Sunday, January 16th, 2011
(Something You’ll RUSH To Do Once You Read This Survey
That Reveals Just How Dirty Your Keyboard Is!)
Since there’s a holiday or month for just about every cause imaginable, it should come as no surprise that cleaning your PC now has its own official month, awarded by none other than “The Vinegar Institute.” But before you dismiss this one, consider this little factoid:
ABC news reported that a study in England revealed that the average office keyboard had bacteria and germ levels up to five times higher than those commonly found on a toilet seat.
The study, headed up by Dr. James Francis, a British microbiologist, took culture samples from 33 office keyboards in London, and compared these samples to swabs taken from toilet seats in the same office buildings, containing nasty germs such as e-coli and staph bacteria. Kinda gives new meaning to the term, “computer virus!” So how do you not only disinfect your keyboard but also get those annoying smudges and fingerprints off your monitor? Here are a few tips:
Turn off the monitor. It’s not required, but it makes smudges and smears easier to see.
Use a compressed air to get rid of light dust buildup in your keyboard and screen. Never use a dish rag or paper towel to clean your monitor since they can scratch the screen; and you never want to use water on your keyboard!
Don’t use products with ethyl alcohol or ammonia based products to clean your monitor. Products like Windex can yellow flat-screen or laptop monitors. Instead, use a cleaning product designed for monitors and use a lint-free cloth designed for the job. Note: Each monitor manufacturer has its own special instructions for cleaning so make sure you read what those are before attempting to clean up anything.
Lightly moisten your cloth with rubbing alcohol or cleaning solution to wipe off your mouse or keyboard areas. Never apply the liquid directly to the screen, keyboard or other electronic parts.
A Q-tip dipped in alcohol will quickly clean your keyboard. Just make sure you don’t drip the liquid down between the keys.
Happy Computing!
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
Who wants to find an extra hour of free time in their day, everyday? Considering we’re all stressed out because there’s never enough time to get everything done, this is what I would call a “leading” question.
So how can you do it? By looking at the seemingly innocent, time-sucking activities you are spending time on ever day and either automating them or speeding them to completion using technology. Can it really be that simple? It can, but you need to understand one critical factor first…
The “Latte” Factor
Best-selling author David Bach coined this phrase in his book “The Automatic Millionaire.” The latte factor is based on the simple idea that all you need to do to become wealthy is take a hard look at the small things you spend your money on every day and see whether you could redirect that spending into savings.
For example, a little $2 purchase made every day on common things like Starbucks (a latte), bottled water, fast food snacks, cigarettes, etc. REDIRECTED into an investment account earning 6% will become $10,199.30 in 10 years. If that’s true, why don’t MORE people do it? Because saving $2 a day seems so insignificant that people spend ALL their money on these things and then have nothing left over to invest.
5 Time-Saving Techie Tips That Will Add An Hour Or MORE To Your Day
So the question is, what are some small, time-saving technologies we can use to automate or speed up what we get done to save us that precious hour? Here are our 5 favorites:
1. Use an aggressive spam filter. Over 80% of the e-mails being sent daily are not-so-delicious spam. And if you’re like me, you’re getting dozens of these every day, which can easily add up to 5-10 minutes per day sifting, sorting through and deleting the spam from the e-mails you want. We recommend, of course, our own IT EZ Spam filter program because it is updated 2,000 to 4,000 times per day to ensure protection from even the newest spammer tricks! Plus, eliminating spam temptations from your STAFF will not only cut down on the time they waste on it, but will also drastically reduce your chances of getting viruses and spyware on your network.
2. Replace Old PCs. While it’s hard to truly estimate how much total time is wasted waiting on an old, slow computer to process tasks, start up, etc., I can tell ya, it adds up. Let’s say your old PC takes 10 seconds longer to process a task than a fresh, new one. Might not seem like a lot, but with users averaging 100-150 tasks a day conservatively are wasting 16-25 minutes a day. Add in the crashes and other problems old PCs cause and you’re probably closer to 30-35 minutes a day.
3. Maintain Your Network. Another tip that will save you a lot of time is patching, updating and optimizing your server and workstations. You’d be surprised how much slower even a new machine will start to run if not maintained properly.
4. Document management. This is a HUGE time-saver if you are a paper-heavy office (like attorneys, doctors, contractors, etc.). But even if you aren’t, scanning and storing paper documents so they can be searched on and located in seconds rather than minutes or hours is a HUGE time saver. Plus, it’s a greener solution, improves document security, enables users to access critical documents remotely AND (if that’s not enough) prevents important paper from loss or damage.
5. Implement SharePoint or Other Business Collaboration Software. Be honest: how much time is wasted in your office because people are duplicating efforts, can’t find information and documents they need or backtracking to FIX mistakes made? This, like time wasted on old PCs and downtime, may be hard to calculate, but I would conservatively guess that folks are wasting at least 30 minutes a day or MORE because of disorganization. That’s why we recommend growing companies implement software to organize projects and documents into a SINGLE location, making it easier for everyone to get on the same page.
Want To Implement Any Of These In Your Office?
Give us a call and we can show you how these technologies (and dozens of others we offer) can streamline your operations, saving you LOT of time!
“We were really surprised at how our email volume decreased after implementing BSSI’s IT EZ Spam filter program”, states Keith Lewis, CIO Partner of Jones, Cochenour & Co. “We found that 90% of all our emails were spam related. That means 90 out of every 100 emails received daily by each of our employees, were spam. We are really impressed with this service. It saves us a lot of productive time!”
