Surviving After the Storm...

Hopefully everyone has made it through Hurricane Irene. A lot of damage and power outages has occurred. We want to make sure you are still safe even after the storm.

• Use a flashlight for emergency lighting. Never use candles or open flames indoors.



• When cutting up fallen trees, use caution, especially if you use a chain saw. Serious injuries can occur with these powerful machines, they may snap or break.



• Assess damage to home and contents. Photograph all damage.
  


• Make temporary repairs to protect the building and contents.
  


• Remove and discard all porous organic materials that have become visibly wet or contaminated.



• When using a generator, be sure that the main circuit breaker is off and locked out prior to starting the generator.
  


• Do not attempt to drive across flowing water. As little as six inches of water may cause you to lose control and two feet of water will carry away most cars.

Read more on the after the storm checklist at abc.com

Prepare for Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene, a powerful Category 3 hurricane, is threatening the east coast and it looks like we may get hit hard with the storm. Lastest projections show the hurricane hitting Long Island on Sunday.

Prepare Your Technology
Be sure you have a full backup of all your important data. (both on and off-site preferably)

If you have a UPS battery (Uninterruptible Power Supplies with surge protection) be sure the unit is connected and the auto shutdown software is installed and working.

If you do not have a UPS battery on each device, we recommend shutting
down your PC's and servers if you expect, or are prone to power outages. A sudden loss of power will damage computer equipment. At the very least be sure you have surge protectors if you do not have UPS units.

We advise you to unplug your PC if you do not have a proper UPS or surger protector.

If your in flood prone area, make sure to keep all your computers and hardware off the floors.

**If you have a server and multiple PC's, it might be safest for you to shut down your office for this weekend to protect your systems. Before you take this action, please contact Armando and discuss if this is the best way to prepare for your site**
Office number: (516) 208-4161

Take Control of your Cellphone Camera

One of the biggest gripes about Smartphone cameras, apart from general quality issues, is the clunky (or lack of) controls over camera functions.

Its easy to fumble over functions like zoom, shutter speed, and aperture size. Fortunately, an army of apps awaits, offering tools and options to give you better control over these variables.

Hipstamatic - the $2 app gives your iPhone camera a distinctly analog feel, producing images reminiscent of cheap-o medium-format cameras like the Holga and Lomo. Hipstamatic offers a variety of lenses and film types from which to choose, including several add-on packs for an additional charge.

Camera360 Ultimate - Similar to the Hipstamatic app, but with more features and available for Android-based phones, Camera360 give you Lomo-like effects, but also adds HDR, high contrast reversal film stock simulation, tilt-shift, selective focus (on compatible hardware), alignment grids, and a timer for self-portraits. $4 from the Android store.

PicPlz - This app offers some basic filters and effects, but the real selling point is its integrated social networing capabilities including fast and simple sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, and Foursquare, as well as syncing with Dropbox. Available for free from the Android store.

ProHDR - Compatible with 3GS and newer iPhones, ProHDR offers superior control over the HDR default presets in the iPhone 4's native OS and also lets 3GS users in on the HDR fun. $2 in the iTunes store.

Darkroom - One of the biggest knocks against the iPhones integrated camera is poor low-light performance. Darkroom helps you snap better photos in dim situations by lessening blur cause by insufficient lighting and accidental motion. Available for iPhone only. Free from the iTunes store.

Adobe Photoshop Express - Not a camera app, per se, but a very useful (and FREE) image manipulation tool for iPhone and Android. Crop, rotate, and touch-up your images, as well as apply filters and adjust color, brightness and contrast.

Manage Your Google Gadgets!

Do you know how to add google gadgets to your G-mail Account? No?!
Well we're going to show you!

Open the below Google Gadgets link in a browser window, then watch the video on how to manage your gadgets.

Google Gadgets Lab

Video: How to Manage your Google Gadgets

CMIT Sponors StudentLifeLine

Armando D'Accordo of CMIT Solutions of South Nassau proudly sponsored Student Lifeline in their goal to protect the youth of America. Since 1988, this organization has been dedicated to providing taxi and limo services to bringing home youngsters safely.

Drunk driving continues to be the number one cause of death in this age group. Also, over 1 million children and teenagers are reported missing or abducted each year. Studentlifeline provides car rides home at no cost by sending out cards to schools, law enforcement agencies and commercial entities nationwide. If a teenager is in desperate need of a ride home, Studentlifeline is here to get them home safely.

Armando sponsored the dispersal of these free transportation service cards in the Wantagh area. The cards were distributed throughout the Wantagh school district and the local King Kullen in Wantagh.

This organized effort to keep our youth safe is a great way to decrease the occurrences of drunk drivers and missing children reports.