"Out of the Blue" NewsletterDecember 2007
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In This Issue
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The silly season rapidly descends upon us and we are all no doubt making mad preparations to trade in our working routine for the finer things of life, such as: giving and receiving gifts; relaxing time with family and friends; the laughter and joy of kids; good food and wine. Makes work sound rather drab in comparison doesn’t it? And for some it might be a drag, but not at Blueprint. Working for such a great bunch of loyal and friendly customers makes every day a reward. Seriously. :)
We’ve experienced a great year at Blueprint in 2007. Our staff numbers have grown. Our admin support team have consolidated and streamlined our internal processes so that we’ve been able to provide a better, more reliable and timely service. We’ve enjoyed growth and the prospects for 2008 look excellent. We never lose sight of the fact that we owe that all to you.
We are going to take a break though over Xmas & New Year so we can come back refreshed and do our best for you all over again in 2008. Our office will be closed on the following dates:
We will have skeleton staff rostered on call for 27th and 28th December. Should you have a dire emergency at any time over the break, simply call our Freecall number and we will respond.
There are some things you may need to consider if your office is closing down over this time. Take a minute to review the list below, and if you need assistance don’t hesitate to give us a call.
We sincerely hope that you get a well-deserved break and that you enjoy a safe and happy Xmas and New Year. Thank you once again for all your support this year and we look forward to catching up early in 2008.
Best Regards
Ron Llewellyn
Managing Director
Blueprint Technologies Australia
By Anya
As many of you know IBM have always been Blueprint Technologies preferred brand of choice for server equipment. Our reasons for this can be found on our website at http://www.bta.com.au/ibmstory.asp - “Our IBM Story”. What wasn’t included in this article is that for over 20 years now IBM have been providing environmentally responsible solutions to the disposal of IT equipment by refurbishment, resale and recycling through their IBM Global Asset Recovery Service.
According to their website “IBM processes an estimated 40,000 machines per week across centres around the world, and reused or resold almost 87% of the assets returned to its Remanufacturing Centres. Our operations processed over 108 million pounds of end-of-life products and product waste in 2006, and sent <1% of that to a landfill.”
Additionally “From 2002 to 2005 IBM globally recycled enough;
p Steel to rebuild the Eiffel Tower three times
p Paper to span the Golden Gate Bridge 23 times
p Plastic to fill over 22 railroad cars”
So what does this mean to us? All IT equipment has a limited life span and will need replacement at some stage due to:
p End of lease terms
p End of depreciation term
p Upgrades to more advanced technology to meet software and other business needs
p Obsolescence / end of useful life of equipment
How many of us just store all this decommissioned equipment in a back room, gathering dust and taking up valuable office space, promising to dispose of it in an environmentally friendly way, only to have a big spring clean and dump it all at the nearest landfill site? Well, IBM has the solution. Depending on the age and reusability of the equipment, they offer buyback or disposal services along with data destruction for security and privacy regulations. The service includes most IT equipment such as servers, PC’s, laptops, printers and monitors, regardless of brand. For full details including quotes, minimum quantities and FAQ’s go to http://www-03.ibm.com/financing/au/gars/index.html
By Anya
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Remember our article on Wyse green thin clients? Well here's another interesting fact about them... A typical desktop PC uses between 60 to 250 watts of power per hour... Now compare this to one of Wyse's thin clients, which uses between 4.4 and 36 watts of power per hour. To put this in perspective, 4.4 watts of electricity is the equivalent of a single light bulb on a Christmas tree. Just think of the possible energy savings available from replacing old desktop PC's with Wyse thin clients! |
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By Tash
Our online shop is
finally here thanks to a big help from Lenovo who have helped to fund our
ecommerce adventure, so start getting excited!
Email us at sales@bta.com.au for your own
personal login or register online at
http://shop.bta.com.au and start browsing right away.
Our online shop opens up a whole new world of geek gadgets, peripherals,
computer equipment, consumables and tech accessories – there are more than
20,000 items to peruse – more than enough to keep you occupied over the
Christmas break! The shop can be used for personal shopping but is also ideal
for business purchases. As the prices and options are all there, you no longer
have to go through the process of our quoting system, although we are still
available to help you with any queries – just call or email.
Make sure you visit often as we will be running Hot Deals and Best Buys on a regular basis. These very special offers can be found on our front page along with a full list of all the Categories and Vendors available. We hope you enjoy the convenience of shopping at Blueprint’s online shop.
** Special Notice: To celebrate the opening of our Online Shop, we are running a special promotion. Just by creating your own logon to our site, or making a small purchase online, you could be in the running to win a cool prize. But you've got to be in it, to win it! Check out all the details at http://www.bta.com.au/promo.asp.
By Soren
| Most Lenovo laptops come equipped with a keyboard light to allow you to use your laptop while the lights are out. This feature is extremely helpful in situations where you need to work in low light conditions but don’t want to or can’t turn on a big bright light. The built-in light in the Lenovo laptops is a soft orange colour to ensure that it does not hurt your eyes. However, there is one possible stumbling block. If it’s dark enough to need a light to see what you are doing then you probably aren’t going to be able to find a little switch or button to turn on the light. Fortunately this is not an issue with the Lenovo notebook range as the light is turned on and off by holding down the bottom left most keyboard key and pressing the top right most keyboard key. If you are on an Lenovo laptop right now give it a try. It’s so easy you can do it with your eyes shut! |
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All I Want For Christmas Is....
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Nick's Xmas Wish. The Altec Lansing FX5051 system gives you genuine 5.1 surround sound with no 6-channel sound card required! Just plug a USB cable from the subwoofer into your PC and get six discrete channels of powerhouse sound. The FX5051 features dual drivers in every satellite, plus a “two-barrelled,” 6.5” isobaric subwoofer that gives you awesome bass in half the space. What’s more, it’s designed to complement flat-panel displays. Satellites feature removable bases for easy wall mounting. System includes a full-function wireless remote. Nick should really have one of these. |
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Anya's Xmas Wish. One for the ladies! A stylish laptop bag…with $10 from every sale going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. |
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Mike's Xmas Wish. NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra Video Card – the ultimate enthusiast gaming graphics card. Gimme gimme gimme! |
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Tasha's Xmas Wish. CEC W100 Watch Phone has tiny built-in touch screen, 1.3 megapixel camera, 1GB of storage, FM radio, Bluetooth and makes you look like James Bond. “Affirmative! Over!” |
By Nick
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This month I had the pleasure of using and reviewing the "Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Ergonomic Keyboard and Mouse Combo" or as I like to call it, the LCDWEKAMC. For short. The keyboard is designed for use with Vista, it has a curved surface, contoured keys and a sweet cushioned palm rest. The edge keys and two middle rows are raised, while the middle point on the home row is lowered to accommodate the differing length of your fingers. Even a monkey could type on this. The only problem is that the Home/Del/Ins/PgUp/PgDn/End keys have moved, so it takes a bit of getting used to, but the absence of aching wrists makes up for it. The mouse is a cordless 5-button beast, with side scrolling and high precision laser, and can be used ambidextrously for all you lefties out there. It has a little bit of a problem with sensitivity settings - it's either too fast or too slow for me, and in games and full-screen programs there's a bit of a software hassle, but again this is easy to get used to. Both the keyboard and the mouse have long battery life, it's easy to set up and just all around better for anyone who spends hours typing and even longer cracking their wrists. This review was typed on a Logitech Wave Keyboard. |
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By Ron
You have most likely heard a lot recently of the term “virtualisation” in relation to information technology. If not, rest assured that you soon will as it quickly becoming a mainstream technology. I’ll try in this article to give you a very broad outline of what “virtualisation” is and what it can do for you.
In very simple terms, virtualisation is a software technology which allows you to run more than one operating system simultaneously on the one computer. This technology is mostly directed at running multiple server operating systems on the one server hardware platform. However, there are virtualisation benefits which can be applied even to desktop platforms.
The benefits of using virtualisation are seen mostly in the reduction of hardware costs, given that you can run more servers on less equipment. You do need to ensure though that the hardware platform you specify to be the “virtualisation host” is powerful enough to cope with the extra load. This requires you to invest in large amounts of memory, multiple processors and fast hard disk systems. Even so, the cost of a single beefy server to run as a virtualisation host to replace two physical servers will be lower than the conventional method of buying separate hardware for each server. After you have purchased and set up your virtualised environment come the really cost-effective benefits such as:
Lower ongoing maintenance. You still have to maintain your “virtual servers” but with less physical hardware platforms, you will save time and money on maintenance.
Flexibility of your server environment. A “virtual server” can be taken offline or rebooted while the other virtual servers on the same host remain operational. (EG: Maintenance on the Mail Server can occur even though users continue to use your File & Print Server).
Portability of your server environment. A “virtual server” can be moved to another virtualisation host platform with ease. This means you are not tied to the hardware platform you commence with. The time and cost of migration at the “end of life” for your virtualisation hardware is drastically reduced.
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity. By setting up a standby virtualisation host with access to the “virtual disk” images, you can quickly recover from a hardware failure or other technical or physical disaster by quickly reloading your virtual server onto the standby platform. Enormous savings in lost productivity can be gained through using virtualisation in this way.
These are just a few of the main advantages or using “virtualisation” in your network design.
It’s not just for large networks though. Microsoft have released Virtual PC 2007 which you can download free from their website. This software will run on a standard PC, allowing you to load up another instance of Windows or even Linux in a virtual environment. You need an additional license for Windows running in that virtual environment, but this would allow you to do such things as:
Test software in a virtual environment before implementing it on your desktop or laptop. If it breaks your virtual Windows, you just start over and your working environment is unaffected.
Keep confidential material locked away inside a virtual Windows environment that only you have access to
Run a second copy of Windows in the background dedicated to a specific task such as; remote control access for out-of-office staff, printer sharing or electronic fax
As you can see there are many applications for “virtualisation” that are relevant and useful that you may not have been aware of.
If you’re interested in finding out more, or exploring how virtualisation may benefit your business, please give us a call and we’d be pleased to discuss with you and even demonstrate the technology.Our team are happy to assist with any enquiries you might have.
Freecall 1800 064 906
Telephone (07) 3852 1250
Fax (07) 3852 1194
e-mail sales@bta.com.au
Website www.bta.com.au
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