Wayne's Small Biz Tech Blog

Preview: Windows 7

A Preview of Windows 7

Microsoft released Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) to affiliates and partners last week and made it available to the general public May 5th. The RC release of Windows 7 will be available at least until the end of July 2009.

There is no cost to download or use the pre-release versions of Windows 7, however the product will shut down every two hours after March 1, 2010 and then expires on June 1st, 2010. Microsoft recommends installing a non-expiring version (meaning buy it) prior to March 1st. The download is available here.

It has been fairly well documented that Windows 7 is easier on resources than Vista and the minimum requirements have been developed with 2007-era PCs and better. So, naturally I decided to load it on the oldest PC I could find here at Malibu-Blue, a 2004 vintage Compaq Presario with an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ processor and 1 GB RAM.

Download & Installation

There are a few things you need to know before downloading Windows 7 RC. It's a very big file to download, the 32-bit version is 2.35 GB (yes Gigabytes), and it is an ISO image file so you will need to know how to burn a DVD from an ISO image. There are free ISO burning programs out there like ISOBuster and Active ISO Burner if you don't already have DVD burning software that handles ISO images (available for download from www.Tucows.com, www.Download.com, or search Google for 'ISO burning software').

After burning an Install DVD, the installation of Windows 7 is relatively easy. Updating from Vista is reported to be very easy. I took the more difficult route of upgrading from XP Home. To upgrade from XP you need to run the File & Transfer Wizard included in the Windows 7 upgrade directory. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you until after it copies the installation files and is ready to upgrade. All in all it was only a minor setback and the rest of the installation was relatively simple and much less extensive and time consuming than previous Window version upgrades. 

Performance

Okay, I'm impressed. Even on this old machine there is a noticeable difference in the performance. The operating system loads faster and runs programs better than the previous XP Home. This may be partially due to less programs running now since not all of the previously loaded software has been reinstalled. Even so, the old computer is running as well, if not better, than it did with XP. And this is on a computer that I would not even try to run Vista on (I recommend 2GB RAM as a minimum if your using Vista, 4GB if you don't want to be frustrated). Remember, this old PC that I put Windows 7 on only has 1GB RAM and an old AMD chip.

Why is is this important? More and more consumers and businesses are keeping their PCs longer. If Microsoft released another bloated version of Windows like Vista, it would have been the beginning of the end in my opinion.

Windows 7 will run very well on older PCs, and even better on new ones. This is good news for those not wanting to spend extra money on a new PC and wanting to keep their old PC running for a while longer.

Windows XP Mode

Businesses have been, and continue to be, very reluctant to move to Vista. It's understandable, since there were many driver compatibility issues and business software that ran on XP but required costly version upgrades to work on XP. Some software wasn't readily available even if businesses wanted to upgrade to Vista.

Microsoft really had no options with driver compatibility issues. They had to deal with the problem with the release of Vista or later on down the road. They chose to deal with it with Vista. Basically, since Windows has historically been an "open" system allowing just about anyone with a programmer to create hardware and software drivers, it had become a major source of instability. Windows 7 utilizes much of the same driver requirements as Vista.

So, Microsoft's problem with businesses is two-fold. Windows 7 needs a way to support legacy software that ran on XP AND needs to support those flaky drivers too. Remarkably, they have done this with Windows 7's "Windows XP Mode".

What Windows XP Mode does is allow software written for Windows XP to run in a virtual XP environment as if it was running in Windows 7. In other words, you can run any old software built to run in Windows XP, and the associated drivers, in the actual XP operating system instead of an emulated version of XP.

Unfortunately this is not a solution for everybody, since this feature requires a PC that supports hardware virtualization which has been available for about 3 years now. Many newer PCs have the capability but its turned off by default. Computers older than 3 years or ones that don't support virtualization will need to be replaced in order to take advantage of this feature. For many businesses, this is a less costly and easier to implement solution than upgrading their software. 

Unfortunately, the PC I'm testing on cannot run Windows XP Mode so I have not been able to test the feature first hand. For more info on hardware virtualization, click here.

Anti-virus Issues

Microsoft provides a list of Anti-Virus software vendors with products compatible with Windows 7 RC1. Norton 360 from Symantec is on the list of vendors and products. I was disappointed to find that Norton 360 version 3.0 is not yet 100% compatible. It did install (with some difficulty), but some of the required drivers fail to install, specifically email scanning, leaving the PC somewhat vulnerable.

Other users note that the free versions of AVG and Avast! run well on Windows 7 RC1, but I have not yet personally confirmed this.

Windows 7 is still considered pre-release, so fully supported anti-virus products like those developed by Symantec should be available before actual release. It is still disappointing that they were not ready for this well publicized pre-release. Microsoft has provided a list of anti-virus software vendors working on Windows 7 compatible products (click here).

User Account Control (Allow or Deny!)

One of the major complaints about Vista was the constant prompt to "continue or stop", seemingly whenever a user tried to do anything on the computer (the infamous "allow or deny" in those Mac ads). What this feature really does is notify the user whenever a system-level change is attempted, either directly by the user or indirectly by a software program. This feature made Vista more secure but very frustrating to use. Microsoft says that the UAC was the single most complained about feature in Vista.

The problem with Vista was there were only two settings, "on" or "off". For Windows 7 there are now four levels for the UAC. The User can shut it off, only notify the user when a program attempts a change but don't dim the desktop. only notify the user when a program attempts a change and dim the desktop (the default), or always notify the user the same way Vista did. It needs to be noted that dimming the desktop is more secure since if this is shut off programs could interfere with the prompt (meaning disable, make their own, etc.).

The new default in Windows 7 should make the system less annoying to use while maintaining most of the protection offered by Vista systems.

What's Missing In Windows 7?

Microsoft did take some things away in Windows 7. Microsoft no longer bundles Windows Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Mail (formerly called Outlook Express). These applications, which used to be included in the Windows installation, are now only available as a separate download in the Windows Live suite of desktop applications.

This is a strange move on Microsoft's part since just about every other operating system like Linux and Apple's OS X provide similar apps. However, none of those other systems have the same anti-trust issues that Microsoft faces.

On a more positive note, unlike Vista the Games folder which includes games like Solitaire and Minesweeper are installed by default in Windows 7.

Conclusion

It looks like Microsoft may have an answer in Windows 7 to the Vista critics and businesses holding on as long as they can to Windows XP. Microsoft is doing all they can to put an end to XP and migrate everyone to Windows 7.

The operating system runs well and requires less memory, much more so than Vista, even on older machines. It appears to be as advertised, less of a resource hog. It seems to me to work more efficiently than even XP. As consumers and businesses struggle with the current economy they are keeping older computers longer. Windows 7 will allow them to do so. This is great news for all Windows users.

And most businesses (and consumers) will still be able to run their favorite Windows XP software. Microsoft may have learned a lesson or two from Windows 7 predecessor.

And the pre-release versions are free until June 2010. Unfortunately as of this writing Microsoft has not announced how much Windows 7 will cost after June 1st, 2010.

If you have any questions about Windows 7 please feel free to email me at wayne@malibu-blue.com.

Coming Soon: IE8 and Web Slices!

It's no secret that Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been losing ground to other browsers for years, namely to Firefox.Some estimates have Internet Explorer usage slightly below Firefox (44.8% vs. 45.5% for Firefox) as of the beginning of this year. This user base loss is somewhat astounding when you realize that the same statistics in 2004 showed that 84.7% of web users were using a version of Internet Explorer. 

Microsoft is hoping to reverse this trend with the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 8. As of this writing IE8 RC1 (Release Candidate 1) is available for download.  Release Candidates are still what is called "beta", meaning it's not considered fully cooked.

So What's New And Exciting In IE8?

There is very little outwardly that is going to make the average browser user excited. Many users won't notice much difference from IE7 at all. Some features like the "Suggested Sites" button that "uses your browsing history to make personalized website suggestions" cause no excitement at all. At least it has a "turn off" button.

The real enhancements are behind the scenes. Microsoft appears to have focused on speed enhancements, privacy concerns, and developer tools. I'm going to skip over the geek stuff that most of you could care less about and lets talk about the changes in IE8 that really affect us:

Speed:  Many believe that Internet Explorer has lost ground to other browsers for two reasons, privacy/security problems and the perception that it is bloat-ware that runs slow.

Microsoft has addressed the speed issuein IE8 and in my unscientific analysis (no benchmarks performed) does load pages faster than in IE7. I would say it is comparable in speed to the current release version of Firefox. Unfortunately for IE, Google's Chrome and Firefox's Beta 3.1 seem to be already a step ahead of IE8 in this area. Still, IE7 users will notice an improvement, but it is doubtful proponents of Firefox will rush to jump back to IE because of this speed enhancement.

Privacy: Microsoft is mostly just keeping up with the competition with IE8's new "InPrivate Browsing" feature. This feature is designed to prevent Internet Explorer from storing data about your web browsing session. This includes cookies, temporary files, history and other data as well as preventing your browsing details from being shared with other websites.  Much of this feature is catch-up to Chrome's "InCognito Mode", Safari's "Private Browsing" and Firefox's add-in that does a similar function.

IE8 does seem to take it a step further with "InPrivate Blocking" which basically limits the type of web usage tracking done by referral and advertising tracking systems like Google Analytics. This will most likely be welcomed by privacy concerned users but very much disliked by advertisers and companies that benefit from this information, like Google (Coincidence? ... hmmmmm).

Security: IE8 makes some good strides here with enhanced protection from phishing sites and malware. Internet Explorer now has protection from clickjacking, a type of attack that tricks web users into revealing information or opening up their system by clicking on seemingly innocent web page buttons and links. Clickjacking is a problem for all browsers, not just IE, and most have incorporated similar protection. Still, this is good news for IE users and for Internet Explorer's development as a product.

Web Slices & Compatibility Mode: I saved the best for last. In my opinion Microsoft has two basic, but very large, problems to overcome. 

• Internet Explorer has historically followed it's own standards, not the standards recognized and published by WC3 as have other browsers(the authority on the subject).

• There is a strong anti-Microsoft sentiment among a large portion of the web browser using public.

Microsoft addresses the first problem quite well with the new IE8 enhancements and the "Compatibility Mode" feature. Because Internet Explorer held such a large user share for so long, web designers have been forced to create pages to the Microsoft standard and hope for the best when displayed on other browsers. Now that IE8 conforms more to the WC3 standard, many existing web designs will not display properly in the IE8 normal mode. 

So, Microsoft built in recognition of the old standard if it is being used on a web page. When detected, the user is given a "Compatibility Mode" icon to change the display mode to show the site just as it would be viewed in IE7. This means IE8 can properly display sites developed using the WC3 standard AND existing sites designed to be "best viewed in Internet Explorer 6.0 or better".

Overall, I don't think Firefox users will jump back to Internet Explorer based on the new features and enhancements. Instead, I believe Microsoft added Web Slices to get businesses to push users towards using Internet Explorer 8.

In a nutshell, Web Slices can be used to let interested parties know when specific information changes on a web page through the use of RSS feeds. Simple HTML code needs to be added a webpage and the user takes care of the rest.

As a test, I added a Web Slice in just a few minutes to my website Malibu-Blue.com. Whenever I make a change to the slice, anyone who added my slice to their Favorites will get the updated information very quickly. I don't have to do a thing! 

So, what can be done with Web Slices for our businesses?

• We can easily notify our customers of "Specials"
• We can send changing Event notifications to our customers
• Any marketing that you would normally send by email can be summarized on a Web Slice to drive customers to your website to learn more.

Of course for us business owners to take advantage of this technology we will need to encourage our clients and web visitors to use IE8. For many of us, it may be worth it.

The next challenge is to educate our customers on how to subscribe to our Web Slices, since user interaction is a requirement. They have to find the slice and then actually subscribe to it by adding it to their Favorites. This will be an initial frustration with many of our not-so-Internet-savvy customers.

Web Slices do have some limitations, but are a very good start in the right direction for those businesses not already taking advantage of blogs and RSS feeds. It's another tool for getting our message out to clients and potential clients.

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Finally, a REAL Backup Solution!

As a "tech guy", the most difficult thing to tell a customer is when their data has been irretrievably lost. Unfortunately, for small businesses this can be devastating, even a threat to the company's existence. 

Here's just a small sample of disasters I've been called into after the fact to try and fix:

1. A company had all their computers hooked up to battery backed up surge protectors and felt safe. The morning after a severe thunderstorm, the PC they were using as a file server wouldn't boot up. They had installed a fax through the computer and connected the telephone lines directly to the PC. The phone line surge blew out the mother boards and drive. No good backup of the files had been made in months.
2. A company laptop was running poorly, so it was brought to a big box store for repair. The laptop was returned in perfect running order. Unfortunately, the big box store deleted the entire hard drive and reinstalled the operating system to fix it quickly. All the company's Quickbook files were lost. The laptop was used for personal needs as well, so years and years of photos were lost. No backup of company data or personal data was ever made. Neither the company financial data nor the family photos could be recovered even through forensic techniques. They were gone forever.
3. A mortgage company thought their files were safely being backed up to tape. When the computer went down hard, a new one was purchased. When it came time to restore the backed up data it was found that the backup hadn't been done for almost a year. It was too hard so the person in charge just didn't do it. It took several months to manually replace the missing data at a huge cost to the company. At least they were able to limp along and not go out of business.

There are more horror stories I could tell. the point is, data HAS to be backed up if you are running a business. The backup has to be simple and it has to be easily verifiable that it is being done. It also has to be suitable for restoring the data from nearly any catastrophic event. So, it has to satisfy the worst case scenario.

The worst case is that the entire computer is gone. Fire and theft can occur. If you are backing up to the same computer or a connected backup drive, then your data is still gone no matter how dedicated you are to making the backup. The best solution is to back up off-site.

Backup solutions is probably in my top three questions that I am asked about from small businesses. Backup drives are great but usually stay connected to the computer they are backing up. Flash drives are good, but hold a limited amount of data. They also have to be manually connected and disconnected each backup day. I've had too many emergency repair situations from a USB device being improperly disconnected to really recommend this.

So what's the best solution? Back up off-site to a web based solution. I've been checking out Carbonite for several weeks now and strongly recommend it. It's affordable at $49.95 per year (yes, that a full year for $50 bucks!), and shows you right from your desktop what has been backed up. The one drawback is the amount of time it can take for the initial backup (it can take several days depending on the amount of data you are backing up) but after the initial backup it only backs up the files that have changed.

For those needing both an off-site backup solution of under 2 GB AND anti-virus protection, Norton 360 suits the task just fine. Just be aware that they charge extra for over 2GB and that 2GB is not all that much file server space thee days.

Carbonite is currently only available for the Windows platform, but Mac users can sign up as beta testers for the Mac version. There is a 15 day free trial for those who like to "try before they buy". If you are interested in Carbonite, or Norton 360, please use the links below which help support this blog.

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I'm Sorry, Your Data Is Gone ...

Fortunately it doesn't happen often, but today I had to tell a small business owner "I'm sorry, your data is gone". They bought their laptop from a big box store and tried to get a problem fixed by them and the manufacturer before I ever saw the computer. By the time they dropped it off with me, the data was gone.

I know a lot of tricks, and have some high-tech stuff that lets me recover information off of hard drives that otherwise would be gone forever. Due to an unfortunate series of events, this computer's data could not be recovered. While having to tell a business owner that their customer data, their lifeblood, is gone doesn't happen often, when it does it is devastating.

Making matters worse, the last known backup was over a year old and did not include any of the personal data that was being stored on this business laptop. Many years of photographs were gone forever. The heartache and grief was very apparent and there was nothing I could do except offer the faint glimmer of hope that a forensic lab I've worked with in the past, while expensive, might be able to find something. The odds in this case, however, were very much against it.

Every business I talk to tells me they know the importance of backing up their important data. The reality is almost none of them do an adequate backup. Like many things in life, they think a catastrophic failure of their data storage devices will never happen to them. I can't over emphasis the anxiety, grief, and sense of helplessness that occurs when it does.

I have to mention something important here. If something goes bad on a computer that contains data that is important to you, find a reputable computer repair person that will listen to your needs before attempting data recovery or repairs. Big box stores and manufacturers normally are only concerned with getting the hardware back to functional, which is much easier to do by erasing all your information. If the owner of today's laptop had come to me first, there is a VERY HIGH probability that I could have saved much, if not all, their vital data.

So, what should businesses do to protect their data?

First, lets talk about personal data, like photos and important documents stored on a computer. External hard drives have come down dramatically in cost. At a minimum, every computer storing family pictures and important documents should have an external backup drive. Even old computers that can't support the large capacity internal hard drives can support an external hard drive of 120 GB or more, as long as it has a USB port. (If it doesn't, buy a new computer tightwad!)

A backup should be made automatically every night. Most external hard drives come with great backup software. I usually offer IOmega drives when customers order from me, but there are several other brands that will do just as well. Anyone with questions on external drives can email me at wayne@malibu-blue with their questions. I'll do my best to answer as soon as I can.

To really protect your photos and documents you should burn your data onto CD, or even better due to its larger capacity, DVD. Burn CDs or DVDs frequently and store at least one set off-site! That way if something drastic happens to your home or office, you have at least one set of your pictures and files.

OK, so what should a business do? First of all, everything mentioned above as a start. An external hard drive in essential. In fact, should your hard drive crash completely you can just plug the external drive into another computer running the same software and continue running your business! Our embroidery business can access our customer design files on any computer in the office by simply moving the external drive to another computer or laptop!

Your customer data needs to be protected even a little bit more. You add customers, and information about them, all day long. It is continually changing. All of it is important.

Ideally, your customer data needs to be stored in an on-line database. On-line databases are almost always backed up daily by the company providing the service, and can be restored when needed. One application I wrote could get any individual company's data from a backup whenever needed. In one case a disgruntled employer deleted the entire customer database (they did not follow our security procedures!). We had it back and restored within hours. One such application for storing customer data on-line is an application I helped create for Aclient Software called MyEZCRM (www.myezcrm.com).

Today was a very bad day for the owner of that laptop with company and personal data that can never be recovered. The repercussions from what happened will have an effect on this company, and their profitability, for years to come. Don't let it happen to you. Get your data backed up TODAY!

Sandbox it for Better Security!

My father-in-law Otis asked me what I thought about Browzar, the Internet Explorer shell browser that claims to be "Your private window on the web". The Browzar people say they allow users to browse the web with more privacy and without leaving traces on their computer. I'm all for better privacy and protection when it comes to web browsing, so I decided to try it out. Unfortunately, while the product does offer some degree of better privacy, it was a major disappointment.

I have several major issues with Browzar. It is basically what is called a "custom wrapper". Microsoft provides the core code to developers so they can develop their own custom versions of Internet Explorer. For example, a few years ago I created a custom Internet Explorer for a company that needed to install video compression support easily for their customers. The problem for Browzar to use this source code in a security product is that the "new" product created has all the security flaws of the original built in.

The second issue is that in reality Browzar simply automates what users can do manually. True, many users don't do regular clean up of their temporary files and cookies. So Browzar does offer a little something of value. But it is misleading it's customers by saying its a security tool. It does little to nothing to keep it's users from becoming infected with viruses, hijackers, and spy-ware.

The last issue I have is that Browzar is trying to get it's users to use a pay per click search engine. Original versions forced the issue but the latest version now allows users who know how to change the search engine. There is little doubt that the product was launched to make money from the pay per click search engine people. In essence, Browzar is very close to being spy-ware, the thing they say they are protecting their users from.

ENTER SANDBOXIE: Your own personal sandbox!

With Browzar being such a disappointment, I decided to see if there was anything out there that could really help web browsers actually be more secure. Fortunately there is, and there are more like it coming. The product is Sandboxie and it can be used for free for any length of time but a one-time $25USD registration is encouraged. While Sandboxie requires a bit more technical knowledge than Browzar, at least this one actually does as advertised.

Here is how Sandboxie is explained on their FAQ page (in italics. The image is from Sandboxie as well. Click on image to see animated view):

Think of your PC as a piece of paper. Every program you run writes on the paper. When you run your browser, it writes on the paper about every site you visited. And any malware you come across will usually try to write itself into the paper.

Traditional privacy and anti-malware software try to locate and erase any writings they think you wouldn't want on the paper. Most of the times they get it right. But first the makers of these solutions must teach the solution what to look for on the paper, and also how to erase it safely.

On the other hand, the Sandboxie sandbox works like a transparency layer placed over the paper. Programs write on the transparency layer and to them it looks like the real paper. When you delete the sandbox, it's like removing the transparency layer, the unchanged, real paper is revealed.

Sandbox isolation mechanisms have been used in the computer industry for a long time. They are used primarily for testing new or untested products or for security reasons such as running untrusted applications or potential security threats. Sandboxes basically keep the executing code isolated from the rest of the computer and run it in an area where it can't harm the computer or its data.

I did quite a bit of Sandboxie testing with websites and applications and in each case nothing was written to the hard drive unless I told it to. This includes downloaded programs, cookies, registry changes, and even applications "silently" downloaded to my computer. Sandboxie gives you the option to write the changes or delete them.

This is a different approach to security than what you are most likely used to. Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs search for infections after they have potentially done their damage. Sandboxes just let them run in a safe area and then let you decide whether or not to make any changes they made permanent. Of course this means don't discard your current anti-virus and spy-ware solutions yet, just in case you mistakenly decide to allow a virus through. Also keep in mind that no anti-virus technology is 100% effective, including sandboxes. However, sandbox technology is currently more secure than traditional measures.

If Sandboxie is too advanced for you, and it is fairly advanced, there are easier to use sandbox solutions already available (Kaspersky AntiVirus 7 - see "Intelligent Proactive Heuristics") or currently in beta for upcoming release (ZoneAlarm ForceField). I'm sure others will follow.

If you are worried about on-line security and privacy, it may just be time to jump into that sandbox. Shovel and pail optional.

Everyone like what you do? Uh oh...

I read a great insight into a product's potential success the other day. It came from a very unexpected source. This one came from Scott Adams the creator of Dilbert, yes ... the cartoon strip. It seems Mr. Adams has been successful, and a failure, in many business ventures. His words of wisdom? "If everyone exposed to a product likes it, the product will not succeed."

Hmmm. What's that you say? Well, I think Scott is onto something here. Let me explain. The second part of this statement is, "If everyone likes it, it will fail because no one LOVES it. The only thing that predicts success is passion, even if only 10 percent of consumers have it."

I've been involved with a lot of projects. Some have gone on to be international successes. Others have failed outright. After some reflection, all pass the sniff test on this.

Back in the mid-1980s I was one of the original programmers that created a software package that did about 90% of what it's major competitor did, at 10% of the cost. When first released, there was a LOT of criticism about what it didn't do. But there was a small group that LOVED what it did do and the money it saved. In less than 3 years it became the number one software package in it's market, domestically AND internationally.

On a more recent project, everyone the company showed the product to thought it was "great" and "liked" it. At first everyone in the company thought this was a very good sign for success! Guess what, to date it hasn't worked out. Sales are difficult, even after the best received demonstrations. Seems there is a hesitancy to buy from a lot of potential customers. They all "like it", no one "loves it".

This same company came out with another product recently. Initial test marketing showed a very large contrast within the target client's responses. Some respondents said it seemed okay, but wasn't for them. Some just didn't like it at all. There was another, fairly large, group that loved the idea and wanted to know when it would be ready. "Sign me up". this group of potential customers said!. The first marketing campaign has already shown results far beyond all the marketing on the previous product ever did, combined! This somehow makes sense.

I have many, many more examples where this theory just proves to be true. Enough to say it is not just a theory, it is a fact. I can't think of one example that would go against it.

Today, take a look at your own product or service. Do most of your customers like it or love it? What can you do to make your core group of customers, or even just one in ten, LOVE your product or what you do. If you can answer that, you have a winner.

If You're Frugal, try Froogle

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you may already know that I am frugal. Here in New England, it is considered a good thing. New Englanders are strange.

I have to admit, I have a dislike for shopping in general. I don't like waiting to work my way through what seems like the one and only open check out line. I'm also one of those people that makes the store go and check, then correct, the price when it is wrong. I didn't even like stores even when I worked in retail on the other side of the register.

Guess what, Christmas is less than 7 weeks away. I know this. It doesn't matter. I will start my shopping December 23rd, no doubt, as usual.

If you dislike shopping like me, I have a pretty good tip for you. Try to get a specific list of what those  people on your shopping list want, then you can pretty much finish your shopping in minutes! Just go to www.froogle.com, a nice little online shopping site brought to you by those nice people at Google. Froogle is acually "Google Product Search" and is currently in "beta", which means it is not a completely finalized product yet.

Let's see how it works. I thought I would see just how good Froogle.com worked for finding Webkinz. My daughter is really into Webkinz. If you have a young kid, you probably know what Webkinz are. My daughter has over 50 of them (many were gifts, I'm frugal ... remember?). For everyone else, Webkinz are simply stuffed animals with a special coded tag that lets the child "play" with their stuffed animal in virtual web land. They have "special" editions and new animals coming out all the time. Well, my daughter wanted one of the latest to come out, a white seal.

In Froogle.com, I typed "Webkinz Seal". Up came 4 pages of places where I could by it online, showing the item description, in some cases a picture, and the price. A nice feature is the sorting capabilities. I sort by price, low to high of course. One of the other sorting features is to sort by rating, which is how online shoppers who have bought something from the listed company rate their experience.

In many cases it is best to know the specific brand and any other details that help find what you are looking for. For example, I can type "Wine" and get hundreds of pages returned. But, if I know someone likes Cabernet I can comparison shop just that specific wine by entering "cabernet wine". If I know they like Kendall-Jackson Cabernet wine I can really do some comparison shopping!

Now if I can just get free overnight shopping I'll be all set when I start my shopping on the 23rd...

What Motivates You?

"What motivates you?" was the discussion of the day yesterday. It has been a busy week and my mind was on other things like "What am I going to write in my blog this week?" Let's just say I wasn't motivated to answer. "I donno" was the best I could muster.

The question had come up in a meeting. Most of the attendees had their nice, warm and fuzzy answers. "My family", said one. "My children" said another. Another chimed in, "To help people less fortunate than myself." Awwwwww. All noble answers indeed, but I expect not the deep honest answer this question is putting out there.

Then someone said a single word. "Fear". She explained to the group, "Fear motivates me, the fear of failure, the fear that I can't do what needs to be done".  "I even wait to do things until the last minute", she continued, "so the fear of not finishing tasks forces me to complete them." You could hear a pin drop. Finally, an honest answer. Not surprisingly, the subsequent replies became "the fear of underachieving", "not reaching my goals", and "I'm afraid I will  let down my family and friends".

Fear is a great motivator. Lou Holtz, the legendary football coach and TV commentator, tells a great story about when he was young. While swimming with friends in a river, someone had the idea that they should all swim across the river. The river was a mile wide and one of his friends said he was not a very good swimmer. He didn't want to do it. Lou said, "Come on, if you get in trouble I will rescue you, I promise." Well, the friend did okay for the first quarter mile and even the next quarter. When they were about three quarters the way across, his friend yelled out for help. "I can't make it!", he screamed. Lou says he did what many young kids would do when worried if they would be able to make it themselves, never mind dragging a friend. He pretended not to hear him. So did his other friends. What did his non-swimmer friend do? He turned around and swam back. Why? His mind told him he couldn't swim a mile. He panicked and swam back a total of a mile and a half. Fear is a great motivator, and the human mind is exceptional at ovecoming it, even if we don't realize it.

When I first got out of high school I had the opportunity to travel for a company. I was afraid of flying so I turned them down. After that opportunity passed, I regretted it. I said I would never let that, the fear of flying, ever hold me back again! A few years later the opportunity came up again, this time to go to Japan. I was just as afraid of flying, but I accepted anyway. It changed my life. Guess what I found out? I love to fly and I love to travel! I got to see and do things I never would have had the chance to see otherwise.

So, what motivates me? I guess its fear for me too. In my case, it's the fear of not finishing something because fear stopped me from doing it or because I didn't try. I learned early on that fears can hold you back or motivate you to bigger and better things if you strive to overcome them. I prefer the later.

So, what motivates you?

Business Card Marketing

Your business card is one of your potentially best advertising tools, and also one of your least expensive. For many of us it will reach more hands, and eyes, than just about any other form of advertising we do. So how do we get our business card noticed, and kept in the hands of it's recipients?

First of all, a professional business card is a necessity. More to the point, a cheap badly designed card or home-made card will go a long way towards it being ignored and tossed. Let's face it, you wouldn't quickly print up an ad on your home computer for the newspaper, so why do it for what could be your most effective sales tool?

You should work with your professional designer or printer to make sure you get the most effective look and design for your business card. Here are a few things that may sound obvious, but NEED to be on your business card and worked into the design:

• Your Name: Duh. But make sure it is easily found on the card.
• Company: A no-brainer unless your company name uses your actual own name like a lot of small businesses do. Even if you are a one-person operation, include your company name AND your name on the card. To do otherwise gives the perception that your company is not a real one.
• Give yourself a title: You're the owner and don't have a title? Put down President or CEO.
• Email Address: Put it on your card. Embarrassed because you only have a Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, or other generic email address? YOU SHOULD BE! Get a domain name even if only for your email address. It is VERY inexpensive, even for a frugal person like me!
• Website: If you have one, and you should, put it on your card. Drive people to your website and let them learn more about what you do at their own convenience.
• Phone Number: Again, a no-brainer but try to keep it simple. I really don't like cards with more than one phone and maybe a fax number. Put whatever phone number you prefer to get business phone calls on.
• Your logo: If you have one. If not, use a design. A white business card with just your info on it will not get noticed. For my own business card I asked my printer (Evan at aPrintery) to design me something with palm trees and a sunset that felt like Malibu beach. Evan did far better than I would have done on my card. I continue to get a LOT of great compliments on it. Thanks Evan!
• Your tag-line: If you have a tag-line, or memory hook, to help people remember your business, put it on the card. Every little bit helps!

A lot of business coaches will recommend that you use the back of the business card, otherwise it is wasted space. I disagree!!! Here's why.

I recently took a look at the business cards I've kept through the years. Almost ALL of them have notes written on the back. Maybe it's a referral, phone number, or just a great recommendation on a restaurant. The point is I kept the card. I noticed the card. That little piece of scrap paper called the back of a business card is invaluable. I use the back of my card even when I have a piece of paper to write on. The person I give the card to has both the information they wanted AND who provided the information for them!

One word of caution however. If you plan on doing business with anyone in Asia, especially in Japan, do not write on your own or someone else's business card. Ever. It is considered extremely disrespectful to whoever's card you wrote on, even if it's your own.

One last tip on business cards. Buy a business card holder and use it. Metal ones are the best, but leather ones will do almost as well. There is nothing worse than getting a wrinkled business card or a handful of lint to go along with a card. Perhaps the Japanese have it right. How you design, treat, and present your business card is a reflection on yourself.

Storm Worm still a tropical depression

Last January, computers began getting infected by a malware virus later named "Storm Worm", because it was initially launched and spread through an email with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe". Maybe you saw this email. Hopefully you did not open the attachment.

Almost a full 10 months later and this "worm" still has the IT world talking. Oddly enough, the "Storm Worm Trojan" isn't even technically a worm, it is a bot, used to join the infected computers together into it's own network called a botnet. One of the reasons the IT world is still talking about this piece of malware is not only the methods used to get it past anti-virus software and security patches, but the possible size the botnet network has become. Some say the Storm Worm has created what could be one of the world's top ten supercomputers. The scariest part ... it may be the first top 10 supercomputer not controlled by either a government or extremely large corporation, but controlled by criminals instead.

What the Storm Worm bot does is try to get Windows based PC users to unknowingly run a little file that installs the malware on that computer, thus joining it into the botnet. They have done this, quite successfully, through global news events, YouTube videos (Subject Line: You HAVE To See THIS!!!), and on-line greeting cards. They have also hacked into legitimate websites that redirect downloads to their servers with infected downloads.

So, you may ask, what's the big deal? What can they do with a bunch of infected computers? Initially they seem to have been renting the botnet out to spammers. This network can literally send out millions of junk email with links that help spread the Storm Worm bot or penny stock "pump and dump" investment scam emails. It appears the criminals have rented the network out to on-line pharmacy spammers as well. There is also evidence that at least one variant of the Storm Worm has been used for a DDOS attach - a distributed denial of service attack - against anti-spam services. This is done by millions of infected computers each requesting info from a single server or website at the exact same time.

As an interesting side note, one of the "features" of the original Storm Worm bot is self-preservation. If an infected server launches a scan that would detect it, the botnet launches a DDOS against the server, thus shutting it down.

So, what can we Windows dependent computer users do other than switch to Ubuntu (see: Sick of Microsoft)? Here are some tips:

• Do not open any on-line greeting card unless you are absolutely sure that someone you know sent it to you.
• Immediately delete any emails you get about a great stock tip (unless it is a real email from your financial adviser). These are "pump and dump" scams. Get enough uneducated people to buy them, dump them for a profit.
• Go to Google News, CNN.com, or other legit on-line news organization for your on-line news. Do not click on links or otherwise download anything from an email with some sort of news alert. I personally check out news on Google News and CNN.com.
• There are no YouTube videos you just have to see. Delete the emails. If you really need to see if that YouTube video is there, go to YouTube.com manually and search for it. Do so with caution, even YouTube may be vulnerable to redirects.
• Any short email with an embedded link in it ... delete it immediately.
• After deleting email, go to your Deleted Email box, if you have one, and permanently delete all the messages in it.
• Run Windows Updates regularly. I strongly suggest that you set Windows to do Automatic Windows updates instead of running them manually.
• Use anti-spy-ware software like Ad-Aware (Click Download Ad-Aware FREE) or SpyBot (download from Download.com). Both have free versions and work well.
• Keep your virus software up to date. If you don't have anti-virus software, go get it NOW! If you want to an on-line version, why not use Microsoft's OneCare. I usually don't recommend Microsoft products, but hey ... they DO make the operating system they are trying to protect. Beware though, OneCare right now can take a very long time to run.

Viruses and spy-ware are becoming more complex and the software to combat them will always be slightly behind. It is still better to be up to date with your protection at all times, and back up your valuable data!