Questions from conferences

11/29/07

The best thing for me about speaking at the ITEC conferences is getting to meet and talk with small and medium business people all around the country. Much of what I hear makes sense, but some things surprise me. I pass out a survey before my talks and one topic that always ranks at the top is "How to stay up with technology?" The quick answer, of course, is to keep reading Network World, but there are more options.

E-mail options

11/15/07

“Wherever you go, there's your e-mail,” was the Buckaroo Bonzai-inspired signature file used by Mike Azzara, editor of Unix Today, when he hired me for my first regular network column back in 1989. I quickly learned all editors have, um, interesting traits.

The problem with Time Machine

11/08/07

I’m sorry but I have to interject a bit of negative feedback into the parade of praise about Apple's new operating system, Leopard (aka Mac OS X 10.5). I'm impressed with many of the improvements, but recent reports about the built-in backup utility, Time Machine, overlook a critical flaw: Trust Time Machine and you run the risk of losing all your data, period, if bad luck targets you and your Macintosh.

Vulnerability assessment

11/01/07

The folks at Altiris, acquired earlier this year by Symantec, recently invited me back to their ManageFusion user conference to participate in a panel discussion about security.

Where the leaks are

10/25/07

The folks at Altiris, acquired earlier this year by Symantec, recently invited me back to their ManageFusion user conference to participate in a panel discussion about security.

IBM spins OpenOffice

10/18/07

If you're drooling over the advances in the world of blade servers, wishing you could afford a rack or two of them, that day may arrive sooner than you think. Looking to replace the jumble of servers stacked in the storage closet, er, server room?

Blades head downmarket

10/11/07

If you're drooling over the advances in the world of blade servers, wishing you could afford a rack or two of them, that day may arrive sooner than you think. Looking to replace the jumble of servers stacked in the storage closet, er, server room?

Modifying Software-as-a-Service

10/04/07

If you're drooling over the advances in the world of blade servers, wishing you could afford a rack or two of them, that day may arrive sooner than you think. Looking to replace the jumble of servers stacked in the storage closet, er, server room?

Who are our friends now?

09/27/07

It's sad enough when friends drift apart, but even worse when they disappear altogether. The buzzards that have been circling above SCO, an old friend of small business, for the last two years, now appear ready to land.

Hectic season technology tips

09/20/07

Labor Day marks the end of summer for most of us, and it's far enough behind us we have to admit the push to the end of the year has begun. Whether or not your business relies heavily on the holiday season for survival, like retail stores and companies that service them, the end of the year causes higher blood pressure for all of us.

How to find the driven salesperson

09/13/07

Small businesses stay afloat at the beginning because the owner passionately sells the business to everyone, all the time. As the business grows too big for the owner to do all the sales, hiring a salesperson becomes the most difficult choice the owner makes. So why do so many smart owners hire bad salespeople? How can you hire salespeople who will succeed?

New network service option

09/06/07

Ever wondered if your computer support company works as hard and fast as possible to fix your problems? After all, the longer the service call, the higher your bill and their payment.

Phone system fable

08/30/07

You may remember me talking about Brian Padden last October in A Free Telephone Consultant. I touched base with him the other day and he told me about a recent project for a financial services company looking for a new phone system that would support 65 phones in two locations (60 in Dallas, five in Fort Worth). Padden organized presentations from four phone system vendors and three carriers. The final quotes covered an amazing range: $29,078, $39,970, $48,500, $66,335, $92,921, and $144,171. Yes, that's a $115,093 difference between low and high bids. Have you ever seen a better justification for serious comparison shopping?

The Fred Security System

08/23/07

I wish FRED was a high-tech acronym for something like Find, Resist, Examine and Destroy, but it's not. "Fred" means the person in your office who seems a bit smarter about technology than the rest of the folks on the payroll. Fred could be short for Frederick or Winifred. Your Fred could be Sam or Pat because the name or gender isn't important, just the competence to handle some simple security chores.

Successful small business VoIP

08/16/07

Sad headlines abound in the VoIP world lately: SunRocket sinks, Vonage stock sinks, joy and optimism sink. Wait, not every company in this market sings the blues. To see how the happier half lives, I contacted the folks at Bandwidth.com to see how they're doing lately.

Automated marketing

08/09/07

We talked about CRM programs a year ago in Getting Sales Departments Organized and about E-mail marketing services this past March. But no company has done a good job putting the two together and adding a serious amount of automation until Infusion Software and their Infusion CRM product line. The Infusion people have taken two things many small businesses find difficult and aggravating (sales management and marketing) and combined them into one. While you might expect the result to be twice as bad as the two separately, they seem to have made things twice as easy and more than doubled your chance of success.

Hackers target small businesses

08/02/07

Feeling paranoid? Think people are out to get you? If not, you're just not paying attention. Small businesses have gained the attention of large companies who lust after their buying power. And unfortunately, hackers now lust after small business for their intellectual property and customer data, and find smaller companies make easier targets because their defenses are weaker.

Upcoming Webcast

07/26/07

When small business becomes important, big companies pay attention. Wells Fargo Bank, one of the biggest of the big, is halfway through a series of Webcasts aimed at small businesses. I know the details first hand because I had the privilege of being one of the panelists on a Webcast slated to air Aug. 15 (register here).

The non-personal computer

07/19/07

One of the concepts I stressed during my speeches at the recent ITEC conferences surprised many people: stop calling computers "personal" computers. Changing that attitude will lower your hassle factor, improve your security and save time and money. I consider any one of those three reasons enough of an advantage to rethink how you approach computers in your business.

ITEC Spring wrapup

07/12/07

The ITEC conferences I’ve been keynoting run May through June and then return in the Fall in October and November. I just finished the spring tour and had the pleasure of meeting people from small and midsized businesses in Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle and Indianapolis.

Added attractions

07/05/07

Too many PC vendors load new systems full of CrapWare, a trend no one likes. A nice change comes from HP, Absolute and Parallels which add stuff users like.

More small business help

06/28/07

Everybody needs a little help now and then. Small businesses certainly need help on a regular basis, especially when new and striving to become bigger businesses. While you might think the best information will come from your bank or your accountant, that's not always the case. You may find great information in odd places, like the official Michigan Web site or Home Depot. Yes, Home Depot.

Predicting your technical future

06/21/07

After reading about the PopSci Predictions Exchange (PPX) in Popular Science Magazine, I wondered how I could help you predict your technology needs for the next 6 to 18 months. Since we don't have a predictions market driven by readers willing to place money (even fake money) on what you'll need, I'll see what I can find in the tea leaves.

Technology in education

06/14/07

Some readers asked about my comments on technology in education at the ITEC show in Houston where I was one of the keynotes. We've had some pretty lively discussions about this topic in the past, so let me hit the highpoints for you.

OpenOffice vs. Microsoft Office

06/07/07

If you haven't checked out the new Microsoft Subnet and Cisco Subnet focus areas on the Network World Web site yet, you should. Both offer interesting commentaries on their particular subjects. But I don’t agree with this blog post in the Microsoft Subnet about the dangers of using open source tools because I think it will do real financial harm to small businesses.

James Gaskin writes books (16 so far), articles and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area.