Go ahead, I’ll wait….

OK.

I don’t even know where to start.

First off I would guess by the naiveness of the article, that the reporter is under 25. People are no longer opening harmful emails? I have piles of data that suggests otherwise. Let people install whatever they want? What about licensing? We routinely get 3 or 4 cases a month where the user doesn’t even know that P2P downloaded music is illegal, and we want to put them in charge of their machine?

The WSJ has become one of the least credible sources in online news as they try to be “hip” by hiring all these wet-behind-the-ears reporters to spread this BS out to society. Why don’t we just have everyone bring in their own PC and use their own software and when nothing inter-operates just call the fricking helpdesk?

What about security and data retention? Let’s just put all of our company confidential information on 3rd party systems and “hope” they keep it secure. Let’s all use iPhones which aren’t encrypted and have no usable central management to let information flow freely out to the public when they’re stolen.

Sounds like the common denominator in the article is Microsoft software sucks and we should move to something better namely: Google. Yes, Google offers a better user experience, but at what expense? Security? Administration? Governance?

Let’s not start a revolution until we know what we are fighting. The point of the article should be that Microsoft has become the 800 lb gorilla in the room and it’s time we voted with our budgets to find a leaner alternative or force Microsoft to be the nimble player it once was.

I continued to support and sell them, but the sales dropped dramatically as newer more robust modules filled the void. It was a classic case of being one of the first to market and providing a product to fill a niche.

Well at any rate, my profit on those modules has dropped to less than $100 a month for some time now and the number of support tickets has risen dramatically. The reason for this being, in my opinion, is DotNetNuke (DNN) is no longer a platform used only by “geeks” anymore. The adoption rate has gotten large enough that the “normal” user is now maintaining DNN installations and therefore doesn’t have the technical knowledge that was once taken for granted in the DNN community.

Good or bad, it is what it is.

That is why this morning I pulled all of my modules from sale. I will continue to support previous sales for a period of 90 days but no new sales will take place. I might eventually open-source the modules and let the community build upon them, but I’m not sure at this point on the future of them.

I did retain the XMod packages I developed and will continue to support and sell them, as I enjoy the XMod community and feel that I owe Kelly and his team a great deal for providing such a robust module.

The full DNN modules I developed will no longer be sold in the DNN marketplaces. It just wasn’t worth it anymore. The time I was dedicating to support issues far outweighed the amount I was making in sales.

A simple matter of not enough time to support what has become a “hobby” and was taking away from my main business focus.

1. Landline Telephone: I’ve actually turned this one off in my life a long time ago. Right now I think we actually have landline service bundled with our cable and internet but we don’t have a single phone plugged in anywhere in the house. Why would I want to use a (gasp!) phone book to find the number of the individual or business I want to call. In fact 95% of my calls are to other cell phone users which aren’t listed in a phone book anywhere.
2. Dryer Sheets: These expensive little buggers have gotten into our household via inherited lifestyle more than anything. Both my and her parents used them and we were brought up to believe we needed them. I tell you what, you don’t. I can tell any noticeable difference in clothes dried with or without dryer sheets. Goodbye little expensive sheets.
3. Fax Machines: I use a fax machine about twice a year and it’s either associated with a realtor or an outdated vendor. Get with the program. Scan it and email it. I don’t want to hunt down a landline with long distance (in most cases) and that also so happens to have a fax machine attached to it. Be gone noisy nuisance!
4. Fancy New Vehicles: I’ve driven my share of brand new vehicles in my lifetime and all I have by the time I trade them for the next is negative equity. I’ve recently “downgraded” my daily drivers to older vehicles that have been taken care of and am not looking back. Not only is the monthly payment gone, but also full coverage insurance. Years ago I had a great-uncle ask me what I paid for insurance each month on my brand new Silverado when I was just 18. After I told him, his answer was, “There shouldn’t be any amount of pride that costs that much per month.” He was right.
5. Cassette Tapes and Music CDs: Coming from a part time DJ, you might think this is absurd. Quite the contrary. I have ripped all my CDs to my computer hard disk and have never had a regret since. No more skipping. No more carrying hundreds of CDs to a gig. No more hassle. I don’t even create “mix-tapes/CDs” for myself anymore since installing a head unit (do they still call them that?) in my vehicles that accepts USB thumb drives.
6. Email: Another surprising addition to the list, no doubt. But it is getting closer to the truth everyday. If I can communicate via IM, blogs, social websites, or text messaging I will. I hate sorting through hundreds of email everyday for the 3-4 useful ones. Email, your days are numbered.
7. Viruses and Spyware: Since converting 100% to Linux on the desktop, I have had neither and don’t miss either. Why did I put up with this nonsense for so long on Windows? Seriously Bill, you need a solution.
8. Newspapers: I don’t understand why anyone would rather read a cumbersome newspaper than view the news online. I prefer my news instantly and formatted in a manner that it doesn’t take a table top to read comfortably. And what’s with the inky fingers when you are done? Nobody wants that.
9. Physical Mail: While we are talking about paper, let’s talk about the never ending supply that makes its way into my household via the postman. I don’t need 14 credit card applications per day and neither does the landfill. I pay all my bills online and that is how I prefer to be invoiced. The only thing that should be in my mailbox is items I have ordered for delivery.
10. Voice Mail: My guess is that I check 10% of my voice-mails. I screen every call. Every single call. If I’m not in the bathroom or attending to other physical activities, I do not want to talk to you at that moment in time. If it’s important text it to me. I’ve never needed more than 160 characters to understand an emergency and neither should you. I don’t need a 5 minute message for a 5 second problem. If you are just calling to chat, don’t leave a message. I will call you back if I want to talk to you. I have caller ID. Don’t waste my time having to listen to that stupid computer voice tell me how many messages I have, which ones will be deleted, what time you called, and what time it is in France right now before I get to hear your message. Complete waste of my time.
11. Businesses that are not open after 5 pm: This means in my timezone. If I can’t get your services online or via telephone (preferably online) outside of “business hours”, there is a slim to none chance that I will ever do business with you. I don’t have time to visit your holy physical presence between the hours of 8 and 5. I’ve quit patronizing many businesses including banks for this practice. I’m expected to be available around the clock. So are you. No exceptions.
12. Vendors that only offer phone support: Will not do it any longer. Unless it is my number one absolute priority to get your crappy software/product working, I refuse to sit on the phone with you. Your hold music is neither entertaining or soothing. How dare you think that your product is so great that it deserves 100% of my attention to get support. If you don’t have email or forum support, you will not have software in my business or that of my clients.

Have I missed anything? What are you trying to rid your life of? Am I spot on or just way too liberal? Let me know in the comments below.

Technorati Tags: lists, top ten, ways of life, life

So am I. Here’s a list of obscure and not-so-obscure tax breaks that often get overlooked:

The Kiplinger Taxopedia

Remember we get 2 extra days this year!

Technorati Tags: tax, season, tips, break, deductions

To be fair, I have never had any issues with them and have never used their support.

I figured “Steve” was going to try to up-sell me some type of service or another.

Turns out I was dead wrong. Here is the gist of our conversation:

Steve: Hi Jonathan, this is Steve from GoDaddy.
Me: Hi Steve. (not really wanting to be bothered at 6:30 at night with a sales call)
Steve: We were just looking over your account…
Me: Oh boy here it comes…
Steve: and we noticed that you were not taking advantage of our bulk renewal offer.
Me: I guess I thought I needed like 500 domains with you to do so.
Steve: Oh no! You can start saving with as little as 6 domains!
Me: OK, so how do I participate?
Steve: I can either do it for you on the phone or you can just adjust the expire dates to be the same and it will happen automatically. Either way you will save around $130-150 per year!
Me: Wow! No catches? No Gimmicks?
Steve: Nope, just our way of saying thanks for the business.
Me: Well thanks Steve
Steve: no problem.

Well there you have it. Customer service does live on. Who really takes the time to call their customers to help them save money on your service?

GoDaddy does!

Technorati Tags: business, customer, service, godaddy, customer service, experience, marketing, money, save, discount, bulk renewal, domains, web, website

40. Fire employees over the phone, or worse, through a text message.
41. Ask for personal favors, especially when you know your employees are in no position to refuse.
42. Rifle through your employees’ personal desks or snoop around their workspaces.
43.
Misuse your company’s expense account for personal reasons. If you
argue that your employees will never find out, a word of warning; the
office grapevine extends its tentacles to places and events you would
never dream of.

Full Article

Technorati Tags: office, list, lists, boss, employer, employee, hate, prevention, 101 ways

No. He is not the stupidest man alive. If Bush could figure out how to light a firecracker, he’d do the same.

Technorati Tags: Bush, stupid, joke, firecracker

Reason One: A home office is not conducive to hiring employees who will help you substantially increase your income. If your time is worth $500/hr, you shouldn’t be doing work that you can pay someone $20/hr to do.

This has been the hard part. I wish there was office space/conference rooms I could rent on a per day or afternoon basis. This is very common in other areas of the country but not yet here. Maybe I should start something…

Do you know of others like me that would like to rent office space or conference rooms on an occasional basis to meet with clients?

Technorati Tags: work, home, office, space, conference, clients

Lately I have noticed that the cans seem to disappear faster than normal. Monday night my suspicions were proved. I left work about 6pm on Monday which was after everyone else in the office was gone. There were 2-3 sodas in the fridge. I am sure of that, because I made a mental note that I would have enough for the next day but would need to pick some up the next night.

I came in on 7:30 Tuesday morning, which was before about 90% of everyone else. I opened my fridge to grab a can of diet root beer and the fridge was empty!

I’m pretty sure the cleaning crew is to blame. I have heard reports of them clearing out candy and snacks in the IT communications room downstairs on a regular basis.

My question is how should I catch them or what to do?

My initial thoughts were to rig up some sort of motion camera to record them in the act, but this may take more time than I’m willing to invest. My other thought was to leave them a nasty note in the fridge telling them that I had them on camera and to knock it off before I took further action, but I sometimes leave opened bottles of pop in the fridge and don’t want to take the chance of them “vandalizing” them…

So what to do?

Technorati Tags: life, work, vending machine, soda, thief, soda stealer, problem, question, answer

Disclaimer: This article is designed to cover most angles but does not claim to be conclusive in securing Windows (if there is such a thing!) What we will essentially do is create an automatically updating machine that grants the user access only to Internet Explorer by changing the shell value for that user and
by applying local Group Policy to restrict the user.

Steps to Create Your Own Internet Kiosk:

1. Install Windows XP (Pro is recommended, but not required. This how-to is based on Pro edition) on a NTFS formatted hard drive.
2. Install all updates via windowsupdate.microsoft.com and set automatic updates to install automatically in the future on a daily basis
3. Install your anti virus software of choice and set it to auto update
4. Install Flash, Macromedia, and acrobat reader if you so choose
5. create a new user account with admin privileges, set the password to never expire and to not be able to be changed by the user
6. log in with that user and make the following registry change:
   • click Start -> Run and type regedit and click OK
   • Once the Registry Editor opens, click File and Export… to create a backup of the registry (in case something goes wrong). Place this in the C:\Windows folder.
   • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current
     Version\Winlogon
   • Create a new string value called shell (Edit -> New -> String Value)
   • in the Data portion of this new string value type: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE
7. Close the Registry Editor and logout of Windows
8. Log back in with your original admin account
9. Reduce the privileges of the new user account you created earlier to user
10. Click Start -> Run -> Type “mmc” without the quotes. On the File menu click “Add/Remove Snap-in“. Click Add.
    Under Available Stand-alone Snap-ins, click Group Policy, and then click Add. This will open the Group Policy editor where you can limit user rights to your heart’s content. I would recommend dis-allowing control panel access, Active Desktop options, Task Manager from Ctrl-Alt-Del, and other obvious settings to ensure that your users can only
    do what you say.

There you have it, 10 easy steps to create your own secure Internet
Kiosk. When your newly created restricted user logs in, they will only get an Internet Explorer window. No start menu or desktop options.

If you have any suggestions on how to improve the security of your newly installed Internet Kiosk, please share them with our readers.

Technorati Tags: kiosk, Windows, internet, work, office, how-to, list, lists, steps, easy, internet kiosk, Windows XP