bruceb news

The good news is that Microsoft has released Windows Live Essentials 2011, an updated collection of free programs that are well designed and useful additions to Vista and Windows 7.

The bad news is that you almost certainly don’t want all of them, and Microsoft has released them in a way that makes it more likely that you’ll install them all by accident, with some side effects that you won’t like.

The programs included in Windows Live Essentials 2011 have been shifting for the last couple of years – programs have been added and dropped, features have appeared and disappeared, and names have changed around endlessly. […] continued

I stand by my reconsideration of Firefox, but I think my criticism of Internet Explorer was unjust. Some of my browsing problems were likely not caused by IE at all. They appear to have been caused by OpenDNS, some settings deep in my office network that affected my Internet browsing.

Consumers and small businesses don’t spend much time thinking about the DNS servers that are working behind the scenes for them. Every time you type an Internet address into your browser (“www.bruceb.com”), the computer consults a DNS server to get directions to that site. The name is translated into an IP address (“72.167.232.68”) and your computer travels down digital highways to the numeric address. […] continued

Verizon has introduced a new service that anyone with an Android phone should set up right away. It significantly enhances the security of the phone and adds some important features to make the phone easier to use. Oh, and it’s likely to be free for most of you.

Doesn’t sound like the Verizon that we know and tolerate, does it? This appears to be a genuinely good thing. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Verizon Mobile Recovery is an app installed on the phone that allows you to do five things if the phone is lost or stolen, all by logging in at the Mobile Recovery web site:

• Remotely lock the phone.

[…] continued

LastPass has moved to my short list of essential utilities. If you’re not familiar with it, go read my original article about the concept behind the program, then go to the LastPass web site and watch some of the videos explaining how the service works.

The design of the LastPass program is very reassuring. There is heavy-duty encryption running and all of the decryption work is done on the computer where you’re sitting. Your passwords cannot be compromised even if the LastPass servers are stolen or hacked.

I got another reassuring indication of how seriously they take security when I changed my LastPass master password today. […] continued

Previously:
Understanding Google Voice
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 1
Google Voice Interlude – Background About Voice And Data
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 2

Skype is best known for its program that runs on a computer to call other Skype users for free anywhere in the world, but Skype is able to do several other things now – things you’ll recognize from what I’ve been writing about Google Voice.

Skype is built on the same technology to carry your voice over an Internet data connection for as much of the journey as possible. A Skype call to another Skype user travels over the Internet the whole way. […] continued

Previously:
Understanding Google Voice
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 1
Google Voice Interlude – Background About Voice And Data

If you’ve been following along, you understand the tension between new services like Google Voice and Skype that move your voice from place to place, and the telcos and cell phone carriers that feel threatened by that technology. That’s why today’s story about mobile phones involves so many circuitous paths – paths which will twist and turn rapidly in the next year or two.

As you read, let me reiterate an important point to keep in mind. According to the promotional materials, using Google Voice is free for calls anywhere in the US and Canada, and very inexpensive for international calls. […] continued

Previously:
Understanding Google Voice
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 1

Now things get really interesting.

Well, they do to me, anyway. I’m odd.

This is at best wildly simplified, and at worst completely inaccurate, but pay attention anyway – you’ll need to know this to understand a lot of headlines in the next few years.

Look at the wall plate where the phone is plugged in your office. There are two cables, right? One for the phone, one for the computer. That’s important.

Until recently, when you talked on the phone, your voice would travel along copper wires and fiber cables that connected to equipment run by big telephone companies, on circuits that were walled off – there were completely separate paths for voice traffic and Internet data traffic. […] continued

Previously: Understanding Google Voice

All of this started because I don’t have a reliable cell phone signal at my home office west of Sebastopol. Verizon coverage is erratic and the area has no coverage at all from AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile.

If I could, I’d use my cell phone as a single point of contact. Many of you already do that. Google Voice has little to offer you in that case, other than some cool voicemail tricks.

I need to be able to take calls on whatever phone is close to hand that works, and my cell phone doesn’t always work. […] continued

Google Voice is a free service that gives you a phone number.

When you dial my phone number, (707) 703-1601, you’re dialing a Google Voice number. Thanks to the Google Voice service, at the same moment my office phone rings, my cell phone rings, and Skype starts bonging on my computer.

When I call you, you see my Google Voice number as the Caller ID, regardless of what phone I use. When I send you a text message, you are surprised, because I don’t send text messages. But if I did, it would appear to come from the same number.

You don’t know any of the numbers assigned to my phones – all you see is the Google Voice number. […] continued

Previously:
Fear of Exchange
Moving Mail Online With Microsoft Online Services

Small businesses should strongly consider having their Outlook mailboxes hosted on Exchange Servers run by Microsoft for a small monthly fee. I’m going to recommend this to a number of my clients and I encourage anyone interested to contact me to talk it through. I’d like anyone in a business with 2-20 employees to read this carefully!

For businesses currently running Exchange in an onsite server (usually as part of Small Business Server), the move to hosted services does not significantly change the experience of using Outlook. If, however, the onsite server is getting old, moving the mail to a hosted service avoids the risk of an expensive collapse if the Exchange database is corrupted or the server goes down, and reduces the cost of upkeep – no more Exchange security updates and upgrades. […] continued