April 18th, 2010 by Al

I want to give an update of what’s been happening: Things are going well in the PDA department. A special call-out to Mindy Byers of “Mega-Mouth Mindy” who gave me incredible insight and opinion with her own experiences the iPhone. Many thanks Mindy. I appreciate your time and willingness to answer my questions.

The iPhone is working out better than expected. (That’s always good, right?) It’s simplified my personal data, solving communication problems by providing real-time access to both email and voice. In all actuality, it’s FUN! I’m using 2 productivity applications daily:

iTimeSheets,  which tracks many different yet recurring tasks I’m working on. The great part is, it emails the report in a CSV format, easily imported into Excel.

MileBug, which tracks mileage for IRS purposes, allowing me to toss the paper log book. This one allows setting presets for orgin and destination, business purposes and start/stop mileage. In all, it does it all. Plug in the IRS allowance and it calculates the total mileage and $ amount. The reports are emailed as well, in the same CSV formats.

The other standard applications  on iPhone are simplifying my organization and making my life so much easier, I can’t even begin to explain. Maybe it’s just my own personal preference, but my philosophy is, if it works for you, then it’s right.

I’m continuing updating my systems here at home, this is a must. Connecting to anyone’s corporate network is an exercise in personal responsibility. What I mean is, you must practice safe computing. You can be held liable for disruptions. Your Anti-virus software must be updated (which I just updated yearly subscription) and you must scan your drives, regularly.  All of them, including and especially your email as most viral payloads are delivered by attached documents.

Verify your security settings and make sure everything is ship-shape, because when you connect and accept, you are saying you’re good to go and will be held accountable for infecting their servers. As for mine, they are clean and I’m now set for remote work. Updated systems makes life easier don’t it?

The current project I’m on is just awesome. I enjoy the people I’m working with and the environment is more than I could have hoped for. It’s stretching my abilities and providing a great opportunity to grow and learn from professionals that love and are good at what they do.

Last Friday, in order to really become acclimated, I visited the co-location DataCenter where our corporate servers and network gear are hosted. Wow, talking about expansive! The sheer size of the place was impressive. It’s beyond imagination at how much data passes to and from this location and how much is stored there. Think about that the next time you IM, text, send an email or connect to a website it going through or stored somewhere, often many times over!

I’ve been dealing with server names on master sheet but seeing them, yields a whole new perspective that will help as the project moves along, which it is in full swing. Well, that’s my update, hope you leaned something and enjoyed it.

© Al Ardon IT Strategies Inc. 2010

November 12th, 2009 by Al

The other day, I really pulled a lousy stunt. Usually, I am very careful around my MBP, especially with drinks, but obviously that didn’t apply this last Monday because I knocked over my coffee on the keyboard. Not a whole lot, but enough to hose up the keyboard. I was able get it shut down in time so the mainboard was saved.

I’ve bought from this company who specializes in Mac parts and was able to buy another replacement keyboard. While I was at it, I decided to add another GB of RAM. So, that will be nice. But, I hate to be without my computer and I wasn’t too sure that the keyboard would solve my problem, so I took a look at getting another computer for the business.  I bought a 27″  iMac with 4gigs of RAM and a TB of space. It’s one I’ve been lusting after for some time now.

Take a look:

I’ll post a review once I get it and play around with it a bit.

May 26th, 2009 by admin

My good friend did a tele-seminar on the business uses for the popular social media venue, “Twitter” a couple weeks ago. We enjoyed a great seminar that gave us valuable tips on the best way to use the application, for our building our business brand. For more information click here.

Well, it appears there is now another business use:

Recruiting..

Yes, that’s right, some saavy business owners are using the popular medium to seek out new employees.

But, before heading out make sure to keep the following in mind:

• Create your business brand – Be professional.
• If you post a job, be active and make sure you are tracking those showing interest in your position.

If you’re job seeker, remember you are representing yourself. You are responsible for your “brand.”

• Think before you click
• Ask yourself, Would I send this to my mother?

Remember, your future employee or employer could be a click away.

Good luck!

Copyright Alfred Ardon 2009. All rights reserved.

May 4th, 2009 by Al

Technology abounds and everyone’s into it. From people who work out of the home to entrepreneurs and start-ups.

But the real question is, does it work for you?

What I mean is, sure we all can do many things, but when it comes to your business, who’s looking out for you? Who’s helping to reduce or eliminate your exposure.

Having been a Systems Administrator for many years, I’ve learned there are some things I know I’m really good at, and some, I’d rather leave in the hands of others.

Why? Because it makes sense.

In my business, I prefer spend time on things that make money and not waste it on those I dabble in for fun. For example, my business website. I could design something adequate, but instead I decided to contract a professional that knows her business, and who I know will deliver a quality product. I also know,  with a combination of my input and their expertise, it provides for a great end result.

In my business, a simple process like backing up a system is easy. Anyone can put device into play, kick it off and call it a backup.

You say, “I’m covered right?”

But have you thought that through? Are you willing to bet the bank on it? It’s one thing to be able to retrieve a file or two, but would it be as simple to restore your system?

Have you tried to?

Do you know how much time would it to re-create your system, or for that matter,  you or your customer’s data? How would that translate into time/revenue loss?

This would affect your customers, employees and likely your creditors.

I venture to guess, not many have thought about it and because of this they have no disaster recovery policy and they are at risk–very high risk.

IT Risk management is  a lot like insurance.  Sure, I could get a good quote on my own, but do I really know if I’m adequately covered? Often, it pays in a big way to have an expert look over your policy, or in this case your disaster recovery policy  to have that added peace of mind.

If you are concerned about reducing your exposure and risk, I’m here to help make sure your technology is both covered and works for you–not the other way around.

Call me today to get started.

Copyright Alfred Ardon 2009. All rights reserved.