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Not in this country. DSL has proven to be much faster than any cable service provider. The problem with cable is that the more people use it in a location, the more the bandwidth is divided and thus increases traffic and slows down. DSL is faster than cable by any means! Unless you meant Fiber Optic, now THAT's a different story!
A/. DSL is much faster than cable in many countries as not everyone has fibre optic cable available for their Internet access. Thus you have a major fail here, mostly due to poor research in not checking things beyond your own local environment.
B/. Unless you're a marketing person, social networks ARE a big waste of time in the business environment as they do nothing for your work while taking people off work focus.
C/. Telecommuting can NOT work in many business environments due to the need to have access to original documents and / or security issues associated with the work being done. These issues affect most areas outside of the marketing people.
D/. Covers two areas, the 'white boxes' and the 'old software' - if what you have is doing the job as efficiently as possible, there is NO NEED to change, so there is no point to change just for change's sake. For most people in the work environment all they need is something with the computing power of a Pentium 100 MHZ system with 16 MB RAM to work their word processor program at the speed in which they type and read. Their next need is to open an email and read it. That accounts for about two thirds or more of people in a normal work environment.
I do recognise that there can be tax advantages to the regular update of equipment, but that often conflicts with cash flow, so all updates of hardware and software do need to be looked at from all perspectives.
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The above shows you missed out on 5 out of 10 points - unless, of course, you're ONLY talking about a work place involved in creating cutting edge IT tech and marketing.
B/. Unless you're a marketing person, social networks ARE a big waste of time in the business environment as they do nothing for your work while taking people off work focus.
C/. Telecommuting can NOT work in many business environments due to the need to have access to original documents and / or security issues associated with the work being done. These issues affect most areas outside of the marketing people.
D/. Covers two areas, the 'white boxes' and the 'old software' - if what you have is doing the job as efficiently as possible, there is NO NEED to change, so there is no point to change just for change's sake. For most people in the work environment all they need is something with the computing power of a Pentium 100 MHZ system with 16 MB RAM to work their word processor program at the speed in which they type and read. Their next need is to open an email and read it. That accounts for about two thirds or more of people in a normal work environment.
I do recognise that there can be tax advantages to the regular update of equipment, but that often conflicts with cash flow, so all updates of hardware and software do need to be looked at from all perspectives.
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The above shows you missed out on 5 out of 10 points - unless, of course, you're ONLY talking about a work place involved in creating cutting edge IT tech and marketing.
>if what you have is doing the job as efficiently as possible, there is NO NEED to change
The most important word being "possible". Very few jobs are done as efficiently as they could be. They may be as efficient as others are, they may be efficient enough to make a profit, but that's not what we're saying.
The most important word being "possible". Very few jobs are done as efficiently as they could be. They may be as efficient as others are, they may be efficient enough to make a profit, but that's not what we're saying.
but not as efficiently as achievable due to other factors affecting the jobs such as legislative requirements etc.
However, the main point I was making there is that computers from over a decade ago were already faster than their human operators could handle for most office task. Set a person to prepare a basic text document in Word 2a on a Pentium 100 MHZ system with 16 MB RAM and time them, then do the same on a P4 3 GHZ system with 16 GB or RAM using Word 2010 and you won't find any significant difference in the time to type them up as the major factor is the human thoughts and their keyboard skill speeds. The software and hardware exceeded the basic speed level for such tasks years ago. The same can be said of the majority of business office tasks, but not all. Accounts data entry isn't any faster for being on a new PC, but the major financial analysis will be after all the data is in - which is usually on the server anyway.
However, the main point I was making there is that computers from over a decade ago were already faster than their human operators could handle for most office task. Set a person to prepare a basic text document in Word 2a on a Pentium 100 MHZ system with 16 MB RAM and time them, then do the same on a P4 3 GHZ system with 16 GB or RAM using Word 2010 and you won't find any significant difference in the time to type them up as the major factor is the human thoughts and their keyboard skill speeds. The software and hardware exceeded the basic speed level for such tasks years ago. The same can be said of the majority of business office tasks, but not all. Accounts data entry isn't any faster for being on a new PC, but the major financial analysis will be after all the data is in - which is usually on the server anyway.
in most case, would be seen through adequate training on existing software than via hardware and software upgrades.
Social networking? I still can't see a purpose for it outside the marketing and recruiting departments. Like any other tool, it isn't necessarily useful to all employees. You don't let an accountant play with a soldering iron.
Social networking? I still can't see a purpose for it outside the marketing and recruiting departments. Like any other tool, it isn't necessarily useful to all employees. You don't let an accountant play with a soldering iron.
Though with limited Cable Roll Out here at the moment so Point 5 is marginal as well. I remember one place where I lived where I could see the End of the Cable from my front door about 100 meters away. No matter how often they said that they where running the cable into the street next year over the last 8 years we where there it never happened. Even then I had to fight with the telco for DSL and on the copper network we had there it was really marginal for reliability but it was a massive improvement on the Half Speed Dial Up we had prior to that. But when they finish rolling out the NBN we'll have much faster and reliable 100 MBS Fiber though here that is at least 3 years away. 
Point 4 is also marginal as almost every computer I have here is a White Box even the NB's though other than my main computer which is actually white they are in Black Cases. Even my main computer with a i7 CPU and 24 GIG of RAM is quite new and much more powerful than most off the shelf systems that are sold.
My NB's are all top of the range and as highly speced as they can be, so much so that when the Off the Shelf company's buy them from their Bare Bones Makers they are the Top of the Range about 2 years after I buy them for myself. Even then they do not have as much RAM or as Fast CPU's or as Big a HDD as what I fitted when I first got my hands on the bare Chassis.
Though one thing you missed was Still Using XP which I am predominately but that is more dictated by the customers who have Propriety Hardware and Software that doesn't run with/on anything newer in the Windows Range and not on any Open Source OS.
But none the less what has any of this got to do with a Tethered Aerial Release, Designed in Style or TARDIS?
Col
Point 4 is also marginal as almost every computer I have here is a White Box even the NB's though other than my main computer which is actually white they are in Black Cases. Even my main computer with a i7 CPU and 24 GIG of RAM is quite new and much more powerful than most off the shelf systems that are sold.
My NB's are all top of the range and as highly speced as they can be, so much so that when the Off the Shelf company's buy them from their Bare Bones Makers they are the Top of the Range about 2 years after I buy them for myself. Even then they do not have as much RAM or as Fast CPU's or as Big a HDD as what I fitted when I first got my hands on the bare Chassis.
Though one thing you missed was Still Using XP which I am predominately but that is more dictated by the customers who have Propriety Hardware and Software that doesn't run with/on anything newer in the Windows Range and not on any Open Source OS.
But none the less what has any of this got to do with a Tethered Aerial Release, Designed in Style or TARDIS?
Col
I think the notion was that if most of those points describe your operations, then you need to step into a disguised call box and come forward a couple of decades.
Who gets cable in a rural area? And why is cable supposed to be better? This is a bit of an over-generalized argument - my business ADSL (in a rural area) is faster and more reliable than my mother's cable (in an urban area) which is the same cable available to small bsuinesses. Yet in other areas, cable may be 10x faster than ADSL. Most of us would love to have fast cable for our small businesses, but alas, we are limited to what is available to us. I don't think Jack meant to antagonise us, but deriding us for having to use a technology that is all that is available to us doesn't go down well.
And I have yet to see any real value for most businesses out of social networking. I have found one - a number of suppliers - my security (Sophos), my ISP, my colocation centre all provide status on Twitter. With the Tweetz desktop gadget, I can keep track of just a few people who have something to say that I am interested in. I still have to see any compelling reason as to why social networking is really this great PR juggernaut. With people getting jail sentences for really offensive tweets, high profile people e.g. footballers being fined for bringing the game into disrepute with their tweets, the amount of data leakage that goes on with Facebook, it appears to me that the risks of social networking to most businesses far outweigh any benefits.
And I have yet to see any real value for most businesses out of social networking. I have found one - a number of suppliers - my security (Sophos), my ISP, my colocation centre all provide status on Twitter. With the Tweetz desktop gadget, I can keep track of just a few people who have something to say that I am interested in. I still have to see any compelling reason as to why social networking is really this great PR juggernaut. With people getting jail sentences for really offensive tweets, high profile people e.g. footballers being fined for bringing the game into disrepute with their tweets, the amount of data leakage that goes on with Facebook, it appears to me that the risks of social networking to most businesses far outweigh any benefits.
That's SO 2005. Businesses need to avoid the single point of failure, the hardware and power cost, and the drudgery of maintaining servers on-site. It's simple and inexpensive now to have these services hosted for you.
Especially in the medical, legal, and some financial fields, where the storage of sensitive data may be covered by government requirements.
and it takes days to get them back up. Recently a website I often visit had an issue with their log in server, all it needed was someone to physically turn it off and turn it back on again. It was a long weekend in the country where the host was and the had no on-site 24 hour staff and the issue was not a listed support function in the contract. The result was no access for two days until it was done while on site fixing another problem for a client happy to pay the $200 callout fee. Ayep, hosting sure can help you.
Mind you, I have a low usage site and have it hosted as it hurts no one if it goes down for a day or two.
Mind you, I have a low usage site and have it hosted as it hurts no one if it goes down for a day or two.
Excuse me, I thought that was your job.
"Simple?" Perhaps, in simple implementation scenarios. "Inexpesnive?" Malarkey for any but the absolutely smallest organizations with zero intellectual property concerns. For anybody who needs any level of control, an SLA, or any kind of ability to guarantee nobody else has had access to the data, "hosted" email is a total non-starter.
"Simple?" Perhaps, in simple implementation scenarios. "Inexpesnive?" Malarkey for any but the absolutely smallest organizations with zero intellectual property concerns. For anybody who needs any level of control, an SLA, or any kind of ability to guarantee nobody else has had access to the data, "hosted" email is a total non-starter.
I'd argue part of our jobs is to evaluate the tools available and select the best possible for the situation. I don't agree with his choice, but I don't think part of our jobs is accepting the status quo without question.
To constantly look for ways to improve efficiency and quality is part of any job. At least in any "professional" area.
I'm proposing that the IT world is headed cloud-ward. Yes, we must select the best option for our organization at the present time. The ever-increasing legal and technical challenges of hosting mail may in fact, push more and more moderate-sized companies toward the cloud. As for drudgery being my job, um, no, I suspect the talents of most of us on Tech Republic can be put to better use than the day-to-day backups of mail files.
... my experience has taught me that DSL service is far more reliable than cable service. Sure, you can get more bandwidth in certain locations, but when your business requires a reliable internet and phone feed, cable has proven to be lackluster at best when compared to DSL.
Not a well-written article at all. More being opinionated than paying attention to actual, factual, data...
I see where Jack's coming from on some points but still, his solutions aren't applicable for the majority of SMBs out there.
I see where Jack's coming from on some points but still, his solutions aren't applicable for the majority of SMBs out there.
OS's are a tool use to accomplish a task. Not every task is best solved by Linux.
I have been hearing that it's the year of Linux for the past ten years or more. Microsoft was going to be unseated because of the mistakes it made with XP/Vista/W7 and now W8. I understand the author has strong feelings about Linux, but it gets a little redundant when every article the number one thing people should change or look at is Linux.
Bill
I have been hearing that it's the year of Linux for the past ten years or more. Microsoft was going to be unseated because of the mistakes it made with XP/Vista/W7 and now W8. I understand the author has strong feelings about Linux, but it gets a little redundant when every article the number one thing people should change or look at is Linux.
Bill
OSX = FreeBSD (a Unix clone, not unlike Linux), Android = Linux (outright), etc... dumb 'em down and then call 'em lazy because nobody knows how to accept default options presented during a program installation routine...
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