August  2007
In this issue

It's Your Choice
Perfect Virus
Video Capture Card
Microsoft OneNote
 

Choosing a Video Capture Card

Just when it seems safe to make a video capture card purchase, something new seems to come along. What criteria should one assess to make the best purchase? This article will provide several options to consider.

To properly assess content capture, we're going to break down the field into three areas: live capture and transmission; asynchronous capture and delivery (live capture and encoding for later playback); and edited on-demand content. IN this article we will discuss the issues with live capture and transmission.

Live Capture and Transmission
To properly assess live streaming capture cards, one must consider three areas:
1. The types of inputs—both audio and video—that will be captured;
2. The format or formats and bit rate or bit rates that must be generated;
3. The decision whether the content
will generate from a single server or be mirrored on multiple servers.

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It's Your Choice
Your headache or theirs

Hear that sound? Feel the rumble? There is a geologic shift taking place under the feet of small and medium-sized companies and chances are you don't know it, yet. The ruckus is managed services. Their promise is to liberate you from the awful side of computer ownership.

"Awful? Define that, please." Fair enough.

aw•ful [aw-fuhl] – adjective If you don't have an IT Department chances are a smooth running, trouble-free network will be a temporary condition. 2) When something breaks someone has to fix it. 3) And, pay for it. 4) And, if that something gets in the way of running your business, you sleep less and the bottom line gets trashed. 5) If you do have an IT Department, you waste an expensive and valuable asset chasing around mundane tasks.

Managed services are provided by outside tech companies, such as Preferred. These firms offer many kinds of services, including remotely monitoring maintaining and managing your network and computers. How many of you own insurance of some flavor? Managed services too are designed to mitigate risk.

There was a time when handing off an internal function to someone else was the exclusive luxury of large companies. Today, plenty of small businesses have discovered that this same technique is just the answer to drive down the cost of their digital tools and keep them focused on their core competencies, whether they have an IT Department or not.

"Often, managed services focus on prevention and, when necessary, a fast remedy", explained Marc Steiger, Vice President DLP Technologies. "The purpose of some services, such as the ones we offer at DLP, anticipate, detect and fix problems, before the inevitable occurs. Managed services can also be committed to the day-to-day maintenance that's absolutely necessary and too often ignored," he said.

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A Perfect Virus for Imperfect Users
Getting back to basics

Here's a little special something to brighten your day. That nice virus protection software you own isn't worth diddly squat – at least when it comes the new ecard attack that is currently sidestepping even the once adequate defenses of companies who are doing all the right things.

The ecard virus is just another example of why one mission of  Preferred is to provide you ongoing advice on protecting your network. The awful reality is the bad guys are always a step ahead and this little baby, which can take you out at the knees, is an example.

This latest e-mail attack is part of a recent increase in "greetings" that encourage users to click on a link in the body of the e-mail to view an apparently legitimate site but, instead, links to malicious code or malware. The latest version of this type of blended threat includes the subject line "Movie-quality ecard" and provides an e-mail address of the sender to trick the recipient into clicking on the harmful link.

The remedy? Simple. Delete it. The reason ecard fearlessly walks by your current protection is it has no attachment. Clicking on the Web site address link in the e-mail triggers an installation of one or two files on your machine, designed to capture user data. Because the download is automatic your curiosity is all that's required to really screw up the works.

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Microsoft OneNote

Many of us carry a notebook or notepad around to take notes for business, school, or personal projects. But can you easily find — and decipher — the info you need? Is it convenient to share your notes with others? Take control with Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, the easy-to-use note-taking and information-management program where you can capture ideas and information in electronic form. Insert files or Web content in full-color, searchable format or as icons that you can click to access. Watch this demo to see how simple it is to gather, format, organize, and share information. And then say goodbye to your notepad!

How to do it:

Get started with OneNote
Take and format notes
Organize your notes

Distribute notes to other people

Play Demo


212 W. Spring Valley Rd
Richardson, TX 75081

972-644-1992
877-727-8431
Fax: 972-644-4911
www.preferredtechnology.com

 

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