Yikes.

I have had a busy few weeks with my family out of town on a road trip vacation to the east coast. Luckily my clients have not let me feel alone with a raft of issues from setting up new offices to backup to wireless challenges.

In tech news, the new iPhone 4 has been causing no end of problems for people and has me really looking at all the options again. My contract with AT&T is up at the end of this month, so I may decide to cut ties and go with Verizon finally. This may also cause me to switch my email hosting to Google Apps. Anyone currently using this please let me know how you like it.

My wife’s trusty Dell laptop finally died on her while she was on vacation. She now has a shiny new 15″ Mac Book Pro that she is getting used to. Yep, my wife has a better laptop than I do now. Have to do something about that. . .

My Louisville Chamber Leads Group is looking for members. If you or anyone you know is interested in joining a great group of people dedicated to improving their business, please contact me. Anyone can come as my guest. We meet Thursday mornings at 7:30 AM at the Comfort Inn in Louisville.

One of my favorite clients, Rudisill, Gardner and Zeman are having a Grand Opening / Ribbon cutting on the 9th of September. They are usually at 4pm, but check the Boulder Chamber website to make sure. The address is 4410 Arapahoe Suite 135. Stop by and say hi to John and Karen. If you need a CPA or accountant, I can’t think of anyone I would recommend more.

Good luck and have a great month!

WARNING: This post has nothing to do with computers. Think of it as a community service.

Last Friday after work in the evening I decided it was time to get the sprinkler system working again.

Let me begin by saying that I am terrible with plumbing. I can frame a house, lay a hardwood floor and do any electrical work you need. I can even program an old VCR. What I cannot do, however, is anything related to water. Seriously – don’t even put me in charge of your fish tank unless you enjoy Sushi.

That said, however, the sprinkler system is usually just a matter of plugging in the system and opening/closing the right valves in the right order. Well, I thought I had everything working, but it still wasn’t working. In fact, the sprinkler box was flooding. So, I popped the top off using a flat-head screwdriver and my fingernails and thew the lid aside. While I was waiting for the water to drain out of the box, I happened to see something out of the corner of my eye. There, in one of the pockets on the underside of the sprinkler box lid sat the following:

Now at this time, she was not in a jar and she was not moving. I wasn’t sure she was alive. The only thing I knew for sure was that it was a very large, very black widow-looking spider. I slowly backed away shaking and slack-jawed. After about 15 seconds of that, I calmed myself and had one thought; have to kill it. I found a bottle of insect killer, sprayed her and validated that she was, in fact, still alive. I then dumped most of the bottle on her, effectively trapping her in one of the pockets of the lid. She was still moving in the liquid, so I found a bucked and placed it flat side down on top of her pocket so that she would eventually drown overnight. I know what your thinking – what a horrible death! My counter to that is to ask her little insect friends what they thought of her just before she drank their blood, or ask her husband – probably still digesting – his thoughts.

The point to all of this is that they like dark, damp places. My hand was inches from her. I have two very curious kids who play in our yard. Be careful where you put your hands.

I bought my iPhone 3G in July of 2008 and it has been a good business tool for me. I use the calendar, contacts, email, maps, Internet browsing, iPod, and a few of the other 250,000 apps available for the phone. After working with the HTC Incredible for two days, I am ready to switch to not only a new device, but a new network altogether.

I have always said about the iPhone that I love the device and hate the network. Now, I’m not even sure I love the device that much. By comparison, (and granted, my iPhone is two years old), the HTC is about 5 times faster loading programs, about 10 times faster loading web pages, it has an 8 megapixel camera and amazingly high quality video.

There are only two things that will hold me back from switching. As previously stated, there are over 250,000 apps for the iPhone. iTunes makes it ridiculously simple to sync contacts, photos, music and data to the device. If the new iPhone comes out in June or July I will have to look at the features and performance of the new phone before making a decision.

The biggest difference between the phones is simply the ability to make a call. AT&T has several “dead zones” just in the Boulder area. Verizon seems to have none. The hills going out of town seem to affect most carriers, but not to the degree that AT&T is affected. I will probably be willing to work with the syncing issue just to have a solid handset that doesn’t drop my call.

In the mail the other day I received an official looking letter from a company telling me that my domain registration was almost up and I should renew through their company.

While I’m sure that my domain is due for renewal soon, I will be renewing it with the company that it is currently registered with. First, the price will probably be better, second, I would probably have to switch some DNS information and third, I don’t appreciate putting my clients through this confusion.

These people are opportunists – god bless ‘em – but they are going to cause more harm than good. I believe that the same people that get fooled by phony anti-virus schemes will be fooled into thinking that this mail they are getting is something they HAVE to do. Most folks domain registration will automatically renew through their current registrar. It’s possible that they would pay the direct mail shysters AND their current registrar.

Ugh. The point is, if you don’t know if you need to renew – check with your web master or IT admin. Don’t be fooled by direct mail pieces from companies you don’t recognize.

As previously posted, Microsoft doesn’t allow direct upgrades from XP to Windows 7. Dell also cannot sell you a PC with XP without also selling you Windows 7. Many version incompatibilities exist between different versions of Microsoft software. It seems that whenever MS decides to “innovate”, they leave someone or something out.

Google, on the other hand, makes their money from advertising. This frees them up to create all manner of products and services that actually deliver usability. It also frees them up to use the “group think” mentality of open source to increase the stability and usefulness of their products.

I just read a piece about the new Google Chrome OS and it will no doubt, be a work in progress. That said, it has a limited scope; phones, netbooks and other ultra-mobile devices. In the post, they openly state that they will need help from developers to make it work.

Contrast that to the Microsoft issues listed above and the secrecy and closed system that Apple has. I am seriously thinking about the new Nexus One phone from Google. If I can get that phone with Verizon service, I just may get out from under the iPhone and AT&T.

Google Nexus One

My wife and I use our cell phones constantly. Between calls, email and text messages, we use them all day long. We have been wondering lately why we pay $40 per month for our land line.
I called Comcast today to inquire about their Triple Play. It would cost me about $8 more to get a ton more channels and ditch Qwest. What would it cost to just ditch Qwest, use the cell phones and get better cable TV service? I’d save about $6 per month.

Here is the other cost – 911 services.

Apparently if you call 911 from your cell phone, the call goes to one of the main switchboards, like Mississippi. The operator there has to find out from you where you are calling from and get your cell number in case you get cut off. Then the call is re-routed to the 911 center closest to you.
On a land line at your home, whether it is VOIP or digital, they know your address when you call and the call goes to your local call center.

This is a pretty compelling argument for keeping the land line, don’t you think?

I am considering becoming a “Carbon Neutral” business. Renewable Choice is a company in Boulder that works with businesses and families to become carbon neutral. Check their site for more information on the topic and what you can do.

From a strictly business perspective, I feel like the amount of new business I could attract by becoming carbon neutral would (over time) outweigh the costs involved.

Personally, I am one of those “environmental wackos” that thinks that we can control the amount of issues we have in this world by our own, albeit small, actions. In our home we recycle everything we can, we have a worm bin for composting and one of the 50 gallon drum variety. Our entertainment system is on a power strip that only gets turned on when in use and off immediately afterward. We turn on the A/C about 3-5 times per year only. We have two cars that get 30mpg and a gas guzzler that is parked unless we’re hauling something, or on a camping trip. We raise as much of our own food in our yard as we can. So we try to make a difference in our own home.

As Ghandi said. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
I’m trying.

This post will be interesting to only a few of you, but since its my blog, tough.

The reason I am a Dell Reseller is primarily the support they provide. They will send someone to your home or office and replace the hardware that is failing. The only issue with that is you have to convince them that the part is failing. For most users that is not very fun. It takes hours of phone time and call backs and emails. For me, while not simple, I usually get what I want. I have typically spent an hour or so trying to fix the issue already. I know what they are looking for and how to answer their questions in a way that moves us toward the resolution I am after.

Here is an example of what I am blabbing about. I have a client, let’s just call her Sally. Sally’s WiFi card seems to be acting up. She can connect to her wireless router, but cannot surf. I spend about an hour and a half trying to solve the problem. I tried many different things that are spelled out in the chat below.
I use Dell Chat because I find it faster. I don’t have to wait on hold for a technician and I feel like I can control the conversation better. Also, I get less angry and impatient with the technicians. Sometimes I pretend to be the user, sometimes not. This is a case where I started out as the user and revealed myself halfway through.

6:34:22 PM System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
6:34:22 PM System Connected with ALGb_Mark_166901
6:35:17 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 Thank you for contacting Dell. My name is Emm, how may I help you today?
6:35:31 PM Sally I am having a problem with my wireless connection. It will connect to my WiFi router, but then nothing happens in the browser. I have tried multiple browsers. I updated the BIOS, Intel Driver and Chipset from the Dell website and even tried swapping th Wifi Card with an known good one – same problem.
6:36:17 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 If that is hte case this might be an operating system issue.
6:37:20 PM Sally The system was recently infected with a virus, so we used the Dell Restore CD – this was in the last month or so. The WiFi has been working fine until now.
6:38:03 PM Sally The wired connection works fine.
6:38:27 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 I see. If you already replaced this with a known good card and the problem is only with regards to the browser, then this is not a hardware issue.
6:38:52 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 Browser works fine on wired connection?
6:39:21 PM Sally Yes, it does. I can browse the web. On the wireless, neither the browser or the email works.
6:41:02 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 I see. I’ll try my best to assist you. Can you please provide me with the callback number and your fullname?
6:41:48 PM Sally Bill Robinson 720-840-7227. The computer is registered to either Laurie or Rachel Fisher. I am a Dell Reseller and a technician working on their behalf.
6:42:12 PM Sally I can provide you with their information so you can verify if need be.
6:42:27 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 FGNV4G1 is the service tag of the computer correct?
6:42:35 PM Sally yes.
6:42:53 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 Okay. Let me pull up your records.
6:42:57 PM Sally Ok
6:47:33 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 Okay. What software do you use to try and connect via wireless??
6:47:52 PM Sally We tried the Intel software and the Windows software that is built into XP.
6:47:55 PM Sally No difference.
6:48:33 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 Have you tried the dell wireless utility?
6:48:48 PM Sally Its not installed.
6:48:55 PM Sally where do I get it?
6:49:43 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 Have you checked the device manager?
6:49:59 PM Sally no exclamation points or question marks.
6:50:19 PM Sally yes, i looked.
6:50:29 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 But do you see the wireless card?
6:50:32 PM Sally I uninstalled and reinstalled and updated the driver.
6:50:35 PM Sally yes, it is there.
6:51:18 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 Okay. Let me verify again, you already tried a known good card correct?
6:52:06 PM Sally Yes. I have the same machine. The ST for mine is 762b4d1.
6:52:15 PM Sally we are using mine right now. over wireless.
6:52:48 PM ALGb_Mark_166901 I see. Give me a moment to speak with our dispatching team.
6:52:52 PM Sally Ok

At this point the chat session was disconnected. He called me right away, however. He asked if I had performed a Windows Restore. I told him that was a great idea and I would give it a try. It didn’t work.
He then agreed to send me a motherboard. I finished the phone call at 7:28.

So the upshot is, I got what I wanted, he was assured that I had taken all the troubleshooting steps. Throughout the chat process I tried to anticipate his questions and have my answers ready. For example, when he was trying to infer that the Operating system or browser was the culprit, I told him that the wired connection worked fine, thus he had no choice to admit that the issue was hardware related.

If you have read all of this, thank you. While an hour might seem like a long time