James E. Gaskin writes books (16 so far), articles, and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area. Gaskin has been helping small and medium sized businesses use technology intelligently since 1986. Write him at:
Not long ago, someone asked what I would do if I were a government czar on small business, like the czar on the auto industry. I'm taking this further and proclaiming myself Small Business Technology King for a Day. While I wish my edicts were the law of the land, sadly, I am without the dungeons necessary to enforce my rulings. So take these "edicts" as free consulting for best practices in how small businesses can get the most value for their technology dollar.
Mindjet's new Catalyst application turns your browser into an all-hands meeting place, and once the brainstorming stops, LiquidPlanner's project management tool helps turn ideas into reality.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) bullies small companies that can't present the single piece of evidence it considers acceptable as proof of software ownership. What evidence is that? Want to guess? If you guess wrong, you pay a fine.
Nag, nag, nag is what I feel like sometimes when talking about backups, but I'm compelled to help people in spite of themselves. The bottom line is simple: lose data, lose dollars. When you talk about some type of disaster, such as fire or theft of your computer hardware, the survival rate for stricken companies without disaster recovery tools and good backups drops into the ¿hope and prayer¿ realm of IT management. So lets talk about ways to insulate your company from disaster by playing like the Boy Scouts and being prepared.
The last time I mentioned PBworks, the grown up version of early wiki pioneer PBwiki, it had just released some task management tools. The company, still busy, has added two major improvements in the last few months: tools for lawyers and their support teams, and another that amounts to the first intelligent use of social networking for inside businesses.
Netbooks are winning over consumer hearts and credit cards. While some consumer products, like iPhones, have pushed their way into the enterprise, netbooks haven¿t. Is it just a matter of time before netbooks become an enterprise staple or will they remain a consumer-only product?
Bad meetings kill efficiency and morale. TimeBridge's promise to transition from a meeting coordination service to helping ¿busy professionals run great meetings¿ might be a step in the right direction
So many people commented and sent e-mail about last week's column on Wi-Fi I had to check and make sure I didn't accidentally insult Apple or claim Linux was better than Windows. Nope, I just said Wi-Fi wasn't always the best way to network. Nobody disagreed with my assertions that Wi-Fi runs slower and is less secure than wired networks, but many readers suggested the Wi-Fi train is the way to the future, so I should hop on. All aboard?
In honor of the 802.11n WiFi standard getting close to arriving after wandering through the desert for 40 years, let's look at wireless. Our focus today is on helping you WiFi better, even if it means doing less WiFi.
The fall season for making the green starts now, particularly if you're in retail or connected in a big way to retail, which the majority of small businesses are. So let's check out your backup, your collaboration abilities with customers and suppliers, and any new equipment you may need. Oh, and don't worry about Windows 7 yet.
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