Mind Circus

I’m curious about this. How does a company come to settle on a specific brand or specification of laptop - or any PC for that matter?

Lately, I’ve gone for Dells, as they make it nice and easy. I can call or email my account manager, give him a base unit reference from their website, ask for a number of changes (”I want a spare power adapter, an x res screen and a y size HD instead”) and they do it all for me, and, more often than not, get me a quote within an hour.

So far, I’ve found it hard to find that flexibility and convenience. Unless I’m missing something/someone…

So the question is…

Everyone: What brand machines does your current company use?

IT Pros: Which brand(s) do you buy for your company PCs, and more importantly, why?

TrueCrypt 5.0, the open-source, multi-platform encryption suite, is available for download. New features for Windows include improved write speeds (up to 100% improvement) and Full Disk Encryption. They’ve also released a long-anticipated Mac OSX version

Why did I embolden Full Disk Encryption? Because UK companies and Government organisations are losing laptops left, right and centre - without encrypting their sensitive contents. As an IT Professional, you’d be crazy to not be investigating the various options for keeping your company’s data safe, in the event of loss or theft.

Check out what’s new in TrueCrypt 5.0.

A friend of a friend just started work at Red Gate in Cambridge. I’ve heard about them before, when they won a Best Small Companies to Work For award last year; and from looking at their website, it’s clear to see why.

Here’s some things that stand out for me (and that a lot of companies can learn from):

• Their site is insanely easy to navigate - and crucially, it’s easy to identify where you are in the site infrastructure.
• The fact that Red Gate’s career pages give a completely transparent view inside the company.
• Red Gate has ethics, and gives back to the community - and helps employees to do so
• The principles behind the Feel Good Fund, not to mention things like Massages, yoga, and the feel good fridge!
• Red Gate has quiet areas. Open Plan offices are fantastic, but sometimes you just need to lock down and concentrate without any chance of interruption.

What do you think makes a good company?

Instead of wasting money on greetings cards which will, ultimately, end up in the bin, Matrix Communications sent out Merry Christmas e-mails and donated the money they would have spent on cards to MacMillan Cancer Support.

Brilliant, and also quite ‘Green’

To get OpenOffice to Save in Microsoft Word .doc format by default, follow these steps:

• Tools > Options
• Load/Save > General
• In the bottom right of the window, look for “Always save as” and pick your poison

I know that saving in a proprietary format over an open standard is bad practice, but sometimes in Business you need to maintain interoperability with the de facto standard; in this case: Microsoft Word.