Fine Line welcomes custom programmer Shaun Aubain to staff!

You don’t just want a great looking website... you want a great looking website that works – and that’s why we've bolstered our staff with the addition of up and coming custom programmer Shaun Aubain.

A spring 2011 graduate of Salisbury University, Shaun joins Fine Line with a shiny new Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and all the technical knowledge you could want out of your programmer. He looks forward to showing all of our clients what he can do. Read more of his bio here.

Let Fine Line handle your company's IT needs!

Fine Line can be your Delaware IT department at the fraction of the cost of you spinning your wheels on the phone with tech support. Time is money and your time is better spent on your own business.

We have the experience and knowledge to help solve your problems. Fine Line speaks the lingo and can help resolve many technical support problems of applications or hardware that may be specific to your industry.

If you're ready to have our IT professionals take over your case, contact the office today!

Meet Fine Line's Canine Pal!

Cute, cuddly, canine in nature and a PR specialist, Roxy serves as a marketing expert and keeps the team happy and entertained.

Roxy is our new Marketing and Special Projects Chief (sort of) and we encourage you to stop in and meet her today. She's always happy to make new friends.

Our May Site Launches:

• Beaches and Beyond
• Hit the Deck Patio
• Homestead at Rehoboth
• Lewis Research, Inc.
• RSC Landscaping
• The SCAOR Store

Most computer users have a daily routine. It starts something like: walk over, turn it on (if it isn’t on already), head to the coffee machine, return with caffeine in hand to check email and the standard list of 8 or 10 sites most useful. On occasion, this methodical routine may be shattered by the innocuous small bubble near the clock in the lower right of the screen, nagging for an update. “Do I have time for this right now? I just wanted to check my email. I’ll do it later.” Windows updates, Java updates, Adobe updates, Antivirus updates. Later becomes weeks, as the icons in the clock area begin to multiply.

Maybe that is an exaggeration and 3 or 4 extra are all you see, but the annoyance remains the same. “What is all this crap? Why does it constantly bother me?” Another program often overlooked: your antivirus software. A GOOD antivirus should simply DO its job and be virtually invisible. It is a double edged sword, however. Silent protection, but at some point you WILL need to answer a very important question if/when a problem does arise.

Herein rests the problem. “This window I see before me, alerting me that my entire computer is infected... surely this window must be trying to help? It just popped up randomly and says it wants to remove viruses. Funny, it looks nothing like the antivirus software I installed over a year ago but haven’t looked at again, since.” *clicks ok*

CONGRATULATIONS, you’ve just authorized the installation of a virus or spyware program and now the machine is in a state that violates your daily routine. No programs will load, and it boots straight to the virus. At this point, the user begins to panic. “How do I back up my photos and documents?!? What happened to my antivirus!?!” Too late. Time for emergency support.

Remember those updates you ignored? Those were fixes, free of charge courtesy of the software manufacturer, for known security holes in the software you are using each day. You were prompted to allow the rogue software (virus/spyware) via a pop-up that should never have existed, had those holes been patched. Your poor antivirus never had a chance because the installation was authorized, as software, by the user. Undermined by the person it was trying to protect! Now the antivirus software has to work double time to remove what has just been installed and prevent system damage as well as protect the privacy of your important data. Since viruses are purposefully crafted to evade antivirus software, it becomes a continuous game of cat and mouse, which is why your antivirus software must update as often as possible to remain effective.

This headache, of course, can all be avoided. Explore your current antivirus program. Become familiar with the look and functionality before you need it. Keep it updated and your system patched! For added protection from both virus infections and hardware failure, it is a good idea (read: mandatory) to back everything up as well!

At the Thursday, June 3rd tech night, we talked about localized backups onto USB devices but, unfortunately, ran out of time to discuss backing up online.

Online backups can be a very easy and automated task. Besides the safety of having a duplicate copy of your data, some are also available online via a web interface (ie: Dropbox). Cost will depend on your requirements, with some starting out as a free service that can be upgraded if you decide to increase the storage capacity beyond the "free" limitation.

First up is Carbonite. Carbonite is not free, but does offer a 15 day trial. Carbonite is geared toward data safety. A small program is installed, and Carbonite will watch for new or changed files to copy to the online server. This is done automatically and silently, never interrupting your work. They also use encryption to protect the files, for added security. Each file will have an overlay of a small green light as a part of the icon, to indicate the file has been copied to the online server. An amber light indicates the file is new and will be updated soon. In the event your computer is lost or broken, it is necessary to install Carbonite on a new computer and log into your account to begin the restoration process.

Second is Dropbox, which is designed as a file sharing tool but also works well as a backup. It is also free, for the first 2GB of storage. Dropbox installs a "folder" into your my documents folder. If you have multiple computers, such as a laptop and a desktop, Dropbox is installed onto each. That way, each computer has access to this one "magic folder." Through the Dropbox server, the folders are automatically synced. If you add a file to the Dropbox folder on your laptop, your desktop will have a mirror copy in its Dropbox folder. You can also access the folder online (for example, on a friend's computer that does not have the software installed) and download your files.

We all know how important it is to keep the data on your computer. Depending on your reliance on computers (probably high), loss of your business computer data would be a serious blow to your company. Unfortunately, computer data backup tends to fall in the category of things people talk about its importance while not actually doing anything about it. Kind of like how everyone says how important it is to eat healthy and then will head over to McDonald's for lunch. Funny how the important things that should be done on a regular basis tend to stay on the back burner of priorities.

Back in the old days (you know ten years ago), the main strategy was either to hope and pray the hard drive didn't die or use a tape backup system. Everyone remembers this game. It involves rotating the tapes every day. If you had a really good plan you would remember to take the tape off-site to your home.

Luckily in the past ten years, the growing popularity of external drives along with the increase in size, you can have a great backup system with two external hard drives (approximately $75-150 each). Some of these hard drives have a password protection feature that will keep your data safe while on the hard drive. Attach one of the hard drives to your server or pc and copy all of the files you'd like to backup to the external drive. I would create a folder called "Backup 2009-01-16" changing the date to the current one then copy any files you'd like to backup. When you go home at night, unplug the external drive and take it home with you. Tomorrow, do the same thing with second external hard drive. Take the second drive home with you that night. The third day, take the 1st drive to work with you. Repeat the cycle. By doing this, you always have one hard drive off-site at your home. If your office was burglarized or had a fire, all of your data is safe at your home. The main drawback of this strategy is that you must perform it every day.

For a little more automated backup, you can subscribe to one of the several reliable online backup applications that are available. Some examples are Carbonite, IDrive, Mozy, and SOS Backup. The cost of these services range from $50 - $200 per year. When you've selected one of these services, you will install their software on your server or pc. Then, using the the installed software, simply select the folders you'd like to backup and you are basically done. The software will work behind the scenes and keep your files backed up on the service's web servers. You should periodically look at the logs and verify that the software is doing its job. The main drawback here is that you are putting your faith in the website vendor. While I have used them and found them very reliable, there is something unsettling with trusting your data security and storage online backup service.

The best strategy I've found is to do both of these. Then, the main drawbacks of each are mitigated by the other. Another important phase to your backup strategy is to perform test restores. Even the companies that have what they think are good backup strategies, without testing it, how do you really know? Doing these test restores provides a good test to ensure that if you really need your backup you will actually be able to get it using your backup data.

It has been happening over and over again. Processes or applications that could only be done on a PC or local server are being ported to the Internet. One of the late entries in this game is file management. Simply put this allows for you to use a web server for your file management.

Online file management provides several advantages (and a few disadvantages) to the traditional local PC/server data storage solutions. The biggest advantage is being able to have your files automatically synchronized across multiple computers. So, you can easily work at home and office and have the same new files at your disposal. Some providers even have mobile access of files.

A Dropbox account can be accessed via an iPhone allowing you access to your files anywhere. File sharing is a close second as far as features go. You can easily work with co-workers by sharing a folder with the co-worker. Now everyone has the same version of a file on their account. Also, if you'd like to send a client a large file, you can make the file public and give the client a direct web link to the file via email. This eliminates the issue of large files being unable to be sent via email. Files also are backed up with the solution. If your computer goes down, you can download the files from the server on your new computer. That doesn't mean you should rely on the system completely for your file backup solution.

This leads us to the main disadvantage, you don't control the server and when creating a backup solution, should expect the worst case scenario, which is that the file management has lost your files. To counteract this, you should still backup using a combination of an external hard drive, DVD, tape backup, or online backup solution. Also, for highly sensitive files, a certain amount of trust has to exist with the provider and their control of your files. The cost of the providers in my opinion is more than reasonable but depending on the total amount of your storage, the cost may become prohibitive.

The main competitors out there are Dropbox, Box.net and Elephant Drive. I have been using Dropbox mainly because they give 2GB for free. For now, this is enough space to accommodate the business. Once I surpass that 2GB, 50GB are available for $99 per year. To me, a completely reasonable cost. Box.net and Elephant Drive are the main competitors out there. I haven't tried them mainly because the free service wasn't nearly as good as Dropbox. How come Google is involved in this? Seems right up there alley and they'd probably offer 100GB for free. While many rumors exist of a Google Drive, nothing official has come from Google. Hopefully, that will change sometime soon.

In conclusion, online file management has become a very reasonable solution mainly because of the way the cost has gone down on storage space over the past few years. Over the next years, online file storage will become more and more mainstream (especially when Google jumps in).

Welcome to the first release of our monthly newsletter geared towards those who have attended one of our Tech Night sessions. We welcome any thoughts that you have to improve these newsletters or our Tech Night sessions.

Thank you for attending our Tech Night classes and we hope you are able to learn something from the classes. Frank Payton, also with Fine Line IT Consulting, and I certainly enjoy the nights and the ability it creates to reach out to the community. We also would like to thank the Lewes Library for the opportunity to hold the Tech Night classes at the library.

We held the Christmas Technology Remedies class on January 13, 2009. As this was our first session, we had some of the expected nervousness of how the Tech Night would go. Most of the presentation focused on the iPod and iPhone. We discussed how to hook the iPod into a computer, create playlists, rename song and artist titles, even how to rename the iPod. We also went to the Delaware Library Website and showed how to download an eBook to your computer. At the end of the class, we had time to answer questions ranging from how to setup a digital picture frame to how to randomize the song order when listening to an iPod.

We held the Open Source Alternatives class last night. Open Source software, without getting too technical, is software that is able to be used at no cost (or very low). The biggest downside to these applications is that in some cases if you encounter an issue the support is not quite as good as with paid-for software. The main two alternatives of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) are OpenOffice.org and Google Docs. Next, we discussed alternatives to Adobe Photoshop which are Paint.NET, Google Picasa, and Gimp. We also went through a list of the most useful open source applications that we know of. They are listed below:

• Email Client - Thunderbird, Gmail

• Virus Scan - Free AVG, Free Avira

• Spyware - Malware Bytes

• Video Editing - Avidemux

• PDF Software - Foxit

• Browsers - Firefox, Chrome

• Phone Transcriber - Jott.com

• Task Management - Remember the Milk

• List of Open Source Alternatives - osalt.com

We concluded the class by demonstrating how to create a form using Google Docs. I think Chrys, the Library Director, enjoyed this!

Microsoft Office has ruled the office productivity world for as long as most people can remember or at least since the Corel WordPerfect glory days. Microsoft Office is used out of necessity. Everyone has it. If you don't have it, then you will handicap your ability to perform business with clients or vendors. In short, it is a requirement to perform business effectively.

The main issue with Microsoft's stranglehold on the word processor and spreadsheet market is they effectively have a monopoly. This does two things, raises the cost of the application and also limits innovation as they have no real need to make better software. The professional version (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher) costs between $350-$400. The innovation limitation is a little less tangible since most are happy with the feature set available in this application suite.

As we all like free things, enter Open Office. This application suite is developed by Sun Microsystems. Open Office has been around since 2000. I've tried this application several times in the past with limited success. It never felt right. Or, it never integrated well with Microsoft Office. Well, I've recently reformatted my PC and decided to go as Open Source as possible. I installed Open Office and haven't looked back. I've been able to open any Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) file without any issue. Also, when I create a document and send it to a client who has Microsoft Office, I haven't run into any compatibility issues. I have a letterhead template for use on Fine Line IT documents and I didn't have to make any modifications to the Microsoft Office template to use the template in Open Office. In fact, the only issue I've run into is the Quickbooks W2 spreadsheet. Because of macros in this spreadsheet, Open Office couldn't open it. Other than that, no issues.

I would suggest giving Open Office a try. It has worked well for me and I haven't noticed any compatibility issues. And, did I mention that is free? Well, yes, it is free.

And Google does it again. As I've mentioned before, Google is awesome. They are re-opening the GrandCentral service that they bought in 2007. Currently the new version of this service, dubbed Google Voice, is available only to current GrandCentral users. Here is a description directly from Google of the service.

Google Voice is a service that gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail that is easy as email, and many enhanced calling features like call blocking and screening, voicemail transcripts, call conferencing, international calls, and more.

And do you want to know the best part? How much does it cost?

The service is free.

Pretty cool. Here is a full list of the features from Google:

Google number - One number for all your calls and SMS

Call screening - Announce and screen callers

Listen in - Listen before taking a call

Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay

SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS

Place calls - Call US numbers for free

Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones

Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls

Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring

Google voicemail - Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says

Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone

Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS

Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller

Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

Voice features - More cool things you can do with Google Voice

Conference calling - Join people into a single call

Call record - Record calls and store them online

Call switch - Switch phones during a call

Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile

GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance

Manage groups - Set preferences by group

Sign up here for notification when the service is opened up to the general public. I am excited about the possibilities for using this in a small business setting. Once it is opened and I have setup an account, I'll blog again to let you know how it works.