July 29th, 2010
In May we had decided to try a new software program and contracted with a well know, and well established company as we thought it would be quicker to deploy than take time from client projects to update the system we were currently using.
Within a week of making the decision and attempting to work with the company, it became apparent that this would not be a good fit as it took quite a while to get questions answered. And we were just at the beginning of the implementation phase. So I contacted the company to let them know we would not be proceeding.
I had put their system out of my mind until yesterday. That is when we received a call from the company regarding us terminating the relationship. This morning I returned the call and spoke with one of their representatives. She asked why we decided not to continue with the software. I said this is a perfect example of why we stopped; we canceled in May and it is now almost August and we are just receiving a call asking us why.
I then stated if we were in a situation where a client no longer wished to do business with us we would be on the phone with them in the afternoon, or tomorrow at the latest.
Exceptional customer service needs to be a core believe from the top down and permeate throughout the organization. Everyone who comes into contact with clients or customers needs to be empowered to do whatever is necessary to make sure that clients and customers are completely satisfied.
This latest interaction with such a large company provides our computer networking and repair; and website development companies, with a good example of what not to emulate. We can always learn.
Tags: Business, Business Services, Clifton Park, Clifton Park computer repair, Clifton Park New York, Consulting, Customer Management, Customer service, Education and Training, Environmental Working Group, Industry-Specific, OpenSource, Question, Retailers, Small business, United States, Website
Posted in Business | No Comments »
July 21st, 2010
Last night my wife took her aunt to pay respect to an old friend no longer here. While at the wake, my wife was approached by a person who knew her from years ago and started catching up from many years ago.
He told her that their company was still using GarageKeeper. GarageKeeper is a software program developed by Computer Assistance out of Oregon, and designed for independent repair shops. So far you may not think this is anything special, after all there are hundreds of programs for automotive repair shops.
What is unique is GarageKeeper was designed to work in DOS, yes that ancient operating system from years ago. This client has not required support for their program in over ten years. How many products can you say that about? And especially software programs.
And this person isn’t a fluke as we have many old clients running GarageKeeper. It just keeps on trucking even though it doesn’t have the latest, greatest hardware.
While we haven’t sold GarageKeeper in many years, we created quite an installation base when we were their top distributor. We were fortunate to install GarageKeeper in many shops including: Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, Audi, Honda and many domestic shops.
Unfortunately, like many good things, the foundation for GarageKeeper will come to and end when Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP, on April 8, 2014.
Computer Assistance has released their latest replacement for GarageKeeper, Motive Power. Hopefully this will provide automotive and independent repair shops with the same excellent, reliable service. Only time will tell, but it is great to know we provided a product to a customer over 15 years ago and it is still going strong today. Not many people can say that.
Tags: Alfa Romeo, Audi, automotive repair software, BMW, Company, Computer program, DOS, Ferrari, foreign car repair shop software, GarageKeeper, Honda, independent repair shop software, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Operating system, Oregon, Porsche, Windows XP
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July 16th, 2010
The latest Windows Mobile device tested on Verizon Wireless, is the Samsung Omnia II, running Windows Professional 6.5.3.
The Samsung Omnia II uses an AMOLED display. AMOLED stands for Active-matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. A benefit to using an AMOLED display is that the screen can be seen without having the backlight on. This saves quite a bit of battery life for other functions. The backlight does need to be turned on in order to see the screen in bright sunlight. The display size is 3.7″ with a resolution of 800 x 480. Images, photos and videos are all very clear and vivid.
The Omnia II measures 4.75″ high by 2.38″ wide and .53″ deep, and weighs 5.08 ounces with the standard battery installed.
Input is done via a resistive touch screen. While many resistive displays do not work very well, the one used in the Samsung Omnia II is exceptional. The options include landscape and portrait qwerty keyboards and swipe. Swipe is an extremely fast method of entering text. It can be done via a finger or the built-in stylus. Getting use to swipe is easy.
Call quality with the Omnia II is very good regardless of the number of bars displayed. Bluetooth integration works well. One consistent hiccup has been the first time a call is attempted via Bluetooth, it is lost. Once the second attempt is make all further connections work flawlessly. The Omnia II features a proximity sensor which turns the display off as it nears the face. Sound level is decent for hands free, speaker and headset. The Airplane mode is quick to activate.
Based upon recent calls made, the estimated batter life with consistent phone use is about 240 minutes. A nice feature of the Omnia II is the ability to swap in spare batteries when recharging is not an option.
Key for our business use is integration with Microsoft Exchange Server and here the Omnia II performs extremely well. Calendar entries, tasks, email and contacts are all synchronized wirelessly. Connecting the device to a notebook with Microsoft OneNote also allows synchronization of OneNote files, once configured.
Browsing on the Omnia II using either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Opera Mobile is just fair. The speed is good but the viewing experience is not the greatest.
Overall, the Omnia II by Samsung is a very good smartphone for people who need integration with Microsoft Exchange and are looking for an alternative to a BlackBerry.
Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft OneNote, Samsung i8000, Samsung Omnia 2, Samsung Omnia II, Samsung SGH-i900, Touchscreen, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile
Posted in BlackBerry, Business, Smartphones, cell phone | No Comments »
July 12th, 2010
Part of Google’s data collection for its Street View product also collected SSID’s (which is the name people give their wireless home network routers). This news is not new.
Consumer Watchdog, which is a Santa Monica, California based advocacy group, hired a company to check the network traffic of Congress members whose homes were on Google’s Street View maps.
According to Consumer Watchdog, the tests revealed that Representative Jane Harman, a Democrat from California and House Intelligent Subcommittee of Homeland Security Committee and a former member of the Intelligence committee had at least one wire less network in her Washington, D.C. residence which may have been breached by Google.
Congresswoman Harman was not alone, as there were four other members of Congress who may have had vulnerable wireless networks.
To even think that anyone related to the security of our country is allowed to have a wireless network in their home or office goes beyond stupidity.
Tags: Congresswoman Jane Harman
Posted in Privacy, Security, Technology | No Comments »
July 9th, 2010
Earlier today a client from Clifton Park called in concerning an email message they did not send. When we connected with their desktop we discovered a new spam message disguised to look legitimate.
The email comes from Mail Delivery and shows Subsystem Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
The email contains an attachment which holds the payload. The attachment is called Forwarded Message.html
The body of the email message is as follows, (we substituted the email address):
Note: Forwarded message is attached.
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification
THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.
Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:
name@domain.com
Message will be retried for 2 more day(s)
If you get a message like this, delete it.
Tags: Bounce message, Clifton Park, Clifton Park computer repair, Clifton Park New York, E-mail address, E-mail spam, email, Mail, Shareware, Spam, Windows
Posted in Security | No Comments »
July 7th, 2010
The second Microsoft Windows Mobile phone I tested was the Fathom by LG. This is powered by Windows Mobile Professional 6.5.3 and has a slide-out keyboard.
The Fathom lacks Verizon’s V Cast Mobile TV of the HTC Imagio but does have access to Verizon’s VZ Navigator.
The qwerty style slide-out keyboard works well. One design flaw is the keyboard requires pressing a function key in order to get a period. This is a major oversight in my opinion. LG does include a stylus for input, but it is too short to be of much use.
The LG Fathom uses a resistive display , which does not work very well. When scrolling, programs start to run because the display interprets the users intent incorrectly. A benefit of a resistive screen is that they do allow for use of a stylus.
The size of the Fathom is pretty good and it has a nice display. The display size is 3.2″ with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.
Call quality was good. We tested the Fathom throughout the Clifton Park area up to Saratoga Springs and down to Latham. We experienced no dropped calls during the test.
The LG Fathom also has a proximity sensor which locks the screen when the phone is near your face. Likewise, Bluetooth connections were good in the different vehicles we tested it in.
During the short time of our test, we found battery use to be below what we expected. But since the battery is removable it is possible to carry a spare.
Overall the poor screen sensitivity made the LG Fathom not a good choice.
Tags: Clifton Park, Clifton Park computer repair, Saratoga, Saratoga Springs New York, Verizon Wireless
Posted in Smartphones, cell phone | No Comments »
July 1st, 2010
During the past several months I have been testing Verizon Wireless’ smartphone offerings for Windows Mobile phones. The units tested have all had version 6.5 of the Windows Mobile operating system installed.
The first smartphone I tested was the HTC Imagio. This phone had the additional feature of being able to view TV broadcasts such as Fox News, although at an additional cost of $15.00 per month. The video quality is very good.
The HTC Imagio offers options for either Microsoft Sync or Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center in that the user is able to select the time period for look back of calendar entries. For those who have been using smartphones or PDAs for a while, this is a very nice feature.
Syncing with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Outlook works very well as one would expect from a Windows device.
The device has sufficient memory to hold close to 20,000 calendar entries along with a couple thousand contacts, hundreds of notes and over a thousand tasks.
The main issue with this phone is the display sensitivity is very poor. It is too easy for applications to run while simply trying to scroll through the options.
As a business class device, this is definitely not my first choice.
Tags: HTC Corporation, Microsoft, mobile phone, Operating system, PDA, Personal Digital Assistant, Smartphone, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile
Posted in BlackBerry, Business, Smartphones, cell phone | No Comments »
June 22nd, 2010
For quite, BlackBerrys and the BlackBerry Enterprise server has been a hard combination to beat because of RIM’s (Research In Motion) push technology.
Setup a Microsoft Exchange account on a BlackBerry and you have a very powerful combination. Email is sent both inbound and outbound with almost no delay. Additionally, the calendar, contacts, notes and tasks are also synced wirelessly.
Companies such as Fox News have created apps which take advantage of the push technology and send news alerts as they happen.
All of this is great, but there is one exception, Microsoft Sync. Microsoft Sync offers many of the same features as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, but with less cost. RIM has recently tried to remedy this by providing small businesses with a slimmed down version of the server software, and at zero cost.
The problem is, the overhead is still there and owners of BlackBerrys are required to pay a higher fee to their wireless phone provider.
Recently I had a conversation with an insider from a Fortune 100 company who stated they have more issues with syncing BlackBerrys than other devices by a very wide margin.
Time will tell which system offers the best business solution.
Tags: BlackBerry, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Business, Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Sync, Research In Motion, RIM
Posted in BlackBerry, Business, email | No Comments »
June 14th, 2010
Recently I had a conversation with an executive from Clifton Park, NY. She was relating her frustrations about how there were so many obligations vying for her time. She then went on to say how much time she was spending on email.
This business owner spends a substantial amount of time out of the office and communication with her staff is vitally important.
After listening for a while I suggested a solution which would save her about 30 minutes per day. I informed her the change would be seamless and would not require any additional technical time per month.
At first she didn’t want to increase her monthly costs and was reluctant to make the move. When she realized it amounted to only a few dollars per day, she decided to go ahead.
I spoke with her recently and she is very happy with her decision. While it hasn’t eliminated all her frustrations, it has dramatically reduced them.
Tags: Business, Business Services, Clifton Park, Clifton Park New York, Communication, Corporation, email, Managing email, New York, Shareware, Supplies and Equipment, Time, Windows
Posted in Business, Life Management, email | No Comments »
June 9th, 2010
Adobe Reader. The critical flaw could let an attacker (or attackers) take control of a computer.
Microsoft also released multiple software patches which address 34 flaws in Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Windows, among others.
While Adobe will not be releasing the fix until tomorrow, our client’s who are using our Family Protection Services have already had a temporary fix put in place and will be receiving the updated fix automatically tomorrow.
Another benefit to our Family Protection Services is that we test the patches before they are applied. Our goal is to Eliminate Frustration, not cause it, and because sometimes the cure is worse than the cause, we test everything.
Tags: Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Systems, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, Patch (computing), Security, security flaw
Posted in Business, Life Management, Security, Software, Technology | No Comments »
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