By now I’m sure you’ve seen those strange little bar codes popping up everywhere.  It started on the internet with sites like Google places and has moved to just about anything.  Movie posters now have them, products, stores, just about any where you go today you will find at least one of them.  So what are they and what are they for?

These are called QR Codes.  Google says the following:

This unique bar code on the lower right of the sticker (known as a QR code) lets customers – and potential customers – instantly learn more about a business, by visiting a mobile version of the business’ Place Page on any supported phone. Here’s more on how it works and what you can do with it:

1. Make sure your phone can scan a QR code with its camera, either with an application that you download or via software that’s already installed on your phone. To find out what application to use for your phone, we recommend doing a Google search for the model of your phone along with “QR reader”.
2. When you see a QR code, use your phone’s application to scan it. If you’re scanning a QR code on one of the window decals that we’ve sent to thousands of U.S. businesses, you’ll quickly be taken to that business’ mobile Place Page on Google, where you can:
   • Read reviews to see what other users think about the business
   • Find an offer that the business has posted to their Place Page
   • Star the business to remember to check it out later, or to remember to visit again
   • Leave a review right after you leave the business. What’s a better time to write what you think, than when you’ve just visited?

From Website

Note: the above QR code is the Google Place QR code for SeTech Support.

So that is one way that QR codes can be used, but if it can be used to pull up a website and allow you to type in a review… think of all the other things it can do for you.  Obviously this only works with Tablets and phones that have a camera and have a QR reader installed.  There are several QR readers out there and if you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact us.

We always recommend to our clients that they install an active anti-virus to protect their computers.  This means that we want you to install something that scans all the time whenever you load a website.  There are several good versions out there on the market today.  However, we also understand that budgets can be tight and people may turn to free options.  The only problem with this is that since they are free they are sometimes the ones that people will write new viruses to get around these.  The people creating the viruses understand that more people are likely to opt for the free versions.

The other problem with free anti-virus scanners is that since they don’t have a large budget, a simple update can cause major problems for different types of operating systems.  This can happen with any anti-virus program.  We’ve seen problems in the past with Symantec and the only fix is for a computer repair person to come in and repair your computer for you.  This most recently happened with the AVG free version.  An automatic mandatory security update went through and caused a problem with Windows 7 64 bit systems.  Now this affected only a small number of users because the 64 bit system is still not as standard as the 32 bit system, but never the less with Windows 7 popularity growing the OS and system is becoming more popular.  As we sit here writing this update on a 64 bit system Windows 7 machine.

Please be careful when you select an anti-virus client.  The more caution you use and the more research you do the better and safer you will be.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of our technicians.

For more information on the problem with AVG, please see Laptop Magazine’s link posted here.

Office 2010 Initial Reviews

This week we got our copy of Microsoft’s Office 2010 and we upgraded a field laptop Friday night. This laptop runs Windows 7 Professional and was running Office 2007 Service Pack 2. The installation itself was very straightforward but it did take over 30 minutes total as components like the Outlook Connector were upgraded.

Initial impressions of the new look is that it looks more like Office 2003 with the Office 2007 toolbars. The biggest obvious change is that the 2007’s Office Button is gone. In its place is the File tab which will be more familiar to long-time Office users but combines some of the features of the Office Button.

The biggest change in the user controls that most people will notice is Outlook 2010 toolbar. Many of the features have been moved andwe’re sure that’s going to throw a lot of users.

We continue to make notes over the next several weeks and will have further reviews for you in a few weeks. If you have any questions, call or email us (info@setms.com) and we’ll be happy to help.