Mary, Williamstown
It is even more fun than a new car! I like it and thank you.
*****
Regarding: Installation of a new Lenovo A70Z All-In-One Integrated Workstation and migrating data & settings from an older Dell system.
Kathy, Williamstown
BRAVO!!! As always, you have been amazing and we really appreciate all your hard work. K
*****
Regarding: Installation and configuration of:
16 Apple iMac Desktop Computers
10 Apple Macbook Laptops
1 Apple Mac Mini Server
2 IBM Lenovo A70Z PC Workstations
1 HP Laserjet CP2025X Network Color Laser Printer
2 Canon MP560 Wireless Color Inkjet Printers
2 Epson Scanners
Including the migration of an existing Windows Active Directory Domain to Open Directory on Mac OS X Server, reconfiguration of various network services including DHCP & DNS, and installation of a new print server.
Kaytie, NY, NY
Yes! Jackie has been GREAT. Thank you so much for your help!
New Website Launch
After years (yes, it’s been a long time since Williams graduate and former Brainspiral partner Samantha Orme designed and developed the original website), Brainspiral Technologies, Inc. is pleased to announce that we have a new look. Samantha was an outstanding designer & we still miss her. We’re slowly growing, learning and developing, and we want to use our website as a tool to communicate. We’ll continue to post all sorts of information – recommendations for new purchases, DIY troublshooting & repair, solutions to common and uncommon problems. This is just the first step, too – there will be more to come.
– The Brainspiral Staff
Exchange Servers?
We have had some recent questions about Microsoft Outlook Exchange servers. This is what we told one client:
Dear Mr so-and-so,
Protection of your data
Your data is important. While we work magic in many ways, recovering data from failed hard drives is difficult, at best, and often impossible. The only way to protect your data & minimize downtime is to ensure you have a good backup solution in place. We’ve discussed this before, but it’s so important we want to discuss it again.
We have found the best way to backup data is to use an external hard drive, preferably a network hard drive. Network drives are inexpensive, easy to configure, reliable & fast. We recommend them in all cases – Macs, PCs, even Servers.
While most network drives are identical, we recommend those made by Buffalo. They offer many excellent features & are very compatible. They come in a variety of sizes (250gb, 320gb, 500gb, 750gb, 1tb, 2tb, 4tb) to accommodate for all different kinds of storage needs. They also provide an excellent means to share files among multiple users in a household or small business. These devices can also be configured to backup to each other – for maximum data protection.
On the Mac side of things, we highly recommend using Leopard’s (10.5) Time Machine. It’s an excellent program (thanks, Apple!) that makes automatic backups on a regular basis. It can even be used over a wireless connection. Though many of you are probably still running 10.4 or 10.3, have you considered upgrading?
On the PC side of things, we highly recommend using a backup program called Cobian. It’s freely downloadable from snapfiles.com. It offers great flexibility – allowing you to choose what you want backed up, and when.
If you’re really concerned about safeguarding your data, look at an online backup service like mozypro.com or mac.com.
Microsoft Office 2007 / DOCX Files
We’ve had a lot of complaints from clients who have received attachments from users with Microsoft Office 2007 and have been unable to open them. It turns out that Microsoft changed the default file format in Office 2007 & that format is not compatible with any other version of Microsoft Office (both on a PC and a Mac). This is typically Microsoft – introduce something new that offers no advantages whatsoever & provide zero backwards compatibility within their own software families. Nice work, Microsoft!
Microsoft also learns from their mistakes (though they never admit it) & has released converters for both PCs and Macs to allow these new file formats (based on eXtensible Markup Language – suffix docx) to be opened properly. They’re available here:
The Truth About TV Displays
A client just asked us about the Pioneer PDP4280 Plasma TV – 42″. We recently installed a Pioneer PDP5010FD – 50″, the quality of which was absolutely phenomenal, so we weren’t reluctant to encourage them to go for it. But then we looked at the specs for the PDP4280 & were a bit surprised. This was our response:
Email Chain Letter: PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ARRESTED
A public school teacher was arrested this morning at John F.Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator. Read more
High-Speed Internet Service Choices
There are a couple of choices in high-speed internet service providers in the Northern Berkshire. There are a few differences in the services that are offered by Time Warner Cable and Verizon:
Verizon DSL offers two services – a basic, 768 kbps service that is perfectly suited to loading websites, retrieving email, and downloading small files such as antivirus software updates. This service will perform these jobs at such a speed that there is no advantage to having the higher speed connection. The one limitation of the 768 kbps service is transferring large files via email or web browser, or watching streaming media, such as audio or video.
Verizon’s other service, their 3000 kbps service, is more comparable to Time Warner Cable’s service, which typically runs at between 2000 and 5000 kbps. These two services are virtually identical, streaming media, transferring files, etc. at lightning fast speeds. Their prices are not. Verizon’s service tends to cost approximately $15 to $30 less than Time Warner Cable service.
We hope this assists our clients in deciding which High-Speed Internet Service Provider is best for you and your needs. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like a Brainspiral technician to install one of these services for you.