Verus Technologies

I've recently started using multiple monitors when I'm at the office. My laptop screen is my primary screen, and a 19″ Dell widescreen to use as an extended desktop. It's been pretty nice except that the eternal monitor doesn't have as nice a resolution as the laptop. 1920 x 1200 vs only 1440 x 900. I've found that you can't seem to get resolutions that match laptop screens, unless you get up into the 24″ monitors. Not sure why that is.

As I begin to rely more and more on the extra screen space, I've come up with a few things that could be better. For instance, there's no toolbar on the extended monitor. I'm used to looking at the bottom of the screen to open up other windows, but I've had to look away to the primary monitor to find and restore application windows. Also, I've found myself increasingly moving windows between monitors, and needing to resize them. While not difficult to do, these things do tend to slow me down.

I was working at a client site several months ago, and they had a multi-monitor setup for my workstation. It had a neat utility that allow you to easily move windows between monitors, and it even added a toolbar at the bottom of the screen and displayed the programs that were 'homed' in on that screen. Pretty neat. At the time, I didn't need the app, and forgot what it was called. After much searching and hnashing of teeth, I found it. UltraMon : http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

I installed it today, and it seems pretty cool and very full featured. I set up some hotkeys, to take the active window, and 'move' it to the next screen. With 2 monitors, this has the effect of simply moving it back and forth. Hotkey for maximizing also is helpful. There are several more, but I won't remember any of them if I try to set them all up at once, so I'll see how I do with these. It also places buttons in the top right of each application next to the minimize, maximize, and close buttons. These buttons are preconfigured and will move the window to the next monitor, or expand the window across all monitors. Will have to try this with a DVD or media clip and see how it handles.

I'll post a follow-up to this in a few weeks after I get some mileage out of it. Hopefully, it'll be useful enough to purchase, but if not, there were a few other similar programs I might try.

Until Next time!

RS

For many years I worked in large corporations that had large application databases. These databases held logs of tracking data, product data, etc. I have yet to see a company use this type of data to its full potential. Most day to day business applications contain data that can tell you how much products cost in terms of time, resources, etc. It can also tell you about trends, seasonal or otherwise.

Sure these application databases had day to day reports written against them. They only had the beginnings of business intelligence type reports. With that sort of data you can determine standards, accountability, aid decision making regarding products, lines of business and resource performance.

Now that I am working with smaller businesses I am curious if there is still a wealth of information in the data they have. Even with a small database, implementing business intelligence principles and getting the most value out of your data is still possible.

I am going discuss business intelligence, data management and reporting here in the next few weeks.

Managing email has grown into a daily challenge for most professionals. While a "fun new" technology in the past, it has evolved into a necessary form of communication for most people in the business world.

Similar to postal mail, email has a plague of unwanted messages targeting users on a regular basis.  Postini (listed below) said that in March of 2008, they processed over 23 BILLION email messages.  84% were unwanted.  That's a huge number of messages that people shouldn't have to manage themselves.

These typically come in the form of:

• SPAM – the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages

• Viruses/Malware – programs intended to perform unwanted tasks on the end user's computer, sometimes causing damage, sometimes creating avenues for further actions to be taken without the user knowing

• Newsletters/Subscriptions/Catalogs – users typically subscribe to emails either knowingly, or unknowingly, for things such as daily news, shopping catalogs, event notifications, weather reports and other items that can fill up a inbox, albeit at the user's request

So how does one manage all this while still communicating with clients, vendors, partners, personal contacts and other entities in an acceptable manner?  I recommend that our customers adopt a process we call "BAM!"  Block, Allow and Manage.

• Similar to getting vaccines for polio and other unwanted deseases, BLOCK certain unwanted items from ever making it to your mailbox (Note: this doesn't mean your Inbox in your mail program, I'll explain later).  If you maintain your own email server, BLOCK it from ever reaching your Internet Connection, or your Server!

• Choose who you want to be able to send you email, and ALLOW them to send email to your mailbox, or your Server if you maintain one.

• MANAGE the mail that makes it to your mailbox using filters and rules.

Block

Use a third party service that dedicates 100% of its resources (talent and systems) to blocking unwanted email.  There are several services out there like Postini, MessageLabs and Symantec Hosted Mail Security.  Others can be found at SpamHelp.  The advantage to using a hosted (3rd party offsite) solution is that the unwanted mail doesn't even make it to your server, or your mailbox.  This reduces your Internet traffic and need to manage the process either yourself, or have your IT staff manage it.  These services can prevent SPAM and Viruses with significant success.  Most guarantee 100% protection from Viruses.

We choose Postini.  We have used them for years with great success.  They were purchased by Google recently, proving that their technology and products are a superior product in the industry.

Accept

Choose to allow what you want in with rules, filter tweaking and lists of Approved Senders (whitelists).  For example, I get newsletters from Microsoft on a regular basis, so I have approved sender rules to allow all messages from microsoft.com through to my mailbox.  This lets you then manage your mailbox with the content that you want.

Manage

Outlook has a Junk Email capability that has helped me organize the messages that I want in my mailbox.  A mailbox is a collection of email folders and other items, including the Inbox, Junk Email folder, Contacts, etc…  I turn on the feature that ONLY puts messages in my Inbox that are from people in my contact list.  These are customers, vendors, partners, personal contacts, etc…  I want to see these as they come in and be able to respond quickly.  ALL other messages are put in my Junk Mail folder.  This includes email from people that aren't in my contact list, newsletters, catalogs, etc…  I don't need to look at these more often that once a day or so.

What does this mean to you?  Get some help.  If you have more than 5 unwanted messages in your Inbox on a daily basis, that's too many.  If you have an IT Resource that's qualified, ask them for help.  Obviously, we'd love to help out as well.

Don't forget…  BAM!

Very few new innovations!

OK, so we've all heard the recent news. Microsoft wants Yahoo, Yahoo wants more money, Microsoft doesn't want Yahoo, Microsoft's going to take Yahoo, yadda yadda yadda.

So, what's all the hub bub, and why do we care?

Honestly, I don't. These companies are all about being the best, being the top, making the most money. I say, this is a bad idea. It means that they each copy eachother, and try to one-up the other just to steal customers and get more advertising dollars.

Who suffers? WE DO!

Why? Because they don't focus on being great, they just focus on being better. That means we don't get new innovations very often. They just copy eachother and make their product "a little better".

Come on guys, leave eachother alone, pay attention to your own products, and go back to the days of unbelievable innovation, new products and new technologies!

We're ready for something new!

Back in 1996 at the Internet Company I worked at, we had a customer that was developing backup software that would transfer your encrypted backups to a server on the Internet. Slow, expensive, and not user friendly.

In 2008 however, our options are far better! There are many companies offering this for personal and business use. They are fast, safe, more reliable and inexpensive compared to traditional backup methods.

Advantages

Some of our customers have asked why they should move to this solution instead of using their existing backup software, and the media (tapes, CDs, external hard drives). While those solutions have been good, here are a few things to think about:

• No more maintenance of a software package with annual service agreements.
• No reliance on hardware in your posession.
• Removal of the "human element" to take your backups offsite. This is one of the BIGGEST causes of data loss in today's IT world, the "human element".
• Your data is stored in Level 4 Data Centers
• Less labor paid to your IT Company (like Verus). You're investing in a product instead of labor. We always recommend this if possible.
• Many more!

Here are a couple of products that we have some experience with, and like:

Dell DataSafe Online

The first one I've tested is Dell's DataSafe Online product. You can get a certain amount for free with the purchase of some new home, or small business products. You can also purchase it separately. It installs a small client on your PC, and you easily choose what to backup, and schedule when you want it to backup. It encrypts the files, and sends them up to their data center(s) on the Internet. Storage starts at 3GB for $9.00 per year.

Mozy.com

Mozy is a service that's owned by EMC, so you can feel safe that it's backed by a company with a good history and plenty of capital. They have products for personal and business use. One advantage of Mozy is that you can specify you own "Encryption Key", so that even Mozy can't read your data! It is similar to Dell's DataSafe in that there's a small program you install on your workstation or server, however there are more configuration options to choose from. The online reporting is nice to look at what's going on with your backups. Personal plans are $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. So all the pictures, email, and videos your Internet connection can handle! MozyPro for businesses starts at $6.95 + $1.75 per GB per month. This also backs up Exchange, SQL Server, Active Directory, etc…

There are many other services out there that we haven't tried, these are the two we're used, and are very happy with. If you are interested in taking your backups to the next level, give us a call, and we'll help you get started!