1.  If possible – Test-Drive the laptop’s keyboard!  Not all laptop keyboards are made alike.  Some are backlit, others are unexpectedly noisy (particularly in meetings), yet others may have the “full number pad” (numeric keypad), while others do not.  Some keyboards may have strangely-shaped or sized keys, etc..  Others may have a strange “feel” to them… how would you know, without trying one out in advance?  A detail this seemingly “mundane” can quickly turn a laptop purchase into “laptop-buyer’s remorse”.  See further below for more tips on how to help avoid that…

2. Beware the Trackpad.  The Trackpad can potentially cause nearly as much frustration as the keyboard.  Some have a button to turn them “off” (which can be very handy when you’re not in the mood to use it).  See similar comments as #1.

3. Screen size and weight:  Bigger isn’t always better (in fact, it normally isn’t).  Keep in mind that the larger that the laptop’s display is, it will add to the weight and size of the unit.  Larger screens also mean greater space required for the unit itself (not a good thing when crammed on an airplane), and typically mean shorter battery lifespan.  Lastly, large displays are more likely to be potentially damaged – just because you have more screen “real estate” to deal with.  Our personal recommendation is normally to stay within about 14″-15″ display for a laptop.  It is much more important for the screen’s resolution to be higher (quality/fineness of the pixels) than it is for the display to be large.

4. Does the unit have a DVD/CD drive?  Does it need one?  More frequently, we’re seeing more units which either don’t come with the DVD/CD drive, or where it’s a separate plug-in.  This decision is going to be more driven by the typical use of the unit.  E.g. how frequently do you need (or want) to play CD’s/DVD’s, load new software from optical media, etc.?  That should be the main factor on this item.

5. Kensington “Lock” Port (security).  This is the small “Lock” plug (sometimes labeled with “K” or a Lock icon) which is a fairly standard feature of most laptops.  This allows an optional security cord (lock) to be tethered to the device, to help discourage quick thefts of the equipment.   HOWEVER – the “K” lock is frequently omitted from many smaller devices – such as certain Apple laptops, such as certain MacBook Air’s.  While we are huge fans of most Apple hardware (where appropriate of the job), this is an area where we respectfully disagree with their design philosophy.  In our opinion, any laptop should have the Kensigton lock port.  That said, this shouldn’t be the primary driver of your purchasing decision – however, if physical security of the equipment is a moderate concern – you may want to stay with models which have the Kensington lock port included.

6. Extended warranties, On-Site service warranties, and/or breakage warranties.  The simple fact is that the typical PC in an office setting will require some form of physical repair or service within the first 2-3 years of ownership, such as a hard drive or power supply replacement, noisy fan, etc..  That’s even more likely for laptop and/or portable devices- which experience additional abuse as compared to stationary desktop PCs – and are much more likely to have physical damage from drops, spills, etc..  We strongly suggest an on-site warranty for all business PCs, and a breakage/damage warranty being considered for laptop PCs, particularly for those who are “rough” on their equipment, or with an extensive travel schedule.

All of that said, where’s the “best place” to shop for laptops, try them out in advance, and/or what are the best brands or configurations?  These are all great questions, that the team here at RiteTech can help you with.  Contact us for additional information…

This time, it was Dave’s laptop that was the victim of liquid damage – specifically, the display. Yes, this does really happen – even to IT people. How exactly Dave’s laptop screen got damaged by liquid is not important. The type of beverage involved in said liquid is also not important, although I will say that had it been alcoholic, I probably would have felt better about how things went over the next few hours than I actually did…

The laptop’s LCD screen, shall we say, was not very happy to be entirely saturated in liquid, regardless of whether it was a beverage, or not, or regardless of its alcoholic content (or lack thereof). The LCD screen took on kind of an unhealthy, “puffy”, almost “swollen” sort of a look, kind of like it had gotten punched in the face, or some kind of strange infection…

Next, after about 20-30 minutes after “the spill”, the far left portion of the screen started flickering erratically, kind of like a bugzapper that’s been left continuously turned on in front of Old Crazy Man Jesse’s porch for over eight years and is way past due for replacement, or like a flickering neon sign on a seedy motel with most of its letters on its signboard burned out, that you just KNOW is probably not really on the up-and-up…

I took this as an indication that things were probably going to get worse before they got better, and I made sure to do a full and complete backup of my laptop’s data, immediately (I generally have this set to run every night when it’s plugged into its “home” network).

A few hours after the spill, all of the backlights on the display slowly twinkled out one by one, and it was essentially unreadable (unless plugged into an external monitor). The laptop just looked, “sad”. For some reason I was reminded of a scene from the 2002 remake of the movie “The Time Machine”, when the main character stumbles upon the wrecked ruins of an advanced holographic library computer’s Avatar, that was still barely functioning on what little capabilities it still had remaining in its neglected and worn out innards…

My story did end with a Happy Ending. Dave’s laptop being a Dell (Shameless plug: RiteTech is an Official Dell partner), and the laptop also having the Dell “accidental damage warranty with on-site service” – after I had ensured that all of its data had been backed up, I placed a service call with them to arrange a repair or replacement of the screen.

Sure enough, about 2 business days after my call, a Dell technician arrived with a replacement screen, and within about 20 minutes, had skillfully replaced the one that I had so badly and wrongly abused with a replacement.

Lessons Learned:

1. Be careful with your beverages around your PCs, especially laptops
2. It’s always worth it to get the “on-site service” option for critical computers. Downtime is very expensive.
3. The Accidental Damage and Liquid Damage “option” can be especially valuable for laptops. For desktops, maybe not so much – but definitely consider point #2, at least.

– DB

Happy New Year!

What are your resolutions for the year?  I’m guessing almost everyone wants to be more organized, correct?

I am no exception.  My desk is never as neat as I want it to be and I always seem to have tons of receipts and pieces of paper in my purse and computer back.  I’m a tech geek, I am proud to say, so all my contacts, emails and calendar items live happily on my laptop, iPhone and iPad.

But…I like lists.  To Do Lists.  Grocery Lists.  Lists of things to pack on vacation, lists of development ideas  – well, you get the idea.

I’ve read a few interesting articles on washingtonpost.com  lately.  The first was from  Dec. 29 and talked about how people are going back to paper organization.  This really resonated with me because I do like writing things down and having things to physically check off and doodle on.  I almost always take meeting notes with pen and paper and the last time I took them down on my laptop I spent half an hour scouring all my notepads for the notes before remembering to look in my computer!

Another article was posted yesterday on how to find the perfect planner.  This article lists a lot of great sources for finding organizational items, just what we all need, right?

But my ultimate inspirational moment came when walking into a Staples store yesterday and stumbling across a huge display of items part of the the Martha Stewart / Avery / Staples collaboration.  I was in awe!  Some of the products were your standard binders and pages, but they all looked so nice!  And labels  – oh the labels!  I love all things sticky and had to stop myself from buying one of everything.  I walked about with a few items, so I was able to control myself.

The bad news – or good news depending on how you look at it – is that I live within walking distance of a Staples!

So whether you use technology or the good old pen and paper, we at RiteTech hope you reach all your goals for the year and find the best way to stay organized.

The Washington Post has a great article about this very topic today: view the article at www.washingtonpost.com.

This article focuses mainly on personal data, such as sites that host your photos and such, but it is something that anyone – individual or business – thinks about when they copy their data elsewhere.

Happy New Year!

Interested in Discounts for Internet, Phone, VPN, and Cellular Service? Save up to 10-25% or more – including further discounts for multiple locations!

Office 365 revolutionizes Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMB’s) by now offering productivity and reliability options that have been either cost- or equipment- intensive up until now. With Office 365, SMB’s can now choose to host their business-critical data and applications such as Microsoft Exchange E-Mail, Microsoft SharePoint, etc. fully in the “Cloud”, helping to reduce the expense, maintenance needs, and reliability challenges of “hosting” such a complicated and critical system in a traditional SMB office setting. The familiar Microsoft Office software is also now available with a Cloud option, as well. For more information, contact RiteTech sales at (703) 561-0607, or sales@ritetech.net

Microsoft Volume Licensing helps save money!

I’m currently watching the main keynote with Cisco, which is making a big push into the small and medium business space. Since SMB’s drive the economy, this is great news.

Some of the points being made are that they need technology to stay competitive, are shifting to the cloud for efficiency and reliability and are shifting away from a full time IT staff.

At RiteTech, we’ve been working with Cisco for over a year by testing some of their new devices and services.

We also urge our clients migrate to the cloud and consider ourselves your “outsourced” IT department, so we are right on track.

I look forward to the rest of the conference!

For over a year, RiteTech has been working with Cisco to perfect their OnPlus network device and service.  This device allows us to better monitor our client’s locations and network.  We know within minutes if a network goes down – invaluable information in our line of work.