When I was young, like 10 or 11 years old, I remember that when my grandfather came to visit our family he always seemed to be just a little frustrated.  Well being an inquisitive (and probably annoying) child, I asked him one day why he was always frustrated (I probably didn’t ask it that formally).  His answer always stayed with me:

“Son, as I get older, I realize that things that are important to me don’t seem to be important to anyone else.  People tend to rush the important things, cut corners when they shouldn’t, and don’t do what they are supposed to, and then blame someone else for their problem.”

He said that over 30 years ago!

My grandfather was in the Corps of Engineers and was responsible for large projects such as building dams, locks, and bridges.  He was by all accounts an excellent engineer and a perfectionist.  He was a man of few words, and like most of our grandfathers - he sacrificed a lot through both the depression and WWII.

Now why do I mention this…?  Well because at 40+ years of age, I am starting to feel that same frustration! 

I am by trade an IT consultant and I have quite a few clients, many of which are large publicly traded companies.  Most of the people that I help and work with are very nice people, and typically they are very dilligent in their day-to-day jobs.  But they (much like most of us) are focused on the short and long term goals set by their Boss and/or the company that they work for.  The problem is that there typically isn’t any “breathing room” in the corporate space, and although most companies do focus on training - most employees look at this as either a nuisance or an excuse to relax/deflate.

Although most if not all white collar employees work with a computer/laptop, I would say that at least 80% (that I know) only use up to three or four apps (ie. Email, Excel, Enterprise apps, web browser, etc), and about 75% barely have a working knowledge of the OS.  This combined with the fact that corporate IT departments have done a great job of thwarting viral threats in the Back Office without much, if any, user responsibility has given the user a false sense of security when they approach their home pc.

Now as a result, I have probably had a conversation with EVERY SINGLE PERSON that I come in contact with in the corporate space about their Home Computer!  The discussion topic always starts with “my computer is slow” and moves toward AntiVirus software, AntiSpyware software, Firewalls, etc.  Most of them have little to NO PROTECTION on their pc.  What is worse, they have a copy of Norton or McAfee that came with the pc, but hasn’t been update in three years because they never paid for the service.  Even in late 2008, half of these users that I run into have no Spyware protection on their home pc!  Unreal.

In most cases, I would just take their home pc back to my office and clean it up for them.  I wouldn’t charge them, but I would suggest a good bottle of scotch (at least 12 years old!)

After a while, I got a bit overloaded and overwhelmed “fixing” everyone’s pc.  Yeah, my scotch collection was pretty nice, but I didn’t have any time to enjoy it or do anything else but WORK.

That is the number 1 reason why I setup the Powers Zone.  To give users a place to go where they could understand the threats to their pc, and learn how to clean it themselves.  And to help RELIEVE my frustration level, because I started to become my grandfather…at 40!

Helping pc users become aware of the threats, aware of the tools, and educating them on how to deal and react to both is what I hope to accomplish with the Powers Zone.

If you have any ideas or comments, please feel free to comment!