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 The CTSI Tech Times
Monthly Updates from Your Business's IT Department
February, 2010 - Vol 2, Issue 2
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| Upcoming Area Events |
2/10 - Lady Raider Basketball vs. Texas A&M
2/12 - International Culinary Affair, Frazier Pavilion, 7pm
2/12 - Hobbs Southwest Symphony
2/13 - Texas Tech vs. Texas A&M Basketball, 4pm
2/14 - Valentine's Day
2/15 - President's Day
2/19 - My Fair Lady, FUMC, Civic Center Theatre, 7pm
2/20 - Texas Tech vs. University of Texas Basketball 1pm
2/20 - Lion's Club Pancake Festival, Civic Center, 7am-8pm
2/21 - Lady Raider Basketball vs. Kansas, 5pm
2/23 - Texas Tech vs. Kansas State Basketball, 7pm
2/26 - Laugh for the Cure, Civic Center, 7pm
2/28 - Lady Raider Basketball vs. Oklahoma State, 12pm
To have your event listed, please contact us.
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| Milestones |
2/1/10 - CTSI's 25th Anniversary, founded by David Baucum and Craig Alley
2/01/10 - Ellen Qualls completed her 16th year with CTSI.
02/16/10 - Brett Bell has been with CTSI for 6 years.
|
| HP Desktop Bundle |
8100 Elite SFF $899
Features:
Core i3-530 (2.93GHz)
2GB RAM, 160GB HD,
DVD-ROM Drive
Win 7 Downgrade to XPP
Bundle Includes:
HP 22" LE2201 w LCD
($109 savings)
Expires: 4/30/10
Offer good while supplies last, does not include migration and services.
For more information email:
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| From David's Desk... |
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I sincerely hope that everyone's 2010 is off to a great start. If your year is going anything like mine, it is moving along much too fast! Perhaps once winter is over (and we have had quite a winter on the South Plains, haven't we?) and the days begin to get longer, things will slow down a bit.
Sometimes we get so busy we forget to stop and think about our beginnings. Looking back 25 years, 1985 was a memorable and innovative year for the technology industry. I'd like to take this opportunity to share my top ten favorite technology milestones from that year:
9. Compact Discs were released to American consumers.
8. The Amiga 1000, a personal computer, was produced by Commodore International.
7. Nintendo made its American debut.
6. The Discovery Channel aired for the first time.
5. The Cray 2, a supercomputer, was unveiled by Cray Research.
4. The first Blockbuster Video opened in Dallas.
3. Apple launched the LaserWriter, the first laser printer for the Mac.
2. Microsoft released Windows 1.0 to the public.
And my personal favorite:
1. CTSI was founded!
Craig Alley and I started CTSI in February 1985, 25 years ago this month. Thanks to our wonderful clients and our dedicated employees, CTSI has grown into the full-service IT organization that you see today. We are most grateful for the opportunity we have been given to serve you and share in your business technology successes.
I can't wait to see what the next 25 years has in store, and what else we can accomplish together!
Until next time,
David D. Baucum
President, CTSI
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| Time Management Tips Kristine Geimure |
To achieve maximum success and productivity in the work place it is essential that we understand how we use our time at work. Like many things in life, we take time for granted and give little thought to it until we no longer have enough of it.
We all have the same amount of time each day but it is how effectively we use it that is important. That doesn't mean we have to schedule every waking second in our day, but there are several effective time saving habits that we can use to dramatically increase our productivity.
Time Wasters Include
* Telephones - particularly personal calls during work hours
* No planning of tasks - focus gives direction
* E-mail - constantly checking your e-mail throughout the day
* Surfing the Web - Jumping from one site to the next
* Casual Visitors - Unscheduled or non work related visits
* Cluttered Workplace - Includes your desk, work area, computer and other organizing tools
* Poor Quality Resources/Tools - Having the wrong tool or poor office equipment can waste hours of time every week
Many of the poor time management habits we have formed can be easily fixed by simply being accountable for your working hours, understanding exactly how we use our time and having a plan for each day. There are also habits that we have had all our life that will require a lot more commitment to overcome.
Here's some good habits we can form to eliminate time wasting;
Understand how you use each day
Honestly review your day and understand how you are wasting time, then commit to becoming more efficient with your time. It's important to be honest and objective about how you really spend each day.
Set Priorities
Even with a well organized schedule and good work habits, there is still often not enough time in each day for workers, particularly small business owners and managers. So it is essential that we prioritize tasks and categorize them into Urgent, Very Important, Important and Wasting Time categories. Spend the majority of our time on tasks that are important and either delegate low priority jobs or move on to them only after completing the more urgent tasks.
Plan Your Time
By having a clear and precise plan for each day you have a target to aim at which eliminates many of the hours wasted in-between tasks or thinking about what to do next. Along with a daily plan, there should also be longer term goals to work towards. Setting daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals can dramatically increase your focus and productivity.
Review Your Progress
Many work habits have been formed over a life time, so we will often slip back into them if we fail to continually review our progress. Some habits will be harder to overcome than others, but the effort we put into overcoming them will be rewarded with added productivity, profitability and a more focused workplace.
Take Time Out
We're only human, so we should also plan for times when we can wind down and do less important tasks. Browse the web, call a friend or have a longer lunch sometime. It's only when we make a habit of doing these time wasting tasks that they become a problem.
Through better planning and a commitment to improve our use of time we increase our job satisfaction, become more confident, less stressed, increase productivity, cut costs and improve our chances of business success!
Kristine Geimure is the author and editor of several successful online businesses. She also writes business articles for the Woopidoo! business success portal.
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Tips of the Month
|
 Some handy time-saving shortcuts for both beginners and experts:
The keyboard method of opening the System menu is Alt+Spacebar. Then you can press N to Minimize the application, or X to Maximize, or any of the other underlined letters.
Enable keyboard shortcuts in Gmail:
- In your favorite browser, log in to your Gmail account.
- Click on "Settings" in the upper right (next to your e-mail address).
- In the default General tab, select the "Keyboard shortcuts on" radio button.
- Click the "Save Settings" button at the bottom of the page.
Ctrl + click opens link a new tab in Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 7(or later versions).
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| Staff Spotlight |
|
What is your title and what do you do at CTSI?
- My title is Systems Specialist. I perform server and network installation, maintenance, and repairs.
How long have you been at CTSI?
- I have been with CTSI for 4 years.
Tell us about your family and pets.
- I am married to Kristi and we have a 6 month old daughter named Alexis. I have 2 dogs, a Labrador named Boomer and a Bichon named Kasper.
What do you do in your free time?
- I enjoy hunting and fishing.
If you weren't working in the business technology sector, what would you be doing?
Tell us your favorite things about Lubbock.
- Even though Lubbock is a fairly large city, it still has that small town atmosphere. It seems you can generally see someone you know at your favorite restaurant or at the grocery store.
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| Helen's Recipe of the Month |
Helen Burns, CTSI's Purchasing Manager, has been with the company for the past ten years. In addition to her purchasing duties, Helen serves as our unofficial party coordinator. Helen (with help from our administrative assistant, Nancy Clark) makes sure we celebrate every staff member's birthday as well as various holidays by providing a wide range of delectable treats. Without further ado, from Helen's kitchen to you, here's a recipe--enjoy!
Valentine's Day Cherries Jubilee Cake 
1 box chocolate fudge cake mix with pudding in the mix
(do not make according to the box directions)
3 eggs
1 tbsp almond extract
1 18.5 oz can cherry pie filling (not sugar free)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the above in a large mixing bowl and beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Pour into a sprayed bundt pan and bake 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.Do not overbake. Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes, then turn onto cake plate.
Glaze:
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp butter or margarine
2 to 3 tbsp milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Place chips, butter, and 2 tbsp milk in a small sauce pan. Blend over low heat, stirring constantly just until chips melt. Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Add additional milk if needed. Spoon over cake. Cool completely before slicing. This cake can be served the day it's baked, but it's better the second day.
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Client Appreciation
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Thank You
Thank you to everyone who came to the Client Appreciation Event. It was wonderful to see you outside of the workplace. If you couldn't make it, be on the lookout for our next event. There will be drinks, appetizers, and many prizes.
|
|
|
|
The CTSI Tech Times
Monthly Updates from Your Business's IT Department
February, 2010 - Vol 2, Issue 2
|
|
| |
| Upcoming Area Events |
2/10 - Lady Raider Basketball vs. Texas A&M
2/12 - International Culinary Affair, Frazier Pavilion, 7pm
2/12 - Hobbs Southwest Symphony
2/13 - Texas Tech vs. Texas A&M Basketball, 4pm
2/14 - Valentine's Day
2/15 - President's Day
2/19 - My Fair Lady, FUMC, Civic Center Theatre, 7pm
2/20 - Texas Tech vs. University of Texas Basketball 1pm
2/20 - Lion's Club Pancake Festival, Civic Center, 7am-8pm
2/21 - Lady Raider Basketball vs. Kansas, 5pm
2/23 - Texas Tech vs. Kansas State Basketball, 7pm
2/26 - Laugh for the Cure, Civic Center, 7pm
2/28 - Lady Raider Basketball vs. Oklahoma State, 12pm
To have your event listed, please contact us.
|
| Milestones |
2/1/10 - CTSI's 25th Anniversary, founded by David Baucum and Craig Alley
2/01/10 - Ellen Qualls completed her 16th year with CTSI.
02/16/10 - Brett Bell has been with CTSI for 6 years.
|
| HP Desktop Bundle |
8100 Elite SFF $899
Features:
Core i3-530 (2.93GHz)
2GB RAM, 160GB HD,
DVD-ROM Drive
Win 7 Downgrade to XPP
Bundle Includes:
HP 22" LE2201 w LCD
($109 savings)
Expires: 4/30/10
Offer good while supplies last, does not include migration and services.
For more information email:
|
|
|
| From David's Desk... |
|
I sincerely hope that everyone's 2010 is off to a great start. If your year is going anything like mine, it is moving along much too fast! Perhaps once winter is over (and we have had quite a winter on the South Plains, haven't we?) and the days begin to get longer, things will slow down a bit.
Sometimes we get so busy we forget to stop and think about our beginnings. Looking back 25 years, 1985 was a memorable and innovative year for the technology industry. I'd like to take this opportunity to share my top ten favorite technology milestones from that year:
9. Compact Discs were released to American consumers.
8. The Amiga 1000, a personal computer, was produced by Commodore International.
7. Nintendo made its American debut.
6. The Discovery Channel aired for the first time.
5. The Cray 2, a supercomputer, was unveiled by Cray Research.
4. The first Blockbuster Video opened in Dallas.
3. Apple launched the LaserWriter, the first laser printer for the Mac.
2. Microsoft released Windows 1.0 to the public.
And my personal favorite:
1. CTSI was founded!
Craig Alley and I started CTSI in February 1985, 25 years ago this month. Thanks to our wonderful clients and our dedicated employees, CTSI has grown into the full-service IT organization that you see today. We are most grateful for the opportunity we have been given to serve you and share in your business technology successes.
I can't wait to see what the next 25 years has in store, and what else we can accomplish together!
Until next time,
David D. Baucum
President, CTSI
|
| Time Management Tips Kristine Geimure |
To achieve maximum success and productivity in the work place it is essential that we understand how we use our time at work. Like many things in life, we take time for granted and give little thought to it until we no longer have enough of it.
We all have the same amount of time each day but it is how effectively we use it that is important. That doesn't mean we have to schedule every waking second in our day, but there are several effective time saving habits that we can use to dramatically increase our productivity.
Time Wasters Include
* Telephones - particularly personal calls during work hours
* No planning of tasks - focus gives direction
* E-mail - constantly checking your e-mail throughout the day
* Surfing the Web - Jumping from one site to the next
* Casual Visitors - Unscheduled or non work related visits
* Cluttered Workplace - Includes your desk, work area, computer and other organizing tools
* Poor Quality Resources/Tools - Having the wrong tool or poor office equipment can waste hours of time every week
Many of the poor time management habits we have formed can be easily fixed by simply being accountable for your working hours, understanding exactly how we use our time and having a plan for each day. There are also habits that we have had all our life that will require a lot more commitment to overcome.
Here's some good habits we can form to eliminate time wasting;
Understand how you use each day
Honestly review your day and understand how you are wasting time, then commit to becoming more efficient with your time. It's important to be honest and objective about how you really spend each day.
Set Priorities
Even with a well organized schedule and good work habits, there is still often not enough time in each day for workers, particularly small business owners and managers. So it is essential that we prioritize tasks and categorize them into Urgent, Very Important, Important and Wasting Time categories. Spend the majority of our time on tasks that are important and either delegate low priority jobs or move on to them only after completing the more urgent tasks.
Plan Your Time
By having a clear and precise plan for each day you have a target to aim at which eliminates many of the hours wasted in-between tasks or thinking about what to do next. Along with a daily plan, there should also be longer term goals to work towards. Setting daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals can dramatically increase your focus and productivity.
Review Your Progress
Many work habits have been formed over a life time, so we will often slip back into them if we fail to continually review our progress. Some habits will be harder to overcome than others, but the effort we put into overcoming them will be rewarded with added productivity, profitability and a more focused workplace.
Take Time Out
We're only human, so we should also plan for times when we can wind down and do less important tasks. Browse the web, call a friend or have a longer lunch sometime. It's only when we make a habit of doing these time wasting tasks that they become a problem.
Through better planning and a commitment to improve our use of time we increase our job satisfaction, become more confident, less stressed, increase productivity, cut costs and improve our chances of business success!
Kristine Geimure is the author and editor of several successful online businesses. She also writes business articles for the Woopidoo! business success portal.
|
|
|
| |
|
Tips of the Month
|
| Some handy time-saving shortcuts for both beginners and experts:
The keyboard method of opening the System menu is Alt+Spacebar. Then you can press N to Minimize the application, or X to Maximize, or any of the other underlined letters.
Enable keyboard shortcuts in Gmail:
- In your favorite browser, log in to your Gmail account.
- Click on "Settings" in the upper right (next to your e-mail address).
- In the default General tab, select the "Keyboard shortcuts on" radio button.
- Click the "Save Settings" button at the bottom of the page.
Ctrl + click opens link a new tab in Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 7(or later versions).
|
| Staff Spotlight |
|
What is your title and what do you do at CTSI?
- My title is Systems Specialist. I perform server and network installation, maintenance, and repairs.
How long have you been at CTSI?
- I have been with CTSI for 4 years.
Tell us about your family and pets.
- I am married to Kristi and we have a 6 month old daughter named Alexis. I have 2 dogs, a Labrador named Boomer and a Bichon named Kasper.
What do you do in your free time?
- I enjoy hunting and fishing.
If you weren't working in the business technology sector, what would you be doing?
Tell us your favorite things about Lubbock.
- Even though Lubbock is a fairly large city, it still has that small town atmosphere. It seems you can generally see someone you know at your favorite restaurant or at the grocery store.
|
| Helen's Recipe of the Month |
Helen Burns, CTSI's Purchasing Manager, has been with the company for the past ten years. In addition to her purchasing duties, Helen serves as our unofficial party coordinator. Helen (with help from our administrative assistant, Nancy Clark) makes sure we celebrate every staff member's birthday as well as various holidays by providing a wide range of delectable treats. Without further ado, from Helen's kitchen to you, here's a recipe--enjoy!
Valentine's Day Cherries Jubilee Cake
1 box chocolate fudge cake mix with pudding in the mix
(do not make according to the box directions)
3 eggs
1 tbsp almond extract
1 18.5 oz can cherry pie filling (not sugar free)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the above in a large mixing bowl and beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Pour into a sprayed bundt pan and bake 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.Do not overbake. Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes, then turn onto cake plate.
Glaze:
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp butter or margarine
2 to 3 tbsp milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Place chips, butter, and 2 tbsp milk in a small sauce pan. Blend over low heat, stirring constantly just until chips melt. Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Add additional milk if needed. Spoon over cake. Cool completely before slicing. This cake can be served the day it's baked, but it's better the second day.
|
|
Client Appreciation
|
Thank You
Thank you to everyone who came to the Client Appreciation Event. It was wonderful to see you outside of the workplace. If you couldn't make it, be on the lookout for our next event. There will be drinks, appetizers, and many prizes.
|
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