b2 consulting blog

I was struck yesterday how my most useful tool is also Microsoft’s most reviled creation.

I’m referring to, of course, Clippit.

I was reminded of this when I used a common paper clip to perform two jobs that I do all of the time (not counting actually clipping two pieces of paper together.)

1)  I had a CD stuck in a drive.  Unhinge a paper clip, stick it in the hole and BAM!  Out it comes.

2)  I had a router that I needed to, um, recycle for another project.  Use the same unhinged paper clip from step one, stick it in the reset hole, power it on for 30 seconds, and KAPOW!  A fresh router!

And the best part?  ZOWIE!  The clip can be found almost anyplace, and carried very easily.  SHAZAM!

Man; I need to stop watching all of the old Batman series.

A lot of my clients are small firms or individuals. Often times, when they need a piece of software installed, they have me buy it, install it, and charge them for my cost. This works most of the time….except for this new “auto renewal” policy for Antivirus/Antispyware software.

Don’t get me wrong; I am fully behind making it as easy as possible for people to be protected. My problem is that in the above situation, the AV software is on my credit card, and if I do more than one, it is an administrative nightmare to try to track whose AV is being renewed on which date. So, typically I buy the software, jump through the hoops to cancel autorenewal, and then let the client contact me in a year (or two).

Enter Microsoft’s “OneCare” software. You cannot (as near as I can tell), cancel the auto-renewal without also canceling the subscription! So, when I purchased it last year for a client, I made a mental note to cancel at the end of the 365.

Of course, life being what it is, I promptly forgot that note until I got notice today that the subscription had been renewed. Then the real hoop-jumping began. Here is how you cancel support should you find yourself in this position:

1. Login to your account at https://billing.microsoft.com
2. Click the service you want to cancel
3. Click the “Cancel my service” link
4. Look at the amazing list on the right of the services you can cancel, and then wonder why this list cannot figure out what service you are trying to cancel automatically.
5. Pick out the service (in this case, “go to the Windows Live OneCare website”)
6. Click “Cancel your OneCare subscription”
7. See that you have to call someone (1-866-ONECARE)
8. Run out of the house, because you are now late due to all of the clicking
9. Realize that you forgot to write down the number, and then drive while trying to remember if it started with 1-800, 1-877, or 1-976
10. Lookup MS Techsupport number in your phone (because you have it programmed in there) and spend 15 minutes trying to get a live person
11. Finally get a real number: 1-866-672-4551

There. That wasn’t so bad after all!

It was sudden.  There was an unexpected tickling in places I never knew existed.  A brief flush to my cheeks.  An elated sensation that came upon me like a out-of-control freight train.

I got Googled.

After several years of my poor site languishing on the vine, I finally got a call out of the blue for a new client, based on a Google search.

Now, I have two jobs this week:

1)  Figure out what he was searching for so I can capitalize on it.

2)  Call my accountant.  Daddy’s gonna write something off!

I have found a very useful side effect of the iPhone.  It allows me to easily determine if any of the wifi connections in the area are unmanaged without pulling out my laptop.  That is a pretty good deal….for $10.  Not sure that was its intention, but it is certainly useful.

This will be quick, but a few more things that bug me about the iPhone:

1)  Deleting emails.  I get emails on 4-5 different devices.  Why can’t I select all of the emails in a folder and remove them all at once from the iPhone.  Instead, I have to delete them one at a time.

2)  Contacts.  Why can’t I look at contacts from anywhere, except through the phone icon?  Why can’t I click on a recent call and have the option to respond via email (like I could on the Berry)?

I *LOVE* the visual voice mail; especially the ability to re-listen and then skip through the first part that contains no information that I need.

By the way; if you call me, and have your number blocked…be sure to leave your number every time.

So. For those of you who don’t know, I just turned 40. And, as befitting a man of my geeky stature, I received an iPhone for my birthday.

Now; I have been coveting one since they were announced over a year ago. And, then a client got one. And he wanted me to connect it to his Exchange server. And I tried. For two weeks. Every time I finally got it to send, it couldn’t receive (and vice versa). And, yes, I did follow this.

So, I waited. And waited. And finally got one. And discovered a few more pet peeves. Most of these will have been hashed (and re-hashed), but I will continue anyway.

Exchange

This is a big one; I hate the slowness of IMAP (not to mention the security implications). This, however, it mostly made moo by Apple’s recent announcement to include support for Microsoft’s Active Sync. Assuming it works, this could be the Blackberry killer.

Editing

I hate the fact that I cannot cut and paste. When I sent an email recently to a client (and mistyped their address), I ended up forwarding the original message since I didn’t want to retype it (and the mail client doesn’t appear to have a “edit and resend” function. This seems to me to be a very silly thing. I would think a simple “drag” of the finger would let me select text. And, I hate trying to stab the space next to the word that I misspelled two sentences back (or that the iPhone auto text “fixed” for me when I didn’t realize it).

Typing

The keyboard is cool. And, I hate it. I’ve had the phone for over a month, do a lot of emailing, and still cannot type and 1/2 the speed I could on my Blackberry.  I would love (and I know this is a hardware not a software upgrade) a hidden keyboard that you could slide the machine up to use for longer messages.  I tried to write this post from the iPhone, and gave up after 3 sentences and 5 minutes.

That is enough kvetching for now.  I like the device; but after coming from a blackberry, I don’t love it.

Still far superior to the Treo.  And, love the web surfing.

If it weren’t for the fact that I could have used this site the first three times I opened up any Office 2007 packaging, I would find this humorous.  The fact that MS had to create such a site, however, makes me laugh.  Thank goodness for Apple packaging.  It Just Works.

This is one of those problems that drove me crazy for a month, and it is only because of Google that I got the answer. Frankly, I’m not sure how any of us could do what we do without Google.

I’ve had two different clients with the same problem. When they go to launch Excel 2003, a window pops up saying “Preparing to Install…” and then the Office 2003 installer launches. However, it doesn’t complete, and even “Detect and Repair” doesn’t fix the problem. Here is the answer:

Create an empty folder named “XLStart” here: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11″.

That is it. So simple, and yet you can pull your hair out (and I can’t afford to lose any more). Never again will I have to download SWI just to find out the $#%!@$ license key.

Well, at least not for that.

I have done a lot of things in my IT life (including things I am not proud of), but this little problem took the cake.

I have a client who has a Dell OptiPlex 745.  For the past couple of months, when he would restart his machine, it would sometimes fail on start up.  Right after the Windows XP splash screen (and before the “Applying computer settings” screen), the screen would go black and would freeze.  Easy answer, right?  Had to be the video card.

Nope.

Called Dell.  Installed new drivers.  Updated the BIOS.  Even ran a patch from Symantec, since there is apparently a problem between the 10.1 of the corporate edition of Symantec Antivirus and this version of the Optiplex.

Nope.

Finally, we tried the old tried and true method (besides a complete re-install of the OS): unplug all non-essential internal and external peripherals,  including the video card (there is one on the motherboard) and the optical drive.  Old school time; hard drive, keyboard and mouse.

The problem disappears.  Aha!  It is the video card!

Nope.

Turns out, it was the optical (CD/DVD) drive!  The minute it was plugged in, the computer froze.  Unplug it, and it works fine (except for the annoying “Cannot find SATA-1 drive” error).  Call Dell, have them swap out the drive, and I am done.  Phew!

Go to this link now.  I will wait.  Go on.

Link

This is both the best and worst item to come along in a while.  While it will be helpful to those of us who wear white hats, imagine the damage you can do with this in the wrong hands.  Brrrrrrrrrr.