Windows 7 (doesn’t) backup – check your insurance policy

Posted on February 19, 2012 by WebSanity

WebSanity Internet Marketing logoToday I have been trying to get the backups of our Windows machines in the office onto our shiny NAS device. Windows 7 provides a backup and image facility; the idea is that you image the machine to backup a snapshot of it (setup, applications, data etc.) from time to time, and you backup your data very regularly.

For something like a laptop getting a proper image is very important as often they don’t come with recovery media to rebuild them if a hard disk fails. Remember, hard disks are physical things – they DO fail from time to time!

To be honest with you I struggled. A Windows image creates a boot DVD which, if your hard disk has failed, you can start your machine from, and then use that to restore the image saved on another disk during the Windows 7 image process. A NAS drive maps itself as a network drive which it can be tricky for a basic windows image boot to see, so, bit of a shame, but we’ll just have to keep using our images saved onto USB hard drive.

I just thought I’d give them a check and I was horrified to find that BOTH our Windows 7 machines, when booted from their recovery disks, started fine, but then couldn’t see their image backups. i.e. the machine images were worthless. (All out DATA is backed up elsewhere using different software, but the time to simply get a machine up and running with all your apps and personal settings ‘just so’ from scratch can be measured in days if not weeks).

I tried and I tried and I tried to get a standards windows 7 image to be found… all to no avail. Now, both these machines happen to be Dell machines, and they have partly hijacked the imaging process by inserting bits of their own software (to make things easier… for them). But it strikes me that many people might be out there carefully doing backups/images of their machines, and come the failure of a hard disk they will be worthless as the Windows 7 imaging process, out of a limited sample of two machines, simply doesn’t work.

So, I’d highly advise you if you are doing regular images/backups, to get them out and fire them up and see if you can get to a stage where it looks like it is going to work… after all this IS your insurance policy.

 

PS. If you don’t backup your data then disaster lurks around the corner for you…

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‘The Cloud’ is the future, but not the way they are currently selling it

Posted on February 10, 2012 by WebSanity

WebSanity Internet Marketing logoThere was loads of hype about “Cloud computing” last year, with many saying that 2012 is going to be the ‘year of the cloud’. But what is the cloud?

The cloud is generally used as an expression to describe something that is stored on the internet and not on your PC. Two major areas there are ‘Cloud computing’, where your applications aren’t stored on your machine, and cloud data storage, where your data isn’t stored on your machine but on an internet connected server.

Basically the cloud relies on your data and applications being stored on other people’s web servers and you accessing it via the internet.

Advantages

  • Frees up resources locally
  • Low initial outlay
  • Enables you to access data and applications wherever you go
  • Backups are all handled for you

But my personal opinion, for most small businesses – despite all the massive hype – has always been, and always will be, “you must be totally and utterly mad to consider Cloud Computing“.

Strong words, but let me rephrase my explanation of cloud computing – “Cloud computing is when somebody charges you a monthly fee ad infinitum to store your own data on their servers, which you have no idea where they are based, what security levels they have, and how they are backed up, and then give you access to it down an unreliable and slow connection”. Doesn’t seem like such a good deal to me APART from the ability to access your data anywhere because it is all internet based.

So forget the Cloud right? Absolutely not. I firmly believe we are on the edge of a  revolution – another step change in the way the world works, and not before time. Here’s a few steps in the history of computing:

  • Device-centric
    It’s all about the hardware. IBM PC XT and AT ruled the roost until…
  • Operating system-centric
    Who cares about the hardware as long as it runs Windows until…
  • Application-entric
    Who cares about Windows, it’s all about the applications you’re running, you don’t care what it runs on until…
  • The next step: Data-centric
    Who cares about what device you’re using, what operating system or what application, it’s all about the data. Got an iPod, iPad, PC, TV, iDontCare – I just want to read my documents, listen to my music, look at my photos wherever and however I want.

So I see the promise of The Cloud to deliver data-centric solutions as a revolution – but just not the way they are currently selling it. I have a love/hate relationship with a type of device called a NAS (Network Attached Storage). These devices are just tiny computers with a large hard disk in them which allow you to share files across your machines on a network. Big deal, OK it is easier to share data rather than sharing a folder on your hard disk but BUT they are now maturing to be far more than that. They are now maturing to storing your data and sharing it with your network, and any other devices connected wirelessly, AND over the internet (with appropriate security).

Now I can store my data in my house for no annual fee, I know where it is, I know I back it up (in fact it will do that automatically), I know what the security is, I can access that data locally (no reliability issues) and quickly (because it is wired into my network), I can access that data on my Playstation, look at my photos on the TV, play music via my smartphone or a cheap device plugged into my stereo, look at files whilst working remotely, share photos with people remotely, listen to my music remotely, never mind the same again for video. This truly is a revolution in the making – currently these devices are hard to setup and have a really techy slant, but they will eventually evolve into simple ‘plug and play’ consumer devices.

So I believe the Cloud is indeed the future, but just not the one that people are trying to sell us – instead of being centrally run cloud based servers it will be each individual controlling and accessing their own data through a simple, cheap to install box wherever they want, however they want… now that is going to be a revolution!

FOOTNOTE: Interesting to ponder what this will mean to Apple, Google et al.

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Google+ time to act?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by WebSanity

I’ve always joked that Google+ was Google’s third failed attempt at beating Facebook as the default social network. However, seeing the lengths they seem prepared to go to to make it happen, I’m starting to doubt that statement.

If you need evidence for that you can look at the way the core search engine now delivers Google+ content ahead of Twitter & Facebook results (all for good technical reasons of course), or the almost impossible ability to escape from it whilst using Google. But what brought it home to me most was an hour long ‘video hangout’ by president Obama recently… on Google+. Now that shows the power and influence that Google can wield in the modern world.

All this from a company that is prepared to employ a media company that paid people to write positively on blogs about its web browser software, thereby breaking its own rules (unknowingly according to Google), or allowing others to sell pharmaceutical drugs using its AdWords system, and Olympics tickets (according to the BBC).

So what should we do when a company like Google starts throwing its weight around? Get a Google+ account for you business and start filling it with information about your business! Oh, and you might want to think twice before buying shares in the soon to go public Facebook!

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Build website authority through useful content

Posted on January 27, 2012 by gerald

WebSanity Internet Marketing logoIn SEO circles we often talk about writing link bait content. That is content that is useful to people which means they might well add links to your site. It also means that people will find that content and then go ahead and buy from you or use your services.

So what might link content be?

  • Free guide
  • How to video
  • Hints & tips
  • Checklist
  • Top 10 list

The key thing is that it has to have some value to a customer and it has to be FREE.

Adding link bait content to your site will add to the number of pages, add to the links to your site, add to people sharing that information socially on the web and add traffic – all of which build your website’s authority, and therefore ranking.

Usual objections include:

  • But writing link bait is hard; yes, but it also increases the hurdles your competitors have to leap to overtake you on the web.
  • It takes too long; start small with one piece and gradually add over time. Think of it as an investment.
  • People will copy it; if you embed enough references to your own website then you WANT people to copy it.

So let’s see a quick example.

My oven door hinge has broken and I think I can fix it myself, it’s not rocket science.

So, I search for “replace ariston oven door hinge”. Note that’s a ‘long tailed search’ – it’s quite specific, I’ve learnt, as more and more people have, that the more specific you search the more likely you are to get the results you want (relevancy). Here’s what I get:

Example link bait contentVarious sites pop up telling me they sell Ariston door hinges (which is Google doing its job delivering relevant content), but at the top there’s a video on how to do it. Not just a video showing a generic hinge being change, but an Ariston door hinge. It isn’t particularly professional, it’s a guy talking to a video cam held by his mate. But it works. It gives me the information I need. So what do I do now – I reward that person by buying from him (life is too short to start shopping elsewhere). And I might well bookmark that site, Google+ it, like his Facebook site etc, to share that useful information with others.

But it doesn’t stop there. A friend of mine’s dishwasher seal went the other day and he asked me where to get one, so I tell him to go to this site because they’ll probably have a video of how to change it as well. So link bait doesn’t just work on the web, it also works off the web.

 

So, that’s an example of link bait content working in practice.. so what’s holding you back – start writing some link bait material and start building your website’s authority!

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Here come Rich Snippets…

Posted on December 23, 2011 by gerald

WebSanity Internet Marketing logoI’ve talked about Rich Snippets in the past – that’s the notion that you mark your data up with hidden keys that tell Google more information about that content so that they can do something with it. I’ve always said it was the future of the web, well that future moved one step closer yesterday when Google started showing more rich snippets across ads.

Interestingly it was from one of Rich Snippet’s early adopters – eBay. Here’s what they look like:

Rich Snippets in Google Results

Rich Snippets are not the kind of thing that a ‘man in the street’ can add to their website – it’s deeply technical and this move will favour large websites (like eBay) with a reasonable development budget. But if you think snippets to show off your products, courses, locations, etc. might benefit you then get in touch to chat about how they can be added to your existing website.

 

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