bruceb news

Previously:
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Part 1: Overview
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Part 2: Remote Access

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials has one overlooked feature that fills an important need in most small businesses. Every night, SBS 2011 Essentials backs up all of the workstations in their entirety.

Microsoft originally developed this backup technology for Windows Home Server. Microsoft did some of its best technical magic on the backup system to use the least possible space on the server hard drives and to make the backups quick (although they’re done in the middle of the night, so speed isn’t really an issue). […] continued

In April, with little fanfare, Microsoft released three new server products to manufacturing and to the hardware vendors: Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Windows Home Server 2011, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is so well-designed and fits its niche so perfectly that I expected that it would become the standard platform for many very small businesses, as ubiquitous as SBS 2003 was in its day. I excitedly previewed SBS 2011 Essentials back in November 2010, and I began using it in my own office earlier this summer. It’s great! Ever since the final product shipped in April I’ve been waiting to detail some of its best features – waiting until the inevitable burst of promotion from Microsoft, waiting until Dell and HP start selling it preinstalled on their servers, waiting until there was something concrete for you to look at and consider buying for your office. […] continued

Don’t underestimate how much you’ve learned about using Windows.

Over the years I’ve been asked the same question frequently: “Should I switch to a Mac?”

Not very much has changed about my answer. I work mostly with small businesses and law firms, and there are mundane, practical reasons to stay in the Windows world. Take away all the hype and the halo effect from the mobile devices and in the last ten years Apple’s market share for computers has risen from roughly 4% to roughly 10%. Office software vendors can read market share as easily as you can. It’s a Windows world. […] continued

The little device in the picture – about the size of a deck of playing cards, less than half as thick – is an Intel 160Gb solid state hard drive. It has given me a more significant speed boost for my computer than any other single device that I can recall – ever, in all my years of computing. It’s been a more noticeable improvement than years past when I have swapped a motherboard to get Intel’s latest and greatest processor, or added more memory to a system that needed it.

Solid state hard drives are starting to be sold preinstalled in new computers – still rare but likely to be much more visible in the next few months. […] continued

The little box in the picture to the left measures eight inches across and just over three inches tall. It’s quiet and inexpensive. In this difficult world of technology, the best I can tell you is that it might be just what you’re looking for.

The Dell Inspiron Zino HD is a compact little computer that is best used for a single purpose: to bring your photos, music, and videos to the big screen TV in your living room. There are more details about the Zino in this review.

The Zino runs Windows 7 and has sufficient processing and video power to decode most video formats. […] continued

Dell introduced the XPS 15z this week, a new ultrathin 15” notebook for $999. It might be exactly right for many people – a bigger screen than the 13” Vostro V130 and a much more reasonable price tag than the gorgeous Samsung Series 9.

Apple has once again provided the inspiration for the design. Samsung more or less copied the MacBook Air for its ultrathin Series 9, and Dell has copied the MacBook Pro in almost every detail. Engadget has an amusing gallery of photos from all angles of a MacBook Pro and an XPS 15z next to each other and it’s obvious that the new Dell laptop is an homage to the original. […] continued

Everyone might get something useful out of David Pogue’s column today for the New York Times, a collection of tips and tricks for cellphones and computers. Some of them are basic, some won’t apply, but I’ll bet you find a pearl or two that give you an “A Ha!” moment.

Random examples:

• Do you know what the strange pictures are that turn up in advertisements, like the one above? They’re “QR codes” – take a picture of them with a special app on your iPhone or Android phone (e.g. Google Goggles), and you’ll be taken to a web page.
• Microsoft runs a free voice-activated business directory at (800) BING-411.

[…] continued

The Samsung Series 9 combines elegant design, advanced engineering, and uncompromising peformance in a stylish ultralight, ultraslim premium laptop. It stands alone at the top of the Windows laptop market. Samsung might not be the first name you think of in notebook manufacturers but the company poured money into developing the Series 9 in the hope that it would draw attention to the entire Samsung notebook line.

That thin sliver in the picture above is less than two-thirds of an inch thick and weighs just over two and a half pounds. Inside is an ultra-bright 13.3 inch display, a full-size backlit keyboard, and a more responsive computing experience than any other computer I own, thanks to the latest Intel Core i5 “Sandy Bridge” processor technology and a blindingly fast solid state hard drive. […] continued

Fountain pens overcame early technical limitations and began to be mass-produced in the 1870s. During the next few decades there was a steady stream of improvements, technical innovations and new materials that caused them to become commonplace items in offices. Luxury pens were prized possessions. Executives would display their best pens in special holders on their desks. New pens would be shown off and handed around for inspection. People kept track of each new development.

In the 1950s ballpoint pens appeared for the first time, with early technical issues and leaking problems. Quickly, though, manufacturers overcame those limitations and began to produce a similarly wide range of models, including expensive models that again became office status symbols. […] continued

I updated the “What I Use” page on the bruceb.com web site, where I describe the hardware, software, and web services running the enormous Bruceb Consulting empire. Why in the world would you want to read that? No, wait, that’s not rhetorical, I really don’t know the answer. But there it is, just in case.

An interesting change since I started maintaining that list. The section on “Software” used to be the centerpiece. Now it’s relegated to last place, as my world (like yours) changes its focus and comes to depend on cloud services far more than any locally installed software. […] continued