Friday, Oct 17
For the loyal fans and followers of this website, I
would like to apologize for not updating this blog as
often as I'd like. However, I've been rather busy
securing a partnership that will help LabMice.net
continue to grow and become an even more valuable
resource in the future. Over the coming weeks, you'll
see a great deal of content and cosmetic changes as we
move this site to the next level. I'm excited about
the new partnership, and I think all of you will be
pleased as well. In a related matter, I've been able
to reacquire the LabMice.com domain name after a
billing screw up at Network Solutions released it into
the great abyss a year ago. So if you accidentally
type in .com instead of .net, you'll get us and not
something with lots of pop-ups. Stay tuned for more!
Wednesday, Oct 8
There's an old saying in the
business world: Never let the bean counters run your
business. Since Microsoft included the
product activation feature in Windows XP, the entire
software industry has been watching carefully and
trying to gauge customer response. For software
companies, curbing casual copying and amateur piracy
could dramatically impact sales to the tune of
billions of dollars. While the initial response to
Windows XP's activation scheme was a bit hostile, the
majority of consumers received Windows XP with a new
PC (vs. buying a retail version), and the overall
consumer response was cautious, but not overtly
negative. Anxious to jump on the bandwagon,
Intuit included a product activation feature into
TurboTax with disastrous results. One of Intuit's most
popular products, Turbo Tax is also one of the most
frequently pirated software titles. The new
anti-piracy methods it employed where very
restrictive, and by some accounts,
deceptive. Instead of increasing sales, the
anti-piracy features may have actually encouraged
customers to try competing products and alienated some
customers completely. The consumer backlash was so
strong, Intuit has decided to remove the feature from
this years version of TurboTax and is schedule to
publish an open apology letter in several major
publications today. As a result, the rest of the
software industry is being more cautious, even with
the apparent success of Symantec's use of product
activation in its flagship products. So why did Microsoft get away with product
activation while other companies get slammed? Some may
argue that since Microsoft is often accused of being
"evil", the behavior was expected. The more
obvious reason
they got away with it was lack of choice. When
deciding between tax preparation or antivirus
software, consumers often see competing products on
the same shelf and can make a relatively painless
choice in a few seconds. If you don't want Windows XP, your
simplest choice is to stay with Windows 9x/Me or
Windows NT - forever. Switching to Linux, FreeBSD,
GNU, or even Apple can be a major undertaking for most
people. It requires learning a new and potentially
more complex operating system, and may also require
that you repurchase new versions of your favorite
software. Choosing between two $50.00 software
packages is obviously a much simpler choice. Since many
consumers own several PCs, they've begun to factor in
the "discount" of installing a piece of software on
each machine. By restricting that option, software
companies are effectively doubling or tripling the
cost of their products from the consumer perspective. While casual copying isn't
legal, software companies need to decide between the
lesser of two evils: taking the loss due to casual
copying or sending consumers to their competitors.
Obviously something the bean counters didn't consider.
Wednesday, Oct 1
Despite the telemarketing
industry's
best legal efforts to derail the
national do not
call list, not many telemarketers have been bold enough to
violate it - yet. I usually receive an seemingly
endless stream of calls throughout
the day, and the interruptions are maddening at times.
Yesterday it was blissfully quiet. No vacation offers,
home improvement deals, satellite TV installations, or
debt consolidation services. The trick is getting it
to stay that way. The good thing is that about 50
million numbers have already added to the national do
not call list, and legislators aren't likely to turn
their backs on that many voters. The bad news is that
there are only 50 million phone numbers on the list,
out of the roughly 166 million residential numbers in
the United States. Are there really 116 million people
out there that want to receive calls from
telemarketers? The key to making this law stick is
getting more people (voters) on the list. If you
haven't signed up already, now is the time. Help your
parents and other relatives to sign up. It's a simple
procedure that only takes a few minutes
over the web.
If the list continues to grow, and the FCC enforces
it, unsolicited telemarketing calls could become a
thing of the past. Perhaps it could lead to
tougher anti-spam legislation, which would certainly
make all of our lives easier. A national
"do not spam" list could be the first step
to stopping spammers based in the United States, and
might inspire international cooperation as well.
Imagine a world without spam.... |
