From our experience in managing IT for thousands of end users across the world, Fotec have developed DRPlus,  a low-cost and very easy to use system that replaces old-world back up tapes with a solid, proven Cloud-based Disaster Recovery capability. For more details just call 0845 601 6480, or simply click here.

“On my desk I have three screens, synchronised to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you’ll never go back, because it has direct impact on productivity.” Bill Gates.

Fotec Advice: Bill’s not always right, but he is on this one. If you spend serious amounts of time in front of a screen, it’s much better to have a bigger display area. You can keep email in view whilst working on attachments, or be working on multiple documents alongside each other….just like your actual, real desktop.

If you’re working on a laptop, it’s easy: plug the extra monitor into the video port, right click on your desktop, choose Properties, Settings, click the big 2, then click Extend desktop. Fiddle with the screen sizes to make it fit, and then Apply. If you’re on a PC and don’t have an extra monitor port, either email us on hello@fotecuk.com or call on 0845 601 6480 and we’ll help you sort it out (you’ll need a new video card, they’re about £50).

The report says “…social networking….and a heavy reliance on mobile devices…have a dramatic impact on…effective network security.”

It’s especially interesting that those who spend time on Facebook also play games: 7% of those who access Facebook at work spend an average of 68 minutes per day playing Farmville, a competitive virtual farm-building world. Cafe World (5% play for 52 mins/day) and Mafia Wars (4%, 36 mins) were also popular. The report is available by clicking here.

Fotec Advice: It surprises us that reports like this still find such data. It isn’t difficult to implement a solid IT Security policy that will prevent wasted time on social sites. For more details, call 0845 601 6480 or just click here.

But at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 in Washington, D.C. on Monday, a senior staffer said that the average age of PCs is now older than at any time in the last decade.  Microsoft VP Tammi Reller admitted that 74% of business computers are still running Windows XP, and that the average age of the PC is now 4.4 years old.

Fotec Comment: Fotec always recommend that you sweat your IT assets for as long as is reasonable. Unless Windows 7 is needed for very specific reasons (and there aren’t many !), you may as well wait till you refresh the PC itself. Despite Microsoft’s veiled threats to cease support for XP, it’s really not feasible for them to do it any time soon. And we like XP anyway, there’s nothing wrong with it.

So when in the Western hemisphere we use for sad, East Asians use ;_; which denotes tears. When we use for happy, they use ^_^ meaning raised eyebrows. And whilst our surprised face is theirs is o.o

Spotted the reason behind it all yet ? It’s because East Asians tend to read moods and focus attention on the eyes, whereas westerners read the whole face. This means a face we think of as expressing fear will be read by East Asians as expressing surprise, and what for us would be a disgusted expression would be seen as anger.

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1.Tired of your iPhone switching to landscape when you tilt it ?

Lock in portrait mode by double tapping the Home Button, swipe to left and on the left of the iPod controls you’ll see the orientation lock. Tap to lock in portrait mode. Simples ! eeek !

2. Folders

Fed up with scrolling across pages of apps ? Tap and hold an app till they shake, then drag two together. OS4 cunningly creates a folder with a surprisingly relevant title (change it if you want).  Each folder can contain up to 12 apps.

3. Unified EMail Inbox

You’ll find OS4 has a single screen to view your multiple mailboxes. If you’re a fan of threaded messages in OS X’s Mail client or Entourage,then go Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, scroll down and turn on Organize By Thread.

4. Calendars

Need multiple calendars, but don’t want to see them on your iPhone ? Launch the Calendar app, tap on the Calendar button in the upper right hand corner, tap on a calendar’s check mark to remove the check mark and hide it.

5. Better Passcode Security

To set a more secure alpha-numeric pass code, go to Settings>Pass code Lock, turn off Simple Pass code, go to Turn Pass code On.

6. Managing Multitasking

Double tap the home button, you can see which apps you have running and quickly switch between them. Beware though: just like your PC, running too many apps simultaneously will slow it down. To quit an app, double tap the home button, then tap and hold on an app: they’ll start shaking, tap on the red circle on its left hand corner.

Yet Apple lost the IT war: almost everyone uses Microsoft and PCs for business, mainly because the big hardware companies wanted an OS and applications that would drive sales of their boxes, and put their marketing dollars behind Windows.

So will the iPad change all this ? Will it finally put an Apple product where currently HP/IBM/Dell/Microsoft sit in your life ? At Fotec we don’t think so. The iPad is great for web surfing, keeping in touch: recreational IT if you like. It also has new apps like Ideate, where you can sketch ideas on a virtual whiteboard, save them as images, and email them on for development. And yes you can get a docking station with proper keyboard, and the battery life is reported to be 10 hours+.

But it’s still not functional enough to replace your PC/laptop, and it’s not a phone, so you’ll still need your smartphone. What the iPad does, it does supremely well, but it only overlaps with all your IT devices, and doesn’t replace any one of them.

So Fotec Advice: No, don’t buy an iPad. But I bet some of you do. I might too

Recent surveys suggest that after a long ramp up, the market is growing very fast right now. In companies with fewer than 100 employees, already 41% use VoIP, and there is an expected 50% increase in the penetration of IP telephony over the next twelve months.  Illumine Consulting put 11% quarter on quarter as the growth in this sector.

The Synergy Research Group also identified  IP Telephony as one of the fastest growing segments of the European market but blamed the lack of in-house expertise as the primary barrier to deployment.

Fotec Advice: VoIP is being adopted now because  with Cloud Computing services, such as Fotec’s VoIPPlus, VoIP is now easy to implement and simple to manage. If you are still using traditional carriers for voice and comms, it’s almost certain you can realise significant and immediate cost savings.

For more details, call 0845 601 6480 or just click here.

Gray’s first step is to remind yourself that “…almost everyone wants you to succeed”: it’s easy to forget this, but it’s true, and helps to settle the nerves and approach things positively.

His second step is “…assess your key lieutenants and staff”, and try to quickly work out how much you can rely on/trust the others who will be working with you. Wise advice this, as many IT problems are caused by people, not IT itself.

Only then does Gray suggest identifying problems, separating them into operational problems (such as access, uptime, and quality of service) and more strategic issues (such as a failing project, or organizational problems like “IT is difficult to deal with”). To read the full article, go to http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=3326&tag=nl.e106.

Fotec Advice: Gray’s article is good stuff. Fotec are often brought in to resolve IT problem situations, and we become the trusted resource, not only solving the immediate issues but also building a longer term IT Road Map to make sure IT’s doing all it can to support and help grow the business.

For more details, call 0845 601 6480 or just click here.

The survey, of 13 billion URLs used by businesses in Q1 2010, also showed that 7% of all Internet traffic is taken up by Facebook. Here are the top 5…:

…websites visited by businesses in Q1 2010:

• Facebook – 6.8 per cent of all traffic
• Google – 3.4%
• Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.8%
• Yahoo! – 2.4%
• Doubleclick – 1.7%

…bandwidth busting websites:

• YouTube – 10% of all bandwidth used
• Facebook – 4.5%
• Windows Update – 3.3%
• Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.7%
• Google – 2.5%

Fotec Advice: Managing internet access is an essential element in any company’s IT Road Map. Blocking social networking is a step too far for most companies, but Fotec’s WebPlus service has been created to help manage this epidemic.

WebPlus is deployed in two phases: first in reporting mode only, so the rogue employees wasting time on these sites can be gently approached with evidence. The second stage, if they don’t change behaviour, is to deploy WebPlus in proactive mode, actively blocking certain sites completely, or within specific hours.

For more details, call 0845 601 6480 or just click here.