A Computer Systems Northwest Company

B.I.T.S.

Small to Medium Business IT Services Provider. Hardware, Software, Networking. Information is what business needs to thrive and Information Technology is more afforable. You may not need a full time IT staff. Find out how Technology today can build your business with out high costs. CSNW works with many local Technology Providers to promote Whatcom Commerace.

B.I.T.S. Recommends Dell Servers and Workstations. We know the value of equipment, you want it to work as you do.

We also build Customized Server and Workstation applications in such cases we recommend AMD based Systems. We are an AMD reseller and fully qualified system builders.

We are a Microsoft Registered OEM and Partner and while we are Experienced in both Linux and Windows Systems, we recommend Windows Small Business Server 2003 for Small to Medium Business up to 50 Users and Windows XP for increased Security and Productivity. See here for the Top 10 Reasons Why Windows SBS 2003.

 

Find out if SBS 2003 R2 is right for your Business, E-Mail (or call) for a Free Consultation and Assessment

Often Programs get update with new features but generally look much the same, unlike most end user testing I test for client environments, both to answer questions on upgrading and to test functionality in common scenario’s that I have within my client base. Most end-users don’t buy new systems to get the latest in software they tend to upgrade the most common use programs (OS aside) to get better features and more functionality. Pretty much this will be the case for me and other SMB IT Support, they like me will evaluate an upgrade to Office Pro 2007 (and hopefully sell some new installs along the way).

Visually, Outlook 2007 (and it’s accompanying Office Suite) is a stunning example of good programming, first time users will have little problem navigating and finding common functions accessible within an office application. Seasoned users will experience a slight learning curve finding more in-depth functions. I won’t go into the various new features there are plenty of web sites that have broken down and review the new programs. My concern is more in deployment within my clients environments. My Home network/test bed is a model of most SMB deployments it consists of Windows 2003 Small Business Server (Upgraded to R2) Premium, WINXP Workstations and Office 2003 with Small Business Accounting 2006 and shared Business Contact Manager (this is a slick setup btw, works wonderfully) My Beta box (or laptop in this case) is WINXP with most of the current Betas (IE7, Windows Live Desktop (the new Outlook Express) Office 2007 Beta ect..)the reason it’s not running Vista is that most of my clients will forgo a OS Upgrade instead opting for upgraded applications.

This is where despite my overall thrill with the new Office suite that I have to say “Bad Form Microsoft” the Outlook 2007 BCM failed to install correctly(an upgrade to existing 2003 BCM), failed to connect to existing Data base, (wanted SQL Express) failed to configure failed to work with SBA, in short a complete mess for SMB’s I needn’t at this time slam MS for lack of compatibility installs nor for it’s lack of supporting doc’s or work around, I saw announced today that Office beta goes to manufacturing Oct 25, yet I’ve seen nowhere, having these issues addressed, (Like IE7’s inability to access the outlook address book within SharePoint) though all of these issue are reported. If you’re a SMB User or supporter it may be smart to wait at least 6 mos after release to relook at using within your deployment.

AMD and ATI have plans to join forces in a transaction valued at approximately US$5.4 billion. The combination is aimed at creating a new company determined to drive growth, innovation and choice particularly in the commercial and mobile computing segments and in the rapidly-growing consumer electronics market.

AMD believes the acquisition of ATI will position the new company to deliver innovations that fulfill the increasing demand for more integrated solutions in key market segments while also continuing to develop "best-of-breed" discrete products that empower customers to choose the combination of technologies that best serves their needs.

According to the company, in 2008 and beyond, AMD aims to move beyond current technological configurations to transform processing technologies, with silicon-specific platforms that integrate microprocessors and graphics processors to address the growing need for general-purpose, media-centric, data-centric and graphic-centric performance.

Under the terms of the transaction, AMD will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of ATI for a combination of US$4.2 billion in cash and 57 million shares of AMD common stock, based on the number of shares of ATI common stock outstanding on July 21, 2006.

AMD anticipates it will finance the cash portion of the transaction with a combination of cash and new debt. AMD has obtained a US$2.5 billion term loan commitment from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. which, together with combined existing cash, cash equivalents, and short term investments balances of approximately US$3.0 billion, provides full funding for the transaction.

AMD anticipates that it will reduce operating expenses by approximately $75 million for the combined company by the end of 2007. The combined company would have achieved approximately US$7.3 billion in total consolidated sales during the last four quarters with a workforce of approximately 15,000 employees.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company will maintain sales, design and manufacturing centers worldwide and major business centers in Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas and Markham, Ontario.

AMD's current executive team will be complemented by the addition of ATI President and CEO Dave Orton. Orton will serve as an executive vice president of the ATI business division, reporting to the AMD Office of the CEO, comprised of Chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz and President and Chief Operating Officer Dirk Meyer.

SYSTEMS:

Do not buy—a cheap desktop: I'm warning you now. Getting roped into a sub-$500 PC from Dell, Gateway, or any other company will only lead to heartbreak. Those systems lack key components like a dedicated graphics card and CD-R/DVD-ROM drives (you might only get a CD-R, or worse yet, a CD-ROM drive). They also have, perhaps, half the memory and hard drive space you really need, and of course, a bargain-basement CPU (2-GHz Celeron is a favorite for the budget-minded). These systems will underperform in almost every respect. They'll even stutter on the Internet where flat HTML has been replaced by DHTML, Flash, audio, and more recently, video.

Maybe buy—a cheap laptop: These systems are often stuffed with the same sort of underperforming hardware as their desktop cousins, but the space-saving portability almost makes up for it (even if sub-$700 notebooks tend to be on the heavy side).

Do buy—a well-equipped desktop (or laptop): If you're going to buy a desktop, please get as much hardware as you can squeeze in. Get the biggest hard drive (at least 80GB), the most memory (at least 1GB), and the best graphics card (128MB of video memory minimum), and make sure the vendor throws in an LCD monitor. Better yet, buy a laptop—a nice, powerful, sub-5-pound one with built-in 802.11g, a dual-layer DVD burner, a wide screen, and enough hard drive space and memory to make you not wish for a desktop.

• How it works: malware may come bundled with a legitimate piece of software the user actually wants, such as a game or emoticon. The malware is merely labeled "companion software," without any indication of what it will do.


• How to fight it: be very suspicious of any software that comes bundled with other software. Don't installed software that comes bundled with other software unless you know everything that the bundled software does. After all, if the bundled program has anything to do with the program you actually want, why couldn't the software developer just get both programs' functionalities into a single piece of software? Software developers are now very sensitive to malware concerns and will provide a lengthy explanation of just why the bundled software is necessary, in the cases when they actually do need to use bundled software.

• How it works: since people are getting more and more suspicious of bundled software, the malware's developers may simply label it as valuable software, for instance, a browser plugin that supposedly accelerates web browsing (but in reality only shows ads).


• How to fight it: again, a suspicious mind is useful in avoiding malware. Ask yourself some questions:


• What will this software actually do? Malware often comes with very fuzzy claims attached. Sure, it says it will improve your browsing experience, but how? Often, this improved browsing experience just means a browsing experience with more advertising.


• If the software is so great, why is it being given away free? Most commonly, software is only given out free in two cases: if it's OpenSource (designed by a community of developers and not proprietary–OpenSource software is always clearly labeled as such); or simply a come-on for a fuller-featured version of the software. If neither case is true, there's a real chance the software is financed by adware.

• How it works: malware may even be labeled as something else entirely, such as a well-known piece of software or a crucial component of the computer operating system.


• How to fight it: this is the trickiest malware of all, and requires extreme caution. You don't want to start deleting any of your program files, much less your system registry entries, unless you're absolutely sure it's malware. Plenty of overzealous parasite hunters have shot their own machines to bits this way. This is one case where you want to be using an anti-spyware program, and preferably a second anti-spyware program to provide a second opinion.

   In what will surely be seen as a controversial move, Microsoft this morning announced a roadmap for moving to a future in which Windows users must prove that their OSs aren't pirated before they can download any software from Microsoft.com or Windows Update. The plan, dubbed Windows Genuine Advantage, is being phased in over time, although representatives of the company told me last night that they'll continue to let even pirated Windows versions download critical security patches through Automatic Updates.

"The best way to fight software piracy is to ensure that users recognize and receive all the benefits of genuine software," Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client Business, said. "When our customers participate in Windows Genuine Advantage, they will know they have easy access to updates, added-value software offerings, and other benefits of genuine Windows XP, not the uncertainty and risks of counterfeit software."

Windows Genuine Advantage has been in a pilot program since last fall, when Microsoft released Photo Story 3, its free photo slide show. Positioned as a value-added bonus for users of legitimate copies of Windows, Photo Story 3 and similar downloads have been protected by an opt-in software download mechanism in five languages--Czech, English Norwegian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Users who have opted in to the mechanism download an ActiveX control that can scan their PCs and determine whether their OSs are pirated.

The infection appears to take advantage of three separate flaws with Microsoft Corp. products. Microsoft said software updates to fix two of them had been released in April, but the third flaw was newly discovered and had no patch to fix it yet.