Category: "Software"

ProTools Software Installation

I think that if the installation guide is this big that there might be a better way to do things.

Windows 8 Has Finally Updated the Blue Screen of Death

Windows 8 Has Finally Updated the Blue Screen of Death.

From Lifehacker.com, the greatest website EVER.

Looking forward the next “consumer” version of the Windows operating system, it seems they got the message that user errors can be teaching tools to the user. I think more transparency in this industry can only be an improvement.

What areas of IT would YOU like to see more transparency in? Can we collectively work toward this goal? Why or why not?

I just wonder who the pop psychologist was that came up with the copy for the new “cute screen of death”?

Quit apologizing for perfectionism

My 4 month old and I have been rather ill and it became so worrisome that we went to urgent care.  Turns out it’s a little bronchitis and nothing that a little Z-pack couldn’t solve. We were the last patients of the night and we made our way to the 24 hour pharmacy. I turned in my prescriptions and wandered the vitamin aisles. Then a page came over the loudspeaker… “Mrs. DeVita, please come to the pharmacy counter”. I was very much ready to get my pills and go. But no, we were not so lucky.

Finally the doctor called back. The dose was incorrect and he told her the correct amount. The doctor didn’t even apologize.

Errors happen. Human errors happen. Some errors have graver consequences than others. Had the pharmacist at Rite Aid not been uber-careful, she would have given my 4 month old infant the dose for a 5 year old child. Computers can and do save lives.  The pharmacist explained that she hadn’t seen my baby and was perfectly ready to give the prescriptions but the screen flashed “OVERDOSE, OVERDOSE”. I’m so grateful for her careful attention and that RiteAid’s pharmacy system did it’s job. She apologized to me for being such a nitpicker, but I stopped her.

Please don’t ever apologize for doing a good job and striving for perfection.

AT&T Blackberry Curve 9300 Problems

Thank God it’s Friday. Isn’t that what we all say? Well this past Friday, Ryan went to do a fairly routine Blackberry update. The client wanted a new device and this is usually no problem at all. We have standard procedures for most of our processes and this is no exception.

This particular device is wirelessly synced to the user’s mailbox for all functions except contacts, which are manually synced via desktop manager because they are mapped to a different user’s folder. During that sync, the desktop manager crashed after about 90% completion. We looked at the log and it revealed nothing. This was beginning to get ugly as it was after 5pm and the user was anxious to go home.

After several failed attempts to complete this setup, I picked up the device and brought it back to the office for further work. I noticed something very interesting after doing a full wipe of the device – the Address Book was “Not Installed”. 

Considering PSA Solutions for 2011

We’re an IT service company and we need to automate some functions of our business. Invoicing clients is key to cash flow and we’ve relied happily on Freshbooks for several years now. They offer fantastic customer service and price points that make sense for small businesses.

Business owners such as myself who are in the midst of growing their company (we’ve just hired our first tech), really need to make every decision count and research tools so that they can make an informed decision. We don’t have time to try all sorts of products and drag our clients through different procedures.

As we review 2010 and set goals for 2011, it became obvious that we needed a PSA solution. Our choices for PSA software are really very limited. We’ve tried Autotask and while they have a fabulous product, we found it too big for our needs and our budget. It seemed like a product that solves a problem we only hope to have in 2-3 years. I thank them for the time they spent with me and wish them every success.

I have lots of colleagues who couldn’t live without ConnectWise. I again looked into their hosted solution and found that I would probably have a very similar experience like I had with Autotask. So I decided not to proceed with a trial.

CommitCRM offers a package that is installed locally on your own server but it’s very affordable. I’ve downloaded a trial and we’ll see what it can do.

In the meantime, I just received a login and a big marketing packet from ShockeyMonkey which is a PSA solution by OwnWebNow, the company that provides ExchangeDefender. I spent about 8 hours playing around and was so happy with it, I was ready to enter my credit card and upgrade to their Pro package. I did have a few technical questions, so I called tech support. I was placed on hold for over 30 minutes at which point I just hung up. I then placed a “call back” request on their website and within about 1 hour received the following bizarre email:

Dear Jessica, We regret to inform you that we cannot extend you the service under our current TOS / AUP / SLA. Please consider one of the following alternatives: ConnectWise, AutoTask or TigerPaw.

Thank you for your understanding,

Shockey Monkey, Inc.

Now I was really confused. I was so excited about ShockeyMonkey, had watched all the videos, instructed my employee to learn the interface and watch all the videos. I had invested many hours of time and was feeling like I had finally found the right solution for my company. Then BAM! They disabled my account. It turns out that last year, I had alerted them to a security issue on their website and they didn’t like that I had also tweeted about the issue. I had so offended them that I had been essentially blacklisted. Every business has a right to refuse service to anyone they choose, but seemed pretty arbitrary and petty. I’m grateful that they made it very clear that they wouldn’t be the right partner for me. To be clear, I wish them every success in 2011 in spite of this situation.

To use a term I really dislike but seems to be appropriate here – when you CHOOSE a PSA tool, it had better be a company you can trust because you’ll be in bed with them and you need to respect them in the morning.