It’s already April and for most of us, tax is still looming on the horizon. Oh well, it is always better to pay taxes than to not pay ‘cause you didn’t make enough. You should try and have a Cowabunga! state of mind to everything.

Free Dial up Service?
Cowabunga! Computers and Roberts Hawaii have tagged team to offer free dial up access to over 200 travel agents in Hawaii! FREE? Yep. If you are a travel agent who does business with Roberts Hawaii, then go ahead and ask them for a freebie dial up internet access account. Unlimited internet access for free. Did you know that if you open up an iCityBanker account or Business Account at City Bank, you can get free dial up as well? If you want to have your company participate in this freebie campaign, give us an email at sales@iav.com and we can discuss the many opportunities!

Company of the month
Staying with our tradition of working with our customers, I want to give a big Cowabunga welcome to Hawaii Stationery. Stacy Sakata and his gang over there are simply doing an awesome job making sure we have enough pens and paper to keep our office well stocked. They even have a website that allows you to order online with free delivery on the island - not bad! In fact, most of their items are priced lower than the larger mainland companies here. I just spoke with Martin / General Manager and he said right now, they are offering a special on a 3M Travel Mouse. It’s usually $38.00 but on sale for $21.99. When you travel, you don’t have use the touchpad or try and use that lil red knob on the keyboard of your laptop anymore. Just attach this lil mouse and off you go. If you order some for your gang right now, you can enter to win an electric scooter! Give Martin a call at 486-3200. We can all talk about how masculine you will look on the electric scooter later! Give them a try. I am sure you will be surprised. www.hawaiistationery.com . And no, we didn’t do this website. (so don’t blame us…hehe)

 

Tip of the month
Sometimes, I have to work on Excel documents that need to be dated and with a time stamp on it for political reasons. I will teach you a really quick way of adding in time stamps and dating your spreadsheet instead of manually doing this every time. Just go to the cell you want to and do the following:

To enter the current time press: [Ctrl]+[;]
To enter the current date press: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[:]

  
 

Virus activity accelerates

In the past 30 days, virus activity has accelerated to record highs. In the past, only 1 e-mail message in 400 contained a virus. Today, with the proliferation of w32/netsky and w32/bagle, more than 1 in 100 e-mail messages contain a virus. This means the virus protection must be a part of your business operations. One virus slipping into your network can cause not only loss of business data, but inoperable computers and loss of productivity. Viruses can even spoof e-mail messages to appear as if you are sending your customers infected viruses. Do you really want to take that risk?

By attacking this problem with a layered approach, we can help you reduce your risks. First, we recommend using a network anti-virus system such as a Sonicwall security appliance to provide complete network anti virus and firewall services. Second, by using Microsoft’s Small Business Server’s advanced e-mail filtering, we can help you block typical virus entry points to your network. Finally, by implementing a software update service, you can make sure that your computers have the latest updates released by Microsoft. (source: messagelabs.com)

Interested in learning more? Give us a call at 949-6888 and ask about a security audit.

If you've seen the cow car on the road, chances are you saw a handsome "blonde haole guy" driving it. Get to know Marshall, our awesome field technician (if you haven't already!):

1) How long does it take you to repair a computer on site?You must be like, super fast because we always see you on the road.
On average I spend about an hour and a half. Of course there are times when more time is needed. Once in a while it's more convienent for the customer if I take it [the computer] back to the office to fix it and then drop it back off.

2) What's your favorite computer problem to repair? And why?
There's common problems, problems, uncommon problems, and "I've never heard of that one" problems. None of them are fun to deal with, but there is a sense of accomplishment with any remedy.

3) When did you first fall in love with the world of computers?
Falling in love is that feeling when you've been matched with something that has come into your life. Computers have always been close at hand, so I never really fell in love with them, we have more of an understanding than anything else.

4) What's your advice for people who want to prevent computer problems?
Make sure you have antivirus protection, it's up-to-date, your firewall is active, and never trust anything free.

5) What's the first thing a person should do if they encounter computer problems?
Isolate the problem, is it specific to something? Find the nearest person to blame, and then call Cowabunga! I can't give out all my trade secrets can I?
 		  
     

NEWS RELEASE AUTHORIZED BY ALYSSA MURPHY.

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