“The Cloud” (<- as I use both hands making "quotes" in the air) seems to be the newest homonym (two or more words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings)... and, when did clouds start living in computer rooms? I completely understand how all of this "cloud talk" could be confusing. My aim in the next few minutes of your life is to clear the air a bit.

First and foremost you need to know that “The Cloud” has always been. Twenty(ish) years ago, when I attended my first computer courses at DeVry, the “cloud” was in Chicago; while I sat in Columbus. I programmed on terminals that submitted my “job” to the “mainframe” and anxiously awaited my response/printout from the mother-ship. That, in it’s most basic form, was “The Cloud” in the early 1980′s. This form of “cloud computing” supported the decentralized computing model; i.e. – the terminals and central computer were in different geographic locations.

Fast forward to PC’s in business and early LAN’s (Local Area Networks) that brought the power of the cloud locally. The computer that housed “all of the magic” was now called the “File Server”. Now, “terminals” and/or PC’s could access the power of “TheCloud” (which used to be in Chicago or in a Data Center somewhere else far, far away) that was in the same geographic location; no longer was there a need to wait on the mother-ship or traverse expensive Wide Area Network (WAN) links to get to your company’s most valuable asset… it’s data. The power of “The Cloud” is now local… this represents the “centralized” computing model.

Those of us that have been in Information Technology for quite some time have seen this ebb and flow from centralization to decentralization through many cycles. Each time technology changes, businesses are presented with the bill to “migrate to the newest hardware” or “upgrade to the latest version of software”. As a general rule of thumb, hardware upgrades every 9 months or so whereas software is usually double that; every 18 months or so. Businesses generally count on their entire system to last from, on the shy end, 36 months, and on the far end… about 5 years. Business that realize the benefit of their investment for the extra 2 years are often considerably behind their competitors in the technology area. This constant “state of flux” has kept many an IT company in business and given many a businessperson a bad taste for those in our industry; always feeling like they have to hold on to their checkbooks when the IT guys come calling…

While all of this was happening, businesses STILL needed to link all of their offices together. Some with offices just across town, while others were connecting internationally. The use of digital circuits like T1′s and early technologies like Frame Relay were slow but provided “adequate” connectivity… and they weren’t cheap.

That pretty much ends the history lesson. Welcome to modern day computing! I wrote this on my iPad while connected to WiFi that’s connected to a circuit that is over twice as fast as the earliest Local Area Network (10 Mbps Ethernet) and over 15 times faster than a T1!

A bit of fanfare here if you please as we enter the last cycle of decentralization and the modern day version of “The Cloud”!!

The issues business faced in the past need not be issues of concern in the future. The slow, expensive WAN (Wide Area Network) links that were necessary to effectively run one’s business are now more inexpensive than ever and have far surpassed speeds of traditional LAN’s (Local Area Networks). What’s the overall effect of this increase in speed and decrease in cost? “The Cloud”.

It’s now more cost effective than ever to replace your “on premise” solution for the last time. “The Cloud” allows you to have all of your “equipment” (be it virtual or real) in a remotely hosted location that’s as fast (or faster) as when you installed it in the IT closet just down the hall only a few years ago… and if your solution is “virtual” (a whole other topic) your hardware and software upgrades don’t involve:

* Days of downtime while you upgrade the Operating System
* Upgrading memory & hard disks
* Making sure you have at least 3 backup copies of all of your data
* Trusting your IT guys to pull it all off, seamlessly, before the start of the workday, Monday morning (Scary huh?!)

Nope. YOUR upgrades are a phone call to your Cloud Services provider. Conversations concerning a “technology refresh” (upgrade) should now go something like this:

1.). “Would you please increase our disk space?” Sure. It’ll be available in the next hour.
2.). “How quickly can you bring up another server for us?” We’ll have it available for you this afternoon.
3.) “How current are our backups”? We take complete backups of the entire server every four hours, this includes everything from your most recently updated data and software to the cute picture you have on your desktop. If something happens to your system, we can have you back to the point you were a few hours ago… in about 30 minutes or so.

The Cloud provides businesses the opportunity/ability to never have to upgrade their hardware again and avails an easy way to migrate to more powerful systems… all on the fly. Most cloud service providers also guarantee 100% uptime, data backup, and disaster recovery all within the confines of a highly secure physical location driven by multiple power grids, protected by backup generators, firewalls, and “blended” connections to the Internet that are a combination of many different Internet Service Providers (that way if one company’s connection goes down, your business won’t feel a thing!!!).

I’m drawing a line in the sand here. Businesses are soon to realize the safety of centralizing their data in the cloud once and for all… Cloud computing is the last wave of decentralization and the last time a business will need to approve budget dollars for a Capital Expense… nope, this expense can now be moved to Operations Department…

Long live my memories of doing “everything IT” the hard way… as I confidently send praise and success to The Cloud (quotes around this term are no longer necessary – we’re all friends now).

Whether it be Apple’s iCloud, Microsoft’s Private Cloud, or our very own StoneCloud… this technology is here to stay…

The Cloud is sure to change your life in the near future, if it hasn’t already.. and hec, if given the chance, I’d even vote for the cloud to win Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” award…

In my last blog I mentioned the “cloud” and I promised a follow up. I see the “cloud” mentioned in tech articles almost ad naseum and you may wonder how this affects you and what you should do with it. The cloud is just a group of computers somewhere offsite that you use for a specific service which are maintained by someone else. Hence the word cloud, these computers are a mystery except that they work when you need them, for what you need them for. In geek-world we have been using the cloud symbol to denote when something is out of our control for years. If you ever see a network diagram you will see an arrow to a cloud (yes, its actually a symbol of a cloud) with the letters ISP in it. This is the connection to the internet. The ISP cloud means that we plug into them and we have no idea how they do it, but somehow we get to the internet.

For our intro-to-the-cloud series we are going to focus on the two most important things in your life. Your valuable documents and photos. When a hard drive crashes and it is presented to me, these are the two things that are on the top of my list to recover. Sometimes I can recover them, sometimes I can’t. Most people to not backup. As part of Microsoft’s Live 2011, they include Windows Live Mesh. This is a tool that lets you synchronize photographs, documents, and settings from your PC to Microsoft’s Cloud. You can sync these things to multiple PCs running this software. This is uber-convenient because you when you set up Live Mesh, you can tell it where your documents live and it syncs automatically among all of your PCs. You don’t have to remember to back anything up, simply save to your popular folders and the Live Mesh Client does the rest. Not only is your stuff backed up, but you can access it from any PC with Live Mesh, or any PC connected to the internet where you can have access to Microsoft’s Sky Drive.

If 2/3 of your devices use the Macintosh iOS or OSX operating system, Apple’s iCloud is probably a better fit than Windows Live Mesh. Live Mesh and iCloud are cross platform compatible, but for sanity’s sake, if the majority of your use is through one manufacturer, then you should use that service. Apple’s iCloud is similar except it includes iTunes, which is a huge plus. The downside is that the sync is a component of things like iPhoto and is not quite a simple as setting your special folders to sync. This is not to say that it is overly hard, it isn’t, it is fairy simple and there are plenty of resources available to help guide you through the process of setting up iCloud or Live Mesh. Live Live Mesh 2011, you can access your stuff on iCloud through any web ready computer for easy sharing.

Once you have this set up you can collaborate among all of your devices easily, share with friends on your mobile device or on their PC/Mac, AND you have secure backups of all your important things. With all these bonuses, the 30 or so minutes you need to spend to get this set up make this something all digital users should do.

In the next blog we will dive into more specialized cloud services (consumer grade) for things like music and photography.

If you are like me, you moved from your Yahoo or Hotmail email account to Google Mail a long time ago when GMAIL started offering gigabytes of storage when Yahoo and Hotmail had measly 30 megabytes with paid upgrades for things like more storage and IMAP access. I have been on GMAIL since the days of GMAIL beta and I have always loved the available free features and the fairly spam free inbox. What I didn’t and still don’t like is the very basic web interface. Yahoo and Hotmail (as well as Microsoft’s Exchange Software) have trounced GMAIL in the style and looks department. My solution has been to use the IMAP feature in Outlook 2007/2010 so I could have my GMAIL at my fingertips along with my corporate email account. Not everyone has Outlook and if they don’t have it; they are even less interested in paying for it. If you are a new GMAIL user, and you want to use a nice mail client without paying for it, I have the solution. To understand this solution, we have to go through a bit of a history lesson. Microsoft has always included a mail client as part of the Windows operating system. Windows XP had Outlook Express and Windows Vista had Windows Mail. Windows Mail was actually pretty good but Outlook Express left a lot to be desired in a mail client. Most people of that era invested in Outlook or stuck to webmail. Gaining access to webmail through IMAP was not as popular or easy to do as it is now, so Outlook Express never really gained a lot of widespread use.

With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft stopped including the mail client as part of the regular installation of Windows, opting to change it to a separate free download known as “Windows Live Essentials”. As part of this we get Windows Live Mail, which is what I am reviewing for you. Stonetree usually recommends that regular users use the manufacturers software for most things. This is because it smooths the support process and makes problem resolution much quicker. If you are on a Mac, you should use Mac Mail; Windows users should use Windows Live mail. If you are an advanced user or Linux user; give Thunderbird a shot.

The single most impressive thing about Windows Live Mail, as compared to previous versions of the Windows mail client, is how easy it is to set up your GMAIL. I noticed this first with Outlook 2010, Microsoft saves the common settings of the major webmail providers, so all you have to do is put your email address and password and you are ready to go in 5 minutes or less. Upon first open of Windows Live Mail you are offered a screen to set up your account.  A little note on the side tells you that Windows Live mail is designed to work seemlessly with Hotmail and GMAIL.

Once I added all my information, Windows Live Mail detects that I am entering a GMAIL address and adds a little quick tip reminding me that I have to enable IMAP access in my GMAIL settings. Not only does it tell me this, but it provides a link to the GMAIL support article describing how this is done.  Once you click next, you are all done. That’s it, easy peasy under 5 minutes you have set up your GMAIL to sync to your Live Mail client so you can enjoy the benefits of using a full featured mail client as opposed to the dinky web interface. If you have an iPhone or an Android phone, you can also set up your GMAIL on those devices. As a result of the underpinning technology, all devices will agree with what emails have been read, sent, etc; regardless of the platform you used to access your GMAIL.

The Windows Live Mail interface itself is Outlook 2010-like. The same type of menu options appear at the top and the main screen is divided into thirds with your accounts on the left, email in the middle, and reading pane on the right. E-Mail is grouped in “Conversation View” which was introduced in Outlook 2010 as a more intuitive way of organizing your inbox. I like and use conversation view, you may opt to use a difference organizational method. If you are used to the last two iterations of Outlook, you will feel quite at home with this set up. If you are new to this type of Mail Client, the learning curve is not steep. Big buttons at the top give you the ability to create a new email, contact, or calendar entry and more advanced functions are available by clicking large tabs at the top of the screen that say things like “Folder”. You will rarely have to venture into those areas in general use, but if you do, all the buttons and functions (like automatically dropping email into certain folders) are clear and easy to use. One interesting feature is to send a “photo-email” which assumes you use live sync and you store your pictures “In the Cloud”. If you don’t do this already, you should. We will write another blog with this in mind later. 

In Windows Live Mail calendaring and contact functions are a great deal more advanced than they used to be. These other features are accessed by finding the lower left hand corner of the screen and selecting the item you would like between Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Feeds, and Newsgroups. Microsoft organizes those by most used first, you may reorder them if you wish. This is a great way to see all your contacts or calendar, or search within those areas. However, you do not need to actually be in a particular area in order to add things to your calendar or contacts. If you find yourself needing to add a calendar entry while reading an email, simply hit the “Items” button next to “New Email” and select calendar. That way you don’t need to break focus by clicking on the calendar link and adding the entry and going back to the email you were reading which spurned your need to make a calendar entry. 

Stonetree thinks there are a great many things to like about the whole Windows Live Essentials suite of software. The name is kind of stupid but there are many good and free tools like safety software for underage children, blogging software, photo managers, “cloud” sync software, among others like Windows Live Mail. What is truly excellent is that if you run into problems Microsoft supports (because they wrote it) it and can give you expert level help with any issue. Additionally, Windows Live Mail is a truly good mail client that will provide you the intuitive interface you desire to manage your electronic communications.

I am asked with regularity how I ended up doing the job I do in Information Technology. Mainly these questions come from lower paid and lower skilled workers who seem to be considering a new career path; one with more opportunity and better pay. Since I applaud anyone who tries to make their lives better for themselves and their families, I will give you an idea of how you can be like us at Stonetree. If there is a theme to this post, it is that there is nothing that I know that you can’t learn. I do not possess out of the ordinary mental powers which means that most average adults could be a very competent IT professional with some work.

The first IT myth that I have to dispel is that a degree in “Computer Science” has anything to do with actual computers. This is the most poorly named degree in the history of academics. The reality is that it is a combination of software programming and electrical engineering. It is an extremely rigorous course of study that requires competency in advanced math and science. Students who graduate with degrees in computer science often end up working at Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, etc. Many are recruited starting in the middle of their junior year! If you can handle that course of study then it is well worth the effort, but that degree will not produce an IT professional like we have at Stonetree.

The second myth I will dispel is the idea that your previous career choice or college degree will prevent you from becoming an IT professional, or put you at a disadvantage against your peers who made a different choice. Not true! One of our most senior professionals earned his degree in exercise science. One of our other folks runs a full time photography business. IT is one of the few careers where everyone who is new is basically starting at the same level. In fact, some backgrounds in business or communications may be looked upon favorably as your career progresses.

Now that you know that you could do it if you were willing to take the risk, how do you get started? Everyone has a different story, but we all had to start out at the bottom of the ladder doing end user support. In order to snag that job, I recommend getting your feet wet with the Comp TIA entry level certifications. Once you have studied the books and passed the tests, an employer may feel confident that you could do the entry level job where you can polish your skills and grow as a professional. Microsoft also has a set of entry level certifications which are a little more rare than the Comp TIA track, which may help your prospects of landing that crucial first job. I would avoid going to IT programs at “for profit” colleges. If they have a commercial with testimonials from students saying how they landed a job in IT after a couple of years in school – avoid it like the plague. Those institutions will normally land you in the same entry level job as everyone else, except with a huge debt load.

There are two other critical traits that you have to have in order to be successful in this career. Luckily, both can be learned if you are not naturally inclined to them. You must have a willingness (and a thirst) to learn, and you must pay attention to detail. With those two traits, there is truly nothing that I know that you can’t learn.  We need good people in this field now more than ever and the career prospects for IT professionals is very good. This field is expansive, if you grow bored you can port your skills to a different IT focus and do a completely different job. If you have an interest in IT, take a look at the links I leave in this post and good luck. Don’t hesitate to comment with questions.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-windowsclient.aspx – Microsoft Entry Level Certification Program

http://certification.comptia.org/getCertified/certifications/a.aspx – Comp TIA Entry Level Certification Program

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos306.htm – Career outlook for where you will probably start in entry level IT, customer support.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos305.htm – Career outlook for IT professionals like the ones we have here at Stonetree. This is not where you will start. This is where you are trying to get too in your career.

Windows XP was released in 2001 and the reality of the situation is that it was only a moderate update to the wildly popular Windows 2000 Professional that was used in most corporate settings for a long time. The reality of Windows 7 is that it is only a moderate update to the beleaguered Windows Vista. It is what, I am sure, Microsoft had intended for Vista originally. Think of Windows 7 as Windows Vista SR2. If all of that is making you less likely to buy Windows 7, the opposite is what I am encouraging. It seems like Microsoft retooled their OS kernel a little bit and that was what was necessary to create an extremely stable and reliable operating system.

Windows 7 has been out for more than a year now, almost every major manufacturer has Vista/Win 7 (most drivers work on both, similar to Win 2K and Win XP) drivers available for devices produced in the last 5 or 6 years. Its time to upgrade. I only saw a blue screen of death (BSOD) on Windows 7 once, and the problem was with Dell, not Windows. I have literally never seen a virus infect a Windows 7 computer. I had to clean a major outbreak yesterday, one that almost totally ruined one Windows XP instance where the others were lucky enough to have AV software that caught the virus before it spread.

Lets talk about why that is. First of all, most Windows 7 installations leave user account control in the ON position. That includes me. UAC in Windows Vista was awful, people either approved everything not matter what, or shut it down all together. Mind you, Mac and Linux have had a version of UAC for generations, which is one reason why its hard to get viruses onto those platforms. In Windows 7, Microsoft engineers tuned it so UAC only warned when something serious was going to change, like software was going to be installed or a driver is unsigned. This behavior has virtually eliminated the “drive by download” threat that has plagued Windows and Internet Explorer. In Windows 7 in default mode, the download may occur but you get a warning indication before that download executes. Believe it or not, when not prepared for it, most people will block the install or call me for directions. UAC has functioned correctly and the virus was not installed.

While not only applicable to Windows 7, Microsoft has also started including it’s free anti-virus software (Microsoft Security Essentials) as part of its critical updates in Windows updates. MSSE is an outstanding free anti virus that easily outshines its free competitors and even gives paid solutions a decent run for their money. People who follow our advice and install updates regularly, get this layer of protection without even realizing it. Its time to upgrade to Windows 7, I have never seen a Windows 7 computer with MSSE installed fall victim to a virus. Never.

Games using the latest DirectX software will only run on Windows 7. The gaming community has been receptive to Windows 7 as a platform for their PC based games. All the major distributors of video cards have drivers that function better on Windows 7 than they do on Windows XP. Serious video cards (Dual SLI etc) need much less configuration to work in Windows 7 then in Windows XP. Dual SLI had not been invented when Windows XP was released. Windows 7 was written with that type of configuration in mind.

Purchase your preloaded Windows 7 computer from the Microsoft Store. The experience is much nicer than using an online service and the techs will install a fresh copy of Windows 7 with only the things you want installed. No trialware or manufacture produced fluff. By Office 2010 Home and Business (a great value) and they will install and license it for you. When you buy from the Microsoft Store, even though you are buying a Dell, Asus, Acer, or HP, the staff are only concerned with your experience with the Windows platform; that translates to a very positive experience for you.

Despite what you have heard, Windows 3.11 through XP were all OS’ made by nerds and targeted to nerds. Nerds can make Windows XP do their bidding. Up until Windows 7 I secretly admitted that for home use, Mac’s were a better choice. Linux and Windows 3.11 through XP should only be used by businesses and people trained on how operate computers. This is no longer the case, I believe that the Windows platform is a great choice for home users. Even Mac users begrudgingly admit that Windows 7 is “like my mac”, which in their world is the highest compliment that can be paid.

Typically “Managed Services” refers to an IT company that promises to relieve the burden of PC and Server management from local control to a centralized, standardized “Managed Service”.  These providers promise to be readily available to dial/remote-into your equipment and fix any issues or problems that occur without having to pay for a technician to be on-site.  Charges are usually assessed by a fixed fee, per unit, per month.  In some cases, they cite the fact that you’ll also save money on “trip charges”.  Many MSP’s react when an issue or a threshold is reached…  I’d challenge one better… how about proactively knowing of issues prior to them having to occur… someone involved with your business and your network would already know these things…

MSP’s or “Managed Service Providers” typically provide those services around a document that actually defines what’s covered… and what’s not.  That document is typically called an SLA or a “Service Level Agreement”.  This document, as stated before, defines all of the coverage(s)… what hardware, software, issues and problems are covered, the time(s) they are covered and the up-charges (or not) for coverage outside of the agreement…  The SLA is a legal document that outlines almost everything you can think of related to the remote support of your network and the services associated with it’s maintenance…  Keep in mind that SLA’s should not be so limiting to the client that it seems like they’ve been handcuffed to their provider…  It should provide benefit for both the MSP and the client while also allowing the contract to be nullified if things really don’t work out.  One should always be wary of those contracts that are binding for lengthy periods of time, that give little or no control as to the definition of “successful services rendered”, and/or that don’t allow for prorated buyouts of the contract…  Probably not a popular statement I just made there…  it has everything to do with my 100% commitment to being a “client advocate” and doing the right thing 100% of the time to protect our client’s interests.

Let’s talk about yet another term that sometimes muddies the waters a bit… SaaS… or “Software as a Service”. These types of services can sometimes be offered as part of a “Managed Services” contract (SLA)… it just has it’s own term.  SaaS services are “cloud-based” services that replace a function that typically is served or managed locally… a good “for instance” would be an outsourced (cloud-based) email service. Stonetree’s STONEMAIL service is one such service… it’s termed SaaS because it replaces the need for a local email server for our clients… and it does qualify as a “Managed Service” because we take care of it for our clients…

Here’s where Stonetree’s philosophy differs from that of the standard MSP.  We believe that “Managed Services” as it stands today… the model of “remote support for a businesses hardware and software” will eventually, in the next few years, cease to exist.  That’s a pretty bold statement given that many IT companies are clamoring to build the “Managed Services” practices as we speak.

Here’s where we think things are going…  computers are a commodity.  You can buy throw-away laptops at all of the larger department stores for $200-300.  Cloud-based “subscription type “services are coming into their own and are a viable and cost effective way of running a business.  Exchange hosted email is nothing new and Microsoft plans on offering web/cloud-based Office applications (currently termed “Office 365″) in the coming calendar year.  We already have web/cloud-based backup with companies like Mozy, Carbonite & Iron Mountain.  We already have web/cloud-based file storage through countless companies offering free space on the web, we already have Google Docs and will soon have Office 365… what more does a person need…?  Cloud-based applications that offer email, file storage and backup…? Check. check. check.  That pretty much covers it.

Ok, so?  My point is this.  Device-based “Managed Services” will prove to be irrelevant because all of our data will soon be in the cloud…  why focus our efforts on troubleshooting a local PC or File-Server problem when it’s all going to be handled in the cloud?  Businesses won’t care (or want to pay for) services that focus locally.  So, what IF something “bad” happens…?  You drop your laptop and it shatters in hundreds of little pieces on the ground only 30 minutes before your big presentation…?  If you’ve all of your data locally with no backup… things are looking very bleak for you indeed…  However, if you have your presentation up in your DropBox or SkyDrive…  you’ll be able to login, download and be ready for your meeting.  If you have your system backed up with Mozy, Carbonite or Iron Mountain… you can login and restore to a new system you just bought at a local department store for $250… again… you’re “good to go”!

Stonetree’s stance is exactly this.  We offer “Blended Services”.  We will never focus on the non-personal “remote control of local hardware” model… A company like that (all services being equal) is only inviting pricing wars (If all the services are the same then the lowest bidder will always get the deal) into a business that will all be cloud-based very soon…   We are now and always will be our client’s advocate – a part of the team that shows up for work.  We’ll help you decide what vendors to purchase from, what equipment to purchase, the warranties and SLA’s necessary, assist with Disaster Recovery planning and backups and put it all together. We’re here to be your single source for everything IT… and we’re working inside the cloud to offer services that will be relevant to your business now and in the future!

In the mean time,  if you drop your laptop and it breaks into hundreds of tiny pieces on the ground… we’d be happy to order you a replacement or even run  to the local department store to buy you a new one…

You don’t need an iPad. If you have one, it is very likely that you have at least one full PC or Mac in your house that you use on a regular basis in addition to your iPad. There has been a craze as of late that was started by the original iPad last year, for a large flat smart phones. Of course, that is all the iPad and its closes Google rivals are. They take the basis of the smart phone you carry in your pocket, and they make it physically larger. It is easier to use the touchscreen interface when the screen is so much larger. My friend who loves his iPad, often tells me that he loves being able to sit on his couch and pick up his iPad and browse the web or look at email – not that I have ever had any trouble doing that with my laptop. He will begrudgingly admit that it wasn’t that much of a pain to do that with his laptop either. It is just ever so slightly more convenient to do on an iPad.

I am not beating up on the iPad, far from it, it is a very cool little electronic gizmo. However, it does not take long to see some problems with the iPad and its Google counterparts that haven’t been addressed with the latest releases of either platforms. Spend some time crunching numbers, comparing documents, typing, or anything else that requires a lot of interaction and the lack of both a keyboard and multi-tasking become serious issues. I understand Google supports multi-tasking, but moving between running apps is cumbersome and comparing two apps side by side is nearly impossible. That doesn’t even touch on things like printing and file sharing, which aren’t done well natively on either device.

What has happened is that Apple has found a way of separating you from at least $600 for a device that can do nothing more than your laptop. The Google tablets are just as expensive. We are quite quick to forgive the obvious shortcomings of these tablets but we give no leeway to our old business and pleasure partner, the laptop.  The laptop that you can get in a touchscreen, get in Mac, Linux, Windows, and very shortly a Google operating system or any combination of those with the right virtualization software. A laptop that can play, edit, and create music. A computer that is capable of running new and legacy software as well as print from both. A computer that can run 5 different types of browsers that are freely available. A computer that will let you compare a website, an excel document, and your email side by side. A computer that has a keyboard and a mouse. A computer than can do many different things at once and do them all intelligently. I can’t remember the last time that I thought “I wish my laptop was capable of doing xyz” because it can do practically anything that modern computing has to offer. The same cannot be said for any of the current tablet offerings.

If you must know there is a tablet in my household. I bought a $270 Barnes and Noble Nook Color for my wife over the Christmas holiday. She uses it to read books and magazines, browse the web, and play sodoku. Which is very similar to what I have heard people do with the iPad. I like being able to pick up the 7 inch Nook Color to look something up on the Web while I am watching TV. I wish it had an email client, but I can log into Google and my corporate email through the browser. Oddly enough facebook also works in a browser, so I can even update my status on the Nook. Eventually the Nook may be compatible with apps from the google store, under the skin in runs Android 2.1 and there have been rumors of app support coming this summer.

So there it is, I like and use tablets, but I use the regular old computer for most of my needs. I am going to guess most people use the iPad in a similar fashion. I don’t pay a monthly fee (I am looking at you Verizon and ATT) for either my computer or the Nook. The Nook is less than half of most iPads and does 80% of what they can do. For everything else I crack open my still pretty convenient laptop computing machine.

2011 is upon us and we have already heard possibly the worst kept secret in the tech world, the iPhone 4 is coming to the Verizon network. 2010 was a year that was dominated by the smart phone competition, with the sales rate of Droid variants soaring to astronomical levels. Apple released a large iPhone and branded it an iPad and reinforced their dominance in the consumer electronics department. Recession or not, people line up to spend at the Apple store. Whoever told Apple to make expensive and exclusive devices is a bloody genius. It reminds me of the mid-nineties where kids were getting their parents to spend way too much money on Air Jordans.

This year will probably be very similar to last year. Consumer demand will be stronger this year because Americans have a little more cash in their pocket. Here is what to look out for.

Watch Microsoft - Anyone who counts Microsoft out has a poor understanding of history. With the massive infusion of cash that Goldman Sachs put into Facebook, Microsoft got a nice payout from their investment in Facebook a couple of years ago. Sales of Microsoft’s business products have been very strong and they have an R&D budget that rivals the space program. Expect a big announcement from Microsoft this year or next, we will see the fruits of their research and development investment.

Watch Google - Google makes no money on the Android platform (at least based on licensing) which means the success of the Android platform makes ne’er a difference to their pocketbook. It is hard to tell where thing like Google TV are going (boom or bust?) but I would not be surprised if we get another big Google announcement soon. Facebook just overtook Google as the most trafficked internet site.

Expect spam in social netowrks – Spammers operate where the people are. The 4th quarter of 2010 had record low spam rates. International investigations have taken down huge botnets and it is widely understood that spammers are getting less money since the click through rate of internet spam is very poor right now. Savvy users and internet filters have made spamming much less profitable. There are far fewer anti-fraud measures in place in social networks and people are more trusting of people they have “friended” then they are of anonymous email messages.

There will be at least one serious data breach at a cloud provider – Fraudsters operate where the people are. More and more people are hosting their business critical applications with specialized services instead of keeping it in house. Even though it is far more difficult to penetrate a professional hosting company, the payout is also much more lucrative. Expect one of these, the vector will be a stolen laptop, stolen ID badge, or a begrudged employee.

More talk about ‘net-neutrality’ with no definitive action -Despite what you have heard, this is not about Comcast slowing traffic to CBS in order to make you go to NBC. This is about behemoth internet companies you have never heard of ‘peering’ each other. Both sides of the argument make sense but neither can do anything about it without seriously risking their professional reputation. Level 3 can’t simply ‘turn off the tap’ of the internet without impacting a lot of people and making them very unhappy.

Verizon will acquire Sprint, T-Mobile, or ATT – Verizon is big, sucessful, has cash to spend, and released an outstanding LTE network which will be compatible with most new handsets (all major carriers other than sprint will eventually end up on LTE) on most US networks. Sprint needs the help but their 4G network is not compatible with LTE.  ATT will have LTE but that acquisition may draw the attention of Anti-Trust investigators. T-mobile maybe?

We can check back in 12 months to see if I got anything right!

You likely have six or seven passwords and countless sites that require you to enter one of those passwords to get in. I had to use one to write this blog. I need a password and a PIN for my bank, every once in a while I am challenged with a question to make sure I am who I say I am. I need a password for Facebook, they challenge me too if I login from a geographic location they are not used too. I need a password to get into my email, I have a different password to manage my clients’ networks. Its not hard to come up with a good password, but it is awfully hard to remember one. When I do security audits I look at the password complexity requirements, then I pose as a janitor or a UPS man (no one EVER challenges a UPS man) and look under keyboards and monitors, inside the top drawer, in a rolodex or datebook and often I can find the password I am looking for. At least in that case I have to be physically in front of their computer in order to gain complete access to their digital lives.

Recently we got an insight to peoples password habits when gawker was hacked. What is so enlightening is that he most common passwords used on the site did not need to be hacked because it is much easier to simply guess them. A simple dictionary attack can break all of the below passwords without serious effort on the part of the attacker. This password - H%5Q*Hyz (HOTEL – Percentage – Five – QUEBEC – Asterisk – HOTEL – yankee – zulu) would be extremely tough to break. My password checker says it has excellent security. That is a tough password to remember however and many people will give up on it. Here is an expert hint – use a passphrase. There are two methods two this, a simple hash, or a long password. Let me explain, a simple hash is taking normal letters of a word and changing them using a key you know in your head. If you use the Russian word for horse (lo-shite) it is much stronger than the english word ‘horse’. Or you can use a long password. A good example of this is ‘i love the vw jetta’ with all the spaces included. Common dictionary attacks will not be able to break those passwords and it is unlikely that an attacker could guess them.

Please do yourself a favor and immediately change your passwords if you find that a password you use is on the below list.