We would like to thank you for your patronage over the years and we hope you got something from our blog. However, our parent company IT Turning Point has now closed and we will no longer be populating this blog post site.
It will remain as is for a time and then we will take it down.
Many regards for the future.
In the fast-paced world of small business, it’s easy to let IT maintenance slip down the priority list. However outdated technology can hinder productivity, create security risks, and ultimately impact your bottom line. That’s why regular IT reviews are crucial for success.
Why Review?
Think of an IT review as a health check for your business technology. It identifies areas for improvement and ensures your systems are running smoothly. Here’s what a review can uncover:
When and How?
Ideally, conduct a comprehensive IT review annually. However, consider more frequent assessments if your business experiences rapid growth or undergoes significant changes.
If you have the expertise, you can conduct the review in-house. Alternatively, many IT consultants specialize in small business reviews. They can provide an objective assessment and offer tailored recommendations. This is what we do at a friendly cost.
The Payoff
Investing in an IT review can yield significant returns. By identifying and addressing technology gaps, you can:
Don’t wait for a tech emergency to force your hand. A proactive IT review can ensure your technology supports your business goals and drives success. Get in touch here.
In today’s digital world, cybersecurity is no longer just a concern for large corporations. Small businesses are increasingly becoming targets of cyberattacks, often lacking the resources and expertise to defend themselves effectively. The consequences can be devastating, from financial loss, data breaches, reputational damage, and even business closure.
Small businesses often mistakenly believe they are too insignificant to attract the attention of cybercriminals. However, the reality is that they are frequently seen as easy targets due to their perceived lack of robust security measures. Cybercriminals employ various tactics, including phishing scams, malware attacks, and ransomware, to exploit vulnerabilities and gain access to sensitive information.
1. Strong Passwords and Multi-Factor Authentication: Implement strong, unique passwords for all accounts and enable multi-factor authentication whenever possible. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring additional verification, such as a code sent to your phone and your password.
2. Software Updates: Regularly update your operating systems, applications, and security software to patch vulnerabilities and protect against known threats.
3. Secure Wi-Fi Networks: Use strong passwords and encryption for your Wi-Fi network to prevent unauthorized access.
4. Employee Training: Educate your employees about cybersecurity best practices, including recognizing phishing emails, avoiding suspicious links, and practising safe browsing habits.
5. Data Backup and Recovery: Regularly back up your critical data to a secure location, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage, to ensure business continuity in case of a cyberattack or data loss.
6. Cybersecurity Assessment: Consider conducting a cybersecurity assessment to identify vulnerabilities and implement appropriate security controls.
By taking these proactive steps, small businesses can significantly strengthen their cybersecurity posture and reduce the risk of being targeted by cyberattacks. Remember, investing in cybersecurity is an investment in your business’s future.
Give us a shout at I.T. Turning Point.
Morning folks. I wanted to pop on with a quick post.
In case you didn’t know I offer IT consultancy that lets small to medium organisations review what IT they have and how they are using IT and I advise on what is out there and how they may be able to adopt new and developing kit that would make them work smarter and not harder.
I popped on today to say that I still get the same old argument from some organisations that are resistant to change.
“We have always done it this way and it has served us well.”
What needs to be understood is that the world of IT is constantly evolving, I mean daily if not hourly. Now we don’t need to adopt the latest and greatest to do our work, but knowing what is there and how it may make things smoother for us and our customers is a must. Why?
Because if we don’t move with the IT developments then our competitors will.
Things that evolving your IT can help with: –
1: Increase productivity
2: Increase staff contentment. (Surveys suggest staff irritation with ageing IT is a main cause of strife)
3: Bring in more revenue, due to increased productivity.
If you fancy a chat initially, then fill out our Contact Us form and we will get back to you.
We offer a range of IT needs Analysis surveys that meet most budgets. Check out our website for more details here.
Have a great day folks.
As a business, your IT equipment replacement policy should be based on several factors, including cost, usage, and technology advancements. Here are some recommendations to consider when creating your IT equipment replacement policy, this isn’t the full list:
It’s important to have a clear and well-defined IT equipment replacement policy in place to ensure that you are making the best use of your resources and maximizing your operations. Financially the spending may not seem frugal, but in the middle and long term, it is better and can save money long term.
Get in touch and we can chat about how we can draft an I.T. renewal policy for you and advise on your current kit with one of our Needs analysis surveys.
Microsoft has done the very thing it said it wouldn’t and launched a new operating system, Windows 11. They had always said that Windows 10 would be the last and it would be tailored and updated. However, here we are with a new version of Windows. So, Windows 11 then?
Microsoft has said it is a free download for Windows 10 users, so surely it should be a simple case of downloading and installing it. Well, unfortunately, no it isn’t.
Here is what we know so far and it is changing every day. Windows 11 looks at two main things and they are as follows: –
It checks if your current hardware system has something called TPM version 2. (Earlier versions are not supported.) What is TPM, well it is explained here? I have version 1.5 on my system.
The next thing it checks is your processor and it must be 8th generation or higher CPU. I have an i7 and it won’t install on it as it must be an older generation. Now being a green focussed guy I purchased my desktop last year as a refurbished machine and has an i7 and 32Gb of ram and a 480Gb SSD and can handle everything I throw at it. I won’t be changing my machine soon.
Now you may have read about various workarounds and even Microsoft posted a link to give a workaround for the TPM check. It involves changing registry settings on the current machine and then running the install package from a downloaded ISO of Windows 11. Someone has also come up with a workaround for the CPU being a problem. Some people I know have managed to install even though Windows 11 said their system wasn’t compatible.
But, the big elephant in the room is that Microsoft even in their own article about the workaround for the TPM has said, “We do not recommend this as the system maybe become unstable and it may affect future updates.”
The problem with these specific workarounds is that when Windows 11 updates run in the future the system may become corrupted or even completely brick itself and the machine will have to be flattened and reinstalled with a system that works. So do these at your own risk.
Answers on a postcard, please. They have copied Apple on the TPM front which ties the Operating System to the Hardware. But making the processor such a new version seems a bit ridiculous, as I can’t see larger organisations and even some smaller orgainsations I deal with replacing all their machines just to get Windows 11. The cost would be massive and very prohibitive. This would suggest that Microsoft is going to have to support Windows 10 well into the future until these organisations replace their machines with the later kit. I honestly think that Microsoft has lost the ball here and/or is playing a new card that we are all unsure of. They may be trying to force people to replace machines, they have rumored that Windows will become a Software as a service like Office 365, and in fact, they have that just now where you can purchase Microsoft 365 which includes the Operating System. How this will be affected by Windows 11 being so selective, for the people who have already purchased this I don’t know.
TPM workaround, https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-shares-windows-11-tpm-check-bypass-for-unsupported-pcs/
CPU workaround, Check out this site.
Windows 11 causing problems with AMD processors, https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/6/22713310/windows-11-amd-ryzen-processors-performance-issues-software-update-october
Good luck out there folks
I love this and was also blown away by this. What does my title mean and how many Internets are there?
Background info
Let me give you background info. At the end of last year I attended, with some tech colleagues, a Digital Expo in Edinburgh. A day of tech talks and an exhibition area full of stands and vendors showing their wares. (And the usual freebies as we like to call them.)
The main keynote speech was by an MSP about the Scottish Government trying to help tech companies and get Scotland at the top of the tech ladder. After that came the chap from Google. (I must admit at this point as to being an avid Google follower and watcher to see what they are going to do next.)
He started by taking us back to how tech and Internet access has developed over the last 30 years. Things have just exploded.
From Dial up to now literally instant access on all sorts of devices from fridges to watches and phones and laptops and so on.
Explaining the Internet
Now in a previous work post I had the privilege of teaching small business the benefits of getting a website and how the Internet worked for their benefit and the benefit of the user.
A common way I described the Internet was to keep it simple but make it understandable, went as follows: –
“Think of the Internet as a giant library full of information. Shelves of books going into the distance and finding things required a librarian to help you. They were at that time mostly Yahoo and Google. You asked then for what you were looking for and they went into the library and retuned all the relevant content”
People could visualise this and then I told them that their website would be in that content and how they could encourage the librarian to bring it to customers searching for what they had to offer. All makes sense and even though simplistic, easy to get your head around.
How would you explain the Internet? (This was very early days as well.)
So what has changed?
So if that explains the Internet then, surely it has just become much larger and has so much content the librarians have become smarter and better at what they do?
This is true of course and the search engines are constantly changing their algorithms to cater for new searches and the rise of the social media traffic.
Bur prepare to have your mind blown away. “Your Internet is not the same as my Internet”
“WHAT? I hear you cry. Of
My man from Google explained the rise of the A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), has created
Conclusion
Some people may find this very disturbing and that so much info about us is going around. Well unfortunately for them it is the case. Even using a food order app influences things. Loyalty card at stores, the list is endless.
I personally am excited about AI and what it can do for us. I think if used well and smart, we can benefit well from this technology.
So what Internet do I use, well I use the one tailored for me?
What are your thoughts on this?
#FF (Don’t do it)
I’m writing this post late on Thursday evening, and my thoughts are already turning to one of my tasks for tomorrow morning – sending out my #ff mentions. But, then that got me thinking…is this just another social media ‘ritual’ that started out as a good way to ‘recommend’ people and is now just a way of clogging up our timelines.
I have been guilty of sending out #ff mentions religiously but as of today I will no longer be doing that.
Instead, I am going to make my #ff mentions real and more meaningful. So rather than compose a tweet with a list of @users I am going to select a few and take time to make the tweet count.
Take a look at the examples below…what one stands out most to you?
#ff My great friend and mentor @goshensai and an awesome trance vocalist
#ff @joebloggs @joebloggs1 @joebloggs2 @etc @etc
So, before you go into the #ff mode,
Stop, choose some special followers and send a meaningful mention.
What are your thoughts on Twitter #FF’s, do you do them or not? Let’s hear your thoughts.
Our Guest Blogger is
Tim Thomson
Manager at Vine Conference Centre
www.vineconference.co.uk
OnePlus One Phone
Before arriving in the land of OnePlus, I had owned an HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD, Nobrand Chinese Phone™, and a Nexus 4 – the N4 being the nicest phone I had owned to date. Being nexus device, it was thoroughly hackable – I was frequently installing different ROM’s, kernels, etc. to get the most out of it. In finding out about the OPO, I was looking to see if the same flexibility would be present (and guaranteed to remain so). I wasn’t disappointed.
This is the trickiest part. Having found out about the phone late summer, I was only really in the market for a new phone around October – this was, as family can vouch for, my time of bombarding social media feeds with competitions (winning is better than buying on the wallet) and posting inane chatter on the OnePlus forums. This is the prescribed way of getting an invite, which currently, of December 2014, is the only real way of getting a device (the two preorders seemed a bit shambolic with many users complaining of problems placing orders).
The OPO arrived in reasonable time and I set about unboxing it. What arrived was an envelope which contained a box, which just so happened to have more boxes inside. Boxception. However, a nice boxception with the inner boxes being fashionably designed and pleasing to look at. This being said, I didn’t look at them for long. The device itself is a large (coming from an N4) phablet, with a nicely textured back (I ordered the 64 GB “sandstone” model). I also ordered a clear clip-on case to prevent the device getting mangled when lying on desks.
Here are some pictures of the unboxing (admittedly, pretty poor pictures – I was in a hurry to unbox!): Images of unboxing. There’s also a size comparison between the Nexus 4 and the OPO.
Notice the plain, cardboard box that it all comes in. Fairly minimalistic!
“This thing is BIG, but not too bulky…” This would be how I feel about the device a month down the line. It’s a big device to handle. My Wife is completely not interested in using it, as it’s too large for her hands. My hands, whilst not gigantic, have pretty good reach…and I still find myself using both of them to access menus.
In use, the OPO is a fast, responsive and pleasant device. CM11s (the custom version of CyanogenMod that runs on the OPO as stock) is well tailored to the device. I had no lag flicking through menus, no issues watching Netflix, or streaming content. It’s quite hard to tax the quad core 801 – 3Gb RAM helps to keep things moving along.
The 5.5” screen is gorgeous. I had read online that the colours aren’t as vibrant as other devices, and the blacks aren’t as black – I haven’t found this to be the case. It looks good. It responds well. The colours seem reasonably accurate – enough for a phone anyways. I don’t plan on doing huge amounts of image/video editing on the OPO!
Sure does! Gets a bit awkward trying to sit down sometimes, but a little shuffling and all is well. If you’re a skinny-jeans type…you’ll definitely need another solution though!
Yes.
I’ve not noticed any slowdown, or difficulties in playing files, until I started using a Lollipop ROM where codecs weren’t quite plumbed in. This was soon resolved, and now I can watch movies and listen to music/podcasts to my heart’s content.
Seems to be. The large screen is excellent for reading emails and web pages, viewing calendar entries, as well as social media feeds. The only downside to such a screen is the distance your fingers have to travel: the OPO is a big phone. As for using the term ‘PDA’, this was how I used to rock and roll: Palm IIIe.
As far as phone cameras go, the OPO is pretty good! I’ve never had a phone camera that can take such detailed and rich photos as the OPO. The ability to shoot and save a .DNG is a boon too: when things aren’t quite right, you can quickly adjust in your favourite editor and hopefully sort them out. They offer much more latitude than the standard JPEG output. See this link right here for some examples.
A wee bit pain is a good thing, right? Means you know you’re alive! This was a valid concern for me when purchasing the phone – the Nexus 4 is a 4.7” device, so screen size wasn’t an issue as my ever-agile thumbs could quickly jump across the whole screen. Whilst the OPO did present problems at first I quickly adjusted – there’s a crafty way of holding it one-handed that allows for a slight adjustment and the top of screen is then usable. Take my word for it!
The yellow tinge that folks have been moaning about – this I did notice, and it bothered me for all of 30 seconds after which I realised that the amount of time I’d be staring at a pure white screen was pretty minimal. I’ve stopped noticing it now, and it hasn’t affected my use of the OPO at all. Even on text-heavy sites, where there’s lots of white-space its fine. Seems like folks have been finding this to be an issue that resolves itself over time (or with the use of a UV lamp…): Reddit page about the issue going away.
This is where the OPO shines for me. I commute to work (roughly 40 minutes each way) and I enjoy listening to podcasts there and back. On previous phones, I could do this but would always have a nagging sensation that I’d run out of juice if I then wanted to view media/play games/photo edit etc. during the day. With the OPO, I don’t need to worry: the SoC (SnapDragon 801) has a nifty feature for audio playback which really maximises battery life. Watch the video explaining it all here. This has certainly proved true for me. Negligible battery drain whilst commuting, enough juice to back up the phone, download and flash ROM’s, play some games (Godus is the current favourite) and pfaff around on social media. Photos and the occasional video on a lunchtime stroll happen fairly regularly. At the end of day, I’m sitting happy with 30-40% left. This is without any custom kernels or underclocking.
So far I’ve played some Ravensword (which runs well, but I’m convinced could look better), Godus, Carmageddon (looks identical to how I remember it back in the day), Cogs…so some new, some graphically intensive. So far, nothing has troubled it, although I did notice that Godus had intermittent issues – but I thought this was more likely the nightly CM12 build I’m on rather than the OPO.
Ah, yes. This came across as playground politics. The OPO is still guaranteed updates for the next two years from CyanogenMod, so I’m not that bothered.
The only thing that I’ve read, that really seems to be a tripping point, is the returns procedure. It seems to be overly complicated and I’ve not really read of anyone successfully managing to return a device…but then again, I’ve not really been needing to research this as my OPO is currently working fine.
The only real caveat for me is the unwillingness of insurance companies to insure. My current company rejected my custom after I informed them I would like to change my policy to cover the OPO. Supposedly the OPO wasn’t shipped from Britain (it was, from the British warehouse OnePlus put in place). I reckon they didn’t know what it was, and so refused to insure. For £281 delivered though…is insurance something I need to concern myself with? The verdict is still out!
Buy this phone. If warranties are a concern, realise that you’re getting a high-end device (I know it’s not cutting edge, but then for £281? C’mon!) For not a lot. The build quality is good, the individual components are great, and the overall experience is pleasant. I’ve not looked back! This is genuinely the best device I’ve owned so far.
Our friends over at Geek-Speak are running this blog on Goolge’s moves to kill passwords or make them more secure, from double entry to hardware devices.
But we won’t re run it here why not pop across and check it out.
http://www.geek-speak.co.uk/2013/05/googles-password-killing-campaign/