Posted on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 @ 03:23 PM
If you’re a small business owner with more than one computer, it’s time to consider investing in a server. A Small Business
server will keep your data secure and organized and will help you run your business more efficiently and professionally.
If you’ve reached one of the 10 thresholds below, a server could do your business a world of good:
1. You Have More Than Two Business Computers
The bottom line is, if you need two or more computers in your business, then it’s time for a server. By storing and
organizing data in a core location, you’ll be able to access and share files easily and manage business information more
efficiently.
2. You Have More Than One Employee
A server enables your employees to share software tools and access company databases on-site and off-site. As your
business grows, you’ll be able to better manage additional computers and software applications and better control which
employees and devices have access to certain information
.
3. Your Customers Think Your Business Is Owned by Go Daddy
If you’re still using a Web site hosting company like Go Daddy®, then it’s time to upgrade to your own server. Hosting
your own Web site and email system presents a more professional image and enables you to conduct business more
easily by consolidating email accounts.
4. You or Your Employees Conduct Business Outside the Office
If you work from home, travel frequently or have a mobile workforce, a server will allow you and your employees to
remotely connect to your company network and access information and resources no matter where you are.
5. You’re Tripping Over Cords
If you have two or more computers that share access to peripherals, such as printers and fax machines, it’s time for a
server. Not only will a server help you eliminate the mess of excess cords, it'll also help you save the cost of buying
them.
6. You Can Never Find That Master Document When You Need It
If you share documents between multiple computers, you run the risk of losing important files and of having multiple
versions of vital documents. A server will help you manage your files and provide a centralized location for you to store
and organize important documents, so that you always have access to what you need, when you need it.
7. Your PCs Are Old and Grumpy
Whether you want to replace your old PCs or help them function better, a server can help you. A server makes the
migration of files from an old PC to a new one a cinch, and freeing up memory and storage offers a welcome break to
older PCs that are loaded down with data.
8. Your Computer Crashed and You Lost Critical Data
If you have valuable files and data that can’t be replaced, a server will help protect them from loss and corruption. You’ll
be able to back up information easily and restore files that were accidentally deleted or misplaced. You’ll almost never
have to worry about a crashed hard drive wiping out your system again.
9. You Want to Protect Information from Unauthorized Users
A server will allow you to restrict access to sensitive information, such as financial records and personnel information, by storing it away from prying eyes. It will also allow you to better manage firewalls and virus protection, especially when
you have a mobile workforce.
10. You Want to Improve Communication with Employees and Customers
A server enables you to easily add platforms — such as customer relationship management (CRM) software and
accounting programs — which allow you to schedule group meetings, share information, and manage clients and
vendors. It also allows your employees to send group emails and faxes, and organize customer contacts and customer
data in one location.
Posted on Tue, Jul 06, 2010 @ 01:14 PM
The idea behind Sticky Notes in Windows 7 is pretty simple. Instead of writing the not on a piece of paper and sticking it to the side of your monitor, you can create a digital sticky note and stick in on your Windows desktop.
And unlike the old-fashioned paper notes, Windows Sticky Notes will increase in size as you type. You can change their color. And, the notes are automatically saved. You can even hide all your notes by clicking on applet's task bar button.
Now that you have the basics down, let's look about our first tip - creating a shortcut that makes it easy to find a specific note.
If you're a heavy Sticky Notes user and you create a lot of notes, you may find that it hard to sort through them all - as they tend to overlap each other on the desktop.
Luckily, using the search-ms protocol you can create a handy shortcut that will display all your notes in a Search Results window. Allowing you to quickly scan through your notes and find the one you're looking for.
To create the shortcut, right-click on the desktop and select New | Shortcut.
When you see the Create Shortcut window, type rather long command into the text box:
search-ms:displayname=Search%20Results%20in%20Sticky%20Notes%20(Windows%20Sticky%20Notes)&crumb=&crumb=location:C%3A%5CUsers%5CUSER%20NAME%5CSearches%5CSticky%20Notes%20(Windows%20Sticky%20Notes).searchconnector-ms
When you enter this string, you'll need to replace the USER%20NAME characters with your account name. For example, if my user name were Tom (space) Hill, I would use Tom%20Hill. And if my user name were just Tom, I would use just Tom with no %20
Once you've entered the text, click Next, give the shortcut a name, something like Show Notes will work, and then click Finish.
When you run the shortcut, you'll see an Internet Explorer security warning. Just click Allow. You can now browse all your sticky notes from in an easy-to-read Search Results window.
One thing to remember about sticky notes is that when you delete one, it's really gone -- it doesn't just go to the Recycle Bin.
So, to prevent you from accidentally deleting a note you really wanted to keep, Sticky Notes gives you a standard "are you sure you really want to do this" warning message each time you try to delete a note
As these warnings can be kind of annoying, many people turn them off -- including me. But if you find yourself accidentally deleting notes on a regular basis and you might want to re-enable the warning message. And you can with a simple registry edit, just remember to make a back up of the registry before make the change
After opening the Registry Editor, navigate to the following folder:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\StickyNotes
Then, double-click the PROMPT_ON_DELETE value and set it to 1.
The last tip I'll show you today helps you protect your notes from both accidental deletions and system crashes.
You can make a backup copy of the Sticky Notes data file, or included it in your regular backup routine, by backing up the StickyNotes.snt file, which is located in the:
C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
folder.
Those are just three of the many Sticky Notes tips
Posted on Wed, Jun 09, 2010 @ 05:53 PM
According to Gawker.com Apple has suffered another huge embarrassment due to a
security breach of at&t' website. 114,00 iPad owners email addresses have been leaked and this is not just any email list this list includes some very exclusive people, NY Times CEO Janet Robinson, Diane Sawyer, Harvey Weinstein, Michael Bloomberg even white house chief of staff Rahm Emanuel just to name a few. It is actually possible that the number is higher and it could be that every single 3g ipad owner in the US has been exposed.
to see the whole article click here
It is my personal opinion that this is just another reason for Apple to move awy from at&t's horrible network and service to another carriers network like verizon or just open it up the iPad and iPhone to all carrier.
Posted on Mon, May 10, 2010 @ 04:22 PM
Twitter announced that it had fixed a bug that allowed users to "force" other users to follow them, although the fix included resetting many victims' followers back to zero.
We're now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we're aware and this too should shortly be resolved," Twitter said in a company blog post Monday
Twiiter became afflicted with the bug that forced some celbrity tweeters such asAshton Kutcher and others to follow a fake Twitter account. The security glitch also allowed members to add on as many followers to their own accounts as they wanted by tweeting "accept" and than "@" followed by teh twitter usernameof their choosing - including those of high profile athlets & celebrities
It is not knownhow long teh bug has allowed users to create their own twitter followings. And while twitter amins have already correctedd the flaw, they now have to deaal with a myriad of victims whose twitter account followings were set back to zero.
"Follow count display is set to 0 and follow/unfollow is temporarily offline while we fix a bug," Twitter said earlier Monday.
What is your thought, Should twitter have fixed the bug then set back followers to zeero or just left the followers as is and let teh user cancel them if they did not want to follow that account?
http:// twitter.com/painfreeit
Posted on Mon, May 10, 2010 @ 12:39 PM
This post below is from techrepublic about google jumping into the tablet market to compete with teh iPad.
Rumors are flying that Google is about to introduce a tablet device to compete with Apple's iPad. It seems to be more confirmed than rumor, given that Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently talked about an Android-based device at a party. This really isn't surprising, since Google has been aggressively pursuing new markets, from Google Docs (competing with Microsoft Office) to the Nexus One (competing in the smartphone market).
The clincher for me was Google's recent acquisition of BumpTop, a firm whose product is a 3D desktop with multitouch capabilities and a very intuitive interface. The software, when installed on Windows 7, takes over as the primary user interface and looks like the view of a room from the corner of a wall and a ceiling. You can put objects on the floor or walls (where the default interface includes widgets for Facebook, Twitter, and a sticky note application) and have the ability to group objects into "piles" by circling them and choosing an option from a circular menu.
For people who have devices capable of using a multitouch interface, the BumpTop includes even more functionality. You can sweep icons out of the way with the side of your finger, rotate the desktop to view walls or the floor with two fingers, and throw documents around the desktop (and see them interact with other icons as they bump into one another). These videos show a number of techniques that can be used in a pen based environment, as well as more available in a multitouch environment.
No discussion about tablet devices would be complete without talking about the recent tete-a-tete between the executives at Apple and Adobe. This ongoing battle has included an open letter from Steve Jobs regarding the shortcomings of Adobe's Flash, an interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in which he responded to Jobs' charges, and Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch likening Apple's behavior to anti-competitive practices prevalent in the early days of the railroad.
Then, to top it all off, Adobe showed off Flash applications running on a cobbled together tablet device running the Android operating system at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.
I am excited about the new Google tablet, not necessarily because I am planning on running out and buying one, but because I have long believed that the tablet form factor could make for an extremely useful device. I am still not 100% convinced that Google will hit a home run with only the second piece of hardware it has ever made, and I have always been skeptical about 1.0 versions of any device (including the iPad). However, I do like that Apple will be getting some competition in this space because competition always speeds the process of improvements and enhancements.
What is your opinion of the tablet market? Are you excited about the possibility of a new Google tablet
Posted on Thu, Apr 29, 2010 @ 07:33 PM
iPad could make all tablets more popular. All the fuss over Apple's iPad is generating interest in tablets of all kinds and is impacting the industry.
According to market researcher Gartner, in addition to the iPad, new tablets from Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo are expected to increase tablet PC sales to 10.5 million units in 2010 up from 1.06 million last year.
Another researcher quoted in USA Today, iSuppli, predicts worldwide iPad sales of 7.1 million units in 2010, 14.4 million in 2011 and 20.1 million in 2012.
The iPad will be a huge driver in the market, according to Gartner analysts. The Apple mystique revolutionized the MP3 and smartphone markets, and some say, it will do the same with tablets.
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Posted on Tue, Apr 27, 2010 @ 06:47 PM
If you didn't care for Facebook's recent site layout changes and policies in the past, you may not like the new features Facebook will be implementing in the coming weeks. Facebook wants to become your web browsing partner and be part of the functionality of every web site you visit in the future.
For the rest of this article Please Click Here 
Posted on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 @ 03:43 PM
Learn more about the benefits and limitations cloud computing presents for businesses...
Depending on the size of your company, cloud computing may dramatically reduce administrative costs. However, do the benefits outweigh the pitfalls? 
Cloud computing is Internet-based computing. This means, all of the shared resources like software and information your company uses every day, would be provided to office computers and other devices as it is needed. By renting usage from a third-party provider, your business can cut costs by eliminating the need for a full physical infrastructure.Cloud computing terms to remember… Cloud computing has two bases, Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Think of SaaS as a software rental car company: In business, you use software as a vehicle to travel through transactions and communicate with others. Whether you are creating a contract for a new client, or processing a regular monthly payment, the software you use costs money. SaaS offers the software you need for a fixed monthly fee.
Meanwhile, PaaS is similar to a package deal you purchase from your travel agent that includes all of your travel arrangements. Instead of just renting the vehicle (software), you rent the hotel room (desktop computer) and your agent throws in coffee and breakfast at the buffet, too (a support contract.) Blah, blah...cloud computing...blah blah...platform, what? If the last few paragraphs didn’t make much sense, this might help: Cloud computing can be described as a public utility. Your business pays for the specific software or other amenities, such as equipment or storage, on a monthly basis just as you would pay for the exact amount of electricity that’s used.
The benefits of cloud computing. There are four major benefits of cloud computing for businesses: easy scalability, increased reliability, high performance and specific configurability. Comparatively,
these benefits surpass the standard dedicated infrastructure method of networking. New businesses looking for a computing solution, or companies looking to make a change in their infrastructure, may elect to use cloud computing instead of forking over a huge capital investment to setup a network, purchase software packages, and pay someone to manage it all. Cloud computing can be a fantastic way to get a jump-start with little initial investment and fixed, or at least, predictable monthly costs. The limitations of cloud computing.
As with everything, cloud computing has it downfalls. Cloud computing isn’t suitable for all business types, especially those that are reliant on decade old software. As a matter of fact, security and compliance are huge factors for decision makers because, cloud computing takes your data out of your office and out of your control. As a result, it is imperative to select a vendor that offers the security and privacy controls you need.
Software compatibility woes… That’s right, Vista isn’t the only animal with compatibility issues. While it seems that any program you can think of should be available in the cloud, it isn’t a software heaven. Cloud computing vendors are still working to offer industry specific or specialty programs. You may need to shop around to find a vendor that has what you need. However, be aware that transitioning from an older version of software to a newer version may not be a walk in the park. Older software may cause limitation with a newer operating system; it’s like trying to change a tire on a car while driving. Be sure to look at the features and advantages to keeping your current software and explore new opportunities for your business if necessary. Don’t be afraid of change. Cloud computing is said to be the “Next big thing!” in technology this year. If you are ready to make a change for your office, give us a call today to explore cloud computing options for your business.
Posted on Mon, Apr 12, 2010 @ 04:28 PM
Build your network with business-grade technology, plan ahead to avoid downtime, and other small business computer networking tips.
Click here to check out the article by David Murphy over at Cisco.com
Posted on Thu, Apr 01, 2010 @ 11:28 PM
Are you overwhelmed by the number of passwords you have to remember? In order to be safe, you should have a different password to login to your computer, your online banking or credit card accounts and even another password for your e-mail.
Still using the same password for everything? Too many users think if their password is difficult enough no one will ever guess it, and that it’s ok to use it for everything. Wrong! Fox News reports, “Using the same password for multiple Web pages is the Internet-era equivalent of having the same key for your home, car and bank safe-deposit box.”
Change your approach! KeyLemon is a great tool anyone can use to handle their passwords in a snap. This new face recognition software is simple to configure and is compatible with Microsoft Operating systems, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more.
How does it work? First you download KeyLemon on your computer and follow the installation instructions. You will be prompted to create your face model and replace your password with your face image. Then you are all set to enjoy the convenience of face recognition.
No more password frustrations! Have you ever been locked out of an account for trying the password too many times? Well, now you will have all of your passwords at your fingertips. KeyLemon works as a password manager for your favorite sites. Firefox even has a fancy plug-in called LemonFox that recognizes your KeyLemon account access and automatically logs you into your networking sites like Facebook and YouTube.
Fantastic security features. KeyLemon also comes equipped with Hijackers Tracking. This feature allows you to retrieve information about who tried to access your computer when you were away by letting you view pictures of the person who was in front of your computer before an automatic windows lock, or even a person who typed the wrong password into your computer when it was locked.
Taking a break? With KeyLemon, your computer will automatically lock when you leave and unlock when you return through face recognition. That way, you can top off your refreshment at the coffeehouse before chatting with your top client and no one will be able to access your computers files or programs.
Download KeyLemon today
www.KeyLemon.com