Times Never Change -- Watch This

Times never change -- as demonstrated by Johnny Carson.

An Historic Moment

My policy is to reserve religious and political discussions for the dinner table and, even then, to limit the discussions to a very small audience.

If you know me, it's likely that you know my religious and political affiliation and alliance(s). Whether you know me or not, I am via this post violating my own position -- I'm taking a moment to say how important I think the mid-term election is to the future of this country.

From my perspective, selection for this mid-term are easy! We have had two years of radical agenda and "constitution trampling," and it's time for changes in Washington.

My dad had a priceless philosophy -- vote or you have no rigth to bitch about the outcome of the election. I'm leaving that quote with you -- go to the polls on Tuesday and vote.

A Moment To Ponder

A friend passed the following link to me in an email earlier today. My first reaction was to delete the message; but I clicked the link and viewed the resulting video. And I was so glad that I decided to take a minute to see what my friend apparently thought was important enough to pass on to me.

I was deeply moved by what I saw; and I hope that you will be too.

I'd like you to do 2 things for me. I'd like you to click the link and view the video and then send me an email to let me know if it moved you as much as it did me.

Click Here To View Video

Click Here to Send an Email To Let Me Know What You Think

Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees... I don't feel threatened.. I don't feel discriminated against.. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu ... If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about.. And we said okay..

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben S

JFSI Welcomes New Client

JFSI is proud to welcome Auto Choice Select, LLC as a recent client. Auto Choice specializes in providing high quality used vehicles to people living in the Triad of North Carolina.

Their web site AutoChoiceSelectLLC.com is in development and will be available soon.

Mark Stafford, the dealership's General Manager will be proud to show you any of the cars on the lot. He'll also show you a high quality -- manufactured by Holiday Rambler -- motor home. If you're in the market for a motor home, this is a "must see"

HP Image Zone Software

We have found that HP's Image Zone software neither installs nor works under Windows 7. Users of this program that intend to migrate to Windows 7 should find an alternative before upgrading or purchasing a new machine with the new O/S.

2010 Census Warning

WARNING: 2010 Census Cautions from the Better Business Bureau

Be Cautious About Giving Info to Census Workers by Susan Johnson

With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau
(BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other relevant data.

The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:

• If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don't know into your home.
  
• 
  Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information.
  

Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census.

REMEMBER, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ASK, YOU REALLY ONLY NEED TO TELL THEM HOW MANY PEOPLE LIVE AT YOUR ADDRESS.

While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION.

The Census Bureau will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers, nor will employees solicit donations. Any one asking for that information is NOT with the Census Bureau.

THE CENSUS BUREAU HAS DECIDED NOT TO WORK WITH ACORN ON GATHERING THIS INFORMATION.. No Acorn worker should approach you saying he/she is with the Census Bureau.

Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home. However, the
Census Bureau will not contact you by Email, so be on the lookout for Email scams impersonating the Census.

Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Language Issue?

Are you viewing a web site in a language you do not read? Microsoft comes to the rescue with Internet Explorer Version 8. And it's simple as pie to solve these complex problems.

Let's walk through a scenario where you are viewing a web site in English and would like to see it in Chinese.

• First, open the web site (e.g., http://jfairsystems.com)
• Second, navigate to the page you want to translate
• Right click and select Translate With Live Search
• Choose the target language

That's all there is to it!

MS To Drop MS Office Accounting Product Offerings

Come November 16th, Microsoft will discontinue sales of all items on the Office Accounting product lineup. The Redmond company is giving customers little advance notice on its plans to shut down Microsoft Office Accounting, but the fact is that the move involves the distribution of the product. Existing customers will continue to enjoy support from Microsoft for their products.

"Microsoft Office Accounting will no longer be distributed after November 16, 2009," reads the message welcoming visitors on the online area reserved for Accounting on the Office Online website. "We would like to thank the many dedicated users and partners who have been enthusiastic supporters of Office Accounting over the years."

The software giant started sending out notifications to customers informing of the imminent discontinuation of sales and distribution of the Microsoft Office Accounting product. The company revealed that Microsoft Office Accounting customers both in the UK and North America would be impacted. Starting with mid-November, Office Accounting Express, Office Accounting Standard, Office Accounting Professional, Office Accounting Professional Plus, Office Accounting 3-user and Small Business Accounting will no longer be available for purchase on either side of the Atlantic.

"After evaluating the product over the past few years we have determined that other Microsoft offerings such as free templates in the Office system used with Excel and the Dynamics product are able to meet our customers' needs. The Office Small Business web site has links to free templates for small businesses, such as invoices, expenses, time sheets, budgets and more and Microsoft's Small Business Center is also a great resource for small businesses," a Microsoft spokesperson told Mary Jo Foley.

Microsoft revealed that it would continue to offer support for Office Accounting customers, even though new purchases would no longer be possible. According to the Redmond company, Office Accounting products will benefit from five years of mainstream support followed by another five years of extended support.

Tip for visutally impaired or doc with small fonts

As I get older I occasionally run into something that's displayed in a font too small for me to read and with no easy way to enlarge the font. Windows has an answer for my situation and one that may significantly extend the time that visually impaired people can use their PC. That answer is the magnifier utility.Magnifier has been around for a long time -- but it's rarely discussed and most people don't even know it's there. It's available from the Accessories menu under XP. Under Vista, I start it by typing magnifier on the Start Search box and under Windows 7 it's displayed on the start menu.Magnifier is a great little tool. It opens a sizeable "frame" at the top of your screen and allows you to control the magnification from 2x to 16x.Try it if you're even in this situation or ever have one of those "senior moments" when you simply need a little help seeing something.

An Unbelievable But True Weekend

The story I'm about to tell is 100% true. It sounds absolutely unbelievable -- so unbelievable that though I say it's 100%, I'm sure you'll have doubts. With everything I'm discussing in this story, I've considered changing my name from John to Job.

Here goes....

I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday before Labor Day. I assumed beforehand that it would be 15 minutes -- go in and get weighed, have vitals taken, have the doctor listen to my heart and then to McDonalds for breakfast. I didn't consider the fact that I would leave 2 hours later with an appointment to be admitted to the hospital the next day for another cardiac cath.

The cath was about as uneventful as it could be; though the doctor decided I needed to stay at least overnight for some "additional tests".

My wife picked me up on Friday. We were on our way home when I received the first call that put a negative imprint on the holiday weekend. It seems that a friend of ours was spending the holiday weekend riding horses near the Virginia - Tennessee line. His horse was spooked by dogs; he was thrown off; he was transported to the local hospital and was in a coma.

That was bad enough; but at 12:15 on Labor Day morning, I received a call from my sister's middle daughter. All three of my sister's girls were visiting for the long weekend because their dad had quadruple bypass surgery less than 2 weeks before. My sister had fed the oldest daughter's three month old son and was rocking him to sleep when the baby cried out and died in her arms. As paramedics worked on the baby, my sister had a near fatal heart attack.

That obviously put a real damper on the holiday -- and that was certainly more than enough to make this story completely surreal; but it's not over.

At 11 o'clock that morning I received yet another telephone call. The senior minister of the church I served during the near decade we spent in Washington had suddenly died of a heart attack. Jerry was the brother I did not have during the years in DC; so his death was traumatic.

But the story is still not over. A follow-up doctor's visit indicated that the etiology of the pains I have been having in my legs and extremities is in my lower back; so surgery is likely to correct that near term.

See what I meant. We're stretching the belief that God never gives one more than can be tolerated.

Company Identity

I often see nice business cards that include email addresses that read:

username@msn.com or username@yahoo.com or username@bellsouth.net ....

The list of options goes on and on; but you get my drift. To make things worse, I SOMETIMES see cards that contain the address of a legitimate web site with one of the email addresses I mentioned above.

I'm convinced that an established and consistent company image is one of the most important (and, incidentally least expensive) things a company can do. Keeping your company name in front of the public is an essential element of doing business.

Of course, we recommend that almost all companies have a domain name that represents that company's name and, if possible, some representation of what the company does. In most instances, we recommend that a web site be incorporated into the overall marketing strategy.

Whether or not there's a web site, we recommend that companies have name centric email addresses (e.g., username@companydomainname.com) and NEVER -- absolutely NEVER have business email hosted at AOL with email addresses of username@AOL.com.

Talk to us at JFSI for more information about how we can help you with these efforts.

A disturbing reality

I've been following with great interest news reports that project that for the next two years recipients of Social Security Benefits will see no Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).

The same articles articulate in great detail the fact that medical expenses, typically the largest expense imposed on seniors, and Medicare and Medigap premiums are likely to rise sharply. Since these premium amounts are typically deducted from the recipient's monthly check, the net effect is that for the first time in over three decades, the amount received montly will GO DOWN.

Let's see if the birds on the hill who sit on chambers of our legislature take a commensurate cut.

Windows 7 Test Results

We have been doing some pretty extensive testing of Windows 7 since Microsoft released the "production" version to the partners web portal.

We have several test scenarios that I'll describe here.

Scenario 1. Microsoft has said that hardware minimums required for W7 are a 1+ gigahertz processor and 1 gig of memory. We tried to "stretch" that envelope; so we installed W7 Professional on a DELL 4300 with a 1.5 gigahertz processor and 512 MB of memory. We were, quite frankly, suprised that it would even install; but it did and it's running at least as well as XP on the same machine. Of course, we'd NEVER have tried to load Vista on that platform.

We expected to run into problems with the network adapter and the video card. Then we realized that we had long ago replaced the NIC that shipped with the machine with a Netgear adapter that W7 recognized right away and had no problems with.

We had to go to the NVIDIA web site and download video drivers in order to get an acceptable video presentation.

We've run a fair number of programs, including the Office 7 suite and GoToMeeting on the box and so far so good.

Scenario 2. Install W7 Professional on an XP based HP Notebook. The drill was essentailly the same as with the DELL except that the laptop had plenty of memory and is performing better. The install did NOT recognize the Intel Wireless; and getting it installed and configured was a reasonably difficult chore; but once we got over that hump things look OK.

Scenario 3. Install on a new clean machine with an AMD Dual Core processor and 4MB memory. Everything went swimmingly.

Problems...... We had to DOWNLOAD the two versions of W7. It took two tries to get a successful download of W7 Professional and the copy of Ultra downlaoded with errors and will not install. This is a MAJOR problem because of the size of the product and the time it takes to download even on our Time Warner Road Runner Turbo connection.

Email Alternative We Give An A+

Had someone suggested even a few months ago that I would be writing this post, I would have said they were crazy and recommended a thorough mental evaluation. That was back during the days when a product not produced by Microsoft was unheard of in our repetoire of products.

JFSI has from day one run Microsoft Small Business Server and Microsoft Exchange. We liked it so much that we never even considered alternatives; and many of our clients are prety much in the same boat.

Don't get me wrong -- Exchange is a great product. For medium to large sized companies it still has no equal.

A few months ago, a friend and I were talking about the concepts of "Software as a Service (SaaS)". You've undoubtedly heard about it and the whole idea behind "cloud computing".

During this conversation, my friend mentioned that they were evaluating Google's suite of applications called "Google Apps".

The conversation intrigued me to the point where I started doing some research; and that research led me to beta test the product in our environment. To make this long story endless, we liked what we saw so much that we dumped Exchange for Google Apps.

You ask -- WHY?

• We were initally concerned that Google Apps' email was nothing more than GMail. While it has a lot of the characteristics of GMail, it's different; it's secure; it's reliable; it's fast; it's avaialble from any computer with an Internect connection and I like it better than Outlook Web Access (OWA).
• JFSI is in business to support small to medium sized companies -- not medium to large to mega sized ones. An Exchange environment can be very expensive.
• We were initally concerned that we'd lose the ability to access our mail through our much loved, tried and true Outlook client; but that concern was short lived because Outlook works fine with the applications
• We LOVE the fact that multiple users can simultaneously work on the same document, see changes each user makes and know that the application is doing document versioning and keeping track of who does what
• We LOVE the fact that the applications seamlessly synch with our Blackberrys through the air, eliminating the need to tether them to a PC in the office or spend the money to install Blackberry Enterprise Server software
• We LOVE the price -- $50.00 per user per year for a 25GB storage space
• During the last month, we've caught one message in our spam folder that should have been in our Inbox
• While we have not done a lot with it yet, the Intranet services included in the applications seems to rival those provided by SharePoint Services.

Send me an email or give me a call if you'd like more information about our experiences.

BING - The New Search Engine on the Block

Live search is evolving -- and there is FINALLY an alternative to Google's search engine.

Microsoft recently introduced their "next generation" search engine. We were one of the early adopters and beta testers and we became very fond of Bing's capabilities and features.

What we call a "sidebar" is one feature we really like. Hovering over a vertical line to the right of a search result will cause a "snip" of the text of the page in question to be displayed. What's more significant is that this works with both HTML and scripted pages.

We also like the fact that the left side of your search results page contains yet another sidebar -- this time with a history of previous searches.

We strongly suggest that you give Bing a try. It's available at http://bing.com. It's FREE, it's evolving. We believe that though it's got a long way to go from a marketshare point of view that it's got a lot of potential.

An Important But Unfortunate Part Of Our Business

One component of our business is often overlooked; but it's an important part of what we do. It's also unfortunate that this part of the business is necessary -- but when it's needed it is a valuable and important part of our range of services.

That service happens to be our "computer forensic" service -- a service initially deployed at the request of one of our attorney clients. What was initially intended to be little more than a quick check of a computer to see if there was any obviously incriminating information has grown into a full-fledged service offering.

The intent of this service is simple...

• We review the contents of a computer that may contain incriminating information, pornography, illicit or illegal information, inappropriate e-mails, pictures or instant messages.
• We provide this service in a manner that will ensure that information found during the analysis will be allowable in court or significant in mediation
• We provide our client(s) with information we find during our analysis of the computer
• We appear as an expert witness if needed for our client

This service is currently available ONLY to attorneys and ONLY when domestic disputes or divorces are being litigated. We do not plan to extend this service to the "general population" because of legal, technical and ethical issues.

Multiple Time Zones in MS Outlook

I had the situation yesterday where I was working with an individual in a far-away time zone; and I was having trouble calculating the time difference between them and me. Then I found a quick and easy solution to the problem -- to let Microsoft Outlook do the thinking for me.

It's easy as pie to display two time zones in your Outlook calendar. Here's how.

• Click the TOOLS menu
• Click OPTIONS
• Click the CALENDAR OPTIONS button
• Click the TIME ZONES button
• Click SHOW AN ADDITIONAL TIME ZONE
• Enter the desired time zone
• Click OK

That's all there is to it.

June Tips For Using Outlook

I received this from HP earlier today. I have personally been using these tips for quite some time. If you're not, you might want to consider them.

Top tips to keep emails out of your spam bin

Spam surveys state what many of us already know: that the amount of junk email is on the rise. However, exact statistics vary: Internet security vendor McAfee claims 62 trillion spam emails were sent last year, while rival security company Norton says 350 billion went out in 2008.
One thing you can be certain of is that your spam filters are doing a lot of work these days. The trouble is, separating the junk from the genuine isn’t easy. As a result, you have probably experienced the inconvenience of important emails from clients being redirected to your spam bin.

To avoid losing valuable customer orders, or instructions from your boss, you can quickly and easily add your Microsoft® Office Outlook® contacts to a Safe Senders list. This will make sure that messages from these contacts arrive in your inbox.

5 super-speedy steps

To add your Outlook contacts to the Safe Senders list, perform the following steps:

1. On the Outlook Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, under Email, click Junk Email.
3. Click the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients tab.
4. Click Add.
5. In the Enter an email address or Internet domain name to be added to the list box, enter the name or address you want added, and then click OK.

1-2-3: Rescue email from your spam bin

If you have your Outlook Junk Email Filter set on a high level of protection, some of your genuine messages may go to your Junk Email folder – for example, emails from friends or customers that your filter has not seen before. To be safe, you should check your junk folder daily if you are expecting a crucial email. But to make sure your filter knows not to move mails from certain people to your spam folder, follow these three steps:

1. In Mail, click the Junk Email folder in the Navigation Pane.
2. Right-click any message that you want to mark as not junk.
3. On the shortcut menu, point to Junk Email, and then click Mark as Not Junk.
   

Blue from your boss, red from your friends: color-coding

To help you identify emails from management or certain contacts, Outlook lets you color code emails. This means you won’t miss critical messages from the head office or your loved ones.

To color-code your emails (Outlook 2007):

1. Select an email from someone you want to color code.
2. Press Tools then click Organize. A pane will scroll down.
3. On the left side of that pane choose Using Colors. The name of the sender will now be visible in the above box.
4. Choose the option From. You’ll see the name field automatically adjusting when you select a message from someone else.
5. Choose a color from the dropdown list and press Apply Color.
   

In Outlook 2003, you can do the following to color code your emails:

1. Select and email from someone you want to color code
2. Right click on it, select Create Rule Select Advanced Options
3. Check the box indicating you want to assign a rule to the person who sent you the email (probably the first box),
4. hit next
5. Choose Flag message with a colored flag in the center of the list; to specify the color you wish to use, click on “a colored flag,”select color
6. Click through to finish.

Now each email from this particular person will come into your inbox pre-flagged with the color you specified.

Google Mail and Yahoo! can help too

Outlook has a lot of handy tricks for beating spam. But if you don’t use Outlook, other email clients like Yahoo! and Google Mail also allow you to tag certain emails as junk, while they usually recognize senders loaded in your contacts as non-junk. It is worth investigating the features they offer to help you against spam.

In the battle against the spammers, it pays to be proactive. By using these Outlook features, you can make your inbox more efficient, and improve your chances of receiving the emails that matter most to you.

Microsoft and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

2009 Relay For Life

It felt strange viewing Relay For Life vintage 2009 from the sidelines last Friday night. But what a wonderfully good experience watching faces of survivors, caregivers and just people who care.

I want to say "Thank You" to Debrah and Leigh for spearheading another Relay For Life. But they could not do it alone; so I say "Thank You" to the hundreds of team captains and team members and corporate sponsors who have worked so hard to make this year's event the success it obviously was.

You missed a great evening if you were not there. A year from now there will be another -- likely bigger and better than this year's event; so can we count on you to commit TODAY to making next year's Relay successful?

I've made a little clip of a few of the pictures I made. Hope you enjoy.