As Christmastime approaches we are all wondering how to keep our lists small and our purchases minimal. The economy is forecasting a “drugstore” Christmas or even a DIY sort of giving mentality. One way to keep from spending unnecessary money is to NOT buy anyone you know Windows Vista. According to Fortune magazine, only two machines with Microsoft’s latest version of Windows appear on Amazon’s list of 25 top-selling laptops - the fastest growing segment of PC sales. Apple’s MAC OS X and Microsoft’s seven-year-old Windows XP dominate the roster. So, save yourself $260 and recycle those XP editions.

America’s 25 million small businesses are the heart of the American economy.  They produce 51 percent of nation’s private sector output, 47 percent of sales, and provide employment to over half the country’s private workforce. Since the beginning of the digital age, small businesses are personally responsible for the majority of computing resources and energy output. And while the result is an increase in productivity, there is also a financial downside in terms of power expenses.

In the past, small businesses hoping to go green were limited in their options by expenses and availability. As a result, around 1/2 to 1/3 of the 48 percent of the nation’s electricity and 39 percent of nation’s natural gas used for commercial and industrial purposes is wasted due to inefficiency.  That amounts to billions of dollars in electricity alone, with a large percentage being used by computing resources.

Now, after over a decade of this waste, new solutions are starting to appear.  As a small business, one excellent place to start is to use newly available products to adopt an efficient server infrastructure.  Many companies are offering exciting entries geared to help businesses small and large achieve this goal.

1. Energy Efficient Sun Fire Servers When small businesses grow in size and need dedicated mail service and file storage, they typically need to buy a server setup.  By the end of 2008, Sun Microsystems will have released several energy-efficient products, including the Sun Fire T1000 and Sun Fire T2000 servers with CoolThreads technology.  These new servers, according to Sun, will provide “30 times more performance while using one-tenth the energy and generating half the heat compared to products offered in 2003″.
2. Improving Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle With Containment Studies show that up to 60 percent of the power in a server room goes to cooling.  One green cooling method to consider is contained hot aisle cold aisle.  Hot aisle cold aisle is a best practice in which server racks are lined up with alternating rows with cold-air intakes all facing one aisle, hot-air exhausts the other.  This only provides small efficiency gains.  However, if you combine this with containment solutions such as plastic curtains, which separate the hot air from the cold, you can save more — up to 75 percent on fan energy by some estimates.
3. Low Watt Xeon ProcessorsIntel, the world’s largest microprocessor maker, offers several energy efficient variants of its Xeon processor, its 45 nm Penryn based offering.  The new processors come in both quad core and dual core varieties.  The dual core X5270 consumes 80 watts, but can run as fast as 3.5 GHz.  For quad cores, there’s the X5492, the X5470 and the L5430.  These models use 50 W of power, or a scant 12.5 W per core.  Powerful and efficient, these new processors are also halogen free, making their eventual retirement more eco-safe.
4. Consider The Switch To Linux Server OS Suggesting an OS is a tricky business.  In the server market the main candidates are Windows Server 2008 and the various Linux distros.  Part of the difficulty in making a suggestion is that some OS’s are naturally better at certain tasks, and some like Windows Server 2008 have some nice extra features.  That said, if you’re looking to save power, consider turning to Linux.
5. Putting It All Together As you can see, building an energy efficient server architecture requires a multi-tiered approach.  No one component will eliminate all inefficiency in the setup, but by selecting an efficient OS, low watt processors, an energy efficient server system, and efficient cooling that meets your needs, you can begin to save money and lessen your company’s impact on the environment.

Get ready guys. With the mess on Wall Street you can believe that a trickle down concept is giong to bring the threat to Main Street. How so? Well, cyber criminals are apparantly taking advantage of the financial meltdown and subsequent bailout by sending SPAM and phish email that are disquised as updates from recently acquired institutions.

I am a Bank of America member and from what I have been told banks do not prefer to contact customers via email. They still utilize snail mail for important notices. Most banks rarely contact customers via email. On the occasion that they do use email they certainly won’t include a link asking customers to click on it to confirm personal banking information.

In the wake of the shotgun takeovers now taking place, banks have neglected to tell customers about what changes will be made to their online-banking setups. So it seems that cyber criminals are trying to fill that void. We need to be aware and be prepared to debug and warn our customers of such issues.

Today’s banking emails aren’t that different from older attacks such as the infamous eBay emails and even Paypal. But they’re topical. A typical headline or subject line may address a recent merger.

Okay, okay. I know that when writing for techies I am going to get chastised for writing about Email templates. I realize we prefer text over HTML. However, sometimes those we love and care for the most want to go and get all cutesy and design their email. Getting your email to look great in all the major email clients can be a challenge though. Thanks to CampaignMonitor it has become a lot easier. In fact, they have done the work for us and provided the world with 33 cross-platform, cross-client email templates.

The August 1st print edition of the San Jose Business Journal finally realized what we have known all the time - MinuteFix is set to disrupt through revolution the precepts of customer service and technical support. Featuring CEO Diego Orjuela, the biz journal gave a great insight into the ideas and theories of MinuteFix as well as introducing us in print to the movers and shakers of “the Valley.”

Unfortunately the article only ran in the print edition and archives are only available through e-subscription, I highly encourage you to search for the article. In fact, because I am so proud of the team here at MinuteFix, I have made a .jpg of the article available for download here.

Summer is here. It isn’t coming. It isn’t just getting warmer. We are in the thick of it. Many of us are seeing humidity soaked days of 100+ degrees. We are all tempted to crank up the AC, drink a few more cold ones and basically burn energy like it is our job. But we all need to make a more conscious effort to conserve energy and conserve resources to slow the march of global warming. Hey, it saves money too and that is something we can all keep cool about.

I thought I would put together this list of things we can all do to cut our energy consumption this sizzling summer. It starts out pretty easy and then escalates into some more difficult challenges. I even included a list of five computer specific ways to really cut down. After you read ‘em though, let us know what you are doing this season to keep cool and be cool!

1. Resist the urge to live in a refrigerator.  78 degrees is plenty cool in the house.  Turn down the AC and get a programmable thermostat so you’re only cooling the house when you really need to.
2.  Air dry your dishes and clothes. The dryer and dish washer use a lot of energy– and the air does the drying job just as well.
3.  Take shorter showers and do not take baths.  Hot water heating is one of the major uses of energy in any home.  Short showers are the way to go. Baths use much more water and heat than do baths (unless you’re taking 30 minute showers!).
4.  Make sure you have energy-efficient lighting throughout your home. Everyone has heard about compact fluorescent lights by now. But are you up to date on LED lights? Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have come a long way, baby, and they are often 10 times more efficient than compact flourescents.
5.  Ditch the beer fridge. It’s amazing how many homes have two refrigerators.  Please do not use more than one fridge.  And if you have an old model, get a newer Energy Star model.
6.  Use ceiling fans or even floor fans rather than AC.  They are much more energy-efficient and you can get very reasonably priced Energy Star models.
7.  Get solar screens for your windows. These screens cut 75% of the heat coming through your windows, but don’t impact your visibility.
8.  Plant trees!  Placing deciduous trees on the South side of your home is a great way to block summer heat, but keep the sun shining on your home in the winter when you need the warmth.
9.  Spend one night each week in candlelight. It’s romantic, fun and inspires new conversation. I think they smell pretty good as well, if you get the right ones.
10. Use a solar oven for some cooking. Yes these exist and yes, they really work! You don’t want that hot oven on in your house anyway. You can either buy a solar oven, or you can learn to make one yourself.

And now for the computer tips (for you geeks):

1. Visit the Energy Star Computer page. The page provides a link to an Excel document that lists every qualified computer. You can find computers by manufacturer, desktop or laptop system or model. Check this list before you buy, particularly if you are buying online and there is no sales person to help you find an Energy Star certified model.

2. Set the energy efficient mode. After you have your new computer at home, make sure you run it in the most energy efficient mode. Reduce power requirements by closing applications when they aren’t in use, by setting the screen brightness at the lowest comfortable level, and by putting it instantly into sleep mode when you know you will be away for a few minutes.

NOTE: A computer’s energy consumption depends on what you’re doing with it. Writing an email uses less energy than playing a graphics-heavy game. I’m not suggesting that you quit playing computer games, but you might think about dragging out the old board games once in a while instead.

3. Maintain and Upgrade. The majority of energy that goes into a computer is actually used during the manufacturing process. Once you have an energy efficient computer, take care to keep it in good running condition for as long as possible. Upgrade and fix when necessary so that the machine runs efficiently for the long term.

4. Don’t litter. When you get a new energy-efficient computer, dispose of the old one properly. Search in your area for a place that will recycle or reuse the computer parts so that the toxic materials in the old computer don’t end up in your local landfill.

In an article published today on InformationWeek a figure was given that telecommuting could save gas and the United States about $38 billion.

The study says, in essence, that Americans already take fewer car trips (perhaps you have started walking up to the convenient store rather than driving or you are drinking that tasty but fat Latte and walking back from the cafe instead of driving) and ate out less to cope with rising gas prices (Minute Meals and items such as steamer vegetables have changed my life) to cope with the rising cost of gas. However, if American workers were allowed and encouraged to telecommute from home just twice weekly, the country could save 9.7 billion gallons of gas and $38.2 billion a year.

Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership for promoting telework, recently surveyed 377 federal and private-sector employees and found that 92% believe they could do their jobs from home. However, only 34% reported that they actually telework.

In addition, the report reveals that on average, Americans spend $2,052 annually on gas and an average of 264 hours, or 11 days, commuting each year.

Last night proved highly successful as Liz Strauss and her Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) site hosted an Open Comment Night for MinuteFix. With over 300 comments streaming back and forth, technicians were able to address topics ranging from Linksys wireless PC card trouble to choosing the right chat platform on Macs to how to maintain your PC by defragging.

Thank you everyone who showed up to ask questions and answer them alike.

This just in, my friends. Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) with Liz Strauss just posted an interview with Diego conducted by Phil Gerbyshak. It is a great read and gives some really good insight to Diego’s vision for MinuteFix and what this new one-click technology is all about in terms of customer service and tech support.

This is a great preface to Tuesday night when the entire MinuteFix community will be available to answer tech questions and talk more about MinuteFix.

Please forgive me but I got two separate occasions mixed up.

The interview with Diego and Phil (a prelude) to the Open Comment Night will commence on Sunday night. The actual Open Comment will be Tuesday night. Please accept my apologies and mark your calendar. I will also send out an email on Saturday evening or Sunday morning to remind us all. Thank you for taking note.

Some of you may have received an invite on your Facebook account to join the recently created MinuteFix Facebook group. So, what are you waiting for? Our goal for this group is to reach out to people who may not know about us or have any connection to us. So, join today and then invite all of your contacts to join as well. I have posted some pics and some discussions and will be using the group to update the masses of our releases, new advances, press, etc. Hopefully it will generate some interest and some credibility at the same time. The revolution continues…..

We’ve come a long way. Just think of this video when you are supporting Windows Vista. You’ll feel better.

Thank you so much for your patience during this Beta time. It is not always the easiest time and is often filled with changes, transitions and fixes that are sometimes obvious and sometimes not so visible. Whatever the case, I think it is important to communicate what changes have gone into effect. Off the top of my head….

• You can now “Tell a friend” from a link at the top of all the pages.
• We increased our SEO (search engine optimization) in order to increase customer traffic.
• The SSL (security warnings) are gone.
• There is a new section on your technician page where you can immediately see the last 3 blog posts, the last 5 forum posts, as well as links to the forum, our wiki and our Ning community.

Again, thank you for your patience and stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Part of running a web company is just really keeping it in tip top shape. And in order to do that when the site is live we sometimes have to pull it down inconspicuously so as to push out something new. Well, that time happens to be now. At 8:30pm PST we will be doing some maintenance to www.minutefix.com in order to release some new features (more infor to come), fix our current email bug and push a few other, quite small, things out. We hope you understand and look forward to a newer, even sleaker MinuteFix.

Launch, done. Next. Now bugs:

Have we missed anything?