I was recently asked by a friend what would be the best way to get notified of news stories surrounding Tiger Woods. Since I have been taking advantage of Google News Alerts for over a year, I knew that the easiest way to track any item of interest is to set a Google Alert on it. I have alerts on “health care reform,” my customer’s company names, my name, my wife’s name and many other topics and people of interest. Google dutifully sends me a daily e-mail with a recap of all the web, news and blog mentions of each subject. I told my friend about the alerts and you could immediately see that he grasped how useful Google Alerts could be for business.

If you want to set an alert on news about Tiger Woods go here. You can also use the page to set alerts on any other topic that might interest you.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 was released today and the consensus is that it is a great new operating system for PCs. It is fast, elegant, stable and even visually appealing. Windows 7 has plenty of features, but features are not its claim to fame. Microsoft is stressing the fact that it is a streamlined piece of software that works well. After its Vista debacle and the bad publicity that it garnered for the company, I am very heartened by this new release and can recommend it unequivocally.

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 works well with almost all hardware and even has functionality built in that will enable you to see a picture or drawing of new hardware that you connect to it. Next time you buy a printer or digital camera and plug it in via a USB port, you may be surprised when you see a picture of the device on your screen confirming that it is recognized and working.

I am very fond of the BitLocker technology that is included with the Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. With it, you can encrypt and password protect your computer’s hard drive. This protects your data in case your machine is stolen or lost. It is particularly useful for laptop and netbook owners since these are often stolen from hotel rooms. The BitLocker To Go technology makes it possible to also encrypt removable hard drives and USB thumb drives.

The Libraries feature allows you to group related folders together under a category like documents, music or video. This simplifies the task of backing up groups of documents or creating music playlist from music that is stored in multiple locations. You can use the new Windows Backup utility to create those backups and even schedule complete backups of your PC. I love this new backup tool because it will also create a system repair disk for you that you can use to restore your machine after a catastrophe.

It is important to note, that some older versions of software do not work with Windows 7. Two that I know won’t work are Norton Ghost and the various versions of Microsoft Fingerprint Reader software. Symantec is working on an upgrade for Norton Ghost that will be compatible and Microsoft is offering rebates to owners of the Microsoft Fingerprint devices and software.

Perhaps the only real issue I have with the new release is that it comes in too many versions. Microsoft is selling a Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise version. It is also selling versions that are for 32 bit and 64 bit computers. It is confusing as to which version is good for office, home and notebook use. It is also unclear whether a machine can handle the 64 bit version. It is so confusing that Microsoft has put up a web page that compares the versions.

Alonso Consulting can help you decide if upgrading is the right move for you. If you decide to upgrade your existing machines, we can guide you through the planning process, back up your existing data and then upgrade you to the correct version. Users of Windows XP do not have a direct upgrade path with Windows 7, so all data and applications have to be backed up and reinstalled.

If you prefer to buy new machines, we can provide you with a great deal* on Dell computers preloaded with Windows 7 Professional. Once we install the new machine and port your data over, we’ll erase your old PC’s hard drive, remove it and give you a $100 credit for it that you can use towards additional support from us. We will also provide you with a pass-along gift certificate worth $250. It is our way of saying thank you.

Call us at (973) 575-1414 to start upgrading to this excellent new version of Windows.

Thanks,

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

* Here’s the deal:

You get a Dell PC with Windows 7 Professional worth $765. You also receive up to two hours of service to install your old applications and data. We will remove your old PC and give you a $100 credit for future support plus a pass-along gift certificate worth $250 so you can share our services with a business associate. The total value is $1,365. If you decide to upgrade and pay on our web site by October 27th, you will receive the PC, our service, a $100 credit, and the gift certificate which is a total value of $1,365 for only $899 per PC. Here are the specs on the PC:

Processor	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz, 3M, L2Cache, 1066FSB)
Operating system	Genuine Windows ® 7 Professional 32 bit
Monitor	18.5 inch E1910H Flat Panel Monitor
Memory	3GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHZ – 1×2GB 1×1GB
Optical drive	Single Drive: 16X DVD-ROM Drive
Hard drive	250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Video card	Integrated Video, Intel® GMA X4500HD
Security software	Norton Internet Security™ 2009 30 Day Trial
Sound	Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Keyboard & mouse	USB Keyboard and USB Optical Mouse
Adobe software	Adobe Acrobat Reader
Resource DVD	Resource CD and DVD
Setup guide	System Quick Reference Guide
Network interface	Integrated PCIE 10/100/1000
Warranty & service	1 Year Manufacturer’s Basic Limited Warranty and 1 Year NBD On-Site Service

]]> http://www.robert-alonso.com/2009/10/22/happy-birthday-windows-7/feed/ 0 http://www.robert-alonso.com/2009/09/30/microsoft-security-essentials/ http://www.robert-alonso.com/2009/09/30/microsoft-security-essentials/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:17:00 +0000 Robert Alonso http://www.robert-alonso.com/2009/09/30/microsoft-security-essentials/ The bane of all PC users existence is malware, virus, trojan and spyware infections. It can make the PC unusable, send out hundreds of unsolicited SPAM messages to your friends and colleagues and/or consume a day or more of time to remove it. The lost productivity and tech support costs can be significant. Fortunately, there are commercial and free applications that do an adequate job of protecting against malware. Kaspersky, Trend Micro, Norton, McAfee and AVG are all good solutions.

Microsoft has finally decided that they should offer protection—something I believe should have been part of the operating system since the fist malware was ever detected years ago. The new offering is free and is called, “Microsoft Security Essentials.” You can download a free copy with updates from here.

I recommend that every reader of this blog install one of the anti-malware products mentioned here. If you don’t, one day you will discover that your machine is infected and that you have very little recourse but to call tech support. If you have tried the free support from companies like Dell, then you know that their solution is to do a system restore from the manufacturer’s CDs. You will lose your data if you do this. Paid support like the one my company, Alonso Consulting, offers will result in the removal of the virus and the saving of your data, but it will not be free. It is, therefore, in your best interest to install one of these tools now. What are you waiting for?

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Products mentioned:

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Google Fast Flip includes, among many others, The New York Times, Esquire, US, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and The Atlantic in its index. You can search for a topic or just peruse what Google displays for you. If an article grabs your attention, you can click on it to view it in its entirety on the publisher’s web site. This is a more visual way of looking at the news and improves on Google News—something that I have been happily using for over a year. Most of the magazines, publications and web sites that are included are liberal so this may not be a good choice for conservative-leaning readers. The image to the left shows a sample of what you will see on the site. (Please click on it to see a bigger version.)

When you click on one of the displayed news items, you are presented with the flip interface and Google ads. These are  now being displayed to the right of the articles that you are reading. Google has agreed to share ad revenues with the publishers that have partnered with them. This is a big difference between Google News and Google Fast Flip. The Google News product does not share (and perhaps does not generate either) any revenues with publishers. I suspect that Google Fast Flip will be more popular with content creators and publishers. The image to the right shows what you will see when you click on an article. Note that other articles are displayed on the left in a scrollable region. I recommend you give this web site a try. Let me know if you like it.

If you go to Bing.com, the first thing you notice is that the search engine is the anti-Google. It has a beautiful home page with images that change with each visit. These background images load quickly, are not obstructive and can help you learn facts. For example, in a recent Bing visit, I was presented with an image of the Bastei bridge in Saxon Switzerland. By moving my cursor over a small square in the image, I was told that the bridge was constructed of sandstone in 1851. I was also given an option to learn more. Clicking on the link, brought up search results for the bridge and included a Wikipedia entry as the top result. This distracted me from my main search, “Robert Alonso,” (just kidding) but I can assure you that it was far more instructive. It gave me the feeling I would get scanning through microfiche of old newspapers and discovering something new that I did not know before.

You perform your search just like you would on Google. For example, the image below shows the results for a search for “Democrats fishy activities program.” If you look at the image, you will also notice that under the “Bing” logo and orange colored band on the left, there is a “SEARCH HISTORY” listing. I have removed mine for this image, but that comes in handy if you need to go back to a previous search. You also have the option of turning that feature off completely.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is that you can move your mouse over any of the results and see a popup blurb of the content to be found on the site. This is very helpful for finding out if a result is what you are looking for without having to click through to the site. The third image below shows the popup blurb feature in action. To get it to appear, I placed the mouse over the second result and waited a few seconds. In some of these blurbs, you are also shown other links and prominent items that are found on the page. This gives you a very clear idea on whether to proceed or not.

These neat features aside, what really matters is finding what you are looking for. Bing compares very well with Google on relevance of results. In many tests that I have run, it actually does better. You can test this for yourself using this site: bing-vs-google.com. The site will give you a split view of the results from both engines side by side. This allows you to be the judge yourself.

Another feature that you are sure to like is that the left panel of the Bing results will show you meaningful links. The next image shows the results for a search on “Elisha Cuthbert,” an actress from the television drama “24” and from various films including, “The Gil Next Door.” You will notice that the results are very good and feature several images and the most likely sources of information including Wikipedia and IMDB. The left hand panel shows links to, “Images, Biography, Wallpaper, Posters, Fan Club, Interview and Videos.” These are the most typical results that people searching for her might want.

The next image shows what a search for “Bill Gates” delivers.

You will notice that the left hand panel is different and offers, “Images, Biography, Quotes, Books, Blog and Interview.” It is this kind of subject knowledge that makes Bing far superior and cooler. If you try entering a product name, like “Nikon D90” you are presented with a chart summarizing the camera, images and meaningful result listings. The left hand panel will give you relevant links that include the manual. This is very cool. There are many other features related to image and video searches, but I will recommend that you try them for yourself and let me know what you think in my comments section.

(I must also include a shameless plug. If you are needing help with search engine optimization (SEO), please contact Alonso Consulting. We will create a comprehensive plan for making your site appear higher in search results.)

It continually updates from the various news sources and stores news for offline reading. You can also share a good story with your friends by sending a link via email or posting a link to Facebook or Twitter directly from the application. You can download it for free from the Apple App Store. It is developed by Fluent Mobile.

If you want to order it from Amazon click below:

For the many who were probably caught unprepared for this, the FCC has established a hotline staffed by 4,000 operators to help you, You can call: 1-888-CALL-FCC. Alternatively, you can visit this government website: http://www.dtv.gov/

Does anyone remember analog cell phones, Betamax, VHS, LP record players, tape players, or heaven forbid, 8-Track players? If you do, you probably own a Sony Walkman tape player and need to upgrade to an iPod Touch. Get with it.

According to the article, most sites have millions of profiles, but very few paying customers. They have concluded that sites that offer questionnaires that supposedly match people are no better than others that allow users to post profiles and wait for emails from prospective partners. They also determined that there are certain age groups that lie more often about their age. They used statistical analysis for this conclusion. The most disturbing finding is that many inquiries go unanswered because non‑paying customers cannot answer emails without becoming paying customers. This leads to a lot of frustration and misunderstanding.

Not wanting to be left out of this trend, my company has put up a new and free dating site. It is called, “Faces to Remember.” This site will facilitate human relationships much like personal ads did in newspapers and magazines in the past. The site will make its income through ads and will not charge for any of its current services.

Try it out and let me know what you think. You can reach me at the email address, Robert (at symbol) facestoremember.com or Alonso.com

As you might expect, all is not perfect–it never is. Apple has demonstrated remarkable greed with the release of the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G. One example of this is that many of the cables that worked with previous iPods do not work with the new iPod Touch or iPhone. These include car chargers and USB docking stations not sold or licensed by Apple. The iPod Touch and iPhone do not have a way of outputting video to a TV set without an Apple purchased cabled that plugs into the flat connector at the bottom of the unit. The standard AV mini plug only outputs audio. Previous iPod generations sent audio and video out through the jack. The cables were swapped around to encourage people to pay extra for the Apple branded cable. The new setup apparently checks for some Apple chip or signal and requires the Apple part. This is just greedy on Apple’s part.

The cable situation made a video cable that I owned, a car charger and travel charger obsolete. Needless to say, I am not happy about this. Since I have owned several iPods over the years, I also own a Bose SoundDock for listening to music in my kitchen and dining area. It also has served as a charger for the kids iPods and my wife’s iPod. Unfortunately, the new iPhone will not charge on the Bose device. It says that it is not a compatible device. This is one of the premier third party products for the iPod line and Apple has now made it less useful to me. It can play music from my iPhone, but will not charge. Again, this is Apple greed.

One would think that Apple would not have made the Bose SoundDock user base experience any problems, since they now resell the dock on their web site. Perhaps newer models do not experience the issues that I am experiencing. These signs of Apple greed will make me think twice about further purchases from the company.

Other issues that I have experienced with the iPhone include poor data connectivity and no signal for calling. At seemingly random times, I cannot access web sites or my e-mail through the device. It often seems that it is not the connections, but instead some sort of DNS resolution issue. DNS resolution is when a server is called upon to convert a web site address like alonso.com to the numeric address for the server on which it resides. The “no signal” issue has plagued the iPhone from the very first day that I had it. I will get a message that there is no signal and will need to restart the device for it to find a signal. This is reminiscent of restarting a Windows PC that is running a bit slowly.

Although every issue I’ve mentioned so far takes away from what could otherwise be a perfect product, the one issue that really rankles me the most is that you cannot buy applications from anyone other than Apple. This was presumably done to guarantee the quality of the applications. I can tell you that having downloaded dozens of applications (some of which I have removed now) most of them are full of bugs and crash all the time. I use the New York Times application to read articles from the paper on-line and have to load it at least four times to get through a lengthy article. It continually crashes without any error message. Apple is not delivering a quality experience with the third party software. Unlike music which you can buy from Apple or from any third party and then install on your iPod with the iTunes software, the applications have to purchased and downloaded from Apple. This give Apple the ability to prohibit certain types of applications. One application that was released on the Apple store–presumably by mistake–called Netshare was removed and has not been seen since. It enables an iPhone 3G owner to share the 3G connection using WiFi so that a laptop can connect to the Internet through the iPhone. I managed to get a copy while it was listed, but now have no way up getting upgrades. This is horrible market control and should be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

Now it is up to you to decide whether you can live with Apple’s greed and ridiculous control.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

The name of this service almost says it all. It is a web-based service that enables you to easily synchronize files from one computer to another and to store copies on the Syncplicity servers. This service is free for now, but will have a fee structure associated with it soon.

You use the service by downloading and installing a small application that integrates with Explorer. During the setup of the application, you tell it which folders you want to keep synchronized and it begins to upload the content of those folders to the Syncplicity site. Once the process is completed, you can view your documents from the site, you can download them, you can share them with others or you can synchronize them with another PC. The service is so versatile that it even has an iPhone interface at http://m.simplicity.com.

I have uploaded some pictures that I took on a recent trip. These are now available for me to share with others or to synchronize with my other computers. This is my way of testing the system. I am still not comfortable placing confidential data on their servers. You may not be either. Synchronizing encrypted documents, however, should be alright.  You can read more about it or even watch a video of how it works at http://www.syncplicity.com.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

Downloading and Installation

The first thing I did was search for "Skype" on Google and found that the first listing is the web site for Skype. The Google listing is very well organized and has links to all the areas of the Skype web site that you might want to visit. I went right to the download page, but then decided to do some reading before actually downloading and installing the software. After a few page reads, I decided that it was alright to download this software. It took a few minutes to download. I chose to run it directly after the download. The install process was smooth and took only a few minutes.

Configuring Skype

After the install completed, the Skype software requires that you choose a user name and give it an e-mail account and password. This took me a little longer than is probably usual because I am very picky about user names and do not like names like "robertalonso56897." Since every variation of my name was taken, I settled for "alonso.consulting." (Now, readers of this blog have another way to reach me…)

Test Call and Contacts

Skype automatically loaded my contacts from my Outlook. This was something that I found a little disconcerting. I still don’t know if this information resides on my local machine only or if they uploaded it somewhere. I am very leery of cloud computing when it comes to my contacts and financial data. I then tried a test call to an automated system that Skype provides and discovered that my microphone was not working properly. Once that problem was fixed I was ready to call people.

Calling People

You can call people on Skype by finding their listing in the directory. You can search by name, Skype name or e-mail address. Once you have found someone you know, you add them to your contacts and that person is notified that you are attempting to add them. They can accept or decline you. Once they accept you, you can click on that person’s name in the Contacts tab and the Skype software literally rings on their end. When they answer, you can talk as if your were on a phone, you can watch each other if you have a web cam and you can also text message and send files to each other. If you become a big user of the service, you can buy a Skype certified headset that includes a microphone for about $29.

After my initial calls from my PC, I downloaded the software for my Smartphone and was pleasantly surprised to see it work through my phone’s data plan. That is what I call very cool.

Although I did not try it, you can also call contacts that are not on Skype. You need to pay to call land or cell lines, but the fee is very reasonable at $.021 per minute.

Final Thoughts

I recommend this service because it is unobtrusive, works reasonably well and is mostly free. I do have a warning for you if you decide to use it: Skype’s terms of use allows them to monitor your conversations, web video and text messages as well as your contact relationships for the purposes of improving the service and providing you with goods and services that you might want to purchase. I found that more than a little creepy–so think about it before using the service. You should also note that the service is owned by eBay.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

OpenDNS provides a free service that allows you to send all your DNS requests to them. When you use OpenDNS, they can provide you with a foolproof way of locking out sites that you do not want your children exposed to or that you do not want employees visiting. I have been using OpenDNS for both my office network and home network for months and can attest to the excellence of the service.

Signing up is easy. Just visit http://www.opendns.com and click on “Get Started.” You will be able to block content by categories, like adult sites, gambling, webmail and many other categories. You will also be able to block specific sites and to exclude sites that fall within a blocked category, but you find acceptable. In addition to this, you get phishing protection against malicious web sites that mimic real sites for the purpose of stealing your passwords.

One of the usability enhancements that OpenDNS provides is typo correction. that will attempt to take you to the site you intended to visit even if you typed a couple of transposed letters. It also gives you another time saver–shortcuts. You can use this to set up words that you type into the browser address bar  like “mail” to automatically take you to any page you want. “Mail,” for example, can be set to take you to your web-based e-mail. I had some fun with this feature by setting up “handsome” to take family members to a picture of myself on the Internet. Your imagination can guide you to the many uses for this feature.

I recommend this service wholeheartedly. Alonso Consulting can help you set it up should you have any difficulties. Please call us at (973) 575-1414.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting