Technical Tidbits™

That’s not a rhetorical question. I really want to know!

Do they put some kind of code in their updates that detects older, end of life software, that just makes it fall apart?

Is there a hidden file on my computer that automatically detects older Microsoft software and then starts deleting parts of the software code?

I understand software End of Life Cycles. I get that. But what if I don’t want to change? What if I don’t want to learn another whole new Office program? I like Microsoft Office 2000. So what if it expired in 2004. I am comfortable with it. I like it. I know how to use it!

When I had to reformat my drive recently, I had to reinstall Office and manually go get all the updates and security patches.  But then a few days later, suddenly Office stopped working properly.  It would start to hang, close on it’s own, give me nothing but a blank screen, and a whole host of other issues.

So, when it failed to load this last time and crashed, I let it send Microsoft the report that tells Microsoft what happened.

After sending the report, I get a pop-up box that said, “thanks” and a “more information” link. Here’s where the “more information” link took me!

(Click to view full image)

Like I said, I get that it’s end of life! But why can’t it just work like it did before you retired it?  Why does it suddenly cease to work?

Has any of those ace researchers out there found out how they do that? I think that if you could find the piece of code Microsoft uses to make your system and software degrade, you’d make a fortune! Anyone want to finance me to find it?

And yes, I’m serious!

They have to put something in it!

Okay, let’s look at it seriously.  Your fridge has a warranty of say 5 – 7 years. After 5 years it may, or may not stop working. But usually it keeps going for a while longer.  Over time, mechanical things fail. I’m still driving a 1993 Buick Century for cripes sake! Imagine if that was Microsoft software?

All I’m saying is, that other stuff doesn’t suddenly stop working when it reaches the end of its warranty – which is the same as Microsoft’s software cycle – so why does Microsoft software stop working? And more importantly, how the hell do they do that???

Any ideas?

Those of you who are my PC security (Introduction to PC Security) students don’t have to worry about this because in the first few lessons of the course you’ve disabled this!

However, many of you have not taken the course so I thought it was wise to post this.

Oh, and by the MAC users, this affects you too if you are using the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client to connect a MAC to a windows PC.

According to Microsoft’s Security Bulletin: MS09-044:

This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker successfully convinced a user of Terminal Services to connect to a malicious RDP server or if a user visits a specially crafted Web site that exploits this vulnerability. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

via Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-044 – Critical: Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Connection Could Allow Remote Code Execution 970927.

There is also known issues after installing this update, so you may want to check the bulletin for a list of those.

I’ve been teaching the Introduction to PC Security course for over 5 years and from day 1 I’ve had the students disable this service! I wonder what else you’re missing?

This is a reprint of a recent article under our Business Bits section of the Technical Tidbits™ Newsletter. I was asked by a subscriber to put it online so it can be accessed by non-subscribers.

If you like the article, I recommend that you fill in your e-mail address on the upper right and click the subscribe button to subscribe to our newsletters.

I was agonizing over what to write about in this portion of the newsletter when a conference call this morning provided me with the content!

This particular call involved me, a staff member that we call our resident marketing guru, and a gentleman he had connected with that needed some help. As it was explained to me, the man needed my help because he had all this content and was not selling a thing.

The first warning signal I received about this man’s issue was that he had published two books on his area of expertise and refused to sell them on Amazon because they require a commission. I asked if he had sold any on his own, to which he replied, “a few.”

Before I could hit him with the fact that Amazon would be much better at reaching an audience then he could ever hope to reach, he said something that made everything quite clear. He said that much of his accompanying material was not perfected yet and therefore he couldn’t proceed with his sales of the books or his courses until it had been “perfected.”

Now, to back step a moment here, my degree is in Applied Behavioral Science and I/O Psychology (Industrial/Organizational). I took that educational path because it is what corporate trainers do, which was what I wanted to do in my career – train people in technology. Much of what I learned was not only about how people learn, but barriers to learning. Often times, these barriers can be emotional or psycho-social within the person themselves.

For example, I was once hired by Motorola Corporation to personally tutor 1-on-1 an executive assistant in the fine art of using PowerPoint. Within two visits to this young ladies desk, I told Motorola that she was un-trainable. There was nothing wrong with her mind; she was a very bright young woman. What was wrong was she was unwilling to learn. She had a mindset that PowerPoint presentations were beneath her and therefore had no intention of ever learning it. Administrative assistants did PowerPoint presentations – not executive assistants!

That being said, I recognized a pattern in this gentleman on the conference call. So I probed further. The man has literally hundreds of training courses and material available but has not sold a single item. His insistence on the fact that none of the developed materials had been “perfected” and the constant reaffirmation that his content was so unique that it couldn’t be sold the way I was suggesting (online) led me straight to his problem.

So, I asked him if he knew of some very powerful people in his field and I named the names of 5 people I knew carried a lot of weight in his area of expertise. He agreed that he indeed knows of them and that they were fine examples of the field. I then went on to inform him that these 5 people were selling EXACTLY the way I was telling him to sell his material. These people were involved in online marketing, had a website, engaged in social media, and so on.

He reiterated that he could not sell online.

I know many of you reading this are shaking your head because you know how well online marketing and sales works and you know that your business probably lives and dies by it!

But the point I want to make is that this man was not blind to the opportunities technology is offering him, he’s suffering from Perfection Paralysis.

One of the comments he made during the conversation was that he was spending much of his time packaging and shipping his content. (To who, I don’t know because he still said he wasn’t selling anything!) So, I diffused this objection and told him to go check out CafePress.com. They have an excellent print-on-demand program that could free up his time.

But again, objection after objection when our marketing guru pressed him to take one step forward into the online arena, was always the fact that it needed “perfecting.”

I don’t know about you, but I know I’m guilty of that same paralysis in my own business. The newsletter has to be just perfect or I can’t send it. The course has to be just perfect or I can’t post it and sell it. And so on…..

When you get caught in the trap of Perfection Paralysis in your business, there is a tip you can take away from Bill Gates and Microsoft. If Bill Gates and Microsoft waited for the operating systems and products they produce to be perfect, do you think you’d be reading this on a Windows operating system?  Do you think Microsoft would have become such a large corporation?

Now don’t get me wrong! I’m not telling you to plan your business model around Microsoft and issue products that require patch after patch and only works some of the time. That’s not my point.

My point is that sometimes it just has to be GEFN – Good Enough For Now.

And with that closing comment, I’m going to take my own advice and get this newsletter sent!