Friday, February 27, 2009

Tech Tip: Get Rid of that Annoying Apple Updater!

Are you sick of seeing this pop up and taking the focus away from what you were doing?



Go to Start -> Programs -> Apple Software Update.

Click on Edit -> Preferences, go to the 'Schedule' tab and select Never.

Click Ok, then Quit.



If you want to update your software at any point in the future you can always go back into Start -> Programs -> Apple Software Update and download & install them.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Spiceworks

A few months ago I changed jobs and moved industry from Architecture/Construction to the Travel Industry. As part of the job I inherited I got something I had been looking to implement for quite some time (already handily implemented for me by my predecessor!), a Helpdesk.

The Desktop Support aspect of IT can be tricky. Dealing with the organisation of a network, tracking devices, consumables and all the rest in addition to fielding user requests can sometimes become overwhelming. (When you've got someone at your desk, emails coming in and your phone ringing you'll know what I mean.)



So, saying all of this, my life has become so much simpler. Spiceworks included a Help Desk (which will connect to either MS Exchange or a pop3 email address), a network Inventory and some other cool features. It runs on either a windows desktop machine or a windows server. It's completely free, running ad supported on your network or you can also pay $20/month or $220/year to brand it with your own logo and remove the ads.

Visit the site - www.spiceworks.com to check it out for yourself.

Full disclosure: I don't work for Spiceworks or make any gains from writing about their product, I merely use their software and have found it good enough to post about it.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

So, things have been quiet around here for a while...

It's been a busy few months so we haven't been posting as much as we should have (or at all). One of the interesting developments we've been working on is home.system.

It's going to be a purpose built smart home / integrated computing system for one of our new homes. We will update shortly on its progress.