…it’s not the pipe.

Therefore, leaving aside the small fact that the internet is not actually, in itself, worth anything like £100bn, it IS still true to say that 7.2% of UK business is now transacted online and it’s growing faster than Wayne Rooney’s wage packet.  Furthermore the UK’s online economy is a significant net exporter – so the big question is: have you got on board the bandwagon – or are you still trying to shift a backlog of Charles and Di mugs without access to Ebay?

Not only is the web the fastest growing sales channel, it’s also the one that offers the small player the greatest chance to close the gap on bigger rivals.

If you’re looking to plumb your business model into the fastest growing sales channel out there, or just to maintain a lead already established, give tlp a call to discuss the IT infrastructure implications.  Get your sales down the pipe, not down the pan.

We all have our disasters from time to time and just as the world’s financial markets are ever more inter-dependant, threatening contagion from one economy to the next and thereby demanding ever more rapid responses from ever more distant quarters; so our company systems are ever more dependent on effective IT systems operating systems operating as they were intended to.

It’s fortunate, therefore, that tlp can offer the same rapid response to your IT emergency needs, irrespective of whether you’re just around the corner or on the far side of the eurozone.  That’s because we too can avoid the ferry trip to your office.  We don’t need to turn up on site with a case, a helpful bedside manner and place a stethoscope against your motherboard.  A great many IT issues can be diagnosed and remedied via an online access to your system; saving you time and money.  To learn more about how tlp can deliver you fast and cost effective remote IT support, call Nicky Hodges on 0800 0323 400.

You might equally liken your business’ IT provision to the M25 – without it, everything would come to a complete standstill, we’d all run out of fuel in our queue of choice and have to walk home in the dark and the rain.  On the other hand, it seems that within two or three years of each upgrade, traffic starts to run more slowly again and we find ourselves unwittingly more conversant with the goings on of The Archers or the nicknames of Sally Traffic’s correspondents as our forced exposure to Radio 2 or 4 increases on the long crawl to the next appointment.

Of course it’s not the fault of the road – we just keep making ever more impractical demands of it; and so it is with our IT.  More programmes, more security, more data, more users:- we just load it up with gay abandon – until the system belatedly has a humour failure and borrows a line from the bathroom scales, saying something a bit like “one at a time please”.

At which point, the unwritten manual dictates that one calls the helpdesk and feigns surprise.

In fact, this should be your wake-up call; once your system starts doing a passable impression of junctions 18-21 on a Friday afternoon, you should call tlp and we’ll soon have you crowing about how good your IT is rather than crying about its crawling.  Call Nicky Hodges on 0800 0323 400

With Mega bites to take out of the budget, can they make the numbers add up whilst keeping the lights on? What remains to be seen is are they up to the job?

All to often companies are introduced to some form of ‘Bring me Sunshine’ IT solution – all big numbers, bells and whistles, bristling with the latest technology, capable of petaflops of operations and boasting exabytes of memory, but the real value is not in what it CAN do, but what it WILL do – for your business.  tlp will build anything from a discrete IT solution, up to a complete IT infrastructure that drives real efficiencies in your business because it starts from the standpoint of what your business needs rather than how many giga-jobbies the technical wizardry can perform per Greenwich Mean Nanosecond.  In short, because tlp is a firm of business people that understand IT rather than IT people trying desperately to grasp commercial reality, we will ensure that your IT infrastructure is up to the job.

To learn more, call Nicky Hodges on 01737 824006

…set up a system where whatever squadron needed additional support, ‘operations’ always new where resources were immediately available.

Times change; Redhill Aerodrome just over the hill from tlp operations HQ no longer echoes to the sound of Merlin engines and is now home to private flying clubs and an industrial estate, but yet, the need for rapid, effective support continues in a different form and is now provided by tlp.

tlp points support ensures that whenever your IT goes down you have a resource that will deploy as rapidly as if somebody had yelled ‘scramble’.  Better still, your points never expire, so once you’ve purchased them, they’re yours until you need them and points can be purchased in bundles to suit your needs.

To learn more, call Nicky Hodges on 01737 824006

Forgotten your password?  Please answer the following security question: What was the inside leg measurement of the Milky Bar Kid look-alike that always wanted to sit next Bernadette Bletherton at your first school?

23 inches.    This does not match our records please re-enter you answer
23inches      This does not match our records please re-enter you answer
23Inches      This does not match our records please re-enter you answer
23 Inches     We have sent you an email…

…please type in your new password.

Your password must be at least 48 characters long and include numbers, letters, random symbols and a gentle smattering of ancient Mayan petroglyphs.

Sound familiar? either your password is so weak that a lobotomised goldfish with a hangover could guess it or it’s so secure that remembering suggests that your directly descended from Alan Turing.  In fact it doesn’t have to be so tricky; a few simple personal ‘rules’ that you can set for yourself can keep you secure without needing to be a world memory champion.  Any set of rules that suit you will serve but one example will illustrate.  To cater for passwords that need to be of differing lengths and complexities pick (for example) a former address such as 23 Bletchley Park.  Already you have numbers, letters and both cases.  Now pick ANY symbol to represent a space – say #.  Then we get 23#Bletchley#Park  All you do now is use the first however many characters and ALWAYS use the minimum required number.  Now your password is strong and relatively easy to remember.

For more advice on IT security call Nicky Hodges on 01737 824006

• HomeGroup – Share files and printers on a home network without the headache
• Jump Lists – Get speedy access to your favorite pictures, songs, websites, and documents
• Snap – Enjoy this quick new way to resize and compare windows on your desktop (as seen on TV)
• Windows Live Essentials – A suite of great programs you can download free, including: Mail, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, and more
• Windows Search – Find virtually anything on your PC, instantly
• Windows Taskbar – Better thumbnail previews, clearer icons, and more ways to customise
• Add personality – You can redecorate your desktop with fun new themes, slide shows, or handy gadget
• Improve performance – Windows 7 goes to sleep and wakes up more quickly, is less memory hungry, and spots USB devices faster
• Play To – You can play your media on other PCs, stereos, or TVs around the house
• Windows Touch – Pair Windows 7 with a touchscreen and you won’t always need a keyboard or mouse

For more information, please phone Nicky Hodges free on 08000 323 400 (free) or 01737 824000 or email nicky.hodges@tlptech.co.uk.

1. Free up disk space with Disk Cleanup

You can improve the performance of your PC with the Disk Cleanup tool. It identifies files you can safely delete, such as temporary Internet Files (web pages saved in the cache), unwanted downloads, temporary Windows files such as error reports, optional components and programs that you don’t use, and shadow copies from System Restore. Disk Cleanup gives you the choice of whether to delete some or all of these unwanted files. You can also use it to empty the Recycle Bin.

2. Speed up response with Disk Defragmenter

If there is no room on your hard disk to save files and folders in one piece, they are saved in separate sections or fragments. When you go to open the file or folder, there may be a delay while the computer searches the hard disk to piece all the fragments together. Use the Disk Defragmenter utility every month to consolidate fragmented files and folders. We also recommend you run it each time you add a large number of files, if your free disk space totals 15% or less, or when you install new programs or update Windows.

3. Repair disk errors with Error Checking

We recommend you run this utility every week, to ensure the integrity of your files, prevent data loss and speed up hard disk performance. It scans the hard drive to fix bad sectors and file system errors.

4. Protect against spyware

Install anti-virus software that also protects against spyware. Spyware not only hampers your computer’s performance, it also puts your confidential personal data at risk, by collecting usernames and passwords you enter in the websites you visit.

5. Speed up Windows on startup

If Windows loads slowly during startup, go to Run, type msconfig, and hit enter. Go to the Start Up tab, uncheck any unwanted programs and click OK. Next time Windows starts up it should be noticeably faster.

For help with any of these, please phone Nicky Hodges free on 08000 323 400 (free) or 01737 824000 or email nicky.hodges@tlptech.co.uk.

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”

is a remark commonly attributed to Thomas J Watson, Chairman of IBM in 1943, even though there is seemingly no evidence that he ever said it.

Calculating machines have been around for centuries, from the abacus of 2400BC to the slide rule and pocket calculator of more recent decades. 

It was the 1830s when Charles Babbage started work on his Analytical Engine, the first general purpose computer. It used punch cards for input and a steam engine for power, with gears and shafts to represent numbers.

According to sources, he was a difficult and argumentative man, who fell out with the chief machinist who was hand-building the parts, which was one reason why the project was never finished. You can see an early operational version of his design at the London Science Museum.

In our view, the biggest change in recent years is companies’ dependence on IT. In the old days it wasn’t such a big deal if the computer wasn’t working, because everyone had filing cabinets stuffed with paper copies of everything. Now, it is critical to business success that your IT runs smoothly.

It amazes me that, today, one of my friends has a computer on her desk, a laptop in her briefcase, a smartphone in her hand (and a couple of old machines waiting for a new home once their hard disks have been erased for data protection purposes). So she has access to five computers just for her!

We anticipate that future years will bring even more change, with computers getting ever faster, smaller and more powerful.

For more information, phone Nicky Hodges free on 08000 323 400 (free) or 01737 824000 or email nicky.hodges@tlptech.co.uk.

Email: Short for Electronic Mail. A wonderful invention (except for the scourge of spam!) The first email message was sent between two computers in 1971. Billions of emails are now sent and received every day. If you would like to privately comment on this blog, you email me at nicky.hodges@tlptech.co.uk. Alternatively, you can leave a public ‘reply’ below. 

Encryption: The method of encoding sensitive messages or data so they can’t be read without a password.

EPOS: Electronic Point Of Sale, otherwise known as the ‘till’!

Ethernet: The cable (often blue) that connects your computer the network and carries data between them. It is the same type of cable that connects your TV to the aerial.

Expansion port: A slot in your PC or laptop where you can ‘plug in’ peripherals such as your printer.

Firewall: Vital for security. They stop viruses and other glitches from downloading themselves onto your PC via your Internet connection, and stop unauthorised people getting access to your data.

Floppy disk drive: Time moves on and technology seems to move even quicker! In the same way that the abacus was replaced by the calculator, the USB Flash drive (or ‘memory stick’) has largely replaced the floppy disk as a useful storage medium.

Freeware: Software that is free to download and use, although you may have to put up with annoying bugs or adverts.

FTP: Stands for File Transfer Protocol. It’s a way of transferring files to and from the Internet. For example, you can upload html files for your website or send and receive large documents this way, and avoid clogging up your email system.

Function key: Usually at the bottom left of your keyboard, and sometimes marked ‘Fn’. You hold down this key while you press another key at the same time, to make your computer do something, such as adjust the brightness of the screen.