Working with computers is easy. Working with people working with computers is hard.

I play it pretty safe when it comes to web surfing and rarely venture to sites with unknown or questionable reputations. But just now I was on Facebook and after clicking a link I saw these two windows appear: Having spent lots of time eradicating “Personal Antivirus” from computers that should have been protected from […]

Microsoft partners (e.g., consultants like me) often get their knickers in a twist about perceived slights by Microsoft to the partner community. A recent example is the move by Microsoft to offer on-line services to small businesses using the partner community as sales agents earning a small commission rather than true resellers who are able […]

All bloggers know that comment spam is an incredible time waster. It used to be that my comment spam involved only tried to promote pornographic and pharmaceutical web sites, and did so in a very explicit manner. Recently, a more pernicious form of comment spam has appeared. This takes the form of a seemingly harmless […]

Just wanted to alert all Schlog readers to a new blog I’ve started: www.StopBuyingServers.com. That blog will focus on “cloud computing” for small businesses. If/when I find something interesting to write about that is more relevant to on-premises computing, I’ll continue to post it here. Please forgive the extremely boring graphics at StopBuyingServers. One of […]

Got this ad today for the Sony VAIO Lifestyle PC, one of the new “netbook” models. I just checked all of my suit / sport coat jacket pockets and none of them are wider than 4.75”. Add the thickness of the machine, and there’s no way they could fit anything wider than 4”. Some overcoats […]

Five years ago, I was a relatively early adopter of Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2003. One of the servers I set up back then is still going strong today. However, the self-signed certificate that the server uses for SSL transactions was set to expire five years after creation, and we just reached that mark. […]

… except that I can’t use it. ChannelWeb has published a helpful and accessible comparison of Windows Vista with Ubuntu, a version of Linux that is gaining acceptance among personal computer manufacturers and users. Although it sounds like many computer users could make the switch to Linux, I’m not one of them. There are too […]

What Google search term shows the following 5-year trend? No, it’s not britney spears. It’s computer consulting. Now let’s take a look at the same trend line with another search term superimposed: What’s the second search term? No, it’s not amy winehouse. It’s cloud computing. I’ve known for a while that the times they are […]

Installing Java updates is generally so easy and inconsequential that we often do it without thinking when prompted. But when you see that little orange icon on a server running BlackBerry Enterprise Server, don’t click so fast!