Furious Opinion

Updating Disease

noreply@blogger.com (furious) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:27:00 +0000

Bloody hell! It seems like every program you install wants to update it self. Let's see. If you're running Windows XP or Vista they both come with the facility to automatically update themselves. The idea being that your operating system keeps itself secure and the updates happen in the background. Of course the idea is flawed if you're not on line constantly and sometimes good ol' Microsoft release updates that force your computer to restart and in some circumstances incomplete or corrupt updates can deliver you a Microsoft blue screen of death experience. But I suppose we have to wear that in the interests of being kept up to date. Of course AntiVirus/AntiMalware software needs to be kept up to date, because inspite of whatever Microsoft do, the Windows operating system is still vulnerable to viruses and malicious software. So yes you need that!
The problem I'm finding now though, is that too many software companies are jumping on the update band wagon. Adobe firstly. Nearly everyone needs to have Adobe reader installed on their systems to enable them to read pdf files, but since version 7 Adobe reader has included an update component that pesters you to update it all the time. Why? Just read my pdf file will you? Don't give me the irrits about updating my pdf reader! Then there's Nero, just about every CD/DVD burner comes with Nero Burning software - and now it includes an update component. Just burn my CDs and DVDs please! Do that successfully and I'm happy! Why the hell does it need updating? Many of the software packages that come with cameras and phones include updaters. For crying out loud!
Its getting to the point where you'll end up with a computer that does nothing more than sit there updating for the sake of updating. Well I'm going to ask some of the culprits "Why?" and see what response I get! Moron.... Ha! An appropriate typo.... moron this later!

DoDo revived

noreply@blogger.com (furious) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:36:00 +0000

People often ask me which Internet provider do I recommend. My answer is "None of them!" That sentiment is the result of having been a reseller for over half a dozen different internet providers over the last 12 years. They have all let me down and my customers down in one way or another. Nevertheless, if you have a computer, not being on the net is like having a car with no wheels - so internet providers are a necessary evil. The trick is to find one you can tolerate.

In 2001 I became a DoDo reseller. At the time they had some cheap dial up plans and in this part of the world ADSL was still 3 years away from being available. I sold quite a few of the dial up plans to customers - they were just fine for the first while - but somewhere along the line DoDo went feral. Their support became woeful, sometimes taking 48 hours to respond to calls, customers who closed their accounts found that they continued to get their credit cards debited for months after and contacting them meant hours doing battle with their automated phone system and operators with all manner of peculiar accents. I got fed up terminated my reseller agreement with them.

I am currently a BigPond reseller. Not because they're especially good, but BigPond is probably the most broadly available - and being a regional area....if BigPond can't do it...then nobody can. (By the way we still can't get ADSL 2 on the Tweed Coast - which is appalling.)

About a month back I got a phone call from DoDo inviting me back into their fold of re-sellers. "Not on your life after the last experience!" was my response. I recalled the 5 hours I spent one time setting up a dial up account over at Banora Point all for a commission of $20 - the angry customer - and I didn't actually sell the service to this guy - but he was just about ready to tear my office apart because DoDo had charged him $68 on his $9.95 dial up account - then there was having to explain to a bewildered 68 year old lady what a download is and how the download threshold works....and gawd knows how many under paid hours spent on support calls to Indian call centres made on behalf of customers.....arrrghhh....! Who needs it?
But the guy persisted...."No, No we've changed....we've improved....just let me send you out our new package.....and we have a new commision structure...and a new reseller team and a great new reseller on-line portal"

The thing is from my point of view as a reseller, it's not a question of making a big commision out of a reselling an Internet Service. I mean its nice to make a dollar if your in small business, but its far more important being able to provide a service that customers are happy with. Also when i get someone who wants to sign up for a service I want to get that done fast! I don't want to spend an entire day getting it sorted out! I want to enter the details and tell the customer -"it's done it'll be a couple of days" (or whatever) Anyway, I relented and allowed the Dodo guy to send me a reseller package.

So the re-seller package arrived and I ignored it for the first few days, but curiousity finally got the better of me. I checked out the re-seller portal...dialed up the support people and wowzow....DoDo do appear to have got their act together to some extent. When I ring up - I get straight thru to people who actually speak English and know what I am talking about and respond positively.

The re-seller Portal appears to be OK - on a par with BigPond's - when it works....its got a few glitches still, but obviously they're getting it right. So its early days but things look more positive with DoDo and they have some good competative ADSL internet, mobile phone, home phone and Wireless Broadband services - and a range of plans to suit almost all situations....a feature sadly lacking from the Big Pond offerings. I'm still a Big Pond reseller so I guess I can offer a choice and there are always situations where one provider is better than the other.

I still don't recommend anyone....whether you can tolerate DoDo or BigPond better will depend on your circumstances and requirements - but I have a wider range of options now...so if you want to know more about home phone connections, ADSL broadband, Wireless Broadband or even mobile phones. Drop me an e-mail jim@furious.com.au or drop into my office or call me (02)6676-3211

Downgrading!

noreply@blogger.com (furious) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:34:00 +0000

I had a client order a Laptop machine the other day. He wanted to replace a machine he had dropped. He specifically wanted Windows XP, but I very quickly found when I went to order the new laptop, that obtaining a one with Windows XP for the price the client wanted to pay was nigh on impossible! They all come with Vista now I was told. The thing that saved me was that a good percentage of those now come with a "Downgrade" disk!
That's right! You get your brand new Laptop with Vista installed and a CD or DVD that enables you to wipe Vista and replace it with Windows XP and thats exactly what I did! It was a pretty hairy process I might add and required a good understanding of device driver installation.
When you think about it, its an absurd situation. This is the equivalent of buying a brand new car ripping out the new engine and replacing it with an old one! I mean how dumb is this?
Windows Vista is an enigma. More advanced, more secure and more intuitive it may be - but it demands much adjustment for most users and I along with many others, among them most laptop manufacturers who don't want to lose sales by only offering Vista alone, remain unconvinced, unimpressed and un.... well un-bloody-everything!

Case Study

noreply@blogger.com (furious) — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:31:00 +0000

Ok, over the last week I had to do a service call for a customer with an old Windows 98 system. The customer is an active retired person who uses her computer to keep minutes for an organization and keep in touch via e-mail. Thats all she wants to do.
When i made the service call I discovered that her Windows 98 machine had been badly zapped - the power supply was dead and I later found the motherboard to be dead too.
So what's the solution for someone like this? Windows Vista seems to be expensive overkill....so I suggested she try Linux, we worked out a deal that meant she paid several hundred less than what she would have had to pay for a new Windows machine and yesterday I delivered her a machine with Mandriva Linux installed.
The installation went pretty well - I managed to salvage some of her data from the old hard drive - mostly word files - and these were easily associateed with by open office's word equivalent program. The ADSL internet connection immediately in place and the customer was happily took to the new system and was pleased.
There were a couple of issues which I feel I have to come to terms with -I was unable to install her Canon Pixma IP1000 printer - seemed to have a problem with the driver and also her POP3 e-mail I seemed to have a problem with getting that right too...but I'm sure I will resolve those over the next few days.
Its early days for me with Linux......but for the customer in question she now has a new system with a servicable operating system and a vast choice of free applications for several hundred less than she would have paid for the Windows equivalent. Stay tuned I will report more as I go!
S

First steps with Linux

noreply@blogger.com (furious) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:30:00 +0000

I've been comparing Linux distributions. As I indicated in my last post, I installed the latest Ubuntu distribution on my Sempron 2800 (not 2400 as indicated in my previous post) and Ubuntu is very user friendly.
Installation was easy. It happily installed and configured the on-board sound facility and sorted out how to get on-line and provided access to my Local Area Network(ie: the other machines I have networked together here). It came with Open Office which is now a formidable alternative to MS Office, a host of games, and utility software for just about every task imaginable from burning CDs and DVDs to sound recording and editing to IRC clients. You get Mozzilla As I played around a bit more I found it was possible to obtain and install just about anything from Cadcam to Video Editing to Web Design and just an amazing variety of graphic design applications! And its all free! What's more if you want to get really geeky. You can learn how to program and then actually create your own customizations to your system.
My only problem was couldn't get my screen resolution any where beyond 800 x 600 pixels - I tried to find a driver for my video card (an XFX NvidiaGforce 6200) - but the XFX doesn't do Linux drivers. There seemed to be better drivers available - but I very quickly found that I don't know how to install drivers in Linux. Never mind there's heaps of Linux help out there. ....but I couldn't find anything to simply explain how to install a device driver under Linux. Must admit my efforts were not exhaustive and obviously I have much to learn about Linux! I'm sure the info is out there on the net - just might mean finding a helpful forum or "how to do it" page
Thats when I decided that it might be an idea to try a different distribution of Linux - maybe another distribution would give me a better screen resolution. So I downloaded Mandriva distribution and replaced the Ubuntu install with Mandriva - and wow! My screen resoltuion went to 1024 x 768 - which is acceptable and as much as I would want on my 17" CRT.
Mandriva comes with essentially the same set of software as Ubuntu and is just as user friendly. I think I prefer Mandriva but only because I can get the better screen resolution.
What impresses me most with Linux in both distributions is that it only takes a few moments to boot up and it is fully operational - unlike Windows. Many Windows users will be will be painfully aware how Windows will cough and splutter for several or more minutes on initial startup as it loads background programs and gawd knows what else.
More on my Linux experience in my next post!

Windows Vista Systems

noreply@blogger.com (furious) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:37:00 +0000

In my previous post I discussed the dilemma between choosing Windows XP or Vista but as Win XP is soon to be taken off the market that choice will soon not exist. When that happens the question will be which edition of Windows Vista do you choose - or is it time to consider moving away from the Microsoft realm and start considering Linux? Or maybe hang the expense and get an Apple?
For my money I think the Linux option could be an attractive alternative for home users and for some small businesses. For the benefit of anyone out there who doesn't know what Linux is - it is an open source operating system. You can get fully confused about Linux at http://www.linux.org/ - or for those of you into total insanity just do a search for Linux in Google and cram your head with the millions of links that get retrieved.
The great thing about Linux is that it is free and there are some great distributions out there Ubuntu, Mandriva, SuSe and Red Hat. I recently checked out Ubuntu and found it to be terrific really. It came with some powerful MS office equivalent applications - to match Word, Excel and Powerpoint as well as a swag of games and graphics programs and I ran it on a clapped out Sempron 2400 machine that I was about to throw out and it ran faultlessly.
So I'm busily looking into building Linux systems as a budget alternative. Let's just compare the difference in specifications required.
If you choose Windows Vista anything less than a Core 2 Duo processor is a compromise, you can get by with 1Gb of RAM - but that's a compromise too - I wouldn't sell a Vista system with less than 2GB - again you can get by with a run of the mill on-board graphics controller but again anything less than a 256MB PCI-ex card is being frugal. Then you need to have MS-Office 2007 in one of its pricey editions - its tough to get much change from $1000 for a decent Windows Vista Box - never mind premium editions of Microsoft's offerings and the flat screen monitor that you would want on top of that.
Now on the other hand I'm thinking I could do a decent Linux system for about $500 perhaps a touch less. More on this as I progress. As for Apple - I'm still waiting forone to fall off the tree.

Windows Vista vs Windows XP

noreply@blogger.com (furious) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:39:00 +0000

For the last 15 months or so computer geeks like me have been in two minds when it comes to recommending operating systems for new or upgraded PCs. The operating system as we call it, is the main “program” (it’s actually an assortment of programs) that runs your computer. For most PCs up until February last year that operating system was Windows XP, some older machines might have had Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 98 or Windows XP’s predecessor Windows 2000.
If you’re already confused by all the different Windows versions then you really need to read on, maybe I can clarify things for you....or confuse you even more.
Up until early last year if someone came to me and wanted a new PC or laptop the choice was simple, you got Windows XP. There were two incarnations, Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional, one for home use and the other for business and corporate use. Easy!
In February 2007 Microsoft released its latest operating system known as Windows Vista. Hailed as the successor to Windows XP, it arrived in no less than five different editions, Vista Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Enterprise and Vista Ultimate. Vista looks very pretty with space-age like transparent screens, much better security to combat the legions of viruses and spyware that afflicted Windows XP and some nifty new but probably useless features like the widgets sidebar.
Early adopters very quickly found Vista to have some “issues”. Many people found that having just forked some serious dollars for a new system that they were having to turn around and replace perfectly good and often times very recent models of printers, scanners, cameras and other peripheral devices because they were incompatible with Vista.
On top of that Vista is different! There is a learning curve. Familiar things like “My Computer” and “My Documents” have been renamed and re-jigged, the control panel and networking panels are confusing if you’re used to the Windows XP representations. So it takes a bit of getting used to. In fact it takes a fair bit of getting used to. I mean I’m a computer geek and I’m still trying to get used to it!
In some respects the security measures are seen by some as being a bit over the top. There’s feature called “User Access Control” which will seek the user’s permission before performing any task that involves installation of anything that affects the operating system whether from local or remote sources. Thus it goes some way to eliminating the possibility of rogue programs installing themselves. Regrettably, it doesn’t totally eliminate that possibility so you still need a good Anti-virus/Anti-spyware program. So most users will find UAC an irritating nuisance and turn it off….assuming they can find where to turn it off!
You may have gleaned so far that I am somewhat critical of Windows Vista, and I am, but it’s not all bad. So let me concentrate on some of the positives. The most positive thing I can tell you about Windows Vista is that in the 15 months since its release I have not seen one Windows Vista Computer with a blue screen of death or boot problems, not one Windows Vista Computer with cross-linked files. In fact I’ve probably seen about 3 Windows Vista machines with problems all of which were more "user error" and simple to fix. That's lousey from my point of view as a computer tech who relies on computers needing to be fixed to make a crust, but hey, I'll find another niche if need be, but it might also be a function of the fact that Windows Vista machines will be relatively new at this stage, or as I suspect, haven't penetrated the market that much in my region. However, from what I can glean so far Windows Vista is very stable as an operating system, less suseptable to virus and malware attacks and provides some capabilities that dovetail it into some emerging technologies that people of my generation are never likely to fully embrace (or spend their hard earned $$$ on!)
Also as people get used to Windows Vista, and I find this particularly from people who struggled to get their heads around their XP machines or who are totally new to computers – generally they find Windows Vista easier to use. By the same token those who were comfortable with Windows XP, find the transition to Windows Vista painful, frustrating and bewildering at times. I include myself in the latter category, although I now feel I have battled through to a point where I now feel comfortable with Vista and happier about using Vista, but it has been a battle!
So, is Vista better or worse? Well….yes and no. And that is the problem! I simply can’t say. Most of the professional and corporate community is still on the horns of this dilemma! No-one’s certain, no one’s totally convinced one way or the other.
For Microsoft though, there is no question what so ever. They have just recently released Service Pack 1 for Vista which I believe fixes some of the compatibility issues and streamlines things a bit and in July 2008 Windows XP is scheduled to go the way of the dinosaur as it will become no-longer available from Microsoft distributors. So like it or not Microsoft is fully intent on dragging us all kicking and screaming into the new age of Windows Vista. For some it may provide the excuse to explore alternatives.