Turn it off and on again!

You often hear an IT helpdesk ask 'have you tried turning it off an on again?' A comedy show named 'The IT Crowd' use this line many times and always get a giggle but never has this been so true! I attend a breakfast meeting on a Monday morning and one of our members had brought along with him a projector to assist him with his presentation. Only to find in panic the the projector was not switching on. No noise, it was dead! So the basic things come to mind. Initially switch the thing off and on - no difference. Next, check it's plugged in - yes it is. Ok so let's unplug the thing and then reconnect it and voila - the projector kicked in to action! The mains cable was not attached fully to the projector so it made a crackle and everything appeared on the wall. Much to our relief everyone sat down and watched the presentation.

Some times things are this easy. It could have been a blown bulb, dodgy switch, dead extension lead or many other reasons that could have caused this fault but never forget to check the obvious things first! It can save time and a lot of money!

Working in the cloud

The term 'the cloud' has been popping up every now and again but what does it actually mean? The cloud is like a virtual environment where you can store your emails, documents, videos and web sites. The cloud is a huge cluster of servers all linked together with your documents stored on. It's a great concept and ideal for the small business that wishes to utilise the features of an office server but without the upfront cost. Google Apps have a service that allows such a thing and they offer enterprise level of support with Google Apps Premier. Just imaging, working from anywhere, no office costs, email always available whereever you are without being subjected to power cuts. Ideal for people collaborating and many remote places. Many of the Firbanks features also run on the cloud so drop us a line if you wish to know more!