I’ve been neglecting WebKeyDesign for a while this summer, as I got into doing some computer upgrades and taking sort of a break from all things web related. You can easily tire yourself out if all you do is one thing, and I needed a break badly this summer. Regardless I have decided to do some theme modifications for our site. The big major difference is that the site is a little wider and makes for better viewing on 1024 x 768 displays, instead of 800 x 640. I don’t know any people with 800 displays, so it does not make much sense to target that resolution. The new standard is definitely 1024. I’ve tried to cleanup the CSS code too, which has been added to over time and was building up. I’m not to sure about the graphic colors, I might still change those, but the idea is too keep the same resolution.

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Everyone who knows me, knows I love everything Macintosh, and even in the dark days of Classic MacOS, I still did not give up and praise WindowsNT as the greatest of operating systems. The truth is that Apple makes great consumer products. The iMac was about packaging and catering to the consumer and since then Apple has excelled at giving consumers what they want in nice shiny products like the iPod and MacBook. However, after being in the business world for ten years, I have picked up a thing or two about the business world and just how this particular market segment works, and I must admit that Apple just does not get business users.

When I read statements about how Apple is poised to take over and reach critical market share growth, I cannot help but think these columnists are simply deluded. Apple will never reach a major market share without giving business users the solutions that they need. As much as I love the new Black MacBook, it is not a good business solution. In the world of business, you do not buy a laptop based on what color it is or how cool it looks, you buy it because it fulfills your needs and is cheap. Toshiba, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all have business class laptops that can be had for $699. Sure these laptops are not as nice as the MacBook, but in the business world, the boss does not care. In business, the boss gets a great MacBook Pro, and the rest of his staff will have to do with Dell Latitudes.

Being more expensive is just one of the problems Apple faces in penetrating the business world. The main issue boils down to complete solutions. Business needs reliable support, planning, and software.

With Windows, you can get support everywhere and anywhere. If you run Mac OS X, most support technicians will recoil in ignorance and question why you even have a Mac. This is a huge problem for businesses who take it for granite that they can hire or farm out support to almost anyone, since everyone knows Windows. What Apple needs to do is to really offer business users separate support and asure them that they can get on-site support if they need it. This is easier said than done.

The next step is better planning. There has to be better and more frequent documentation of Mac OS X and Apple hardware. While Mac OS X gives users plenty of powerful tools like PHP, Apache, MySQL, it has also given users, programmers, and companies plenty of problems. Like the way SMB Shares work differently on each version of OS X, or the way OS X has developed with some APIs changing throughout the process. Apple needs to be consistent and help their customers plan for these changes.

Last we have software itself. Even with the abundance of OS X apps, OS X still does not have adequate business software. What Apple needs is really iOffice, a suite of applications focused at helping business users. For example, maybe Apple could take a clue from Microsoft on this one. Why not make a professional version of OS X that includes Pro versions of applications needed only for business? The issue is that Apple really has not thought about what small business users really need? Office management, accounting, scheduling, are just some of the areas that come to mind. I would think that if there was such a thing as a $600 iOffice that would handle just scheduling and simple entry accounting, that the small business market would break down the doors to switch. My own personal experience with QuickBooks was trying and I know if Apple could come up with a simplified QuickBooks they would more than save me countless hours, they would get my praises as well.

But all of this would have to mean Apple would have to change, from being the cool consumer oriented Apple to a solutions oriented company. Most of all it would mean Jobs would have to devote some actual talented people and plenty of resources to a market that would not yield immediate profits and which could possibly damage the company’s consumer popularity. I still think Apple iOffice would be a great idea and maybe perhaps Apple could actually help all us QuickBook users who have no clue what double-entry accounting is.

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This week, I planned on putting out another guide. Last time I tackled optimizing WindowsXP, this time around, I looked at how I configure my wireless router. Instead of focusing on speed, I thought it would be a good idea to cover security. This is a topic that most consumers don’t understand and while manufacturers have tried to make networking eaiser, the truth is that networking is quite complicated. While I’m sure my guide on Securing Wireless Networks is not at all definitive, it does cover the basic measures you need to implement to have a somewhat secure wireless network in your house.

If you do one thing, make sure you enable WPA and use a random generated password. This alone is absolutely essential.

Feel free to add any comments and let me know what you do to secure your wireless network.

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My first computer in college was a Macintosh LC III. The hard drive that came with it was 80MB only and I remember having a stack of floppies around for backup. Nowadays I carry most of my essentials on a SanDisk Cruzer Micro; this tiny flash drive is pretty incredible when compared to that 80MB hard drive. It features 1GB of space, which currently leaves me plenty of room for data files and programs. At the same time it is absolutely tiny and easy to carry. Although I have had other USB flash drives, I personally prefer the Sandisk Cruzer Micro for three reasons: the first being it’s physical size, the second has to do with the rubber casing which makes it easy to handle, and the last reason is the U3 software that makes it easier to manage portable applications.

The U3 Drive

U3 is really a platform which some flash drive manufacturers use to make their drives more appealing. These flash drives, usually referred to as smart drives come preformatted in two partitions. One partition automatically loads the U3 Launcher application and the main partition is for your program and document storage. The Launcher sets up a U3 icon on the Task Bar for you to click on. Think of it as a second Start Menu.

Clicking on the U3 icon will bring up the Launchpad as shown above (shown with third party applications already installed). Some smart drives come with third party applications already setup. SanDisk does not come with any third party applications. They include only their CruzerSync software, for which they sell a Pro version upgrade on their website for. Most U3 applications are just repackaged applications that are retrofitted to work on the U3 platform. This also means that most U3 apps are actually commercial applications that you have to purchase from the Software Central site. Although most opensource applications like Firefox are being ported, see Firefox Goes Portable.

The U3 Launchpad

The best features of the Launchpad is that it makes portable software easy to install, launch, and maintain. SanDisk’s implementation of the U3 system is also excellent. Unlike other vendors (like BestBuy’s GeekSquad brand), SanDisk actually updates the U3 software via a software update feature. Their last update, updated the Launchpad’s theme to a brushed metal background similar to Apple’s Safari.

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Now that PC viruses have been with us for 20 years, it only makes sense to remind ourselves to make sure we have some sort of Anti-Virus utility program running on our computers and that its virus definitions are uptodate. Anti-Virus programs are somewhat like insurance, you pay for something just in case something else happens. While insurance is never free in the real world, at least you can still get some free anti-virus programs. Here is a list of some of the more popular programs that are out there for free.

AVG Free Anti-Virus

Grisoft has a long history of making available a free version of their AVG Anti-Virus software and is a very popular choice for many Windows users.

Clam AV

The Clam AV Project is an opensource anti-virus toolkit for UNIX systems. However there are a multiple Clam AV binary packages for almost every operating system you can name, including ClamX AV for Mac OS X. Even if you have another anti-virus program, I recommend installing Clam AV as a backup.

Comodo AntiVirus

From Comodo, the same company that issues SSL certificates for websites, comes Comodo AntiVirus. The company states it is free and will never charge any license fees. Compatible only with WindowsXP (SP2) and Windows2000 (SP4).

Computer Associates ez-AntiVirus

While not exactly free, Computer Associates is offering Vista Beta users a free one year trial of their very affordable ez-AntiVirus. This is personally my favorite anti-virus program. It does not slow down your computer like some other well known anti-virus programs and is very easy to use for novice users and experts. It is also one of the cheapest programs you can purchase.

Spybot - Search & Destory

Anti-virus developers have been reluctant to add on spyware and malware detection to their basic anti-virus programs, so if you need to cleanup spyware and malware, you need to use a separate program like Spybot - S&D. Spybot is my favorite spyware scanner and about its only downside is that you have to download updates manually.

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