News from Kinetics

New in Microsoft TEAMS
17 May 2020 Comments off
Necessity has made us all experts in video-calling, and it’s left us wanting more! During lockdown, we got the ability to change the video call background so other participants couldn’t see where you were really calling from, provided you were using a machine that was powerful enough to process the backgrounds. There are a couple of hacks [...]

How does the post-COVID19 lockdown impact your IT planning?
11 May 2020 Comments off
Every business webinar is talking about the rush to get businesses back up to speed quickly, and test new business models to be more resilient over the coming weeks and months.   In the same breath, they tell us things will never be the same again - whether its the risk of continued disruption, or the opportunity of more work-from-home, or new [...]

What can you expect to see as Office 365 becomes Microsoft 365?
03 May 2020 Comments off
Whenever Microsoft say they are changing something to make it less confusing, most of us get a little cynical.  The reality is that there are so many Microsoft tools we use every day, that it can be confusing,  From Windows to Office to Teams to Dynamics and Azure, there is a huge product range and some of these are sold in bundles that work across these [...]

What’s in the latest version of Windows 10 – 2004 (aka 2020h1)
29 Apr 2020 Comments off
Coming – ready or not – while we cope with the challenges of the pandemic and changes to how we work, we also get changes to Windows. Firstly, be aware this is effectively a new load of Windows – its much more than a service pack. So, what’s new? Well, surprisingly for the size of the update, there is relatively little in the way of [...]

FREE Covid-19 Health Contact App
20 Apr 2020 Comments off
Are you ready for the move back to COVID-19 Level 3? Are you ready to track visits of your staff to other workplaces, or visitors to your workplace? It's not just tracking visits.  You have an obligation to check you are not exposing your staff to COVID-19 either in your workplace or where they visit.  If government agencies asked you for a list of [...]

Americans Report US$13 Million in Losses From Coronavirus Scams
19 Apr 2020 Comments off
The United States’ Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has received more than 17,000 complaints from U.S. consumers who reported total losses in excess of US$13 million from COVID-19 related scams. The crime that was reported the most was the rather broad category of fraud with 9,634 complaints, with 46.4% of them reporting a loss. It’s safe to say that [...]

Dodging dodgy websites
16 Apr 2020 Comments off
Not too long ago, (some) businesses tried to limit websites that people could visit during working hours. They blocked social sites and Trademe and so forth. The logic was that people should be working, not surfing the net. Luckily this seems to have faded – staff are trusted, albeit tracking the website activity of your teams might still be of [...]

Fancy a date?
14 Apr 2020 Comments off
How many working days are there in a month? For many of us doing budgeting, the number of days matter for either income or costs. For years, I have spent a few moments as part of our budget setting exercise to look through an annual calendar, count the days in each month, then take the holidays I can remember, and exclude them. There’s a [...]

Phishing emails are getting smarter every day
09 Apr 2020 Comments off
Examples include :               Everyone is busy. Inboxes overflow, timelines are unforgiving, distractions are plentiful. Because we are short on time we can’t double check everything 100%. Yet we must. Because it’s a matter of if, not when, the best of us will click on one of these links. That’s when all [...]

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