NetWorthy Systems Blog

Has waiting on a signature ever brought a project to a halt? A major way to simplify the signing process and get those contacts and other documents signed and delivered faster is by utilizing e-signature technology.

There has been a lot of talk about Google+, Google's new social network. Currently the service is invite only and invites are preciously coveted. Those who have gotten in to try it out have found a clean, simple interface. On first impression, Google+ looks like a very basic Facebook. Is Google+ worth all the clamor and is it going to change the game for social media? Will businesses be able to take advantage of Google+ the same way they do for Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook?

Laptops and Netbooks boast portability, but many laptop users find that they need to take their power cables with them if they want their device to run for more than a couple hours. While older laptops are typically less efficient, it also isn't uncommon for the batteries to wear down over years of use. Sure, you can purchase a new (or bigger) battery, but let's go over a few ways you can improve the battery life on your laptop.

I'm still in a little bit of shock this morning. I got a phone call this morning from the station manager of AM 1300 KSET who let me know Teresa Hanson passed away last night from ovarian cancer.

If you've ever listened to my show Geek Free Radio, you will know that Teresa was the afternoon news anchor at KSET, as well as the sidekick for Jack Pieper on The Afternoon Talk Show with Jack Pieper for 3 hours every weekday.

Teresa's facebook introduction says it all:

Yesterday was a holiday for employees of Networthy Systems. I worked in the office anyway, and when I arrived I noticed I had a voicemail waiting for me. I casually hit the button to listen to the voicemail, and much to my surprise, there was a woman from a small town north of our Beaumont offices demanding to know why I was stealing her business.

Below is the transcript of the voicemail, quoted word for word.

"Hi, this is *****   ********* from ********   ****. My issue is that you are using my domain name to direct business from people that search for my company to your business, which I would like to know why you're doing this. My number is *******. I'm sure ******   ********* would like to speak with you about this. So, give us a call back please."

Now, I don't know how most small business owners conduct their business, but I can tell you that I would never leave a voicemail like that for another business owner, even if they were guilty (which, of course, I'm not)  I politely called her back, and she proceeded to tell me that she had been doing "research" on this, and she would trust me if I told her that I wasn't doing this. To put this in plain english, she has no idea what she is saying, but she knows she is wrong, and she is not going to apologize. Instead she is going to make excuses, try to make up some techno-babble, and pretend that I might not be telling her the truth.

For the record, if she was a true web page designer, she would know what she was accusing me of was virtually impossible. And she didn't even take the time to research our website. If she had, she would have found that we don't even compete with them. We look for smart businesses, that know they need IT support and Proactive maintenance, and also know they should leave it to professionals. We don't even have a retail store front!!

I was perhaps abrupt with her, and for that, I must apologize. I just don't take unfounded, ridiculous accusations lightly.

After all, is it my fault that our web page is optimized so that a google search shows our company before hers? After all, the word "computer" returns over 922 MILLION hits!

Please don't run your business in this manner. It certainly won't make you a trusted professional!

To Your Success,

Tim Beard

The podcast on digital photography is now posted on  Geek Free Radio. This show originally aired on March 2, 2010. Tim interviews Danny Keffer of Keffer's Photography regarding digital photography and the advances made over the last few years. If you get you megapixels confused with your megabytes, then this show is for you!

The podcast regarding Email encryption, archiving, and SPAM prevention is now available for listening at Geek Free Radio. Tim Beard interviews Scott Barlow, VP at Reflexion Networks regarding new Federal and state laws about sending personal identifiable information via electronic means. They also discuss the merits of automatic archiving of all email communications in your company, and how you can combat SPAM as well. If you are responsible for a business, you'll want to listen to this podcast!

The podcast for online banking safety is now available at Geek Free Radio. I interviewed Scott Sims from Education First Federal Credit Union in Beaumont. Scott is the VP of Information Systems at the Credit Union, and is responsible for the safety of the network. Excellent interview regarding online banking, security, safety, along with some good tips on staying safe while accessing your accounts

In the course of taking calls today during the Geek Free Radio Show  I received one of the highest compliments a business owner can get. The caller to the show just called to tell me two things. First, he sincerely appreciated the solid advice I was offering to the listeners regarding watching what your children do not only on the Internet, but while they are playing with the seemingly infinite number of game consols available today. He was referencing the segment of the show where I discussed how parents may often keep up with what their kids do when it comes to surfing the Internet, but often overlook what is happening when kids are playing with the gaming consoles. Many, if not most of the modern consoles have the ability for the gamer to play online (the Internet) either with or against other players across the World. A pedophile was recently captured in the US stalking a 15 year old child whom he befriended while playing these games online. The caller stated he had never really thought of video games having that ability, and it was certainly something to watch out for. That is gratifying to know you can help people when it comes to technology in other ways than just offering advice for repairing computer issues.

Oh, and the second reason for his call? Well, the caller offered that he was a former client of mine from a previous business from the days many years ago when we offered Internet access to Southeast Texas. It was nice to hear him talk about how we always treated our customers in a professional and courteous manner. That was just the icing on the cake!

To your Success,

Tim

After a lengthy process involving transmitter moves, tower relocations, land purchases, network installs, and other issues, the wait is finally over.

I am happy to report that KSET 1300 AM begins it's live broadcasting on Monday 12/21/2009! If you are in the Southeast Texas listening area, please tune in (and call in) to Geek Free Radio, hosted by yours truly, at 11:00AM CST, every weekday.

If you aren't in the listening area, you can still catch us at www.ksetlive.com where the show is streamed live 24hours a day.

I promise to keep it as "Geek Free" as possible. Just good solutions to computer issues experienced by you, with an emphasis placed on technology and how it can benefit the small business, which is the backbone of the American economy. Look for interviews with Antivirus companies, Microsoft, and other software vendors. Don't worry. I won't be easy on them either.
I'm honored to be the host of the show, and I'm looking forward to getting back on the radio. So check out the station anytime, and remember, it goes live on Monday. I'll do my best to answer your technology questions.

You can also check out the lineup at www.ksetlive.com We have some radio veterans on our team, including the infamous Jack Pieper from 2pm to 5pm every day. I know Jack is anxious to get back on the air as well.

Thanks for listening!

To Your Success,

Tim

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble will announce a new e-book reader tomorrow. It's dubbed the "Nook" and this color reader will retail for $259

Some other sources on the internet are saying that B&N are partnering with Best Buy to boost sales of the new product. Sources are also saying it will be available in Best Buy stores on Thursday, which just happens to coincide with Windows 7 Launch Day. That's either incredibly smart, or incredibly stupid, if it's true.

One of the unique features touted is the ability to "lend" books to friends. I'm not sure exactly what this entails, but none of the other e-book readers on the market have this feature. If you want the details from the WSJ, click here.

To Your Success,

Tim

If you use T-Mobile and a SideKick for your mobile access, this announcement comes as no surprise to you. If you don't, then read on.

Apparently, all of the data for Sidekick users is stored "in the cloud" and not locally on the phone. What this means is that your data resides on a server somewhere in cyberspace. If the server crashes, your mobile data (contacts, emails, etc.) is gone.

Which is exactly what happened to T-Mobile Sidekick users last week. The kicker is that T-mobile is blaming Microsoft (in a subtle way) for the data loss. Apparently, T-mobile's data cloud is managed by Danger, a company purchased by Microsoft last year. The company was performing update maintenance to the systems, which caused a crash. And guess what? No usable backup! The information is gone forever. T-Mobile initially issued an initial message of hope Saturday, but then changed their mind and let its customers know their information is gone forever. They are offering a free months data service to affected customers, but that seems like too little, too late in my opinion.

How can this happen to a huge company you ask? Simple. We see it every day at Networthy Systems with small and large companies. A backup program is turned on, and everybody assumes it is working properly. Backups are not managed, or monitored. Test restores are never performed to make sure that backup you have is actually usable.

If you run a small business, or even a large business, you need a third party to monitor your networks for various issues, including this one. Most businesses never recover from catastrophic data loss, and end up going out of business. If the person/group responsible for your IT needs is not regularly monitoring and TESTING your backups routinely, you are a ticking timebomb.

To Your Success,

Tim

Sometime in 2010 Microsoft is scheduled to release Office 2010 Starter Edition. This will be a free version that only includes Word and Excel. In exchange for receiving and using this edition of Office for free, you will have to put up with ads. Here is the quote from Microsoft:

Microsoft's Security Essentials has left beta status and is now available as a "real" product.  I haven't personally tried this product yet, but hey, at least the price is right. Keep in mind there are other free antivirus products out there like AVG, but typically they are only free for non-commercial use. Apparently, Microsoft is not making a distinction in how or where you use their product. If you want to give it a spin, the link is here.

To Your Success,
Tim

Verizon's website is showing virtually every smartphone (with the exception of 2) has been reduced in price to $99 with a two year contract. 3 months ago, I paid $400 for my Touchpro! What could this mean? Has Verizon turned the corporate corner and decided to be nice to customers? I doubt it.

If you want to upgrade your family computers to Windows 7, it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg. Windows has released the Family Pack pricing. Officially priced at $149, it's actually a pretty good deal, compared to previous Microsoft upgrade pricing. If you are wondering whether you should upgrade or not, I recommend you do. Windows 7 is a good operating system, as evidenced by our experiences of running the Release Candidate of the software.

The Family Pack will let you install 3 copies of Windows 7 Home Premium. There is additional pricing released for individual computer upgrades as well. If you want the details, you can find it here.

To Your Success,

Tim

Last week, I blogged about Amazon remotely deleting selected books from their Kindle readers even after customers had paid for them. Apparently, the situation has progressed. Justin Gawronski had his electronic notes for his summer high school assignment on his Kindle, and they were rendered useless when Amazon pulled their "blunder" of the year by purposely deleting the aforementioned books from the Kindle devices.

It looks like Justin has found a lawyer and filed a class action lawsuit seeking punitive damages for people affected by the deletions and an injunction against Amazon to keep them from improperly accessing any Kindles in the future.

Now, I'm not one to justify frivolous lawsuits, but in this case, I say go get them, Justin. I think Amazon has it coming to them. After all, when you pay good money for a device, subscribe to the service, and pay for the books you read, what business does Amazon have digging around in your E-book reader, deleting books that you paid for, just because a publisher changes their mind about publishing in e-book format?

Let me know what you think.

To Your Success,

Tim

According to MacWorld, Barnes & Noble bookstores along with AT&T have decided to make their WiFi access free to anyone in their bookstores nationwide. Previously, WiFi access at the bookstores was only available as a pay for service through At&T.

Why are these two companies being so generous? Well, probably not because they are trying to be nice. Barnes & Noble has launched an e-book service similar to the Amazon Kindle offering, and is ramping up to compete against the behemoth book seller. And how could they get you to buy an e-book from them if you have to pay to get WiFi in the first place?

And you thought they were just trying to help you out during a poor economy? C'mon folks. Let's get real!

At any rate, it's a win for any business person needing to get online while traveling. Just hop into your nearest Barnes & Noble and score some free WiFi access! Nobody said you had to buy an e-book from them!

To Your Success,

Tim

No sooner do I post a blog about storage space getting bigger while form factor gets smaller, then along comes another big player in the storage market with another milestone. It seems Western Digital has announced the first 1 Terrabyte 2.5 inch mobile drive. WD claims a 3GB/s transfer speed as well. 

Would You have invested in this company back in 1978? I mean, look at them! Kids, really. What do they know about running a business? No way this small business is going to make it. Especially with the nasty economy we had after President Carter came onboard. Doomed for failure, I would say.