Dell released a new laptop today. It used to be the case that Dell was a couple of years behind the rest of the world in design, because it seemed they focused more on building computers as efficiently (and cheaply) as possible and less on designing the computers that everyone wants to have. Why else do you think everybody pays a premium for Apple laptops (more than half of i.t.NOW employees are proudly guilty of this)? Because, simply put, the design is amazing. Everything works and feels amazing. You are continually amazed by the simplicity of the product.

Dell definitely realizes the importance of design and has made some fast improvements. The Dell Latitude E4300 I blogged about earlier is my personal favorite, but the new Adamo released today attempts to compete with the Macbook as far as Design goes. From the looks of it, they appear to have done a good job. I am only going off of pictures, but here’s what I like about the design:

·      Edge to edge screen. Personally, I can’t stand the black border surrounding the new Macbook screens.

·      Incredibly thin (.65 inches)

·      Solid state only on the hard drives

But, nothing is perfect. I think that the Adamo designers fell into the same trap that the first generation Macbook Air fell into. They compromised too much on performance to fit everything into a small, sexy package. The second generation Macbook Air fixed that problem (for the most part).

Now I just need to find a customer to buy one so I can try it out!

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Hello, my name is Craig, and I am addicted to Google Analytics.  I feel better having said that. If you aren’t using Google Analytics for your website, you are missing out on all the fun. Why might you ask? Well, what’s the point of having a website if you don’t know how people are using it?

 

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i.t.NOW is a Microsoft Shop. We support Macintosh, Linux, VMWare, and various other platforms, but the vast majority of our clients are running Microsoft servers and workstations. Our office, as well, is mostly Microsoft. Even down to the smartphones that we use. However, I stand alone with my Blackberry. And, sorry Microsoft, I am never going back.

I recently bought a new phone, since my Pearl had worn out (or at least that is the excuse I gave my wife). It is only available from T-Mobile right now, the Curve 8900 (or Curve II as some people call it). Switching over to the new phone reminded me why I love my Blackberry. Before I drove to the store to buy my Phone, I logged into our Blackberry Enterprise Server (personally, a must if you are going to use a Blackberry with Exchange) and set my activation password. As I was finishing the purchase, I put in my old SIM card, and activated my phone with our Enterprise Server. By the time I left the store, my new phone had pulled down all of my contacts, my calendar, my email, and my tasks. Not only that, it had set up my speed dial, and even the custom settings I applied to the buttons on the side of my phone. Plain and simple, it just works. That is more than what I can say for any of the dozen Windows Mobile smartphones I have used in the past.

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Have you ever been so mad at your computer that you scream? Admit it, we all do. This video proves that screaming at your computer might not be the best thing.
 

Without being too geeky, this person is measuring the speed of the drives and when he screams at them, there is a peak showing latency, or slower response time.

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“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein 

For those of you that are following the blog, you may be interested to know that I am writing this post from my new Latitude E4300. Overall, I am fairly impressed with the combination of speed and portability. Usually you have to sacrifice one for the other. But I will leave that review for a different post. For anyone who has purchased a computer from I.T.NOW in the past year, you will truly be amazed by my next confession. I am running Vista on my new laptop. I also must confess that this is my third attempt at converting to Vista. Rumor has it that there is currently a pool going on at I.T.NOW betting on when I will switch back to XP (email Jason if you want in on it).  So why do I run Vista when I tell all of my customers to steer clear of it? I guess it is just one of the things I have to know. I can walk anyone through pretty much all functions of XP without having a computer in front of me, so it is time to achieve that same level of familiarity with Vista. That and when I try to install XP on my laptop, the solid state disk appears to cause a blue screen, in spite of how many things I have tried (and I have sadly tried several times).

So, what am I doing differently this time to ensure that I get a different result and don’t go insane? Here are a few tips for those of you who for one reason or another are on the Vista bus.

·         Don’t complain about it in front of your Mac friends. They will just talk to you about the latest “I’m a Mac” commercial and make you regret your decision.

·         Feed the beast. If you don’t have 4GB of memory, upgrade. If you don’t have a video card, consider adding one. If you can use a faster hard drive (10,000 RPM Raptor or a Solid State Disk), you won’t regret the price.

·         Unvistafy Vista. Part of what makes Vista more secure than XP is all of the extra layers of security, which means you have to click a lot more than you would have to on an XP machine. The technician in me has to warn you that this will make Vista less secure. But you wish you had XP, so this isn’t that big of a deal. Wired Magazine has a great Wiki on some steps you can take to clean up Vista.

·         Relax. In less than two years, you will get to do it all over again with Windows 7

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As computers progress and get cheaper, it is often easier and cheaper to replace a computer than it is to fix it. Some of our clients aren’t used to this approach. Many have been using computers since they cost $5,000 and are accustomed to maximizing the investment by getting as much use as possible out of the computer. Here are some of the reasons I give when I tell clients their money would be better spent replacing a problematic PC older than 3 years:

• Productivity. Almost everyone who gets a new computer talks about how much faster it is compared to the old one. For business owners, that means your employees can be more productive, and hopefully make you more money.
• Data protection. While it is always good to test your backup strategy, doing so by experiencing a failed hard drive is not what I would recommend. A 3+year old hard drive is in some cases a ticking time bomb. It is much easier to replace a computer before the hard drive dies.
• New programs and features. Often times, companies contact us when they have a new program they want to install that won’t run on the computers they are currently using. This means that if they want to run the new program, all computers need to be upgraded or usually replaced.
• Warranties. As a machine gets older, it is often more difficult to find replacement parts for some components. By being covered by a manufacturer’s warranty, we can typically receive all necessary parts next business day, free of charge.
• Budgets. When you drive a computer until the wheels fall off, it is difficult to predict what the expenses will be. Computers often die a slow death, requiring on-site visits to replace failed components and employee downtime. If a company decides to replace all computers every three or four years, it is easy to plan in advance, before yearly budgets are created, which machines will need to be replaced during that year.

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Dell doesn’t change platforms that often with their corporate customers, so when they do, it is a pretty big deal. The seven-year-old latitude D series will be phased out by the end of the year being replaced by the E series. Here’s why I will be ordering one as soon as possible:

• Dell Latitude ONTM. Sometimes when I am traveling with my laptop, I need to get something on the internet real quick, or I need to check my e-mail. I don’t necessarily need to wait for Windows to start up to do simple tasks. Latitude ON allows you to pretty much instantly boot into a simple operating system (Linux based) to access your e-mail, calendar, contacts, or browse the internet. Since it is not using your system’s main processor or hard drive, it dramatically improves battery life.
• Style. Some people say style shouldn’t matter for corporate computers, but when it comes to laptops, size and looks count. The new laptops are around 1 inch thin, and start out at around 2 lbs. This means you won’t feel inadequate sitting next to someone using a Macbook.
• Speed. The new laptops use faster DD3 memory, faster processors, and are available with the latest solid state disk drives (sorry, I had to use a little geek speak, I am talking about a computer after all.

I am holding out for the Latitude E4300 due to be released in the next few weeks. It is the smallest Latitude available that uses full-size laptop components.  This means you don’t have to sacrifice speed for size.

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For those who know me, you know that I love technology. I am the one who has a new cell phone every six to nine months. My house has more computers than it does people. I am always reading blogs that tell me about new products that are coming out. I am often asked why I love technology so much (usually by my wife as I tell her about the new cell phone I have to buy) so I often wonder, is it simply because I want the newest gadget out there? I would like to think there is a better reason than that. I think the reason is simply I like solving problems. For me, I don’t want a new cell phone simply because it is new; I want a new cell phone in hopes that it will solve everything I hated about my old cell phone. And when that doesn’t work, I have to try again in six months or so.

This same problem solver mentality is seen as I design networks for clients. Usually we install a network and don’t have to change any equipment for three years. Recently, at one of our clients, we replaced a server that we installed about 18 months ago. It made me realize how far technology has come and how powerful it can be. When we installed their server 18 months ago, it was about a 16 hour job. It involved a technician going on-site after business hours, taking the entire network down, and migrating data to the new server. It also involved a technician being on-site the first two hours of business operations to finish the migration and update client computers. While we did an excellent job and it was seamless in the client’s eyes, it was a labor intensive job requiring a technician on-site for several overtime hours.

When it came time to replace the client’s second, aging server, we were able to dramatically change how the work was done using a technology we have been using heavily for the past year, VMware. VMware allows multiple servers to run virtually on a single piece of hardware. For this client, we replaced the 18 month old server and the much older server with a single new server running VMware. The previous server replacement took 16 hours with a technician on-site for most of that time, and it only involved replacing a single server. This time around, we were able to replace both servers with only two hours on-site, and three hours of remote labor. The best part is in three to five years when the client looks at replacing that piece of hardware, it will be a one hour job. That’s why I love technology.

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