LANcom Technology Blog

We know we have a lot of great information on this blog, but we recently came to realise that the categories we were using did not exactly make it easy to find our older content. We really want you to get the most out of this blog so we have updated our categories.

Here are the new categories we have added, if any of these interest you just click on them to view the content we have available on the topic.

Latest free tools
How-to articles
Popular posts

Looking for an online time tracking tool? MakeSomeTime is a clutter free time tracking tool, which allows you to track time from wherever you may be. It uses an easy start stop timer and has even recently added an invoicing option.

With the free version of MakeSomeTime you can:

1. Create unlimited projects and tasks
2. Enter up to 5 clients into the system and create invoices for those clients
3. Generate detailed reports on how your time is spent
4. Set a budget for each project

One of the great things about MakeSomeTime is that you can learn pretty much everything you need to know about how to use it from the 2 ½ minute demo video on their homepage. To visit the MakeSomeTime site and try it out click here

MakeSomeTime may not be the most useful tool for everyone, so if you would like to read about other free time management tools we have covered on this blog click here.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post

How-to websites are a great way to solve problems and learn new skills because they offer easy step by step instructions. However, not all how-to sites are created equal so to save you some time here are 3 sites which I have found particularly useful.

1. Howcast – If you are a person who would much rather watch an instructional video than read instructions then Howcast is the site for you. Howcast’s how-to videos are high quality and cover a wide range topics (they have over 100,000 videos on the site). Videos on this site are kept short and to the point, but are always entertaining as well as educational. Here’s and example Howcast video ‘How to do better Google searches‘. To visit the Howcast homepage click here.
2. WikiHow – Wikihow is a collaborative how-to site with a lot of great information. Each article has steps, tips, warnings, and sources and citations. Because it is collaborative, if users disagree or have something to add they can discuss it and make changes. To visit the WikiHow site click here.
3. Instructables – Instructables is a different kind of how-to site. At the Instructables site you can learn how to do things you never thought of doing. Guides can range from unusual, to whimsical, to just plain bizarre. One of the guides I enjoyed reading was about how to make a hidden door bookshelf. Part of what makes instructables great is the fact that readers can leave comments which means they can ask the author questions or make suggestions for others. To visit Instructables click here.

According to Lifehacker, if you are using a solid colour background in Windows 7 instead of a custom wallpaper your login could be delayed for 30 seconds. The bug, which affects both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, causes the Welcome screen to be displayed for 30 second during the logon process.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to set an image file as your desktop background, but there is also a hotfix available for download from Microsoft. To visit the Microsoft website and read more about this issue click here.

Looking for an easy way to manage and analyse performance reviews? Sonar6 is an award winning online performance management solution, which we will begin using here at LANcom this year.

Why did we choose Sonar6? It came highly recommended by one of our clients and is another great example of where outsourcing an area outside of your main focus to experts can give you a strategic advantage.

Sonar6 has an easy to use graphics-based interface and a lot of great features for assessing staff performance. With Sonar6 you can:

1. Easily rate performance with simple drag and drop sliders
2. Compare employee ratings with their self appraisals or with historical ratings
3. Review a person individually or as part of a team
4. See a helicopter view of the whole business and see who the stars are and who is under performing
5. Invite employees, managers, colleagues and even clients to have their say and compile the results into a comprehensive review

To learn more about Sonar6 click here to visit their website. There is both an online demo and a free 30 day trial if you would like to try it out.

Looking for an easy way to keep track of the competition? Competitious is a free tool which can help you create a centralised space for storing, finding and sharing information about the competition.

With Competitious you can:

1. Track multiple projects – you can have a separate project for each of your products or services.
2. Invite your co-workers - projects can also have multiple members so you can get your whole team involved.
3. Build a comparison of features matrix – Competitious allows you to easily build a comparison matrix so you can indentify your competitions’ strengths and weaknesses.
4. Save relevant news about the competition – You can save news from the web and view news your co-workers have saved. You can also add comments and assign a sentiment (positive or negative) to each article.

Competitious is sill in beta, so it will likely have more features soon. To visit the Competitious website click here.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post.

Do you have a PDF file that doesn’t allow you to print or copy and paste from it? If you would like to remove these restrictions then Unlock-PDF is a free online tool which can help you do it.

With Unlock-PDF all you need to do is select the PDF you would like to unlock and click Unlock File. Unlock-PDF will then provide you with an unlocked version.

To visit the Unlock-PDF site click here.

Hat tip to MakeUseOf for the idea for this post

What should you do if you accidentally spill liquid on your Laptop? Don’t panic, you may be able to save it.

Here is what you need to do.

1. The first thing you should to do is immediately unplug it (if it is plugged in) and remove the battery. This should be done as quickly as possible to avoid it shorting out.
2. Turn it upside down to drain out the liquid and prevent it from seeping deeper into you computer.
3. Use something lint-free and absorbent, e.g. paper towels, to dry up any moisture you can see on your laptop.
4. Leave you laptop open and upside down for 2-3 days to ensure all to ensure all moisture has a chance to drain or evaporate.
5. 1. If you have spilt water on your computer you can now attempt to turn it on. If you experience any problems you should send it in for repair.
   2. If you have spilt a liquid other than water, e.g. coffee, your laptop may need to be taken apart and cleaned. If you are uncomfortable with doing this yourself you should send your computer in for a professional repair as soon as possible.

To see an instructional video on ‘How to fix a wet laptop’ from HowCast click here

Did you know it takes only 21 days to form a new habit? If you’re looking to change habits this year then Habitforge is a free online tool which can help you do it.

With Habitforge all you need to do is sign up with a goal and Habitforge will email you each morning and ask you whether you were successful in your goal the previous day. When you answer yes Habitforge begins counting down the 21 days, when you answer no it starts you back at day one.

You can also chose to write about why you want to form this new habit and have this inserted into your daily email every three days to give you additional motivation.

To visit the Habitforge website and try it out click here

Hat tip to MakeUseOf for the idea for this post.