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Lunchinar: Why Is My Computer Sooooo Slow?

Enjoy a delicious lunch AND competitive advantage — all for free.  Who knew eating out could be so rewarding?

Join us for delicious gourmet pizza with all the trimmings.  Reserve your seat because space is limited!

Topic: Why is My Computer Sooooo Slow?
Date: May 21, 2012
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: Custom House Maritime Museum
25 Water Street, Newburyport, MA

Why is it that your computer slows to a crawl at the worst of times?  Why can’t this thing just work?   We tackle these questions and more at this months lunchinar.  You’ll come away with some common issues, how to fix them and what to look for should something happen again.  Should be fun and we’ll keep it as “geek free” as possible.  Practical stuff that everyone can use.

Look forward to seeing you there! Reservation is simple, just email bwheeler@resolvetech.biz with subject “attending” or call 603-742-1118  ext. 111

Send in the Clouds…Don’t Bother They’re Here

Okay, my title is a bit of play on “Send in the Clowns”.  It’s a song of regret but I don’t know much more than that.  I just know I like anything sung by Sinatra and written by Sondheim.  Okay, now back to my post.    What am I trying to say here?

My point is that marketers have done a great job of promoting “The Cloud” and moving all your IT resources into it.  (“let us take care of your software, hardware, support so you can sit back and relax”).   Technologists have also been quite successful in actually making this all work.  So this makes it real easy for the typical business right?  Wrong!  It’s actually made your life harder because there are so many choices.   You have more choices than you did two months, two days or even two minutes ago.  So what is the typical business person to do?

1.  Move slowly.  A hybrid approach works best. Most organizations are selectively moving pieces of their internal network to the cloud.  The most common example being email because it can carry high administrative costs and it’s the easiest to migrate.

2.  Make sure you’re engaging “true” consultants.  By this I mean: they are independent of the products and services they recommend.  Or at least, they get very little in the way of commissions, kick backs and the like.  We all need to make a profit to stay in business; however, a good consultant addresses client needs first and foremost.

3.  Don’t get sucked into being on the cutting edge. I see this sometimes with internal techies or external vendors who are looking to tinker with your stuff.  They want you to be the guinea pig to further their skill set.  Often times they put you into solutions that can only be managed by them.  This can be very difficult if that firm or internal person moves on.  Ask colleagues what they’re doing to get a feel for what is typical.  Make a list and include costs so that you may compare apples to apples.  Make sure that you ask at least 4 or 5 businesses because the solutions are going to be all over the map and somewhere in the middle is “reality”.

Now that I’ve given you a few simple warnings go forth and find those solutions that will help you to stay competitive, lower IT costs, and make you more productive!  Nothing is perfect.  Nevertheless, there is so much to love about these new cloud technologies.  They truly lower the level of regret when purchasing costly IT solutions.  As the song goes, “Isn’t it rich…are we a pair…you here at last…and me in mid air”

-BW

 

 

App Review: Dragon Dictation

App Review: Dragon Dictation

Website: http://www.nuancemobilelife.com/support/USA/engusa/dragon-dictation

Works with: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

Great alternative to typing on a tablet.  Free, so it’s not as robust as the full featured products.

Tested on: iPad, 1st generation

What I like about it: small learning curve.  Only the basic features that I need.  Extremely accurate.

Gotcha’s: Limited recording time before it starts transcribing (though it wasn’t a problem for me).

I use Dictation for: reading notes off my whiteboard.  Then, they get copied to Microsoft Word documents.  Also, use for quick notes/ideas on the go.

Cheat Sheet

Commonly used commands:

“New Line” or “Next Line”	Press the enter key once, capitalize next word
“New Paragraph” or “Next Paragraph”	Press the enter key twice, capitalize next word

Commonly used Punctuations

&	“ampersand” or “and sign”	.	“period”
:	“colon”	?	“question mark”
!	“exclamation point”	,	“comma”
=	“equal sign”	@	“at sign”
/	“forward slash” or “slash”	-	“hyphen”
‘	“begin single quote” or “open single quote”	‘	“end single quote” or “close single quote”
“	“begin quote” or “open quote”	“	“close quote” or “end quote”
(	“left parenthesis” or “open parenthesis”	)	“right parenthesis” or “close parenthesis”
%	“percent sign”	$	“dollar sign”
#	“pound sign”	°	“degree sign”