Simplex-IT

5225 Darrow Rd

Hudson, OH 44236

234.380.1277

Info@Simplex-IT.com

 

XP Reaches End of Support - April 2014!.

Here at Simplex-IT, we've been talking about the impending date of April 8, 2014 for some time now. That's when Microsoft will officially end its support for Windows XP AND Office 2003. It was even a central topic of discussion in our most recent Lunchinar - "How Do You Know When XP Reaches End of Support - April 2014!Your I.T. is Obsolete?" (Watch the Simplex-IT blog site to be notified when the Lunchinar is published on our YouTube Channel for your viewing convenience!)  And we've been encouraging businesses and individuals alike to become knowledgeable and start making their plans for this change in the computing landscape.

  

But what does it all really mean? Will it really be the end of life as we know it? Or is it much ado about nothing?

  

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Yes, as usual, this month's lunch is free of charge, with lots of networking for business owners, executives and IT professionals. But instead of our usual business presentation, we'll be having fun raffling off numerous valuable Geek Gifts (likeWindows 8 Professional, Office Professional 2013 and other goodies you'll want to own).

And for every dollar in raffle tickets sold, Simplex-IT will match the amount (up to $500), and the entire proceeds will be donated to the Hattie Larlham Foundation a non-profit organization dedicated to creating opportunities and improving the lives of more than 1,500 children and adults with developmental disabilities in Northeast Ohio. 

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If you've paid attention to our blog/eNewsletters, you know that Microsoft often makes a lot of materials available for free when they upgrade their various products.  This makes sense, especially since Microsoft is getting more aggressive with their upgrades, now upgrading most products every two years.  And although 2012 is what we refer to as an "evolutionary" upgrade (as opposed to "revolutionary") there are still some important improvements that are worth taking a look at.

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In this, the fourth of the series, the CoG talks about obsolescence in IT (not to be confused with the Lunchinar with the same topic).  (This video is only 5 minutes versus the nearly one hour Lunchinar)

 

Crotchety Olde Geek #4: IT Obsolescence

We started our monthly lunchinars waaay back in January 2009 at our world-wide international HQ here in Hudson.  By November we had outgrown the office and looked for a better location.

We certainly found it over at Hattie's Café, also located in Hudson.  Operated by Hattie Larlham, it provides training and employment to people with developmental disabilities.

Over the past 3 years we've had over 30 lunches, made friends, generated some additional business, all that good stuff.

Unfortunately, we've been informed that Hattie's will be closing this outlet (there are several others) at the end of the year.  So our next Lunchinar will be our last at Hattie's.

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Recorded at our November 2013 Lunchinar, this discussion focuses on when it's time to replace IT hardware and software.

 

When Do You Know Your IT is Obsolete?

Whoever said you don't get something for nothing is clearly not a subscriber to Microsoft's Office 365 services. Because the company has recently announced they are increasing the size of user mailboxes in all Exchange Online and Office 365 service plans from 25 to 50 GB. At ZERO increase in monthly service fees!

Additionally, Microsoft has announced they are increasing personal SkyDrive Pro storage for both new and existing customers from 7 GB to 25 GB! That's an increase of 3.5 times at absolutely no increase in monthly fees! That's incredible!!

If you still require more SkyDrive Pro storage you can buy extra - now up to 100 GB - at $.20/GB/month.

Other improvements of note include the ability to upload files to SkyDrive Pro of up to 2 GB in size. Also, versioning of files is being turned on by default, allowing saving of the last 10 versions of your files.

And there's a new feature - 

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Real-time co-authoring is a new feature Microsoft is adding to their Word, Excel and PowerPoint Web Apps, which are all available when you sign up for their free SkyDrive cloud storage account. Office Web Apps are also part of the highly popular Office 365 cloud services that many companies are taking advantage of. Other features are also being added, making the Office Web Apps a great free alternative to the standard Office Suite client applications.

New real-time presence in the Web Apps allows you to see where your colleagues, friends and family co-authors are working in the document so you don't create conflicts as you edit. Also aiding the creative process is the new ability to see changes to text and formatting in real time, helping everyone in the group stay on the same page as your ideas develop and evolve.

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John here - I recently ran across this article that seeks to quantify how outdated technology detracts from a business's profitability and competitiveness. Anecdotally, if one draws a dramatically different enough comparison we can, of course, assume the answer. For example, if Business A is still using a typewriter for all its correspondence and Company B utilizes a Word Processing program on a modern PC, which would be the most productive? Duh! Company B! But this is the first time I've seen a survey that actually attempts to quantify the differences.

Note, as does the author, the two research studies cited were commissioned by Microsoft and Intel, both of whom have a vested interest in having you purchase new technology. That said, the results made sense and were not all that surprising.

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Blog updates from Simplex-IT over the past month