Last time around I spoke of using an online fax service and extolled the virtues of leaving your fax machine in the dust. But, as I ended up, I told you that in order to use such a service that you would somehow have to get the document to be faxed onto your had drive. …
One of the most helpful tools in our business has been the fax machine. Next to the telephone, this has probably been the single biggest productivity tool that we have used in the past 20 years. I don’t need to belabor all the ways that faxing has benefited us and the way that we do…
Have you ever wanted to send a large file to a client or even a friend or family member, sat through the long upload via email only to get a message back that the recipient’s email system could not process the file because it was too large? Or had someone tell you that they couldn’t…
These days most of us find that we are spending more time working from our cars, our clients home or business, Starbucks or anywhere that’s not in our office. So, most of us have invested in Treos or Smartphones of some sort because these phones allow us to keep up with email or check the…
For the last 21 years I have staunchly believed that a real estate agent could not use a Macintosh computer in the operation of their business. My rationale was that there was just not enough business software available for the Mac. When our MLS’s moved away from proprietary software to web based applications, the nails…
Let’s talk about phishing. No, not fishing with a rod, reel and some bait, but phishing where hackers try to get you to give up some personal information by exploiting a weakness in your browser or email service. Here is how it works: This weakness allows malicious coders to create Web sites that look exactly…
Here is the Cliff Notes version for those of you in a hurry: You need one. Go get one. Stop arguing. Now for the rest of you, we’ll start with a little trip back through time. Back in the days when desk top computers were just starting out, they were stand alone computers connected to…
I want to talk a bit about backups. But first, let’s take a little quiz: First question: Do you have a backup program/system in place that regularly performs a backup of your critical data? (Answer truthfully and no copying your neighbor’s answer) Second question: How likely are you to remember to do this on a…
So one day you go up to your computer and it is doing something weird or it’s not doing what it should be doing or something is wrong and you just have no clue what to do. You’ve even rebooted, but the problem has not gone away. It’s now time to call tech support…or is…
Now I’ll talk about Error Checking (A.K.A. ScanDisk or ChkDsk) and Disk Defragmentation. These two programs are essential to the continued good health of your computer. Running these two programs is like changing the oil in your car and getting a tune up. They don’t perform the same functions, but if your forget to change…
