Another great question from one of our tech tips readers.  Location-based services like Foursquare and Facebook places are spreading like wildfire, but users be concerned about their privacy?  If you’re not familiar with these services, let me explain…

About a year ago, a crop of location-based social networks started becoming very popular.  The most popular of this crop is Foursquare.  With Foursquare, you can “check in” to a location using the GPS on your mobile phone.  Foursquare is essentially a game.  You earn points for each place that you check in and unlock badges for discovering new things.   You can also use it to see where your friends are hanging out and to read their reviews of places they’ve been.  Facebook took note of its growing popularity and recently launched a service of its own called Places.  This service is similar to Foursquare in that you can check in to a location with your smartphone, but it doesn’t have the gaming features.  However, you can tag your Facebook friends in your places updates, and you can see who else has checked in at the same location (whether or not they are a Facebook friend).

When talking about Foursquare or Facebook Places, I often hear:  “Isn’t it dangerous to tell everyone on the internet where you are?”  I covered a little bit on that topic in this post a few months back.  I have done some more research on the topic, and why it is very easy to see how Places and Foursquare could be dangerous, there is little evidence to show that it actually is dangerous…yet.  For example, if you check in at restaurant in a town in another state, it is obvious that you are far away from your empty home, leaving you susceptible to burglaries (right?).  However, there hasn’t been an outbreak of robberies in the homes of Foursquare users.  With Facebook Places, the default is set to only share your location with your Facebook friends, so that means you should be safe to share your location. But what if one of your Facebook friends is an old boyfriend or girlfriend who’s trying to stalk you?  And besides, how well do you know all of your Facebook friends in real life?

From what I’ve read, if you have a visitor in your own home who decides to use Facebook places to check in, they can list your home as a public place. Your address will be displayed for all their friends to see, and you have no choice in the matter.  Now, that seems like a major privacy violation.

For me, the jury’s still out.  It sounds like a fun way to connect with friends, but at what risk? Are those of us concerned about privacy and safety being paranoid or prudent?  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, if you choose to use Facebook Places, do so at your own risk.  Read the Privacy FAQ’s here and adjust your settings as you see fit.

The truth is, maintaining your old systems might be more expensive than purchasing new ones.  Servers and workstations are like any other machines; they don’t last forever.  Think of it like a car.  After you’ve driven it for a couple hundred thousand miles, things start to break.  A new transmission here, a new alternator there, and eventually you’re putting more money into the car than it’s worth.  There’s no need to treat computers and servers any differently, but for some reason, we do.  Maybe it’s because buying 10 new workstations for your staff is not nearly as fun as driving off the lot in a brand new sports car.  However, it is a very wise investment.

Here are 4 reasons why purchasing new technology is more affordable than keeping your old systems:

• Equipment is getting cheaper and cheaper.

In 1989, a PC cost about $9,000.  Now, they’re as cheap as $500 (and of course, they’re much more sophisticated than they were back in ’89).  Same goes for servers, printers and other office electronics.

• New equipment is cheaper to maintain.  It’s an obvious fact; new computers run faster, experience fewer crashes and need less maintenance than older ones.  Not to mention, the hours you and your employees gain in productivity equals more money in your bottom line.
• Network monitoring can save you from expensive failures. If you are on one of our N-Care plans, your systems are monitored 24/7/365 and we are instantly alerted of any potential threats.  This means that you don’t have to worry about your servers crashing or losing crucial data.  For a low monthly fee, you can save your company from losing tens of thousands of dollars in the event of a network failure.  This is not a scare tactic; we’ve seen it happen many times.
• Cloud services are an affordable alternative to major software and hardware purchases. What are cloud services, you might ask?  Cloud services (or Software as a Service—Saas) are software applications that you can access over the internet, eliminating the need to purchase and install the application on your computers.  Not only do these service drastically reduce maintenance and support needs, they’re also generally a lot cheaper.  Some of Nexxtep’s cloud services include Stor-Guard Offsite Backup and Recovery, N-Guard Spam Filtering, and N-Care Connect Hosted Exchange.

This is a tech tip question from one of our newsletter readers—“How do I set parent controls?” GREAT question!

This article will show you a step-by-step tutorial on how to set parent controls in Internet Explorer.

1)      Open Internet Explorer.

2)      Click on Tools on the toolbar at the top of your screen.

3)      Click on Internet Options in the Tools menu.

4)      Click on the Content Tab.

5)      Click on “Enable” to enable the content advisor.

6)      Now you have two choices, you can either click on the Ratings tab and allow or restrict sites based on certain categories, or

7)      You can click on the Approved Sites tab and enter the only websites you want your child to be able to visit.

That question probably doesn’t make any sense to you, so let me explain.  I was listening to an interview with New York Times technology columnist Matt Richtel, when he mentioned that technology is a lot like food.  Like food, you need technology to survive in today’s world.  But as we all know, some foods, like fruits and vegetables, are good for us, while other foods, like twinkies and double cheeseburgers, are bad for us.  Technology is no different.  There are many ways in which technology is good for us (it can help us be more productive and stay connected to friends and family, for example), but we need to also beware of technology junk food (texting while driving, information overload).

Are you eating too much technology junk food?  Take a quick 5-question quiz to find out.

1)      Do you get bored while sitting at red lights and find yourself checking emails and text messages?

2)      Do you avoid working on daunting projects by surfing the web or jumping from program to program on your computer?

3)      Do you feel panicked and stressed when you’re not able to access the internet or your email for a few hours?

4)      Do you feel like you’re constantly waiting for new emails and feel the need to check your inbox or smartphone at least once an hour?

5)      Has your spouse/parent/child complained that you spend too much time on the computer or toying with your smartphone?

If you answered yes to any one of these questions, you might be “eating” too much technology junk food.   I am no stranger to technology junk food myself; I could answer yes to all 5 of these questions!  That’s why I researched five things that I (and you) can do to get on a technology diet.

Technology Diet Plan:

1)      Keep your phone out of reach while you’re driving (and resist the urge to attempt to reach for it while dodging traffic).  Even if you’re stopped at a red light, you need to give your attention to the road, not your phone.  Sure, you might be stopped, but you might miss the light turning green.  Worse, you might not see a reckless driver who’s about to hit your car.

2)      If you have a big project you need to work on, gather all the internet research you need beforehand and then cut off your connection until the project is complete.

3)      If at all possible, disconnect on the weekends.  This will give your brain a break and will help you feel rejuvenated come Monday morning.  Disconnecting is especially helpful on three day weekends and vacations.

4)      I got this tip from Ryan:  Turn off email notifications and only check your email twice a day.  This will help you answer email more efficiently and will keep you from getting distracted.

5)      Rather than reach for your smartphone to play a game or watch a Youtube video, allow yourself to get bored every now and then.  That’s when your most creative thinking happens.

Do you think this is a good technology diet plan?  Do you have any technology diet tips of your own you’d like to share?

Coming Up:  Technology Symposium

It’s obvious that technology has drastically changed the way we live in the past two decades, but what does the future hold?  Learn what the future landscape of technology looks like when you attend our Technology Symposium on September 23^rd.  Register Here!

Bump is a quick and easy way to connect two phones.  It is available on iPhone and Android, and it is free.  Just search “Bump” from your phone’s App Store to download it.

Once you have downloaded Bump, you can easily share contacts, photos and calendar events by literally bumping phones with another user.  The best part about Bump is that you can share as much or as little as you’d like.  For example, you can share your entire address book, a few contacts, or just one contact.  The same goes for photos and calendar entries.  If you have an iPhone, and your friend has an Android, no problem!  This application works across devices.

Thank you to my sister Meredith for telling me about Bump.

Over the past few decades, businesses have had a pattern of relegating the IT function to a department or a service technician.  Terms like “business-IT alignment” became popular.  This fancy terminology might sound good, but it is bogus.  To quote a great article from Smart Planet:

“Can you imagine people talking about ‘aligning’ accounting and finance to the business?  Or ‘aligning’ the CEO to the business?  That would be pretty pathetic, wouldn’t it?  So why do we constantly fret about ‘business-IT alignment?’ ”

As a business owner or manager, you have a choice.  You can think of technology as an ancillary component of running your business.  A “necessary evil,” if you will.  You can attempt to “align” IT to your business by hiring a service technician (either internally or externally) who will keep you up and running and fix your computers when they aren’t working right.  You can keep IT tucked away in a corner and do your best to avoid it at all costs.

Or, you can think of technology as a core business function, no different than finance or sales.  Technology can be a driving force of your company’s growth and stability.   In this case, you might hire a company like Nexxtep, who will provide technology leadership for your business.  Sure, we can fix your computers, but we can also give you a technology roadmap, a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, and help you make your business processes more efficient, among other things.   We’ll become a part of your company’s overall strategy, because we not only understand business; we are business.

Take the Next Step

Register for our Technology Symposium and learn how to use technology strategically.

Thursday, September 23, 2010
James H. Rainwater Conference Center
Valdosta, GA 31601

Topics:
The Future Landscape of Technology
How to Ensure the Safety of Your Business Data
Choosing the Best Smartphone for You
How to Market Your Business Online

Cost:
Free for Nexxtep Clients
$15 for Young Professionals
$25 for Regular Admission

Register Here!