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

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

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.

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.

Computer systems are a significant investment, and an integral component to your business processes. What kind of maintenance is required to keep your information safe and your systems running in optimal condition?  Upon reviewing the different maintenance strategies listed below, consider what your business is currently doing.  Every organization utilizes one or more of these strategies.

Corrective Maintenance: This is the “default” strategy for Information System maintenance. Many business leaders will wait until they have a problem with a computer system before they will take any action to correct the issue. Corrective maintenance is only performed after a system or component has failed. This behavior is most common, and whether intentional or not, it is a strategy. Just as, when you choose to do nothing, you still have made a choice. This strategy is used in an effort to achieve economical efficiency – in theory, spending is only required when corrective action is required (but, this is not necessarily true in every case).  While this method may fit for some systems or components, it is not recommended as an overall strategy for your critical business systems.

Predictive Maintenance: When we are given signs that something might fail soon, we replace the item. In this case, we have performed predictive maintenance. For example, if a hard drive in a 4-year-old PC begins to make an odd noise or speeds up and slows down while running, we replace the drive before it has a chance to fail.

Preventative Maintenance:  Updating or replacing a system, component or application before any signs of failure appear.  Information systems are routinely evaluated and updated for security, productivity and effectiveness to your business plan.  Preventative maintenance is most commonly performed on software and data applications, but is also done for hardware. Let’s say the PC in the above hard drive failure example has a practical life of 3 years.  So, we replace the PC as it becomes 3 years old, even before it shows any signs of component failure, also mitigating downtime and preventing productivity loss due to aging hardware.  A much more common example is when we update your security software with the latest releases from the developer in an effort to prevent a harmful attack on your system.  Some preventative maintenance is required under Massachusetts information protection laws.

Scheduled Maintenance: Scheduled maintenance is simply planned preventative maintenance.

Operational Maintenance: Operational Maintenance involves tasks that can be performed by the users of the computer systems. This helps keep the system running properly in between scheduled or preventative maintenance. An example of this might be when a Microsoft Outlook user routinely runs the archive function of this e-mail application. It doesn’t require any special skills to do this, and it helps to conserve file space and improve the application’s performance.

Choosing Your Strategy

Many businesses are operating mostly in the Corrective Maintenance mode, simply because this is the default strategy and requires no effort to plan. The business leaders utilizing this strategy are usually relying on their past history of not experiencing many problems, or perhaps not evaluating the cost of the problems they have encountered. The upside to adopting this strategy is that, in most cases, it requires little maintenance spending in the short term. However, the downside to this strategy is the fact that all hardware will fail at some point, and systems will lag behind productivity requirements, develop security risks or become compromised by malware. This strategy does not enable the business to effectively plan for the associated costs, productivity and potential opportunity losses.

A good maintenance plan will usually involve each of the above strategies. Carefully choosing the correct combination of strategic maintenance fitted to the various systems in use will provide your business with the most optimal performance and cost effectiveness. Your maintenance strategy should compliment your business plan and open up opportunities to gain productivity, increase profits and enhance your competitive advantage in the marketplace. If you have any questions about your strategic maintenance, consult an IT expert (such as Centrend!) when developing your plan.

- 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.

 

It is very easy to allow applications to run on most systems, and it is easy to allow those applications to access all sorts of data. After all, that’s why we invested in the computer. The downside to this freedom and ease of use comes in the form of vulnerability. Always be aware of what permission you are giving, and know what information you may be exposing. If you are not sure about any access permission, then ask an expert before you proceed. It is better to be safe, than it is to be impatient and give permission that you may regret later. Permissions can be revoked, but once your data has been exposed, in many cases the damage is done and irreversible.

- 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.

- 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.

If you believe your antivirus software is slowing down your computer, it’s quite possible that settings can be tweaked to remedy that problem. For example, excluding certain folders from real time scanning would introduce minimal risk but could dramatically improve your systems performance without disabling the scanner.

If tweaks aren’t enough and your system is really dragging with the antivirus installed, perhaps a simple, low-cost memory upgrade will solve the problem. If a memory upgrade won’t help, you need to look at what antivirus software you are running and what it’s minimum and recommended system requirements are. For example, we find that Symantec and Mcaffee Antivirus commonly slow down system performance on anything but high-end systems.

Centrend generally recommends AVG from Grisoft as a very thorough antivirus/antispyware solution that has the least amount of impact on overall system performance. If you are a business user, you’ll find that licensing AVG is about HALF the cost of a similar offering from Symantec.

Now if you are a home user you’re going to love this: AVG is available for FREE! No trials or ads or expiration. It’s free. Period. You can obtain AVG for free for your home computer from this link: http://free.avg.com While the professional (business) version is more full featured, the free edition does the three key things I need an anti-virus software to do:

• Real time scanning for virus and spyware
• Daily sceduled scans
• Exclusion list capability

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

It’s very similar to a traditional mouse, but it has a series of small sensors covering its surface. The sensors will respond to your finger tips, enabling you to make gestures with your fingers effecting your traditional screen similar to that of a touch screen. You can use a one-finger gesture (no, not that one), two fingers or three fingers to scroll and pan, navigate, and manipulate content.

As touch screens themselves become more popular, we can expect the traditional mouse to almost go away eventually…down the road. So, will this be the last new mouse?

As with any new type of device, its popularity will require some real-world exposure to prove itself and find it’s place in the market. Will it endure, or will people who want touch screen technology prefer to actually purchase a touch screen? This will probably be purely a user preference thing, like the way some people have chosen the track ball (which I don’t really like to use). But, if the Touch Mouse catches on, the point-and-click mouse might die off sooner than we thought.

If you like to try new things, I just checked on availability, and it’s in stock at Best Buy and the online Microsoft store right now for $79.95. If you try it, let us know what you think … I am very curious about this one.

- 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.

An issue resolved with one of our customers recently is their policy of e-mail retention. This customer is using Microsoft Outlook 2007, and their policy is to keep a record of every e-mail correspondence forever. The challenge that arises from this e-mail retention policy is that Microsoft has designed Outlook with local file size parameters. In other words, you can only keep so much in your local MS Outlook inbox and personal folders before the application will become unstable, and eventually crash.

The answer is simple: MS Outlook has a built in archival tool. Each user must be trained on the proper use of this feature, and the correspondence will be safely stored and ready for retrieval should it be necessary.

In the unfortunate event that one allows the Outlook file to become too large, and the application crashes, the e-mail data file may have become corrupted. Centrend always advises that you have an effective backup strategy in place for all important and critical data systems.

If MS Outlook has crashed for this reason, in order to resolve the issue we would rebuild the e-mail data file using special file utilities, and then archive the excess e-mail.  We then train on proper use of the MS Outlook archive.  The whole process takes some time and effort to complete.
 
Size limits: 
               

 
At Centrend we perform routine preventative maintenance for our clients. As part of our maintenance plan, we are easily able to check the current size of your e-mail file. We recommend doing this to keep ahead of any possible problems with the application.

Feel free to contact me if you’re not sure not sure how to check the file size, or if you need more information about using the archive feature in MS Outlook. I will be happy to help you.

- 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.

The new version of Windows - Codenamed Windows 8 for now because Microsoft has not said what the version will actually be called - will change all that. From what I can see, the new version will be very touch-centric while still allowing mouse navigation. We’re at least a year away from the next release, but it’s interesting the direction the product is going. You can take a look at a short you-tube video by Jensen Harris, Director of Program Management for Windows User Experience at Microsoft that demonstrates key features of the User Interface:

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

Unfortunately,  our headquarters in Sturbridge was struck by one of the tornadoes that left a path of devastation in this area last Wednesday evening.   Although there was significant structural damage, fortunately, our people escaped injury.   Communications with Centrend was briefly interrupted during the ordeal.  Our Business Continuity Plan was immediately implemented and Centrend was back online Thursday.  Full power was restored over the weekend.

Centrend’s quick disaster recovery was not by luck.  It was by careful forethought and design.  Being prepared ahead of time is essential in business, and especially for the communications and information systems that you rely on for daily operations and business critical functions.  We know of other business which were not prepared, and are now struggling.   If you don’t currently have a detailed, working IT Systems Continuity Plan, then your business may be presently at risk.

 What would you lose if you experienced a disaster such as this?

• What if power was lost?
• What if email was lost?
• No phones?
• No Internet?
• Unable to ship product?
• Facilities damaged?

How would you conduct business under any one or more of these circumstances?  How much would it cost in lost revenue?  Missed opportunities?  Would you lose customers?

At Centrend, we found out first-hand what we have been telling our clients for years.  You never expect anything like this to happen to you, but investing a little now could enable your business to survive should the unexpected happen.  If you would like to share your experience or find out more about how we put together our continuity plan, please feel free to contact me.

- 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.

Cyberlink PhotoDirector

Here is a rare opportunity to obtain for FREE a state of the art photo editing software before it is released. The software is called PhotoDirector and it’s made by Cyberlink. You may have heard of Cyberlink - they make the PowerDVD software that a lot of computers come with for playing DVDs and other media files.

I’ve provided the link at the start of this article that allows you to register and download the 90 day fully functional Beta edition. The idea of a Beta test is to get the product out to real users who will then try it out and give feedback to the developer so they can make the product even better for the actual release or for the first maintenance release.

So if you download and run the Beta and send Cyberlink feedback and/or report bugs before June 20th, they will send you the full production release for free. The software is expected to sell for $99 sometime in July.

Please leave a comment here or send me an email if you get a chance to try it out!

-Paul

***

Paul LaFlamme

President & CEO

Centrend, Inc.

508-347-9550 x115

<a href=”http://www.centrend.com/contact_centrend.html“> contact me </a>

While Windows 7 comes with a free desktop search tool and Google and others make a decent attempt at finding things on your desktop or your Local Area Network, X1 by far is the best tool for instantly searching everything you have access to. X1 is not free like many of the other competing products, for approximately $50 you will find that your license of X1 pays for itself very quickly. There is simply no other tool that even comes close to its effectiveness. I’m truly blown away by this product!

You can try a fully functional copy for yourself by downloading the professional client from http://www.x1.com/products/professional-client.

If you are tired of trying to find things on your computer, give this product a go right now. You won’t be disappointed!

Paul

When choosing an IT vendor, many business leaders don’t have any sort of blueprint for making their decision. Often, the decision-maker, when qualifying prospective IT companies, will look at the certifications of the vendor’s professionals to determine which one is most suitable to handle the IT operations for their business. However, it’s not that simple.

Unfortunately, technical certifications are a small indication of what an IT company is really all about. According to Jason Hiner, CBS Interactive, Editor in Chief of TechRepublic, “Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, most of them are not a good indicator of how good you will be at the job.”

I totally agree with Jason. Certifications are often used as a marketing tool for the IT professional to align a resume with that of other job candidates. But, when selecting an IT provider, more important factors than its employee’s certifications would be the company’s other strengths and experiences. As far as technical ability, just go ahead and point-blank ask if they can handle the job. If you are still not sure … then ask for references.

For example, setting itself apart from other IT companies, Centrend offers a detailed technology plan to all its clients. The thought behind this practice is to prepare you for success, but it also happens that you may find exceptional value in a specific executable plan pertaining to your business.

When choosing an IT company, pay attention to its overall philosophy and the dynamics of the vendor’s employees. Often, these are the people who will be either directly interacting or directly embedded into your company’s departments. What do you have in common with the prospective IT provider? Does your IT company share your company’s vision, your ethics and your understanding of what gives your business its competitive advantage?

Your IT provider should be your technology partner, and should have a clear understanding of what your business is all about, know your goals, and provide you with the technology choices that will enable your success. There is no technical certification issued for that.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

It is good to be able to hire in these tough times. The hiring process is certainly a tough one, with advertising, resumes, interviews, background checks, second interviews, reference checking…..you get the idea. Once you make that decision though, your next communication should be with your IT staff. They will also have a laundry list of things that need to be done in concert with the hiring process. Here is a list of things of things that will need to be discussed so they can get the ball rolling!

Name – Now, this sounds a bit silly, but, correct spelling of a name will prevent a lot of headaches. This is where IT starts, and if it’s wrong in the whole process they will almost have to start over. Also, how someone is referred to (My real name is not Hank…did you know that?) makes a difference if you use your first name for emails or logins or when the end user will have a lot of contact outside the company. It also makes for a bit of a comfort factor for the new hire. We prefer using the first initial, last name for these types of things so there is no confusion if you hire someone else with the same first name, but ultimately it’s up to you. Getting this first step right goes a long way!

Model – What is this person going to do for you? You just hired Sally for making widgets. Bob and Nancy also make widgets for you. You want Sally to have the same server access as Bob and Nancy. Well, just use them as your model, and it will be very easy for the IT staff to set that up. What is important here is that you give a good model that represents the job at hand. If Nancy was the widget supervisor, she may have access to things that Sally doesn’t need or isn’t authorized to see. We also don’t want the new sales guy to have access to accounting. Modeling will help the new hire transition go a lot smoother.

Need a computer? – Hiring a brand new position for a workplace will probably require a new PC. Now at Centrend, we usually have some PC’s for end users on hand for our customers that only need a stock PC. This can work well for some situations, but not all. Do you have an engineer that needs a lot of processing power? Do you have a road warrior and you only have a desktop? The new graphics hire needs dual monitor video support? These are all things that you will want to discuss with your IT support so you get the right fit for your new person.

Hardware and Software – As most end users know, with a PC you basically get the operating system, but to really make the system do anything you need separate software and hardware to do it. Microsoft Office has some different flavors to suit your needs. Picking the correct package could save you hundreds of dollars per user. The new engineer needs CAD software or even a bigger monitor for those drawings? Maybe you need another license for QuickBooks for that second accountant? HR assistant need their own printer for sensitive documents? These are all the types of things that, in harmony with your IT Staff, can make this step rather easy.

Termination and Firing – Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad. People will leave the company, either amicably or not so much, it’s part of the process of hiring help. Either way, if you get your IT guys and gals informed about the situation as early as possible, we can try to make this as smooth a transition as possible. Now, if someone leaves the company under bad circumstances, you should contact us immediately. Centrend has emergency numbers where you can reach us so we can cut off their access as soon as possible. This will protect you and prevent that user from doing something they may later regret. Even if the parting is amicable, there are still considerations. Are we forwarding their email to someone else? Does anyone need access to their folders? Do you have software that needs to be uninstalled and installed on a different PC? As you can see along with hiring, the termination has its share of IT challenges.

In general, when someone gets hired, they give a two week notice. If you hire someone, you should give your IT support that same time frame. Between all the things mentioned above, this is about a half a day’s worth of work for IT, so plan accordingly. It will give us time to do our job so your can do yours, welcome a new employee to your staff and hit the ground running. Your new hire has been trying hard to make a good impression on you so that you will hire them. Now it is your turn. Show them that your company has the smarts and savvy to be ahead of the curve when it comes to a new hire.

- Hank

***
Hank Lockwood
Senior Technical Consultant
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x145

***
Hank Lockwood is Senior Technical Consultant at Centrend, Inc. a Massachusetts based Information Technology consulting and support firm, strongly focused on advanced business planning and agility, providing key strategies and technology support for successful businesses. For more information about this or any other IT subject, please feel free to call 1-888-558-9550 ext 135, or contact: bbowman@centrend.com .

Eventually, every laptop will either fail or become obsolete, this we know for sure. At Centrend, that’s why we always recommend a reliable and tested data backup strategy for our clients to ensure business continuity. With a plan to manage data recovery in place, our next goal is to get the most useful life out of the hardware as possible.

When caring for your laptop computer, remember that dramatic temperature change and moisture are two things that adversely affect computers. When using your laptop during winter in New England, it is much more likely for both of these events to be the cause of some damage.

When traveling outside in the cold or leaving the laptop in your car for extended periods, take some extra steps to keep it from freezing. You could add some additional insulation to your carrying case, or place it next to something else warm. The goal is to keep it at room temperature for as long as possible.
 

Generally following the above rules of thumb, you should be able to keep your laptop computer from winter harm. If you experience any problems after your computer has been frozen, such as inability to start, contact Centrend for help. It may not fail right away, because there seems to be some mysterious law of nature that makes it happen when most inconvenient! But, should this occur, you’ll rely on your data backup strategy, and we can evaluate the hardware for possible repair.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

If you’ve had to replace your laptop battery, then you know that it is not cheap. People often tell me how unhappy they are when they have to buy a new one. Because of their light weight and versatility, Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) rechargeable batteries have become portable device manufacturers’ most desired power source for laptop computers, cell phones, cameras, test equipment and many toys. So, what can we do to get the most out of our expensive Li-Ion energy cell?

Caring for Li-Ion batteries is different than other rechargeable power cells, like Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cad), because of their internal chemical composition. The average life of a Li-Ion battery is 300 to 500 discharge-recharge cycles, or 2 to 3 years, whichever comes first. As the battery gets closer to its end of life, the amount of time it will hold a charge will become less and less. The power level, environmental conditions, and charging-discharging habits during its life span will affect the longevity of the battery.

Keep Li-Ion Batteries at room temperature

The best condition for lengthening the useful life of the Li-Ion is keeping it at 40% power and stored in a cool place (but not below freezing), like a refrigerator. But, it is usually most practical to keep your Li-Ion batteries at room temperature as much as possible, and not always at full charge. The worst case is to have your battery at full charge and high temperatures. Leaving your laptop in a hot vehicle all the time, or continuously running your laptop while remaining plugged into the wall outlet will probably result in a shorter battery life. In this case, we can expect the battery to last 12 to 18 months, on average.

Do Not discharge Li-Ion batteries all the way down

Most people are familiar with Ni-Cads, and know that it is best to discharge them all the way down before charging them up again, because they have charge memory. This is not true for Lithium Ion batteries. Li-Ion batteries do not have that type of memory, so it is not important to let them discharge all the way down before recharging. In fact, most of the time, it is best NOT to let it discharge all the way.

If a Li-Ion does discharge all the way, below 2.5 volts, then it could lose its ability to be charged again by the regular charger that came with the system. In this case, it would need to be brought back to life by a commercial charging system with a boosting current. But, a word of caution: if a Li-Ion battery has been left with an excessive discharge for a few months or more, do not attempt to charge it, as it may be hazardous.

Many Li-Ion batteries have a discharge meter on them - it’s a row of little LED lights on the bottom, showing it’s charge level. It is recommended by most Li-Ion manufacturers to run the battery down all the way once in about every 30 cycles. This will reset the charge meter to maintain its accuracy, otherwise, over time it will build up resistance and give a false reading.

Slow charging and slow usage draw is best for Li-Ion

The volume of energy that is introduced and expended over each cycle will make a difference in the life of a Li-Ion cell. It is best to use the original equipment to charge the battery. Higher output charging units will reduce the life of the battery. Just as high output charging will negatively effect it, so will high demand of the device it is powering. So, always use a Li-Ion battery with sufficient or higher rated power to handle the equipment you are using. Faster discharge will shorten its life. When choosing to replace a battery or having a spare, consider having one higher output, longer charge battery over having two lower rated batteries that you would swap. Don’t choose a spare battery thinking that you will prolong the life of each. The two batteries will have the same effective life span, regardless of swapping.

Spare Batteries

Only choose to have a spare battery if your goal is to extend the running time of your laptop without a power outlet available. In that case, run the first battery down to about 20% (not all the way), then swap. Additionally, it is better to have one long-life battery , than to have two shorter span batteries. If you have a spare that doesn’t get used frequently, then it is best to store it in a refrigerator at a reduced charge.

When purchasing, pay attention to the manufacturing date

Make sure you get the freshest battery possible, as it is only going to last about two years.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

PC running slow? The hard drive on your PC contains files for the computer’s operating system, the applications and all the data that you save on it. It’s a physical disk with a certain amount of space allocated for writing your files. The size is measured in Gigabytes [e.g., 40GB, 80GB, 320GB]. When the disk becomes near full, the operating system will have to work harder, and processes slow down, as it tries to find free space to write new data. When the disk is completely full, the system will crash.

Periodically free up space on your hard drive by eliminating unused programs, unnecessary files and other extraneous data. It’s a good idea to keep the used space under 75% for optimal performance, and definitely take action if you have more than 90% used up. There are disk cleanup utilities available to help you do this, and you could also consider transferring some files to another drive, like an external USB storage device or another location on your network.

Things You Should Know - #100: To find out how much space you have left on your PC’s hard drive, go to “Computer". For Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can see the usage of the local disk from this screen.

If you are running Windows XP, you will go to “My Computer” from the Start Menu, then you need to make one more step … right-click on “Local Disk [C:]” selecting “Properties” from the drop-down choices, and you will see the usage there under the “General” tab.

Reaching drive capacity is just one of many possible reasons for PC slow-down, but it is always good practice to check disk usage once in a while. You’ll be surprised how much the disk can fill up over time.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

The newest releases of smart phones will be found on the hips of most road champions. When the productivity of mobile workers is measured by results, it is relatively easy to measure the effectiveness of any new tools that are introduced into the field. When these workers are communicating with the right people at the right time, the organization’s work flow improves and, well, quite simply things get done. With literally thousands of applications being developed for popular mobile devices, it becomes easier and easier to bring your desktop information with you on the road, sharing files and collaborating with co-workers and customers.

This is all good stuff, and business leaders are anxious to take advantage of these emerging technologies to reap the return in improved productivity, enhanced customer relations, and greater profit margins. This all runs on a complex infrastructure that requires careful choosing, planning and maintenance to ensure that the platform is optimized and the organization is not at risk of data breach or other security concerns.

We find that many decision-makers will preview the end-user devices, such as the smart phones, and decide that these are the devices that will make a difference in the organization. They will subsequently purchase and deploy them to the workers, who are excited and eager to begin using the new tools. The people and devices begin reaching into the organization from the outside to integrate with internal functions, like e-mail. As the business settles in with the new devices, they learn of deeper, more advanced applications available, like data collection or document sharing, and now must look at a platform to manage it all. This is typically what happens, and it is really the reverse of the best practice.

A recommended strategy is one that will take into account the overall business plan, technologies that are currently in place, and the potential for growth and future needs. Security and overall management are key factors, and are often overlooked in the initial stages of equipping the road warriors.

Before shopping for smart phones, let’s examine the applications and processes that the business now runs on. Then, evaluate services or overall communication platforms that might be deployed to enhance user connectivity. Look at only those that are best suited to the organization’s core business, and what devices will run on those services. Lastly, pick from the chosen service the devices that are best suited to the end-user to enhance that user’s productivity. If desired devices are not available, then you’re possibly looking at the wrong platform.

So, when researching technology for the road warrior, look at the overall picture of what everyone in the organization is using to get the job done, and build it from the inside out. Design your network and communications infrastructure around platforms that will enable the business as a whole to reach out to the users on the road, as opposed to the somewhat awkward angle of reaching inward to the business from the outside.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

In your outlook inbox, they look something like this:

The purpose of legitimate notifications is to inform the sender that a message they tried to send did not go through. The danger here is that these look exactly like the real thing. People are clicking the link to see what message they sent that got bounced back and the link executes virus code that infects the machine.

Centrend’s clients are protected with Antivirus/Antispyware software that will block the threat even if the user does click the link. However, even with the best protection possible, the safest practice is to never open an email message if you don’t recognize the sender and/or if you don’t know why you are receiving it.

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

Here is the part we invariably skip over when installing a new program on our PC: Nobody wants to read endless pages of legal banter when anxious to get the newly purchased program up and running. Whether you have paid for the software, or you have been legally granted free use of it by the developer, chances are you had to acknowledge that you are in agreement with the terms of its legal use, you are disclaiming liability for the developer, and promising that you will not copy or distribute the program to any machines or users other than what are included in the agreement.

The software companies are serious about the amount of money they are potentially losing due to software piracy. Microsoft and others have been spending millions to enhance their programs to be able to detect unauthorized installs, and shut them down. In some cases law suits emerge, presumably to make an example of those who willing or unwittingly circumvent their main source of revenue: the paid use of the product. There is not really any good defense when an unauthorized installation of a program is residing on a PC.

Sometimes an organization may not even realize that it is a software pirate. There are many different types of software licenses. The aforementioned software license agreements can be quite complex, and could be for a different type model than what you may think. There are volume licenses, leases and subscriptions, as well as concurrent user licenses, per PC licenses, upgrade, OEM, and the list goes on. For example, with a per PC license agreement, if you have 100 PCs running a particular program, then you must have 100 licenses for that software.

In defense, a business cannot successfully claim that it was not aware of the licensing violations, if it is the company which owns the machines. Each individual or business entity is responsible for the software which is installed on its computers. The actions of the employees of the organization represent the company, and any unauthorized copies of software in use by its employees could result in a problem for the employer. This happens often, and it’s either without the employer’s knowledge, or without the employer’s concern.

Some organizations utilize third parties, such as an IT Outsourcing company, to manage their networks and PCs. In this case, it is still the ultimate responsibility of the client organization, not the IT provider, to make sure that the software installed on its computers is up to date and legally licensed to the organization. Ignorance of the actions of your IT provider is not a sufficient defense. It is best to utilize an IT company that you know is above board, and can readily prove to you that you are in legal compliance with all license agreements, and that all the software installed on your systems is valid.

What is your organization’s acceptable use policy regarding employees and computers? Does it include wording about the installation of software by employees, and possible disciplinary actions resulting from a policy breach? Many companies do not take this seriously enough, and some have found that the worst-case scenario legal costs can be crippling.

Actions that you should take now include a software evaluation of all your systems, and a policy review. If you discover a problem with unauthorized installs, there are controlling measures available to you. Further action can include assigning administrator credentials to key personnel, and restricting user access to disallow administrator privileges on PCs, which will control the majority of installations. However, this requires some thoughtful planning, and is best done by skilled IT professionals. If you need help with this, contact your professional IT provider, and be certain that the company that you’ve hired is qualified, and has policies of their own which uphold your organization’s best interests.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

Unified Communications (UC) is a technological architecture that enables us to have “transparent presence". For you to be truly transparent in your presence, your communication methods must be streamlined and free of device dependence. The beginnings of this concept can be traced to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, and what was referred to as “Unified Messaging", where you could retrieve your phone messages from your e-mail. But, UC enables functionality far beyond messaging.

Phone calls, e-mail messages, Instant Messaging, video, Internet, and other content delivery methods traditionally require specific devices to work. For example, you need a telephone to make a phone call, and the person you are calling needs one too. The phone that you call is the one that they answer. However, in a UC environment, our goal is device independence.

When looking at the phone call example, on a UC platform, we would just think of the phone call simply as a communication, and it’s not limited to just being a phone call, it could be an Instant Message, or anything else, and the device that is used is whatever is most convenient. So, when we free up our dependence on specific devices, and consider our availability to others as our “presence", then we are able to communicate on a much higher level of efficiency, with greater ease of use, and at a reduced overall cost.

For the business, Unified Communications often translates into better customer service, increased competitive advantage, and reduced communication latency. Real-time collaboration can exist when previously, there was a lag. Service organizations, such as financial institutions, healthcare and insurance companies are the first to embrace and adopt the technologies that enable Unified Communications. Providing a universal presence to your customers enables opportunities for excellent service delivery and faster results.

On a well thought out and functioning UC platform, the communications problems often experienced with having a distributed workforce practically go away. Whether it is home-workers, road warriors or branch offices, the architecture provides for highly efficient work-flow, with all functioning together over a seamlessly inter-woven combination of methods and devices.

Adopting this concept at your business will undoubtedly require a technology investment. The underlying foundation to enable Unified Communications is primarily your computer network and the Internet. The devices that you use are highly dependent on your business purpose and personal choices, and some will be better than others for you. Workflow efficiency, customer turnaround times, energy use, and travel expenses are all good places to begin an evaluation of Unified Communications for your business.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 ext 135
bbowman @ centrend . com

Now let’s say that you are out for a walk and pass by a home that has a swimming pool in the back yard. The people who live there have a gate, but it’s left wide open. Not only that, but there is a sign next to the gate that reads, “POOL", with an arrow pointing in its direction. It’s the hottest day of the year, and because it’s so hot, you happen to be wearing your swim suit while out for your walk. Is it immoral for you to enter their yard, without permission, and have a swim in the cool water? No one appears to be home, there is no one to ask for permission, would you think about it?

Does it make a difference WHERE an unsecured wireless connection is broadcast?

If your neighbor built their swimming pool in YOUR yard, then you probably would not think it’s immoral for you to have a swim whenever it pleases you, right? So, let’s say your neighbor’s unsecured wireless access point broadcasts all the way into your house … you didn’t ask for this, but there it is … is it wrong for you to take advantage of their Internet connection? After all, they are sending it right to you.

Myself, the moral implications are mainly what keep me from using my neighbor’s Internet access, and I do have other reasons. But, what about the moral implications, and what are to be the legal implications which will eventually follow?

It is illegal to gain access to someone else’s network to commit theft or malice. Does using someone’s bandwidth constitute theft? Since we must pay for the use of the Internet, and bandwidth is sold in increments, costing more as we utilize more, then one could say that tapping into someone else’s Internet connection without permission is, in effect, stealing their bandwidth, which is valuable.

I don’t like the idea of using my neighbor’s Internet access because it could be interpreted by them as an invasion by me, and I have no control over the state of the network, or the availability and reliability of the connection. Then there is the moral and potential legal argument that I would be stealing a valuable resource from them…the bandwidth allocated to them by their ISP, which they have paid to use.

Now, if you are friendly enough with your neighbors, you could approach them and ask if they want to share the resource and split the cost. In this case, just remember that if the connection goes down, do you really want a call from your neighbor at 2-AM because they want to finish watching “Family Guy” on hulu?

We can’t forget to think about the select few who really don’t mind if you tap into their wireless access point. Some people want to share their Internet connection, and purposely set up their wireless access unsecured, for free access by anyone. This is fine and noble, but these generous souls are definitely exposing themselves to a certain degree of risk. Criminals are looking for these openings. In this case, professionally configured and maintained network protection is an excellent idea.

One of my favorite authors, Robert Frost, once wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors.” So, if you want to be a good neighbor, then I recommend obtaining your very own Internet connection, and if you’re going wireless, securing it with wireless access protection and encryption, so that your neighbors will be good, too.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

Take a step back and consider the business purpose driving each of your IT strategies. IT planning should always support your business initiatives, hand-in-hand.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

In response to the security flaws discovered and reported on March 9, 2010, as well as other cumulative fixes for nine other severe vulnerabilities, Microsoft has issued a critical security update for all supported versions of Internet Explorer. This includes IE 5, IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8. If you are using Internet Explorer, Centrend recommends that you make sure that you have run this important update.

[Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (980182)]

As always, if you have any questions, please contact us for help!

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

You probably have a long list of computer passwords, for when starting up your PC, to accessing your bank account online, or perhaps when checking your e-mail. Passwords are an important barrier to accessing private, sensitive or proprietary information. An electronic password is much like a key, in the physical world, that unlocks a file cabinet. Whoever possesses the key to that cabinet will have unhindered access to its contents. But, what are the situations where computer passwords are just not secure enough?

With the physical key and file cabinet, the concerns we have are that the key could be misplaced or stolen and fall into the wrong hands. It could be surreptitiously duplicated and distributed to unauthorized people. The lock on the cabinet itself can be tampered with or simply broken with brute force. All of these concerns are the same as what we have for computer passwords. All of these scenarios do occur, even with electronic data protected with passwords that are considered strong, and therefore not easily figured out.

Once access to the file cabinet has been achieved, all the information the key was protecting is exposed. But, what if there were a way, even if the lock were to be broken open, to make it so that the contents would be worthless? It would be great if the person who breaks into the file cabinet only finds a mass of unrecognizable shredded up paper. In effect, that is what encryption helps you achieve for your protected electronic data.

Encryption is nothing new, having been around since the ancient Egyptian times in the form of non-standard hieroglyphs, which was a method of symbolic substitution for words and phrases. With encryption, there is a key which enables the data to be deciphered. Modern electronic encryption is capable of encoding data in such a way that it renders it completely unrecognizable, and there are different levels of encryption available to suit the security demand. Encryption technology today also provides us with strong key methods that make unauthenticated use of keys impossible.

So, unlike password protection, an encrypted data file has been altered, so that the key is required not only to access it, but to make it readable as well. This is very important for data that rests on a portable device, such as a laptop computer or smart phone, and media such as CD-ROMs, or plug-in USB drives, because these devices and media can be easily lost or stolen. According to the Federal Trade Commission, 49% of all reported unauthorized data breaches were the result of lost laptops or other devices.

For the protection of its residents, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has now made it mandatory that portable devices and media are protected with data encryption technology, when personal information is present. Other requirements are that we safeguard and protect our passwords. The keys to the encrypted files, or any other protected files, still must be of adequate strength, kept safe and not duplicated, distributed or left out in the open. For most organizations, encryption technology is a matter of policy for the sensitive, personal or proprietary data that requires the greatest degree of protection.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

Consumer devices continually become available that would traditionally be handled by the IT experts. Once high-end devices affordable only to businesses are now lower in cost, simpler to use, and owned by individual consumers. However, sometimes a little availability can be dangerous. The underlying reasons for not allowing a device onto your network may be lost in the anticipation of the increased productivity.

For example, a worker’s personal smart phone may give him the ability to answer e-mails on the run, while this technology may have been considered by the business decision-makers to be too risky or expensive to deploy company-wide. When making this decision about whether to relinquish control, the business leaders of the organization must consider the risk factors. Let’s say, for continuing the example, that the aforementioned business is a mortgage company, and the user of the smart phone receives confidential e-mail referencing the personal financial information of his customers. What is the risk if the smart phone were to be lost or stolen? Is the device handled with proper security methodology in order to prevent a data breach?

Personal laptop computers and netbooks are wildly popular and more and more workers wish to use them for working on business projects, connecting with business services and checking and keeping e-mail, contacts and other data. Not all businesses can afford to issue netbooks to its staff. Some employees will go so far as to bring in and install their own wireless access points off the company network to use their own laptop computer. All of this presents security risks, not only for data protection, but for controlling access by outsiders to your business network.

Very common is the case of the home-worker. In years past, it was not only most likely the office workstation would provide the best productivity, but it was the only workstation available that could run whatever business productivity software was in use at the time. However, today it’s not uncommon for a home computer to be newer and faster than the machine the worker has on his desktop in the office, and he has a business productivity suite, like Microsoft Office, that equals the one in the office.

Once the business has allowed its data to be taken off of its own network, all control is lost. Of course, technology is available to make remote workstations safer and more secure to a business. The deployment of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) has greatly increased over the years to accommodate the growing number of home workers. A VPN is a secure Internet connection to a remote location, where the remote user has access to the Local Area Network (LAN) as if they are right there in the same physical location. There are still issues of data use control that can’t be resolved even with a secure connection. The employee must be trusted.

Not all businesses are safeguarding personal information, and not all business need complete control over the devices used by the employees. The approach that many organizations could take is one that allows for opportunistic advantage. Embrace the idea that some of these devices may improve productivity, and then decidedly take control of their usage. Simply issue a list of approved devices to the employees. Before creating the list, examine the risk factors of the various hardware and software that workers wish to bring in to enhance their productivity and user experience. Does it pose a security risk? Will it jeopardize data integrity? Does is compromise any regulatory compliance guidelines? Only choose the devices or software that would be approved and could be controlled by your IT staff or provider.

Make the list of approved devices available to the employees, along with policies for registration and use. If you currently have devices in use in your organization that you are unsure about, consult an IT expert like Centrend.

- Bill
 
***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135
 

If you visit a site that has been infected with the malicious code, your computer can be caused to crash (freeze requiring reboot but fail to restart) or a program of any nature can be downloaded and run on your computer.

Microsoft is testing patches right now and a fix will be available soon. Meanwhile, if you are running Internet Explorer 7 on any platform besides Windows 7, you are vulnerable.

Actions you could take:

1. Upgrade your Internet Explorer to Version 8x
2. Upgrade your computer to Windows 7
3. Browse very conservatively for the next couple days.

If you’re concerned about how to keep your computer up to date and whether you are computing as safely as you can be, please contact us for a free security audit of your environment.

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

More often than not, in our experience, huge benefits are realized by the sharing of data. Keeping each team within an organization responsible for their own contribution to the data “warehouse” avoids conflict and problems between staff and systems. On the other hand, separate “silos” of information within an organization can lead to sudden issues that hinder decision-making.

For example, when operating under separate silos of data, an operations department may be compiling data all month long, and the accounting department is also, but at the end of the month, the two departments come up with conflicting reports. Had their been one central data location, such as an ERP system’s database, then both departments would be working harmoniously from the same data set, which would lead to appropriate corrective action throughout the month instead of reacting to it at the end of the month. It’s like steering your ship along the way, instead waiting until your already at the wrong spot - when it’s already too late to make course corrections.

Find out more about ERP systems by attending one of the free web sessions presented by Paul LaFlamme.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

Coincidentally, he had just ordered something online earlier that very morning. He was in a hurry to get to a meeting when he saw the message came in so without hardly giving it a thought, he opened the message and infected his system.

While virus scanning and spyware prevention programs prevent many types of malicious code from running on your computer, when the user deliberately clicks and executes something it’s almost like a temporary override occurs. In an instant, your system is infected. One of the first things this particular bug did was disable his Antivirus program’s resident shield.

It’s the resident shield’s job to monitor system activity and quarantine infected files and stop bad code from running. With the resident shield down, the virus “invited in all it’s friends” and proceeded to make a mess of the system in a short time before he even realized he’d been had.

I’m pleased to report we were able to act quickly to clean out the virus, plus we took extra steps to help protect the computer even further. Techniques such as seperate Malware protection such as from Malwarebytes.org, and AVG Internet Security which provides a local firewall in addition to virus scanning are a couple of the strategies we use in higher-risk applications.

If you’re concerned about virus protection, spyware or security in general, contact Bill Bowman (Senior Technology Advisor) or I for a free System Vulnerability and Risk assessment of your computing environment.

-Paul
***
Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.

508-347-9550 x115

In larger enterprises, tape is still an effective technology for backing up large volumes of data where multiple versions of the same data need to be stored in different locations. Even this application however, is somewhat obsoleted by NAS (Network Area Storage Systems) implementations that replicate volumes of data to different locations in real time or near real time. Still, it’s good to have this data offline and in generations of copies. Consider for example, how a virus could infect ALL copies of the data if all the data is online at once. The NAS protects from site failures but not from malicious code.

The other concern with tape is that it wears out. Most larger enterprises know this and cycle the tapes frequently enough that they replace them before failure. SMBs (Small/Medium businesses) have less time and resources to pay attention to these types of things [if they aren’t already Centrend customers that is ] Unfortunately sometimes when they need to restore data, the tape ends up looking like the one pictured at the right.

As an alternative to tape backup we are typically recommending online backup for offsite/disaster recovery purposes, while maintaining a local disk based backup for rapid recovery in the event of a total loss of disk. The benefits of this strategy are:

• Fully Automated - no tape rotation
• The cost of a tape backup system is a much larger investment. Tape drives are expensive and the media are expensive
• No risk of data corruption by virus (online encrypted backup is locked down)
• Disk restores are MUCH faster than even the fastest tape drives
• A hard drive based backup system lasts much longer than tape
• The server O/S can monitor the quality of the backup drive and notify when replacement is needed
Please contact me for a free assessment of your backup strategy and let us help you reduce costs and increase your piece of mind.

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

The problem stems from a pre year-2000 based method of calculating valid leap years. There is a nice description of the problem if you CLICK HERE that is not too technical.

Some users of the PS3 are being extremely critical of Sony with statements such as “They should fire the programmers!” and “We should get free games for the inconvenience!” The users don’t realize that Sony did everything that can be expected of a responsible manufacturer in that situation: They quickly acknowledged the problem, they communicated when resolution was expected, they advised users what to do in the meantime, and ultimately delivered the solution within the promised time frame.

Though this bug happened in a gaming platform, there are some important lessons to be learned from it that apply to our business users:

• Even high tech devices (like the state of the art PS3) can be effected by Y2k glitches
• An application can never be tested too much
• No matter how thoroughly an application is tested, glitches can and will occur
• When bugs do arise in our systems, we need to measure the developers more on the timeliness of their communication and resolution, not in the fact that a bug was allowed to occur

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

Encryption of data can be done with simple desktop tools available now, the software is easy to use and doesn’t really necessitate much of a change in how you use your computer. Once encrypted, data cannot be read by anyone, even if a hacker were to bypass your password protection.

This prompts some additional questions that will be addressed in future blog entries…

› What is the difference between password protection and encryption?
› Isn’t encryption software expensive to deploy?
› Do I really need it?

If you need answers right away, Centrend is helping businesses with answers to these questions. Each business is different, so I’m inviting you to contact me directly for answers to questions about encryption for your unique situation.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135
bbowman@centrend.com

At 8 pm EST, yesterday, Sony confirmed the problem and said the are working to resolve the issue. Resolution should come some time this evening, if Sony can keep their promise.

Another PS3 Trophy error appearing is “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will now quit.”

Some independent blog sites are recommending you dismantle your PS3 and disconnect the battery momentarily to clear the issue. Unless you are extremely technical and have a couple hours to spare (at least) I strongly encourage you not to do this as you could completely break the system. My recommendation is to wait out the problem while Sony’s engineers resolve it.

Exactly what the resolution will be, it’s hard to say. Since the PS3 can’t connect to the Play Station Network at all, it might be necessary for Sony to either send out media that the PS3 can use to read a patch from, or to even recall the units. It’s not clear at this time what the corrective action will be to get these PS3 systems working again.

Users of the new PS3 (Slim model) are not experiencing this problem as it seems to be glitch in the system clock firmware that only occurs in the older (Thick model) systems.

For the latest updates of this issue, follow my blog here, or visit the playstation blog by clicking here.

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

 
The new law has taken effect today, so every business leader must now be certain that the information that the Commonwealth of Mass defines as personal information flows through their organization under specific guidelines.

The deadline for compliance with the new data protection laws in Massachusetts was extended at the end of 2008, and then it was extended again in 2009. There will be no further extensions. Whether you are ready or not, on March 1, 2010, you will be required by Massachusetts law to take very specific and proactive steps to secure all forms of personal information you collect and store about Massachusetts residents, whether they may be customers, employees or contractors.

The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations drafted and then refined the regulations (MA 201 CMR 17.00) in response to feedback from the business populace. The regulations mandate that every organization and individual take more responsibility for the active protection of personal data, as defined by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

All legal entities will now be required to create and maintain a Written Information Security Plan (WISP). Your organization’s WISP will cover newly required organizational precautions, as well as technological safeguards. With the regulations to be enforced by the Attorney General’s office, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will take into consideration the size of your organization and the scope of whatever personal information is recorded.

Most of the technical concerns we are now hearing about are regarding portable media and laptop computers. The new data regulations will require all portable devices and storage media containing personal information be secured by encryption technology.

Business leaders needing help determining their own level of compliance should consult an Information Technology expert, and Centrend has scheduled a free online compliance workshop. Each plan must be documented and employees must be trained on how to safely work with both physical and electronic records.

Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this initiative.

- Bill

***
Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

I have encountered this a few times in visits to my customers. Users will put an email into the trash, but say, “Well, I‘ll just leave it in there until I am sure I don’t need it,” or, “I’m going to go through all of these and clean them out, because there are some in there I might want to keep!” Think of the rationale here and apply it to your real trash at work or at home. You wouldn’t put anything in the garbage and say, “Boy, I just might need that later; I’ll just put in the trash here!” People do this all the time with their email, thinking that they will get back to it, but in a world of today’s busy lifestyles this is probably not a reality. There are many ways of curing you from this bad habit. We are going to specifically talk about Microsoft Outlook here, but this could apply to webmail as well.

Creating folders under the Inbox – This is probably the easiest method. You need to keep email received from Fred? Create a folder called ‘Fred’ and put it in there. This will keep you organized and on task, and even if think you may want to get rid of it, it’s in there and you can delete it later.

Archive mail – Done with your email from 2006, but you may want to refer back to it? You can archive this email, and this will have a couple of great benefits. Once again you can refer to that folder very quickly, but you can also take some of the file strain off your Outlook by creating an archive. You can even create the archive on you server ready for backup (if applicable).

Auto Archive – Outlook has a great feature to Auto Archive your email for you. It will set up to clean out your inbox all by itself, sending the email to an archive. I have mine set to clean out every 14 days. This will take the cleanup out of your hands, you can even set it to delete emails that are X months old, but dealing with the core that this is geared to, you would probably rather have root canal that delete old emails!

Create an “almost trash” folder - This is really the same as creating a folder, but it is specific to this issue. It’s an “I’m not sure I will need it - and I don’t think I do - but let’s put it here for now” folder. This is not ideal, but will keep you in better habits. You could archive this folder as well, taking the weight off of the bulging email file ready to burst!

Empty deleted items folder upon exiting Outlook – I know scary…right? After we have done all the things we can to organize and streamline our email, we want to get rid of that trash every time you exit Outlook. Some users also think that when they put items in the Deleted Items or once they hit delete that is it gone…not true. The Deleted Items is merely just a folder waiting for you to empty it. If we turn the switch on for emptying Deleted Items, it will prompt you every time you exit Outlook!

With older Outlook clients users are restricted to 2 gigs worth of space. It sounds like a lot, but if you are one of the many email hoarders of the world, and are not using some of the practices above, this will add up quicker than you think, especially with email with loads of attachments. Once its goes past this 2 gig mark, you are putting yourself in a position to lose some or all of your email.

Still not sure how to do all this? If you have any questions, at Centrend we are always willing to help…just let us know.

- Hank
 
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Hank Lockwood
Technical Consultant
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550
 

A Written Information Security Plan or “WISP", is required by new regulations of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, effective March 1, 2010. Any individual or entity which receives, handles, stores or transfers personal information about Massachusetts residents must have one.

If you or your organization hasn’t already started the security plan, the best place to begin is with a determination of what personal data is collected throughout the organization, and by whom, where, when, how and why. Make a comprehensive list of all points within the organization where personal data will enter or exit, and where it is sent, noting also the amount and frequency. It’s important to document not only who collects or handles the data, but also everyone who may have access to it.

All of this is related to MA 201 CMR 17.00 - Information Protection, and Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this government mandate.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

I’ve been following the technology for a few years and the improvements made in this current version of the software really creates a powerful racing experience. When you watch the race on TV, you have to listen to the announcers to see what is going on. They may or may not talk about your favorite drivers and they focus their commentary usually on the top 10 positions of the race because that’s where the camera is mostly focused. With Nascar Raceview I can watch any driver at any time and from any perspective I choose. For example, I can see the birds-eye view like in the large image above, the rear view to see what cars need to be passed (image at right), and flip the camera around with the click of the mouse and see who’s coming up from behind! (see image below, right.)

With the Raceview technology, you can choose to watch the race from the perspective of any driver at any time. You can also click to hear in-car radio communications between any driver and his crew chief streamed in real-time! Nascar promotes Raceview to those that aren’t watching the race live on TV, but it’s fun to use the tool while watching the race or to keep up during commercials. Hearing the drivers rant after they’ve been involved in a wreck or watching the telemetry of the car from someone toward the back that is now running faster laps than the current race leader really gives you insight that it seems even the announcers don’t have!

One thing you can’t do is see the live action crashes, blown engines, etc. You still need the TV for that but you don’t really watch the race for the crashes, DO YOU!?!?

As defined by the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations, personal data is the combination of a person’s first name and last name, or first initial and last name; along with a social security number, driver’s license number, state issued identification card number, financial account number, credit card or debit card number. Personal information under new Commonwealth of Mass. Regulations does not include information that can be lawfully obtained from publicly available sources.

This information is related to MA 201 CMR 17.00 - Information Protection, and Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this government mandate.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

The Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations has issued a compliance date of March 1, 2010 for the new regulations, MA 201 CMR 17.00 - Information Protection.

Over the last year, Centrend has been conducting compliance audits and participating in various panel discussions and will continue to lead workshops on compliance. Although the new regulations are more widely known by business leaders, we are still observing a large number of organizations that need to take action for compliance. Whether the concerns are administrative or technical, these organizations need to formulate action plans now.

This is important. In addition to holding ourselves responsible for protecting the personal information of potentially millions of citizens, organizations will face heavy fines for non-compliance.

Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this initiative. Click here for more details and to register for a free webinar on compliance presented by Centrend. Additional dates and times will be added as needed.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

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Let me share with you a recent case study one of our customers experienced this past week. The events are true; only the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
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One of our clients had been planning an office move for months. It is a small office in the Worcester area being relocated to a small suburb outside of Boston. The project manager called me about 6 weeks prior to the move and told us what they were planning. I explained to him the process of getting the phones and data circuit up and running and tested prior to the move so they would experience no downtime. I encouraged him to call his communication provider, which I’ll refer to in this article as None-Comm, which he promptly did.

A smooth, reliable turn-up needs about 4 to 5 weeks to plan and install so there should have been time to get everything in place and tested prior to the move-in date.

The problems started when the vendor missed the original date and did not quickly return calls to advise of a new date. Bear in mind that the office is moving out of their old location so there are lease contracts that have to be held. None-Comm finally called back with a new promise date, a full week past the original date.

The project manager and the Centrend Technician began asking for the technical details of the circuit such as the IP address, so we could get their equipment preconfigured and ready to quickly slide in place when the circuit was finally turned up. It’s now up to None-Comm to provision the equipment.

It wasn’t until the day after the rescheduled date, the very same day our Centrend technician was scheduled to arrive, that None-Comm finally called back and blamed Verizon for not putting the circuit in until late the previous day. Because it was so late in the day, None-Comm did not have a chance to place their equipment yet. Without None-Comm’s equipment in place, the project is at a standstill.
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Communications vendors need to be held accountable for how much their failure to execute a planned installation causes major problems for their customers:

• Our customer is hurt because they can’t move in on time and violate their lease termination agreements.
• The customer potentially experiences down time because their old circuit is still terminated on schedule.
• Centrend’s technician loses a productivity day because of the canceled appointment, and the schedule has to be shifted quickly to fit the equipment configuration back into their schedule without breaking other customer commitments.

Come on providers, get it together and service your customers! If we can find a communication company that can smoothly turn up phone and data services on schedule, I promise you’ll have our loyalty forever!

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

If you are wondering about whether or not the new operating system would be right choice for your business environment, let Centrend help you decide. There are many factors to consider, and your Centrend Technical Consultant will help you uncover the benefits as well as explain any challenges to an upgrade.

Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
508-347-9550 x135

- Was I around someone sick?
- Have I been taking my Vitamin C?
- Have I been using hand sanitizer for extra protection?

Well the same goes for computer viruses. Retrace your steps and ask yourself these questions…

- Does someone else have a virus that I got through email?
- Do I have antivirus software and is it updated?
- Am I using other protection like spam filters and updated patches?

When you look back, you may have an “aha!” moment, and figure out what was most likely where you got the cold. The same with the computer virus. There will also be times where you say “I’ve done all the right things not to get sick, and here I am in misery!” Well just like the cold you may do all the right things to keep yourself protected from a nasty computer virus and yet you still get one. This is occasionally going to happen, even if you have taken the best of precautions. Sometimes the virus will be brand new or sometimes you will open an email from a friend that is infected and now you have it. This is where the professionals at Centrend can help. We’ll make sure you are taking all the precautions and doing everything you should to avoid a virus in the first place. When you do find yourself afflicted, Centrend’s IT staff can step in and help you getting back to, well …feeling better again!

Call me or any one of our qualified support staff anytime you have Virus questions or concerns at 508-347-9550 X201. We’re always ready to help.

-Hank

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Hank Lockwood
Technical Consultant

Some words of CAUTION: When shopping for a smart phone try not to be overly “wowed” by the great sale price, consider your total cost of ownership.

The portable device itself is one cost, and the network subscription is another cost. Smart phones, such as the Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, all require data services from the cell phone network provider to work. So, your $99 iPhone could end up costing $1,500 per year on your cell phone bill.

I was speaking with Nikilette Walker of T-Mobile the other day, and she agreed with me, but also recommends that you consider replacement cost of the device as well. When you buy a smart phone for $99, typically you will be under contract with the service provider for two years. If that phone is damaged, lost or stolen during that time, your replacement cost is going to be in the hundreds of dollars. An insurance plan from the provider for a few dollars per month is a good investment in most situations.

When choosing a smart phone, look at the network service available for it, and choose accordingly. Is it going to be used primarily for business or personal? Decide what features and functions are most important to you, like MS Exchange integration and international roaming for example, and choose the rate plan that comes with the phone that best suits your situation. It may be a good idea to shop for the rate plan… then choose a device that works with that plan’s provider.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.

888-558-9550 x135

That’s right, computer processing time translates into energy use. Do you have applications storing and retreiving data? How about manufacturing, production, or even Point of Sale, inventory or CRM? Older applications and older operating systems can be using more energy, and affecting other environmental factors. Maybe it’s not by much, or maybe it’s just enough to make a difference to you and your business over an extended period, like a year or more.

An enterprise application upgrade resulting in improved overall data processing speed or network efficiency could reduce energy use, and invoke other environmental benefits. Wide-scale deployment of solutions improving processing time will reduce energy used by the machines, which in turn produces less heat, in turn requiring less ventilation, lowering electrical load, and reducing the load on HVAC systems, reducing carbon emissions, and requiring smaller ductwork, improving the usable space, utilizing leaner building materials… well, you get the idea.

Energy efficiency carries some weight in today’s businesses when costing upgrades. Many organizations by themselves are too small to witness a measurable effect, but wide-scale adoption of energy-saving policies by many organizations is considered environmental stewardship…which is a topic for a completely different blog, right?

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
888-558-9550 ext. 135

Many of our small manufacturing contacts have been asking some good questions about ERP systems, and whether or not this type of software platform would increase competitive advantage while still being cost-effective.

The answer is: maybe (of course!)

If you have been wondering what is an ERP System (Enterprise Resource Planning), or just want to find out more them, now’s your chance to have a look at what this can mean for your organization.

Centrend is presenting a webinar hosted by Passport Software. One excellent example of a small manufacturing software platform. The webinar will be a live and interactive demo, running once a week for five weeks on Thursdays. It’s not intended to be “sales-ee", but rather it is geared toward addressing your questions (so, don’t be afraid to ask!). View the schedule by visiting the link below.

Go to: http://www.centrend.com/passport

Please pass this invitation on to anyone you know who may be interested…there is no charge to attend.

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor

1-888-558-9550 x135

-Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
508-347-9550 ext. 135

Beginning Wednesday, there have been reports of CA’s antivirus program mis-identifying legitimate Windows system files as harmful malware, and therfore treating the files like a virus. Cnet News is reporting that the problem is mainly affecting Windows XP users.

If you are experiencing problems with any of your PC’s operating systems, unsure about the files your antivirus program installations have quarantined, or have any other questions about virus protection, contact Centrend for assistance.

-Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
508-347-9550 ext. 135