OSI Tips: Brush up on your holiday trivia! 
With apologies in advance to our wives and children, here are some of our favorite gift-giving ideas for this holiday season. 

Q. Who is Francis P. Church?
A. See herefor more on his indelible mark on holiday history.

Q. Who narrates the holiday classic “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”?
A. Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman

Q. Which widely-known holiday song is not about the holidays?
A. “Jingle Bells!” Written by John Peirpoint in 1857, it is a poem about winter that was later set to music.

Ask Tech Reporter
Go ahead… you know you want to … Send your questions here, for quick, anonymous answers.

Dear Ask Tech Reporter,
Aren’t computers just supposed to work? I come to work and there are phones, faxes, heat, light and running water. These things just work. But the computers always seem to need maintenance. Why is that?
Signed,
Mr. Ops

Dear Mr. Ops,
PCs and the data networks, like heat and running water, have become a ubiquitous and integral part of business. However, they are more complex at the user interface level and have much steeper learning curves than other “utility-like” services. Here are some of the complexities that lie within any small business network.

1.) Too many cooks in the kitchen
Considering that PCs and their software are produced by a host of manufacturers and low bidders, PCs are remarkably stable and uniform and they continue to improve (albeit slowly). However, it is common to encounter desktops with poor stability and performance. In these instances, most instability can be traced to software conflicts. That’s why your IT support team will always try to minimize the amount of software installed on a PC and will hunt down spyware, instant messaging software, photo upload and download software and all non-critical software.

2.) We can’t control everything
Internet availability is in a separate category as it is not controlled, configured or managed by your IT staff. It is controlled by the Internet provider. Significant storms and blackouts not included, a good provider will deliver less than an hour of outage a month, hopefully all at night.

3.) Line of Business Software – the devil you know
Sometimes, a niche line of business software will be problematic. If this is the case, the best that can be done is to stay in close communication with the software publisher and to ride out the issue until a fix or workaround is divined. Jumping ship to another provider of similar niche software should be done carefully and slowly, as the grass is not always greener over there.

Excessive maintenance is difficult to define. IT maintenance and the performance and availability of your network should not be in your top 10 business issues. Local server-based email, files and databases should be available more than 99% of the time. If your business is not meeting these measures or if you are experiencing other IT challenges we can help. Write to us here or call 1.800.757-7471 ext 208.

A new point of view
Desktops: Power On or Power Off?

Should leave your PC on all the time or just turn it on as needed?

Is it true that powering up and down can cause damage?

What about security breeches?

And these are just some the riveting questions we research and ponder in our spare (and not so spare) time.

In the past we recommended leaving your computer equipment on around the clock. We based that recommendation on the realities of that time:

It was the transition states that caused damage. On power up, the initial surge of power through the motherboard and hard drives could (one day) cause damage.
Turning your computer on and off causes thermal expansion and contraction stresses. When the computer is on its warms up and various components expand. When the computer is off its components then shrink back to their room temperature size. These size changes cause stress.

Hard drives used to develop “stiction.” This an informal contraction of the words “static” and “friction” coined to describe how hard drives used to get harder and harder to start as they aged. However, this is no longer an issue. They now fail without warning. They call this progress.

The only drawbacks of leaving your PC on all the time included exposure to electric power fluctuations caused by weather or utility work (planned utility work is done at night) and increased power consumption.

Times have changed. Manufacturers have made improvements. Now most PCs are always connected to the Internet thereby allowing most software to update itself (such as Windows XP) or performs useful functions (e.g.: backups, virus and spyware scans) in the middle of the night.

With all things considered, we now recommend that you shut off your PC at the end of the workday. Set power management to shut off your monitor after 30 minutes of inactivity. Do leave it on overnight at least once or twice a month for maintenance functions. Use Terminal Services for remote access instead of directly accessing your PC.

If you have any questions, please give us a call 1.800.757.7471. We would be happy to help. info@ositechnologies.com.

OSI: In the News
Chaz recently wrote a feature article “Speedy Recovery: Plan ahead to get your business back up and running quickly after a disaster” for Small Business Technology Magazine. Small Business Technology Magazine published online and in print reaches more than 120,000 entrepreneurs, owners and IT decision makers in small businesses with 1-300 employees nationwide. For a copy of the article, please email us.

To subscribe to Small Business Technology visit their website.

OSI Fun: Holiday Drinks and more!
Our annual holiday tradition of sharing our favorite recipe continues. Happy Holidays! From Alex, Chaz and Scott.

Holiday Rum Balls
1 (12ounce) box of vanilla wafers
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cups chopped nuts
1 box confectioner's sugar
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup rum mixed with 1/4 cup light corn syrup
Confectioner's sugar for coating
In a large bowl, crush all the wafers into powder. Mix in all the dry ingredients. Add rum syrup to the dry ingredients. Stir in melted butter. Mix. Mold into balls and dredge in confectioner's sugar. Be sure to store in sealed container for 12-36 hours for the best flavor.

Peppermint Martini
3 oz gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1 tsp peppermint schnapps
Pour the gin, dry vermouth and peppermint schnapps into a cocktail shaker half-filled with cracked ice. Shake well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a candy cane, and serve.

Mulled Apple Cider with Orange and Ginger
8 cups unpasteurized apple cider
A 3-inch cinnamon stick
10 whole cloves
1 navel orange, peeled and sliced crosswise
A 2-inch piece of peeled fresh ginger, cut into 6 slices
In a large saucepan combine the cider, the cinnamon stick, the cloves, the orange and the ginger and simmer the mixture for 20 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a heat-proof pitcher and serve the mulled cider warm. Makes about 8 cups.