Newsletter Archives

• COVID-19: Protecting your customers

  Posted on May 11, 2020 at 01:05 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  SMALL BUSINESS COMPUTING

  By Amy Babinchak

  As an IT-services firm that often works directly with our clients, we’ve had to develop policies for safely returning to the field.

  Those policies aren’t just for our safety; they are also designed to give our clients the comfort and confidence needed to let us back into their offices. (This is a two-way street; we must be assured that the customer has plans for our safety, too.)

  This requirement isn’t unique to IT firms — every service business needs to establish post-pandemic plans for working with customers, face to face.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.18.0 (2020-05-11).

  Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, COVID-19, Office safety, Pandemic safety planning, Staff security

• I’m closing off the COVID-19 forum

  Posted on April 9, 2020 at 17:53 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  There’s been a whole lotta heat and precious little light on the COVID-19 forum of late.

  Ergo, I’m shutting it down. You’re welcome to view what’s there, but you won’t be able to post anything additional.

  Other COVID-19

• Five steps Microsoft should take RIGHT NOW to help us through the pandemic

  Posted on April 7, 2020 at 10:39 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft’s made plenty of bad decisions over the years, but right now ancient decisions geared to enhancing profitability should give way to clearer thinking about the computer community’s priorities.

  I have five steps that Microsoft can implement right now to keep our systems more stable and secure.

  Do you have any others?

  Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Windows News COVID-19

• Worldometer: US confirmed COVID-19 cases just went over 200,000

  Posted on April 1, 2020 at 11:48 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

  Other COVID-19

• Patch Lady – COVID-19: The challenges of working from home

  Posted on March 30, 2020 at 07:03 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  

  ON SECURITY

  By Susan Bradley

  “Social distancing” — such a simple-sounding phrase. But it’s having a titanic impact on our social and economic fabric. By any measure, we’re now living in uncertain times.

  With so many folks being furloughed or laid off, consider yourself fortunate if you can work from home. For those who can, there’s a wealth of online information on remote computing. Here are some highlights for making the experience effective and safe.

  And for all of you with kids staying home, I’ve included some information on home-learning resources.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, COVID-19, Remote access, Working from home

• Mingis: Tech pitches in to fight COVID-19

  Posted on March 27, 2020 at 12:30 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Some refreshing news about our industry.

  As IT pros around the world go all-out to support a workforce that’s suddenly fully remote, many technology workers and companies are also joining efforts to alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in various ways, including developing products to combat the virus, tracking and predicting its spread, and protecting hospitals from cyberattacks.

  Pitch in and help!

  Other COVID-19

• COVID-19: The challenges of working from home

  Posted on March 26, 2020 at 14:20 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  Note: Here’s Patch Lady Susan Bradley’s comprehensive guide to working from home, from an Enterprise point of view. This story will appear in the March 30 AskWoody Plus Newsletter. But given the timely value of the information, we’re posting it early.

  ---

  On Security

  

  By Susan Bradley

  “Social distancing” — such a simple-sounding phrase. But it’s having a titanic impact on our social and economic fabric. By any measure, we’re now living in uncertain times.

  With so many folks being furloughed or laid off, consider yourself fortunate if you can work from home. For those who can, there’s a wealth of online information on remote computing. Here are some highlights for making the experience effective and safe.

  And for all of you with kids staying home, I’ve included some information on home-learning resources.

  Read the full story here.

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, COVID-19, home learning, Remote computing

• New forum for COVID-19

  Posted on March 6, 2020 at 08:50 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’ve posted several times about the novel coronavirus – once on a purely personal level. I should know better than that. Sorry.

  I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and can’t recall any single, recent exogenous event (as in outside the tech sphere) that’s had a greater impact on our day-to-day lives. It’s doubly vexing because we not only have the obvious impact of the spreading infection — Microsoft and many other companies are basically shut down, fer heaven’s sake — but also because we have the tools at hand to help people keep going, even if they can’t drop by the water cooler to catch up on the latest gossip.

  I’m also painfully aware of the many problems that surround COVID-19, the way governments and individuals have mishandled things, the way coverage in the media falls far short, the lack of information, both intentional and unintentional.

  I have a bit of extraterrestrial skin in this game. I’ve been an advocate of telecommuting (er, working from home) for a long time. Co-wrote a book about it, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Much has changed. Surprisingly, much hasn’t. I continue to believe that telecommuting is the way of the future — and probably will be for a millennium or two.

  As I said earlier this week, I’m no epidemiologist, and you aren’t either. But I was surprised to find that one of the folks here at AskWoody Central does have a great deal of experience with communicable diseases — and knows a whole lot more about the nuts-and-bolts of infections than I ever will.

  All of which has led me to create a forum specifically for discussions about COVID-19. You’re most welcome to drop by and add your observations, questions, and insight. It’s an “Outside the box” forum, so the usual posting rules have been relaxed a bit. Still, I’d like to ask that you keep the political noise to a minimum.

  Uncategorized COVID-19

• COVID-19 hits Williamson County TN

  Posted on March 5, 2020 at 10:59 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  We haven’t yet made it onto the Johns Hopkins database, but should shortly. (That’s a very handy link, by the way, with the most accurate numbers you’re going to see.)

  Williamson County, TN, where I live, just had its first presumptive case of COVID-19.

  All schools in the county will be closed tomorrow, Friday, and Monday the 9th for deep cleaning.

  Kudos to the officials in charge for taking a very aggressive stance.

  UPDATE: We’re now on the Johns Hopkins database.

  Other COVID-19

• With COVID-19 as impetus, Microsoft and Google come out swinging with their collaboration software

  Posted on March 4, 2020 at 08:01 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Talk about silver linings to a very dark cloud…

  Apparently prodded by the collapse of the convention industry, both Microsoft and Google are offering free use of their meeting software. From Mehedi Hassan, on Thurrot.com:

  Microsoft Teams Giving Away Paid Features for Six Months Due to Coronavirus

  Google Making Advanced G Suite Meeting Features Free in Response to Coronavirus

  There’s also an overview from Charlotte Trueman at Computerworld, As coronavirus worsens, companies renew focus on collaboration, remote work.

  Very good news, indeed.

  Other COVID-19, G Suite, Teams

• Plea for spare computing power in new disease therapies

  Posted on March 4, 2020 at 01:15 CST by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Until today, I’d heard of distributed computing but I hadn’t heard of Folding@Home.

  From their website:

  Folding@home is a project focused on disease research. The problems we’re solving require so many computer calculations – and we need your help to find the cures!

  Naturally, they are now focused on Covid-19.

  By downloading Folding@Home, you can donate your unused computational resources to the Folding@home Consortium, where researchers working to advance our understanding of the structures of potential drug targets for 2019-nCoV that could aid in the design of new therapies. The data you help us generate will be quickly and openly disseminated as part of an open science collaboration of multiple laboratories around the world, giving researchers new tools that may unlock new opportunities for developing lifesaving drugs.

  Elly posted about this in the Lounge this afternoon, with their plea for computing resources, along with a good deal of relevant information. Check out her post: Assist COVID19 Researchers.
  Thanks Elly!

  Other COVID-19, Distributed Computing, Open Science

• C’mon, Microsoft. Cancel the Build conference sooner rather than later.

  Posted on March 3, 2020 at 10:34 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft has cancelled the MVP Summit, slated for the week-after-next in Seattle.

  Now we’re looking at the next big MS conference, Build, on May 19 in Seattle. Sorry, but there’s no way on our big blue planet that it’ll be safe to have a large conference in Seattle in May.

  Microsoft’s official Build page now says:

  In light of the global health concerns due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Microsoft is monitoring public health guidance in relation to in-person events. At this time, global health authorities have not issued guidance to avoid travel to this location. We are looking carefully at our event calendar as well as our presence at industry events in the coming months. We are not taking decisions lightly, but the health and well-being of our employees, partners, customers and other guests remain our ultimate priority.

  We will continue to monitor and make any necessary changes as the situation evolves.

  March 2, 2020

  Which sure sounds like a CYA to me.

  Why can’t Microsoft, of all organizations, just shift to online conferences? Why make people wait and wonder if they’re going to need (or cancel) plane reservations, hotels, meeting plans? And in the future, why have conferences at all? Sure they make Microsoft a lot of money – but it’s only a roundoff error in the corporate income statement.

  We’re better than this. Microsoft should’ve led the way years ago with online conferences.

  Microsoft News Build 2020, COVID-19
• « Older Entries