Windows 2000 Support Ends

Microsoft announced today that they will end support for Windows 2000 as of June 30th, 2005. Read the whole article here.

Microsoft Blogs

I'm sure many of you knew this already, but for those of you who did not:

Microsoft keeps an official blog space at http://blogs.msdn.com/

It is refreshing to see some of the real people behind Microsoft.

--k

Supporting software when hardware breaks

Last Friday I was onsite doing training for a new client. I was suprised how many times I had to explain the difference between software errors and hardware errors. Now, granted, it's such a gray area, it's not even funny.

I have read many times the poor way consumers get treated by companies that sell computers, and it does not matter whether they bundle the OS with the system or not. People will still call the hardware company if their OS fails.

Imagine this scenario: A consumer's mouse is broken, so he thinks: "Oh, my mouse is not working, so it must be a hardware problem. Let me call Logitech, since they made the mouse". Then they call Logitech, and I bet you that the Logitech support will make it to be a USB port problem, and the consumer should call the computer manufacturer. And the computer manufacturer will tell the consumer that it's probably a driver error, which is a software problem, so the consumer should call

a) Logitech, if they installed the Logitech drivers
or
b) Microsoft, if they got a Windows OS, and let Windows pick a generic driver.

However, Microsoft will tell the consumer that they must pay $39.99 US before a tech person will even listen to the problem. And then we wonder that by the time the poor consumer gets to talk to a live human being, they are ready to yell and scream bloody murder.


*begin shameless plug*
Contact us, ZEINC58, and despite the fact that "we did not build it", we can probably help you. We offer a free trial for the online package. No waiting in queue on the phone, we contact you when we deal with your issue.
*end shameless plug*

ZEINC 58 offers one year IT outsourcing deal to Lord Darth Vader.

This just in:

ZEINC . 58 has offered a one year outsourcing deal to none other than Lord Darth Vader. You can read Lord Vader's thoughts, or you can read about the offer, it's comment #28, from the top.

Amazing that he has finally opened up to the world, after all these years...

--k

setup

so now we are setting a client up with the online package. this is still a fairly time consuming process where we have to go and set things up by hand. it's funny, that my partner and I talked about charging for setup, but then remembered all the times we hated it when some company is charging us $30-$50-$75 or even $99 bucks for some stupid setup and administration fee. I still think that large companies should not do that.

but, for small companies, the truth is, we need to charge the admin and setup fee. Otherwise we definitely lose money on it. It's hard though. For example we are not charging this client, since we are talking about a long term (2 year) relationship.

but in general, if a small company wants a setup fee, they typically need to do so.

Adobe buys Macromedia

Wow.. what a shocker: Adobe buys Macromedia for 3.4 billion. Seemingly Adobe values Macromedia at over 7 times it's actual revenue.

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050418_111030.html

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Business promos for the cost conscious people

So, we thought about going to a Media company and/or a print shop to help us out with our promotional and marketing campaign, but a couple of things came in the way:

1. We are pulling this business by its bootstraps - ie, we are cost conscious.

2. We calculated that a run of about 400 fliers, would cost us twice the price for very high quality paper from Staples (500 sheets, which @ 2 fliers per page, give 1000 fliers!). And did we mention, we got a smoking, office capable HP laser printer. Yeah baby!

So, we decided to put to use the philosophy behind the design of our web site (that proper digital media should translate seamlessly on print media), and we ended up with this.

If you are using Internet Explorer 5 or up, do a print preview on the page. It should fit perfectly on one page if you change the margins to be 0.5 inches all around.

So, we took the template for our website, put content in place, split it in two, and Voila! it prints perfectly on high quality paper. Then we just cut it in half, and we have our flier.

Yes, dear, we are printing from HTML files. We got a higher quality logo for print; however, even this one is OK. The point is, we get the point across, we do not have to spend money on a professional designer and a professional print shop. (that is, until we _have to_ )

Cheers

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Windows XP SP2 Cometh !

So, it has begun... Windows XP Service Pack 2 is cometh, and there isn't one thing you can do about it. !

Ok, there is something.. you can just say *no* to Microsoft.

Buahahahahah.... !

yeeei... so.. we decided to get a laser printer. We've been getting by with inkjet printers, but it's time for some "proper" business power.

We got Lexmark (Z55) and HP inkjets, and we are most likely going to get HP laser printers. I used to like the Lexmark a fair bit until something happened:

I did not print anything for about 3 months, then the printer started printing with lots of lines, and dropped in quality significantly. No amount of cleaning and calibration fixed. My buddy's got a HP printer, never had that problem, so..

We are buying a HP Laserjet printer for the office.

the blog lives !

So, the blog lives..

This is a blog about what preoccupies the minds of the guys who started ZEINC58, an IT Outsourcing company (helpdesk and h/w). No, this is not a sales thing, but more or less, our daily/weekly/monthly struggle in the world of startups and big businesses. and it's all from the point of view of guys who love cars, video games, sports and so much more. (wow!, this sounds sooo dreamy and sappy.. aawwwww )

tonight we are printing flyiers, and going out for the first time to local businesses and see what happens.