I have, once or twice over the last year or so, talked about some of the issues with resellers and experts and their strange, and sometimes idiotic approach to their clients, potential and existing.

I was reminded of this fact last week when I saw James Dickens' post about a Sun reseller. He later followed that up with another issue with the same reseller.

Last week I advised a former client on some quotes given to them by a number of companies for an update to their website. The costs and descriptions of what they were going to do were, frankly, laughable. They were charging thousands for simple five minute tasks, and hundreds for much larger and more complex processes. I suspect, quite highly, that the original quote would have had to be 'extended' once they discovered how complex the job really was. The high-price quotes were being used purely as a buffer because they didn't know what they were doing.

I have, once or twice over the last year or so, talked about some of the issues with resellers and experts and their strange, and sometimes idiotic approach to their clients, potential and existing.

I was reminded of this fact last week when I saw James Dickens' post about a Sun reseller. He later followed that up with another issue with the same reseller.

Last week I advised a former client on some quotes given to them by a number of companies for an update to their website. The costs and descriptions of what they were going to do were, frankly, laughable. They were charging thousands for simple five minute tasks, and hundreds for much larger and more complex processes. I suspect, quite highly, that the original quote would have had to be 'extended' once they discovered how complex the job really was. The high-price quotes were being used purely as a buffer because they didn't know what they were doing.

As evidenced by a piece highlighted at Slashdot, many consumers are eschewing the all singing, all dancing mobile device in favour for something that does a simple job and does it well.

I can only concur with these findings.

I'm in the market for a mobile phone at the moment - my T68i, purchased almost as soon as they came out, is just beginning to get a little long in the tooth. Four years is a long time in technology, and particularly for mobile phones, but I haven't upgraded it because I don't need to.

It does everything I need, it works in the US, has Bluetooth for syncing with my Mac, and has survived thousands of miles of trips, including the entirely vertical drop down through three floors of the mall in Toronto, courtesy of my wife. It's also small enough that it even fits into the change pocket my jeans.

As evidenced by a piece highlighted at Slashdot, many consumers are eschewing the all singing, all dancing mobile device in favour for something that does a simple job and does it well.

I can only concur with these findings.

I'm in the market for a mobile phone at the moment - my T68i, purchased almost as soon as they came out, is just beginning to get a little long in the tooth. Four years is a long time in technology, and particularly for mobile phones, but I haven't upgraded it because I don't need to.

While I was away, Parallels brought out the release candidate of the virtual machine software for Mac OS X. Now I think I might have found the perfect Linux OS to run within a Parallels VM.

I'm still thoroughly impressed with Parallels - so much so, I haven't touched VMware for months. I've also never booted into Windows XP through Boot Camp again since I first tried it out after release.

Why?

I don't need it - Parallels absolutely rocks at whatever I throw at it. THe majority of the time I'm running Linux, mostly Gentoo, because the source based installation system suits my needs for testing and building development environments.

While I was away, Parallels brought out the release candidate of the virtual machine software for Mac OS X. Now I think I might have found the perfect Linux OS to run within a Parallels VM.

I'm still thoroughly impressed with Parallels - so much so, I haven't touched VMware for months. I've also never booted into Windows XP through Boot Camp again since I first tried it out after release.

Why?

I don't need it - Parallels absolutely rocks at whatever I throw at it. THe majority of the time I'm running Linux, mostly Gentoo, because the source based installation system suits my needs for testing and building development environments.

Apparently Web 2.0 is now a trademark - at least that's what CMP, acting on behalf of, amongst others, O'Reilly, would like us to believe. There's a good run down of the issues here, but the heart of the matter is that another company is running a conference with Web 2.0 in the title and CMP don't like it. Web 2.0 is a phrase that is used just about everywhere to refer to a variety of technologies and websites, but I hardly think it is trademark material.

Apparently Web 2.0 is now a trademark - at least that's what CMP, acting on behalf of, amongst others, O'Reilly, would like us to believe. There's a good run down of the issues here, but the heart of the matter is that another company is running a conference with Web 2.0 in the title and CMP don't like it. Web 2.0 is a phrase that is used just about everywhere to refer to a variety of technologies and websites, but I hardly think it is trademark material.

There I go praising spam system Akismet, and then this story appears on the ComputerWorld site.

It highlights one of the critical issues with nearly all spam systems - that you must train them properly, and go through the folder or quarantine mechanism that you use to filter out and identify the false positives. Certainly, from the details we know in this story, it seems that the quarantine folder wasn't checked regularly enough to identify completely valid emails.

This is an extreme example of when things can go wrong, but simpler and less drastic issues can arise, like missing an important email, or an email lying in the quarantine folder for years before it is finally passed and released.

There I go praising spam system Akismet, and then this story appears on the Computerworld site. It highlights one of the critical issues with nearly all spam systems - that you must train them properly, and go through the folder or quarantine mechanism that you use to filter out and identify the false positives.

Certainly, from the details we know in this story, it seems that the quarantine folder wasn't checked regularly enough to identify completely valid emails.

This is an extreme example of when things can go wrong, but simpler and less drastic issues can arise, like missing an important email, or an email lying in the quarantine folder for years before it is finally passed and released.