Lipstick on a Pig

Posted on February 16, 2010 by ken

So the XP machine my wife has been using since 04 had a drive failure.  Given its age and the fact that I’d almost rather eat my own spleen than rebuild another windows system, I decided to purchase a new system.  They’re cheap enough these days and come with Windows 7 which is suppose to be the latest and greatest from our friends at M$.

Well, not to be negative, but Windows 7 functions an awful lot like XP in my view.  Certainly, nothing revolutionary in the last 5 years.  On the evolutionary side, they’ve done a nice job on the graphics and the GUI, but nothing that I’d describe as exciting.

lipstick on a pig

Windows 7 is like putting "Lipstick on a Pig"

Functionally, it’s still a pig even though it may have a bit of lipstick on it.  It still takes a long to to start up and shut down.  Installing programs can take a lifetime, particularly when you compare it to a MAC or Linux system.  It’s frustrating to say the least.

You have to be asking by now, why didn’t this complainer just buy a linux system?  It’s really simple. We have a fairly large amount of time and money invested in documents and applications that run on Windows that we just don’t want to abandon at this point.  That’s home use.

On the business side, I bit the bullet a couple of years ago and bought a MacBook Pro and haven’t looked back.  After a very short learning curve my productivity skyrocketed.  Sure, there were and still are some inconveniences, but on balance I get more done and work more effectively.

On another note, [and I've been waiting for this for a long time], the day will come where the actual desktop OS will not be relevant.  The technology is moving in that direction fast but it’ll still take a decade before it’s a reality.

As for myself and my clients…. more and more applications, documents, and tools are moving to the cloud [SaaS model].  I’m not alone.  Most of the businesses I see are doing the same and consumers have been doing it even longer.  Companies that can’t move and adopt fast enough will be steamrolled by the momentum of all of this and fail.

Given how slow M$ has been to adopt the technology, I don’t think they’ll make the cut long term.

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SaaS – Deploying Cloud Apps

Posted on January 21, 2010 by ken

There is really quite a bit of talk these days about companies deploying SaaS type apps to the cloud.  There are a lot of good reasons to do so, not the least of which being agility.  Generally you can get a cloud app up and running quite a bit faster than you could if you had deployed on your own servers.

Coming on the heels of a recession, companies look at the SaaS approach as one that is cost effective, fast, flexible, and scalable up or down as they generally charge by the seat or licensed user.  This can take quite a bit of risk out of the equation, particularly for small companies and start-ups.  In some cases, companies use the cloud for their entire IT infrastructure and have no internal infrastructure at all.  This saves capital and allows them to employ virtual teams, hiring the best resources wherever they may be.

While on the surface (and if you listen to the “cloud vendors”) going with cloud solutions sounds really easy, the devil is always in the detail as they say. If you do or attempt to do a deployment without really designing the solution properly you will find user adoption to be quite low and in many cases it won’t work properly.  Getting an app up and running fast is useless if it doesn’t work or people aren’t using it.

Whether you are deploying a CRM app like Salesforce, an HR app, an office type app, or an ecommerce app, you really should take a careful look at the actual deployment architecture along with the business processes that will be impacted and which systems will require some sort of integration.

At ETP, we do assessments for clients for this very reason. After you’ve decided you want to deploy an app and maybe have even developed an implementation plan, it really helps to have another set of eyes look at it. As an outside vendor, we can come in and take a fresh look at what’s being proposed, looking at the project from many different angles.  You’d be amazed at what gets missed just because you’re very close to it.  This is a very low cost way to provide your organization with a little insurance before you make a commitment.

As with any enterprise software project, implementation and integration can take twice as long as you thought and cost twice as much.  Doing it right the first time will really pay off.

You can contact ETP here if you’d like us to help.  There is no charge for an initial consultation.

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How I Got Rid of Internet Security 2010

Posted on January 19, 2010 by ken

I have to say this is one of the nastiest pieces of software I’ve ever encountered.  I’d like to thank in advance all of the folks who put up posts to help people rid themselves of this, plus Bill Chin here in Roxbury who has removed this from 100′s of machines over the last few months.  Sites that I used as a reference for removing the Malware were Soft Sailor and BleepingComputer .  If you’re local here in Connecticut you can get in touch with Bill Chin, Software Matters, LLC, at softwarematters at juno.com .

Here is what this virus did to my Windows XP System:

  • Shut Down Zone Alarm Anti-virus Software
  • Disabled Task Manager so I couldn’t shut it down
  • Posted many, many pop ups saying the system was infected and to buy Internet Security 2010
  • Disabled the control panel functionality
  • Changed and added registry entries

There were so many other things it did I thought I’d never get rid of it.  I tried several anti-spyware packages and Malware packages, plus removed quite a few things manually.  Here is what eventually worked for me….

1. I installed Process Explorer on the System.  Process Explorer does the same thing as windows Task Manager, maybe a little better.  IS2010 didn’t stop this from running or infect it so I was able to stop Internet Security 2010 and a few of the other obvious rogue programs.

2. I unplugged the system from the internet.

3. I navigated to the programs directory and deleted the entire directory for Internet Security 2010.  Note that if you try to use the add/remove functionality in the control panel, IS 2010 doesn’t even show even though it’s installed.

4. I downloaded SpyBot and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Download Link on another computer and put on a thumb drive for use on the infected system. I then moved the installers from the thumb drive to the desktop of the infected system.

5. Next step was to plug the internet cable back in and run Spybot.  It will find a ton of problems.  Select them all and delete them all.

6. Run Malwarebytes.  Be sure to read the article on Bleeping Computer because sometimes IS 2010 actually infects or renders Malwarebytes and other anti-malware programs inoperative.  If so, you will have one more download to do.

7.  Delete everything it finds and follow the instructions.

8.  I then uninstalled both programs, rebooted the system and then reinstalled both and ran them  again in the same order.

I believe the system is now free of IS2010.  I will continue to run both programs at least monthly.  I will leave Zone Alarm on full time too.

Good luck if you’re dealing with this nasty beast.  You’re probably looking at a day or more before you get back on your feet.

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Google Wave

Posted on November 30, 2009 by ken
Google Wave

I’m not sure how many people have seen or tried Google Wave yet, but I had a look at it over the weekend and it’s awesome.  It appears to me that Google Wave will set the bar for the next generation of collaborative applications.

Google Wave takes online collaboration to entirely new level,  and will surely be disruptive to the collaborative office products that exist on the market today.   For the small group or business, products like Wave can really diminish the value of having your standard office products like Microsoft Office and Sharepoint.

While there is a place of products like office and sharepoint, there are many places where it will be greatly overshadowed by the feature set of Wave.  Since Wave is Open Source and just in Beta, the number of available widgets will grow rapidly.

Wave can even do things like allow developers from different countries to collaborate in their native languages.  I’m sure that’s only the beginning.

If you have a small group you might consider giving it a try.

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Web Form Marketing Services

Posted on November 23, 2009 by ken

It’s been a while since I last posted here.

I’ve been busy with a few new service offerings plus an ebook titled CRM Success Series – User Adoption Planning which you can down load from the ETP site.

My latest offering is Hosted Web Form Services including a Hosted Database and Email Blast Service.  This is a great service fit for someone managing a small business who would rather spend their valuable time running the business than working on their web site.  Hosted Web Form Services is offered through ETP Marketing.

The service provides a link for the user’s web site that will take their clients to a Hosted Web Page at ETP Marketing which includes their custom language, graphics, and desired form data.

When their client fills out the form, several things occur…

  • The user receives an email with all of the form data
  • The client receives and email with all of the form data
  • The Hosted Database is appended with the form data
  • The client is redirected to a new url.  This is typically a Thank You page or a targeted landing page on the user’s site.

We send the user a copy of the Database in excel format every two weeks for the records.  We offer a email blast service associated with Hosted Web Forms where we will send up to four emails per month to the users database using their html email.

We provide the user with email blast reports within 48 hrs which show opens, bounces, clicked, and forward data which the user can then act on.

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