You sit at your laptop to finish a project that had taken 90 hours to complete. Once the project is complete you will have made $100,000 for your new business. Excited to think that you made the deadline, then you notice you cant find the project folder on your laptop. Feeling the heart start pumping you dig for the trash bin on the corner of your screen and run searches, the verdict its gone! The day before you were in a office store looking at a external drive wondering if you really needed it but it was money you did not want to spend and denial that nothing can happen.
Being in IT I see files that get corrupted, crashes, mistakenly deleted, and other factors all the time that’s why we use different methods of backup from tapes to networks.
It amazes me how many homebased and small businesses do not keep any time of backups. Just one surge can cause data loss. These tips are directed to the Home and small business owners
1. External Hard Drives: Great for larger storage most of the one touch model usually include backup software (Dont solely rely putting your data on the external drive, have copy of your data on both your computer and external drive.
2. USB Thumb drive: One of my personal favorites. Nice small, no moving parts most. If you dont have large amount of data these are good. Depending on the size you can run you whole operating system from a thumb drive.
3. Online Backup services or FTP to your hosting service:
A. Online Backup services like MOZY.com offers space at a small fee and are managed at an offsite data server warehouse. These facilities are usually temp controlled and backed up daily.
B. FTP – If you have hosting service/Web site you can create a folder on the hosting service and place files there.
If dont backup start backing up now. You don’t know when something can happen to your computer!
There is lot of entertainment and great featured videos on YouTube. There is so many channels on YouTube its hard to keep up where the tech shows are at. Everyone knows Chis Pirillo, AppleSolder or his old name Emeek77, and TechBuffalo(jon4lakers) but there so much more out there. Geekbrief.TV I noticed this last year has been experimenting putting there show on Youtube under her stage name “calilewis”, I can name others that are know in the podcast world that is on YouTube that does not get the traffic. For Air Conditioning techs there is DrZarkloff. My goals this year is try inform you of the different online tech/educational channels. Have a Great New Year.
Jon from Technobuffalo does a great side by side comparison iPhone vs Motorola Droid. Verizon finally gets a cool phone the Motorola Droid. The Droid is going to help Motorola get in the main stream again with using the Android 2.0 major improvement from the first version. From every review I have read there is draw between both phones. Both have there pros and cons. It will come down to which cell service you want to go with and what phone will work best for you. I would recommend reading Ben Patterson’s Article “The Motorola Droid or the iPhone: Which one’s right for you?” .
Many have tried and failed to take on the iPhone. Motorola is going to be like the Phoenix coming out of the ashes with the Droid to bring a choice to the table that is comparable to the iPhone. Lets hope that the Droid phone shoes promise on stability and works well as a phone.
One of the main reasons I decided to go with the iPhone 3GS was the video recording for Youtube uploads for my show when I am on the road. The editor with the iPhone is nice if you want to do quick basic video blog or record something quick. What if you want to do more like putting different clips onto a single video and don’t have your computer to edit. ReelDirector helps solve that problem.
ReelDirector is a movie editor that allow to add credits, transitions and add clips from the camera roll on the iphone. I almost felt like I was working with a basic iMovie. Once you put the video together and render it you can share via email or save to camera roll from there you can upload to Youtube.
After I rendered the video clip I noticed my sound was slightly off and was back on sync on second scene. overall I was impressed. This is a nice edition to the Iphone 3GS camera. To check other products by Nexvio check out there site. http://www.nexvio.com/
3 weeks ago I was in Memphis with my boss and noticed his laptop had Windows 7. He told me we had the Windows 7 enterprise for IT to install on our laptops. Finally got around on installing on this week. Pleasantly surprised Windows 7 installed with no issues. All I needed to do was install 3 drivers including my scanner. Most of the apps was able to install without any updates. There was roughly been 38 updates since I updated my Laptop on Wednesday. Windows 7 removed a lot of headaches that Windows Vista had.
Windows 7 Feel:
You will need to learn Windows 7 format from Windows XP (Just like Windows 2000 to XP, 98 to XP Home). Compared to Vista I found Windows 7 was easier to move around in. Windows 7 felt like a combined mix with XP, Vista and Mac OS X. Customizing the Windows 7 to your needs is easy.
Will it work with the apps I have:
Like any new OS there will be apps you will need to update or will not work. If this is concern I would wait. I just needed to update two applications.
Will I need to upgrade hardware?
Depends how new your PC is. If you have older workstation it might be cheaper to replace it with newer model.
Windows 7 does not use as many resources as Vista did but it does require at least 2gb of ram but would recommend 3gb. Below is image of my work laptop specs and performance meter with nothing really running this will give an idea.
Truthfully I think this is the best Windows that Microsoft has come out with The test will show in time if there will be compatibility issues, security, viruses and so on. We will see!
Thursday morning, I am rushing to get ready to leave for an office in Greensboro. I sit in my car and realize my wife has my Garmin Street Pilot. Well what options do I have looking at my new iPhone 3GS, Hmmm.. apps store on itunes. Running to my Mac don’t want to spend much. A quick GPS search in itunes I find GPS drive by MotionX with very good customer reviews and even better only $2.99 this has to good to be true. I dont have time to think so I download and sync to the iphone.
The initial interface i found very user friendly in my opinion, located my location very quick. It was very quick on draw when typed in city and streets (even faster than my Garmin). It also has the ipod integrated in the application so you can play music, It also also ask if your driving or walking. They give 30 day Live Voice guidence that is included in the price, but after 30 days you can opt to pay $2.99 month or $24.99 a year for this option(not bad). Okay on my way to Greensboro. Since the screen stays on GPS mode I needed plug power to the iPhone. It was very responsive and staying accurate going to the freeway. As I was on the Freeway I would loose 3g speed on my phone then I noticed the phone would lose view of the maps but it kept directing. Once I got closer to Greensboro the maps view was back to normal again. It was very responsive and accurate as it guided me to my destination. As I took the iphone off the Window mount bracket it was hot and charge was a third depleted (Greensboro is roughly 2 hours from where I live).
On the way home I decided to run different test on the way home the two tests:
1. What would happen if I got a call?
Result: GPS application stopped and had to restart it. Needed to input the address again.
2. How fast can it route when you make a wrong turn?
Result: This is where it was no Garmin. It corrected but it took 3 times longer to correct.
The Pros.
1. I found that the interface was very user friendly
2. The integrated iPod is a nice touch with the Compass
3. Very quick on inputting addresses.
4. nice addition to the iPhone as a GPS
5. Overall it was pretty responsive.
6. Only $2.99 for a functional gps.
7. Pretty accurate.
8. Drive or Walk mode
9. Very up to date.
The Cons.
1. No Landscape option.
2. Have to re-input destination if you get a phone call.
3. If you loose 3g connection it seems you loose view of maps.
4. A little delayed on driving correction.
Overall I was actually very please with GPS Drive by MotionX. When I fly for business I will no longer need to bring my Garmin I can just use GPS drive.
The install was very straight forward and no issues. It took roughly about 55 minutes to install Snow Leopard upgrade. Leopard needs to be installed for the upgrade, if you have Tiger you will need to purchase the Mac Box Set that costs $169 on the Apple site. After the install was completed it required some updates after couples minutes I was up and running with no issues. My next test will be on how well ical, address book and mail work with Microsoft exchange.
Most consumer camcorders does not include a microphone plug in and you have to settle for the built in mic. It does fine for close range and if you want to hear everything else but you from a distance. There is two options you can either buy an expensive camcorder that has a mic plug, risk buying an older camcorder or my preference is buy a digital recorder. Huh, digital recorder? Yes, a digital recorder with a cheap lapel mic! most low cost video editing software allows you to add or remove sound easily. Any one can do this, It just takes a little patience to learn.
Magicjack offers a lowcost phone offers a low cost solution versus the standard phone. They say it competes against Vonage and Skype. As simple usb device and software that works with either Windows or a Mac.
Once the device was plugged in the USB port it started downloading software and went into the registration process(quite easy). It has a large number selection I was able to select my area code and prefix. As soon as the phone got plugged into the usb adapter we had a strong tone. The initial calls were clear. I called my Uncle in California (I am calling from North Carolina), It took couple tries then I was able to hook up. As we talked it did not feel as stable and he indicated I was fading in and out. Local calls it seemed to work well, I gave the phone to my wife to use not telling her it was the Magicjack line and she called her Mom and her brother it seemed to be very clear.
Voicemail worked decently and emails you once a voicemail was left.
Some of the features it offers:
Directory assistants
Call waiting
3 Way Calling
Call Forwarding
I found using the phone versus the headset with the computer tended to be more stable. The bad is that the software has to stay on for the phone to work, Good news is that the voicemail still works and will send you an email when the software is off.
Cost of the MagicJack $39.95 this includes 1 year of service. If you like it and want to renew service, there is two plans one year plan $19.99 or 5 year plan 59.95.
I think this is good alternative to consider, but its not for everybody. Since being on a limited budget and most of my regular business is local this would be good option, it has all the basic needs. As for price Magicjack beats the competitors, But the quality still needs improvement on long distant calls. Note you have to have a good internet connection use this.
