Every once in a while, I’ll write in my blog about just how crafty spammers can be. Well this one knows that while everyone loves pizza, most folks won’t spend nearly $200 for it. Here’s the email I received:
————-
You’ve just ordered pizza from our site

Pizza Super Supreme with extras:- Pork- Ham- Ham- Black Olives- No Cheese- Extra SaucePizza Super Supreme with extras:- Pepperoni- Chicken- Bacon Pieces- Black Olives- Easy On Cheese- Extra SaucePizza Spicy Sicilian with extras:- Chicken- Beef- Italian Sausage- Onions- Easy On Cheese- Extra SaucePizza Veggie Lover’s with extras:- Pork- Onions- No Cheese- No SauceDrinks- Limonade x 2- Coca-Cola x 5- Fanta x 2- Dr. Pepper x 3- Sprite x 2- Pepsi x 2- Mirinda x 4Total Charge:197.62$

If you haven’t made the order and it’s a fraud case, please follow the link and cancel the order.
CANCEL ORDER NOW!

If you don’t do that shortly, the order will be confirmed and delivered to you.

Best regards
Pizza by ARDUINO
————
If I had clicked the CANCEL ORDER NOW button, I would have been taken to a malicious site and my computer would have been infected with spyware.

Now if you stop and think about it, you will realize it doesn’t make sense and never click the button.

Unfortunately, a certain percentage of recipients will be so worried about all this food showing up and the confrontation with the delivery person to pay for it that they won’t consider that it could be a scam. Instead, their knee-jerk reaction will be to quickly click the link to cancel the order. Spammers know this and will try to see how many people they can get it past.

So my best advice to my readers is when a mysterious message shows up, stop and think. If it doesn’t make sense to you, it’s most likely a trap and should be ignored!

-Paul
***

Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115
Contact me

I know this is last minute but thought I’d mention that Centrend, in partnership with Passport Software, Inc. is presenting an online webinar today at 1pm EST - “ERP 101: How Can an ERP System help You?” Here’s a link to the registration page if you can join us.

If you can’t make it today, the recording will be made available on the Passport web site and I’ll add a link to this blog entry once its available.

Update: Here’s a link to the recording of the webinar: Click here!

-Paul
***

Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115

One of the hottest technology trends we’re seeing lately is the acquisition of tablet computers by business users. But are tablets just a cool trend or are they an important business tool?

A tablet or touch tablet, as it was originally called in the industry, is a computer with a flat, touch sensitive screen. In fact, most of the navigation on a tablet computer is done with your finger or a handheld stylus. Apple’s iPad was not the first tablet, but it was advanced enough to get business users to look at it as a serious tool for salespersons and executives on the go. Apple has always had the “cool factor” nailed down, but even the iPad 2 is hardly a match for a business laptop when you’re looking for mobile business productivity.

The most significant disadvantage that a tablet computer has over a laptop, is it lacks a keyboard. While it’s true that many tablets will allow you to add a keyboard, consider that having to carry around a keyboard for use with the device defeats the purpose of having a tablet instead of more fully functional laptop. In an attempt to address this concern, Dell Computer introduced the Inspiration Duo last year. The Inspiron Duo is at the same time a tablet computer, and a laptop. The Duo’s screen folds up off the base and flips 180° to reveal a full size standard keyboard. It’s a very innovative and effective solution for those that would like some of the benefits of the tablet, but need to have the ability to type on a full-size keyboard as well. Unfortunately, the unit is about three times heavier than the iPad and for the most part lacks the instant on feature that a tablet user would expect. It also lacks a standard VGA output, so forget trying to use the unit as a lightweight laptop for bringing your PowerPoint presentation to a meeting, since it can’t connect to the projector.

So, what are the business uses for a tablet?

1. A tablet computer instantly turns on and is ready for reading, internet surfing, or checking email as soon as you turn it on. It’s basically a computer that’s running all the time and the power button just wakes up the screen, revealing where you were when you last shut it off.
2. A tablet computer is great for frequent references to e-mail, Internet browsing, music, and movies or video. For long sessions or composing complex documents, most users will be frustrated without a keyboard to type on.
3. Tablets enable you to carry a massive amount of digital content (Books, newspapers, reference material)
4. Lightweight is one of the most significant key advantages of a tablet versus even the lightest of notebook computers. Many of the best devices weigh about the same or less than a can of soda. The flat, high-resolution screen makes it easy to hold and see the device while working on it.
5. Extremely long, all-day battery life is expected from the better tablet devices. Even the best laptop batteries under the most perfect conditions will not last the 8 to 12 hours of continuous heavy use that you can get from a tablet.
6. Specialized high quality content is available for automatic delivery on a daily basis right to devices such as the Barnes & Noble Color Nook Tablet. You can download monthly magazines, business newspapers such as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal all automatically so that when you turn on the device in the morning, the content is there for you. With the content in digital format, it becomes easily searchable which is great for referencing an article later on.

In my opinion and experience, the three best tablets on the market in order of value are the Nook Color Tablet (it’s a steal at $249), the Samsung Galaxy at $499+ the Apple iPad at $499+, and the Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet (which is optimized for business with digital recognition of hand written notes, etc) at $449+. To summarize, a tablet computer can be very handy for casual e-mail correspondence and surfing the Internet but is probably not going to replace the need for fully functional business laptops anytime soon. Many executives that enjoy the benefits of the tablet that I outlined above, will still carry a laptop as I do, for handling more complex tasks while away from the office.

-Paul
***

Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115

contact me

There apparently is a fake e-mail message being sent that appears to be from LinkedIn with a subject: “Disabled Account". The message is not from LinkedIn, and it contains a potentially harmful link to an unverified web site. This could be a malicious site harmful to your computer, or it could be a phishing scheme, seeking to pirate your LinkedIn credentials. If you are a LinkedIn subscriber, and you receive this message about your account, do not follow the links in the e-mail, rather, go to the LinkedIn web site directly from your browser and contact them as you normally would.

- Bill

***

Bill Bowman

Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.

508-347-9550 x135
Centrend, Inc. is a Massachusetts-based Information Technology firm strongly focused on advanced business planning and agility, providing key strategies and support for today’s important technology choices.

So…..you get to work Monday morning and you turn on your system and instead of it firing right up like always, you get a flashing cursor with the ominous message: “Operating system not found…”…great start to the week, right?  So, now you call your IT support, and they determine that the hard drive is OK, but the operating system needs to be reinstalled. Our first question will be where are the recovery disks?  The typical answers we hear from new customers are usually one of the following:

1. I don’t know.
2. I never got any.
3. Don’t you have recovery disks?

Let’s face it…laptops and PC’s sometimes crash. It is part and parcel of everyday computing reality. Being prepared for that will save us time and will save you money. When Centrend purchases machines for our customers, we always make sure to include recovery disks, along with driver disks. If you order an MS Office suite, you will get disks or a key. If you get a key, you can download the software from Microsoft and then install the key.

At Centrend, unless we have some special pre-arrangement, we will never hold on to your media or license keys. Those are yours and you are responsible to protect both the media and your license keys. That’s why it is so important that we determine a place at your facility in which to keep them. A good place is often near your server (if you have one), but really it can be anywhere that is secure and easy to find should your technical consultant need them.

There are some vendors that do not ship media with their systems at all.  Instead, the user must create a set of recovery media from the machine itself but this will need to be done beforehand; ideally even before the system is put into productive use. Centrend takes care of this for our customers automatically. You can sometimes order the media as well, but you will have to wait until they ship it in order to start the process of rebuilding. Equipment you purchase off the shelf from a “big box store” almost NEVER includes the required recovery media, so be extra careful when making these purchase decisions.

All this holds true for your other software as well. Any software or license keys or special information that you deem important that will affect the business should be kept in this same area as the recovery disks. Going back to the MS Office reference, a lot of companies are going to a straight download model…offering no media at all. Centrend can work with you here and keep copies of your software keys in our CRM software so that they are always available when needed.

Because of the nature of computer hardware, it is usually not a matter of if it will crash; it’s a matter of when. Ultimately, you are responsible for your recovery disks and software.

By working with us and putting a sound plan together to keep your recovery disks and software in a safe and smart place, we can get you back up and running a lot faster.

- Hank



***

Hank Lockwood

Technical Consultant
Centrend, Inc.

508-347-9550 x145

Centrend, Inc. is a Massachusetts-based Information Technology firm strongly focused on advanced business planning and agility, providing key strategies and support for today’s important technology choices.