From June 7 through June 30, I’ll be in Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong; Bangkok, Thailand; and Hyderabad, India. If you need service during this time, please call PCIAM at 336-675-4956 to learn how to contact Greg Pretre for emergency service.

Image by finna dat - Thanks!

A recent client asked me to help lock down a single laptop, providing a work profile and a play profile. After several installations and removals of trial versions of applications, I found the right combination of applications: Webroot Parental Controls and Tropical Software Secure Browser. This combo fulfilled the most of the client’s requests of all I could find.

TropSoft’s application is controlling where the work profile can browse on the internet. While there are many apps that do that, this is one of few that allows TLD filtering rather than relying on a company’s list of approved sites or filtering on content. The work profile needs to access .org, .edu and .gov sites, needing access to only a couple of .com sites.

Webroot’s application is being used to control the work profile’s access to programs, denying access to applications like Internet Explorer, Firefox, games and media players. It’s also limiting the amount of time the play profile can be logged on each day.

Both applications are relatively inexpensive, running $40-45 each.

Providing our icy weather doesn’t interfere with the flights from Greensboro or Charlotte, I’ll be leaving for London, England, this afternoon. A quick bit of administrative work for the hospitality training client will have me returning on Sunday, January 20. If you need service during this time, please call PCIAM at 336-675-4956 to learn how to contact Greg Pretre for emergency service. I’ll give your regards to the Queen.

Today I leave for Doha, Qatar, for another business trip.  I’ll return late on January 10.  Emergency services will be provided by Greg Pretre. Simply call PCIAM (336-675-4956) to learn how to contact Greg. Many thanks for stopping by!

(I can’t get the “Welcome Back, Kotter!” theme song out of my head!)

Many people have asked me about making a PDF, for there are so many applications available on the web. In my experience, PrimoPDF is the best. I’ve used it for several years and have seen it only improve in that time. I install it on PCs as part of my standard load for many clients. It’s so simple to use and using it produces files one can supply to other people that can be read on any PC or Mac and generally cannot be edited. Once installed, one simply “prints” to it as if printing to a standard printer. Once the print job is sent, PrimoPDF opens and asks for the location to save the PDF and presents other options for more customization. Try PrimoPDF if you need to create PDFs. It’s certainly worth being your first application before buying one that does more than most of us need.

I’m heading off to Barcelona, Spain, on November 24 and will return on December 2. Emergency services will be provided by Greg Pretre. Simply call PCIAM (336-675-4956) to learn how to contact Greg. Many thanks for stopping by!

Here’s a little something I received in the mail yesterday.  I’ve been a bit under the weather lately and this was surely a boost to my morale.  Thanks, Peter and Joyce!

Today I leave for the UK for another international hospitality industry training event. I’ll be away and unable to answer phone calls until November 5.In maintaining the service level my clients deserve, I’ve made arrangements with Greg Pretre (pronounced pray-ter), a Microsoft Certified Professional and former Microsoft Certified Trainer. Greg is a Senior Problem Resolution Specialist for a large NC-based company and has 12 years of I.T. experience. He also knows what great customer service is and always delivers it. While Greg does have responsibilities to his primary employer during the day, he is available for evening service. To contact him, please call PCIAM at 336-675-4956. For business clients that may need emergency service during the day, an arrangement has been made with another service provider; details are available from Greg.As a special treat, I am hopping over to Dublin, Ireland, for a couple of nights before returning. The airfare from Liverpool to Dublin is so very low… about $26! How could I not go?!?

I will have sporadic access to email throughout my travels. Please feel free to contact me with any low priority questions.

Today I took the 70-291 Microsoft exam, Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure. I’m told it’s one of the toughest. It was the hardest one I’ve taken! I’m happy to report I passed and am now in CompTIA’s Security+ course. Completing it will result in achieving my MCSA certification and leave me only three exams away from my MCSE. However, school is on hold for the next month so I can focus on clients’ projects. I’m happy to have the break and am grateful to be able to take a month away with no penalties. TechSkills rocks!