They also make your woman give you the "stink eye".

Regardless of what it was designed for and despite all it's limitations, I expect the iPad to be the best thing to happen for Desktop Virtualization in 2010. No it's not always the best Thin Client but as a sales, marketing and awareness enabler it won't be beat, here's why:

Purple Cow effect - Seth Godin, the new media marketing guru defined the Purple Cow as something remarkable. Something that stands out from the crowd and worth noting. A great example is the screen shot of Windows 7 on the iPad. This picture was replicated and written about in hundreds of articles and blogs... because it was remarkable. The Gizmodo post alone now has over 62,000 views and 520 comments.

Early adopters will show friends & colleagues - The iPhone started the new phenomena of showing off your latest cool or useful app. Everyone with an iPad and Citrix Receiver will show it off. Godin also makes the point that it's not the best ideas that win, it's the best ideas that spread, win.

First impressions count - The iPad is beautiful, when prospects recognize they can also do work with it they will sell it to themselves. The $500 entry price is low enough to justify for companies or many individuals.

Peer envy - As more iPads show up in the workplace and they are put to work visibly and effectively, others will follow.

Executive mandate - When execs see they can run all their work apps from an iPad and get their work done where ever they are, they will better appreciate the benefits of Desktop Virtualization. They will also approve projects faster and demand IT support for their own iPad.    

Internal IT promotion - Internal company Desktop Virtualization champions will set up demos on the iPad, hand it to users and management ... Sold !

Preferred device for conference room meetings - The iPad will be ideal for bringing to meetings without the intrusion, distraction, boot up or power cables of a laptop. In the future the laptop will be staying in the office/cube while you grab the iPad to bring to the meeting down the hall or down the road. ( and everyone else in the meeting will ask you how you like it )

Sales demo tool - Sales pros everywhere will use iPads to demo their products, check inventory and bring up photos and then hand the iPad to a prospect. Not something you see happen often with laptops. Desktop Virtualization will enable the apps and be the answer to " how did you do that ? "

Healthcare, Healthcare, Healthcare - Doctors will sell more iPads with Desktop Virtualization into healthcare than anyone. Even if they have to buy the iPads themselves.

Vertical Market Solutions - Besides healthcare, many other verticals like legal, insurance and field workers will adopt the iPad rapidly if the Apps they need are available via Desktop Virtualization.   

Desktop Virtualization overcomes iPad limitations - Multi-Tasking, Flash, Windows apps, all resolved with Desktop Virtualization.

BYOC - As described in a prior post , The iPad with Desktop Virtualization will lead the "Bring Your Own Computer" BYOC movement and provide IT a safe way to allow personal devices inside the company.

Multiple Desktop Virtualization options - The iPad will work great with VDI ( XenDesktop )  or shared Virtual Desktops ( XenApp Published Desktops ) or selected Apps on-demand ( XenApp ). VDI only solutions will not always be justified for every user or app.

Multiple Device Management - For most iPad users this will be a 3rd  or 4th device, in addition to a smartphone a work laptop and a home PC/laptop. The hassle of making sure you have the document you need on the device you have will be solved by the centralization benefits of Desktop Virtualization.

Standard Desktop Virtualization benefits - In addition to all the above reasons , the standard benefits of security , manageability and TCO still apply. But now it's really productive and cool...

Besides the overall benefit to the Desktop Virtualization industry I expect that the Citrix Receiver for iPad will expand the advantage that XenDesktop already has over VMware View. The Citrix user experience will be superior to the other 3rd party RDP/VNC options available and create very visible differentiator. As a result I predict that VMware will end up building their own View client to try to catch-up and take advantage of the emerging iPad phenomena. ( For the VMware execs reading this ... please prove me wrong and don't follow my prediction ...  )   

Reposted properly. I think this is what will propel both VDI or application virtualization not only for verticals like Health or Education, but for SMBs also, into the stratosphere. 2010 is going to be a good year for Citrix. (We already know it will be for Apple.)

The origin of the name ThinkPad! iPad look out! Lenovo is finally flexing some of it's engineering muscle.

Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac

A few years back you dropped significant cash to switch over from the virus-laden world of Windows to a shiny new Mac, but over time it's gotten slow and crufty. Let's clean it up.

Lifehacker is one of my favorite blogs. I'm doing a little spring cleaning on my mac today. Found out that I do indeed need to run some disk repair tools on my Mac!

@taligent

Serious question:

Why does Flash behave so poorly on Macs? Is it because Adobe just doesn't give a flying flip, or because Apple doesn't allow deep enough access to the system?

Does it have to do with how Adobe ports flash? Like how its initially written for the PC and is then ported to Macs, and something gets lost in translation? That reason would also account for why iTunes doesn't run well on PCs also. (I'm not sure if this is how Adobe handles it. Its just my assumption). But if that's the case, shouldn't it have the same problem when its put onto Linux boxes?

I just don't get why Adobe can produce Photoshop and it performs extremely well on Macs, but Flash which is [should] be a far lighter application runs so poorly.

Does a modified version of Flash exist? Like one where one ingenious person modifies some stuff where Flash on Macs runs quite well.

Unsubstantiated, but falls in line with what I would expect Jobs to say.

It seems obvious that the iPad will be popular in verticals, like education or medical. But for the everyday user, will it be able to replace the daily planner book or moleskin?

I admit it freely, I'm a compulsive list maker. And for being as technically sophisticated as I am, I still have not been able to consistently make myself to put to-dos or rough project plans or notes into a CRM system, or Outlook.

Omni's software excel at list making, planning, brainstorming, diagramming - coupling their sophistication with a readily available user-friendly interface may be what it finally takes to keep me paper free.

Also of note, EverNote (www.evernote.com) is also a great notetaking app that is free!

Have a question? Want to buy Omni Group software - give us a call at 770-229-9424 or visit us on the web at http://www.libertytech.net.

Ben Johnson

here is how to create a secure password that you can actually remember in "12345" easy steps.

1.No Personal Information. Any novice hacker can easily find out your full name, the names of your spouse or children, your pets, or your favorite sports teams. Never choose a password that has anything to do with you personally.

2.No real words. Let's take that a step farther. Not only should you not use your name or your pet's name, you shouldn't use any actual word that can be found in a dictionary. Passwords like that can be easily cracked by password software.

3.Mix Character Types. Passwords are almost always case-sensitive, so use both upper and lower case letters to make it more difficult. To really make it complex, be more creative than just capitalizing the first letter. For example, do "paSswoRd" instead of just "Password". Better yet, throw in some numbers and special characters to substitute for letters, and do "p@Ssw0Rd".

4.Use a Passphrase. Scratch that. Some password cracking utilities are also smart enough to use common character substitutions for common words. Cracking "p@ssw0rd" may take longer than cracking "password", but it will still be relatively trivial to crack because, special characters or not, the password is still "password".

Instead, take your favorite line from a movie, song, or book and convert it to a passphrase. If you like the scene from A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson is on the stand, take the line "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" and convert it to "Ywtt?Ychtt!". It has upper case and lower case letters, as well as special characters. It is not a word appearing in any dictionary, yet it is simple for you to remember.

5.Use a Tool. The main reason that users choose passwords that are easy to crack is that they want to choose passwords that are easy to remember. It is obviously much easier to remember your dog's name, or type characters in the order they appear on the keyboard, like "123456", than it is to recall "a5$jgFD118@Kle45@". But, guess which one is more secure?

You can use a password management tool to store complex passwords. It has some impact on security since cracking the password to access the password management tool grants access to all the rest of the passwords, but it does enable you to use stronger passwords for various Web sites, accounts, and applications without having to remember them all.

There are a few universal haggling techniques that are applicable to just about any price haggling scenario.

1. Don’t be afraid to ask. Asking to cut my bill worked. Amazed at how simple it was to cut more than I was aiming for from my bill immediately, I asked for an even bigger cut. That request was denied (not to my surprise or dismay). Truth be told, I’m not sure that any of the techniques I used triggered the better offer, but I do know one thing — had I been afraid to simply ask for the price break, I would have never gotten one. Rule number one is to overcome your fear and just ask.

Be pleasant. Congeniality is king when interacting with CSRs. Being rude only infuses CSRs with the desire to deny your request. CSRs aren’t paid near what they should be, and probably don’t have the highest job satisfaction levels. If you can appeal to their gentler human-side, you win. Spit fire at them, and they will slam the door on you with pleasure.

Refer to the competition. I had heard that Comcast was motivated to be a little more giving with the entrance of AT&T U-Verse cable into the marketplace (at lower prices). I’m not sure that it helped in this specific case, but referencing the competition specifically or generically (if its offerings are weaker) rarely will hurt you.

State the facts. More than anything else, I wanted to lower my cost, and that’s what I asked for. Someone I know had received a better price than I was paying and I stated that fact.

Do your research. Knowing what kind of promotions the company is offering to new or exiting customers is essential to getting the best deal. When it comes down to it, if you can quit your service and then re-start it the next day at a cheaper price, the company knows it has little incentive to let you leave without matching that offer.

Look for special circumstances. I’d heard that working with Comcast online chat representatives often yielded better results because the reps weren’t actual Comcast employees, and therefore had lesser incentive to play the hard line. That’s why I chose the online chat route versus the phone.

Let them make the first move. Before the chat, had I not received a cost break, I was willing to cut my service levels. I didn’t offer that right away, and it turned out that I didn’t need to. Don’t show all your cards right away.

When I need to call back in, I now have two additional pieces of information that I can take into the negotiation process based on this statement form the CSR: “The Internet Code is only good for 6 months. That’s the best price I can offer you for internet. However, you can check back on us again next quarter to check if there’s another promotion available to you.”

I now know that Comcast has promotions available on a quarterly basis. I also know that there are “codes” for both Internet and cable. Both pieces of info should help me in future negotiations. Hopefully, they’ll help you as well.

I did this and cut 75.00 off of my 199.00 bill. I did give up unlimited long distance on the home phone that only telemarketers and political campaigns call though. Good only 6 months but totally worth the 15 minutes it took!

Ben

Inspiration from Apple's marketing department over the years...