Archive for April, 2009Why We Recommend Foxit Reader Instead of Adobe Reader for PDFsWednesday, April 29th, 2009This is an excerpt from an email we sent out to several clients last month, but remains as good advice for many others as well.
Microsoft Disables AutorunWednesday, April 29th, 2009In this blog post today (and one yesterday), Microsoft announced that they will be disabling AutoRun. (more…) Keep Your E-mail Server From Being BlacklistedMonday, April 27th, 2009For many small to mid-sized businesses that have their own on-site e-mail server, it is a common practice to use a router and a single public Internet address (the one given to them as part of the basic business-level DSL or cable Internet package) to serve their entire network. Behind this router sits the e-mail server, and desktop computers. (more…) Quickbooks 2009, Now With ChatFriday, April 24th, 2009A few weeks ago we upgraded our internal bookkeeping system from Quickbooks 2006 to Quickbooks 2009. Summary: While Quickbooks 2009 offers a noticable speed increase, don’t upgrade unless you have to, and are prepared to dedicate a server to host your company file. GFI LANGuard Security Scanner Free for Up to 5 MachinesTuesday, April 21st, 2009GFI, makers of several products we deploy at various client locations, has announced that they are giving away a freeware version of their LANGuard Security Scanner. This should be of interest to our micro-business clients, as this product, while not my favorite vulnerability scanner, can be used on small networks to find and fix potential security problems. (more…) Oracle to Buy Sun MicrosystemsMonday, April 20th, 2009I just heard that Oracle intends to buy Sun Microsystems. Most of my clients are small enough that they do not (directly) use any products from Oracle. However, just about all of them use Sun Microsystems‘ Java development platform. Furthermore, just about every web site we’ve created in the last ten years has been driven by a MySQL database, and Sun bought MySQL last year. While I was a bit concerned with Sun taking over MySQL, I am now very concerned with MySQL’s future. Oracle has never really been a big proponent of open source, and I could easily see them discontinuing or significantly cutting back on development of of this fine product. Watch this space for developments that may affect small business users of MySQL in the future. Internet Explorer 8Friday, April 17th, 2009I have been running Internet Explorer 8 (release candidate 1) for about a month, and am now running the final release version. It definitely includes some noteworthy upgrades, and some noteworthy incompatibilities. Should you upgrade? Right now, I would say “no.” I’ll start out with the major “con” before getting into the “pros.”
Security Tip: Don’t Click on Links, and Don’t Send Them Either!Friday, April 10th, 2009By now, many of this blog’s readers have already heard me tell them why it is bad to click on links in email. Without going in to detail, it is because links can very easily be forged in email, just like they can on a web site. (more…) Hello, world!Tuesday, April 7th, 2009Welcome to Paradigm Consulting Company’s official blog. This blog’s target audience will be current and (hopefully) future clients of Paradigm, mostly small and medium-sized businesses throughout New England, but we offer our services to clients as far away as Florida and California. We hope that this blog will provide you with useful information to help you make the most of your information technology investment. We will periodically review software and hardware, discuss relevant issues that pertain to our target market, and offer tips and tricks for end-users to help keep their systems more secure and running smoothly. We hope you find something useful here, and if you do, please spread the word. Peter Nikolaidis, President |
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