Most of us see new technology automatically being better. It’s seen as new, shiny, sexy and something that you just need. In many cases it is but not all. Sometimes I’ve seen electronics or computer programs that add nothing to the old paper or wooden model and some even that cannot do as much as the old version. Look at jigsaws for example. What exactly is the point of that?
Over the course of my career I have had several clients looking at installing some new system into their business. A quick five minutes actually shows that there is a negative ROI on several thousand pounds of investment. In my report I’ve suggested that they don’t make the expenditure. Most listen, although some don’t and I’ve delivered the requirement, and I’ve had repeat work from both because they appreciate my work.
But in general I’ve worked on the principle that ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fiddle with it’ making changes only where there is an actual benefit in some form which in company speak means financial and in personal use means financial, time saving and/or something shiny. Many others do the same which is why so few have moved to Vista.
Because of this mindset I have paper telephone books, home and business, and a diary. I just don’t find carrying my PDA convenient and because of that the batteries are always dead when I need it. I can enter any necessary entries into my online diary at my convenience but the paper one is the master.
I have two servers, 4Tb SAN space, a wireless router, two PC’s and several laptops. The servers are still running NT4 although I have Server 2003 licenses and I also have PHP and Apache on one and MySQL on the other. Latest versions of all of those. The clients all are running Windows XP. I only keep working data on the clients whilst files are stored on the SAN in the appropriate directories. I have Javascript and ActiveX disabled on most as well to cut down on malware.
As you can imagine I try and avoid MS Outlook to cut down on the malware as well so I’ve a very old version of Eudora. I bought the license in 1996 so I think I’ve got my moneys worth. Now I’ve hit some internal limit and it keeps crashing on client startup. It’s not a total disaster as I can access the mails via the web but I like to store my mails offline.
So now is the time to upgrade my EMail client. Time for something new, sexy and shiny.
Shiny new toys
Most of us see new technology automatically being better. It’s seen as new, shiny, sexy and something that you just need. In many cases it is but not all. Sometimes I’ve seen electronics or computer programs that add nothing to the old paper or wooden model and some even that cannot do as much as the old version. Look at jigsaws for example. What exactly is the point of that?
Over the course of my career I have had several clients looking at installing some new system into their business. A quick five minutes actually shows that there is a negative ROI on several thousand pounds of investment. In my report I’ve suggested that they don’t make the expenditure. Most listen, although some don’t and I’ve delivered the requirement, and I’ve had repeat work from both because they appreciate my work.
But in general I’ve worked on the principle that ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fiddle with it’ making changes only where there is an actual benefit in some form which in company speak means financial and in personal use means financial, time saving and/or something shiny. Many others do the same which is why so few have moved to Vista.
Because of this mindset I have paper telephone books, home and business, and a diary. I just don’t find carrying my PDA convenient and because of that the batteries are always dead when I need it. I can enter any necessary entries into my online diary at my convenience but the paper one is the master.
I have two servers, 4Tb SAN space, a wireless router, two PC’s and several laptops. The servers are still running NT4 although I have Server 2003 licenses and I also have PHP and Apache on one and MySQL on the other. Latest versions of all of those. The clients all are running Windows XP. I only keep working data on the clients whilst files are stored on the SAN in the appropriate directories. I have Javascript and ActiveX disabled on most as well to cut down on malware.
As you can imagine I try and avoid MS Outlook to cut down on the malware as well so I’ve a very old version of Eudora. I bought the license in 1996 so I think I’ve got my moneys worth. Now I’ve hit some internal limit and it keeps crashing on client startup. It’s not a total disaster as I can access the mails via the web but I like to store my mails offline.
So now is the time to upgrade my EMail client. Time for something new, sexy and shiny.