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.

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.

Technorati Tags: Computers that work

Stimulus Money for Medical Practices

I, together with a group of other CMIT Solutions owners across the country, follow the IT trends in the Medical industry.  We service a number of medical practices from small multi-doctor practices to medical centers.  We want to make sure that they are taking advantage of all the technology they can, to provide services and run an efficient operation.  Eric Baryol from CMIT Solutions of Reno and Sacramento makes contributions to the Northern Nevada MD News.  He just republished his article on his blog and is a very good summary of the ARRA act that provides stimulus money to medical practices.
Read his article: Will Local Medical practitioners Implement Electronic Health Records
If you are a M.D.s, D.O.s, D.D.S.s, D.D.M.s, D.P.M.s, O.D.s and Chiropractors and need help getting starting on applying for this money let us know and we can get you started.

Timing for Windows 7 Service Pack 1

I have advised people to wait until Microsoft releases the first service pack (SP) before moving onto the new product.  So the question now becomes, when will SP1 be released for Windows 7?  Although not official this articles seems to say Q4 of 2010 looks like a good guess.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9172738/Microsoft_announces_Windows_7_SP1

So what should you do now if you’re buying a new computer?  What if you have Vista and are not happy.  Watch for new posts and I’ll tackle each of those and any others that present themselves.

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month

REMINDER.....  all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.

.... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:    888-382-1222.It is the National DO NOT CALL list It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number. https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

(Many thanks for Sandra Albert from Adelsohn Consulting for passing on this tip)

The Blackberry Tour 9630 Does Pair to a Mazda CX-9

I promised the wonderful sales person Jessica at the Verizon Store on High Ridge in Stamford, that if the Tour paired with Mazda I would post something.  The Tour is not on the list of compatible devices (yet), but since it hadn’t been indicated as a “fail” I went ahead a tried it.  It worked fine.

Don’t think it won’t happen to you. Be ready for a software license audit

Microsoft continues to file cases against companies and individuals caught selling infringing software and systems. Every month, Microsoft receives hundreds of piracy reports from customers and from the system builder community. These reports enable Microsoft to investigate and address piracy across the country, and they are critical to the success of our anti-piracy efforts.

Almost all of the cases that Microsoft has recently filed resulted from either customer or channel piracy reports. The most recent round of cases were filed against 15 companies and individuals, including:

• VioSoftware (Lafayette, CO)
• Royal Discount (Boulder, CO)
• SaveintheUSA.com (Los Angeles, CA)
• Dallas Computer (Plano, TX)
• Daroc Computers (El Paso, TX)

For a full listing of all of the cases that have been filed this month and in the past, click here.

“Software audit painful and costly for the noncompliant” read the full article

http://searchcompliance.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid195_gci1340705,00.html

Contact us if you are concerned about your company’s software compliance

Shameless Plug for Girls Inc. and Bella’s Boutique

Technorati Tags: Bella's Boutique

I thought I would take a break (as I am writing the next couple posts) to let you know about a great event that is happening.  Bella’s Boutique (yes a client and dear friend) is giving money to Girls Inc.  Girls Inc. is an organization that inspires young girls to be strong, smart and bold.  And who doesn’t want that for the girls in your life!  If you haven’t been to Bella’s Boutique (two stores 1 in Stamford on Vine & High Ridge and another in that wonderful part of Tarrytown down by the water) plan on going there.  It is a wonderful place for wonderful gift items for girls and women (and won’t blow your holiday budget).  You can buy some awesome gift and help out a great cause. 

So spread the word!!! Tell your family, friends, co-workers and neighbors to stop by
Bella’s Boutique for their holiday shopping. With two locations:
1 Vine Road 2nd floor – Stamford CT 203.968.2900
35 North Broadway – Tarrytown NY 914.333.7778

Welcome to CMIT Solutions Stamford Blog

What is a Blog?
A blog is a shared on-line journal where people can post diary like entries about a subject. The term blog is a contraction of the term web log. We (myself and the rest of the CMIT Stamford Staff) will provide information about SMB (small midsized business) technology, experiences and company happening that our clients and other company friends may find of interest.

Why have we launched a Blog, we already have a website?
Currently our website www.cmitsolutions.com/stamford, is more geared for people that don’t have an existing relationship with. The website provides good high level information on who we are, what we do and our standard products. However, with this blog we want to engage the community of people that already know the basics about us and need (and want) the next level of information.

How do you interact with blog?

1. Become a Follower – you’ll get an alert whenever we post something new.
Just click this symbol which appears to the right of the word “Followers” on the left hand navigation. You’ll need to use an existing account with one of the companies indicated or create a one with one of them (I personally like Google).

2. E-mail us with topics you want to hear about at Stamford@cmitsolutions.com. You’ll be alerted when we’ve added a posting that address to your topic. This is a way for you to ask all those lingering questions you haven’t asked or where afraid to. Remember the old dumb question is the one you don’t ask.

3. Email our posts to a friend. At the bottom of each post you will see an envelope symbol . Click and you can alert a friend about something we’ve blogged about that they will be interested in.

4. Comment on a post. Under each post you will see comments. Clicking on it will bring you to a response box that will allow you to leave a comment about the post. It will be posted as soon as it is reviewed.