Keep it simple

When you’re performing online searches it is usually best to use as few words and phrases as possible, while still communicating what you’re searching for. If you’re looking for a bookstore in your area, simply type in “bookstore” and add the name of your town or your zip code. This should deliver accurate results that will likely be quite relevant.

Learn about Boolean

You probably learned about Boolean search terms in school, whether you know it or not. Boolean searches are based on using “and,” “not” and “or” in your searches. These words enable you to include or exclude multiple terms in your search results.

This concept also is effective when you use pluses or minuses in your searches. If you want to include a word in your search results, simply type a “ ” before it in your search. If you want to exclude something, precede it with a “-“ when you search.

Be precise

When you’re conducting a search, it’s best to be as exact as possible. If you know what it is that you’re looking for, use exact phrases instead of just keywords. When you use general phrases, they can often be misunderstood by the search engine and leave you with results you don’t need.

Using quotation marks is a great way to ensure better search results. Most search engines recognize that as a request for an exact phrase search. So, if you’re searching for a company and know the exact name, it may be in your best interest to search for it in quotes.

All of these strategies are unbelievably simple and extremely useful. Taking these into account when you’re searching online can drastically improve your search results.

For even more tips on performing online searches, take a look at this article.

Having the right attitude for business is an important part of getting ahead. Succeeding in business is often just as much about hard work as it is personality, because almost all business includes dealing with people. You could even say it is a sign of hard work when a worker has an excellent work attitude. What does this mean? Simple: having the right kind of business attitude takes training. We aren’t all born with the ability to effectively interact with those around us, cultivating a successful personality takes time. Here are easy tips to consider when working on your business attitude.

1.    Stay positive

Staying positive is at the core of any good attitude. Research has revealed that praising your coworkers often, setting reasonable goals and consistently showing gratitude are all traits common in successful businesspeople. Thinking pessimistically fosters a negative attitude that makes seeing the positives difficult and, in turn, decreases your ability to succeed. Thinking positively lets you see the good things around you and allows you to build off of them, creating an attitude beneficial to advancement. If you’d like more tips on staying positive, take a look at this article.

2.    Be assertive without being aggressive

Being assertive is an excellent business trait, though when acting assertively it is easy to be overly aggressive. The key to acting assertively without acting aggressively is communication. When asserting yourself in a business setting, try not to crush or minimize other people’s perspectives. Allow other people the same amount of time to describe their needs as you’ve allowed yourself and, of course, be open to compromising your needs to meet others midway.

Practicing these tips will make you a member of the team and make an environment that allows for your career advancement. If you’d like additional tips, please consider this article.

3.    Approach conflict with compassion

Interpersonal conflict is an unavoidable part of every work culture. Try approaching resolution with compassion if and when you are at odds with a coworker. Stepping into conflict resolution with an open mind instead of defensiveness will often result in a more positive outcome. Adding compassion to your business attitude will enhance your skills at resolving conflict. If you’d like to read more about being compassionate at work, take a look at this article.

Every successful businessperson has a well-cultivated and implemented business attitude. Professional advancement is dependent on your ability to deal with other people, because all businesses readily involve personal interaction to some degree. These tips and bits of advice will be helpful when evaluating and improving your business attitude, making success far more obtainable. Keep in mind: having a good business attitude takes work. Don’t forget that a good personality is an essential business skill.

- Chris

Here is a quote from the Microsoft web site:

"Thank you for contacting Microsoft Support. You have been directed here to download and install the beta version of Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta, a recovery tool that can help you start an infected PC and perform an offline scan to help identify and remove rootkits and other advanced malware. In addition, Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta can be used if you cannot install or start an antivirus solution on your PC, or if the installed solution can’t detect or remove malware on your PC."

Click here to download the ISO image and with a Vista and Windows 7 system you can right click on the file and burn a CD.

As always feel free to send us feedback.

Cookies

Cookies are basically what allow websites to recognize you when you revisit them. By allowing cookies, you are allowing your web browser to give the website details such as your username, password and preferences. They can save you a great deal of time by preventing you from reentering your information over and over again.

Cookies are also seen by some as a privacy issue. Since they store your information and track your activity, somebody could easily gain access to your data. You can protect yourself, however, by using cookies sparingly.

URL

A URL, or uniform resource locator, is simply a web address. It is what you type into the address bar of your browser, usually beginning with “http,” that takes you to the website you wish to visit.

Cloud

Cloud is one of the tech terms that is most popular right now. Everybody is talking about the cloud. The cloud refers to services that are based over the Internet and don’t require additional hardware or software, like Facebook or Google Apps.

Flash

Flash is an Adobe-owned platform that allows you to view certain things on your computer. Many people install Flash players or plug-ins in order to watch videos or animation or see dynamic displays on websites. Although Flash has been the longtime leader in its field, HTML5 is quickly catching up with it.

Although tech terms can get quite complicated at times, knowing the basics can help you to better understand the technology we’re using every day.

If you’d like to see a more in-depth description of tech terms, take a look at this glossary.

- Chris

The Genesys Consulting Group Offers:

Manage and Monitored Services

Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions

Cloud Computing

Help Desk Services

VOIP - Voice Over IP Phone Systems

Network Design and Implemenation

Scheduled On-Site and Remote Checkups

On Demand Consulting Services

I will also always answer your technology questions and create posts with valuable information to serve those reading this blog. So please feel free to ask me any questions you want.

PS: Have you done your backups today?

Imagine what would happen if you suddenly lost access to all yourbusiness data and IT infrastructure. Would you be prepared? A good BDR [Backup and Disaster Recovery system should offer a solution to this frightening possibility - complete data recovery and business continuity services for small and mid-size businesses in Manhattan. This kind of solution can help to keep your business afloat in the event of an IT catastrophe.

Comprehensive backup and data recovery products should include:

• State-of-the-art, secure protection from viruses, malware, and unauthorized access
• Easy accessibility to your data backups through our dedicated servers
• Automatic backup of your company data throughout the day, every day
• An offsite copy of your IT infrastructure that can be used as a replacement within minutes in the event of a system failure at your office
• Monthly billing for your data protection services

I remember back on 9-11-01 when my office was a few blocks from the towers and having an off-site functional copy of the organizations data saved the day because we were not able to get in to our offices for 2 months? In the case of some types of natural disasters your office maybe destoyed and how quickly you can get yuor business up and running will determine whether your organization survives.

Because it's faily uncommon to have a catastrophic loss of an office many business simply don't have this possiblity on their radar and when it strikes them they are down for the count. The reality is most business who lose all their data and critical business systems in a disaster have a good chance of going out of business all together.

One solution to this is offered by Laymantech.com and this blog has had many articles on simple backup solutions which you can read here:

The Right Backup System and Backup Software Will Save Your Bacon

PS: Please feel free to ask me any questions about backup and disaster recovery, I love helping people!

My feedback is:

1. It has all the patches and updates from previous windows updates so if you have been keeping your windows 7 system up to date there is not a lot of new features as much as a lot of updates. For Windows 2008 R2 there are some new updates and enhancements.

2. It took a long time to install; about an hour of downloading, updating and rebooting.

3. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 both seem stable after the update.

This update is especially good if you have not been keeping your windows 7 system up to date and want a quick way to do it in one shot.

You can get Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Here.

Check out our new Facebook fan page here.

Our new web-site is here.

Here is our twitter feeds:

Chris Welber's Twitter Feed

Laymantech Twitter Feed 

And in case you don't already have a good book on using Windows 7 please check out this link below my Dad loved it:

As always please let me know what you think.

PS: I would love to hear your comments and questions regarding your Windows 7 experience and the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 too!

There is a solution! hard drives will always fail but you can make sure you have a complete backup of your system. There are several steps to getting a simple and easy to run backup in place to protect your data and future.

Step One - Get an external USB hard drive and plug it in to your system, Here is a recommended hard drive system you could purchase:

Step Two - Download one of my favorite free backup software packages and install it. I like easeus TODO backup because it's free and it can be used to make a backup of not just your data but your programs too!

Step Three - Do frequent backups and do test restores of your data.

Step Four - A cheap off-site backup (buy two of  the external hard drives and swap them off-site).

If you feel you need a professional to to help you in setting this up feel free to contact me and check out my company web-site: myeasytech.com.

PS: A backup is not just for when your system crashes, sometimes you might over write a file you need or may it may become corrupt. I also recommend making more then one backup set so you have several backups to fall back on.

Enjoy and let me know what your experience is!

This is a re-post but one I deemed so important I decided to bring it back.

Everyone has assumed up till now that if you get hacked, your computers gets “owned” by a hacker, and then your money stolen out of your bank account that the bank will automatically put it back and take the loss themselves, much the way a credit card would work if fraudulent charges are put on it. Many of us have simply taken this for granted and not taken the security of our computer systems and maintaining control over them seriously.  As some in the technology community know; if you don’t take the proper precautions to ensure you have good security software installed and a firewall at your internet access entry point installed then your systems are no longer your systems but belong to whoever hacked them.  

Now there is a scary new trend among businesses.  It’s getting so bad that in several cases involving many hundreds of thousands of dollars the banks refused to make the business client whole when they were robbed by internet bandits and it was clear they had not taken the security of their computers seriously. Yes you could be randomly robbed by internet bad guys as a business and if you were careless in your security measures may actually not get your money back.  This is a chilling new reality that businesses must face and deal with before the day of reckoning arrives for them.  In many cases the banks recommend that businesses dedicate a computer to on-line banking and do not use them for anything else except on-line banking, or even email.  Some experts have recommended that businesses actually use personal accounts which still enjoy the full protection but one has to wonder how long banks will pay for careless end users mistakes.  Some people actually feel all business banking should simply be done off-line, but this may not work for many businesses. You may remember I predicted that the day would come when financial institutions would no longer be willing to shoulder the burden of financial losses for careless users who left themselves open and sitting ducks for the bad guys, and that day is now!  So protect yourself by taking these steps:

Either audit your own security to find holes/problems or hire an expert to help you.

Try the Google Redirect Virus Removal Tool!

Ensure you have good security software installed, my personal favorite is eset.com, and now my company laymantech.com is offering a special free offer!

Ensure you have a good firewall such as Astaro Security Gateway or Juniper installed if you are a business especially.  This can filter out many problems before they even enter your network!

In the old days having proper security measures in place ensured you would not have to reformat your system when it got “owned” by hackers, sadly these days if you don’t take the proper steps as a business, you may actually experience real, hard, painful losses, and perhaps even the demise of your business.

If you have any questions or inquiries feel free to ask them before it’s too late…

PS: I hope at the very least you don't have the same password for every web-site you use as this is one of the easiest ways to get hacked!

Check out the Creative Blog Poem by Chris [The Emotionally Present Home] 

Believe it or not continuing to use an old out of date and out of warranty system in your office or work environment could end up being a disaster waiting to happen for you and your business.

Well, happy New Year’s everyone first!

And now back to our topic; I realize there are many folks who feel that their old and trusty computer which has worked for years and years will continue to work and they can rely on it. This thinking could end up being costly as the I have been seeing many situations lately where an old out of date and out of warranty computer has failed in a work situation causing the business downtime, stress and anxiety over when it will be fixed, and lost work and likely lost revenue. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a good warranty in place for the computer and technology equipment that you will use in your production work environment. When you have a problem being able to have confidence that if it turns out to be a hardware failure help is on the way is critical. By using computers which are out of warranty in the front lines of your business you are asking for a disaster and I can pretty much guarantee the failures will happen when you least expect them at the time when they will cause the maximum damage; it’s murphy’s law, and in the technology and computer area it applies in a big way.

Now what can you do to prevent the sad situation outlined above; check every piece of equipment in use in production in your office and find out if the piece of equipment is under warranty a.s.a.p. Once have you have a list of office equipment, and warranty status then rank the importance of each piece to the operations of your business and the cost to the business if the equipment fails and you cannot get it replaced in a timely manner. After you complete this process it’s time to start budgeting for replacement of critical items and planning for installing new equipment at times when it will be least disruptive to your business. Remember you have this luxury if you go through this process before the unit fails in production and during business hours. By doing this warranty inventory and financial planning you can also plan and work with your technology staff or consulting organization on the best replacement proposal and plan and secure a well thought out upgrade/replacement plan. Don’t assume your consultant or IT organization will be available when you have a failure as they may be busy with other open calls or projects and have to schedule your project days or weeks out as opposed to if it’s a planned event you have much more control. The economy is recovering and service professionals are getting busy again.

I hope this post helps you plan for the most worry and stress free technology experience possible, as always please feel free to ask me any question on your mind.

 - Chris