bruceb news

LogMeIn has moved far ahead of its competitors for working with computers remotely. It introduced major changes to its product lineup a couple of days before Christmas – not a good time to get much attention but an appropriate time to deliver lovely presents, since the changes include new features that will be useful for many of you.

Let’s start with the basics.

COMPUTERS

LogMeIn provides a small bit of software that installs on your computer at home or the office. It’s tied to a LogMeIn account – an email address and a password. The basic program is free for connecting from one computer to another computer. […] continued

Many Dropbox users quickly start to store all interesting files in their Dropbox folders, especially current files that are being used on more than one computer. The faster you can get to your Dropbox folders, the easier it is to use.

Here’s a tip about using Windows 7’s libraries for quicker access to your Dropbox folders – and perhaps it will give you some other ideas about how to use libraries.

Windows 7 libraries are virtual collections of folders – a consolidated view that lets you browse folders in one place even when they are stored in different directories or on different computers. […] continued

When Microsoft announced that it will provide free or cheap support for Windows and Office and common computer problems, it wasn’t a surprise for any IT consultant who’s been paying attention.

This is a look behind the scenes, some thoughts about the trends that are changing the landscape for IT consultants.

Four things are combining to recast the traditional roles for small business IT consultants.

• Technology is easier to deploy and maintain. In particular, cloud services have virtually no traditional costs for deployment or maintenance. There will be fewer and fewer on-premise server deployments as cloud solutions mature.

[…] continued

A few days ago Microsoft launched Answer Desk with little fanfare – no press release, just a new web site (www.answerdesk.com) offering live technical support for Windows and Office, plus PC tuneups, virus removal, and software training – 24×7, 365 days/year.

It might be your new best friend, it might disappear without a trace. Either way, it illustrates some interesting things about your changing relationship to technology and the evolving role of an IT consultant.

What is Microsoft Answer Desk?

When you start a session from the Answer Desk web site, Microsoft will connect you with an “Answer Tech” for free basic troubleshooting and diagnosis. […] continued

Reddit has become one of the most popular sites on the Internet. It didn’t happen overnight – Reddit has been around for five years – but 2011 is when it came into its own and became a social force.

It is a firehose of posts submitted by its users, loosely organized into “subreddits” in bewildering complexity. You’ll have to spend some time figuring out its structure and getting a start on organizing the homepage that you see when you visit the site so that it displays things that interest you. It’s messy and disorganized and overwhelming, but more and more people are using it as their launching pad to kill time and find interesting things online. […] continued

We’re all busy. Life is full of choices about what deserves attention and what should be passed off to someone else.

The Bruceb Cloud Backup service is managed and monitored. When you sign up for Bruceb Cloud Backup, I watch your backups remotely. If there’s a problem, I fix it. You get to take an important chore off your mental checklist because you know it’s on mine.

There are cheaper backup services. Carbonite and Mozy are both promoting “business” backup plans that use all the right buzzwords – and who knows, they might work well enough to get you through a jam. […] continued

Bruceb Cloud Backup exists in part because I lost confidence in JungleDisk, the online backup service that I was using for myself and several clients.

At the beginning of 2010 I wrote several articles about JungleDisk, which was at that time the most attractive online backup service for small businesses. The software was not glamorous but it was functional, and new features were being added that had potential – the company had introduced a rudimentary system for syncing files among computers and setting up a mapped drive in the sky that could be accessed from multiple locations, and was working on centralized management for servers. […] continued

Happy Thanksgiving from Bruceb Consulting! Remember to look up from your computer and smartphone and iPad and Kindle Fire on Thursday – your family and friends are right there hoping to spend some of that old-fashioned face time with you.

Friday is shopping time, right? Well, so the retailers want you to think. It’s all hype to create an artificial sense of urgency but maybe you’ll be caught up by an urge to spend money. If you sit at your computer to do it online, LastPass has an overlooked tool to make it easier: the Form Fill feature will help you fill in shipping and billing screens with a single click, along with filling in credit card information if you choose. […] continued

Previously:
Redundancy, Backups, And Redundancy
Introducing Bruceb Cloud Backup

Subscribers to Bruceb Cloud Backup have the option to use it for onsite backups, in addition to storing backed up files in the cloud. It adds some interesting flexibility and can be a way to cut costs.

When you add the local option to your Bruceb Cloud Backup subscription, I’ll supply a 2Tb external hard drive to plug into the server or workstation that holds your business data. We’ll configure the Bruceb Cloud Backup software to back up all of your important data to the external hard drive, with no space limitations or per-gigabyte charges. […] continued

Previously:
Redundancy, Backups, And Redundancy

I am excited to be able to offer Bruceb Cloud Backup, a managed online backup solution designed for small businesses and individual users. It is secure, flexible, affordable, and adds an important level of protection for your files.

Unlike a backup to an external hard drive, Bruceb Cloud Backup securely transmits your files to state-of-the-art data centers, where they are safe from theft, fire, spills, power spikes, and all the other things that can happen in your office or home.

There is detailed information about the service at the Bruceb Cloud Backup web site. […] continued