The Cyber-Grinches are always busy plotting ways to part you from your money and info and this year is no exception. This year marks the earliest start to their socially engineered attempts and it promises to be a busy holiday season, so be vigilant
A couple of tips are to Google an apparent legit product/email and check to see if there are reports already about the product/email made by other consumers. If there are links within the email you can usually right click on the link and see the properties behind it. If it isn't a recognizable https:// address or points to a foreign country domain be careful.
Read more about these latest threats at: http://www.zdnet.com/cybercriminals-start-spamvertising-xmas-themed-scams-and-malware-campaigns-7000007178/?s_cid=e550
NEW $799 MAC Mini: how to be a Pariah at the Genius Bar.
Hooray, the new Apple Mac Mini is out. It along with Windows emulation software Parallels will allow you to run Windows software and actually be productive. I wonder when the major software companies will abandon Microsoft and port their software over to OS X allowing users to run their applications without the added cost of emulation software, plus the added layer that degrades performance. However there may be no need to add Apple compatibility, the Cloud is negating the need to do so which means...
Hooray, the new Apple Mac Mini is out. It along with Windows emulation software Parallels will allow you to run Windows software and actually be productive. I wonder when the major software companies will abandon Microsoft and port their software over to OS X allowing users to run their applications without the added cost of emulation software, plus the added layer that degrades performance. However there may be no need to add Apple compatibility, the Cloud is negating the need to do so which means...
The Cloud: how the PC (desktop computer) will be history...
Microsoft for one has been busy with a cloud-centric focus. They offer Office 365-Cloud Collaboration for Business, which is a very viable alternative for small businesses. Microsoft Dynamics, their Accounting Solution has already migrated much of their offerings to the cloud and soon the GP 2013, the starter version will be cloud based as well.
This trend is helping to accelerate the demise of the desktop computer. The Cloud movement provides stimulus to the BYOD movement. In case you missed it, BYOD means Bring Your Own Device. An employee can access company data and materials from their web enabled device and work independently of an office bound PC. Upside/Downside: Think of the hardware savings for companies if they can put the hardware expense on the employee... think of the implementation costs of managing printing and security for a multitude of different devices and OS's.
Microsoft again has been perpetuating the migration to the Cloud with their Web based Office Apps. Anyone with an existing Hotmail or Outlook.com account can log in via their browser (including Apple's Safari) and have access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint based Web Apps. In addition you get 7 GB of storage with SkyDrive. If you haven't done so already, sign up for an Outlook.com account and reap the benefits. If you hate Microsoft, Google Docs may be an alternative for you and DropBox is a business favorite.
Resolutions: Goals and desires, (Procrastinate... who me?)
2013 Goal. Driving Force's plan for the New Year is to free ourselves of our in-house servers for real time company data. I am in the process of pushing all company data to the cloud for access via my Window 8 or Android tablets. I already have an Office 365 contract and will be implementing a Cloud based server to migrate Driving Force's Microsoft Dynamics GP accounting data and use Terminal Services for accessing and performing accounting tasks (my current version, GP 2010 is not Cloud based). In case you are wondering I will not yet be keeping any client data Cloud based and will maintain an in-house server for migrating and development on the client side due to privacy policies.
However Driving Force's critical data will be cloud based and therefore I will be free of worrying about hardware failure, backup and virus protection, it's a wonderful thing.
BTW, my next purchase will be a ChromeBook. Looking forward to implementing Google's new Remote Desktop connection so I can access my desktop, for what I don't know.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57548748-1/how-a-chromebook-got-me-through-hurricane-sandy/
Until next time, buy a PC!
Microsoft for one has been busy with a cloud-centric focus. They offer Office 365-Cloud Collaboration for Business, which is a very viable alternative for small businesses. Microsoft Dynamics, their Accounting Solution has already migrated much of their offerings to the cloud and soon the GP 2013, the starter version will be cloud based as well.
This trend is helping to accelerate the demise of the desktop computer. The Cloud movement provides stimulus to the BYOD movement. In case you missed it, BYOD means Bring Your Own Device. An employee can access company data and materials from their web enabled device and work independently of an office bound PC. Upside/Downside: Think of the hardware savings for companies if they can put the hardware expense on the employee... think of the implementation costs of managing printing and security for a multitude of different devices and OS's.
Microsoft again has been perpetuating the migration to the Cloud with their Web based Office Apps. Anyone with an existing Hotmail or Outlook.com account can log in via their browser (including Apple's Safari) and have access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint based Web Apps. In addition you get 7 GB of storage with SkyDrive. If you haven't done so already, sign up for an Outlook.com account and reap the benefits. If you hate Microsoft, Google Docs may be an alternative for you and DropBox is a business favorite.
Resolutions: Goals and desires, (Procrastinate... who me?)
2013 Goal. Driving Force's plan for the New Year is to free ourselves of our in-house servers for real time company data. I am in the process of pushing all company data to the cloud for access via my Window 8 or Android tablets. I already have an Office 365 contract and will be implementing a Cloud based server to migrate Driving Force's Microsoft Dynamics GP accounting data and use Terminal Services for accessing and performing accounting tasks (my current version, GP 2010 is not Cloud based). In case you are wondering I will not yet be keeping any client data Cloud based and will maintain an in-house server for migrating and development on the client side due to privacy policies.
However Driving Force's critical data will be cloud based and therefore I will be free of worrying about hardware failure, backup and virus protection, it's a wonderful thing.
BTW, my next purchase will be a ChromeBook. Looking forward to implementing Google's new Remote Desktop connection so I can access my desktop, for what I don't know.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57548748-1/how-a-chromebook-got-me-through-hurricane-sandy/
Until next time, buy a PC!
