Jefferson County Alabama is finding out what happens when you fire 40% of your IT Staff and cancel routine hardware maintenance and upgrades. A total meltdown of their key accounting system, likely to cost many times over what simple preventative maintenance and having a properly trained staff would have cost. Details are at the All...
Excessive Maintenance Means Excessive Downtime
Have you endured the “FUD” salespitch? Signed a maintenance agreement for your computer systems only to later discover then not much has changed except that your costs have increased? Well, it turns out your not alone. In an article published in Data Center Knowledge a study has shown that the more maintenance you do, the...
Thailand Floods Endanger Kansas City I.T. Budgets
Floods in Thailand have caused a significant portion of the world’s hard drive and other computer component manufacturing facilities to be temporarily shut down. ASUS Reports they are nearly out of Hard Disks, Lenovo, HP, Dell, and Others are expected to have similar announcements soon. This will lead to shortages of computers and peripheral products...
Steve Jobs Has Passed, Along With A Part of My Past
It was just announced that Steve Jobs has died. And with his passing, a part of my own personal past. It’s funny how when someone “Rich and Famous” dies affects you. A favorite actor, sports figure, etc. This is different. I havn’t told many people about my own personal encounters with Steven P Jobs. And...
Facebook Denies, Then Changes Logout Cookie Behavior
This is interesting. Yesterday, Facebook Denied tracking you based on their cookie behavior (From our KC IT News post yesterday). And today Nic comes back and analyzed the entire process of how Facebook is using Cookies again and shows in detail what Facebook has changed. Which is to say, Facebook was cought with their hands...
Even After You’ve Logged Off, Facebook Tracks Your Every Move
The new Facebook Changes do more than alter how you use Facebook. It seems that your now being “watched” whever you go on the Web.. By Facebook, even if you’ve logged out. In a blogpost today by Nic Cubrilovic (a highly technical and thorough post I might add). Nic shows you the exact mechanisms Facebook...
Microsoft Wants a Piece of Your Software
Windows8 has been released to developers and so has the “Metro” interface. And the Metro interface is both the same, and different than what your used to. To put it simply, Metro is like your Android or iPhone screen, and the regular Windows interface is more like Windows LiveMail. The old Windows interface is gone....
Samsung Restricts Windows Reinstallation.. for itself.
Woe is the person who has a laptop problem. Like Joseph reports to Consumerist... His (out of warranty) laptop started having hard disk issues. He promptly backed everything up (backups are good) and proceeded to replace his disk. Only it isn’t so easy. And Samsung tells him his only option is to return the laptop...
Google Buys Motorola And What It Means For Small Businesses
UPDATE! – It seems my musings about a “SuperApple” type strategy have not gone unnoticed. For example, the musings of the Wall Street Journal….. Which begins “Google Inc.’s proposed $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Inc. underscores the allure of a business model pioneered by one of the company’s rivals: Apple Inc.” Big News this...
Factory Installed Maleware In Your Computers?
An intresting article came out yesterday in the blogs at Hewlett Packard about Malware, Viruses, etc. and the threat of them being “built in” to the computers and peripherals you buy. And just what a threat it is. Which brings up an interesting situation for businesses and the liability they may incur as a result. ...