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Have a Very
Happy & Safe Holiday
from all of us
at InSwift |
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Get the Big Picture
Assessing your information technology
You are certainly familiar with the Rube Goldberg machine –
the delightfully convoluted set of processes required to
accomplish a simple task. In the day to day interactions of
information technologies, Goldberg is often hard at work. It
only takes a tiny disagreement between software codes or a
mismatch of operating systems for the marble wobbling down
the chute to end up on the floor.
Ideally, you should be evaluating
your IT investment initiatives in the context of a comprehensive business
strategy that ensures maximum returns and facilitates that all-important
"alignment" of IT and business requirements. But the real world too often
delivers unrestrained marbles.
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The 4 Must-Dos to Keep Your
Printer Printing
Used with permission from
the HP Small & Medium Business Center
You won’t be
surprised to hear us say that HP printing and imaging
equipment is built for reliability – because it’s true! Our
printers undergo rigorous testing to ensure you have a
minimum of hassle and repairs. However, our experience also
shows that a few simple maintenance steps can further
improve the reliability of your printer, giving you the best
print quality and the fewest headaches. Here are four
maintenance “must-dos” for different HP printers.
For HP
Inkjet printers: Clean the ink nozzle
When using an inkjet printer, you’ll want to ensure that the
ink nozzle stays clean and free of any obstructions. One
easy way to do this is with the HP Deskjet Toolbox that was
installed with your printer. For most printers, the Toolbox
will have a "Maintenance" or "Printer Services" tab.
Choosing this tab reveals a "Clean the print cartridges"
option. Choose this option and follow the instructions
presented. You may need to run the test multiple times.
Read more tips
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Your Memory in a Flash
by Mike Hogan
Used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business
Center
Portables: Everybody wants one. But with portables come
issues--issues of weight, inadequate runtimes and the trauma
that data can experience when the floor breaks a portable's
fall. As if those problems weren't enough, new notebooks
will be packing extra weight around the middle: Vista and
Microsoft Office Suite 2007.
Some claim that
a dose of Flash memory is all a portable needs to become a
highly functioning member of computing society.
Specifically, the latest generation of drives from Samsung
and Seagate put 128MB or 256MB of Flash cache in front of
your portable's platters so they don't have to spin up as
often to feed the processor. In fact, Samsung's MH80 drive
remains idle 99 percent of the time, says Andy Higginbotham,
director of hard disk drive marketing at Samsung.
Read more
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Like Waves
on an Ocean
used with permission
from JOEL H. WELDON & ASSOCIATES, INC.
http://www.SuccessComesInCans.com
Unconsciously,
you are influencing the lives of those around you
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Four
of the greatest physicists in the world came from a small
town in Germany. Tracing their lives, someone discovered
that all four were taught by the same high school physics
teacher. Obviously, that teacher touched each of these men
in a special way, when they were just boys.
Without knowing
it, he touched the entire world. |
It’s the same
with you. You may not be aware of it, but you too touch the
entire world. Your influence flows out from you, often
imperceptibly, like waves on an ocean.
Read more |
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Ultimate Tips for Web
Searching in Less Time
reprinted with
permission from the HP Small Business Center
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Most
of us use search engines every day, but few know how to make
the most of those searches. Given the enormous amount of
information on the Internet, almost any search you do will
yield thousands, or even millions of results. But if they
aren’t the right results, they don’t do you any good. And
who has time to spend trawling through loads of “sort of
useful” information?
Fortunately, there
are a few tricks to help you better focus your searches so
you get the information you need in less time.
Here are
five search engine best practices to try next time you need
to search. |
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December
2009 |
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In this issue: |
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► |
The Big Picture |
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Keep Your Printer Printing |
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► |
Your Memory in a Flash |
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► |
Like Waves on an Ocean |
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Tips for Web Searching |
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Flying with Cell Phones |
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Flying with Cell Phones: 5
Myths
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business
Center
It's difficult to
imagine a time when people looked forward to flying on a
commercial airline. Yes, even when they were traveling on
business. But that was before airline deregulation, when
seats still offered ample leg room, plane food was palatable
(and free) and fellow passengers actually dressed up for
trips. Now all of that is gone, replaced with narrow seats,
$7 sandwiches, lots of first-time fliers with loose-fitting
clothing worn for the ease of getting past airport security,
and soon, cell phones.
I know. Talk about
adding insult to injury. The airborne cell phone hasn't
become widespread yet, but that hasn't stopped people from
speculating about the demise of having civilized
conversation from an airplane. I'm not here to do that,
mostly because airline travel was never civilized to begin
with, at least for those of us who traveled after the 1970s.
But if the buzz is
to be believed, onboard wireless may actually offer a
terrific opportunity to reclaim the two, three or four hours
that used to be downtime. For you, cell phones on planes
could very well be the best thing that's happened to
airlines since electronic tickets.
Read
more
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Quote
of the
Month |
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We would accomplish many more things if we did not think
of them as impossible.
- Vince Lombardi
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Just
for Laughs |
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