NetWorthy Systems IT Services Overview

According To Amazon, You Don't Own It Even If You Buy It!

According to Amazon, You Don't Own It Even If You Buy It! According to a news report, Amazon removed some electronic versions of George Orwell's books from the kindle store, and deposited a refund in accounts of people who had previously bought them. 

What's a kindle? It's the wildly popular handheld reader that can download and store newspapers, books, and virtually anything else originally published on paper. Owners of the Kindle can get their favorite newspaper or book, store it on the device and read it at their leisure. Convenient AND environmentally friendly (for a fee, of course). 

Apparently the publisher of the Orwell books (one of the books was the famous 1984) changed its mind about publishing electronic versions and pressured Amazon to remove the books from their store AND remotely delete versions on individuals' Kindle devices. While Amazon did reimburse those who had previously purchased the books, it does raise the question, "Do you ever really own the book in the first place?" 

This is akin to your favorite bookstore taking your favorite paperback away and giving you a "store credit". I really feel sorry for the people halfway through the book! That's just mean! 

To Your Success, 

 Tim

How Much Storage Do You Need?

With barely one month passing since the arrival of 128GB thumb drives, Kingston steps up to the plate by releasing a thumb drive capable of 256GB of storage! That's right, it's not a typo. This is a 256 GB thumb drive! Although it's not available in the United States as of yet, the street price is estimated to be around $900 US. So I wouldn't rush out and get one just yet, but I would expect the prices to drop rapidly once its been on the market for awhile. 

Just how much is 256GB anyway? Well, to put it in perspective, Kingston says that's enough space to hold: 

 365 CD's (~700MB each) 

54 DVD's (~4.7 GB each) 

 or 10 Blue-Ray Disks (~25GB each) 

This is more storage than most DVR players hooked to Televisions at the present. Oh, and in case you are wondering how many photos it can hold, that's over 230,000 photos saved in the 3 megapixel format. 

Will this barrier be surpassed? In a word, yes! We just don't know if it will be as quickly as the 256GB barrier. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Be Careful What You Accept On Your Phone

The BBC is reporting that Etisalat, a United Arab Emirates telecommunications firm, sent a text about an update to Blackberry users, suggesting it would improve performance. Those who downloaded and installed the application, found their battery life reduced, and their cellphones crashing. 

RIM, the company that makes the Blackberry, announced that this was an unauthorized update, and in an official company statement said, "Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application... independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorised access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smartphone.", and "independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server". 

Wow, spying on its own customers? If you can't trust your cell phone company, who can you trust? Be careful out there. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Its Official Now

Today, Microsoft has officially RTM'ed, or Released To Manufacturing the new Windows 7 Operating System. Not a huge deal really, but there is one fact worth noting. 

With RTM complete, this means there will be NO changes to the specifications of the hardware required to run Windows 7. According to Microsoft, this is the first major Windows release that does not require double the specs of the preceeding Windows OS. Hopefully, a sign of things to come from this software giant. 

Look for Windows 7 to be available to the public in October (I guess it takes a while to make all those pretty DVD's with holograms!) 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Best Time To Buy a Laptop?

I ran across this article on Deal News, a site whose motto is "Every Day is Black Friday". They took a middle-of-the-road laptop and did price comparisons during the year. They confirmed the best time to buy a laptop is: back to school time or August and September.

Other good times to purchase are November (black Friday) and April. Prices ranged from a high of $580 in July to below $500 in April.

So if you are contemplating a laptop purchase, get your credit card warmed up. Back to school time is just around the corner!

To Your Success,

Tim

Microsoft Adding Other Browsers

According to Reuters (if you can believe them) Microsoft has offered to put other browsers into their operating system in order to settle a lawsuit from the European Union.

In the old days where profits were consistently up quarter over quarter, MS would hang in there and fight out lawsuits to the bitter end. In today's market, it could make more sense for MS to cave in and settle the lawsuit.

I wonder if this is a sign of times to come from the Redmond campus. Let me know your thoughts, please. The entire article may be found here.

To Your Success,

Tim

Would You Invest In This Company?

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.

What a pathetic accumulation of geeks! No fashion sense, that's for sure. And that guy on the front row, bottom left. What a nerd! And he's in charge? You gotta be kidding me!

For those of you who don't recognize anybody in the picture, this is the original employees of Microsoft when they were still in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Shortly after, they moved to Seattle, doubled in size, and well, the rest is, shall we say, History!

To Your Success,

Tim

Here We Go Again!

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. 

MSRP on the 1TB model is $249.99, not a bad price considering what it is. I would, however, look for the price to come down quickly in the next year. The drive also comes with a 3 year warranty. 

This is excellent news for those who need 1TB of portable storage, or those looking for a laptop with more than about 600GB storage currently available. 

There is a 750GB model available as well, but the big news is the 1TB drive. When will it end? I don't know, but I'm glad they keep pushing the envelope! 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Free WiFi at the Bookstore

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

Microsoft Releases Final Version of Free Antivirus Suite

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

MS Office 2010 Free Version

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:

As part of Office 2010 software that will be pre-loaded by the PC manufacturers on their PCs, we're introducing Microsoft Office Starter 2010. Office Starter 2010 is a reduced-functionality, advertising-supported version of Office 2010, available exclusively on new PCs. Office Starter 2010 will provide new PC owners with immediate exposure to the Office 2010 experience on new PCs right out of the box.

For some casual home users, this will probably be ok. We will have to wait and see if the public accepts this new business model from Microsoft. I would expect to see more of this in the future.

To Your Success,

Tim

Barnes & Noble To Announce Color E-book Reader

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

T-Mobile to Sidekick Users: Microsoft Lost Your Data!

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

Am I Breaking the Law with Email?

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!

All Things Digital Photography

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!

How NOT to run an IT Business (or any business for that matter)

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

Godspeed Geek Girl

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: