A&J Computers Inc Blog » News

Today’s the Day — Tech and Legal Join Forces

Julie Settle — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:05:30 +0000

Drumroll, please…LawPivot is here! The Q&A site meets Social Network concept is a self-described startup “Quora for legal” that allows technology companies to confidentially ask legal questions to expert attorneys. The founders are attorneys with technical experience. Jay Mandal, CEO, was a lead mergers and acquisitions attorney at Apple and co-founder Nitin Gupta was an intellectual property litigation lawyer.

For now the site is free for both companies and attorneys. It’s a great resource for startups, especially those who have not yet established a relationship with an attorney. Questions are completely confidential. Each question posed will receive confidential answers by various attorneys who cannot view each others answers.

If you are any type of attorney, I suggest you check out the site and see if it’s for you. I imagine a lot of start ups will. Visit http://www.LawPivot.com for details.

^ Julie Settle, A&J Computers Inc.

8 Tips to Stay Cyber Safe

Julie Settle — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:45:52 +0000

The month of October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). NCSAM is a national public awareness campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation’s critical cyber infrastructure. Cyber security requires vigilance 365 days per year. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), the primary drivers of NCSAM, coordinate to shed a brighter light in October on what home users, schools, businesses and governments need to do in order to protect their computers, children, and data.

Online:

Keep your personal information private on social networks.
Install a URL scanning tool to alert you of potentially harmful web links.
Review your bank account and credit card statements regularly for questionable charges.
Review your credit report and credit score regularly.
Choose difficult encrypted passwords, consider using KeePass to safely store all your passwords.

On Your Computer:

Keep your operating system and software programs up to date.
Install these type software programs: anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall .
Back up your computer data regularly.

Below are our recommend downloads to keep your computer safe:

Anti-Virus: AVG Antivirus, Symantec Anti-Virus, Trend Micro AntiVirus
Firewall: MS Windows firewall
Anti-Spyware: Webroot’s Spy Sweeper
URL Link Scanner: AVG LinkScanner
Credit Report: Federal Trade Commission
Credit Score: Credit Karma
Password: KeePass

Below are additional sites listed by the NCSAM:

Anti-Virus: ESET NOD32 Antivirus, F-Secure Internet Security, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Norton AntiVirus, Webroot Internet Security
Firewall: ZoneAlarm, Norton Internet Security
Anti-Spyware: PC Tools Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2011, STOPzilla (removal)
Credit Report: Equifax, TrustedID
Credit Score: myFICO

A&J Computers offers solutions for all your IT security needs. Visit us at ajcomputers.com for more details or contact with questions.

^ Julie Settle
A&J Computers Inc.

Why is cycling like business?

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:37:39 +0000

For those of you who know me, July is an important month for me. The Tour de France runs from the first week to the third week, 21 days of cycling around France, over 2200 miles with some mountains so steep cars can barely get up them. But one of the things that has always stuck with me, is how cycling is such a team sport. When one of your teammates is in the lead of the race, everyone else kicks into protection mode to help out the leader of the race. In big stage races like the Tour and the Giro d Italia (Tour of Italy), there’s a strategy going in. How far do you want to get in front of the others, how many people do you send to the front of the pack, do you help other teams who are trying to catch the leaders – lots of strategy questions that need to get answered at 30 or 40 mph while you legs are pumping at 100 rpm on your pedals. One of the most prolific moments in any major race is when a team decides they don’t want to be the leader of the race, and they give away the leader’s jersey ON PURPOSE. Seemingly a crazy idea to people who are used to sports where you get in the lead and stay in the lead as long as possible. But in cycling, you want to save your energy and defending the leader’s jersey is an exhausting process – you want to wait until the last possible moment to grab the lead and then push forward to the end.

This reminds me of running a business – at what point in a project do your resources all fall in line because of the strategy you’ve laid out and planned for. Sometimes it seems like you are veering away from the end-goal, but the reality is you’ve carefully planned out your strategy and the leader’s jersey is yours when you want to take it. Taking this lesson from cycling is extremely hard – it’s about how do you work smarter not harder, and proper planning is the key.

One of the things we’ve been doing for a few years, is better and better information about clients, environments, process and procedures. It seems simple enough, but when you get down to it – it’s a ton of work. When the activity is not revenue generating, how do you justify spending all that time, resources and money on something that may never be needed? Every time we go to a client or get a tech support call, we make sure we have their folder in front of us. Coupled with our helpdesk system, this provides a comprehensive set of systems for us to ensure we have everything ready for the next time a client needs something.

So what do you do for customers to defend the leader’s jersey, or at what point do you have everything aligned to grab that jersey when you want it?