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Backing Up Is Hard To Do

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Written by Bob Rice | 05 August 2010

Reasons to Backup up your PC or MACNo it’s not, not really. It’s not as much fun as harvesting your crops in Farmville or reading the latest celebrity gossip on the web. It takes a little effort to set it up but with the proper configuration you can let it run on auto-pilot.

If you have ever suffered the heart-breaking loss of family photos, research papers or even your music collection you know how important it is. If you haven’t suffered through that loss yet than keep reading and get yourself prepared before disaster strikes.

It’s inevitable that your PC will crash, it happens, even on a Mac your hard drive can crash unexpectedly or you can accidentally delete a file. It doesn’t even have to crash to cause you to lose data, Laptops are stolen out of cars everyday criminals would likely steal your home computer if they broke in. Nothing is ever 100% safe and secure.

“I bought an external hard drive and copied all my important files to it in case my computer crashes, I’m safe right?”

No, your files are still vulnerable. What if the backup hard drive crashes? It’s important to have a proper backup system in place to allow for easy data recovery in case of disaster, that means all your important files in at least 2 places.

Hopefully I have explained to you Why You Should Backup. Before I show you How there are a few other things I will cover in a series of articles over the next few weeks. I will show you Where To Backup, What To Backup and then How To Backup.

As always if you have any questions please call and I will be happy to answer them. If you don’t have the time to setup your backup or this seems like something you would rather have someone else do for you, call me and let’s schedule a time to setup the right system for you.

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New potential malware could open a back door to your Mac

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Written by Bob Rice | 19 April 2010

Computer anti-malware firm Intego has identified a new variant of malware for Mac OS X, dubbed HellRTS.D. When installed on your machine, it opens a backdoor that lets hackers take control of your machine without your knowledge.

The HellRTS.D variant is based on malware first discovered in 2004. This latest variant is a Universal binary capable of infecting both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. It does so by setting up its own server that is added to your login items, giving remote access to your machine. The software can also make a copy of itself and rename itself to appear to be one of your legitimately installed applications, making it harder to spot.

The current threat from this malware is actually quite low at the moment, as the backdoor would need to be installed by someone with physical access to your computer. Intego notes that it could be deployed as a trojan, using social engineering to convince an unsuspecting user that the installer is actually something else.

No copies are known to be spread in the wild, but Intego said that it is being distributed via forums known to be used by malicious hackers. Naturally, Intego's VirusBarrier X6 can identify and eliminate the malware if it does make it into the wild and somehow ends up on your machine.

By Chris Foresman - Reposted from ArsTechnica.com

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What's Keeping You from Writing a Blog?

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Written by Bob Rice | 15 April 2010

Have you made the decision to start or re-commit yourself to writing a Blog?

Are you having a hard time writing your blog?Either way there are always a few common problems that seem to hinder you if not stop you dead in your tracks.  A few of those challenges (or in my case excuses) could be time, content and frequency.  I hear them over and over from my clients and I say them over and over to myself.  I get it, I really do.  Let me offer a few tips here in an effort to help you start or re-start your Blog.

Time

I can’t find the time, I am too busy and “Hey look Survivor is on!” are all things I have heard and said to avoid doing what I need to do for my business.  This is another opportunity for you to connect with your clients and potential clients.  If someone was standing outside your office with money to spend would you fail to answer the door because you can’t find the time?  I think not.

The most important lesson I have learned here is to add yourself to your list of clients.  Set an appointment for yourself in your calendar for you.  You wouldn’t skip an appointment with any other client (I hope), treat yourself the same way.  Make the time and commit to it, commit to yourself, commit to your business and commit to your clients.

Block out that time.   If you were with a client you wouldn’t answer the phone, check out Facebook or take a nap would you?  Turn off the ringer on your office and cell phones, close your email, and any web sites you don’t need.  I like to write mine in Microsoft Word and save them to my hard drive then copy and paste my writing to my blog when I am done.  No distractions or evil temptations.

Content

One of my biggest challenges is content.  What do I write about?  What do people want to hear about? What hasn’t already been said?  Write about topics relevant to your business, topics your customers care about.  No one should come to my blog looking for hair styling tips.  You come here to find information on the services my company specializes in.  For me that covers a lot of topics and can be overwhelming, I have created a list of potential topics based on your feedback and my knowledge.  If you’re not sure, ask.  Make it a blog post, ask clients, post in Facebook or Twitter.  If you don’t ask you will never know.

Then there is the easy part.  First, write about what you are passionate about.  Nothing drives creativity like doing something you love.  It seriously comes across in whatever you do and makes you stand out that much more.  Secondly is Be Yourself.  If you come across like a robot or you post something that looks like it’s plagiarized from someone else it won’t look good and your customers will know it.

Frequency

How often should I update?  What’s the perfect number of posts per week or month? Start simple and don’t overwhelm yourself with a heavy schedule.  Set goals for yourself and increase your frequency as you go on.  Right now I am aiming for 1 post a week.  This has taken me about 45 minutes to type and edit before posting, not to bad and I know I can speed that up.  I even get to spend some extra time this week working on next week’s or the week after to get ahead.  My goal is to get a few weeks ahead and then increase my frequency to 2 a week by July and 3 times a week by the fall.

The important thing to remember is that you are just beginning.  Don’t dig a 10 foot hole without a ladder and some reinforcements.  Start small, make reasonable goals and give yourself permission to complete them.  Don’t worry about “The Perfect Title”, Keywords or Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Just sit down and tell us a little about who are, what you do and what you can do to help improve our lives or business in a meaningful way.  The rest of it will come in time.

Please comment below and tell us what challenges you have and what, if anything, you have done to overcome them.

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Happy Birthday!

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Written by Bob Rice | 31 March 2010

A2Z Techsource Celebrates 2 Years of BusinessAs we come to the end of our second year at A2Z I reflect on what brought all of this to be. It's not always been easy but it has been so much fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

2 years ago today I gave notice at my job of 9 years, I made a few phone calls and had clients that day. About a month later came the announcement that we were in a recession and everyone told me to fold up shop and crawl back to my former employer and beg for my job back. I refused.

It was my faith and belief that God had placed me on this path that let me know it wasn’t going to fail. We have been through good times and bad but I know this is what I am supposed to be doing and I won’t let anything stop me. My family has been a tremendous support system and I cannot thank them enough. I have learned and grown so much as a person these last 2 years, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Then there is all of you, my clients, friends, brothers and sisters. Without you and your pesky computers I wouldn’t have anything to do. Thank you for your support, trust, love, forgiveness and kindness. Thank you for allowing me to do what I love.

We have some big plans in store for our third year, 2010 is going to be awesome.

-Bob

 

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