Most of our clients are small to sized companies, and we like it that way. Sometimes they have an internal IT department, but most times they contract IT services out. Podomani is not in the business of fixing printers, solving internal network problems or cleaning a virus off someones computer. There are plenty of great people out there who are good at that and very much want to do it, so I leave it to them.

In fact, I send some of those companies a lot of business.

On occasion, contracted IT guys and us come into contact over a mutual client. Usually we take care of the website and the web marketing, while they handle the email and hardware. Most times it’s pleasant and we share a lot of common industry information, make new contacts or even a friends and work together to meet the client’s needs. Even when there’s a problem, we share the mutual goal of just getting it taken care of.

Everybody wins.

But on rare occasions it gets adversarial, and Techie Butt Sniffing gets out of control. When a serious problem occurs, the first thing we do here is put all hands on deck, find and fix the problem. Then we check to see if the problem was because of something we did. If it was, we take responsibility, contact the client and tell them exactly what happened. I have never lost a client with this policy. After all, when there is a problem, most people just want to know what happened and what can be done to try and make sure it does not happen again.

Some IT firms I’m afraid, do not have the same policy. When there is a real problem, they see it as a business opportunity to impune the other party and blame the for all the client’s woes. It’s even worse when the problem really was their fault. The urge to cover one’s ass is so strong with some people that it leads to some really unfortunate behavior that includes trying to shift the blame on the other guy.

It never really works. Denigrating anyone else just makes you look bad. Besides that, you’re giving the client bad information so they can’t make informed decisions. You might feel better for a moment that you shifted the blame to someone else. But that’s like wearing yesterday’s underwear. It will bug you and know there is always the chance someone will smell it.

Don’t be that guy. Take responsibility, get the job done, change your underwear and things will be fine.

Way back in 1994 I went to a parking lot on the south side of the Twin Cities to a Humane Society outdoor pet adoption event. I wasn’t intending to get a Cat, just wanted to take a look around. In one of the first cages, a runt of a calico clawed her way to the top of the cage to get to me. I picked her up and she clung to me like glue. I put her back in her cage and she followed me around the cage no matter where I went, never taking her eyes off me.

I think it’s safe to say she picked me.

I brought her home and after watching her stand up on her hind legs and attempt to roar, I named her Bear.

From then on, Bear was a joyful part of my life. I mention her here because of her love of watching me and other people in the various offices over the years work on computers. She was often a part of the work day. I started my first business in a home office, and Bear was there every single day as I got things rolling.

As a kitten, she would stare at the screen and swipe away at imagined enemies moving across the screen. As she got older, she laid on top if the old CRT monitors (remember those?) whenever she wanted to. Without saying a word, Bear had declared that those monitors were officially her personal butt warmer. Any attempt to move said Cat from her personal butt warmer would be met with swift scorn.

It was a tough couple weeks for Bear when we finally ditched the last CRT monitor and got all flat screens. She spent days walking around monitors wondering how in the heck she was supposed to lay on that. Several times she did try to jump on top of them, only to go right over the other side, picker herself up and promptly pretend that never happened.

I could go on about how she was an excellent mouser, how she made fun of my singing, laughed at the inferiority of dogs who ate poop from her litter box, had several freak outs per day (I have to be in the other room- NOW!), was great at taking naps whenever I felt like one and always ate the stinkiest thing on the menu.

She was around for 16 years, so I have a lot of great memories. A few weeks ago she started getting ill, and after several painful and stressful (for her) treatments she only went down hill. Unable to eat or drink for days, she wasn’t moving, wasn’t talking and wasn’t going to get any better.

This morning her pain and suffering thankfully came to an end, but man am I going to miss that little animal. So long Bear – thanks for picking me.

Is this all really necessary? I tried to upgrade my Adobe Photoshop today. I then went to download the software, wondering why I couldn’t download it right after I paid for it. Instead of a “download now” button, I was presented with this Flash presentation on how to download the software, complete with a boat load of unexplained acronyms, bizarre rules, even more bizarre exceptions to the rules and variations on the rules – none of which helped me download what I paid for.

I just want the software I paid for. Does Adobe really want to force me to learn about their dysfunction to get it?

We got new and much faster internet service to the office last Friday and we changed the phone service as well.

We decided not to transfer the old phone number over merely because the old number was being bombarded with SPAM phone calls. The new number is (763) 267-7800. Our 24/7/365 number of (952) 393-4251 will stay the same.

This does make me wonder… with Skype, email, teleconferencing, forums and instant messaging, could we be seeing the beginning of the end of land-line phone service? I’ve already removed the land-line from my house in favor of my iPhone. Could removing the land-line from the office be far behind?

We’ll see. For now, the land-line still provides us with the clearest, glitch and echo free communication option. Plus the phone system we have has an outstanding speaker phone that doesn’t sound at all like you’re on a speaker phone. The same phone system allows for simple transfer of calls.

There’s no doubt the iPhone has gotten better – but it’s not there yet for those three very basic features.