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What does your workspace say about you?

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:50:39 -0700

What does your desk say about you?

If you are sitting at your desk now, take a look around and ask yourself: "What is this desk saying about me?"

For example, what messages does a photo of your mum send to your co-workers, or a low-maintenance cactus, or the tons of boxes and files below your desk?

Ask a psychologist and, unsurprisingly, they’ll tell you that just like the clothes we choose to wear or the meal we take at lunch, our desk is often perceived as an extension of our personalities. Nothing ground-breaking there – but certainly worth bearing in mind.

Recent studies have revealed that desks can be useful to managers attempting to understand and motivate their staff. Vice versa, if you are interested in the way you are perceived at work – and perhaps you are thinking of modifying that perception – a desktop makeover is a great place to start.

When considering the state of your desk and what signals it sends about you, keep in mind the following stereotypes:

The motivated workspace. Strategically placing work targets, charts, graphs and deadlines in plain view of passers-by is likely to make them think you are ambitious and goal orientated.

Family, friends and pets. Lost that human touch? Littering your space with pictures of these will give the impression that you are a “people person”, motivated by the relationships around you.

Hedonist’s shrine. Adventure calendars, holiday postcards and lively screen savers: sprinkling these around says, “I like a good time.” You could well be perceived as the “work to live” type as opposed to the “live to work”.

Fashion hub. Need to say: style over substance? Or rather, style with substance? A few well-placed fashionable gadgets or accessories can raise your style stocks. Be careful though: like beauty, what is fashionable changes between beholders.

The naked desk. Often thought to be the workspace of more introverted types. Other introvert signs are building a wall of office files to hide behind or facing your desk in a position where you avoid eye contact. However, with the rise in desktop interpretations perhaps the bare desk is just a clever workplace poker face.
A talking point. Football team memorabilia, pictures of you hugging your favourite band or a model of your dream car – build a beacon like this to invite workplace comments.People who are happy to reveal their interests are usually seen as extroverted – which can be great, depending on your job.

Controlled environment. Need to show your manager that you are better organised this year? The tidy desktop just might help you take a step in the right direction. Workers with an ordered space are usually thought to be conscientious and punctual … but then appearances can be deceptive!

Chaos theory. Looking to appear capable of high-risk multi-tasking? Consider spreading your stationery across your desk at random, throw in a few half-empty coffee cups, and style a few rough piles of documents. The messy desk can be associated with the flexible multi-tasker able to switch between jobs quickly and without stress. On the other hand, you could just appear disorganised and unreliable...

The next time you walk across the office, take some time to analyse your colleagues’ and manager’s desktops. You might find a new friend, or realise how your desk needs to look to make your boss smile.

Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys | Word | Shortcuts

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 04:55:38 -0700

Ever wondered what happened to shorcut keys after the introduction of mice?

Well they didnt go away, in fact they are more useful today than ever before. You can use the shortcut keys to get things done much quicker. If you want to give them a go ive listed most of the shorcuts for Microsoft Word below.

Microsoft Word Hotkeys | Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL and A Selects all in the current document.

CTRL and B Bold text.

CTRL and C Copies the item or text to the Clipboard and can be pasted using CTRL and V.

CTRL and D Displays the Font dialogue box.

CTRL and E Centre Alignment.

CTRL and F Displays the Find dialog box, to search the current document.

CTRL and G Displays the Go to dialog box, to go to a specific location in the current document.

CTRL and H Displays the Replace dialogue box.

CTRL and I Italic text.

CTRL and J Full Justification.

CTRL and K Create Hyperlink

CTRL and L Left Alignment

CTRL and M Tab

CTRL and N Creates a new document.

CTRL and O Displays the Open File dialogue box.

CTRL and P Displays the Print dialog box.

CTRL and R Right Alignment.

CTRL and S Displays the Save dialog box.

CTRL and U Underline text

CTRL and V Pastes the copied item or text from the Clipboard into the current position in the document.

CTRL and X Cuts the item or text selected to the Clipboard.

CTRL and Y Redo the last undone action.

CTRL and Z Undoes the last action.

CTRL and ENTER Insert Page Break.

CTRL and F2 Show Print preview.

CTRL and F4 Closes the active document window.

CTRL and F6 Opens the next document window.

F1 key Get help or use the Office assistant.

SHIFT and F1 Key Context sensitive help.

F2 Key Move text or image.

SHIFT and F2 Key Copy Text.

F3 Key Insert an autotext entry.

SHIFT and F3 Key Change the case of the selected text.

F4 Key Perform last action again.

SHIFT and F4 Key Perform a Find or Go to action again.

F5 Key Displays the Go to dialogue box, from here you can also Find and Replace.

SHIFT and F5 Key Move to a previous revision.

F6 Key Go to the next frame or pane.

SHIFT and F6 Key Go to the previous frame or pane.

F7 Key Launch the Spell checker.

SHIFT and F7 Key Launch the Thesaurus.

F8 Key Extend the current selection.

SHIFT and F8 Key Shrink the current selection.

F9 Key Update the selected fields.

SHIFT and F9 Key Switch between a field code and its result.

F10 Key Activate the menu bar.

SHIFT and F10 Key Display a Shortcut Menu. Same as right clicking.

F11 Key Go to the next field.

SHIFT and F11 Key Go to the previous field.

F12 Key Save file As, equivalent to tools menu.

SHIFT and F12 Key Save document, equivalent to tools menu.

if you have any queries, please feel free to give us a call. Mark.

How to resize photos and pictures before sending through email?

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:48:42 -0700

Digital cameras usually default to taking high resolution images. This is okay for storing your home photo’s but for business purposes the large images produced quickly fill unnecessary space on server storage and email mailboxes. Its always good netiquette to reduce the size of images before sending them over email or storing them on your company’s server. Even though you may be able to send large images, the recipients mail system may not be allowed to accept large images. The failsafe option is to set your digital camera to set lower resolution images. If this isn’t possible your free to use our guide to reduce your image sizes.

How to resize photos and pictures before sending through email?

The first step is to download the free Google program, Picasa. You can find a link in our downloads section.
Once you have downloaded and installed the program, Picasa will explore your computerand find all the images.
Go to the library of images by clicking on view in the top menu and then choosing library view.
Hold the CTRL key down on the keyboard while clicking on the picturesthat you want to resize.
When you have selected the pictures you want, simply press on the the Export Icon at the bottom.

Choose where to save your resized pictures and what size you would like by dragging the slider back and forth.
Then press Export.

To watch a video tutorial for more details on how to resize batch pictures before sending through emails click here.

Facebook- Networking or Notworking

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 07:36:31 -0700

The latest phenomenon to revolutionise web surfing has hit like a social tsunami. Facebook is already one of the world’s most used sites, and many visits take place on company time. It can bring young workers together, yet the risks are much greater than lost productivity. Malicious content, data leakage and legal liability mean businesses need an efficient tool to control internet misuse.

A bit of fun? Or a big business impact

It’s been just over a year since it emerged from its university origins and became universally accessible, yet Facebook already has over 49 million active users worldwide and is the eighth most visited site on the web, with over 400,000 new registrations each day during 2009.

More than a chance to get your face on the web and research new acquaintances, Facebook makes uploading photos, video or blogging easy, and tagged friends are ‘pinged’ when they’re featured - creating a virtual network that reaches right out and grabs you.

Alexa web monitoring reports that around 3.4 per cent of global users visit Facebook – up 82 per cent in the last three months – with about 30 unique pages viewed by each user each day. The vast majority of Facebook users are in the US, Canada and the UK.

MessageLabs’ statistics reveal that Facebook is now the most blocked site for businesses in the Asia-Pacific region.

Facebook was initially created in 2004 by Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg to keep in touch and swap information with fellow students, and named after the paper ‘facebooks’ US colleges traditionally distribute to new students and staff containing snapshots of key people around campus. It’s now one of the most popular social networking sites for Generation Y – more like a social tsunami than a social trend. More than half its users are not at universities, and its fastest growing demographic is people 25 years and older.

Yet Facebook and its sister social networking sites are not simply a little bit of good clean fun. They’re big business, and they have big business impacts.

That price a ping?

A recent study noted that since doodling and Solitaire gave way to Hotmail and now more evolved social networking sites, Social networking sites alone could be responsible for up to £5 billion in productivity losses from the business economy. Calculated using the average salary, each employee spending an hour each workday on these sites, costs their employer £6,200 a year.

Employees using the internet at work for social purposes can also be placing their employers at a significant liability risk. If an employee is using a corporate domain name, improper statements made can be attributed to the company. Employees exposed to sexually explicit or offensive material on a colleague’s computer screen can disrupt the working environment and often result in legal action against employers.

Computer Crime and Security Survey (AusCERT) found that one in five companies experienced damage to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of network data or systems, and the average annual losses from computer misuse and crime rose by 63 per cent to £241,150 per organisation - making the real costs to business from employee internet access abuse all too clear.

Innocent social surfing can also present a chink in your business security for electronic threats such as viruses, worms, Trojans and spyware to enter and damage your corporate network and place information at risk.

To block or not to block?

A recent CERT report revealed that changing users’ attitudes and behaviour around internet use is still the major challenge for most organisations (60 per cent). Accidental misuse or intentional abuse of email and the internet presents costly and damaging problems for businesses of all sizes. Educating your employees about the risks, rights and wrongs online is essential in protecting your business.

Your Acceptable Usage Policy should be part of your regular training and include guidance on things such as:

not misusing email – keeping it mainly for business use
what sort of personal use is allowed
being wary of unsolicited email
guarding against handing over confidential information
not downloading and installing unnecessary applications
websites that are acceptable to use at work.

For further information on how to set policies for AUP, please feel free to contact Netcom and we'll be happy to help.

Given the risks and costs associated with social networking sites, every employer needs to consider whether to ban access to social networking sites, or whether to control and monitor its use. Blocking access at the firewall or proxy level is administratively inefficient, and doesn’t allow for variations in access rights for different user groups.

Using a managed service to control employee access to the web ensures you are always abreast of new fads and emerging threats, and ensures that your web access policy is clearly implemented in line with your regulatory responsibilities.

Web Security Services are implemented at the Internet layer,which means there is no hardware, no software and no overheads. Your IT staff are free to focus on helping grow your business, and your network is protected around the clock by a company that scans electronic communications as its core business – guaranteeing your protection from new or unidentified threats and productivity losses resulting from internet misuse.

For those companies who want to allow safe use of social networking sites, a managed service can enable your employees to access the site only between certain hours – such as outside 9 to 5 or at lunchtime – and advanced scanning technology can ensure that any threats are detected and infected pages blocked.

Netcom hosted services incorporates a range of multi-layered technologies that ensure total protection from external and internal web threats. Specifically, Netcom Web Security Services is comprised of two core offerings:

Multi-layer Protection - state-of-the-art anti-spyware and anti-virus technologies scan all web content for malicious software. Powerful predictive technology, guards against new and converging threats, while known threats are blocked by industry-leading and constantly updated third party technologies.

URL Filtering - a sophisticated categorisation database ensures your employees only gain access to appropriate content and do not visit sites that are offensive or represent a security risk. The control system is highly configurable, enabling you to apply different filtering rules to specific individuals or user groups.

For more information, as always please feel free to get in touch either by calling our office on 08712300417 or you can email me, mark.kindred@netcom.uk.net.

What one of our customers have to say..

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:03:54 -0700

* * * * *
5.0 out of 5

Glad I found this company. The engineer was with us promptly and was smart, polite and above all very knowledgable. I thought the £55 per hour was quite steep but he fixed the problem with our server within the hour so it all worked out very well. We were quoted 3 or 4 hours from another company.

I'll definately use Netcom again.

Laura Makey reviewed Netcom Technologies Ltd on 9 Dec 2009

Check out our reviews at http://www.netcomtechnologies.freeindex.co.uk/

Is your new Windows 7 slow? Speed up Windows 7 in 4 steps

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:27:42 -0700

As a newly-released operating system, Windows 7 is popular with lots of PC users right now. But on the other hand, I still hear lots of users complaint of their slow Windows 7. So is there any way to speed up Windows 7 except virus scan, upgrading RAM or graphic card? Maybe the tips below will help you quickly make it run faster.

1) To speed up Windows 7, what you need to do first is to reasonably manage your startup items. We know that no matter how strong a person is, the more he is loaded the slower he will perform. The same applies to your computer. Too many programs running at one time, will extremely make Windows 7 slow. So please press your [START] button then enter "msconfig" into the search window (this where you see the grey text Search Programs and Files and press the [ENTER] button on your keyboard to access system configuration, go to [Startup] tab and disable the items which do not need to run when booting up Windows 7.

2) Secondly, you can increase Windows 7 boot speed to solve slow Windows 7 problem. Go to Start -> type ‘msconfig’ in the search box and press [Enter]->select [Advanced Options] within [Boot] tab to set the [Number of processors] according to your own computer configuration.

3) Thirdly, you can shorten its shutdown time to speed up Windows 7. This can be easily done by modifying Windows registry. Go to Start -> [regedit] and press [Enter] to open Registry Editor ->locate ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control’->right click [WaitToKillServiceTimeOut] to change its value data to the least.

4) Fourthly, to avoid slow Windows 7, it is recommended that you do not use the Aero theme, which always takes a large amount of system resources, CPU usage. Simply right-click on the blank space of the desktop to select [Personalize], click on [Window Color] tab, uncheck [Enable Transparency], and then click on [Open classic appearance properties for more color options], scroll the themes down until you see the Basic themes.

If your unsure about any of the above or would like us to take a look at your PC, as always, we're here to help and are only a phone call or an email away.

Microsoft Browser Ballot

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:04:27 -0700

Microsoft Offers Browser Options in Europe

IE users in the European Union are set to be given their choice of browser by Microsoft, starting on the first of March. The move comes in compliance with an agreement between the software giant and the Competition Commission of the EU.

The update choice will be added automatically to Vista, XP, and Windows 7 machines. Microsoft VP Dave Heiner wrote: "Users who get the choice screen will be free to choose any browser or stick with the browser they have, as they prefer."

For more information and to see Netcom's recommendations please click this link.

Netcom welcomes Localventure to its referal partners list

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:13:16 -0700

Promoting small businesses.

We've teamed up with www.localventure.blogspot.com - the business blog, interested in promoting local SMBs. You can also check them out on Twitter at localventure1

Free Business IT Audit | Free IT Audit from Netcom

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:33:01 -0700

How good is your IT system? Can your Information Technology work better for you and your business?

Take advantage now of a free business IT audit from Netcom Technologies. We assess the state of your IT, run IT health and security checks and note any areas for improvement that could benefit you, your business and your bottom line. Our Free Business IT Audit will save you time, money and hassle and is totally without obligation.

Give yourself peace of mind and request a Free Business IT Audit today!

Best wishes for 2010

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:53:37 -0700

A message from Mark

Best wishes to all our clients for the coming year.

Well, that’s another decade over with. I don’t know if its me getting older or the years moving by so quickly. 2009 was a great year for Netcom, we must be doing something right as we saw other IT companies falling by the wayside while we went from strength to strength. I think it must be our attention to great customer service and support at reasonable prices to our Sheffield and national business support customers.

Referals Scheme

To help continue this trend well into 2010 we're launching a new referrals scheme and are offering anyone who refers us onto a new client who then signs up to an ongoing support agreement 10% of the monthly support fee's from the new client for the first year. So if you know of anyone who may benefit from support the Netcom way email mark@netcom.uk.net or call 0871 2300417 and ill cross your palm with silver.

How can we improve?

Another way of helping us is to tell us if we're doing anything wrong. Are there any Netcom annoyances or any systems or services you think we could improve? If so please let me know, i'll not be offended and encourage you to be as brutal as possible. If I don’t know where Netcom is going wrong, we cant improve.

Other than the above all that remains is for me to thank all of our clients for their support and custom over the last year. I look forward to serving you in 2010. May the coming year be a happy and prosperous one for you all.

Best regards, Mark Kindred (Director).

Windows 7 Released 22/10/09

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:17:46 -0700

Microsoft Windows 7 is the easiest, fastest, and most engaging version of Windows yet. Better ways to find and manage files, like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews, help you speed through everyday tasks.

Faster and more reliable performance means your PC just works the way you want it to. And great features like HomeGroup and Windows Touch make new things possible. Get to know Windows 7, and see how it can simplify just about everything you do with your PC.

End of year stock clearance!

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:19:59 -0700

We're reaching the end of the year and need to make room for new stock. The latest stock clearance bargains are PC speakers for only £1 (+ VAT and P&P), boxed and ready for use with your laptop, PC or TV. There's limited stock and these are on a first come first served basis at 1 set per user so if you're a Netcom user and have our search page set as your internet home page give us a call today on 0871 2300417 or email sales@netcom.uk.net.

Netcom, we make I.T. easy!

Beat the postal strike with Netcom!

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:19:02 -0700

During the postal strike we increased our client's mailsend limit to 15Mb to allow our clients to send those all important doc's over email. It looks like the postal workers are back at work now. We hope that the mailsend increase helped your business beat the postal strike.

If you would like to talk to use about other ways we can improve your business I.T. feel free to give me a call and i'll be happy to help.

Mark Kindred (Director).

Tel: 0871 2300417

Fax: 0871 2300418

Email: mark@netcom.uk.net