Technology In Check

As promised in last week’s item, we’re going to take a look today at Software as a Service, commonly referred to as SaaS (pronounced sass or sahz, depending on who you ask). Basically put, SaaS is when you pay someone for a service, where that service mimics a piece of software you can buy.

A good example is something like Salesforce, where you pay for a service, instead of buying the customer relationship management (CRM) software. This is something that can be of real value to a business that’s trying to save money. But it can also be a real problem in certain situations.

Let’s take a bit of a closer look at how SaaS relates to recession IT spending, as well as some of the pros and cons. Continue Reading »

Got an iPod? Now you’re getting Safari too.

Apple is joining the ranks of malware installers everywhere by installing software on your computer whether you want it or not. In this case, it’s their Safari web browser.

The installer is piggy-backing along with an iTunes/ Quicktime update. It shows up in the list of available updates even if you don’t have it installed already. If you let the Apple Software Update run without looking at what’s going on… BAM! You have new software on your computer. If you de-select the Safari instal, it comes back after you install your iTunes update.

I haven’t yet found a way to disable the installer other than just not running the Apple Software Updater. There are reports on Slashdot that you can kill the installer by hitting ‘Cancel’ at some point during the Safari installation. Me? I’m not trying it. I just won’t let it run in the first place.

Apple should know better.

Web 2.0 brought us social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, as well as popularizing blogs like this one. It was a dramatic shift in thinking about the interweb, changing it from being a tool to being a place to play.

Web 2.1 expanded on that functionality by adding mashups, web-based applications like Google Docs, and expanding the collaborative sphere with tools like Microsoft’s Sharepoint. People started to look at how they could expand the boundaries of what they were working on, and how they could do things on the Internet instead of the local machine.

And today I read about some new items coming out now that I think of as Web 2.2 because it again changes how the world will see computing.

Continue Reading »

In a somewhat loose way staying within the theme of operating systems, we’re next going to look at the different types of software licenses that are available. This item is of particular importance for small and medium businesses because it offers a glimpse into something that has mainly been within the purview of larger companies - Open Licensing.

Generally speaking there are 3 different types of software licenses: Retail, OEM, and Open Licenses, sometimes called Usage Licenses or Value Licenses. The differences between them are sometimes significant, but the important part is that using the correct license type can save your business money, measured sometimes in the thousands of dollars.

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In our last article, we looked at some of the points on both sides of the debate regarding whether or not to upgrade to Vista. Today, we’re going to work with the idea that you’ve already adopted Vista for one reason or another, and you want to make the best out of the situation you’re in. What do you do? How can you make Vista more stable?

Let’s take a look under the hood, shall we?

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