Do you spend as much time on the upkeep of your computer as you do working or playing on it? It seems with each new version of Windows, I spend more time making sure my machine is backed up, patched, scanned and probed for a myriad of junk that Windows can’t handle with without my input. Shouldn’t each new version of Windows make it EASIER to me to handle many of these basic upkeep chores? I’m still shocked that XP Pro doesn’t include a backup or mirrored directory module although they did recently add a Spyware program. This should be built into Longhorn and run without much user input.

Imagine each new car you purchase every few years required more maintenance than the one before it? More add-ons to keep it from crashing. Pretty soon I’d park my car and start taking public transportation. I have a “Tools” folder on my Start Menu that’s contains more programs than my “Programs” menu! Microsoft needs to figure this out. It’s already out of hand. The poor newbie computer users must wonder what they get themselves into once they find out their new system will require near daily coddling in order to run effectively.

I want a universal update tool that scans my system and tells me what needs to be updated. I’m tired of manually searching around websites trying to figure out if I have the latest version with all the security patches. How come Windows update and Office update can’t work together? Why can’t Microsoft scan my system and tell me if any of their own products are out of date and need patching?

It’s going to be a long 18 months to Longhorn. I think a Mac is in my future.

A number of people have asked me about blogs over the past few weeks. I must not do a very good job explaining what a blog is because the person asking me usually walks off shaking his or her head. From now on I’m going to suggest a few of the blog I read and tell them to check them out on their own. Maybe the best way to learn about blogs is to just dive in and start reading a few. So here is a list of my Top 10 favorite blogs in no certain order:

Rocketboom – technically, this is a videoblog but it’s just wacky fun. Amanda is hilarious as she quickly moves from topic to topic such as “Why Volvo’s are Cool”.

Creating Passionate Users – I wish I could write like Kathy Sierra. A marketing specific blog but interesting to anyone. I’ve learned more about marketing reading her blog than I did in college or any textbook.

Scobleizer – You can’t pickup a magazine lately without reading about Microsoft’s most famous blogger, Robert Scoble. I’ve picked up so many interesting blogs by reading this blog. Some of the best action is in the comments section. Does this guy have the best job in the world or what?

Blog Maverick – You want strong opinion and passion then read this blog by Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks and HDNet. Mark discusses topics that feel five to ten years out. I disagree with many of his ideas and opinions but he definitely makes me think.

Gapingvoid – You might have come across this guys cartoons which he creates on the back of business cards. Some strong language but very funny.

Chris Pirillo – This guy is team captain of the nerds. One reason I find Chris so interesting is that I never know what he’s going to talk about next. I wish he had moved to Seattle sooner while I lived there so I would have had a chance to meet him. He has a great sense of humor.

PVRBlog – The blog for Tivo lovers. Matt Haughey puts the technology behind Tivo into a language that all can understand. I like the simplicity of his blog as well.

Scripting News – The first blog I ever read. Dave Winer is one of the most influential voices on the internet. This is another good place to discover other blogs of interest. Updated numerous times a day.

Heather’s Marketing & Finance Blog – Boring name but a very interesting blog. Heather gives the most in-depth “Apprentice” updates you’ll find. I used to think she came across as a “know it all” but I’ve come to think that maybe she does. No nonsense attitude and unique writing style make for an interesting read.

Dooce – This blog has been around a while but I just came across it. Want to know how the verb “dooced” came to mean losing one’s job due to blogging? Go to this blog and under Categories select Dooced. Another person I envy because her writing skills are fantastic.

I know I’ve left a lot of blogs off the list that are incredibly interesting. I read about 75 blogs regularly and probably another 100 or so occasionally. What are some of your favorite?

Have you noticed how companies are segmenting products you never thought possible? Take Crest Toothpaste for example. Gone are the days of merely choosing between a regular “paste” or “gel”. Crest now has 13 different categories of toothpaste! And within each category you’ll find another half dozen or more varieties tailored to your family’s toothpaste needs. Say, for instance, you’ve spent the last 15 minutes at your neighborhood Target narrowing down your choices to the “whitening” category. Now the fun starts. Crest has the following “whitening” varieties of toothpaste:

• Vivid White
• Whitening Plus Scope
• Dual Action Whitening
• Tarter Protection Whitening
• Whitening Expressions
• Rejuvenating Effects
• Extra Whitening
• Multi-Care Whitening

What is going on here? Maybe Crest has done such extensive market research that they can segment the toothpaste customer into dozens of absurd categories. The choices are downright overwhelming. I usually just chose whatever toothpaste is on sale and call it a day. I don’t think we are far from the day where Crest will have toothpaste genetically engineered for just my family, and they will ship it to me directly. They will call it “Crest: Never Whiter Nordquist”.

I stopped by Albertsons on the way into work this morning to pickup some nasal drops. I figured I’d be in and out. I was wrong. I found the Afrin Nasal Spray, but then got bogged down selecting which variety was right for me. Do I need Original formula, Severe Congestion, Extra Moisturizing or Sinus? I felt compelled to see a doctor before making this purchase. What would happen if I chose the wrong one? I decided on the Original formula because last time I went with Sinus and it felt like I was shooting hot sauce up my nose.

Sometimes good customer service comes in the most unexpected places.

I had a few items to mail this morning so I headed over to our very small US Post Office in Ivins, Utah which is just a couple of blocks from my house. I was greeted as I walked through the door by a nice lady who asked if I needed help. I told her I had a few items to mail and was looking for a couple of padded envelopes. She found the right sized envelopers and mentioned that I could send the DVD as “Media Mail” at a discount. I had a small item that didn’t quite fit into the envelopes they had in stock, but before I could ask if they carried other sizes, this lady went into the backroom and pulled out a small box that was just the right size. She helped me pack the item and pulled out a roll of tape to ensure the box was closed securely. It was like having my own packaging assistant!

This was all very unexpected. The US Postal service isn’t the first business that comes to mind when I think of excellent customer service. But I’ve got a different view of the USPS after my experience this morning.

I subscribe to Sirius satellite radio. Whenever I hear a song I’d like to own I pull out my phone and leave myself a “memo” which reminds me to download it once I get home. One of the best things about Sirius is the ability to see the songs title as well as group or artist. Once home, I’ll fire up WarezP2P and see if I can find the song to download. If the song is from a group with which I’m not familiar, I’ll download a few other songs from them. If I like more than a couple of songs I’ll go buy the album. This very scenario played out when I ran a Hotline server a few years ago. Someone uploaded a song from the Sundays called “Here’s Where the Story Ends” and I liked it so much I went to Tower Records and bought every CD of theirs I could find.

Some may ask why don’t I just use iTunes, Napster or some other “legit” music service? Well, quite simply I don’t use them because they come with too many restrictions attached. When I purchase a CD I can burn a copy for backup. I can rip it to mp3 and send a song or two to my friends who may end up purchasing their own copy. If I end up not liking the CD I can sell it at Graywhale or Ebay it. I refuse to use iTunes because I’d need a user manual to keep track of all the restrictions placed on purchased music file. Same goes for Napster. The idea of paying Napster $15/month to have full access to their catalog which disappears if I don’t continue the subscription just doesn’t make sense. Sounds like the type of plan only a cell phone company could devise.

I would use iTunes or another music service if it sold high quality mp3s instead of proprietary formats like AAC and WMA. I want to support the artists which I have to the tune of over 800 CDs over the years. And before that in cassette and vinyl. I’m pretty sure I’ve purchase Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” at least half a dozen times. But I won’t support a music service that gives me less freedom with my music than I have now with CDs. The RIAA must not understand that suing your customers for thousands of dollars isn’t likely to yield more sales. If I had to hand over even a few hundred dollars to the RIAA I’d never purchase another CD again.

So what is the solution? Would I be willing to pay for all my music if the RIAA would be more lenient in allowing music services such as iTunes to sell singles in mp3 format? If I could download any song for 99 cents in mp3 format I’d probably never use another P2P application like WarezP2P or look for songs on Usenet.

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately. I don’t know what it is but I’m a bit tired of the internet and keeping up with my Bloglines feeds. Maybe a need a vacation. Maybe I’ve been spending so much time on the company website that I’m burned out when I get home and just want to veg out.

I’ve been thinking about good products that have gone bad. One product that comes to mind is MusicMatch Jukebox. MM used to be my mp3 player of choice when that’s all it tried to be. It was an excellent player which easily organized my mp3s. It included an easy to use encoder and was easy enough for anyone to use. But then those in charge decided they needed to jump on the music store bandwagon and the product went to pot. It’s a bad sign when nag screens begin popping up even though I had already purchased a lifetime of upgrades. Then MM started hogging system resources. It tried to be everything to everyone and it ended up becoming this huge bloated piece of junk.

I feel the same way about Microsoft Internet Explorer and I’m starting to feel the same way about Outlook. Internet Explorer now feels like an abandoned product while Outlook is starting to hog resources and thinks it’s a CRM solution.

Thank goodness for products Firefox.

What gets into the mind of a 16-year old boy that makes him kill eight people? What will we choose to blame this time around? We’ve already used heavy metal music and the video game, Doom, as scapegoats for the Columbine killings. Sounds like it’s the Nazi movement this time around. I’m sure we’ll be reading about this for the next few weeks as the press, parents and school officials toss the blame around hoping something will stick which will help everyone make sense of the massacre. The fact is that it doesn’t make any sense.

But I feel the same way as I did when I first heard about Columbine…..where are the parents or grandparents of these children? I don’t believe they turned into monsters overnight. Are the parents really so clueless as to not notice any red flags? Senseless.

Been keeping busy the past few weeks working on a new website for LearnKey. The old version had a lot of text and looked very busy. We’ve tried to keep things as streamlined as possible and leave some white areas. Sales for the website shot up last week and I hope it will continue.

Has there been more pathetic, incompetent, and downright uncharismatic leader than Bug Selig? Here’s a guy that’s so out of touch with baseball fans that he believes he can apply a bandaid to a steroid problem that’s been raging out of control for years and we’ll all just act like it never happened. As far as I’m concerned the shattered records of the past few years are a joke. I have little interest in spending my money to support a bunch of doping athletes which justify their addiction by whining they have to keep up with the next guy. I hope the senators rip them to shreds and expose Selig and these other baseball stars for what they are: total frauds!

“Do these guns look juiced to you?”

UPDATE
A few quotes from the hearing today:

“If a player answers ‘No,’ he simply will not be believed,” McGwire said in his opening statement. “If he answers ’Yes,’ he risks public scorn and endless government investigations.”

Hey, Mark, we’ll take this to mean you doped. We’re not fooled by your hipster glasses or your emotional, near tears acting. Answer the damn question and let us decide what to believe.

This just in from Captain Clueless: Mr. Bud Selig:

“Did we have a major (steroid) problem? No,”

Bud, Bud, Bud…do you really think we’re that stupid? Have you seen the neck muscles on Barry Bonds lately? Bud is the new “Baghdad Bob“.

I’m done watching Major League Baseball and I have lost every ounce of respect I had for Mark McGuire. I don’t care if Barry Bonds hits 900 home runs because now we all know he’s been juiced for years. Does he expect us to believe that he puts chemicals in his body and lotion on his skin and doesn’t know exactly what they contain? This whole notion that he unknowingly took steroids is a crock.

Stick it to this fraud of a league and send a message with your wallet. I’m sure Selig will assume everything will blow over and it won’t be long before ticket prices are raised at publicly funded stadiums around the country.

Olbermann: McGwire takes called third strike
Celizic: McGwire is the biggest loser
Verducci: Selig and MLB turned a blind eye

I ask this question after seeing so many people purchase a new PC only to have them slowed to a crawl by viruses, worms, spyware, and adware over the course of just a few weeks. I’d be very pissed off if I’d just spent $1000 on a new Dell only to find it nearly unusable after only a couple of weeks on cable or DSL. Imaging purchasing a new car only to find out that you needed to purchase anther few hundred dollars worth of add-ons and invest a few hours each week to keep it from crashing?

I’ve personally seen this very scenario happen to several friends of the family who recently puchased new PCs. These are not dumb people, mind you. These are regular PC owners that rely on their computers to manage their business, keep track of personal finances or just edit family video clips. Have we come to the point where we now expect every PC user to become an expert in Spyware or Viruses? What percentage of time to do you spend on your PC just keeping it working by running all these necessary programs like SpySweeper, Ad-Aware and then another backup program or imaging solution? I can’t think of another product in my life that requires more upkeep than my PC. When is enough….enough?