The Technology Coach

Do You Have A Social Media Policy?

2011-05-31T16:18:00.000-04:00

Do You Have A Social Media Policy?

If you haven't got around to creating a Social Media Policy for your employees, or, if you haven't reviewed your policy for more than a year, then now would be a good time to start.

Social media is growing by leaps and bounds. You can't ignore it, you can't control it, and you can't just let it happen naturally. Social media is getting more complex, pervasive, and not giving your employees direction could end up being dangerous to your brand.

Your employees are your best brand advocates. Make it easy and non-threatening for them to talk about your business on the social web by providing simple guidelines for them to follow. You can find an excellent directory of well-known company social media and blogging policies HERE on About.com. You can benchmark your own polices against what you find in order to develop, or enhance, your own business' guidelines.

Here are a few tips:

Adhere to the Code of Business Conduct and the policies set out in your employee manuals. Now is a good time to review policies with your employees.
Employees are responsible for their actions. Anything an employee posts that can potentially tarnish the Company's image will ultimately be their responsibility. Use common sense, social media is not where and employee should deal with complaints.
Let subject matter experts respond to negative posts. If you see something online, point it out to the person or group in charge of social media. (You do have someone in charge of social media, don't you?)
Be conscious when mixing your business and personal lives. Everything posted on line is public, and you can't take it back.
All employees who wish to officially represent your company online should be certified and trained.
Fully disclose your affiliation with your company, be transparent.
When in doubt, do not post
Give credit where credit is due and don't violate other's rights, copyrights and trademarks
Remember that your local posts have global significance, what you post today will be seen by other cultures on the other side of the world tomorrow. Different cultures have different ideas of what is acceptable behaviour.
Know that the Internet is permanent. Once information is published online it is essentially part of a global permanent record, even if you delete it. The Internet "remembers" everything.

Article thanks to Kim Fletcher

Intel Envisions the Rise of an entirely new kind of laptop, the Ultrabook

2011-05-31T16:02:00.002-04:00

Ultrabooks are the future of mobile computing, according to Intel. The company says thin, lightweight notebook computers from manufacturers like Apple, Lenovo and Acer are on the way, and they're going to take a huge chunk of the laptop market. An Ultrabook, according to Intel, features long battery life, a thin profile, no optical drive and, of course, specially designed Intel processors.

Intel has unveiled details of its plans for the breed of super-thin, rapid-on, tablet-like laptops which it calls "Ultrabooks".

The computer chip giant expects Ultrabooks to take over 40 percent of the laptop market within six to nine months. The new super-thin laptops run on Intel's Sandy Bridge processor. The models will include a new edition of the Apple MacBook Air, the Samsung Series 9, the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 and the Asus UX21. Ultrabooks will begin shipping as early as this year's holiday season.

New features, which could launch Ultrabooks as a new subset of PCs, include Smart Connect and Rapid Start Ideal features for a small business owner or manager.

Smart Connect, according to Intel, is a new form of updating which can reload sites such as Twitter and Facebook and will function even if the computer is in sleep mode.

Rapid Start takes advantage of on-board flash memory to speed up start-up times to mere seconds. Even if the computer is off and without a battery, it will still recall the programs and data which were open when it was turned off.

Ultrabooks share an extremely thin profile, variants of these instant-on technologies, long battery life, lack of an optical drive and use of the Sandy Bridge processor, according to Intel. The company projects Ultrabooks will sell for under $1,000.

Should you really trust the cloud with your valuable data?

2011-05-30T17:29:00.002-04:00

Cloud computing is the latest hottest thing right now, but should you really trust Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or anyone else with your valuable data?

Okay, I am declaring it right here, right now: 2011 is the Year of the Cloud. This buzz word “cloud” is wielded by just about any company that sells a server or an operating system these days. But what exactly are they talking about? What does “cloud” mean and should you trust companies like Microsoft, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, et al when they say the can save you money and keep your data safe?

My approach to technology has always been if something comes along that makes sense and makes my clients lives easier, I will encourage them to adopt it as soon as it is practical. However, the people selling cloud computing and other web-based services have yet to completely convince me the merits of their products and services outweigh the liabilities. Sure the cost savings is there, and the obvious practical benefits are clear, but the risks, oh the risks.

I understand the potential of these services and I am willing to entertain the idea, but there are so many questions unanswered, or worse, glossed over. Just in the past month or so we’ve seen examples of security breakdowns and outages that were very costly for companies that had placed their critical functions in the cloud. (Google, Amazon)

Earlier this week, Deb Shinder discussed Microsoft Azure, which is the company’s “cloud services” platform. The striking thing about the post, and the discussion that followed it, was the confounding way Microsoft has presented the product. Much of the discussion reflected confusion, uncertainty, and mistrust about security, up time, and benefits. And these are my fellow IT professionals expressing those concerns! No as IT professionals we’re usually pretty excited about “new and shiny” so for us to resist there really must be a legitimate worry.

Is it any wonder that a survey by The Small Business Authority shows that 71% of small business owners had never heard of cloud computing? For those of us in information technology that number may seem staggering since we have been talking about the general concept for years, but it shows that the companies selling cloud services have not been communicating effectively with my clients, the small businesses.

All of this uncertainty needs to be addressed before we get the mass adoption of cloud computing services that many are predicting. And the first uncertainty that needs to be addressed is trust.
So I am asking them, Should we trust cloud computing services? Can I be assured that your data is safe in these systems? And, I’d be happy to share my opinion with you as an IT professional, and tell you, can you (should you) trust these services?

If you’re looking for more details on cloud computing services I’d be happy to discuss.

Mac's Getting Viruses? I'm afraid so.

2011-05-26T07:59:00.000-04:00

For years, Mac owners have watched Windows users struggle with viruses and spyware. Mac owners laughed at Windows users. Apple even released commercials to this effect. You see, Macs were free from the malware, spyware and viruses that have plagued Windows users.

Note that I used past tense. Those days are over. If you own a Mac, you are now being targeted by the online miscreants and criminals.

There is no magical feature that makes Macs impervious to online threats.

Malware developers have traditionally targeted Windows purely for economic reasons. Windows is the dominant operating system. There are more people using Windows than Macs. A virus written for Windows will affect more machines, which means greater profits. With such a small Market share, it didn't make sense to develop viruses for a computer less than 10% of the world was using.

Back in 2008, a researcher made an interesting prediction: Attackers would target the Mac when its market share reached 16 percent. The Mac's market share is currently around 16 percent in the United States and Canada. Lo and behold, we're starting to see malware targeting Macs.

Criminals have released a kit for creating malware that targets Mac OS X. MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity are the first programs to come out of this kit. But they certainly won't be the last.

In fact, just yesterday, the MacDefender creators released a variant called MacGuard.

MacDefender is the first example of rogueware to appear on a Mac. Rogueware, or scareware, is fake antivirus that claims your computer is infected. These programs have been affecting Windows users for years.

Clicking a malicious Web link can infect your machine with MacDefender. Hackers like using links that look like popular news stories. They also push infected images in Google's Image Search.

Clicking a bad link or photo takes you to a malicious website. Clicking any link on the site downloads MacDefender.

There are some ways you can stay safe. Only click on links from legitimate websites. If you find yourself on a suspicious-looking site, leave without clicking anything.

Apple's Mac computers are a brilliant blend of style and function. If you're in the market for a new computer, definitely consider one. But keep me mind the advantage that Mac's used to have over PC's of being virus and spyware free no longer applies, it's a fair playing field now. See Last weeks article for more great Mac Vs. PC in the business world discussion.

Are Mac's for Business Too?

2011-05-19T09:49:00.000-04:00

A small business client recently asked: Are macs a cost-effective way to go for my business needs? What are the pros and cons?

My Answer has been pretty consistent for years, even as new Macs hit the market and new Operating Systems offer ever more features our go to answer is still the old reliable, it depends.

To a great extent, it depends on the size and type of business, but I can give you a few general pros and cons.

Macs typically cost more upfront, but can save in maintenance costs because they aren’t susceptible to most malicious software attacks like viruses and spyware.

Like Windows PCs, they work with well with Microsoft Office Applications and even Microsoft Exchange email server. They run most standard productivity software, like Microsoft Office, and can access most online business sites and services.

The one caveat is that there aren't any "mainstream" accounting applications for Mac, sure there are some, but you won't find the big guys (the ones your BookKeeper and Accountant already know).

There are also many niche business applications that are written for Windows only that you just can't get on a Mac.

You can overcome this by running Windows on a Mac for the occasional program. But if your business would best operate using software that is only for Windows, you’d likely be better off with a Windows machine.

In Short the Mac does have it's advantages especially for those in the graphic arts, music arts or video production fields, but even the best graphic designers I know, still have a PC sitting in a corner somewhere for email and accounting.

Next Week, What about iPad for business?

Watch out for fake virus alerts

2011-05-18T19:16:00.000-04:00

Rogue security software, also known as "scareware," is software that appears to be beneficial from a security perspective but provides limited or no security, generates erroneous or misleading alerts, or attempts to lure users into participating in fraudulent transactions.

How does rogue security software get on my computer?

Rogue security software designers create legitimate looking pop-up windows that advertise security update software. These windows might appear on your screen while you surf the web.
The "updates" or "alerts" in the pop-up windows call for you to take some sort of action, such as clicking to install the software, accept recommended updates, or remove unwanted viruses or spyware. When you click, the rogue security software downloads to your computer.
Rogue security software might also appear in the list of search results when you are searching for trustworthy antispyware software, so it is important to protect your computer.

What does rogue security software do?

Rogue security software might report a virus, even though your computer is actually clean. The software might also fail to report viruses when your computer is infected. Inversely, sometimes, when you download rogue security software, it will install a virus or other malicious software on your computer so that the software has something to detect.
Some rogue security software might also:

Lure you into a fraudulent transaction (for example, upgrading to a non-existent paid version of a program).
Use social engineering to steal your personal information.
Install malware that can go undetected as it steals your data.
Launch pop-up windows with false or misleading alerts.
Slow your computer or corrupt files.
Disable Windows updates or disable updates to legitimate antivirus software.
Prevent you from visiting antivirus vendor websites.

Rogue security software might also attempt to spoof the Microsoft security update process. Here's an example of rogue security software that's disguised as a Microsoft alert but that doesn't come from Microsoft.

Example of a warning from a rogue security program known as AntivirusXP.
For more information about this threat, including analysis, prevention and recovery, see the Trojan:Win32/Antivirusxp entry in the Microsoft Malware Protection Center encyclopedia.
Here is the legitimate Microsoft Windows Security Center:

Screenshot of legitimate Microsoft Windows Security Center.

To help protect yourself from rogue security software:

Install a firewall and keep it turned on.
Use automatic updating to keep your operating system and software up to date.
Install antivirus and antispyware software such as Microsoft Security Essentials and keep it updated. For links to other antivirus programs that work with Microsoft, see Microsoft Help and Support List of Antivirus Vendors.
If your antivirus software does not include antispyware software, you should install a separate antispyware program such as Windows Defender and keep it updated. (Windows Defender is available as a free download for Windows XP and is included in Windows Vista.)
Use caution when you click links in email or on social networking websites.
Use a standard user account instead of an administrator account.
Familiarize yourself with common phishing scams.

If you think you might have rogue security software on your computer disconnect yourself from the internet immediately and give us a call at Outhouse IT, the longer it's on your PC uninhibited with internet access the more harm it can do.

Give us a call 905-366-8234

Newest online scam are "tainted" images

2011-05-11T18:07:00.000-04:00

Never let it be said that scammers aren't innovative. The latest scam to come across the web are "tainted" images from a Google Images search.

What happens is that certain images on click will redirect you to sites you didn't want to go to in order to sell you something you didn't want, or in more extreme instances leading to what's known as "scareware" sites to try and scam you into installing malicious software on your computer.

The next time you perform an image search, be cautious because it will take time for Google to index the bad stuff and filter it out appropriately.Of course, a good anti-virus will protect you in most cases, but it's still better not to travel down the dangerous path if it can be avoided!

Social media marketing for Disaster Restoration Contractors

2011-05-10T18:26:00.002-04:00

Scott Kendall of The Technology Coach has been invited to speak at the Disaster Restoration Contractors annual conference in Toronto may 12th

Scott's popular talk on Social media advertising is always a hit, full of real world practical advice for small business owners on making the most of small business marketing budgets through the use of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

All restoration industry professionals
Insurance Professionals
Environmental Engineers
Abatement Contractors
General Contractors wanting to learn more about the industry
Carpet Cleaners wanting to learn more about Water Damage

The top 3 reasons to attend the DRC Show: Network:

Join hundreds of industry professionals at Canada’s only Restoration Show.

DRC Sessions that are tailored for all:

Track O – Owners and Managers
Track M – Marketing & Sales
Track T – Technical
Track C – Contents
Track T1 & T2 – Technical
Track D – Commercial Drying

Great Line up of Exhibitors including our Green Aisle:

What other show allows you to stay up to date on restoration products, equipment and services all under one roof? The DRC Show has become the Primary Purchasing Show for restoration contractors so come prepared to save!

This easter Protect Your Electronics From Dust Bunny Infestation!

2011-04-24T11:22:00.005-04:00

Everyone was eagerly anticipating the upcoming Easter egg hunt which was tradition for the family. As the adults prepared lunch in the kitchen, the children scampered about in the yard. Sounds of glee filled the air as they innocently ran around, everyone happy as can be. All while unaware of the impending Attack of the Evil Easter Dust Bunnies!

Dust bunnies are small clumps of dust that form under furniture and in corners that are not cleaned regularly. They are made of hair, lint, dead skin, spider web, dust, and sometimes light rubbish and debris, and are held together by static electricity and felt-like entanglement.

This special report on the effect of dust on electronics reveals some startling facts. It discusses how dust can block vents or insulate components internally to cause overheating of some of the higher power PC components like the CPU which can go up nearly 30o F. It can also create problems with mechanical components, like fans and optical drives.Worst of all it can collect on hard drive connectors and components causing overheating and data loss!

Test show that the temperature increases due to a build-up of dust causing an increase in temperature can lead to complete and abrupt failure.

The keyboard and mouse are also affected by dust. Though these are easy to replace items, their
reliability can degrade rapidly when infused with dust. Stuck keys and “sticky” mouse operation are most frustrating to operators and can create both errors and productivity loss.

Slowing things down, reducing your computer lifespan and generally causing freezing, crashing and other annoying and unproductive technology problems. Damn those bunnies!

Dust can cause irreversible harm to computer electronics and its associated electromechanical components. Without protection from dust, serious computer errors, loss of information, or complete failure can result.

So this spring, as you're thinking of cleaning the garage, the attic or the office, think also of your technology and give us a call, we'd be happy to complete a on-site system tuneup at your office and ensure you're running in tip top shape!

Two Ways Old Technology Hurts Your Business. Get Rid Of It As Soon As You Can

2011-04-14T18:21:00.000-04:00

I can appreciate that with all the challenges you face as a small business owner, the idea of holding on to what works, for as long as it keeps working, seems to be a good one. After all, why shouldn’t you keep that ten year old printer?

You can still get ink for it online at that specialty dealer in buffal, and it prints just fine. Or how about that 8 year old laptop, sure it’s not quite as fast as some of the newer models but it gets the job done right?

The powers that be in the tech world are ever pushing new advancements to drive sales and profits and you don’t want to contribute to this vicious cycle! I empathize with you. I too like to squeeze the last drop of productivity out of the things which I have invested. But lets consider some of the potential downside to holding on to technology too long.

Reliability: The cold hard truth is that things are designed to last for only a certain range of time. We have all come to know the term “built in obsolescence”. This is not to say that you can’t push these limits, but once you start down this road you are rolling the dice on uptime and overall performance. If any of these devices are involved with “mission critical” functions within your organization than you may be taking a risk without the appropriate level of reward in return. Most tech related devices have a lifespan of three to five years. If you take this into consideration ahead of time it is possible to budget for the necessary upgrades instead of having to face a crisis.

Productivity: This is a huge area of discussion because it is often difficult to measure. In the section above I mention “Mission Critical” functions. So, for example, we can look at a File or Email Server that is past its prime of 3 years. In the fourth year there are sporadic performance issues that ultimately lead to the need for replacement. If this results in a server down scenario then it is easy to count the number of hours that productivity has been halted. What is more difficult to measure is the loss of time and productivity during the periods when the server was not operating at peak efficiency. These losses could be the result of slower speeds, frequent need for techs to reboot server, email outages, etc.

When we look at productivity issues for “Non Mission Critical” machines we find similar problems. I am consistently amazed to discover the inventive and ingenious methods workers employ in an effort to overcome technical stumbling blocks to complete their job functions. I am oft reminded of the days when the youngest family member would have to stand in a specific position with “tin folied” antenna in hand to get the perfect television reception. While these “work-arounds” are commendable, they are also great productivity killers that can be largely avoided with the proper technology in place to get the job done.

So is your technology "getting the job done"? Is it as productive as it could or should be?

Give us a call at Outhouse IT we'd be happy to help you complete a small business technology assessment and see where you really stand.

Twilight Game Scam Spreading on Facebook [WARNING]

2011-04-12T09:18:00.000-04:00

If you’ve been tagged in a Facebook friend’s photo album or seen a link promoting a Twilight: Breaking Dawn game, be careful. It is likely a scam designed to spread on Facebook and grab your personal data.

If you click on the link, you’ll be invited to start playing the game. If you’re using Facebook HTTPS, you will first be prompted to switch to a regular connection, which should alarm some users.

This particular scheme will make you “Like” the game without your permission, and it will show on your Wall, thus allowing it to spread further.

If you continue, you will be asked to give permission to a Facebook App, and finally you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire with some personal data.

As always, you should definitely avoid clicking on suspicious links such as these and verify each app before you give it additional permissions on Facebook.

If you’ve fallen prey to this scheme already, you should delete any spam posts you may have inadvertently sent. Then, go through your security settings and revoke any access for apps you don’t recall signing up for.

For more info on how to get rid of Facebook scams like this one, check out this guide.

Windows 7 finally overtakes Windows XP’s desktops

2011-04-11T20:07:00.000-04:00

According to the latest results of the desktop OS market share in the US for April 2011 collected by StatCounter, it looks like people are finally leaving Windows XP behind and getting an upgrade to Windows 7.

For the first time since it became the most popular operating system around, Windows XP’s market share has been trumped by Windows 7.

Windows 7 is now used on 31.71% of desktops in the US, while Windows XP has dropped to 31.56%.

Now the lead isn’t a lot but it does show that Windows XP has finally peaked and is on its way out now.

Windows Vista is at third place with 19.07%, Mac OS X at fourth with 14.87%, Linux is last with 0.70% and Other/miscellaneous operating systems make up 2.09% of the chart.

Importance of note is the increase in Mac OS which sat at less than 10% for many, many years, but now enjoys a much healthier percentage.

It's important to note that this chart does NOT non-Desktop/Laptops so don't be surprised that the iPhone OS (iOS), blackberry and even Android aren't listed.

Is your business still running windows XP applications? Does it need to be? Some applications previously only windows XP compatible are now fully functional in a windows 7 environment and with the added security and protection Win7 offers over XP it's worth a look.

While we've done our best in the past to help clients find windows XP computers from suppliers even up until the end of 2010, it's now almost impossible to find NEW copies of XP, sure you can go used, off lease or refurbished, but new, Windows XP is just not available in the marketplace for purchase anymore. Even our might netbooks are now windows 7 starter edition.

So, is your business getting everything it can and should be out of it's operating system? Give us a call at Outhouse IT, we're here to help.

Clean the C&@# out of your computer with CCleaner.

2011-04-11T09:20:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of tools out there that handle a lot of tasks, from antivirus tools that also clean your drive of temporary files and make you coffee to tools that promise to “make your computer faster.”

But as far as I’m concerned, few tools can make as much of a difference as Ccleaner, at least on a machine that’s not infected by a virus or malware.

Ccleaner is easy to use and will keep your computer cleaner, more secure, and running faster. It achieves this by safely removing temporary Internet files (and other means of tracing Internet activity), cleaning up the Windows registry, and removing temporary files and recent file lists (MRUs) from various applications.

But even though Ccleaner is a simple tool to use, that doesn’t mean you should just jump in and start cleaning everything without a bit of thought. Here are some things all users should consider before and during the use of this powerful tool.

1: Analyze before running the Cleaner

I know a lot of admins who just fire up Ccleaner and hit the Run Cleaner button without doing an analysis first. Yes, this is a fast method of getting rid of temporary Internet files. But there’s no way of knowing what’s going to be deleted (until it’s deleted) and there’s no way of knowing how much free space the deletion is going to create. Make sure you hit the Analyze button first. Then, after you read the report, hit the Run Cleaner button. Using Ccleaner this way ensures that nothing is deleted that shouldn’t be deleted. Also, after you run the analyzer, you can look at detailed information (by application) and then add exceptions directly from the list.

2: Set up cookies you want to keep

When you run the Cleaner, cookies are deleted. By default, cookies are retained from Google and Yahoo, but other cookies might need to be retained. To manage this, click on the Options tab and then on the Cookies button. From that window, any cookie currently on the system can be selectively added to the exclusion list. By adding these exclusions, you don’t have to worry about important cookies disappearing after each run of Ccleaner.

3: Always back up the registry

No matter how reliable Ccleaner is and no matter how many successful registry cleanups it does, never do a cleanup without first backing up the registry. Ccleaner will go so far as to remind you to back up the registry every time you run a registry cleanup. If the registry is not backed up, one of those corrupt or missing registry keys that Ccleaner fixes might not really have needed fixing. If that key is then broken and was not backed up, the issue caused by Ccleaner could become catastrophic. Fortunately, Ccleaner makes backing up the registry as simple as a couple of clicks.

4: Use the tools to manage startup applications

Ccleaner comes with a bonus: It lets you enable, disable, or remove programs from startup. I have always found this method of managing startup applications far easier than using the standard Windows method. What I like most about this feature is that startup applications can be enabled and disabled without removing them completely. This means if you need to temporarily prevent an application from starting up, it’s easy to do by going into the Tools tab, clicking the Startup button, selecting the application to be enabled/disabled, and clicking the appropriate button. When the application needs to be re-enabled/disabled, reverse the process.

5: Use the uninstaller

One of the best aspects of Ccleaner is the ability to remove applications from within it. It typically just starts the uninstaller, but I have found that running the application uninstaller this way ends with fewer registry issues than when I uninstall from the Windows Add/Remove Programs tool. And if there are registry issues after the uninstall, registry cleanup is only a couple of clicks away.

Great tool, used wisely

Ccleaner is more than just a tool to clean the registry or empty a computer of temporary Internet files. It also makes it easy to remove applications from startup and remove applications from the machine. Just make sure you use this powerful tool intelligently to avoid rendering your machine unusable. While they try to make it difficult to make mistakes, it is possible to render your computer unuseable by running some of the tasks ccleaner offers, so if you're not sure, err on the side of caution. And if you want to make the most of your technology, give us a call at Outhouse IT, it's what we do.

Online Fax Security

2011-03-29T20:23:00.000-04:00

The security of fax transmissions is especially important to healthcare, legal, and financial entities. Even occasional users may wonder if Internet faxing, despite its many advantages, is secure enough to protect their confidentiality and that of their clients. The answer is, it depends...
First, let's compare Internet fax security to the security of normal fax transmissions over phone lines.

Both are susceptible to eavesdropping and diversion of transmissions, unless special precautions are taken. In the case of Internet faxes, encrypting a digital transmission or uploading it to a fax server over an encrypted Web connection provide good protection against interceptions. You should make sure that these security features are supported in any Internet fax service you consider.

Faxzero, an online faxing service I recommend, does encrypt all data before transferring it to their fax servers. In addition, their privacy policy states that they will not release personal information (such as your name, fax number or email address), nor information about the people you send faxes to, unless a court order compels them to do so.

Email-to-fax services can be spoofed, meaning someone can fake your email address in a message header and send faxes in your name. If you pay for Internet fax service that means you may be stuck with someone else's fax bill. A good Internet fax service sends a confirmation email back to the sender's email address with every fax it sends, providing an alert that an unauthorized fax was sent using your account.

Digital Delivery Offers Enhanced Fax Security

Normal faxes end up printed and deposited in a fax machine's receiving tray, where they lie until someone comes to retrieve them. These paper copies are exposed to everyone who has access to the fax machine, and may be accidentally read by people searching for their own faxes in the stack. Email-based Internet fax delivers faxes directly to the addressee's inbox (instead of a fax machine), where it's less likely to be seen by others.

Another security scheme stores received faxes on an online server. An email notice sent to the addressee contains a web link which points to the digital fax document. When clicked, the link opens a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection to retrieve the document and display it in a browser, from which the recipient can save or print a copy. So the faxed document is never exposed on an unsecured connection.

Redundant security can be provided by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to establish exclusive connections over the Internet. Coupled with encrypted fax documents and PGP digital signatures, VPNs may be overkill when it comes to secure Internet faxing.

It's hard to control the security implemented by business partners. If you send an Internet fax to a partner's fax machine number, the printout is subject to the security vulnerabilities noted above. If possible, you should get your partners to use a more secure all-digital Internet fax solution such as fax-to-email or the SSL method described above. Hopefully, they're just as concerned with security as you are.

Bottom line, my take is that internet faxing is more secure than using good old-fashioned office fax machines, because encryption is typically NOT used when sending from one machine to another. Faxes travel across the public telephone network, and are subject to potential interception by motivated hackers. But because encryption is used by online fax services, and faxes can be delivered directly to the recipient's inbox, online faxing is a more secure option.

Two Weeks After Japan Earthquake, IT Industry Faces Hurdles

2011-03-25T15:38:00.001-04:00

Two weeks have passed since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami rocked eastern Japan, and while a recovery among the country's technology manufacturers has begun, it could be several months before things start to normalize.

Many factories were closed immediately following the quake, and most have been gradually returning to production in the last week. A handful of plants were hit harder and could be offline for months.

Companies face a daunting task.

Japan's biggest earthquake ever recorded, and the tsunami it spawned, left more than 10,000 people dead and an even larger number missing; several nuclear power plants remain in emergency condition and continue to spew radioactive contamination to the environment; hundreds of thousands are homeless; and the economy is being forced to adapt to power failures and supply disruptions. The end of the disaster is still not in sight.

For IT companies, the loss of production at these plants could have widespread effects on the electronics industry.

Texas Instruments' plant in Miho, northeast of Tokyo, is one of the factories that was hard hit. The plant, which produced chips and DLP devices for projectors, suffered "substantial damage" and it won't be until May when partial production resumes. Full production is not due until mid-July, and that could be further delayed by power problems, the company said.

Toshiba estimates production at its mobile phone display factory in Saitama, north of Tokyo, will be stopped for a month because of damage sustained in the earthquake.

Further north in Miyagi prefecture, a number of factories near the quake-hit city of Sendai suffered high levels of damage.

A Sony plant responsible for magnetic tape and Blu-ray Discs was inundated with water when a tsunami washed through the town of Tagajyo and is one of six Sony plants currently idle. Two Nikon plants were severely damaged and won't be back online until at least the end of March. And Fujitsu's major chip plant in Aizu Wakamatsu is still closed with no estimate of when production will begin again.

But some of the potentially biggest disruptions could come from the closure of two plants run by Shin-Etsu Chemical. Although not a well-known name to consumers, the company is a major supplier of silicon wafers. One of the halted plants, its Shirakawa facility in Fukushima prefecture, is responsible for around 20 percent of the world's supply of such wafers, according to IHS iSuppli.

"The wafers made by this facility mainly are used in the manufacturing of memory devices, such as flash memory and DRAM," said Len Jelinek, an IHS iSuppli analyst, in a statement. "Because of this, the global supply of memory semiconductors will be impacted the most severely of any segment of the chip industry by the production stoppage."

The knock-on effects of the quake to the global supply chain are already being felt.

Sony suspended production of Bravia LCD televisions, digital cameras and other products at five factories far from the quake zone because it can't get raw materials and components. Suppliers are unable to deliver because of either quake and tsunami damage or because of disruptions to the distribution network.

Industries beyond consumer electronics are also likely to feel the effects of these problems.

The automobile industry is a big customer of chip companies and the products it buys are often custom-made.

"Products like microcontrollers and DSPs can't simply be swapped out for another chip, whether from the same vendor or another," said Tom Starnes, an embedded processor analyst at Objective Analysis in Austin, Texas. "The programs aren't easily transferable between processors, and even changing other chips like analog may introduce cost, quality, or reliability issues not originally anticipated."

The long-term effect on Japanese electronics manufacturers and the supply chain remains difficult to gauge. Several major companies have said they will delay the hiring of new workers, usually done on April 1, and some have adjusted or canceled dividend payments to shareholders. While a nascent recovery appears to be underway and some factories are coming back online, it will be weeks before the full extent of damage to the global IT supply chain becomes clearer.

Technology supply chain facing shortages and delays at hands of Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

2011-03-15T19:04:00.000-04:00

The continuing natural disaster in Japan has severely hindered the manufacture of basic components used in everything from computers to smart phones, increasing the likelihood that some of the world’s biggest technology companies will face product shortages and delays.

“You will see shortages of everything from screens to memory, and with it, an increase in prices,” said an analyst in Boston.

Japan is the world’s biggest supplier of silicon used to make semiconductor chips and this could result in significant shortages of certain electronic components, potentially causing pricing for these devices to increase dramatically,”

Because most semiconductor producers keep about two weeks’ worth of inventory on hand, the market likely won’t feel a pinch until the end of the month.

“Before the disaster, semiconductor inventories in the global semiconductor supply chain were at high levels. The Japanese earthquake will cause the appearance of shortages to be delayed by a matter of weeks.”

Much of the disruption is a result of shipping and logistics issues, rather than damage to Japanese manufacturing sites. Many companies will have problems getting material and employees in and out of their factories. In addition, some companies are shutting down production at some facilities voluntarily, in order to reduce the pressure on Japan’s battered power grid.

Japan is a vital hub in the manufacture of components necessary to make technology such as flash memory and dynamic random access memory, which are key parts of most computing devices. Flash memory, specifically, has become increasingly popular in recent years, due in large part to a surge in the production of mobile devices such as tablet computers.

Some of the world’s biggest technology manufacturers have announced temporary plant shutdowns. Sony Corp. has suspended operations in at least seven Japanese plants. In addition, the company is assessing damage at several other facilities, while other Sony plants have voluntarily suspended operations to help contain power outages. The suspended operations will have an impact on the production of everything from lithium ion batteries to DVDs to semiconductor lasers.

The various delays and interruptions will likely affect almost every corner of the consumer electronics industry. Electronics giant Hitachi Ltd. for instance, confirmed damage at six of its facilities.
According to iSuppli, Hitachi supplies displays for the Nintendo DS hand-held video game system and for LG phones. FujiFilm also announced temporary disruptions to its operations, likely to affect some shipments of digital cameras. Even though the Toshiba Corp. factories that produce memory chips were largely unaffected by the earthquake, the company could still see a drop in shipments because of infrastructure damage in Japan.

In all, the disruptions in Japan’s technology industry could have an effect on everything from the film industry to car stereos.

The unfolding tragedy’s massive impact on industry is especially difficult for the country’s electronics industry because of the precision required to build some technology. Intricate and highly technical components require a rigorous, secure production cycle involving clean rooms free from dust and other impurities. Unlike cars, for example, whose production cycle can be stopped and started, a power failure in the middle of manufacturing chips can ruin an entire shipment.

“Japan will not have enough power to keep all its factories running non-stop and a lot of these manufacturing processes have to run 24/7 – so that’s a major problem,” he said. “It’s inconvenient to Toyota and Nissan, but it’s absolutely devastating to electronics manufacturers.”

Firefox 4: What You Need To Know

2011-03-11T14:39:00.000-05:00

1. Tabs Are On Top

As with Opera and Chrome, Firefox 4 tabs are placed by default above the search bar instead of below it.

Alex Faaborg, the principal designer on Firefox, created a video to explain the thought behind this decision. The advantages of doing so, he says, are more logical visuals, space efficiency, and accommodation of new features like app tabs and a redesigned notification window that associates the notification with its site’s tab.

2. App Tabs

Mozilla 4 allows you to turn any tab into an “App Tab” by right-clicking on it and selecting “Pin as App Tab.”

These tabs stay put in the upper left-hand corner of the browser even as you scroll through your other tabs, which prevents the web applications you return to frequently from getting lost.

When there’s an update on one of the app tab pages, like a new e-mail, Facebook message or Twitter update, the tab glows — rather classy compared to the bouncing, flashing alternatives.

3. Switch to a Tab Via the Search Bar

Start typing the address of a website that is already open in a tab, and Firefox 4 will suggest an option to switch to that tab, even when it’s in a different open window. If you’re someone who opens more tabs than you can remember, this feature can help prevent repeats.

4. Sync Across Multiple Devices

The ability to sync bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, form fill data, and open tabs across multiple computers and smartphone is built in to Firefox 4.

While similar features have been default in Chrome and Opera for a while, Firefox director of engineering Johnathan Nightingale says that the organization took the time to develop “weapons-grade encryption.”

5. Panorama

Panorama (formerly tab candy) now allows you to overview all of your tabs and organize them into groups using a drag and drop interface.

The feature is accessed through an icon in the upper right-hand corner of the browser that opens to a blank workspace and icons for each of your existing tabs. You can create a new group by dragging two icons near each other, move and resize groups, and close all the tabs in a group with one click.

Manage Your Small Business Social Media Marketing From A Single Dashboard

2011-02-07T10:16:00.002-05:00

Social Media Marketing via Facebook for small business is hot! And I don’t see it going away anytime soon. That means your small business should be there. (Note: if you are still one of the few small businesses that does not yet have a website, Facebook would be a good place to start.)

One of the drawbacks for small business owners when it comes to any type of social media — whether that is blogging, Twitter, or Facebook — is taking on one more thing to do in an already packed day. Yes, you can outsource some of these activities, but the whole idea behind social media is the social part (as in you need to be present and engaging).

So I was pretty thrilled when a couple of messages landed in my email box about a young startup called MediaFeedia. Its aim is to be the answer for small business owners like you to manage your Facebook presence.

And I think they’ve nailed that pretty well. Here are some of the things you can do.

Manage multiple administered facebook pages from a single dashboard
Send posts, complete with photos, links and link metadata from the dashboard
Send posts in real-time or schedule posts in advance (hours, days, weeks or months in advance)
Receive notifications via email for all posts and comments made to your page
Respond to posts and comments via the email notification

What I Like About MediaFeedia

I took it for a test drive and really liked what I saw. Here are my thoughts on the service along with some handy videos to show you how it works.
Scheduling a post is pretty easy.

See the video, click here.

Plus, you get (almost) instant notification of comments on your fan page via email and can click to interact.

See the video, click here.

I truly love the option of being able to schedule posts to your facebook page. One of the keys to successful interaction is to be able to reach your contacts when they are on the site. This option allows you to to do that. You can see the example below. Note that the post source shows MediaFeedia.

Here’s What I Don’t Like

MediaFeedia is using the popular freemium model for their business — you get a free version that has certain features and benefits and have to upgrade to get more goodies. I’m actually okay with the model because I know businesses can’t survive without cash flow. But what I’m not okay with for this particular site is the way it looks like they are going to price their service.

According to the welcome email, you will get full features for 30 days and then will have to upgrade to continue with full features. You’ll still have a basic account, but notice that one of the key options they take away is the fan page email notifications. Ugh! Not good. The two key reasons why a small business owner like you and me would use this service is to 1) have the ability to schedule posts, and 2) be able to get notifications of comments via email.

But there is an alternative. I could use MediaFeedia for the scheduling options and then set up the (totally free) HyperAlerts to get email notification of wall posts. Or you could use one of the other new kids on the block like Postling to monitor comments. Problem solved.

Do We Recommend MediaFeedia? Yep.

No matter what, though, I feel comfortable recommending MediaFeedia and plan on using it myself. I think it’s one answer to helping small business owners be present and engaging with clients and prospects while being able to balance all the balls in the air.

Why your anti-virus software might have stopped working this week without telling you!

2011-02-01T17:34:00.002-05:00

Why clients ask "what's the best FREE anti-virus for my small business" my answer is always the same, Microsoft's Security Essentials is a free no-nonsense, no-hassle anti-virus and anti-spyware tool that does 80% of what small businesses need. Microsoft's own tagline for the application is "Proven anti-virus protection for free? That's what I need!" And it's true... or at least it was, until this week.

Microsoft released a new version of the Microsoft Anti-virus application a few weeks ago, and prompted everyone to "Upgrade" it's still free, but the upgrade takes about 20 minutes per PC and requires you to reboot when it's finished, so many people ignore it's prompting seen below.

Again the problem being most people didn't take the time to hit the "Upgrade Now" button the old version for some unexplained reason "stopped working" it never reported an error, or gave any signs of failure, but I've now seen 3 Pc's in the last week with virus infections that I KNOW were protected, but didn't get upgraded. So did Microsoft miss a virus definition distribution? Did the program hiccup and let a virus through? We're not sure, but we do know that if you DIDN'T Upgrade, you're likely unprotected, and possibly already infected without knowing it.

So if you're using Microsoft Security essentials, as I recommend most small business do (ask my why I tell 20% of my customers about a BETTER solution!) and you haven't already done the "upgrade" Microsoft recommended last week, you'd better soon, or, give us a call and we can arrange to have a technician install it for you and do a thorough security check at the same time.

Below is a screen shot of the older version not yet upgraded.

And the upgraded version below already installed (note the gray lines instead of the solid blue background).

Top 10 sites businesses should ban during work hours.

2011-02-01T15:56:00.001-05:00

One popular method of reducing employee web traffic to non-business sites is modifying the DNS (Domain Name System) settings on your server or internet router, many of our small office clients have asked us about ways to reduce non-work related internet traffic to minimize distractions and keep workers productive and focused during working hours. The sites we found were blocked most often after we put the security measures in place are listed below.

No surprise here as Facebook was the most blocked site by businesses with almost one in four trying to put the clamps on social networking site, Myspace was second and is still a popular social networking site.

Youtube, the internets second most searched website, I could hear arguments on youtube though, as much as it is primarily an entertainment site, it also contains wealths of useful information and great "how to's" for staff and management alike.

Doubleclick, and ad.yieldmanager at numbers 4 and 8 are not "traditional" websites at all, these two sites are advertising agents that put the ads on other websites you visit.

Twitter at number 5 is another popular social networking site.

The biggest security threat of the bunch was probably number 6, hotmail, being an non-office email application it opens the doors to security threats in two ways, incoming and outgoing, both the threat of viruses arriving via hotmail and getting through the company email firewall AND sensitive files being sent OUT of the company via hotmail or similar web based email addresses were a concern.

Orkut at number 7 is a social networking site now owned by google and recently relaunched and Meebo at number 9 is yet another popular social media site.

And of course we can't forget ebay, I honestly think this site would have ended up MUCH higher on the list if it wasn't for what I call "self regulation" that is people who realize they're not supposed to be on that site, before they even try. eBay is one of the most popular websites on the internet, and a real "time waster" for employees.

The full list:
1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. YouTube
4. DoubleClick
5. Twitter
6. Hotmail
7. Orkut
8. ad.yieldmanager
9. Meebo
10. eBay

If you're company hasn't already implemented an acceptable employee internet usage policy and doesn't have an easy way to enforce and monitor it, we'd be happy to discuss cost effective solutions.

Where's the best place to store those precious memories? Or critical backups?

2011-01-20T17:02:00.001-05:00

Where should you really be putting your most important Data? CD/DVD Disc? An external hard drive? Tape Drive? USB Memory Stick/Flash drive? Something else perhaps? And what can we really expect in the way of longevity out of today's storage mediums?

CD/DVD

The vast majority of blank optical media (blank CD's and DVD's) sold today are of very low quality.

It’s very easy to tell if the spindle of blank DVDs you just bought are junk or not. Look at the sides of the discs in the stack. Do you see lumps, bumps and inconsistencies?

If the answer is yes, they’re low quality. Don’t bother returning them because every spindle you buy will be like that unless you go with a specific brand which I’ll mention in a moment.

Truly good optical discs have no imperfections that can be seen by the naked eye. So should you pop over to staples or best buy and look through all the spindles of optical discs? probably not.

You know from above that off-the-shelf media today are going to fail, much the same way floppy diskettes failed at the end of their tenure. Manufacturers churn these things out without any consideration of quality file writes or reads for the long haul, they are not a "long term solution"

If you do opt to use CD or DVD media, don’t plan on having anything last for longer than 2 to 3 years at most before read failure. It doesn’t matter if you have the best optical drive available, because there’s nothing you can do to stop the breakdown of the quality over time.

HARD DRIVE

One of the leading hard drive manufacturers Western Digital used to offer lifetime warranties on consumer PC hard drives, they stopped. Why?

There was a point in time when any Western Digital Hard Disk Drive you bought had a lifetime warranty. Then WD knocked that down to 7 years. Then 5 years. Then for some models 3 or even just 1!

What happened is that the manufacturing process changed, and certain components on the inside of the Hard Disk Drive that used to be made from metal were changed to plastic.

I’m not saying WD drives are bad because I use them myself, but the phrase "they don’t make ‘em like they used to" definitely applies.

As a testament to this, there are still 286 PCs (circa 1982) out there that when started, the drive takes a really long time to spin up, it’s really loud once running, but it amazingly still works almost 30 years later and all the data is accessible and ready to rock. I seriously, seriously doubt hard drives made today will be able to boast that 30 years from now.

In February 2007, Google Inc. released a study that they conducted on their own computers entitled Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population. According to this study, which was the most extensive of it's kind ever completed, hard drives are most likely to fail if they are less than 3 months old, or more than 2 years old.

2 years!?

The best way to make a hard drive last as long as possible is to use two. A smaller hard drive for the operating system and a large one for storage. If you're not already doing this ask your IT technician about it, if you don't have one, we can help. This is a time-honored way of computing and it does allow for HDDs dedicated to storage to last longer than 2 years, but it's not an alternative to a backup, it's just better than one hard drive.

As for how much longer, standard fare is 3 to 5 years. A dedicated storage HDD will last for 5 or greater before showing signs of eminent doom. Doom that doesn't scream "hey I'm dying in here" until well, it's much too late. Luckily IT tech's have tools that measure the drive's S.M.A.R.T. (Self Monitoring and Reporting Tools) and can determine when a drive's on it's last legs, but only if they see it BEFORE that time comes.

And yes there are plenty of instances where people have had hard drives last well beyond the 7-year mark, however it’s never wise to assume that you will achieve that just because someone else did.

Heck lots of people have crossed the lake in early April because the ice looked thick enough, you want to go out on the ice too?

TAPEDRIVE
One word. NO. Not economical, not reliable, not cost effective, not easy to manage, not inexpensive, not an option.

USB FLASH

USB sticks have been around long enough to prove that they can definitely withstand the test of time better than any other immediately available affordable storage media.

If you write data to a USB stick, toss it in a drawer then 8 years later go to use it again, it will work. A hard drive used that way is an iffy prospect at best and I’d never trust optical media to last that long even with premium brands.

I’ll put it to you this way: If I were making a time capsule and wanted to put some data in it, I’d use nothing but USB sticks if I wanted something I could retrieve two decades later and have relative assurance it would still work and not have decayed beyond being usable.

The only known thing that can kill a USB stick is either unmounting it improperly (pulling it out while it's still being written to or read from) or running out of file writes as it does have a predetermined limit - yes you read that right, predetermined number of file writes. USB sticks, as with Memory cards for camera's, cell phones and camcorders have a pre-determined number of writes, somewhere in the multi-billions before they simply give up. And to my knowledge there's no odometer that says "almost done" when it's time to move on.

If it sounds like I’m telling you to burn discs less and use Flash media more, I am. Flash sticks don’t suffer from scratches or any damage from being a moving part because it doesn’t move.

But that being said if you're looking for something for regular daily use I wouldn't trust a USB stick much longer than a year before I switched to a new one.

CONCLUSION

So wait, what's the answer? Hard Drives aren't built like they used to be, optical discs aren't long term enough, usb sticks only work if you well, don't plan on actually using them, what's the right answer?

A combination actually. A combination of a local USB flash stick backup of the most important files swapped for a new stick on a yearly basis And a hard drive backup, but not your hard drive, someone else's, somewhere else.

While 80% of computer failures are caused by hard drive crashes, the other 20% are not, the other 20% are fire, flood, theft or sabotage. And if your USB stick backup and backup hard drive are plugged into your computer when the Fire, Flood, Theft or sabotage occur, you've just lost everything.

My real recommendation is use USB sticks daily or weekly to store the most critical data and an online backup solution (which backs up to someone else's hard drives somewhere else out of the way of fire, flood, theft and most cases of sabotage).

But aren't someone else's hard drives just as likely to fail as your own? Yes, but online backup companies know that and prepare for it, everything you ask them to backup is backed up to not one but two hard drives at the same time, and the drives themselves are traded out for newer drives every 2-3 years depending on their previous failure track record.

Worried about security? The security practices that REPUTABLE online backup companies use to store your data, is the same grade of security that the US and Canadian military use to store their data, I won't go into nitty gritty details but you know the story of a million monkey's on a million typewriters? Well all you'd get is a lot of banana peels to compost.

So if you're not sure the backup solution you're already using is "ideal" for your business needs, give us a call, we'd be happy to discuss the details and provide a solution.

Imporant tips for managing employee Internet access

2011-01-17T14:42:00.000-05:00

There’s a fine line between being Big Brother and keeping employees from wasting too much time on the Internet. And as we all know, there are plenty of ways to waste time on the ‘net: Facebook, Twitter, chatting, shopping, scores… you name it. But how do you manage control of your employees — and what type of control do you extend over them? Everything gets even more complicated if your business also depends upon the type of PR and marketing to be had from the likes of Facebook and Twitter. As more and more companies and businesses resort to these outlets for free advertising, different levels of control must be put into place.

Here are a few suggestions for tools you can use to manage this control, policies to implement, and ways to keep your employees from revolting.

1st Make sure you have a clear access policy Instead of employing controlling software, it might better suit your environment and employees to have clear policies in place that prevent the usage of certain Web sites during work hours. This method does call upon the honor system (unless you are using a monitoring tool), which gives your work environment a more relaxed feel. The problem with this method arises when you discover an employee abusing the policies and you do not react. If you lay out a clear policy and do not punish those ignoring it, you may as well throw that policy out the window.

If manually monitoring (over the shoulder) would take too much time or feel to intrusve to employees, as most managers feel it does, you'll want to look into tools that will monitor network usage for you. With tools of this nature, you can keep tabs on what your users are viewing online and then act accordingly. This is a much less Big Brother approach to managing what your employees are viewing. By handling this task this way, you are more inclined to have a lower attrition rate from employees not wanting to work in a controlling environment. Monitoring tools allow you to monitor employee Web usage from a single desktop. Some tools even allows the administrator to view employee bookmarks and favorites. Although some think this a better approach than implementing policies and preventing access to certain (or all) Web sites, many people view this quite the opposite. As I said earlier, it’s a very fine line.

DNS Redirection is an industry accepted method for Web content/security filtering using tools that are completely Web based. With DNS control, you can filter content, prevent phishing, block page bypass, protect against malware , delegate administration, and much more. You will have detailed daily reports as well as archived logs and statistics. With content filtering, you can select from more than 50 categories and prevent the use of proxies for bypassing filters.

Along with having clear policies, you have to be willing to offer some flexibility. During the holiday season, employees are going to shop online. During March Madness, employees are going to check basketball scores. You must be willing to give or you will find yourself with some upset employees. If you are never willing to bend on your policies, the attrition rate may rise during certain times of the year or with certain cross sections of employees. (Older employees may be less apt to take issue with such policies than younger employees.)

The saying “Everything is relative” applies here — as does “Everything in moderation.” The real problem with employees surfing the Web happens when it interferes with actual work. This could be too much browsing or browsing to unsafe or inappropriate sites. You, as an employer (or manager) must tread that fine line between too much and too little control over what employees can do with their Web browsing.

What measures does your organization rely on to manage employee Internet activity? If your approach isn't working, or you don't have one at all, Give us a call at Outhouse IT, we're here to help.

Your own email @facebook.com? Beware Facebook survey scam

2011-01-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

Thousands of Facebook users have been hit by a scam which claims to give them early access to a facebook.com email address.

Messages, appearing in the news feed of users who have fallen for the scam, read:

Just got my own email @facebook.com! Quickly get one before someone takes your name [LINK REMOVED]

However, clicking on the links leads you to a webpage which tricks you into giving a third party application permission to post to your Facebook wall.

Don’t, whatever you do, allow the app to have permission to access your profile. Because then it will start to spread the messages even further, starting with your online Facebook friends.

You won’t realise it’s doing that, of course, until it’s too late – as you’re too distracted by the form asking you for your email details.. oh, and the revenue-generating online survey that the scammers have put up in the front of it..

Note, these scam messages are not connected with Facebook’s genuine plans to give everyone a @facebook.com public email address.

Facebook expects to roll out that service more widely in the coming months, and will use your “publicusername” when live.

Here’s a YouTube video where Sophos will show you how to clean-up your Facebook account if you were hit by this, or similar scams:

Talking with techies

2011-01-03T15:52:00.000-05:00

Talking with techies

As a techie* you probably have no difficulty communicating with your peers. You use acronyms, terminology and examples that your colleagues understand. The difficulty arises when you need to communicate with techies in different fields or when you need to talk with non techies such as customers, upper level management or the sales staff.

I write marketing material, presentations and web content for technical products and services. When I talk with techies I need to play the role of “designated idiot.”(I first heard this term used by Bruce Madole in 1994 at an HPCA presentation.) I have found that techies often assume knowledge that their audience may not possess. By being the designated idiot, I ask questions until I understand the process or product. When I understand, know the acronyms, expressions and terminology I can then write the web page, the white paper, the case study, the testimonial story or the marketing brochure.

When techies are presenting, talking to customers or training their sales staff they need to keep in mind the following principles .

Know your audience. Find out who they are, what they need and want to know. Determine their level of technical understanding. Some may not know the difference between an extruder and a die, or a browser and a hard drive. You need to be able to talk to them at their level – not down to them. You need to help them follow your train of thought, and use real examples that they can understand.

Talk about the benefits of features. As a subject matter expert, you know your product better than anyone but sometimes you see all the features and are blind to the benefits of your product. The benefits are what interests potential buyers and it’s what sells the product.

When talking to your sales staff or to a customer about design issues, talk about the benefits of the features. Describe how a feature will contribute to efficiencies, cost savings, or ease of use. Use practical examples from the field, not from the lab.

Beware, the devil is in the details. Techies are often frustrated because they want to talk about every detail such as the thickness and type of plating on a particular part. But the audience only needs to be assured that the part will stand up to the rigours of use. You may have spent months testing various plating materials to come up with the right one. So what? You now have the part that works effectively and won’t wear out like the one competition uses. When a savvy customer asks about the type of plating then you can provide the justification for the type of plating.

As a techie, you have a detailed knowledge about the products you design, and we hope you demonstrate that enthusiasm for the product. Be cautious about delivering a brain dump. Not only will you intimidate the technically challenged and but you will fail to impress the knowledgeable members of the audience. It is a fine balance. You need to provide enough information without overwhelming.

A techie with well-developed communication skills can be a powerful partner to sales staff and the marketing team, including outsourced suppliers (such as buzz4biz). You can provide great support when you are able to communicate with customers and provide in-depth and understandable answers to customer questions.

*For the purposes of this article “techies” is an all-encompassing and endearing term to describe engineers, engineering technologist and IT professionals of all kinds. It is not a term of derision, but a term of convenience.

This article shared from buzz4biz.

buzz4biz creates success through the written word.

They write to

motivate employees
protect brands
maintain customer awareness.

Full article "Talking with techies"

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T14:14:00.004-05:00

Wishing The The Happiest of Holidays!
To your family from ours at The Technology Coach!

2010 Was a VERY exciting year for us, both professionally and personally. Siobhan and I welcomed our first child Saoirse Kendall Born Sept. 20th. If you'd like to see pictures (and who doesn't!) of our new baby, find us on facebook and we'll be happy to "friend" you. While you're there why not check out our facebook fanpage, full of tips and tricks we include our Blog entries and any news on our facebook pages. Social Media Marketing is a very powerful tool and we'd love to help you explore how it can help your business, just ask!

As if 2010 wasn't busy enough it was also our first year operating as an incorporated company, if you'd like to hear about why we made the decision to incorporate after 7 years in business just send us an email, we'd be happy to tell you about why we made the decision and the professionals we involved to help us through it!

Last but not least the end of 2010 also marked the beginning of our new branding, with the name change on the horizon for early 2011 we've already registered our new domain, thrown up a temporary place holder website and created new email addresses for myself (scott@outhouseit.com).

Keep your eyes peeled and ears open for more exciting news on the launch of Outhouse I.T. Inc, Where our mission is to provide small businesses with a full service, cost effective alternative to an in house I.T. Department.

And now for our gift to you, our loyal customers and friends, this months technology tip is about creating an out of office email message to automatically let others know you are away from the office during the holidays, you'll find details here on our Blog.

As many of us wind down for the Holiday Season. We're reminded at this time of year of the importance of family, taking some time for ourselves and enjoying the rest of life as much as we enjoy running our businesses!

Again a sincere Happy Holidays from our family to yours and all the best in 2011!

IT Key To Cutting Costs For Small Businesses

2010-12-16T15:25:00.003-05:00

Businesses focus on reducing costs with IT

Nearly three-quarters of small businesses consider IT to be a key driver in helping reduce the costs of operations, according to research firm Techaisle.

The top three IT initiatives for small businesses are:

*Migrating from older technologies

*Maintaining and improving current IT infrastructure

*Developing and implementing new IT applications

In terms of implementing new IT applications, these small businesses are increasingly moving towards virtualization, business intelligence and collaboration. Over 30% of small businesses are either actively investigating or investing in these technologies.

Improving workforce productivity and improving effectiveness of sales and marketing are also on the agenda of small businesses to address increased competitiveness, slow economy, and uncertainty. To improve effectiveness of sales and marketing, nearly 36% of small businesses are investing in improved email marketing campaigns, 28% are looking at Google Adwords and 21% are looking at Facebook advertising.

"Vendors who focus on IT as driver for operational savings will succeed as operating costs reduction is what SBs want from IT,”said Anurag Agrawal, Techaisle.

“Small businesses are the prime candidates for the Consumerization of IT where they are pushing increased automation through pervasive computing, improved productivity through collaboration, and efficient sales and marketing using latest social media capabilities.”

Don't get scammed online, be careful!

2010-11-24T11:45:00.000-05:00

What is Phishing?
Phishing is when someone tries to trick you into revealing your personal information like user names, passwords, or PIN by pretending to be someone they're not. It usually happens through email, but can also happen through instant messaging or by telephone or sms Text message when someone asks you to provide or confirm your personal information.

Avoiding Phishers.
It's a good idea to open up a browser window and type in your banking website directly into the address bar of the browser instead of copying and pasting (or clicking on) links from emails. A link in an email may take you to a site that looks like your backing site, but isn't. Most banking sites won't ask you to click on links in email communications for your protection.

Change your PIN sometimes.
If you're worried that your account may have been compromised, a great step you can take right away is to log in and change your PIN. Follow these easy steps to change your PIN online:

It's okay to blow the whistle.
If you ever receive a suspicious email or call, don't provide any personal or sensitive information and get in touch with your bank immediatley to follow up on the inquiry.

Why Your Business Needs To Get Involved in Social Marketing

2010-10-21T15:05:00.000-04:00

Getting your customers to speak about product / services through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Squido, Myspace, LinkedIn etc. can be one of the most successful guerrila marketing initiatives in today’s online world. When visitors see positive things said about your company and/or your product it also helps improve the credibility of your company. This credibility element will be manifested when more and more of your customers speak about your product quality through the social network platform.What is the big deal about being endorsed in the public domain by members of social marketing sites? Well think about it for a second – usually business controls what is said about them by way of push advertising. By building a positive social marketing persona your business is apt to receive more positive publicity because the remarks are viewed more as ‘honest’ feedback about your products and services.Here is some of the ways that you can be found through Social Networking..

Facebook & Other Social Networking Sites

After creating your profile in Facebook and other social networking sites (like Linked In) you can join several of the networks organized by city, workplace, school and region. These networks help users connect with members of the same group and connect with friends and share your interests, hobbies, links, exchange messages etc.Community members share their opinion on a certain product they have used and this offers a great business marketing opportunity. Through these networking sites you have other people sell your products indirectly by making favorable comments about your product. After all, people will trust the opinion of one man they know more than the opinion of 20 other people they are not familiar with. With millions of people as members, these social networking sites are virtual communities and offer a platform where people can promote their business.Social networking sites like these are the place where you can create a buzz.

Advertising Copy Losing Credibility

What is your service or product? What is the message you want to get across? Too often clients have creative sites that don’t really say much about their business. There should be a balance between creativity and getting your message across. What makes you different? What is your value proposition? Your message combined with strong color psychology will convey to the user your company’s strengths and invoke the right emotion. Only you know exactly what your company stands for — creating the same message should be the core function when building your own website.

Social Networks Driving Purchase Decisions

More and more people rely on the opinions and favorable product reviews done by others in the selection of goods and services. Social networking sites are a very key contributor to cementing the opionions of a given product or service.With social networking sites reporting a surge in the number of followers each day these will soon become the focal point of any product marketing initiative by business owners. Business that is wondering about the way of tomorrow — hope you are reading!

Canadian Government launches ad campaign promoting tax relief for businesses pruchasing new computer equipment

2010-10-20T13:44:00.000-04:00

Canadian Government launches ad campaign promoting tax relief for businesses pruchasing new computer equipment

Ottawa, Ontario, October 20, 2010… The Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of National Revenue, Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, is pleased to announce the launch of the Government of Canada's advertising campaign promoting the 100% capital cost allowance rate for computers.

Minister Ashfield reminds Canadian business owners that they have until January 31, 2011, to acquire new eligible computer hardware, including systems software, in order to claim 100% of the capital cost allowance.
"We know it is important for Canadian businesses to remain competitive in today's changing world," said Minister Ashfield. "That's why our Government brought in measures like this one, and many others in Canada's Economic Action Plan. These temporary measures will help Canadian businesses through this challenging economic time, and make sure they have the tools they need for the future."

Announced in Canada's Economic Action Plan, this temporary tax relief measure allows Canadian businesses to claim a 100% capital cost allowance deduction for eligible computer hardware, including systems software, acquired after January 27, 2009, and before midnight, January 31, 2011.

Minister Ashfield is urging Canadian businesses to take advantage of all of the available tax relief measures the Canada Revenue Agency administers.

For more information on tax cuts for businesses, go to www.cra.gc.ca/taxcuts.

Before You Buy a Computer: Should You Get a Consumer or Business Class PC?

2010-10-12T17:58:00.002-04:00

An important consideration when buying a computer for work purposes is whether you should purchase a consumer model or a computer specifically designed for business. Many computer manufacturers offer what appear to be the same computer make and model in both their home and business divisions, but they are actually not the same computer. Here's what you need to know about the differences between consumer and business grade PCs, and which kind you should get for your home or mobile office.

Percent of Business vs. Personal Use

First determine how often you will be using the computer for business use. If you telecommute infrequently (e.g., only during rare severe weather), then a consumer class PC should be just fine -- provided the computer has the appropriate applications and resources for your job, of course. Likewise, if you'll be using it 90% for personal entertainment and only 10% for work, a consumer computer may be more fitting.

Computers sold to consumers usually cost less than business PCs, and since they're sold everywhere, including Best Buy and Walmart, you can pick up a consumer computer very quickly and easily.

Durability and Reliability

For more dedicated or serious work use, invest in a business class computer, which offers more value in the long run than the consumer counterpart. Business computers are built to last, with higher quality components that are tested more rigorously. Parts used for consumer computers may be more generic or even cheap, while computers designed for professional use more often include higher grade materials and name-brand parts. This emphasis on durability means that a business class laptop or desktop you buy now should last you several years.

Business-Appropriate Features

Business grade computers offer more features for professional work, such as fingerprint readers, remote desktop control software, and encryption tools. The professional operating system version that comes on business PCs is also more suited for workers than the home version; Windows 7 Professional, for example, has features -- which Windows 7 Starter and Home editions do not have -- for easily joining a corporate network and using Windows XP software. If you're not convinced yet, consider this: business PCs typically don't include the crapware and "limited time trials" that bog down so many consumer PCs.

Service and Warranty

Finally, business computer systems come with better support options and may be more easily supported by your IT department as well. The default warranty on business computers is usually double or longer than those on consumer models. Business users also tend to get priority support, via a dedicated support line, and you can opt for on-site tech support available within hours rather than having to send in your computer for repair, which could take weeks.

Closing Thoughts

Business class computers are designed to reflect and support companies' critical reliability and performance needs. If you're buying a laptop or desktop PC to make money (i.e., for work), invest in one designed for business users and the investment should pay off in terms of better reliability, easier troubleshooting, and more professional features. If you find a consumer model that you're interested in, check if the manufacturer offers a similar model in its business division.

Inkjet or Laser, which is the most cost effective printer technology for your small business?

2010-09-04T11:14:00.000-04:00

The Science Behind Page Counts, Cartridge Yields and The 5% Rule!

Everyone wants to make the right decisions when buying printing supplies. Reliability, print quality, print speed and ease of use typically are the most important considerations, but comparing costs is also very important. You want products that deliver on their promise!

What Is Printer Yield?

Customers are becoming increasingly aware of the cost of owning and operating their printers and multifunction products (MFPs). The cost of consumable supplies such as toner cartridges or solid ink sticks is a major component of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for a printer or MFP. The per-page cost of printing is driving many printer and MFP purchase decisions today, as these costs can be combined with print volume and print coverage assumptions to give companies a reasonable estimate of the monthly and annual TCO for a specific printer or MFP.

In the past, printer and MFP original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) used different, proprietary methods for testing and reporting consumable yields. This made factual and accurate comparisons of products from differing manufacturers impossible. Reporting was traditionally done using “5% area coverage,” but that did not guarantee comparable results because many other testing variables affect the stated yield, including:

Page size and margin settings
Image types used to create 5% area coverage
Number of cartridges used during testing process
Number of printers/MFPs used during testing process
Environmental testing conditions (humidity, temperature, and so on)
Lack of stated confidence level for published consumable yield

Any variation in these factors during the testing process can cause significant differences in reported yields. The development of an industry standard method for testing and reporting consumables yields has helped eliminate these inconsistencies, and gives customers the reliable information they need to make their technology buying decisions. Thus, almost all manufacturers now support industry standards such as those set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The International Standards

The ISO and IEC have adopted a standard for black-and-white devices – ISO/IEC 19752 – which is described as a “method for the determination of toner cartridge yield for monochromatic electrophotographic printers and multifunction devices that contain printer components.” Black-and-white printers and MFPs reporting toner yields under ISO/IEC 19752 use the following explanation: Toner Cartridge Yield: Average XX,XXX standard pages (declared yield in accordance with ISO/IEC 19752. Yield will vary based on image, area coverage and print mode).

ISO/IEC 19798 is a similar standard that has been adopted for color laser devices. ISO/IEC 19798 is described as “a method
for the determination of toner cartridge yield for color printers and multifunction devices that contain printer components.” Reporting format is as follows: Average Continuous CMYK Yield: XX,XXX pages, or Average Continuous CMY Yield: XX,XXX pages and
Average Continuous Black Yield: XX,XXX pages (if the black Yield is different than color - such as where a printer has a larger capacity black cartridge).

ISO/IEC 24711 is another standard that has been adopted for inkjet and solid ink devices. ISO/IEC 24711 is described as “a method for determination of ink cartridge yield for color inkjet printer and multifunction devices that contain printer components.” Reporting format is similar to ISO/IEC 19798 shown above. Different implementations of color tables and color balance optimization among manufacturers can lead to yield variations between color cartridges, even if they have the same toner weight. To account for this, ISO supports a second reporting method called “composite yield,” allowing a single average reporting yield for Cyan, Magenta and Yellow toner cartridges. Black is reported separately as an individual yield. Average Continuous Composite CMY Yield: XX,XXX pages. Average Black Continuous Yield: XX,XXX pages.

ISO/IEC 19752, ISO/IEC CD 19798, and IS0/IEC 24711 specify the use of a standard test page for black-and-white and multiple test pages for color products, explicit testing procedures, statistical sampling, environmental controls and well defined cartridge end-of-life status.

ISO Standard Methods

Because of ISO's explicit test procedures, the ISO standards are the only standardized rigorous method for determining toner & ink cartridge yield for laser, color, and ink jet printers. Some of their key features are:

Using A Standard test document:
Use of a standard page printed with printer default settings. This ensures that settings remain consistent across different tests, independent of platform or paper size. The document uses 5% coverage as its basis for comparison. (see photo of document at right)
Number of cartridges tested:
Nine of each cartridge are tested, allowing reliable estimates of lowest predicted yield with 95% confidence.
Source for cartridges:
Cartridges and printers are purchased on the open market from three different sources. This ensures the cartridges tested are representative of those available to customers and ensures lot variation.
Clear, objective, end-of-life criterion:
Determines cartridge yield through measurements that establish an end-of-life criterion based on usable pages and that reflect the manufacturers' recommendations on how cartridges should be handled as they approach their end of life (for example, how many times they should be shaken).
Number of printers:
Cartridges are tested on three different printers (three cartridges on each printer) to avoid bias due to printer variability.
Controlled environment:
Printing environment is controlled and consistent because temperature and humidity variations affect cartridge yield.
Objectivity:
Because of worldwide and industry-wide participation, this reflects objectivity in developing a reliable and rigorous standard.

The ISO/IEC standards allow for objective comparisons of stated toner or ink yields for different printers or MFPs, regardless
of the manufacturer. Many customers use consumable yield information to estimate the toner life they can expect to
experience with their particular use and printer, and the manufacturer's adherence to these ISO/IEC standards enables this comparison. But, it is important to note that the yield is a comparative statistic, and not a real world prediction of the final results. The number of pages that any user will get for their own printer will depend on a variety of factors, with page coverage (square inches of printing, density, and quality settings) having the highest impact. Research has shown that the industry average black-and-white page coverage is between 4% and 5%. There is an inverse relationship between page coverage and toner/ink yield — the lower the page coverage, the more pages
the toner/ink will print. Conversely, higher coverage pages result in fewer printed pages.

Cartridge yield - Things To Consider

As we indicated in this Guide, many factors affect cartridge yield. These include:

Coverage of the printed document - how much toner is printed on the page. Values are usually based on 5% (page of text) coverage.
Temperature and humidity.
Age Of Cartridge.
Toner "Hopper" or Ink Reservoir Design.
Drum or Print Head Design.
Storage prior to use.
End Of Life Actions (such as shaking).

Q&A On Printer Yield

Q: Can I get the published yield for my specific printer?
A: Unfortunately No. The standards just ensure that the stated printed page yields of different printers are comparable, not what you will actually get (unless you only print thousands of the ISO test page!). Also, the yield page number is not a guaranty that users will get
the declared yields in their own printer (as page coverage has the highest impact on actual yields). User applications running at approximately 5% page coverage under normal office operating conditions can expect on average to experience yields that are fairly close to the ISO declared yields. Home users though may not get anything close, since home printing tends to be much more high coverage graphics, which reduces yields dramatically.
Q: What are the factors that will impact the user's yields the most?
A: The most important factor affecting yield is page coverage. It is not unusual for office or home usage to run above or below that 5% average (for example, if you print a webpage with the Print Background Graphics option on, you could be printing 80%+ coverage). In general, pages with significant dark, shaded, or colored areas (logos or pictures) or a large amount of fine print will generate area coverage much higher than 5%. Other factors that
can reduce cartridge yield include: higher temperature or higher humidity levels where the printer operates (in laser printers, high humidity can cause clinging or clumping of the toner, and in inkjet can cause evaporation or clogging of the print jets), and using a higher print resolution setting (which causes more dots to be printer per inch resulting in higher density). Color coverage varies by product class, but is generally much higher than black-and-white products. Letter/A4-size color printers and MFPs can have average page coverages in the 7 to 15% range (depending on the application and mix between color and black-and-white documents). Tabloid/A3-size color printers and MFPs tend to drive higher
color page coverages in the range of 10 to 30% in office environments. In graphic arts environments, average color page coverages can increase to the 40 to 60% range. In the home, coverage can be even higher since home users tend to be less aware of options and use best quality regardless of need.

2010-09-02T10:07:00.000-04:00

Our mission is to provide our small business clients with a full service, cost-effective alternative to an in-house I.T. Department.
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How do we achieve this?

We deliver this by acting as your Outsourced I.T. department, delivering on the 3 main categories of Information Technology need for small business:

1. Creating and maintaining a stable and reliable information technology platform.

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3. And ensuring management are informed and prepared to take advantage of advancements in technology that will deliver a measurable benefit to the business.

We are able to deliver this cost effective solution by pooling human and technology resources to reduce overall I.T. overhead cost. We are the small business alternative to an in-house I.T. department.

How much information are you revealing on Facebook, and how much is too much?

2010-07-20T22:13:00.000-04:00

Did you know that more than half of social network users are putting themselves at risk of cybercrime by revealing too much personal data?

A recent survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center* illustrates how risky behavior on social networks can have serious consequences:

•		52% of adult users post information that makes them susceptible to cyber attacks

•		40% include their full birth date

•		26% post sensitive information about their children, including photos and names

•		Many users post their full address as well as updates about when they’re not home

•		9% of users have experienced some type of online abuse, such as identity theft or a malware infection, within the last year

Don’t let poor security practices affect you or your friends!

Remember that the internet is a public resource. Avoid putting anything online that you don't want the public to see or that you may want to retract.

Find more online here: http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST05-013.html

Should you use social media in your B2B marketing?

2010-07-15T19:07:00.000-04:00

Canadians are increasing their online social media activities dramatically - according to a 2009 Ipsos Reid report, the number who had a profile on an online social network increased from 39% to 56% over the previous 18 months. That's a whopping 17% increase. And of those online Canadians who have a social network profile, 85% have one on Facebook (which, incidentally, has over 300 million registered users worldwide).
So, social media is great for consumer marketing, but has nothing to do with B2B (business-to-business), right? Wrong! Social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and SlideShare drive a large portion of the B2B interactions on the web. What's more, because potential customers are more likely to select third-party reviews or blog postings to get recommendations about products or services, search engines rank these sites high.
Here are some ways business owners are using social media for marketing:

To build their brand and online community (eg. through creating a Facebook Group to demonstrate knowledge of a topic and engage like-minded individuals)
To launch or promote products or services (eg. through creating a page on Facebook, or a video on YouTube)
To promote themselves as experts in their fields and build relationships (eg. through hosting and participating in blogs, answering questions on LinkedIn and using Twitter)
To share and exchange business information (eg. through using SlideShare or YouTube to share presentations)
To find potential partners, investors or distributors or to gain business intelligence about prospects (eg. through connecting on LinkedIn)

So how do small companies get in on the action?
It's important to understand what social media is before you can exploit it to your advantage. It's all about collaborative technologies where people are not merely passive recipients of marketing messages but, rather, participants in the process. Contrast this with traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and TV which are static, typically expensive in which to advertise and usually controlled by big companies. Social media changes everything by allowing users to create their own content, share content and generate conversations about what they like and don't like. Using social media successfully requires a comfort level with a lack of control.
One of the first things you can do to really understand the social media space and get started is to listen in. Search the various sites for keywords and phrases that pertain to your field. You will not only find conversations about what your customers like, dislike and are seeking, but you will see that respected experts tend to emerge. Once you feel comfortable, participate. Reply to a blog, post your opinion, create and share valuable content... and hopefully, cultivate the respect and interest of the influencers in your industry by engaging them in conversations.
Choose the right option
As you explore the various sites, think about which medium would work best for you. Pay special attention to what media your target audience participates in, and consider how much time you can devote to guarantee success vs the amount of time a particular medium would take. Also think about your social networking goals:

If you want to manage your professional identity and brand, conduct research by asking questions of experts, share helpful articles you've written and cultivate a network of quality contacts you can trust, then LinkedIn may be for you.
If you have a complicated product that is better seen than described, then posting a video on YouTube is a good option.
If you want to make announcements about events or new products or services to as wide a range of potential customers as possible, then try Facebook or Twitter.

Content is key
All of the media are cost-effective and not too technically difficult to use. No matter which one you choose, or how many different methods, for that matter, it's the content of what you offer that is key. Sharing high-value content will do more for you in the world of social media than anything else.
To rise above all the information out there and get noticed, your offering must be helpful (you're not trying to close a sale, you're trying to engage); visually appealing (no need for dancing bears, we're referring to avoiding dense, unbroken blocks of long text); easily available (if you're offering a white paper or podcast, for example, through social media, remember that, increasingly, people are put off by having to provide data such as email and phone numbers in order to download these); and well-promoted (for example, by alerting your Facebook Group and 'fans' as well as your LinkedIn community and by devoting a blog to the topic).
If the content is worthy, then once it's out there, it will generate a life of its own. Ideally, if enough people share it, search engines will start to pick it up, links to your web site will be developed, quality prospects will start to pay attention, and you will become the go-to company in your industry. All of this can turn into an effective marketing avenue for your business.
Finally, ensure that your website and web services don't crash under all the increased traffic that you'll receive from these new social media activities. The Technology Coach partners with companys that offers a wide-range of Server Colocation, Dedicated Server and Web Hosting solutions that will keep your website up and running so that you can focus on these new marketing strategies and your business at-large.

4 Simple Steps to Control Your Facebook Privacy

2010-07-15T17:35:00.000-04:00

Did you know that Facebook automatically lets anybody see every video, picture, and status update you’ve ever posted?

Whether you’re using Facebook for business or personal reasons, the good news is that new privacy settings enable you to change exactly who sees what within Facebook. And those changes impact every prior post you’ve ever made.

New Facebook Privacy Updates

Public outcry over Facebook’s complicated privacy settings hit a peak in the spring of 2010. See this AP video below:

Facebook finally responded. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, describes the menu for their groundbreaking new privacy settings as the “Master Switch.” He promises, “we haven’t removed anything in this update, we’ve just added a simple master switch to control all of your content at once.”

Master Switch: Control most of your settings quickly.

In just a few minutes, you can protect all the content you’ve ever posted, within the Facebook application at least. There’s no perfect way to protect every bit of information online except not to post it at all, but in addition to the Master Switch controls, this post reveals Facebook’s deepest privacy settings (called granular settings) so you can easily navigate this jungle and take control of your content.

Facebook Privacy Video Tutorial

Watch this video to take control of your Facebook privacy. Then follow the four steps below for added control.

Want more protection for your sensitive information?
Here are four more ways you can drill deep into your Facebook privacy settings:

#1: Disable Instant Personalizations

When you “like” or “share” a post anywhere online, Facebook puts it on your wall for you and your friends to see. It also automatically sends this information to outside sites such as Yelp and Pandora, among others. If you’d prefer to remain more private, do this:

Go to “Account.”
Choose “Privacy Settings.”
Choose “Applications and Websites.”
Choose “Instant Personalization.”
Click “Edit Settings.”
Uncheck “Allow select partners…”

#2: Take a Fresh Look at Your Photos and Videos

I recently interviewed a woman who lost a job because her Facebook profile picture showed a tattoo. Another woman, a school teacher in Georgia, recently lost her job because her profile picture showed her holding a glass of wine. Both people thought their privacy settings were enough protection, but Facebook still indexes pictures so that outside sites can search for them.
What’s the solution? Be more selective about your profile picture. And while you’re at it, go through all photos and videos of you and untag those that you don’t want to share. You can’t control which photos or videos your friends post, but you can remove your tag from them! Here’s how:
Go to your profile picture. Just under it, you’ll see “View Photos of Me.” Click there and look at each photo. If you want to remove a tag, click “Remove Tag” by your name under the picture.

Photo tagging can turn a private photo into a public one!

Repeat this process for videos—the link “View Videos of Me” is just under your profile picture also.

#3: Create Privacy Lists!

Facebook friend lists are one of the most powerful features they offer for communicating privately and with flexibility. Once you’ve created them, you can easily specify different privacy settings for each list. Only want family to see your child’s birthday party pictures? No problem! You can designate only your “Family” list for that photo album and nobody else will be able to see it unless someone copies and pastes the code at the bottom. This is an example:

These links are now at the bottom of all photos. Control who sees them with friend lists to minimize the chance of unwanted sharing.

Here’s how to create friend lists:

Go to “Account” in the upper right-hand corner of your profile.
Select “Edit Friends.” This will bring up an interactive menu with profile pics of your friends.
Click on “Create New List” and get started! Many people create lists for family, friends, business, news, sports, and food, for example.

Creating friend lists gives you much better control.

Creating friend lists for yourself will also give you the advantage of privacy in Facebook’s newly customized Chat feature.
Unless these settings are customized or turned completely off, anybody can interrupt you while you’re logged on and initiate a chat. Rather than ignore it or respond, I suggest going into the options and designating lists to block and lists of who can see when you’re logged on and available to chat.
It’s good to note here that Facebook never saves chat transcripts. Once a chat has concluded and the window is closed, any record of the chat is deleted. So if you want to have a record of your communications with someone on Facebook, I suggest writing messages instead.
Here’s how to customize your chat privacy settings:

Navigate to the bottom right corner of your profile and click on “Chat.”
Select “Options” within the chat window that opens up.
Designate whether you prefer to be “online” or “offline.”
Select “Friend Lists.” Once there, you can select which lists you prefer to chat with and which you’d prefer to block.

Nice Trick: You can easily change these for when you’re at work and when you’re at home.

#4: Review the Pages You’ve Liked

Facebook is paying an increasing amount of attention to Fan and Community pages and is exploring ways to use this information for potential advertisers. They’ve started indexing this information with your profile for the first time, so now is a good time to review and possibly discard page affiliations that relate to sensitive or controversial subjects.
Here’s how you to customize your “liked” pages:

From your profile, click on your “Info” tab.
Scroll down to the bottom of the “Pages” section, just above your “Contact Information.”
Click on “Show Other Pages,” and a list of pages will show up.
If applicable, click on “Show More Pages” to get a complete list.

(This next part is time-consuming, so I suggest you scan for the most important pages to unlike before you proceed, instead of going down the list of outdated pages.)

Click on a page you no longer want to identify with.
Once there, scroll to the bottom left corner and “unlike.”

You’re done! Please note that you can only “like” up to 500 pages, so this is just good housekeeping if you plan to use Facebook for any length of time.

Protect your branding by reviewing your liked pages.

Congratulations if you’ve just worked through this tutorial!
You now have profile settings to be proud of and can share this information with others!
If you only have time for a few mouse clicks, please do yourself a favor and set your Master Switch settings to “Recommended” and you’ll be much more protected than ever before, thanks to Facebook’s new retroactive feature for privacy settings.
Please share this handy guide with your friends! What better use is there for a Facebook “like” button anyway?
Now you have a clearer understanding of how to navigate Facebook’s new privacy settings. The Master Switch is a quick and convenient way to address lots of issues at one time; however, you can protect yourself and your professional branding better by also going into the deeper settings shown here.
So what do YOU think about Facebook’s new privacy settings? Do you think this new Master Switch adequately addresses Facebook’s privacy issues? Are you happy with your experience and just wish everyone would quit talking about it? Are you excited about using the more hidden settings? Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments box below!

G20 security to jam cellphone signals

2010-06-22T12:46:00.000-04:00

Wireless companies say they’ve been told their signals may be jammed during the G8 and G20 summits, but aren’t being given any more information about how thousands of cellphone users could be affected.

While the G8 summit is in Ontario cottage country, the G20 is in the heart of downtown Toronto, and widespread shutdown of cellphone networks could wreak havoc on businesses already preparing to take a hit from security precautions in place for the meetings.

But the technology is expected to be used only to create a moving bubble of electronic silence around motorcades.

“No one will be informed of locations and times for security reasons,” said one wireless industry source.

The Integrated Security Unit responsible for the summits wouldn’t comment on security plans.

“We use a lot of different techniques in ensuring security to deal with possible threats and we never share those techniques, we don’t make them public,” said Sgt. Leo Monbourquette, a spokesman for the ISU.

In order to jam the signals, the RCMP must apply for an exemption from the Radiocommunications Act, which generally forbids interfering with the airwaves.

It’s unknown whether they’ve applied for one for the summits, as approvals are only published after the fact. But the first RCMP exemption was for the 2002 G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta.

Often, the wireless industry itself receives no advance notice at all, said Marc Choma, director of communications for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.

But what interference there may be rarely lasts long, he said.

“The thing with jamming technologies, because a lot of law enforcement themselves, their communications, are wireless as well, you’d have to try and specify what kind of frequencies that you were trying to jam,” he said.

“The jamming is not precise, you can’t say I only want it to go one metre and three centimetres, so it could be going farther than you think. There is possibility it would interfere with other types of communications.”

With cellphones and remote controls often tools of choice for setting off bombs, jammers have become a regular security tool at major national and international events.

A search of orders-in-council shows the RCMP most recently received an exemption from the act for the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of May.

They were also granted an OK for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

A spokesperson for the RCMP-led Integrated Security Unit which oversaw the Games wouldn’t say whether the technology was actually used for the Olympics.

An exemption is often applied for just in case the power is needed, said Dawn Roberts.

But even if it had been deployed, cellphone users may never have noticed, she said.

“It may appear as a dropped call,” she said.

“A lot of the cellphone action is very site-to-site directional. Walking past a high rise building could have the same the effect. It’s not as if a big bubble goes out and we have a cone or dome that’s widespread.”

Don't fall for this UPS Scam

2010-06-21T15:35:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone, Seems the scammers trying to infect your computer with viruses are getting craftier, today's email scam actually includes the real UPS logo, don't be fooled, it's just as dangerous as the one without a logo.

UPS will Never, Ever, Ever send you an attachment to open to view the status of your shipped package, so don't fall for this one either folks.

Small business owners with their head in the clouds... should consider having their busineses follow them there!

2010-06-03T16:20:00.000-04:00

For small and midsize businesses, moving to the cloud for some or all IT needs can have significant upside from reducing costs to simplifying support and management.

Cloud computing is still a relatively new technology for many businesses. However, the benefits that it provides to small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are vast and should not be overlooked. In particular, cloud computing can help SMBs in six different areas, which are outlined below. This article will examine each of these areas and analyze the cloud is such a great platform for SMBs to take advantage of.

1. Cloud Economics Are Friendly

Instead of building a data center full of equipment that won't be used for months or years, SMBs can rent small resources for protection, big resources on-demand (if and when necessary), and only rent these resources for the length of time that is needed. SMBs can avoid making large cash investments in a disaster recovery data center that doesn't help their business grow. Instead, they can pay small monthly fees for the service and invest in real growth opportunities.

When building out a private facility there are always hidden or delayed costs (e.g. the unexpected increase in the power bill, or the forgotten travel expenses to the remote facility). With the cloud, SMBs only pay a set cost each month - nothing more. There are not any bills that arrive three months afterwards for some other random cost. Businesses pay for what they use when they use it. Additionally, SMBs have the option of stopping use at any time, which would immediately terminate the payments.

The cloud enables SMBs to avoid over or under investment. When buying facilities or equipment, businesses can have trouble buying exactly the capacity that is needed. Support for one more production server might require a whole new rack, switch, or storage controller because the last one is full. With the cloud, SMBs can simply purchase one more without having to buy excess capacity.

2. Say Goodbye To Complexity

Building and equipping a disaster recovery data center is typically a project that costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, takes months and months of planning and execution, and requires specialists from multiple disciplines. Even if SMBs out-source all the specialty work involved, the project management work of defining requirements, managing budgets and schedules, and certifying the correct operation is a significant effort. The cloud enables SMBs to configure and start a new server in a remote data center with just a few mouse clicks.

Disaster recovery, by definition, requires a remote data center. Managing operations, local utility services, and staff, is very difficult, and production experts may be required to configure, test, and validate the configuration, requiring travel to the off-site location. The entire operation becomes quite complex very quickly.

The provider of a disaster recovery solution does not understand a SMBs specific disaster recovery data center environment - they just assume that one exists. Additionally, the provider of a remote disaster recovery data center environment may not understand a businesses' disaster recovery solution - the SMB is responsible for integrating the two disparate requirements. With Recovery as a Service, both solutions are packaged together, so unexpected incompatibilities are minimized.

3. Execute With Speed

With physical resources it can take months to specify, order, receive, unpack, inspect, install, configure, and test - and only after all of those steps can SMBs begin solution integration. With cloud-based resources, the equivalent resources can be running in as little as a few minutes, and an entire solution could be configured in as little a few hours.

When a project involves significant cost, manpower, external resources, and long time-tables, there is significant risk of project failure. For this reason, extensive planning and research is done prior to execution (the "ready, aim, aim, aim, fire" model). When a project can be completed in a few hours with little or no commitment and small amounts of money and manpower, the risk associated because very small.

4. Remain Flexible

Business flexibility is dependent on the flexibility of the underlying infrastructure. When the basic operating practices of a business are built into the physical infrastructure, this makes changing products or strategy a very slow process. The faster the building blocks of a business can change, the faster a business can react to the market. When an acquisition, layoff, or reorganization changes the production requirements, cloud resources can immediately be scaled up or down to match. That way SMBs are not left stuck with over or under capacity infrastructure.

Long term commitments (like buying equipment or building infrastructure) require precise planning for long term needs. Meanwhile, short-term commitments allow less precise planning over smaller time periods, and on-demand allows for trial-and-error. It's practical to pick a server size at random - if it doesn't fit, simply stop, and start up a new one that seems more appropriate.

5. Take Advantage Of Expanding Options And Falling Prices

When Amazon Web Service began, they only offered on-line storage in one data center. Last year they offered five different sizes of virtual machines in two data centers on two continents. Today, they offer eight different virtual machine sizes in four data centers on three continents. During this period of expanding capacity and innovation, the cost to customers has actually gone down.

When Amazon's Web Services began, they were pioneering the cloud computing idea (it wasn't even called cloud then). Today, Microsoft and Rackspace are both making credible large-scale offers in the cloud space, and VMware has begun selling software to help new vendors build their own clouds. Every hosting company is scrambling to create a cloud offering, and it is too early to tell which companies will succeed. However, customers are the clear winners in this space, as their options will continue to increase and become more appealing.

6. The Importance Of Security And Reliability

Many critics worry about the security and reliability of cloud-based offerings. Anytime SMBs ask another company or vendor to take on their responsibilities, qualifications and reputation should be examined carefully. However, there are areas where scale matters: it is much easier to design a good security policy with five security experts on staff rather than with one person working part-time. It is also much easier to build highly reliable systems when a company is supporting thousands of systems, rather than a hand-full.

Amazon, in particular, is a high-profile cloud services provider with many, many customers. To date they have not had any security incidents and have responded very quickly to outages. Although it is difficult to maintain a life-long perfect record in security and reliability, not using Amazon because of security or reliability concerns is basically making a bet that your security and reliability capabilities are, and will continue to be, better than theirs. Unless this is your specialty, this probably isn't a good bet to make.

New Facebook privacy settings rolls out

2010-05-27T09:03:00.000-04:00

Facebook has stuck to their promise of introducing new privacy settings to their recently beleaguered social networking site, where it allows users to have more control over their personal information as well as items that they share in an easier manner. This new control will make it a whole lot easier to share on Facebook with friends, and friends of friends or everyone in but a solitary click. All settings will be immediately applied and displayed in a grid, and you can customize your settings to control your level of sharing. Apart from that, said settings will appear on a single page. Alternatively, there is the choice of turning off Facebook Platform applications and websites completely, which translates to information not being shared with applications at all - this can be done by unchecking the box "Enable instant personalization." If you have a Facebook account, are you happy with the overhauls made? Expect these new privacy changes to roll out to users over the next couple of weeks.

2010-05-27T09:02:00.002-04:00

When CBS ran the 5 minute video about how your copy machines hold copies of all the documents copied on their internal hard drives, many of you started asking questions.?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20002884-10391695.html

As mentioned in the story, if you ever sell or the lease expires on your copy machine, the hard drive in the device may contain very private information. Thank you so much to all of you who sent information about the video—that kind of “heads up” is always appreciated.

This is a concern for identity theft and also a source for other private information falling into the wrong hands. Organizations that fall under HIPAA compliance, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, PCI-DSS, and other regulations are sometimes more sure of the risk.

Earlier this month while I was performing an audit on a client's network, he explained that he refuses to allow his staff to “outsource” making copies even to their CPA firm. He does this in order to “isolate” the area he needs to protect. He has a strict policy that documents can only be copied using copy machines in their office.

One of my readers is in contact with an organization that processes used copiers and they make sure to erase the hard drives before the copiers go to new owners.

If any of you are specifically seeking a copy machine security specialist, the CBS video interviews John Juntunen and it appears his web site is www.copiersecurity.com. The phone number on the web site is 530-672-9300 if you want to explore his services. The web site shows they offer a service that will remove your copier’s hard drive, destroy the drive, and replace the destroyed drive with a new drive formatted for use with that copier. They also offer anti-tampering kits to help you monitor your copiers to at least know if someone has accessed the data on the hard drives.

One point he made in the interview is how many companies do not seem to care about security until they have a breach—and then it is too late. I’ve felt the same frustration in the past. Security, be it in your computers, servers, or copy machines, is an important issue!

Being prepared for the HST might benefit small businesses

2010-05-12T11:43:00.000-04:00

By anticipating any possible changes, a business can come out on top of the HST transition

For different businesses, the Harmonized Sales Tax means different things. Some may see it as a means of reclaiming more tax money. Others may see it as a potential threat to their business. Many still just see it as an added complication when filing its taxes. Love it or hate it, though, the Harmonized Sales Tax is rapidly approaching, and Canadian small businesses need to prepare.

What is the HST?

As of right now, the taxes that govern Ontario are the Retail Sales Tax and the Goods and Services Tax. The ORST is set at 8 percent, thought it can be higher, as is the case with alcohol and entertainment, or lower, like in the lodging industry. The GST is a 5 percent tax that is imposed on the supply of goods and services that are made domestically, with exception of a few items.

On July 1, 2010, the HST is set to go into effect. The HST will combine the GST and ORST into a single tax, rated at 13 percent. This essentially changes the ORST from a cascading tax system to a federally administrated, value-added tax system.

How the HST will affect businesses

For many small businesses, the change over to the HST will be a good thing - particularly those in service-providing industry. At face value, it may seem as if the HST would be a bad thing for service-providing enterprises, as it raises the 5 percent GST to 13 percent. Under the current tax system, a service-providing enterprise can claim back the GST it pays, but has to eat the losses it pays on the ORST. Under the HST, though, service-providing enterprises will still be able to claim back the HST, but they will no longer have to absorb the ORST.

The end goal of the HST is to reduce how much the Canadian consumer is paying for products. Though the HST will increase how much tax that consumers are paying at retail, the government hopes that the money that many businesses are saving will allow them to cut down on prices. Though many Canadian small businesses think the HST is a government tax grab, studies conducted by the Roger Martin Task Force have actually found that the government may lose money in the changeover.

How to prepare for the HST

The first thing a small business should do is determine if it even has to pay the HST. If an enterprise makes less than $30,000 a year, than the HST does not apply to them, which will save them hours of filling out business forms.

For businesses that are affected, though, the first thing they may want to consider is filling out a form for the $1,000 credit that the government is offering to businesses that make less than $2 million in annual revenue from taxable sales.

After that, GFS Consulting recommends that businesses take a look at every facet of their business that would be affected by taxes, from payroll to budgeting.

Morley Consulting recommends that businesses redo their cash flow forecast. Items that were taxable may no longer be taxable, while the opposite is also true. Some businesses may find themselves ahead, while others won't be as fortunate.

Service-providing enterprises may also want to take an inventory of products on hand to make sure they calculate the taxes correctly. Similarly, they may also want to take a look at bills in progress - work that covers the transitional period will need to show ORST and GST on business forms.

Finally, Morley Consulting suggests that businesses upgrade their accounting software to reflect the change in taxes.

The HST transition will be a confusing time for many businesses, but with a little preparation, small businesses may just be able to come out ahead.

10 Essential Tips for Building Your Small Biz Team

2010-05-05T22:47:00.000-04:00

In a startup, it’s all about the team. Even if you have a ground-breaking idea, it’s useless without the right team to develop and execute the vision. If you’ve been in business or entrepreneurship, these revelations shouldn’t surprise you.
Hiring the right people can be the most difficult part of building a company, but talent is hard to find, and bad apples can be even harder to let go. That’s why it’s essential to have a clear idea of how to look, where to look, and what tools you should be using to uncover the gems.

Here are ten must-know tips for finding and building a world-class small business team.

1. Have Very Clear Objectives

You have a clear idea of what you want to do with your business, so why shouldn’t you have a clear idea of what you want in your team? Before embarking on the difficult task of building your small business team, ask yourself a few questions:

What talent do I need to get the job done?
What type of personalities am I looking for?
What type of people will compensate for my weaknesses?
What can I afford?
How many people do I want?

Be flexible when you are looking for new members of your team, but remember, hiring someone you don’t actually need is a waste of resources.

2. Master the Art of LinkedIn

LinkedIn () is a very effective tool for finding and evaluating potential prospects, but that’s not the only thing it can help you accomplish in your quest to assemble the perfect team. You can also:

Follow companies where you can find talent. It’s a new feature that will let you know who joins and who leaves companies that produce talent.
Research your connections’ connections. Don’t just ask a friend or contact to provide suggestions of who you should hire. Instead, pick and choose people from their connections who fit, and ask your contacts about those people specifically. You’ll end up with a better ROI.

3. Go Where the Talent Is

You can look at every job site on the planet, but if you really want to find talent, you have to go where they are: Universities, job fairs, hackathons, and social communities.

You also need to look online. If you’re looking for entrepreneurial developers, then you’d better get to know the Hacker News () community, for example, or if you’re looking for writers, Mediabistro is a good starting place. And finally, you’d be surprised what you can turn up in a few searches on LinkedIn, Twitter (), Facebook (), and the blogosphere.

4. Make Your Company (and Yourself) Accessible

There are a lot of people looking for startups to work at, but it isn’t easy to find one that fits. Lower the barrier for people looking for a new team to join by utilizing social accounts and having an easy-to-find website that explains exactly what your company wants to do.

You, as the business owner or hiring manager, also need to be visible as a leader. People want to know what the team is like before they even apply. Giving people the ability to connect with you is one step towards potentially landing your dream hire.

One of the best examples of a company that practices this philosophy is Zappos. The company has a tweeting CEO, an active blog network, and has even live streamed its meetings. The result has been a world-class customer service team and a nearly $1 billion exit.

While Zappos is likely much bigger than your current business, the lessons are still valid: Accessibility helps you find team members.

5. You Have to Sell Your Business to Your Team

No, I don’t mean sell your company shares — I mean that you have to always pitch the virtues of working with the team you’re building and selling potential hires on the vision that you have. Great teams are driven by passion, not by money (although you shouldn’t insult great talent with unfair offers).

To that end, you need to sell your company in person and in the virtual world, and not just to those you’re trying to hire, but to those who are already part of the team. The key is constant, honest communication. Don’t promise a potential hire something you can’t deliver (e.g. promises of 300% growth, a guaranteed raise, a hot tub, etc.). Do be open to new suggestions, but be clear about what you can and cannot do based on your budget.

For a good example of using social media to sell your startup to potential hires, look no further than Twitter. The company recently created a Twitter account, JoinTheFlock, which provides simple and accessible recruitment information and broadcasts it to thousands of people. Twitter also launched a tool at SXSW earlier this year to show the locations of their employees at the conference so that interested individuals could chat with them about life at the company. It’s been an impressive recruitment push that has garnered a lot of attention.

6. Learn About Their Side Projects and Passions

Work experience is useful, but side projects are revealing. Does the person you potentially want to hire like to contribute to open-source projects? Does he or she like to cook or do extreme sports in his or her spare time?

Side projects are good things — they demonstrate that a person has ambition and drive. However, the types of things potential hires are developing, the types of blog posts they write, and what they tweet about are all telling signs of what type of team players they will become. Look for their personal blogs and less-obvious profiles for a fuller picture.

7. Project Management Tools Are Your Friend (Mostly)

Building a team isn’t just about finding the building blocks — it’s about keeping them there. Tools such as Basecamp (), Google Apps and Yammer () help solve different aspects of the project and team management problem. Basecamp tracks ongoing projects, Google Apps helps your team better communicate internally and externally (check out our small biz guide to Google Apps for some tips), and Yammer provides a feed of what your co-workers are working on.

These tools are vital — organization and communication are key to keeping the team on the same page, regardless of whether you’re big or small. But it’s also about effectively using these tools. That means using only the tools you absolutely need and doing research on the tools you’re thinking of using.

8. There’s More to Your Team Than Your Employees

If you want to create a cohesive, functional team that works well together, then you need to think of the team as being more like a web than a pyramid.

Who are your investors? Which people are providing you and your business team with advice? Do you have customers that provide constructive feedback, or do they just complain? What about the supporting characters, such as friends, family, and significant others?

In the end, your team is much larger than who’s on the payroll. If you want to build the ultimate team, it has to be on the same page top to bottom. Openly communicate with every player and choose people that add value instead of conflict to your company.

9. Use Social Media to Build a Voice

Creating a company blog and a Twitter account can be far more than just a marketing tool. Having employees blog allows them to express their creativity and connect with the cause. Being open about what you’re offering can and will attract potential new team members to contact you, rather than you having to contact them.

Social media is an outlet for your the voice of your business, but the exercise can also help you develop it. Having a voice will help make the message and the mission clear, both internally and to the type of people you want to add to your team.

The Tom Bihn story is an excellent example of using social media to build a voice. The 22-person company has successfully used Twitter, YouTube (), Facebook, Flickr (), and its company’s blog to really spread the message.

10. Trust Your Gut

Two weeks ago, I had a dinner discussion with a group of entrepreneurs about best practices for hiring a stellar team. While many of the answers varied (some of which made this list), the one that stood out to me was simple: Trust your instincts.

Someone can have a stellar resume, amazing accolades and glowing recommendations, but if there isn’t that immediate chemistry, chances are that it won’t work out. It boils down to this: If you are not on the same page as your team, then you’re not a team at all.

When you’re hiring, trust your gut. If you think something’s off about a potential hire, then move on to the next candidate.

How to Avoid Those Embarrassing Technology Moments

2010-05-04T20:05:00.002-04:00

Oh, embarrassment. Try as we might, everyone experiences a few red-faced moments in life, and today's mobile business culture is no exception. What, you may ask, could possibly be embarrassing about a BlackBerry® smartphone? Consider one woman we know. It seems she once pocket dialed her boss's mobile phone at 2 a.m. Next day her boss told her, "I enjoy talking to you during business hours, but not late at night so please lock your phone!"

What can you do to avoid, or at least lessen, those situations? Try these tips for your BlackBerry smartphone. Practice them regularly and you may dodge a few mortifying moments.

TIP #1: LOCK YOUR PHONE TO PREVENT POCKET DIALING

You pull out your BlackBerry smartphone from your pocket and notice that it is calling one of your contacts. Pocket dialing, or purse dialing, is very common with mobile devices.

Pocket dialing happens to one of our colleagues at least twice a week. “Fortunately it always calls the same number—a fax machine—so I am not too embarrassed.”"

Luckily, there is an easy fix for pocket dialing: lock your BlackBerry smartphone before you put it into your pocket or purse.

The way to lock your BlackBerry smartphone may depend upon your model and software. One of these methods should work on most smartphones:

If your BlackBerry smartphone has a Lock button at the top, press it. (The Mute button may work if your smartphone does not have a Lock button.) To unlock, press the Lock button again.
Click the Lock icon on your home screen. If you do not see an icon on your home screen, you may need to configure a security password.

And if you add a device password, locking serves another important purpose: It keeps your BlackBerry smartphone secure if it is lost or stolen.

Set the timed automatic lock feature

Here is another pocket-dialing prevention tip: Set your smartphone to lock after a certain amount of time (maximum one hour). To unlock you simply enter your password. Follow these steps:

On the Home screen of the BlackBerry smartphone, click the Options icon.
Click Password.
Set the value in the Security Timeout field to the amount of inactive time you want to permit your BlackBerry smartphone before it automatically locks.
Press the Menu key.
Click Save.

TIP #2: SAVE THAT EMOTIONAL EMAIL FOR TOMORROW

Ever been so angry that you fired off a venom-laced email? Or have you ever sent off a gushy romantic email from work that you later regretted? Whatever the circumstances, if you are like most people you have sent plenty of emotional emails you wish to take back.

Save emotional emails until tomorrow

Next time, do yourself a favor: Before you hit send, save your email as a draft and revisit it the next day. Chances are you will say to yourself, “What was I thinking?” and never hit send.

Save a draft of a message

When you are composing a message, press the Menu key.
Click Save Draft.

Your unsent draft message will appear in your Messages folder with a green icon.

TIP #3: BE POLITE, SET TO VIBRATE (OR OFF)

Imagine the scene: Crowded conference room, big presentation, important client, then your smartphone starts ringing at full volume. Worse, your ring tone is your favorite Broadway show tune.
Yes we all make mistakes, but our view is that there is little excuse for not silencing your smartphone or setting it to vibrate. It takes a second and is the polite move.

Silence your device

On the main screen, click on the speaker icon at the top-left of the screen, then select either:

Click All Alerts Off to shut off all sounds.
Click Vibrate Only for vibrate only.

TIP #4: ALWAYS SPELL CHECK

Let's face it, spelling mistakes in emails can be embarrassing, especially for work emails sent to customers or colleagues. The good news is that spelling mistakes are easily avoided. Simple set your BlackBerry smartphone to automatically check spelling before sending email messages. Here's how:

On the Home screen or in a folder, click the Options icon.
Click Spell Check.
Select the Spell Check Email Before Sending option.
Press the Menu key.
Click Save.

TIP #5: MAKE SURE MUTE IS REALLY ON!

While on an important conference call you turn on mute to make a private critical comment about the client. Too late you realize that mute was not really on. Major embarrassment, as the client heard everything.
There are two foolproof ways to avoid this situation:

Avoid saying anything potentially embarrassing during a call (most effective).
Visually verify that mute is on by checking your screen. When mute is on, a red icon will appear, along with the words, “Muted.”

Mute a call

During a call, press the Mute key on the top of your device.
To turn off mute, press the Mute key again.

TIP #6: KEEP EMBARRASSING PHOTOS TO YOURSELF

It is fun to share photos with family and friends on sites like Facebook®, Flickr™, and MySpace®. With your BlackBerry smartphone you can share photos from virtually any location. Take our advice, however, keep those crazy spring break photos to yourself.

Lost smartphone, lost photos?

And what happens if you leave your BlackBerry smartphone in the back seat of a taxi? Are you comfortable with the taxi driver seeing your photo albums?
Here is an easy solution: Encrypt the data on your smartphone and media card. That way if your BlackBerry smartphone is lost or stolen, your photos will be protected from snooping.

Encrypt data on your BlackBerry smartphone and media card

On the Home screen or in a folder, click the Options icon.
Click Security Options.
Click Encryption.
Change the Encryption field to Enabled.
To encrypt data in the device memory, set the Device Memory field to Enabled.
To encrypt files stored on a media card and on your device, set the Media Card field to Enabled and perform one of the following actions:
- To encrypt files using an encryption key that your device generates, change the Mode field to Device Key.
- To encrypt files using your device password, change the Mode field to Device Password.
- To encrypt files using an encryption key and your device password, change the Mode field to Device Password & Device Key.
To also encrypt media files such as pictures, songs, and videos, set the Include Media Files field to Yes.
Press the Menu key.
Click Save.
You will be prompted to create a password.

Note: If you encrypt the files using an encryption key that your device generates, you can only access the files on your media card when the media card is inserted in your device. If you encrypt the files using your device password, you can access the files on your media card in any device that you insert your media card into, as long as you know the password for the device.
The timed lockout feature mentioned above is another great way to prevent embarrassing photographs from falling into the wrong hands.

Land New Business with the LinkedIn for BlackBerry Smartphones App

2010-05-04T20:03:00.002-04:00

New professional networking app turns a cold call into a warm introduction

Imagine walking into an important sales pitch armed with information about your audience's work experience, education, and professional interests. Would that be useful? That is now possible with the new LinkedIn® for BlackBerry® smartphones app from LinkedIn, which lets you view profiles of professionals worldwide, in real time, from virtually any location.
The LinkedIn for BlackBerry smartphones app brings the powerful networking capabilities of LinkedIn to your BlackBerry smartphone. In this article find out the app's features and get insight into how the app can help you grow your business.

What is LinkedIn?

As you may know, LinkedIn is a social networking site aimed at your professional life. It now includes profiles of more than 65 million professionals worldwide. A new member signs up every second, and 1 million members join every two weeks.
The real test of any professional tool, of course, is whether it helps people get things done. In that sense LinkedIn is a huge success.
Because of its exclusive professional focus, in many ways LinkedIn has become the modern equivalent of the resume. Your profile can include your work experience, education, affiliations, and so on. But unlike paper-based resumes, with LinkedIn you can display recommendations from other members for work you have done—a powerful tool for building your credibility. Equally important is building a strong network, as this will help you make contacts with other professionals.

Satisfied customers are the best source of new customers. Increase your word of mouth referrals by asking your happy clients to write you a recommendation, which will be published on your LinkedIn profile and will be broadcast to their entire
LinkedIn network.

- Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures

Companies can also post profiles on LinkedIn, which is important for giving potential customers insight into your business. Research In Motion® (RIM), for example, has its own profile, with links to employee profiles, company news feeds, and statistics.

What is the LinkedIn for BlackBerry Smartphone app?

With its professional focus, it was natural for LinkedIn to bring its professional network to BlackBerry smartphones. The app is available for free from BlackBerry App World™. With it you can search and view member profiles, send messages, and add professionals to your network—all from your BlackBerry smartphone. As of now you cannot view company profiles with the app, but LinkedIn tells us that may be included in a future release.

The app integrates with several key built-in BlackBerry features. For example, LinkedIn messages appear in your Messages folder, marked by a LinkedIn icon. From the Messages folder you can reply to other members. When you make an appointment in BlackBerry Calendar, you can view the attendees' LinkedIn profiles, if available—a great way to get inside information for your next appointment. The app also augments your existing BlackBerry Contacts list with profile photos and updated information.

Turn a cold call into a warm introduction

How can the LinkedIn for BlackBerry smartphones app help your business? Let's say you are moments from giving an important sales presentation. At the last minute, the customer lets you know that the VP of marketing will be joining to hear your pitch. So who is this person?

Pull out your BlackBerry smartphone, open the LinkedIn for BlackBerry smartphones app, and find the VP's profile. Now you can see the VP's:

Job description
Experience
Education
Degrees of separation from yourself

You notice that the VP graduated from the same college that you did. OK, now you can turn a cold call into a warm introduction.

What else can you do?

Here are more examples of how to use LinkedIn for BlackBerry smartphones for business:

Tradeshows: When you meet someone at a tradeshow ask the person about their profile as you are talking. It's a great way to deepen the conversation.
Hiring: Vet potential candidates by fact checking against their LinkedIn profile.
Networking: How many times has someone said, "You should talk to so and so. They would be perfect for your project?" Now you can look at the referral's profile on the spot and even fire off a message.
On-the-go access to talent: Request referrals from your network for talent, such as graphic designers, attorneys, accountants, etc. You will be surprised how quickly your network connects you with options.

Think of the number of times you've asked your colleagues if they knew of a great web designer or photographer. LinkedIn makes it easy for you to find and vet vendors through the network of your peers.
- Guy Kawasaki

An example: Seven steps to get new business

Tip: Create a meaningful LinkedIn profile and keep it up to date

The techniques outlined in this article mean that prospects, potential employees, customers, and partners will be looking at your professional and company profiles. Consequently your profiles need to be good! Follow these guidelines:

Post a complete profile, including job descriptions, education, awards, interests, etc.
Add a professional photo of yourself, which adds personality and credibility.
Get recommendations from colleagues, managers, direct reports—whoever will say good things about your work. (Recommendations are powerful marketing tools.)
Build credibility by recommending books in your field.
Be easy to find by using keywords with which people will search.
Spell check and proofread everything. Few things defeat a good impression quicker than a sloppy profile.
Ask questions and post answers to LinkedIn groups in your field; this gets your name out and establishes your expertise.

You can use a combination of the LinkedIn website and the LinkedIn for BlackBerry smartphones app to supercharge your next new business campaign:

Find a company to pitch (website): Use the LinkedIn website to search for a company to which you wish to pitch. You can search by company name, keyword, location, or by industry. Also find companies by scanning the experience of LinkedIn members who work in your target industry.
ID the decision makers (website): Search the company's LinkedIn profile to identify the decision makers you need to reach.
Look for common contacts (website): Check the decision makers' LinkedIn profiles for any mutual LinkedIn contacts. If you find one, ask your mutual contact for an introduction. The aim is for a personalized introduction instead of a cold call.
Set up a meeting (smartphone): Use your BlackBerry smartphone to invite the decision makers to a meeting.
Research the people you are meeting with (app): Note conversation starters, such as common interests, contacts, education, etc.
Update your status (app): After the meeting, use your BlackBerry smartphone to update your LinkedIn status by saying good things about the people you just met. This gives your prospects a good impression, and also alerts your network that you are pitching new business.
Add the decision makers to your network (app): When the new company becomes a customer, add the people you met to your LinkedIn network!

Next steps

If you haven't signed up for LinkedIn, do so now. Create your professional and company profiles. Then download the LinkedIn for BlackBerry smartphones app and start using it whenever you're on the go!

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Voice Over Wi-Fi Calling Coming to BlackBerry Mobile Voice System

2010-05-04T20:01:00.000-04:00

New Voice Over Wi-Fi Calling feature on BlackBerry MVS can cut costs and conserve cell minutes

Your business will soon have a new tool for cutting telephone costs. The ability to make phone calls over Wi-Fi networks will be included in the upcoming version of BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System (MVS).

Known as Voice Over Wi-Fi Calling, the new feature will route calls through Wi-Fi networks, such as at the office, home, or any Wi-Fi hotspot. That is significant because it can let your business conserve cell minutes—and save money.

Voice Over Wi-Fi on BlackBerry smartphones and other new features of BlackBerry MVS v5 are expected later this year.

Learn how it works here: http://www.blackberry.com/products/software/mvs5/autodemo/?CPID=OTC-MVS5DEMO?CPID=EMC-BBCN_biz_May2010&3

What is a "Hosted Solution" Or Saas (Software as a service?

2010-04-29T16:38:00.000-04:00

What is a Hosted Solution?

It is a system or software application that is operated and maintained by another organization. These type of solutions are often times referred to as SaaS (software as a service). The provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand, either through a time subscription or a pay-as-you-model.

What are the advantages of each?

	HOSTED	LOCALLY INSTALLED
COSTS	Lower predictable costs	Upfront capital investment
IMPLEMENTATION TIME	Short	Unknown
UPGRADES	Automatically	Manually by internal resources
SCALABILITY	Built for scalability	Requires additional investments and resources
ACCESS	Anywhere, anytime	Can be limited on security risks to internal systems
EMPLOYEES	All work done externally	Varies, all work is done internally
TECHNICAL SUPPORT	Experienced and focused on the solution	Usually not dedicated to a single system
SECURITY	Ensured	Unknown

Is anti-virus software becoming obsolete?

2010-04-29T08:30:00.000-04:00

The problem with anti-virus programs these days is that so many viruses come out every hour that anti-virus programs can hardly keep their list of virus signatures up to date. If your anti-virus program doesn’t know a virus is “bad” until hours after the virus arrived, you are still infected and it may be too late.

A strategy that keeps gaining ground is the concept of “white listing” applications. In plain English, this means your computers have a list of programs that are on the “approved” list to run, such as Word, Firefox, Acrobat, Excel, etc.

Then, any other program cannot run. Period. That means virus 1, virus 2, virus 999, etc. is not allowed to run. This solves the whole problem of needing anti-virus. In theory, even if a virus does come into your network through e-mail, web site drive by download, or Ernie in shipping carrying in an infected memory stick, it doesn’t matter. The virus cannot run anyway!

The challenge lies in being able to keep an organized white list of “approved” programs. When an update to a program arrives, the new update has to be listed too or it will not run.

Many providers are offering solutions including Bit9 Parity and Lumension Application Control and there are constant advancements in making administration even easier.

Yes, some day anti-virus may be old news and the application white-list may well replace it.

The New Google Docs Speeds Up Teamwork and Collaboration for Small Businesses

2010-04-26T08:13:00.001-04:00

Google Docs' latest upgrade makes the strongest case yet to skip Microsoft Office and collaborate with your group in your browser--especially when you're not in the same physical space. Here are five ways the new Google Docs helps your group get more done more efficiently, even when you're not in the same room together.

1. Reduce duplicate work and grow documents faster. GDocs' document editor now includes Etherpad/Google Wave-like character-by-character real-time updates by up to 50 collaborators. That means you get to watch the multi-colored, labeled cursors of your co-writers typing away in a single document in real-time, but don't write it off as just eye candy yet. Because you can see, down to the letter, what text your collaborators are writing, you avoid editing conflicts as they happen. Your group can grow a document at as many times the speed as you have participants. For example, in a meeting with five people, usually each individual takes his or her own notes. In a real-time editor, everyone can take notes at the same time and ask and answer questions in-document without interrupting the meeting leader. Same goes for conferences and lectures. Students, before that pithy lecture, get with your most trusted classmates in a Google Doc and take collaborative notes together. You'll do less typing and get better notes.

2. Replace your whiteboard with the new drawing editor. Co-typing is fun, but sometimes you want to show instead of tell. GDocs' new drawing editor lets you create flow charts, diagrams, and free-form drawings in what's essentially a virtual whiteboard. When you share your drawing with co-collaborators and give them edit rights, you can watch their updates to the drawing happen on your screen live, as they happen.

3. Chat while you write. Taking a play from Google Wave's book, Docs now combines chat and document collaboration into a single workspace. Unlike Wave, you don't chat inside your document; rather, an instant messaging panel appears docked on the right of your document. Combining conversation and co-writing into a single interface eliminates the need to switch windows between your editor and your instant messenger application. (This feature was available in Spreadsheets before the latest update, but now it's available in Docs and Drawings as well.)

4. Address specific bits of text with inline comments. Losing a reference to a specific paragraph or sentence in a linear chat streaming down the side of the page is too easy. But like Microsoft Word, GDocs supports in-document comments that look like Post-It notes stuck in just the right place, which can turn into mini-chats themselves. These comments include real-time, character-by-character updates too, and collaborators can reply to comments in a quick back-and-forth.

5. Ditch Microsoft Office for most documents. While Google Docs doesn't come close to offering all the advanced features of Microsoft Office, it fits the bill for most documents, spreadsheets, and drawings--and you're already using your web browser anyway. This week's update included features you're used to on the desktop, like a ruler with tab stops, floating images that you can drag and drop to relocate more naturally, and spell check as you type.

The bad news: the new Google Docs does not work offline with Google Gears anymore, and offline access will be disabled for all of GDocs on May 3rd. (Google will bring it back at some point in the future using HTML5). In the meantime, you've either got to export your documents manually to store them locally, or just get real comfortable keeping your data in the Google cloud.

To try out the new Google Docs features, click on the “New version” link at the top of any spreadsheet or go to the 'Document Settings' page and select 'New version of Google documents' in the "Editing" tab.

Microsoft Study Shows SMB Technology Spending on the Rebound

2010-04-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

The second annual Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report predicts an increase in IT investments for a majority of small and midsize businesses in 2010.

Microsoft Corp. today released its second annual Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report, a study on small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and their technology priorities in the current economy. The study shows that although SMBs remain concerned about the business climate, most will increase technology spending in 2010, highlighting the role of IT as a strategic business tool in this crucial sector of the global economy. SMBs will invest in IT that directly benefits their bottom line — either by reducing operating costs, improving employee productivity, or acquiring and retaining customers.

In the study, based on a survey of Microsoft Small Business Specialist partners, 63 percent of respondents predicted their SMB customers will spend more on IT in 2010, up from just 25 percent in 2009, with overall SMB IT spending anticipated to rise by an average of 16 percent over 2009 levels. Results from more than 500 partners in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Brazil and India indicate that SMBs view virtualization, IT consolidation, software as a service, customer relationship management (CRM), and support of remote workers as their most important technology investments.

“The most competitive SMBs are investing in IT that will not only help protect and strengthen their business, but prepare them for success when economic conditions improve,” said Birger Steen, vice president of Small and Medium Business & Distribution for the Worldwide Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners Group at Microsoft. “Technology can buoy smaller businesses through turbulent times — and which technologies SMBs choose can help determine the speed of their return to financial stability.”

Looking for Strategic Guidance on IT Investing

Most SMBs lack dedicated IT staff, and rely heavily on local technology partners to help them evaluate, implement and maintain the right IT solutions. Facing increasingly complex IT options and a challenging economic environment, SMBs are now looking to these partners to provide more strategic guidance that is better tailored to their business, vertical and industry, the study found. Microsoft Small Business Specialists forecasted that customers would look to them most for help with cost-reduction measures, increasing remote management, and a “one-stop” experience aligning technology with business needs.

Other key trends in the 2010 Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report include these:

•	Forty-one percent of SMBs view server virtualization or IT consolidation as the best cost-saving technology.
•	SMBs rank software as a service among the top three technology solutions for both cost savings and business growth; Small Business Specialists expect to see a 19 percent increase in small and midsize customers using cloud solutions in some form.
•	Seventy-four percent of Small Business Specialists believe their customers will have more remote workers, up from 54 percent in 2009; the estimated 19 percent average increase in remote work force is expected to drive demand for mobile solutions.
•	Most Small Business Specialists expect customer relationships to be dynamic in 2010; just 6 percent of respondents predict no change.

Recent industry research confirms many of these findings and attests to the importance of SMBs to the economy. According to James A. Browning at market research firm Gartner Inc., “The SMB market represents 44 percent of the total IT market spending. We predict that SMBs will spend $800 billion on IT in 2010. Our research indicates that midsize businesses worldwide will increase their IT spending in 2010 by 5.4 percent over 2009 spending levels.”

The complete 2010 Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report is available at

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/smb/docs/2010smbinsight.doc.