Can a Computer Think Outside of the Box?

This computer can!

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DAVE Is Cool

Robert Scoble introduces Seagate's new product, Digital Audio Video Experience (or D.A.V.E):

It's a device that fits in your hand, or your pocket. Other devices talk to it through USB, BlueTooth, or WiFi wireless connections, and it stores stuff. Music. Videos. Photos. Or standard old files. You can play those off of a cell phone, or a laptop, or a desktop computer.

With 10GB or 20GB of storage for less than $200, it means your mobile phone can be your mobile computer. Nice.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Photoshop Drawing Practice

I like to draw people, but I have never really entered the digital world of drawing people until a few days ago. A few days ago I decided to take a stab at drawing a face in Adobe Photoshop and I liked it. It will take a little getting use to before it feels comfortable, but above is my first attempt at it.


Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

MSN Sort Of Asks What We Want

I went to MSN homepage and saw this:





My first thought, "Oh MSN, is asking for feedback. I will do that and I think I will suggest that they allow each user to customize their homepage with widgets, like Google. Then I could add feed readers and whatever other information I want." So, I clicked on the link and went to this little survey giving me four options of what I wanted MSN to add, like below:



Well, I chose the Neither option and apparently so did the majority of people. I did find that you can customize your MSN homepage with widgets, but it seems like too much work to mess with it. I'll just keep using Google. I think MSN should have made this question a little more open, where people could have actually suggested things that they want.


Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Symantec, "We Cannot Pass This Information"

From my previous post, you've probably noticed I'm having some trouble with Symantec. What you may not know, is that I've been having trouble with different versions of Symantec for the past two years. I've been slowly migrating all my clients away from them and anyone who is running their product. Today I had some problems with Symantec detecting Spector 360 as spyware and disabling it even though the end users told Symantec to Exclude scanning this. So, Spector sent me an email on how to fix it all (basically reinstall everything) and a link to Symantec's chat. When I connected with Symantec's chat service I was number 29 in the queue and after I go connected this is what was said:

user Misty_Olen
has entered room.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

analyst Shailendra has entered room.

Shailendra:
Hello Misty_Olen. My name is Shailendra.

Misty_Olen:
I have Symantec Corporate Edition 10.1 that we paid for about 50 licenses of, I have Spector 360 that we paid for 50 licenses of, both of these costs thousands of dollars. Now, Symantec has killed my Spector install, even though I clicked exclude. I want someone at Symantec to do something about Spector being detected as spyware.

Shailendra:
Hello , thank you for contacting Symantec Live Technical Support. Please make a note of the Chat Request Id [268368] for this interaction

Shailendra:
Can you confirm the telephone number as

Misty_Olen:
870-xxx-xxxx

Misty_Olen:
870-xxx-xxxx

Misty_Olen:
bottom number is the correct one

Shailendra:
I suggest you please contact enterprise support.

Misty_Olen:
I suggest Symantec get it's act together and you pass this information on

Shailendra:
I recommend that you please post your message / query to the respective product group. Doing this will direct you to the exact group of Technical Support Engineers specializing in that particular product group, who will study your case and provide you with information that match your needs.

Please click on the URL link provided below and choose the respective product from the drop down list of products:

>Web URL:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/enterprise/select_product_contact.html

Shailendra:
Is there anything else I can help you with?

Misty_Olen:
Yes, you could help me

Misty_Olen:
You could agree to pass this on, instead of telling me to call a phone number after waiting through a queue of 29 people

Misty_Olen:
This whole waiting time has been pointless unless you are actually going to do something besides be an online phone book

Shailendra:
I understand your concerns .

Shailendra:
But we cannot do that.

Misty_Olen:
you can't pass on information

Misty_Olen:
?

Shailendra:
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.

Misty_Olen:
No I don't accept

Misty_Olen:
I accept results

Misty_Olen:
not what you are offering

Misty_Olen:
You should have a boss or someone that you can tell about this

Shailendra:
We cannot pass this information.

Misty_Olen:
that's what I want you to do

Misty_Olen:
so, are you saying symantec can't communicate

Shailendra:
I suggest you please contact them.

Misty_Olen:
?

Misty_Olen:
who are you? Do you work for symantec?

Misty_Olen:
This is technical support,

Misty_Olen:
you work for symantec

Misty_Olen:
you have a boss

Misty_Olen:
tell your boss to tell whoever needs to know that there is a problem with this

Shailendra:
Please click on the URL link provided below and choose the respective product from the drop down list of products:

>Web URL:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/enterprise/select_product_contact.html

Misty_Olen:
Thanks, but you just lost at least 10 customers from this one exchange, way to go Shailendra, you should look for a new company to go to work for

I lost a snippet of this conversation where Shailendra told me that I was at the Home Users Support group. I understand I didn't have a home user product, but nowhere in the waiting time did it talk about connecting to Home User technical support. My problem with this is that if you work for a company then you should be able to send an email to somebody who could take a look at this problem. I wasn't looking for a solution from Symantec, I already have one from Spector, all I wanted from Symantec was for them to step up and do something about this happening in the future. But it looks like they couldn't even do that.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Symantec's Never Ending Queue

I posted earlier about Symantec killing Spector 360. Well, it turns out that I was wrong, and you don't just have to exclude a couple files, you have to completely reinstall Spector, and configure Symantec to exclude Spector from scans. This alone was enough to make me want to kill Symantec, but there's more, I went to connect to their online chat and I was number 29 in the queue. That's like telling me to wait forever. I've moved most of my customer's off of Symantec, but after this I'm ready to persuade the rest to switch also. The thing is that Symantec should know that business's spend thousands of dollars on their Spector 360 software and thousands on Symantec, so why on earth they would detect legitimate software and disable it is beyond me. Get a clue Symantec, better yet just go ahead and die like the dogs you are!

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Symantec Kills Spector

I have Spector 360 installed at one of our customer's locations and it has been running successfully for a month. But, today Symantec attacked. Apparently they released an update that detects Spector 360 as spyware and quarantines it. Symantec detects Spector as Spyware.Spector, so the first step is to go into Symantec and in every scan you have setup you have to configure it to exclude Spyware.Spector. Then you have to get two new files from Spector: spuninst.exe and spsetup.exe. Those two files have to be copied over to the Spector 360 and overwrite the old files with the same name. You then have to go into the Control Panel and create a new configuration file with the Deployment utility. Then you must redeploy all Spector installations. It's frustrating when Symantec attacks.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

WordPress Website

Today I've been working on a website redesign for TLCmagic. Bill and I wanted something simple, fluid, and functional. We decided to try out WordPress for this transition after we read this article . In that article they mention these as reasons to base a website off of WordPress:

* editing without needing to know HTML

* reader participation through comments

* organization of the content using tags

* seamless handling of pre-existing URLs

* easy addition of new functionality (because it is “open source”)

* free support by the very responsive developer and user communities

Remember, the majority of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Windows Vista. Upgrade? Or Not?

At the end of this month a new version of Windows will release, Windows Vista. I ran the beta copy for a few months and found it to have a lot of nice eye candy, but I'm not sure that I will upgrade. I'm afraid a lot of people are going to go out and buy Vista, not realizing that it will probably slow their PC down, unless they upgrade the hardware (like in the video above). I'm not sure yet if we will upgrade to Vista right when it comes out. I am however looking forward to 2007 Office because it is just so darn cool looking. So, before you run out and buy a Vista upgrade be sure to do some research on what hardware you have and how it will operate with Vista.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Sonicwall CDP Connection Problem

Today I had a connection problem with a Sonicwall CDP 1440i. I could not connect using either the Enterprise Manager or the Agent Tool. I could bring up the Sonicwall CDP login page in a browser, however it would not accept my user name and password. When I entered the wrong user name and password it displayed an error message at the bottom of the screen about being out of space.

So, I called Sonicwall support and got Frank. Frank had to login remotely and do some of his Sonicwall magic to fix it and then all worked fine. So, unfortunately I don't have a fix to offer other than call Sonicwall.

Frank let me know that this was a known issue that had been happening lately. I expressed my concern about the other units I have installed that did not have current support agreements, but did have valid warranties. Frank let me know that if I was unable to connect to the unit then they would either RMA it or tell me how to fix it if the unit was still under hardware warranty, but out of the support agreement. Frank wasn't one of those evil support guys (like the guy I had to talk to from QuickBooks later in the day), he actually knew what he was talking about, fixed the problem quickly, and gave me good advice about the other units. Thanks Frank!

Remember, most of our posts take place at Design Ninjas now, where we Kick Ass on a daily basis!

Bill Gates Must Die

I actually like Bill Gates, but I thought this video was funny. My thoughts: If you hate Windows enough you will spend enough time on learning how to use Linux or a Mac. Personally, I don't hate Windows that much.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.