A little bit of holiday cheer from down under

At this time of year, we all need to take some solace while we are getting ready for the holidays. That’s why I couldn’t help but have a laugh at this article about how one library in Australia has taken a, um, novel approach to speed dating. With somewhat predictable results.

The many myths of endpoint security

You’ve got firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, virtual private networks, and a perimeter that is as secure as can be. But the problem is that all of this security apparatus can be made moot in a matter of milliseconds with one user bringing their infected laptop into your office and spreading its diseased little package around your network.

That’s the sad state of affairs today. And not to worry – numerous vendors are standing by to take your call and sell you thousands of dollars of endpoint security products that will stop this infected laptop and other problems in their tracks. Or so they say.

The problem is that endpoint security isn’t easy, simple, or cheap. In this article for Datamation, I examine the six biggest myths of this marketplace and tell the truth.

Selling managed SMB firewalls for VARs

We all know that the internet is a dangerous place, and you need protection when you connect your business network to it. But keeping up with the bad guys isn’t something that many small and midsize businesses want to deal with. This is a great place for security and Internet-access VARs to be, and a recent crop of all-but-the-kitchen-sink products will make it easier for VARs to sell into this segment.

The secret sauce is selling managed firewall/router appliances that come with a subscription service to keep these products current. My latest column for eWeek looks at the firewalls-in-a-managed services platform from CheckPoint, Sonic Wall and others.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it

Microsoft wants you to work the Web with Windows on your desktop. And that means if you are running anything besides Internet Explorer, you are going to have problems down the road.

Windows has become the best Internet OS. It just kills me, as I write this on my Mac running Firefox. If you want evidence of this, set up two equivalent PCs, or better yet, buy a Mac Core Duo and run both operating systems on the same box with one of the multi-boot options. Go out and surf the Web. And other than being infected with a bunch of spyware and toolbar download come-ons on Windows, you’ll find that pages load faster and you can get more work done on Windows.

Here are some other data points. I use Google’s Gmail as my main email application. On the Mac with either Firefox or Safari, it runs slower than on Windows with Internet Explorer. If I make use of OfficeLive to set up a Web site, I don’t have a choice. I must be running Windows/IE – that is the only way I can maintain my site and make use of the various “live” tools. (Forget about things like FTP.) The same situation is with Sharepoint, and LiveMeeting, and all sorts of other browser-based Microsoft applications. You need IE for this world-wide-Web thing. And if you need IE, you need Windows to run it.

I am finding that more and more of what I want to do with Microsoft requires me to be running Windows. I guess that has always been Microsoft’s no-so-secret plan — to do a better job than anyone else at making development tools and runtime environments for Internet applications. They have succeeded, even though the market share of IE has continued to slip over the past couple of years.

Take a look at what happened with Java on the desktop. Which desktop OS is the best Java environment, the most efficient place to code, the fastest performer? Windows! Microsoft took things seriously, and spent some time optimizing and extending Java so that it ran better on Windows. So what happened to Java being able to run everywhere? That’s so five minutes ago.

Now most people write their Java code on Windows development platforms, because wouldn’t you know Microsoft has some of the best development tools out there. So they code and test on Windows, and guess what? These apps run only Windows, and well, sometimes we’ll see a port over to Linux, and maybe we’ll get around to doing the Mac sometime next year if the customers yell enough.

Think of IE as the way Microsoft will move towards an all-Windows Internet OS. And it will get worse with IE7 and Vista.

IE7 should really be called XP/SP3, because it changes so much of the underlying Windows OS. It basically gets that XP desktop ready to do a few of things that Vista will bring to the table. And for those corporate customers that are testing Vista, they will have to formulate a browser transition strategy as well. The issue is not so much that people will want to run both browsers. It is that so much of our computing environment is now tied to a particular browser version — and now the Windows OS that runs that version.

First is the issue of infect-o-rama from IE versions past. All of us have seen good PCs go south with spyware, phishing sites, and who knows what. The average Windows user catches these demons just from surfing around the Web. (Not on my Mac, of course.) IE7 supposedly fixes this, by adding various security measures. I can’t tell you yet whether they really work, but let’s say they do.

Next is the issue that not all Web sites will appear correctly because IE7 changes enough things. After all these years of IE5/6 it is a big change and many things don’t work (yet, or will ever) in IE7. I can’t tell you the percentage, but I have heard anecdotal reports. So chances are, if you upgrade to IE7, you will need to use some other browser for these situations for the time being.

Third is that IE7 is only available for some Windows customers. You have to be running an updated and legal version of XP/SP2. You have to be willing to change your desktop over to IE7, because it isn’t easy to go back to IE6 once you have done the update.

Microsoft has already got this angle covered. They have developed a Virtual PC “appliance” (really, a disk image) that has XP/SP2 with IE6 all nicely bundled up together. You can download it for free here.

There are a couple of problems. First, you need XP Pro (not Home) to run Virtual PC. Second, you need a lot of spare disk space and oodles of RAM to set this up. Third, the disk image expires on April 1, so you better be done with your testing by then and ready to roll out IE7 into production. And while running IE6 in a virtual machine makes a lot of sense from a security standpoint, especially given all the security loopholes on IE, it still is a cumbersome way to test a new browser and does require a leap of faith that things will work on IE7. It might have been a better thing to create a disk image for XP/IE7 that doesn’t expire, and let people stick with IE6 on the regular portion of their PCs.

The problem is that customers are going to be buying new machines with Vista and IE7 already installed, so they are coming into your corporate house whether you like them or not. Microsoft has always said that the browser is part of the OS. We just weren’t really listening.

As Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Who knew that he was talking about Web browsers?

Does public relations actually use Web 2.0?

I’ve known Sam Whitmore for as long as I have been a computer journalist: he was running PC Week when I got my start there in the mid-1980s and we have kept in touch over the years. Sam runs his own shop called MediaSurvey.com and offers a variety of services to public relations pros tracking what the tech media is doing. I’ll be speaking with him on a live Webcast next Tuesday 12/19. He asked me to come up wth some provocative topics and I’d thought I would put out a few links for people to examine prior to my presentation. (You have to be a paid subscriber to hear the broadcast.) While there have been many stories about Web 2.0 tools, what I am interested in is the notion that PR pros actually use the stuff to get their jobs done. The evidence so far is … Well, you’ll have to listen in.

• Paul Gillin (formerly of Computerworld and Tech Target) has written a book called The New Influencers. This chapter on tools is very instructive.
• Suzanne Stefanac has written another book called Dispatches from Blogostan. Here is a chapter on blog design, although there are others (not online) that have moretechnical information about Web 2.0.
• Digg Labs has two visualization tools (Swarm and Stack) worth a look that show where all those links go.
• Michelle Leder, a blogger for footnoted.org, uses SEC and other public documents to research what is going on inside many companies. A story here on the AlbanyTimes-Union talks about her discoveries.
• Contantin Basturea’s list of all PR bloggers here and also has another list of more than 250 CEO bloggers (as of October).
• Debbie Weil has written the Corporate Blogging Book and has plenty of great advice and case studies too about corporate and CEO bloggers.
• Then there is the hubbub guys, who are using Wikis and blogs to build their own PR business.
• Auburn professor Robert French has a blog on new media topics for his students here
• The folks at SocialMedia Club is focused on identifying best practices in the social networking space that seems geared towards PR people, including a template for new media press releases that they developed last year
• Jen McClure’s Society for New Communications Research (where I am one of their fellows) has conferences and a journal to identify trends and issues
• Steve Outing’s The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism is a great starting point from the journalist perspective
• So is Dan Gimor’s Center for Citizen Media project
• Finally, you’ll have to listen to the broadcast to hear what I have to say about the continued lack of follow-up with my own PR contacts.

Need a free Web hosting provider?

You currently have two really good choices — Microsoft’s OfficeLive and Dreamhost – but of course, there are some stipulations. Dreamhost is free for non-profits only, and you have to fax them the IRS 501(C)3 letter to prove it. Microsoft’s is for anyone that has minimal (meaning <500 MB of storage and transfer) hosting needs, but they also own the domain as part of the free package and you get a bunch of free email accounts too.  Plus, as you might suspect, you need to maintain the site using Windows/IEv6 or later.

Group chats take hold in the enterprise

Tired of taking yet another meeting or wasting more time on more conference calls? Maybe it is time you tried group online chat. While far from a new technology, its popularity around the enterprise is finally taking off because it can deliver real bottom-line returns and can be a real productivity boost. Chat is just part of the overall trend towards better real-time communications that began when corporations moved first to voice mail instead of secretaries, then to email, and finally towards Instant Messaging (IM).

In this story for Techweb, I talk more about how chat is taking hold and why enterprise IT managers are attracted to it. The story was picked up for the print Information Week edition as well.

Mysteries of domain hosting explained

My friend Glenn Fleishman has written an excellent ebook called “Take Control of Your Domain Names“. You can download a copy of the book for $10 here. Even though I have been doing this Internet thing for a long time, there were still a few things that I learned from his book, including methods to setup dynamic DNS, how some registrars allow you to set various DNS parameters such as TTL, and other technical topics. For people who are new to being master of their own domains, this is a terrific resource that gives you sensible, step-by-step instructions and great advice.

Zag.com — A new take on buying a car online

In the pre-bubble 1990s, car buying online was all about empowering the consumer to purchase a car directly from the manufacturer and never having to spend hours negotiating a price with a car salesman. Buying a car today is a different story, and if Santa Monica, Calif.-based Zag.com has their way, will bring people willingly back into dealer’s showrooms to buy their cars.

The difference is subtle but substantial. Today’s online car “purchase” is really nothing more than a widespread lead-generation effort, where dealers pay Internet sites such as CarsDirect.com to send them potential customers’ names. Zag is creating an entirely new sales channel. They began with what GM’s Saturn has offered offline — a guaranteed, no-hassle upfront price — and use computerized inventory tracking along with a series of rebates to produce an entire new method and lower prices for more people buying new (and eventually used) cars.

Here is how it works. You, as the potential car buyer, go to one of a number of Web sites that are part of the Zag network: right now, DriveOne.com is the only one generally available, but soon Zag will have others that it will offer in conjunction with credit unions and membership buying clubs such as the American Automobile Association (AAA). You select the make and model and various options and enter your Zip code. If a Zag-authorized dealer is within 50 miles, the site will provide an up-front guaranteed price certificate for that configuration of car. You print this out and take it to the dealer, who has to sell you the car for that price. As an incentive, DriveOne is offering you a $250 rebate for any new car sold through its site, regardless of whether or not you finance or lease the car. And more importantly, “the customer is price-protected for every car on that dealer’s lot. If you change your mind or change the configuration, you still know what the up-front price will be,” says Zag CEO Scott Painter. Talk about total transparency. “It is a better way to buy a car, and better pricing than the dealer gives most of their customers,” says Brian Reed, the VP for Capital One in Mclean, Va.

The program works by tying together four discrete elements that have never been connected before: pre-qualification for car financing, dealers providing an up-front price, a national computerized current car lot inventory, and fleet purchase programs where typically the margins — and average selling prices — are lower. Each is an important leg of Zag’s business, and if they can execute on all four cylinders, the company can deliver more cars at cheaper prices.

Zag has a close relationship or outright ownership with the major players in each area. The company is partly owned by Capital One, the largest car financier in the country. Zag itself purchased Autoland last year, the force behind more than 300 credit union car buying services in the country. They also own Automotive Invitational Services, the auto-buying program operator that serves more than six million members of 12 AAA clubs around the country.

It has taken Zag several years to pull everything together. They needed to wait for the convergence of four trends. First, the Internet is where the majority of car shoppers begin their research, and most consumers are comfortable with one or more of the various online car shopping sites such as cars.com, Yahoo Cars, and CarsDirect.com. Both car information specialists Edmunds and Kelly Blue Book have poured money into enhancements to their Web sites. “But while the Internet is a great source of information, buyers aren’t in control,” says Painter. Second, dealers are using more computerized inventory and back-office management database systems, especially the larger and new car franchises. These databases offer the ability to track specific car configurations and match them to buyer’s requests.

Third, while fleet services and buying clubs have proliferated, they are still very fragmented and no one has a national footprint. Yet, more dealers have experience with these volume purchase operations and are thus willing to work with Zag to drive even more customers through this channel.

Fourth, dealers are spending more marketing dollars on acquiring Internet based leads. “Today’s dealer spends $20 per lead, most of which they get from Internet sites. What people don’t realize is that you have to surrender your name to get a price quote with today’s online car buying sites,” says Painter. However, the quality of these leads is dropping, as more Internet sites sell the same leads to multiple dealer networks. Zag is attractive to them because it pays a fixed $250 per car purchased. “We charge them nothing if they don’t sell the car,” says Painter.

So what can go wrong with Zag? Right now, the company is only in a few major markets and with just a few dealers, and entered the New York metro area in September. There are dozens of independent databases that must be maintained, not to mention that dealers have to be diligent about updating their computerized inventory records. Dealers will have to train their salespeople to learn how to use Zag’s systems and spend less time haggling over upselling floor mats and undercoating. Finally, Zag has had some problems with its automated email replies when new car buyers sign up, and not all dealers have received training on their network yet. Painter says all of these are growing pains and hopes to have all fixes in place by mid October, to put more people in the driver’s seat. But the bottom line? We are still talking price. “The challenge for anyone selling cars is proving that your price is attractive,” he says.

(This story was written for and (c) by the New York Times but not yet published by them.)

Frankston on Microsoft and Apple

I’ve know Bob Frankston for many years — Bob has been one of our industry’s original thinkers, and he even did a stint at Microsoft after helping to invent spreadsheets and many other pieces of software. He recently wrote me:

It’s unfortunate that Microsoft seems to be patterning itself after the world of the iPod in which the users are considered consumers rather than contributors.

The old Microsoft treated everyone as a developer but Microsoft’s intelligence-bearing genes are being winnowed out in a truly Dilbertesque process. I accidentally ran the Media Center instead of the Media Player and I was scared because that piece of pandering retro-TV crap seems to the bastard child of Ms. Bob and Clippie with a nauseating dose of DRM and PLH (Pretty Little Head — as in, don’t worry your PLH) obfuscation. I see Apple as being more sinister because pandering is so very cute. The scariest was watching a TV show about new technology including the kids first MP3 player – this poor girl was moving back and forth to the music as if in a trance — better opiate them when their young rather than risk them
becoming anything other than a passive receptacle for Jobs products. And poor Sony is sitting there wondering how they got beaten at their own game.