• Making backups of the data you host with them.
• Installing patches to the applications they provide you.
• Performing upgrades to their software and provide business continuity solutions to prepare for when disaster strikes their service.
• Blocking spam for you if you are using hosted e-mail.

Generally with cloud services you and your users can access the cloud applications from practically anywhere using practically any device that has a browser—even a smartphone.

Many cloud services allow month-to-month contracts and they also offer instant scalability so you can add or remove employees/users anytime you like. This means your fees are adjusted accordingly and instantly as your number of users dynamically increases and decreases.

The next two posts will address both cautions and dangers of using the cloud.

Please post your comment on this blog.

The post Big benefits of using the cloud appeared first on Foster Institute.

Get Mac Drivers for Windows (Apple Boot Camp Windows Drivers)

• Using a Mac with OS X to generate the Apple Boot Camp Windows Drivers
  • On the (or another) Mac with OS X, keep running apple update until the updates are all current
  • Make sure you have a place for the Boot Camp Assistant to save the Windows support software
    • blank CD, DVD or
    • An external drive formatted as MS-DOS (FAT)
      • To format an external drive as MS-DOS (FAT), use: Applications folder > Utilities > Disk Utility
  • Open: Applications folder > Utilities > Boot Camp Assistant
  • Follow the on-screen instructions
    • Ok to ignore warnings if you do not have the DVD connected
    • Download the Windows support software (takes a while)
    • Save the Apple Boot Camp Windows Drivers to a CD, DVD, or FAT 32 external disk
      • Used approximately 600 Meg on 3/30/11
    • Stop and exit before allowing Boot Camp Assistant to create a partition for Windows—you won’t need that because
      • You are not going to use Boot Camp
      • We are installing only Windows 7 on the computer
  • In a later step, we’ll install the Windows support software on your Windows partition.

Eliminate OS X and Install Windows 7

Note—I learned a lot from http://www.zdnet.com. I also copied and pasted, then modified to eliminate redundancy and add clarity, information from documentation at www.apple.com.

By the way, I did elect to purchase a full license of Windows 7 to use just on my Air.

Another important note: From the very beginning, and every time, when booting into windows expect to stare at a white screen for about 45 seconds.

At first, I thought there was something wrong. Just wait it out—after 45 seconds of the white screen Windows 7 will boot fine. I suspect the Air is looking for other boot devices.

• With the computer turned off, insert the Apple recovery USB rescue device that came with your system. Make sure the four copper connections are facing up.
• When powering up, hold down the C key to boot to the USB rescue device.
• Wipe out the drive partitions and create one new partition with a MBR boot sector instead of the Apple GUID one
  • Choose Utilities > Disk Utility
  • Choose the 251GB Apple SSID drive
  • Select the Partition tab
  • In volume scheme set to “1 partition”
  • Name: Windows7 (or whatever you want)
  • Format: FAT32
  • Size: 251GB
  • Options > MBR (Master Boot Record)
  • Choose Apply (and, when prompted, confirm you want to partition the drive)
  • Use the menu at the top of the screen to “quit the disk utility”
  • Use the menu at the top of the screen to “quit the mac OS X installer”
• Shut down the Mac
• Remove the USB rescue stick
• Plug in the external DVD drive with Windows 7 64 bit DVD installed
• Boot the system while holding down the Option key
• If you want to register Windows online during the installation:
  • Join a Wi-Fi network or
  • Plug in the USB to RJ45 converter and connect via an Ethernet cable
  • Neither is necessary
• Click on the arrow above the Wi-Fi and the CD “Windows”
• The computer will seem to turn off and then Windows install starts
  • You’ll be prompted to reformat the drive with NTFS
  • The installation process takes a long time and the computer may seems “frozen” at times but it is still going
• Install the Windows support software you created earlier:
  • Insert the CD or DVD or connect the external disk with the Windows support software
    • If the DVD drive is not recognized:
      • Shut down the Mac / Windows 7 machine
      • Turn on the Mac again
      • The turning on process may take more than 2 minutes, and the screen will flash, and the computer may seem like it went off
      • Eventually Windows will boot and be able to recognize the CD/DVD drive
    • If the installer doesn’t start automatically, browse the CD, DVD, or external disk using Windows Explorer and double-click the setup.exe file in the Boot Camp directory.
  • Follow the onscreen instructions
    • The dialog will say “Installing Boot Camp” but only the Win drivers are installed
    • Important: Do not click the Cancel button in any of the installer dialogs.
    • If a message appears that says the software you’re installing has not passed Windows Logo testing, click Continue Anyway.
    • You don’t need to respond to installer dialogs that appear only briefly during the installation
    • If nothing appears to be happening, there may be a prompt that you must respond to, but the prompt is in a window that is covered up (came up underneath). Check the taskbar and look behind open windows.
  • After your computer restarts, follow the instructions for any other installers that appear
  • Note: To eject the DVD from the drive
    • Open Windows Explorer
    • Right click (click with two fingers on the touch pad) on the DVD drive icon
    • Choose “Eject”
  • Check for updated Windows support software
    • Use the Apple Software Update inside of Windows (look under “All programs”)
• Configure Windows
  • Install all Microsoft patches
  • Install IE9
  • Install Microsoft Security Essentials
  • Microsoft patches again
  • Set patches to ask me before downloading or updating
• Then I used the Windows support software by using Apple Software Update inside of Windows (look under “All programs”) to check for updates again.
• You may want to search e-Bay for “windows 7 sticker.”

In Case You Ever Want to Go Back to Using OS X

• When powering up, hold down the C key to boot to the USB rescue device
• Follow the instructions

Test and Use

• USB Ethernet adapter
• Wi-Fi LAN adapter
• Video VGA port—MUST PLUG IN VGA ADAPTER PRIOR TO BOOTING WINDOWS
  • Command-P is like Windows-P
• External CD ROM

Microsoft Office

Note: If you install Microsoft Office, then PowerPoint will crash as soon as you type a key. The latest Boot camp update disables a keyboard setting in Windows. I found the answer at http://answers.microsoft.com.

• To fix, Open Control Panel
• In view mode “View by Category”, find the section “Clock, Language and Region”
• Click “Change Keyboards or other input methods”
• Press the button “Change Keyboards”
• Press the button “Add”
• Scroll down to “English (United States)” and expand
• Check box “US”
• Press OK
• Press OK—You’ll see two keyboards listed “US” and “United States (Apple)”
• Press OK

Shadow Protect

In case you use ShadowProtect image backup software on Windows 7 (I do) then note that the apple software updater may interfere with Shadow Protect.

For this reason, I removed the apple updater from my computer permanently. I will miss the updater; However, I would miss being able to perform and image restore even more than I will miss the updater.

The post 2010 MacBook Air conversion to Native Windows 7 appeared first on Foster Institute.

It is beneficial, every year or so, to have someone in your organization shop around for data service rates for your business.

Most of my clients report findings such as, “We now have twice the data rate for one half the price!”

If you have not shopped around lately, now is a great time to do so! Remember to call telephone companies, cable services, fiber providers, and even fixed wireless if it is available in your area.

If you have multiple locations, you may even find that an MPLS solution, where the telephone company handles much of the traffic routing between locations, is a good option for your organization.

After you save money at the office, have your users check their homes as well. I just upgraded our home to a new provider for half the price that is providing two thirds of a T3’s speed for downstream data—speeds I’d only dreamed of before. The Internet is a whole new experience at these speeds! Remember too that commercial service to your business will cost more than residential service to homes, as well as often provide much faster upstream connections than residential services.

Please post your findings on the blog.

The post Capitalize on data services price drops appeared first on Foster Institute.

You can watch the short video on this story. Keep in mind that more and more social media tools are offering a service, sometimes turned on by default without your knowledge, to broadcast your GPS position.

Choose your friends online wisely. Watch two videos that demonstrate this principle:

• Facebook Identity Theft: Office Romance Goes Wrong When Facebook Profile is Hacked
• Car Wreck Car Crash and Social Internet Safety

For suggestions on how to be safe online using social media, visit www.learntobesafeonline.com

The post Thieves preying on your social media appeared first on Foster Institute.

There is great advice on using multiple monitors, going paperless, having safe backups, and leveraging laptop computers.

CPA’s, CFO’s, and Controllers are involved in your business—and it just seems right to pass this resource along to you.

The entire article can be found at www.cpatrendlines.com and www.cpa2biz.com.

The post Executives-be sure your CPA saw this article appeared first on Foster Institute.

To keep your Mac and still get support for your Windows at work, get VMware Fusion http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/ (what I use), Parallels http://www.parallels.com/, or Boot Camp http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ , and run Windows at the office. Then your IT professionals can support your “Windows” laptop (even though you have a Mac) and you can enjoy running Apple OS X for everything else.  Then you can “have the best of both worlds.”  This solution works for many people.

Please be sure to remember to run Windows anti-virus and all your patches and updates on both Microsoft and Apple operating systems, and all of your applications on both operating systems as well. This includes all your adobe reader updates, flash updates, iTunes patches, Office patches, Java patches if you install Java, browser patches like Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer, etc.

Find information about:

Mac updates: https://fosterinstitute.com/blog//update-your-mac.html

Windows updates: https://fosterinstitute.com/blog//update-your-pc.html

Application updates: https://fosterinstitute.com/blog//useful-utility.html

The post How to buy a Mac and use it at work with Windows appeared first on Foster Institute.

– the very next day – my book is on sale in the Kindle store! I’ve already purchased and downloaded my own copy into my Kindle reader to test the process.

The book upload seemed flawless! The Kindle is amazing.  Some day nobody will buy paper books anymore. It is so nice to be able to publish a book on Amazon 12 hours after finishing the book. Wow – that is lots faster (and less expensive) than all the hard cover books I had printed of my title!

I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and Reader’s Digest.  One of the neatest features is that I never need to connect the Kindle to my computer at all. The Kindle has wireless service built in and there is no additional charge for the wireless connection. Whenever I want to buy a book or get an update to a subscription, I just turn on the radio, and the content flows.

On the next edition, I’d like it if Amazon added a back light but the battery life seems to be around an entire month with no back light when I only turn on the radio to download books.  Apparently the Kindle doesn’t use any power to display text – the only power that is used is a tiny bit when I change pages. There used to be a “flicker” when I changed pages, but the latest firmware update (it came automatically over the wireless network by the way) has seemed to fix the flicker problem. I look forward to future “updates” to the Kindle that come automatically.  Also, on a future edition, maybe there will be a color screen.

My wife has gone back to college and has a huge backpack full of textbooks. They are heavy and expensive. Some day, college students will just carry a Kindle and it will hold all of their textbooks. Heck, after how easy it was for me to upload my e-book, if I was a professor, I would be able to publish notes for the students and they could all download them while sitting in class!  The possibilities seem endless.

If you are an avid reader and haven’t ordered your Kindle today, what are you waiting for?  The main reason I first purchased mine is that my mind goes all the time. When I stand in lines, at the airport for example, I used to use my Blackberry to look at CNN and other news sites. All I would read about all day is they typical gloom and doom, violence, and other “headline making news.”  That stuff is draining.  I bought the Kindle so I could read “Readers Digest” and uplifting text while standing in line. That in itself paid for the Kindle! My mind is being fed better material and I’m in a better mood too.  Like with computers – GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) – we have to watch what we put in our heads!

And another nice feature… When I’m reading a book that uses a word I don’t know what means, such as prestidigitation, Kindle’s built in dictionary lets me look up the word even in an airplane with the radio turned off!

During a presentation I made today, a CEO suggested that the Kindle is “green” in that it saves paper. Another CEO mentioned that the price of paper just went up a couple of cents today – meaning the Kindle will get another boost since it is paper free!  I welcome your comments about the Kindle.

The post Are you using an Amazon Kindle yet to save time? appeared first on Foster Institute.