Of Viruses and the Law of Unintended Consequences

One of the secret pleasures of using a Macintosh is a by-product of the law of unintended consequences: with only 3% market share, we're generally free of computer viruses. Apparently, most of the people writing these nasty little programs see the Mac community as being too small to generate enough attention to satisfy their egos. And that's fine with me.

Of course, the problem is that most people (and this very likely includes you) are part of the 97% using something else, mainly Windows-based PC's. And a new virus variant has recently emerged that will be particularly troubling for you.

For the past few years, the best advice I could offer to people using Windows was this: Don't ever open an attachment that arrives via e-mail that you weren't expecting, don't know what it is, or don't know the sender. And if there was ever even the slightest doubt, you were better off deleting it. (If it turned out to be important, the sender could always send it again.) But now security experts are issuing warnings about a new variant of a common virus called Bagle that makes this advice obsolete. These new viruses – there have already been several reported – can infect your system without the use of an attachment — all you have to do is open the message to be infected.

These viruses exploit a security hole in Microsoft Outlook first discovered in October, 2003. This hole allows an HTML e-mail message open on your computer access a visual basic script online and run itself on your computer, installing the virus and infecting your system. The virus infects every .exe file on your computer, making it virtually impossible to completely remove it. It also works to disable many firewall and antivirus applications, a technique that is becoming more common.

The best thing you can do to avoid contamination is to be sure that you are running Windows Update regularly and visit the Microsoft site to download the latest security patches for Outlook.

Start here to look for the correct version for you:

• Outlook 2002 Service Pack

If you have an older version of Outlook, then you might want to start here to find the correct patch for your system:

• Microsoft Office Download Page

Be sure to read the instructions before proceeding.

If you're interested, you can read a detailed article about this problem at The Motley Fool.

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Duke Realty Sharpens Promotional E-mail Strategy

We began working closely with the marketing department at Duke Realty a few months ago to help them tighten up their promotional e-mail strategy and develop a cohesive design plan for their communications. The project started with a monthly mailer highlighting space availability for the Minneapolis business and industrial markets. The goal was to transform the existing mailer to one that would be require less server load and would work to more clearly communicate the necessary information about available properties. Since we began, they have added the Cleveland and Cincinnati markets and are considering the other 9 markets for future mailings.

In addition to the space availability, we've also designed and implemented an internal newsletter from the Premium Tenant Services that aims to educate the market about the efforts of this group to keep utilities costs in check. This mailer, dubbed energ-E, is sent quarterly and covers a wide range of energy-related topics and industry news. In building the design, we seized an opportunity to begin developing a branding strategy for e-mail communications that we then carried over to the next product, the Duke news release.

The Duke re:Lease will be used to communicate a wide variety of information to a wide array of audiences. The re:Lease format was designed to immediately communicate the company's association with commercial leasing and be flexible enough to handle the wide variety of content that would make up the messages; content that will range from new building updates to invitations to general news.

We're currently developing additional mailing templates that will continue to strengthen the brand and help Duke's promotional e-mail communications stand out from the crowd.

[View samples]

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Time Slipping Away? We Have a Solution.

One of the biggest challenges facing businesses in the service industry is ensuring that employee time is being tracked accurately and efficiently. Whether you're looking for time sheet solution or a more robust project tracking system (or possibly aren't even aware that you have a problem), we have been building an application that might help.

Initially created for our own use, we've found that other advertising agencies, IT departments, consultants, accountants, lawyers, marketing departments – even businesses that need to track hourly employees – can benefit from this unique, scalable solution. By using a web-based environment, the system is customizable, cross-platform, and accessible from anywhere with an Internet connection. Employees login to see all of their current jobs, access detailed project summary sheets, view and add notes, and track their time with a unlimited number of job codes, projects, and billing types.

But time entry and tracking is just the beginning of the power of project-based time tracking. The real beauty of this system is in the reporting capabilities. With distributed time records, you can get real-time answers to questions like:

• How much time has an employee worked?
• How much time has been invested in this project?
• How much room is left in the budget for this project?
• What have other projects of this same type cost in the past?

Suddenly, questions that – at best – could only be answered in hindsight can now be addressed immediately, affording you the opportunity to make better, informed decisions regarding the direction of your business.

Can a system like this benefit your company? For more information, call Jim at 317/251-6744 or send me e-mail at jim@rarebirdinc.com.

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Gadgets. Gear. Stuff.

Gadgets. Gear. Stuff. Almost everybody loves stuff, especially when it's tied to technology with the hope of improving our lives. In the past few years, the amount of new "stuff" hitting the marketplace has been staggering. Cell phones, personal digital assistants, digital cameras (both still and video), digital music players, digital video recorders… it seems like almost everything is digital. All of this innovation leads to the inevitable questions: What is it, do I need it, and how does it work?

[Complete Article]

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Customer Satisfaction Survey

As usual, there's a lot going on here at Rare Bird and we're excited about the coming months and years. New services and clients — Whew! — it's a lot to keep up with. We're also hyper-sensitive to the needs of our existing clients (you!) and want to be certain that we're doing all we can to keep you happy. To help us with this, please take a few minutes to complete a quick customer satisfaction survey.

Thanks for your help; and thanks for your business!

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