Let?s begin by examining what kind of messages we?re referring to. ?Hey, I Need You to Look at This Right Now.? Be honest with me?is this something you?ve sent to one of your team members, at the end of the day or even in the later hours of the night? If so, this is something you should strongly consider putting a stop to for a few reasons. First, how often do you give instructions that, if you were to receive them, you would find vague and nebulous? Secondly, how often do you give these instructions in the last moments of the day, with the unspoken suggestion that the task is to be done before your employee leaves? If you answered ?frequently? to either of these questions?heck, if you answered anything other than ?never? to either of these questions?you need to pause for a moment and consider whether or not you?re being fair to your team members. Spoiler Alert: You Aren?t Put yourself in the shoes of one of your employees. You?re diligently working on your scheduled responsibilities, when you suddenly receive the link to a document you?d just finished work on, with the briefest of notes attached: ?please fix.? Please fix what, though? How stressed would you be if you were suddenly sent something with the expectation that you would fix it, with no context as to what about it needed to be fixed? How long would you expect it would take you to figure out the issue, never mind actually solve it? How stressed would you be if this was only to be expected in your workplace, that the status quo was one of uncertainty and pressure? If this is the precedent that you are creating in your business, how stressed do you think your employees likely are? You Need to Set the Precedent that Work Time is for Work, and Personal Time Isn?t If your employees have gotten into the habit of keeping their work devices within reach at all hours, you need to shift the paradigm and fix that issue. How can you do that? A good start is to stop sending messages at the end of the day with no context. Not only do you need to ensure that the task you are assigning to your employee is clearly outlined?not ?please fix,? but ?Widget A is experiencing XYZ issue, due to reasons Q, R, and S. Please prioritize correcting this tomorrow morning.? If the task really needs to be done, ask your employee if they are willing to work overtime (with pay) in order to complete the task?and yes, really ask.  Your team is there to help you accomplish your organizational goals within the hours you agreed upon when they were hired. Honoring that agreement, or making it worth their while if you absolutely must deviate from it, will help to keep your employees working diligently while they are within operational hours. The remote capabilities that modern technology gives us as businesses make it even easier?arguably, too easy?to blur these lines, so you need to be diligent with yourself. After all, your team doesn?t live to work for you?they work for you so that they can live. However, we can help you make sure that your team accomplishes as much as they can during their regularly […]

Blockchain Web, AKA Web 3.0 As the Internet currently stands, Big Tech has largely centralized control of data and content. Web 3.0 is a concept that changes the paradigm. Web 3.0, or Blockchain Web, is the decentralization of the Internet, where the infrastructure involves things like the blockchain and smart contracts. The idea of this new approach to the web is to help boost your data?s security, privacy, and scalability overall, with many current platforms expressing interest in incorporating Web 3.0 features into what are currently Web 2.0 platforms. However, we must say that Web 3.0 has its critics and criticisms?harmful content, loss of privacy, and wealth centralization being just three of them?that will need to be addressed Edge AI To understand Edge AI, it pays to have a familiarity with its two essential parts: edge computing, and artificial intelligence. Edge computing is the concept where latency and bandwidth are optimized by storing and computing data as close to the point of request as is possible. Artificial intelligence is the concept that enables machines to independently complete processes that would traditionally have required human interaction. Edge AI allows machine learning processes to happen at network endpoints, providing businesses with significant benefits, like reduced latency and costs. Integration with Wearable Technology While wearable technology has been largely associated with health monitoring and tracking, there are many ways that a business can take advantage of these devices. Employees can receive reminders of important deadlines and meetings and access information with unparalleled ease. In short, wearables make work easier if used properly. Whatever your business needs to ensure its success, we can help support the technology it relies on to work. Learn more about our fully managed IT and consulting services by calling (603) 889-0800 today.

?Thank You for Calling Technical Support, Have You Tried Dropping Your Computer?? Huge disclaimer here, we don?t advocate dropping, kicking, or suplexing your computer in order to get it to work if something goes wrong. Any physical blunt trauma to a computer should be administered by a professional. Back in 1982, Apple was on top of the game. Steve Jobs was on the cover of Time magazine, and by the end of the year they were the first company to reach a $1 billion annual sales rate. Apple was starting to make aesthetic decisions about their hardware that would sometimes trump function, and the Apple III is the first real example of that. Apple, likely following the wishes and demands of Steve Jobs, decided they were going to make the Apple III computer look even more marketable than the Apple II by removing the air vents. Computers, when processing information and just running in general, produce heat. That heat can build up within the case, and if there isn?t proper airflow or other forms of cooling, it can cause hardware damage over time. When certain computer components get too hot, they may need to be throttled and thus underperform, or they may malfunction and break over time, or both. Steve Jobs wanted the Apple III to be the sexiest Apple computer yet, and either in his opinion, or the advice of Apple?s marketing team, that meant ditching those unsightly air vents. And while they were at it, they nixed the internal fans, because if you aren?t going to have air vents, you may as well not bother with intake and outtake fans. So now we have a product that just bakes the internal components while it?s running. Heat makes metal expand, and there?s quite a bit of metal inside a computer. It would cause the internal parts within the computer to become dislodged, which would obviously cause the computer to stop working. The Apple III?s retail price started at $4340 in 1980?s money, which is equivalent to around $14,270 today. Keep this in mind for the rest of the story, it definitely puts things into perspective. So you have a fairly sizable handful of people running into issues with their extremely expensive new computer. Sometimes the computer would get so hot, it would melt the floppy disks in the drive. Eventually, the computer would get too hot, stop working, and you have to look up Apple in the phone book and give them a call. Fortunately, one engineer at Apple, Daniel Kottke, ran into this issue with his Apple III. Out of frustration, he picked up his computer and slammed it down on his desk. That sudden shock happened to cause the internal parts to snap back together and his computer started working again. Eureka!  So what did Apple do? The company instructed its support staff to recommend lifting the computer up off the desk by about two inches, and dropping it. Fingers crossed, this would set the internal parts back in place and you can go back to using your extremely expensive door-less oven. Modern Tech Support is a Little More Complicated While this story is true, it?s fun to make a joke about it. We?ve come a long way as a species in the last 40 years, and […]

According to the United States Census, around 8.9 percent of workers hold more than one job. That?s around 13 million workers who do it, whether it?s to get ahead or to simply make ends meet. We all know that side-hustles are a very real thing for some employees who want to get ahead, whether it?s saving up for a vacation, a down payment on a home, or some other major expense. They might work a part-time job after hours. The problem is not with these employees?it?s with employees who work two, full-time, asynchronous jobs at the same time. We know this is a controversial topic, and it?s one that you might not have thought about, but it?s something that could potentially impact the quality of work for employees who struggle to make ends meet. Some employers feel that employees working multiple jobs are costing them money, and depending on how it is done, they might be. For example, if an employee is using their time working one job to perform work for the other, it could lead to work for your job being performed haphazardly or without focus. In some professions, this could lead to dire consequences. We know that you can?t really do anything about your employees holding multiple jobs, and we aren?t here to tell you that you should implement any policies to actively prevent this or to punish them for it. That said, you do have a responsibility to your company to hire workers that can pull off their day-to-day tasks in a way that is undivided and focused to the best of their abilities. Strictly speaking, it might be worth having a frank and open discussion with employees who you think might be burning themselves out by working too much. In order to keep the problem of ?overemployment? to a minimum, we recommend that you consider the following: Make sure your employees maintain an appropriate work-life balance?at least for your own company. Compensate your employees as well as you can, budget pending. Understand that everyone?s circumstances are different and that some employees simply cannot afford to live on just one salary alone. At the end of the day, we think it?s important to understand one thing: nobody wants to work themselves to death. Do what you can to make your employees? workplace experiences as comfortable as possible. After all, we?re all human. One way you can dramatically reduce the stress of the workplace is through implementing appropriate technology solutions that make your employees? jobs and duties easier to perform. With the right support on your side, you can help your employees be as productive as possible before they leave your office and set their sights on their side-gig. To learn more about how we can help you best manage your technology, contact White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Now, before we get started, it should be clear that these translation functions are not going to be 100% accurate, and the only way you?ll know exactly what is being said is by working with someone who is fluent in the language. That said, you should be able to get a decent idea of what is being said from Google?s translation, so if that?s all you?re after, then by all means, give it a try. How to Translate an Email in Gmail First, you might notice that Gmail is already offering to translate the message because it recognizes that the message is in another language. In cases like this, it will show the detected language, the language your Gmail is set to, and a Translate button. If you click it, it will run the translation right there. If you don?t see the option, you will have to use the three-dot menu on the message to locate the Translate Message menu. This will open up the Translate bar, where you can either select the language from the drop-down list or you can have Gmail try to detect the language. After you do this, just click on the Translate Message button. You can then revert it back to the original by clicking on the button again. If you would rather the message just automatically translate, you?ll see the option on the right side of the screen, along with the language you have selected, after you translate your message. You can also disable automatic translations in much the same way by using the same selection. We hope you find some use out of this blog! Be sure to subscribe so you don?t miss a beat.