Cut Down Bandwidth Cost!

Anytime anywhere access is what everyone these days expect from any application they work on. Today business is no longer confined to office, and people need freedom to work from anywhere. This change has made bandwidth all more critical and regulating its usage an important task for IT department

Sandeep Koul

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Protect your laptop from scuffing

If you’re a frequent traveler, you might be used to the standard airport security drill of removing a laptop from its bag for screening. But crowded airports are not always very friendly towards unprotected electronics. That’s why a simple laptop sleeve can do wonders to protect your laptop from scuff marks. Most country regulations permit the screening of a laptop while in a sleeve (including the stringent TSA checks at US airports).

SOFT SKILLS FOR IT MANAGERS

Many people believe their value is based on what they know—and they don’t want to give that up

Most of us have, at one time or another, worked with a colleague who hoarded information as if it were gold. And let’s not forget the manager who passed on company information

only on a need-to-know basis (kind of like working for the CIA).

This approach to information is frustrating and counterproductive, but understandable. Many people believe their value to the company is based on what they know—and they don’t want to give up that perceived edge. Their theory is that if they share that knowledge with their co-workers, that will increase the co-workers’ value and diminish their own.

This is a battle that business has been fighting for decades, but it’s heated up during the past few years of ongoing layoffs, when employees are more interested in surviving than collaborating. Ironically, this is happening at a time when knowledge management and collaboration technologies are getting a lot of attention from business leaders, who understand how these technologies can benefit their organizations.

Learning to share requires a change in perspective. Instead of focusing on what we as individuals are giving up, we need to focus on what we as a team—and a company—are gaining: We are exchanging knowledge, learning new skills, and improving the health and stability of the business. Taking a long-term view, that means we are all more likely to keep our jobs.

That sounds like common sense. However, a speaker at the recent World Innovation Forum in New York pointed out that emotions often trump sense. Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, noted that individuals find comfort and security in the old ways of working. Analytically, they may know that they need to change, but emotionally, they don’t want to change. He added, “People hate change because change is hard.”

"Learning to share requires a change in perspective"

So what can enterprises do? Management may understand that knowledge sharing and collaboration.

can increase productivity and have a positive impact on the bottom line, but they may not know how to get employees to accept a new, collaborative way of working.

That’s clear from the survey Baseline did on knowledge sharing, which combines knowledge management and collaborative technologies. The survey found that better employee information exchange is the respondents’ top goal in both technologies, but one of the leading challenges is employee resistance. It’s No. 5 in knowledge management and No. 4 in collaboration.

Let’s face it: Employee resistance can be a technology killer. Think of the excuses given in the past for stonewalling older technologies:

We don’t need that—things are working fine just the way they are. … It will take longer to do it with technology. … It’s just a fad, anyway. … I wouldn’t trust that (list the technology du jour here) as far as I could throw it. The list goes on.

This kind of misguided attitude is disheartening, but, when it comes to knowledge sharing technologies, we seem to be making some progress. Among our survey respondent, 75 percent are currently using collaboration technologies, 60 percent are utilizing document management and 58 percent are using knowledge management.

If that’s the case, Heath had some suggestions for a plan to overcome that resistance: Start with small changes so employees don’t get overwhelmed. Then find out what’s working and do more of that. Motivate people by appealing to their emotions.

Give them credit for what they’ve already done and encourage them to do more. Finally, consider the work environment and see whether a different environment would help employees accept change more easily.Yes, change is hard, but people can—and do—change all the time. They just need a good reason..

"Start with small changes so employees don’t get overwhelmed. Then find out what’s working and do more of that"

Customize folder backgrounds in Windows 7

Usually, if you open an explorer window in Windows 7, you're greeted with a familiar white window. If that's getting too boring, you can use Windows 7 Folder Background Changer. Apart from setting a photograph or color as your background, you can also change the color of the text or show shadows under text. Also, you needn't apply it one folder at a time; you can apply the same background to all sub-folders within a single folder.

User Account Control too annoying?

Have the user account control popups in Window 7 to confirm each and every action started to annoy you? If so then there's a simple way to disable them. Go to start, type "user account" in the search field and select the third option "change user account control settings". In the newly opened window, use the slider to set the notifications to any of the four levels that suit you with the "never notify" setting disabling it and you're done.

Sound system

The best way to determine what sound system you want to buy is to firstly analyze your needs. Do you listen primarily to music? Most music (even flac) is encoded in stereo (2.1) format which use only the front speakers. However, if you watch hi def movies and play games then 5.1 is the way to go with almost all movies and games supporting surround sound.

Customize your desktop Rainmeter

Rainmeter is a free desktop customization tool with which you can totally change the look of your windows PC. Compact applets, sidebar gadgets or even the dashboard widgets of the mac can be added and the best part is how little memory it consumes and has negative impact on performance. You can even keep track of RSS feeds, emails, weather forecasts and twitter feeds straight from the comfort of your desktop!

Windows 7 shortcuts

Unknown Windows 7 shortcuts

There are a lot of shortcuts in Windows 7 that use the Windows key. For example, holding the Windows key and clicking + will bring up the magnifier. You can then use + and - to zoom in or out. Windows + T cycles through thumbnails of all open windows. Windows + Spacebar makes every window transparent. And Windows + Left or Windows + Right will make the active window fill up one half of the screen.

Internet on your TV

If you have a HD flat panel TV, you can use it to browse the internet in HD using a laptop or desktop connected via HDMI. But since the standard browser is not optimized for TV use, you may have to squint a fair bit. Instead, use Kylo, a web browser specifically designed for this purpose. Not only are all the fonts and buttons larger, you also get a large address bar and easy navigation shortcuts.

Computer speakers perform better

Make your computer speakers perform better

If your speaker setup has a downfiring subwoofer, instead of keeping it directly on hard floor, place the sub on a carpet. This will remove the boomy effect of the bass bouncing off the floor and help increase the clarity of output.

Windows 7 Shortcut

Know some unknown Windows 7 shortcuts

There are a lot of shortcuts in Windows 7 that use the Windows key. For example, holding the Windows key and clicking + will bring up the magnifier. You can then use + and - to zoom in or out. Windows + T cycles through thumbnails of all open windows. Windows + Spacebar makes every window transparent. And Windows + Left or Windows + Right will make the active window fill up one half of the screen

UPS, Bluetooth , iPod easier, LED TVs, panel TV

*** Don't underestimate the importance of a UPS ***

Nowadays with frequent voltage fluctuations and brownouts, it has become necessary to protect your PC with a UPS so that your data and hardware are safe and secure. There have been numerous reports of PC users experiencing the foul stench of burnt computer components which is quite unpleasant and should definitely be avoided. Start at a minimum of 500VA for battery backup which should give you enough time to shut down programs and save your data.

Beware of keeping your Bluetooth switched on!

Switching off bluetooth on your mobile would be a smart move both for your phone security and battery life. There are hacks out there which can penetrate the non existent defenses of your mobile phone by exploiting an open bluetooth connection. Some of the hacks can even override your access and dial any number from your contact list! It also drains a significant amount of battery life even if not paired to any device so make it a habit to switch it off after use.

Make playing videos on the iPod easier

It might be frustrating when iTunes doesn't detect your library of avi or flv video files. There is an easy solution to that. Prism Video Converter is one of the best free video converting software in which you can even queue up your entire video library without having to click convert each. If you just want to convert the odd video or two, then the free software from Doremisoft will work for you.

Before you buy LED TVs

There are two types of LED technologies - Full Lit and Edge Array. The older LEDTVs and some models with a slimmer profile use edge array lighting which leads to quite uneven lighting on different parts of the television which actually ruins the viewing experience. On the other hand the Full Lit LEDs give uniform lighting to the television leading to to better picture quality in comparison to edge array but tend to be the same as LCDs. Look for a feature known as Local dimming which adjusts the picture quality according to the environment and the best combination would be a full lit LED with local dimming.

Optimizing your flat panel TV

Most flat panel televisions need to be calibrated for best picture and to better suit your ambient light. If you can't get it professionally calibrated you can at least check whether the TV is set to 'store' or 'home' mode. Store more is unnatural and will cause eye fatigue. The same goes for dynamic contrast in the picture settings menu. Keep this at 'low' or 'medium'.

Are all flash drives the same?

Just like memory cards have different speed ratings, USB flash drives can differ in their read/write speeds. The difference is that flash drives don't usually advertise their speeds. But if you have a hankering for speed, you can choose something that's been built for speed right from the start; something like Sandisk's Ducati flash drive or Corsair's Flash Voyager GT.