Small Business Technology Blog

Thursday, April 29, 2010

What is a "Hosted Solution" Or Saas (Software as a service?




What is a Hosted Solution?  
It is a system or software application that is operated and maintained by another organization. These type of solutions are often times referred to as SaaS (software as a service). The provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand, either through a time subscription or a pay-as-you-model.

What are the advantages of each?

 HOSTED
 LOCALLY INSTALLED
COSTS Lower predictable costs
Upfront capital investment
IMPLEMENTATION TIME Short  Unknown
UPGRADES Automatically 
Manually by internal resources
SCALABILITY Built for scalability
Requires additional investments and resources
ACCESS Anywhere, anytime 
Can be limited on security risks to internal systems
EMPLOYEES
All work done externally
Varies, all work is done internally
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Experienced and focused on the solution
Usually not dedicated to a single system
SECURITY Ensured Unknown

Is anti-virus software becoming obsolete?


The problem with anti-virus programs these days is that so many viruses come out every hour that anti-virus programs can hardly keep their list of virus signatures up to date. If your anti-virus program doesn’t know a virus is “bad” until hours after the virus arrived, you are still infected and it may be too late.

A strategy that keeps gaining ground is the concept of “white listing” applications. In plain English, this means your computers have a list of programs that are on the “approved” list to run, such as Word, Firefox, Acrobat, Excel, etc.

Then, any other program cannot run. Period. That means virus 1, virus 2, virus 999, etc. is not allowed to run. This solves the whole problem of needing anti-virus. In theory, even if a virus does come into your network through e-mail, web site drive by download, or Ernie in shipping carrying in an infected memory stick, it doesn’t matter. The virus cannot run anyway!

The challenge lies in being able to keep an organized white list of “approved” programs. When an update to a program arrives, the new update has to be listed too or it will not run.

Many providers are offering solutions including Bit9 Parity and Lumension Application Control and there are constant advancements in making administration even easier.

Yes, some day anti-virus may be old news and the application white-list may well replace it.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The New Google Docs Speeds Up Teamwork and Collaboration for Small Businesses


Google 
Docs
Google Docs' latest upgrade makes the strongest case yet to skip Microsoft Office and collaborate with your group in your browser--especially when you're not in the same physical space. Here are five ways the new Google Docs helps your group get more done more efficiently, even when you're not in the same room together.

1. Reduce duplicate work and grow documents faster. GDocs' document editor now includes Etherpad/Google Wave-like character-by-character real-time updates by up to 50 collaborators. That means you get to watch the multi-colored, labeled cursors of your co-writers typing away in a single document in real-time, but don't write it off as just eye candy yet. Because you can see, down to the letter, what text your collaborators are writing, you avoid editing conflicts as they happen. Your group can grow a document at as many times the speed as you have participants. For example, in a meeting with five people, usually each individual takes his or her own notes. In a real-time editor, everyone can take notes at the same time and ask and answer questions in-document without interrupting the meeting leader. Same goes for conferences and lectures. Students, before that pithy lecture, get with your most trusted classmates in a Google Doc and take collaborative notes together. You'll do less typing and get better notes.

2. Replace your whiteboard with the new drawing editor. Co-typing is fun, but sometimes you want to show instead of tell. GDocs' new drawing editor lets you create flow charts, diagrams, and free-form drawings in what's essentially a virtual whiteboard. When you share your drawing with co-collaborators and give them edit rights, you can watch their updates to the drawing happen on your screen live, as they happen.

3. Chat while you write. Taking a play from Google Wave's book, Docs now combines chat and document collaboration into a single workspace. Unlike Wave, you don't chat inside your document; rather, an instant messaging panel appears docked on the right of your document. Combining conversation and co-writing into a single interface eliminates the need to switch windows between your editor and your instant messenger application. (This feature was available in Spreadsheets before the latest update, but now it's available in Docs and Drawings as well.)

4. Address specific bits of text with inline comments. Losing a reference to a specific paragraph or sentence in a linear chat streaming down the side of the page is too easy. But like Microsoft Word, GDocs supports in-document comments that look like Post-It notes stuck in just the right place, which can turn into mini-chats themselves. These comments include real-time, character-by-character updates too, and collaborators can reply to comments in a quick back-and-forth.

Google Docs

5. Ditch Microsoft Office for most documents. While Google Docs doesn't come close to offering all the advanced features of Microsoft Office, it fits the bill for most documents, spreadsheets, and drawings--and you're already using your web browser anyway. This week's update included features you're used to on the desktop, like a ruler with tab stops, floating images that you can drag and drop to relocate more naturally, and spell check as you type.

The bad news: the new Google Docs does not work offline with Google Gears anymore, and offline access will be disabled for all of GDocs on May 3rd. (Google will bring it back at some point in the future using HTML5). In the meantime, you've either got to export your documents manually to store them locally, or just get real comfortable keeping your data in the Google cloud.

To try out the new Google Docs features, click on the “New version” link at the top of any spreadsheet or go to the 'Document Settings' page and select 'New version of Google documents' in the "Editing" tab.

Microsoft Study Shows SMB Technology Spending on the Rebound



The second annual Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report predicts an increase in IT investments for a majority of small and midsize businesses in 2010.
Microsoft Corp. today released its second annual Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report, a study on small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and their technology priorities in the current economy. The study shows that although SMBs remain concerned about the business climate, most will increase technology spending in 2010, highlighting the role of IT as a strategic business tool in this crucial sector of the global economy. SMBs will invest in IT that directly benefits their bottom line — either by reducing operating costs, improving employee productivity, or acquiring and retaining customers.

In the study, based on a survey of Microsoft Small Business Specialist partners, 63 percent of respondents predicted their SMB customers will spend more on IT in 2010, up from just 25 percent in 2009, with overall SMB IT spending anticipated to rise by an average of 16 percent over 2009 levels. Results from more than 500 partners in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Brazil and India indicate that SMBs view virtualization, IT consolidation, software as a service, customer relationship management (CRM), and support of remote workers as their most important technology investments. 

“The most competitive SMBs are investing in IT that will not only help protect and strengthen their business, but prepare them for success when economic conditions improve,” said Birger Steen, vice president of Small and Medium Business & Distribution for the Worldwide Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners Group at Microsoft. “Technology can buoy smaller businesses through turbulent times — and which technologies SMBs choose can help determine the speed of their return to financial stability.”

Looking for Strategic Guidance on IT Investing

Most SMBs lack dedicated IT staff, and rely heavily on local technology partners to help them evaluate, implement and maintain the right IT solutions. Facing increasingly complex IT options and a challenging economic environment, SMBs are now looking to these partners to provide more strategic guidance that is better tailored to their business, vertical and industry, the study found. Microsoft Small Business Specialists forecasted that customers would look to them most for help with cost-reduction measures, increasing remote management, and a “one-stop” experience aligning technology with business needs.

Other key trends in the 2010 Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report include these:

Forty-one percent of SMBs view server virtualization or IT consolidation as the best cost-saving technology. 

SMBs rank software as a service among the top three technology solutions for both cost savings and business growth; Small Business Specialists expect to see a 19 percent increase in small and midsize customers using cloud solutions in some form.

Seventy-four percent of Small Business Specialists believe their customers will have more remote workers, up from 54 percent in 2009; the estimated 19 percent average increase in remote work force is expected to drive demand for mobile solutions. 

Most Small Business Specialists expect customer relationships to be dynamic in 2010; just 6 percent of respondents predict no change.

Recent industry research confirms many of these findings and attests to the importance of SMBs to the economy. According to James A. Browning at market research firm Gartner Inc., “The SMB market represents 44 percent of the total IT market spending. We predict that SMBs will spend $800 billion on IT in 2010. Our research indicates that midsize businesses worldwide will increase their IT spending in 2010 by 5.4 percent over 2009 spending levels.”

The complete 2010 Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report is available at

Clean up your Facebook profile the easy way

For many, Facebook has become indispensable. It is how we stay in touch with family and friends online. It can also be overwhelming. Unwanted updates may crowd your News Feed. And embarrassing status updates and comments can haunt you.

So, take a little time to clean up your Facebook profile. All it takes is a little time.

Block FarmVille updates

Tired of hearing about FarmVille crops? Then block family and friend updates from FarmVille in your News Feed. Locate one of the posts in your News Feed. Mouse over the update and click Hide. Select Hide FarmVille. You can also hide updates from other apps or even friends.

You may want to prevent apps from posting to your wall. This will leave more room for updates that really matter. To block posts from an app, click Account>>Application Settings. Find the app and click Edit Settings. Deselect “Publish recent activity (one line stories) to my wall.” Click OK.

This handy trick also works for Mafia Wars and other games too.

Delete posts

Maybe someone posted a rude comment on your wall. It could cause trouble with your boss or your spouse. It’s easy to delete wall posts. Mouse over the offending post. When the blue “X” appears in the right corner, click it. You’ll be asked if you want to delete the post. Confirm the deletion.

Job hunters should clean up old wall posts. You don’t want to turn off potential employers. Remove anything offensive. You should also remove anything you may have said about former employers.

There are some wall posts that everyone should delete. Posts claiming to reveal who has viewed your profile should be nixed. Facebook does not let people or apps access this information. Likewise, posts offering extravagant gift certificates are likely scams.

Keep your real friends close

Maybe you want certain friends always to show on your profile page. They’re probably your most attractive friends. Seriously, though, these are the people whose profiles you post to most frequently. Fortunately, you can have certain friends always appear in your Friends box.

Visit your profile page. Click the pencil icon in the top right corner of your Friends box. Find the section labeled “Always show these friends.” Click and start typing your friends’ names.

Keep posts private

You can post hidden messages to a friend’s wall. Visit your profile and click your status box. Start by tagging your friend in the message. Type the recipient’s name preceded by “@.” For example, enter “@Scott Kendall” (minus quotes). Then, enter your message.

Before clicking Share, click the privacy lock. Select Customize. Select “These people” under “Make this visible to” and click Specific People. Enter the recipient’s name. Click Save Setting and Share. This also works for multiple people. Only you and the recipients will see the post.

You may also want to hide certain posts from your boss or others. Type your post in the status box. Click the privacy lock and select Customize. Find the box labeled “These people” under “Hide this from.” Enter the names of those who shouldn’t see the update. Click Save Setting and then Share.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Everything Gets a Like Button (Facebook Style)

Connect with your friends on your favorite websites
Learn about the different ways you’ll see Facebook across the web
Like anything, anywhere
 
Look for the Facebook Like button across the web to connect with the things you care about and share them with your friends.
 
The Like Button
 
When you click the Like button, a link to that page is added to your Facebook profile and a story is shared with your friends.
 
Updates
 
That page can also keep you updated through your News Feed.
 
Your Friends
 
Find out what your friends have liked, shared, and commented on through the Activity Feed and Recommendations social plugins.
 
None of your data is shared with the site when you view social plugins. Social plugins pull information directly from Facebook and the site has no access to the data being displayed to you.
 
Instant personalization
 
You'll find a personal and social experience the moment you arrive on our select partner sites -- Microsoft Docs.com, Pandora, and Yelp. We're working closely with these partners so you can quickly connect with your friends and see relevant content on their sites. These sites personalize your experience using your public Facebook information.
 
When you arrive on these sites, you’ll see a notification from Facebook at the top of the page.
 
You can easily opt-out of experiencing this on these sites by clicking here or clicking "No Thanks" on the blue Facebook notification on the top of partner sites. If you opt-out, your public Facebook information can still be shared by your friends to these partner sites unless you block the application.

Five Tips That Can Help Your Small Business Be More Technology Efficient

We are really lucky to be running businesses during a time when there are so many tools to help us be successful. Technology has been a real asset for making a small business owners life easier. But it can also make your business more complicated.

If you don't use today's technology to help your business be more efficient, you could just be spinning your wheels. So Cisco a leader in small business technology has a few suggestions for you. Here are five tips you can use to help your business be more efficient.

1. Improve employee satisfaction. Aging phone systems and slow networks can frustrate your employees and annoy your customers. In some cases, an employee might become burned out and decide to move on. To help ensure that employees are productive and satisfied, your business needs a secure, reliable, and fast network.

2. Reduce unproductive travel time. All too often, time spent on the road is time lost. A networked phone solution that offers video calls and Web conferencing can help reduce the time and expense of traveling to offsite meetings and training sessions. Instead of spending time traveling, you can use the time to get work done with technology.

3. Make it easy to work together. Smooth collaboration between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers is a sure-fire way to boost efficiency while also reducing costs. An intelligent network lets your business take advantage of interactive calendaring, videoconferencing, unified communications, and other technologies for easy collaboration.

4. Streamline customer communications. Delivering fast, knowledgeable service is the best way to keep customers satisfied. Linking your network phone system to a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is a great way to enhance customer communications. When a customer calls, a pop-up window with their records appears on an employee’s IP phone screen, computer screen, or both.

5. Develop a long-term technology plan. The process of replacing obsolete hardware can interrupt your employees and bring the office to a standstill. You can minimize such disruptions by carefully determining short- and long-term business objectives and working with your network vendor or IT professional to deploy technology that matches them.

So there you go. See any of these tips you can implement in your business? Make sure you help your business get to the next level.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010


The Google Docs team announced preview versions today for the new Google document and spreadsheet editors. There is also a new standalone drawings editor. All of these were built with a larger focus towards speed and collaboration in mind.

With the document editor, Google has included the real-time editing experience you rely on in their spreadsheets. Now you can see changes the moment other collaborators make an edit. They’ve also included the sidebar chat feature from the spreadsheet side of things. You’ll be able to talk with others while you’re working on the document. Highly-requested features have now been added including better import/export capabilities, a new commenting system, real margins and tab stops and an improved image layout within your documents.

For spreadsheets, Google has created a back-end that helps your work load and run faster. “You’ll see significant speed and performance improvements — spreadsheets load faster, are more responsive and scroll more seamlessly.” Other new features include a formula bar to use when editing cells, auto-complete capability, drag-and-drop columns and easier navigation between sheets you’ve created.

The biggest news, of course, is the inclusion of a new collaborative drawing editor. The new tool lets you work in real time with others on things such as flow charts, designs and diagrams. You can copy your drawings into documents, spreadsheets or presentations using the web clipboard. You can also share or publish your drawings just like you do with other Google Docs you have created.
The drawings editor will be available later today, and preview versions of spreadsheets and documents will roll out to all individual users over the next few days. To try them out, click “New version” at the top of any spreadsheet or go to the ‘Document Settings’ page and select ‘New version of Google documents.’
These types of changes could mean an even larger share of the market for Google. Millions of us already use (and love) Google Docs. I have a feeling thousands more will jump into the fray and make this their preferred “document suite” of choice. Cloud Computing isn’t just a term that will soon disappear. It’s something very real – and very important. With so much of our lives spent online, working in the Cloud is nearly a necessity. Google Docs is just one way to get things done – whether you’re working from home or on the road.

If you're computers slowing down, it might just need to be reorganized (Much like our desks!)

One of the reasons that the computer may be slow is that the hard drive becomes more and more fragmented.

To simplify the concept, it means that the data needed for each file is spread over the hard drive. It becomes necessary for the hard drive to search for the pieces of the program and the computer appears to function slowly. The problem can be solved by defragmenting the hard drive. In effect, this boosts the performance of the hard drive and allows it to work more efficiently. It contributes to the overall health of the hard drive.

Most operating systems supplies a utility to defrag a hard drive. For example, Microsoft includes a defragmentation process. It will comes as no surprise that not all defragmentation processes are the same. We recommend Defraggler!

“Use Defraggler to defrag your entire hard drive, or individual files - unique in the industry. This compact and portable Windows application supports NTFS and FAT32 file systems.”

It works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

There are a number of reasons why we are recommending Defraggler. However, if you are wondering why we are recommending something that is offered already with the operating system, the answer is that it is simply better. For example, copy/paste is one function that Microsoft has offered since from the beginning. Nevertheless, it can be greatly improved. Undoubtedly, you have wanted to copy something and keep that along with the next bit of text that is copied. This just illustrates how basic efficiency can be improved.

Defraggler  is an award-winning program. It is what should have been included with your operating system but wasn’t. As our readers know, we remind you to backup your data for security reasons.

Here is a program to help take care of that hard drive better and boost the performance of your computer. The difference between Defraggler and what comes with your operating system is significant. You will want it on all your machines.

And Best of all, it's FREE! http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

Apple Brings An End To Its “Get A Mac” Microsoft Slamming Ads

It is the end of an era. For the last four years, Apple has been slamming anything and everything that Microsoft releases, says or does in its “Get A Mac” television advertisements. And now, Justin Long, the star of the ads who plays “Mac”, has revealed that the advertisement campaign has probably came to a close.

Although he can’t say “definitively”, he revealed in a recent interview with The A.V. Club, that his co-star, John Hodgman, who plays “PC”, has told him that Apple are “going to move on”. For the tiny minority of you out there who haven’t seen the television campaign, it’s as simple as it can get. A Mac and a PC are represented by two men, taking the stereotype of the two operating systems and the two companies to the extreme. As you’d expect, PC is a well-dressed, suited and booted middle-aged man who is dedicated to everything to do with work, but never loosens his neck-tie and doesn’t know the meaning of the word “fun”. On the other hand, Mac is a young guy, casual and happy-go-lucky, hailed for his “customer satisfaction”, his durability in design and his versatility, with incredible fun and useful software in iLife, to his work capabilities in iWork. In every new ad, Apple plays on the faults and problems that Windows users suffer, and how it’s much easier and a much better choice to “Get A Mac”.

If there’s one thing that you can say about Apple’s public image, it knows how to draw attention to itself, and its certainly considered the coolest technology company in the industry by the majority of people, so much that Fortune Magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The campaign was so successful, that all of the ads, along with some web only exclusive ones, have been uploaded to the Apple website, and an entire Wikipedia article is dedicated to the much-loved series. The campaign was even extended here in the UK, with one of our duo comedy pairs, and into Japan. Apple is not afraid to play on every fault that Microsoft and Windows have made, with good wit and taking the definition of stereotype to the extreme.

Although at times I do think that the situations were slightly exaggerated, in most cases Apple are on the money with the problems that PC users suffer. With everything from multiple editions, to hundreds upon thousands of viruses, Apple was skilled in highlighting the cracks in Windows (yes, I know, really bad pun). In any case, “Get A Mac” is one of the best advertising campaigns that I’ve ever been subjected to, and provided some great laughs during those long, boring commercial breaks.
We want to know, which “Get A Mac” ad was your favourite? Did the “Get A Mac” ads push you into purchasing a Macintosh computer? Do you admire Apple’s PR skills? Are you sad that the “Get A Mac” campaign is coming to an end?  Any other thoughts? Let us know, in a comment.

You can watch all of the “Get A Mac” ads at the Apple website by clicking here.

The Technology Coach Goes to Springfield!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Cleanup your facebook profile


As the number of your Facebook friends and apps you (and them) are using increases, your Facebook news feed and wall can turn into one big mess. It’s nice to communicate with your friends, but if you can’t find useful posts amidst all those silly apps, or your real friends amongst all the unknown people you’ve befriended, it’s time to clean up your Facebook profile.

Facebook offers extensive options for fine tuning what individual applications and people can see or do on your Facebook profile, but if you haven’t been following all the changes (and Facebook likes to change often), you might feel lost in all the options. We’re offering a rundown of the most efficient ways to make more sense of your Facebook experience.


Hide Them From the Feed!


The simplest way to control what shows up in your News Feed is to click “Hide” on an item you don’t want to see. Facebook will ask you whether you want to hide that person or page, once you confirm it, you won’t see anything from them again.



If you want to bring some of the hidden stuff back, don’t worry. Once you hide something, Facebook will warn you with the message “XXX has been hidden from your News Feed. To manage who appears in News Feed, Edit Options.

Now, click on Edit Options and you’ll see a list of all the people and Pages you’ve hidden. From there, you can restore the visibility of the items you’ve hidden, and set some additional options, such as the maximum number of friends shown in Live Feed.




Friends & Lists



Just like MySpace, Facebook is a place for friends. But let’s face it: in most cases, only a small number of your friends on Facebook are good, real-life friends. You’ve also got acquaintances, business partners, coworkers, and if you’re really trigger happy when it comes to friending, a bunch of people you don’t know at all.

Luckily, you can organize them into Friend Lists, which will let you filter your news feed and the chat box. The process can be a little tedious, but trust us, it can make a huge difference.

Here's a detailed article explaining how to create and manage friend lists on Facebook, and for the most part, it’s still accurate. However, Facebook changed its layout after the article was written, and some details about how lists are displayed and managed have changed, too.



Lists are now displayed under Friends in the Facebook homepage; click on it to see all the lists you’ve created. Furthermore, to edit lists, click on Account – Edit Friends. From there, you can add or remove friends from your lists, delete lists or create new ones.

To use lists, simply go to your homepage, and click on a list; you’ll only see news items created by the people you’ve added to that list. Perhaps even more importantly, the lists extend to the chat box. Once you’ve created one or more lists, you’ll see that the chat box now displays them separately. Click on Friend Lists; from there you can choose which lists do you want to see in the chat box. Fantastic if you have a lot of friends, but you only chat with a handful.


Apps



Dividing your friends into lists should help you organize and clean up your profile tremendously, but it still doesn’t rid you of all the apps your friends are using, some of which keep popping up on your wall. For example, if you’re not interested in Farmville, you probably don’t want to see how your friends’ crops are doing.

Again, it’s possible to fine tune which apps can do what to your profile, and we recommend doing this not only for the sake of clarity, but also for the sake of privacy and security. Click on Account – Application Settings, and choose Show – Authorized from the drop down menu. You’ll probably be amazed at how many apps you’ve authorized; the list can become huge over time.



There’s a couple of ways to deal with these apps. If you see an app you really don’t need, you can simply remove it by clicking the x next to it. This is a bit drastic, however, as you can also change the settings for each individual application. Click on Edit Settings; from there, you can deny the app to “Publish recent activity (one line stories)” to your wall (under Additional Permissions). You can also choose whether you want the app to be located in your Bookmarks, and you can limit the visibility of that app’s tab on your profile.


What Now?


After you’ve cleaned up your apps, you’ll see a lot less clutter on your Facebook profile; however, bear in mind that this is an ongoing process. After a while, you’ll likely authorize new apps, and your profile will once again become cluttered with stuff you don’t really need to see on a daily basis. The best way to deal with it is to do regular maintenance of your Facebook profile every couple of months.

Still, if you’ve followed the instructions in this article, your Facebook is now a different place – more organized, less cluttered and generally more enjoyable. We hope it helped! If you’ve got any additional tips on how to clean up your Facebook profile, let us know in the comments!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Ontario Electronic Stewardship’s (OES) electronic recycling program.

Below is an email I received recently regarding a subject matter my clients ask about regularly, recycling old computers, here's what they shared.

Hi Scott,

Given your interest in new and emerging technology, I thought you might also be interested in spreading awareness about what consumers can do with their old electronics and technology. I wanted to let you know about the latest phase of the Ontario Electronic Stewardship’s (OES) electronic recycling program. I thought the program would be of interest to you and the readers of your blog. We would really appreciate your support in spreading awareness of this important recycling program.

As of this week the recycling program accepts 44 different devices. By making it easier for Ontarians to dispose of unwanted electronic devices, the program collects and diverts waste electronics from landfills and recovers valuable resources, including precious and base metals. Interestingly, you may have heard that the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympics medals contained recycled metal from electronic waste.

To participate in the program Ontarians can bring their used electronics to a variety of OES-approved municipal, not-for-profit, retail depots and special events days listed at www.dowhatyoucan.ca.

Here are a few facts that you may be interested in:
·         In the next year OES plans to collect over 46,000 tonnes of unwanted electronics and has a five year goal of collecting 85,000 tonnes.
·         Nearly 78% of Ontario households have at least one electronic product that is not being used or that isn’t working.
·         Items that can be recycled safely by Ontarians as of April 1st includes: 
Audio and video players, Cameras, Cell, phones, Computers, Copiers, Digital cameras, Monitors, Pagers and PDAs, Printers, Radios, Speakers, Telephones and answering machines, Televisions and Video projectors.

We’re really excited to be spreading awareness of this program and would happily provide you more details or answers questions if you have any.

My contact info is below.

Thanks in advance for your support.

Have a great day,

Bryan Feheley
Engagement Coordinator


T: 416-955-4588
TF: 1-877-309-5633 | ext. 588

"Retype the word" or more properly CAPTCHA tests are designed to prove you're not a computer - and that difficult to read text is part of the test.

While it might feel like a "gotcha", they're actually called a CAPTCHA, which is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".

Yep, it's a "prove you're human" test.

And all that twisty, blurry, faded stuff you're complaining about? That's actually kinda the point.

That's the test.

The problem that CAPTCHA's avoid is actually an important one: preventing computers from doing things in an automated fashion - like creating millions of fake email accounts
or posting comment spam to websites. By forcing this test which computers cannot (yet) pass, the activity that is being protected can be performed only by a real, live person.

The limitation that these tests take advantage of is that computers can't read.

Now, technically that's incorrect - optical character recognition
has come a long way. Computer OCR software can, with a very high degree of reliability, take a photograph or scan of text printed on a page and "read" it - turn it into the computer representation of the text that the page contains, as opposed to a picture of that text.

That's actually pretty cool, and very handy for many applications.

However, there are limits. Even with clear copies of the text a computer has a difficult time with some characters (the letter 'l' versus the number '1' in many typefaces, for example), and thus can still get things wrong.

When things get blurry, twisted or faded, current computer algorithms try and figure out what those characters are and fail miserably. It just can't figure out what those characters are.

You and I, on the other hand, can.

Usually.

So when we get the answer correct where a computer couldn't possibly it "proves" we're human.

For now.

As computer technology advances, techniques will I'm sure be developed that will allow the computer to correctly interpret today's CAPTCHA's. What happens then I don't know.

A couple of random notes on CAPTCHA's:

One way that they're often defeated is to hire real live humans - often cheaply, overseas.

Another way that some are bypassed is by exploiting weaknesses in a particular implementation. For example, if one type of CAPTCHA always selects from one of 100 different scrambled words, then one need only have a real human interpret each one once, and then simply let the computer compare pictures - something it is good at.

My favorite CAPTCHA, when I use one, is reCAPTCHA, which presents two words in random order: one of which is a real test, the other is a word that is part of a book digitization project. (Their about page has not only a good overview of CAPTCHA, but also how they're using it in reCAPTCHA.)

CAPTCHAs can have problems - specifically for people with poor or no eyesight. In most cases, an audible CAPTCHA equivalent is made available where you type in what you hear spoken.
Even in normal cases, as you're seeing, sometimes CAPTCHAs are too hard, too blurry, or too unreadable even for humans. Fortunately, most also include some kind of "show me something else" alternative.

But unfortunately, the bottom line is that the blurriness, and the difficulty is indeed the point.


And CAPTCHAs or something much like them will be around for quite some time - probably as long as there are spammers and those who would do other malicious things en masse, given the opportunity to automate the process.

And the password is... obvious

Symantec recently surveyed computer users on their use of passwords, how they choose them and how often they update them. The results revealed that a good number of people are still pretty sloppy about passwords, such as the 3 percent who admitted to using “password,” the 5 percent who use their middle name and the 10 percent who use their pets' names — which could come back to bite anyone who also has a social networking page. Here's a sample of the results:

Numerator
For the full report, go to: www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/password-survey-results

Saturday, April 3, 2010

iPad is Here! Pictures of iPad Lines in NYC

Just a few minutes ago (9am ET), Apple stores opened their doors and customers who either pre-ordered or got in line early enough will got their hands on an iPad!
We’ve already covered the device extensively in the months leading up to today (full coverage here) — including many of the iPad apps that have already been released on iTunes and this week’s media blitz – but later this morning some of our staff will be getting their own iPads to bring you hands-on analysis.
We’ll be updating this post throughout the day with links to our latest coverage, as well as photos and video from Apple stores around the country, where some of our staffers are stationed (we got an interview with the first guy in line at one of New York’s Apple store earlier in the week). Be sure to add links to your photos and video as well in the comments!

iPad is Here


Here’s the email Apple sent to customers this morning, titled simply, “iPad is Here”:



Apple’s 5th Avenue Store in NYC


Indeed …


Professional line sitter Greg Packer, first as always:


The crowd:


People covering … the line:


The human iPad media magnets:


Doors open:



7 Wonders of Windows 7 - Win a Laptop While Learning More About Windows 7

7-Wonders-of-Windows-7

The 7 Wonders of Windows 7 website provides a rich set of tools and training to immerse yourself in Windows 7. The demo highlights seven impressive new features in Windows 7 and provides a live feed to Springboard and TechNet.

Microsoft is also giving away one Windows 7 powered laptop every month. In order to win all you need to do is answer three simple questions (and agree to allow receive promotional mails from Microsoft and its designated partners).

Head over to 7wondersofwindows7.com for more.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Six ways Gmail revolutionized e-mail

Thursday marks the sixth birthday of Google's pioneering e-mail service: Gmail. Groundbreaking in some respects and controversial in others, Gmail radically altered our expectations of what a webmail client could be.

1. More space
Gmail launched with 1 gigabyte of free storage, an inconceivable amount at the time. For many e-mail addicts (myself included), this was reason enough to switch to Google's new service, putting pressure upon rivals Yahoo and Microsoft to upgrade their offerings or face a user exodus.

In June 2004, in response to Gmail's launch, Yahoo increased its storage limits from 4 megabytes to 100 megabytes. Hotmail, too, reacted to the Gmail threat by providing more storage: Some users saw their Hotmail limits increase from 2MB to 25MB.

In April 2005, Gmail raised the stakes yet again: Free storage was increased to 2GB, with a promise to increase the storage capacity available to users continually. In the same month, Yahoo Mail bumped its free storage up to 1GB. Hotmail played catch-up in late 2006, rolling out 1GB of free storage to users.

2. The perpetual beta
 
Love it or loathe it, Gmail popularized the use of the "beta" tag on many "web 2.0" products, indicating an early release that may contain bugs. The effect on Web development was at first a positive one: It became more acceptable to invite users to test the earliest versions of a product, and rapid development cycles became common.

And yet "beta" soon lost its sheen due to overuse: Not only did every Web startup co-opt the term to add "web 2.0 glitz" to a product, but Google itself devalued the term by leaving Gmail in beta for five years.

This extended beta period turned the "beta" label into a geek punch line of sorts. When Gmail left beta in July, Google conceded that "over the last five years, a beta culture has grown around web apps, such that the very meaning of 'beta' is debatable."

3. Conversation threading
 
Many e-mail clients now "thread" conversations on the same topic, but it was Gmail that popularized the concept.

Google says of the feature, "In other e-mail systems, responses appear as separate messages in your inbox, forcing you to wade through all your mail to follow the conversation. In Gmail, replies to replies (and replies to those replies) are displayed in one place, in order, making it easier to understand the context of a message."

It's a simple evolution that makes a huge difference.

4. Labels, not folders
 
Gmail's new way to sort e-mail seemed alien in 2004: Folders were replaced with "labels." If a mail was about both"art" and "design," a user could apply both labels rather than deciding which folder to place the message into.

Although this "tagging" concept was familiar to users of the bookmarking service Delicious, this new way to sort e-mail took some getting used to. Those who embraced it still swear it's the best way to organize your mail.

5. Archive, don't delete
 
Before Gmail, storage space was a scarce resource. Once you were done with a mail, you deleted it to save space. Gmail not only offered a massive amount of storage, but Google encouraged users to archive their e-mails for reference, rather than deleting them.

Google was so committed to this new paradigm that the "Delete" option was somewhat hidden. In early 2006, however, Google caved to pressure from users and added a more visible delete button.

6. Targeted ads
 
Considered a nuisance by some and a privacy invasion by others, Gmail scans your e-mails to deliver personalized ads in the sidebar. Whether the innovation was an advance or a step back is debatable: Before Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft served up distracting banner ads alongside e-mails.

While Google controversially chose to target its Gmail ads based on the content of your e-mails, these ads were at least text-based and more easily ignored than those that came before.