August 23, 2010
BRUCEB CONSULTING – NOW WITH NEW IMPROVED MONITORING
I am pleased to announced a new service for my loyal clients: real-time server and networking monitoring.
This is the culmination of months of evaluation and testing. It represents a higher level of service that I’ll be delivering to my clients, at the same time that I’m helping reduce technology costs by handling problems before they turn into crises.
SERVER MONITORING
For less than $1 per day, I will set up 24×7 Round-the-Clock Monitoring that will check your server’s critical systems every fifteen minutes. Whenever it sniffs a problem, I’ll get an email showing the exact nature of […] continued
August 13, 2010
SAY GOODBYE TO SIX YEAR OLD COMPUTERS
Small businesses bought a lot of computers in 2004 and 2005. Windows XP had been on the market for three years and early compatibility problems had been resolved. Small businesses cleaned out the aging Windows 98 80386 computers to take advantage of the new OS and new programs.
This is the year to repeat the process. Windows 7 is a mature version of Windows Vista – for all intents and purposes, the current version of Windows has been on the market for three years and early compatibility problems have been resolved. Businesses should be clearing out the old Windows […] continued
July 2, 2010
KINDLE DX UPDATE
The Apple iPad has been out for a while and it’s become clear that it may fill a niche for some people as a way to read magazines and newspapers, once publishers finish work on the apps and set reasonable prices.
Serious book readers have discovered, though, that an iPad is a terrible way to read books. The backlit screen is bright and glossy and so reflective that it can be used as a mirror, which is attractive at first but seriously tiring for the eyes after a few minutes. It’s virtually impossible to read outdoors on an […] continued
May 28, 2010
WHERE ARE THE SOLID STATE DRIVES?
Almost a year ago I predicted that solid state hard drives would be mainstream devices once manufacturers finished ironing out some technical kinks and the price started to come down. What happened?
Solid state drives (SSDs) are the devices that work like hard drives but don’t have any moving parts. Intel has fixed the technical issues and the results are dazzling, especially with Windows 7, which is optimized for SSDs. By all accounts, the drives are worlds faster than any conventional hard drive, with reports of Windows 7 installations in seven minutes, […] continued
May 9, 2010
WINDOWS 7 PRINTER SETUP
Here are a few anecdotes about setting up printers and scanners on new Windows 7 computers.
When Windows 7 connects to a new device, it attempts to install drivers automatically, and goes online to Microsoft if it can’t find drivers locally. It is successful so often that I’ve changed my procedure – I connect USB devices to a new computer without putting a CD in the drive or running a setup program. In most cases, Windows sets up the device perfectly well using the simplest possible drivers.
There are always exceptions. That’s why I’m fabulously wealthy, is because […] continued
April 29, 2010
SMARTPHONES AND MONEY
HP is buying Palm. Synergy! Patents! Engineers! Vision! Innovation! New smartphones computers tablets slates operating systems! Whee!
I was idly reading stories about the deal when a sentence jumped out at me from the New York Times this morning. If this is true, it explains everything you need to know about what is happening around you and where the world is going.
“Analysts have forecast that sales of smartphones, currently about equal to the annual sales of laptops, will surpass total PC sales by 2012.”
Got that? Let me repeat it, in boldface:
- Sales of
[…] continued
April 21, 2010
FUJITSU SCANSNAP S1500 FOLLOWUP
Last year I wrote critical comments about the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 desktop scanner’s lack of a TWAIN driver. There’s a way around that shortcoming – one of those tips that’s easy when you find out about it but apparently not obvious, since Fujitsu’s Product Marketing Manager felt he had to write a blog post to point it out. The tip is below; let me give you some background about it.
The S1500 is a very likable scanner at a time when small businesses and law offices are scanning everything they see.
- Inexpensive all-in-one printer/scanners
[…] continued
April 19, 2010
MICROSOFT FIX IT CENTER
Microsoft has started broad beta testing of Microsoft Fix It Center, an automated tool for fixing common problems with Windows. I don’t know that everyone will want to rush to install it (I’d hate to have my clients forget that I am their automated tool for fixing problems), but you might want to take a look.
The roots of this project go back to the earliest days of Microsoft operating systems, when Microsoft started its “Knowledge Base” – the collection of technical support papers that describe specific issues and specific solutions. It has grown over the years to quite […] continued
March 31, 2010
POWERED BY PURE SINE WAVES!
I’ve got Pure Sine Waves! Woo hoo!
If you had asked me last month, I would have bet heavily that I would never use the words “pure sine wave” in a sentence. And yet here I am, gloating because I have pure sine waves and you don’t. What an interesting world!
The background for this story concerns life in the country. Our supply of electricity is fairly messy – it hiccups frequently with little blips and surges, lights dimming and returning, computers and printers at risk. I’ve had high quality UPS battery backups running in my office for […] continued
March 29, 2010
RIGHT-CLICK YOUR WAY TO HAPPINESS
I had to grin when I learned that a cool keyboard shortcut was literally right under my nose.
Clicking on the right mouse button brings up context menus everywhere in Windows. The right-click menus have been enhanced in the Windows 7 taskbar to display previously-used documents and shortcuts and more.
Look at your keyboard – the lower right, to the right of the spacebar, in between the right Alt and Ctrl keys. See the special key (in the picture above)? Nope, I’d never noticed it before either.
It brings up a right-click context menu for […] continued