LANcom Technology Blog

Want to see how fast Windows 8 starts up? Here’s a quick video demo from Microsoft showing how quickly (almost instantly) Windows 8 can boot.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post

When it comes to internet browsers speed isn’t everything, but it is definitely an important factor. If you are curious to know how your favourite browser stacks up against the competition, Lifehacker recently tested the latest versions of 4 top browsers to see how they compared for speed.

They tested for cold boot-up time, time taken to load nine tabs, JavaScript performance, DOM/CSS performance, and memory use.

Overall they found that Opera 11.51 performed the best, with Firefox 7 in second place, followed by Internet Explorer 9 in third, and finally Chrome coming in last.

This graph shows the nine tab loading time results.

If you would like to read the full Lifehacker report, click here.

Wondering when the next iPhone will be released? Apple has just this week begun sending out invitations to a “Let’s talk iPhone” event on October 4^th, where they are expected to announce the iPhone 5.

The new iPhone is rumoured to include a larger screen, 8 megapixel camera, voice recognition, and 1 GB of RAM.

So how long till it goes on sale? If Apple does announce the next iPhone on October 4^th, it will likely be only a matter of days/weeks before they are available in stores.

To read more about this from Mashable, click here.

 Update: Apple has now announced their new iPhone 4S. You can read more about it here on Apple website.

Want a closer look at what new features are coming in Windows 8? Last week Microsoft live streamed the keynotes from their developer-focused BUILD conference, and Lifehacker has helpfully edited these into 8 minutes of everything you need to know about Windows 8.

A few of the interesting new features seen in this video include:

1. A picture password – Instead of using a password to unlock Windows 8 you are able to touch/swipe different places on a picture.
2. The new start screen - The new start screen uses a tile-based interface similar to what you see in Windows Phone 7. Many of these tiles include live information and notifications like how many new emails you have.
3. Search – Windows 8 lets you search through everything from one place. You are able to search your settings, your files, your applications, and the web.

Here’s the video if you would like to take a look.

If you would like to view the full videos of these keynotes, they can be found here.

We have covered a few of the main new features of Windows 8 previously on this blog, here’s the link if you would like to read this article.

The iTrarian blog is a brand new blog written by LANcom’s founder, Warwick Eade. The focus of this blog is the IT industry and if you have enjoyed Warwick’s recent posts on the LANcom blog, you should definitely check it out.

Here’s a snippet from the iTrarian About page:

“For 23 years I have met too many people working in IT who don’t know what they are doing and too many people buying IT that no know so little as to be oblivious to this. This is the number one reason for IT failure. The truth is that Information Technology works. But only when correctly implemented and that the success of that implementation depends on the quality of the people involved. Information Technology implemented by Information Technologists = success – obvious but unfortunately rarely implemented. This blog will explore why.”

You can visit the iTrarian blog at www.itrarian.com.

Earlier this week, Microsoft revealed that some pretty big changes will be made to Windows Explorer in Windows 8. This new Windows Explorer will have a ribbon based interface just like Office 2007-2010, and will allow users to easily access the most used Explorer commands right from the Home tab.

According to Microsoft, the main benefits of this new layout include: exposing previously hidden features, access to keyboard shortcuts for every command in the ribbon, and the ability to customise Explorer with a Quick Access Toolbar just like in Office.

The Windows Explorer ribbon will have three main tabs: Home, Share, and View. There will also be four contextual tabs for Search Tools, Library Tools, Picture Tools, and Disk Tools. These contextual tabs will appear only when you need them, e.g. the Search Tools tab will appear when you click inside the search box.

If you would like to read more about the new Windows Explorer and its new features, click here to visit the Building Windows 8 blog.

LinkedIn has recently made a change to their privacy policy that has some users concerned. This change means that, if you don’t opt out, your name and photo could be used in third party advertising that appears on the site.

Here’s the policy in question:

“LinkedIn may sometimes pair an advertiser’s message with social content from LinkedIn’s network in order to make the ad more relevant. When LinkedIn members recommend people and services, follow companies, or take other actions, their name/photo may show up in related ads shown to you. Conversely, when you take these actions on LinkedIn, your name/photo may show up in related ads shown to LinkedIn members. By providing social context, we make it easy for our members to learn about products and services that the LinkedIn network is interacting with.”

If you would like to opt-out of having you name and photo used in social advertising, here’s how you can do it:

1. Hover your mouse over your name in the top right corner of your screen, and select Settings from the dropdown list.
2. Now go to the Account section and click Manage Social Advertising.
   
   
3. Un-tick the box next to Linkedin may use my name, photo in social advertising and click Save.

To read more about this from ComputerWorld, click here.

Last month we talked about our “No Salesman” policy and how it was great for our customers in that they got “undiluted advice direct from experts who give their advice directly from their qualification and experience”

This needs further exploration because it’s at the heart of the difference between Professional IT and Reseller IT, and between IT success and failure.

The “Yes test” is this – when your IT provider says “Yes it can be done” is that assurance coming from real qualifications and hands on experience or is it from cargo cult guesswork, inane features/benefits matching, or worse.

Reseller IT will appoint a non-technical account manager that is courteous and fun to get along with. Your Reseller IT account manager will know and take you to some great cafes for some great coffee. If you were to read their web bio you would know about their golf handicap, but not about any tangible IT experience and expertise.

But you if chose your primary IT provider because you needed IT advice and expertise and the primary contact has none – that’s not right. Reseller IT has technical expertise, but you will only see it when the account manager is building a deal. The account manager will sell you IT expertise, along with a bundle of other products – deal by deal.

When you ask the account manager, your primary contact point, a question of the form:

“Can this be done?” (This being a technical question that requires expertise and experience to answer)

And you hear back

“Yes”

You would hope that meant the following:

“Yes,     (because I know so)”

The problem is that without expertise and experience “Yes” can only be one of the following:

“Yes,    (I guess so. I’ve seen it done once somewhere else and I’d guess you are the same)”

“Yes,     (” I hope so. You can do amazing things with IT)”

“Yes,    (”but not right now, but we should be able to get it together by the time you find out)”

“Yes,     (”but not right now, and it will be too late when you find out)”

“Yes,     (”actually no, but everybody knows that IT doesn’t always work out)”

These five answers all represent failures of the ‘yes’ test.

Of course, the account manager could bring a technical resource to every meeting but this doesn’t happen because the account manager is supposed to sell the technical resource on to you.

The account manager could, in this situation, say “No, I don’t know”. This happens rarely because it begs the obvious question – “If you, Mr Account manager, have little to no expertise and experience in IT to share, then why am I talking to you?”

Most of these reseller account managers are commissioned on sales and therefore incentivised to fail the Yes Test.

I have been in this situation myself as part of our vendor management service and I have asked this question. “When you say it can be done, how do you actually know?”

What I typically get back is a memorised features/benefits list of a particular product but no actual understanding of the technology. I have been looking for a new car this week, and from the features/benefits of all of them, I could assume that I could drive to Australia. Thirty years of driving experience tells me this is nonsense, but you do not have this luxury with IT. More often than not the most important decisions are for technologies that you may have never purchased before. That’s when you want decades of IT experience advising you from the get go.

So next time you meet your account manager you may wonder what actual IT experience they have? What servers have they built? Do they know how email actually works?

Then ask yourself what sort of organisation you want as a primary IT provider.

Do you want an organisation that sees every interaction with you as a deal where they will grant you access to IT expertise or not depending on how the deal works out? Or do you want an IT provider that leads with IT expertise from the get go, where the only ‘deal’ going on is when you first choose them and from then on the mutual goal is great IT through knowledge and experience?

LANcom’s customers know what the latter is like.

The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 is a new law designed to crack down on peer-to-peer file sharing.

Under this law when an account holder is accused of infringing copyright in this way, they will receive a notice. Once the account holder has received 3 notices, a copyright owner will be able to take them to the Copyright Tribunal. Depending on the circumstances this could result in a penalty from $275 to $15,000.

What this means for you

One of main complaints people have had about this new law is that the account holder (the owner of the internet account) is the one who is liable, even if they were not the person who broke the law. Allegations made against an account holder are presumed to be correct unless the account holder can provide evidence that proves they are not.

This law comes into effect on the 1^st of September, but notices can be sent for infringements occurring from the 11^th of August onwards. This means it is important that you take steps now to avoid the risk of being accused under this law.

What you can do to reduce your risk

The 3Strikes website created by InternetNZ has some great advice for both home users and organisations that you should definitely read.

The main things you need to think about are: making sure everyone who uses your internet connection is aware of the new law, knowing who the account holder is (this may be your organisation), removing unneeded P2P software from computers (things like uTorrent and BitComet), and reviewing your computer and network security.

If you have any questions or want to find out more information on this law change, you can visit the 3strikes website here.

Not happy about this change? Here’s a great list of links to organisations you can join who want  this law changed.

This week Microsoft released some good news for anyone running Windows 7; any computer able to support Windows 7, will be able to support Windows 8 when it is released.

Microsoft has promised that the hardware requirements for Windows 8 will be the same or lower than Windows 7. This means if you buy a Windows 7 PC now, you will be able to upgrade it to Windows 8 later if you choose.

Windows 8 is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2012, and will have quite a few new features like a live tile start screen. To learn more about what features are coming in Windows 8, click here.

To read more about this Microsoft announcement from ComputerWorld, click here.