ISP DNS vulnerability checker

If you aren’t aware there has recently been an issue with DNS servers that may allow an attacker to redirect you to a malicious web site. If you interested in some more information about the issues see a recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Unfortunately, this issue needs to be resolved at an ISP level, which basically means your ISP has to patch their DNS servers otherwise all their subscribers could be vulnerable. How can you tell whether your ISP has patched their servers?

DoxPara has been setup to do just that. Go to the site and click on the Test my DNS button of the right hand side. This will then return the results of a DNS query, if the ports are random (i.e. :42039, :54311, :34597, etc) then your ISP has patched. However, if the ports are following an obvious pattern (i.e :1001. :1002, :1003, or :30000, :30020, :30100) then you ISP probably hasn’t patched and you need to ask them why.

Right on!

Just been reading the Diva’s blog where she links to the article : Tech Pros: The Next Dinosaurs? Here’s the take away for me:

“Managing tech equipment and maintaining older systems will become decreasingly important. Identifying the best new tools early on and figuring out how to get them into the hands of the people they’ll benefit will be the more important skill.”

If you haven’t got your head “into” cloud computing yet then be prepared to go the way of the dinosaur, because those savvy users are already well down the path to implementing it without you!

Bulk convert documents to Office 2007 format

Now, not everyone is going to need to convert all their Office documents to Office 2007 format but if you are taking the leap and upgrading all your desktops to Office 2007 it is probably an option to consider since there are many benefits with the new format.

Rather than opening each document and saving it in the new format you can download some tools from Microsoft and automate the process. Follow these steps to complete the process.

Applying lessons from the Four Hour Work Week

I’ve been a huge fan of the Four Hour Work Week written by Timothy Ferris. It is one of only a few books that I can say has really changed the way that I view the world. You can read my review but I would urge you to actually take the time and read the book.

Most people that have read the book simply don’t understand how it can be applied to a business (especially their own). With that in mind I have found the following articles about how businesses has applied the principles from the book and the benefits it has provided.

Local business owners swear by time-saving efficiency methods outlined in best-selling book.

Sandia – Being more productive

I’m sure there’s at least one thing in there that you’ll get benefit from. Remember to save time in the future you need to invest some time now, however any thing you invest now will reap much greater rewards in the future than simply letting things continue the way they are now. Work smarter, not harder.

Always being ‘so busy with work’ isn’t a badge of honour, it’s simply being stupid!

The E-Myth Contractor – Book Review

Like the E-myth revisited from Michael Gerber this book is a must read for anyone running their own business. The big advantage of this book over the E-myth revisited is that it is more concise.
This books takes the best bits from the E-myth revisited and condenses them into an easy to read, thought provoking way of looking at a business. In essence, most people in small business spend all their time doing the work, rather than building systems that allow other people to do the work for them. As a result they struggle to achieve the success and happiness that they desire.

If you want a quick introduction to the methodology that is the E-myth then this is a great start. It will start you thinking about working on your business rather than in it.

Who the hell designed this?

I’ve ranted here before about stupid e-commerce systems that were designed by people who have NOT IDEA how real people actually buy stuff. Guess what? I’ve found yet another example.

So, I order something recently and everything appears to go swimmingly. I get an email saying that everything’s in progress and my order should take about 10 days. Yesterday I think – “Hey, where’s that widget I ordered? It’s been longer than 10 days”. So I return to the web site and check the status of my order and here’s what it says:

Order Status
Order Status Description

ORDER
Your Order has been entered and will be processed overnight.

ISSUE
Your Order has been processed and fulfillment is in progress.

REDEEMED
Your Order has been confirmed as fulfilled and will be delivered within 10 working days of the Order date.

REJECT
Your Order has been rejected due to insufficient details provided at the time of Order. Please submit your order again. You have been recredited for this Order.

RETURN
Your Order has been returned. You have been recredited for this Order.

RECREDIT
You have been recredited due to a cancelled Order.

Now reading this I’m sure most people would assume that I’ve made a mistake during ordering and thus the order has been rejected. Ok, so I go back and re-enter the order for the same item. Everything looks good, no errors. I receive an email confirming that I’ll receive my purchase in 10 days BUT this time I check the order status and guess what? My order has once again been rejected with the exactly the same text as you see above.

So I now place a call to the business to find out what the hell is going on. When I get through to the service representative I’m told that the text above actually means the order has been correctly processed. “Say what!” is my response. “Oh, we get a lot of complains about that message” say the service rep, “and we keep telling the IT people but they never do anything about it”. “So where the hell is what I’ve ordered if everything is as it is supposed to be?” I counter. “I’ll escalate the issue and hopefully……” replies the Service Rep.

I have no idea what I was told after because I switched off. Look, now call me an idiot (which I get a lot) but doesn’t this line:

Your Order has been rejected due to insufficient details provided at the time of Order. Please submit your order again.

Sorta suggest to you that there is problem with the order? Maybe the message is in Japanese rather than English and that’s why I don’t seem to be able to grasp it’s true meaning.

Who the hell designed this e-commerce system? Why am I told my order is rejected when it’s not? If lots of customers complain about something a smart business would probably change things so people wouldn’t complain. Don’t you think?

We need to start designing systems for the human being that actually use them. Gee whiz guys. What good is technology that doesn’t make things simpler and easier? I would think this is really simple stuff but clearly I’m in the minority because I see this sort of stupidity everywhere.

And, by the way, I’m still waiting for my order. Last time I order there.

Going to SMB Nation? Me too!

For many years I wanted to attend the SMBnation Conference presented by Harry Brelsford in Seattle. Why? Well, it appears to me to be the premier SBS/SMB event in the world and features an amazing collection of knowledgeable SBS’ers as well as many who are starting out in the business. With the upcoming release of SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 I reckon there is going to be plenty of great technical and business content.

As luck would have it, I’ve also been asked to do presentation on Sharepoint. Here are the details:

GS1: Utilizing Sharepoint to improve your business
You can’t expect to sell Windows Sharepoint Services unless you are actually using it yourself. This presentation will take you through how an IT business like your can use Sharepoint inside your own business to improve productivity. The session will also look at how you can leverage your own internal Sharepoint experience and development to add value to existing customer relationships and attract new business.

This presentation will show you practical ways that you can start simply with Sharepoint and then grow your system to a CRM style solution for your business. You’ll receive practical tips on how to most effectively get your system up and running.

If you are planning on selling Sharepoint services then you must attend this session to discover what works and what doesn’t inside a business and how to leverage that knowledge to produce better business. (Monday 6th of October, 10.15-11.45am Bay Auditorium located on the third floor of the conference center)

So if you are coming along to SMBnation then come up and say “Hi” and let me know what you’re doing with Sharepoint inside your business and for your customers. If you get a chance to attend my session then I’d also really appreciate that and am pretty confident that you’ll get something out of it. Also, since I plan to be in Seattle from the 1st of October till the end of SMBnation, I’m more than happy to catch up outside SMBnation as well.

So if you’re planning to be in Seattle for SMBnation then I’d really love you to come along to my Sharepoint session. If you can’t and still want to catch up with me then just send me an email (director@ciaops.com) and I’ll make sure I arrange something.