OK, here we are on a lovely, sunny afternoon at the coast, after a very busy afternoon, and my wife asks if she can use the Internet on our laptop. Well, no broadband connection at our friend's house, and scanning the available networks, I found that...

A brief list of things I've read lately... more summer reading lists to come... Microsoft's lessons from the desktop (CNET) This is part three of a four-day series examining the state and future of Web security. Pete Boden wants people at Microsoft...

If you hadn't had enough already about the iPhone, Denise Pappalardo wrote for PC Advisor that AT&T Wireless "has been among the least-satisfying service providers," according to the annual customer satisfaction survey in Consumer Reports magazine...

This week, the Live Experience team opened the beta programmes for a couple of new services for Windows Live: Windows Live Photo Gallery beta and Windows Live Folders beta. (More news on all Windows Live betas is available at http://get.live.com/betas...

The Financial Express in India has an interesting article by Jacques Creeten , vice-president of FedEx India, on how customer satisfaction is difficulty to pin down, and that "retaining consumer loyalty sounds easier than it actually is." "Every business...

This post has nothing to do with customer and partner satisfaction at Microsoft... but the news that will undoubtedly be hitting the airwaves and the web as we near the release of Apple's iPhone. I saw that Caroline McCarthy said on the Cnet Crave...

Of interest: this brief article from Steve Bass of PC World, with tips for extending the life of your computer , which includes a link to his column " Top Tips for a Cleaner, Faster Computer ." De-Schmutz the Keyboard My keyboard's always catching...

Kids are up for some reason and so I wait for the next request for a glass of water... In the mean time, something has been nagging at me. Customers are changing, and I've seen a real change in how the younger generation is forcing companies to...

This is a very cool and free utility, Spiceworks IT Desktop , which PC Magazine calls in a recent article one of their favourite free small business tools. If you have a number of IP devices in your home, this is also a good tool for creating catalogue...

Around 20 years ago, I almost went to work for Guy when he ran Acius/4D, largely on the recommendation of the popular Mac community on CompuServe (75435,446 ;). I know, I know... databases are just not me. But I was drawn to the evangelism, of course...

Marvin Walberg is a job search coach and resume-writer. Recently, he wrote an article that was picked up in the Nashua Telegraph in which he says that "the ‘wow’ factor" is hard to come by in day to day customer service... "In the world of sales...

A quick note between meetings, to answer Cathi's question... "What are the best notebook PCs for under $1,000?" Leave it to PC Magazine to rank the top laptops under $1,000 , ranging from the Acer Aspire 9300 to models from Dell, Gateway, HP and Lenovo...

Unless you are buying a workstation-class comuer for development or high-end use (video gaming, video editing), chances are that your next computer will be a notebook. And for most consumer purchasers, this seems to be even more likely. The industry...

Joe Wilcox writes on Microsoft Watch today about the the MPack Trojan , which is impacting customers, primarily in Italy, Germany, Brazil and Japan. "This Trojan is particularly insidious, because what people might consider to be safe Websites can...

A question that I received several times over the last week (now that "grads and dads" season is upon us) "What kind of a computer should I buy? We're looking for a new computer for our home/son/daughter..." This weekend, I found a special article...

Of interest this Father's Day (Happy Father's Day to those out there) is this article, "Remembering Dad" in the Seattle Times , in which a son (Michael Ko, a reported at the paper) remembers his dad. "I'm 31 years old , married a year now and hoping...

OneCare popped up and said that it had "successfully cleaner or stopped the unwanted software" from impactinng my computer. Today's menu included the Trojan Downloader Bagle.BW and Sober.S worm, making the rounds yet again. If you don't have AV software...

Of interest is this video clip from BusinessWeek on "Customer Service Champions" from their report earlier in the year , a ranking of the top companies that put the customer first. On tap in the report is a look at how the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain...

From the I-reall-need-to-find-thestuff-in-my-home-office-piles-of-paperwork, Vern Yip of Trading Spaces fame is teaming up with Microsoft and HP for a contest to set things right... "Tell us about your home office and you might win a makeover from...

Accenture notes in their recent study that a significant majority (73%) of customers who receive "average" customer service are at risk to take their business elsewhere, and that the efforts to provide self-help and automated service systems aren't successful...

I've received several mails asking for more info on User Account Control (UAC) since my last blog entry on Windows Vista UAC . Mark Russinovich from our group has a new article on TechNet, "Inside Windows Vista User Account Control" from the June 2007...

A quick note of interest... the Windows Home Server team released their release candidate publicly this week (see the blogs entry on this milestone here ). The RC is available broadly to anyone who signs up at http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer...

I read this morning in the Washington Post that Vista Limits Choices (or so Alan Sipress and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum report), as well as in this related article in the Post on Vista from Michael Liedtke. "Internet search leader Google Inc. is trying...

It's been a busy day... let's just leave it at that. But I had to post this link from a friend on the other coast about customer satisfaction, which is a hot topic these days. Interesting that Frank Hayes of Computerworld should report that Customers...

Of interest, Sian Welby on TechWeb's "Friday ITch" ... view at your own risk, with this week offering the latest in taxidermy-meets-PC-modding, email bankruptcy and a look at a super-secret enterprise security centre.