The Internet Archive shows us that the PC of Dr. Thomas Pabst, creator of Toms Hardware Guide - in December 1997 was the following beast of a machine:-
As we all know, in 10 years our 4Ghz quad-core CPU, 4Gb RAM, 1Tb HDD machines will look as ridiculous as this - which is a sobering thought. Happy computing!
(If you are looking for first-class IT support in London, please feel free to contact us)
We carry around a lot of software on our USB keys these days in order to assist in doing our job. Here is the main selection of the software we keep on it.
I get a few people ask me (usually in social situations where I'm trying to think about anything other than work!), "What is the cheapest office set-up I can do?" for their new small business. runPCrun are many things, and while we believe we are the best solution considering time,cost and quality, we happily admit we're not necessarily the cheapest solution and this can be important when starting a cash-starved first business. After all, engineer time costs money, and custom solutions can take plenty of time and work, especially when having to consider existing infrastructure, user ability, the budget for the coming year and so forth.
However, if you don't have an existing solution, you have the opportunity to start afresh without having to worry about legacy issues or other issues about moving and migrating your data. This is the viewpoint I will be addressing this article from. (as migrations are a whole different ball game). That, or you just do it yourself and get your hands dirty!
The solutions I am presenting are cheap, and they can all be set up with little or no technical expertise.
There are many cheap broadband solutions these days. Just remember that a lot of these cheap or free broadband offers are great when they work, but can cause grief when they don't. If price is your main criteria then great, but don't expect A1 service if/when there is a problem. We believe since broadband is important these days it's worth going with a quality supplier,and you can find them here at ISPreview.co.uk. (We personally recommend Andrews and Arnold* for a good service and reliability and BeThere* for fast, unmetered and cheap)
Broadband is very easy to install these days, a supplier will simply send you a pre-configured router which you just plug in. If you need to migrate suppliers remember to ask for a "MAC code" (a migration code that helps the move become quicker and easier)
Services like Skype and Gizmo give you the ability to send and receive calls from your PC, including extra features such as voicemail. VoIP providers like VoIPTalk or A&A will do the same service, and will allow you to use VoIP phones which sit like regular phones on your desks. Lastly there is the Voxhub service which can give even more options in line with expensive PBX systems when you have more than one employee or multiple phones and wish to have IVR menus and much, much more.
Something else we've found useful about all of these services is that small businesses often move several times in their early stages (they start in their house, then get a small office, then move to a bigger office etc). VoIP technologies prevent your phone number being tied to your physical location, thereby making such office moves much simpler.
Lastly, there are the normal phone suppliers and the dial-through comparison service - the International Call Checker for those using existing technology and trying keeping costs down.
There are plenty of Fax to Email services for that odd occasion you may need to send or receive one of these "pre-email era messages". Don't buy a fax machine, buy a scanner! If you just want fax to email, you can request a FREE UK fax number courtesy of Andrews and Arnold.
Buy your domain name through Google via Google Apps for Your Domain, and you can instantly have a domain name, calendar and simple website creator. This solution will fit most non-IT based small businesses extremely well. Also included is Google Docs and Spreadsheets, with which you can keep your documents with Google, negating the need for your own infrastructure for storing, backing up and accessing your documents on-site or remotely. All you need is a web browser and a broadband connection! (Recently I've also noticed Zoho appear on the scene, and seems well worth a look.)
Using Open Office instead of Microsoft Office can literally save you hundreds of pounds/dollars per PC. Just make sure you save in the Word Document format (or PDF) if you are sending documents to other people. Here are some training videos if you want to see how easy it is to use, and it's pretty similar to Microsoft Office in my opinion. Or use the aforementioned Google Docs and Spreadsheets which will ask which format you'd like when you send the document. For everything else there's usually an open source or free alternative.
You must not forget to backup - period. If you can't trust yourself to backup your vital data to CD or USB Flash, then subscribe to one of the many data backup services. Mozy/MozyPro seem to be a good company, as well as BackupDirect* and Data Deposit Box.
Get into the wise computing mindset as well as setting up your office well at the start (with guidelines such as these) and you will be enjoying productive computing for many years to come. Good luck!
* means there is some referral or partnership with these suppliers via the links given. Check out our stance on reviews and recommendations.
The BBC have done a report on unsecured wifi networks in the UK. There's still a huge number of people running unsecured wireless networks. Sometimes while on a customers site in Central London I will see up to 10 networks surrounding me and quite often a good 1/4 of them are unsecured.
When I did my own informal walk around London with my PDA on the 28th July last year, (I commented on it here at the time) I came across on one street near me and I picked up 46 unsecured wireless networks on that one street alone. Admittedly I didn't check it out thoroughly, so I didn't check whether they were locked down by MAC address, and at least 12 of them had the same name so I'm sure they were part of a hotspot network. But it was still an eye opener.
It does stagger me that unsecure networks still exist in such a dense population centre such as London. I think it's possibly going to take a criminal using someones Internet access point to commit a high profile crime to draw attention to the issue. The problem I think is getting better as more access points and routers have easy setup procedures that include WEP/WPA setup etc, and I've seen myself that it's certainly been improved by ISP's since I made that comment 8 months ago. But it's going to take a while before the existing unsecure setups get outmoded and replaced.
I've been a Microsoft Windows user for many years - I've grown up with it from using 286's with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 at University.
Time has moved on and GNU/Linux has become more usable, powerful and has some features and applications that make it indispensable as an Operating System today - I find myself using it more and more for certain tasks. Mostly server based, but I've gradually become more impressed with it as a desktop, especially since Ubuntu reached version 6.06 (Dapper Drake)
Now I'm always happy to use the right tool for the job, there's no Windows/Linux fanboy in me. However deciding on GNU/Linux at home is a personal choice due many reasons, including the licensing controversy surrounding Vista, price and DRM amongst others, and I simply don't wish to go with it. Since now 95% of the little gaming I do is now done on consoles (Damn you, Counter-Strike: Source and while I'm writing I'm currently on an Eve Online trial.) as it is the only software area that GNU/Linux can not reproduce as effectively at the moment. I felt it was time to make the move.
The end result I was looking at is total migration to GNU/Linux, at home for every application I use with any Windows applications running under WINE or as a last resort, on a Virtual Machine. I still use Windows at work (where I can control the machine and put whatever applications I wish to use on it anyway).
So I'm now on step 7 and doing quite well thank you. This step-by-step progression is quite a common sense approach, but what is obvious to some people isn't necessarily to others and so I list it here for those that could use a nudge.
This article suggests what we already knew (and what our customers quite often suspect) - Norton's products grinds your machine down to a snails pace while "Nod32 gets good security reviews and seems to leave the system fairly nippy".
The article and it's conclusion.
