Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it seems some unnamed company has made a significant boo boo. This “mistake” is basically a rootkit that potentially opens up a huge backdoor. This is very bad news indeed. At this point no one is saying who but it is hinted that it is an “an unnamed Enterprise Information Security (EIS) suite.” Basically Enterprise refers to, well straight from the article, “Who are the lucky customers who bought/will buy the software that harbors this stealthy little stowaway? Enterprises. Big companies, who spend big bucks to develop and protect big secrets.”
Will this affect consumers? Possibly. Its whether or not the same Enterprise suite has similar programming or is perhaps the same platform whether Enterprise or consumer level. This could potentially affect millions of computers. I guess it will depend on whether a fix can come before someone bad discovers it. There are rumors that these types of “holes” are not necessarily a mistake. In fact “The best part is that Trend Micro traced the developer to an unnamed Chinese company” China not coincidentally has been actively involved with cyber warfare with the US and other companies for quite some time, with each year seeing the level of attack increasing. To me and probably others this is no surprise that “they” would attempt something on this level. It is no secret that the Chinese government actively endorses hackers and hacking on a criminal level as well as with their military.
Sorry about the title I just couldn’t resist. Anyways the saying know thy customer comes to mind often in any business. It hardly matters what your products or services are if you don’t know the needs of your clients and customers you cant possibly be doing a good job. I like to know exactly who my customers are and what their needs are. Thats why its so important to watch trends as they apply to people. I am not one to judge people or even lump people into categories. People if anything will surprise you! Some might argue that since I am younger I must like certain music or types of movies. My favorite book is Moby Dick, I like Blues, Jazz and Classical and all sorts of music. I like classic movies too! Yet most my age like mainstream movies and music. Call me weird.
But certain things apply to almost everyone and technology is having such a dramatic impact on peoples lives that it is hard to ignore. Young or old everyone uses technology today. But it is important to know how they are using it as well.
It probably goes without saying that age can have an influence on who uses what. So check this out:
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: October 31, 2008 – 01:05PM CT
Many of us undoubtedly know people who seem inherently resistant to adopting new technologies—perhaps your coworkers, your parents, or your friends have become increasingly curmudgeonly in their “old” age. This isn’t too surprising—although early adopters exist in all age groups, the older you are, the less likely it seems that you’ll wind up on the cutting edge. ABI Research has now confirmed what most of us already suspected: age tends to affect people’s willingness to adopt new technologies.
ABI’s Report, titled “Consumer Video Preferences and Profiles,” details the results of a survey of 1,002 video consumers regarding their viewing preferences and activities; the report’s authors then related these to age. The firm determined that TV and video growth in consumer markets tends to be limited by the age of both the consumers and the technology.
For example, because DVRs have been out for so long, DVR ownership has penetrated the mass market and growth was uniform across all age groups. A younger alternative, Internet downloads, are pretty much only popular with consumers under the age of 30. “The lack of wide video download popularity in all but the youngest group can very likely be attributed to inconsistencies in the process, a result of the industry’s immaturity,” ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson said in a statement.
Somewhere in the middle are video-on-demand (VOD) and video viewing on cell phones. According to ABI’s research, only 30 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 29 have never used a VOD service, while 65 percent of those over the age of 65 have not. VOD is addictive, though, once you do use it—40 to 50 percent of those who have used the technology continue to do so at least once a month, regardless of age. And, finally, consumers in their 30s are four times more likely to have watched videos on their mobile phones than those over the age of 50, although affluent mobile customers are more likely to do so.
Wilson pointed out that, when adoption appears to be tied to age, growth is mostly a matter of people getting older. “The willingness to adopt new forms of entertainment delivery is in many cases determined by the age of the consumer,” he said. “That means that market growth is simply a matter of time.”
Of course, there are exceptions to this pattern. In age groups where a certain technology has already approached peak saturation, growth is bigger among the older crowds. This is exemplified by the game console market, where ABI found that there was no appreciable growth in market penetration among the 18-24 age group over the last year, a time when the growth among those 65 and up grew by 200 percent. Indeed, it seems as if everyone’s parents and grandparents are getting a Nintendo Wii these days. At least mine have.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.
It seems the nuclear family is also the most technologically advanced as well. While it may be a matter of keeping up with the Jones’ so to speak, that is no excuse for not knowing who you are marketing to and why. I have always stressed the importance of technology, not only with keeping up, but staying ahead of things as well. There has to be some level of anticipation, especially in such tight market conditions. As part of my business model I have tried to incorporate nearly every technology available. This might seem like overkill to some but to me it is more than just staying afloat. To me it is a vital necessity to predict what technologies will be important to my customers or at least by adopting them all, or as many as feasible, I am ready no matter what. To me it matters little if one thing becomes a thing of the past. As it stands now I am ready.
This article is a perfect example of why its so important to be adopting technology.
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: October 20, 2008 – 01:14PM CT
It turns out that the typical American family is also the most networked, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In addition to having 1.34 children, a dog, and a white picket fence, the American nuclear family is more likely to have cell phones, computers, and a broadband connection compared to other households.
Pew, which surveyed 2,252 adults in the US between December and January of this year, found that over 90 percent of married-with-children households have at least one cell phone, in addition to one computer. This is compared to only 84 percent of all adults owning one cell phone, and 77 percent owning one computer. 58 percent of these nuclear families have two or more desktop or laptop computers, in fact, and 89 percent own multiple cell phones (47 percent own three or more).
Pew noted that while some fear that technology is ruining families, the survey found that “couples use their phones to connect and coordinate their lives, especially if they have children at home.” Spouses, parents, and kids all manage to stay connected by cell phones and the ‘Net during the day when they are separated, and are more likely to share moments with other family members online. (@daughter: OMG school was so lame today!) At least a quarter of survey respondents said that their families today feel closer than their families when they were growing up, thanks to the Internet and cell phones. 60 percent said that new technology has not affected family closeness.
At the same time, there are some elements of the “traditional” American family that appear to be falling by the wayside—due, in part, to technology. Pew said that households with the most technology are more likely to be dual-income households, which also means that they work longer hours and use the Internet more. “Those with multiple communication devices are somewhat less likely to eat dinner with other household members and somewhat less likely to report high levels of satisfaction with their family and leisure time than are families with lower levels of technology ownership,” wrote Pew.
Probably few could have predicted the impact cell phones would have on todays society. Nor would it be hard to guess how portable computers would become. In fact in 10 years they might be hard to recognize. Computers and phones will most certainly become one device with home and portable models of course. Thats why staying ahead of the game is so important. From adopting an early website to blogging. Are you in the game today or are you still struggling to keep up? Instead of constantly playing catch-up, I like to play ball. I also want my reader’s to be informed as well. Thats why I provide this service. As always stay tuned for more technology news.
Open Office 3.0 update news – Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Shane O’Gorman
The main site for open office located at http://www.openoffice.org/ has been down most of the day. Good news is that they have managed to get a splash screen up which shows the following:
Apologies – our website is struggling to cope with the unprecedented
demand for the new release 3.0 of OpenOffice.org. The technical teams are
trying to come up with a solution.
So you can download the new open office 3.0. I am currently downloading it now. An alternative method is if you open up open office you can see a spot on the upper right to start downloading the new version. I tried this earlier but that too crashed. I am still planning to update everyone once it gets more stable. I really cant wait to see this!
By Nate Anderson | Published: October 08, 2008 – 05:15AM CT
E-mail spam is bad, but phone spam is worse—and it used to be downright awful. How many of us in the US remember the incessant telemarketing calls that made picking up the phone a dicey proposition, back in the dark days before the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call list largely put an end to the practice of commercial telemarketing? But that action—arguably the most popular government decision of the decade—didn’t put a total end to the problem, and that’s where CallerComplaints.com comes to the rescue.
The site launched earlier this year and has seen phenomenal, organic growth of 15-20 percent a month. 350,000 unique visitors a month now drop by to file complaints about phone calls and to figure out what company is behind them. Caller Complaints just picked up the FTC’s internal Do Not Call complaints database as well, merging those three million complaints with its own user-generated complaints to create a massive, searchable database of phone numbers.
User complaints are fairly typical. “Just like everyone else, it starts out with $1,000,000 loan offer,” says one. “They hang up when you ask questions or ask to be taken off their list. Has called my business 12 straight days. Shows up as different numbers, but all with the same message. Now I push #1, wait to talk to a person and then say ‘F–k You’ repeatedly until they hang up. Nothing else to do but get down and dirty.”
It really can be frustrating. I know. Unfortunately people in my business must be public. I have to publish my phone number, email, website etc. there is no end to the spam that I receive and the number of calls I get a day. It is astonishing. But at least this website might offer some hope and some help.
I was originally intending to write a post about the new release but there is a bit of a snag. It seems the release has become so overwhelmingly popular that their website keeps crashing. I am unable to download a copy and unable to find an official press release for the software. I have been testing different release candidates and I can say that you are safe installing Microsoft Office for good. I have no intention of ever installing that software again.
The OpenOffice.org servers have crashed, apparently under the weight of demand for the latest version of the open-source office productivity suite.
OpenOffice 3.0 was uploaded to the organisation’s servers at 10am BST on Monday. According to OpenOffice.org’s marketing lead, John McCreesh, “the servers seem to have collapsed under the load” of download requests.
McCreesh pointed out that the “vast majority” of downloads of the suite take place through local mirrors, but said “the fact that our central site can’t even run the bouncer [to divert requests to those local mirrors] must mean it’s… our biggest-ever download”.
“We’ve never had this kind of outage before,” McCreesh added. At the time of writing (mid-afternoon Monday), the servers were still not back up.
OpenOffice 3.0 is a significant update to the suite, which includes free, community-led alternatives to Microsoft Office products such as Word and Excel. The new version includes native Mac OS X support for the first time, and is also the first iteration of OpenOffice to be able to read the .docx Office Open XML (OOXML) documents that are created in Office 2007. OOXML is the chief rival to the OpenDocument Format (ODF) specification that has been used in OpenOffice for some time.
As you can see the biggest news is that it is Mac compatible and Office 2007 compatible! So you can use this on any platform. It was funny seeing the server crash because the first article I read today warned of the crash and was wondering why they would host the software themselves. I guess hindsight is 20/20.
Then scroll down to the comments to see the early speculation. It is no wonder because many people in the industry have been patiently waiting this release for years. It is the first time that I am aware of that a free product could truly replace Microsoft Office and not only replace, be better. It took me 30 seconds to switch from using Word to Writer. Give it a try, I promise you wont be sorry!
