Traditional phone lines are still the preferred choice of many businesses. However, the times they are a-changin’. And there are some good reasons to consider other options. No, that doesn’t mean getting rid of your phone altogether, but considering an alternative method that turns the whole idea of traditional phone use on its head.

The TV show MacGyver was an iconic show that grew beyond itself. It became a parody skit on Saturday Night Live (“MacGruber”), and the term MacGyver evolved from being a person’s last name into a verb. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, it means: “To make use of surrounding materials to build a contraption, or to get out of life's crazy things.

The security issue:

Microsoft has announced a vulnerability in Internet Explorer through the Adobe Flash plugin. The Flash plugin is used to display banner ads, web animation and games. The United States government has issued a recommendation* to stop using Internet Explorer until it is patched.

Affected Internet Explorer versions include 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, RT, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2012. Server 2008 and 2012 Core installations are not affected.

Carl J. Becker is the winner of our referral contest that ended on 12/31/2013 and won a Lenovo Twist Laptop! We officially announced the winner in our past newsletter.

Carl is a partner in the law firm of Newton Becker Bouwkamp Pendoski, PC where he practices in the areas of domestic/family law, while also serving clients with business litigation needs and general commercial advice.

Cogi is an Android version of the iPhone app Interviewy but has a couple more cool features. It is an easy-to-use, free note taking and voice recording app that allows you to capture important parts of meetings, lectures and conversations. You can augment the important voice notes with images, text and tags to completely capture the key parts of a meeting or conversation.

This past Christmas, a hacker reportedly stumbled upon a back door to Linksys and Netgear DSL modems that allow an attacker to reset the router’s configuration and gain Admin access. Not good!

Some routers have this “back door” open to the local computer network while others are open to the Internet side of things, opening up users of these devices to remote Internet attacks.

Nine Lives Media Names Bytecafe Consulting, Inc.
to the MSPmentor 501 Global Edition

Seventh Annual Report Identifies
World’s Top 501 Managed Service Providers (MSPs)

March 4, 2014: Bytecafe Consulting has surfaced on Nine Lives Media’s seventh-annual MSPmentor 501 Global Edition (http://www.

One-hundred percent of all hard drives will eventually fail. This is a fact. Some will fail prematurely due to manufacturers’ defects while others will fail because a mechanical part finally wears out. The question is, how long until that happens? 

Online backup provider Backblaze.

We would like to welcome Steve Morton as our new Service Manager. Steve started with us back in October and has already made a significant improvements to our company. Steve also has extensive experience in helping small and medium sized businesses with their technology needs.

Flow Free is a very simple yet addictive puzzle game.

To play, you just need to connect the matching colors using your finger without crossing over any other lines. Pair all colors and cover the entire board (no blank squares) to solve each puzzle.

There are over 1,000 free puzzles.