The problems started this past weekend, where I realized that I wasn’t running the latest version. I took a look at what I was running, and saw that there was a recent, highly concerning CVE for Nextcloud. So I started the patching process.

What is strange to me, is that the Nextcloud VM did not auto-update as it should. Even further concerning is that I received no notification that I was stuck on a version that was out of date. So I manually connected via SSH, but it seems that the update was stuck due to dependencies. In fact, despite updating Nextcloud, I was stuck on an old version of Ubuntu (I thought the Nextcloud VM would be keeping me up to date here).

I went to the documentation for Hansson IT, and it basically just kept saying to run the updater script. So I did what anyone would do, and went to the forums. There are some people that offer a lot of support, though it seems like Hansson IT is more out to make money than to actually solve people’s problems- take a look at the store here. He is charging €60 per 30 minutes, €50 to upgrade to a different version, and a staggering €150 to upgrade php versions. Hansson IT is condescending on the forums, and uses it as a platform for sales!

I ended up contacting them after logging into my account, where it shows that there are unlimited downloads. My idea was to start from scratch in a test environment and see if I could get it running again. I was met with the same attitude right away, that no, they can’t help, unless I spend more money. I just wanted a copy of the old download (I think it was auto-deleted from my Downloads folder to save space). To me, it seems like false advertising, where they are saying I get unlimited downloads. I guess what they were trying to explain is that I could download it unlimited times in the days that it was available. So maybe it is time to purchase a new one and just spam the downloads for 10 days :)?

I digress, I ended up talking to Kafit AB, who owns Hansson IT, and was given the same answer by Johan Bernhardsson. The result was everyone just thinking that each other was silly- them thinking I was silly for even asking such a thing, me thinking it was silly that they didn’t want to help. This Johan Bernhardsson works for something known as Redpill Linpro…. who claims to support open source, but if this interaction is any indication, wants to monetize open source.

So this brings us to the problem of why people don’t adopt open source projects. Money acts as a gatekeeper, and the ongoing support costs could easily sink a small business. If you want mass adoption of a product, there cannot be a monetary requirement that acts as a gatekeeper. NextCloudPi does a good job as an entry level solution, though I had some issues with breaking changes and data loss when I used it. It could feasibly be better supported now. Nextcloud VM would be exactly the kind of thing small/medium businesses would use, because the virtualization would allow other software to run concurrently.

Alas, the developer of Nextcloud VM has changed a lot, maybe he feels he “wasted” time on Owncloud. It seems that developer back then compared about the community, and problem solving with end users. It seems the whole Owncloud to Nextcloud migration was due to the implications of the commercial process, though that’s up for dispute.

When a developer is only out to enrich themselves, as opposed to supporting the underlying community, you run into problems. This is what holds back some of the best open source projects, and gives others pause to join in commits, or in seeing whether it could meet their needs.

Company Info:

Ideal Window Mfg. Inc.
100 West 7th Street
Bayonne NJ 07002

For most of the windows in my house, I would probably leave a very favorable review. The problem is the two windows that have had their seal break.

The windows were bought in 2005. We noticed the seal broken, and it’s been on the list of forever to try and figure out who made the windows (there is no branding on them). One of my friends, with a different brand of windows, actually just had her window with an issue replaced for free (she hadn’t had them installed, the previous owner had). I ended up finding the label in the window frame that had information.

I called, and was told that I had to pay a $50 fee within 30 days of buying the house (which was in 2015) to be able to assume the lifetime warranty of the windows. They consider this to be a service fee. Additionally, the warranty is ONLY the parts, per their terms and conditions. They charge an additional fee for installation.

So Ideal Window Manufacturing refuses to replace windows with a lifetime warranty, charges a fee to have the warranty enforced, and charges a fee if you sell the house for someone to actually obtain the warranty that’s already guaranteed with the windows?

Please reach out if you are facing similar issues, I am working on putting together a class action lawsuit.

I clicked through one of the advertisements and set up an account with Auvik. Great! A few days later, I downloaded and set up Auvik connector. The installer isn’t the most verbose and it will reset any VPNs without letting you know. Strike 1.

I then ran the trial for a few days. The Auvik collector seems useless, and the amount of alerts on by default would be maddening for any use case other than a small office with 3 or fewer users. For most managed service providers, this would not be a good investment.

Also, Auvik seems to be going down hill, at least per the sentiment that of the venture capital involvement of Great Hill Partners. Strike 2!

It had been a while, and I was curious where my access point was, and whether it had shipped. I reached to Auvik, and there seems to be no organization whatsoever. My questions went unanswered, and got passed off to someone else as their responsibility. I submitted multiple tickets and the turnaround was incredibly slow. If this is how Auvik is acting in a trial, before they get your money, do you think you will hear from them if you have an actual issue?

Eventually, they stated that I had not signed up from the correct link?, so I am not eligible for the Unifi Access Point. It doesn’t look like the first time they promised to send out access points, but then never sent them/invalidated people for no reason.

TL;DR- If you are a managed service provider (MSP) looking for a review of Auvik, stay away. Most of what you need is already in the controllers of most modern equipment, so there’s no value added. They refuse to honor their own giveaways, and have slow-to-respond support.

I have been working on getting into the Home Automation game, after finally buying a house of my own. I started out with a Wink Hub 1, that I had bought with the GE-Link bulbs a couple of years ago, on a deal around Christmas time. I was then part of the large Wink outage, in which the wrong certificate was pushed to the device. I was playing around, because I knew that any automation devices would have to meet my girlfriend’s approval factor.

First, here are the specs for the Gen 1 and Gen 2 hubs (modified from the Wink website)

WINK HUB 1

PROTOCOL SUPPORT

Kidde
Clear Connect
Z-Wave
ZigBee

WINK HUB 2

PROTOCOL SUPPORT

Millennials (as defined by Destination Maternity during their presentation) were born between 1982 and 1993. Right now (as of this writing), millennials are between 18 and 32 years old. At about 77 million strong, millennials are about 3 times the size of generation X.

The theme of thoughts and trends of millennials is being discussed throughout the business world. And millennials are, as a group (for which I can speak, because I’m a member), diverse in tastes, but united in a few fundamental ideas.

Millennials are focused on:

1. Equality for people
2. Fast, Responsive Results
3. Information that is mobile-based and readily accessible
4. Caring for the planet and others
5. Flexible in work/life balance.

Let’s take each of these thoughts.

One of the major trends (which you haven’t been able to get away from in the news recently) is the focus of equality of people. Millennials believe heavily in equality for all. This isn’t something that is going to go away, either. Technology has allowed like-minded individuals to get their messages to a wider audience.

Fast, responsive results are desired by millennials. In the millennial head, time is one of the most important factors. It needs to get done now. Communication must be instantaneous, with an affinity towards instant messaging, email, and text messages compared to picking up a phone.

Along with the above point, millennials use their phone as the point in which they receive most of their information. For Generation X and the baby boomers, it was the television (and before that, the radio). If you’re a brand targeting millenials, look at mobile-first in terms of layout. Lower barriers on mobile to purchasing directly via the phone. A lot can be said about having your own app.

Caring for the plant and others seems to be the millennial message. This includes sustainability and trying to fix systemic issues in society. The focus is really to leave the world better than when it was found. Millennials want to create meaning in their unique experience as humans.

Last, but not least- Millennials want to be able to balance life and work. The job can get done in a variety of areas, especially as our connectivity increases. Working at home or on the go is often ideal as millennials try to “have it all.”

What trends are you seeing with millennials?

The first time I started to realize this fact was college. Everyone from high school goes off, to their own corner of the world. And out of your group of friends, you only really keep touch with 1 or 2, and lose the rest of the group.

The second drop happens after college. It’s much like what I mentioned before- except, instead of moving for college, people are moving for jobs.

The third major dip happens when you’re in your late 20’s. The people that you have managed to keep in touch with are in relationships, and the dynamic changes.

I had realized that things were going south with one of my best friends for a while. You can’t quantify it (but can try), but it’s just a feeling at first. The invitations to hang out have been steadily declining.

I invited said friend over to help me with my video marriage proposal, and the friend declined. That was the minute I realized that our relationship has changed forever.

I didn’t take the time to reflect, and was filled with a feeling of abandonment- shouldn’t your friend want to be there!? But herein lies the problem- everyone has different priorities and those change over time.
Being a data and science nerd, I went back through my old text messages with the friend, and tried to look at trends. Ever since we graduated, we have spent less time together. This makes sense, because we stopped living together. But the most alarming statistic I discovered was: out of the last 15 times we tried to hang out, I initiated 11 of those times. He initiated only 4 times.

I believe the sad realization that sets in is the moment when you realize that the only real tangible item you share with someone is the memories of the past, when you really were great friends. This realization will hopefully stay with me to reflect on the people that are still around and appreciate them more.

In the words of (old-school) Blink-182, “Well I guess this is growing up…”

Image via: http://ford-life.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Satellite-Radio.jpg

SiriusXM (SIRI) was one of the ways that I listed to music when purchasing my 2012 Hyundai Elantra Limited. I was just starting to use Spotify, and Pandora was unreliable over 4g. But SiriusXM lost me as a customer, mostly due to information here on the internet. And SiriusXM wants to gain subscribers to keep investors happy, so all you have to do is wait them out.

The phrase I started searching was “What’s the best deal on a SiriusXM subscription?” Looking through the results, it looks like the lowest price that is offered by SiriusXM is $5 per month. However, you will not be able to negotiate this price easily, it’s the price they try to use when you outright cancel your subscription, or when they’re trying to get you back as a subscriber. Let me explain.

I went through the cancellation process, as I was paying $7.50 a month, which I had negotiated for the “XM Select” plan. I had been commuting at least once per month from Massachusetts to New Jersey, and it was nice to be able to have a bit more reliability (Verizon Wireless was still investing in their 4g network) and variety. I did a bit of searching with the phrase above, and saw that people were able to negotiate $5 per month.

I had moved to New Jersey, and the cell service was better, so SiriusXM began to look less attractive at $7.50 per month. I called to see if I could negotiate a better price, as many online forums had suggested. The suggestion was to call and threaten to cancel service. Well, I guess SiriusXM got wise to this, so I wasn’t able to negotiate the plan down. Many had said they were able to get $5 per month for a year. That’s the deal I wanted.

So I cancelled service. Now what most people don’t realize, is despite SiriusXM Subscribers increasing, it doesn’t mean all of those subscribers are paying full price. I’m curious as to how many subscribers do pay full price. But SiriusXM has many fixed costs. It’s better to get $5, or even $7.50 per month out of someone (compared to $15) than it is to get 0. Many vehicles have SiriusXM installed, and it’s easy to flip a switch an activate it. So SiriusXM wants to be making any revenue they can, to help pay off expensive satellite launches and upkeep.

The problem is- SiriusXM is going to lose to streaming services. While I acknowledge there’s some great programming at present on SiriusXM, Pandora or Spotify will pay to take some of those contracts. I believe SiriusXM will top out with maybe 29 or 30 million subscribers, and then start to fall apart.

Why am I saying this? Because it’s already started to happen. SiriusXM has been mass mailing people to try to get them back at the $5 per month price. They’re playing their hand as $5 per month to be the sweet spot that people are willing to pay. And with the increase in catalogs of streaming services, it almost doesn’t seem worth it. All Spotify needs to do is start to steal some of the talent away from SiriusXM, and we will see the dominos start to fall.

My recommendation- Spotify Premium or Pandora if you (like most people) live in an area with adequate cellular service. SiriusXM is only really a choice now for rural areas.

1. Timeliness– Social media is NOT a 9-5 job, it is a 24/7/365 one. Consumers will always have something to get upset about, and it is important the social outlet is always open to accommodate consumers with diverse schedules. This can often be done “Shift” wise- Morning, Afternoon, and Night Shifts.
2. Empathize– Many times (especially in the tech sphere), the narrative is the same. (“Did you try unplugging it, and plugging it back in?”) This can be extremely frustrating. Customers want to be heard, AND want to be respected.
3. Resolutions in Moderation– It’s important to take the amount of frustration into account when compensating every customer. While it may be a minor issue in your eyes, the customer may see differently. When compensating in the social sphere, round up.
4. Follow-Up: We often forget this last step- making sure that everything is working a few days later. Customers want to felt cared for, and this step emphasizes your care for the consumer.

You consistently hear about the companies that rank low in customer satisfaction. I recently noticed (on LinkedIn) the amount of effort that Comcast is putting in to Customer Relations, and applied for one of the social media jobs. Positive results would be apparent by using the above strategy.

“I received a Bitdefender Box test unit, and can’t imagine anyone ever purchasing this device.

The first major flaw- It give its own DHCP connections. I have a pfsense box behind my modem, and was thinking I could use this in line before my guest wifi/Internet of Things network. It doesn’t work that way.

The second flaw- 100mbps ports. Why they wouldn’t eat the ~$3 cost for a gigabit in this day and age is ridiculous. It slows the network to a crawl.

Overall, very disappointing. This could have been a gamechanger for the consumer that knows little but needs their house secured. But lack of web interface, difficulty to setup, and flaws mentioned above make this a dead-on-arrival device.”

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I am embarking on my journey again to become my own social media consultant, as I was seeking a raise to a certain dollar amount, and I just didn’t get there ($1 per hour short of what I was willing to settle for).  It’s a bit difficult, as I’m having all kinds of issues with the new house (read the Chimney article if you haven’t…(redacted).

Where I excel at this point in social media is with the millennial generation. What are the millennials using? Vine, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. I would expect everyone to realize that investment in this generation will lead to continued use as they grow up. Let’s look at the Apple Computer model? Sell computers (whole computer labs!) to schools at a reasonable rate. Remember those eMacs or the old iMacs? Now everyone wants Apple computers because they grew up on them.

My message above about getting consumers hooked on a product or service may work better for larger brands. Do you have any social media tips for local businesses? Sound off in the comments.