First, consider how bright you really need the screen to be. Turning it down as low as you can and still comfortably read what is on the screen will dramatically increase your battery run time. And of course, the larger your notebook screen, the more energy will be saved or used with a dim or bright setting.
You should also turn off any unnecessary components. If you aren't connecting to a wireless network, disable the network connection to keep your notebook from continually searching for networks.
And while a mouse is much easier to use than most built in touch pads, connecting it will consume more energy.
While in flight music is certainly nice, playing a CD or even music stored on your hard drive will mean that device is accessed frequently, requiring more power. If you configured your laptop with disk performance in mind, say by selecting a 7200rpm hard drive, your battery time is already reduced, so don't add to the penalty with constant disk accesses.
Check your scheduled tasks to make sure they won't be running during the critical time when you want the battery to really last. A virus or spyware scan on a system with lots of files can take an hour - and causes your machine to be constantly accessing your hard drive.
You should also make sure that the optical drive in your system does not contain a CD or DVD. The presence of a disc in the drive will cause it to spin up from time to time so that the system can show you what disc is present, wasting precious energy if you aren't actually planning on accessing it.
You should also check your power settings to make sure that if you get distracted, your system will go into sleep mode. It will take longer for your notebook to be ready to use after it has gone to sleep, but this mode saves significantly over hibernate.
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( 1 / 1 )Earlier this week, I was able to attend the fall Intel Channel Conference. One of the sessions featured a demonstration of the X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive.
In this demonstration, two computers were rebooted simultaneously. One system contained Intel's next generation processor which has yet to be officially released. The other, the X25-M drive and a much less capable processor. The Intel rep with the new processor was of course predicting that his machine would reboot much more quickly. The presence of the SSD was not mentioned at this point in the presentation.
So the reboot began, and within 15 or 20 seconds, the machine with the slower processor was back to the Vista desktop. The other machine took at least twice as long to reboot.
While I have always realized that anything that is I/O intensive is always limited by the speed of the hard drive, this demonstration was quite dramatic. And hopefully most of us don't reboot our machines several times a day, so how long a reboot takes may not be particularly important. But if a reboot happens that quickly, obviously anything else that has to read or write from the hard drive will also be much, much faster.
This drive is a 2.5" SATA drive, that can be installed in your notebook in place of the mechanical drive that you are probably using today. Intel has focused on delivering performance and reliability. You can most certainly find less expensive drives and you can find larger drives, but don't expect to find the same performance and reliability from other manufacturers. Some SSD's will not outperform mechanical drives, so if performance is your issue, but sure you make sure you know what you are really getting.
Another big advantage of SSD drives is the reduction in power requirements. Installing this drive in your notebook will increase your battery life by as much as 30 minutes.
The 80GB model has a price of $650 to $700, but expect prices to drop over the next year. A 160GB model is expected to be released in 2009. This particular model is aimed at the mobile market, but enterprise class drives are also coming into the market and will improve server performance even more dramatically than in the mobile market.
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( 3 / 10 )If you have ever needed to get a notebook repaired and the problem was anything other than a failed hard drive or a memory upgrade, you are probably well aware that notebooks are expensive to repair. The biggest reason for this is that they every brand and model is just different enough that parts are not interchangeable.
For two or three years, Intel has been working hard to make notebooks a more open architecture. The goal has been to standardize on one keyboard, one screen, one optical drive style, etc. And while significant improvements have been made, you still can't buy a notebook case, motherboard and other components and put it all together yourself as you might for a desktop.
But just this month, several companies that build whitebooks have started building computers this way. Intel now has a notebook motherboard that can be separately. Other manufacturers are making the shells available separately as well.
One of the really neat features about the Intel motherboard is the way that the power, network and USB connectors have been designed. With most laptops, these connections come right off the motherboard. If they are broken, you must replace the entire motherboard. With Intel's new design, these connections are made to a daughter card that plugs into the motherboard. If you trip over the power cord and break that connection, you only have to replace the daughter card, not the entire motherboard. This is one of the most common problems with notebooks and suddenly a $500 - $600 repair became at most $100.
Another feature that we will start to see with whitebooks is a wider variety of case styles. If you are forced to purchase a case and motherboard together, style selection is non-existent. If they can be purchased and stocked separately, manufacturers will start offering cases in a variety of colors. At this week's Intel Channel Conference, distributors had models in brilliant red and blue, as well as a marbelized model.
Whether you are a fan of whitebooks or stick with name brand systems, these changes should benefit all notebook owners, bringing down the cost of repairs and reducing reliance on the original manufacturers for parts - a situation that sometimes leads to unreasonably high prices.
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( 3.1 / 14 )You’ve just received that brand new computer you’ve been wanting and you are truly amazed by how much faster it is than your old system. You’ve moved all of your important documents and pictures to the new system and everything is working just as you expected. You shut that old system down for the last time and suddenly you wonder what you are going to do with it.
If your system still has useful life, look for an organization that can put your old system to good use or find an organization that can facilitate such a donation. TechSoup has tips for donating a computer along with a list of organizations that are authorized Microsoft refurbishers. The National Cristina Foundation , is an organization that matches used equipment with needy schools and non-profit organizations around the world.
Goodwill has partnered with Dell to accept used equipment to be refurbished or recycled through RECONNECT. A simple Google search for “donate computer” will provide 456,000 results, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a good home for your used equipment. To take advantage of these opportunities, it is helpful to have the documentation and CDs that came with your system.
If it is important to you that your old system be used and not just recycled, then be sure you look for an organization whose focus is refurbishing and not recycling.
If your business leases systems, don’t just assume that the leasing company will dispose of your old equipment responsibly. Before you sign the lease, be sure that you ask about how your systems will be handled at the end of the lease. Some leasing companies are definitely more green than others and if this is an issue that is important to you, it needs to be a consideration when you select a leasing company.
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( 2.9 / 27 )If you do not have some type of automated backup in place, I'm willing to bet that your last backup happened a lot longer ago than you think it did. I know that if I have to remember to do a backup, I'm always too busy and tomorrow seems like soon enough! I can't imagine that you are a lot different.
So here are 5 reasons why you should automate your backups.
1. They are regular. Once you set the schedule, the backups just happen. You won't be wondering if your staff remembered to do it when you were out, or deciding you will have more time to do it tomorrow.
2. They are accurate. Once you have determined the data to be backed up, the same folders and files are backed up every time.
3. They are easy. Once the backups have been setup, you don't have to set it up again. Now depending on what you are backing up to, and whether or not you have an automated offsite backup , you may still have to swap media, but that is a lot easier than running through your backup software everyday.
4. They are consistent. That's the beauty of an automated system. The backups will run whether you were in the office or not, rain or shine, work day or holiday.
5. They happen during off hours. You will probably schedule your backups to run when there is no one in the office. No longer will you be asking people to save their documents or get out of your database program so that you can run the backup. No need to delay getting to work first thing in the morning either. And you won't be getting there early or staying after everyone else is gone so that you can backup without creating a lot of unproductive time.
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( 2.9 / 21 )I spend a fair about of time searching out information, and some amount of time sharing information I have on topics that are important to me. If you are a regular reader or a client, then you are probably well aware that I consider remote backup to be a very important topic for business owners - in fact you may be tired of listening to me!
So, I have some Google alerts set to let me know when comments or questions regarding remote backup are appearing somewhere on the Internet.
Late last week, I ran across a forum thread that was discussing various remote backup scenarios. (Usually, I just find advertisements, so this was a refreshing discovery.) The forum is a small business forum. Currently, it is just under 100 members from the US and abroad who are discussing common issues. I don't know all of the history of how this particular forum came to be, and I haven't read all of the threads, but I know that there are enough different topics that I am sure to find things that will expand my knowledge. I have also found several threads where I have expertise to lend.
Sometimes it is good to get opinions from people outside your field and outside your market area. If that describes you, check it out!
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( 3 / 20 )If you read Thursday’s post, you already know that I had the pleasure of listening to John Kelly from Google’s Ann Arbor office at the Lansing Economic Club lunch in East Lansing. John concluded his remarks with a few thoughts about cloud computing – a concept that was new to many in the audience but is currently generating a lot of talk in the technology community.
For those of you not familiar with the term, ‘cloud’ is a metaphor for the Internet. ‘Cloud computing’ refers to using IT related capabilities that are available as a service through the Internet, rather than providing those capabilities on your own server or workstation. Some believe that ten years from now, cloud computing will have taken over and none of us will be talking about how to configure our new server, unless we are working for one of those big companies like Google that is providing services.
This is already happening at the consumer level, even though most consumers wouldn’t say they are cloud computing. Ten years ago, if you wanted maps on your computer, you bought a program and installed it. Now you just go to Google Maps or MapQuest and get the information free. Consumers are starting to expect that the job can be done with a free tool. Of course, free to the consumer doesn’t mean that someone isn’t paying for it.
Without a doubt, cloud computing would have some advantages. My laptop computer simply becomes a tool to access my applications and data, not the device that houses them. So if I drop it in a puddle and it doesn’t work anymore, I just use a different laptop to gain access. If I don’t have to have a server to run my database application, I will save money on equipment and on on-going maintenance. And collaboration is easier. I can set up a secure area for marketing materials and make them available to others who need to update them or access them to distribute. None of us will need to have access to any particular workstation to do it. Documents become much more like a web page than the documents we know today.
There are many applications today that can exist in the cloud rather than your office. KI has an application that manages our business. We chose to buy a server and the software and manage it in our office. We could have decided to let the software developer host the application on their server. Either way, we can get to the application through the internet. There are many companies already offering a wide variety of hosted applications such as Exchange and Sharepoint. Several CRM packages are available as hosted applications.
But some of us will balk at relinquishing control of our data to the ‘cloud’. Will it really be secure there? Will our competition be able to find it and steal it? How will we know that it is really being backed up? Perhaps that will change as people my age turn over the reins to a younger generation that has different expectations.
And of course, line of business applications will probably never be free. Instead of buying a server and paying to maintain it, you will be paying a monthly fee to whoever provides the service. Some will embrace the predictability of expenses under this scenario.
If you are a business owner, I would love to hear from you. What do you think about cloud computing? Is this a concept you would consider for your business and why or why not?
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( 3 / 20 )Today at lunch I had the pleasure of listening to John Kelley, Manager of Online Sales & Opertions with Google, Inc. John was the first person hired for Google's Ann Arbor office, which has grown to 250 employees in 2 years.
John shared Google's philosophies and a bit about where they see technology taking us over the next few years at the Lansing Economic Club lunch held today in East Lansing. I thought I would share some of what he told us in a few blog entries.
If you Google for Google philosophy , you will find that there are actually ten things that Google has found to be true. John shared five of them with us over lunch. Three of them can certainly be applied to any business, regardless of the industry you are in.
1. Focus on the user and the revenue will follow. Certainly I want to do business with people who treat me as if I matter and who are able to provide tools and services that are useful to me. For example, my primary distributor for the products we resell is not the one who carries the most products, or that necessarily has the best price. It is the one that has a single sales rep dedicated to my account who actually responds when I have questions. Because they are able to focus on me, I spend my money with them.
2. You can make money without doing evil. Oh, how I wish everyone held this as a core value. We all want to make money, that's why we are in business. I hope that my clients all believe that I want to make it without taking advantage of them in any way.
3. There is always more information out there. This one is harder to apply to my world, but Google has a goal of organizing the world's inforamtion and making it universally accessible and available. That's got to be quite a challenge, especially when you learn that 13 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. You might argue that much of that isn't really information, but it is certainly an growing at an amazing rate. Makes me wonder why I can't find the specific thing I'm looking for!
4. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer. With more of us using web-enabled phones, you can bet that Google will be providing more ways to make searching easier from your phone.
5. Fast is better than slow. You can't argue that we are not an instant gratification society. We want things now, if not sooner. So Google has put a lot of effort into fast searches. I don't doubt that they are right on target on that one. I'm certainly not going to use a search engine that is slow to provide results. And this is easy to relate to my business as well. My clients want their problems fixed today, not next week. And a minor annoyance today, will be a huge problem in a week if it hasn't been resolved.
The other 5 philosophies are also good. Check them out and let me know which one is your favorite.
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