What is Blue Light, Exactly? Time for a bit of a science lesson: light as we know it is much more complicated than you might expect. What we perceive as visible light is actually made up of various different rays that all combine to produce the light that we can see. We aren?t going into much detail at all here, but one type of these rays?blue light rays?offer the highest energy levels and the shortest wavelengths. While naturally occurring in sunlight, blue light can also be sourced from various man-made fixtures found indoors?LED and fluorescent lighting, televisions, and perhaps most prominently, the screens of our computers, tablets, and other mobile devices. Unlike some other forms of light?like ultraviolet light, for example?the human eye isn?t all that good at blocking blue light rays from reaching the cornea. This contributes to an odd dilemma, of sorts. While blue light has been linked to improved alertness, memory, and other cognitive functionality, as well as helping to regulate the body?s wakefulness and sleep?it can also contribute to significant complications, potentially leading to eye strain or even macular degeneration. What Our Devices Contribute Through Their Blue Light Let?s look at this historically for a moment: For the vast majority of human history, sunlight and other natural forms of visible light were the only source that people got?really, until incandescent light was created. As a result, the more screens and ?artificial? light sources that we are surrounded with each day, the more blue light we are exposed to, ultimately throwing off the balance that the natural sources we?ve received over the years have maintained for most of human history. What?s worse, the fluorescent and LED-lit bulbs that are so popular today throw off considerably more blue light than their incandescent ancestors. How impactful can this blue light really be? Well, a few experiments help to shed some light (so to speak) on the situation. A Harvard study once experimented with the impact of a set amount of blue light exposure to a corresponding amount of green light exposure. Six and one-half hours of blue light suppressed enough melatonin (the hormone that controls a person?s circadian rhythms) had double the impact as the green light did, leading to a three-hour shift in circadian rhythm as compared to one and one-half hours. The effects can be even more pronounced, decreasing the amount of sleep that people get and contributing to increased risk of depression, diabetes, and cardiovascular issues. What Can Be Done About Blue Light? Here?s the thing?there are a few ways that you can help reduce your exposure to blue light and help minimize its effect on your sleep, including: Avoiding brighter screens within three hours of bedtime Making sure you?re getting plenty of exposure to other kinds of light to help regulate your circadian rhythms Using red lights over blue lights for nighttime light, helping to avoid melatonin suppression Investing in blue-light filtering glasses or time-controlled filtering apps. You can also adjust these kinds of preventative measures in your device?s settings. On Windows, navigate to the Start menu and access your Settings. From there, go to System, Display, and finally, Night Light Settings. You can there adjust the Schedule, either by applying custom-scheduled times or simply to activate the Night Light to turn on and off […]
If you know me at all, you know I love technology. I usually like to check out the newest, latest gadgets. At the same time, I?m also very skeptical about overcomplicating my life, and adding unneeded security risks to the equation. It?s like two polar opposites are at war in my head at all times?I want to play with shiny new technology but not risk my overall cybersecurity. Plus, I don?t want to move forward at the expense of losing something I once had. Here?s a perfect example: Back in the Windows 7 days, I had this really great set of apps that let you customize my Start Menu. It made it really easy to get the apps and documents I needed, and it made sense to me based on how my mind works. These applications were no longer supported for Windows 10, so when we upgraded, I lost those features and had to get used to living without them. Being used to the traditional desktop with multiple monitors and plenty of screen real estate, the idea of switching to a laptop or tablet sounds like a downgrade to many, but we?ve been at the point where laptops and even tablets are about as capable as their desktop equivalents. Modern laptops are powerhouses that can compete with most modern desktops until you really need the most powerful hardware for high-end gaming and video editing. Even then, a high-end laptop will suffice, but the cost goes up, as does the overall weight of the device. That said, mid-range portable devices like ultrabooks tend to be able to handle everything most people would throw at them. A Real-World Example of a Laptop that Replaced a Desktop An acquaintance of mine is a digital artist/graphic designer. I remember seeing her setup a handful of years ago?she had a big desktop computer, two big monitors, and an enormous Wacom Cintiq. The Wacom Cintiq is an artist?s drawing tablet. Hers was a big 24-inch screen that she could draw on using a special pen. The work she was doing required a pretty beefy desktop. It was definitely more powerful than the typical office workstation. She could have used a laptop instead of the desktop, but she?d still be chained to the desk in order to use the drawing tablet, and back then, the price tag for a laptop with that kind of power was substantially higher than the desktop. A few years ago, she showed me her new setup. She had switched over to a high-end laptop that had the Wacom technology built into the screen. She could set it up at her desk and give herself an extra monitor, but while traveling she could manage with just the laptop. I remember asking her ?does it still run all of your programs?? She had told me it honestly ran them better than her aging desktop. This wasn?t a big bulky laptop either – it was a 12-inch Thinkpad, and she had mentioned she was torn between that and a Surface Pro at the time. She went with the Thinkpad because she liked the keyboard better. Why This Story Matters Technology has been changing fast over the years, and it?s important to realize that every few years, the way we do things could potentially change for […]
While there are assorted backup strategies available to businesses, the most important consideration to make is which of them will best fit your purposes. After all, different businesses create and collect different types of data, and losing that data therefore has different consequences for one than it would for another. Let?s take a moment to examine the prospect of shaping a backup strategy to the way your business operates. Focusing on Operability Take a moment and consider something: of all the data you have, what could you simply not continue to function without? What data could land your business in major trouble if it were to be lost? As your data powers your daily operations, you probably have a pretty good idea of what is most essential to your business? continued survival. Unfortunately, you can?t be sure that your data is safe. After all, if it were saved on a single server in a reinforced, completely secure room, that data could still be lost. The server could malfunction, or catch fire, and your data would be gone. Data loss doesn?t always mean data theft. No, there is no guarantee that your data will be safe, so you need to address this risk through preventative action. This is why an operational backup strategy is so useful. By incorporating insights into which data is used most often and how that data is put to use, an operational backup combines the benefits of incremental and differential backup strategies. In short, when the chips are down, you?ll know you can restore your necessary data as the need arises. Why Does Operational Recovery Matter? From here, we will proceed under the assumption that you have hired human beings to work in your business. Guess what is directly responsible for the majority of a given company?s data loss? Your workers are the right answer. Some are negligent, some are vindictive, and others just don?t grasp the importance of your information systems? care. Therefore, a data backup is a smart investment. That?s without even mentioning that a lot of data loss can happen without the ?help? of your employees. Consider your central hardware. If that fails for any reason, or is somehow damaged, your business? IT could be suddenly left unmanaged and unconfigured. Access control systems and email platforms could be lost, along with all the important information they contain, and you would then need to spend days and weeks rebuilding them from the ground up. Alternatively, a backup could help you avoid this stress and expense. Operational Recovery The data recovery process?especially in those times when you are fully migrating data from one server to another?is notoriously slow. The trouble is that if you are trying to recover data, it is problematic when the recovery process takes a long time. The longer you are without data, the more downtime you face. Downtime is wasted money. With the BDR, however, the restore times are much faster, especially since you can choose to restore from either the BDR itself or the data center it is backed up to. The BDR is one of the most useful products you can purchase for your business. It is an insurance policy against a multitude of potential problems. Call White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800 to talk to one of our consultants about the BDR […]
Managing Your IT You may not even realize it, but your IT management carries with it substantial cost, whether that cost be from hiring onsite IT administrators or from not having any IT support and the time and expense it takes away from you and your staff. Today, there are other considerations outside of just the health of your infrastructure, especially if your workforce is dispersed and working remotely. The fact is that by having an IT services provider handle the health of your organization?s IT, you are getting more than just IT support, you are removing the financial shackles around your IT support and providing your staff the maintained and managed information systems that can make a huge difference for them. White Mountain IT Services delivers IT services that aren?t just your run-of-the-mill IT support, they are a value-based service delivery that not only provides your business with superiorly monitored and managed IT, it also provides your business several services that can be of immense benefit to your organization. They include: Remote management – Our staff of certified technicians use some of the most sophisticated IT management software to monitor and manage your hardware and your network to ensure they are working as intended. Backup and disaster recovery – Our managed IT services provide comprehensive backup services that protect your business? data to ensure that it is secure, regardless of your situation. Patch management – We ensure that all of your software is routinely patched and updated to ensure that you don?t have any harmful vulnerabilities that could be exploited. Vendor management – We deal with your IT vendors to ensure you are getting what you pay for and to help you avoid that time and expense. IT help desk – We provide a remote help desk that delivers your staff a direct line to an IT professional. Most IT issues can be resolved in minutes. Technology procurement – Our team of professional technicians can help any business design, deploy, and support any IT needed for your business. Fast onsite support – If you need onsite support and services, our team responds quickly to ensure that the IT systems you depend on are running proficiently. White Mountain IT Services delivers managed IT services that help your business save time and money, assists you in avoiding productivity bottlenecks that occur as a result of IT-related downtime, and does it for one, easily budgetable rate. To learn how you can gain the peace of mind and cost stability that managed IT services provide, give us a call at (603) 889-0800 today.
Keep Track of Your Time An individual will always think he/she will know how long a certain task will take when they?ve done the task numerous times. Sometimes it surprises them to find out how inaccurate those projections are. In order to definitively know how long tasks take, monitoring how much time they take is a great solution. Once you know how much time you take, you can make a conscious effort to take less time. Limit Your Exposure to Meetings What percentage of your meetings, would you say, are a giant waste of time? If that percentage is high, consider that one study found that the average employee spends 31 hours a month in meetings. If you are wasting over 30 hours a month in meetings, cutting that down will most certainly improve your overall productivity. Work with Reasonable Deadlines A lot of people work better with a little bit of stress from an impending deadline. Sometimes, however, the deadline is counterproductive. If you are able to set your own deadlines, make sure you leave yourself with a reasonable amount of time to get everything done. This will help you stay ahead of the workload. Set Goals You Can Accomplish We all want to be good at our jobs, but you need to know your limits. You will want to set reasonable goals and try your best to meet them. Setting unattainable goals may seem like it will foster better results, but it very rarely does. Take Regular Breaks Taking regular breaks can actually be great for productivity. Getting away from a task, especially one that creates stress, can help rebuild any lost focus. Be As Proactive As Possible The most productive people don?t deal with as many problems. This is largely because they proactively handle situations that create inefficiency. By planning for the worst, you will likely find that the worst never comes. Attempt to Reduce Interruptions Interruptions are going to happen, but if they are continuous, distraction is inevitable. Try to maintain focus on one problem at a time, even if the interruption is welcome. Turn Off Notifications Notifications can be extremely distracting, and can keep people from maintaining focus. By turning off notifications, people aren?t inundated with status updates and erroneous messages and are able to put their all into the tasks at hand. If productivity is the name of the game, considering these strategies will help. Subscribe to our blog for more great business tips and technology information.
