NetWorthy Systems IT Services Overview

Quickbooks Pro 2009 For Free!

Okay Folks, 

This is the real deal and only available Monday December 22, 2008. Either go to your local Staples store, or better, go to www.staples.com and purchase Intuit Quickbooks Pro 2009 single user for $199. At checkout, you get a $40 instant rebate, which makes it $159. Then fill out the rebate form for $159. When you get your rebate check, that makes it free (not including sales tax, of course). 

This is the best deal I have seen all year. My sources confirm the validity of the offer, and it is only available today. Local stores may run out, and there are no rain checks. So your best bet is to purchase online. The link should be on the Staples home page on this day only. 

I'm taking advantage of the offer. You'll never get Quickbooks Pro any cheaper. The word is that Intuit is trying to help small businesses grow their businesses in the new year. Whatever the reason, don't miss out. And if you are reading this post after the fact, which means you missed this opportunity, then shame on you! You are subscribed to this blog, aren't you? So you get it right away, right? No? Well, then sign up so you don't miss the next good deal! 

To Your Success, 

 Tim

Is Best Buy Next?

Rumor has it that Best Buy is having problems, and they are offering 4000 employees a buyout. The plan is voluntary. Benefits of this buyout include ony year of health care benefits, and 7 1/2 months of severance pay. Employees have to signup by Jan. 5th, 2009. 

While I feel sorry for the employees, I don't feel sorry for the corporate giant. This is just another example of why small business rules in this country. People want excellent customer service, and nobody can deliver that like a small business can. Just because something costs less doesn't mean it's superior. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to all the readers. I hope your Christmas finds everyone safe. Please remember the reason for Christmas. We all know it's certainly not presents! 

I look forward to an excellent 2009 for my business. I, for one, am choosing not to participate in the recession. Small business can survive. You just have to be adaptable. Don't just keep doing the same old thing. Think outside the box. It may be harder to make money, and the low hanging fruit may go away, but you can make it! 

One of the ways I'm choosing not to participate is by turning off the radio. I typically have the radio playing in my office as background noise. I'm tired of hearing all the negative reports on the news about the economy, so I've turned off the radio so I won't have to listen to it. You see, if you hear something long enough, you may just begin to believe it. So, I'm choosing to make myself more productive. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Staggering Search Stats (What Google Knows)

Here's some stats on Internet searches from comScore, a company that "measures" the digital world. 

 November searches in the US: 12.3 Billion 

 Percentage using Google: 63.5 

 What's my point? Um, if you haven't noticed, Google has the lion's share of the search engine market by far. Maybe small business owners should research Google to see what they are doing right. At least searching will help increase their market share some more! :-) 

To Your Success, 

 Tim

Should You "Twitter"

Do you know what Twitter is? If you don't, you may want to google it to find out. Dell announed that Twitter has made it over 1 million dollars in the last year and a half. Sure, that's nothing for Dell, but, every little bit helps, right? 

Twitter is a social networking site, where people (or companies) who have a free Twitter account post their current location, or what they are doing at the moment. Friends, or other interested persons can then get alerts on their computers, or cell phones immediately. 

Sounds like something your teenager would like, but not your clients? Guess again. Dell uses Twitter to announce special sales, or discounts. People following can then login to get these short term discounts, and even pass it along to their friends. 

It's all part of the new Web 2.0, where marketing can certainly play. So, go Google Twitter, and see how you can take your marketing up a notch, with little or no money. 

To Your Success, 

 Tim

Happy New Year!

Just a quick blog to say Happy New Year to everybody who follows my ramblings. I hope 2009 finds you healthy, happy, and profitable in your business. Forget the doom and gloom that the media seems to thrive upon. If your business is down, find a way to bring it up. Adapt, adjust, do what you have to. Find a way to distance yourself from your competition during these times. Invest in your business. Find marketing that works, and use it! 

Happy New Year, and best wishes in 2009! 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Technology Finds New Species

A scientist looking around on Google Earth discovered 7000 Hectares of forest that was previously undiscovered, in Mozambique. An expedition was quickly put together. In the first two weeks, they discovered new species of butterflies, and a snake that can kill a man with one bite. I've always known Google Earth was exceptional, but who knew it was capable of this?

 This discovery has the science community in an uproar, with the hopes that there are other parts of the World out there as yet undiscovered. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

How To Get a Measly Hundred Bucks Out of NASA

Just in case you thought the government was taking care of your tax dollars in a fiscally responsible manner, along comes this story. 

If you happen to be in the ocean (for whatever reason) and run across a floating rubber ducky, NASA would like for you to call them. It seems NASA dumped 90 of the little yellow floaters in a hole in the ice in Greenland about 3 months ago. The idea was to determine how the polar ice cap is melting. To date, they haven't gotten a single one of them back. So, they put up a $100 reward for the first person to find one. 

I'm betting with the amount of tax dollars they spent on this project, they can afford to offer more than $100. Personally, I'm keeping my rubber ducky until they up the ante more! 

To Your Success, 

 Tim

Notebooks Sales Top Desktops For the First Time

According to Isuppli, world sales of notebooks surpassed those of desktops for the first time in history. In the 3rd quarter of 2008, 38.6 million notebooks were sold. During the same period, desktop sales declined to 386 million. That's an increase in notebook sales of over 40 percent for the same period last year. That's a lot of notebooks! 

This is a trend I think will continue in the business world. Users of notebooks no longer have to settle for second rate. Speeds, storage, and video sizes are now comparable to desktops at a fraction of the price they used to be. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Window XP Lives! (Again)

Microsoft has extended the cutoff date for PC makers to install XP on new systems yet again. The new date: May 30, 2009. Now, it may seem to you that this is hardly worth blogging about, especially since it's Jan. 9th, 2009 and the new cutoff date is little more than 4 months away. But, before you pass judgement on this particular post, consider this: THE ORIGINAL DATE FOR XP'S DEMISE WAS JANUARY 30TH......OF 2008! 

It seems that Vista has just not taken off like the marketing gurus in Redmond told us it would. The original date of Jan. 2008 was made to make way for Vista which was released to the masses in early 2007. The idea was, since the people aren't buying Vista, and the manufacturers aren't loading Vista on new systems, we'll just take XP off the market, and the mindless people will HAVE to buy Vista. 

Seems like that didn't work either. Now, here's the new dilemna: with Windows 7 scheduled for release this year, should users skip Vista all together, and just install Windows 7? Time will tell.

 For the record, I'm writing this blog on a laptop running Vista Professional. Vista has matured enough for most applications. It just can't seem to shake the early stigma of being buggy when it first came out. 

I wouldn't doubt that the XP expiration date gets pushed back some more. Far enough back that Windows 7 will be released to the masses, and users will be able to go directly to that OS from XP. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

In Case You Think the Internet Is a Passing Fad...

For those die-hards that still think the Internet is a passing fad, consider this new report. For the first time, the Internet has passed all other media except TV as a main source for national and international news. All the other media have steadily dropped, while the Internet has, for the most part, continued to climb. This confirms the reports of newspapers continuing to struggle across the country.

Just When I Posted the Newspaper's Demise...

Just after I posted regarding the Internet taking over as the preferred medium for news, I ran across a small article about a newspaper company that has continually grown where others have not. It's the TriCityNews of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and it has grown at over 10 % a year since the dot.com bust. You can read all about it here. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Why You Are Getting Ripped Off by the Mobile Carriers

I ran across an article from the New York Times regarding the hows and how much of texting via your flavor of mobile carrier. While the article is a little technical, it explains why it costs the carriers virtually nothing to carry your sms messages. It raises the question of why the carriers have doubled the cost of texting over the last 3 years. 

You can read the full article here. It will be interesting to see how the class action lawsuits turn out. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Man, This Drive is Small!

We all know devices continue to get smaller. And they continue to do more. I, like millions of others, carry a device that is cell phone, computer, instant messenger, and email reader all rolled up in one small package. One of the issues with these devices however, has been the limited amount of storage capacity. Most of these devices utilize SSD, or solid state drives. This type of storage has typically been expensive, and limited in storage capacity. Until now.

 Toshiba recently announced the availability of a 512 GB SSD drive. That's half a TERRABYTE! That's probably more than 50 percent of the computers on the market right now. While this may not seem like headline news, it is a big step in the area of storage. I would be looking for more devices that will "do it all" and will truly hold everything you need while you are away from the office. Read about it here. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Windows 7 Beta Still Available

Microsoft released Windows 7 in beta form last month. Then they closed the beta, then opened it again. For those that don't know, Windows 7 is Microsoft's latest operating system, set to replace Vista. 

I have downloaded it myself, and we run it at our office in a "virtual" window. I am fairly impresed so far. It has great promise. 

Please DO NOT RUN THIS SOFTWARE IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT! What this means is you should not install this software on any computer that you don't want to lose data on. You should expect to lose data on any machine you put this on. After all, it's beta. That means testing mode. If you want to try it out, the link is here. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Windows 7 Shutting Down on You?

July 1st is the day that the Windows 7 Beta will begin shutting down every two hours. Which is Microsoft's way of telling you to go get the Windows 7 Release Candidate(really, you should have done it quite a while ago). 

Just to make sure you don't get to keep Windows 7 Release Candidate for free either, it will begin shutting down every two hours or so about a year from now. Remember, Windows 7 is scheduled for public release on October 22nd. 

 To your success, 

 Tim

Why Buying the Cheapest Printer May Not be the Best Move

I ran across an article about differences in cheap laser printers versus more expensive professional versions. As it turns out, for your business, it may just end up costing you more money over time. So the next time you think you might save some money and go on the cheap, you might want to think again. The link is below:

 http://www.gearlog.com/2009/06/why_a_100_color_laser_printer.php 

To Your Success, 

 Tim

Like New Gadgets? Here's a Cool Site!

I admit it. I am an early adopter and I love to get the latest gadget, whether it's a phone or a robot vacuum cleaner. But keeping up with and researching the latest and greatest gadget can be time-consuming, to say the least. Enter GDGT What's this, you ask? Pronounced "gadget" it's gdgt.com a website dedicated to all us techophiles. 

The cool thing about this site is it's database driven, so that you can enter the stuff you are interested in, and track only information about those items, leaving out the things you don't really care to read about. Give it a try. The site is new, but growing fast. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Mega Telecoms under investigation by DOJ?

According to the Wall Street Journal, ATT, Verizon, Sprint and some others are under investigation by the Department of Justice. It seems the DOJ thinks they may be abusing their power on the cell phone market. How, you ask? One reason that comes to mind is the fact you can only get an i-phone from one carrier, and it cannot be used on any other carrier. 

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the entreprenour in me wants to commend a carrier for being proactive and inking a deal with a phone manufacturer that gives them exclusive access to a product. On the other hand, I have many friends who feel most of this technology should be open-source in order for anybody to make improvements to the software for these products, effectively accelerating the process of improvements. 

Regardless of which way you feel about this, I wouldn't look for an answer anytime soon. This investigation is just now beginning, and given the enormous size of these carriers, and the potential implications of monkeying with the American business model, this will be a long drawn-out investigation. Let me know your thoughts by posting here. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Windows 7 Moves To Production

Windows 7 has been in Release Candidate status for a few months. We have received information from Microsoft that Windows 7 will go to RTM, or Release To Manufacturing on October 22, 2009. That means it will be released in its final production form, available for purchase. 

Release Candidate downloads will end on August 20th. After then, you can't download the software, but you can still get a key for installation until the production date. 

Microsoft is making a concerted effort to get the public to accept Windows 7. I have to say, it is pretty impressive so far, with my experiences coming from the Release Candidate software running on non-production machines. They are offering pretty competitive pricing on this new version of operating system, unlike versions of Vista. 

So, if you have been thinking about taking Windows 7 for a test drive, hurry up and download the RC software before August 20th. You can do that here. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim