Category: computers

Holiday computer checklist

A few ideas on making your holiday more enjoyable

With the Christmas holidays almost here, a lot of business and home computers will spend a good part of the next month turned off. Even though they are shut down, bad things can still happen. There’s a number of things you should do before heading off for a break.

Before you go

Backup
Before shutting down for the holidays backup all your important data. Your backup should include favourites, mail, address books and documents. Some programs, such as accounting systems, have their own backup routines.

Store the backups away from the computer, preferably offsite. We recommend making two copies, leave one onsite for easy access and store one elsewhere. If something terrible happens to your home or office while you are away, your data is at least safe.

For working and essential documents, setting up a free Dropbox service and copying them to it is a great idea. Dropbox is also good for saving documents you foolishly intend to work on while you’re away as well as essential documents.

Turn everything off
Printers, modems, routers, should all be turned off and disconnected from power and communications lines. Most modern computer equipment still has power running through it even though it is turned off. Power surges from storms are common, so don’t take chances.

If your computer is connected to a network, telephone line or cable connection then these should all be disconnected as well. Power surges are common on communications cables. Everything that connects your computer to the outside world should be turned off and unplugged.

Hide your equipment
Give thieves as little temptation as possible. Don’t leave computers in full view. Lock away anything portable and draw the curtains or blinds in the room where your computer is kept.

What to pack

As technology becomes an essential part of our lives, we tend to take it with us. This is particularly true with devices like iPads and DVD equipped laptops which are as much entertainment devices as they are for work.

To get the most from them, there’s a few things to consider when packing.

Update your systems
Run the update routines for your operating system, essential software and security programs before you leave so there will be no major updates clogging up your downloads while you try to work or play.

Power
The most irritating thing when on the road with a computer is running out of power. Do you have all your chargers packed away? If you have space it’s also a good idea to carry a powerboard so you can share scarce power outlets with other users.

Connectors
Don’t forget your USB cables to connect phones and cameras so you can download photos, update music and, for some devices, recharge them.

Packing
If you are flying anywhere, it’s best to take electronics with you as carry on baggage. Carry them in a bag where they are easily accessible so you can take them out without fuss at security checkpoints.

When you return

Your computer is the very last thing you should turn on. Make sure modems, printers, external drives and networks are all running before turning your computer on. If you have a cable Internet connection, give it a few minutes to connect before trying to log on.

Update your system.
Before checking emails or surfing the net, update your anti-virus and check for any system updates. Run Windows Update and your anti-virus program’s update program. New nasties will have come out while you are away and there’s a good chance some of them may be waiting in your inbox.

Christmas and New Year are a time to relax, by taking a few easy steps with your technology you can ensure your phones and computers are part of an enjoyable break.

Have a merry Christmas and a great New Year.

ABC Nightlife: 2 December 2010

Windows celebrates 25 years while the web turns 20, where do we go next?

Microsoft Windows has celebrated its 25th birthday and the web turns 20 this month. Join Tony Delroy and Paul Wallbank to discuss where Windows has been and where computers are going over the next two decades.

If you missed the program, a recording is available on the Nightlife website.

Join us on your local ABC radio station or listen online at www.abc.net.au/nightlife.

If you’d like to join the conversation with your questions or comments phone 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

You can SMS Nightlife’s talkback on 19922702 or twitter @paulwallbank using the #abcnightlife hashtag

The strange story of the Stuxnet worm

A virus crippling the Iranian nuclear program could affect your business

The tale of the virus infecting Iran’s nuclear program is one of the fascinating stories of the computer world.

Whoever wrote the Stuxnet worm did a spectacular job in bringing together a number of security problems and then using two weak links — unpatched Windows servers and poorly designed programmable logic controller software — to create a mighty mess in the target organisation.

The scary thing with a rootkit like Stuxnet is that once it has got into the system, you can never be sure whether you’ve properly got rid of it.

What’s worse, this program will be writing to the Programmable Logic Controllers the infected computers supervise so plant operators will never know exactly what changes might have carried out on the devices essential to a plant’s operations and safety.

Damaging Iranian nuclear plants

A report on the Make The World A Better Place websites over the weekend indicates the Stuxnet Worm may have damaged the Iranian nuclear reactor program.

The story behind the Suxnet worm is remarkable. It appears this little beast is a sophisticated act of sabotage involving using a number of weaknesses in computer systems as detailed by Computer World in their Stuxnet Worm hits Industrial Systems and is Stuxnet the best Malware Ever articles.

The risk of unpatched systems

One of the things that leaps out is how servers running unpatched systems are an important part of the infection process. The Stuxnet worm partly relies on a security hole that was patched by Microsoft two years ago so obviously the Iranian servers were running an unpatched, older version of Windows.

This is fairly common in the automation industries. I’ve personally seen outdated, unpatched Windows servers running CCTV, security, home automation and dispatch systems. They are in that state because the equipment vendors have supplied the equipment and then failed to maintain them.

These companies deserve real criticism for using off the shelf, commercial software to run mission critical systems that it was never designed to do.

Commercial programs like the various Windows, Mac and other mass market operating systems are designed for general use, they come with a whole range of service and features that industrial control systems don’t need. In fact, the Stuxnet worm uses one of those services, the printer spooler, to give itself control of the system.

Securing industrial systems

These industrial systems require far more basic and secure control programs, a cheap option would be a customised Linux version with all the unnecessary features stripped out. In the case of Siemens, the providers of the PLCs supplied to the Iranian government, it’s disappointing such a big organisation couldn’t build its own software to control these systems.

Business owners, and anyone who has computer controlled equipment in the premises, need to ask some hard questions to their suppliers about how secure supplied computer equipment is in this age of networked services and Internet worms.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the buzzword of the moment. But what does it really mean?

Cloud computing is about using other people’s computers to do the work for you.

Rather than having programs running on your computer and saving information to the hard drive, a cloud service connects to your system and you access both the program and your data through a web browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari.

That service could be free such as Hotmail and Flickr or it could be paid for like Salesforce or Google Apps. Either way, they use a “cloud” of computers to provide the application and store their customer’s data.

Having your applications and data saved on someone else’s servers brings a number of advantages in security, cost and flexibility.

For businesses, that flexibility comes out of not having to buy complex software licences for their networks, instead they only pay for what they use. For home users it means not having to install software that often slows down machines and sometimes conflicts with other programs.

As we use the Internet more on our phones or with mobile devices like the iPad, having the advantage of not needing different software versions for each device makes it easier for us to access and use the information that used to be locked in our personal computers or office servers.

Cost too is an important factor, while many programs such as Yahoo! Mail and WordPress are free, even the paid for programs like Sassu and Basecamp offer considerable savings over their traditional competitors that require you to buy a disk and install the tool on your system.

One of the reasons for those reduced costs is the cloud services are sharing the resources between many users. That reduces the supplier’s distribution and support costs while making it easier for them to update their program when new features or security problems appear.

Security is probably the most misunderstood part of cloud computing. While cloud services do require a degree of trust in the supplier, most providers are providing a much more secure and trustworthy computer environment than most homes and businesses.

There are downsides however; you do need to have a reliable Internet connection and you do have to trust that your supplier will not only keep a secure environment but also won’t share your data with others and won’t go broke.

While some of those disadvantages with cloud computing mean that some businesses — particularly those in the medical and banking industries — have to be careful about using online services, for most homes and enterprises the cost and flexibility benefits outweigh the risks.

Over the next few years we’ll see many, if not most, computer programs move onto the cloud as reliable Internet becomes commonplace. It is the way the IT industry is heading and where we will all be doing our computing in the next few years.

Is Microsoft Office 2010 suitable for your business?

Does Microsoft Office 2010 redefine how businesses use technology?

Last week Microsoft launched Office 2010, the latest version of their business software suite, promising to “redefine how Australian businesses can use technology to save, innovate and grow.” We’ll be seeing the new version appear on store shelves and bundled with new computers from the end of the month.

Like the last few Office versions the 2010 edition sees incremental tweaks over earlier releases rather than massive changes, most of these improvements recognise how peoples’ computer use is changing with increased emphasis on collaboration and the Internet along with more media editing in Powerpoint and data manipulation tools in Excel. The changes are good, but probably not compelling for most business users.

The biggest changes have been in the SharePoint collaboration tools which is where the Microsoft Office franchise is most threatened by cloud computing services like 37Signals, Google and Zoho. For businesses looking at taking advantage of the impressive range of SharePoint 2010 features the backend capital cost of upgrading servers and desktops to meet the needs of the new system will be substantial and there’ll need to be a very good business case for those levels of investment.

Upgrading paths are an interesting change to Office 2010, for the first time Microsoft is not going to offer deals to users looking at upgrading to the new version. What this probably shows is how effective Microsoft have been in selling recent versions of Office in OEM packages, where the software is sold cheaply with a new computer with the catch it can’t be used on any other system.

Taking away the price inducement for upgraders will mean most businesses without volume licensing agreements will move to Office 2010 as they replace that were bundled with Office 2003 and 2007 suites.

This means there will be a mix of Office 2010, 2007 and, in most businesses, the odd 2003 system so it will be important to test exactly how Office 2010 will work in your business. Microsoft have a trial edition of the new package available for download and you should run that on a test system prior to rolling out Office 2010 in your work environment.

A potential problem for early adopters is with file formats, while Office 2010 uses the same names — .docx, .xlsx and .pptx — as Office 2007, there are subtle differences in the data so setting the new systems to save in the old format is probably going to be the best way to go, although this will disable many of the new features in the 2010 edition.

Promising to redefine how businesses use technology is a pretty big aim and Office 2010 doesn’t achieve that, although it is a solid product that goes some way in recognising how work patterns are changing in the modern connected office. It isn’t a bad buy if you find the older Office versions aren’t available or the free and cloud based alternatives don’t meet your needs.

Why I won’t be buying an iPad for now

iPad hysteria is in the air. But the smart buyers are waiting for the next version.

This week the Internet is alive with tech journalists and Apple fans breathlessly describing how the iPad is going to change business and the world. All of their predictions may well be true, but it’s best holding off buying an iPad until the hype cycle runs its course.

Right now, iPad users are in classic bleeding edge territory as the early adopters explore the neat features and the disappointing drawbacks of the new device. There will be joy and tears as they make their journey.

It’s great they are making those discoveries as this knowledge will make life easier for the later adopters and Apple will address many of the disappointments in their next version, which is the main reason for holding off buying the first version.

We saw this with the iPhone — the early adopters rushed into buying it even though it wasn’t a particularly well featured device. A year after the original iPhone release, the new 3G model addressed most of the dissatisfaction with the original model. It was a better, cheaper product.

Exactly the same thing will happen with the iPad, and that’s why you should save your pennies. Almost certainly the next version of the iPad will include multitasking, without which you can’t be talking on Skype while editing your LinkedIn profile and will probably prove the biggest headache to iPad users.

Where the iPad may really change things is in the retail, logistics and medical industries. All of these sectors have seen some adoption of tablet computers, but the clunky, overpriced Windows based tablets have held the market back. The cheaper, lighter and better designed Apple device will probably accelerate the take up of tablet devices and the business methods that work with them.

The retail angle shouldn’t be understated. We recently looked at how iPhone products like Redlazer are changing the retail industry and Smart Company’s Craig Reardon recently described how Australian retailers are being left behind by the net.

It’s no coincidence one of the first business applications for the iPad is a point of sale application. Should the next iPad version be released with a rear mounted camera, it will be more than a glorified cash register and deliver some serious power to smaller retailers.

The iPad further illustrates just how pervasive computing and the internet is capable of challenging established business models. If you’re ignoring how tools like the iPad, mobile Internet, cloud computing and social media are changing your business then your company probably isn’t going to be around in a few years time.

While it’s best to hold off buying an iPad right now, you can’t ignore the changes it presents to business. By waiting you make sure you get the best return on your technology investment.

The lost generation of computers and Microsoft’s new opportunity

Will Google help Microsoft capture the lost generation of computers. Google’s dropping of support for Internet Explorer 6 is a great opportunity for Microsoft

From March 13 Google will cease supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6. This presents a great opportunity for Microsoft to grab the lost generation of computer users.

The lost generation are the computer users who’ve skipped the last few five year cycles of computer upgrades. There’s two reasons for this; Windows Vista’s well deserved poor reputation and the concept of Good Enough Computing.

While Vista has a lot to answer for, good enough computing iss the main villain — for most household and business users, a Pentium IV running Windows 98 or XP with Internet Explorer 6 was good enough for their daily computer needs.

So Google’s move to abandon older browsers is going to force many of that lost generation to upgrade. This means those running computers more than six years old will probably be looking at new systems rather than the expense and compromises of upgrading.

A year ago, the smart money would have been on many of those new machines being netbooks running Linux with a good proportion of Apple Macs, however Microsoft’s release of Windows 7 has turned the tables and it’s fairly safe to say most upgraders will be sticking with Windows.

Which is a great opportunity for Microsoft to claw back market share and revenue although this doesn’t come without its challenges.

Microsoft’s challenge lies in convincing buyers to upgrade their other software. Many of these people will baulk at spending several hundred dollars on new office, photo editing or entertainment software and given much of it is available as cloud based systems the asking price will be steep.

For home and business computer owners the next month will be the time to consider if your older computers are due for an upgrade. If you find they stop doing the things you want or are are slow and unreliable then it might be time to consider your upgrade options.

Thoughts on Windows 7

With the release of Windows 7 Microsoft has formally buried Microsoft Vista. But should Windows users rush out for the new version.

“From today, when we say Windows we’re talking about Windows 7”, announced Jeff Putt, Windows Consumer Lead of Microsoft Australia last week. And with that, Microsoft formally buried Windows Vista at their Sydney Windows Seven launch.

We won’t miss Vista, it was slow, clunky and irritating to use. Like Microsoft’s previous OS disaster, Windows ME, it was a hybrid of new and old technologies that managed to satisfy few users.

Vista’s poor reputation effectively broke the upgrade cycle where businesses and consumers replace their computers roughly every five years. Rather than taking their chances with Vista, PC owners decided to stick with their ageing XP boxes.

So Windows 7 is being held out as the saviour of the computer industry as Microsoft’s customers are expected to rush into long overdue upgrades. Some commentators predict the new operating system will reinvigorate PC sales that have been battered worldwide by the Global Financial Crisis.

The reality is probably a bit more complex, there’s no doubt the combination of the global downturn and customers putting off computer purchases hurt the industry, but to expect a surge of sales may be optimistic.

Most computer users are a cynical bunch who have heard all the hype before and won’t be rushing out to buy anything just because some bloke on the web tells them it’s the greatest thing since Wordperfect 5.1. The days of crowds waiting to buy the latest operating system are long gone, at least in the PC world.

While it isn’t worthwhile queuing up on a cold morning for Windows 7, the new program is a vast improvement on Vista. In a hopelessly unscientific experiment, I installed a complimentary copy of Window 7 Ultimate supplied by Microsoft on my wife’s cranky, Vista supplied laptop.

The results were good. Boot up time was reduced by 34% to 55 seconds while Internet Explorer loaded twice as fast and Word 2003 documents opened a whopping 300% faster.

For the record, the machine isn’t exactly a powerhouse being an Acer Extensa 5220 Celeron 2GHz CPU with 512Mb of RAM ­– exactly the sort of machine that should never have been supplied with Windows Vista in the first place, which was part of Vista’s problems.

So my experience with Windows Seven has been so far favourable. If you have been through pain with Vista, it may be worth upgrading although you will probably find driver and software problems won’t be solved by the new program.

For XP systems it almost certainly isn’t worth the upgrade to Seven as the process requires a fresh install, substantially increasing the cost, time and risk involved in making the move.

Overall, XP machines are best replaced outright as many are well past their retirement date as owners have held off being forced into buying Vista machines.

If upgrading or buying Windows 7 systems is on the horizon then you should start preparing now. Get a few Windows Seven machines and test them in your office; monitor how they go with your critical line of business systems, check they connect properly to your network and start getting familiar with the quirks and differences in the new system.

While Windows 7 isn’t flawless, Microsoft have learned from the mistakes they made from Vista, it is faster and so far seems less irritating and more stable. If you are struggling with Vista, or your Windows XP systems are on their last legs, the upgrade will probably be worthwhile.

Buying a new computer

While computers are a tool, they are unique in their flexibility, and every user has different needs. So these suggestions are based on pretty generic use – if you have a specific application, or you’re a high-end user, then you really need to make sure your system meets your requirements.

This article originally appeared in Smart Company.

After discussing tech purchases my Smart Company column two weeks ago, a few readers have asked what they should be looking for in a new computer.

The answer, like everything in IT, is “it depends”.

While computers are a tool, they are unique in their flexibility, and every user has different needs. So these suggestions are based on pretty generic use – if you have a specific application, or you’re a high-end user, then you really need to make sure your system meets your requirements.

CPU

Some people obsess about chip speeds and processor specs. The ugly truth is it barely matters for most users. Don’t sweat all the CPU mumbo-jumbo and leave the “front side bus” penis envy to others who don’t have work to do.

Hard drive

If you are connecting to a network, hard drive space isn’t critical. For a desktop computer, 320Gb drives are the standard entry point, and 160Gb for laptops. If you are running a home office or you handle lots of media files, then 750Gb or a terabyte (1000Gb) may be the way to go.
If you are considering netbooks then you will find hard drive space is far smaller, with as little as 9Gb; this is OK if you intend to store files on network servers or out on the internet cloud.

Memory

This is the easy bit – the more memory the better. All good value systems come with 2Gb and an upgrade to 4Gb is money well spent.

Graphics card

Video capacity is where cheap systems fall down. Many entry level systems use “shared memory” where the video system shares the work with the CPU. These systems perform dreadfully on Windows Vista and struggle to support higher resolutions.
Spend the extra and go for a video card with at least 256Mb of RAM. Many units have the option of going up to 512 and 764Mb, although I’d prefer to spend the money on system memory before video cards. Your view might be different to mine though.

Monitor

On desktops, the bigger the better. Go for a 20″, 22″ or 24″ monitor. Get two monitors and you’ll see office productivity soar.

Portables are a different kettle of fish. Personally I love the compact 7″ netbooks for their weight and size, but many people prefer 15″ screens. When choosing a laptop, you need to make a compromise between price, screen size and weight that meets your needs and budget.

Optical drives

DVD-R/W is still the way to go. You don’t save much by leaving the writing function out, and being able to burn disks from your system is handy. Ignore BluRay as it remains expensive with little take up in the market.

Networking

Some real cheap and nasty machines may still have 100Mbit ethernet. Avoid these like the plague. If it doesn’t have a gigabit ethernet don’t buy it.

Similarly, all laptops have wireless capabilities and the 801.11g standard (54Mbit) is the norm. Most laptops now have some version of the newer 801.11n standard, but keep in mind the final 801.11n standard won’t be released until the end of this year.

Warranties

Three years is the only way to go; don’t consider otherwise. If the computer is mission critical, a same day warranty makes sense, but most businesses go for next business day service to balance cost against reliability.

Mac or Windows

Whenever a SmartCompany blogger wades into the Mac versus Windows argument, Amanda Gome is delighted with the increased site traffic until the server melts down and the death threats start arriving.

Suffice to say, you should use whatever works best for you. It’s your equipment and your business, and no-one else has the right to tell you whether Microsoft, Linux or Apple are better.

Price

Overall, a good business computer to these specs will come in around $1500 for the desktop and $1800 for a portable. Add another 25% for Apple equipment, although the lifetime cost of ownership is around the same for Apple and Windows-based PCs.

That’s a rough idea what to look for when specifying computer systems for your office. Have a good look at your needs and budget and you should be able to find some good bargains to help your business work better.

Has Microsoft learned anything from Vista?

Microsoft have announced a release date for Windows 7. Have they learned anything from Vista?

CNet’s Ina Fried reports Microsoft has set an October 22 release date for Windows 7, their new operating system to replace the flawed and unpopular Windows Vista.

In an article earlier this year, Ina quoted Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte that Microsoft has learned important lessons from Vista.

One lesson they appear not to have learned is how multiple versions of the product confuses the marketplace and tarnishes their brand.

That we still have FIVE versions of the new system, and that they’ve locked themselves into a release date before the final Release Candidate version, doesn’t bode well for Windows 7.

As usual, the advice for most computer users will be to sit and wait until the first Service Pack is released. I wonder if Microsoft will repeat the bluff of claiming there will be no service pack which failed so dismally with Vista?

Let’s see if they’ve actually learned anything from the humiliation that was Vista.

Computer hostility

While at the Sydney CeBIT last week, a speaker made a comment about how getting managers to accept social media is a big step given many  proudly complain they know nothing about computers and care even less.

A few days later when flying down to Melbourne for the Future Summit, I read an article by Glenn Wheeler telling how he smashed his computer after getting a virus, an act he said “sent a warm feeling through my body.”

Bizarre.

I’ve long lost count of the people who tell me they are proud to know nothing about computers but I still get rattled by people who are openly and proudly hostile to technology.

The problem for these people is they are being left behind, just like the Luddites they are well on their way to becoming a historical curiousity.

That’s fine for Glenn and other individuals, it’s good not to know anything about anything if you wish to be ignorant. But a business that chooses to ignore technology is quickly losing ground to smarter competitors.

Ignorance isn’t a good look at any time, but it’s even worse when it’s killing your business.

Does IT kill competition?

Andrew Mcafee’s article of the effects of IT on competition and businesses raises some interesting points .

http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/index.php/faculty_amcafee_v3/curiouser_and_curiouser/

His conclusion is technology isn’t a leveller between businesses – instead it creats a greater concentration of market power.

I wonder if those results Andrew cites are biased because of the economic boom and easy credit we recently been through; start ups were bought out by cashed up bigger players and that’s why we saw a concentration of businesses.

Regardless of the reasons, there’s a caveat for the bigger players; Andrew’s view is this because “good ideas and good execution separate winners from losers” and technology is what allows these good ideas to spread in a well run company.

This week’s collapse of Wedgwood is a good example of when a company’s culture stifles ideas and innovation. The New York Times has an excellent description of what went wrong and Seth Godin has some wise comments on the NYT strory.