Windows 7 - Works the way you want

At fisheye we have been using and loving windows 7 for over 6 months, Its faster, more productive, better looking and runs better on more computers than windows vista or windows XP. Heres what microsoft have to say :

You told us what you wanted in the next version of Windows and we listened. On October 22, Windows 7 will be widely available and you can see the results for yourself.

Work faster and more reliably with a variety of features from Windows 7 Professional. Now you can share information and solve problems easily, so you spend less time troubleshooting your network and more time helping your business.

Experience the powerful combination of innovation, performance, and productivity.

In the planning phases of Windows 7, business customers just like you asked for a better performing, easy-to-use, and secure system, a solution that works the way they need it to work, so they could focus on what matters most—their business.

Get more done

Productivity—everything from search, to ease of use, to mobility—is vital to your business. Find what you need with less time and effort, so you can work on the things that matter to your business.

Ask us about upgrading to, or getting a new Windows 7 computer today!

Take the tour here:  windows 7 home page

Time to get your BING on - Microsoft have finally released their latest search project ... www.bing.com . After a few false starts (OK so we know somebody else is rather well known for search) and a few names (remember Kumo anyone) Steve Ballmer announced the release of BING search late last week.

Too early to call the winner - or understand it's usefulness - but 2 things are clear

• Microsoft would dearly love some more of the search engine market share pie. Read advertising $$$.
• Google and others have a lot of eyeballs glued to their existing products - and moving them across to the dark/light side (however you want to look at it) is not an insignificant challenge.

Some stage 1 economics ideas reverberate -

• First mover advantage - whoever is first into a market and develops the majority market share has an almost unassailable lead and your efforts are best to focus on the new markets. (Read Microsoft's offical press release to see how they are pitching BING as a new market product - "Decision Engine" not "Search Engine")
• Monopolies vs Oligopolies and Pure market systems - the big guys will go to great lengths (read - spend a small mountain of $$$) to try and wrestle their way into markets - no matter the vast sums of money that can be wasted in the process without much progress.

It reminds me of our local chocolate war here in NZ -

1. Nestle owns white chocloate - or Milky bar
2. Cadbury tries once every couple of years to develop some cred in the white chocolate space and spends a great deal in the process.

So far their efforts haven't disrupted the market (for white chocolate or search technology) - but it doesn't mean they won't stop trying. Who's got the most money to burn ?

Check it out - www.bing.com

OK so Twitter is rather loudly hitting the media columns globally - yes it's now a phenomenon as far as away as New Zealand. At least people know/hear the name - but have you actually got your head around it yet? Rather than try and describe it here's a quick start guide to get up and running - you will start to get it once you complete the steps below.

So for the beginner -

Twitter can be found here - www.twitter.com - simply sign up using your email address and then follow the instructions to confirm your online account.

Once you have your account setup - you can simply visit the Twitter homepage (save your login if you don't want to have to enter it everytime you go there) and view messages from your friends - oh you don't have any - go to the Find People link and either manually search for them (just pop in your favourite celeb and hit seach to try it) or alternatively click on the Suggested Users link and you can simply add people to follow on twitter. Everytime you send a "tweet" or message it will arrive on your homepage - and all your followers homepages. (or vice versa) OK so it takes a while to develop a following - much like real life - although check out TwitterCounter to see the most popular twitterers.

Often you may just want to find hot Twitter news stories - naturally in NZ right now a popular topic is the Napier siege - use the Search box on the right hand column of the Twitter homepage to uncover info you are looking for. (Google are rumoured to be in talks to buy Twitter - Twitter search is effectively a live search engine which makes Google look out of date and could make Google search obsolete. It is the next frontier of search by all accounts)

Also look at the Trending Topics links below the search column to see what is a hot topic on Twitter - check it next time there is some breaking global news story and no doubt it will be one of the Trending Topics.

If you're like me and time is in short supply you can also get another program that sits open on your desktop at all times and tells you quietly with a small bird noise and popup balloon message when a new Tweet comes in. (Much like a new email when it arrives) Simply goto the Twitter Downloads page to choose a relevant application to use. Currently I am using TweetDeck - mainly because I can use it to summarise/receive all Facebook updates as well as Tweets on one page. You will just need to tell the program you choose your Twitter name and password and then the information will start flowing.

Give that you only have 140 characters maximum per Tweet - people often use a URL abbreviation site to provide short web page addresses in their Tweets. To do this simply goto TinyURL and enter the long address and it will create a new address for you. Copy this then paste it into your Tweet.

Of course if all else fails - check out the Twitter Help page for more info.

And for some comic relief about Twitter - watch this YouTube video

Happy Twittering
-Jeremy

I often overlook this one - yet I would use it 10+ times a day.

When creating a new email to someone you are unsure if you have them in your contacts list or not. So you write their first name and see if it autopreviews their address. If it is not someone you email regularly it will not resolve or become underlined as others do. (It will actually after a long delay but I haven't time to wait around)

So 2 options -

1 > You manually use the mouse and hit the "To" button to see if they come up in one of your address books. This is laborious.

2 > You use a shortcut key - ALT + K - and it automatically searches your address book and will resolve it if it can. It's fast and if you have multiple people in your "To" list it will resolve them one by one. (remember separate multiple names with a semi colon)

Which reminds me of several others I use when emailing -

• CONTROL + R when reading and email - creates a reply to that email
• CONTROL + F forwards the email being read
• CONTROL + SHIFT + M - when in outlook main screen to create a new email
• ALT + . - (that's a fullstop) to shortcut hitting the "To" button when in a new email
• ALT + C - to shortcut to the "CC" button.
• and the FINAL nugget ALT + S - to send that email right away

Yep I hate the slow multimouse click syndrome - kick some ass by learning shortcuts - much more productive.

- Jeremy

If you use the windows quick launch bar (right click the taskbar and select quick launch) and you want an even faster way to open those programmes ?

Just hit the windows key and the corresponding number key to the app in the quick launch bar and it will open.

For example if "Internet explorer" is the first button in your quick launch, Windows key + 1 will start it, this will obviously only go up to number 9.

try it out !

Moving right along from the tech specific world - something that just uses technology to bring you the most up to date local content - Check out interest.co.nz for the latest information on New Zealand interest rates across over 50 local institutions.

It includes calculators for various financial majic - I know we are all looking, analysing, preguessing where the bottom of the market is, whether we should add more debt or just how to get out of the mountain we have found ourselves in - this will give you some straight answers without the bias of going direct to one player.

This one courtesy of the man that always watches the news wires - and still scoops me on some local tech stories - ok so he is in PR he should beat me ! Thanks to David Paine from Pead PR.

Happy house buying everyone - it's the time of opportunity right.

- Jeremy

Media, media, media - it just seems to replicate endlessly into diffrerent formats, codecs, protocols, size, quality etc. Over the years we have tried various ways to improve the user experience of the various well known media players - quicktime, windows media player, realplayer, intervideo etc. They never like to play content that is not exactly in the syntax they understand - and end users understandably give up at one of the various hurdles on the way.

Step forth Videolan to the rescue - it is part of our standard installation on all new PC's (without default file type associations selected so it is there in the background in case the other players won't work.)

Sure it hasn't got a snazzy interface - and technically it's still in BETA (after about 10 years of availability on the web).

Trust me it just works - it just seems to play any media file you throw at it. Download the latest version, install it and then run the application and point it to the file you are trying to play. Voila it works - basic, elegant and very effective. Enjoy.

-Jeremy

The upside of working in IT is accessing and testing all the latest products. The downside of working in IT is testing all the latest products. Somewhere in the middle lies a happy balance - one that sometimes gets tipped either way.

Recently we began testing/using the Nokia E series business range of mobile phones. We haven't been using the Nokia handsets for some time as they lacked the business features. No matter how great the interface and ease of use - they didn't match what Blackberry and Windows mobile could do (and of course the new kid on the block - the iPhone)

So when they finally announced support for mobile synchronisation (think calendars, contacts, emails on the move) we took another look.

Traps to avoid for the uninitiated -

Get the latest copy of Nokia's Mail for Exchange application before you start.

They do not like to synch without an SSL certificate - not reliably anyway. So do put this on the device even if it is a self signed certificate. 

Finally and the point of my post - it never ceases to amaze me how patchy the firmware is on phones when they are first released. In the rush to put the devices out in the market/channel they overlook the value of the negative customer experience. Sure it's OK for the early adopters (us) - we expect some hassles. However often these devices are still out of date well into the release cycle and fall into end users hands. So head to the Nokia device update site to pickup the latest firmware for your device - and remember to get the release that is correct for your locale. ie UK / USA / NZ etc.

I'm happy to report the latest update to my Nokia E71 seems to have ironed out the bugs and it is working smoothly now. It's been about 5 years since I used a Nokia - and even longer since I owned a Psion (the forerunner to Symbian OS) Overall I am impressed with the E series range - they have designed devices to cater for all the different types of business users and the consistency across the range is great.

Time to get on and test the VOIP components of the range and update those clients of ours who are using Nokia devices.

Finally - and importantly in this market - I have to say it is significantly cheaper monthly cost than RIM's Blackberrys and much less complex to support - unless customers are adamant they want to keep their Crackberrys we are recommending this new range - along with the Windows/Apple devices. I'm looking forward to RIM's moves to combat the new competition.

-Jeremy

So this is really a plug for a colleague who sent through an update to her contact list. If you are looking for ways to recycle different types of materials in our local region - this is the regional council recycling resources database ... recycler.arc.govt.nz.

Hey I know it's April fools - we shouldn't be so serious! Jokes aside.

We have been collecting all our old batteries (yep those early wireless keyboards chewed batteries) for at least 6 years waiting for the opportunity to dispose of them (I got the habit 20 years ago in Germany where every supermarket has a battery drop off station). Finally I have the contacts to do just that.

With thanks to Sophie Heighway from Downer EDI Works. ;)

-Jeremy

A reminder our clients to please let us know if you have staff changes, so that we can delete or disable old user accounts. 

This stops ex-employees gaining inappropriate access back into your systems once they have left, plus frees up space and resources on servers. 

-Andrew Mackintosh

More Automatic updates

Part of the monthly standard updates which we will be updating for all our clients. The latest updates are for email security and Internet explorer.

Unfortunately (as stated in a previous blog) this resets your security settings for Internet explorer. To fix this open internet explorer, tools, internet options, security tab, trusted sites and set the appropriate level of security.

-Daniel O'Sullivan

Open, edit, and save Office 2007 documents: Download the Office Compatibility Pack

We get a few comments from clients and friends saying that they can’t open Office 2007 documents they get from me or other people using the latest version of Office.

There are a couple of ways to avoid this issue.

1. If you’re using Office 2007, you can save your documents as previous versions and can be set as default to save files as a 2003 version.
2. If you don’t have Office 2007, download the Office Compatibility Pack. It allows you to open, edit and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used with Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats.

Here are so more helpful links if you’re having compatibility issues with Office 2007.

• How to use earlier versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to open and save files from 2007 Office programs
• Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats

In a similar vein to the post found here, Macro Security settings can and do get changed in Microsoft Office after updates are applied to Office via Automatic Updates.

This can easily catch someone out, but is easily over come by changing back to the previous configuration.

-Andrew Mackintosh

As posted previously here, the changes to Daylight Saving are going to significantly affect computer systems in New Zealand.

Some important information:

Expect problems with your calendars in the first week of September and between the 23rd March and 6th April 2008.  This will especially affect recurring appointments.  Double check appoinments, and don't trust your calendar!

If your computer connects to a server or domain, the whole IT system will need to be patched.  We will be contacting our clients that fit in this category over the next few days.

If you are a Windows user without a server, scheduling software or a smart phone, and your computer automatically updates, then you should not need to take any corrective action yourself.

If you use a smart phone (Blackberry or Windows Mobile), it will need to be patched to handle the new Daylight Savings timings.  This is due to syncing of the calendar, and simply changing the time on the Smart Phone will not resolve the problem.

If you use any applications that involve scheduling, these will most likely need to be patched also, and the vendor of the application should be contacted.

And finally, any other systems with clocks or scheduling will need to be considered.  These may include: Mac systems, Linux systems, thin clients, phone systems and many more.  We will be working with our clients to resolve issues with these devices.

-Andrew Mackintosh

A number of reports are coming in from DSL broadband users describing being disconnected at the same time of the day on a regular basis.

One question that the ISPs often ask is:

"Do you have alarm monitoring on the same phone line as the Internet?"

If the answer to this is yes, then this is most likely the cause of the problem.  It relates to the alarm 'phoning home' to the security company that monitors the alarm, and therefore interferring with the broadband connection.

The solution to this is to move either the broadband or the alarm to a different line, or to ask the phone provider to "pre-filter" the line.

-Andrew Mackintosh

Some of you may have noticed that every month or so, you need to reset some of the security settings on Internet Explorer, to keep you browsing as you normally would.

This is because of Windows Updates for Internet Explorer reseting the security settings on Trusted Sites back to the default.

Unfortunately, this is something that has to be fixed manually after an update has been installed, and will most likely happen on a somewhat regular basis.  It is simple enough fix however.

To do this, open Tools, Internet Options, Security, Trusted Sites and set the approriate level of security.

-Andrew Mackintosh

On September 30th, New Zealand will see the start of the new daylight savings regime that was announced in April.

Great news many of us may say, but not our computer systems!  The fixes and adjustments that needed are quite a big pill for IT to swallow.

Just some of items that will need correction are:

      -Server Operating Systems
      -Exchange Mail Systems
      -PC Operating Systems
      -Outlook
      -Smart Phones / Blackberrys
      -Any application that provides scheduling

Fisheye are currently developing a strategy for all of our clients, and will be in touch over coming weeks.  Do get in touch with us if you would like to discuss.

- Andrew Mackintosh

After some initial reports were downplayed we can confirm Home Server is running wild.

Replete with new hologram DVD.

It will be an interesting game to watch this one play out > I finally have an guilt free answer to ensure my friends don't lose their baby photos.

Reports in shortly ;)

And if you haven't seen it > check out the Home Server site

Microsoft has released a couple of pre service pack 1 reliability and performance updates for windows vista. if you are having any issues with your Vista PC, click on the link and try these out.