Windows XP end-of-life promotion by Microsoft is similar to the Y2K beat up.

Yes, on April 8th 2014 Windows XP reaches end-of-life for support from Microsoft. If you listen to the promotional advertising by Microsoft you'll feel pressured to race out and purchase a new computer. Remember Y2K. Perfectly good government computers could be picked up for $50 a piece and others were given away. Will the same happen again. Probably. But keep in mind I reviewed over 300 client computers for the Y2K and not a single computer had to be replaced.

Before you go racing out to buy a new computer consider that you have a number of options and the computer that works perfectly well today, will continue to work perfectly well after April 8th 2014. You may have to make some adjustments, but chances are your Windows XP computer could still serve you for some time to come.

The only company that stands to gain from discontinuing support for Windows XP is Microsoft. Expect to see anything you are using today that is provided by Microsoft as a potential future problem. For example, will their antivirus program continue to work under Windows XP? If not, no problem, pick another free antivirus program. In time however keep in mind other companies may discontinue support of Windows XP, but in the short term, as Microsoft walks away from Windows XP, that can only benefit other companies.

Keep in mind that upgrading to Windows 7 or Windows 8 may not be possible for your computer. Things may not work and to get things to work may cost more than it is worth. If you continue to use your Windows XP computer ask yourself, where is your exposure? Your biggest exposure is your connection to the internet and the software you use connected to the internet. In particular your browser and your email client. There will be solutions and workarounds to most problems. I can provide clients with a boot disk created for use by the military when internet access is required, and when using Windows XP, access to the internet could be disabled.

Many people have now also reduced their use of desktop and even notebooks, with tablets and mobile phones now performing a considerable amount of the internet activity. In the next twelve months I can only see this trend continuing.

You have options and you have choices. In the coming twelve months you'll be bombarded with messages encouraging you to upgrade. The world didn't end on the 1st of January 2000 with the Y2K and it won't end on the 8th of April 2014 for Windows XP users. Upgrade when you feel the time is right for you.

As I find issues clients are having I'll document the issues in MyAnswers so all clients can cost effectively benefit from the solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Have you been Micensed by Microsoft?

Microsoft have been running a campaign with the catchy term 'scroogle'. In essence when using Google products Google is scanning your data and Microsoft wants people to know. Google's interest is in harvesting your data for the purpose of advertising. We don't know what else they'll do with the data, who they will sell it to, how it gets used, but let's just keep it to scanning or recording the information which goes through their services for the purpose of bringing you more relevant advertising.

Microsoft supposedly doesn't do this, but it really is hard to tell. They own the Bing search engine and they'd record data relevant to searches so who knows how they are using that data. But the one direction which I'm not a fan of is the progressive push to get people to a yearly (or even monthly) licence to use Microsoft's software and services. Progressively Microsoft are reducing what it offers with packaged product and making recurring licensing appear more cost effective. I say 'appear' because remember the ongoing revenue for Microsoft only stops when you decide to stop paying and if you do, you have nothing. With a full packaged product you've purchased the software and you can continue to use it for years to come. There are a huge number of people still using Office 2003. That's ten years of value out of their software for software that still does what they want it to do today. Whereas the recurring licensing model appears to be largely designed to cost around the equivalent of two years of of use at which stage you could have paid for the full packaged product. That means after two years you're now paying more for your software.

If addition we recently saw how Microsoft locked Microsoft Office 2013 full packaged product to a single computer. Previously with full packaged product you could move the software to a new computer. Microsoft have relented based on customer feedback and you can again transfer the software. But what hasn't been mentioned is that in the past you could run the software on two computers. Your main computer and a second computer such as a portable computer. That means you effectively had licensed two copies that could be used on two machines. Now that option appears to have gone effectively doubling the cost of software for some people.

Microsoft wants you to move to the recurring licensing model as it means ongoing, recurring, and largely dependable income for Microsoft. But is it in your best interests. If the software that Microsoft releases bring you no useful additional functionality and in addition costs you considerable time and money adjusting your work or systems for no gain, it makes more sense to stay with what you have until a new version of software gives you additional functionality and value.

If Microsoft calls Google's approach for their business scroogling, then Google could easily call Microsoft's approach to doing business Micensing. To me the real irony is neither business seems to really focus on the customer and to me that means there will be no customer loyalty for either Google or Microsoft. As soon as a Google customer finds a way to achieve what they want without being scroogled they'll be off. As soon as a Microsoft customer can find a way to achieve what they want without being tied into recurring fees they'll be off. Even as I write this blog post I've been working on how to replace scripts I've written which use Outlook so that I'm no longer locked into Microsoft software. I use and prefer Microsoft software, but I don't want to be locked into their ongoing recurring fees model and end up with no other choice.

Make sure when you are reviewing using Google's or Microsoft's software or services you consider how these companies make their money as that is what they focus on. What you need to focus on is your needs and what is good for you and your business, now and in the future.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

MyAnswers: Google adwords keyword tool defaults to United Kingdom and not Australia in Win8

The following MyAnswers solution 2336 is now available:

When using Google's adwords keyword tool the default region is United Kingdom even though I'm located in Australia. This has only occurred since upgrading to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 7.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Dog Training Melbourne videos show the enjoyment of participating in herding dog training for owners and their dogs.

One of my clients had uploaded a number of videos to YouTube to show others the enjoyable experience of herding dog training. Many people own kelpies and border collies and these breeds are natural herders but don't often get the chance of take advantage of their skills and use up some of that energy they have. I suggested to my client that he have a site to showcase his main videos on a single page site. The reason is when you participate in large sites like YouTube you are one of many and it can be close to impossible to be seen. Instead turn the situation around so the main focus is on you and others can find you and your services more readily.

In addition using techniques I've developed over time I then assisted in promoting the site and gave the client a good presence on the internet.

The result. The single page website now generates a new customer every week. The client is happy and people and their best friends get to experience the joy of participating in herding dog training. Visit my client's site at www.HerdingDogTraining.com.

If you're using YouTube, wish to put the focus back on your and the services you provide and would like a single page site to give you a presence on the internet feel from to contact me.


Regards,


Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Current location - What is your current location in terms of GPS coordinates?

There are times when I'd like to know my current location as GPS coordinates and easily send my location to another person so they can see where I am. Most mobile phones will do this but seeing the actual GPS coordinates can be hard.

Why would anyone want their GPS coordinates you might ask and really that's a good question. Have you ever wanted to organise a get-together with a number of people and work out a point central to all of you. If you know the GPS coordinates for each of your friends you can work out the central point and it is incredibly easy.

I wrote the web app GPS coordinates (http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/location/) to enable people to easily determine their GPS coordinates. You do need a device such as a mobile phone but I've also found modern browsers can provide a good estimate of your location using a desktop or notebook computer.

To work out the central point have everyone determine their location using http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/location/ and get them to send you their link which will provide you with their location. The link contains their latitude and longitude and it is also displayed with a map. Add up the latitude for each person and then divide by the number of people. Do this for the longitude as well. The coordinates give you the central point. Go to http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/location/, find your location and then in the address area of your browser substitute the central point coordinates for your coordinates and you can see where the central in for your group. Now there's something you couldn't do easily in the past.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Excel 2010 defaults to British pounds for currency under Windows 8 Pro upgrade which should be the dollar symbol in Australia

Sometimes I just have to shake my head with Microsoft. Today I copied some data into a new spreadsheet in Excel 2010 and went to format the numbers so they were dollar amounts. Much to my surprise, clicking on the currency button inserted a pound symbol.

After all these years of getting regional settings wrong Microsoft again gets it wrong with the Windows 8 Pro upgrade. The machine I have has been running on Windows 7 with Office 2010 without this issue. I then took some time to work out what I'd consider to be the best approach to fixing this problem. There are usually a number of approaches and often the best approach isn't terribly obvious. (Who would have thought you'd need to set three settings in different places in Windows XP to get the language setting correct for Australia.) If my experience is typical for those who upgrade, then many people will find themselves in the same position and waste time trying to locate the setting, or worse, end up applying a fudge just to get around the problem. Those who don't take the time to find the correct setting will end up wasting time making many small changes and make their spreadsheets more difficult to maintain.

I've written the solution to this problem in MyAnswers solution 2335. Click here to obtain the solution.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

MyAnswers: Excel 2010 under Windows 8 Pro defaults to pound symbol. Should be dollar symbol

The following MyAnswers solution 2335 is now available:

Updated to Windows 8 Pro and now Excel 2010 displays currency as the British pound symbol but should show the dollar symbol for Australia.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)