Don't Back Down

I ran into another issue where I was trying to use the management console for the Trend Micro OfficeScan software. But as soon as I logged in, it told me that I had timed out and made me log in again. That's just insane - even the fast-talking Micro Machine guy couldn't get anything done that quickly!

So I went browsing around and finally found my way to this page that addresses the issue. This is for the dialog that says Your OfficeScan session has timed out. Please log in again. Obviously, there is a timeout built in (by default it is 30 minutes). If this is your problem, just log in again.

But in this case, it was immediate. It turns out that the problem was that the IUSR_computername user, that is used to run the IIS process, didn't have authority to the TEMP directory, found in the PCCSRV directory under your OfficeScan installation directory. By default, this is found at:

      C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan\PCCSRV\TEMP

Once I added the user to the permissions, the console fired right up.

I recently ran across a spate of the dreaded errors in the event log saying that my time synchronization wasn't happening. What a nuisance. Luckily, I found my way to a page that tells you how to fix time synchronization issues. It's geared towards Small Business Server, but it works on Windows 2003 Server as well.

Read "Fixing Windows Time Issues" »

So it looks like the rumors are finally true. Apple is moving to Intel processors, beginning in 2006. Cringely thinks this is an attempt to dethrone Microsoft. Tim Beyers at The Motley Fool thinks Intel is not the target, but Dell is in the crosshairs.

While I think Cringely is a good read, I might have to take the other side of this argument. Why? Because I recall something I read a while back that made loads of sense. I'd say that it was Cringely that said it, but I couldn't find it when I looked. And that is that Apple makes a load more money from selling the iPod than they do from selling tunes, and probably with a whole lot less effort. Sure, the music is what makes the iPod useful. But that's not where the money is in this equation.

And it won't be any different in the future - the thing Apple has going for them at this point is their incredible line of devices. Sure, the media (and by extension, the software that makes the media possible) is nice, but let's face it - much of that is almost given away, and only a few cents per song make it to Apple's pockets. I doubt that the media moguls will want to change that - Apple is a middleman in that market and nothing more. The profits are for someone else.

Meanwhile, their hardware generates much more profit than iTunes ever could. So it makes sense for Apple to continue in that direction - this brings them closer to the Dell model than Microsoft. But it's a model with the Apple brand behind it - a commodity with style, and that's the difference.

Either way, it could be a compelling story to watch. We'll just have to see how it turns out.