Eli the Computer Guy

Archive for the ‘Thoughts and Ideas’ Category

The new Google Chrome OS is revolutionary, but not for the reasons most people talk about.  There are numerous other free, open source, stable operating systems that anyone with an Internet connection can download and use.  What makes Google’s Chrome Operating system relevant in that it is GOOGLE’s operating system.

However much people may argue to the contrary people like huge, well known, brand names.  Big brands make people feel comfortable.  People are willing to try new things from big brands because they figure the experience won’t be that bad.  They may not keep using a product or service, but they are willing to at least give it a try.  When people test products or services from no name companies they fear a boogie monster may jump out and eat them at any time.

When Google debuts’ the Chrome OS two things are going to happen.  The first is that lots of people will give it a try.  Some will love it, and some will hate it.  This is not the important part though.  The second thing that will happen is that these new users will gain their first experience with the mysterious Linux operating system.  To most users Linux is some ethereal thing that only computer geeks can use.  By using the Chrome OS they will break the fear barrier that surrounds Linux.  They may end up hating Linux, but they will no longer be so afraid of it.

As the popularity of the Chrome OS spreads more and more people will become acclimated to the idea of a non-Microsoft world.  Again they may not like it.  They may even hate it, but they will be comfortable in those feelings of hate.

I have found that users are much like my dogs.  They are scared crapless of things they don’t understand.  When you try to get them into new scary situations they just freeze up and won’t do anything.  You can’t reason with them.  You can’t entice them with a treat, and screaming only makes things worse.  Now when they are confronted with things they know, but dislike.  They get angry, bark a lot, but they still end up doing it. They’ll tell you how much they dislike the new thing, but they’ll bitch about it while they are using it.

So that’s why Google’s Chrome OS is important.  Decision makers will start looking at cheaper options to Windows that have big brand support and they’ll start to test them out on their poor unfortunate users. (Make no mistake I like Linux for some things, but it has a long way to go.)  The users will bitch, whine and moan when they are forced to use the new Operating Systems.  But… they will use them.  As long as the Operating System does what the decision makers need done they will continue to force their users to use it.

And that in a nut shell is why I think Google Chrome will really start the Linux revolution.  It will probably be a mess, but it will be Google’s mess.

Every customer wants a bargain, and every business wants profit.  When you add those two facts into the world of technology you end up with an unhappy mess.

Customers are… well customers.  You’re one, I’m one and your neighbor is one. We generally try to get the best bargain possible.  We bitch whine and moan about customers service and support, but then try to circumvent our contracts to get more then what we are paying for.  Many of us run web sites from our residential DSL connections.  We use the “Academic” versions of software to run critical business applications, and we signup for internet based services as individuals instead of business so that we don’t have to pay as much.  This is all normal, and par for the course.  The problem is people don’t really understand why there is a cost difference between Residential and Commercial products and services.

Let us delve into the world of business of a moment.  You see all the passionate hate you have for many of these companies is reciprocated by the companies towards Residential Clients.  Most companies don’t want to deal with residential clients.  They feel that residential clients are generally under educated about the products and services they are buying.  Many times when there is a problem it is actually the customers issue, but the customer doesn’t know enough about their own technology to realize that the Service Provider is not at fault.  The amount that the customer pays is not in line with the quality of service they expect to receive.

With Commercial Clients the providers can charge much more, and so can give much more in the way of service.  Not only this, but since the product of service is vital to the needs of the business the business will normally have someone on hand who understands the technology being used.  When a Residential Client calls customers support they will say “My Internet doesn’t work!”.  When a Commercial Client calls customers support they will say, “Our guys have looked at it and we have internal connectivity.  We can ping the router, but can’t get past that.  We have power cycled all of the networking equipment. There is an error light on the modem so we think…”  This then means that the service provider spends less time/ money on issues that are not their fault, and they don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what is going on.

Most service providers and manufacturers only deal with residential clients due to the aggregate numbers.  The products and services that are sold to residential consumers are sub par compared to the products and services sold to commercial clients.  The reason is that for the amount they can charge a residential client they simply can’t provide much in the way of support.  The goal is to pump out as much cheap product or service as possible, skip much in the way of quality control, and then deal with returned products or cancelled contracts.

An example of this is the networking equipment I sell to my business clients, and high end residential clients.  A Cisco Wireless Access Point costs $600.  A Linksys Wireless Access Point costs $60.  Too many of my business clients just look at the price tag.  “I’m not going to spend $600 when I can get something just as good for $60.”  What they fail to account for is the $60 item is not as good as the $600 one.  There is a reason that one is 10 times the cost of the other.  They then try to run their business off the $60 Access Point and wonder why everyone gets kicked off the network at least once a day.  Instead of realizing that they may need more expensive equipment, they the curse Linksys for their crappy gear.

My advice is that if you are a Residential Client,but need the stability of Commercial Services then buy the Commercial Version.  My home has Commercial Internet and Cisco Network Equipment.  The reason is that I need the same standards of service at my house that I have at my shop.  You will get much better service and support by paying a little extra.  If I have an Internet problem they will send the next available technician.  If I was a Residential Client they would get to me sometime this week… maybe?

If you are a Business trying to run off of Residential Products and Services you are asking for frustration and pain.  The Vendors REALLY don’t care much about Residential Clients.  The few bucks you’re trying to save by bargain shopping can be lost in the blink of an eye if your business can’t function for a day or more.  I have seen businesses with 20+ employees dependent on those crappy little Linksys Wireless Routers.  A single hour of down time can cost more then a Cisco Router professionally installed.  A few minutes of down time can cost more then the extra $20-$50 per month for Commercial internet Service.

When you are dealing with vendors that offer both Residential and Commercial products or services please realize that there is a real reason for the difference in price.  You really do get what you pay for.

After 3 long years wandering in the cyber desert computer users can finally rejoice that an operating system has come along to deliver us from our misery.  Windows 7 stands on the mountaintop becoming us to follow to find our salvation.  Soon we will be able to shed the torments of Vista and the baggage of XP.  Soon we shall have the benefits of a modern operating system that doesn’t have the problems of a poorly created operating system. Soon my friends… but I would argue that we should not run for Windows 7 just yet.

My argument against immediately upgrading to Windows 7 has nothing to do with the operating system itself.  All the reviews for Windows 7 have been glowing.  Many people migrated to using Windows 7 back at the first public beta test in January and have been very happy.  Everyone I talked to preferred the Windows 7 betas better then either XP or Vista.  My argument against upgrading to Windows 7 right now is about other changes happening in the computer world.

Two major hardware specifications have just been released that will improve the performance of your system more then any operating system upgrade.  USB 3.0 and SATA 3 standards have just been introduced and the hardware that incorporates them is just coming to market.  These standards along with the improvements in Solid State Hard Drives will provide huge benefits to end users.  The issue is that these standards are built into the motherboards of computers.

If you buy a computer today, that computer will never be capable of USB 3 or SATA 3.  You cannot perform an upgrade or buy a part to make it work.  So if you buy a computer right now you are guaranteeing that within 6 months you will have a computer that seems obsolete compared to the new systems. 

Many people do not realize that the main hindrance to computer performance is now hard drive speed.  Better CPUs and more RAM is always good, but at this point these upgrades provide only incremental improvements.

When SATA 3 becomes standard for hard drives this will provide a dramatic, visible, improvement.  The new standard is twice as fast as SATA 2.  SATA 3 transfers data at a blinding 6Gbps.  This speed will be evident in everything from boot time, to how quickly programs open.

USB 3 on the other hand will allow for data to be transferred to external drives at a whopping 4.8Gbps.  You will be able to transfer huge amounts of data painlessly.  These two technologies together will make life for the average computer user seem blissful when compared to the systems that they are using today.

The thing is that the first motherboards with this technology built in are coming to market today.  There are a number of motherboards in the pipelines, but only a couple are available and are not in wide use.  Within 6 months you should be able to buy systems with USB 3 and SATA 3 from any major manufacturer, but right now you can’t.

If you wait 6 months to buy a new computer with Windows 7 and get one with these new features you will glad you did.  So just like when you were a kid and really wanted the shiny new toy, you just have to be patient for a little longer.

You can take a look at a review for one of these new motherboards here: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/10/29/new.asus.usb.30.mainboards.have.record.speeds/

So yesterday I was taking a nice little walk in the park with my dogs when a neighbor walks up to me and says, “I saw your picture in the Urbanite.” (A Local Magazine)

“What…?” I asked.

She frowned for a second and then said, “Well I thought it was you.  It looked a lot like you.”

So after my dog walk I wandered to a local cafe, picked up an Urbanite magazine, and what do you know.  My scruffy profile is smack dab in the middle of a third of a page advertisement.

I find it funny that now a days everyone talks about how anything can show up on the Internet.  What people don’t talk about is the fact that creating printed publications has become so cheap (relative to what it was) that a lot more shows up on paper then would in the past.  I spent an hour or two at some fund raising event and all of a sudden the picture has gone out to over 50,000+ people.

Just something to think about as you go through your day to day life.  Maybe you should spend an extra second looking in the mirror before you go out. ( I kinda wish I had   )

If you are a red blooded American then one of the things you worry about the most is your privacy (At least that’s what the politicians and media say you think, and if you don’t think that then they’ll make sure they get you scared enough that you do.)  Every day we are inundated with news reports of people complaining because companies are tracking their movements online.  These people scream that their rights are being violated and that the CEOs should be ashamed.  As citizens we are led to believe that there is some great Orwellian conspiracy going on, and yet strangely no one really ever says what that conspiracy is.

As a business person I can tell you exactly what is going on.  Advertising is foolishly expensive and can bring tearfully worthless results.  When you buy a billboard or page in a magazine as a business you have no real idea how many people see the ad, and of the people who do how many are actually interested in it.  You just do as much research into the marketing medium as possible and then at the end of the day close your eyes and sign over a hefty check. (Billboards can cost $10,000 per month, and a quarter page add in a free weekly paper can cost $500 per week).  This process wastes a lot of time and money not just for the businesses, but for all the people that have to see the advertisements who have no use in the product.

Now on the Internet you can target ads pretty easily and then track the results.  There’s no reason to try to sell Rogaine to high school cheerleaders, or tampons football players.  So websites create content for specific markets and then they try to get advertisers for those markets.  The people that are interested in advertising then decide if they want to pay for something called CPM, this basically means they will pay for a certain amount for every 1000 a ad is shown. They can choose PPC, Pay per Click.  Which means that they will pay an amount every time someone clicks on their banner ad on a web site. (This is basically how Google AdSense works).  Or they will give a commission of sales to the website owner if someone clicks on their banner ad and then buys something within a designated period of time. (This is generally how Commission Junction, and Linkshare work).

So web site owners get paid by how many people come to their site and then click on ads.  They then work diligently to create content that people will care about and then use social networking and other tools to bring people to their site.  The problem is… The entire advertising commission system is based on being able to track web users.  Web site administrators and authors get paid because their users can be tracked!

Now if you use any one of the countless tools to make yourself anonymous on the Internet this system falls apart.  The web site administrator can’t track you, and if you do buy a product that is advertised on their site there is no way for them to get credit for the transaction.

Just something for you to think about.  You are tracked on the Internet for the same reasons you see commercials on broadcast TV.  Everyone, including myself, thought it was great when TiVo like devices let you fast forward through commercials.  Sadly advertising changed and now we pay the price by the TV shows becoming close to being commercials themselves.  Please believe me when I say neither web site owners, or big corporations, care about anything more personal about you then whether you like your toilet paper to smell like strawberries or not.  The point for web advertising for everyone is to present products that the viewer is likely to want and buy.  So instead of showing ads for Tampex to prepubescent kids, they can show it to twenty something women. At the end of the day advertising is supposed to be a cooperative endeavor, and it’s best for everyone when it works that way.