There was an announcement earlier this week that Microsoft is going to keep Windows Xp alive - as in still selling it until the end of January 2009. While retailers and manufacturers such as Dell will probably stop selling XP earlier than that, it seems strange to me that the folks in Redmond would be willing to launch what appears to be a vote of no confidence in its long-awaited and highly touted new operating system.
Most companies pull the older version of a product off the shelves when the new product is launched. I can understand that they may want to give the general public a chance to learn and embrace the new product, but it's unheard of (at least to me) for a company to keep offering an older product for more than a year after the new one is released.
Of course, if you read my article in the Snohomish County Business Journal about Vista, you know where I stand on the subject. And I can guarantee you won't find a single copy of Mac OS X Tiger on shelves for a moment after Leopard is released.
What do you think?
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Car Prowls Are A Big Deal
The popularity of the latest portable vehicle navigation computers, or GPS (Global Positioning System) units is making these handy units a popular item on a car prowler's shopping list. Certainly the best advice is to simply take the gizmo with you when you leave the car. Unfortunately it's becoming more and more common to find your window broken out if it eve LOOKS like a GPS unit might be hidden somewhere in the car.
Authorities in Florida say Global Positioning Systems have replaced portable compact-disc players and radios as the hot item for thieves, mirroring a nationwide trend. The ownership of these nifty little devices has grown more than 600% over the last four years. They're small and easy to pawn. That makes them great targets for someone looking for quick cash.
The greatest draw for thieves - other than seeing your GPS out in the open - is the indication that you do have such a device that MAY be in the car. I see cars parked with the suction cup mounting bracket stuck to the windshield or cars parked in mall and park and ride lots all over town. What thief would be able to resist the thought that a GPS unit might be hidden in the console or glove compartment?
But even if you unstick the mounting bracket and hide it, there's probably a tell-tale ring where the suction cup was attached. I read in one story that a police department back east gave out more than 1,000 micro-fiber cloths people could use to remove the rings (I've found personally that this doesn't work so well - I keep foil-wrapped eyeglass wipes in my car for this purpose).
The worst thing is that even if you take all these precautions you might still find our window smashed - even in your own driveway (as happened to me) - because there is some tell-tale sign you over looked.
The best bet, in my opinion, is to take as many precautions as possible. Then make sure you have a low comprehensive coverage deductible. You may also get some small satisfaction if your device allows you to lock it with a PIN. At least the thief won't be making any money off your device.
Authorities in Florida say Global Positioning Systems have replaced portable compact-disc players and radios as the hot item for thieves, mirroring a nationwide trend. The ownership of these nifty little devices has grown more than 600% over the last four years. They're small and easy to pawn. That makes them great targets for someone looking for quick cash.
The greatest draw for thieves - other than seeing your GPS out in the open - is the indication that you do have such a device that MAY be in the car. I see cars parked with the suction cup mounting bracket stuck to the windshield or cars parked in mall and park and ride lots all over town. What thief would be able to resist the thought that a GPS unit might be hidden in the console or glove compartment?
But even if you unstick the mounting bracket and hide it, there's probably a tell-tale ring where the suction cup was attached. I read in one story that a police department back east gave out more than 1,000 micro-fiber cloths people could use to remove the rings (I've found personally that this doesn't work so well - I keep foil-wrapped eyeglass wipes in my car for this purpose).
The worst thing is that even if you take all these precautions you might still find our window smashed - even in your own driveway (as happened to me) - because there is some tell-tale sign you over looked.
The best bet, in my opinion, is to take as many precautions as possible. Then make sure you have a low comprehensive coverage deductible. You may also get some small satisfaction if your device allows you to lock it with a PIN. At least the thief won't be making any money off your device.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
New Blog for Business Topics
I decided that this blog would fill up pretty quickly with business discussions unless I limited myself to talking only about technology. But since I love talking about business and things related to business I decided to start another blog dedicated exclusively to my thoughts (and yours) about running a small business. You can view it here.
Friday, September 21, 2007
When Good Drives Go Bad
You've heard about them. I' you're lucky you've never experienced one. I'm talking about a hard drive crash. People are always asking my "how did my hard drive crash? It was working just fine yesterday?" Let's take a look at just what it is that makes a hard drive such a tough - yet delicate - piece of engineering wonder.
First let's make sure we're all on the same page here. Some people mistakenly call the box all the wires plug into a hard drive. Actually, the hard drive is just one of the pieces that's in that box. Next to the main processor it is by far one of the most critical components in your computer. It's is where Windows lives; it's where your pictures from your last vacation live; it's where everything you hold dear lives. If you don't have a backup of these important little items, you could be in for a really bad day when this thing finally fails.
Let's take a look at how these are built. This is pretty a generic description, but it fits most drives. The fundamental part of the drive - the part where your address book and Uncle Sid's pictures are stored is called a platter. As the name implies it is a round piece of magnetic material.
(Here's a quick bunny trail - little spots on this magnetic material can be given a positive or negative charge. Think of it as zeros and ones. On or off. These are called bits. And 8 bits add up to a byte. And it modern drives are approaching the capacity to store a terabyte - that's a thousand billion bytes. Think of it this way: you would have to cut down 50,000 tress and turn them into paper and then print them out to equal a terabyte of text stored on a hard drive.)
OK, back on track. Each drive has several platters stacked on top of each other with a little bit of space between each platter (see diagram). These platters are attached to a spindle that spins at 7200 RPM - that's faster than the crankshaft of an Indy race car.
In the space between these platter metal read-write heads fit with a clearance of less than the width of a human hair. These heads are like a phonograph needle that not only plays the music but writes it as well.
Now, let's get to the really fun part. You're probably wondering how those heads can find data to read or spaces to write. Well, there's a little part of the disk that's reserved for what's called a File Allocation Table (FAT). This tells the read/write heads where to read or write the data you are working with. Since the computer doesn't know how big that letter to Aunt Sally is when you click "Save' part of it may be written in one spot on one platter and the rest on a completely different part of a completely different platter. The only way to decode the location of all the parts of your letter is locked in the FAT. Hold that thought - we'll come back to it in a minute.
Let's look at another critical area of your disk. It's called the Master Boot Record (MBR). It's like the FAT, only - as its name implies - it tells the computer how to boot up. It tells it where the information on Windows is along with all the information about the hardware attached to the system.
So you've got platters with a thin coating of magnetic material spinning at incredible speeds, and these platters are less than a hair's-breadth away from these solid metal read/write heads. Do you smell a recipe for disaster?
But wait, there's more. There is a tiny electric motor that spins the disk platters. It has to run at a very precise speed. This is because the address in the FAT is based on exactly where that read/write head was on the platter when it wrote those bits and bytes that belong to Aunt Sally's letter. And that position is based on the assumption that the disk was traveling at a precise speed when the data was written and that is is traveling at precisely the same speed when you want to read it. This is the key to the whole thing. If you data was written when the disk was spinning at 7,200 RPM and you try to read it when the disk is spinning at 7,000 RPM, you will be looking in the wrong place for your data. You will be reading gibberish! That's bad if it's your letter to Aunt Sally. But what if it's part of your MBR? That's right, your computer won't boot!
OK, now you know WHY hard drives crash - the system can't find the data where it thinks it should be. But HOW does that happen.
Well, one obvious reason would be if the disk platters wobbled for some reason - a bearing in the drive motor or spindle gets out of whack, or the computer takes a sharp whack (i.e. you kick it or drop it) then the platter(s) could be scratched, thus erasing any data that was there.
Besides wear and tear or taking a beating, what else can affect the rotation of the platters?
Some things you might not think of.
Power - if your power spikes or sags, it can affect the speed at which the platters are turning. Remember, it's an electric motor. More power = faster spin, less power = slower spin.
Unexpected shut down (power failure or turning the computer off without using the shutdown option) - this will interrupt the write process and mess up any or all of the items mentioned above.
The best advice I can give you is to back up your data regularly and purchase a battery backup. If you're not sure how to do either of these then PLEASE give us a call. We hate to be the ones to tell you your data is gone...
First let's make sure we're all on the same page here. Some people mistakenly call the box all the wires plug into a hard drive. Actually, the hard drive is just one of the pieces that's in that box. Next to the main processor it is by far one of the most critical components in your computer. It's is where Windows lives; it's where your pictures from your last vacation live; it's where everything you hold dear lives. If you don't have a backup of these important little items, you could be in for a really bad day when this thing finally fails.
Let's take a look at how these are built. This is pretty a generic description, but it fits most drives. The fundamental part of the drive - the part where your address book and Uncle Sid's pictures are stored is called a platter. As the name implies it is a round piece of magnetic material.
(Here's a quick bunny trail - little spots on this magnetic material can be given a positive or negative charge. Think of it as zeros and ones. On or off. These are called bits. And 8 bits add up to a byte. And it modern drives are approaching the capacity to store a terabyte - that's a thousand billion bytes. Think of it this way: you would have to cut down 50,000 tress and turn them into paper and then print them out to equal a terabyte of text stored on a hard drive.)
OK, back on track. Each drive has several platters stacked on top of each other with a little bit of space between each platter (see diagram). These platters are attached to a spindle that spins at 7200 RPM - that's faster than the crankshaft of an Indy race car.
In the space between these platter metal read-write heads fit with a clearance of less than the width of a human hair. These heads are like a phonograph needle that not only plays the music but writes it as well.
Now, let's get to the really fun part. You're probably wondering how those heads can find data to read or spaces to write. Well, there's a little part of the disk that's reserved for what's called a File Allocation Table (FAT). This tells the read/write heads where to read or write the data you are working with. Since the computer doesn't know how big that letter to Aunt Sally is when you click "Save' part of it may be written in one spot on one platter and the rest on a completely different part of a completely different platter. The only way to decode the location of all the parts of your letter is locked in the FAT. Hold that thought - we'll come back to it in a minute.
Let's look at another critical area of your disk. It's called the Master Boot Record (MBR). It's like the FAT, only - as its name implies - it tells the computer how to boot up. It tells it where the information on Windows is along with all the information about the hardware attached to the system.
So you've got platters with a thin coating of magnetic material spinning at incredible speeds, and these platters are less than a hair's-breadth away from these solid metal read/write heads. Do you smell a recipe for disaster?
But wait, there's more. There is a tiny electric motor that spins the disk platters. It has to run at a very precise speed. This is because the address in the FAT is based on exactly where that read/write head was on the platter when it wrote those bits and bytes that belong to Aunt Sally's letter. And that position is based on the assumption that the disk was traveling at a precise speed when the data was written and that is is traveling at precisely the same speed when you want to read it. This is the key to the whole thing. If you data was written when the disk was spinning at 7,200 RPM and you try to read it when the disk is spinning at 7,000 RPM, you will be looking in the wrong place for your data. You will be reading gibberish! That's bad if it's your letter to Aunt Sally. But what if it's part of your MBR? That's right, your computer won't boot!
OK, now you know WHY hard drives crash - the system can't find the data where it thinks it should be. But HOW does that happen.
Well, one obvious reason would be if the disk platters wobbled for some reason - a bearing in the drive motor or spindle gets out of whack, or the computer takes a sharp whack (i.e. you kick it or drop it) then the platter(s) could be scratched, thus erasing any data that was there.
Besides wear and tear or taking a beating, what else can affect the rotation of the platters?
Some things you might not think of.
Power - if your power spikes or sags, it can affect the speed at which the platters are turning. Remember, it's an electric motor. More power = faster spin, less power = slower spin.
Unexpected shut down (power failure or turning the computer off without using the shutdown option) - this will interrupt the write process and mess up any or all of the items mentioned above.
The best advice I can give you is to back up your data regularly and purchase a battery backup. If you're not sure how to do either of these then PLEASE give us a call. We hate to be the ones to tell you your data is gone...
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Is Linux the Giant-Killer?
I like to read Walter Mossberg's All Things Digital column. It shows up in The Herald every Tuesday. He and I think a lot alike on a lot of things (however I do wish I could figure out how to get technology companies to let me play with there stuff the way he does). Today I was reading his thoughts on Linux. He was reviewing a new(ish) operating system called Ubuntu, which I admit I've never heard of. But it is Linux-based and is also freeware/open-source, as is Linux.
I've always been a fence-sitter on the subject of open-source code and Linux in particular. I used to use Unix a lot in a previous job, but it was always command-line stuff (of course, this was the early 90's). I finally decided to to try Linux about ten years ago. Everyone was telling me to give it a try. It was certainly going to be the Operating System that would take Windows to the ground and rock Redmond. Well, I didn't find that to be quite true.
I bought a copy of Red Hat. I had to since I couldn't download the open-source version over the dial up line that I had. Plus it had great documentation! I loaded it up and was suitably impressed. The GUI was fairly straight-forward, although I had to dig a bit to find some of the things. But I really ran into some rough spots trying to get some of the basic devices working. the modem, the NIC, and the floppy drive all required setup and drivers that were beyond my ken. And I'm a rather techie guy. Plus my hardware was all supposedly Linux-compatible.
Since then I've pretty much shied away from open-source operating systems. I'm not against open-source by any means. I just feel that an operating system needs to be a little more tightly controlled. The benefit of the open-source model is that anyone can freely update and distribute the software. But that, in my opinion, is also the downside. Imagine your operating system is like the gasoline in your car. If gasoline were open-source, then you could get different gas at different stations. You would probably find that Fred's Fancy gas works just fine in your car, but when you gas up at Jane's Jiffy Joint you find your car doesn't run so good.
In a direct quote from the Linux Website, "There are now literally hundreds of companies and organizations and an equal number of individuals that have released their own versions of operating systems based on the Linux kernel." For Linux to go mainstream it's my personal opinion that someone is going to have to drive a stake in the ground and say "this is the Linux (or Linux-based) operating system that will compete on a global scale."
Sure there are plenty of companies that base servers and other platforms on Linux-based technology, but these are hardly mainstream systems. These are specialized devices that are running in carefully controlled environments and cared for by (usually) highly trained IT professionals. But to put the Linux system on a platform that Joe Consumer is going to take out of the box and plug into the wall is just plain crazy.
I come across people every day that can't get plug-and-play devices to work on Windows machines. And for the most part these are educated individuals that can and do read the instructions and endure hours on the phone with support agents in various parts of the world. How on earth will someone be able to get help setting up a system running some variant of a Linux-based OS. I just don't see it happening.
If and when some entrepreneur does drive a stake in the ground, I have a feeling he or she will be immediately gobbled up by the six-hundred pound gorilla in Redmond or some other big business and either squashed or shrink-wrapped.
What do you think?
I've always been a fence-sitter on the subject of open-source code and Linux in particular. I used to use Unix a lot in a previous job, but it was always command-line stuff (of course, this was the early 90's). I finally decided to to try Linux about ten years ago. Everyone was telling me to give it a try. It was certainly going to be the Operating System that would take Windows to the ground and rock Redmond. Well, I didn't find that to be quite true.
I bought a copy of Red Hat. I had to since I couldn't download the open-source version over the dial up line that I had. Plus it had great documentation! I loaded it up and was suitably impressed. The GUI was fairly straight-forward, although I had to dig a bit to find some of the things. But I really ran into some rough spots trying to get some of the basic devices working. the modem, the NIC, and the floppy drive all required setup and drivers that were beyond my ken. And I'm a rather techie guy. Plus my hardware was all supposedly Linux-compatible.
Since then I've pretty much shied away from open-source operating systems. I'm not against open-source by any means. I just feel that an operating system needs to be a little more tightly controlled. The benefit of the open-source model is that anyone can freely update and distribute the software. But that, in my opinion, is also the downside. Imagine your operating system is like the gasoline in your car. If gasoline were open-source, then you could get different gas at different stations. You would probably find that Fred's Fancy gas works just fine in your car, but when you gas up at Jane's Jiffy Joint you find your car doesn't run so good.
In a direct quote from the Linux Website, "There are now literally hundreds of companies and organizations and an equal number of individuals that have released their own versions of operating systems based on the Linux kernel." For Linux to go mainstream it's my personal opinion that someone is going to have to drive a stake in the ground and say "this is the Linux (or Linux-based) operating system that will compete on a global scale."
Sure there are plenty of companies that base servers and other platforms on Linux-based technology, but these are hardly mainstream systems. These are specialized devices that are running in carefully controlled environments and cared for by (usually) highly trained IT professionals. But to put the Linux system on a platform that Joe Consumer is going to take out of the box and plug into the wall is just plain crazy.
I come across people every day that can't get plug-and-play devices to work on Windows machines. And for the most part these are educated individuals that can and do read the instructions and endure hours on the phone with support agents in various parts of the world. How on earth will someone be able to get help setting up a system running some variant of a Linux-based OS. I just don't see it happening.
If and when some entrepreneur does drive a stake in the ground, I have a feeling he or she will be immediately gobbled up by the six-hundred pound gorilla in Redmond or some other big business and either squashed or shrink-wrapped.
What do you think?
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Do You Want My Business?
I really enjoy professional networking. You know, Chamber of Commerce meetings, BNI, LeTip, etc. It can be pretty much any gathering of business professionals. I love talking to business owners about business. Their business, not mine. Does that sound crazy?
Not to me. If you think about it, who would you rather talk to: someone who wants to tell you all about why you should do business with his or or her company? Or someone who seems to be genuinely interested in helping you grow your business? Personally I'd rather chat with the person who wants to help me. More importantly, I would be more inclined to give my business to someone who supported MY business. These people are called connectors. These people help connect businesses with people who want or need these services.
So how do you become a connector? My friend Zita Gustin has built a business on being a savvy networker. She is also the Executive Director of the Seattle (Everett/Bellevue) chapter of the eWomen Network. According to Zita, "people who initiate a sales presentation on another person they've just met can't possibly have done the homework that would lead to a good outcome for both parties." In other words, just showing up to tell people how great you and/or your business are is not going to work. You have to build a releationship. Think about it. You want to do business with people you know, like, and trust. Here's some great advice directly from Zita's site:
So if you want to do business with me, don't spend your time trying to sell me on why your business is the best at what it does. Instead, show me you're a connector. Show me that you're interested in helping my business - and the businesses of my friends and associates - grow and prosper.
Not to me. If you think about it, who would you rather talk to: someone who wants to tell you all about why you should do business with his or or her company? Or someone who seems to be genuinely interested in helping you grow your business? Personally I'd rather chat with the person who wants to help me. More importantly, I would be more inclined to give my business to someone who supported MY business. These people are called connectors. These people help connect businesses with people who want or need these services.
So how do you become a connector? My friend Zita Gustin has built a business on being a savvy networker. She is also the Executive Director of the Seattle (Everett/Bellevue) chapter of the eWomen Network. According to Zita, "people who initiate a sales presentation on another person they've just met can't possibly have done the homework that would lead to a good outcome for both parties." In other words, just showing up to tell people how great you and/or your business are is not going to work. You have to build a releationship. Think about it. You want to do business with people you know, like, and trust. Here's some great advice directly from Zita's site:
- Talk less.
- Listen more.
- Ask interesting questions about the other person.
- Be interested in the answers.
- Don't try to turn the conversation toward your product. That can come later.
So if you want to do business with me, don't spend your time trying to sell me on why your business is the best at what it does. Instead, show me you're a connector. Show me that you're interested in helping my business - and the businesses of my friends and associates - grow and prosper.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Passing of a PC
How sad it is to lose someone or something you love. Your Mom. Your spouse. The kids. The dog. Your business. That just happened to a friend of mine. At least figuratively.
She brought me her laptop because she kept getting "the blue screen of death" and her computer would reboot. Seems the hard drive had been making this clicking noise for a while. She planned to have me look at it, but hey - it's her business computer. She needs it every day to keep her books, manage her schedule and basically keep her life moving along smoothly. She couldn't afford to be without it for a day.
On Monday it started giving her the BSOD every couple of hours. Yesterday it started happening more frequently. Last night it gave one final BSOD and the computer went silent. No reboot. No blue screen. Nothing. She brought it to me this morning in a box with some cables and an external hard drive and said "can you save any of my stuff?"
Like an idiot I asked her why, if she has this external hard drive, doesn't she have a backup. She told me she had tried to create a backup, but it slowed her computer down too much. I asked her why she just didn't set it up to run at night. She said she didn't know how. Now her precious laptop is laying unresponsive on me work table.
OK, I know t
he backup program provided with Windows isn't exactly intuitive. Unless, of course, you have XP Home which doesn't come with a backup program. But certainly you know someone who can provide some assistance. There are simple backup programs available for $50 or less (I recommend Acronis True Image Home 10). You can even do a simple drag and drop to a flash drive (also called a memory stick or ump drive), and external hard drive, or - if you have it - another computer on your home or office network.
The biggest hurdle Windows throws at you is that you don't always know where to find these files. Some of the most important files, like your Outlook calendar, contacts, and email, is actually hidden! So you have to find the right and save it. (our FAQ archive has an article on how to do this - check it out).
Other important programs like QuickBooks, TurboTax and others keep their files in unique locations. So it's critical to know where these files are located. Some programs allow you to save their data files in locations of your choosing when you install the program. Some will also offer you the "save as..." option for the data file. One caveat: if you save files in locations other than the program's default, make sure you and anyone else using these data files knows the location of the coffect file.
So how do you back up your critical data?
She brought me her laptop because she kept getting "the blue screen of death" and her computer would reboot. Seems the hard drive had been making this clicking noise for a while. She planned to have me look at it, but hey - it's her business computer. She needs it every day to keep her books, manage her schedule and basically keep her life moving along smoothly. She couldn't afford to be without it for a day.
On Monday it started giving her the BSOD every couple of hours. Yesterday it started happening more frequently. Last night it gave one final BSOD and the computer went silent. No reboot. No blue screen. Nothing. She brought it to me this morning in a box with some cables and an external hard drive and said "can you save any of my stuff?"
Like an idiot I asked her why, if she has this external hard drive, doesn't she have a backup. She told me she had tried to create a backup, but it slowed her computer down too much. I asked her why she just didn't set it up to run at night. She said she didn't know how. Now her precious laptop is laying unresponsive on me work table.
OK, I know t
he backup program provided with Windows isn't exactly intuitive. Unless, of course, you have XP Home which doesn't come with a backup program. But certainly you know someone who can provide some assistance. There are simple backup programs available for $50 or less (I recommend Acronis True Image Home 10). You can even do a simple drag and drop to a flash drive (also called a memory stick or ump drive), and external hard drive, or - if you have it - another computer on your home or office network.The biggest hurdle Windows throws at you is that you don't always know where to find these files. Some of the most important files, like your Outlook calendar, contacts, and email, is actually hidden! So you have to find the right and save it. (our FAQ archive has an article on how to do this - check it out).
Other important programs like QuickBooks, TurboTax and others keep their files in unique locations. So it's critical to know where these files are located. Some programs allow you to save their data files in locations of your choosing when you install the program. Some will also offer you the "save as..." option for the data file. One caveat: if you save files in locations other than the program's default, make sure you and anyone else using these data files knows the location of the coffect file.
So how do you back up your critical data?
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Where Is Customer Service?
I've recently been amazed at the lack of customer service I'm finding at businesses both large and small. Well, when it comes to large companies I guess lack of service has been more the norm rather than the exception. Ever since they did away with the "Press zero to speak to an operator" option in their IVR tree it seems big business will do anything and everything they can to prevent you from talking to one of their nearly-trained CSRs.
But now smaller businesses are getting on the bandwagon with reduced standards of customer service. I'm currently dealing with a vendor who offers a less expensive version of their product that has features and functions I'm paying a monthly charge for - and they're all included in the less expensive version's monthly fee! When I asked about it I get a song and dance with no real substance. But the bottom line is I'm still paying more for less. What makes it even worse is that this company is asking me to become a reseller for its product line.
I think most small business owners I come into contact with understand that taking better care of customers is the single best way to retain their loyalty. Much of what we do is becoming a commodity. Barring price, service is the only way to set your business apart from the competition. While my dispute is with a rather unique business, and I've invested quite a bit of money in their product, it will not preclude me from looking elsewhere for this service once my contract expires.
So what's the story? Are small businesses really starting to drift away from the ideal of outstanding customer service? If so, is it because they feel they (like some big businesses) can offer minimal service levels? Why? Or am I just a disgruntled customer with a chip on my shoulder?
But now smaller businesses are getting on the bandwagon with reduced standards of customer service. I'm currently dealing with a vendor who offers a less expensive version of their product that has features and functions I'm paying a monthly charge for - and they're all included in the less expensive version's monthly fee! When I asked about it I get a song and dance with no real substance. But the bottom line is I'm still paying more for less. What makes it even worse is that this company is asking me to become a reseller for its product line.
I think most small business owners I come into contact with understand that taking better care of customers is the single best way to retain their loyalty. Much of what we do is becoming a commodity. Barring price, service is the only way to set your business apart from the competition. While my dispute is with a rather unique business, and I've invested quite a bit of money in their product, it will not preclude me from looking elsewhere for this service once my contract expires.
So what's the story? Are small businesses really starting to drift away from the ideal of outstanding customer service? If so, is it because they feel they (like some big businesses) can offer minimal service levels? Why? Or am I just a disgruntled customer with a chip on my shoulder?
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