December 22, 2009
To go along with the Schneider Electric Intelligent Security Symposium featured on the main page this month, I had the distinct honor of meeting former Governor of PA and director of Home Land Security, Tom Ridge. Tom was a guest speaker where he shared about the importance of working smarter through technology to protect and secure our country. The playing field has changed and we all need to take part in adapting. AMRCON is honored to be a part of the Schneider Electric group of partners to play a role in this modernization of municipalities, buildings and the rest of our surroundings through the deployment of smart technology. Look for future posts discussing the ongoing project AMRCON is taking on to further educate local municipalities.
Ok so back to the personal note. What on earth happened to the year 2009? I thought it was going to be around a little longer. As I get older it seems the years go by faster, it doesn’t seem fair. Did you know an average ant only lives 90 days? They must really feel cheated! Thank God the average life expectancy in the US is 78-80. According to my plans I still don’t know if it will be enough time. There are places in the world to stay away from that have life expectancies as low as 40, we need to pray for them! Canada, parts of Europe and Australia are all over 80 in case you’re planning to move. So why these thoughts?
In recent weeks I’ve been affected with various emotions that left me reminded how precious life is. As we get closer to the holidays, life continues to move faster and faster. It’s a fitting time of year to take a second and look around, enjoy the people we have around us. Try to slow life down for just a second and enjoy it. I have much to be thankful for. My wife and my little guys over to the right to name a few. They always seem to have the power to slow me down and get me to remember what it’s all really about. Too bad Deeko really wasn’t about sitting with Santa!
From myself and everyone at AMRCON, we want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! –Dee Rudko
December 12, 2009
In an effort to level the playing field for honest partners, Microsoft continues to file cases against companies and individuals caught selling infringing software and systems. Every month, Microsoft receives hundreds of piracy reports from customers and from the system builder community. These reports enable Microsoft to investigate and address piracy across the country, and they are critical to the success of our anti-piracy efforts.
Almost all of the cases that Microsoft has recently filed resulted from either customer or channel piracy reports. The most recent round of cases were filed against 15 companies and individuals, including:
- VioSoftware (Lafayette, CO)
- Royal Discount (Boulder, CO)
- SaveintheUSA.com (Los Angeles, CA)
- Dallas Computer (Plano, TX)
- Daroc Computers (El Paso, TX)
For a full listing of all of the cases that have been filed this month and in the past, click here.
Genuine Windows: What’s New with Genuine Windows Volume Activation (VA)?
With the availability of Windows 7, Microsoft has further improved the technologies and tools used for volume license activation. Administrative requirements have been reduced making the VA process easier. Improved interfaces support greater usability and customization. VA Services are now more fully integrated, very manageable, and offer you even better administrative control. To improve performance, VA now has a reduced memory footprint for greater system and network efficiency.
For Partners this all means more efficiency and higher quality delivery of Windows 7 license activation for your clients. The key VA tools are still Key Management Service (KMS) and Multiple Activation Key (MAK).
- KMS remains the most efficient way to help your client activate all of their Windows 7 installs automatically, rather than requiring each computer to connect to a hosted service.
- For systems that are not network attached or that don’t have access to a KMS server, you can still also use MAK to independently activate eligible systems directly with Microsoft, either over the Internet or by telephone.
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What happens if I help my customer deploy Windows 7 and the genuine software license is not properly activated?The proper activation of the genuine Windows 7 license is an important part of the deployment process and your services portfolio. If your clients do not activate installations of Windows 7 software within the grace period, their computers will default to a “Notification Mode.” Users will still be able to use their systems, however, they will begin to see activation reminders during Logon and in the Action Center. In addition, their Desktop Background color will be set to black as a further reminder that the license needs to be activated.Microsoft listened to your feedback and worked to improve Volume Activation so that you could provide even better service to your customers. You can find additional resources to help you plan and understand Volume Activation here:
- Video – VA Fundamentals
- VA Expert advice column
- VA planning guides
- VA deployment guides
- VA FAQs
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Re-published from –Genuine News and Tools from Microsoft
Piracy of any kind is a serious offence and not being taken lightly in the industry. Acts of piracy add to cost for law abiding clients like yourselves. Not to mention make our jobs more difficult with managing licensing and activiation. I know I’m glad to hear Windows 7 will make administration easier and more difficult for dishonest OEM’s to pirate. –Dee Rudko, CEO
December 7, 2009
AMRCON’s partnership with Schneider Electric integrates data center technology with all aspects of building management to create
“smart buildings.”
Twenty years ago, just as personal computers were making their presence known, no one could have imagined how intertwined the human and the digital 
world would become.
But now a new digital process debuts almost daily, transforming everything we touch and making the pre-Internet world a distant memory.
The latest digital revolution is “smart building technology,” which uses Internet Protocol to marry all activities within a building’s environment. And at AMRCON, our partnership with industry leader Schneider Electric brings smart building technology to your doorstep.
“In today’s digital world, data centers are not simply operating workstations inside a building – they are running the building from the ground up,” says Dee Rudko, CEO of AMRCON, who is spearheading the company’s smart building offerings. “The best way to reduce costs, decrease energy consumption, and provide a highly secure and efficient work environment is to integrate all of a building’s network systems, security monitoring and power systems.”
To make a building “smart,” AMRCON and Schneider Electric utilize a comprehensive energy auditing process to determine the building’s energy output and efficiency pitfalls. “We then customize and install a data center to monitor and maintain all building systems, including lighting, heating, air conditioning, security monitoring, computer networks, communication systems, and fire detection,” Dee adds. 
Prior to smart building technology, all systems within a building were constructed and maintained separately. The systems did not talk to one another and there was no process to monitor energy usage. Lights were only turned off when a person flicked the switch. Heat and air conditioning ran constantly in all rooms and offices, whether or not people were in those areas. But with smart building technology, the data center operates motion sensors and, to reduce costs and conserve energy, will shut down the lights or heat when it senses that nobody is in the room.
Smart buildings are also safer for its occupants than older buildings. Outdated security systems involved sporadically placed cameras and a video recording process. But in today’s age of heightened security, the highly sophisticated digital monitoring technology is able to detect building breeches and protect the building’s occupants with a much higher rate of success.
“Our experience in data center technology and our partnership with the energy experts at Schneider Electric make us uniquely qualified to consult with our clients on this exciting new technology,” Dee says.
For more information about “smart building” technology, or to see if AMRCON can turn your building into a smart one, feel free to give Dee a call.
Take a look at Schneider’s web space for Smart Building tech.
November 18, 2009
I wanted to take a minute and provide our members with a few updates here at AMRCON. I am pleased to say we’re still growing and carefully continuing to provide better products and service to our clients. We understand that in order to retain and earn the business of new clients, we need to continue with the vision of making our clients the most important part of our business. Given that we need to make changes from time-to-time. Here are a few of the changes that we have successfully implemented.
- In October we completed a small expansion project in our main office to allow for additional employee seating. Most of all it provided a better configuration to provide fast response to our walk-in clients in our store front.
- A few months ago AMRCON realized the need for a Dispatch Manager to better serve our clients. We tested and changed internal protocol to allow a single point of contact for our help desk. The purpose was to provide better efficiency to the tickets already in progress with our technicians instead of pausing to talk to new incoming calls. It also provides a layer of quality control for accuracy and making sure the flow of tickets are meeting our guarantees.
- AMRCON has hired our new Dispatch Manager Richard Wong. If you have not had the opportunity to speak with him, I’m sure you will the next time you have the need for support. Richard is a seasoned service coordinator from Dow Jones and Company. In addition he has experience with level 1 support, so he is an excellent resource for point of contact at AMRCON. We’re very pleased to have him on board. His direct extension is 2309 and his email is rwong@amrcon.com.
- Our Keyport dataroom went through an upgrade to provide even better up-time and availability through a power outage. Additional battery runtime was added as well as an upgrade to a larger generator backup. This will ensure our availability for smooth management and support quality in the event of an extended local outage. Additional cooling has been added to the dataroom as well, to handle additional future expansion.
- Internal policies has also been updated to include help desk protocol as well as others. These are dynamic changes that take place once an issue is recognized in our plan. Be assured that our help desk team and policies are adaptive. All of our valued clients benefit from our diligent eye on our own efficiency.
As a business partner and trusted advisor to our clients I think it’s important to keep you posted. You provide us with a great trust in providing support service to you. Partners need to know what’s going on. Please feel free to ask questions in this blog and or post ideas. We welcome them all.
November 5, 2009
Windows Small Business Server 2008 is an all-in-one server solution designed to help you keep your data more secure and your company more productive. It provides many of the features used by larger companies, such as e-mail, Internet connectivity, internal Web sites, remote access, support for mobile devices, file and printer sharing, backup, and restore—all at one affordable price.
Highlights
Connect to your business from anywhere. Boost your productivity and responsiveness whether you are out of the office, at home or on the road. Windows Small Business Server 2008 helps you stay plugged in and connected to your business.
Affordable, Integrated Solution
Windows Small Business Server 2008 is designed for small businesses. It is designed to work with existing technology, build on Microsoft best practices, and deliver a comprehensive network at an affordable price.
- Have virtually anytime, anywhere access to your business desktop, including e-mail, files, business applications, and more.
- Share resources and equipment, such as Internet access, printers, and fax machines, to get the most value from your technology investments.
- Enjoy compatibility and scalability. As your business needs change, Windows Small Business Server 2008 can change with you—easily add users, servers, and applications, or expand into other Microsoft technologies.
- Work more efficiently and add more value to your business with an integrated administrative console.
- Work confidently with a top performing network based on Windows Server 2008 technologies.
Protect Your Business Data
Windows Small Business Server 2008 helps protect your vital business information from loss, by backing up the data on your network and helping enable you to recover accidentally deleted files.
- Use antivirus and anti-spam protection to help protect your information from malicious attacks, viruses, and spam.
- Keep your computers and servers current and your network healthy and up to date with the latest updates.
- Get better control over your business and business information with daily and weekly reports alerting you on the health and security of your technology. A single administrative console gives you or your IT consultant a daily view of PCs and servers and makes it easier to manage common IT tasks.
- Get an at-a-glance snapshot of the security and health of your PCs and servers from a ‘green check’ report.
Grow Your Business Capacity
Windows Small Business Server 2008 gives you highly secure access to business contacts, calendars, e-mail, files, and other important desktop resources from any Internet-connected computer, virtually anywhere at any time, so you can be productive while you’re away from the office or on the road.
- Improve your day-to-day efficiency by using a central repository for storing and sharing information.
- Connect with customers, vendors, and suppliers easily and professionally, with access to contacts, appointments, and files from any Internet-connected computer or a Windows Mobile–powered smartphone, so you can be responsive even when you are away from the office.
- Create a bigger business presence with online marketing tools from Microsoft Office Live Services Small Business*, so you can differentiate your business and present a more professional image to your customers.
November 4, 2009
In the fall of 1621, about a year after the Mayflower Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, they put together a feast and broke bread with their Native American neighbors. The menu featured fowl, venison and fish, along with wheat and corn products.
Sporadic national, regional and individual Thanksgivings followed, but the day did not become an annual, national holiday until 1863.
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day in which to express thanks for the many blessings enjoyed by Americans.
Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members, and features a menu of turkey and a variety of vegetables and side dishes.
Well I figured I’d add those interesting facts I learned from my MSPU newsgroup. I’m sure none of us forget the long weekend or day off we get for the holiday, but even I need to remind 
myself of the purpose. Now needless to say I think the spirit of the holiday has grown, so I believe it means something different for everyone. For instance I am very thankful for the life and family I have today. I’ve also been provided many successes, for which I can only take a small acknowledgment for. Here are just a few things I’m very grateful for to the right. Here is Santino and Andrij actually sitting still, together in a model train in Lancaster PA last month. We visited the world’s largest indoor train set, which Santino has seen 2 years in a row now. If you have kids into Thomas The Tank Engine, I highly recommend it.
I’m actually one of those people who happens to enjoy spending some time with the rest of my family. Yes, I will also be one of those crazy people traveling on the wonderful US highways, however don’t feel sorry for me, we leave early and stay late. We purposely try and miss the traffic. Thanksgiving being the highest traveled holiday of the year. I hope everyone who plans to travel has a safe trip.
I know it’s November but I figured I would also share a little about October. We traveled to Hershey PA for the Halloween festivities. We’ve been doing that for a few years now and it seems like people are starting to catch on. It was busy but still very enjoyable. The picture here show the boys as Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story. I have to say they looked the part. Trick-or-treating in Hersey is a blast. They setup an area of the park designated just for it. The weather was perfect and the family had a nice long weekend.
I really can’t believe that we’re close to Thanksgiving and you know what’s right around the corner. That’s right 4th quarter financial closing. Just kidding, yes more holidays. It’s been an exciting year for the Rudko’s as well as AMRCON. I just want to close with another Thank you for Thanksgiving and that goes to you my clients, colleagues, friends and family.
October 20, 2009
I’ve received many questions about the big launch so I wanted to take a few minutes to give you the real scoop from a trusted Microsoft Certified firm. As many of you remember Windows Vista was not a very successful product. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stated that Windows 7 is the result of learning from the failures of Vista through meticulously ironing out most of the wrinkles that annoyed Vista users. I’m not hear to talk about if it will have successful launch, but more of an open information forum about what it might mean to our clients. I would like to inform our clients on the do’s and don’ts as well as other easily understood facts that you should know. Let me be clear that I don’t think an XP user should run right out and upgrade, I believe a Vista user would be first in line but not right away. Be sure to ask us if its a good idea in your specific environment before making any major decisions. Our team here at AMRCON has been working with the operating system for months in our lab environment. We’re not ready to give the green light just yet.
Here are a few facts that should be pointed out:
- Windows 7 will require a clean install: One of the lessons learned from Vista was that not enough integration between OEM hardware and 3rd party software vendors was provided. Thus everyone had issues with drivers and getting applications to run. To ensure a clean slate, the Windows 7 OS will require a complete format of your current drive from scratch, then and only then will you be able to recover your data and install your applications. From a technical standpoint this is generally the right way to go and will help alleviate headaches. I would not recommend doing this yourself with out some form of technical proficiency.
- The Economic role: The economy might play a strategic role in how our clients might look at migrations. In the past new migrations were done along with hardware upgrades, it just made better sense. In today’s economy budgets and planning have been reduced. However, with the leaner version of windows you can get away with migrating on older hardware where in the past new versions meant more horsepower requirements. Both the size and memory requirements have been reduced in Win 7. An eventual migration to Win 7 might be a more cost effective solution to those behind the times. Windows XP stands as the solid OS with 71.8% market share and Vista with only 18.8%. Windows 7 will end up taking most of the Vista share and heavily over time into the XP market. Now depending on just how old your hardware is will determine if an upgrade migration is in order or going with a complete hardware refresh along with the new OS.
- XP Mode?: Since Microsoft caught a bad image with suggesting to XP users to migrate to Vista then to Win 7 when it’s launched, many people had great concerns. Business owners expressing the bad taste they had provided a plan. Win 7 will have a XP Mode where a virtual XP service pack 3 environment can run under Win 7 to avoid breaking compatibility with their older applications. We’re still on the fence with this really bringing resolve to those issues.
- User Account Control: Microsoft boasts about having the right fixes in place from the Vista era. But it has been reported on some blogs that some underlying issues may still exist, it may change with the full version release but something to think about.
Is Windows 7 worth it?
It’s going to be a case-by-case basis so talk to AMRCON about your specific thoughts. We believe it will be a reasonable option for companies looking to upgrade hardware in the new year, but not if they require any 3rd party application such as trading and business automation. These companies will need to wait for their respective vendors to play catch up first. However, they would want to consider bundling an upgrade license when they become available. It would be one less cost they will need to worry about in the future. Besides Microsoft has extended the support for XP a few more years but I hope no one waits until the very end. Reason being we’ll loose out on the full integration and usage of the already deployed Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010 and Office 2010 when they become available. Most major vendors have already provided fixes to make themselves Windows 7 friendly.
Keep posted as we continue to report on actual build-outs and migrations. If you have any questions in the meantime feel free to give us a call.
October 14, 2009
For those of you not on our ODS Vital or other support plans, you need to make sure you have the right protection on your system. This will avoid expensive repair costs and possible data loss. I’m not going to dwell on that, I think if you’re already a client you’ve probably heard the importance of having it. As you might know we recommend the AVG line of products. I wanted to share with you that through AMRCON we have an offer of 30% off if you purchase directly through AVG. I can’t beat this price if you came into our office, so if you need the security upgrade or know you need to change over from another product, take advantage of this. If you think you would rather have a managed service through AMRCON and not have to worry about your security feel free to contact us. Either way I would rather have you protected and avoid costly repairs.
Click here for the full link: Save 30% on AVG Internet Security 9.0
Manufacturer Product Details:
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And we keep it that way because you, our users, tell us if we get it wrong. Our community of users is active, supportive, and vocal. You’re our greatest asset, and we hope you’ll continue to secure your PC with AVG.
October 13, 2009
Independent traders require smart technology to obtain the bleeding edge over the markets how ever that may be defined. Even the independent trader in a trading boutique or from home can not afford to make common mistakes. Some of these mistakes can include:
- Trading over a cable modem or other non-business class Internet service. This can create latency or an unknown amount of hops between you, your public network and your exchange. I’ve just seen it too many times. When you’re using a non-dedicated ISP, you have no control over how many networks you need to pass through before reaching your destination and back.
- All hardware is not created equal. A standard desktop with 1-2 video cards will not do. Depending on your trading platform you could be creating latency just by miss use of your screens. Even a slight overlap of a window can crunch a video processor to the extend that you’re looking at 3-4 second lag-time.
- Wireless trading is never a good idea. A good old ethernet connection into a business class router is always more stable. If you have to make sure you’re using business class equipment and someone who knows what they’re doing. It could cost you!
Larger environments need even more careful planning. Many complexities can arise as soon as you add multiple markets and or execution platforms. They all work on very different technology. Each has its benefits as well as concerns. Knowing these applications and understanding the demand on properly engineered and implemented technology is key. This brings me to my next point. Not all consulting firms, professional services companies or other IT support vendors are created equal.
I wanted to touch on the independent trader since we have so many as valued clients. Next month I’m going to talk a little more about the larger environments that we support. In the meantime I wanted to share a story depicting yet another different between AMRCON on other support vendors.
For close to 2 years a trading floor in lower Manhattan struggled with problems with a software trading platform. Each time the firm would experience the issue it cost them money. Each time they had the issue they would report the problem to their IT support company who we will call ACME for the purposes of this article. They were a professional services company as apposed to AMRCON’s Manged services model of real-time preventative support. Thus the trading firm had to waite for them to respond on site to troubleshoot the issue. Both ACME and the trading firm played a serious game of cat and mouse. The client being upset that ACME could not pin-point the issue and fix it and the software vendor pointing fingers at the client network as the problem. Finally ACME stated that it was an outside issue that they did not support and the issue continued. Eventually ACME lost the firm as a client to AMRCON due to various support related and other issues. AMRCON was pleased to take charge.
AMRCON deployed its managed services model of support through its start up process which corrected many outstanding issues. Later the firm began to experience the issue with the software and AMRCON was able to capture real-time data about the problem. Now it was the first time the issue had happened while under our support model and in fact the first time we heard of the issue. Needless to say we were shocked to hear it was going on for years and was an accepted reoccurring issue. AMRCON quickly compiled the data and began aggressively monitoring all aspects of the internal network all the way through the connection to the host provider. Come to find out there was an issue with the configuration of the 3rd party software vendor. AMRCON was able to prove the issue through hard documentation, statistics, and reports. This made the vendor step up and fix the issue. Our client is no longer being represented by a support vendor who even thinks about not owning each and every issue as their own.
I’m pleased to say the that we have repaired many other fixes to their network. We’ve reduced their IT budget and AMRCON has received calls from their executives personally thanking us for the diligent work we have provided.
October 5, 2009
So this shot to the left sets the stage for our KeyportFest venue. AMRCON was there in support even in the rain. It was nice that the day turned dry a few hours in. Santino was asked to take a picture with his new AMRCON shirt and this is what I got. None the less everyone had a great time. The food vendors were great and the music played strong. Keep us in mind next year. It’s a great little trip to be enjoyed by the entire family. Next year the waterfront will be completed as well. But, don’t wait for KeyportFest to come an see us. A beautiful walk along the waterfront, fishing, and our town cuisine is already waiting.
Well summer’s over and fall is here already. Where did the time go? My wife is already purchasing holiday gifts? What’s wrong with this picture. The retailers don’t give us much time before the next holiday push. I just don’t remember it being like that when I was growing up. Everything seemed to be timed just right. Right about now I would still be getting used to my school schedule, not worrying about what I wanted to be for Halloween! They have stores now that go up seasonally like an H&R Block, that sell wall-to-wall costumes. What happened to mom making something? Was I spoiled? I remember Mom really taking quite a bit of time to make sure everything was just right. Sometimes I would end up being what she had on her mind and not mine, but I look back and realize it wasn’t so bad being a 15th century Chinese merchant, those were the days. Thanksgiving wasn’t even a thought on my mind at this time in the 80′s. Now I have an itinerary that was written last month for November. I guess Microsoft Outlook just manages our time these days. Well, when this computer fad passes I’m going back to farming. Not that I’ve ever farmed, but I’m told my family did way back when!
For those of my Personal Note followers that just want to see pictures of the kids, I invite you to make sure you actually look at the rest of the blog. Just in case here you go. Santino’s 1st day of school was celebrated with his brother Andrij now 9 months old. Santino pretty much had a handle on his new classroom and teachers in the first 30 minutes. I believe he provided his first report on how to enhance the classroom’s technology before he left his first day. Andrij is also showing signs of a technical calling, he seems to find my laptop like a homing pigeon no matter where it is. He opens it, but that’s as far as he gets, thankfully. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.
I guess if there is one thing I’m reminded of this time of year is that the holidays come fast. I look forward to spendi
ng time with some family and running from others, just kidding. The cold will come quick but I don’t mind paying the price for the slower pace of the holidays. Not that my schedule really gets slower, but these events provide the much needed family down time I look forward to all year, as I am very grateful for my family and all of my good fortunes. This picture pretty much sums it up. I wish everyone a successful 4th quarter, and a strong close of 2009.
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