IT Services UK

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Sporttracks v2 – Map problem fixed

With Sporttracks v2, there is an issue that the Terraserver map plugin no longer functions correctly. Maps cannot be zoomed, and over time, none of the routemaps appear to display at all. Thankfully, there is a user created plugin called Apply Routes. Apply Routes provides a number of extensions to the SportTracks functionality:

Windows Virtual PC – IE User

When you start Windows XP from the Windows Virtual PC software, you may be asked for the password to login for the first time.
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Reading Mac OS X Drives from Microsoft Windows

If you use Boot camp to run Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX on your Mac, you may have discovered that you cannot easily share files between the two systems. There is a technical reason for that – Mac OS X can read and write drives formatted using FAT and FAT32 (like USB thumb drives) and it can read (but not write) drives formatted using NTFS (most Windows hard drives)

How a laptop DC socket/jack is repaired

It shows the exact same process that we go through when replacing a DC (power) socket on a customer’s laptop. As you can see, it’s quite a lengthy process, that involves the removal of the laptop’s motherboard. We normally can carry out work like this for around £40, depending on the price of the socket itself.
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Avast Free Anti-Virus

We’ve talked about AVG Free Anti-Virus on the blog before. We haven’t talked about Avast however, which is another alternative to the expensive Anti-Virus products from Norton and McAfee. Avast is quickly becoming one of the most popular free anti-virus products on the market. The producers claim that Avast is: The most popular free antivirus with more than 80 000 000 registered users. Perfect for people who send e-mails and surf popular websites, but do not store any sensitive data on their computers.

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Windows 7 – Why you should wait

Windows 7 is Microsoft’s newest addition to its stable of operating systems. Along with Windows XP and Vista, it will soon be one of the most installed (and used) operating systems in the world.

But – we at Jaytag are of the strong opinion that it is a good idea to wait for Microsoft to iron out the slew of bugs and problems that inevitably go along with a new operating system. We aren’t the only one’s either – Computerworld have an article discussing why you should wait before upgrading.

Our top three reasons:

The reboot bug. Some users have reported that following an upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, their computers go into a loop of starting up, then immediately rebooting. There is currently no solution from Microsoft for this issue.

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Popular Open Source Applications for Small Businesses

From FastUpFront.com comes an extremely useful list of Open Source applications. As the recession drags on, more and more businesses are looking at Open Source software as a way to reduce the amount they are spending on software licensing.

From the article:

Open source applications and online services have been generating a lot of buzz over the past few years. Many of the open source alternatives are formidable contenders to the major liscensed software programs and services out on the market. Depending on the nature and circumstances of your business, bringing in open source apps may be a cheaper and more practical option to shelling out hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars in liscensing fees for the commercial versions.

The list is reproduced here:

Accounting Software

TurboCASH. – A powerful fully-featured, multi-user accounting system.
GnuCash. – A personal and small business accounting software

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

SugarCRM.- Probably the most well-known, and powerful, CRM open source options. It is better suited to bigger businesses, however.

Daffodil CRM.- Full-featured CRM application

ConcourseSuite. – Formally CentricCRM, it is a “front office application suite to integrate Customer Relationship Management (CRM), web content management and team collaboration capabilities into a single, easy to user web application.”

vtiger.- Easy to use CRM software. Good option for smaller businesses.

Office Suite/Word Processing

Open Office. – Full-featured office suite, compatible with all other major office suites including MS Office

The Fifth Element.- Full-featured office suite, compatible with all other major office suites including MS Office

AbiWord.- Word processing software, easy-to-use version of MS Word.

Thunderbird. – Open source, cross-platform email and news client developed by Mozilla

Pegasus Mail. – Less well-known email system, but offers plenty of features and easy-to-use format

Graphics

Photofiltre.- A full-featured image and photo editing program; a good Photoshop alternative

Paint.NET. – A solid image and photo editing program; a good Photoshop alternative

The GIMP. – the GNU Project’s excellent image manipulation program.

Blender 3D.- Richly featured 3D content creation and animation program. Check out the features and gallery section.

Point of Sale Software

Openbravo POS. – Popular Point-of-Sale application designed for a wide range of retail businesses.

NolaPro POS. – A Web-based accounting, inventory, POS, and business management suite.

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