If You Use Time Warner You Might Not Be Able To Read This

There was (is) a huge outage on the Time Warner Internet Access Network this morning.  Starting around 4:30am a maintenance upgrade has gone horribly wrong.  Which is to say, if your on Time Warner Cable it’s likely you can’t read this (until your service is restored, anyway).

Here’s the constantly updating map of the Time Warner Network online status.  Just like weather radar…  Red is bad, green is good.

http://downdetector.com/status/time-warner-cable/map/

The cost of this?  Well, Time Warner won’t lose all that much money.  It’s not likely that they will give credits/refunds for a few hours of downtime.  But, if your business is on Time Warner, it could cost a ton of bucks.  Can’t process orders?  Credit Card and Check payments?  Access suppliers?  Put that big “one day” promotion online?  Can’t do that if your Internet is down.

Which brings us to the real purpose of this little screed about the incompetence that is Time Warner Cable’s latest faux pas…  If your business relies on the Internet (and few do not anymore), you really need to have a plan in place for when bad things happen.  It’s not always bringing in a competitive alternate Internet feed, either.

What you really need is a team of people that have “been there, done that” and work with them to make incidents out of your direct control nothing more than a minor hiccup…  Instead of a money draining loss.

Give OPENRSM a call (or email), and let’s get your business back online and have your business prepared for when bad things happen.

How To Stop Annoying Interactive “Creepy” Ads

Have you noticed that when you search for something on Ebay, Amazon, Google, that the advertising on pages seem to know what you’ve been looking for?  For Example, look up “LED 3051 Strips” on Google and suddenly ads for lighting fixtures, Ebay auctions, LED suppliers and the like now appear on every page you look at.  It’s call “contextural advertising”.  Web sites are setting “cookies” in your browser that their advertising networks look at when you surf a page and then display advertising for the things you’ve looked for most recently.

Sometimes it’s okay.  You can find things that your looking for via an ad.  Sometimes it’s just creepy.  Don’t believe me?  Then google for “Hot Crossed Buns” and see what happens to the ads that are presented to you.  Yeah, creepy.  But, you can put a stop to sites that you don’t want tracking you (like Facebook) by using the Opt Out from Online Behavioral Advertising site.  A self-regulation effort that is honored by Ebay, Facebook, etc.  It’s not perfect.  But, it really helps.  Here’s how it works (from the page itself, which is located at http://www.aboutads.info/choices

• Find out which participating companies have currently enabled customized ads for your browser;
• See all the participating companies on this site and learn more about their advertising and privacy practices;
• Check whether you’ve already opted out from participating companies;
• Opt out of browser-enabled interest-based advertising by some or all participating companies, using opt-out cookies to store your preferences in your browser; or
• Use the “Choose All Companies” feature to opt out from all currently participating companies in one step. GO

Need even more powerful blocking?  Call, email, or simply CLICK HERE and OPENRSM can take care of it for your business.

OPENRSM Advises Changing AppleID Passwords Immediately

It seems to be Apple’s turn in the data wars between “fast buck” artists and real companies.

Apple iPhones/Pads are locking up all over Australia and the UK and being held for ransom by a scammer that has managed to gain control of the devices.  Apple has yet to comment but incidents in the US can’t be far behind.  The “Find My iPhone” service seems to be the only link between the users whose iPhones and iPads are being “held hostage” by the scammers.

From an article in  The Telegraph: “Currently there is only speculation about how the attacks have been carried out. Apple has not yet responded officially,”… “With the possibility that this attack is linked to your ‘Apple ID’, affected users are advised to change your Apple ID password as soon as possible.”

And, so you should.

The Fastest Growing Version of Windows is??? XP?

What BetaNews thinks of Windows8

In January new installs of Windows XP outpaced new installs of Windows 8! Which, on it’s face, seems odd. Windows XP is 14yrs old, it’s “End of Life” is April 8, 2014. And more people are installing XP than Windows 8. Don’t believe me? Check out BetaNews for the raw info.  This is telling us something important about what people really want their computers to do for them, the acceptance of the software lifecycle, and just how bad a product Windows 8 really is.  Of the latest version of Windows8 BetaNews states it’s “A Frankenstein Product Stitched Together With Compromises“.  Not good.

What to do?  Keeping XP around isn’t a real solution.  With no more security updates that would be like walking into a lions den with a steak and a bottle of BBQ sauce instead of a whip and a chair.  And, Windows8 isn’t looking all that good either.  Or, is it?

The biggest problem with Windows8 is that it isn’t WindowsXP, or Windows7 (Vista doesn’t count, it’s so bad it’s worth totally ignoring).  But, back to the main issue, how do we make Windows8 as comfortable to use as XP, or Windows7?

Totally doable if you have the people that know how to do it!  You don’t have to engage in risky behaviors (keeping XP) in order to have the ease of use, solid performance, and low learning curve.  All you have to do is make Windows8 behave like Windows7.  And that is something OPENRSM can do.  With no extra costs, no extended configuration time, and little to no visual change in how you do things on your computer.

You need to upgrade yourself out of the WindowsXP trap and keep everything you like about it.  OPENRSM can do that.  IT is a Process, Not a Project.  “Let OPENRSM manage this process for you.

Saving Money Upgrading Office with Open Source

Recently OPENRSM did a software upgrade for a business as they moved to Windows7.  And we saved this company significantly by upgrading their Office with Open Source Alternatives.  Using our emphasis on Business Engineering, OPENRSM evaluated the documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and even normal email coming in and out of the business.  And with this information it was determined that upgrading the Office applications did not make economic or operational sense when quality Open Source alternatives exist.

The Open Source Alternative is a direct replacement for Office, can both read and write Office documents, can write directly to .pdf format, and integrates well with the existing network, printers, etc.  Also key in the decision is that very little training is required.  Users were instantly productive with the Open Source Alternative.

Also note that this is a small incremental step.  The OPENRSM Customer saves significant money on a software upgrade now, and repeats this savings far into the future.  No upheaval in the operation of the business at all (in fact, it takes less time to install the Open Source Alternative than performaing an Office upgrade).

Here’s the financial breakdown:

Office Upgrade $239.00 per install + labor ($32.00) = $271.00 per computer

LibreOffice        $    0.00 per install + labor & Training =  $  65.00 per computer

Savings per computer = $174.00 per computer

Now, it is important to note that the upgrade cost on Office depends on which version(s) of Office your already using (which also affects how much time an individual upgrade takes).  This cost was for this particular business.  But not to worry, OPENRSM will meet with you and help you evaluate the technical feasability, and  what your direct and indirect costs and savings would be.

Send us a note and we’ll work with you to determine just how much you can save by upgrading your Office with Open Source Alternatives that will be suitable for your business.