specifically look for XP computers.

What happened to make XP more vulnerable? It just got old. The security and OS design that was state of the art in 2002 isn’t even close today. We’ve reached the point in time where the code in XP just can’t be secured. It doesn’t have the capability because the technology to protect it didn’t exist at that time. So the code can’t be secured.

If we haven’t talked about securing your XP computers yet, let’s make sure that we do soon. That April 14th date is going to get here sooner than we realize.

--Amy Babinchak, Harbor Computer Services

Digital Signage and Eliminating Projectors

We’ve been hearing from our clients that digital signage is of interest. Some want it for the visitors lobby to display company information. Some want it to do double duty as a presentation screen too. We have some good news on both fronts.

Digital Signage: Having seen the digital signage solutions being offered in the market by audio/visual specialists and the prices they are charging for such a simple technology we thought we might be able to do better while bringing the technology into range for even our smallest clients.  After some investigation I hit upon the kit computer called Raspberry PI.

The Raspberry PI is a very small but powerful device. The cap in the picture is for scale. The PI measures about 4”x2”. It uses a memory card like the one in your digital camera to house its memory, storage and operating system. It has an Ethernet port to receive data and an HDMI port to display data. It is very low power and can be powered by a powered USB port or a USB charger. (again like your phone) We load the operating system and software into the memory chip and then mount the device onto the back of any TV/Display with an HDMI port. Next through a subscription service we upload the data that it will display. We expect it to cost about $20 a month including data hosting. We’ve also partnered with Samsung for display discounts. They promise better than direct pricing but that doesn’t necessarily translate to better than Best Buy. As usual we’ll recommend the best option for you.

p.s. We’ve dog fooded this technology here in our office and it’s been running now 24x7 for last few weeks flawlessly. So were ready to deploy yours.

Eliminate Projectors in Your Conference Room: This topic dovetails nicely with the first one because it is dependent on the display that you purchase. Microsoft has announced that one of Windows 8.1 new technologies is something they are calling Miracast. In short this is wireless display technology. All you need is a Windows 8.1 (if you have Windows 8, then 8.1 is a free upgrade) and a projector or display that supports Miracast. Since Windows 8.1 releases in August I wouldn’t buy a display now that doesn’t support it. Hip, hip, hurray! No more cables and someday no more projectors. It seems likely that you’ll need cables and projectors around for a while yet since you are likely to get visitors that don’t have Windows 8.1. But even so, the future is here and this feature in particular has been a long awaited one.

-Amy

Sea Change for Desktop Computers

Last week Intel made a major announcement that has been largely ignored by the general media. Probably because they don’t understand the significance. Intel announced that it will phase out production of desktop system boards and will exit the market entirely in three years. Thus marks the final release of system boards for desktop computers.

There are other manufacturers of system boards for desktop computers and Intel will continue to make high-end boards for engineering, cad and graphics computers but the golden age of the individual desktop is ending. The other manufacturers in this market make products that don’t compare to the quality of Intel. They are ASUS and a whole host of other Korean manufacturers. Of the bunch ASUS is the best but even so it’s a big step downward.

As a result of this announcement some PC manufacturers have announced that they will cease production of computers. Infotel in Ohio is one of them. They were a supplier to CDW, Global, and TigerDirect and a Fortune 1000 company. They aren’t going out of business just out of part of the market. Dell is also rumored to be soon to follow. Our supplier Equus plans to continue to offer desktop PC’s but obviously the internal components are going to change and the selection significantly diminished.

All of this seems rather surprising since you probably have a desktop computer in your house and at the office. But you probably also have a laptop, smart phone, netbook or tablet computer. Computers are getting smaller and individual customization is diminishing. But suddenly everyone has multiples of devices.

We smelled the change coming and so have been installing and recommending remote desktop environments for years. We installed our first in back in 2000. It was cutting edge at that time. Now it’s common place. The replacement of PC’s with thin clients, zero clients, something Intel will soon release called NUC and remote work applications is now inevitable. If you haven’t yet had a meeting with us to discuss a future implementation of terminal services or multipoint you will. They bring the promise of work anywhere from any device in any location to reality. Meanwhile the desktop computer requirement drops significantly from $800-$1200 per desk to $100-$400 depending on the power required for graphics. Some of that is traded off with the server implementation but then there’s compensation for that in form of reduced support costs and a much lower electric bill. Over the ROI is excellent.

With change always comes a certain amount of pain and lack of planning makes change more painful and expensive. So the time is now to talk about making a change, planning for the change and phasing in the change to make it most cost effective for your business.

- Amy

Floods in Thailand

It turns out that the world is flat, or at least it is in many aspects other than physical. You may have heard that Thailand is flooding in a big way. People are displaced. People are dying. Perhaps you felt bad for those people but didn’t think the flood would effect you and your business. This is not an area that normally floods. Much like the middle of our own Country that experienced floods last year, these floods aren’t supposed to be happening. In addition to personal horrors businesses are suffering as well.

The two largest suppliers of hard drives, Western Digital and Seagate, have major operations in Thailand right in the flood zone. The news isn’t good for buyers.

Western Digital, which has been our preferred brand for years, is in particularly bad shape.

• Two factories which produce 60% of WD's drives are flooded and are not expected to be back online until Q3 of 2012.
• Q4 2011 shipments are expected to be less than half of Q3 2011 shipment numbers.
• Shipments to distributors have been stopped.  All product in the pipeline is being redirected to WD for allocation.
• Pricing on the existing inventory in the channel has jumped 45-60%.

Q3 2012 is a full year down the road. That’s how bad the flooding is.

Seagate isn’t in as bad as shape, but it is still a very bad situation with limited availability of hard drives.

• One HDD factory and most HDD component suppliers are in the flood area.
• Q4 shipments are expected to drop at least 10%.
• Scheduled shipments to distributors have been de-commited pending an allocation plan.
• Pricing on existing inventory in the channel has jumped 38 to 58%.

Seagate uses the term de-committed as opposed to stopped. To me, it’s the same thing. Distributors are unable to fill orders. Seagate has also not issued any estimate on when they expect to be back in full production.

These are not the only hard drive manufacturers to be suffering from the floods. Pretty much all hard drive components are manufactured in this area, so this effects everyone. These are small companies, more nimble perhaps in their own region but unable to shift production to other regions.

I’m expecting prices to continue to climb, especially after the end of this year. Next year hardware prices should be significantly higher than they are now. We will keep an eye on the situation for you and make recommendation accordingly.

New Intel Tablet

It’s not often that I hype a product but then I’ve never really been in love with a computer before. You probably read that our love affair with Dell has ended and Equus as an Intel builder is our new friend.

One of the things that first brought them to my attention was the Intel Tablet Netbook. It’s small; it’s a tablet; it’s water resistant; it’s shock proof; it has an anti-microbial keyboard'; it’s got 7 hours of battery life and it has a handle. It runs Windows 7 and has a TPM chip which will allow us to encrypt the entire hard drive so no one will be able to read your files if it is stolen. There’s a camera that flips around to let you record what you are seeing. Did I mention it’s a tablet? You can take written notes on it. I’ve been waiting a long time for this. I bought one and I love it.

If this sounds like you, we can get you one. It comes in at just under $700 with 2GB of RAM and the 3 year warranty.

Life without Dell

“Dell Inc. will spend $3.9 billion for the technology services company Perot Systems Corp. in an attempt to expand beyond the PC business”

“Dell's purchase of MessageOne, coming on the heels of its acquisition of EqualLogic in November, may signal that the manufacturer is looking to build its own storage brand…”

“Dell Computer has acquired privately-held Plural Inc., a Web application development and services company…”

“Dell has completed the acquisition of Everdream, a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for remote-service management, providing Dell with an expanded presence in the rapidly growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-enabled managed services market….”

I could go on and on posting news snippets from the last two years that demonstrate Dell’s progress out of its core business of providing great PC’s and Servers to businesses. Dell has purchased 10 companies all of which have nothing to do with making a good computer for you.

Dell has also reduced the sales and support for partners like Harbor Computer Services. Whereas, we used to have a team at Dell that was dedicated to helping us get you the best configuration for the specific needs of your business, we no longer have that team. Support for business sales is dismal and is moving in the direction of Dell’s customers support – off shore and disinterested.

Recently Dell moved it’s assembly plant from Texas to Mexico. With this move, Dell is no longer able to provide shipping time estimates for custom products. Our customers have experienced month long wait times and this unfortunately isn’t something that Dell intends to fix. It in in fact part of their plan to move away from providing custom computers for business needs.

Given the problems we have been experiencing, coupled with the news that Dell is moving its focus away from building great PC’s and Servers, we have decided to begin the move away from using Dell products. After significant research and agonizing over loosing a long term supplier, we have made our selection. We have been a HUGE Dell fan in the past, so this decision was not taken lightly or quickly – it has in fact been somewhat painful.

Our new preferred partner is Equus. Equus is an American business with 100% of its assembly, support and service in the USA. They build computers from Intel components. They are Intel’s 7th largest customer. They have been in business for 21 years. They are employee owned. They have an office in Novi and are headquartered in Minneapolis. We are confident that we have found the right hardware supplier. 

Building computers is what Equus does. Support partners like Harbor Computer Services is all that their support department does. They are good at what they do and have been well respected in the industry for many years.

We hope that you will move along with us in the transition from Dell to Equus. We will still be able to obtain Dell equipment for you, but we no longer feel confident in recommending them as the preferred solution. Ted, Diana and Amy can answer any questions and address concerns that you may have. Change is difficult and uneasy but sometimes necessary. This is one of those cases.

When to choose a Netbook or Mini

Small computers are all the rage. Everyone thinks that they want one but before you go out and make the purchase you really need to stop and think whether this mini-computer is going to do what you need.

What NetBooks are and are good at:

• They are a small laptop computer, usually with a 10” screen and miniaturized keyboard
• They usually run Windows but some are also running Linux
• They usually have very long battery life. 3-8 hours
• They are best used as a companion computer
• They are great for reading email and working for short periods of time.
• They are inexpensive ($300-$600)

What NetBoks are not good at:

• They are not easy to use for a long time. The screen is small and the keyboard is small
• They are not very powerful. Your applications won’t perform the same. It will be slower.
• They do not have DVD drives (usually)

So why might you want to get one?

• It’s a lot easier to open one on a plane
• They weigh, like, a pound
• You need something very occasionally
• They are great for taking to meetings or to use while waiting at the doctor office
• They are fully functional computers.

What do they cost?

As with all computers the price ranges widely. I bought a refurbished Dell Mini 10V for $236. It is truly bottom of the line. I’ve also seen NetBooks for as much as $1200. I would not recommend spending more than half of what you would spend for a laptop computer because you are going to get about 1/2 of the functionality no matter how much you spend. A small screen and a small keyboard have inherent limitations.

Having said that. I love the Dell Mini. It’s cute. It’s lightweight. It’s small enough to take anywhere. It’s a great email and light work gadget that is easy to use for about an hour or two at a stretch. As long as you don’t expect it to be a laptop you’ll love it.