Well that was interesting.
I log onto a website earlier today to place an order and lo and behold, what appears under my account information but HUNDREDS of recent customer orders for this company.
Now here's the thing...web pages get crisscrossed on a company site from time to time, but seems that the ONE thing you'd be sure never gets mixed up is private customer information. Identity theft and what have you.
Needless to say (I would hope), I notified the company that I could see all their customer accounts on my computer screen, and it's a good thing for them that I'm not the kind of person who uses that information for fraud and theft and so on.
But it got me thinking...do I really want to be putting my information on a company's server when I have just witnessed a fairly severe failure in their site's security?
Me thinks not. Time to shop elsewhere.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
3.31.2009
11.24.2008
Marketing
I like to pretend that people still read my blog. It's actually quite liberating to know that it isn't the case, though...I can type whatever I want, no need to read over it or edit, just post it. Too long? Oh well. Too brief? Hasn't happened yet...
Well, since UGA football isn't worth talking about, I'll move on to something else for this post. And it's not exciting, really (hence, the title of this post). So...you've been warned.
I have all my computers running Windows Vista. You know, Vista...that thing that is absolute crap...it sucks. I'm sure you've heard of it.
Anyway, I've been thinking about product marketing as a result of this Vista upgrade of mine. People almost always expect the next version of something to be better than the previous and current versions. The marketing for products usually feeds off of that eagerness for improvement. So when people's expectations - however inflated - are not met, it makes us go crazy.
High definition discs (Blu-Ray and the now-defunct HD DVD) have been disappointments. The video quality is there, but it's not really the big leap that VHS > DVD was.
The Mac vs. PC stuff has raged on for a long time, and it only got more entertaining with the TV ads that had the dorky PC guy and the fun, young Mac guy. Then Vista came out and Apple had a field day.
Every single product manufacturer - no matter what they make - has a tendency to fall short of expectations, make mistakes and generally fail in one or more areas. Knowing which areas and how the failures work can be a real benefit to the end user, however, as we can use that knowledge to keep on keepin' on.
I moved to Vista because - based on my own research - I was pretty sure it would be better than my old XP setup. So, long story short - HOLY CRAP. My video editing machine is blazing fast now, and all I did was change to that poorly marketed, formerly bug-ridden piece of software called Vista.
No more details here (I mean, if you really want to know what's happening, you can e-mail me and I'll explain) but it's hard to admit that poor and negative marketing has so successfully tanked a product that works so well for me. And if it works for me....well, aren't there probably at least a few others?
Marketing is powerful...it can make and shape the nature of discussions. Marketing points can even become substitutes for real-world facts and figures as people quote advertising rather than results.
It's not just product marketing, either...just look to our recent presidential election for an example. Obama won the marketing war, and won the White House as a result (whether or not it's right is irrelevant...it happened nonetheless).
Sometimes the marketing is just a simple shouting match. The louder and/or more persistent party wins. That's probably more likely the cause of the recent Mac/PC stuff regarding Vista. Microsoft made mistakes and then buried their head. Apple poked fun at them and Microsoft took over a year to fight back. All the while, Apple's ads got funnier, more pointed and aggressive.
So is it fair, that a product (that is perhaps better in many ways) loses ground simply because the marketing was bad? I would argue "yes."
Opinions drive the swiping of the credit card, and if you win the opinion, you win the purchase. Failure to win opinions is a failure in total, unfortunately.
So I feel like a bit of an outsider using Vista and being all satisfied about it, but facts are facts. Microsoft blew it, and as a result, many people will never be able to take advantage of a good product because they will never take the chance on something that so many advertisements said was laughable.
SIDE NOTE - Many of the "expert" end-users out there do agree that Vista isn't as bad as originally thought, but all concede the point on marketing. It's generally agreed that Microsoft's PR caused this failure more than any bugs or missing features ever could have. So these "experts" agree that Vista is a generally useful product but there is about 0% chance you will find them all spending their time and money trying to save Microsoft's butt on this one. That's one lonely kid playing all by himself on the playground.
Well, since UGA football isn't worth talking about, I'll move on to something else for this post. And it's not exciting, really (hence, the title of this post). So...you've been warned.
I have all my computers running Windows Vista. You know, Vista...that thing that is absolute crap...it sucks. I'm sure you've heard of it.
Anyway, I've been thinking about product marketing as a result of this Vista upgrade of mine. People almost always expect the next version of something to be better than the previous and current versions. The marketing for products usually feeds off of that eagerness for improvement. So when people's expectations - however inflated - are not met, it makes us go crazy.
High definition discs (Blu-Ray and the now-defunct HD DVD) have been disappointments. The video quality is there, but it's not really the big leap that VHS > DVD was.
The Mac vs. PC stuff has raged on for a long time, and it only got more entertaining with the TV ads that had the dorky PC guy and the fun, young Mac guy. Then Vista came out and Apple had a field day.
Every single product manufacturer - no matter what they make - has a tendency to fall short of expectations, make mistakes and generally fail in one or more areas. Knowing which areas and how the failures work can be a real benefit to the end user, however, as we can use that knowledge to keep on keepin' on.
I moved to Vista because - based on my own research - I was pretty sure it would be better than my old XP setup. So, long story short - HOLY CRAP. My video editing machine is blazing fast now, and all I did was change to that poorly marketed, formerly bug-ridden piece of software called Vista.
No more details here (I mean, if you really want to know what's happening, you can e-mail me and I'll explain) but it's hard to admit that poor and negative marketing has so successfully tanked a product that works so well for me. And if it works for me....well, aren't there probably at least a few others?
Marketing is powerful...it can make and shape the nature of discussions. Marketing points can even become substitutes for real-world facts and figures as people quote advertising rather than results.
It's not just product marketing, either...just look to our recent presidential election for an example. Obama won the marketing war, and won the White House as a result (whether or not it's right is irrelevant...it happened nonetheless).
Sometimes the marketing is just a simple shouting match. The louder and/or more persistent party wins. That's probably more likely the cause of the recent Mac/PC stuff regarding Vista. Microsoft made mistakes and then buried their head. Apple poked fun at them and Microsoft took over a year to fight back. All the while, Apple's ads got funnier, more pointed and aggressive.
So is it fair, that a product (that is perhaps better in many ways) loses ground simply because the marketing was bad? I would argue "yes."
Opinions drive the swiping of the credit card, and if you win the opinion, you win the purchase. Failure to win opinions is a failure in total, unfortunately.
So I feel like a bit of an outsider using Vista and being all satisfied about it, but facts are facts. Microsoft blew it, and as a result, many people will never be able to take advantage of a good product because they will never take the chance on something that so many advertisements said was laughable.
SIDE NOTE - Many of the "expert" end-users out there do agree that Vista isn't as bad as originally thought, but all concede the point on marketing. It's generally agreed that Microsoft's PR caused this failure more than any bugs or missing features ever could have. So these "experts" agree that Vista is a generally useful product but there is about 0% chance you will find them all spending their time and money trying to save Microsoft's butt on this one. That's one lonely kid playing all by himself on the playground.
4.01.2008
Help me pick a new phone! Hooray!
WARNING - NOT A SUPER-EXCITING BLOG TODAY!!
I am looking to get a new mobile phone...here's the deal:
I'm currently on AT&T mobile and have no reason to leave, but since it's a business expense I don't really care what network it's on.
You can just e-mail me or post in the comments if you have anything to offer on the matter.
As a sidebar....I've looked at the Palm Centro (?) devices recently because I could dump all my current information from my Palm Z22 without having to deal with a bunch of conversion. However, it's a fairly brand-new device and I don't know what all it can/can't do. If you think this thing is the bee's knees, let me know (or if you think it really sucks, let me know that, too).
I am looking to get a new mobile phone...here's the deal:
- It's for business use
- It needs to combine the 2 devices I currently carry around - a Palm Z22 (organizer) and a Nokia 6102i (phone) - so that I don't have to carry around 2 devices anymore
- It has to hold a battery charge pretty good...I don't want to have to recharge the thing every 12 hours
I'm currently on AT&T mobile and have no reason to leave, but since it's a business expense I don't really care what network it's on.
You can just e-mail me or post in the comments if you have anything to offer on the matter.
As a sidebar....I've looked at the Palm Centro (?) devices recently because I could dump all my current information from my Palm Z22 without having to deal with a bunch of conversion. However, it's a fairly brand-new device and I don't know what all it can/can't do. If you think this thing is the bee's knees, let me know (or if you think it really sucks, let me know that, too).
1.28.2008
So I built a TiVo...
Most people have a general idea about what a TiVo does...it grabs programming information off the WWW and uses it to record the TV shows you specify. Not really a very complicated thing...so I built one instead of buying one. Generically, this type of product is called a DVR or PVR (digital/personal video recorder).
Why in the world would I build instead of buy? Well, TiVo is EXPENSIVE. Add to the cost of the little box the fact that you have to pay a monthly subscription, and adds up very quickly. The boxes start around $99 and go to $599 depending on what you want. Monthly subscription will run you $9 to $13 per month, or $108 to $156 per year. Most cable or satellite companies have a similar product with similar prices. In most cases, cable or satellite companies will simply rent you the box.
My problem with both scenarios - I really can't stand the idea of paying a subscription fee month after month. For anything, especially TV (I already have to pay once for TV, a second time seems more like an addiction). Even worse, the quality of the video recorded for TiVo or the cable/satellite junk is usually rather low, and the amount of hours that can be recorded is usually WAY too limited as well.
HEY HEY HEY!!!! Lots of you are probably clocking out right now....that's cool, it's a pretty nerdy post. If you want to just see the final deal, CLICK HERE to wrap it up (not sure if that works in Facebook...if not, just scroll for a couple of days, you'll see it).
Anyway...opportunity presented itself when I won a teeny-tiny barebones computer at some trade show thing last fall. I thought "what am I going to do with this thing?" It would require building out with my own parts and software to make the thing usable as any kind of computer, and it would be too small for most of the work I would throw at it. Ah, but it occurred to me that the machine was small enough to fit in with my DVD player in the living room, so the idea came about to make a DVR. But how?
Did all of like 5 minutes of reading on line and determined that the main thing you need to figure out is HOW you are going to get the cable line into the computer...most people don't have that little screw-on coaxial plug on their computer, so you need to buy a part for that (it's called a "tuner card"), and there are a few choices out there for that. I already had a few spare parts (memory, CD drive, hard drive, video card) hanging around from old machines that are no longer with us, so I could re-purpose those without and cash expenditure. Then I also had a Windows XP license that I've never used (it's legal...thanks Mike) so I saved $$ there, too. All I needed was a processor and a TV tuner card.
Fast forward a couple of months later, I got the tuner card for Christmas and then I won the college football pick 'em for 2007 season and had cash-on-hand to finish building this thing out (I won it for football so Hilary green-lit my project...I think she was just amazed that I'd made money from football). A few hiccups and a couple of underestimations later, I figured it all out and got the dang thing up and running. Been testing it out with a trial software (program guide) for the last week and I gotta say...it is great. We only have about 30-40 TV channels, but there is plenty on those channels that I would like to record for viewing at one time or another. Even better, for shows that have conflicting time slots, I can record one and watch the other.
AND I found out...it's connected with YouTube and Google Videos (plus some other online movies and sources like NBC and CBS for their TV shows). Not that I can't go in the other room to enjoy the latest junk on those sites, but there's something cool about parking it on the couch and doing that in full screen.
It also does a 10 day detailed weather report. Guess they thought that was the missing piece to make this thing worthwhile....? People love weather.
For the geeks, here's a rundown of the parts and how much you might expect to pay for similar parts if you build your own:
Even still, my system is better in every area but one when compared to a TiVo-style box...my system was built by me, so if it breaks or something, I've got to fix it myself. I'll assume for the sake of argument that if your cable company DVR or TiVo box breaks, they will fix it for you free of charge (optimistic, I suppose?).
To summarize (welcome back!)...my junk, when compared to the best TiVo system, is better because:
Maybe not the bear....then you'd still owe me, except I'd probably be dead. And that's why you'd owe me. Because of the bear.
Why in the world would I build instead of buy? Well, TiVo is EXPENSIVE. Add to the cost of the little box the fact that you have to pay a monthly subscription, and adds up very quickly. The boxes start around $99 and go to $599 depending on what you want. Monthly subscription will run you $9 to $13 per month, or $108 to $156 per year. Most cable or satellite companies have a similar product with similar prices. In most cases, cable or satellite companies will simply rent you the box.
My problem with both scenarios - I really can't stand the idea of paying a subscription fee month after month. For anything, especially TV (I already have to pay once for TV, a second time seems more like an addiction). Even worse, the quality of the video recorded for TiVo or the cable/satellite junk is usually rather low, and the amount of hours that can be recorded is usually WAY too limited as well.
HEY HEY HEY!!!! Lots of you are probably clocking out right now....that's cool, it's a pretty nerdy post. If you want to just see the final deal, CLICK HERE to wrap it up (not sure if that works in Facebook...if not, just scroll for a couple of days, you'll see it).
Anyway...opportunity presented itself when I won a teeny-tiny barebones computer at some trade show thing last fall. I thought "what am I going to do with this thing?" It would require building out with my own parts and software to make the thing usable as any kind of computer, and it would be too small for most of the work I would throw at it. Ah, but it occurred to me that the machine was small enough to fit in with my DVD player in the living room, so the idea came about to make a DVR. But how?
Did all of like 5 minutes of reading on line and determined that the main thing you need to figure out is HOW you are going to get the cable line into the computer...most people don't have that little screw-on coaxial plug on their computer, so you need to buy a part for that (it's called a "tuner card"), and there are a few choices out there for that. I already had a few spare parts (memory, CD drive, hard drive, video card) hanging around from old machines that are no longer with us, so I could re-purpose those without and cash expenditure. Then I also had a Windows XP license that I've never used (it's legal...thanks Mike) so I saved $$ there, too. All I needed was a processor and a TV tuner card.
Fast forward a couple of months later, I got the tuner card for Christmas and then I won the college football pick 'em for 2007 season and had cash-on-hand to finish building this thing out (I won it for football so Hilary green-lit my project...I think she was just amazed that I'd made money from football). A few hiccups and a couple of underestimations later, I figured it all out and got the dang thing up and running. Been testing it out with a trial software (program guide) for the last week and I gotta say...it is great. We only have about 30-40 TV channels, but there is plenty on those channels that I would like to record for viewing at one time or another. Even better, for shows that have conflicting time slots, I can record one and watch the other.
AND I found out...it's connected with YouTube and Google Videos (plus some other online movies and sources like NBC and CBS for their TV shows). Not that I can't go in the other room to enjoy the latest junk on those sites, but there's something cool about parking it on the couch and doing that in full screen.
It also does a 10 day detailed weather report. Guess they thought that was the missing piece to make this thing worthwhile....? People love weather.
For the geeks, here's a rundown of the parts and how much you might expect to pay for similar parts if you build your own:
- Shuttle XPC barebones - $200 (this is the thing I won)
- Intel E2160 processor - $68
- OCZ 512MB (x2) 533MHz RAM - $45 (mine was leftover parts from old computer)
- Western Digital 250 GB SATA hard drive - $60 (spare parts again)
- CD writer drive - $15 (spare part, but will probably get a DVD drive soon for $25)
- nVidia GeForce 6600GT 128MB video card with TV output - $60 (spare part)
- Hauppage HVR-1600 TV tuner card with remote control - $85
- Windows XP Professional OS - $100 (just happened to have it around)
- SageTV media center software - $70 (running a 21 day trial right now)
Even still, my system is better in every area but one when compared to a TiVo-style box...my system was built by me, so if it breaks or something, I've got to fix it myself. I'll assume for the sake of argument that if your cable company DVR or TiVo box breaks, they will fix it for you free of charge (optimistic, I suppose?).
To summarize (welcome back!)...my junk, when compared to the best TiVo system, is better because:
- it can record many many more hours of TV shows (important when you tell it to automatically record every episode of every show you like to watch...adds up quickly)
- it doesn't require a subscription to keep it working month after month
- the video quality is better, and can be customized. I can allow low quality for things like reality shows, high quality for stuff like movies on TV...this means I can fit even more content on the thing.
- I can still use my box to surf the web from my couch, watch YouTube videos on the thing in full screen, and do anything else that any other computer can do - TiVo is just TV recording, nothing more
- it can be cheaper (mine was/is/will be), depending upon how long you keep it and which TiVo you would want to have
- Um....I made it. That's like 5 bonus points right there.
Maybe not the bear....then you'd still owe me, except I'd probably be dead. And that's why you'd owe me. Because of the bear.
1.09.2008
Open [Source] Season
I've found myself using a LOT of open source software recently. If you aren't familiar with the term, go Google it and you'll get a pretty good understanding. Basically (see, you didn't Google it because you knew I'd more or less explain it for you in the next sentence), open source means that the code used to execute a given application is made available to everyone with the idea that the more developers you have play around with something, the better the product gets. So... that's a very loose idea for you to take home.
Anyway, point being...I've been finding all kinds of neat stuff, and it's all free of charge and really useful stuff. I myself am not a developer, so while I can take advantage of the efforts of the open source community, I will likely add little more than the occasional feature suggestion or bug report.
NOTE - open source does not always mean free, and likewise, free software (freeware) is not always open source. There are pay versions of open source products out there, with the difference usually being things like customer support, product guarantees and typically useless things (when was the last time you actually got good help from customer support, or were able to jump through the right loopholes on a product warranty?).
Most people know about Mozilla's Firefox browser by now - if not, see www.firefox.com. In addition, those same folks at Mozilla offer a mail client (think Outlook, or Outlook Express) called Thunderbird. Both are free, and both are quite good. Thunderbird isn't a full-blown Outlook replacement, but compared to Outlook Express, it's a world of difference (read: much much better).
So I've been using both of those apps for quite some time, but recently I've come across a bunch more stuff. A biggie for me is Open Office (www.openoffice.org). It's got a couple of different components to match the Microsoft Office packages - there's a word processor (MS Word), a spreadsheet app (MS Excel), a presentation app (MS PowerPoint) and a couple of other goodies in there. It compares well to the Microsoft product offering, with a couple of major differences:
Anyway, point being...I've been finding all kinds of neat stuff, and it's all free of charge and really useful stuff. I myself am not a developer, so while I can take advantage of the efforts of the open source community, I will likely add little more than the occasional feature suggestion or bug report.
NOTE - open source does not always mean free, and likewise, free software (freeware) is not always open source. There are pay versions of open source products out there, with the difference usually being things like customer support, product guarantees and typically useless things (when was the last time you actually got good help from customer support, or were able to jump through the right loopholes on a product warranty?).
Most people know about Mozilla's Firefox browser by now - if not, see www.firefox.com. In addition, those same folks at Mozilla offer a mail client (think Outlook, or Outlook Express) called Thunderbird. Both are free, and both are quite good. Thunderbird isn't a full-blown Outlook replacement, but compared to Outlook Express, it's a world of difference (read: much much better).
So I've been using both of those apps for quite some time, but recently I've come across a bunch more stuff. A biggie for me is Open Office (www.openoffice.org). It's got a couple of different components to match the Microsoft Office packages - there's a word processor (MS Word), a spreadsheet app (MS Excel), a presentation app (MS PowerPoint) and a couple of other goodies in there. It compares well to the Microsoft product offering, with a couple of major differences:
- Open Office is free. Microsoft charges 100's of dollars for their stuff
- Open Office is fast...it doesn't eat up all your computer's resources and slow you down like MS Office does
- Open Office lets you build PDF compatible forms (good for business people like me)
- Open Office lets you export PDF compatible documents from any of the applications. Microsoft doesn't have any such capability without 3rd party support (and $$$)
- Did I mention it's free?
Okay, enough on the Open Office, moving along...the next cool thingy is a suite of products that can run on your USB flash drive. Pretty much means that instead of you installing applications on your computer and leaving them there when you hit the road, you drop the programs on your USB drive and then make any computer you're using "your" computer. There are a couple of groups offering this, but the one I'm using right now is called PortableApps (www.portableapps.com). I'm not going to go into too much detail, because you can go to that website and see the stuff right away. Suffice it to say that I've set up my USB drive with the following:
- browser (complete with bookmarks/favorites and such)
- e-mail client (Thunderbird, with all my e-mail addresses and username/password stuff)
- my office applications (Open Office, complete with templates for invoices, faxes and all that jazz)
- virus scanner (hey, those public computers can be loaded)
- username+password manager (keeps the websites, usernames, passwords and other info right there, fully encrypted)
I'm running all those applications - including all the data stored for them - on a single 512MB USB drive...so yeah, it's very small and runs fast. Really cool stuff.
Obviously, I'm a certifiable dork, and this isn't really super-exciting ground-breaking information, but hey, it's made my life easier and doesn't cost anything, so I figured I'd share my findings with anyone who might likewise need less hassle from their computer-driven existence.
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