Monthly Archive
for: ‘August, 2008’

Etiquette – Not totally dead!

Posted Aug 18 2008 by in HTG Peer Groups with 0 Comments

I was catching up this morning with some blog reading, and I noticed that my friend Steve Riat from my HTG3 Peer group posted on the Olympics.  He made a great point about how classy our (U.S.) Olympic Athletes have been as well as being amazing competitors.  The Wall Street Journal did a great front page piece on this just prior to the Olympics – because the USOC was embarrassed by recent Olympics and wanted to show off our country better on the world stage.  Looks like the preparation paid off!

This video shows how the people of Bejing prepared their manners for the scrutiny of the World Press.  I know when I travel abroad I always try to be sensitive to local customs, but here they are trying to be sensitive to our Western ways…VARvid!

Our environment matters!

Posted Aug 11 2008 by in Energy with 0 Comments

I have a serious concern to blog about today…  Here’s the deal – if we don’t start making changes, and fast – our kids are NOT going to have the environment we have now to enjoy in the future.  All of us know that the climate today isn’t the climate we enjoyed as kids.  Weather is wierd, and more dramatic now.  These changes seems to be coming up in conversation all the time…  And business is business – if the environment is degraded, it WILL affect our businesses.  I believe in the power of business to make changes – and we’re trying in our small way to make them at Hardlines.  Vista can help cut power usage – did you know that?  Virtualization uses resources far more effectively – is that part of your story to your clients?  Making small changes in how we do things can make huge positive changes in our world.  Let’s not forget that in the bustle of the next sale, the next install, the next managed services project.  I discovered WeCanSolveIt.org a few weeks ago and I encourage you to watch a video and learn more about energy.  We really can solve our energy issues and become energy independent, but we do have to START!  It’s not political, or religious, it’s just reality…VARvid!

Windows Home Server Consumer Case Study

Posted Aug 1 2008 by in SBS, Web/Tech, WHS with 1 Comment

We enjoyed working with Steven Leonard and Mark Pendergrast on the WHS team, putting together a video case study on Windows Home Server.  Full Disclosure – the subjects are the CEO (and his girlfriend) of a company we do Outsourced IT for (Blythe Plumbing & Heating).  You can learn more about Windows Home Server here.  I’m sure everybody reading this knows that WHS is a great "Home" Server, but we’re using it with four clients now in a business setting.  We think that WHS is a great low cost way to backup Windows laptops and key desktops.  Because the backups are image based, the backups happen super quickly (after the first one).  You can learn more about WHS backup here.  Keep in mind that whereever it says "family," we see small business.  WHS works in a workgroup (or domain!) environment, and will backup up to 10 computers. (workgroup limitation)

We are also using WHS as a SOHO NAS – with hosted exchange as part of a managed service offering.  We’re looking forward to S+S from Microsoft to help us expand on that combined local premise plus hosted solution…VARvid!