I am a current user of McAfee's security products.  I don't know enough about the area network/computer security to know if I should be using McAfee, Norton or whatever... as far as I'm concerned I just need virus protection.

Today though my McAfee SecurityCenter (the software that administers my various McAfee products) tells me that my subscription is expired.  I have four computers, two laptops and two desktops (home, office, etc.).  I use McAfee on all but one, so when I see this message I believe that it must indeed be correct.

So I logged on to the McAfee web site (www.McAfee.com) and find that it knows I'm a "Dell Customer" and forwards me to a rather bland site (see left) offering what seems to be only the option of purchasing one of two products.  The problem is that my account is actually up to date... the software erroneously (or fraudulently) has led me to believe that it is expired, when in fact (I later find out) I have almost a full year left on my original subscription.  Of course I didn't realize this until I had already bought another one year subscription.

No problem, right?  The email receipt they send suggests that refunds aren't a problem if disputed within 30 days, so it shouldn't be a problem.

After looking around the "support" site at McAfee I finally found the customer service number ((408) 992-8599  for future reference).  I spoke to the agent, who was friendly enough, but she couldn't understand why I didn't want the "extra year" of service.  After running around in a few circles it was only after I asked for her supervisor that she immediately processed my refund.

According to the support agent, what I needed to have done was "re-install" the McAfee products manually as there is no integration of the e-commerce site that gladly takes my money, and the software running on my computer (i.e. it doesn't know I've paid).  This may have seemed the obvious thing for her, but nowhere in the documentation, or email confirmation/receipt or even the e-commerce site (after taking my money) does it mention that a download/re-install is necessary.

Now I consider myself moderately savvy when it comes to computers, e-commerce and web navigation generally, so I can only conclude that McAfee is taking advantage of two things:

1. People (stupidly) assume that software "is always right", in particular when it claims that it is expired.  "No need to check for yourself... I'm expired and you need to buy a new subscription now."
2. If customers do want a refund for any reason, simply make it significantly challenging, obfuscating the process so as to discourage this, and possibly avoid the refund all together.

To be clear: McAfee did at least add my new one-year subscription to my existing subscription, but that is not what I wanted, and I have since confirmed that the subscription is updated (though I won't see the reverse charge on my credit card for another day I'm guessing).

Maybe it's time to look at Symantec's Norton product line-up.

UPDATE (June 1, 2007):   Okay, this "Subscription Expired" pop-up window is driving me nuts.  Even though I have a paid subscription, when I download the program (apparently I need to re-install it) it says that I need to update my subscription.  Wow.  That's all I can say.

UPDATE (June 5, 2007):  This thing won't go away ... It shows in "my account" that I have a subscription that doesn't expire, but when I try to download (like the support agent suggested) a new version of the software it won't let me (expired subscription).  When I phone the "support number" above, I'm told (in the technical support part of the auto attendant) that I can "pay" for telephone support, or use the "free" chat on the website (but the website that I get has NO options for support at all ... and I'm using www.McAfee.com!!).  I finally "surmised" that the URL www.McAfee.com/Support might work (and it did).  There is no mention of SecurityCenter (their premier consumer product, no?) on their help site. 

... Now I'm on the phone with support (I've tried almost every "route" through their auto-attendant to get someone "live"), and he has informed me that there is a "log in" hyperlink in the error message that allows me to log in via another route (apparently this is the only way to do it ... experience the failed update, then somewhere in the error message there's the "secret path" to updating the product).  Anyway the process from there is fairly smooth (if you call no fewer than eight "script errors" calling for a launch of the Windows Script Debugger smooth)...

... after all this?  Same problem.  I've reinstalled three times (even with customer support on the phone) and nothing... "Subscription Expired" ... buy more, buy more, buy more!

I can't believe how "un-integrated" a company like this can be.  It is absolutely maddening... let's see if they follow Technorati tags on their name and try to resolve this problem.  (My guess is that's too advanced for them...)

UPDATE (June 6, 2007): Sadly I'm forced to give up. There seems to be no possible way to make the product work and because I'm beyond my 30 day refund period a large part of my $69 annual subscription (about 10.5 months worth) is forfeit.  I'm very disappointed.  I have, upon the recommendation of a friend, installed Microsoft OneCare... the fact that it installed properly (without script errors, subscription issues, etc.) puts it miles ahead of McAfee.  I'll use it for at least the 90d trial period, then likely buy the annual subscription.

Call to arms!  If you've been burned by McAfee in any way, do yourselves (and the rest of us) a favour and link to this post on your own website or blog.... or at the very least comment and tell us about it.  It has worked for others!

A new web log focusing on Medical Informatics and the implications it brings to the healthcare industry proves to be a fascinating read if you're interested in how social and technical change in this information-rich world will affect your healthcare.

I've spoken at length with Dr. Ronald Healy (who also happens to be my older brother), and he has a lot of interesting insights regarding the fledgling field of Medical Informatics. 

Having just concluded a two-year roll-out of a clinical EMR (electronic medical record) initiative, he has some interesting technical and even social commentary on its effects already... not the least of which is the natural repulsion many physicians have to change, much less technological change.  To that point, he sees where a lot of this frustration comes from:  The "automated" workflow many of these clinical applications feature do not accurately mirror the actual workflow many physicians use in their day-to-day practice.

Anyway, I'll leave further detail on that for him to expand on, but my advice is for the primary health system manufacturers to pay attention to this type of open (and now public) feedback.  (That means you GE Healthcare, McKesson and Cerner)

Subscribe now to Dr. Healy's feed.

... and as an added bonus, he is also very intrigued with how social networking applications (i.e. Web 2.0) can play a very important role in the new world of healthcare.

Thanks guys for inviting me out to Vancouver's inaugural DemoCamp.  Some very interesting people, and many interesting ideas. 

(Before I forget... Workspace is looking very nice... great view!  Thanks Bill for hosting.)

Four interesting demonstrations:

1. Gaboogie

Conference calls are frustrating.  The folks at Gaboogie want to change that with an "easy as pie" approach to scheduling and managing calls.  Some key features:

• (Almost) No Touch Participation.  There are no conference bridges to call or PIN to remember.  The system actually calls participants (at multiple numbers if necessary) at the allocated time and puts them into conference.
• Uses OpenID.  It would be nice if more services followed suit and leveraged this emerging (dare I say) "standard".  Regardless this has been mapped by Sxipper if you want to go that route, or even <gasp> entering in your own information and (remembering) your own password.
• Dropped Calls.  If a participant drops the call (presumably on a mobile phone), the participant can simply dial back the Gaboogie number that called her, and it will automatically discern which conference call she was participating in.  (Still no PIN required).
• Per Line Volume Adjustment.  I didn't know I needed this until now!  Through the simple web-based administration console you can actually adjust the volume level of individual participants.  Everyone has experience with "Loud Mouth Larry", or "Soft-and-Sweet Sally" (is that gender bias?) ... so I guess Goboogie is also the great equalizer for meetings and collaboration...
• Private Discussion.  Participants can "raise their hand" during a call to ask a question that the organizer can take "offline" into a private chat. 

These guys are hard at work, but some of the "use cases" that could complicate this rather uncomplicated service might include:

• Dialing into a PBX or Attendant.  The problem of dialing a participant that is on the other side of a PBX, receptionist or even speech recognition system (see Microsoft's as an example ... this type of thing WILL BE the standard).  What if the receptionist can't raise the participant, or the participant is on another call... how intuitive is the "snooze" feature?
• Integration to other Services.  Can we integrate this with other extensible software-as-a-service organizations (e.g. Salesforce.com)?  How about integration with Google Calendar?  I understand they are looking at integrating with Campfire (from 37 Signals)
• Integration to other Applications.  Can I integrate this with Microsoft Outlook/Exchange (still the predominant productivity tool for the enterprise)?  How about common CRM systems?

2. Kelvin Tools for Urban Living.

Not what I'd expect for your conventional DemoCamp, but a very entertaining demonstration.  Essentially a hand tool for the urban warrior.  Founder Kevin Royes has developed a Swiss Army Knife for every day living.  (See graphical representation here).

This all-in-one tool contains an Audi/VW Key-style screwdriver (this is what I mean), with an LED flashlight, extra long tape measure, a hammering surface, a level and a few other interesting features.

Kevin claims the strength of the tool comes from the Titanium/Kryptonite alloy he is also working on patenting... :)

3. Incen.TV

The "world's first" peer-to-peer investing marketplace similar I suspect in concept to Prosper.com, Zopa and even the more philanthropic Kiva.org, though not focused on debt instruments, but rather equity instruments.

The flash demo was flashy with an energetic soundtrack, but apart from the inspirational quotes I still wasn't clear on the how, the where, the who, ... it could be just me though.

4. Sxipper

I've known of Sxipper for a while and have been using it for a few months.  Frankly it was one of the compelling reasons that drove me back to Firefox (again) from Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The concept is simple: "Forget your passwords!"

Basically Sxipper attempts to replace the need to remember, secure and administrate the numerous web sites, their respective login/password information and other sundry tasks (registration, etc.).  It also "dumbs down" OpenID so that any one can take advantages of its benefits.

A great service, that I can see expanding in a few areas (that would help me):

• Proxy Service for Public Terminals.  Though Sxipper doesn't store your personas (or related data) on a server, it would be nice that I could "opt-in" to this type of service.  That way, when I'm using a library terminal to check an account all of my persona information (especially passwords) get inserted at the proxy so that it never rises on the public terminal or in the session. 
• Multi-device Support.  It would be great if personas could by synchronized between devices, or even on the Sxipper.com servers (see above).

... another innovation in the Identity 2.0 space by Dick and his team at Sxip.com.

Anyway, thanks Bryght (Kris, Boris and Roland), Workspace and all the others that helped organize this ... I'm looking forward to DemoCamp Vancouver02!

(Photo courtesy Tod Maffin via Flickr)

Just curious what the differences in licensing and delivery models is between Pandora and Last.FM that allows the former to not be able to distribute content in Canada while the latter seems unaffected.  Anyone know?

They are not identical, but obviously have a very similar vision.

I've had to stop using Pandora (and Pandora's Box which is/was great!) in favour of Last.FM (my profile here), but in a lot of ways I miss Pandora's simplicity to speak nothing of the accuracy of the underlying Music Genome Project's database of "genetically similar" music to find new artists.

(Note: Though there are workarounds to continue using the service through U.S. based network proxies, I've decided not to...)

My personal experience with Last.FM is that it is not bad, though I personally am suffering from some lag and too regular buffering (and I'm on a dedicated high-speed business cable connection).

It seems that founder Tim Westergren is genuinely upset about this, and not because of the loss of a market, loss of future revenues, etc. but seemingly because he just plain old believes in what he's doing (remember when that wasn't the exception?).

In a heartfelt letter sent to his Canadian and other international users a week ago he explains the decision:

Dear Pandora listener, 

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service from Canada. We began blocking access from almost all countries outside the U.S. last week and had originally hoped to maintain access to Canada. However, it has become clear in the last week that we just haven't been able to make enough progress to continue streaming. 

It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.

...

Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music - we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable any webcaster to legitimately offer its service around the world. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play.

Until last week, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener's country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 16th, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from Canada. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We will be posting updates on our blog regarding our ongoing effort to launch in other countries, so please stay in touch. We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding. 

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

I've since subscribed to the blog in the hopes that a legitimate alternative or solution is found.

Look carefully because this is not a TabletPC, but it fooled me:

I was down in Seattle this week attending a conference, and thought I'd check out Fry's to see if there were any good deals on tablet PCs.  After telling the sales associate that I was looking for a Tablet PC, he showed me this "swivel-display" model with a great 12.1" touchscreen, 2GB of RAM, a great 64-bit AMD dual-core processor, fingerprint reader and 120GB of disk.  This laptop was stacked, and though the stylus (the Tablet PC "pen") wasn't working well in the "well utilized" display model I thought I had found the dream Tablet PC.

(Incidentally, the specifications for this HP Pavillion TX1000 Series are here.)  

Unfortunately, after about 3hrs of setting up software and getting it ready for the next day of my conference I found out that this was not in fact a Tablet PC.  It fooled me ... how many laptops have a swivel screen that can change from landscape to portrait mode?  How many come with a stylus/pen for what I thought was obviously "digital ink" input?  How many claim that it can be "used with the included stylus (which stows on the notebook) to add handwritten notes to the screen, then convert to text."?

Though you can write to a certain extent via the touchscreen feature (which is optional), the problem is that you might as well be using a wooden stick for it's writing accuracy, and the lag precludes it from being an effective note taking tool.  The fault was really my own.  Upon review, nothing on the box or even the HP site claims that this is a Tablet PC, though some of the signage at the store claimed that it leveraged "Tablet PC features" (which now ships by default with Windows Vista I believe).

In my short time with this unit I quite liked it (other than not being able to use it as a tablet), but I'll say that two other things were of concern.  The bulky battery attached to the back and had a little more "play" than I'd like, and the SD card I bought to take advantage of Vista's Ready Boost features would stick out by almost a quarter inch, making it a little awkward when throwing your laptop in your bag.

The short of it was that I wasted a lot of time, but Fry's was fairly good to refund my money with few questions.  I can't even really blame the sales associate too much ... it was fairly obvious he had no idea really what a Tablet PC was and what the difference is between that and a "touchscreen laptop that leverages some Tablet PC features".

Live and learn ... maybe I'll spend more than 6min evaluating my next laptop/Tablet PC.  I'm told the Lenovo ThinkPad X Series is a great convertible Tablet PC, but I'm still wondering if the Motion is the best slate for my money...

UPDATE:  This review even calls it a Tablet PC, though cites "frustration" at it's inking ability ... (it's NOT a Tablet PC!).