Smartalyx Computer Musings

Here at Smartalyx Computer Support, we like to try new things. We have in some capacity played with some of the major online publishing systems. This includes Joomla!, Drupal and Wordpress.  Now in an effort to understand some other options out there we are testing Movable Type by Six Apart.

Installation seemed straight forward. Reading the directions anyways. The install itself was painful and overly complicated. Nothing worked quite the way it should and the instructions did not help much. Where Wordpress has what they call “famous 5 minute guide”, I could not find a similar overview for Movable Type. I am familiar with creating sub-domains, databases and all that so those concepts are not foreign.

Needless to say after multiple attempts it never worked. As soon as I mentioned I was trying MT on Twitter, Six Apart did communicate back- so at first  I was impressed. I asked a couple of straight forward questions about licenses and such. However as the install started to fail and I asked for resources, silence. I did not ask for specific resolutions- I know they have a paid structure for that- but rather some resources I could reference. Since that question, I have heard nothing. Alright, that helps me choose whether or not to continue.

I choose not to continue. Wordpress , Drupal and Joomla have all worked without hitch and the communities are great.

First allow more time than you think for anything. I guess since it has been awhile for me to do anything like this, I forgot that golden rule. Everything from getting your official badge holder to getting to the next venue takes longer.

I was annoyed with a lot of the exhibitors. Not that there was some great in depth background check, but CEA tried to make it very clear that the “general public” was not the target audience. I also realize the exhibitors are really trying to woo the “stars” that show up. The CNETs, NBCs and such. I am okay with that. However, there is a whole glob of folks in the middle that are not the “general public” and not “stars”. We are your small business buyers. We are the people everyone else calls, emails or tweets for suggestions and support on products.

And being one of the middle I was getting annoyed at the lack of knowledge placed in the booths. Iomega and Netgear stand out a little here. I ask first for the products they are targeting at the SMB and then I assume (falsely) that the person who I am directed to can help. But being told it is in the literature really doesn’t help. Unable to answer the most basic question- how do you work the interface?- really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Granted Iomega was bought out, so maybe this is an example of why. Needless to say- Iomega drops on my list of recommendations.

There were exceptions- Creative, Asus and Hauppage. Each one of them had a good number of folks that could answer questions or were quickly able to track the answer down. And they promoted their product without being negative towards the competition. As usual these companies stay at the top of my list. Now off to digest what information I did get and line up my week.

Looking forward to a great CES visit this year. While there are a few announcing the death of CES, I am still looking forward to this year. Yes the number of exhibits has gone down, but there is more buzz. I will be updating this after I return. needless to say there is a large focus on “green” technologies. Netbooks seem to be the up and coming rage, I need to see how they look and feel before I get to excited.

This year I am also excited about getting into the “It won’t stay in Vegas” blogger party. I have some ideas for projects and this will give me a chance to bounce them off some really good people. I can’t go into much detail here, but needless to say I secured “smartalyx.tv”. I am excited for 09 and “It Won’t Stay in Vegas” party is a great start.