Online Backup Easier than Ever
March 8, 2007 by Travis · Leave a Comment
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There is nothing worse than data loss. You come to the office, and for whatever reason, your data is not available.
Some reasons could be:
-Natural Disaster
-Fire
-Server Crash
-Laptop or Computer Theft
-Hard Drive Crash
If you’ve ever have had an experience like any of these, you understand the sinking feeling in your stomach when you realize what you may have lost. The computer is an incidental, but the DATA that is lost, *THAT* is the lifeblood of your business.
Online backup, http://www.CoolBackupTool.com
Now if you are diligent, you have backed up your system at least 1x a week, you know you should do it once every 24 hours, but life is just too busy. Many have started off with similar noble intentions, but became lax. In fact, permit me to ask a daring question…. if your computer system evaporated right now, how soon could you be back up and running with your data restored?
Backup is one of those things you don’t want to go cheap on, you need to pay for automating the process. Well, I have recently reviewed a solution for this. It is an online backup solution which will backup data you select on a scheduled basis, OVER THE INTERNET. Making restoring from a distaster as simple as logging in, requesting the files, and saving them to your computer.
A few things I like about the solution.
1.) It integrates with windows explorer, so you can right click on the drive, and see your files that you have recently backed up, and even restore them from their servers.
2.) Price. It is free for up to 2GB. Wow. AND if you have more than 2GB, you can pay for their unlimited plan for $4.95 a month (less if you pay for a 1 or 2 year plan upfront).
3.) While the first backup is the slowest (backing up all the files), subsequent backups only backs up new or changed files. No need to worry about switching media (tape backup), or taking backups to offsite storage. Oh and it has a ‘throttling’ feature, so if you are working on the computer and it is running in the background, it doesn’t hog your system…nice.
A couple things I don’t like:
1.) The first backup takes a while, and depends on the speed of your internet connection. Example, 8GB took 3.5 days. In truth, you could start Friday at noon, and it should be finished by Monday morning. However, this is MUCH less time it would take to recover if there were no backup at all.
2.) It doesn’t let you download directly from your web profile. It actually takes your request, compiles and email, and sends you a link in email. You then need to click that link to download the files. The effect is just the same (you get your restored file), just not as instant as I would have thought.
If you don’t have a reliable backup solution in place, you need to do something, FAST! Make it a priority. Perhaps you’ll find this one useful, as I did.
http://www.CoolBackupTool.com.
Why you could be an hour late in March…
March 1, 2007 by Travis · Leave a Comment
Are you aware of the *NEW* Daylight Savings time changes going on in March? For those of us in the US, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time starting in 2007, and is arriving a bit earlier, and leaving us a bit later.
Why is this important? Well, it impacts computers…for one, scheduling software. You may find your electronic calendars off by one hour. That is, making you one hour late…
Here’s the skinny: There is a patch that Microsoft is issuing via Windows Update for computers to comply with this new Energy Policy, however it results in calendar items showing up an hour later than originally scheduled.
ACT! will be releasing a utility on their website March 4th designed to correct this issue in their products (more on that in a later post). The reality is, it doesn’t matter
if you are using ACT! or another scheduling tool, all will have to deal with this issue (initial reports show even Outlook is incorrect after the patch is applied! Microsoft
also has a patch (see links below).
I cannot say definitively what the impact will be to your system, but I felt I should let you all know what the potential impact is. Don’t be passive with this information, apply the patch, and see what it does to your appointment times, and make corrections proactively. Perhaps your IT department is already on the ball with this, touch bases with them, and find out what impact the patch will have to your applications, and the best way to prepare for it.
How bad would it be for a range of appointments to shift to an hour later than originally scheduled? Imagine this for yourself, then imagine it for a whole workgroup or department! The only saving grace is that those same appointments shifted on the calendars of those you are set to meet with…but let’s not bank on that 
So if you show up to an appointment and your party is late by say, one hour… think of me.
Can I ask you a favor? Have look at your calendar appointments for March 11, 2007-April 1, 2007, and see if some of them are one hour later than they should be. Then post a comment to this blog (below), and let me know your findings.
Here are some resources to assist you…
CalConnect.org Explains this Pretty well (Thanks Pat Egen)
http://www.calconnect.org/dstlinks.html
DST 2007 Wizard
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst
Office Products
http://www.microsoft.com/office/timezone.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931667/en-us
Windows Operating Systems
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928388
Windows Mobile
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx
Why you could be forced to upgrade ACT! software to the latest version . . .
January 18, 2007 by Travis · 33 Comments
There is much abuzz about Windows Vista. If you haven’t heard, it is Microsoft’s next operating system, set to release later this month. You can check out the features here:
I think it is amazing the impact of a new operating system to application developers, partners, and ultimately the end users/customers. Consider a major service pack release to an existing operating system…
When Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released, it created quite a bit of havoc for many, as users were uncertain how to respond to a rash of security warnings when launching their daily
applications (”I never had a security warning before, is our application safe to use?”). To be fair it was a double edged sword, Microsoft customers were experiencing significant productivity losses, due to security issues in Windows, and while some could prepare for the upcoming security patch to help (those in the know about service pack 2), many small business owners could not. The result: users were confused slowing productivity at best, as many had to determine what to do with the security warnings, or, at worst, troubleshoot why their application was no longer working.You may be asking, “What does this have to do with ACT!?”
What does this have to do with ACT! you ask? Glad you asked. With the forthcoming release of Windows Vista it seems like Microsoft has done it again. As it pertains to Vista, initial reports are a bit more drastic, in fact ACT! by Sage will not work for many. Reportedly, anything older than ACT! 2007 will NOT run on Windows Vista. This is due to the development environment Vista and ACT! was created in. For simplicity sake, let’s just say that ACT! 2007 was developed in a “Vista aware” environment. Whereas older versions of ACT! were not (afterall Vista wasn’t close to release during ACT! 2006 and prior development cycles). Furthermore, initial reports are that Sage Software won’t be able to put out a patch for customers to make it work, as this is an operating system issue…oh yeah, Microsoft owns that.ACT! users running Windows Vista would have to upgrade to ACT! 2007.”But I don’t have plans to upgrade to Vista anytime soon…” The reason I’m posting this now (as oppose to after my first hand experiences), is that computer makers typically offer a free upgrade
to an operating system when customers purchase close to its launch. If you own an incompatible version of ACT! this could spell trouble. So you buy a new laptop, and you get the Vista upgrade in the mail. With glee you stick the disk in to the computer to install the Vista ‘upgrade’, and
experience first hand that your customer management database application no longer works. You do have the option to Upgrade ACT!, but now you are forced to upgrade, instead of having a choice to do so. I don’t know about you, but in my experience customers don’t typically respond kindly when forced to upgrade. Not a huge deal when it is for a single license (depending on flavor, upgrade is $129-$229), but what if this is for 5 or 10 workstations or more? Becomes a significant cost, not to mention the cost of implementation and downtime.
So be aware, if you are an ACT! user, and intend to upgrade to Windows Vista, be sure your version of ACT!, and any other critical software application is compatible. Windows Vista looks very pretty on the outside, and it may well measure up to the signature marketing that is behind it. However, consider the impact to your business, and make sure all is well with your applications on Windows Vista first. Otherwise, your ‘upgrade’ may create an unexpected ‘downgrade’ to your pocketbook.
UPDATE: Check out this very informative link on the ACT website about supporting Vista, Office 2007, and IE7.
