What is a Database?

by Kris Traughber In today’s world, you use databases almost every day and you may not even know it.  When you login to Netflix to look for a movie to add to your queue, you are using a database.  When you go to the Zappos website to buy that awesome new pair of shoes that you really don’t need, you …

Dropbox: How to Simplify Your Computing Life

by Kris Traughber Imagine this.  You’re on a business trip.  You’ve got your laptop with you but you forgot some important files at home on your desktop computer.  Then, to top it off, you can’t login to your sales application because you’re getting some weird error message.  So you call your corporate help desk (or your personal tech guy) and …

How to navigate and highlight text with your keyboard

by Kris Traughber When it comes to anything besides simple typing, most people depend on their mouse to do just about everything on their computer.  However, you can speed up your productivity while typing with a few keyboard shortcuts.  These shortcuts allow you to move between and highlight words and letters without taking your hands off the keyboard.  This is …

Email Etiquette

Email etiquette is something overlooked quite often. I know because I correspond through email regularly and more often than I care to admit. Because of the nature of the medium, it can often be hard to discern the temperament, intent, and tone of a conversation. While good email etiquette cannot guarantee misunderstandings won’t happen, it can go a long way …

Using the TO:, CC:, and BCC: fields in Emails

This article originally started as one of the points in the email etiquette article I wrote.  But I quickly realized this one point has a number of issues to address on its own.  For that reason, I decided to give it it’s own deserved article. First, to clear up the conversation, it is necesasry to define what each of the …

Recommended Printers

For home use, we generally warn our clients to stay away from the HP all-in-one printers. They’re very popular and can be found in most retail stores that carry any form of electronics, but they are very problematic. While each user’s experiences vary, the HP all-in-ones are typically more difficult to use and always install a great deal of software …

Recommended PC/Laptop Brands…

This answer change frequently based on the pricing, dependability, and availability of a manufacturer’s line. What may be the best this month may suddenly drop in quality or service in as little as two months. Generally, we’ve seen that Dell is ‘easier’ to work with than other companies if you have a problem. We’ve also found that Acer does NOT …

Slow Computers…

This is probably the most often asked question from our clients and, unfortunately, there is no one specific answer. However, there are several common problems that cause slow computers, and we’ll tell you what they are. The first is malware (viruses, spyware, adware, etc.). These programs are installed without your knowing or acceptance just by going to the wrong websites. …

Mac or PC?

We are often asked whether we recommend PCs or Macs, and that is a loaded question. The answer depends largely on what you intend to do with the computer. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. Don’t believe any suggestion that one is better than the other. They are simply different. It is true that Macs are nearly invulnerable to …