Rick Rant

Technibble Webmaster guests on The Force Field

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The Force Field episode 20 is scheduled for release Saturday night May 24, 2008 at 12 Midnight EDT. Our guest will be Bryce Whittly, creator of Technibble.com. Technibble is a site for techs who own or want to own their own IT business and is based in Australia.

In this episode we will discuss the differences and similarities of the IT industry in The Land Down Under, discuss the Technibble web site and find out where Bryce thinks the industry is headed.

You can download and listen to promos here.

15 second promo

30 second promo

I welcome everyone’s feedback. If you would like to call in and comment on any episode you can call the Skype line at savoiacomputer or call 407-CPU-JOY8 (407-278-5698) this weekend May 24 and 25, 2008.

 

Are You Really an Independent Contractor?

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This question has come up numerous times in various tech forums among members who evaluate their relationships with their customers and I am surprised how often it is asked. More surprisingly the terms of such a relationship are often confusing to the client as well.

They blame it on the perceived ambiguity of a general description of the term given by the Internal Revenue Service and to a point they are somewhat correct. The IRS paints the term somewhat broadly and its boundaries can be interpreted in more than one way. This very argument is one that is often presented in legal disputes between clients contractors and the government itself and in the end is usually determined how the IRS interprets it on a case by case basis.

But is it that difficult to determine? Is it as broad a term as some say, or can it be more clearly defined with some simple common sense?

I visited a tech forum today concerning a particular issue about client contracts and posted a rather long diatribe to refute certain policies regarding these contracts. To support my argument, I quoted the definition of the term “Independent Contractor” as defined by the IRS directly from the agency’s web site. The statement was not in legalese, but in simple layman terms. After comparing the statement to examples, it was not that difficult to understand at all. It is only interpreted differently depending on which side of the fence you sit on and what you have to gain or lose from it, the client or the contractor. In other words, taken literally it is says what it says This is the way the IRS looks at it. To some clients, however, it can theoretically be manipulated to create loopholes in an attempt to gain from it – at the contractor’s expense.

Case in point. Who among us is in business to offer products and services to our clients such as onsite service, system warranties, software and hardware, licensing, tech support, remote support or managed services, networking,  integration, what ever – and does not require our customers to sign our contract, delivering the products, services and solutions they need and want on our terms, our schedule and our prices?

Yet those of us who contract our services through other national contractors are required to accept their customers terms and contracts with little or no negotiation or without the ability to require the same of them. We willingly waive all of our rights as Independent Contractors to succumb to the demands of the middlemen companies and their customers.

What does that make us? Do their contracts and terms supercede ours? Did we only waive our rights to our terms? Does that still make us Independent Contractors in the eyes of the law? Or have we now become – at least to the IRS – something else?

The Internal Revenue Service defines an Independent Contractor as follows:

“The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if (the person for whom the services are performed) has the right to control or direct only the result of the work, and not what will be done and how it will be done or method of accomplishing the result.” – Source: IRS web site.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=115041,00.html

According to the IRS, in order to be considered an independent contractor, the client can only dictate the actual scope of the project itself or what work they need the contractor to perform. They cannot tell the contractor how to do it or dictate the terms of the work.

It is very clear to me. I will let you decide. 

 

The Force Field Launches New Features

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If you haven’t browsed TheForceField.Net lately you may want to check out some new content and features that are currently being added to the site. Some of these new features are already in place and a few are still under construction and will be released shortly. All of them are designed to enhance your edification, enjoyment and overall experience inside The Force Field.

Blogs – Previously our blogs were officially listed as editorials. To allow for more personal commentary we created a separate Blog section for our administrators, contributing editors and writers. As with the other content on the site you can rate and comment on the articles. You can access the official, personal blogs of The Force Field team by clicking Blogs on the main menu on the left sidebar.

Team Bios –  Ever wondered who the Team administrators are? Read their professional bios! Several have already been published and more are on the way. You can read bios on The Force Field team by clicking Team Bios on the main menu.

Media Center – This new section contains a selection of audio and video podcasts, tutorials, webinars, special publications and other media resources hand picked for the members of The Force Field. Some of the podcasts in this collection are my personal favorites and are highly recommended. We also accept member and visitor submissions and suggestions. You can access the Media Center from the Media Center link on the main menu.

Free Publications – The Force Field has partnered with a major media distributor to bring major trade publications, white papers and other resources in 35 industries to your fingertips in one convenient location. These publications are FREE to professionals who qualify. I personally subscribe to many of these publications and have learned much about trends the IT industry from both a technical and business aspect by reading them over the years. This is a dynamic business unlike many others and if you want to remain profitable and successful you need to keep up with it. Reading – even skimming through industry trade publications and white papers help keep you informed of the latest in industry trends.

I have subscribed to some of them for many years. My personal reading agenda includes such trades as CRN, eWeek, PC World, Technet, Redmond Magazine, Videography, Windows IT Pro, RAM and Electronic Design. While some of these are not currently available through The Force Field.Net, many others are. PC Magazine is here as well as Electronic Design, SC Magazine and Cisco on Cisco News.

If you want to know more about the business of technology, this is a great way to educate yourself. Best of all, it’s FREE and you can’t beat free. You can access the Free Publications by clicking Free Publications in the main menu on the left sidebar.

Updated content in the IT Business Resources Directory and the File Downloads – We are currently adding more entries to existing directory listings as well as new sections and categories. During the next few weeks you will be able to search through lists of legal resources, business tax information and marketing. We are also planning an update in the next few months to make it easier to find and access the information.

As always your feedback is welcome. Any suggestions and ideas for new features and improvements are encouraged. You can send feedback by clicking on Contact Us on the main menu or you can send an e-mail to media@theforcefield.net.

Rick 

 

 

Microsoft Yahoo a no go, so? Time for Ballmer to Go?

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When everyone left their offices on Friday Microsoft was mulling over their next move in their bid to buy Yahoo. Everyone returned to their offices Monday morning to find that the tug-of-war was over: No deal. Microsoft decided it wasn’t worth the fight after all. Yahoo and its assets are safe for now. Zimbra is still alive and open. The public can breathe a sigh of relief. For now.

I won’t rehash the details of events during the last three months. It is replayed ad nauseum all over the net. This would become just one more redundant article on the topic. But it is important to discuss.

The question is, what does this failed attempt to purchase Yahoo mean for the company? What does it mean for Microsoft and Steve Ballmer, who overnight seems to have lost some virility as the CEO of the world’s largest and most powerful software company on the planet? What does this mean for the open source community? What does this mean for Google? Most of all, what does this mean for consumers?

No doubt the speculation will continue for the days and weeks to come, but one thing is becoming clear, while the other characters in this story dodged a bullet, Microsoft, who initially fired the round, ultimately took the hit.

Microsoft called out Yahoo for a showdown, Yahoo stared them down and Microsoft flinched. This likely will not bode well for Ballmer, whose tough talk last week suddenly turned to meek withdrawal. Ballmer, who was never really respected in some circles, seems to have lost even more overnight, and some industry analysts now predict his days as CEO are numbered. A few may even compare him to Darl McBride, the outspoken CEO of SCO who led the charge to own Linux and subsequently led his company to financial ruin. Such speculation may be presumptuous, but not unrealistic. After all, it is difficult to be taken seriously as one of the world’s richest and most powerful corporate leaders when your unofficial nickname is “Monkeyboy”.

Forum Post Party Tonight

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The Force Field will be hosting our second Post Party in The Force Field Forums tomorrow night!  All Force Field Forum members are invited.

Beginning 7 PM EDT Saturday, May 3, 2008 The Force Field Forums will host a Forum Post Party for all members of The Force Field.Net. All members old and new are eligible including Admins and mods except Rick. Prizes will be awarded for the most posts, longest coherent thread and the best content.

The Force Field May Post Party will officially begin at 7 PM EDT and end at 1 AM EDT.

I will also open the Skype line during this time and you can call in to The Force Field podcast, talk about a topic of your choice or leave a recorded comment in voice mail. Calls will be considered as posts and will be eligible for the Best Post Prize!

Three prizes will be given away and several additional prizes will be awarded spontaneously on the spot by our secret roving mod. The person with the most posts wins an nVidia PartnerForce T-shirt. The member who starts the longest coherent thread wins a $5 Starbucks Gift Card. A prize for will also be awarded for the Best Post : a 1GB USB flash drive.

To be eligible to win, there are a few simple rules.

1. All posters must adhere to the rules of the Forum.

2. The posts must make sense or contribute something to the thread.

3. The posts must stay on topic (except those in off-topic threads).

4. Members can promote themselves and their businesses in the appropriate areas and manners but no blatant spam.

5. You can post audio and video in the forums, as long as it is family friendly and work safe. 

6. Don’t spill any beer or drop pizza on the new carpet.

Our secret mod will be lurking in the forums during the party. If the mod spots something interesting you may win an instant prize and will receive a PM notification. You will need to be present to win one of these instant prizes so it may pay to lurk around yourself.

You do need to be a member to post, however membership is quick and easy. Best of all, it’s free, and you can’t beat free.

Bring a friend, bring your favorite beverage and most of all, have fun. See you there!

 

Rick 

 

Happy Birthday, WWW! Or is it?

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The World Wide Web is 15 years old today.

Or so some say.

Apparently some blogs are reporting that the web as we know it was officially born April 30th or May 1st, 1993, the date that CERN signed it into the public domain. 

This is a little confusing. Didn’t we just celebrate its 10th birthday three years ago? According to CNN the date is December 15, 1995. Slashdot posted it as November 13, 1995. Wikipedia claims it was created in 1989.

Of course, if you want to argue the date when it went into the public domain, that is still in dispute. ComputerWeekly,com claims it was sometime in 1993, BBC timeline puts it at April 30th, 1993 and Wikipedia apparently confirms it.

While there is some argument as to its actual date of birth – it seems to hinge on whether one considers that date to be its conception, gestation, introduction to the world or final release to the wild – there is no doubt the father was Tim Berners-Lee.

So, what is the truth? I guess it depends largely who you ask. Inconveniently, nobody asked Al Gore.

Let’s be fair about Vista

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This morning I read Preston Gralla’s blog about the trials and errors of Vista migration and came an uncomfortable realization that although a lot of the disappointment, frustration and occasional hatred for Microsoft’s latest Windows release is clearly the company’s fault, there is a measure that is also perpetuated by the media, and, admittedly, somewhat unfairly.

Gralla, who blogs on Computerworld, wrote about his own personal experience with a Vista migration. He and his 18 year old son decided to take on the task of moving his 80-something year old grandfather into the 21st century by moving him from an old Windows 98 PC to a new computer with Windows Vista.

Now, being an alumni for a large, renowned media outlet such as Computerworld, you would think Gralla would be completely prepared for this task. However, it did not go as well as planned, and in the end his conclusion was that there was no mystery surrounding the slow rate of Vista adoption. Vista was not popular, and no wonder. You can read about his adventure with Vista in Vista Fails the Grandpa Test . 

At first I took the article for what it was, a frustrating expedition into the world of Vista madness. By the time I finished reading it, I realized I wasn’t thinking this through myself. This wasn’t written by a novice user, it was written by someone who is aware of the issues surrounding Vista and is supposed to be prepared for such an upgrade.  This is a great story, but it is not great journalism, because it isn’t fair.

So, although I am not a Vista fan, I want to be fair. I posted the following response:

I understand Vista is not the easiest OS to migrate to and I have no plans to move to it myself. While I commend Gralla and Son for thinking ahead on the printer and scanner, I am somewhat confused as to why other items were overlooked. From what I read it seems that five hours of frustration could have been avoided had there been a little more planning and forethought.

For instance, why didn’t they copy the files with a thumb drive? It would have been more expedient than burning the files to CD. Obviously the old Win98 PC had a working USB port since the DSL modem was connected via USB. If it were a matter of drivers there are drivers available on the net to take care of it.

Second, didn’t anyone check all the devices and their connections on the old PC before purchasing the new one? I find it interesting that no one noticed the DSL modem was connected to USB until after the fact and assumed that simply plugging the modem into the USB port on the Vista PC would automatically connect it. Knowing this was a Win98 to Vista migration it would make sense to check device compatibility with everything connected to the PC, not just the printer and scanner.

Third, why on earth anyone would attempt to install DSL software from an old CD on a Vista PC and expect it to just work is beyond me. After all the articles and blogs on Computerworld about Vista and issues with legacy applications and drivers I would have thought Gralla would know better than this. I certainly am surprised that he was surprised it would crash the first time.

The USB memory stick would have eliminated the entire Gmail experience as well, although had he thought it through he could have used other methods to transfer the files over.

As for AOL, I won’t even go there.

Overall, while I will agree that from my experience this is somewhat typical of many users who migrate from an older OS to Vista, I also agree that they wasted five hours and two days of needless angst that could have been avoided had they thought this through and spent a few extra minutes planning it.

I would certainly expect this experience from the typical end user but not from a tech and certainly not from someone who purportedly knows the score, knows what he’s up against and blogs about it day in and day out on a high profile site such as Computerworld.

Now, that just fails me.

Rick Savoia
The Force Field for IT service providers
http://www.theforcefield.net

The Force Field Podcast to Feature Special Guest Tonight

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As most of you know we’ve been running a three part series on Selling Linux. For those who haven’t heard it, this is an in-depth discussion on the current state of Linux adoption in the industry and how we can offer Linux based solutions in our computer businesses as a way to differentiate ourselves from other IT companies and create a profitable niche in an uncrowded market.

Tonight at 12:01 AM EDT I will release Part 3 of this series. It features an interview with the President and CEO of a desktop Linux vendor. To learn the identity of our mystery guest, you can hear a 30 second promo for the episode  below.

{play}http://cdn1.libsyn.com/theforcefield/ff_promo_linux_3.mp3{/play}

I created this series because I think the Wintel market is overcrowded and I really believe that there is more money to be made offering Linux and open source solutions in a field that is wide open than by trying to wedge ourselves into an an already saturated Windows world.

You may disagree with me but let’s be honest, MCSEs are a dime a dozen but there is a real shortage of techs and computer businesses that know Linux – and there is a real and growing demand for them.

Feel free to debate that issue but it is true. Linux is becoming very profitable. The Linux market is wide open.

Anyway, even if you disagree, you may still be interested in tonight’s interview. It is at least thoughtful and it may even change your point of view. Either way, enjoy it and let me know what you think.

Rick