Articles

Business Continuity Basics: Backup Your Communications

by Jerry Stern
There was a power failure here a few months back. 14 hours with no power, and then there were lights outside my window in the dark, and there was a power company truck with cherry picker, a portable lighting truck, and cable truck, all lined up at the power pole, and working in cold rain at 3am. And then the next morning, a fire on same pole took out the other leg of the 240-volt service, just not the 120-volt service I depend on here. I thought I had my communications reasonably well-diversified; now, I still think so, but I made changes, and will consider more…

//www.pc410.com/articles/business-continuity-basics-backup-your-communications/

Backup Your Business, Not Your Computer!

by Jerry Stern
Webmaster, PC410.com, Startupware.com
As seen in the January 2010 ASPects

Backup software is for backing up computers. Vague, isn’t it? There are lots of types of backup software, and not one of them can back up the information, business methods, and operational details of your business. The whole category is based on a false premise, that if you copy the hard drive, or the documents folder, you’re safe. False. That’s good enough for a home user, who can, and does, just copy pictures from an old computer to a new one, and then tosses the old chassis into the electronics dumper at the local recycling center. Or more likely, puts it in the basement, which serves as yet another type of archive. Business needs are altogether different, and a copy of ‘My Docs’ doesn’t do the job.

https://www.pc410.com/articles/back-up-your-business/

Backups, Now-point-Oh.Oh

by Jerry Stern
The web evolves. Software security isn’t what it was. There was a time when backing up a computer was a reasonably straightforward operation, if a little time-consuming. Just run Archive Backup and back everything up to DC2120 tapes. Of course, that old program later became Backup Exec, was bought out at various times by Colorado, Conner, Seagate, and Veritas, and will likely be part of Symantec by early July…
https://www.pc410.com/articles/backups-now-point-oh-oh/

If All Software was this Good. Or Evil.

by Jerry Stern

I’ve been looking, as always in recent months, at a lot of computers that don’t run right. Most have massive infections that include from a few dozen to several thousand spyware and adware bits and chunks, including files, autorun shortcuts, folders, processes, and registry entries…
https://www.pc410.com/articles/good_software/

Installing XP Mode and Virtual PC in Windows 7: Test Everywhere

by Jerry Stern
There was a time when we had to test our programs on a lot of different machines. See the February 2000 ASPects and my article “A Computer for All Seasons” for the old-fashioned approach: interchangeable hard drives, with a different version of Windows on each drive. There are also drive imaging approaches, and multi-boot options. All those methods still work, but virtualization is finally available on workstation PCs, and is worth setting up.
https://www.pc410.com/articles/windows-7xp-mode/

Self-Imposed Doorstops

Open Letter to Software Publishers: No Startupware Allowed!
by Jerry Stern
Another day, another cleanup. This morning’s cleanup was described by a new customer like this: “It’s broken. We can’t run our customer check-in program. The night staff keeps surfing the internet, and loading spyware, so that’s probably it…”

https://www.pc410.com/articles/self-imposed-doorstops/