Tech Better's Tech Tips: August 2008

Friday, August 29, 2008

An Easy Way To Clean Up Your Computer

Over time we all accumulate junk files on our computer. Files that were important at one time but not anymore may linger on our computer needlessly taking up valuable disk space. One program that can help make hard disk clean-up easier is FosiX. FosiX scans your computer and visually graphs the space each folder is utilizing. The bar graph is clickable so you can drill down into folders as you discover which folders are responsible for consuming disk space. I used the program to analyze my computer before writing this entry and easily discovered a folder of audio files which I had completely forgotten about. I deleted this folder since I no longer needed the audio files, and I instantly freed up over 2 GB of disk space.

You can download FosiX here:

http://www.hushpage.com/FoSi/fosi.html

Happy teching,

Ryan Williams

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Giving Guests Internet Access Securely

Businesses offering wireless Internet access to their guests is a very common practice these days. Typically, this wireless access is offered in one of two ways. Either each guest laptop must be individually configured with the proper wireless security settings; or the wireless access point is left completely unsecured (not recommended). In either case, once the guest has established a wireless connection, the guest typically gains direct access to the host business' network resources (most people don't realize this). Obviously, this is less than ideal.

Thankfully, a new very economical device named GuestGate is available that allows your guests to easily establish a wireless network connection with no configuration and gain access to the Internet. The beautiful thing about the device is that it shields your network from your guests. The guests can share your Internet connection without seeing any of your network resources or anyone else on the wireless network for that matter.

The solution is perfect for any business that has a waiting room where people might want to jump online or for those businesses that have occasional visitors with laptops.

Happy teching,

What still amazes you?

I had a conversation with a client/friend this past week about things that still amaze us even though they are commonplace. For me, the two things were overnight delivery and the Internet. Our children will never know a world that is not "connected." They watch their cartoons "on demand" from cartoon websites. I remember when we had to wait until a specific time to watch our favorite cartoon.

If you are interested in the origin, growth and adoption of computers and the Internet, here is a phenomenal interactive website in which you can browse and explore the history of the Internet. It includes videos and other interactive content. It is in and of itself a good example of just how far Internet multimedia has come. Checkout The Birth of the Internet presented by the National Science Foundation.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsf-net/

Happy teching,

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Automated Project Management

No matter what business you are in, you have projects. Projects are how businesses make progress. How does your company manage projects? What tools do you use? Email, white boards, post-it notes? Something I see all the time is people managing projects with Microsoft Excel. Although Excel can do a fine job of tracking projects, it is very manual. Obviously, Excel is far better than sticky notes. However, technology makes project management so much easier nowadays that it is almost sad to see businesses struggle with a manual project management methodology.

So why should you consider a more automated approach to project management? Well the number one reason in my mind is communication. Many projects fail because of a lack of communication, and if there is anything technology is good at, it is communication. Here are some examples of automated communication:

- Emails to people when they are assigned a task

- Emails to remind people when due dates are approaching

- Email alerts to management when due dates are missed

- Email alerts to management when customer interaction takes place

- Emails to customers when a task pertaining to them is updated

- Email alerts to management when AR balances exceed a certain threshold

There are also other ways technology can automate project management including:

- Logging who reads and edit files associated with a project

- Prompting for change orders when the project scope changes

- Verifying resources (people, projectors, trucks, conference rooms, etc.) for each stage of the project

Basically, if you can dream it, there is probably a way to automate it. What we at Nexxtep love about this type of automation is the return on investment is strong and easy to calculate. If you would like to learn more, please feel free to give me a call.

Google Tricks

These days everyone has either heard of or used Google. I personally use it every day, as most of you probably do to. That's why this week's tip deals with enhancing something you use every day. There are many tips and tricks you can perform with Google's search engine. I'll go over a few that I think apply to everyone:

-You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS, FedEx or USPS package directly into the search box.

Example: 1Z9999W99999999999

-To see the weather, type "weather" followed by the city and state, zip code, or city and country.

Example: weather 31605

-To find reviews and show times for movies playing near you, type "movies" followed by the city and state, or zip code.

Example: movies 31605

- Looking for a map? Type in the name or U.S. zip code of a location and the word "map".

Example: Valdosta map

-Want to search within a specific website? Use the word "site:url" followed by the keyword.

Example: site:ncare.com consulting

More tips can be found here: http://www.google.com/help/basics.html

Friday, August 15, 2008

How to Instantly Communicate with Many People at Once

Have you ever had to call and communicate the same information to numerous people? (For example, to cancel a meeting, to change a meeting location, or to tell everyone you'll be late for an event.) I know I have.

At Nexxtep we are all going in so many different directions helping clients throughout the day that we usually try to converge at the same place for lunch so we can all touch base. We have two ways of disseminating the lunch location to our team. The first method is via a text message group. We send a text message to an SMS group and everyone gets a text message with the lunch location.

The other way we can disseminate the information is via Phonevite.com. I'm sure everyone is aware of those phone tree solutions that call a bunch of people with a prerecorded message. Well Phonevite.com does the same thing and it's FREE if you are calling less than 25 people. To setup Phonevite just go to their website, create an account and create groups for your contacts. Then, assign a telephone number to each group. Now all you have to do is call the assigned telephone number for a group and record your message. Phonevite will call every number in the call group and play the recorded message to them. Even if you can't find a legitimate reason to use this service it's still worth trying.

Happy teching,

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Should your company have an INTRAnet?

Company Intranet's have been around for a long time. However, nowadays they are easier to create than ever. Using Microsoft's SharePoint, businesses can create and manage an Intranet with relative ease.

So why should businesses consider creating an Intranet? The short answer is dissemination of information. We use our Intranet to disseminate information such as:

Company announcements
Our event calendar
Policy and procedure documents
Insurance information
Training class schedules
Our company directory
Links to frequently accessed websites
An online discussion forum
And, our company knowledgebase where we store all of our "how-to" manuals

This is just a sampling of what an Intranet can be used for. If you want to take things a step further you can use an Intranet as a full blown document management system or an online forms routing and approval system or you can display real-time information from your business management systems such as accounts receivable, work in progress, or even vacation days remaining for each employee based on login. The possibilities are endless.

Happy teching,

Ryan Williams

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Nutritional Facts On The Go

Have you ever been eating out and wondered about the nutrition facts of the meal you were about to order? Well wonder no more. Just send a text message to DIET1 (34381) and type the name of the restaurant and name of the meal you are about to order. Within seconds you will receive a reply that will tell you the number of calories, fat grams, carbs and protein in the meal. Use this with caution, however. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

For example, send an SMS to 34381 with the following text:
McDonald's Big Mac

Diet.com will reply with:
Cal: 540
Fat: 29g
Carb: 45g
Prtn: 25g

Happy teching,

Ryan Williams

Ask Me A Tech Question

http://www.techbetter.com/question.aspx

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About Me & TechBetter

http://www.techbetter.com/aboutme.aspx