31st July 2009
Apple to Fix iPhone Security Flaw
After it was revealed yesterday that a SMS message could hijack an iPhone, Apple said it will remedy the issue tomorrow.
30th July 2009
Adobe patches critical Flash hole – UPDATE TODAY!!
Adobe patched a major security hole in its flash player today. Almost every internet browser has flash installed so make sure that you update yours today. This security hole was being widely exploited across the internet.
29th July 2009
Saving Money With Open Source Software
In this economic climate we’re all looking to save a buck or two wherever we can. Many people are turning to open source software as a way to overcome the high price of software. If you haven’t thought about what software you can replace with an open source version, you should. Give us a call and we can help you find the right one and save you some money. Below is an article from CNET about saving money with open source software.
Beyond the hype: Where open source actually saves you money
Texting while driving increases crash risk 23-fold
A report came out yesterday from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute that said texting while driving can increase your risk for a crash by 23 times. I’m as guilty of this practice as anyone and frankly I’m not going to do it anymore. I saw a visual demonstration of the risk last night on CNN and I didn’t think about it until I saw it, the amount of time that I was not looking at the highway. Below is an article from computerworld that goes into a little more detail about the series of studies.
27th July 2009
10 Ways Google Is Trying To Kill Microsoft
Microsoft to Patch Flaw In Their Unsafe Browser
In a rare move, Microsoft will release a few patches tomorrow outside of their normal schedule. These patches will fix some serious critical vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. surge technology services is still recommending that you pull the plug on Internet Explorer and instead use Mozilla Firefox for internet browsing. You can get Firefox by clicking here.
24th July 2009
Twitter 101 For Business
Twitter has just put out a great guide to help businesses big and small start using Twitter to reach out to their customers. If you have a business, you should take the time to read it over and see how it can help you grow and be better connected with the marketplace.
23rd July 2009
$199 For A Dell Mini 9 Netbook!!
If you’ve been thinking about getting a netbook now might be your time to get one. Dell has slashed the price of the Dell Mini 9 down to $199. The deal was so good, I got one for my wife.
Adobe investigating zero-day bug in Flash
Article From CNET
How do you prefer to get your email – On Your Desktop or On the Web?
Leave us a comment and let us know whether you get your email through a desktop client like Outlook or do you go to a web site to view them. Lifehacker.com has a reader poll today that sparked my curiosity and it asks the question “Do You Prefer Your Email on Your Desktop or the Web?”
22nd July 2009
Great article to help fix a flaky Internet connection
Here is great set of instructions on how to troubleshoot a flaky Internet connection from Lifehacker.com. This would be a good article to print out (or preferably save as a PDF to your computer) and have on hand in case you come across a bad connection.
Using Twitter to Find Customers
Have you ever thought about using Twitter to find new customers? Check out this article and see if you can use some of the tips to connect with current and future customers.
15 Things You Can Remote Control With Your iPhone
21st July 2009
Kingston pushes out first ever 256GB Flash Drive
Wouldn’t it be great to carry every song you own, tons of movies, documents and anything else you can think of in your pants pocket? It would be cool. Kingston has developed a 256 GB flash drive, but unfortunately its price makes it unattainable for most.
20th July 2009
BlackBerry Desktop Manager coming to Mac in September
Taking Google Voice For A Spin
Google voice was finally released from closed beta and is now sending out invitations at a hurried pace. You can get your own invitation by going to voice.google.com If you haven’t heard already, Google Voice lets you have one phone number for all your calls and text messages. The calls can be forwarded to your mobile phone or your home phone or even both. Google Voice will even transcribe your voice mail messages and then email them to you. Like most of Google’s services, it is free. I got my phone number over the weekend and played around with it a bit and was impressed by its capabilities. My first plan is to use it when we go on vacation. I will forward my home phone to my Google Voice number, but not let it ring through to my cell phone. This way I can still get away, but have email access to my voicemail messages if I need them. How can you use Google Voice? Check out these articles from Lifehacker to learn more about the service and find out if you can benefit from it.
How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice
17th July 2009
100 Geeky Places to Take Your Kids This Summer
If you are like us, you’ll be taking a vacation this summer or maybe a few mini-vacations. Wired magazine put together a great list of 100 geeky places to visit this summer.
15th July 2009
Microsoft Patches 9 Bugs Yesterday
Microsoft finally got around to patching six security updates that patch nine vulnerabilities yesterday. Please take the time today and make sure Windows Update has been run on your PC and you have installed these updates.
13th July 2009
Another Great Reason to Switch To Google Apps from Microsoft Exchange
Gmail Labs Adds Verified Accounts Key To Prevent Phishing
Content Filtering in the Workplace and at Home
How do you keep your employees from wasting time online while at work? How do you keep your children from seeing adult web sites while at home? Easy, content filtering. Content filtering allows you to control the flow of information into your workplace or home. If you are finding that your employees spend all day checking on sports scores instead of getting their work done, you can block these web sites from even being available to them. If you are concerned that your children might stumble across one of the millions of adult web sites on the internet you can set up content filtering to block these sites. Lifehacker has an article with a list of their top 5 content filtering tools. Personally we like using OpenDNS as a solution. Give us a call if you would think that content filtering is needed at your home or workplace and we can help.
10th July 2009
Dell Offering Fast Turnaround for Laptop Orders
Dell is now offering a fast track option for businesses, which means shipment in about two days for select laptops. We’ve been waiting for something like this for awhile. Thanks Dell!!
Archive your e-mail from almost any account
I haven’t tested this out yet, but it looks like a great way to get all of those emails out of your inbox, but still hang on to them in case you need them down the road.
9th July 2009
Pulling the Plug on Internet Explorer
Every couple of months news outlets on the internet and on TV feature stories warning about a new vulnerability found in Internet Explorer. After the news breaks, the technicians at surge technology services go scrambling to try and patch the latest security hole that, if exploited, could render our customer’s computers useless. We have decided to make one last “fix” to Internet Explorer to make it the safest it has ever been. What is this magic bullet that will fix all of Internet Explorers numerous issues? Four words – Don’t Use Internet Explorer! We are STRONGLY encouraging all of our customers to use Internet Explorer only one more time. Use it one more time to go to this link and download Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is safe, fast and secure. These were three words that have never been used in the same sentence with Internet Explorer. After you have downloaded Firefox, delete all of the icons for Internet Explorer and make sure that Firefox is set as your default browser (it should ask you this when you install the software). At this time, don’t go to extremes and uninstall Internet Explorer because you will still need it to go to the Windows Update site and a few other random sites. Most of those random sites though can be opened within Firefox with an Add-on called IE Tab.
Over the next couple of weeks surge technology services will be speaking with our customers to discuss with them the hazards of continuing to use Internet Explorer and how we can help make that one last “fix” by installing Mozilla Firefox. Please let us know if we can help you put Internet Explorer out to pasture and how you can come to enjoy the safer, more secure browsing experience that Firefox provides.
7th July 2009
Save Money and Save Energy
surge technology services is always looking for ways to help people be a little greener. Microsoft has a new web site dedicated to helping you with saving energy and saving money. Sign up today and start saving.
Serious Security Vulnerability
Microsoft has identified a serious security vulnerability with its Internet Explorer web browser and has advised that everyone to apply an emergency workaround. At this time they do not have a patch for the problem, but most likely will have one in 7-10 days. This particular vulnerability lets attackers infect the victim’s computers (running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003) after they’ve clicked on a video link in Internet Explorer.
You can download the workaround from Microsoft by clicking here
If you need help applying this workaround please give us a call at 614-278-7780 and we can help.
6th July 2009
25 Free Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity
Cleaning up the Facebook Privacy Controls
Facebook has always had the options to set who could or could not see your photos, updates and other parts of your profile, but they were not laid out well. Very soon Facebook will be revamping these options to make it easier for you to control your Facebook privacy. Learn more at the link below: