Posts Tagged ‘Saratoga’

If It Can Happen to Santa Clause It Can Happen To You

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Over the weekend while taking a break, I happened to see a segment of Fred Clause which was on TV.  It was ironic as what was being shown actually happens to lots of businesses, and if it can happen to Santa Clause, it can happen to you.

An “efficiency expert” was sent in by the board of directors to take a look at how Santa runs his operations, and if Santa received 3 checkmarks, would be terminated.  Like some employees and contractors, the representative from the board had nefarious intentions.

An opportune moment presented itself and the “expert” started shredding important documents.  When the “expert” confronted Santa about the missing documents and asked about his backups; Santa replied nothing like this had ever happened before so they have no backups.  This was Santa’s third check mark and he was set for termination.

Being a movie all ended well.  But you and I don’t live in a movie set and if something can possibly go wrong it will.  Don’t get caught in a trap like Santa.  Not everyone has your best interest at heart and it pays to have backups to protect your data and digital assets.

We are currently offering a free Data Disaster Audit and Review to businesses in the Clifton Park, Albany and Saratoga area who would like some options to help Eliminate HI-Tech Frustrations.  If you’d like some free tips, give us a call or fill out our online form at www.HITmanSafe.com.

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Prepare for Technology Disasters Now

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

What a topic!  Prepare for disaster; and now.  How depressing.  Or discussing technology disaster now could be for the best.  For many however, they will bury their head in the sand, living in a world of ecstasy.  After all, everything always happens to someone else.  Unfortunately bad things happen and it is much better if we are in a position to deal with the issues when they come up, by being prepared.

Last week a colleague was relating to me an issue he was going through.  It seems a data center he works with was facing very serious failures as a majority of their systems were offline.  My colleague used this company for all of his data storage and email.  Now with the data center not able to service him, he felt like he was working in the blind.

One could argue, how could he know the data center would go down.  Most data centers these days rave about a 99.99% + up-time rate, and the data center never had any issue before.  Well, in early August if you had asked anybody when was the last time they felt an earthquake in the Albany, NY area, the majority would say never.  Had you asked them again at the end of August and their story and frame of reference would be completely different.

Let’s take a look at one scenario which could have helped my colleague.  Being a road warrior, his laptop accompanied him everywhere.  He also had his iPhone setup for email.  His laptop was setup to access his email via a web client.  This is typically a good option, but has its drawbacks.  In this case because the data center was offline, so was his email.  Where this turned into a major issue was that his calendar and contacts were now not accessible.  Had he been using a program such as Microsoft Outlook running on his laptop, at least he would have had access to some of the critical data he needed.

My colleague is a very bright individual, he just never took the time to either sit and think of potential issues or talked through possible problems with someone.   Regardless of the reason, because the data center was down, he was unable to function anywhere near his potential for several days.  The time he lost can never be replaced.

On a positive note, he decided he should take some time and talk with me about planning for future disasters now.

Because we work with many local and regional businesses in the Albany and Saratoga Region, we have been able to put into place backup procedures to help in times like this.  If you are unable to access certain portions of your business, how will you continue?  Will this be a major or minor incident?  We are currently offering a free Data Disaster Audit and Review to businesses in the area who would like some options to help Eliminate HI-Tech Frustrations.  If you’d like some free tips, give us a call or fill out our online form at www.HITmanSafe.com.

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Microsoft Windows Mobile Devices – LG Fathom

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

The second Microsoft Windows Mobile phone I tested was the Fathom by LG.  This is powered by Windows Mobile Professional 6.5.3 and has a slide-out keyboard.

The Fathom lacks Verizon’s V Cast Mobile TV of the HTC Imagio but does have access to Verizon’s VZ Navigator.

The qwerty style slide-out keyboard works well.  One design flaw is the keyboard requires pressing a function key in order to get a period.  This is a major oversight in my opinion.  LG does include a stylus for input, but it is too short to be of much use.

The LG Fathom uses a resistive display , which does not work very well.  When scrolling, programs start to run because the display interprets the users intent incorrectly.  A benefit of a resistive screen is that they do allow for use of a stylus.

The size of the Fathom is pretty good and it has a nice display.  The display size is 3.2″ with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.

Call quality was good. We tested the Fathom throughout the Clifton Park area up to Saratoga Springs and down to Latham.  We experienced no dropped calls during the test.

The LG Fathom also has a proximity sensor which locks the screen when the phone is near your face.  Likewise, Bluetooth connections were good in the different vehicles we tested it in.

During the short time of our test, we found battery use to be below what we expected.  But since the battery is removable it is possible to carry a spare.

Overall the poor screen sensitivity made the LG Fathom not a good choice.

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Observations From A Town Hall Roundtable

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Last night I attended a government round table with several leaders of the Clifton Park and Saratoga area, including community and government representatives.  At the beginning people were asked to state who they were, who they represented, and a little about their organization.

Two of the gentlemen were from regional business associations, and I found their take very interesting.  The first person said they represented a certain geographic area, how big they were and what services they provided to their members.  The second gentleman also spoke about their size and coverage, but then made a change.  He talked about a situation where one of his members had some goods held up a a port of entry (which is nowhere near our area).  He then went on to say that within a day, the goods were release.  My take-a-way from this is one person told what they can do, while the other told what they did.  Bottom line, actions speak louder than words.

I am pretty annoyed that the new health care legislation includes the requirement that all business transactions exceeding $600.0o in a year require the business receive a 1099.  This is a burdensome and very costly undertaking for small businesses.  When I brought this to the attention of our representative, he said he was aware it was in the bill, didn’t know how it got there and was working on getting it repealed, but was not sure if he would be successful.  My comment was it is easier to get poor legislation removed before signing than after.  I guess not so common sense.

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BNI Presentation

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a local chapter of BNI International.

The talk I gave was regarding how the staff at ICOM Tech Services assisted the Saratoga City Center preparing for their move to additional facilities while the City Center was being relocated.  We created a VPN for the City Center setup a new phone system and coordinated with their phone line supplier and Time Warner for the additional cable requirements.  The City Center staff was going to be working from two locations for about a year.

What I found very impressive was how organized and well run the BNI meeting was.  I had heard a lot about BNI for years, but never attended any of their meetings.  Everyone was held to the time allotted for them to speak and the entire group was cordial and seemed very cohesive.

It was a very positive experience.

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Saratoga, The Sun and Man’s Best Friend

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Yesterday (as today) was beautiful in Clifton Park and Saratoga County, New York, with temperatures in the mid 60’s and sunshine.

We just completed a new website (www.SaratogaCityCenter.org) for one of our clients, the Saratoga Springs City Center.  As this required providing them with training on their new CMS (Content Management System), and I didn’t want to be late, I called and asked if they minded if Toby, my Miniature Schnauzer could accompany me.  It was, and he was a big hit.

For those who are unfamiliar, the Saratoga City Center provides meeting space in the heart of Saratoga Springs, NY.  Some of the businesses and organizations which utilize the City Center are the Saratoga Economic Development Corp. for their Annual Dinner, the Saratoga Springs High School Junior / Senior Prom, YFC’s Excel and Break-Out, Curtis Lumber for their Annual Contractor Show.

During training, there were a few items which the City Center staff asked about changing.  Their requests were passed to one of our web developers, who was able to make the majority of the changes while I was still on-site.

What a fantastic way to end the day.  Working with great clients, and a sunny ride home with my dog in the back.

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