Kaseya's SMBiT Professional KPR Day

A big thanks to Tim and Kaseya for sponsoring the Kingston Park Raceway day.  We had around 35 SMBiT Professionals, associates and vendors present, making for a fun day all round.

Congratulations to Brad Clarke (1st), Tory Adams (2nd) and Noel Ervine (3rd) for leading the Top 10 Shoot Out pack at the end of the day, to Radek for the first Black Flag disqualification in the Shootout (shot tyres, he claims) and to Helena from Kaseya for the most spectacular crash of the day - and it was even caught on camera!  :)

Yes, those tyres are about 6' in the air thanks to Helena!  :)

Our Podium - happy lads!  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

ActiveSync on the iPhone with Gmail and Hotmail

In case you've not come across this yet, Microsoft has finally EAS (Exchange ActiveSync) enabled their Hotmail service, catching up with Google's Gmail that had this functionality enabled back in Feb 2009.

To configure these services on your iPhone, follow these steps:

Gmail	Hotmail
Go to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars	Go to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars
Choose the "Microsoft Exchange" option	Choose the "Microsoft Exchange" option
Enter your Gmail account details	Enter your Hotmail account details
When you press "Next" another option appears. Fill in the "Server" as follows:	When you press "Next" another option appears. Fill in the "Server" as follows:
Choose the features you wish to sync. You can only sync your primary calendar.	Choose the features you wish to sync. You can only sync your primary calendar.
Once the account has been configured, click the account in Mail, Contacts, Calendars then click "Account Info" to confirm SSL is on	Once the account has been configured, click the account in Mail, Contacts, Calendars then click "Account Info" to confirm SSL is on
You can now choose the number of mail days you wish to sync and also which Mail Folders to push to your iPhone	You can now choose the number of mail days you wish to sync and also which Mail Folders to push to your iPhone

And there you go - push email from your Gmail and Hotmail accounts on your iPhone!  :)

(Remember that push email will use more data than manually downloading email when you choose, so please take this into account before configuring this on *any* account.)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

BPOS vs Zimbra for Hosted Email

I tried to get a client signed up for a BPOS Hosted Exchange account.  I'm a Telstra T-Suite and BPOS reseller and have completed all the relevant paperwork for this, and using the Telstra T-Suite/BPOS online signup procedure, I signed up a client, the client (and I) received the relevant "Thank you for placing your order with T-Suite®, which we are currently processing" email on 13th August at 12:10 PM.  And nothing else - the account still isn't provisioned, or at least I haven't been told it has been provisioned, even after asking how Microsoft/Telstra count their "12-72 hours provisioning time".

So, after a call from the client, I decided that we'd forget BPOS and its 12-72 hou^H^H^Hday provisioning time and I'd look for alternatives.

So, now, this client is using a hosted Zimbra email solution.  It took a whole 2 minutes from me starting to fill out the online application to having it working and confirmed by logging in on my iPhone to test.  Impressive!  :)

Not to mention that the price of this is US$50/user/year for a 25GB mailbox.

BPOS, somewhere more than a fortnight to provision and AU$10/user/month (ie, AU$119.40/user/year) or Zimbra with nigh on immediate provisioning, full Exchange, Outlook and ActiveSync functionality and US$50/user/year.  The choice is yours!  :)


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

2010 Microsoft Australia Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year

A big round of applause to this year’s finalists in the 'Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year' category at APC 2010 next week.


• Dean Calvert of Calvert Technologies, Adelaide

• Nick Moran of Evolve IT, Melbourne & Perth

• Sebastian Giacone of Solutionware, Melbourne

Yes, all three are active members of SMBiT Professionals!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

"We're All In" Goes Out

According to Reuters (and quite a number of BPOS users) Microsoft's BPOS service in North America was offline for over 2 hours.  That's no Exchange (email) access, SharePoint access nor acess to LiveMeeting nor other services for those people who are relying on Microsoft to provide access to their hosted BPOS portal.

Now, as I keep saying, I can understand hosted solutions (now called "Cloud") as we've been offering some of these to our clients for the best part of a decade now, however until these service providers *and* your Internet connection is *reliable*, then betting on something that you have next to no control over, well...

The Cloud won't be going away and it *will* be playing a bigger part in the lives of many of our clients.  We all, especially those SMB IT Professionals looking at moving vast numbers of clients to the Cloud, need to take a serious look at what's currently available as well as what may be available in the future.  Things like the AU$43b NBN will *help* with the Cloud as it will (should) improve Internet access for (almost) all Australians - the Libs and their "let's pay the current ISPs another AU$6b and ask them to try and maybe look at possibly improving Internet access speeds and relibaility if they really want to" plan sure won't help us at all.  We then need to *encourage* our elected representatives to take Australia's telecommunications seriously and we need to ensure that we're doing the right thing by our clients - if the Cloud is the best solution, great - but we need to be aware of the access issues that we have next to no control over.




Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Federal Election 2010

We're going to have a hung Federal parliament, hopefully one in which the ALP can form a minority Government with the Independent and Green MPs.

One thing is for sure - the Australian voters have given their own mandate - there are to be NO mandates.

We've had some weird results:

• Wilson Tuckey (Lib) lost to Tony Crook (Nat) in O'Connor (WA) who says he will operate independently of the Coalition.
• Bob Katter (Ind) got a strong swing as a result of a strong swing away from Andrew Turnour (ALP) in Kennedy (Qld).
• Wyatt Roy (LNP) took advantage of Queensland's swing away from the ALP by ousting the formerly sitting Jon Sullivan (LNP) in Longman (Qld) to become Australia's youngest ever Federal MP at 20 years of age.
• Speaking of Wyatts, in the electorate of Hasluck (WA), Ken Wyatt (Lib) seems to have ousted Sharryn Jackson (ALP) to become Australia's first ever indigenous MP.

We've also had the highest rate of informal voting since WW II, which shows quite strongly that people don't think there's any real difference between the two major parties and think that the election will result in them installing the best of two bad parties into government.

This election result shows a number of things to me, such as:

1. People didn't like either of the two major parties nor their election campaigns nor their policies - at least not enough to make a clear distinction between them.
2. The Greens have done extremely well because the two major parties have done so poorly. The Greens will now have to fight to hang on to their seats at the next election as I can't see this silver platter being offered in another 3 years.
3. The Greens, still technically a minor party, have not only achieved their dream of controlling the balance of power in the Senate, but have also acquired a seat in a hung House of Representatives - so they will be able to punch well above their weight for the next 3 or so years. (Their Senate balance of power will start on 1 July, 2011 when the new Senators are installed.)
4. The voters, even in a country with compulsory voting, can make a loud, clear statement that all parties need to listen to moving forward.
5. State and Federal politics are not as distinct as some people would like. Anna Bligh's utter contempt for her Queensland voters and the level of distrust of her amongst those Queensland voters went a long way (when used carefully by the LNP) to helping the significant swing towards Lib/Nat/LNP in Queensland.
6. FFP Senator Steven Fielding - the reason that Senator Stephen Conroy was keen on the Internet Filter - seems likely to lose his Senate seat. I think the input of all of the child protection bodies stating that this Internet Filter in no way at all will protect children deserves significant credit for removing Senator Fielding from Parliament.
7. We're in for an interesting term of Government with a minority Government that needs to work with 4 Independent and one Green MP, and then pass anything they want implemented up to a Green-controlled Senate.

Hopefully these election results will give our Government cause to think about how they operate - no longer can they think of getting "re-elected" at the next election as they weren't technically elected during this one.  This will, with any luck, mean that we can finally get long term infrastructure projects that will last well beyond 2 political terms, which has been the limit of any "long term vision" of any previous Government, including but definitely not limited to:

• the NBN (preferably a little better thought and costed out) to replace our currently failing and underperforming telecommunications infrastructure with something that will last us decades (and the infrastructure components should remain Government controlled/owned)
• A nationally sensible end effective water grid and usage plan enabling the rehydration of the parts of the Murray Darling Basin that we've not yet totally destroyed, as well as the distribution of water stores to where they are needed most
• A more efficient public transport infrastructure in high population areas
• Transition from coal-based power generation to renewable energy production (including solar and wind encouragement for residential and business alike)
• Recognition of the issues that affect rural Australia greatly, which therefore affect all of us in the cities

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Heisenberg On Sex

Q: What did Heisenberg say about sex?

A: If you've got the position you haven't got the momentum and if you've got the energy you haven't got the time!


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Australian National Anthem - The Forgotten Second Verse

How many people, I wonder, know the words of the second verse to the Australian National Anthem.  I'm pretty sure that even though some folk may know we have a National Anthem, they either don't know or don't want to know what the second verse is, particularly LNP folks...

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross

We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
Yes, that's right - it says what you thought you read: "For those who've come across the seas We've boundless plains to share".  Not according to the LibNats (and the One Nation Party, for that matter).

With the miniscule number of "boat people" who are entering the country, is it *really* such a big issue?  Really?

200 or so years ago, we were *all* what would now be classed as "boat people" or illegal (and offensive) immigrants.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Beware Of Dodgy "Microsoft" Calls

A mate on Saturday (a beautiful, sunny, warm and clear winter's Saturday when I was at Norths Devils Leagues Club, by the way) let me know that he'd received a call from an overseas person from what sounded like the typical Indian call center, however the person on the end of the phone was claiming to be from Microsoft Support and claiming that a vulnerability had been discovered on his computer through Error Reporting and that he needed to turn his computer on immediately and go to a website this caller was reading out so that he could "fix" the vulnerability.

Now, Craig read this correctly as a fraudulent and malicious caller and basically, in not so many words, told the caller that he wasn't near his computer and couldn't turn it on right now, so the caller should find someone else to "help", maybe his own mother.  :)

So basically these spamming, phishing arseholes are now making personal calls to see if they can infect your computer - trying to take you for a complete idiot over the phone instead of via email.

Microsoft DOES NOT make personal calls offering to fix your computer.  Unless you KNOW the person calling, don't let them in (to your home, your computer, your car, whatever). 


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Oracle Buys Sun To Kill Java's Future?

Oracle bought Sun back in January 2010.  Just last week, Oracle showed that it had no respect for tru innovation using Java neither now nor in the future by suing Google for using Java in Android.  It seems that any serious development using Java will incur license fees, now, to Oracle, which will be the best way to kill off innovation using Java.

I don't know if Oracle's legal and technology teams really know what they've just done here (aside from try and buy a large slice of the Android pie), but it sure looks like a short term grab at cash (which Oracle is in no short supply of anyway) in lieu for a slow death for Java.

Maybe Android 3.0 needs to be based on a Jave-free codebase.  Just saying...


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

The Vatican Redefines Filthiness

As I've posted in here before, the Roman Catholic church seemd to be redefining many things - from acceptable behavior of their representatives (especially priests) to how we should treat these filthy criminals that are put in positions of power and then abuse this power and the children they are supposed to be protecting.

Now it seems that even when a Roman Catholic priest submits their resignation because of their part in covering up this disgusting filth that's infesting the church, the Vatican won't accept their resignation.  So, the Roman Catholic church, the Vatican and the Pope are all, it seems, willing to accept those who are complicit in these lowest forms of human behavior and happy to have them remain as supported representatives of their faith.

How can anyone with any morals whatsoever remain a Roman Catholic, remain in support of this church and what it represents, and not be almost physically ill at the sort of filth they have been financially supporting through paying their tithes to the church?


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Election10: How to choose Australia's next broadband network

For anyone in Australia concerned with Internet speeds both in cities (which is adequate in some areas and poor in others) and regional areas (which is currently between poor and almost non-existent), can you please have a read of this article that offers some form of comparison between the ALP's NBN and the LNP's NBC.

Now, as I see it, neither is ideal, both offer improvements, and we REALLY need a full and proper investigation of the options by people with a clue about Internet connectivity (ie, not Senator Conroy) and then bipartisan support for deploying the required infrastructure.

We've already blown the best chance we had of doing this properly - we sold off Telstra's infrastructure that was once owned by the people of Australia and now we need to duplicate (or lease back) this infrastructure.  When Telecom Australia was fiddled with on the way to selling it off, the company should have been split into Infrastructure (still government owned) and Services (privatised) and the infrastructure should have been made available to *all* players at fair prices.  But this is now in the past and we'll pay for it time and time again as we do anything with Australian telecommunications.

Add to this that the ALP will still try and implement the poorly thought out, poorly supported and in no way viable Internet Filter and the LNP will drop it like the ridiculous plan it is.

I still think that we need to have some things that are done in the best interests of the country, not the current Government, but as our political system currently stands, what's best for the country doesn't necessarily result in votes for the Government, therefore it won't be implemented as the term "bipartisan" is something that is far from any current politician's thoughts...


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Senator Barnaby Joyce Claims

On 6th AUgust, 2010, Senator Barnaby Joyce released this press release in which he claims that "...the Greens believe in a top tax rate of 50 cents in the dollar and death duties. Under a Greens-Labor government they will take half of your pay while you are working and the rest after you die."

So I responded to both Senator Joyce himself and also Larissa Waters, Qld Senate Candidate for the Greens.  This is what I sent on 7th August, 2010...

I didn't realise that the Greens Policy was to tax all income at 50% and then to take the remaining 50% as Death Tax. Or are you grandstanding here and simply making up things? It sure reads that way.


I'm still not sure who to vote for and both yourself and Larissa on last Monday's Q and A impressed me, whereas Craig Emerson only did his party harm. Now, with this extremely tenuous link to reality that you've released, well, I'm starting to wonder if you're losing touch with reality like a famous former National Party leader once did. Is this representative of the LNP as a whole?

Now, I'm yet to receive a reply from Senator Joyce, yet Larissa Waters replied on 9th August, 2010 with:

Dear Hilton, thanks for having the good sense to check on the accuracy of Barnaby's claims. We do not want a death tax of 50%, not for all income tax to be at 50%. Our actual policy - which in on our website for the public to see - is for an income tax ON PEOPLE WHO EARN OVER 1 MILLION DOLLARS to pay 50% income tax, and for a death tax ON ASSETS ABOVE 5 MILLION not including the value of the family farm, family home and small business.


These policies would affect only the extremely wealthy, who we think should pay their fair share of tax.

I hope the Greens have your support on polling day, especially in the Senate where we have an excellent chance of electing our first Greens Senator for Queensland. As you saw from Q&A, we want to get good outcomes for the community and talk about policy, rather than just carping at each other like the major parties do (all while being paid from the public purse!).

I'm concerned that political leaders can go around spouting patent untruths such as Senator Joyce did here and then fail to reply to a legitimate email asking for clarification (or implying a request for a retraction of the false claims).  As I said, I'm yet to receive any response from Senator Joyce and would expect any response I receive to be a carefully thought out one, clearly backing up his claim with evidence or admitting that the claim was baseless and linking to a retraction of this claim.
 
I promise to post a follow-up in here once I receive any further correspondence on this topic from any political parties.
 

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Apple iOS 4.0.2 Addresses PDF Vulnerability

Apple has just released iOS 4.0.2 to address the critical PDF reading vulnerability that was recently discovered.  Anyone running iOS 4.0 or 4.0.1 should update to this latest release.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie