Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Need to get more out of your day?

I wanted to bring to your attention a CMIT Solutions LIVE Webinar that is taking place next week, "Are you running your life, or is it running you? The 3 Secrets of Organizing Your Business (and your life)".  It takes place next Thursday August 26th from 1-2pm.

The better Time Management mouse trap is something I am continually in search of.  It may be that German efficiency gene that is never satisfied, or my type A personality, or simply trying to cram in as much of life as I can, but I'm driven to finding ways to get more done and get more of the important things done.  I'll be writing about some of these over the next several weeks.

The webinar will be given by Lisa Earle McLeod, perhaps you've heard of her, perhaps not.  Well, she has been invited twice to our national CMIT Solutions Seminar to speak to us and I've gotten a lot from her.  This last year I had the opportunity to spend some time with her in Memphis as she, I and another CMIT Owner Shirley Peterson, rode the trolley and back and watch the daily duck procession at the Peabody hotel (what a hoot!).  She began as a comedian and sales professional whose career moved to sales management, then sales training and professional speaking.  A Forbes.com leadership columnist to boot.

I haven't heard the webinar myself but I've been impressed enough by her presentations in the past, and still yearn to get more important things out of my day, to make sure you had the chance to allocate some desk time for this.

It’s FREE and you can listen in from your desk. Click here to register.

All the best,

Linda

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Password Managers

What is your technique for managing the numerous userids, passwords and links that go along with our lives these days?   I recently polled our CMIT Stamford staff CMIT Solutions Owners and this is what they use.

KeyPass

“It has a portable version too. http://keepass.info/

iNet form filler

“I've used iNet form filler for some of our clients.  It seems to work pretty well.”

Word

“I’ve never used any…personally I don’t like the idea of all my passwords being left to a single program or some online vault where I don’t know who has access to the server or where it is etc.

My passwords are stored in a password secured Word document…probably not the most secure solution, but even in that Word document I don’t disclose the actual password I use for important things.  Other passwords for “stupid” things are shown and written, but my password for my banking account (for example) is written in the Word document as “standard” because it’s the standard special password I use for important things.

So that’s how I roll…overall I think the best place for passwords to stay is in your head.”

eToken

“I use eToken from Aladdin. It is a hardware/software based vault. The token is a thumb drive which has all passwords encrypted and has a password to get into. You can then just remove the thumb drive and even if someone gets onto your system they cannot get to the password list. It has various software packages which you get to use for web based or network log ins.

Also there versions like IMB which has completely separate hardware on some of its laptops, it just cannot be removed.”

SplashID

“Persoanlly I use SplashID. It synchs with my iPhone and my Windows desktop so I have everything in it. It comes with many predefined types and categories, but you can create your own, and customize the various fields.

It is MUCH better than my old password protected excel spreadsheet!

I believe there is a MAC version as well.”

RoboForm

“I use RoboForm both personally and for business.  Can't say enough good things about the product.  I used the Free version but quickly upgraded to the full version. 

http://www.roboform.com/

BlackBerry

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“BlackBerry password keeper”

LastPass.com

Consider LastPass.com (https://lastpass.com/). It was favorably reviewed by Steve Gibson of GRC.com/SecurityNow podcast who is a very respected security researcher.  Steve gave it a glowing review on his show #256.

    (end of list)

Have one that is not on the list? Add a comment and I’ll add yours!

http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-256.htm

Monday, August 9, 2010

Your iPod – Going Beyond Music

As busy as I am, I allow myself time to be curious (I’ve often said to the staff its actually a “must have” characteristic to be in the technology profession.  That curiosity lead me to explore the other tabs of my iTunes program.  I was delighted to find so many podcasts for FREE!  I became curious about podcasts and downloaded and listened to a few.  After a few duds, I stumbled on NPR (thank you Barbara) and over time have become an avid listener of This American Life and a number of other NPR programs. I would HIGHLY recommend you try out a few episode, especially This American Life .  It had me laughing out loud (LOL if you are trying to increase your texting vocabulary) in the car earlier this week.

This morning, as I was getting ready for a college visiting trip I’m taking for the next 4 days, I wanted to load up my iPod with new episodes of my favorite shows and try out a few new ones.  I had a few weeks ago clicked on the iTunesU section of the iTunes store and explored it further today.  WOW there is an amazing amount of FREE (and ones that cost) material out there for personal and professional development.   For this trip I’ve downloaded a copy of e-Myth (it’s been a while since I’ve read it), titles from the Wharton Business school and a series entitles Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs. 

Between my music collection and some brain food, I’m armed for make a 630 mile trip a little more entertaining.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

What does the CMIT in CMIT Solutions Stand for?

It seems everyone wants to make “CMIT” mean something . . . . It really doesn’t anymore . . . when I started in 2005, my daughter decided it should be “Computer Management” (not bad for a then 12 year old). . . when pressed for a specific answer our CEO Jeff Connally says “Completely Managed IT” . . . .

A more fun retort I’ve heard recently is: “Quality”, or “Happy Clients”, or “A passionate commitment to our Clients”, or simply “Computers that work”.  The last one is now the one I like best, “Computer that work”.  Is that asking to much?  No its not, and that is what I love about what we do, making people happy with their technology. CMIT Solutions is here to make it happen.

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