Review: Brother MFC-8910DW Printer

Moving up to more advanced printing capabilities can be a tough road for small businesses. When looking for something that can duplex (print on both sides of the same paper) or connect wirelessly, finding the printer that fits your exact needs may cause the price of the device to get much more expensive than once thought. Recently, I managed to take a look at Brother’s MFC-8910DW printer and can share my thoughts on this device.

Consulting: The Enemy Of My Enemy Lacks Clarity

So many in technology and consulting are amazing at what they do. They can figure out things no one else can. But, they, like the rest of us are at war with one of the most difficult obstacles. Is is their own internal dialog? Is it the other companies that want the business? Is it the client that second guesses them? No, they’re at war with the one thing that levels the playing field. You might call it clarity, understanding or transparency, but with this simple piece missing, the most brilliant person is reduced to ineffective.

Basics: How Do I Find My Computer Name?

When asking a Tech Support person, or someone you trust to remotely assist you, they may ask you “What is your computer name?” or “Please find me your computer name”. This process can be quite challenging for some people since every new operating system seems to change the process ever so slightly (while manufacturers, don’t).. Well, fear not – I’m going to list the simplest of ways to get that information so you can supply the details you need and move on.

Set Windows’ interface To BASIC For Better Performance

One of the biggest casualties with Windows versions after XP, was the loss of all those settings you could control in the “Display” applet in XP’s Control Panel. They allowed you to turn off a bunch of things that would improve performance for slower computers – and in some cases – take an unusable machine and make it useful again. Are you looking for those settings that will let you “Turn off Window Contents while Dragging” or how to turn off the “Aero” interface? look no further, all the details are here.

Extending The Windows Mobility Center Tool

New with Windows Vista (and included in later versions) was the Windows Mobility Center. This great little tool typically allows mobile users to see and control many of the most obvious and useful settings on a Windows machine. The settings are arranged as tiles on a single window with each tile containing a specific setting. Also possible by OEMs, is extending the interface to include other tiles for controlling a system. I thought, this is cool and useful but really, really ugly. I thought, there must be other stuff I can do with this.

The Fall, And Fall Of The Blackberry Playbook [Update]

Oh, how you have fallen. You were the tablet that was going to challenge the 90%+ market share of the iPad. You were going to link from an existing Blackberry to create a secure, bigger kind of Blackberry. You were going to be the promise of accessing a bazillion applications from two different App Stores all running on your sleek, thin easy-to-multitask package. You the promise of so much, Playbook, what happened to you?

Basics: What To Do If You Think You’ve Been Hacked

Recently, I was asked a question “How can I tell if someone has placed spyware in my computer to track my stuff or remote control to see what I’m doing?”. It’s natural to fear the worst when complicated systems might have been left in the hands of those who might be somewhat untrustworthy. In this article, I’ll try to go over some of the ways you can tell if these things might be happening, and how to prevent some of them from occurring altogether.

3D Printing: Scary, Or A New Frontier?

Horrible crimes are being committed with guns in what feels like increasing frequency. Parallel to this though, is a news story that a man has successfully created and fired a .22 pistol with a 3D Printer. The printer used was apparently created in the 1990’s, which is real test of enduring technology. Given that 3D printing is becoming cheaper and cheaper, and access to blueprints is apparently more readily available – it appears as though we’re on the cusp of a major technological shift.

Review: Business Backup With Dell AppAsure

In talks with Dell representatives, I learned that AppAssure was a little-known company, and Dell wanted to put some muscle behind this venture to help it take off. My first exposures to the product were through countless seminars and demonstrations. Great for an overview, but not so good if you want to understand how this works. I moved to a trial version (which you can download here – registration required) to see more about this.