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Get on Schedule with Suretech
SureTech has been hard at work creating a web-based application class-scheduling needs. We understand the need for a simple and effective class scheduler app, so here it is!
Smartphone Apps - Like Dates, Good to Know Where They've Been
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The new HTC Droid security flaw proves that when you download an open-source app, you're inviting the developers into your home, taking off their shoes, and giving them a foot massage (so to speak.)
Work For Topaz
Social Media Manager Position Available
SureTech.com is a growing IT company serving small to medium-sized businesses nationwide. We are looking for a Social Media Maven (SMM) to be responsible for spreading the SureTech.com customer experience accross the interwebs whrever they may be valued. This includes working on content within SureTech.com and visiting ...Experienced Windows Technician - Solutions Specialist
SureTech.com is a growing IT start-up serving small to medium-sized businesses nationwide. We are looking for an experienced Windows technician. Your duties would include: Position Requirements: Installing, troubleshooting and administration of Windows XP thru Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 – 2008 R2, Active Directory, Group Policy, and ...Customer Service Operations Manager Position Available
SureTech.com is a growing IT company serving small to medium-sized businesses nationwide. We are looking for a Customer Service Operations Manager (CSOM) to be responsible for customer satisfaction and management of our services delivery process. The CSOM will work closely with technical and engineering experts and be primarily ...Recent Posts (more...)
- Zend and the Art of WebApp Development
- Customer Service Operations Manager Position Available
- Experienced Windows Technician - Solutions Specialist
- Social Media Manager Position Available
- Kids and Computers - Introduction
- How do I deal with virus message?
- Custom Development
- Get on Schedule with Suretech
- Happy Holidays 2011
- Happy Holidays 2011 from Topaz
- New Year's Resolutions - Take Back Your Workday Tips
- Dining by Design a Hit!
Daily Notes, Musings and Thoughts Online
Zend and the Art of WebApp Development
I’ve worked on several web applications recently and I’ve been using pieces of the Zend Framework for them. A while back I reviewed a number of PHP libraries and decided that for our needs, the Zend Framework was ideal. Now that I’ve used it for a few applications, I’m convinced ...Happy Holidays 2011 from Topaz
May you have a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous 2012! - Your SureTech.com Solutions TeamNew Year's Resolutions - Take Back Your Workday Tips
Still struggling to stay productive in the age of distraction? Tony Wong recently sat down and discussed the top 7 ways in which your organization can keep productivity and focus while still staying connected.
Dining by Design a Hit!
On November 5th, SureTech took part in the Princeton Arts Councils Dining by Deisgn event. Check out some highlights from the night, including a slideshow video of the amazing art created by many of the programs participants.
iPhone Update More Trouble Than It’s Worth
If you just bought the new iPhone 4s, Apple's latest update to iOS 5 may fix your battery-draining problems - or it may make them worse. iPhone users across the country are split down the middle; some claiming "my battery life is awesome!" and some, well, aren't so lucky.
Google Android Almost Always Out of Date
With a multitude of developers and smart phone manufacturers pumping out newer phones, it is becoming harder to update older versions. We explore the wonderful world of Android Fragmentation. Myth? Legend? Horror story told to junior software developers? Check out our post and see how these smartphones match up to one another, and more importantly with Apple's iPhone.
Smartphone Apps - Like Dates, Good to Know Where They've Been
The new HTC Droid security flaw proves that when you download an open-source app, you're inviting the developers into your home, taking off their shoes, and giving them a foot massage (so to speak.)
10 Immutable Laws of Mistakes
Mistakes are inevitable but we strive to learn from them, making them a point of growth and not a set-back. Below is an article illustrating principles and an attitude we at SureTech.com stand behind and work to emmulate.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-immutable-laws-of-mistakes/2633?tag=nl.e099
Jim Farrell made new Director of Solutions Operations
We are pleased to announce that we have officially promoted Jim Farrell to Director of Solutions Operations. We are proud to have him in this important role and privileged to have his leadership as we continue to grow our operations.Beware Hack Attack in Disguise as Payment Processing
The latest hack attacks we are seeing are links within a payment style email. Always check the from address on any email that asks you to click on a link. You can see here the from is not at all the same. From: This email address is hidden from email harvesters via JavaScript [mailto: This email address is hidden from email harvesters via JavaScriptDropBox Buzz helps promote our SureFiles™ Solution
There is a lot of buzz around DropBox and box.net - both area great services for sharing files with another person. This buzz is a boon to our business too since our SureFiles™ offers a better business solution than DropBox and Box.net because it is integrated with Active Directory ...Armstrong Industrial Hose Launches New Garden Hose Line
We created an ecommerce website for Amstrong Industrial Hose's new garden hose line. Fun colors of hose and great durable product.
This is Success?! New Viruses on Macs
The days where Macs are the one impenetrable place for viruses unfortunately seem to be over. New malware attacks are popping up more frequently on Macs these days. We now recommend AntiVirus for your Mac as well.
via ZDnet.com
What a Mac malware attack looks like
By ...Don't Ever Do A Startup - Gospel
Why NOT To Do a Startup. View more presentations from Dave McClureHack Attacks Through Osama Photos
Hackers love to take advantage of big news sensations to introduce new viruses. Stay away from any Osama photo links or video links. There are major hack attacks happening particularly through facebook.com posts right now encouraging friends to click on death videos! Read more below via http://wnyt.com Beware ...Bin Laden Facebook Hack Attack
Beware Criminals Using Bin Laden for Email, Facebook Hack Attack For getting attention, the only thing more reliable than a train reck is a historic international train wreck like the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Looking at the bloody pictures is so natural, impuslive and reliable that criminals have a ...Email Chain Viruses - Best Practice Tips
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Safe Internet Use Tips
Avoid Worms | Big Files | Email Chains |SPAM | Using Outlook
A client recently sent us a copy of an email that warned her in capital letters of a terrible virus that is going around the internet and steps to take to protect herself ...First Introduction of the Book
New systems can frustrate any user.
We like to think no user question is too small for a quality and calm answer from our HelpDesk!
Virtual Office can Save Time even in Customs Checks
I read with interest the NY Times article "Can You Frisk a Hard Drive" (The New York Times, by David Shipler, February 19, 2011) about how actual computers are subject to searches when traveling now. This is yet another way our SureDesk™ service and having a virtual office can help ...Pinning Down the Cloud
Potential customers say to us all the time as we describe our services "So THAT'S what cloud computing means." Cloud computing can really mean lots of different things to people, but most basically it is a hosted solution to a technology need that traditinally resided on a local ...Digital Nativity
The tools don't make the soul. Merry Christmas :)
Happy Holidays 2010 From Massmind Studio
Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!Performance Talk Slides
The slides for my talk on Performance at Pace can be found here - http://imgdr.massmind.com/uploads/suretech/file/Pace Performance talk.pdfPerformance
I am giving a talk in about a week at Pace University on improving performance of applications (where I’m using the term “application” to mean anything that interacts with a user – a program running on an iPhone or Windows computer, a web site, etc.). To help prepare for ...The Future Is Here
One of these days I'd love someone to tell me the story of how Minority Report got ahold of the UI for the iPhone 5 years before the iPhone was released...
AdKeeper Duh - Of course I needed that
Where was that ad again? I always hate ads that distract from good content - except when it's that one thing I'm interested in. But that's not when I want to look at it! In the old days when we only had to keep track of 7 things a week, ...Antoine Amrani Chocolates Launches New Shopping Cart
We just helped Antoine Amrani Chocolates launch a new shopping cart so check it out and enjoy!
As chocolate lovers, we could not be happier to support a client that makes the most exquisite and delectable chocolate we've ever had.
Hiding .svn Folders through .htaccess
One way many people use to keep their website updated is through a source control tool such as SVN. We've found it a useful tool to keep track of changes, allow developers or designers to work on files and to make sure the right files end up on the web server ...Great Leadership
I try to keep my non-business interests (such as college basketball and my favorite team winning a national championship) out of this blog but the passing of John Wooden last weekend is something I think trancends sports. John Wooden was not just an amazing college basketball coach (having won twice as ...Doing What You Can to Finish
Tuesday of last week I spent much of my day painting walls for a house that our local Habitat for Humanity chapter. It was a lot different than my usual work and it gave me time to think about the parallels between working on the house and shipping software. First, ...What do I get for my IT Budget?
Most IT Budgets just maintain your status quo
In this age of constant change why do most budgets contain very little room for improving efficiency and communications?
Because most IT budgets are maintaining 90% of what they don't need to get the 10% the actually use.
SureTech.com's mission is ...Data is Infinite
Do You feel Overwhelmed by Data, Information and Emails?
You're right, you are overwhelmed.
Essentially infinitely overwhelmed, in fact.
The cost of diseminating information is nearly zero, so information you could never have imagined 20 years ago now finds its way to you. Storing information is very cheap, so ...What is the True Cost of my IT?
Our goal is to eliminate break/fix to the greatest extent possible.
Complexity and Onsite Maintenance are EXPENSIVE
The vast majority of IT costs for the typical organization are related to emergency repairs and the labor, equipment and primarily, lost productiviyt costs associated with a system not functioning optimially.
Proper maintenance ...Running To Fight River Blindness
May 1st was the May Day 5K Race to support the United Front Against River Blindness. This is a mosquito born blinding disease affecting millions in the Congo and at the same time easy to cure. One pill every year for 10 years stops the disease. Each runner funded treatment ...Tombola 2010
We were delighted to be part of the Arts Council of Princeton's Pinot to Picasso - Vintage 2010 fund-raiser this year.
Experts predict 65% of financial organizations will be using cloud financials by year-end.
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FREE Research Paper:
Cloud Financials Come of Age
Experts predict 65% of financial organizations will be using cloud financials by year-end.
Learn why – Download our FREE Research Paper: Cloud Financials Come of Age
Cloud computing. Cloud financials. Web-based on-demand applications. Software ...Seven Deadly Sins
Operating a successful business in todays economic times is difficult, even for a well-managed company. Now, add the complexity of the worst recession since the Great Depression. It is no surprise that commercial bankruptcies, among the nation's more than 25 million small businesses, have increased by approximately 44% from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009, according to Equifax Inc. So what is a business owner to do? Avoid these SEVEN DEADLY SINS!
SureMail Outage - 12-28-09
Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition. -Abraham Lincoln What a bright guy, that honest Abe... Sadly, sometimes here at SureTech.com we get the most recognition when a system has trouble. Especially business critical system, like email. So, when ...Happy Holidays 2009 from SureTech.com and Topaz Group
Love, Peace, Joy and all best wishes to you from SureTech.com and Topaz.
Apple Aluminum Wireless Keyboard 2.0
Small Is Beautiful
I tend to like to write on my keyboard on my lap or on a lap bench...
Tombola 2009
In April we helped with the Arts Council of Princeton's Tombola 2009 fund-raiser. We had a fun time creating a rotating display using Flash of all the art work that played while the attendees were milling around and a Tombola countdown for the auction portion of the event to show ...What is the Cloud Anyway?
Cloud Buzz
Everybody's heard the buzz, but most people I talk to are confused about how to understand "The Cloud." Even for many that understand the buzz or work with Cloud computers, explaining The Cloud can be daunting.
Cloud Explanations and Illustrations
I usually explain it using a napkin network diagram of the internet which is ...
Defense in Depth
Today I want to talk about the benefits of defense in depth. The term “defense in depth” is used in a variety of ways. I like to think of it as a general term to describe any system where you have multiple layers of protection. If one layer fails, another ...Why Too Many Choices Can Be Bad
My cell phone provider lost a sale yesterday because they gave me too many choices (and not enough information at their store). Luckily for them, I’m not about to switch cell phone providers, but it is an example of how providing your customers choices without information about why they’d choose ...Datacenter Highlights
SureTech.com has partnered with some of the most secure, reliable and respected tier 1 data centers in the world. With locations in New York, Pittsburg, Chicago, Florida, Virginia and the UK, our hosted services are managed, secure, distributed and redundant to protect your data and provide peace of ...Some Attention to The Infrastructure
The NY Times magazine goes so far as to call datacenters, the cloud, which is a slightly different focus than the napkin network diagram I like to draw...
We're Popular, I guess
We had a problem Saturday morning (4/4/09) with all of our websites that use any of our databases. It appears that someone attempted to hack into our site by trying various standard attacks and while, to the best of our knowledge, none of those attacks worked, the number of requests overwhelmed ...Sending Big Files - Best Practice Tips
Safe Internet Use Tips
Worms | Big Files | Email Chains |SPAM | Using Outlook
A client recently went to a meeting where he assumed an email he sent had arrived at his client's inbox. When he learned it did not, he became alarmed and called us.
We investigated ...Avoiding Great Service but Bad Value
13 Hours and $1,400.00 To upgrade my Hard Drive?!?
We’ve always said that Managed Services for IT is usually a flawed business model. Pretty much the better job you do the less you make. Kinda like lawyers, I guess, except at least we talk about ...Backups, Backups, Backups
I’ve been thinking a lot about backups recently for a variety of reasons. First, I’ve been involved in setting up a fund to honor the high school teacher who first taught me the importance of good backups. He hired me to help with the high school mini-computers and one ...Running Windows Update on Windows Server Core
We're running Windows Server 2008 core on our backup domain controller. I'm not completely convinced this is a good idea yet (even though I'm the one who suggested it). The lack of a UI seems to really hobble some functionality. Today I wanted to run windows update on that machine ...Windows Authentication and IIS - Seems Counterintuitive to Me
I'm working on my first ASP.NET application in Visual Studio 2008 running on a 2008 Server. It's a simple thing, just designed to get some information from our users. I did need them to authenticate themselves against Active Directory prior to visiting the webpage. I turned on Windows Authentication ...Apple Scores on Service
American based, for american customers - and email.
That's pretty much the price of excellent service these days. If you outsource your service to a place that doesn't care about your customers ... - view comments
Einstein Imagined SureTech.com
Who are we to argue with Genius? Einstein was ahead of us on the internet AND SureTech.com! - View Comments
How does my web browser connect to a website?
When you type in somedomain.com your internet service sends a message to a machine called a name server owned by your internet service and asks this machine “hey, where do I find the website for somedomain.com?” - view comments
Happy Holidays 2008 from TopazGroup
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Love, Peace, Joy and all best wishes to you from Topaz Group.
Holiday Potluck 2008
SureTech.com
Invites You to Our
First Holiday
Potluck Supper
December 20
3:00 p.m.
87 Royce Brook Road
Hillsborough, New Jersey
The frivolity starts at 3:00 and potluck supper at 4:00
Please let Bonnie or Dana know what you plan to bring!
We are planning ...That's NOT What I Meant By "Cleaning Up the Audio"
My church records it's Sunday morning services so we can put the sermon on our website for people to listen to who miss a Sunday. I'm in charge of getting the CompactFlash card out of the recorder, bringing it home, editing the audio down to the sermon, and placing it ...But I am an Administrator
It's annoying when the things designed to protect us just get in our way. Today I was doing some work on our file server and wanted to check out some ways to see how much disk space was being used by certain clients without having access to their folders (I'm ...Book Review: Network Warrior
We've been having some interesting network issues that I've been tracking down and we've been trying to figure out how to set up our clients with our datacenter in Miami. I came across a book whose title looked interesting - Network Warrior by Gary A. Donahue. It is an O'Reilly ...Windows System Restore Saves the Day Again
I'm a big fan of Windows System Restore and today reminded me of just how great a feature it is. Hats off to the folks who thought it up and implemented it. I was installing a new VPN client on my main machine and, foolishly I will add, had two ...Cloud Computing: Is It Safe?
Cloud Computing: Is It Safe?
By Alan Cohen from Law.com
Corporate Counsel
October 31, 2008
If there's one tried-and-true way to tackle a problem, it's to make it someone else's problem. It's the strategy that's given us plumbers, fluff-and-fold laundry and lawn services. Yet for a long time, corporate ...IT Trends For 2009
We are pleased to share these trends via Baseline:
Organizations are increasingly looking to next-generation social networking tools to conduct sophisticated business intelligence and analytics. In many cases, they are mining data and looking for trends and patterns, such as which salesperson has the relationships to pull off a deal ...Google Message Filtering and StartLogic
One of our consulting clients has a huge problem with spam (mostly because their previous website displayed their email addresses for all to see in plain text which made life easy for email harvesters). The other problem is that some of their email addresses are very common and thus also ...What do I do with this email warning me of a virus?
Any mail that has obviously been forwarded as a chain letter warning of just about anything, even if the warning is true is almost guaranteed to be some specie of SPAM. Sometimes messages like this refer to partially true threats, but the goal of the originator of the message ...Sum Ergo Sum
I just picked up “Love is the Killer App” at a café wherein Tim Sanders describes love as the ultimate competitive weapon in business. I have a friend who’s making a go for the fourth year working at home with her husband so they can be close to the kids. ...Startup Business Models: One Chicken vs RocketBoom
There are basically two ways to start a business that I'll call the buy a chicken model and the RocketBoom model. Rocketboom was the first videoblog to roll out a daily show and build a large audience successfully. As the first it commands a fairly permanent piece of popular consciousness ...Xobni for Outlook is awesome except it doesn't work.
Xobni which is inbox spelled backwards is an absolutely terrific plug in for Microsoft Outlook except for the small fact that it doesn't work... - view comments
What's your job?
This may seem like a silly question to some, but I think it's often easy for us to forget what our job really is. I'm going to write this from the perspective of a Software Developer, but it applies equally well to all job functions. As programmers, we have often ...Why The Mission Matters
A good friend who is also a Camaldolese Monk, was visiting us this weekend. Like so many of us, our friend lives in a wonderful nexus of contradictions. Not only is he a monk, but he travels the world, singing and teaching about the monastic life. Traveling and being ...Real Life Journey
"I might as well settle in," Anna told me one fall day in 1993. We had both moved to New York along with about a quarter of our graduating class the year before. "I kept thinking I would start my life someday, and was living out of boxes, ...Thriving in the Social Internet
These notes are in preparation for the Einstein Alley Panel June 23, 2008. The wall street journal reports today that medieval jousting is back in vogue in Europe. What's interesting to me about this is that the reporter Max Colchester specifically credits the internet with bringing jousting back to ...Never trust user input
One of the most common security issues I see in code from new web developers (and even some experienced ones) is not sanitizing user input. They trust user input to have always come from a non-adversarial user interacting with the site through a web browser. Given the HTTP(S) protocol, there is ...Watching your code execute
When I was a younger (and more foolish programmer) I was fortunate enough to learn from some talented software developers. One of the many important lessons I learned was the benefits of watching your code excute. Now, to some, that may sound as exciting as watching the grass grow. But ...Alberto Molina on Einstein Alley Panel on Thriving in the New Social Internet
Join me June 23, 2008 for a very interesting discussion on society, business and technology: Topic: Thriving in the New Social Internet Speakers: Dr. Charles Kreitzberg. Alberto Molina, Anne Kreitzberg Location: Sante Fe Grille – Upstairs private dining room Date: Monday June 23, 2008 Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM ...Service Outage for Hosted Microsoft Exchange
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Service Outage for Hosted Microsoft Exchange Services Due to Thunderstorm at Data Center - July 6, 2008 (One Hour and 28 Minutes)
This morning, we experienced a service outage starting at 8:42 AM EDT. Service to most customers was restored by 9:55 AM, with all customers having full service by 10:10 ...Why am I Blogging?
A reasonable question to ask really. My main audience at this point is the development staff at Topaz Group. We are separated both by space and time. By space, because we are spread out and do not share offices or even the same area code. By time because I know ...Book Review: Secure Coding: Principles and Practices
Last time I reviewed one of two books on security that I had recently read. This time I'll review the other book - Secure Coding: Princeiples & Practices by Mark G. Graff and Kenneth R. van Wyk (and published by O'Reilly which puts out excellent books in general). This ...Thriving with the Social Internet
Thriving in the New Social Internet The new social world of the internet represents far more than finding a friend on Facebook or keeping a diary on line for anyone to see. New Web technology, also referred to as social media or Web 2.0, is unstoppably shifting the way ...Book Review: The Security Development Lifecycle
Security is something that is very important in all kinds of applications today. I have many more articles I want to write about security (particularly since we fixed a recent security hole). I'm going to start, however, with a review of one of two books I read recently on security. ...Next Level Start Ups
The next generation of web start ups is going to be younger and more specialized. They are also going to be cheaper. It has become easier to get a website, for less than ten dollars you can register your domain name and hosting can be had for as little ...Embedding CSS in a Post
Add CSS inline html: <style type='text/css'> sytle from .css </style> Or like this within a div: style="border: 1px; " An example: class .intro ‘Rather than a mass customer base, advertising on these blogs gives lobbyists unbridled access to an extremely valuable audience: Britain’s political elite’ <font style="margin:0px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding:0px; ...Num Lock Getting Stuck on a Macintosh
I couldn't get the Numbers keys on my apple keyboard to work, nothing I could do seemed to help. The digits refused to work. Every time I hit the "clear" button, which is the apple equivalent of Num Lock, I got a little squat sound like the fart of ...Hosting is Our Cup of Tea
Talking not Terrabytes ...
When we think of hosting we think of having guests at our house. We think of music to play and finger food.
Our business is taking the time to understand the equivalent of tea time in the digital age. Our business is communication, the kind ...