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Happy New Year!

We thank our clients and friends for their patronage and support, and for a great 2007.  Our staff extends best wishes to you for a productive and profitable 2008.

What's new

Newsletter Makeover

Firstly, you noticed we've revised our Newsletter. As time permits, we "tweak" our own operations in our constant effort to provide our clients with informative, interesting, and useful articles.

On Again, Off Again

In our December issue, we told you Microsoft seemed to be delaying its cessation of shipping Windows XP Pro. Now, it's official: Windows XP will continue shipping with new systems until (as of now, anyway) June 2008.

Wise Move, Good News

In addition, Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP Pro (which was shelved) is now scheduled to be released in 2008. This service pack will incorporate most of the 150+ patches released since SP2.

News & Views

The Windows XP vs. Vista Conundrum Continues.

Vista has been available since about February 2007. Purchasing decisions have been interesting. Home consumers overwhelmingly have been choosing Vista, and businesses choosing XP Pro. This is logical, as home users don't upgrade their peripherals often, and would probably only have to spend a few hundred dollars for an updated printer compatible with Vista. Business equipment is newer, there are more units affected, with a concurrent higher cost to configure on the network, Why is One Chosen over the Other? Business users tend to choose XP Pro. because:
  • Many industry-specific software applications are not supported under Vista.
  • Many peripherals (printers, scanners, etc.) are not supported with Vista.
  • The learning curve is relatively steep so user productivity is affected
Home users tend to choose Vista because:
  • Home users are resigned to the fact they will be replacing their printer and other peripherals at the same time they upgrade their system, so if they're satisfied with how it's functioning presently, they are loathe to change everything for no apparent reason.
  • If they are not satisfied with their current system, or if they are purchasing one for the first time, they tend to choose Vista. Replacing computers and peripherals means they will have to learn new software, and the learning curve of Vista becomes an accepted fact.
Our recommendation is still for ALL users to stick with XP Pro because of the additional memory and processor requirements of Vista(See our December 2007 issue).

Security

Unsecured networks can be accessed, compromised, or data can be "lifted" without your knowledge. Firewalls are not sufficient. A firewall may prevent outside users from accessing files, but do not shield wireless connections, or home computers brought in in by employees.. Many companies could be vulnerable to its employees as well. Is access to sensitive records (payroll, customer lists and data, vendors) restricted to those who need such access? If there is employee turnover, is such access password-protected, and are these passwords changed systematically?

A security audit will help identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and can provide valuable recommendations as to what changes should be made. Contact us to schedule security audit.

Timely tips

A monthly pearl, this section of our Newsletter will provide Word Office users with useful tip to improve technique and increase efficiencies by reducing required keystrokes. Excel Tip
vlookup - Searches for a value in the first column of a table array and returns a value in the same row from another column in the table array.

For example: In a worksheet containing employee records, the first column contains the employee number, and the remaining columns are various data about the employee. At any point in the worksheet (or the workbook, for that matter) you can use VLOOKUP to return a specific datum about the employee. The syntax is VLOOKUP(value,data range,col no.,FALSE). In plain English, it is saying, "Go to the data range. Find a row that has (value) in the first column of the data range. Return the (col no.) value from that row. Once you get the hang of it, it is very simple and powerful.

Utube video on how to use vlookup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wHtcct7mCE

GMP: Good Maintenance Practices

Get Into the Habit.
Backup-Backup-Backup !! Importance of backing up data in Quicken, QuickBooks, Microsoft Money, Excel, Word, Word Perfect, downloaded digital camera photos, scanned documents, etc. is if your hard drive suddenly fails (and it will) you will be left without all the entered data. It is also good policy to make two copies, and keep one copy at another location (home, a bank safety deposit box, accountant's office, depending on content).