Over at Jane Galt’s blog, is a detailed account of attempting to purchase a new computer from Dell.

As one who has specified or purchased over a million dollars of Dell gear over the years, this is not a happy development.

I think it is interesting, that these problems are not just on the back end of the sale, now, (after purchase) but it is actually right at the point of sale. I described a similar experience last March.

I will never understand organizations that make it difficult for me to give them my money. Whether it is non-profits who make it hard to donate, or commercial firms who make you jump through a dozen hoops before you are allowed to give them your credit card information, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

In a VarBusiness article about Dell this week, there are similar complaints:

[P]erhaps most pressing for Dell are concerns that its vaunted customer service and support has declined in quality. While (CFO Jim) Schneider said Dell is “working on some issues,” he brushed off analysts and surveys that suggest customer satisfaction has dropped significantly this year.

The biggest mistake for any company to make is to give loyal customers a reason to look elsewhere.

Users are having problems with eMail. A typical problem is that a single user from a single domain is having trouble sending to another single user in another domain. Others within the domain can merrily send eMail to each other, as well as the affected users. Go figure.

You can learn a lot about how smtp mail works by using telnet to manually create the messages. A simple example is illustrated here. A more complex example, when your smtp server requires that you log in to send mail, so that it doesn’t perform an unauthorized ‘relay’ of mail, is located here. In this latter case you need to submit your login name and password encoded in Base64. So, a handy-dandy Base64 encoder decoder is located here.

Two other resources:

• Robert Benier has good discussion of command-line eMail located on O’Reilly.Net
• And don’t forget the blat command line mailer, which allows you to automate eMail operations from a command line.

The dashboard above was inspired by a recent entry over at Creating Passionate Users. Using a “slider”, like sliders on a mixing board, you can calibrate the desirability of various features for a product. The trick is to find new sliders, for things not usually considered.

As they say, “Results Not Typical”.

LogMeIn is a web-based remote access program which is clever enough to find its way around firewalls. Much like Windows remote desktop sharing, you can send an eMail to a person with a web link, and when they click on the link, it installs a tiny program on their workstation which allows you to perform maintenance or offer support to the user. LogMeIn is available in several versions, from free, for remote support, to the most comprehensive version LogMeIn IT Reach which gives access to several server and system functions on the target PC.

LogMeIn IT Reach is sold as a software service, per month at $12.95/month. Their Pro version, which might be ideal for supporting end users, is priced per technician…who can then support any number of workstations.

There is a review at PC Magazine.

Don’t know what the catch is here…but the folks at http://www.nonprofitbooks.com are offering QBP2006 for free. ??

Ok…I got it. You have to buy their product, which essentially turns QB into a fund-accounting solution. By doing that, you get the free QB.

The latest 12/27 PC Magazine has a discussion of a free toolkit from Microsoft that can be used to lock down public and lab computers. This basically sounds like a GUI that allows you to manipulate registry settings.

Microsoft’s free Shared Computer Toolkit lets you configure a PC that can be used to research the Internet, look up resources, and run approved programs; it also stops users from making permanent system changes, running arbitrary programs, or introducing malware… You don’t need an IT degree–the kit leads an administrator through the steps of locking down a system.

The toolkit and documentation are located here.

The toolkit is designed for Windows XP Service Pack 2, and for the NTFS file system. FAT file systems must be converted to NTFS.

Time Management for System Administrators by Thomas A. Limoncelli. ISBN 0-596-00783-3.

From the first chapter…

Time management is difficult for SAs because we are constantly being interrupted. How can we get anything done if we are constantly pausing to fix emergencies or respond to requests that arrive in person, via email, or via the newest source of interruptions, instant messages (IMs)? How many times have you told your boss that a project would take two uninterrupted days to complete, which means a month of actual time? Returning to a task takes a long time. If an interruption takes one minute, and it takes two minutes to return to your project, you’re actually traveling backward in time! H. G. Wells would be impressed! Worst of all, returning to your project after an interruption can lead to errors. Often, when I’m debugging a problem, I find the actual “error” was that I skipped a step after returning from an interruption!

Management judges an SA by whether projects get done. Customers, however, judge you by whether you are available to them. These two priorities play against each other, and you’re stuck in the middle. If you are infinitely available to customers, you will never have time to complete the projects that management wants to see completed. Yet, who approves your pay raises?

Why a book on time management just for SAs? This book needs to be different from your average “time management” book because SAs are different. In particular:

• Our problems are different. SAs have an unusually high number of interruptions that prevent us from getting our projects done.
• Our solutions are different. SAs can handle more high-tech solutions such as request trackers, email filtering with procmail, automation scripts, and other tools unsuitable for the average, non-technical person.
• We lack quality mentoring. SAs need to learn the fundamentals of to do list management, calendar management, and life-goal management just like anyone else. However, our normal career path usually doesn’t lend itself to learn these things. Our mentors are technical peers, often on email lists, and often in different parts of the world. There are fewer opportunities to learn by watching, as a supervisor often learns from a director.

Each year, clients ask what to do with the leftover budget money. Hah Hah. No really. Unlike some years, this one doesn’t appear to have some kind of overarching must-have theme… as it has been a relatively quiet year in software/hardware-land. So maybe it would be a good year to play catch-up. So, here is the first iteration of the 2005 Santa Claus List, which includes tactical and practical ideas as well as some blue-sky wishes.

1. Broadband everywhere. Between offices. At headquarters, for every remote or home-bound employee, for every remote or home-bound client of your agency. DSL or cable connections for $30.00-$50.00 month.

2. A fixed IP address for every office. Typical “consumer grade” broadband does not include a fixed IP address, and they either forbid or block any any attempts to run a internet server from such dynamic addresses. The internet is for everybody. That should include the ability to provide communications, applications and content as well as to consume it.

3. An end to so-called “digital rights management” copy-protection schemes that prevent consumers from playing their legally acquired and paid-for music and video from being played on any device of their choosing. I’m tired of being treated like a criminal by the likes of Sony.

4. 2 gigs of RAM, and 120 gigs of hard disk space for everyone. A 2.4-2.8Mhz processor for every Windows workstation.

5. Windows XP for all Windows-based computers. The “window” for getting all computers on the same operating system is closing fast. We’ve had a good run of a couple years with XP. But Windows Vista is on the way.

6. LCD monitors. Larger LCD monitors. The saving in power costs and desk space will more than justify their expense, and there are several available in the $400.00 range.

7. In the stocking stuffer department:Three-button, optical mouse with a scroll wheel. New mousepad.

8. Books from the TFNP bookshelf and/or a subscription to the Safari on-line books database. Also, any book from Henzenwerke for those with database/FoxPro/SQL and Linux interests.

9. Desktop Software: X1 and Onfolio.

Any further ideas?

Welecome to Tech for Non-Profits, the unplugged version of Microdesign Consulting. We feel that non-profit corporations and NGOs deserve the same advantages that technology can bring to for-profit business. To that end, we’ve dedicated ourselves to finding cost-effective ways to bring the benefits of wide-area networks, computer databases, and, lately, IP videoconferencing and Voice over IP to our clients.

author Carrie Bickner
ISBN 0-7357-1328-6
It has been years since I looked at a web design book, having pretty much given up on the graphical aspect of web design, and confined myself mostly to back-end database types of things. This book is refreshing, but not comprehensive. It deals with a couple of compelling topic areas:

Content Management Systems
The book is copyright 2004, so it came out really during the blossoming of the blogging movement. Some would argue that blogging software is a content management system, however, the authors dive into the concept of content managment, including the use of dedicated (and not-inexpensive) software to manage web-site content.

Web Standards
This really means a very nice discussion of the use of Cascading Style Sheets; something which seems like a very good idea, and something which is complex enough to not understand on the first reading.

Web Hosting
This is the least satisfying part of the book. It appears to address problems that would normally have come up for the web site neophyte, while the other sections definitely are addressed toward people with considerable experience. The point being, that you get pretty much what you pay for, and you shouldn’t expect a $12.00/month web hosting service to provide much in the way of performance or technical support. Some famous names here are called on the carpet, and there is certainly no correlation between ad budget and performance. (Yes, I’m wondering about the eight page spread in the most recent PC Magazine from 1and1.com. These guys started advertising massively a year or so ago.)

Upshot
Useful. Especially for experienced web site builders, and especially at the price of $16.00 or under. Suggested by Non-Profit Online News.