One item that has come to our attention is the reliance on SD cards and flash drives to store important photos or other docs and info.  One thought: Don’t keep these important pictures and videos and docs on just this one form of media.

Why?  Accidentally drop an SD card or flash drive on the ground?  It could be gone forever.  Or you’ll spend a couple grand getting them back.

Follow the Computer Wrangler credo that if your data is not in three places, it’s not secure.  Transfer camera pics to computer as soon as possible. Have an online backup of that. Then and only then, can you rest easy.

Happy Computing!1

It’s called Open Office. And it is FREE.

It has word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, graphics, database etc. etc. and it’s been around for two decades.  It’s completely modern and, yes, it is free!  And it’s the one thing I can think of that defies the old adage that nothing in life is free.

Sound too good to be true?  It’s not.  The only reason you haven’t heard of it is that it doesn’t have a massive marketing and advertising campaign behind it like Microsoft Office does.  It’s used by many companies, many of our own government agencies, and about a bazillion companies abroad.  They get their money from advertising and sponsors.

You can get it at http://www.openoffice.org/ .

Did I mention it’s free?

Happy computing!

 Dropbox.com is a “space” on the internet where you can save files, get files, share files, photos, videos anything you want.

 And the first 2 GB – are FREE!  And you can recieve 500 MB additional per referral.

Your files will sync automatically to all your computers, mobile phones and tablets.  And get this: Your computer blows up or your mobile phone goes through the washing machine?  Your files are still safe.

Even if you’re not connected to the internet, you still have access to your files.  How cool is that?

It’s definitely worth checking out.

Happy computing!

http://www.inc.com/eliza-browning/business-etiquette-rules-that-matter-now.html

Happy computing!

It’s a better decision for a business to purchase a solid business grade printer for the majority of printing needs.  After all, your business generates how much revenue per hour?  What will you lose if your printer is down or you’re having to fix it?

Rule of thumb: If you print most of your docs black and white, get a laserjet.  Yes you will spend at least $500 up front but it’ll pay for itself quickly in keeping your business running and less dollars spent replacing ink cartridges or toner.

Even color lasers are becoming more affordable.  Still we’d recommend spending at least $850-1000 for a decent model.

Of course you’ll find less expensive options out there but everything the same, you get what you pay for.

Good luck and happy computing!

Once installed, the trojan adds entries to the host’s file to hijack users visiting various Google sites (e.g., Google.com.tw, Google.com.tl, etc.) to an IP address in Netherlands. Trojans are infections that can expose computers to control by hackers.  A botnet – in laymans terms – is what happens when many computers are infected and the power from all those computers can be used as one.  This particular bot has already affected over 650,000 Macs – and that is no small potatoes!

The server at the IP address displays a fake webpage designed to appear similar to the legitimate Google site.

Apple has developed a tool to detect and remove the Flashback trojan according to the BBC news, technology.

For a long time, Macs have not been vulnerable to PC malware – which remains true! However – now they are vulnerable to Mac malware.  Instructions on how to confirm if your Mac has been infected can be found on the security firm F-Secure’s website.

Good luck, Mac users – if you need any help, give us a call!

Happy computing!

Microsoft has introduced Windows 8 into the testing phase. What this means to you is that “touch” is entering the mainstream PC marketplace.

If you have a smartphone, iPad or Android tablet, you already know what’s coming. There’s a convergence of phone, tablet and desktop “look and feel” going on. Apple, Microsoft, Android, the contest rages on.  Within the next 12-18 months, “touch” will be the standard.

Yes there are ergonomic challenges here but let’s let them fight it out.   If you’re still running your business on Windows XP you’re going to hear footsteps coming your way and there’s no stopping progress, maybe not today but soon you’ll have to get on board.  So think about the flicks, points and zooms you do with your smartphone and you’ll step easily into the latest Operating System from Microsoft.

Underneath the hood the engine of Windows 7 remains and that’s pretty solid.

Go boldly forth – and happy computing!

March 31^st is World Backup Day.  Just like changing batteries on your fire alarms during daylight savings, the day before April Fools Day is the date to remember to check that your backups are working properly.

See:  http://www.worldbackupday.com/

Even after a number of years of our (and the tech community) “preaching” how important it is to back up your data, some people still are not.  Your computer can break suddenly. Your backups may not be saving the stuff you really need.  Take this day to confirm you’re protected and rest easy for a bit anyway.

Online backup is our best recommendation. It’s inexpensive, even the backups are backed up again, and you can recover it from anywhere in the world.

Cost for most people: $60/year.

Happy World Backup Day!

Get ready to camp outside an Apple Store or FirstTech in Uptown next Thursday night… so you can be first in line to pick up the new iPad 3 on Friday March 16!

Starting at $499 this beauty has a 5-megapixel camera, can record in HiDef and has a screen with higher resolution than a lot of high quality desktop monitors.

And for those of you who don’t need the latest and greatest, many outlets are already dropping their prices for the iPad 2 to clear space for the new kid on the block.

Happy computing!

However, this perspective is costing those owners far more than they’re saving by doing things “on the cheap”.

Consider that anything that interrupts revenue stream has a very serious effect on profitability. And that creates a lot of anxiety for a business owner, something we’d all like to avoid.

Consider the case of a Veterinary Clinic in Minneapolis. Each day the owner would walk in and be faced with another bombardment of his staff saying the system is down, I can’t print invoices, we had to hand-write bills for services.

Besides the unprofessional appearance they displayed to clients, employees were annoyed and angry, time was lost having to double-entry paper and digital. Whole lots of frustration, energy taken away from the most important factor: revenue stream. It was a mess.

CW came in, assessed their entire workflow and technology status. We implemented our field-tested best practices and 8 months later, we’ve only received a couple calls from them and those were so minor it was like a picnic.

Needless to say, the Doctor is a very happy camper and working at peak efficiency.

Moral of the story: If you stop to do the analysis, technology costs are dwarfed by lost revenue every time. Make the investment. There’s a high cost to doing things “on the cheap”.