Battery life has always been a concern with laptops, and it’s important to utilize the limited hours between charges as efficiently as possible. Choosing which programs you use on your laptop can influence how long the battery will last.

The more resources a program uses, the harder the laptop needs to work, which determines how much power is in demand from the battery. Here are some applications that use up less resources.

OpenOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. It’s been around for a while, and uses significantly less resources. Some may argue it’s not as fully featured.

Keep in mind that most people use less than 10% of Microsoft Office’s capabilities, so you shouldn’t notice much (if anything) lacking.

The only thing OpenOffice doesn’t include is an e-mail application, but there are plenty of options out there.

Foxit PDF Reader is a great replacement for Adobe’s Acrobat PDF Reader – at least the free one. It’s much smaller in size, and creates less of a resource footprint. If you’re only looking to view PDF files, it has everything you’re looking for, and is arguably easier to use.

Internet Explorer 9 claims to take up less resources than other browsers. It’s certainly more secure than it’s predecessors, so it’s worth mentioning. Google Chrome is great as well.

We’ve heard praise from tech enthusiasts and average users alike who love how lightweight and quick Chrome is. Mozilla’s Firefox browser has been known to use up a lot of resources, so it may not be ideal if you do a lot of web surfing on your laptop.

It’s important to protect your computer from outside threats, and having an effective antivirus is a definite must. Most laptops come with either Norton or McAfee, which are known resource hogs. Using them on a laptop makes little sense. Although we are vendor agnostic, we are very fond of ESET’s NOD32 antivirus, which has been proven to take up limited resources, while being very effective.

Which programs do you use on your laptop to extend the battery life? Is battery life something you consider when choosing a program for your needs? Please share your thoughts in the comments, or on our Facebook fan page, or send us a tweet (@nerdsonsite).

Our NerdBox is the Nerds On Site appliance that suits a typical SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) of any sector as a behind-the-scenes technology that facilitates core essential services that every SME needs.

IT administrators who have been through historical IT infrastructure cycles, sometimes tend to have comfort in the old way of doing IT. A server from Dell, an Operating System from Microsoft and then add on various appliances for different functions.

1. Network functions such as being a DNS and DHCP server, which are usually behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts, but an absolute necessity.
2. Gateway functions, typically found in an enterprise-class router. Only in a NerdBox, the router is on steroids, so it can prioritize important traffic over less-important traffic, for example.
3. Server functions, such as centralizing users, passwords, shared files and shared printers. In the old days this was typically provided by a Windows Server, but those expensive licensing costs are no longer necessary as this appliance is linux-powered and therefore provides those services out of the box at no cost.
4. Applications. The flexibility of this appliance allows for many additional applications to be powered/centralized on it, including automating online backups or creating a private cloud server for your own business.

The Canadian Tire Dealers’ Association (CTDA) has chosen this technology as part of the Standard Dealer Network for store IT infrastructure.

To see if your IT infrastructure can be simplified with a NerdBox, contact your nerd (or our toll-free number) today.

With thousands of clients around the world whose virtual existence we support and maintain, we sometimes get asked “Why WordPress?” when it comes to a Content Management System (CMS). In some people’s minds, it is still just software for blogging. Let me explain why it’s a feature-rich CMS that is usually the best choice for our clients’ Internet-facing public presence:

1. Easy to use for our clients. This matters a great deal because most clients want to have control of content on their own website without having to know anything about html, css, php, or anything that isn’t English. With WordPress, they are able to modify individual pages, create/manage forms, change banners of images, etc. Many of them don’t run a blog at all. Folks of all generations can easily manage a website using WordPress.

   

2. WordPress has the highest market share. By itself this is not important. However, the fact that it is by far the highest in market share (over 55% of the top 1 million sites), means that there is a strong community around it, a lot of choice in plug-ins, extras, and security issues are addressed more quickly and efficiently than other platforms.
   
3. The Themes. If you ask folks that have tried and switched between Content Management Systems “Why are you still with WordPress?” they tend to mention Themes. Themes allow you to quickly and easily adapt a look and feel with a few clicks. There are tons of free and commercial themes – just hop on over to http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ and take a look.
   
4. Many well-known brands use WordPress. To see a sampling visit the showcase site at http://wordpress.org/showcase/
   

5. Finally, and possibly most importantly, Nerds On Site can provide an anti-hack guarantee. Check out our Business Hosting section for the ongoing Hack Detection. All software contains bugs. To keep a website from being compromised it requires continuous patching/updating as well as hack detection that alerts the administration to a deface or hack attempt so it can be immediately reversed and further protected. This is what Business Hosting covers for our clients.

If you have any reasons why you chose (or chose NOT to) use WordPress, we would love to hear it in the comments below.

Did you know that a .co.za Business Hosting package from Nerds On Site starts at only R199/month?  This amazing price includes a ton of features, all backed by our world-wide team and our passionate local South African Nerds.  At 1/2 the price of other South African competitors, our package goes far beyond anything offered in South Africa!

What’s Included?
Here is a sample of some of the features included in our Business Hosting package:

• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• 24×7 Help Desk Support
• Continuous Hack Detection
• Nightly Backups
• Unlimited Data Restores
• Unlimited Email Addresses
• SpamExperts Enterprise Spam Filtering
• And MUCH more….

Contact our team today to learn more!

We know you want to save your money, not spend it, and the money you do spend must have value and a solution attached to it. We get that. That’s why we don’t charge for the time it takes to do a job, but rather for the service itself. Whether it takes us one hour or four hours, you won’t pay a cent more.

We have flat-rates for our services, so you know exactly what you’ll pay before the work even starts. That said, if related problems are discovered, we will be upfront with you about the work and the cost before moving ahead with the work. Simple.The way it should be.

In addition to that, we reduce the price of add-on services for the same service call.

Due to economic (cost of living) factors in different regions, pricing can differ. For the sake of argument, let’s say a proper System Cleanup costs $199+tax. If you have two systems that need a cleanup, or you ask us to resolve a printer issue, a discount will be applied for both.

It’s important to note that our goal is not simply to “fix” things as they break, or be on-site only when there is a problem.  Once we have earned your trust, we will suggest monthly NerdCare, which includes Monitoring. This allows us to be alerted for minor and major issues and identify solutions much faster than traditional means, thus reducing (or eliminating) downtime, stress, and frustration.

That said, NerdCare also has flat-rate costs (customized to each client’s needs), so once again you know exactly what it will cost, and the services provided, giving you tremendous peace of mind.

I’m glad to be able to share some developments within the construction industry in the utilization of QR codes. Ivan Richardson, founder of one of our long-time clients, blackapple, asked about the feasibility facilitating an instant “Is this drawing up-to-date?” via a smartphone. His idea was to implement a QR code that anyone with a smartphone could scan and check if the drawing is current or out-dated.

To facilitate this, and to execute this in an automated way, a number of pieces of the puzzle need to fit together.

• Local Application – QR Code Generator specific to each drawing – this runs on blackapple’s network at the time of the print job preparation
• Web Service – this works in conjunction with the local application and is the “authoritative” source for up-to-date information about each drawing
• Prints with QR codes – this is the only part that is visible to the contractor on site, but an essential element to be have increased confidence that the print is current

Obviously the information is only as good as it is kept up-to-date, and this means that when a new drawing is issued, this data needs to reflect the change. Here’s a real-life example of how it works. First, scan with any smartphone that has a QR Code reader installed:

Your smartphone will then immediately check on the validity of the print just scanned and provide you with necessary contact info to obtain an up-to-date copy:

At time of writing, Ivan Richardson is testing this for feedback and process honing purposes, and we are thankful that he chose Nerds On Site to deliver this productivity-enhancing technology.

Most young people today have some sort of mobile device, be it an iPhone, iPad, or otherwise. In some cases, their parents cover the cost, and want to keep their kids accountable to what is being spent on things like apps and music. Setting up an iTunes Allowance can do that.

This can be done in the form of iTunes gift cards, or simply having an agreement with their children about how much can be spent on a weekly or monthly basis.

Did you know you can give your kids an iTunes “allowance” without having to keep buying them cards on an on-going basis, or having to let them use your credit card (if you don’t let Apple keep your information on file?  The answer is to give them an iTunes Allowance.

“An iTunes Allowance gives you an easy way to allow your kids to get store credit to spend on iTunes every month,” says an article on Canoe.ca. “You can select an amount from $10-$50 in increments of $10.  You also have a few choices for giving and configuring their allowance.”

There is quite a bit of flexibility with an iTunes Allowance. It can be set up to charge your credit card on a specific day of the month, and it will show up as pre-paid credit on your kids’ accounts, so they aren’t using your account.

“It will show up as a credit on their accounts, so they know exactly how much they have to spend. Allowances can also be cancelled at any time by selecting “Manage Allowances” in your account information section and following the instructions.”

More information can be found on Apple’s website.

Visitors to this blog will notice that we have recently redesigned it and merged it with the Nerds Hosting, Nerds Development, and Nerds Backup blogs. We decided to do this because we felt it was no longer necessary to have three separate blogs for our different teams. It has no doubt been confusing to those who have visited any of our blogs. In addition, three blogs have meant that we needed to maintain each of them. SEO was also a concern. We believe that with the merger, navigation is simplified and more streamlined, and blog posts are more frequent.

At the top of this blog, we have added different categories that represent each of our teams. Rather than linking to another blog, they link to all posts that we have attached each relevant category, be it Hosting, Development, or Nerds Backup. We have decided to keep our Community Involvement blog separate.

In addition, we have sifted through through the categories list and removed the irrelevant or redundant ones. The tags are also in the process of being sifted through, as we go through blog posts, ensuring relevancy.

Rather then have a lengthy list of links on the sidebar, we replaced some of them with graphics, such as Uptime, and listing our services, making it easier for people to get a hold of us to discuss their technology needs.

As with any blog, this will always be a work in progress, and we welcome your feedback! If there is anything you would like to see added or changed, or if you would like us to cover certain topics in our posts, please let us know! The entire reason this blog exists is to inform, educate, and interact with our clients and the public.

We would also love to interact with you on Twitter and Facebook!

The new Apple iPad is being launched today. Not the new Apple iPad 3 – JUST the new Apple iPad. It’s a little heavier, and has retina display. But bottom line, it’s being sold because the perception of Apple as a monumentally sexy, attractive, and life enhancing production and software offering organization is going to drive those sales. So, you know the share price will go up, and people will stand in line ONCE AGAIN.

The product doesn’t do a whole lot more, but it does tell the rest of us that, to be perfectly honest, technology has to become much more sexy, much more desirable, much more pleasurable. Before the productivity and profitability elements are answered, we have to find a way to crack through it. That means make things even simpler, more straight forward, easily understood, instantly digestible the minute you look at it. “Oh, I get it!”

And Apple has succeeded like nobody else on that particular front.

The nature of some of our business is that we’re kinda like firefighters for viruses and malware that creeps into our clients’ computers. Many of us have become calloused over the repeated virus warnings, but the stats are still frightening to us when we find out how many Windows computers are infected, often unbeknownst to the owner. Meanwhile, hackers continue to build up their botnets (botnets are networks of computers under the control of a hacker).

Here are steps you can take – any of them add additional barriers, but the last provides 100% protection for you:

Barrier #1: If you have your own domain or company email, consider a managed service (such as our own managed Email Solutions) which maintains active updates to its inspection database and is able to trap messages with ill intent.

Barrier #2: Use OpenDNS in your company and home, anywhere you check email.

Barrier #3: This one is the most difficult one to do, but has 100% results: Never click on a link or attachment, unless you specifically sought it out. Let’s consider some examples of common alerts and how you can safely take action:

Typical action: “Oh, I better check that, I shipped this product to my best customer!” Then you click, open the attachment, and BAM! Your computer is infected.

Safe action: Delete the email. Log onto your shipping provider’s online account and check your shipping status.

Typical action: “Oh, I do business with them, I better click on the link.” Once you click on the link, the website may attempt a drive-by installation of malicious software, or entice you to download a program to run. If you continue down the path that these crooks lead you on, you will quickly have your computer infected.

Safe action: Delete the email. Log onto the purported real business site and check the status of your account there.

We hope for your sake, that you never fall for another email-attached virus or malicious link.