Why?  Two reasons:  It gives Adobe an even cash-flow, and it effectively defeats software piracy.  But that’s not the bad news.  What’s really going to change is when other companies such as Microsoft, Autodesk, and many others start modeling their software distribution after Adobe.  In a few years, it’ll be cloud everything and retail software will simply cease to exist.

And why not?  Why pay $800 for Photoshop that’s going to be outdated in six months when you can rent the cloud version and always have access to the latest features for $20/month?  Why spend $3,000 on AutoCAD when you can get it for $15/month?  Why buy Microsoft Office for $400 when you can rent it for $10/month?  Do you see where this is going?

But it doesn’t stop there.  Dell and HP are changing their server business to support hypervisor hardware, and they’re slashing the PC offerings.  IBM is getting out of the server business just like they got out of the laptop and workstation business.  PC sales are falling year after year in favor of mobile devices.  A large percentage of the newest generation of young people don’t and won’t own a PC.  Exchange servers are being replaced with Google Mail.  Entire MRP’s and CRM’s are going to Google Apps.  Back-end servers are going to public cloud data centers such as Amazon and Rackspace, which is where websites have been going for years.  Because it costs less.  It costs less, and it works.

Where does that leave small and medium businesses?  Very soon now, workstations will be replaced by virtual workstations in the cloud and business owners can simply rent everything they need for a fraction of the cost.  Physical machines will still exist, but they’ll be replaced with very low-power laptops, tablets, and zero-clients.  The PC x86 architecture will be replaced with lower cost ARM units.  Data will automatically be backed up in the cloud data center.  Even phone systems will be switched over to cloud-based virtual-PBX’s.  It all sounds good, until we fall into the trap.

The Legacy Trap.  Imagine holding onto a VCR from 1985 and a bunch of VHS tapes with all those precious home movies.  Now in 2015, the VCR breaks.  Since VCR repair shops are long gone, the only thing left to do is find a specialist who can transfer those VHS tapes to Blu-Ray in 3D, or find a DeLorean.  Either one would be very expensive, maybe so expensive that you would just have to accept that those memories were gone forever.  When this happens to computers and business systems, it’s very expensive and very messy.  And while this all sounds a bit over the top, this is exactly what happens in small business all the time.  Things get put off because other things, like making sales, are more important.  Eventually, temporary becomes permanent, and the Legacy Trap closes over the throat of the now fatally-injured business.

I’ve seen the Legacy Trap kill businesses before.  Every time, it is quick and sudden, and the only thing that takes a long time is the irreversible death-spiral.  It happened to this one small high-tech electronics factory that employed 50-people, had $7-million/year in sales, and had been in business over 25-years.  All of their engineering files were literally on a Mac from the late 1980′s, and then that Mac died.  They thought they had backups and a way out.  They were wrong.  No one could help them, not even those $100,000 hard-drive recovery people.  It took them 5-years to die; they drained their contingency funds, blew their credit, crashed their retirement funds, killed their benefits, and laid-off employees.  They looked at the dust in their hands that had once been hope and refused to believe that all was lost.  They went out of business April 1st, 2013.  But their mistake wasn’t back in 2008 when the Mac died, is was back in 1991 when they stopped upgrading and the subsequent 17-years of doing nothing to fix it.

The trap happens because most small businesses and large alike treat IT and computer resources like a utility.  They treat it like something that should cost less if only they could find new and creative ways to contain those costs, and they only throw money at it when they absolutely have to.  In reality, Information Technology is supposed to be part of the business strategy.  IT is leveraged to innovate, attract new customers, and grow business.  IT is like a financial engine with a rate of return, so instead of spending less on it to “save money”, you invest as much as is reasonable and profit.

Expanding on my analogy:  If a person wanted to invest heavily in the stock market, they would be an idiot not to seek the advice of a professional financial adviser.  And when that idiot ends up poor, they blame the rich.  I feel that anyone who is running a business and wrangling their own IT resources without the aid of an IT professional is equally stupid.  And when their technology betrays them, they blame the very same IT people that could have helped them.   So please, look to the future and ask the advice of IT professionals that you trust.

I think we may have a new shell game, the Computer Shell game.  But in this case [pun], it’s not illegal “fraud”, but legal “marketing”.  In my personal opinion, most marketing professionals are just confidence men.  The new game is “what’s in the computer shell?”  It’s probably not what you think.

In this picture is an HP P2-1374.  It’s detailed very clearly on HP’s website, and to their credit they are not hiding what’s really in the case.  It was brought in by a customer who purchased it from Best Buy, and when we first opened it, we were stunned and shocked at what we found.

What the photo here shows is the mostly empty case of the computer.  Inside is the Mini-ITX motherboard (6.7-inches by 6.7-inches) which is meant for small format factory computers.  Also the hard-drive and the optical drive.  The power supply is an external “power-brick” like those used with laptops.

The motherboard itself has no expansion-card slots, so it is impossible to add superior video cards, sound cards, network cards, or the like.  The ability to add expansion devices is usually the only reason to have a case this large.  However, the back of the case is sealed making it impossible to add such cards even if the motherboard was replaced.  RAM can be upgraded.  However, the processor can not be upgraded because it is soldered to the motherboard making it impossible to replace.

So why such a large case?  Probably because the case costs less than a smaller more appropriately sized case, and the whole point is to make the computer as low-cost as reasonably possible.  By the way, below is a photo that’s representative of what you get when you buy a computer from Hill Top IT; it does cost more, but you get what you pay for.

So what about our customer who brought his P2-1374 to us?  He said he didn’t trust Best Buy and wanted us to install the anti-virus for him.  We happen to know that this computer comes with Windows 8 which has the new Windows Defender anti-virus program formally known as Microsoft Security Essentials.  So what was Best Buy doing?

I went to our local Best Buy, asked for the computer representative, and asked him point-blank.  They had one of the HP P2-1374′s on display and I asked him if the computer would accept a new $500 video card so that it could play Call of Duty Black Ops II, and he said yes (which is incorrect).  Then I asked him about the anti-virus in Windows 8, and he said it came with six months of free anti-virus software which he called “the good stuff” and after that it would only cost me $60/year.  He did not mention the anti-virus program that comes with Windows 8.

Windows Defender is part of Windows 8, and it’s enabled by default.  Microsoft does allow for OEMs like Best Buy to disable and replace the Windows Defender protection with other programs.  It’s quite possible that if you buy a system from Best Buy, Dell, Wal-Mart or other big stores, there’s a very good chance you’ll still have some sort of trial version of Norton or Kaspersky pre-installed nagging you to buy it instead of the built-in Windows Defender.

Personally, I don’t think cost should determine value.  Just like a car, it’s important to find out what’s under the hood of your next computer.  You can always ask us because we actually know what we’re doing.

We’ve just opened a new second location for Hill Top IT located at 2161 Hillsdale Road in Prescott at the intersection of Highway 89 and Willow Lake Road.  Our new kiosk is located inside the Hair Lair salon, next door to Twin Lakes Automotive and the Pit Stop restaurant in the Twin Lakes Market center.

The new kiosk is a convenient drop-off and pick-up location for customers who need our computer services.  At this location, we can provide free repair estimates, provide limited services on site while you wait, and transport computers to and from our main shop in Prescott Valley for full service without additional charge.

Also at this location:

• Hair Lair salon.
• Twin Lakes Market convenience store.
• Gas, Deisel, Propane.
• US Post Office.
• Twin Lakes Automotive service and repair.
• Pit Stop restaurant.
• U-Haul.

This is straight from azcentral.com (Arizona Republic):

A Prescott man was arrested Thursday in connection to a fraud case at Quad City Computers, officials said.

Beginning in March 2011, Prescott Valley police received complaints from consumers relating to Prescott Valley’s Quad City Computers reportedly overcharging clients for repairs and computer parts, said Brandon Bonney, a Prescott Valley police spokesman.

Customers reported they were being charged large sums of money and at times, the repairs were not done or poorly done, officials said.

The most recent complaint came from a couple in their 80s stating that Jerry Jeff Martin had overcharged them for a new computer system. The pair claims Martin charged them between $8,000 to $12,000 for a job that should have cost them close to $1,300, Bonney said.

Martin was not willing to talk to detectives, Bonney said.

Martin was booked into the Yavapai County Jail on one count of vulnerable adult abuse, one count of fraudulent schemes and one count of theft, officials said.

Authorities are asking people who may have had similar dealing with Quad City Computers to contact Detective Daniel Oen at 928-772-5167.

Update: Daily Courier also reported on this with essentially the same information, plus this:

“On one occasion, they were told to go to Best Buy to purchase items for the computer,” Bonney said. “It was discovered that the items they purchased for the computer were not put into the system he was building for them.”

Wow, this is quite alarming.  This kind of news is why I always encourage people to seek out honest and ethical businesses and then spread the word.  Do your homework, check the BBB, read reviews, ask your friends and colleagues.  It’s easy, here’s how you do it:

Dr. Bower, great dentist, honest, ethical, and affordable.
Prescott Checker Cab, clean taxi’s, honest, ethical, and affordable.
Prescott Flower Shop, superb flowers, honest, ethical, and affordable.
Twin Lakes Automotive, terrific mechanic, honest, ethical, and affordable.
Hill Top IT, fantastic computer techs, honest, ethical, and affordable.

See how easy that was?  In a community like ours, it should be relatively easy for people to know good businesses by reputation.

An anonymous party has been impersonating us and making negative statements about our competition.  This kind of cowardice has happened before, and normally we just ignore it.  But not this time.  To clarify, I believe in 1st Amendment protected speech, and if I feel compelled to say something that might hurt somebody’s feelings then I will say it here on this blog.  I have before (click here to see).

For the record, I don’t have anything negative to say about any of our competitors.  Most of them are just hard-working people doing their best to make a living.  We have complimentary working relationships with a few of them.  We admire those that excel.  We empathize with those that are forced to close shop.  We avoid the very few that have questionable ethics.  Usually, we are simply unaware of them.

We always tell people: If you’re happy with your current IT / Computer provider – keep them.  Otherwise, please consider using us.

Kogan, the inventor of this “tax” apparently has some real issues with the outdated browser.  It wasn’t that long ago that Google and half the internet officially dropped support for Internet Explorer 6.  After all, people don’t like to update their computer.

Now you may think this is a bit silly.  No online retailer in the US would charge a fee based on what you’re using to shop.  But why not?  Gas stations have different rates for cash and credit.  Huge retailers like Costco don’t even accept credit cards.  Some of you even shop online so much that you’ll pay $80/year to get free shipping.

Cross-platform development (that’s what they call it) is a huge super-expensive cost for online retailers.  What if Amazon charged 5% because you were not using the latest version of a browser?  Would you update or change browsers to save 5%?  Most of us would.  And I think most of us will.

Although, and I have to note this is educated conjecture, Kogan is clearly anti-Microsoft.  Chrome and Firefox browsers are very modern and capable.  However, Safari is so bad that not even Apple fanatics like it (though it’s what’s on iPhones), and Opera was never even considered a serious contender.  In fact, Facebook has been considering buying Opera so they can twist it into one of their hack-a-thon products.  IE7 really isn’t all that bad from a coding point of view?

Via: DVICE

I used to buy these $8 toasters from the local Blah-Mart.  They were terrible.  They burned, or under-toasted, or didn’t toast on one side.  They didn’t do bagels.  And they always broke.  After the 50th or so toaster of my life, I got fed up and went down to the local uber-expensive kitchen store with my wife and bought her the $85 toaster pictured above.  It’s a fantastic toaster.  It works perfectly every time, makes bagels, and we’ve had it for about 7 years now.

Point is: I don’t have a sales pitch.  If I was in the toaster business, how could I sell you on that $85 wonder machine over the $8 perpetual disappointment?  Well, I can’t.  All I really have is my knowledge, experience, and ethics.  All you have is a phone book full of strangers.  However, if you knew me, then you would put value in what I say.

So who am I.  I’m Eric, that’s Mike, his boy Rich, and that fellow over there is the new guy (what’s his name).  Sometimes our wives and daughters come to the shop and help out; after all, it’s a family business.  I’m a Marine veteran and I’ve lived in this community for 20 years.  Mike is a Minister and has been here just as long.  Like you, we live here, work here, build relationships here, and have established roots in the community.  You’re our neighbors, and we’re yours.

I’m also a terrible mechanic.  People that know me know it takes me all day to change my oil.  I take my truck to Bill over at Twin Lakes Auto.  He shows me anything I want to know about my truck including what’s wrong and why.  I go to him not because of the phone book, but because my business partner Mike uses him and knows that he does good work.  But before Bill came to town, I bounced from mechanic to mechanic looking for a good oil change.  It’s tough to find a good mechanic.

I hate it when good people get screwed by the mechanic.  Repairs they don’t need, botched repairs, expensive tires, bad welds, and padded hours.  I hate it more when good people get ripped off by the computer repairman.  Computer people aren’t so different from mechanics.  There’s a lot of crooks and only a few good people in both industries.  Repairs are difficult to understand and expensive.  And like I said, I’ve got no sales pitch in the world that will convince you I’m a trustworthy and proficient professional.  But you can get to know me.  Phone calls are free.

Here’s the easy way to spot crooks.  Crooks don’t want to tell you how things work, especially in clear and easy to understand language.  When you walk into a computer shop, ask them exactly how and why.  If they don’t tell you or it doesn’t make perfect sense to you, then you shouldn’t do business with them.  The answer should be as easy as making toast.  If you come to my shop (or call), I’ll tell you anything you like and you’re always welcome to see how a real computer repair shop works.

Now if you’ve got a computer person you’re happy with, then stick with them.  If you don’t, then stop by sometime and get to know us.

Well now there’s a website for the Occupy Movement in Prescott at OccupyPrescott.org.  I suppose I have to give Mr. Adcock some credit for beating everyone else to the domain name and slapping a blog on it.  However, if this is a serious attempt to enable the local 99% to fight the 1%, then I’m disappointed.

But just to make sure I wasn’t being unfair, I thoroughly searched the Occupy Movement’s website for any mention of Prescott.  I found nothing.  Once again, I am disappointed to find that “action” has been limited to a blog and a smattering of Facebook comments.  Once again, I can’t rely on the local groups, local media, and not even CNN.  They’re too busy name-calling.  No sir, I have to go to a foreign media source like Al Jazeera to find out what’s really happening with the 99%.

I’m not saying the 99% are right, or wrong.  I think both sides have legitimate and illegitimate gripes.  There are rich who prey upon the innocent.  There are poor people of good conscious who are powerless to stop them.  Then again, there are beneficent rich people, and poor who reek with the stench of villainy.  Greed is the real problem.  There’s greed on both sides.

If we want to fix greed, then we must make politicians live by the same rules the rest of us do.  Congress is on the take, and everybody knows it.  Congress is owned by the greedy with money.  Force them to stop accepting what I call “bribes”, take away their special privileges and retirement plans. Make them live under the same laws that the rest of us do.  I just wish I knew how to make that change happen.

OMG, really?  $1,096 for a 3.3-foot HDMI cable?  Why??  Because Monster Cables was monopolizing the ridiculously overpriced and under-performing cable market?

Once upon a time, I used to be in the Audiophile business.  Audiophiles are the people who take their music very seriously and sometimes spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their equipment (CD players, amplifiers, speakers, wires).  I’ve even known a few to buy the $6,000 power cord for their turn-table because it sounded that much better than the $4,000 one they already owned.  And believe it or not, it actually can make a difference (if you can hear it).  So if anybody was going to spend $1,096 on that HDMI cable, it would be these guys (or videophiles).

But they don’t.  Why?  Because it’s the signal going through the HDMI cable is “digital”.  That’s important because traditional “analog” audio signals are sensitive to their environment; things like light-ballasts, vacuum cleaners, old electronics, and even electromagnetic waves from other cables can make the audio sound bad.  None of that happens with digital.  Digital is ones and zeros, on and off.  Another way of thinking of digital is you get 100% or you get zero percent, there’s no in-between.  In fact, most Audiophiles hate digital because of the absolute rigidity of the digital signal.

So if there’s no in-between, then why all the buzz about extra-special digital cables?  Because uninformed people are taken advantage of.  My advice to anyone is that before dropping thousands of dollars on equipment, give us a call, or somebody you trust with tech, or Google it at the very minimum.  Do a little fact-checking.

Via: Geekologie