This is a collection
of practical experience-based tips and tools for business owners.
Browse often for simple, effective, advice to help your small
business move ahead.
SPAM FILTER
Besides providing a solid free email service that's better than
most, my experience is that gmail is a great spam filter. This
quickly, easily solves one of email's biggest problems. You
can access gmail directly from the web or via MicroSoft Outlook
or both like I do. For more details see http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html.
If you already have email addresses you want to keep just forward
any messages to them on to your new gmail address. Then gmail
will filter out any spam.
An issue some have is that with Google expertly tracking both
your email and web searches long-term privacy is a concern.
SEARCH ENGINES
Google.com is the obvious choice for most Internet users. It
has a simple interface and historically has proven to be faster
and provide most of the usable results fairly near the top.
For more search engine options see http://www.philb.com/whichengine.htm
or search Google.com for "search engines" .
LAPTOP PURCHASES
My current laptop is a Thinkpad X60 tablet by IBM/Lenovo running
Vista Business. At the desk we put it in a dock and attach a
Lenovo keyboard and a 19" screen to it. The reason we upgraded
to the Thinkpad was to test the smaller tablet format and to
run the more CPU-hungry Vista software. It's a nice product
that works well for me though Vista does seem a bit slow, especially
to load, and sometimes crashes. The Thinkpad was a bit expensive
too though prices are coming down; we bought it because the
combo laptop/desktop is our most important business tool which
we use many hours/day.
Another laptop we still own, like and use is the HP pavilion
zt3000 running XP Professional. It has proved to be a good workhorse
for several years, and has a nice screen and keyboard. Though
this model is a bit large to carry around and the battery life
is somewhat limited it works nicely as a desktop without needing
a separate screen or keyboard. This saved us buying another
desktop and dealing with the hassle of transferring between
two computers.
OPERATING SYSTEMS & OFFICE SUITES
We have bought, installed, and reinstalled many Microsoft operating
systems. Our recommendation is that when you buy a new computer
you should buy all new operating system and other major software
(like Microsoft Office Suite) pre-installed by the dealer. This
way you know who is responsible (the dealer :) if there are
any hardware or software incompatibilities.
Also, even if there are no problems you will save a lot of time
I also generally buy my hardware and major software (operating
systems & office suites) somewhere near the top end of the sweet
spot cost wise. I try to get software that is reasonably new
but tested by the marketplace (e.g., buy new operating system
software a 9-18 months after it is readily available). I also
want it to last hopefully for the life of the hardware, which
often will be to old or slow to properly run newer software
purchased three years from now.
By the way, most business users will probably never have to
erase the hard drives and start from scratch unless you have
a serious virus. Then you should probably have a dealer help
you if you can't fix it yourself. In the case of developers
like GoTools our computers do get overloaded with a variety
of software so they get bogged down after a couple of years.
So we do infrequently erase the hard drive and start from scratch
sometimes; but, even for experts, this can take several days
to get all the software working right again. Installs often
are not as smooth as advertised and take "messing around" to
get them working.
Another aside is that you should preferably keep your operating
systems and office applications the same major version on all
computers in the office. We normally run only two versions at
a time, e.g. now Vista on our new computers and Office XP on
our old computers that we are not ready to replace. This will
save training and support costs. Many big companies keep all
hardware and software throughout the company the exact same
version for that reason. They know that "hidden" support costs
often run more than total software and hardware costs.
BUYING DESKTOPS
We are no longer buying desktops but, in the past bought dozens
of Dell computers on line and then switched to HP computers
from local computer and office supply stores when the relative
price of Dells got too high. We like solid well-known brands
that can be price shopped and bought from a local source that
can also fix them if need be.
2008 Note. Lately more and more friends have been having problems
with their HP laptops. Luckily, GoTool's older HP laptops keep
cranking away as usual.
MARKETING SERVICES … a plug :).
GoTools helps small businesses generate good leads. This is
typically a process involving:
(1) creating a web site to collect and educate target leads
integrated with
(2) a variety of ways to attract prospects to this web site.
See marketing consulting.
COMPUTER SERVICES … a plug :).
GoTools has a depth of practical experience in web site development
and computer tools. See computer consulting.
MICROSOFT VS APPLE OPERATING SYSTEMS (OSs)
The consensus is that Microsoft is much, much more widely used
in business than is Apple. This means more business people use
it and know how to use it. It also has many more working applications
since software developers will build first and test most for
the biggest market of buyers.
The consensus is that Apple is more nicely designed & more robust
since Apple controls both the hardware (unlike Microsoft) and
software that runs on their machines; and, because of this control,
Apple has been more expensive.
While neither OS is all that user friendly for rank beginners
(we used to teach both) Apple is considered to be more so, especially
by avid Apple enthusiasts of which there are many, because of
its generally nice design. By the way, the professional full-time
graphics market consists mainly of Apple enthusiasts.
Our bottom line: Use Microsoft if you are in business; otherwise
you & your employees will be swimming against the main stream
which costs time and money. Consider using Apple if you are
a graphics professional (Apple is the main stream for graphics
professionals) or don't mind swimming against the stream to
own a "better" computer.
By the way, do not use both Microsoft and Apple OSs in your
business if you can fight off the enthusiasts. Regardless of
what advertisements and enthusiasts say, files and applications
don't transfer between the two OSs that well and the process
will end up eating wages. That's is another word for the wise
:).
Thoughts on the
CLOUD, WEB 2.0 & LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM
We like the Cloud and have been using it for years. A big advantage
is that keeping sophisticated applications running on a server
is much easer than keeping them running on a client machine.
That's how we run some of our own databases and widgets.
Web 2.0 has interesting potential and has some killer applications
(e.g., blogs, Facebook) and success stories. However, for it
to apply to a particular business the fit has to be right. And
that will probably take some figuring. Our advice is to get
involved personally and watch it closely since a Web 2.0 applications
can sometimes exponentially increase your business.
Linux is interesting and getting even more and more important.
However, one has to be careful unless he/she is a technical
expert. Our observation is that most larger businesses use Microsoft
(even with all it's problems) unless they are deep into the
technology business themselves and use large number of servers
(e.g., Google, Amazon, Sun, ISPs) and can support and even customize
their own Linux OS. Where Linux really may some day take off
on the client side is with inexpensive laptops or internet phones
that run primarily cloud-based applications.
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