So how does a legal assistant establish events by the number of days in the future.  Or more accurately how do you EASILY set these days???

Well here is one way of doing it.

While within outlook hold down the control key and press g (ctrl g).  This should bring up  the go to date dialogue box.

To set an event 60 days into the future enter it into this dialogue as follows -

Pressing okay will bring the calendar to the date 60 days out from the current day.  If you need to go out from a specific date in the past or future, such as 60 days after August 8th you can enter something like this -

I hope these hints make you more productive!

It’s official, mobile devices are a security plague!  Like an army of zombies descending upon business to cause wreck and ruin.   From a McAfee survey released in December 2011, here are the gruesome details:

• 63% of malware volume for mobile OS’s are from Android
• 51% of survey takers said thier organization has experienced a data breach due to insecure devices (an additional 23% didn’t know).
• 38% of those breached suffered theft or loss of information and or resources
• 31% suffered disclosure of confidential information
• 10% had interrupted services

Keeping close tabs on the security of mobile devices is extremely important for businesses.  This may include watching the devices that the business IT doesn’t know about, such as your employee’s personal Android phone.

http://www.mmoasteroids.com/

I remember playing the original as a youngin.  This is nothing like it.  There aren’t even any asteroids.  But its still beyond awesome.

What would happen if you lost your phone?  Businesses are being damaged daily by Internet security threats.  Bank accounts are being emptied, trade secrets are being lost, data is being destroyed.  One of the single largest threats to a company are the smart phones being carried in everyone’s pocket.  These phones are a literal gateway into the heart of the business.  Lets look at the information that is available on most smart phones.

Email

This is number 1 on the security threats to your business.  One of the main reasons most people have smart devices is to access their email.  Email is the system most businesses use for basic communication.  Thus all your correspondences are available via your smart phone.

Online Banking

Many people have the app’s that their bank provides installed on their phones.  These apps allow us to view account status, pay bills, and do various other things with our banks.

Company files

Through services like drop box, or VPN’s we have made it easy to access all of the information on our company networks.  This information includes spreadsheets, Word Documents, and databases.

What can we do about securing our phones so that they aren’t literally a Trojan horse directly into our most prized business assets?  We can start by password protecting our phone.  Forcing any would-be thief to enter a password into the phone in order to access the phone.  We can also password protect the applications that are on the phone.  I would also suggest for small businesses that they work with their IT provider to implement some sound security policy and security tracking and monitoring.  This will allow business owners and managers to manage these threats and proactively work to eliminate them.

Does anyone else have this trouble? Does anyone else feel like they are violating some secret code by sending out a newsletter? Or am I just weird?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57427727-93/evernote-like-twitter-in-no-rush-to-go-public/

I find this reassuring.  I love the fact that they are focusing on getting their product right before they cash in.  This is good for users, and in theory the company in the long run.

What I see as an issue, however, is that delaying the IPO for an extended period of time allows for everyone to work to copy, or improve upon your product, and (as I was often told my an old friend) get your lunch eaten by the competition.  As a user, I don’t care if this happens, as a matter of fact, Evernote being destroyed by a better product is probably a good thing.  As a business man looking at it, I would be really nervous about execution for an extended period of time before my big payoff!

Lets hope the folks at Evernote keep improving the product and keep making my life better!  In the end its good for both of us!

For Years I’ve struggled to find a better way to migrate user accounts from one computer to another. The tools built in Windows XP are just awful and really do not get the job done. Migrating from windows XP to 7 is no walk in the park, and don’t even begin to ask about migrating user accounts after a domain controller is added or removed.

ForensiT’s products make all of those problems go away. For a managed service provider this is huge! Anything we can do to make our techs more productive, get them to do more in less time is tremendous.

Angela Lee Duckworth has been studying what makes great people and she says that one of the major ingredients is what she calls ‘Grit.’ Grit, or the ability to determinedly progress toward a goal, to not stop, not get sidetracked, but over extended period of time focus, is where greatness comes from. She says it takes 10 years of this singular focus to achieve true world class greatness.

I’ve been running my business for 10 years, but focus is not a word I would use to describe how I’ve gone about running this business! Stubbornly continuing on despite my shortcomings? Yeah that’s me. Gritty focus on excellence? Not so much. I’m learning though, and feel I’ll get there…someday. What most people do in 10, might take me 20! But I see the goal and am striving!

Read more at forbes – http://www.forbes.com/sites/shabbirdahod/2012/05/03/got-grit-the-secret-sauce-to-success/

Apparently accessing the PC you own, with software you own means that you should be paying Microsoft some more.  From Microsoft’s Ross Brown, vice president of solution partners and independent software vendors in Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group -

“When you look at the number of iPad devices in the enterprise that are basically accessing and running Windows 7, using and getting the value of the software, there wasn’t a monetization of that for us that was associated with those things.”

If I understand that correctly, Microsoft feels we need to have a special license to utilize the software we own because we choose to do it remotely.  Now granted he is talking about the ‘enterprise’ so perhaps they are only concerned with Captain Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise, but I doubt it.

I personally find this whole thing ridiculous.  I paid for my Microsoft license, I’m using the license, nobody else can use the computer while I’m using it.  Why on earth does Microsoft feel they are entitled to more license dollars?  They didn’t do anything!  Perhaps if they wrote a great piece of software that runs on all operating systems and allows me to access my desktop from anywhere, then sure, charge me.  For some strange reason they either aren’t capable of creating a good remote control application, or they are truly just trying to limit our ability to use our computer how we see fit.  Personally I see this as a great opportunity for Microsoft, make something better and sell it!  Otherwise let us use the our computers (and the operating system we paid for) how we see fit!