Evolution: Move over MSP, it’s the age of DSPs

Vladville
2 Comments

Vista is a fiasco. Microsoft went from building software to building vapor clouds. Rampant speculation that Microsoft is doomed without leadership. The biggest spotlight is on a hyper-closed smartphone and online hangouts. And the front page of the Wall Street Journal says that consumer confidence has again hit an all time low. Who would have thunk it?

More and more people are starting to wake up from their self-deluded coma and raise their head out of sand to realize that just because you choose to ignore the economic realities of running a business, your ignorance alone doesn’t have the power to change what is actually going on: lack of innovation combined with a tough economic cycle, shrinking credit availability and consumer confidence.

What in the best of times made for the business partners of convenience is now setting up for a showdown of end user control. Dell and Microsoft and Apple and Comcast and (insert every company name here) are all blowing past their partners and looking to work directly with the customer. The service providers who once served as the agents for the above simply due to the enormous demand and complexity are now seen as competition and are becoming displaced.

It is giving rise to the whole new deathpool of MSPs that Chris Rue and I discussed last night: The Disaffected Service Provider. DSP if you will.

DSP is inheriting the same lack of ethics and planning that SPFs were popular for before the giant lawnmower of Microsoft Licensing enforcement knocked it out of the IT world and into the world of real estate and mortgage refinancing. DSP is also taking on the riffraff business building code of design: “I’m not in this to build a business or gain expertise of any kind, I just rationalize that I can make an OK paycheck by being a necessary evil for those too busy to read a manual or a trade journal.”

The opportunity in this market has never been greater: Microsoft monopoly on life support with obviously demotivated and directionless leadership, endless doubt and speculation over who will control the future of business applications and data storage (Amazon? Google? Microsoft? Salesforce? Dell?) and how we will use technology in life and in business is creating a wide open door of opportunity… now.

Yet, the pile of disaffected service providers seems to grow, some disinterested and some angered, that the world of technology keeps on evolving and that with it we evolve as well or just cease to be relevant (and thus unemployable).

The Fourth Year

As I head into the fourth year of this blog I look back at my Vladville mission over the last year and try to figure out what service I have done to my business, my business associates and partners, my fans and readers. Last year I posted a survey asking why you come here, what you are looking for, who you are, etc. I saw my duty with Vladville in 2007-2008 to cover the underlying change that we are seeing in the marketplace, the diminishing Microsoft influence, the difficult economic scenario and the departure from the one-dimensional process-driven business implementations of what used to work to what is likely to work in the future.

I think I did an OK job. The audience has more than doubled, the fanmail has gone through the roof and hate mail has nearly disappeared. I think I’ll just chalk that up to thinking that if you disagree with me you’re wrong and basically doomed 🙂

Going forward, as I return to my baby, I’m going to spend more time writing about what we’re doing in this brave new world of IT services and how we are doing on implementation of our new business plan. Should be fun, I hope you stick around.

As always, thank you for reading Vladville and thank you for all your money!

Why is everyone so interested in my pocket?

Microsoft
1 Comment

It seems like we can’t let a week go by without someone being interested in my pocket. What is even more surprising is that they all want it to be open. First the Android from Google promises the world to developers with operating system that takes Java software to the mobile world, then the iPhone from Apple makes a big splash with the ability to write applications once on the web and run them on the device without modification, now Nokia buying Symbian and claiming it will be open so it can set the future of the mobile free.

Why is everyone so concerned with the future of mobile, and why must it be so free and open?

Very few people are sincere in their hate for Microsoft, like Marc Benioff from Salesforce.com who explains that the major motivation behind these moves is to dethrone Microsoft from the leadership role they enjoy in business software.

There is a race to out-open, out-free, and out-bling the future of mobile telephony with the usual development restrictions just a few feet away from the shiny banner of false promises. The world of pay-for-play development tools, the world of application redistribution restrictions, the world of carrier objections and inevitable crippling of functionality we are so used to.

Follow the money…

Remember a few weeks back I wrote about how less than 7% of development is dedicated to Vista? Large software deployments are very difficult to manage (read: expensive) and when you make a decision on a platform you stick with it. This is why you still see Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 running some core services and LOBs in larger companies, they approved the purchase, got the LOB that was supported on the platform and the solution will likely not move until the building is imploded and building rebuilt.

Corporate IT managers feel much the same way about mobile computing. It used to be that only remote workers were road sales people, executives and an occasionally misfortunate new hire in the IT department who got stuck doing on-call as a condition of employment. Today, things are quite different – everyone from the restaurant seater to the hotel chain maids is linked, synced and managed through the mobile applications that everyone rightfully expects to only grow in utility and deployment base.

Everyone is concerned with writing applications on a system that will not be changed on a whim, support discontinued in X years, features changed or locked down when they no longer make money.

Thus, everyone is trying to win the developers who have had to put up with broken and often incomplete API, needed large support contracts to be able to interact with the device or software or just could not use their skills or manage their own application deployment.

What we are seeing is an open PR fight over who will be the openest of them all so they can assure the years of device and operating system distribution and licensing fees.

Which, ironically enough, has been the Microsoft business model all along.

We’ve never met, have we?

Awesome
2 Comments

From the mailbag:

“So is your blog just a collection of your innermost feelings you can’t say out loud in real life?”

🙂

Why yes, I’m generally shy and reserved in real life.

It’s not war, it’s just automation

Misc
6 Comments

Why is it that we like to bitch and complain about the way things are but are completely unwilling to change our circumstances? If that’s not bad enough, why is it that so many people expect someone else to swoop in and solve all their problems?

It doesn’t work like that. Unless you are really, really stupid, have no memory and are willing to believe everything you hear. Note to self: Start a presidential campaign donation box with Paypal. This need to believe that it’s someone else’s fault, that someone else needs to fix things… it’s so ridiculously powerful. Eight years ago this country had a surplus and we elected a guy who promised change, end to partisanship and had jack worth of experience. But this time around it’s going to be all different, because the dude is black, cause that makes a difference you know. That’s the change we can believe in! And we’re back to getting exactly what we deserve, case and point:

I’m waiting in the line at McDonalds and watching CNN cover the “War on the middle class: Driving down the wages” and they spotlight breaking news from two months ago about Nielsen firing 7% of their Florida workforce. Here is the funny part: Not only are these geniuses losing their jobs to 2-bit Indian script readers, but in order to receive their severance pay and benefits they have to train the previously mentioned Indians to do their job!

Talk about your daily dose of humility. Not only are you losing your job, but you get to train your replacement – in another country! Nielsen, who ironically enough is not an American-owned company to begin with but part of a Dutch conglomerate, is saying that it is making the move in order to remain competitive in the global commerce environment. Business is business, bitches, but what do the pundits say?

“This is a part of the large scale agenda to eliminate the middle class and drive down the wages in America to the point that everyone is poor. They (Microsoft and Google leading the list) are begging for more H1-B VISA applications which have gone to the low-wage labor instead of highly technical competent labor, in a large effort to – you’ve guessed it, drive down the wages. We are being systematically reduced to lower and lower paying jobs while more and more of our labor goes overseas and more immigrants are invited in to commoditize middle-class areas of professional services like technology but also legal, finance and media!” To the gaypile!

Phew. Thank god. Just in time too, now I don’t have to study for my Windows 2008 technical certifications because some damn Injun is going to go stand in the line and take it before I do. You’ve guessed it, I am blaming Vijay for coming to America on July 5th and thats why I am not going to be training or taking the test. Phew, that saved me a lot of time. Pass the Cheetos.

Excuse me sonny..

Now that I’m done with my brief moment of insanity – go to the article please. What kind of rocket science were these 400+ now former Nielsen employees doing that the big evil company fired them? You’ve guessed it, they were conducting annoying interviews!!!!! They probably got replaced by a Celeron-powered Trixbox! Among the sob stories: 85 year old Rae Elliott, 79 year old Rose Schulz, 71 year old Bill Georgius.

When asked “If I look for a job, will you give me a reference?” the company responded with “Number of years worked and your position” – which only shows just how long its been since both the person and the reporter thought that bit was relevant – legally an employer is not allowed to say anything else!!!

The kicker? While some roles are being outsourced, most of the job cuts are because the company has figured out a way to be more efficient. They shocked the monkey!

Damn Vijay

There is a prevailing thought in this country not just that it’s someone elses fault that we’ve become complacent, uneducated and outdated, but that jobs are going to uneducated third world countries to fight a war on American middle class. As soon as the wages are low enough, those jobs are going to come right back to the good ol’ US o A.

Umm, no, not likely.

You see, while waiting at McDonalds for the future outsourcing victim of global economy to get me my wifes double cheeseburger I noticed that the menu nearly quadrupled since the last time I looked at it and there is the same amount of people behind the cash register. They somehow managed to get a bistro and a Starbucks into a McDonalds without doubling the braindead drones?

You remember when they used to put a cup on the soda machine and select small, medium, large and supersized button and it would automatically cut off when the cup was filled up? Guess what Jimbo? They did er in! There is no more selection tray with ice underneath – it’s now done by a robot on a rotary mechanism that takes the order from the cash register, drops down the correct size cup into the rotating cylinder underneath which automatically dispenses the ordered beverage and ice option.

That’s right, demotivator comes true: If a pretty picture and a cute saying is all that takes to motivate you, you likely have a very easy job. The kind that robots will be doing soon!

So, we want cheap Japanese cars. We want cheap goods at Walmart. We don’t mind cheap services rendered by kids that should be learning Calculus instead of pulling a double shift at Best Buy. We treat business as a business.

But when that same behavior bites us in the ass we want to blame someone else. Personally, I blame Vijay. But I’m not a fool, I am not resting on just blaming Vijay and waiting for Obama to come rescue me. I am working on products and services like Shockey Monkey that eliminate the need for the people to do the automated tasks to begin with.

Is it a war on middle class? No, it’s a war on stupidity and mediocrity and just because you benefit from things being broken it doesn’t mean there aren’t people out there trying to fix the problem and put you out of work. The message being: evolve or die trying.

A very tough message for the IT industry to learn – your occupation may not be eliminated because of some personal gripe – it just might be that your occupation exists solely due to a shortcoming in the technology which is about to get fixed.

Stay on the edge or… well, seems like even flipping burgers is not going to be much of an option.

XP – Year later, same objections

Microsoft
Comments Off on XP – Year later, same objections

This subject has been beaten into the ground and is still being brought up, day after day, one vendor after another just cannot stop selling the Windows XP heroin that the addicts are screaming they want at the door:

q2wk08_window_xp_nocya_728x150

So Dell, yet again, extends the freebie. Microsoft offers downgrade rights and Dell offers another way to stay on XP. The popular thinking and chatter around the world is that Microsoft is just trying to buy time until Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this fall to announce Windows 7 and scrap Vista completely on the spot.

This fairy tale is apparently so sweet and dreamy that every day another rumor comes out and with each reincarnation it distances the Windows further and further away from what Microsoft as a company stands for: Choice. Now, some of you may laugh when you hear that, or think “Yeah right, Microsoft choice!“, but the truth of the matter is that Microsoft’s willingness to be flexible in order to sell the most software is also the major complaint that its customers have.

Before you dismiss this completely, consider the complaints about Microsoft security. Microsoft fixes the problem, but most of us turn off UAC on the very first reboot. Then there are complaints about lack of 64bit support. Yet, the majority of Vista complaints seem to be centered around people trying to run their 1998 copy of Printshop and that dot matrix printer they picked up at a garage sale. Folks don’t want to pay for features XYZ and they cry faul about Microsoft not playing to the needs of the SOHO and SMB hobby businesses – we don’t want Infopath, Office is too expensive!!! So Microsoft yanks the non-SOHO features and partners bitch about licensing complexity and lack of ability to roll out Office 2007 in a Terminal Server. Now, the likelyhood that the guy who got the dot matrix printer and couldn’t get it working with Vista in order to print a banner from 1998 Printshop is probably not accessing his word from his Terminal Server.

Microsoft has long stood for convenience, for cutting deals, for competing aggressively, for crushing everything in its path to get to the customers PC for all their computing needs.. and it only got them more than 90% of the market.

Why change?

The other day I spoke with one of my largest clients, well, largest bank in the world and we were discussing something off Dealnews. Somehow the conversation turned to XP still being on sale and I had to ask if they ran XP: “You bet.” 

Here is the reality of the Windows as a commodity operating system: Regular information workers could care less what is under the hood. Their training consists of a line of business application binder with the screenshots  and clickthrough instructions to help them get their job done. The value in solutions that Microsoft, Apple and others produce is nearly nonexistent. That whole productivity pipe dream that works so well in SMB does not translate to the large collection of computer users, at least in business. They live in their apps, not in the Microsoft apps. Only us techies do that, part because we can figure it out but part because that is the drug we sell.

Outside of that tiny % of the population the reality is much different. The reason people love Mac’s, despite the overpriced hardware with no choice and most of the time just one year warranty, is that people start to play with their computers and since there is only one way to get it done they get it done and are impressed it was actually possible. So they play, they goof off, they become happy with their little PC. The Windows experience? Every time you try playing with the consumer side of the tools you get hit with the questions only an ITPRO can answer. For years people have faced broken computers, “You shouldn’t have done that” afterthoughts, that they are outright scared to even try anything.

So again, as long as its selling, why should Microsoft bother changing the game that they for all intents and purposes dominate? This isn’t a good Microsoft vs. Evil Microsoft type of a question, aren’t we just getting what we deserve?

Please blog more so we don’t have to learn…

System Admin
3 Comments

Is it just me or has the age of RTFM, labs and testing passed away? This is perhaps one of the areas myself and another very well respected leader in the SMB IT space (not Susan) disagree the most – I feel that feeding morons little bite sized portions of clue is actually a disservice to them, to their customers and everyone unfortunately impacted by the fool who has only gotten his skills to being able to lie about their competence enough to sell themselves in a situation where they will irreparably destroy someone’s IT infrastructure.

But then I look at the types of conversations I have throughout the day and I just shake my head in shame:

Vlad Mazek:
yes? 
____:
So how do we roll out Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008?
Vlad Mazek:
We don’t, it’s not supported. Need SP1.
____:
We don’t have media for that, where do I get it?
Vlad Mazek:
Free from microsoft.com/exchange
____:
They only have evals.
Vlad Mazek:
Download standalone SP1, not eval. Our SPLA key will work on it.
____:
Ok, fails right away. I have all the pre req’s out the way.
Vlad Mazek:
Doubt that, even RSAT? via servermanagercmd?
____:
What?
Vlad Mazek:
servermanagercmd -i RSAT-ADDS
____:
Thanks!
____:
Ok, now it’s saying Service “MSExchangeTransport” failed to reach status “Running” on this server.
Vlad Mazek:
Networking… forgot enable IPv6?
____:
This is starting to reflect poorly on me 🙂
Vlad Mazek:
In so many ways 🙂
____:
You need to blog more of this stuff!!!

Now, granted, I don’t expect anyone to be able to recall these details about deployment, requirements or gotchas on demand. I just happen to be a UC freak. But for the love of god, if this is your job strap yourself into the damn chair and start friggin reading. Exchange 2007 is about the simplest rollout/configuration experience it has ever been in the entire history of the product, the documentation is the best it’s ever been.. and if you can’t use Google to connect the dots then it’s time to look for a new career.

I can respect that this may be a little too tough to swallow for people in the SMB IT field, fine enough you just want to be a technology business consultant. Well, kiss that six figure salary goodbye because “business consulting” in my book is what CDW phone reps do and thats worth $35K a year plus commissions.

I can also respect people who want a broad technology focus and don’t want to mess with the intricate details of a particular solution. That is fine too, prepare to cut a check to Microsoft when you hit a wall and prepare to sit with a bucket of Indians until they rescue you for $250.

But what I can’t respect is trying to sit on multiple chairs all while blaming others for your inability to do the work you are hired to do. It’s not Microsoft’s fault that you can’t keep up with the product you’re supporting, it’s not Microsoft’s fault you aren’t reading the documentation, it’s not Microsoft’s fault that the pile of idiots at the gate has climbed through the sky so they have to convert third world countries into script readers for technically challenged, it’s not Microsoft’s fault that the software doesn’t autoprovision itself while you sit back and munch on a hot pocket.

At some point you have to come to terms with the fact that while this stuff appears to be easy on the surface, the reason you aren’t working for Geek Squad is that you’re expected to actually understand the technology and capable of fixing it. If you just want to bitch, point fingers, blame PSS, blame docs and blame Vladville perhaps you need to get used to wearing a white shirt with a skinny black tie because GeekSquad is about the only place you’re qualified for.

On a side note, this is indicative of the greater SMB segment and the reason it’s ultimately going to be decimated by Microsoft and Dell. Guys whose job it is to make sure these solutions run smoothly go to their customers and tell them its all someone elses fault, then tell Microsoft to fix it. Microsoft fixes it, Dell pushes it, people put process and marketing on the table for the customer and then everyone bitches again about how they are being competed with and run out of business.

What did you expect them to do, fix it all and hide it so you can do nothing while raising your fees because you’re on advisory councils explaining to the companies how to faster obsolete you?  

Come on! Grow some balls and take some pride in what you do.

The Sunshine State

Misc
2 Comments

I thought long and hard whether to post this or not. It’s not for the faint of heart, even compared to the usual fun and gun quality of 3rd grade abomination of the English language you find on Vladville. Proceed with caution..

I should learn not to talk smack about people when I live in Florida. I think even Chris Rue can make fun of Florida over this one. Not really a surprise that Florida doesn’t outlaw beastiality, considering how many people Mickey Mouse has grabbed by the ears and rode them like a $3 ho on the corner of Main St. all the way to the empty wallet 🙂

Come to Florida and go to Disney World. Meet Mickey Mouse!!!

Oh, don’t creep up behind Goofy or Pluto, they are still a little sore.

Classy, eh? Now to the fun that FSU people have in Tallahassee:

The Sunshine Beastiality State

A blind Tallahassee man has been accused of having sex with his guide dog. Florida, like many other states, has no bestiality statute – that is, a law specifically prohibiting sexual contact between humans and animals.

Alan Yoder, 29, originally was charged with felony animal cruelty, but court records show that charge was dropped on July 8 and replaced with a misdemeanor – disorderly conduct.

Yoder now is charged with a “breach of the peace, by engaging in sexual activity with a guide dog,” according to a court document.

Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Usina, said she could not answer specific questions, including explaining why the charge was lowered to a misdemeanor.

James D. Varnado, Yoder’s attorney, said he has filed a not-guilty plea on his client’s behalf but declined to discuss details of the case.

“However lurid the allegations may be, we should resist a rush to judgment,” he said.

Here’s what happened, according to Tallahassee police reports:

Yoder, who lives in a local apartment complex, in June asked a female acquaintance to join him in a sex act with the dog, a male yellow Labrador named “Lucky.”

She demurred, but later told a friend about it. That person called a social worker, who called police.

Investigators spoke to Yoder on June 16, who admitted performing certain sex acts with the dog, even going into detail with them, but denied doing others. He was arrested and booked June 22, charged with animal cruelty.

An animal-control officer took the dog to Dr. Sondra Brown, a veterinarian at Northwood Animal Hospital, who could not determine whether the dog had been sexually abused.

Florida prosecutors have increased the charges against a blind man who is accused of raping his own guide dog. The change from misdemeanor to felony status came after animal welfare groups urged state officials to use a more serious rule, even though the Sunshine State has no law prohibiting sex with animals.

Alan Yoder, 29, was originally charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, specifically a “breach of the peace, by engaging in sexual activity with a guide dog.”

But Assistant State Attorney Phil Smith said new witnesses have come forward, justifying felony charges of animal cruelty and injuring a guide dog, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

“Enhancing the charges does not change the fact that Mr. Yoder is innocent,” James Varnado, Yoder’s attorney, told the paper.

Tallahassee police report Yoder admitted to performing sex acts on the animal and willingly gave up the animal before charges were adjudicated

Password is password

SMB, System Admin
1 Comment

Damn CPA’s getting pwn3d all over the place. For the billionth time, when working with someone in the Accounting industry remind them:

“password” is not a good password. It doesn’t matter that you have an antivirus installed.

Now back to the grave dancing thing I do so well 🙂 Poor Susan, serves her right for shipping me a flaming piss yellow hard drive.

It’s so scary when I’m in a good mood. It’s Friday, had like 8 support requests all day, our container just landed in Australia and the one for UK goes online Tuesday. ’tis good to be the king.

Patriotic Jackassery Starting To Sting

IT Business
6 Comments

Once upon a time my greatest joy in Own Web Now was being able to pick up a paper and start pointing at businesses that are our clients. “We got their money, their money, oh their money, too.” There is something about community participation/involvement that is very fulfilling. For me at least.

Then little own grew up into a big global OWN and now we watch TV and call out companies we get money from. Still a lot of fun, but doing business around the world does come with a few jabs that tend to be pretty hard to swallow.

You see, most of the world happens to hate America. What did we ever do to them? Oh, that. Woops.

One thing that I could always fall back on is making fun of their currency. So whenever I cut a check to a foreign company, I always make sure to note that it’s the AMERICAN dollars that you’re getting!

americandollars

This used to be pretty funny when you could buy 3/4 of Toronto for $20 bucks, or when we bought 1/4 of USA for $23 million.

Today, not so much. Canadian dollar is $0.9975 USD, Euro is actually $1.5534 and Australian dollar is $0.9477.

Just stings a little, thats all.

Corporate Democracy is a Myth

Vladville
2 Comments

Reprinted without permission from The Icahn Report, it’s that important that you read it as big or as small as you are as a CEO. The truth of the matter is, once you go public it’s no longer your company, it’s not your customers company – you now have a boss. If you are any good there will be thousands of them:

Corporate Democracy is a Myth

Recently, there has been a great deal of outrage concerning the huge pay and severance packages awarded to a number of CEOs. There has been much criticism of the fact that CEOs earn 520 times that of the average worker. A great deal has been made of the scandalous actions of a number of CEOs and boards concerning the backdating of options. Sadly, a much deeper, more pernicious, more threatening problem of the future of our economy exists at today’s corporations: many corporate boards and managers are doing an abysmal job. The lack of competent leadership makes our companies less competitive day by day, causing an upward spiraling trade and current account deficit, as well as a near meltdown of the financial sector. The buildup of incompetent boards and managers is the result of poor corporate governance. Poor corporate governance now threatens more than just potential shareholder value; it threatens this country’s very economic survival.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “democracy might not be the greatest system there is but it is the greatest system mankind has invented so far.” Many American corporations are dysfunctional because corporate democracy is a myth in the United States. They run like a decaying socialistic state. Our boards and CEOs exist in a symbiotic relationship where the boards nourish the CEO with massive stock options that are re-priced downward if the companies stock declines – making them forever valuable. They reward the CEO with pay packages and bonuses when the stock is floundering or the CEO is leaving the company. Corporate performance and the shareholders welfare seldom enter the picture. What kind of democracy is this? There is no accountability.

The inherent quid pro quo is to pay the board huge retainers for attending several meetings per year and rubber stamp ill conceived CEO proposals. In turn, a CEO can fly around the world on the company’s private jet on the “business” of visiting all the world’s greatest golf courses while he runs the company – and the value of your stock – into the ground. The average shareholder can do nothing about it. A great example is the subprime mortgage mess that has cost our economy and the populace untold billions of dollars and personal hardship. These losses did not stop boards from awarding huge severance packages to the CEOs most responsible for the current carnage.

It is the board’s responsibility to hold a CEO accountable, and remove the CEO if he or she is not producing results. But exacting such a measure requires effort and strategic consideration, and boards are often too lazy and/or passive to rock the boat, especially since the company will continue to pay and pamper and even indemnify them under almost any circumstances. Board members receive expensive tickets to important sporting events, the theatre, and are also treated to use of the company’s fleet. Worst of all, the board itself is not made accountable because corporate board elections are generally a joke.

Board meetings are often a complete travesty. I know because I have sat and do sit on a number of boards where I am in the minority. Because of this, today our economy is in a major crisis. Many of our companies are incapable of competing. Additionally our banking system has issued mortgages that cannot and will not be paid back. We are in this situation because there is no leadership in the executive suite. Why did we get here? Because in corporate America there are no true elections. It is tyranny parading as democracy. It’s a poison running through the blood of corporate America. Perhaps, with enough public support, the lawmakers and regulators will take note.

When you rid a company of a fruitless board, the rewards are often enormous because the underlying company and its employees can be excellent. It is the top level management that hangs like an albatross around the company’s neck. Years from now historians will marvel why we the shareholders – the legitimate owners of companies – did not do something effective about removing terrible managements. We can do something about the current situation. I will discuss in future entries how simple it can be and what has constrained us from taking action.