The Big Freeze!

Look at the view from my back window – which despite being very beautiful is also very inconvenient. Thankfully I have a Land Rover so can get around reasonably well but every morning this week I have watched my neighbours struggle to get out of the street, a lot give up and just come back to their homes to make the phone call to their bosses to say they can’t get in today. I am in the very lucky position that all I need to work is a laptop, broadband connection and my mouse (I get too frustrated using the laptop mouse and have been known to stop using my laptop in a strop because of it)

So in honour of the recent weather I thought I would revisit a blog I wrote back in May which spoke about the weather last year and how it cost businesses 124 million working hours. Reports this week are suggesting that they current deep freeze is going to cost the county £1.6 billion per day.

This is set to be one of the coldest winters on records and the snow looks as if it is settling in for the duration so if you have a business that allows a portion of your employees to work from home temporarily then it is certainly worth considering buying them a laptop and setting them up with a VPN connection from home – reasonably cheap and very to achieve.

Blog from Wed 26th May 2010

‘If you’re not there for your customers come rain or shine one of your competitors will find a way to do it for you. Given the really bad weather at the start of the year more and more small business are starting to look now into options which allow their staff to work from home so they are not caught out again next year.

In the UK 124million hours of work were lost due to the heavy snowfall in January. This was not only due to employees being unable to actually get to their work premises but also down to employees having to stay at home because the schools and nurseries were closed and there was no one to look after their kids.

It has been reported only 11% of the people that were unable to get into work had the option to work from home – myself being one of them give me my laptop, broadband and a VPN connection and I am ready to go. How many of your staff can say the same?

There are a number of technologies which can help keep your business running and ensure that you can access your business server wherever you are - which in the current climate is more important than ever for SME’s

Don’t be caught off guard again this coming winter – SME owners should be thinking now about how you can facilitate your employees to work at home in case the big freeze hits again!’

I predicted this back in May – now if only I could get the lottery numbers right!

Festive Cheer

Well folk another week closer to Christmas and until about 48 hours ago I was very excited. My shopping is almost done, our turkey is ordered and I have been excitedly reworking my Christmas playlists which I am going to start listening to on the 1st of December. So, what happened 48 hours ago I hear you all ask?? I caught a nasty bug and now have a stinking cold! They type that makes your ears hurt and you struggle to keep your eyes open all day and then some how at night can never sleep. It would be fair to say that I am not in a happy place at the moment and have decided that for this weeks blog I wanted to find something that would make me laugh and I found a few little funny Technology stories and jokes that brought a smile to my bright red and blotchy face.

The Frog

A man was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will be your loving companion for an entire week." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for a year and do ANYTHING you want." Again the man took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The man said, "Look, I'm a computer programmer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."

The Sultan

The Sultan of Brunei was getting a bit cheesed off as he had 6 children, all girls, and therefore had no son and heir. Imagine his joy then,when one of his wives presented him with his only son and heir.

Just before his son's sixth birthday, the Sultan took him to one side and said, "Son, I am very proud of you. Anything you want, I shall get for you."

His son replied, "Daddy, I would like an aeroplane." Not wanting to do anything by halves, his father bought him British Airways.

Just before his son's seventh birthday, the Sultan took him to one side. "Son, you are my pride and joy. Anything you want, I shall get for you."

His son replied, "Daddy, I would like a boat." Not wanting to do anything by halves, his father bought him P&O Ferries.

Just before his son's eighth birthday, the Sultan took him to one side. "Son, you bring so much happiness into my life. Anything you want, I shall get for you."

His son replied, "Daddy, I would like something to watch films on." Not wanting to do anything by halves, his father bought him MGM Studios and their cinemas, where he watched all his favourite Western Movies.

Just before his son's ninth birthday, the Sultan took him to one side. "Son, you are an inspiration to us all. Anything you want, I shall get for you."

His son, who had caught the 'Western' movie bug, replied, "Daddy,I would like a cowboy outfit." Not wanting to do anything by halves, his father went and bought him Microsoft.

App of the Week - Battleship

I am a big fan of traditional games which is why I adore today’s app of the week – Battleship which is a bargain 59p.You can launch strikes with touch-driven precision and witness 3D guns blazing and smoke-billowing carriers sinking to their dooms. A great little 5 minutes to spare game.

Engage in the authentic Classic Mode or fire at will in the intense Salvo Mode.

Employ an array of lethal power in Super Weapons Mode or deploy your secret unlocked weapons for Multiplayer supremacy.

Sink competitor’s battleships with Hotseat, two-player WiFi, Bluetooth, and Pass & Play capabilities.

Demonstrate strategic and tactical skills to earn Super Weapons. Improve your rank from Seaman all the way to fully-fledged Admiral!

Why Alchemist?

We are always asked by potential clients - Why Alchemist? Why Outsource? What makes you special? These are questions that most businesses are asked and I thought I would put down a few of our answers in this week’s blog. Beside the standard answers – ‘we can save you money!’ Which let’s be honest every business in the world claims this, so I thought I would give you a bit more and explain why I believe we are the best IT company around for Small to Medium local business.

Benefit from access to a whole team not just one or two people - When you have in-house IT support you will perhaps get the benefit of one or two IT people – when you outsource your IT to Alchemist you get the benefit of our entire team’s knowledge and skills which total over 50 years of IT experience. We can give you advice on keeping up to date with the break-neck speed which technology moves and ensure you stay ahead of your competition.

Gain access to extremely wide and specialised skills set - With our large team of diverse engineers there are very few IT problems they have not come across during their many years of IT experience this can benefit your business greatly. We can offer you a very high level and large skill set from simply setting up a wireless network or installing a VoIP phone system to extremely complex high-end IT solutions.

One Stop Shop - Our services are so varied now that we can provide you with all your business IT & Communication services - Broadband, Phone System, System Support, Spam Filters, Back-Up and much more meaning that we are the only company you need to deal with for all your business IT & comms needs. If there are any issues and calls need to be made to external companies we will deal with these for you – ensuring your attention is 100% on your business 100% of the time.

We help your business grow - When you have an IT issue it is so problematic and disruptive for all your staff. Your management team will probably have to get involved in trying to fix the problem, they may have to phone several companies and hotlines trying to find a solution to the problem – wasting your time and the time of your staff. With Alchemist you simply pick up the phone and call us, we will respond quickly and do everything to ensure that your team are back up and running again as quickly as possible.

Established Track record - Alchemist was founded in 2003 by 2 well respected local guys and has always had an outstanding reputation in Dumfries and Galloway as one of ‘The’ IT companies in the region to provide your business with a professional, friendly and knowledgeable service. This has continued and grown further since opening our Glasgow office in 2007. We still have many of the same customers today that we had when the business first started almost 8 years ago – which we are very proud of.

Last but by no means least - We're brilliant and can save you money

Did you know we are an Official Acronis Partner?

Earlier this year our technical team became fully certified as Acronis Partners and I would like to share some of the benefits of this powerful backup solution for your business.

The point of the Acronis software is to minimise the recovery time and disruption if the server ever has to be fully recovered. If there was no Acronis backup image and the server completely failed, we would need to rebuild and configure the server from scratch which could take as long as 1 or 2 days. This would involve reinstalling the operating system, installing all the applications, setting up all the email, printers, users and much more.

Just imagine how your business would cope without its systems and data for a day.

Acronis provides a local backup image, this means that the backup is done from the server onto an external hard disk connected directly to the server, this external hard disk can remain connected. The advantage of having this type of backup alongside your existing backup is the recovery time, if the server was to completely fail it can be recovered within minutes from the backup image. This image is a snapshot of the entire server including the operating system, all the applications and most importantly all of the settings.

Acronis works alongside Alchemist Vault to provide you with the best possible Back-Up and Disaster Recovery plan for your business.

The Brilliant Playstation Move

My household has a brilliant new toy – Playstation Move. For those of you who don’t know what this is, PlayStation Move is a motion-sensing game controller platform for the PlayStation 3, based on a handheld motion ‘wand’ and a PlayStation Eye camera used to track the wand's position. We ordered the Playstation Move starter pack (£49.99) which comes with a wand, Playstation Eye and a demo disk of the games which are currently available and a few which are due to be released soon. Within half an hour of trying it we were in the car on the way to our local Game to buy a second controller and a full copy of the brilliant Sports Champions – this has lead to what can only be described as Table Tennis and Disc Golf grudge matches between my husband and I. The System The Move technology has crazy pinpoint accuracy due to the microphone style wands having an accelerometer and a gyrometer to sense motion on three axes, so it'll responded to users simply turning a wrist or moved backwards and forwards and the slightest movement. One of my favourite wand features is the impressive glowing ball, which is powered by a full colour 24bit RGB LED which can change colours – this can either be used so the camera can differentiate between different controllers if you're playing with a friend or to show different game states - it might glow red if your character is injured, for example. Next on our to-buy list is the Move navigation controller which is a one-handed supplementary controller designed for use in conjunction with the wand during game play. Very similar to the Nintendo Wii’s Nunchuk the move controller has a d-pad, an analogue stick, and two shoulder buttons and when held in your left hand, adds extra input possibilities for Move games. Games As you can imagine there are only a hand full of games available at the moment but already for me this is where the Move really excels next to the Wii. The games are for adults, there are a few kids’ games thrown in for family evenings but this definitely a toy for the grown-ups. My favourite games so far are: Sports Champions People will tell you this is like Nintendo’s Wii Sports – it’s not! It has 6 different sports you can play, Beach Volleyball which you will feel like a prat playing but is great fun, Table tennis which is a fantastic two player game, Gold Discus which is a golf style game played with Frisbees, bocce (boules) which is fun and frustrating at the same time, Swords which is a gladiatorial battle game, and my personal favourite archery which I must admit I have become slightly addicted to. Tumble I am a bit of a puzzle freak so this was right up my street! This Jenga style game requires you to build towers out of differently shaped blocks using the Move controller to pick them up and carefully place them. This for me is the game which shows the technology off best the slightest of movements can send your tower crashing to the ground. A bargain at only £7.99 from the Playstation online store. EyePet My 11 year old niece went crazy for this demo – you can get down on the floor and play with your eyepet, giving it showers and tickling its tummy. I would buy this but I have two lovely little cavalier dogs and I don’t think they would be too happy with me tickling a virtual tummy with they have actually tummy’s they like to have tickled! Other games of note are Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 – obviously a golf game and The Shoot - has you blasting your way through a series of movie sets featuring sci-fi, horror and western environments. The one I am most looking forward to getting is Virtua Tennis 4 which is due out next year; reports from those who have tried it are suggesting that the game will be brilliant and a stand out seller for Sony next year. All-in-all a fun addition to the Playstation stable - I would suggest if you are thinking about buying this for Christmas get along to your local shopping centre now because I think this is going to be very difficult to get in December!

7 Tips to stay safe when using public Wi-Fi

Here are some great tips on keeping your computer and data safe when using public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Make sure your firewall is activated

A firewall will help protect your laptop by preventing unauthorized users from getting access to your computer through the Internet or a network. The Firewall will act as a block to protect your data which will check all incoming traffic and then either stop the traffic or allow it through.

Make your folders private and encryption

When you use a public Wi-Fi network encryption will more often than not be out of your control. It is important to make sure the folders on your laptop are private, this can make it harder for hackers to access your files. To further secure your files you should consider encrypting them, which requires a password to open or modify them. You can learn how to encrypt a file here

Don't type in credit card numbers or passwords

Try to avoid typing any sensitive information, such as your passwords, credit card number or any other financial information while you use a public wireless network. If you must enter credit card numbers while using a public wireless network make sure there is a locked padlock icon at the bottom right corner of the browser window, and make sure the Web address begins with https: (the "s" stands for secure).

Try to choose more secure connections

Opt for wireless networks that require a network security key or have some other form of security such as a certificate. The traffic sent over these networks is encrypted which will help to protect your computer data. The security features of different networks appear along with the network name as your PC discovers them.

Disable file and printer sharing

File and printer sharing is a feature that enables other computers on a network to access resources on your computer. When you are using your mobile PC in a hotspot, it's best to disable file and printer sharing—when it's enabled, it leaves your computer vulnerable to hackers. Remember, though, to turn this feature back on when you return to the office.

Consider completely removing sensitive data from your notebook PC

If you're working with extremely sensitive data, it might be worth removing it from your laptop altogether. Instead, save it on a corporate network share and access it only when necessary. This way, you have multiple safeguards in place.

Turn off your wireless network when you're not using it

If you're not surfing the Internet or sending e-mail, but still using your computer in an area where there is a public wireless network, disable your wireless connection.