AgniTEK

Feel That Image: New research develops images that can be both seen and felt

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:09:00 GMT

Geode digital wallet is the techy wallet of the future

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:06:00 GMT

Microsoft Builds a Browser for Your Past

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

By Tom Simonite Prototype software called Lifebrowser uses artificial intelligence to help you revisit important events, photos, and e-mails from your own life. Mining personal data to discover what people care about has become big business for companies such as Facebook and Google. Now a project from Microsoft Research is trying to bring that kind of data mining back home to help people explore their own piles of personal digital data. Software called Lifebrowser processes photos, e-mails, Web browsing and search history, calendar events, and other documents stored on a person's computer and identifies landmark events. Its timeline interface can explore, search, and discover those landmarks as a kind of memory aid. "The motivation behind Lifebrowser is that we have too much stuff going on in our personal digital spheres," says Eric Horvitz, the distinguished scientist at Microsoft who created Lifebrowser. "We were interested in making loc ...

9 Easy Ways to Remember Your Presentation Material

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

One of the most common reasons we experience presentation anxiety is the fear that we will forget what we have to say and risk losing credibility. A method many use to address this fear is to create PowerPoint slides as a memory aid. However, this is short-sighted because nothing erodes your credibility as a speaker faster than signaling to the audience that you are dependent on your slides. Seasoned presenters are able to announce a slide before showing it. At a minimum, they know their material so well that all they need to do is briefly glance at the slide to know what's coming next. You can achieve this by doing simple memory boosting practices to remember your presentation material and, in turn, reduce your anxiety. Here are nine tips to help you remember what you have to say. 1. Use the Palace Method Research into brain science has proven that there is a very deep connection between the way we remember an event and the space i ...

7 Tips for Selling in a Weak Economy

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

While the economy has been showing a few signs of recovery, it's pretty clear that we're in for a long period of lackluster growth. With this in mind, here are seven tips from top sales gurus for selling in a weak economy. 1. Don't Focus on Your Fear You may be worried about the economy, your job, and everything else, but you can't let those worries rule your thoughts and actions. Don't waste precious enthusiasm dwelling on bad news. Rather than listening to the radio when you're on the road, listen to motivational CDs and MP3s. 2. Go on the Offensive This isn't the time to hunker down. If you get on the defensive, you're dead. Instead, get more aggressive and set more aggressive goals. Use multiple points of customer contact, like your call center and product support website, to create new opportunities. 3. Create New Pricing Options Work with your finan ...

Free Wireless Broadband for the Masses

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

When you think of basic human rights, access to wireless broadband Internet probably isn't at the top of the list. But a new company backed by a Skype cofounder disagrees, and plans to bring free mobile broadband to the U.S. later this year under the slogan "The Internet is a right, not a privilege." Called FreedomPop, the service will give users roughly a gigabyte of free high-speed mobile Internet access per month on Clearwire's WiMAX network and forthcoming LTE network. It will offer other low-cost prepaid plans that provide access to more data. FreedomPop vice president of marketing Tony Miller gave few specific details about the company's offerings and how it plans to make money—and won't yet name executives or founders—but says he expects the service to roll out in the U.S. sometime between July and September and to eventually branch out to other countries as well. FreedomPop's arrival coincides with the ...

The Next PowerPoint Augmented reality presented by a magician’s hands

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Winners of the 2012 AgniTEK NCAA Tournament Challenge

AgniTEK — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:26:00 GMT

We can’t believe it’s already the middle of April – mostly because that means that March Madness was officially over a couple of weeks ago! If you had a chance to enter a bracket, we hope you enjoyed the tournament as much as we did. Our staff looks forward to March Madness each year, and we are excited to congratulate the winners of the 2012 Tournament Challenge. You can see the final standings below: In case you don’t recognize our winners by their Tournament usernames, they are: 1st Place: Kole Puckett 2nd Place: Mike McBerty 3rd Place: Jennifer Franz 4th Place: Richard Weber 5th Place: Jeremy Ksionda Our honorary staff winner (no prize included) was Kevin Crenshaw, who came in a close 6th after Jeremy, with just one less point. You can also check out our Facebook page for pictures of the winners who dropped by the AgniTEK offices to pick up their prizes! Don’t forget to mark your calendars for next March and join us for the 6th Annual Agn ...

Army of Tech Servants: Robots that fly and cooperate

Zane Schwarzlose — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:34:00 GMT

No More Bar Codes: Supermarket Checkout Scanner Uses Object Recognition Instead of Bar Codes

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:32:00 GMT

Shopping Goes Paperless: New App digitizes shopping rewards and refunds

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:30:00 GMT

10 Ways to Win Over Writers

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:24:00 GMT

By Alicia Eler As a PR person, product developer, CEO or whatever, you're probably more interested in getting noticed by the media than developing a relationship with a particular writer. That's one way to go about it. Then there's that old-fashioned "building a relationship with a real person not a robot" idea. You know, treating people like people and taking the time to get to know them. Oh right, yeah, forgot about that. Writers, like artists, are sensitive to ideas and people. But not every writer will get you or your product - and in the tech world as in any world, each writer has their own specialization. If the match is right, I guarantee they will want to get to know you and your ideas. Let me relate a true story: One time I was so enchanted by someone who I once wrote about that I traveled 10 hours (on a Megabus, no less) to visit this person's hometown (Kansas City, Missouri, a town I would not normally have any interest in) to learn about her and the ...

5 Tips for Lead Nurturing to Grow Your Sales Funnel

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:20:00 GMT

by Lori Richardson As a seller you are working hard to create a full pipeline (funnel) and now that you have all of these companies and some actual sales opportunities on your radar, how will you bring them to closure? Here are 5 tips to help you gain and nurture more sales opportunities: As a mid-market company, you likely do not have as many formalities such as written sales processes and a clear set of tools to help you build revenues. Work to gain clarity on creating a formal process once marketing has sent potential leads to sales. If you are even less formal and have combined marketing and sales, create a clear roadmap to sales closure for each and every customer scenario. This becomes the foundation for scalability and in training new reps. Work closely with marketing so that you are getting good educational content to where your prospective customers are before they contact you. According to IDG Connect*, less than 40% of buyers say they spend their time in the buying process eithe ...

The Pasta-Shaped Radio Waves That Promise Infinite Bandwidth

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:16:00 GMT

by Jamie Condliffe Try sending a text message at midnight on New Year's Eve, and you'll struggle: there's too much data and not enough bandwidth to cope with it. But now a team of researchers has developed twisted radio waves inspired by pasta, which could allow a "potentially infinite" number of channels to be broadcast simultaneously. It sounds ridiculous, but it's actually a pretty neat trick. The secret lies in forcing radio waves to twist about their axis as they travel, in effect tracing out the shape of fusilli pasta as they move forwards, as the researchers explain in the New Journal of Physics. Dr Fabrizio Tamburini, one of the researchers, explained to PhysOrg: "In a three-dimensional perspective, this phase twist looks like a fusillli-pasta-shaped beam. Each of these twisted beams can be independently generated, propagated and detected even in the very same frequency band, behaving as independent communication channels." The team have demo ...

Low-Cost Ways To Show Employees They're Highly Valued

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:09:00 GMT

by Roberta Chinsky Matuson Small businesses can compete for talent without breaking the bank. Yes, you still need to pay competitive wages to get people in the door, but it’s the perks that will help you retain them. Here are 30 low-cost ideas for small businesses who want to show employees that they are highly valued. 1. Flex time. Some organizations require employees to be at work during core hours, and employee can set their schedule around this. Others allow employees to put in hours at their own discretion. Most require employees to have a set schedule so managers can plan for coverage. The schedule may be adjusted to accommodate personal matters like doctor's appointments. 2. Innovation days. Set aside several days a year to allow employees to step away from their usual responsibilities to tackle projects related to the way they work and the spaces they work in. Results are shared in a company meeting the following morning. 3. Monthly commuter benefits. Off ...

Smithsonian turns to 3D to bring collection to the world

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:03:00 GMT

by Daniel Terdiman With just 2 percent of the Smithsonian's archive of 137 million items available to the public at any one time, an effort is under way at the world's largest museum and research institution to adopt 3D tools to expand its reach around the country. CNET has learned that the Smithsonian has a new initiative to create a series of 3D-printed models, exhibits, and scientific replicas--as well as to generate a new digital archive of 3D models of many of the physical objects in its collection. Representative of that effort, the museum is touting the 3D printed replica of a Thomas Jefferson statue that it recently installed for the "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty" exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. According to the museum, this is the "largest 3D printed museum quality historical replica" on Earth and is a copy of a statue on display at Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson museum in Virginia. ...

5 Tips for Making the Switch to Facebook Timeline

Andrew Palmer — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:06:00 GMT

In two weeks, your company's Facebook Page will get a major facelift! On March 30, all business Facebook Pages will automatically change to the new Facebook Timeline format. Timeline is a graphics-heavy look with enhanced features such as one-on-one messaging with fans, simplified tabs and a streamlined wall display. Timeline offers new opportunities to market your business, but the change requires some elbow grease to ensure its being used in the best way possible. Don't get caught on March 30 with a boring, dated or empty Facebook Page. Here are four suggestions for making a smooth transition to Timeline 1. Be proactive – Don't wait until March 30 to start experimenting with Timeline. This new feature makes it easy for visitors to view all of your Page history. If there is anything that needs to be removed or changed, do that before your make your Timeline public. You can switch your Page to Timeline preview mode and make changes visible only to Page administrators until you ...

Tip: How to cut and paste without messing up formatting

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Why does formatting sometimes get messed up when you cut and paste text? And what is that thing that appears at the end of the last sentence every time you paste--like a fly returning to honey. That thing--the Paste Options button--is your friend, a worker bee and not a fly whose only job is to follow your formatting instructions. Learning how it works keeps you from wasting time manually formatting pasted text. Using the Paste Options Button Click the down-arrow on the Paste Options button and you'll see a menu with icons that lets you format copied text in different ways. The options you'll see depend on where you're cutting and pasting from and to, e.g., from within or between documents. Roll your mouse over the icons and you can see how your pasted text will look before you click. These are the four most common options: Keep Source Formatting: Keeps the formatting of the text you copied Use Destination Styles: Matches the formatting where you pasted your ...

Spray-On Antenna Material Turns Just About Anything into a Signal Array

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:28:00 GMT

Presenting at Google’s “Solve for X” gathering, a Utah startup has unveiled a spray-on antenna that improves signals by anything, just about anywhere, into a signal array. Using a novel nanoparticle spray, Chamtech Enterprises demonstrated how their product can be used on all kinds of materials--trees, walls, fabrics--and in all kinds of environments, even underwater. The material relies on a proprietary formula that uses thousands upon thousands of nano-capacitors that automatically align themselves properly when sprayed onto a surface. They charge and discharge quickly, and notably don’t generate much heat--a major selling point for a product that might be sprayed onto anything from wood structures to cell phone cases to vehicle exteriors. The explanation of exactly how this works is better demonstrated than written, and Chamtech’s CEO, Anthony Sutera, does so in detail in the video below. The company is currently riding high on the results of successful tests ...

Closing Techniques Using Sales Linguistics

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:18:00 GMT

Remember the last time you were being pressured into doing something you didn't want to do? Whether the pressure came from a boss, colleague, spouse, or child, your natural response was to resist and push back. It's human nature to resist high-pressure tactics. So, how should the closing of the sales call be structured? The answer is to create a primary closing strategy, utilize fallback positions, and select the appropriate technique to deliver the close. Your primary closing strategy should be based upon securing the main objective for the meeting. The objective could be to be granted a follow-on meeting, have the customer start a product evaluation, receive approval to conduct a site survey, or negotiate final purchase terms. You also need fallback positions, alternatives you prepare ahead of time to present should the customer reject your primary closing strategy. Your primary closing strategy and fallback positions are based on choosing to issue a command or presenting foreground and b ...

How Brands Are Using Pinterest - And What They Can Do Better

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:00:00 GMT

This year's hottest new online service is undoubtedly Pinterest, the "virtual pinboard" website. Once a social site becomes popular with consumers, brands soon follow. In 2011 brands flocked to Google+ when it became the hot new thing. Now, in 2012, brands are beginning to make their way onto Pinterest. In this post we'll look at some examples of how brands are visualizing themselves on Pinterest, along with emerging best practices. The appeal of Pinterest is that it's primarily a visual site, so it's fun to browse and "pin" (a.k.a. post) images. The most popular brand on Pinterest so far, according to digital marketing expert Gregory Pouy, is the DIY marketplace Etsy. Etsy has 54,000 followers and has created 26 boards, populated with 843 pins. Some of the images Etsy pins are accompanied by a price tag, with the aim of driving sales. But it also posts a lot of images that reinforce its branding as a vibrant, craft-oriented marketplace - for example its colorful &qu ...

10 Elements of A Social Media Policy for Your Company

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Your business needs a social media policy. Let me illustrate why: Many of our clients at Cross Border PR embrace social media wholeheartedly. One in particular, is a service provider with $20M in revenue. One day, the CEO attended a conference call with one of their clients, where it was announced that their client company’s president was retiring. Because there were several hundred people on that call, my client’s CEO felt it was ok to tweet about it. And he did. To all 200 of his followers. Lo and behold, the CEO was shocked and embarrassed when he got a call from his client. Apparently, what he tweeted was not public knowledge. His innocent little tweet had set off a chain reaction, which turned into a PR situation for his client. As a result, this CEO got his hand slapped for leaking something confidential. Was the CEO at fault? What should he have done? What could his client have done to avoid the leak in the first place? The answers lie in a socia ...

How to Disagree at Meetings in a Positive and Productive Way

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:00:00 GMT

How many times have you sat in a meeting thinking, "This is all wrong"? How many times have you disagreed with something, but not spoken up, for fear of making waves, rocking the boat, holding things up or being viewed as the naysayer? How many times have you wanted to disagree but were afraid to in front of others? And how many times have you left the meeting upset at yourself for not speaking your mind? Are there ways to disagree at meetings in a positive and productive way? Joel Garfinkle, one of the top 50 executive coaches in the U.S., has something to say about it in his book Getting Ahead: Three Steps To Take Your Career To The Next Level. "Sharing your opinions during meetings—even if they are contrary to what others might be saying—is necessary for others to see you as part of the conversation," he advises. "If you don’t plan to speak, then why even attend the meeting? You are there to take part in a collaborative process that involves various ...

MIT’s folding car could revolutionize city driving, but it’ll take some getting used to

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:00:00 GMT

A concept car from MIT Media Labs has become a reality. The electric Hiriko city car folds down into tight parking places and is very maneuverable, but will need some practice on the driver's part in order to make the most of its abilities. If you live and drive in any modern city, especially one which isn’t well served by multi-storey car parks or clearly marked road-side parking bays, you’ll no doubt be an expert at the parallel parking maneuver. It’s a tricky skill, and one which many drivers still haven’t mastered, but it’s the most effective way of squeezing a car into a tight space. If you’re one of those who still needs several attempts to reverse into a parking spot, then help could be at hand thanks to a team at MIT Media Lab, who’ve been hard at work coming up with a new city car that could do away with the need to perform the maneuver at all. The car is the MIT CityCar, also known as the Hiriko, and while it has been a concept for se ...

The ABCs of 3D printing

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:00:00 GMT

You're Invited! - AgniTEK Open House & First Friday

AgniTEK — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:31:00 GMT

Join us for great food from area restaurants and drinks to help us kick off our 5th Annual March Madness Tournament and celebrate First Friday and the opening of Haute Couture Boutique next door!

What: AgniTEK Open House & Haute Couture Boutique Grand Opening
When: March 2nd, 2012 - First Friday in Downtown Bryan, from 5 - 8 pm
Where: 214 North Main Street, Downtown Bryan, Texas

Download the 2012 AgniTEK Open House details to your calendar.

Crafting Your Story

AgniTEK — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:56:00 GMT

Communications coach Carmine Gallo shares tips on how to craft your business story -- covering all the essential elements -- so you can tell it it in 60 seconds. He shares the four critical questions you must answer to get your message across to prospects. Carmine Gallo is a communications coach, a popular keynote speaker and author of several books including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His latest is The Power of Foursquare (McGraw-Hill, 2011).

No mouse, just air

AgniTEK — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Displair, a Russian company,has come up with a technology to project images into the thin air, and use gestures to move them. The prototype will certainly need improving to get anywhere near the computer-generated scenes of Tom Cruise flipping through photos displayed in the air in the Minority Report, but unlike the movie, Displair is real. The company uses a stream of cold fog to project images onto it and an infrared camera to capture gestures. Unlike oversized body movements which Microsoft Kinect analyze and process using motion camera and infrared depth sensors, Displair solves a bigger challenge of detecting and interpreting finer movements of hands. Yet Displair’s award-winning technology, developed in a student dormitory, has only 0.2 seconds lag time between gesture and computer reaction, compared to 0.1 second lag time of Kinect for Xbox 360, using up to 1500 points in its multi-touch screen system with 1 cm accuracy. Microsoft Research is also making advances in ge ...

7 Things Every Employee Must Know About Marketing

AgniTEK — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

by John Jantsch Founder, Duct Tape Marketing Most companies invest in employee handbooks. These valuable resources detail rules, regulations, mission statements, policies and expected conduct. But they often ignore what might be the most important company knowledge—marketing. Any employee that comes into contact with a customer or client is performing a marketing function. Do they know how to represent the organization accurately and positively? Business owners should add marketing training to the ongoing development of every staff member. Teach new hires and conduct routine, perhaps quarterly, all-hands sessions. Here are the seven things to work into training your staff in marketing. 1. This is who we work with Write a paragraph that paints a vivid picture of the kind of client you seek. Include the kinds of problems or challenges that make your company the right one for them to do business with. Until you narrowly define the exact person or business that is you ...

Hack Your Productivity: A Time-Management Geek's 10-Minute Solution

AgniTEK — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

By Kaihan Krippendorff, Fast Company writer I just had the most productive week ever. I am a bit of a time-management geek. I’ve met and interviewed some amazing entrepreneurs, CEOs, and politicians. They all have one thing in common: They achieve more in less time than the rest of us. They each follow their own system, and I’ve tried some version of every one. But two weeks ago I tried something new. And with the early results in, it’s the clear winner. If you want to rip out of the gates in 2012 on fire, give this method a shot. It will take just 10 minutes a day. First, let me tell you what it’s not. This is not a visioning method. In other words, this method does not imply that by envisioning an outcome--a new job, a successful fundraising meeting, winning a sale--you will realize the outcome. My first roommate, and first officemate when I joined McKinsey, was the coach of the U.S. National Rugby Team in a prior life. He shared with me that he, and many elite athle ...

10 tips for effective voice-mail messages

AgniTEK — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Have you honed your skills at "elevator pitches" — that is, the quick sales pitches to influential executives or potential customers that could be pivotal to your business? Voice mails are similar types of pitches worth becoming skilled at. Maybe a voice mail won't always make or break your business. Maybe it could just mean you have a partner for a weekend game of golf. At any rate, you want to interest someone in calling you back. And that's why, as an entrepreneur maximizing small business resources, it behooves you to make the most of voice mails—both in those you leave with others and in your voice-mail greetings to incoming callers. Here are 10 strategies to make your voice mails more effective and, ultimately, more beneficial to your business. First, tips on what to do when you're the one leaving the message. Get to the purpose of your call. In this lightning-paced day and age, businesspeople can't afford a lot of time for ambling chi ...

Mobile Credit Card Processing: Benefits and Practical Application

AgniTEK — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Anyone who has ever tried selling something can tell you the importance of accepting credit cards. Whether you’re selling products at a trade show, delivering a product, or offering an on-site service, you don’t want to miss any sales opportunity just because you don’t accept credit cards. But you don’t have to buy expensive “wireless” terminals or bust your knuckles on manual credit card imprinters. With little more than your current cell phone and an inexpensive mobile credit card processing app, you can accept credit cards anywhere you are. Here are some of the unique benefits of mobile credit card processing: Real-time validation and payment processing Competitive per-transaction fees and low rates (both for keyed-in and swiped transactions) Compatibility with a variety of merchant accounts and payment gateways Easy online management and integration with accounting software Additional features like GPS location reporting, signature ...

5 Tips for Making Your Brand More Social

AgniTEK — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

What message does your brand convey to socially engaged customers? As we enter the golden age of social media, companies can no longer afford the luxury of tightly scripted, top-down messaging (e.g., “We’re the best! Take our word for it.”). Nor can a company simply opt out and remain silent (as epitomized in Northwestern Mutual’s “The Quiet Company” ad campaign of years past). As social media channels have increased, so has the need to communicate effortlessly and simultaneously. Just as presidential candidates now face the constant scrutiny of a 24-hour news cycle, companies are being called on to respond in real time across multiple media platforms. This is not a time for hesitation. To market effectively, companies need a consistent, compelling brand voice—one that doesn’t pause, mumble or clam up. Here are five ways to share your message comfortably and confidently. #1: Determine your brand personality The majority of small business ...

Cell Phone Survival

AgniTEK — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Water and personal electronics are probably the two most essential elements in this modern life, yet the two don’t get along very well at all. Drop your Blackberry in the drink--or even simply spill your coffee on it--and often enough that’s the end of your device. A California-based company called Liquipel feels your pain, and has devised a clever nanotech solution to the water-meets-brand-new-iPhone problem via a thin, clear coating that causes water to wick right off the guts of your gadgets. Liquipel--that’s the name of both the company and the product--covers devices inside and out with a transparent coating thinner than a human hair that causes water to bead right off their previously moisture-sensitive elements. Properly sealed up with Liquipel, the company claims a smartphone can survive full submergence in water. And just to prove the point, you can see a new Liquipel-treated iPhone 4S back up that claim in the video above.

10 Online Alternatives For Photo Editing

AgniTEK — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:22:00 GMT

There are very few circumstances in which you have to work on other computer that doesn’t have Photoshop installed. What to do in such a moment? The easiest way is to visit one of these 10 websites, which are quite closely related to Photoshop. Not all features are always available, but the simplest will remain. I would like to say that a very big plus is a fact that these sites practically do not use your computer memory, so you can always be sure that none of your images will disappear. And you don’t have to worry about getting your computer crashed if you have slow one :) 1. Pixlr Pixlr is a perfect online image editing application that is designed for non professional users and allows them to easily edit images. It combines image design and paint tools with photo editing and adjustment features more convincingly than any other online image editing program. Major features: Create an image or open one from your hard drive or a URL Save your image to yo ...

Balance Of Work And Life Is A Myth

AgniTEK — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Written by Stephen Shapiro Many years back, I led classes on Stephen Covey’s “Principle Centered Leadership” for Accenture’s managers. Over 75 percent of the attendees said that achieving balance in their life was their number one reason for taking the course. This is not surprising given the fast pace of life today. But what does balance mean? Balance implies two opposing forces that reach equilibrium. This is not easy to do. Remember when you were a kid trying to balance with someone else on a seesaw? Either you were up or you were down. But rarely were you balanced. In life, either we are working hard or playing hard at any given moment. But we rarely are in balance. And when most refer to work/life balance being out of alignment, it is typically not because they are enjoying too much play and not enough work. Maybe balance is not the solution. So what’s the alternative? Integration. Find ways of integrating your work and personal life together. In doing th ...

Seven Tips To Establish Rapport With Potential Prospects

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Written by Michael Halper Being able to build rapport with potential prospects will be a very valuable skill when trying to launch a new business. This is important because not only do people buy from people they like, but also because having rapport will greatly improve an entrepreneur’s ability to control and manage an opportunity through a sales cycle. Below are a few tips that can be used to try to positively trigger rapport with prospects. 1. Display Humility Finding times to display humility can sometimes establishing a friendlier atmosphere when dealing with prospects. This might actually sound counterintuitive as we have always been taught to act very confident and assertive as an entrepreneur and showing humility in many ways is the exact opposite of that as it is showing that you are modest and at times imperfect. You certainly want to be confident in whom you are, in the products you sell, and confident in the company you have built. But to sh ...

Share presentations painlessly with Broadcast Slide Show

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

The PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show makes it easy for PowerPoint 2010 users to share a presentation on the fly with anyone, anywhere. Just send a link, and in one click everyone you invite will be watching a synchronized view of your slide show in their Web browser, even if they don’t have PowerPoint 2010 installed. To broadcast your slides to an audience, follow the directions below. Starting a broadcast To start a broadcast from PowerPoint 2010, click Broadcast Slide Show on the Slide Show tab. Ensure the PowerPoint Broadcast Service is selected and click Start Broadcast. Sign in with your Windows Live ID. (If you use Hotmail, Live Messenger, or Xbox LIVE, you already have a Windows Live ID. If not, it only takes a minute to sign up.) PowerPoint will provide a public link that you can send to up to 50 remote attendees. Anyone who receives a link to the broadcast may watch it. Keep in mind that if an attendee forwards the link to someone else, that person ...

The Future of Screen Technology

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Paper computer shows flexible future for smartphones and tablets

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Nancy’s Talk from TEDxEast: You Can Change the World

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

10 insider's shortcuts for Outlook

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Shortcuts are generally good: When training to do heart surgery? Not good. When developing software that helps people be more productive? Not good. When using software more efficiently? Good. These last two are obviously related: When the developers of Outlook created the program, they did not take shortcuts so that you, as the user of aforementioned software, could. And Outlook has a bevy of really great, really easy to remember keyboard shortcuts that you should know if you want to speed up your everyday interactions with it. (Keyboard shortcut: individual keystrokes—or combination of keys pressed at the same time—used to execute commands.) 10 favorite Outlook keyboard shortcuts from some people who use the program all day, every day Switch between Mail, Calendar, and Contacts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3: (Mail is Ctrl+1, Calendar is Ctrl+2, and Contacts is Ctrl+3) Create a meeting request Ctrl+Shift+ Q Move a message from one folder to another Ctrl+Shift ...

Adding ID Protect to your Domain Name

Andrew Palmer — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:47:00 GMT

Log into http://register.agnitek.com Click on the Domains header in the left menu Click on the Manage Domains link Click the [M] icon just below the domain you want to add ID Protection to Click on the green ID PROTECT button Check the box to show that you understand that ID Protect order are non-refundable, then click on the Order Now! button Click on the Proceed to Payment button Complete the order by filling out your billing information.

ManageIT Patch - Defintion 2.06.030

Andrew Palmer — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:22:00 GMT

We have just pushed out ManageIT definition update 2.06.030 from testing to stable on the distribution server. Your next ManageIT CheckIn should pick up this new version. This update includes: • Update Mozilla Firefox Rapid Release branch from v8.0.1 to v9.0 • Update Mozilla Firefox 3.6.X branch from v3.6.24 to v3.6.25 • Java Run Time 7.X branch from v7 update1 to v7 update2 • Java Run Time 6.X branch from v6 update29 to v6 update30 • Update iTunes from v10.5.1 to v10.5.2 • Update Safari from v5.1.1 to 5.1.2 Look for updates for Adobe Reader 9.4.7 and a build of Thunderbird yet this week. If you have any questions on the changes in this version or anything else with ManageIT please feel free to contact support or call 888-4-AGNITEK.

BYOD, Are You Prepared? Questions You Should Ask

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:41:00 GMT

No, I’m not talking about having a party but rather one of the hottest topics in technology today. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is becoming an absolute factor in almost every business today. Your employees, vendors, and guests all probably bring some type of personal communication device or their own notebooks to your workplace every day. Many employees are using their own devices to connect to your business networks, if for nothing more than the receipt of your corporate email. So why is BYOD a hot topic? Many companies provide their employees laptops and smartphones to serve as their business computing and mobile communications devices. The business owns those devices, and as a result, the business can control the security of those devices and any business data that the user had downloaded to them. When Blackberry was a standard, Blackberry server handled many of the business security concerns present in mobile devices. Today, we see that burden of security falling back on the business and their IT d ...

When Subscription Lists Go Bad: e-Marketing TLC

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:39:00 GMT

Be honest with me. When was the last time you looked at your e-marketing statistics in Constant Contact, MailChimp, ConnectWise Marketing Manager, or whichever email service provider you use? If you said "yesterday" or "this week" or "every time I send out a campaign," you get a gold star. But here's your next question: When was the last time you analyzed your statistics and acted on them? E-marketing has an illusion of simplicity about it – maybe because it's digital, maybe because there are so many services and tools that claim to make it easy as pie. With a few clicks of a button you can send an email campaign to thousands of people, and then never look at it again. And if you never look at it again, you might miss the fact that most everyone who got it isn't looking at it either. I’ve run into this issue a couple of times in the last few weeks, both from working on cleaning up our own subscription lists and from talking to clients. It takes effort to review your sent emails, campaigns, and e-inv ...

The Future of Windows

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:38:00 GMT

Microsoft held their first ever Build Conference in Anaheim in September. It’s a new annual event for Windows developers to gather and learn about building applications for the Windows platform. This one was special not only because it was the first, but also because leading up to it, all the buzz was about how much of Windows 8 Microsoft would show and what details we would learn about the next version of the most popular operating system in the world. Microsoft did not disappoint. They have showed demos, talked about features and functions, and even made an open beta immediately available to all who are interested to download, play with, and Microsoft hopes develop applications for. The buzz leading up to the conference has grown into a fever pitch with partners, developers, and customers all extremely excited about the next Windows release. What is it about this platform that Microsoft is doing right, and why is everyone so excited? First off, Windows has a new look and feel. The next interface, du ...

How to photograph holidays and special occasions

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:36:00 GMT

The problem with most photos taken during the holidays or other special celebrations is that they don’t capture the special feeling of the season or event. That’s why most holiday, anniversary, birthday, and graduation pictures seem so average. Why settle for ho-hum photos? With preparation and just a few simple tips on photography techniques and photo effects, you can turn your digital photographs into unique works of art that you and your family and friends will enjoy looking at for years. 1. Plan ahead for special occasion mailings The classic problem with holiday photos that you want to use for cards, your annual family letter, or other special mailings is that they have to be taken weeks in advance. Some decorations, like Christmas trees, might not be available, or you might not want to take your menorah or other once-a-year holiday decorations out of storage so far in advance. Or maybe there’s no snow on the ground. It's never too early to think about the perfect image to accompany your specia ...

When Disaster Strikes - The Big Bad Wolf

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:34:00 GMT

It may be superstition, but many of us still believe that catastrophes come in 3s. In the case of a catastrophic loss of business facility (i.e. hurricane, earthquake, waterlogging of fire hoses), many businesses get to experience all three of these catastrophes within the span of a few short days (or even hours). Firstly, one must endure the physical and emotional trauma of experiencing the actual disaster. Secondly, one must pick through the pieces and assess how bad things really are. Thirdly, and the most delicate, will be communicating with employees and customers, having to tell them what’s happened, how bad it is, and what uncertainties the future holds. A Backup System Alone is Not a Disaster Recovery Plan Most small business managers rise to their positions because they have the vision and drive to succeed. For them, planning for a disaster can feel like planning to fail. They don’t like to think about what a disaster would do to their business continuity, so they don’t. Of course, they appr ...

Are your emails falling into a black hole?

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:31:00 GMT

It’s so frustrating: you regularly send out emails and then sit staring at your computer, waiting for some sort of response. Don’t you sometimes get the feeling that you’re just sending words out into a black hole? Of course, you can never "ensure" that emails are going to be read or acted upon. It’s a sad result of the information overload we suffer from. People who sit working at their computers for hours every day might have the time, energy and interest to open the numerous messages which fill their inbox—or they might not. So what is it exactly that tips them over the delicate, crucial line between “read” and ”leave for later/delete”? The answer is that most recipients of emails often decide whether or not to read them because of two things: the “subject” line and the “from” line. They must recognize who the email is coming from They must see a benefit or reason to open it So consider these useful tips before you send your next mail: 1. Keep it short Would you immediately open and read an em ...

Domain Registry of America Scam Alert

AgniTEK — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:22:00 GMT

(Click the letter above to enlarge.) AgniTEK wants to remind you to stay vigilant against scams during the upcoming holiday season. We have received a few reports of our clients receiving ‘phony bills’ relating to domain names they have registered. The scam comes in the form of a letter from the “Domain Registry of America” or “Domain Renewal Group” urging you to pay them to renew your domain name. However, the agreement included in the letter is actually a contract to transfer the domain name from your current host to the Domain Registry of America (at an inflated price and without hosting). If you receive a letter to this effect, don’t worry and don’t send them your money. Luckily, no AgniTEK clients have been taken by the scam. However, please do not hesitate to contact AgniTEK at 979-260-TECH(8324) if you receive any suspicious correspondence regarding your website or IT system.

ManageIT Patch – Definition 2.06.029 - Mozilla & Adobe Updates

Andrew Palmer — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:10:00 GMT

We have just pushed out definition update 2.06.028 from testing to stable on the ManageIT distribution server. Your next patch window should pick up this new version. If you do not see this definition version after your next scheduled window please contact support. This update includes: • Update Mozilla Firefox Rapid Release branch from v7.0.1 to v8.0 • Update Mozilla Firefox 3.6.X branch from v3.6.23 to v3.6.24 • Update Mozilla Thunderbird from v7.0.1 to v8.0 • Update Adobe Flash from v11.0.1.152 to v11.1.102.55 • Update Adobe Shockwave v11.6.1.629 to v11.6.3.633 If you have any questions on the changes in this version or anything else with ManageIT please feel free to contact us at www.agniteksupport.com or by calling 888-4-AGNITEK.

3 Steps to Streamline Your Next Project

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center Have you ever had a project "go sideways" on you? When it happens to you, it feels like you are treading water. You're working hard, but going nowhere. After building a beautiful coordinated project plan in Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel, your dates start slipping. You can see that too much time is being wasted on unnecessary communications, but how do you take back control? Typically, the problem isn't in the upfront planning, it's in the ongoing communication and collaboration. Follow these three steps to ensure all team members are on the same page, making progress to your mutual goal. 1. Create a collaboration site. Endless hours are wasted and bandwidth consumed from circulating documents via email. The larger the project, the worse this problem becomes. Because the document isn't centrally stored, multiple versions are created, and that's where questions and confusion pop-up. "Is this the latest version? Has John reviewed this? ...

3 ways to convert documents to PDFs

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

PDF is a file format that allows text (including fonts) and images to be embedded into a non-editable document. This file format is great for documents that you do not want changed or that you want to make sure anyone can open. There are multiple ways that you can convert your non-PDF documents (such as Word files and Excel spreadsheets) into PDFs. Using Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 If you have Microsoft Office 2010, you can easily save documents as PDFs in Word, Excel, and other programs by going to File > Save As > Adobe PDF. (In Office 2007, you an also look for the Acrobat tab on the ribbon and click Create PDF.) Simply save the PDF with the name and location you want it to have and the PDF will generate. Using CutePDF CutePDF is one of many free programs that allow you to convert documents by "printing" them. You can download CutePDF online at http://www.cutepdf.com. Install the program that you downloaded. Now, when you go to print a document, in the list of printers you can print to, you’ll ...

5 ways to win the PC security battle

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center by Heather Clancy Yes, as you've doubtless heard umpteen times, even the smallest business is vulnerable to a PC or network security breach. But you can find some peace of mind simply by taking some preventive measures. Better yet, by taking action before an incident occurs. IT consultants believe that the most effective data security policies are those that treat security not just as an IT problem but as an underlying business process. What good are firewalls, for example, if you don't have a way for trusted business partners to access your network from a remote location? How effective is a software patch management service if telecommuting employees who are rarely in the office aren't encouraged (or forced) to update? Step one for any security strategy means getting your entire organization involved in the discussion. If you're an IT type, find yourself a champion who has line-of-business responsibilities; someone who understands your c ...

Remote working is no longer an employee perk, it's a business necessity

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center The kind of office most of us are familiar with is a building with four walls and a roof that we probably drive to 40 or so hours each week, Monday through Friday. Today, many companies still maintain traditional offices, but the decision makers are also discovering that to compete in the current economy, employees must be able to do their jobs anywhere, anytime. Microsoft recently commissioned a survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs among more than 4,500 information workers in 15 U.S. markets to better understand opinions and attitudes related to mobile and internal business technologies and capabilities. The survey results further underscore the growing requirement for mobile work solutions - more than half of respondents (57%) report that their company has a formal telework policy and more than three quarters of information workers (77%) say their company provides access to technology support for working remotely. Working without wal ...

Protecting your wireless network

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center Why wireless security? When you have a wireless network, you need to make sure it's kept secure. An unencrypted network presents the potential for security breaches. Wireless technologies that provide long-range connectivity can't be contained within an office. When you use a network that's not secure, hackers could potentially "capture" the information you're sending back and forth. This means passwords, records, and more. Isn't my network already secure? With some older wireless technologies, like Bluetooth, access is limited by physical proximity to the corporate network. However, wireless technologies that provide long-range connectivity, such as 802.11n, can't be contained within an office space. That means anyone within range of a non-secure network can gain access. What happens if I don't secure my network? It may seem harmless to offer your network's access to outside users, but it's more than just letting people surf the Internet for ...

How Smart Is Your Phone?

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Millions of BlackBerry users around the world had their work, business, and social lives severely affected recently after a server crash that disconnected smartphone users across the globe. The three-day outage interrupted email messages and Internet services for customers spanning five continents. In today's world of continuous communication, a network disruption can be detrimental to your business. Below are some simple tips to keep you and your employees connected during an outage. SMS Text Updates: Regardless of the severity of the interruption, it is important you have a way to notify employees, clients, and stakeholders. SMS text messaging has proven to work when other mobile functions are down. Backup Contacts: Keep your contacts updated across all channels, including phone, email, and social media. This will make it easy to reach out to the right people quickly. Update Your Website: Know how to quickly update your website to address the situation. Consider having a pre-populated webp ...

Employee Spotlight - Linda Grasley

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

As AgniTEK continues to grow and develop into an influential regional technology firm, we take pride in showcasing some of our stellar employees. Linda Grasley, our Administrative Assistant, has been working for AgniTEK since March of this year. Originally hailing from Canada, Linda handles the dispatch of service tickets to our technicians. She is also the point person for the invoicing and processing of payments made by clients. Most importantly, Linda is usually the smiling face greeting you when you come by our office! Linda enjoys how the work pace at AgniTEK is "thankfully busy”. She states, “I love the interaction with our clients and trying to help them. In this job you hit the ground running, shortly after 8 A.M. the phone starts ringing as people get to work and start up their computers." As a member of the AgniTEK team, Linda enjoys most "The people I work with and the variety of things I do each day. There is never a dull moment!" When Linda isn’t working, she enjoys antiquing, reading m ...

Bugs in Your Java

Andrew Palmer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:42:00 GMT

Last week Oracle posted a new update of Java version 6 Update 29. Here is the information from Oracle related to that release. ==================================================================================== Advisory: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/javacpuoct2011-443431.html Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply Critical Patch Update (CPU) fixes as soon as possible. This CPU contains 20 new security fixes across Java SE. Note: There was no Java 6 Update 28 released to the public. So, this update skips an update number. All but one of the fixed vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable without authentication. I have not found any information on whether or not any of the fixed vulnerabilities are being actively exploited or the details of the vulnerability are publically available. If anyone finds information to help evaluate the criticality of this patch, please let ...

How About We Eradicate Breast Cancer…and Computer Viruses While We’re At It!

Andrew Palmer — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:35:34 GMT

As you're probably aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. My name is David Ohendalski. I'm the President of at AgniTEK, a technology firm here in Bryan/College Station. We've created pink mousepads with computer shortcut keys and we're using them to raise funds for local residents who are battling this deadly disease. You can get one of these mousepads for free. All we ask is that you provide a donation in any amount to The Pink Alliance, Brazos Valley Cancer Support group. All the money raised will stay locally in Bryan/College Station. As a special incentive, the first 10 people who donate at least $25 and request a mousepad are entitled to a free virus vulnerability check (normally a $249 value). We'll come to your site, "look under the hood" and let you know how protected you are against rogue attacks. We'll provide you with a recommended set of actions you can take to secure your network against these sorts of attacks. Hurry up this offer is only valid in October and we have a limit ...

ManageIT Patch - Defintion 2.06.025, support for iTunes 10.5

Andrew Palmer — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:11:00 GMT

Austin Texas area IT Services Management. ; Bryan / College Station area IT Services Management. ; Dallas / Ft. Worth area IT Services Management. ; Houston area IT Services Management. ; IT Support Services ; This update provides support for the release of iTunes 10.5. Along with security patches, this version of iTunes supports the Apple iOS 5 release on Wednesday. Also iTunes 10.5 no longer requires Quicktime to be installed to run iTunes. Quicktime has been removed from the iTunes install process, but will still be updated as a separate application in ManageIT. If you have any questions on the changes in this version or anything else with ManageIT please feel free to contact us at www.agniteksupport.com or by calling 888-4-AGNITEK.

ManageIT Patch - Release Definition 2.06.023 Adobe Flash 32bit Update

Andrew Palmer — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:51:52 GMT

We have just pushed out ManageIT definition update 2.06.023 from testing to stable on the ManageIT distribution server. Your next ManageIT Client CheckIn should pick up this new version. This update provides support for the initial release of 32bit Adobe Flash 11 for both Internet Explorer and other applications which use the Flash plugin. Flash 11 now supports 32 and 64bit versions just as Java does. The 64bit flash modules are only useful if you are running an 64bit browser. Most people are still running 32bit browsers even on 64bit OSes, as up until this moment there has been no flash plugins available for 64bit browsers. Our immediate focus is to deploy potential security updates to your existing 32bit flash installs. If you have any questions on the changes in this version or anything else with ManageIT please feel free to contact us at www.agniteksupport.com or by calling 888-4-AGNITEK.

Tablets & Smartphones: Business Tools or Toys?

AgniTEK — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Is this the year of the Tablet? Has the mobile Internet finally arrived? What business purposes are served by using mobile Internet devices, and how can they help us better serve clients? Whether you are working with products from Apple, Motorola, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung or a myriad of other providers, access to the Internet, and applications or "apps" drive the mobile world. Today, you can use apps that give you access to paperless documents from your office, provide clarification of a business rule from a quick check of research, have the ability to take a note to jog an idea, or to take enough notes for an entire draft memo. You can initiate a print job from anywhere to shared Internet printers, read a document that has been synchronized to the mobile device after being scanned, read books, publications, news sources, email, and consume content from almost any popular source. Apps make it possible to listen to and see news feeds, video conferences, record video, take and view pictures, and access multime ...

5 Productivity Tips for Windows

AgniTEK — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Print more easily, find files faster, and send email right from your desktop! 1. Print from Windows Explorer If you need to print a document, let’s say a Microsoft Word document, there’s no need to launch Word first. Browse your hard drive for the file that you want to print, right-click its icon, and then click Print. This will automatically send the document to your printer without launching Word. 2. Pin programs to the Start menu Want to add your favorite programs to the Start menu? From the Start menu, click All Programs. Locate a favorite program, right-click the program’s icon, and then click Pin to Start menu. That’s it. You can also pin an application by dragging and dropping its icon from All Programs to the Start menu. The program is now “pinned” to your Start menu. To remove it, right-click the program icon on the Start menu and then click Unpin from Start menu or click Remove from this list. Pinning a program to the Start menu in Windows 7 3. Use small icons on ...

4 Ways to Make Sure Meetings Are Not a Waste of Time

AgniTEK — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Meetings can be a big waste of time or the biggest time saver. It all depends on your skills of keeping the meeting on track and engaging your staff. The challenges that keep your meetings from being productive include going on way past the allotted time, getting off track, and meetings that turn into gripe sessions. Here are four basics to running an effective meeting that keeps you completely in charge and engages your employees. 1. Set the expectations 2. Acknowledge the elephant 3. Beat the dead horse 4. Engage them Set the expectations One reason meetings get off track is due to negativity. It could be just one drama queen who always has something negative to say, but my bet is that she is speaking for the tribe, and she gets some sort of glory from her peers for having the courage to say what everyone else is thinking. Whether it’s everyone or just one person, the way to eliminate the complaining is to set the expectations before the meeting begins. This starts with a good agenda with a time allot ...

Take Control of Information with an Intelligent Archiving Strategy

AgniTEK — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Such a strategy can help enterprises confidently store, manage, and discover critical business information across multiple content sources. If your organization is like most, you’re probably retaining much more information than you should. According to one study, too many enterprises today are saving information indefinitely rather than implementing policies that would enable them to delete unimportant data with confidence. Increasingly, the price to pay for this “packrat” approach is becoming harder to justify. As data continues to grow exponentially, trying to keep everything just consumes larger and larger amounts of storage space and makes too many demands on IT resources. Spending more time and money on poor information management practices can’t continue indefinitely. To regain control of their information, organizations need to deploy an intelligent archiving strategy. Recent research from Gartner Inc. shows that such a strategy can dramatically reduce storage costs, improve backup times, and stream ...

Find Out How To Get An Extra Hour Every Day

AgniTEK — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Time pressure is acute and frustrations such as commuting, inflexible working hours and tedious meetings make it worse. To get things started here are ten sure-fire ways to get an extra hour a day. Do emails on the go. With an notebook with 3G Mobile Broadband, you can get ahead of your emails before you even get to work. (Broadband connections require separately purchased wireless data service contracts.) Work from home. Instead of commuting to work, why not stay at home and put the journey time to better use? Using technology, you can still stay in touch with your colleagues and access all your email and work files. Virtual meetings. The majority of office professionals reckon they could save up to six hours a week simply by not traveling to off site meetings. Video, web or phone conferences can reduce the amount of time you spend traveling to meetings. Get up earlier. An hour before work is more productive — mainly because it is quiet — than any other time of the day. Changing sleep habits takes ...

Employee Spotlight - Nick Menor

AgniTEK — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

As AgniTEK continues to expand as a regional information technology firm, we take pride in showcasing some of our stellar employees. Nick Menor, a member of the AgniTEK IT Team for almost a year, graduated in 2006 with a degree in Television Communications from Central Florida Community College. Nick uses his knowledge of telecommunications to help clients with their IT problems. He enjoys meeting new challenges every day and finds fixing complicated problems to be especially rewarding. “I love when I can impress a customer with my service,” Nick says. Nick’s favorites: Color: Color-blind Band: Chevelle Movie: Ironman Food: Shepard’s Pie Hobbies and pastimes: Football and Basketball

Virtualization for Dummies

AgniTEK — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:56:00 GMT

Virtualization is the latest innovation made in the field of IT; it allows users to tie together increasing levels of computer efficiency and performance. The immediate advantage that Virtualization gives you is a cost effective system of connecting two or more computers, running two or more different environments on a single machine.

The Benefits of Disaster Planning

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:54:00 GMT

To some people a disaster would mean the end of the world; they lose everything, their name, money, and means of livelihood but to some people a disaster would make no difference. Yeah, that is very much possible these days, thanks to disaster planning. This kind of planning is very familiar to contingency planning where businesses set aside a sum of money monthly or annually to pay for any kind of product guarantee or failure or just to secure them from any unexpected harmful situation

Featured AgniTEK Resource: The New ManageIT Icon

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

AgniTEK is excited to introduce a faster way for you to get the help you need when you need it: the AgniTEK ManageIT Icon. The button to use this new resource may be found at the bottom right of your computer screen on the taskbar. The blue 'A' button in the middle of your Tools Tray is the new ManageIT icon.

The Data You Save May Be Your Own

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

by James Dempsey, Owner/Partner ITSolutions|Currie Technology can be almost insidious in the way it creeps in and changes your life. Don’t get me wrong, I am a technology advocate. Yet, time and again, I see where people and businesses implement fancy new tools and gadgets without thinking about the potential liabilities they may create. Take digital cameras, for instance. My home computer now stores more than ten years of family photographs, all digital. There they are: grandma and grandpa, family vacations, Christmas mornings, and the kids when they were tiny little things... If that computer were to crash, my wife would look at me with raised eyebrows and say, “You have a current backup, right?” I think most of us can relate to that sickly, knotted feeling in the chest that accompanies the combination of doubt and fear. When a business server crashes, the concern can be palpable. People begin stewing over the potential lost receivables and job bids, years and years of client histor ...

Disaster recovery solutions -- more accessible, and more necessary, than ever before

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Site Very few of us would hide our life savings under our mattress with confidence that those funds would remain safe and sound. Financial institutions provide us with a plethora of options for the safekeeping of our money, so it's crazy to think that we'd opt for hiding all of our cash in the bedroom. The equivalent of hiding cash under a mattress is actually fairly commonplace in many businesses. Companies frequently store all of their data and information in just one place, leaving them vulnerable to dire consequences should catastrophe, whether physical or technical, occur. Unfortunately, few companies that undergo significant data loss resulting from a disaster can pull things together quickly and effectively enough to survive long-term, further underscoring how imperative it is for businesses to have effective disaster recovery solutions in place. Businesses have a number of options for preserving business continuity in the ...

The Great Password Reset

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

The scene: A narrow, poorly lit inner-city alleyway. You turn the corner and face an old wooden door entrance to a Prohibition era speakeasy. Your hand reaches out to give an assertive, yet discreet, knock. A small porthole opens. A grimly looking face appears and asks you for your password. You think for a moment and respond “pass1234,” he frowns and slams the porthole closed. “No . . . wait . . . that’s the password for the speakeasy down the street. Try ‘QWERTY67.’ What’s that? Oh, right, we’re on the East side of town, I need at least one special character. Computer passwords were invented ~50 years after this scene. They have been in play for 50 years since. They will probably be existence for 50 years more. Passwords never used to be so complicated, but then again, they’ve never been so potentially dangerous. Passwords are the keys to our private kingdoms; kingdoms that are now accessible from anywhere on the globe with an Internet connection. These days there’s very little information we wish to kee ...

System Updates and Patches- The Dreaded Terror!

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

We all know that ghoul- the System Update. Oh, how every user dreads the rearing of its ghostly head! Ok, maybe it isn’t that bad, but when that icon appears in the bottom of our screen our reaction is always the same, “Are you kidding me? Do I have to update my computer? It’s going to keep me from working. I don’t have the time or energy for a reboot right now. Surely I don’t need it that badly. Everything is working just fine!” When computer technicians first examine a unit in trouble, they look to see if the updates are current. If the company and/or computer are not being monitored and maintained by an IT firm, many times the tech will discover that the machine suffering from a virus or spyware has not been updated in a while. It’s not a coincidence. Most often, Microsoft and Apple send updates to close security loopholes, provide critical updates, and protect against a variety of online threats. The severity and necessity of these updates vary from minor to quite critical. So what ...

Get Spam Out of Your Diet

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

How to Stop Spam (and Viruses) at the Door Spam is like an uninvited houseguest with a runny nose. Both take time away from what you'd rather be doing and can bring viruses into your domain. Spam is a problem for everyone. Spam—or unsolicited bulk email—accounts for roughly 90 percent of email sent, or nearly 200 billion messages each day. Spam wastes employees' time. And when it carries viruses or links to phishing websites, spam can take down your network and result in stolen passwords and information theft. Fortunately, you can now find cost-effective firewall appliances that stop spam, viruses, and phishing at the door, without blocking legitimate email in the process. Or you could try to stop spam with an antispam service. At Your Service? If you subscribe to one of the stop-spam services offered by an Internet service provider, beware their limits: ISP services typically have a poor "catch rate" for spam because image- and PDF-based spam slips through the filters. ...

5 Steps Toward Hurricane Preparedness

AgniTEK — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

1. Understand what data and systems are critical to business continuity Many governments have mandated the remote replication and storage of financial, medical, and certain other kinds of data. Businesses have realized that their data and applications are their life blood. Make sure you know where all of your company's critical data and applications are located and that they can be integrated into a remote backup solution. 2. Identify and fix single points of failure in your network, business processes, and people In network design, redundancy eliminates single points of failure. Make sure that network elements — including switches, routers, and other components — are redundant and enabled with software failover features. Review business processes and job responsibilities to ensure that there are similar "failover," should a process or employee become adversely affected in a disaster. 3. Create a workforce continuity plan If employees can't get to their offices for days, weeks, or longer, it is important ...

Upcoming: Household Hazardous Waste & Computer Collection Event

AgniTEK — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:59:00 GMT

On Saturday, October 1 from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the University Services Building, residents from the Brazos Valley will be able to dispose of household hazardous waste and computers free of charge.

Common examples of household hazardous waste include pharmaceuticals and medical waste, solvents, pesticides, caustic cleaners, used motor oil, batteries, oil, paint and computers.

Please keep in mind that televisions, household garbage, 55-gallon drums, ammunition, explosives and tires will not be accepted.

Small businesses and municipal departments will be able to dispose of computer components but will not be able to dispose of other hazardous wastes at this event.

Visit the City of College Station events page for more information.

Disaster Recovery Planning

AgniTEK — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:49:00 GMT

There a few large firms in the world that actually think about disaster planning and consider it an integral part of their business; most small and medium business tend to think small and ignore these vital issues. Irony of the matter is that big businesses that are already stable and successful happen to save themselves when a disaster strikes and poor small and medium businesses are the ones suffering the major loss- to the extent that the business might shut down. But all that can change; you can save yourself millions of dollars if you just think smart and act fast-engage in a disaster recovery plan.

15 Reasons to Consider Virtualization

AgniTEK — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:44:00 GMT

The latest innovation in the IT industry is virtualization, everyone seems to be talking about, researching it on the internet and looking into ways that can help install virtualization in their offices. Now, why is that? What is the sudden hype all about? For people who are new to this concept let me start from scratch- virtualization provides a computer environment for multiple virtual machines to exist and work on single computer hardware.

Are You Ignoring Customers?

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from the HP solutions Site Customer Feedback Want to respond to your customers' needs instantly? Learn more about becoming an Instant-On Enterprise Out of frustration, a team of gardeners wanted to fence a flowerbed after visitors repeatedly cut through it. But one visionary saw things differently and had a path installed instead. After all, it wasn't just any destination—it was Disneyland. Founder Walter "Walt" Disney understood that guests knew where they wanted to go, and it was the staff's job to give them what they wanted. Just like those guests, customers—both in business and the public sector—seek the easiest path. If you don't help your customers get there, your competitor will. Unfortunately, many organizations are losing supporters by ignoring customer feedback on a daily basis without realizing why. High Tech vs. High Touch Technology can be one of your greatest assets—as long as it's used appropriately. Technology usage is the most critical differentiator. Leaders mu ...

Virtualization Trends

AgniTEK — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:59:00 GMT

Every New Year brings along with it many new things and so would 2011; speaking precisely of the IT sector, it is expected to change too. So what are the kinds of anticipated changes in this sector? Well, first of all it is going to grow; It is one of those few things in life that have and will continue to grow, so far a threshold for its growth cannot be seen.

Office 365 Password Policy

AgniTEK — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 GMT

Office 365 supports two types of identity: 1. Microsoft Online Services cloud IDs: Users have cloud credentials that are used to sign in to Office 365 services. These credentials are separate from any desktop or corporate credentials. Office 365 issues these identities and hence also authenticates users. In this case the password policy is stored in the cloud with the Office 365 service. 2. Federated IDs: Users use their corporate AD credentials to sign in to Office 365 services. In this case a user’s corporate AD authenticates the users and password policy is controlled and stored in the on-premise AD. This article describes the password policies and options for Microsoft Online Services cloud IDs. Password policy Property Description Password restric ...

Fortis Webinar: Tips & Tricks Part II

AgniTEK — Mon, 09 May 2011 21:15:00 GMT

Agnitek would like to announce the hosting of a Fortis Webinar on Friday, June 3rd at 1 pm ET by Westbrook Technologies. This invitation-only webinar will provide customers with advantageous tools with interaction between the Fortis experts at Westbrook Technologies and their much-valued clientele. "Tips & Tricks Part II -- Focus On Query and Edit" will inform and instruct customers on how to search text found in annotations, run a search right from the desktop without having to access the Fortis client software, and more time and money saving tips that can be utlized in order to streamline your office processes. Learn how to use various Fortis shortcuts in action in this resourceful Webinar on Friday, June 3rd at 1pm by simply following this link.

Disaster-Proof Your Business

AgniTEK — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:05:00 GMT

If you're a business owner, you need to know how to protect your business. Try as we might, there's often no way to skirt disaster — whether it's national, personal or weather induced. But there are strategies to cope with it as best we can, no matter if its source is a burst river levee, a thoughtlessly discarded match, or the deranged actions of others. Knowing what to do in the event of a disaster is crucial for anyone, of course, but particularly for a small-business owner, whose livelihood may depend on a small storefront or home basement office. Start with some strategies.

Support Bryan/College Station Kids

AgniTEK — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The much anticipated BCS Lemonade Day is nearing! Please join in with the Bryan/College Station area in supporting our local kids as they operate their lemonade stands around the community this upcoming Sunday afternoon. Lemonade Day aims at fostering business leadership, entrepreneurship, and community involvement in the hearts and minds of our local children. AgniTEK would like to encourage everyone to visit at least 5 lemonade stands this Sunday, May 1st 2011. Show our young entrepreneurs your support by purchasing their lemonade! Locations are listed below, or you can keep up-to-date as the event nears by following our Facebook and Twitter updates. Partial List of Known Lemonade Stand Locations: Emerald Parkway & Highway 6 Frontage Road at Dr. Elm's office Shanandoah Subdivision at Southern Oaks Park Indian Lakes Community Pool Area FedStar Credit Union on Harvey Road Copy Corner on Texas Village Foods on Briarcrest Walmart in College Station Bry ...

Help! I've Spilled Coffee On My Laptop

AgniTEK — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:47:00 GMT

It’s late and you’re struggling to stay awake at your desk, so you decide to make yourself a cup of coffee. A few more hours of work ahead and the coffee will perk you up. Then, oops, there it is, all over your laptop, ruining your evening. The coffee has drained into the machine. The damage could be irreparable.

AgniTEK is Hiring!

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

AgniTEK’s Technology department is hiring a network engineer intern. AgniTEK offers students the opportunity to participate in the evolution of a growing technology firm. Participation in the Network Engineering program provides the hands-on experience students need to develop technical expertise and a better understanding of emerging technology. Upon completion of the program, select students will be asked to participate in subsequent summer sessions to build upon their achievements. To apply for the Part-Time Technician position, please submit your resume online by clicking HERE.

Bryan/College Station Hazardous Waste Collection

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Do you have an old computer that needs to be properly disposed? Join AgniTEK on April 23rd for the biannual BCS Hazardous Waste Collection event, and dispose your computer properly. The cities of Bryan and College Station are teaming up with the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Agency to sponsor the biennial Household Hazardous Waste Collection. The collection takes place once in the fall and once in the spring, and is a great opportunity for our local citizens to safely dispose of household hazardous wastes. Common Household Hazardous Wastes include, but are not limited to: Cleaners Aerosols Batteries Herbicides Pesticides Corrosive Wastes Ignitable Wastes This FREE collection is taking place on Saturday, April 23rd from 7am-2pm. For more information, visit www.cstx.gov/hhw or call the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Agency’s 24-hour hotline at 979-764-3809 for more information. AgniTEK is proud to go green with the BCS Hazardous Waste Collection.

Have you Filled out your Tournament Bracket?

AgniTEK — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:44:00 GMT

AgniTEK's IV Annual March Madness Bracket Tournament is officially underway. If you have not yet registered and completed your bracket, go to http://NCAA.AgniTEK.com and click on the "Register" link to sign up. If you played in previous years, you can use your username and password from before, there is no need to re-register. The Bracket Entry Cutoff is on Thursday March 17th at 11am Central so the sooner the better! There is no cost to fill out your bracket, so have fun and happy picking!

IV Annual March Madness Tournament Challenge

AgniTEK — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:15:00 GMT

It's time to start preparing your brackets! Join in this challenge individually, or double team this tournament and start constructing your bracket. Simply select the team that you think will win each of the tournament games that begin March 17th. For each game that you or your team predicts correctly, you will receive the corresponding point value. The point values for correct picks increase with each round of the tournament, ending with the largest point value with the championship game on April 4.

Start small, get big results with business analytics

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:51:00 GMT

used with permission from the IBM website How does your organization make business decisions? Do you go with a "gut feeling" because you lack accurate and complete data? Or do you have visibility into your processes, performance, offerings and customers to support smart, fact-based decisions? With business data today growing at exponential rates, the need also is increasing to gather, analyze and use data wisely. In a highly instrumented, interconnected and intelligent world, business analytics can help your midsize organization achieve valuable insights and build competitive strengths. Using business analytics, a smart organization can enhance opportunities for profitable growth, optimize the allocation and deployment of resources and capital, and proactively manage risk. A company using business analytics is not overwhelmed by today’s vast amounts of data and instead can turn that data into a business advantage. But where does a company begin? Know when you're ready In business planning and operations ...

Five Essential Elements of Business Recovery

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:13:00 GMT

The article re-printed courtesy of IBM ForwardView eMagazine In the current business environment, the old adage "time is money" applies now more than ever. So what happens when everyday operations are disrupted? According to the U.S. Labor Department, more than 40 percent of all companies that experience a disaster never reopen - and more than 25 percent of those that do reopen after a disaster occurs will close down for good within two years. But even if your company doesn't go through a major disaster, chances are high that it will experience the negative consequences of unplanned outages that make business as usual impossible. The problem is amplified in challenging economic times, says Warren Sirota, a segment executive with IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services. "If the business is already suffering from lower revenue because of the economy and a significant outage occurs, the impact can be much more dramatic than during good times," he says. Downtime quickly becomes revenue loss Ev ...

5 Essential Keys to Successful IT Projects

Becky — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:33:00 GMT

Despite being a hot topic in business for many years, the truth is that project management still isn't well understood among many businesses. And the success rate of projects appears to be lower than ever. According to The Standish Group's April report, "CHAOS Summary 2009," 44 percent of all projects are late, over budget, and/or have less than the required features and functions. Even worse, 24 percent fail altogether – either cancelled prior to completion, or delivered and never used

Never Lose Another File: Four Reasons Why the Time Is Right to Adopt Document Management

AgniTEK — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:29:00 GMT

If you're like most small to midsize businesses today, you can recall a time when you had to rummage through thousands of files -- just to get your hands on the one you needed. And if you're a company in the highly regulated accounting, finance or healthcare world, you may encounter this frustrating scenario almost every day. Worse yet, the amount of data produced and retained by companies continues to soar -- with no real end in sight. So how can your company become more effective at organizing and locating important documents and files -- while reducing the headaches and risk associated with lost documents? One great place to start is with an automated document management solution -- a solution that dramatically increases accessibility, security and cost savings.

7 Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet

AgniTEK — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:25:00 GMT

In business, the key to survival is not a secret. Your customers have to be able to find you. Most of us spend a great deal of time and money looking for the perfect way to attract prospects. I have spent the bulk of my career looking for the perfect marketing mix. We try direct mail, networking, pretty flyers, telemarketing, web site search engine optimization (SEO), and a million other things.

Business Continuity Tip

AgniTEK — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:39:00 GMT

We talk about the importance of creating a comprehensive and actionable recovery plan. It will come as no surprise, that most plans are built with the worst-case-scenario in mind. But the reality is that most business interruptions are not major "smoking hole" events. Employee illness, transit strikes, religious holidays or even scheduled events like the recent G20 in Toronto are just a few examples of the many things that can keep people out of work throughout the year.

The Elephant Named Sharepoint

Becky — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:36:00 GMT

Many of us have heard the fable about the blind men and the elephant. When the men were asked to describe what an elephant looked like the descriptions ranged from a snake to a tree to a fan depending on whether the blind man had touched the trunk, the leg or the ear. What does an ancient fable like this have to do with technology? It's the same problem we have when we try to explain to you how useful a tool Microsoft SharePoint can be to your business. SharePoint is so flexible and has so many uses; we often have trouble describing it in a way you can get the whole picture.

AgniTEK Receives Award

Becky — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:40:00 GMT

On Thursday December 16, 2010 AgniTEK Technology Solutions was honored alongside two other prominent Bryan businesses for their work and dedication in downtown Bryan. This award was received with great esteem by AgniTEK owners David Ohendalski and Antonio Ortiz, who made the move to historic downtown Bryan in 2009.

The 11th Annual Mayor’s Downtown Impact Award honors businesses that put forth an “extraordinary effort” toward revitalizing historic downtown Bryan. Antonio and David look forward to both a forthcoming prosperous and revitalized downtown Bryan and a successful 2011 with continued growth.