Microsoft Dumps Office Accounting + MPAN

Last year, Microsoft dumped its Microsoft Money application and put its weight behind Office Accounting for the SMB.  Yesterday, Microsoft sent an email to their Microsoft Office Accounting customers stating that "We are writing to let you know that we will no longer distribute Microsoft Office Accounting after 16 November 2009".

"On 30 October 2009, Microsoft will transfer customer support for Office Accounting in the UK to Mamut Software Ltd. Product support for Office Accounting will continue in accordance with the published Microsoft product support life cycle." Customers are being offered a "free upgrade" to Mamut Business Software. Read more of the story at PCPro.

In addition to this - because Microsoft has walked away from the SMB-end of their financial software - they will also be dropping the majority of the benefits of the MPAN program: "We are writing to let you know that Microsoft® Office Accounting will no longer be distributed by Microsoft after November 16, 2009. As such, MPAN membership will also be closed to new members effective November 16, 2009 and the complimentary download of Office Accounting Professional 2009 and the Office Accounting Customization will be discontinued November 16, 2009. Some existing MPAN benefits, such as online on demand training, will remain".

Basically, Microsoft expects that a number of its customers will migrate up to its Dynamics products, which are their enterprise-level financial products, therefore quite unsuited for SMBs.  I've always wondered why Microsoft bothered with Office Accounting in the first place and instead didn't offer a "Navision Lite" or "Great Plains Lite", meaning they could remain focussed in one direction instead of two.  Unfortunately, with Microsoft dropping all SMB accounting support now, I don't see any "NV/GP Lite" product being released later to try and regain the clients Microsoft forced to move over to Mamut.

So, aren't we now glad Microsoft didn't introduce Office Accounting to Australia, as they promised years back?  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Exchange Server 2007 SP2 on SBS 2008 - Update

Exchange Server 2007 SP2 on SBS 2008, as reported earlier, doesn't install cleanly.  Microsoft has released a KB article with the steps required to get Exchange 2007 SP2 to install and what to do with all the things it breaks.  Have a good read through this, then read it again.

First, test it on your test SBS 2008 box, make a backup, make another and then make a third for good measure, then install the update as per the KB article and check all of the post-install issues.  Once this has been done and you're comfortable doing this, you may wish to do it to production servers.

I'll be looking into this later this week hopefully (time permitting) and will report back with anything I find that needs reporting.  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Great News - Aussie Spammers Fined $15m

And now to some good news.  As reported in the Courier Mail, ACMA has finally come up with a win against two Australian companies perpetrating SMS Spam.

Mobilegate Ltd and Winning Bid Pty Ltd were found to have contravened the Spam Act and the Trade Practices Act 1974 in August 2009.

Three individuals - Simon Anthony Owen, Tarek Andreas Salcedo and Glenn Christopher Maughan - were found responsible for the breaches.

I can't say that I'm not happy, but I can say that ACMA needs to be more vigilant in chasing down and prosecuting Spammers (both SMS and email) as I've had some interesting conversations with their Spam reporting team that make me wonder if they understand what Spam actually is or that they are the Body tasked with prosecuting Australian Spammers.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

One of the most disturbing things I've ever read

Now, this is something I never hoped to hear.  Ever.  And it disturbs me greatly...

In response to a thread in a public forum on a particular piece of software, a well-respected MVP asked:

MVP: I only wish they gave it for free for MVPs...

to which I replied:

HiltonT: Aahhh, what’s wrong with paying for good software?

and then came the most disturbing thing I've ever read in a technical forum:

MVP: Nothing wrong with it.

However, most things can be accomplished by either freeware products and/or stuff you can get for your own personal use for free (=NFR licenses).

Actually, except one software, anything that is installed on all my personal computers is either free, or NFR licensed, or through MSDN/Technet (which, for MVPs = free).

Actually, if I find something that looks interesting enough for me to use, and if I see that they do not have some sort of MVP-related program (many do), then I ask them if they would like to consider having one. If they agree, then the entire MVP community wins, and (usually) the software company wins as well. If they refuse, then I will look for an alternative.

So nothing wrong, nothing at all.

And my reply:
 

HiltonT: Wow – Honestly, I find that kind of thinking rather short sighted and disturbing – if people won’t give you their work for free just because you are an MVP, then you will look elsewhere? WOW! I wonder how many MVPs think like this (hopefully very, very few) as this isn’t a good way to build trust in your recommendations or opinions on any piece of software that you comment on as an MVP – It makes me wonder if you (and others in your position acting under the same beliefs) are therefore very skewed in your reviews, recommendations and information.

I’m literally sitting here stunned by what you just said! :(

Now, Susan Bradley informed us after the above post that in the USA (at least) there's a new FCC rule that MVPs need to disclose if you got free software as it taints opinion.  And going on this previous discussion, she's 100% right.  This is honestly disturbing to read the MVP comments above and it makes me now seriously question anything I hear/read from an MVP relating to software recommendations because it may be badly tainted by the vendor either having or not having a "free to MVPs" program.
 
That's not good in any way, shape or form.
 
Regards,
 
The Outspoken Wookie

Live Mesh

In response to Tim Hogg, the Program Manager for Live Mesh stating that "The solution is to add the affected login to the Administrators group, enabling the installation of updates that are waiting in the update queue", I felt this response was appropriate:

I'm sorry, but are you saying that, going against all good programming practice and security best practice, Microsoft is recommending that end users are elevated to Administrators so they can run Live Mesh?

Really?

I mean REALLY???

Tim, as a program manager in at Microsoft, you have access to all kinds of resources that we general plebian members of society don't have, yet you choose to stick with the "you must be an administrator to run Live Mesh" story against all manner of best practice evidence that this is an old, obsolete, insecure, unsafe and highly not recommended practice. Sure, I commend you for sticking up for your beliefs, but I certainly don't commend you for denying all the evidence to the contrary and insisting that we reduce the security of our networks to run Live Mesh.

And then, on top of that, Live Mesh installs perfectly alright as a Limited User. Now this, in addition to the fact that the Limited Users then need to be promoted to Administrators to properly run Live Mesh leaves me wondering how the Live Mesh team can be allowed to get away with these sorts of shortsighted and dangerous practices in 2009 inside Microsoft.

It seems that the general consensus here in this thread and with anyone who has any understanding at all of security is that what Live Mesh is doing, suggesting and requiring relates to software practices that should have died out well into last millennium and not still managed to exist almost a decade into this one!

One way around the insanity that is Live Mesh is to ensure that using GP (Server) and Applocker (Windows 7) you disable the ability for this application to be installed and/or run on your networks.  We discussed this option at the Windows 7 Launch Party at BIG last night with Jeff Alexander whilst talking about BitLocker and BitLocker To Go and security of USB keys and corporate data.
 
Regards,
 
The Outspoken Wookie

Parallel Importing Of Software Into Australia

The following is my reply to a question on one of the Australian SMB IT Professional lists about the legitimacy of parallel importing software in light of the difference in price of Windows 7 (and other Microsoft software) as set by Microsoft Australia and that set by Microsoft US:

Actually, the Copyright Act 1968 was amended on 15 April 2003 by the passing of the Copyright Amendment (Parallel Importation) Bill 2001 to allow for the parallel importation of software. See here for a copy of the Bill as it was presented to Parliament. The Amendment’s Schedule 1, as related to software importation contains a number of items of relevance here, especially Item 12 and Item 19. The current Copyright Act 1968 with these Amendments (and others) applied, can be seen here – take special note of items 48E and 198A.


Remember that Microsoft has made Windows 7 downloads available for purchase through the Microsoft Store – I don’t know if non-Americans can buy through this store, but that would alleviate the one possible concern that Richard had below – the slower delivery time.

Regards,
 
The Outspoken Wookie

Windows 7 Upgrade Pricing

Here's some interesting comparisons of Microsoft's RRP for Windows 7 Upgrade pricing...

Country	Version	Local Price (inc)	Exchange Rate	AU $ inc	Price Diff to AU	% of $AU
Australia	Home Premium	$199	1.00	$199
United Kingdom	Home Premium	£79.99	1.79472	$143.56	-$  55.44	72.14%
US - Download	Home Premium	$119.99	1.08063	$129.67	-$  69.33	65.16%
US - Media	Home Premium	$134.94	1.08063	$145.82	-$  53.18	73.28%
Italy	Home Premium	€129	1.62181	$209.21	$10.21	105.13%
Japan	Home Premium	￥13,102	0.0118786	$155.63	-$  43.37	78.21%
Australia	Professional	$399	1.00	$399
United Kingdom	Professional	£189.99	1.79472	$340.98	-$  58.02	85.46%
US - Download	Professional	$199.99	1.08063	$216.12	-$182.88	54.17%
US - Media	Professional	$214.94	1.08063	$232.27	-$166.73	58.21%
Italy	Professional	€129	1.62181	$484.92	$85.92	121.53%
Japan	Professional	￥18,719	0.0118786	$222.36	-$176.64	55.73%
Australia	Ultimate	$429	1.00	$429
United Kingdom	Ultimate	£199.99	1.79472	$357.15	-$  71.85	83.25%
US - Download	Ultimate	$219.99	1.08063	$237.73	-$191.27	55.41%
US - Media*	Ultimate	$234.94	1.08063	$253.88	-$175.12	59.18%
Italy	Ultimate	€319	1.62181	$517.36	$88.36	120.60%
Japan	Ultimate	￥24,689	0.0118786	$293.27	-$135.73	68.36%

* As there's no price for the US Ultimate Upgrade with a backup disk, I've added the same US$14.95 that was charged for both the Home Premium and Professional upgrades so we can work out some comparative figures.

So, it looks like Microsoft Italy is gouging their users there more than Microsoft Australia is here, but aside from that, we're not doing too well comparatively at all!

And Microsoft Australia, with their lowest Partner Satisfaction figures and the SMB (or what they now call Breadth) segment having the worst ever Partner Satisfaction figures, will wonder why we're not selling as any Windows 7 Upgrades as they expected us to nor as many as we'd have liked to have sold.  With treatment of their Partner Channel and end users such as this, no wonder Microsoft is not making money!

Come on guys - instead of bending us over and expecting us to provide our own lubricant, how about playing fair here?  You do realise that as soon as we can turn around and look you in the face, there's a lot better chance that we'll stop feeling as violated as we do and maybe your Partner Satisfaction figures will start to get back to where they once were and where they really should be were you treating your Partner Channel like something that mattered, not like an inconvenience.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Price Gouging in Australia

This is both in response to a thread in the ANZ-SMB-ITS Yahoo! Group and also in response to Microsoft's blatant "mistruths" (being politically correct there...) as streamed live by Jeff Putt and his colleagues during the Windows 7 Launch in Sydney this morning, including the classic comment (by Jeff Putt) in response to a question about why Microsoft Australia is charging such high price for Windows 7 in Australia compared to the rest of the world, that "Microsoft doesn't set the retail price themselves", which is utter rubbish.

NB: Please Note that the product referred to below is Microsoft's Action Pack Subscription that's available to Registered Partners so that they can get to know Microsoft's products in order to be able to sell them and support them - it is not a product that is available to the general public. Also, please note that the exchange rates were accurate as of 08:10 (Brisbane time) on 20 October, 2009.

I spent my year as the SBSC PAL trying to do exactly what Microsoft asked of me – let them know what the SBSC Partners were saying. The problem is that what the SBSC Partners that talked to me were saying was generally stuff that Microsoft didn’t want to hear. So Microsoft, with some encouragement to ignore what I was saying, tried their best to ignore me for doing *exactly* what I was asked by them to do. Talk about a wasted opportunity on Microsoft’s behalf!

And now they tell us that all across the board, partner satisfaction rates are low and the SMB partner satisfaction rates are the lowest satisfaction rates in Microsoft’s history. Really ? I think I spent last year trying to explain to them that they were well and truly out of touch with the reality that we, as their Partners, exist in. One of the things that I brought up with MS.au at APC last year was the price gouging that we’re copping here in Australia. I’ve brought that up with them numerous times before and will likely do it numerous times again until they start to play fairly. Look at MAPS, for instance, that we’re still getting royally shafted over, despite Sarah Arnold’s claims to the contrary. In Australia we’re still getting hit with $660 (down from $699) for the media distribution version and $396 for the download version. UK pays £273 for media and £199 (each plus 15% VAT). US pays $498 for media and $299 for download.

Country - Type	Local Price (inc)	Exchange Rate	AU $ inc	Price Diff to AU	% of $AU
AU – Media	$660	1.00	$660
AU - Download	$396	1.00	$396
US – Media	$498	1.07638	$536	-$124	81.12%
US – Download	$299	1.07638	$321	-$  75	73.19%
UK - Media	£273	1.76874	$483	-$177	73.19
UK - Download	£199	1.76874	$352	-$  44	88.89%
IT - Media	€320	1.61204	$516	-$144	78.19%
JP - Media	37,800 円	.0118750	$449	-$211	68.03%

OK, with that I was *hoping* to show that, in picking a few comparative countries, we weren’t getting gouged quite that badly, but it seems that this shows that we’re worse off than a number of similar countries. Maybe we can add $50 when it comes to the Media version, but there’s no excuse for Microsoft Australia to be gouging us like this for the download version – it costs no more for Microsoft to have me download it here than it does for Vijay to download it in the UK or anyone anywhere else.

And MAPS is far from all that we’re being price gouged on – look at any SKU and compare it with any of those countries shown above (and probably any other country, too) and you’ll see that we’re being slugged with a Microsoft Australia Tax for just being Australian. No, this is not fair, but it seems that Microsoft Australia is almost totally unwilling to take any serious steps towards making amends to this practice.

The Windows 7 Upgrade pricing is certainly making me reconsider what I was going to be doing with all our clients – we would have been upgrading all clients to Windows 7, but now we’re seriously considering only supplying new machines with Windows 7 and if there’s any chance that the clients can see the value in upgrading an older machine from XP Pro to Windows 7, then sure, but the rest can stay at Windows XP until the whole system needs upgrading – and this is only because of the insane price Microsoft is wanting to charge my clients to upgrade.

Maybe we’ll look at going to Apple and Macintosh computers instead? Or open source – Ubuntu is getting a lot better, and Samba’s pretty good. There’s a few Exchange alternatives around now that are pretty good too, and if there’s a need for a SQL LOB, then we can run it on a Foundation Server and add it to the Samba domain.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

1TB And Greater HDD Comparison

So I don't have to keep searching through multiple websites and multiple pages on these sites, here's an overview of the state of affairs as of now (2009-10-19).

Manuf.

Model

Data Buffer

Max Read Spd

Ave Seek

Ave Ltncy

Idle Pwr

Read Pwr

NR Error

Noise Idle

Noise Seek

MT BF

Wnty

Hitachi

Deskstar 7K1000.B

16 MB

175 MB/s

5.2W

1*1014

27 dB

1.2m

5y

Hitachi

Deskstar E7K1000

32 MB

175 MB/s

8.5 ms

5.2W

1*1015

27 dB

Hitachi

CinemaStar 7K1000.B

8 MB

175 MB/s

5.2W

1*1014

28 dB

1.2m

Hitachi

Ultrastar A7K1000

32 MB

133 MB/s

8.2 ms

4.17 ms

9.0W

1*1015

29 dB

1.2m

Samsung

Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ

32 MB

175 MB/s

8.9 ms

4.17 ms

6.7W

8.4W

1*1015

27 dB

29 dB

3y

Samsung

EcoGreen F2 HD103SI

32 MB

166 MB/s

8.9 ms

5.52 ms

4.4W

5.6W

1*1015

25 dB

28 dB

3y

Samsung

EcoGreen F1 DT HD103UI

32 MB

140 MB/s

8.9 ms

5.52 ms

5.0W

6.2W

1*1015

27 dB

29 dB

3y

Samsung * read with salt

Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ

32 MB

250 MB/s

8.9 ms

4.17 ms

5.0W

6.5W

1*1015

25 dB

28 dB

3y

Seagate

Barracuda XT 2TB

64 MB

138 MB/s

8.5 ms

4.16 ms

6.4W

1*1014

28 dB

32 dB

750K

3y

Seagate

Barracuda 7200.12

32 MB

8.5 ms

4.16 ms

1*1015

3y

Seagate

Barracuda 7200.11

32 MB

190 MB/s

8.5 ms

4.16 ms

1*1014

27 dB

31 dB

Seagate

Baracuda LP

32 MB

95 MB/s

16 ms

5.1 ms

3.0W

1*1014

19 dB

20 dB

Seagate

Barracuda ES.2

32 MB

160 MB/s

8.5 ms

4.16 ms

1*1015

31 dB

34 dB

5y

Western Digital

Caviar Black

32 MB

7.8W

8.4W

24 dB

33 dB

Western Digital

Caviar Green

32 MB

2.8W

5.4W

25 dB

27 dB

Western Digital

AV-GP**

32 MB

4.2W

4.6W

24 dB

25 dB

Western Digital

Veloci Raptor***

32 MB

4.2 ms

3.0 ms

4.5W

6.1W

29 dB

36 dB

Western Digital

RE4

64 MB

8.2W

10.7W

29 dB

34 dB

Western Digital

RE3

32 MB

4.20 ms

7.8W

8.4W

28 dB

33 dB

That'll save a bit of time!

* The Samsung Spinpoint F3 specs were taken from the 500 GB drive, so will possibly be incorrect - will be fixed up as soon as I see them publish specs for the 1 TB drive they already have available.

** The WD AV-GP drive is a variable rotational speed drive.

*** The WD VelicoRaptor drive is a 10,000 RPM 300 GB HDD.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

VMWare Security Advisory VMSA-2009-0014

There's been a series of security updates released by VMWare in the past few days that people running VMWare systems should take notice of.  If you take a look at this page, you'll saee if you need to perform updates to keep your system secure.

There are a number of different updates in this security advisory and each of these packages has their own list of affected products - so please read the list carefully to ensure you're fully patched.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Windows Phone - Updated

I've added more handsets to the table in my original post, including the N900 handset that Chris Knight's drooling over.  This means that there's a more comprehensive table now, with not only Windows Mobile handsets and the iPhone 3GS, but also Android and Nokia Symbian and Maemo handsets.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Emissions Trading Scheme

I don't want an emissions trading scheme, I want a concerted effort at reducing the amount of crap we spew into the environment. Now, we cannot be 100% certain that we are the sole cause for Global Warming, but we can be certain that the amount of rubbish we're polluting the Earth with certainly isn't helping (neither Global Warming nor many other things, such as breathable air quality and water quality). So, without causing a massive reduction in our standard of living, we need to look into ways to exist within our environment or we'll be forced to exist without it.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Windows Phone

OK.  The 4+ year old PDA2K phone I have here is getting rather long in the tooth and Laz' and Damien's phones (both newer than mine) are also starting to show signs of age, so we're looking for new handsets.  I like the idea of a hard keyboard, but I really don't know that it is something that's a requirement - I use it when I'm in a vehicle that someone else is driving and I need to reply to emails, however as this rarely happens (and I have a tablet that I can use in that situation, though it is obviously a bit bigger), I don't know if I can add this to the "must have" list.  Laz and Damien are both in the "don't need, nice, but not necessary" camp with this feature.

So that leaves us looking around for the most appropriate handset for our needs.  When Laz asked me last week what the best Windows phone was and I replied "iPhone 3GS 32 GB" he almost fell off his chair.  There's a few things that he and Damien dislike about the iPhone (not the least of which being the requirement for running iTunes, and I totally agree with this), but I don't know if they are as bad as the things we don't like with Windows Phone.  iPhones connect to Exchange accounts easier than Windows Phone handsets do.  They run enough of the apps we need (email, web browser, WiFiFoFum, GPS (it is cut down in the iPhone to Google Maps only right now, though TomTom and a few others are making their way over to iPhone).  Damien thinks the iPhone is big and heavy - well, in reality, it isn't much bigger and heavier than any current Windows phone device and smaller and lighter than a number of them.

Handset Model	Height (mm)	Width (mm)	Depth (mm)	Weight (g)	Screen Size "	Screen Res px	Down Up	Comments
i-mate PDA2K	125.0	71.6	18.7	210	3.5	240 320	57.6K 28.8K	WM 2003 SE Keyboard
HTC HD2	120.5	67.0	11.0	157	4.3	480 800	7.2M 2M	WM 6.5
Samsung Omnia II	118.0	60.0	11.9	117	3.7	480 800	7.2M 5.76M	WM 6.5
HTC Dream	117.7	55.7	17.1	158	3.2	320 480	7.2M 2M	Android Keyboard
Nokia N97	117.2	55.3	15.9	150	3.5	640 360	3.6M ?	S60 5th Edn Keyboard
HTC Touch Pro2	116.0	59.2	16.7	178	3.6	480 800	7.2M 2M	WM 6.1 Keyboard
iPhone 3GS	115.5	62.1	12.3	135	3.5	480 320	7.2M 384K	iPhone OS 3.1
HTC Touch HD	115.0	62.8	12.0	147	3.8	480 800	7.2M 2M	WM 6.1
Motorola Cliq	114.0	58	15.6	163	3.2	320 480	7.2M ?	Android 1.5 Keyboard
Nokia N97 Mini	113.0	52.5	14.2	138	3.2	640 320	3.6M ?	S60 5th Edn Symbian 9.4
HTC Hero	112.0	56.2	14.4	135	3.2	320 480	7.2M 2M	Android
Nokia N900	110.9	59.8	19.6	181	3.5	800 480	10M 2M	Maemo 5 on Linux Keyboard
HTC Touch Cruise	110.0	58.0	15.5	130	2.8	240 320	3.6M 384K	WM 6
Sony/Ericsson Xperia X1	110.0	53.0	16.7	145	3.0	480 800	7.2M 2M	WM 6.1 Keyboard
Sony/Ericsson Xperia X2	110.0	54.0	16.0	155	3.0	480 800	7.2M 2M	WM 6.5 Keyboard
HTC Tattoo	106.0	55.2	14	113	2.8	240 320	7.2M 384K	Android 1.6
Nokia 6710 Navigator	104.8	50.5	14.9	117	2.6	240 320	10M 2M	S60 3.2 Symbian 9.3
HTC Touch Diamond	102.0	51.0	11.4	110	2.8	480 640	7.2M 384K	WM 6.1

The one big issue with the iPhone (aside from iTunes) is the lack of proper multitasking.  Now, this is a similar issue to that which the pre-OSX Apple Mac OS suffered from.  The thing with the iPhone is that it is built on a similar kernel to that which OSX is built on - BSD.  So I *know* it can multitask properly.  And I also *know* that it is a small, portable device, therefore if I multitask, I don't expect amazing performance if I keep apps open I don't need.  I manage to control myself quite acceptably with my WinMo devices, so why don't I have that opportunity on an iPhone without jailbreaking it?  Ridiculous.

The problem with this is that right now when I run WiFiFoFum to perform a basic site survey for a client, on a Windows Mobile device I can receive a call and WiFiFoFum continues to run happily in the background scanning for networks.  On an iPhone, the incoming call will result in WiFiFoFum saving its state and pausing, allow the call to happen, and then I need to restart WiFiFoFum after the call, with no network detection taking place whilst WiFiFoFum wasn't the front and only running non-Apple application.  That's ridiculous.  That's shortsighted.  That's something only Apple could do and then promote it (successfully) as a feature!  :)

Also, on Windows phone 6.5, the Today screen shows all of the information that's relevant - missed calls, received text messages and emails, upcoming appointments and so on.  On an iPhone I need to actually go in and look for this information - I've not seen an app that does for iPhone what the default Today screen does in Windows phone - so if anyone out there knows of an app that will do this, this will make me and a number of our clients happy!  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

AASFSHNR Reaches US $1m In Loans

After hearing Muhammad Yunus at the 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference speak of his work establishing the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (and later the Grameen Foundation) to help the poor make their lives better through microfinance loans, I decided that I shouldn't site on my arse and applaud him for this work then continue to do nothing myself.  So I spent some time (and agreed, it was too much time) looking around for a way to get involved in helping those who actively want to help themselves either through microfinance or some other method.  And then I found Kiva and was particularly interested in it because of what seemed to be a large and active Athiest, Agnostic, Skeptic, Freethinker, Secular Humanist and other Non-Religious (AASFSHNR) community.

First let me say that I know that microfinance isn't without its detractors.  What is?  People claim that the interest rates charged by MFIs (Micro Finance Institutions - those making the microfinance loans to borrowers) are exhorbitant compared to larger loans, yet they often fail to look deeper than just the interest rate.  It takes a certain amount of work to manage any loan, whether it is for $500 or $500,000 and this money needs to be recouped.  The MFIs are often not charities themselves and even if they are, they still need to make enough money to pay their workers.  When you look at a (say) 40% interest rate from an MFI, you need to look around and see what the loan sharks are charging - often in excess of 100%.  So that makes the 40% a lot more affordable and a much safer (both financially and often physically) option for the borrowers.  So, I'm here knowing full well what I'm doing and I encorage anyone interested in taking part in microfinance to investigate it for themselves.

Now, that aside, can I say that the AASFSHNR group, started back in late August, 2008 when Kiva introduced the idea of lending teams to further encourage community participation and encouragement, has just passed the amazing sum of US $1,000,000 in loans.  That's a million bucks, folks!  That's a lot of money in anyone's books.  And for a group of apparently soulless people lacking any moral or ethical reason to be nice to anyone, I think that this is quite an amazing result that we've achieved.  And we've achieved it purely because we WANT to help others out, not because some myth or fairy tale has indicated that we should do this.  We're doing good for the sake of doing good.  :)

And we're the first group to pass the US $1m mark - the Kiva Christians ($640k), Team Obama ($480k) and Australia ($325k) are currently the next highest lending teams.  I can but encourage those teams to follow in our footsteps!  :)

An additional and very significant milestone is that the total sum loaned through Kiva is approaching the US $100m mark - that's another seriously impressive achievement.

So, is there something you can do to help out those less fortunate people who are willing to work at making their lives better?  Kiva loans start at US $25 each and they currently have a greater than 98% repayment rate - so that's just over a 1.5% default rate!  If you're interested in joining Kiva to help others there's 2 options - you can just sign up and go for it, or you can email me and I'll send you an invite, then accept it and go for it.  :)

I'm looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Kiva and through this, being able to help a lot more people break through the poverty barrier, make a better life for themselves and their family and then turn around and help others achieve what we helped them achieve.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft: Music Piracy Is Acceptable

In a Microsoft "Discover Windows 7" function last night, Jeff Putt, the Director of Windows Client for Microsoft Australia gave us a demonstration of Windows 7 where he explained that no longer, when hearing someone else in the house playing a song you like, do you have to go and copy the file with a USB key and then put it on your computer, but using the new Windows Media Player and a HomeGroup, you can simply browse for that song in the other person's Music Library and play it.

Now, I don't know what Microsoft calls this, but APRA and other bodies call it "piracy".

That was a rather disappointing thing to hear coming out of the mouth of Microsoft and something that Jeff should be embarassed to have said.  I don't expect him to comment in here and make a public apology for promoting piracy, however.

Another really embarassing thing was the constant talk from the vendors about the environmental considerations in Windows 7, then they hand us all a non biodegradable plastic bag with a whole pile of handouts printed on non-recycled paper.  That was a little wrong, if you ask me, and a perfect opportunity that was totally missed.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie