Break out your finest overalls and roll out your moonshine barrel: The Greater South is BACK!

Ok, not really, but Microsoft has reorganized its territories and the new Greater Southeast District now covers Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, NC and SC. This is important because if you live in these states there are a few people that can really help out your Microsoft business relationship and they provide a ton of services that you should be counting on.

First time hearing about Tom, Jessica or Steve? Microsoft has a very strict privacy policy so you have to track these folks down and ask to be put on their lists. The effort is well worth it, you can get it through partner resource desk: 1–800–426–9400, option 1, extension 81792.

Got an email overnight as the resident PowerShell guru (I guess night shift has no Google access?) about a server of ours that keeps on expiring passwords even though neither the domain nor the domain controller nor any aspect of the system has a password expiration policy in place.

Turns out there is a very cool PowerShell cmdlet collection by Specops Software that allows for password policy management. Check it out.

When you do professional development for living the complexity of what you have created can get to you. On such days its best to get outside, away from computers.. but if you live in Florida and outside looks like a scene from Coming Global Superstorm: The Day After Tomorrow you look for the stupidest project you can possibly work on, that nobody can hold you accountable for.

For me, that project is Vladville. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time on Facebook playing the game “Which of my high school friends aren’t dead”  and I’ve sort of fallen in love with the AJAX implementation of Facebook status update. It’s just very slick, very easy to use and effortless. So, in yet another effort involving sinking an enormous amount of talent and time into the toilet of productivity, I’ve implemented the same process for Vladville. And I’ve done one better, I’ve tracked the changes and I will be writing a post on how to do this yourself, in an effort to familiarize you with some Wordpress internals.

Hey, if you’re going to lose, lose big. Right?

Step 1: Include jQuery

If you look at my blog, on the upper right hand side there is a box that says “Whats on Vlad’s Mind” and until today that was a hardcoded block of HTML in my Wordpress theme. There are a few steps here.

First step is to actually download, include and enable jQuery and jQuery inline edit plugins. These are simple Javascript libraries that enable pretty AJAX client side effects to work.

Second step is to actually alter the wp_users table that Wordpress uses to store user data and add an extra database field for status. This will hold our current status. I’ve gone an extra step to create another database table to hold the archive of status changes so they can be syndicated through other services. Lose really big. If you’ve done this properly the little tooltip will show up over the container that contains your current status text.

Step 2: Enable Inline Edit

In order to make updates effortless, I’m relying on jQuery Inline Edit plugin as well as Wordpress authentication. It checks if I am logged into this session, if I am, double clicking on the container described above will update the container with the div contents in an editable textarea that I can change on the fly.

Step 3: Change text, Update

More than meets the eye here, thats for sure, but simple enough – type in new text and hit update.

Step 4: AJAX Update

After clicking Update Status button the browser uses AJAX (well, AJAH) to make the call to the backend and update my status. This takes and validates the input, sanitizes it and updates my account in the wp_users table with the new status. It sends that sanitized text back and…  

Step 5: New Content Inline

The new content is passed back to the browser that updates the original container with the new update. Each further load of the page includes the status field from my account.

Additional Steps: No stop loss..

I’ve taken a few more extra steps that I intend to expand upon in the detailed writeup, one of the major ones being an explanation of why I’m tying in my status via users table and why I’ve made a separate tracking table.

In a nutshell, the status tracking table is used as a logging table that I can also use to syndicate my status. You can take a look at an XML feed here that shows you last five status updates. This is cool because you can export that data and reuse it elsewhere, such as Facebook. Instead of logging in and updating my status there I can just use the RSS syndication  to send my content from Vladville up the stream to Facebook. Or more importantly, SharePoint.

The wp_users part is pretty interesting. Right now I am only checking if $user_id == 1, meaning I just want to enable inline edits if I am the one logged in. Everyone else gets a plain text looking thing. However, lets say I wanted to create a little shoutboard. What if instead of comments I also gave my visitors the ability to update their own status or write something on my board? Same principle, tie the update to the user_id of the currently authenticated user and then update the status field on the backend in the database for everyone else to see, logged in or not.

That, in a nutshell, is the power of Web 2.0, syndicated content and AJAX. It’s also a heck of a way to learn how others write code (Wordpress internals) and at the same time experiment a little for a fun Saturday evening.

And hey, chicks dig it.

(I thought long and hard, which is rare, on whether I should post this on Vladville or not as its quite personal.)

I spoke to many successful and quite impressive people in both my business (Vladfire) and elsewhere about the way they define success.

Earlier tonight I had wrapped up a fairly long and exhausting week (DFWVF) and I went to the living room to find my wife soundly asleep on the couch at 8 PM. So I dragged her to bed and went back to doing what I was doing before. By 10:30 PM I was bored out of my mind and I went back to the bedroom.

Vlad: Hump.

Katie: What.

Vlad: You’re wearing a plain white tank top, the international sign for “Please hump me.”

Katie: What do you want?

Vlad: I’m bored out of my mind. Entertain me!

So she put her clothes on and took me out at 11 PM. We drove about two miles to Downtown Disney and went to Ghirardelli’s for a bannana split. Now I am not sure where exactly success in this is. In that it took me nearly 5 years since moving to Orlando to finally do what I moved here to do, that I can go somewhere at 11 PM and not have a care in the world about having to be anywhere tomorrow, that I can eat a banana split way past any normal persons bedtime and not have a heart attack…

But tonight, in however small way, I was very very happy.

And I get to enjoy it until Katie finds this blog post and kills me.

I said riff-raff and…

Vladville: 18 blog comments. Andy’s Blog: 10 comments. Susan’s blog: 4 comments. Four other blog posts on the topic elsewhere. I don’t need to tell you how much email today’s post generated from friends, fellow entrepreneurs and random bystanders.

I’m going to let you in on a big secret, that I think most the audience gets: Sometimes saying controversial things gets people talking. For more, it starts a thinking process. Who am I, where do I fit, how do I go from here to there. Over the past year we’ve seen an incredible growth in the number of SMB blogs and IT folks who are getting into blogging.

Everything I do in public is meant to strike up some sort of a response or a conversation. Thats why it’s written in such a way. Want to be bored to death – go read the ownwebnow.com/blog corporate blog. Go ahead, I’ll wait three seconds for you to get bored to tears and come back to Vladville. To the blog written without a spell check, podcasts done over Skype and many videos where you’re left to wonder where the other hand is and why the camera is shaking so much??? (pause to let you consider that for a moment and.. there you go, eeeeewww)

The point is, it’s all about the conversation. It’s all about people putting up their thoughts and their responses for the public to see, enjoy and respond to. And whether you like it or not, agree with the points or not… guess what, you’re talking. It’s like a book written by hundreds of people. There you go folks, thats the big secret. Gotcha.

P.S. Every time someone gets offended by one of my posts they wonder how this is going to negatively reflect on my business. This is also why most corporations do not allow blogging or make people dance as far away from the company identification as possible – they fear that negative sentiments somehow reflect negatively on the brand – and in that they write dry and boring text that provokes no emotion and eventually gets no audience. And thats where the fail, because they don’t comprehend that Web 2.0 is about connectivity, exposure and the sense of communty – not a huge “we like you, give us money” sign surrounded by banners, dripping in unsincerity. That I think would be a bigger insult than anything I could ever come up with.

One of the cool things about friends is that when you say something stupid enough they will never let you live it down. Such is the case with Andy Goodman, who is probably well on his way to print tshirts with the riffraff logo on them. Susan, I’m sure, is not far behind with the buttons, business cards and anything else VistaPrint has on sale. I’m going to be hearing that stuff for a long time to come.

But its interesting to see what those that aren’t in the friend squad are seeing in this. Susan and I often talk about the SMB community, and the real part of the community that actually shares knowledge and feedback, not the one that pretends to do it to sell crap. What we always get into a fight over is the riff-raff, the newbies, the people that for whatever reason choose not to play in the game.

Susan’s point is that because she was once on the outside, she wants to help those that are still on the outside get it. She, for better or worse, tries to see the good in people and believes everyone is in this for the same reasons she is and just needs to be shown the way. People come to Susan and say – HELP – and she does. Sometimes directly, sometimes with a 2×4.

I on the other hand have spent enough years dealing with partners directly and see the world in a very different light. Because of the global reach and what we do I get to talk to all sorts of partners, all kinds of people, at all stages of their business. Young and old, starting up or retiring, growing or pacing or selling or slowing – I’m a whore, I’ll sell software to anyone. I group “the community” into three groups: “I get it”, “She looks good, from a distance” and “Screw it”.

“I get it” goes to conferences, blogs, video blogs, goes to user groups, shows up at TS2 events, communicates feedback not just of their own, recommends solutions, true IT business.

“She looks good, from a distance” is your run of the mill businessman who is far too serious for this “we’re stronger together” nonsense. S/he looks at the community as a good medium to sell into, leverage, possibly get some exposure but always conscious of the returns and making sure they are far greater than the input.

“Screw its” is your average SPF crook, used car salesman turned Microsoft Partner, Action Pack reseller or in some cases just an IT guy who thinks he’s right and the entire world is wrong. Never going to look at the community, not interested.

Guess which ones I hang out with. But, it would be unfair of anyone who is reading this blog to assume that the “screw it” is a minority. This is why I begged Susan Bradley to come out to WWPC, so she can see what the majority of the partners out there do, so she can gain appreciation for why Microsoft is the way it is. Follow the money. Who do you think brings in more money to Microsoft, the guy thats absolutely driven to make as much of it as possible or the one thats trying to help those around him? Now, who do you think Microsoft gives more crap about - the guy that is bumping up revenue numbers or the guy that makes the product get a better reputation? Before you try to answer that one let me remind you that everything is for sale, always. Reputation, it so happens, in currently on sale as a part of our July special!

Now for the really interesting stuff..

Successful small businesses (not just IT providers) are successful because of the entreprenurial spirit and hard work. One man, ten, 20, herd of cows, doesn’t matter - they are successful because there is usually one or two people that keep on pushing the whole thing forward.

It is no secret that over 50% of businesses fail during the first 5 years.

Most of those “businesses” are established things that require things like credit lines, office space, plant and staff to succeed. The failure rate in the IT segment is far higher because there is 0 barrier to entry. More often, there is 0 cost to entry. So what kind of stuff does this bring into our profession:

riff…. raff…

Who targets riff-raff? Vendors. Why? Easy money, desperation to grow, buying solutions on optimistic advertising alone – Buy my tool and you will make it! And they do! IT provider newbie is the software vendors wet dream, a large pinata of cash just waiting to be smacked. This is also why Microsoft pushes so hard with freebies into that sector, with events, free software, free tools, action pack. Buy and sell our stuff!

This is where it gets ugly… and this is where virtually 99.9% of my friends, partners and even staff disagree with me. I want nothing to do with those guys and girls because they make horrible partners. In case you’re wondering, at OWN we sell partnerships, not neccessarily products and services. Everyone buying from us probably only sees the products and services, and they rightfully suggest that I ought to hug and love every single newbie with a wad of cash so we can take them to the cleaners.

Unfortunately, thats not what my business is built on and we don’t take advantage of people. We also know, both from personal experience and from statistical breakdowns, that most IT providers disappear about two to three years into it. Why? Job offers. They realize they can’t make as much money on their own. They realize they are working way too much for way too little. The ego gets impacted because one of their customers tells them to go for a walk. There is a number of reasons for one or the other.

I am after the folks that wake up that next day, look in the mirror and say “You know what… fuck them, I’ve made it this far and I’ll be damned if I’m going to quit here.” At that same moment they sit down, break down where they make money and where they lose money, they flip the page and find out how to make it out of their hole. That is where I work with people, that is where successful partnerships happen, that is where successful businesses are built. On survival. On perseverence. On unwillingness to quit when its the absolutely worst day of your friggin life.

This… is where the world disagrees with me. Thankfully, I care very little about the world because the world didn’t put me here, I did. And I wake up every day looking for a better way to build partnerships that make sense, help a guy with his SBS box at 4 AM on a Sunday morning when he IMs me in bed and tells me he is ready to set the box on fire, why I drop everything to help a guy who just destroyed his network. Thats the partnership and the backing I bring to the people that we work with. Thats also why I’m not IBM or Unisys with a platoon of overreaching consulting services, because I have a focus. And my focus is not pretty. If I had a $1 every time Amy told me I am supposed to hug every new partner on the oft chance that they become successful one day, if I had $1 every time Susan told me I am supposed to be supportive and motivating and encouraging of everyone because that is how people join the community and start contributing…

and…well… no, no, thats not how it works. People become successful and become contributors because they decide to. Because they want to. All they need to do is see the way. And they don’t care what I, or Susan or Amy think or say.

Doubt that? Why do you think its so hard to get anyone to do anything? Because its all about letting others make the decision on their own, it is never about telling them to – because when they ultimately do decide, they may decide in a different direction.

But I could just be making all of this stuff up…. My entire job with this blog is to open your eyes to there being more. Whether you decide to believe it or not is up to you. Think about it.

SilverBack, also known as the company with the best damn swag at WWPC, got bought out by Dell.

Conversely, this means Dell is buying itself into the managed services space.

Interestingly, nobody seems to have raised a lot of interest of this. Even more interesting is the deafening silence that has overcome the MSP community, almost as if they don’t care.

So, whats at play here? Are we just thinking that Dell is up to its same tricks and because it has failed so many times in the past it will fail again? Does it mean that perhaps Dell is one puzzle piece (Zenith Infotech?) away from providing a full system to its partners and resellers - I mean, lets look at this for a moment: Dell now has a suite of gear for everything short of mobility. They will sell you a home laptop, desktop, a business desktop, laptop, switch, server, storage array and even the rack assembly for it. They’ll call you and spec out the sale beforehand, top it off with 3 years of support and 4 hour guaranteed part swap. They have a near army of slaves both in India and in America ($60 per incident for onforce.com onsite visit is a slave wage) and today they bought the software management tool to tie it all in.

Sounds pretty sweet, doesn’t it? I can see it, just one extra radio button during checkout:

Dell Managed Services
Let Dell proactively manage your computer and network and do all your maintenance for you! We take care of backups, antivirus updates, network diagnostics and give you the peace of mind:
$8 / month
Managed Services
$18 / month
Managed Services with unlimited support calls [Dell Recommended]

Price too unbelievable? Thats actually a 10% profit margin on top of Zenith Infotech, which is what a great deal of MSP shops use as a NOC solution.

So let’s review:

world famous brand
trusted name for home and business
extended guarantee
local service and outsourced IT
huge portfolio of sales and support services
sales assistance
commodity pricing
profit

Will Dell do for the MSP sector what it did for the OEM computer makers of late 90’s? We always figured time would tell, never figured it would happen so quickly. Anxious to see how they screw this one up.

No.

Of course not. If you’d like to know why, read below…

Everyone seems to be asking if I’m going. After last years sales festival everyone seems to be trying to figure out if Dana and Arlin are really going to change it or if it will be a shame on me moment. Point is, everyone is wondering. Should I go? Do you think it will be better? Think they’ll get it back to what it used to be? Who else is going? Think I should go?

I don’t know, I’m nobody’s daddy (that I know of) but I made a decision on one simple observation that I get because my role involves talking to a lot of partners: nobody I want to network with is going. Pure and simple. I have a lot of peers in this segment, I work with a lot of people that I respect and can learn a lot from and it just seems that none of them are going this year. What their reasons are I don’t know and don’t care, I am not interested in flying accross the country to meet a bunch of people that are just starting their business.

Mind you, there is a handful of very impressive people going.. Matt Mackowicz, Erick Simpson, Karl Palachuk, Arlin Sorensin, Mark Crall, Dana Epp, Susan Bradley, Jeff Middleton.. but (with the exception of Susan who is just insane) they are all going because they are speaking or selling our launching a book or attending an SBS MVP meeting. There is no shame in that, more power to them but I’m looking after myself: Will I get a chance to talk to them when they are surrounded by the riff-raff, can we really talk about the issues businesses on our level face when other people on the table are struggling with the concept of E&O?

So I did my evaluation and based on just those two pieces I decided not to go. I also took into account Jeff’s SMB ITPRO conference, SMBTN and found them head and shoulders over SMB Nation 2006. I also considered the full weeks that I spent at Microsoft WWPC and Microsoft TechEd and the potential CES trip and it just turned out to be a no brainer. There is a lot more to this, and me cancelling the conference schedule I had on my plate, which I intend to cover in a future blog post.

Nearly a month after I got the Samsung Blackjack for development purposes (and a day to a month that Katie took it from me) I’ve placed an order for another one.

As much as it pains me to dump the Windows Mobile 6 Professional for a Windows Mobile 5 device, I’ve gone way past the time to upgrade to a new phone. And looking at the market there just isn’t anything to “upgrade” to. I’ve spent TechEd and WWPC looking at new devices, checking out the Palm offerings, checking out all the HTC offbrands, etc. Frankly, everything on the WM6 Professional side was just far too bulky. The device that came very close to winning was the HTC VOX but it was again a little too bulky with too small of a screen and way too big of a sticker price (the days of paying more than $200 for a phone are gone).

So what finally pushed me in the Blackjacks direction? Few things. First, I wanted a phone on which I can easilly type longer messages and notes. Second, I wanted something that can quickly switch around from web browser to email, mp3 player, calendar and contacts. Third, and perhaps most important, I wanted something that could easilly take videos and pictures because frankly I don’t get out much and when I do having something to take me back to the good times, when I’m in a middle of an all nighter, it helpful.

Finally, Katie doesn’t put up with crap. She has an even less patience with broken technology than I do. And she took to the Blackjack like a retard to an iMac (no offense to retards, just implying that it was a very easy pickup) and has used it as camera, phone, navigation device, email… its even hooked up to the car. She is nearly attached to the thing and with WM6 due this quarter it seemed like a no brainer.

I also figured that the next generation of devices was bound to show up soon – right now its the same ol broken crap with just a few more features. So $100 out the pocket to wait it out seemed reasonable.

Hope this review helps you. Not your traditional device review but sometimes lifestyle uses of devices are more relevant than the specs and ratings that just don’t hold up when mashed together with how you use it in the first place.

It’s that time of the year, Microsoft MGX started today and Microsoft’s entire sales troop got to Orlando for a week long swim in the koolade:

You can’t Photoshop that! Photo credit to Karl Palachuk

So, welcome to Orlando folks. Thank you for your money. Remember, there is only one Mickey Mouse and you should never try streaking or skinny dipping into a Florida lake, no matter how drunk you are.

In a completely and totally unrelated note, I went to the ATM. The bail bond for Orlando is $500 a pop so if you’re doing stupid things here please don’t do it in crowds, I don’t want to have to pick favourites  Again.